Daily News Roundup

Estimated Reading Time: 27 minutes

NOTABLE QUOTES

Ray DiLorenzo contributor to Canada Free Press: Understand that the seeming incompetence of our government is a disguise for sabotage.

Bret Weinstein in a Tucker Carlson interview: “The ability to [end the First Amendment] is currently under discussion at the international level, and it’s almost impossible to exaggerate how troubling what’s being discussed is.”

Joshua Claybourn contributor to The Federalist: We, the people, are the bedrock of our republic. Our power lies in the ballot box and the marketplace of ideas, not in legal gambits. The path to preserving our democratic ideals isn’t through exclusion but through engagement, education, and the relentless pursuit of truth. In the end, our democracy’s fate lies not in courtrooms or legislatures, but in our hands. It’s time we remember that before it’s too late. Our republic’s future depends not on silencing voices but on strengthening our own.

Victor Davis Hanson contributor to American Greatness: American civilization has been turned upside down, and we have a rendezvous soon with the once unthinkable and unimaginable.

Robert Rector on open border policies: The grant of citizenship is a transfer of political power. Access to the U.S. ballot box also provides access to the American taxpayer’s bank account. This is particularly problematic with regard to low-skill immigrants. Within an active redistributionist state, as Friedman understood, unlimited immigration can threaten limited government.

PBS Newshour: The Jan. 6 investigation is the largest FBI operation in history. More than 1200 people have been charged and over 900 convicted. But it has stretched the bureau’s resources and has often had to rely on the work of citizen investigators who came to be known as ‘sedition hunters.’

Charlie Kirk posted on X: Joe Biden brags in his J6 doomer speech that his DOJ has targeted 1,200 J6ers, convicted 900, and sentenced them to 840 years in prison. He wants his political opponents afraid this can happen to them too. What a sick man.

J.R. Dunn contributor to American Thinker: The Jan. 6 “insurrection” was clearly a setup — Nancy Pelosi refusing to bring in the National Guard, the doors opened by welcoming Capitol staffers and Capitol Police, unidentified masked figures racing around shouting “Let’s take the place!” This kind of thing doesn’t happen by itself. It is made to happen. The D.C. elites were desperate for their own personal Reichstag fire. When none was forthcoming, they lit it themselves.

Madeleine Hubbard reporter for Just the News: Former Attorney General Bill Barr said that the Justice Department went “too far” in charging more than 1,200 people in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot, including those he said simply walked around the building but did not assault anyone. “Like everything else the left does, they did, I think, go too far,” Barr said Saturday, the third anniversary of the Jan. 6 riot, in an interview on Fox News.

Wilfred McClay historian and author of Land of Hope: An Invitation to the Great American Story: For Lincoln, the restoration and preservation of the Union was the chief goal of the war. All other objectives were subordinated to that one. It is important to stress this. It was not until well into the war that the overthrow of slavery became an important part of the Northern agenda. There could be no doubt that the existence of slavery was a central cause of the war; but there also can be no doubt that, as the war began, opposition to slavery was not the central reason why the North embraced a war against secession.

DEMOCRAT PARTY MARXIST PLAYBOOK: ABOLISH THE FIRST AMENDMENT

WND Staff: Doctors no longer forced to sing COVID narrative in one state

There’s been a victory for free speech as a state law that limited what doctors could say about COVID-19 has hit the trash bin. Officials with Liberty Justice Center say the repeal in California of Assembly Bill 2098 took effect on Jan. 1. […] Now the law, which enabled bureaucrats to revoke physicians’ medical licenses if they disagreed with the state’s official beliefs on COVID-19, has been repealed.

BIDEN CRIME FAMILY

Natalie Winters posted on X: The criminal law firm representing Burisma, the Ukraine gas giant paying Hunter Biden millions, just registered as a Foreign Agent for its work in 2016. This proves once and for all Hunter Biden violated FARA.

BIDEN’S DEMOCRAT PARTY MARXIST PLAYBOOK: PERSECUTE YOUR OPPOSITION, PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP & HIS FORMER TRUMP EMPLOYEES, SUPPORTERS & WH STAFF

(Smith jumps the shark) BREAKING: Jack Smith warns if Trump is re-elected he could use the State of the Union address to incite his supporters to kill opposing politicians

Watch the 19 second video: https://twitter.com/JackPosobiec/status/1743004118040387694

Laco: Letitia James wants $370 MILLION from Trump and to bar him from doing business in New York in his civil fraud trial, bombshell new filing reveals

The fraud case brought by James accuses the Republican frontrunner for president of inflating the value of properties, including his Mar-a-Lago home in Florida, to get better terms on loans. James, who Trump has repeatedly attacked as partisan and ‘racist,’ had originally sued the former president for $250 million. The new bombshell filing Friday argues that the massive sum is warranted due to the former president’s ‘myriad deceptive schemes’ that were employed by his business and co-defendants to ‘inflate asset values and conceal facts.’ She writes the alleged fraud schemes were ‘so outrageous that they belie innocent explanation.’ Trump’s attorneys fired back, saying that James has ‘no evidence’ and insisted there was not a single witness who backs up those scathing allegations. Judge Arthur Engoron has already found Trump, and his sons Don Jr. and Eric, liable for fraud. The post-trial briefs followed an 11-week explosive trial to determine how much money Trump and his business should fork over – which winded down last month.

Solomon: Democrats’ star J6 witness waived attorney privilege, opening door for GOP inquiry, memos show

s the Jan. 6 congressional investigation rushed to a close in 2022, one of the House Democrats’ star witnesses waived her attorney-client privilege with her first lawyer in a move that could now open the door for House Republicans to question both her and her attorney, correspondence obtained by Just the News shows. Former Trump White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson’s testimony played a large role in shaping House Democrats’ final report sharply criticizing Donald Trump for the Capitol riot that ensued on Jan. 6, 2021, but Republicans on the House Administration’s Subcommittee on Oversight led by Chairman Barry Loudermilk recently discovered an errata sheet she submitted to Congress that made substantial changes to her account midway through the Democrat-led inquiry. Errata sheets are routinely provided to deponents and witnesses by stenographers to allow for correction of typographic errors and dropped words. You can read that errata sheet here.

Charlie Kirk: This is epic. Who edited this?

Watch the 3:41 minute video: https://twitter.com/charliekirk11/status/1743367892647960812

Reese: Left-Wing Attempt To Tie Trump To Foreign Influence Money Doesn’t Add Up, Records Show

House Oversight Committee Democrats released a report Thursday attempting to connect former President Donald Trump to a pay-for-play foreign influence scheme, but the evidence fell far short of a smoking gun. Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin, Ranking Member of the Committee on Oversight and Accountability, released a report revealing that Trump’s business entities raked in at least $7.8 million from 20 foreign governments and their subsidiaries during the first two years of his presidency, including from China, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait and Malaysia. A majority of that money, however, came from one business that began renting office space from Trump Tower in 2008 and concluded its partnership in 2019, during his administration, the report shows. “The difference between Trump’s foreign income and Biden’s foreign income is that Trump had legitimate goods and services to sell and was tough on China while the Bidens did not have any legitimate business and Joe has been weak on China,” Seamus Bruner, director of research at the Government Accountability Institute, told the Daily Caller in a statement.

(Update – H/T CFP) Colin Rugg posted on X: NEW: FBI thugs fail to present their credentials and hunt down black Trump campaign aide Harrison Floyd at the direction of Jack Smith. If only they treated Epstein’s associates like this.

Read more/Watch the 2:01 minute video: https://twitter.com/CollinRugg/status/1743094986130980893

THE CORRUPT & DANGEROUS U.S. INTELLIGENCE AGENCIES & THE ADMINISTRATIVE STATE APPARATUS

Amazon, 50 Lawyers, and the Department of Justice Teamed Up to Annihilate a Family

In short, the Nelson family have been targeted for complete financial destruction. Seizures have been made. Threats continue incessantly. All the while, no charges have been filed and all of the evidence points to the Nelsons being innocent. It’s important to note that we’re only seeing one side of this story. Amazon has not responded to requests for comment. However, a local news story corroborates much of what Nelson explains in her Twitter thread. […] Now, here’s the thing. Here’s where @jeffbezos and @amazon ‘s power is terrifying:

(12/2023) Tran, KIRO7 News: ‘I feel like we’re being hunted’: Amazon files appeal after judge rules in favor of local family https://www.kiro7.com/news/local/i-feel-like-were-being-hunted-amazon-files-appeal-after-judge-drops-lawsuit-against-local-family/TQBZ4P6Z2RGVPIR4G3KUGWJVWM/

Margolis: Biden Administration Improperly Tried Ex-Congressman, Conviction Tossed

A federal appeals court has overturned the conviction of a former Republican congressman. And you won’t be surprised as to why. Former Rep. Jeff Fortenberry’s (R-Neb.) was convicted of lying to the FBI about an illegal campaign contribution last year. The alleged false statements were made during interviews in Nebraska and Washington, D.C. But the Biden administration tried him in Los Angeles. “Fortenberry’s trial took place in a state where no charged crime was committed, and before a jury drawn from the vicinage of the federal agencies that investigated the defendant,” U.S. District Judge James Donato wrote in his ruling. “The Constitution does not permit this. Fortenberry’s convictions are reversed so that he may be retried, if at all, in a proper venue.”

(NTD 1/5/2024) Attorney General Garland meets with law enforcement on violent crime

J6ers singled out.

Watch the 17:35 minute hearing statement: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZQRelmrjYM

JANUARY 6 COMMITTEE NARRATIVE IS UNRAVELING

Solomon: Internal Secret Service records undercut another key J6 committee Democrat narrative

“The Committee’s principal concern was that the President actually intended to participate personally in the January 6th efforts at the Capitol, leading the attempt to overturn the election either from inside the House Chamber, from a stage outside the Capitol, or otherwise,” the committee wrote in its final report in December, 2022. “The Committee regarded those facts as important because they are relevant to President Trump’s intent on January 6th. There is no question from all the evidence assembled that President Trump did have that intent,” it added.

J6COMMITTEEFINALREPORT.pdf Lawmakers, pundits and journalists have all echoed that line in the months before and after the report’s release. […] The Democratic Party’s narrative is further undercut by internal Secret Service documents reviewed by Just the News, which show there was no plan heading into the Jan. 6 event to take Trump to the Capitol. All presidential trips are highly scripted because of the need for security. The Secret Service places assets at all locations where a president may go. That did not happen at the Capitol, according to the Secret Service records reviewed by Just the News, suggesting Trump’s alleged statements to the presidential aides two days earlier did not result in a change of plan. The final Secret Service plan approved at 5:35 a,m. on Jan. 6 for Trump – codenamed “Mogul” in the document – reads: […] Secret Service and congressional sources confirmed to Just the News that both the schedule and PowerPoint were provided to the House Democrats’ Jan. 6 committee. The committee also had access to more Secret Service documentation showing there wasn’t a plan or intent for Trump to go to the Capitol on Jan. 6.

JANUARY 6 FEDSURRECTION

(Another Nazi tactic used by the Biden administration) How citizen investigators are helping the FBI track down Jan. 6 rioters

The Jan. 6 investigation is the largest FBI operation in history. More than 1200 people have been charged and over 900 convicted. But it has stretched the bureau’s resources and has often had to rely on the work of citizen investigators who came to be known as ‘sedition hunters.’ Judy Woodruff spoke with one of these anonymous sleuths as part of her series, America at a Crossroads.

Watch the 10:28 minute report: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gy0KYeHFGIo

Sundance: Tucker Carlson Interviews Clay Higgins About FBI Involvement in Fedsurrection Day ’21

According to Tucker Carlson, “This is the smartest, best-informed account of what actually happened on January 6th.” At 03:15 of the video, the discussion between Tucker Carlson and Congressman Clay Higgins touches on terminology CTH readers may well be familiar with.

Watch this revealing 38:26 minute interview: https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2024/01/06/tucker-carlson-interviews-clay-higgins-about-fbi-involvement-in-fedsurrection-day-21/

ZeroHedge Live Debate: Was January 6 A Manufactured Crisis?

ZeroHedge presents the second debate in our inaugural series aimed at bringing long-form dialogues back into the ideologically-siloed and echo-chambered media landscape.

Enjoy this in-depth discussion on the various aspects of that fateful day in 2021, allowing people with all perspectives a chance to present evidence and make their argument. Our panelists include such media luminaries as Alex Jones, Darren Beattie, Glenn Greenwald on one side, and Ed and Brian Krassenstein, as well as Destiny on the other, with Ian Crossland moderating. We hope to get closer to the truth of what happened on that day and get to the bottom of what creates such harsh social divides on this issue.

4:37:33 hour debate: https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/zerohedge-live-debate-was-january-6-manufactured-crisis

GLOBALISM (GREAT RESET/NEW WORLD ORDER) & TRANSHUMANISM (AI HUMANS 2.0) ARE INEXTRICABLY LINKED

Tucker Carlson: The pandemic doesn’t get much attention anymore, but it should. COVID drastically changed the course of human history, and the story isn’t over

“The ability to [end the First Amendment] is currently under discussion at the international level, and it’s almost impossible to exaggerate how troubling what’s being discussed is. In fact, I think it is fair to say that we are in the middle of a coup. That we are actually facing the elimination of our national and our personal sovereignty and that that is the purpose of what is being constructed.” Bret Weinstein tells Tucker: “The ability to [end the First Amendment] is currently under discussion at the international level, and it’s almost impossible to exaggerate how troubling what’s being discussed is. In fact, . . .

Watch the disturbing 59:51 minute interview: https://canadafreepress.com/article-video/the-pandemic-doesnt-get-much-attention-anymore-but-it-should-covid-drastically-changed-the-course-of-human-history-and-the-story-isnt-over

TYRANNY IN THE NAME OF CLIMATE DOOM MYTH: GLOBALIST POLITICIANS & BIG BUSINESS ACCUMULATE MORE POWER & CONTROL

Pielke,Jr.: “An Egregious Failure of Scientific Integrity”

On Tuesday, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) will release with great fanfare the year-end update of its “billion dollar disaster” tally. If past is prologue, NOAA will vigorously promote the dataset in collaboration with environmental NGOs, reporters on the climate beat will uncritically parrot and amplify NOAA’s claims, and before long, the dataset will find itself cited in the peer-reviewed literature, identified by the U.S. government as a key indicator of human-caused climate change, and perhaps even cited by the U.S. president in support of the claim that all U.S. disaster costs are attributable to climate change. What you will not see is any scientific critique, evaluation or independent peer review of the dataset.¹ That is, until now. Today, I am very happy to share with you a new preprint of a paper that I have just submitted to the new Nature journal, npj Natural Hazards. My paper, which was invited by the journal’s editors, is titled, Scientific Integrity and U.S. “Billion Dollar Disasters.” Here is the abstract: . . .

PEACEFULLY & PATRIOTICALLY HAVE YOUR VOICES HEARD

Benard: $30 million suit filed over Jan. 6 protester Ashli Babbitt’s death

On the eve of the third anniversary of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, a $30 million wrongful death suit has been filed against the federal government for the Capitol Police shooting of Air Force veteran Ashli Babbitt. Washington-based Judicial Watch filed the suit on behalf of Babbitt’s estate and her husband, Aaron Babbitt, claiming the officer who shot Babbitt was “incompetent” and “dangerous” and should have seen that the 35-year-old posed no threat to Congress when she entered the House speaker’s lobby. “The only homicide on January 6 was the unlawful shooting death of Ashli Babbitt. Her homicide by Lt. [Michael] Byrd is a scandal beyond belief. This historic lawsuit seeks a measure of justice and government accountability for Ashli’s wrongful death,” Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said. […] The suit said Babbitt came to Washington on Jan. 6 to show support for President Donald Trump, who held a rally near the White House that day. After attending the rally, she walked to the Capitol, where former Vice President Mike Pence was to certify the election of President Joe Biden. She entered on the Senate side, the suit said, and was directed to the House chamber by another Capitol Police officer. Here’s how the suit explains what happened next: . . .

Mittlestadt: Veterans run for Congress aiming to hold Defense Department accountable over COVID vaccine mandate

More than a half-dozen military veterans running for office in the 2024 elections are calling for military accountability over the Defense Department’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate, with many seeking congressional seats to use the power of the legislative branch to investigate the implementation of the mandate. Despite the rescission of the Defense Department’s COVID vaccine mandate over a year ago, military members still face repercussions, such as the loss of pay, ruined careers, being non-deployable, and potentially diminished employment prospects for those already discharged.

FDA

Prasad: Robert Califf the FDA commissioner is making inappropriate and irresponsible claims about vaccines and boosters on twitter

Normally, FDA commissioners do not go on social media and make specific claims regarding specific drug products. This is the norm because it is NOT the job of the commissioner to engage in the advertisement or sale of medical products. This precedent has been violated by Robert Califf, which I talked about once before. The commissioner is again on twitter making claims which are not supported by randomized trials. Notably, the US FDA does not permit the manufacturer to make these claims. The commissioner is broadcasting claims that the US FDA has simply not vetted. The basis for these claims are observational studies, in some cases run by the company. These same studies WOULD NOT be accepted by the US FDA. Even worse, at times the commish misinterprets data and spreads misinformation, denigrating the benefits of primary vaccination.

Here are the examples: . . .

REPUBLICAN U.S. HOUSE MAJORITY

Hubbard: Fauci likely to be asked these 10 questions during two-day transcribed interview this week

Former White House Medical Adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci is set to appear before the House Coronavirus Pandemic Subcommittee for a transcribed interview Monday and Tuesday this week, where members of Congress are expected to ask him numerous questions ranging from his knowledge of research before the COVID-19 pandemic broke out to reports of adverse events resulting from the coronavirus vaccine. Fauci, who served as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases until he retired in 2022, is likely to be asked these questions this week during what Coronavirus Subcommittee Chairman Brad Wenstrup, R-Ohio, calls an “after-action review” of the pandemic: 1. Were you aware of gain-of-function research being conducted at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China?

Brooks: Speaker Johnson announces top-line spending deal to avoid government shutdown

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) announced the deal reached with the Senate and the White House in a “Dear Colleague” letter to members Sunday. “The topline constitutes $1.590 trillion for [fiscal 2024] — the statutory levels of the Fiscal Responsibility Act. That includes $886 billion for defense and $704 billion for non-defense,” Johnson said in the letter. The deal comes as both the House and Senate are set to return from a holiday break this week ahead of a two-tiered government funding deadline, with the first batch of funding expiring on Jan. 19 and the rest expiring on Feb. 2.

Moran: Biden Looking at Huge Concession to GOP on Border Policy

How badly does Joe Biden want that funding for Ukraine? That’s the question Republicans are asking as border negotiations tied to Ukraine funding continue this week. If the reports about what’s been agreed to are true, Republicans have already won a big victory. Senators and the White House have reached agreements on “tightening asylum interviews, expanding expedited deportations, and creating an authority to expel migrants without humanitarian screenings when border agents are overwhelmed,” according to CBS News. The devil is in the details, of course, and we won’t know the extent of those concessions until the deal becomes public.

SCOTUS

Howe: Supreme Court agrees to hear Trump plea to remain on Colorado ballot

In a brief, unsigned order issued on Friday afternoon, the justices granted a petition for review filed by the former president and fast-tracked the briefing in the case, setting it for oral argument on Thursday, Feb. 8. The case centers on the interpretation of Section 3 of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, which was enacted in the wake of the Civil War to disqualify individuals who had been federal (or state) government officials before the war and had sworn to uphold the Constitution but then served in the Confederacy. It bars anyone who has served as “an officer of the United States” and has previously taken an oath to support the U.S. Constitution from holding “any office … under the United States” if he has “engaged in insurrection.” […] In their order on Friday afternoon, the justices granted only Trump’s petition for review and set the case for oral argument in just over one month. Trump will file his opening brief on Jan. 18, with the response by the Colorado voters and secretary of state to follow on Jan. 31. Trump’s reply brief is due by 5 p.m. on Feb. 5, just three days before the oral argument.

Whedon: Supreme Court to address Biden administration emergency room abortion guidelines

The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to hear a challenge to Idaho’s abortion restrictions from the federal government contending that emergency room doctors must provide abortions in some circumstances under federal law, even in the face of state bans. Guidance from the Biden Department of Health and Human Services contends that the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA) requires emergency room doctors to perform abortions. Idaho’s abortion ban allows exceptions in instances threatening the life of the mother.

CHINA: AMERICA’S MORTAL ENEMY

Fanell & Thayer: The Immediacy of the PRC Threat: The Change from Land Power to Maritime Power

The PRC is using threat deflation strategically to misdirect, to create false impressions, and to deceive adversaries into thinking they are not ready to attack. One of the biggest news stories coming out of Asia for the New Year was the alleged purge of senior People’s Liberation Army (PLA) officers, most notably the former PRC Minister of Defense Li Shangfu who went missing in late August 2023 and was formally removed from his position in October. This so-called purge, which also included three senior defense industry officials, was in fact the result of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) annual announcement of the new slate of delegates for the upcoming Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), an advisory body of the PRC’s annual National People’s Congress (NPC), that is held each year, usually in early March. […] Another example is the recent Bloomberg article “US Intelligence Shows Flawed China Missiles Led Xi to Purge Army,” which quotes “people familiar with the assessments” who assert “the corruption inside China’s Rocket Force and throughout the nation’s defense industrial base is so extensive that US officials now believe Xi is less likely to contemplate major military action in the coming years than would otherwise have been the case.” All of which is to point out that the practice of what the authors’ term in their forthcoming book (Embracing Communist China: America’s Greatest Strategic Failure) is “threat deflation.” This pernicious practice of underestimating the PRC threat year-after-year while it continues to grow—one year after the next without interruption—has been perfected by the pro-PRC engagement community despite the prodigious growth in the PRC’s military capabilities. In this instance, threat deflation centers on . . .

BIDEN/HARRIS/OBAMA’S AMERICA LAST REGIME: RADICAL TRANSFORMATION OF THE U.S. MILITARY

Whedon: Tuberville warns that “wokeness” is undercutting military, foreign powers sense weakness

Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R, Ala., on Friday warned that left-wing ideology is threatening military readiness and that the perceived weakness of the Biden administration on the world stage had encouraged U.S. adversaries to seize the initiative in myriad conflicts. Speaking on the “John Solomon Reports” podcast, Tuberville highlighted the military’s recruiting shortfall, insisting that left-wing initiatives such as vaccine mandates and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs have demoralized current and prospective service members, contributing to turnover and personnel shortages. “[O]ur recruiting is going to heck, I mean, we can’t recruit anybody. And so I think everybody should be very concerned about this. We’ll continue to speak up about it,” Tuberville warned.

BIDEN/HARRIS/OBAMA’S AMERICA LAST REGIME: RADICAL TRANSFORMATION OF FOREIGN POLICY

The Foreign Desk: Lisa on Newsmax: How Biden Emboldens Iran and the Houthis

Lisa joins Lidia Curanaj and Dr. Walid Phares to discuss how the Biden administration is emboldening Iran and their proxies the Houthis.

Watch the 4:28 minute interview: https://foreigndesknews.com/top-story/lisa-on-newsmax-how-biden-emboldens-iran-and-the-houthis/

Greenfield: Biden Promised Gaza Aid Wouldn’t Go To Hamas. He Lied.

. . . the PA has reportedly begun paying salaries to arrested Oct 7 perpetrators. It’s not a question of whether our aid to the terrorist areas goes to terrorists, but which terrorists. The State Department recently announced that the “United States has provided more than $110 million in humanitarian assistance for Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank since October 7.” Kill over a thousand people and you get over $100 million in aid. That’s $100,000 per murder. If we really want to stop terrorism, we should stop funding it.

BIDEN/HARRIS/OBAMA’S AMERICA LAST REGIME: RADICAL TRANSFORMATION OF AMERICA

VDH: A Culture in Collapse

In the last six months, we have borne witness to many iconic moments evidencing the collapse of American culture. The signs are everywhere and cover the gamut of politics, the economy, education, social life, popular culture, foreign policy, and the military. These symptoms of decay share common themes. Our descent is self-induced; it is not a symptom of a foreign attack or subterfuge. Our erosion is not the result of poverty and want, but of leisure and excess. We are not suffering from existential crises of famine, plague, or the collapse of our grid and fuel sources. Prior, far poorer, and war-torn generations now seem far better off than what we are becoming. What is happening to us is not due to an adherence to a too strict conservative tradition but is almost exclusively the wage of the progressive project.

Devine: Joe Biden certainly knows how to wield his ‘power’ — to transform the country for the worse

Joe Biden let slip a telling boast after his latest Dark Brandon speech. “I understand power,” he whispered into the microphone as the first lady wrangled him off stage to stop him impersonating a Roomba. While ostensibly a self-deprecating cliché about wives’ control over men, “I understand power” also was a statement of unwavering confidence in his own mastery of today’s political landscape. It’s hard to admit, given Biden’s manifest frailties and incompetence, but he’s right. The president does know how to use power to transform the country.

Simonson: How The Biden Administration Put Race at the Center of Government Spending

The residents of Gillette, Wyoming, once enjoyed economic gains almost unheard of in rural communities thanks to a single commodity: coal. The city’s deposits account for more than a third of the nation’s coal production, and a vast majority of Gillette residents work in coal-related industries. Income grew nearly 720 percent between 1970 and 2018. By comparison, Detroit’s metropolitan area saw its per capita personal income grow by roughly 150 percent over the same period. But Gillette is no boomtown. With an average family income of just over $83,000, the local economy is fragile and almost entirely dependent on mining. As President Joe Biden and the Environmental Protection Agency push through regulations aimed at shuttering domestic coal production by 2035, Gillette has looked to the federal government for help. Two of Biden’s landmark bills—the Inflation Reduction Act and Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which together account for roughly $1.3 trillion in federal spending—were meant to, in the president’s words, “create new well-paying jobs” for workers who “helped build this country.” Former Gillette County commissioner Rusty Bell, who now works at a state agency dedicated to applying for federal grants, thought his city was a perfect match for one of the hundreds of federal grants up for grabs: more than $100 million to clean up and repurpose abandoned mines. “These grants looked like they were written for our area,” he told the Washington Free Beacon. And yet, Gillette wasn’t chosen. “We weren’t even a finalist,” Bell says.

Kimball: From Insurrection to Satire: Biden’s Valley Forge Speech Fails to Cement the Trump-Dictator Narrative

How deeply has Donald Trump burrowed into the psyche of the Democratic establishment? I’d say the takeover is nearly total. For proof, you need only contemplate the alarming pantomime that Joe Biden just acted out at Valley Forge. It lacked the totalitarian, Riefenstahlich trappings of his speech at Philadelphia’s Independence Hall in Sept. 2022. At that time, the President’s puppeteers believed that they could scare voters by turning the acronym “MAGA” into a negative epithet and affixing the extreme-sounding intensifier “ultra” to its front end. They managed to scare themselves, but hardly anyone else. By the fall of 2022, the wrecking ball that is Joe Biden’s administration had already smashed its way through the American economy, our southern border, and our foreign policy. Suddenly, “Make America Great Again” sounded like a pretty good formula.

[…] It did not take long for observers to understand that the carefully orchestrated Reichstag-like outrage of January 6 was more of a hoax than an “insurrection.” But that memo had not made it to the C-suite of Biden HQ, where the strategy was formulated and the narrative honed. They still thought that voters believed January 6 was an existential threat to the Republic. So that was the message they had downloaded to Joe Biden’s larynx for his Valley Forge speech. It didn’t work.

(From 2007) Rector: Look to Milton: Open borders and the welfare state

A decade ago, Nobel prize-winning economist Milton Friedman admonished the Wall Street Journal for its idée fixe on open-border immigration policy. “It’s just obvious you can’t have free immigration and a welfare state,” he warned. This remark adds insight to the current debate over immigration in the U.S. Senate. To be fully understood, Friedman’s comment should be viewed as applying not merely to means-tested welfare programs such as food stamps, Medicaid, and public housing, but to the entire redistributive transfer state. In the “transfer state,” government taxes the upper middle class and shifts some $1.5 trillion in economic resources to lower-income groups through a vast variety benefits and subsidies. Across the globe, this sort of economic redistribution is the largest, if not the predominant, function of government in advanced societies.

The transfer state redistributes funds from those with high-skill and high-income levels to those with lower skill levels. Low-skill immigrants become natural recipients in this process. […] There is also a political dimension to the transfer state. Elections in modern societies are, to a considerable degree, referenda on the magnitude of future income redistribution. An immigration policy which grants citizenship to vast numbers of low-skill, low-income immigrants not only creates new beneficiaries for government transfers, but new voters likely to support even greater transfers in the future.

DEMOCRAT PARTY MARXIST PLAYBOOK: SEVER THE PARENT/CHILD BOND

Scher: Ohio’s Top Children’s Hospital Coaches Doctors To Circumvent Parents Wary Of Trans Treatments, Training Videos Show

An Ohio hospital that actively lobbied Republican Gov. Mike DeWine to veto a ban on transgender procedures for minors has grossly misrepresented its approach to parental involvement in decisions, according to internal training videos obtained by The Daily Wire. […] Top officials in the hospital’s heralded Transgender Health Center, however, said otherwise in an internal training session on how to approach transgender-identifying children. The training sessions reveal not only that doctors strategize how to circumvent parents skeptical about their children undergoing sex-change procedures, but also that they are actively steering children towards undergoing treatments, which have skyrocketed in recent years at the facility […] Dr. Lee Ann Conard, the center’s director who introduced herself along with her pronouns and refers to parents predominantly as “caregivers,” says in the training video that there are ways to progress a child towards so-called “gender-affirmation” without parental support.

DEMOCRAT PARTY MARXIST PLAYBOOK: CHILDREN ARE THE TARGET OF THE DARKNESS AFFECTING OUR NATION

Duffy-Alfonso: How TikTok Killed The Preteen Era

n a now-viral TikTok video, former Sephora employee Rianna Smith recounted the time a nine-year-old walked into her store looking for Babyfacial, a chemical exfoliant from the high-end brand Drunk Elephant marketed to minimize “the look of pores, fine lines, and wrinkles.”

Smith asked the child whether she had used a chemical exfoliant in the past, to which the child responded that she uses the Ordinary Peeling Solution, an anti-aging acid peel, “daily.” According to Smith, this wasn’t a unique experience, revealing that while working at Sephora she encountered “15-year-olds […] com[ing] in with chemical burns” caused by harsh skincare products. The consensus among dermatologists is clear: expensive, intense anti-aging skincare is not good for children. In an interview with the Daily Mail, Dr. Ross Perry, medical director of Cosmedics Skin Clinics, warned that many of these cosmetics, such as retinol, another anti-aging product, not only can “cause irritation” for children but could also “damage the skin down the line.” […] In our post-industrial internet age, there have always been concerns that children are growing up too fast. But with Gen Alpha, it’s accelerated to the point where even Gen Z professional influencers have taken pause and conceded that Gen Alpha’s behavior is concerning. “We play a role in the problem,” admitted one TikToker.

BOOK REVIEW: RAISING CONSERVATIVE KIDS IN A WOKE CITY BY STACY MANNING & KATY FAUST

Meyrat: A Practical Guide To Protecting Our Children From A Decadent Culture

To say that contemporary Western culture is not family-friendly would be something of an understatement. Rather, it’s positively hostile to families. Whether it’s popular entertainment, schools, politicians, or even one’s neighbors, parents and their children are regularly pushed into terminal dysfunction. Virtue is derided while vices are celebrated; confusion and contradiction frequently overwhelm decency and common sense; and the feeling of optimism and commitment to excellence are now smothered by widespread anxiety and nihilism. As one would expect in such an environment, marriage and birth rates continue to plummet with little hope of recovering. Of course, it’s a different story for the conservatives. Unlike their Democrat peers, conservative couples are far more likely to marry and have kids — and far less likely to feel bad about it. However, this puts them at odds with contemporary culture and presents more than a few challenges for raising their little ones. […] Before they roll out their tactics for winning this battle, they first form the essential work of identifying the conservatism that parents are fighting for. Their definition is broad yet clear: . . .

BOOK REVIEW: LAND OF HOPE: AN INVITATION TO THE GREAT AMERICAN STORY BY WILFRED M. MCCLAY

Rice: America in Full

Wilfred McClay’s Land of Hope proves that there is no contradiction between knowing American history and loving America. Wilfred McClay’s Land of Hope wastes no time making its purpose known. The first thing you notice about it is that it looks like a textbook. From its heft and glossy pages to its artistic cover and evocative subtitle (“An Invitation to the Great American Story”), this volume would look perfectly at home on a school desk, in a backpack, or jammed into a locker. Without even opening it, though, you can tell that Land of Hope is very different from that other book with which it is being been compared—Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States. Land of Hope is a fact-driven history, open to the now radical-seeming notion that America is good. By presenting American history in full, McClay opens the door for a serious, studied patriotism. From the outset, this book sets itself apart from ordinary textbooks. Rather than dutifully marching through the facts and figures that led to the Founding, McClay takes care to situate America in a broader historical context. In quick but effective bursts, he guides the reader from the Crusades to the Reformation, stopping in at each milestone in European social, religious, and political history. At the same time, we see the premodern pilgrimage across the Eurasian land bridge of those who will come to be known as Native Americans.

DEMOCRAT PARTY MARXIST PLAYBOOK: ANTI POLICE ANTI VICTIM PRO CRIMINAL

Le Mehieu: ‘A Stain On Our Society’: Record Number Of Police Shot In 2023, Report Finds

There was a record-breaking number of law enforcement officers shot in the line of duty in 2023, according to report from the National Fraternal Order of Police. In 2023, there were 378 officers shot, a 60% increase since the FOP began tracking data back in 2018. The data also showed that 46 police officers were killed. “These horrifying statistics are a grim reminder of the War on Cops in this country. A stain on our society,” the FOP said. “Last year, over 330 police officers were shot in the line of duty. With the COVID-19 pandemic behind us and after so many Americans have seen the tragic consequences of the defund the police movement, it was our hope that these numbers would be a high-water mark,” FOP President Patrick Yoes said. “We were wrong.”

WAR IN ISRAEL

Nazar: Israel Discovers Evidence of Iran Helping Hamas Build Precision Missiles

Israel Defense Forces operating in Gaza City’s Daraj and Tuffah districts over the weekend found parts used by Hamas to create precision-guided missiles and other strategic weapons with assistance from the terrorist group’s sponsor, the Islamic Republic of Iran. The IDF’s Nahal Brigade troops discovered “components proving terrorists of the Hamas terror organization learned under Iranian guidance how to operate and build precision components and strategic weapons.” “Over the last few days, we encountered the enemy and many [terror] squads, infrastructure, and booby-trapped houses,” said IDF Nahal Brigade Commander Colonel Yair Zuckerman.

Just the News: Violence Explodes in West Bank, Killing East Jerusalem Man, Policewoman

Violence rocked the West Bank on Sunday after an East Jerusalem driver was shot dead hours after a roadside bomb killed a border policewoman and injured three others. Also on Sunday, a 3-year-old Palestinian girl was killed when police tried to stop a ramming attack at an East Jerusalem checkpoint, Israeli officials said. The first death was of Sgt. Shai Germai, 19, who “was killed by a terrorist road-side explosive during anti-terrorism operations in Jenin,” Israel Police said on X, formerly Twitter.

WND: Hezbollah Threatens Israel with ‘Fighting Without Limits’

As the war the Gaza-based Hamas terrorists launched against Israel rages on, with the Israel Defense Forces promising to wipe out that group so its threat does not recur, the Lebanon-based Hezbollah organization is threatening Israel with “fighting without limits.”

The words were documented by the Middle East Media Research Institute. The threat came in an article by Ibrahim Al-Amin, board chairman of the pro-Hezbollah Lebanese daily Al-Akhbar. He threatened if Israel initiates a war against Lebanon, Hezbollah will use unconventional weapons.

Averre: Israel assassinates top Hezbollah commander in Lebanon airstrike after IDF warned of ‘another war’ amid growing fears of conflict engulfing the Middle East

An Israeli strike on south Lebanon today killed a senior commander in Hezbollah’s elite Radwan force, escalating fears that the conflict between Israel and Hamas could trigger the spread of more violence across the region. Wissam Hassan Tawil, the deputy head of a unit within the Radwan force, died alongside another Hezbollah fighter when their car, a Honda SUV, was targeted in a strike on the Lebanese village of Majdal Selm. He was the highest-ranking Hezbollah member to be killed since Israel and the Lebanese group began exchanging cross-border fire following Hamas’ October 7 attacks.Hezbollah confirmed the killing this afternoon, saying he died ‘on the road to Jerusalem’ – the phrase used for fighters killed by Israel, with Lebanese security sources describing the attack as ‘a very painful strike’ that will cause a ‘flare-up’. It comes as Israel warned ‘another war’ may break out in the embattled Middle East after Hezbollah struck an Israeli air traffic control base this weekend.

OTHER NEWS, COMMENTARY, OPINION

Revolver.news: Conservative influencer asks United Airlines one tough question, and the answer could blow up US aviation…

An anonymous source from the airline industry reportedly approached conservative pundit Ashley St. Clair with some unsettling information. Following this secret exchange, St. Clair has asked United Airlines a tough question. If her implications, backed by her source’s revelations, prove to be true, it could be a bomb that rocks the entire aviation industry. Thanks to her source, Ashley is raising questions about a specific incident that took place last summer: a July 29th flight that ended with the airplane nearly totaled. She’s inquiring about who was operating the plane because her source claims the co-pilot was actually an unqualified hire made under the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion movement. If true, could this DEI hire have played a role in the reckless incident? Here’s what she said in her thread on X: […] Revolver has delved into the “diversity disaster” unfolding in the airline industry, a situation that could potentially put both crew and passengers in danger. In an industry where expertise is without question a top priority, many are worried that skill is taking a backseat over gender and skin color. Revolver has pondered the same thing.

Revolver: . . .

Berenson: On the mysterious case of Tom Scocca

Scocca is a progressive. An aggressive progressive. He thinks all the right (left) thinks, and he thinks them on social media with an edge. He hates Donald Trump, but he also hates his liberal cousins who don’t hate Donald Trump enough. Naturally, Scocca was a Covid hysteric from the get-go. He used the phrase “superspreader event” unironically. He wanted schools closed – in 2022. He called anyone who disagreed with him a “ghoul.” And naturally Scocca loved the mRNA Covid vaccines. He got his first jab on March 29, 2021, pretty much the first day he could. Then he announced his joy. Scocca got his second shot on schedule, too. (Though, as he wrote in April 2021, he planned to “keep my mask on outdoors” even after two jabs. Profiles in courage!)

(Sanctuary vs non-sanctuary) McCarthy, Campanile & Gibbon: Photos show NJ cops putting migrants on NYC-bound trains as beef between the states heats up

NJT cops met them as they got off the bus and provided them with instructions, before leading them to a transit center and put on board Manhattan-bound trains at around 11:20 p.m. The trains arrived at Penn Station at around 2:30 a.m. Thursday. From there, the migrants got into waiting cars that transport them to the Roosevelt Hotel in Midtown. The hotel has served as the primary intake center for the more than 162,000 migrants who have arrived in the five boroughs since spring 2022, primarily from Texas, after crossing the US-Mexico border. Adams began cracking down on charter bus companies bringing migrants from the Lone Star State to New York City by issuing an executive order limiting when and where they can drop off their passengers. The companies instead started dropping off asylum-seekers in New Jersey towns — prompting local officials to start organizing their transfers to Manhattan via trains, which are exempt from Adams’ order.

Noland: Law & Order Newsom Style: Driverless Cars Are Untouchable by California Traffic Citations

NBC News reports that the rapid advancement of autonomous vehicle technology in California has highlighted a major legal oversight: driverless cars, despite being involved in various traffic collisions and violations, are currently immune from receiving traffic tickets. This is due to the fact that California’s traffic laws are designed — unsurprisingly — around the idea that a car involved in a crash will actually have a human driving it, leaving self-driving vehicles in a legal gray area.

Citizen Free Press X post: Interesting comments from Megyn Kelly: “We’re going to hear a lot more about Jeffrey Epstein in the coming year. You may be even hearing from him directly. More on that as I’m allowed to tell you.”

Watch the 16 second video: https://twitter.com/CitizenFreePres/status/1743085644065185828

Revolver.news: We now know who was running around behind the scenes kiboshing Jeffrey Epstein “pedo” stories…

BREAKING: Bill Clinton allegedly stormed into the Vanity Fair office and threatened them not to write about Jeffrey Epstein’s se* trafficking operation. Vanity Fair was taking orders from Bill Clinton and helping to protect him and his pedo friends. Image from @Techno_Fog who’s doing great reporting on this.

The Prickly Pear’s TAKE ACTION focus this year is to help achieve a winning 2024 national and state November 5th election with the removal of the Biden/Obama leftist executive branch disaster, win one U.S. Senate seat, maintain and win strong majorities in all Arizona state offices on the ballot and to insure that unrestricted abortion is not constitutionally embedded in our laws and culture.

Please click the TAKE ACTION link to learn to do’s and don’ts for voting in 2024. Our state and national elections are at great risk from the very aggressive and radical leftist Democrat operatives with documented rigging, mail-in voter fraud and illegals voting across the country (yes, with illegals voting across the country) in the last several election cycles.

Read Part 1 and Part 2 of The Prickly Pear essays entitled How NOT to Vote in the November 5, 2024 Election in Arizona to be well informed of the above issues and to vote in a way to ensure the most likely chance your vote will be counted and counted as you intend.

Please click the following link to learn more.

TAKE ACTION