CNN —
Darya Tarasova, Sharon Braithwaite
Freed Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout said on Saturday he “wholeheartedly” supports Moscow’s so-called “military operation” in Ukraine and that if he had the opportunity and necessary skills, he would “certainly go as a volunteer.”
Bout, nicknamed the “Merchant of Death” by his accusers, was released Thursday from US detention in a prisoner swap for US basketball star Brittney Griner.
Bout made the remarks in a video interview with Kremlin-controlled TV network RT. He was interviewed by Maria Butina, a Russian gun-rights enthusiast-turned TV personality who now works for the network.
In the interview, he denied any connections with the Taliban and that he supplied arms to Afghanistan.
When asked if he had a portrait of President Vladimir Putin in his prison cell, Bout said: “Yes, always. Why not? I’m proud that I’m Russian and that our president is Putin.”
The former Soviet military officer was serving a 25-year prison sentence in the United States on charges of conspiring to kill Americans, acquire and export anti-aircraft missiles, and provide material support to a terrorist organization. Bout, who had maintained his innocence, is believed to be in his 50s, with his age in dispute because of different passports and documents.
Griner, 32, returned to the United States early Friday after being released from custody in an exchange for an international arms dealer. She was “in good spirits” and “incredibly gracious,” National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told CNN.
Griner – who had played in the off-season for a Russian women’s basketball team – was arrested on drugs charges at an airport in the Moscow region in February. Despite her testimony that she had inadvertently packed the cannabis oil found in her luggage, she was sentenced to nine years in prison in early August and moved to a penal colony in Mordovia in mid-November after losing her appeal.
The swap, which US President Joe Biden confirmed on Thursday, did not include another American that the State Department has declared wrongfully detained, Paul Whelan. Whelan was arrested on alleged espionage charges in 2018 and sentenced to 16 years in prison in a trial that US officials have called unfair.
The families of Griner and Whelan had urged the White House to secure their release, including via prisoner exchange if necessary.
CNN’s Travis Caldwell, Tina Burnside, Rosalina Nieves, Rosa Flores and Eliza Mackintosh contributed to this report.
https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/10/europe/viktor-bout-supports-ukraine-war-intl/index.html
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) ripped into Apple for restricting certain iPhone functions for the protestors in China while also threatening to remove Twitter from the App Store in America; “Elon Musk is actually opening it up to free speech!”
Watch the governor’s statement below:
BAD APPLE: Apple CEO Trashes Georgia Voting Bill While Using Chinese Labor Factories to Build iPhonesThu, Apr 1, 2021
QUICK, DEPLOY THE PORN! China Floods Social Media Channels With Pornography to Drown Out COVID Protests4 hours ago
Now is the time to support free speech and the conservative voices that fight back.
https://video.foxnews.com/v/6315733493112
Ronn Blitzer
FBI Director Christopher Wray stated in no uncertain terms that when it comes to threats to the United States in areas such as national security and the economy, China is by far the most serious.
In testimony before the Senate Homeland Security Committee on Thursday, Wray outlined how the Chinese Communist Party is targeting the U.S.
“The greatest long-term threat to our nation’s ideas, innovation and economic security, our national security, is that from China,” Wray said. “The Chinese government aspires to equal or surpass the U.S. as a global superpower and influence the world with a value system shaped by undemocratic, authoritarian ideals.”
Wray vowed that the FBI is “confronting that threat head on,” citing the recent unsealing of charges against more than a dozen individuals, including Chinese intelligence officers in multiple criminal cases. He described the alleged offenses as “criminal efforts to exert influence right here in the U.S. on behalf of Beijing.”
FBI Director Christopher Wray testifies with Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas before the House Homeland Security Committee on Capitol Hill, Nov. 15, 2022. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
The FBI director noted that there are “scores of investigations” into threats from China in each of the FBI’s 56 field offices.
Wray specifically pointed to cybercrime, stating that China has been particularly aggressive in that area.
“On the cyber front, China’s vast hacking program is the world’s largest by a mile, and they have stolen more of American’s personal and business data than every other nation combined,” he said.
https://video.foxnews.com/v/6315680730112
China is not the only country Wray warned about. He pointed to Russia, Iran and North Korea as “growing more aggressive, more brazen, more capable,” and “coming at us from all angles” in order to undermine American democracy, law and national security.
This is on top of threats from terror groups like ISIS and al Qaeda, which Wray said “still aim to inspire, plan and launch attacks” against the U.S. and its allies “both abroad and here at home.”
Wray pointed to the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan as a point from which such terror organizations have been trying to regain strength. He also observed that the U.S. has had a lesser ability to gather intelligence in Afghanistan since the withdrawal.
National Counterterrorism Center Director Christine Abizaid noted at the hearing that al Qaeda’s ability to strike the U.S. homeland from Afghanistan is presently “quite limited,” thanks to efforts such as the strike that killed al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri this past summer.
In response, Wray said as time passes, the U.S. will have a decreased ability to know “what al Qaeda is or isn’t doing in Afghanistan” due to “fewer and fewer good sources of information.”
Ronn Blitzer is a reporter for Fox News Digital covering politics and breaking news.
“From The Patriot Post (patriotpost.us)”
“The border is secure!” Just kidding.
Mark Alexander
Last week, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis called Joe Biden’s border bluff, flying about 50 illegal immigrants to Martha’s Vineyard Island, a leftist enclave playground for the rich and famous, including Barack Obama. Consequently, the Leftmedia talkingheads and scribes have been sparing no lie portraying the reception the immigrants received from MVI residents before being booted off the island as soon as buses could be arranged.
There have been breathless media reports about how the Venezuelan immigrants endured the dangerous trip to our southern border, paying human traffickers to ensure they could take advantage of Biden’s intentional and dangerous open-border policy invitation. On Biden’s watch, more than two million illegal immigrants have flooded into our country, most swamping the towns and resources of border states resulting in a deadly humanitarian crisis. The surge across our “secure” border, as Border Czar Kamala Harris called it last week, set new records in August, and there are many more who cross undetected. That surge includes criminals who are bringing record amounts of deadly fentanyl into the country, resulting in record deaths of American citizens.
With that backdrop, among many other media sources obscuring the MVI immigrant arrival with a political smokescreen, CNN reported, “Donations poured in and volunteers rushed to help: Here’s how Martha’s Vineyard communities responded to the arrival of migrants.” In another article, CNN profiled how Vineyard residents gave the immigrants a warm reception — until they could deport them to Cape Cod. Local man Sean O’Sullivan claimed, “We’re used to dealing with people in need and we’re super happy — like they enriched us, we’re happy to help them on their journey.”
Reality check: I have friends who were in Edgartown on MVI where the immigrants were detained for 44 hours. They report that the newcomers were cordoned off by police in a one-block area and not allowed to leave that area until arrangements could be made to get them bused off the island. While people were kind, as we all would be, there were no leftist celebrities opening their homes or making any attempt to keep them on the island, despite the fact that there are plenty of fine accommodations available. Additionally, there are “Now Hiring” and “Help Wanted” signs in every business window given that seasonal high school and college kids have departed, but no jobs for the immigrants — as soon as funding was available, they were deported.
Instead, laughably, Martha’s Vineyard officials declared a “humanitarian crisis,” prompting DeSantis to respond: “The minute even a small fraction of what those border towns deal with every day is brought to their front door, they go berserk. … Their virtue-signaling is a fraud. Now what would be best is for Biden to do his damn job and secure the border.”
“Humanitarian crisis”?
For the record, Martha’s Vineyard has an off-season population of 17,000 — more than 90% of whom are white privilege residents, and 90% of them voted for Biden. However, its summer seasonal population accommodates 180,000 visitors, which means that in September, when the 50 immigrants arrived, the island had abundant capacity to provide housing and resources.
To put this “humanitarian crisis” into perspective, National Review’s Brittany Bernstein notes, “More than 24,000 illegal immigrants would need to arrive on the island for it to equally share the burden faced by Del Rio, Texas, on the U.S.-Mexico border.” That same comparison is applicable with many other border state towns.
Finally, Biden protested: “Republicans are playing politics with human beings, using them as props. What they’re doing is simply wrong. It’s un-American. It’s reckless.” Actually, Biden is the nation’s most notorious “human trafficker,” and the Democrats’ deceitful open-border policy is “simply wrong … un-American … reckless.”
In 2021 alone, Biden authorized almost 1,000 large charter “ghost flights” to many U.S. locations, including planes loaded with children — most under cover of darkness. (I have videos of them arriving at an FBO in Chattanooga, Tennessee, last summer.) Notably, Biden sent 70 flights to Florida.
Political analyst Katie Pavlich observed, “The White House is actually trying to argue sending illegal immigrants to Martha’s Vineyard is far more cruel than emboldening a $1 trillion trafficking and smuggling cartel industry that thrives under Biden’s open border policies.”
The president bungled his “60 Minutes” interview and had White House staffers scrambling.
Nate Jackson
Joe Biden would like to tell you a story of victory. His victories, he and his media lackeys have spent the last month or so telling us, include a roaring economy, lower gas prices, passing infrastructure spending and gun control and the Inflation Reduction Act, offering student loan “forgiveness,” taking out our terrorist enemies, and more heroic efforts. To that list of fables we can add his Sunday boast about the coronavirus: “The pandemic is over.”
“We still have a problem with COVID,” the president said during a “60 Minutes” interview that aired Sunday. “We’re still doing a lot of work on it. But the pandemic is over. If you notice, no one’s wearing masks. Everybody seems to be in pretty good shape, and so I think it’s changing.” Oh, people are still wearing masks out there, Joe. Some people are in the at-risk categories for whom that’s understandable. Others are, well, Biden voters.
For those of you who quit upending your life over COVID two years ago, Biden’s comment may seem oddly late to the game. To Democrats and the Leftmedia, however, his pre-midterm election proclamation about beating the pandemic is not something they’re quite ready to admit.
That’ll change over the next six weeks as the Left revamps COVID messaging so as to win the election.
Taxpayer-funded NPR worries that “there are still thousands of cases being detected every day, and many estimates could be off, as many cases are going unreported.”
The Washington Post harrumphed that Biden’s “off-the-cuff remarks” come “even as hundreds of Americans continue to die of covid each day,” and the paper frets that Biden’s comments “may complicate [the] White House struggle to secure additional funding for coronavirus vaccines, tests and treatments.” How, after all, can the administration extend the public health emergency next month if the pandemic is over? The Post adds that Biden’s statement “came as a surprise to administration officials.”
The 79-year-old president is indeed cognitively impaired and routinely makes bungled statements (more below, in fact) that contradict his own White House policy. But we’re not sure we buy it in this case. Again, this is calculated to make voters feel like he and his party brought them through an awful pandemic.
For example, here he is boasting about vaccination: “When I got in office, when I got elected, only two million people had been vaccinated. I got 220 million — my point is it takes time. We were left in a very difficult situation. It’s been a very difficult time. Very difficult.” According to Biden, Donald Trump left the nation in a bind. According to a stubborn thing called reality, Trump aided greatly in getting vaccines ready in record time, all while Democrats sowed doubt and distrust about them. The only reason Biden can claim so many more vaccinated people on his watch is that it wasn’t available for public consumption until after he was elected. His scummy efforts to claim credit for the vaccines date back to the spring of 2021.
The vaccines have, of course, proven to be less than advertised. So much so that the CDC even recently discovered natural immunity — unfortunately only after countless unvaccinated people lost their jobs thanks to Democrat vax mandates, including hundreds more in New York City just this past week.
Where do they go for recompense now that “the pandemic is over”?
Meanwhile, the Marine Corps has quietly dropped efforts to discharge unvaccinated Marines making religious objections to the jab. Falling woefully short of recruitment goals will cause some reevaluation.
Biden wasn’t done saying dumb stuff in his “60 Minutes” interview.
“We’re growing the economy, and it’s growing in a way that it hasn’t in years and years,” he said, including a promise that “we’re gonna get control of inflation.” In fact, he declared, “I’m more optimistic than I’ve been in a long time.” Well, it is almost October before an election.
The truth? The U.S. is technically in recession after two consecutive quarters of negative GDP.
His comments regarding foreign policy certainly muddied the waters.
Scott Pelley: “Would U.S. forces defend [Taiwan against China]?”
Joe Biden: “Yes, if in fact there was an unprecedented attack.”
Pelley: “So, unlike Ukraine, to be clear, sir, U.S. forces, U.S. men and women, would defend Taiwan in the event of a Chinese invasion?”
Biden: “Yes.”
That is not U.S. stated policy, the White House immediately clarified after the interview, though it’s not the first time Biden has asserted it. Trump expertly put his opponents on the ropes with strategic ambiguity. Somehow we don’t think that’s what Biden is doing.
Finally, inquiring minds including Pelley want to know if Biden will run for reelection in 2024. “My intention, as I said to begin with, is that I would run again,” Biden answered. “But it’s just an intention. But is it a firm decision that I run again? That remains to be seen.”
He’s a definite maybe, he says. The rest of the nation knows there’s no way on God’s green earth that this man has the capacity to run again. The biggest problem for Democrats is that Kamala Harris is not an obvious successor, but it sure isn’t going to look good shoving a black woman to the side so a white guy like Gavin Newsom can take her place. Identity politics is a cruel mistress.
But hey, the pandemic is over. Right? Right?
Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral, USAF has a critical pilot shortage, Putin and Xi pledge unity against the U.S., and more.
Thomas Gallatin & Jordan Candler
For more editors’ choice headlines, click here.
When Democrats push changes to election laws, you can bet it’s to boost their chances of victory.
Lewis Morris
Ranked choice voting is embraced by its supporters as a means of cutting through the hyper-partisan political atmosphere and electing consensus candidates rather than populist extremists. But enough of the propaganda from Democrats and their establishment Republican pals who stand to benefit most from this process. What exactly is ranked choice voting, and what are its consequences?
In a ranked choice election, voters are encouraged to rank all the candidates on the ballot from favorite to least favorite. First-place votes are counted, and if one candidate emerges with at least 50%-plus-one of the vote, then that person is declared the winner and the election is over. However, if no clear winner emerges, then another round of vote counting takes place in which the candidate with the lowest number of votes is eliminated. The votes of those who cast their ballot for an eliminated candidate instead go to their next choice. This process continues until only two candidates remain, with the winner being the one with the most votes in the final round.
If this sounds convoluted and confusing and ripe for fraud and complete misrepresentation of the will of the voter, then you understand ranked choice voting better than you think you do. In fact, the whole process is so cumbersome that it can’t even be conducted without computers. That alone should be a red flag to anyone wondering about the wisdom of ranked choice voting. Any voting process that’s meant to select a human candidate should be simple enough to be conducted by humans.
Ranked choice voting raises other red flags, too. Consider urban elections, which predominantly feature Democrat candidates because their platform seeks out and appeals to urban voters. In a ranked choice election, the few Republicans who have the resources to get on the ballot aren’t likely to survive the first round of voting. The election quickly devolves into a one-party exercise in which an entire bloc of voters is rejected along with their issues of concern. Likewise, any election in which several well-known (read: establishment) candidates, regardless of party affiliation, suck all the oxygen out of the room leaves lesser-known candidates to languish without having a chance to reach voters.
Ranked choice voting is dangerous to the electoral process because it subverts the will of the voter. It is mathematically possible in some instances for a candidate who is no one’s first choice to end up winning an election. It is also similarly possible for a candidate who pulls more votes on the first ballot to lose.
To see the failure of ranked choice in action, we need look no further than the recent Alaska special election to fill the vacant House seat of the late Don Young. In its first test of ranked choice elections in one of the reddest of red states, Democrat Mary Peltola was victorious over former Republican Governor Sarah Palin and Nick Begich III, who ran as a Republican despite coming from a Democrat political family. Among Republicans, Palin represented the populist vote, and Begich represented the establishment vote. We don’t have final tallies, and we may not get them, but it is highly likely that many loyal Republican voters who ranked Palin first also ranked Begich second. But, since things turned out the way they did, it would appear that a large portion of Begich voters were closet Democrats who ranked Peltola second. By the way, Peltola finished fourth in the first round of voting with 10% of the vote. Palin finished first with 27%.
Peltola, Palin, and Begich will be doing this all over again in November to determine who represents the state in Congress for the next full term. And it looks as if the same scenario may play out all over again. Democrats have a vested interest in seeing Begich lose in the hope of making the election a referendum on Palin, who is a prime target of hate among Democrats and certain to stir their base to turn out to vote.
Ranked choice voting allows candidates and their political party backers to game the system, as parties can encourage loyal voters to throw their support in targeted ways in early rounds to shape the final ballot. Additionally, voters are given repeated bites at the apple after backing losers, while those who remain committed to one candidate are penalized.
Ranked choice voting does not improve our election process. It subverts it by forcing voters to pledge support to candidates they would never consider in a winner-take-all race and by silencing anti-establishment candidates seeking to shake up the status quo — which is something we sorely need these days. If the people are to have faith in their electoral process, they must be allowed to vote for a single candidate of their choosing. Any other system should be viewed with suspicion.
SCOTUS majority sends the case back to the lower courts to exhaust options.
Emmy Griffin
New York City’s Yeshiva University, one of the oldest Jewish universities in the nation, is under attack. As an Orthodox Jew-professing university, it has some scripturally based objections to homosexual lifestyle choices. But there is a group of Yeshiva students that has filed a Rainbow Mafia lawsuit to force the school to allow and accept an LGBTQ+ club called Yeshiva University Pride Alliance.
The university has fought this lawsuit in the lower courts and lost. The school sought an emergency stay from the Supreme Court so that the club couldn’t be forced upon it while it was filing appeals and trying to bring its case to the highest court in the land.
Interestingly enough, SCOTUS initially did grant the emergency petition, and it was Justice Sonia Sotomayor who granted it. Sadly, on Thursday, the Court decided in a 5-4 decision that SCOTUS would not keep the emergence stay. The majority — which consisted of Justices John Roberts, Brett Kavanaugh, Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Katanji Brown Jackson — explained that Yeshiva University still had litigation it needed to pursue in the lower courts in terms of appeals.
Katie Rosenfeld, the attorney who is representing the LGBTQ+ club students, said, “We are confident that we will continue to overcome the administration’s aggressive litigation strategies against its own LGBTQ+ students, who choose to attend Yeshiva University because they are committed to the school’s mission.”
The school’s stated mission is to bring wisdom to its students through academic excellence but also through “the ethical and moral values that will make them truly admirable people.” The school adds, “It is our dual emphasis on professional excellence and personal ethics that give our graduate students the wisdom to succeed in both their professions and their lives.” An LGBTQ+ lifestyle is not moral by Jewish teachings (and Christian teachings as well). Rosenfeld must not be very familiar with the moral and ethical teachings of Orthodox Judaism.
Those justices in the minority — Samuel Alito, Amy Coney Barrett, Clarence Thomas, and Neil Gorsuch — were adamant that Yeshiva University deserved an emergency stay because New York’s courts were flagrantly infringing on the school’s First Amendment rights. Alito wrote the dissent, saying that the First Amendment “guarantees the right to the free exercise of religion, and if that provision means anything, it prohibits a State from enforcing it’s own preferred interpretation of Holy Scripture. Yet that is exactly what New York State has done in this case, and it is disappointing that a majority of this Court refuses to provide relief.”
This is not the final say in this debate. There is a chance that Yeshiva University, should it complete the remaining appeals and attempts at stays through the lower courts (and be denied them as is expected), can bring its case back to SCOTUS. In the meantime, the lower courts’ decisions force Yeshiva to accept this club that is diametrically opposed to Orthodox Judaism. New York is wrongly forcing its progressive liberalism worldview on this university.
Yeshiva’s case has major implications for the rest of the country. Mark Rienzi, president of the Becket Fund, which is representing Yeshiva, stated the situation perfectly: “The stakes couldn’t be higher, not just for Yeshiva but for the country. That’s why people of many different faiths filed briefs asking the court to protect Yeshiva. If Yeshiva can’t even make religious decisions on its own campus, then no religious group is safe from government control.”
Pew Research shows that Christians will be in the minority in the not-so-distant future.
Thomas Gallatin
A recent Pew Research Center study estimates based on various scenarios that Christians in America will become a minority in the next two to five decades. Since the 1990s, the study notes, the number of Americans leaving Christianity has been accelerating, as the number of those identifying as nonreligious or “nones” has ballooned over the last couple decades.
Pew reports, “The projections show Christians of all ages shrinking from 64% to between a little more than half (54%) and just above one-third (35%) of all Americans by 2070.” Furthermore, “Over that same period, ‘nones’ would rise from the current 30% to somewhere between 34% and 52% of the U.S. population.”
Evaluating a different scenario, Pew notes, “If the pace of switching before the age of 30 were to speed up throughout the projection period without any brakes, Christians would no longer be a majority by 2045.”
Of course, Pew is quick to point out that these projections are based upon current trends that could change. That said, the news is disconcerting for Christians, but even more so for our nation.
As all genuine Bible-believing Christians understand, their ultimate home and eternal destination of Heaven is secure, thanks entirely to the work of Jesus — His death and resurrection on their behalf. Yet while the future on this side of Heaven is difficult, a Christian’s hope never rests in this world.
The deeper question the Pew research raises may be less obvious, though it should seem quite apparent. If the number of people leaving the faith has been increasing steadily for the past three decades, then the number of genuine Christians must have fallen off long before.
In other words, how many of these “Christians” were nominally so because of their cultural upbringing? If they grew into early adulthood and left the faith, did they ever really believe in the first place? Are we simply witnessing the ripples of a rock that sank long ago?
That said, America, by God’s grace, has known times of spiritual revival. And rather than fearing a potential loss of cultural influence, Christians should remind themselves of the Lord’s sovereign rule over all of history. This presents an opportunity to shine brightly the good news of the Gospel before a darkening world. Jesus did warn His followers of the opposition and trouble they will face: “I have told you these things, so that in Me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).
News like this should encourage all Christians to pray for God’s mercy on our nation — that He would send another revival and that He would embolden Christians to speak the truth and share the Gospel of salvation. For the power for anyone to change, repent, and believe ultimately comes from God.
For more of today’s columns, visit Right Opinion.
Insight
“A society is in decay, final or transitional, when common sense has really become very uncommon. Straightforward ideas appear strange or unfamiliar, and any thought that does not follow the conventional curve or twist, is supposed to be a sort of joke.” —G. K. Chesterton (1874-1936)
Re: The Right
“‘Cheering on’ the Dobbs decision was completely worth it. Just as cheering the overturning of Dred Scott v. Sanford or Schenck v. United States was worth it. Not everything is about short-term partisan gain. You might also cheer because if someone had told you 10, or even five, years ago that Roe would be overturned, you wouldn’t have believed them. Roe has been treated as a sacred text for over 50 years, not only by the press but by most of our institutions. The ‘right’ to terminate life for convenience’s sake had been irrecoverably tethered to feminism and progress. For millions, it probably remains the only SCOTUS decision they can name. And once the left procures a new ‘right,’ it rarely relinquishes it. The prospect of there being six justices willing to uphold the Constitution in the face of this immense pressure was improbable, to say the least. So, yes, cheer.” —David Harsanyi
“Even if we accept everything we’re hearing about the political fallout over Dobbs, the blowback is quite underwhelming. If a two-point swing in the presidential approval rating during a midterm election is the price for overturning Roe, then it was maybe the greatest bargain in history. Just because Dobbs was ‘worth’ celebrating doesn’t mean Republicans shouldn’t have been better prepared for the probable outcome. It always amazes me how timid and ineffective Republicans are at making the pro-life case, which makes me suspect many of them are unhappy that pro-life legislation is no longer just a theoretical proposition.” —David Harsanyi
“If Republicans truly believe that they can’t defend a 15-week ban, maybe they are right to find any excuse to try not to talk about abortion. But that path leads, ultimately, to implicit surrender. You can’t blame Lindsey Graham for wanting his party to do better.” —Rich Lowry
The BIG Lie
“[The Inflation Reduction Act] helped reduce inflation at the kitchen table.” —President Joe Biden
The BIG Lie Enabler
“[The] Inflation Reduction Act — so beautifully named.” —House Speaker Nancy Pelosi
Arbiters of “Truth”
“I think there is a risk when you’re talking to certain politicians if you’re willing to say what you’re saying is not true, and sometimes you have to risk looking partisan by doing that. But I think we can’t bow to that threat. I mean, as long as I’m confident when I am that we’re arguing about facts, undisputable facts, I have no problem saying, ‘You’re not telling the truth.’ Even if that causes somebody to say, ‘You’re just being a political hack.’ You have to do that. That’s what we have to stand up for as journalists — right and wrong; fact, not fiction.” —ABC News’s George Stephanopoulos
Hot Air
“We didn’t have any blackouts in California. Ron DeSantis, you were wrong again. You made it up. Lot of people made it up. Folks on Fox, you made it up. I know you wished it happened — trust me, many of them did because they want to kill our green energy transition. They want to double down on stupid and continue to drill and actually do more damage.” —California Governor Gavin Newsom
Just the Facts?
“Locked in a tight race with Rep. Val Demings, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) trots out a transphobic attack on the CDC for using the term ‘pregnant people.’ ‘Pregnant men … I can assure you that’s never happened,’ Rubio says, which is factually inaccurate.” —The Recount, which apparently embraces the gender confusion of females who identify as “males”
Huh?
“Racism, discrimination & human cruelty have played a pivotal role in how immigrants are received at our borders. [Governor Greg Abbott] is without shame or humility. Chicago has been a sanctuary for thousands of newcomers, and we will not turn our backs on those who need our help the most.” —Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot protesting busloads of illegal immigrants from Texas being sent to Chicago (“Migrants are being shipped out of the sanctuary city of Chicago to the suburbs.” —Matt Finn)
Non Compos Mentis Awards
“These vulnerable migrants were reportedly misled about where they were heading; told they would be headed to Boston; misled about what they would be provided when they arrived; promised shelter, refuge, benefits, and more. These are the kinds of tactics we see from smugglers in places like Mexico and Guatemala.” —White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre
“We’re not a border town. We don’t have a infrastructure to handle this type of and level of immigration to our city.” —DC Mayor Muriel Bowser
Village Idiot
“This is coming straight out of the authoritarian playbook. This is what’s so disturbing about [Ron] DeSantis — is to use human beings, to weaponize human beings, for a political purpose. It’s like when somebody disagrees with him in Florida — like The Walt Disney Company — he punishes them. This is not the actions of a person participating in a democratic process in which there’s an exchange of ideas. This is about punishing political enemies, putting on shows, political shows, political theater. And in this case, this is with the lives of human beings.” —filmmaker Ken Burns
And Last…
“Martha’s Vineyard’s response to 50 illegals being sent to them was to declare a humanitarian emergency, activate 125 National Guard soldiers, and shipping them out of their town in less than 24 hours. You literally can’t make it up.” —Michael Seifert
“Martha’s Vineyard couldn’t handle 50 illegal immigrants for even 24 hours. They called in the buses and deported them from the island. But I thought left wingers loved diversity?” —Clay Travis
“‘Stop moving people around for political stunts!’ said the people who support an open border policy that involves shipping hundreds of thousands of people to small towns and cities across America.” —Ben Shapiro
For more of today’s memes, visit the Memesters Union.
For more of today’s cartoons, visit the Cartoons archive.
“From The Patriot Post (patriotpost.us)”
https://truth4freedom.wordpress.com/2022/09/19/mid-day-snapshot-%c2%b7-sept-19-2022/
(FILE – NORAD)
COLORADO SPRINGS, CO (NORAD) – On September 11, 2022, the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) detected, tracked and positively identified two Russian maritime patrol aircraft entering and operating within the Alaskan and Canadian Air Defense Identification Zones (ADIZ).
The Russian aircraft remained in international airspace and did not enter American nor Canadian sovereign airspace.
This recent Russian activity in the North American ADIZ is not seen as a threat nor is the activity seen as provocative. NORAD tracks and positively identifies foreign military aircraft that enter the ADIZ, and routinely monitors foreign aircraft movements and as required, escorts them from the ADIZ.
NORAD employs a layered defense network of satellites, ground-based radars, airborne radar and fighter aircraft to track and identify aircraft and inform appropriate actions. We remain ready to employ a number of response options in the defense of North America and Arctic sovereignty.
An F-35C Lightning II assigned to the Grim Reapers of Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA 101) launches off the flight deck of the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72). (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Josue Escobosa/Released)
Anders Hagstrom
The Pentagon has paused deliveries of F-35 fighter jets to U.S. military branches and global allies after the manufacturer, Lockheed Martin, discovered one of the plane’s components was sourced from China, Politico reported Wednesday.
The component is a magnet used in the F-35’s turbomachine pumps, and it reportedly contains an alloy sourced from China. Pentagon officials were reportedly alerted to the issue on Aug. 19. Officials say it does not affect F-35s that are already in service, according to Politico.
U.S. procurement laws prohibit sourcing supplies for military equipment from foreign adversaries.
“We have confirmed that the magnet does not transmit information or harm the integrity of the aircraft, and there are no performance, quality, safety or security risks associated with this issue, and flight operations for the F-35 in-service fleet will continue as normal,” F-35 Joint Program Office spokesperson Russell Goemaere told the outlet.
BIDEN RAMPS UP US MILITARY DEPLOYMENTS ACROSS EUROPE
ATLANTIC OCEAN (Aug. 14, 2016) F-35C Lightning II carrier variants, assigned to the Salty Dogs of Air Test and Evaluation Squadron (VX) 23, taxi on the flight deck of the aircraft carrier USS George Washington (CVN 73). VX-23 is conducting its third and final developmental test (DT-III) phase aboard George Washington in the Atlantic Ocean. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Alora R. Blosch)
NAVY ENVISIONS ELECTRONIC DRONES WILL HELP KEEP AN EYE ON ENEMY FORCES ACROSS THE PACIFIC
While Lockheed is responsible for building each F-35, the turbomachine pumps were built by Honeywell, according to Policito.
The F-35 is America’s fifth-generation stealth fighter jet, and its design is a closely-guarded secret.
The report comes roughly a month after the U.S. Air Force ordered all in-service F-35’s to stand down for a day due to concerns over faulty ejection seats. The
“Out of an abundance of caution, Air Combat Command units will execute a stand-down on July 29 to expedite the inspection process,” Air Combat Command said in a statement to Fox News Digital at the time. “Based on data gathered from those inspections, ACC will make a determination to resume operations.”
Caitlin McFall contributed to this report.
Ellen Mitchell
Russian surveillance aircraft flew into the Alaskan Air Defense Identification Zone twice in the past two days, the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) revealed late Tuesday.
The Alaskan NORAD “detected, tracked and identified Russian surveillance aircraft entering and operating within” the zone off the state’s coast, the command said in a statement on Twitter.
“The Russian aircraft did not enter American or Canadian sovereign airspace,” NORAD noted.
An air defense identification zone is a self-declared buffer zone of airspace surrounding a country or territory. Aircraft from other countries are legally allowed to fly within one but doing so is considered aggression, as once there, planes could quickly cross into sovereign airspace.
The last time NORAD announced such a breach was in October 2021, when five Russian aircraft entered the zone.
To keep track of the incidents, NORAD employs a layered defense network of satellites, ground-based radars, airborne radars and fighter aircraft to track and identify aircraft and determine the appropriate response, according to the command.
The two Russian flights come as Moscow is locked in its sixth month of war with Ukraine, with the battle largely fixated on the Donetsk region in the eastern part of the country.
Russian forces, which are struggling to gain ground in the region, are looking to take the area following its gain of Luhansk last month. Tags NORAD Russia Ukraine
Ryan Saavedra
Terrorism experts quickly downplayed Democrat President Joe Biden‘s attempts to count the CIA’s killing of Al Qaeda Ayman Al-Zawahiri in Afghanistan as a win for his administration, noting the fact that Al-Zawahiri was in Afghanistan at all means that the terrorist group has returned to the country where they planned the 9/11 attacks.
During the chaotic pullout from Afghanistan last year, Biden declared that Al Qaeda was “gone” from Afghanistan.
On Monday night, Biden declared that “justice has been delivered” and that he would hunt down and kill anyone who was a threat to the U.S.
However, terrorism and national security experts quickly pumped the brakes on celebrating Al-Zawahiri’s death as a major win because of what it meant: Al Qaeda is in Afghanistan.
“The killing of Al Qaeda emir Ayman al Zawahiri will be sold as a counterterrorism success. But that narrative masks the undeniable truth that Taliban-controlled Afghanistan is a safe have for Al Qaeda,” Bill Roggio, terrorism analyst at the Long War Journal, tweeted. “The strike that killed Zawahiri is the first since the U.S withdrawal 1+ months ago. The U.S. saved best for first, and made the first counterterrorism strike count.”
“Zawahiri was killed in the Sherpur neighborhood, in a home run by a deputy of Sirajuddin Haqqani. Sirajuddin is of course one of two deputy Taliban emirs as well as the interior minister,” he continued. “Zawahiri could not operate in Afghanistan – particularly in Kabul – without the consent of the Taliban. He wasn’t in the remote mountains of Kunar, Nuristan, or Nangarhar, or distant provinces of Ghazni, Helmand, or Kandahar. He was in the Taliban’s capital.”
Max Abrahms, an International security professor, said that killing Al Zawahiri was not “the categorical win Biden says.”
“The Taliban was supposed to prevent Al Qaeda leaders from hiding out there for goodness sake,” Abrahms added.
Taking out #Zawahiri isn’t the categorical win Biden says. The Taliban was supposed to prevent Al Qaeda leaders from hiding out there for goodness sake.
— Max Abrahms (@MaxAbrahms) August 1, 2022
Rita Katz, Director of SITE Intelligence Group, noted: “That Zawahiri, after years of hiding and immense OPSEC, was killed on a balcony in a wealthy downtown neighborhood of Kabul–it just shows what a drastic sense of empowerment al-Qaeda leadership has felt under Taliban-ruled Afghanistan.”
“There was a reason that Ayman al-Zawahiri was in Kabul,” said Tim Kennedy, a former special forces operator. “Serving as the #2 to Bin Laden in al Qaeda he took advantage of our failed evacuation of Afghanistan and the power vacuum. It is a safe haven for terrorists all around the world. This is a byproduct of what we created.”
There was a reason that Ayman al-Zawahiri was in Kabul. Serving as the #2 to Bin Laden in al Qaeda he took advantage of our failed evacuation of Afghanistan and the power vacuum. It is a safe haven for terrorists all around the world. This is a byproduct of what we created.
— Tim Kennedy (@TimKennedyMMA) August 2, 2022
Katie Pavlich
Source: AP Photo/Los Angeles Times, Jay L. Clendenin, Pool
President Joe Biden held a phone call with Chinese President Xi Jinping Thursday afternoon as the communist country continues demands for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi not to visit Taiwan in August.
After the call, the Chinese Communist Party released a readout. It made clear Xi threatened the United States during the call with “fire.”
Meanwhile, Biden’s version of the call was much more tame.
“The call was a part of the Biden Administration’s efforts to maintain and deepen lines of communication between the United States and the PRC and responsibly manage our differences and work together where our interests align. The call follows the two leaders’ conversation on March 18th and a series of conversations between high-level U.S. and PRC officials,” the White House released in a statement. “The two presidents discussed a range of issues important to the bilateral relationship and other regional and global issues, and tasked their teams to continue following up on today’s conversation, in particular to address climate change and health security. On Taiwan, President Biden underscored that the United States policy has not changed and that the United States strongly opposes unilateral efforts to change the status quo or undermine peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.”
Pelosi’s trip is still planned. Republicans are backing her up while the White House grovels to the CCP.
by WorldTribune Staff, July 11, 2022
Amid daily revelations about damning evidence on his son Hunter Biden’s laptop, two major warnings regarding China’s ongoing efforts to infiltrate American politics and steal U.S. technology were issued by U.S. intelligence officials last week.
FBI Director Christopher Wray and his British MI5 counterpart conducted a rare joint public appearance in London on Wednesday to sound the alarm over the growing “serious security and economic threat” posed by China, which aims to steal U.S. intellectual property and corrupt American politics.
“Americans should be concerned because the Chinese government’s attempts to steal our innovation, our intellectual property effects American jobs, we’re talking about American jobs, American consumers being directly affected,” said Wray. “There was a case not that long ago where an American company was essentially fleeced by a Chinese company, and that caused the company’s stock value to drop by something like 85% and hundreds and hundreds of jobs lost. And so that’s real impact, not just on Wall Street, but on Main Street.”
Also on Wednesday, U.S. counterintelligence officials issued a bulletin to state and local officials warning of a campaign by communist China to manipulate and influence politicians with the goal of pushing Washington toward more China-friendly policies.
China “understands that U.S. state and local leaders enjoy a degree of independence from Washington and may seek to use them as proxies to advocate for national U.S. policies Beijing desires,” the National Counterintelligence and Security Center said in a bulletin sent to state and local officials.
The Trump administration “pursued aggressive measures to rein in China’s growing assertiveness and espionage activities,” the New York Post’s Miranda Devine, who broke the Hunter Biden laptop story in October 2020, noted in a July 10 op-ed.
“Yet, Joe Biden has gone soft on China since becoming president,” Devine added, offering the following examples:
• He diverted at least a million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, according to Reuters, to Chinese state-owned gas giant Sinopec, which Hunter had invested in through his ten percent stake in Chinese private equity firm BHR.
• He disbanded the China Initiative, a national security program set up by the Trump administration to combat China’s economic espionage at universities and research institutions.
• He revoked Trump-era restrictions against TikTok, instead promising a “national security review” which has led to no action for over a year. The world’s fastest-growing social media platform, owned by Chinese company ByteDance, reportedly has repeatedly accessed US users’ private personal data.
• In another unwinding of hardline Trump policies, the Biden administration granted the Chinese tech giant’s Huawei a license to purchase chips used in automobile manufacturing, Reuters reported last year.
• He has not pressed China on the origins of COVID-19.
• He suspended tariffs on Chinese solar panels.
• He reportedly is contemplating lifting further Trump tariffs against Chinese imports, for no discernible benefit to America, with economists warning that any effect on soaring inflation would be minimal and short-lived.
Devine noted: “It is astonishing that such generous concessions are even being contemplated while China has become Vladimir Putin’s top financier in the war on Ukraine, by buying discounted Russian oil and thus allowing the Kremlin to withstand Western sanctions.
“This munificence to China adds to well-founded concerns that Joe Biden is compromised by the Chinese Communist Party, given all the evidence on Hunter’s laptop about millions of dollars that flowed from China to his son and brother, Jim Biden.
“Until he comes clean about his role in his family’s influence-peddling operation in China during his vice presidency there will always be suspicions about his motives and questions about the risk to national security.”
Action . . . . Intelligence . . . . Publish
FPI / June 22, 2022 Geostrategy-Direct.com The Biden administration has released few details on the June 13 meeting in Luxembourg between U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan and high-ranking Chinese Communist Party (CCP) official Yang Jiechi. Team Biden would not say much more than that Sullivan and Yang engaged in…
https://www.worldtribune.com/how-is-biden-making-xi-jinping-smile-lets-count-the-ways/
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