Edited by Michael Hernandez
(Editor’s Note: this is part of a weekly compendium of recent significant events, culled from world news and curated by Michael Hernandez.)
40% of Hispanics and 21% of Black voters support GOP
JOHN NOLTE (Oct 27) Breitbart News “Now 40% of Hispanics and 21% of Blacks are backing the Republican” party, reports USA Today.
“The issue of inflation – and the feeling that the White House hasn’t done enough to address it – is helping Republicans score significant inroads among Hispanic and Black voters, both demographic groups that Democrats have long relied on for support,” USA Today adds.
For context, back in 2020, former President Trump earned 12 percent of the black vote and 32 percent of the Hispanic vote.
Jan. 6 Committee issues Trump subpoena seeking testimony
Timothy Nerozzi (Oct. 21) Fox News
The House Select Committee on Jan. 6 issued a subpoena Friday to former President Trump in relation to the 2020 riots at the Capitol. Trump is requested to appear for a deposition on Nov. 14 at 10 a.m., either in the U.S. Capitol or via video conference, and provide records regarding his actions on day when rioters stormed the Capitol building on Jan. 6, 2021.
The committee did not ask Trump to appear for an open hearing. The subpoena requests documents and communications between Trump and aides, staff and colleagues from Signal, an encrypted messaging app. The committee agreed to the subpoena for testimony from Trump during its business meeting last week.
Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., offered the subpoena motion after members made a presentation of Trump’s role in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol by Trump supporters. The committee’s vote was unanimous. “We must seek the testimony under oath of January 6th’s key player,” Cheney said of the motion to compel testimony from Trump.
Trump published a letter Friday ripping the House Select Committee on Jan. 6 for failing to investigate what he considers basic questions surrounding the riot. At no point in his memo did Trump clarify if he would honor the subpoena or ignore it. Trump has not only rejected overtures to testify before the panel but he has called on allies and former staff to do likewise.
Crazy Liz Cheney says January 6 Committee will not allow Trump testimony to be televised – says he will testify before her under oath
Jim Hoft (Oct. 23) Gateway Pundit Commentary
Liz Cheney’s political career will soon be over. We will never again be subjected to this evil, soulless woman. But before she goes; Liz is itching to get Donald Trump to sit before her sham committee. The same committee that would not allow any legitimate Republicans to join out of fear they would expose all of the violent FBI and government operatives and call on Pelosi to explain why she refused the National Guard but set up a special camera crew to trail her that day. Bitter Liz Cheney told leftist reporters on Sunday that she would not consider President Trump’s testimony to be aired live on television. The fraud will not be aired live to the American public. Cheney wants to put President Trump under oath.
AOL reported: Raising the stakes on its extraordinary subpoena to Donald Trump, the House committee investigating the Capitol riot indicated Sunday it would not consider letting the former president testify live on television about the direct role that congressional investigators say he played in trying to overturn the 2020 election.
The committee is demanding Trump’s testimony under oath next month as well as records relevant to its investigation. To avoid a complicated and protracted legal battle, Trump reportedly had told associates he might consider complying with the subpoena if he could answer questions during live testimony.
But Rep. Liz Cheney, the committee’s vice chair, on Sunday rejected the possibility. She said the committee, which makes its major decisions with unanimous consent, would not allow Trump’s testimony to turn into a “food fight” on TV and she warned that the committee will take action if he does not comply with the subpoena. “We are going to proceed in terms of the questioning of the former president under oath,” Cheney, R-Wyo., said on “Meet the Press” on NBC. “It may take multiple days, and it will be done with a level of rigor and discipline and seriousness that it deserves. We are not going to allow — he’s not going to turn this into a circus.”
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2022/10/crazy-liz-cheney-says-january-6-committee-will-not-allow-trump-testimony-televised-says-will-testify-oath/
Nolte: RealClearPolitics projects GOP wins in MI, WI, OR, NV governor races
JOHN NOLTE (Oct 21) Breitbart News
Based on recent polling, RealClearPolitics (RCP) projects Republicans will win the hotly contested gubernatorial races in four states that were once seen as Democrat strongholds: Wisconsin, Oregon, Nevada, and, yes, Michigan.
One wonders how the latest polling out of Minnesota — polling that shows Republican Dr. Scott Jensen leading his Democrat opponent Tim Walz, 46.3 to 45.8 percent — will affect that RealClear projection. Jensen appears to be surging in Minnesota, where Walz, the incumbent governor, did nothing in 2020 as the domestic terrorists in Antifa and Black Lives Matter burned down his cities and terrified his residents. The Minnesota poll comes from Trafalgar, the most accurate pollster in America. Momentum matters most when we are less than three weeks from Election Day. So, too, does the fact the incumbent is underwater. If you look at all the Minnesota polls, Walz has only hit 50 twice. In part, RealClear is basing its projections with an eye on how poorly most pollsters underestimated GOP turnout in the last few election cycles.
In Nevada, in the RCP poll of polls, Republican Joe Lombardo beats Democrat Steve Sisolak 46.6 to 44.8 percent. That’s a nearly two-point advantage. Because polling in Nevada has been pretty accurate, no major adjustments are necessary to call this one.
The RCP poll of polls shows the Wisconsin governor’s race a tie. But polling out of Wisconsin has underestimated GOP turnout by a whopping 5.2 points, so RCP projects Republican Tim Michaels is beating incumbent Democrat Tony Evers by 5.2 points. Dairy Staters have not forgotten how Evers stood by and did nothing as the terrorists in Black Lives Matter and Antifa burned Kenosha to the ground.
Oregon is an easy projection. Republican Christine Drazen has led in every poll against Democrat Tina Kotek and independent Betsy Johnson. Currently, the RCP poll of polls has Drazen up 2.8 points.
RCP’s most fascinating projection comes from Michigan, where the Democrat incumbent — Gretchen Whitmer — was cruising to an easy reelection. But Republican Tudor Dixon has run a superb campaign, clearly won the debate earlier this month, and is surging. In the RCP poll of polls, Whitmer enjoyed a double-digit lead just a few weeks ago. Since the debate, Tudor has climbed within an average of three points. Because polling in Michigan has underestimated GOP turnout by 5.7 points, RCP projects Dixon will defeat Whitmer by 2.7 points. Keep in mind that these numbers can and will change as more polling comes in. But when you look at how the GOP is surging across the country and how Democrats and their media allies are sweating bullets, everything points to the political climate only improving for Republicans.
Democrats have nothing to run on other than killing babies. Republicans are crushing Democrats on all the issues that matter: the economy, the border, and crime. There is also the underlying issue of how Democrats are grooming children through transsexual propaganda. The Democrat party is flooding schools with gay porn, exposing small children to sexually explicit drag queens, and encouraging children to mutilate themselves with irreversible sex change operations and puberty blockers.
On top of targeting children, Democrats have done an awful job governing their states and the country. The American people are ready to let their thoughts on these failures — as well as anti-science school closures and masking — be known. There’s a reckoning coming.
GOP Sens.: COVID-19 ‘most likely’ leaked from Wuhan lab
By Solange Reyner (Oct. 27) NewsMax
The novel coronavirus “most likely” leaked from a lab in Wuhan, China, according to a bombshell report published Thursday by Republicans on the Senate, Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, though the lawmakers underscore the findings lack indisputable evidence.
The report also concluded that China’s unwillingness to cooperate with an investigation into the Wuhan Institute of Virology, the lab in question, means Beijing “no longer deserves the benefit of the doubt. Based on the analysis of the publicly available information, it appears reasonable to conclude that the COVID-19 pandemic was, more likely than not, the result of a research-related incident,” they wrote.
“Nearly three years after the COVID-19 pandemic began, critical evidence that would prove that the emergence of SARS-CoV-2 and resulting COVID-19 pandemic was caused by a natural zoonotic spillover is missing,” they added. Lack of transparency from China, “prevents reaching a more definitive conclusion,” the senators said. “The hypothesis of a natural zoonotic origin no longer deserves the benefit of the doubt, or the presumption of accuracy.”
More than 6.6 million people have died worldwide from COVID-19.
Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., the panel’s ranking member who released the report, said it was critical the U.S. “continue international efforts to uncover additional information regarding the origins of this deadly virus.”
China on Thursday locked down part of Wuhan in a scramble to halt widening COVID-19 outbreaks.
https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/gop-covid-senators/2022/10/27/id/1093764/
BIDEN ECONOMY: U.S. has only 25 days of diesel supply – shortage could cripple economy
By Joe Hoft (Oct. 23) Gateway Pundit
PJ Media shared the news over the weekend. The fuel that is used to transport U.S. goods across the country is in a crisis situation: Oil prices and President Joe Biden’s continued draining of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) have dominated the headlines over the past few weeks, but analysts say a more impactful and serious crisis on the energy front looms: a diesel fuel shortage.
Diesel doesn’t get as much of the limelight as oil and gas, but it should because diesel fuel is the industrial lifeblood of the United States and the price of diesel alone probably has a more significant impact on inflation and the prices you’re paying at the grocery store over any other factor. Without ample amounts of diesel, semi-trucks don’t move, farms are shut down, and critical manufacturing sectors are crippled.
As Bloomberg noted this week, “The US has just 25 days of diesel supply, the lowest since 2008, according to the Energy Information Administration. At the same time, the four-week rolling average of distillates supplied, a proxy for demand, rose to its highest seasonal level since 2007.” The Biden administration has remained strangely silent, probably hoping that the dismal news doesn’t hit the mainstream because it’s a total political timebomb waiting to go off, especially as the midterm elections are so close.
Bloomberg noted: The diesel crunch comes just weeks ahead of the midterm elections and has the potential to drive up prices for consumers who already view inflation and the economy as a top voting issue. Retail prices have been steadily climbing for more than two weeks. At $5.324 a gallon, they’re 50% higher than this time last year, according to AAA data.
Notably, National Economic Council Director Brian Deese recently commented on the emerging crisis. Deese said diesel inventories are “unacceptably low” and added that “all options are on the table,” whatever that means. The American trucking industry is very important to this country and truckers rely on diesel to run their trucks.
According to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA), diesel fuel is used to transport goods and run military vehicles and tractors of farms: “Most of the products we use are transported by trucks and trains with diesel engines, and most construction, farming, and military vehicles and equipment also have diesel engines. As a transportation fuel, diesel fuel offers a wide range of performance, efficiency, and safety features. Diesel fuel also has a greater energy density than other liquid fuels, so it provides more useful energy per unit of volume.”
In 2021, distillate fuel consumption by the U.S. transportation sector, which is essentially diesel fuel, was about 46.82 billion gallons (1.11 billion barrels), an average of about 128 million gallons per day. This amount accounted for about 77% of total U.S. distillate consumption, about 15% of total U.S. petroleum consumption, and on an energy content basis, about 25% of total energy consumption by the U.S. transportation sector. Diesel engines in trucks, trains, boats, and barges help transport nearly all products people consume. Diesel fuel is commonly used in public buses and school buses.
Diesel fuel powers most of the farm and construction equipment in the United States. The construction industry also depends on the power diesel fuel provides. Diesel engines can do demanding construction work, such as lifting steel beams, digging foundations and trenches, drilling wells, paving roads, and moving soil safely and efficiently. The U.S. military uses diesel fuel in tanks and trucks because diesel fuel is less flammable and less explosive than other fuels. Diesel engines are also less likely to stall than gasoline-fueled engines.
Diesel fuel is also used in diesel engine generators to generate electricity. Many industrial facilities, large buildings, institutional facilities, hospitals, and electric utilities have diesel generators for backup and emergency power supply. Most remote villages in Alaska use diesel generators as the primary source of electricity.
The Biden administration, with its holdovers from the Clinton and Obama administrations, has put the American economy in a dangerous position. The anti-energy policies they push help regimes in the Middle East, Russia and Venezuela. President Trump had America energy independent in less than four years. Biden is now begging for oil from these America-hating radical regimes.
Democrats out of gas on crime
By Deroy Murdock (Oct. 21) NewsMax Opinion
Democrats have no solutions to today’s crime surge. Here’s how they shrug off the mayhem.
First: Deep denial. Through Sept. 27, New Orleans suffered 208 homicides, up 44% versus that period in 2021 and 141% in 2019. The Crescent City has become America’s Murder Capital. “I do not embrace that at all,” said Democratic Mayor La Toya Cantrell. “It isn’t based on what’s happening on the ground.” She later said that “our city is safer than it’s been in a long time.” Crime books can be cooked: Curbing arrests can “erase” lawlessness by leaving it unrecorded. But there’s no faking a cadaver. Regardless, Cantrell scoffs at humiliating police data.
Second: Sing a song.
Chicago’s crime numbers are hellacious: Year-to-date versus 2021, burglary is up 22%, theft ahead 61%, and car theft 79% higher. Overall, crime has climbed 38%. Amid all this, Democratic Mayor Lori Lighfoot promoted a karaoke contest via a grating, vertical Tik Tok video in which she sports sunglasses, strides up to a microphone, and sings Robert Johnson’s “Sweet Home Chicago.” The only excuse for Lightfoot’s lightweight response to Windy City chaos: Her dismal musical performance would neutralize criminals. If this works, I will say it first: Lightfoot for President!
Third: Roll out the bromides.
Long Island’s Joel Murphy and Elijah Robinson, 17, were wounded in a drive-by shooting about 2:20 p.m. on Oct. 9, in suburban Shirley, New York. One hid beneath the front porch of Congressman Lee Zeldin, New York’s Republican gubernatorial nominee. Another sheltered behind a bush. A bullet lodged just 30 feet from where Zeldin’s twin daughters, 16, did homework at their kitchen table. “I’m so pleased no one was injured,” said Crime-spree Kathy Hochul, New York’s hapless Democratic governor. “It’s a reminder we all have to work together to get guns off the streets.” Hochul’s words are as predictable as low tide.
Yes, pistol-packing perps should suffer severe sentences. But 100% gun control would not have stopped David Jakubonis who, last July 21, confronted Zeldin on the hustings, shoved a sharp keychain weapon beside the candidate’s neck, and said: “You’re done.” Jakubonis was armed and threatened a congressman. Regardless, he was free the next day before being arrested on federal charges.
Vincent Buccino savored pizza outside a Hell’s Kitchen eatery on Sept. 9. An unprovoked attacker smashed a chair over his head and broke his arm. The unidentified criminal remains at large.
Michael Palacios terrorized a Manhattan McDonald’s on Sept. 16. After harassing patrons, he yanked an ax from his backpack, menaced diners, and chopped up a table, chairs, and glass wall. He, too, was arrested and swiftly sprung without bail. Palacios was arrested again on Oct. 11, for alleged graffiti and bicycle theft. Once more, Palacios was freed without bail.
Hochul’s hackneyed “Gun control!” slogan would have done bupkis to foil these and countless gun-free attacks. Had Hochul demanded keychain-weapon control, chair control, or ax control, one might respect her originality. Instead, Hochul spurns criminal control, which would address the evil that undergirds these cases.
The 20,000-member New York State Fraternal Order of Police understands this issue far better than most. That is why on Friday, it backed Zeldin’s bid for the Empire State’s top office. NYSFOP president Mike Essig said, “Our membership chose to endorse Congressman Lee Zeldin and Alison Esposito in their candidacy for Governor and Lieutenant Governor due to their call for order and public safety as crime surges across the state.”
Fourth: “Racism!”
Democrats shout, “Racism!” as often as people exhale. They did precisely this when People Who Play by the Rules PAC’s devastating political ad showed doorbell-camera images of three thugs tackling an innocent woman and beating her on a sunny sidewalk in Chicago’s leafy Lakeview district. She screams for help for 20 agonizing seconds. After a smiling photo appears of Mayor Lightfoot and Governor J.B. Pritzker, D-Ill., a graphic quietly asks: “Lightfoot. Pritzker. How much worse does it have to get?”
The anti-cash-bail Pritzker — who, like Lightfoot, faces re-election — decried the ad’s “racial tinge” because it shows “apparently black” muggers. But this is Pritzker’s racist assumption. The armed robbers’ hoodies obscure the races of their concealed faces.
Democrats are out of gas on crime. On Nov. 8, voters should hire Republicans to rescue them from the dangerous neighborhood in which the empty-tank Democrats have abandoned them.
Aaron Cichon contributed research to this opinion piece.
https://www.newsmax.com/murdock/chicago-hochul-lightfoot/2022/10/21/id/1092900/
Elon Musk takes cver Twitter, fires CEO Parag Agrawal and ‘trust and safety’ censorship queen Vijaya Gadde
LUCAS NOLAN (Oct 28) Breitbart News
Elon Musk officially became Twitter’s owner late on Thursday as his $44 billion deal to take over the firm closed. Musk promptly fired top executives at the company, including CEO Parag Agrawal, CEO Ned Segal, and Vijaya Gadde, the “trust and safety” lead notorious for her fanatical left-wing censorship campaign.
The Washington Post reports that on Thursday, Elon Musk arrived at Twitter offices to officially confirm his company takeover after the $44 billion purchase deal closed. Musk had previously stated plans to cut Twitter’s staff of approximately 7,500 employees to just over 2,000.
Musk appeared to decide to start at the top of the company and promptly fired top executives including CEO Parag Agrawal, CFO Ned Segal, and Vijaya Gadde, head of legal policy, trust, and safety. The company’s general counsel, Sean Edgett, was also let ago according to sources and all were promptly escorted out of the company’s offices in San Francisco.
This would appear to confirm Musk’s previous claims that he planned to take Twitter in an entirely new direction and was unhappy with current management, which Musk has publicly criticized on multiple occasions. Musk has taken issue with the former executives’ decisions relating to content moderation and product direction, as well as criticizing moves such as the banning of former President Donald Trump.
However, Musk clarified on Twitter on Thursday: “Twitter obviously cannot become a free-for-all hellscape, where anything can be said with no consequences!”
This would appear to mean that Musk’s Twitter will have some form of code of conduct or acceptable behavior that will differ from the current one implemented across the platform. Musk later tweeted “the bird is freed.”
Musk plans to hold a companywide town hall today. It is also expected that Twitter will become private today and will dissolve its current board of directors and end public trading of its stock.
Musk is now head of one of the most powerful communication platforms in the world just days before a major election in the United States. Many will be watching closely to see how Musk handles the coming challenges that an election may cause in the midst of the corporate transition, already a chaotic event.
Read more at the Washington Post here.
Alito: Draft decision leak put justices’ lives at risk
By Theodore Bunker (Oct. 26) NewsMax
Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito said this week that the leaking of a draft decision to overturn Roe v. Wade put the lives of him and his fellow justices at risk. “It was a grave betrayal of trust by somebody,” Alito said at a public interview with the Heritage Foundation on Tuesday, according to The New York Times. “It was a shock, because nothing like that had happened in the past. It certainly changed the atmosphere at the court for the remainder of last term.” He went on to say, “The leak also made those of us who were thought to be in the majority in support of overruling Roe and Casey targets for assassination because it gave people a rational reason to think they could prevent that from happening by killing one of us.”
Alito also hit out at those who question the court’s legitimacy following the decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. “Everybody in this country is free to disagree with our decisions,” he said. “Everybody is free to criticize our reasoning, and in strong terms. And that certainly is done in the media, in writings of law professors and on social media.” “But to say the court is exhibiting lack of integrity is something quite different,” he added. “That goes to character.”
Alito said: “Someone also crosses an important line when they say that the court is acting in a way that is illegitimate. I don’t think that anybody in a position of authority should make that claim lightly. That is not just ordinary criticism. That is something very different.”
https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/samuel-alito-supreme-court-leak/2022/10/26/id/1093489/
Nolte: ‘Fetterman Is fine’ exposed as one more media hoax
JOHN NOLTE (Oct 26) Breitbart News Commentary
Tuesday night’s disastrous and heartbreaking Pennsylvania U.S. Senate debate has exposed the corporate media’s “Fetterman is fine” talking point as a hoax.
This poor man, whom no one loves enough to protect his dignity, had a devastating stroke in May, just days before he won the Democrat primary. Rather than find a well-known Democrat to take Fetterman’s place with a write-in campaign for the general election, four moral obscenities followed… Rather than get Fetterman the rest and intense rehabilitation he so desperately needs…
- The Democrat party chose to risk the long-term prospects of Fetterman’s recovery and put him on a grueling and stressful campaign trail.
- Fetterman’s campaign chose to risk his health by putting him on the campaign trail.
- Fetterman’s mercenary wife, Gisele, chose power, wealth, and fame over protecting her husband’s health and dignity.
- The media launched the “Fetterman is fine” hoax to mislead Pennsylvania voters into believing a man who is in no condition to hold any job, much less a U.S. Senate seat, is healthy enough.
In a previous piece, I’ve already addressed one through three… Now it’s time to talk about number four, about the godforsaken liars in the corporate media.
Some five months after what was obviously a devastating stroke that this poor man may never fully recover from, we all saw what happened at last night’s debate. We all saw the truth, that even with Fetterman using the crutch of closed captioning he’s in very tough shape. His scrambled brain cannot compute what he hears. He has to read it, and even then — as we all saw — he still struggles in a way that can only elicit pity for us bystanders and shame for all those — most especially his wife — who allowed last night to happen. And yet, through it all, for all of these months, the godforsaken liars in the corporate media lied and lied and lied to us with the “Fetterman is fine” hoax.
With last night’s heartbreaking debate still fresh in your mind, look at this…
When Mehmet Oz, the Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania, was trailing his opponent in polls and fundraising a few weeks ago, he resorted to a desperate tactic to get the upper hand in an ever-tightening race: leveraging ableism against a person with disabilities.
Disability advocates are accusing NBC News of ableism following an interview with Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, the Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate, which they say was overly concerned with the live transcription he required during the sit-down due to his auditory processing issues.
John Fetterman’s accommodation request revealed the bias we still have against disabled people. In his willingness to be public about his recovery, Fetterman proves he can do the job. He forces us to examine our own beliefs and biases about people with disabilities.
In his first media interview since having a stroke two months ago, Democratic Senate nominee John Fetterman of Pennsylvania said Wednesday he is “100% able to run fully and to win” against Republican Mehmet Oz in November.
Fetterman said he walks several miles every day and did not lose any memory as a result of the stroke. In the 20-minute interview with the newspaper, Fetterman used closed-captioning to ensure he did not miss any words, a campaign spokesperson told the Post-Gazette.
CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta claimed Wednesday that Democratic Lt. Gov. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania was “fairly fluent” while speaking.
“When we talk about speech, we typically talk about your ability to express yourself through spoken and written word, but also to receive speech, reception of speech, through spoken and written word,” Gupta told CNN Newsroom guest host Bianna Golodryga. “Listening to him, he sounded like he was fairly fluent in his speech, able to speak pretty clearly. Every now and then he would have a little word sort of mash up, as he calls it.”
How about this, this, and this? The only journalist — a word I rarely use without scare quotes — who went out to not only get the truth but to report the truth was NBC’s Dasha Burns. She spent time with, spoke with, and interviewed Fetterman earlier this month and then had the moral courage to inform the public about the experience. And what did she get in return from her media colleagues, from so-called “journalists”? Hate. Naked, irrational, utterly dishonest hate. And it took two days — two days! — for her own network to defend her.
So we can now add the “Fetterman is Fine” hoax to the long list of corporate media hoaxes…
- Russia Collusion Hoax
- Hands Up, Don’t Shoot Hoax
- Jussie Smollett Hoax
- Covington KKKids Hoax
- Very Fine People Hoax
- Seven-Hour Gap Hoax
- Global Warming Hoax
- Russian Bounties Hoax
- Trump Trashes Troops Hoax
- Policemen Killed at Mostly-Peaceful January 6 Protest Hoax
- Rittenhouse Hoax
- Eating While Black Hoax
- Border Agents Whipping Illegals Hoax
- NASCAR Noose Hoax
And on and on…All these people do is lie.
https://www.breitbart.com/the-media/2022/10/26/nolte-fetterman-fine-exposed-one-more-media-hoax/
San Jose gun owners to be fined up to $1,000 for breaking new firearm law
By GABRIEL GRESCHLER (Oct. 18/19) The Mercury News
“A $1,000 fine for simply exercising your God-given right to keep and bear arms unless you bow down, buy insurance, and kiss their ring is simply atrocious,” said one opponent about the city’s new rules
San Jose’s new gun control law just got a bit stricter. Gun owners in the nation’s 10th largest city who disobey a requirement to carry liability insurance and pay a yearly fee will have to fork over up to $1,000 in fines as part of San Jose’s unique and controversial push to combat gun violence — a novel legislative approach that has triggered a challenge in federal court and has 2nd Amendment supporters up in arms.
The insurance and fee requirements — first approved by council members in January — make San Jose the first city in America to impose such rules against gun owners. Proponents of the new mandate, championed by Mayor Sam Liccardo since 2019, argue that it will motivate safer gun handling and help counter the public cost of gun violence, which health officials found in a May report amounts to $72 million a year for Santa Clara County. But opponents, who filed a lawsuit against the requirements moments after the council passed them in January, argue that the rules are unconstitutional, burdensome and that the city hasn’t proven they will prevent gun violence. Plaintiffs in the ongoing lawsuit are the Colorado-based National Association for Gun Rights, the state’s Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association and San Jose resident Mark Sikes. The new fines approved Tuesday by the San Jose City Council brought a scathing response from the gun rights association.
“San Jose is hell-bent on disarming law-abiding gun owners anyway possible, at least as far as they can get away with in the courts,” wrote NAGR’s Policy Director Hannah Hill. “And a $1,000 fine for simply exercising your God-given right to keep and bear arms unless you bow down, buy insurance, and kiss their ring is simply atrocious.” She added, “That’s why we’re suing to overturn this unconstitutional ordinance, and we look forward to rescuing law-abiding San Jose gun owners from these greedy, anti-gun council members.”
The penalties passed on Tuesday escalate for each offense. A gun owner’s first and second violation will cost them $250 and $500, respectively. A $1,000 fine will be levied against a third and any future infraction. The city’s police department will be in charge of enforcing the fines. “City staff is moving forward with regulations needed to implement this first-in the-nation law to reduce gun deaths and injuries with a careful, balanced approach,” the mayor wrote in a statement. “I look forward to seeing this up and running next year.”
The mayor has been formulating the new gun rules ever since the mass shooting at the now-defunct Gilroy Garlic Festival in 2019 — and pressure further mounted after a gunman massacred his fellow colleagues at a Valley Transportation Authority rail yard last year.
January’s Gun Harm Reduction Ordinance, which sparked national headlines amid rising concerns about gun violence across the country, requires firearm owners in the city to purchase a gun, homeowner’s or renter’s liability insurance policy which covers any damages as a result of negligent or accidental use.
The ordinance also mandates that gun owners pay a $25 fee every year to a nonprofit that will distribute funds to mental health and suicide prevention services for those who own a firearm or live with someone who does. The nonprofit is being set up by local health officials and academics will provide a bi-annual report on its work.
Researchers estimate that San Jose has between 50,000 and 55,000 gun owners, which would garner the nonprofit over $1 million a year. Though the fines on Tuesday were approved by councilmembers unanimously on consent, January’s law was opposed by Councilmember Dev Davis. Councilmembers Pam Foley and Matt Mahan, a candidate for mayor running against County Supervisor Cindy Chavez, opposed the nonprofit fees.
The city is trying to work with the state to send letters in the mail to gun owners with instructions — and will be required to keep paperwork proving their compliance with the new rules with the firearm at all times. Some are exempt from the ordinance, including sworn, active or retired police officers, concealed carry licensees and low-income residents.
LA judge grants Gascon recall committee’s request for expedited hearing to review thousands of signatures declared invalid back in August
By Jim Hoft (Oct. 25) The Gateway Pundit
Radical Marxist Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón dodged recall efforts after Los Angeles County banned observers from monitoring the recall vote count. TGP’s Cristina Laila reported that observers were not allowed to monitor the vote counting in the effort to recall George Gascón. The Gascón recall petition was approved in January after the residents of Los Angeles had enough of the Soros DA’s lethal soft-on-crime policies.
But there was a catch…The Los Angeles County Registrar of Voters said observers are only allowed in standard elections and the recall does not qualify. In August, the Los Angeles County registrar announced that the recall efforts failed because not enough *valid* signatures were collected. It looked like 27% of the ballots had invalid signatures – and several voters received multiple ballots.
On Monday, the ex parte application for an expedited hearing by the Recall DA George Gascon Committee was approved by Judge James C. Chalfant of the Superior Court of Los Angeles County. The county Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk will be compelled to let them review the thousands of signatures that were deemed invalid back in August.
Click Here to Read the Full Complaint
During today’s hearing, the Court stated it was inclined to grant a substantial number of the Recall Committee’s requests outlined in its application, including the disclosure of electronic versions of voter records, and that training materials relating to the Registrar’s voter database may also need to be disclosed. The Court also stated the time, place, and manner restrictions placed by the Registrar on the review are unduly restrictive, and expanded access appeared to be warranted. The Court ordered the parties to meet and confer to attempt to reduce the issues to be litigated at the next hearing.
“This initial decision is a win for transparency and a win for Los Angeles voters. The Registrar’s counting process was seriously flawed, and the restrictions on the review prevent the Recall Committee from being able to demonstrate just how pervasive those errors were. We are grateful to Judge Chalfant for understanding the urgency of this matter, especially as the citizens of Los Angeles continue to have their safety put at risk by George Gascon’s reckless policies.” – The Recall DA George Gascon Committee
Last week, the Recall Committee announced preliminary findings from the initial review of invalidated signatures and other potential issues that may have affected the results, such as bloated voter rolls:
“The initial review of invalidated signatures demonstrates the Registrar’s counting process was seriously flawed, resulting in substantial errors, the wrongful invalidation of many valid signatures, and the disenfranchisement of thousands of Los Angeles County Voters. These extremely disturbing findings necessitate a complete and timely review of all invalidated signatures. This review is currently being obstructed by the Registrar’s office. The Recall DA George Gascon Committee has filed for injunctive relief and is also exploring other significant issues, such as the inaccurate and inflated number of signatures required to qualify the recall due to bloated voter rolls.” – The Recall DA George Gascon Committee
Since September 6, 2022, volunteer attorneys for the Recall DA George Gascon Committee have been conducting a review of invalidated signatures. Clear, obvious, and legitimate challenges have been identified for 39% of the invalidated signatures reviewed to date. Examples of improper invalidation and disenfranchisement include:
- Signatures incorrectly invalidated as “printed” even when the voter’s signature on file was itself printed.
- Signatures incorrectly invalidated as “non-matching” despite showing substantial similarities to the signatures on file. In addition, many of the decisions to invalidate for this reason appear not to have been signed off on by multiple reviewers, as required by law.
- Signatures incorrectly invalidated as “not registered” when in fact, the person was a registered voter who could easily be identified in the voter database.
- Signatures incorrectly invalidated as “duplicates” without the Registrar counting at least one of the alleged duplicates as required by law. Some of these invalidations are particularly troubling because it required a deliberate act by an examiner to go back into the system and modify a previously validated signature, changing it from “Valid” to “Max # of Times Signed”. The committee has also observed many incomplete entries that were crossed out by the petition signer due to error, and then filled in correctly in the next entry below, only to have examiners wrongfully reject both as duplicates.
- Signatures incorrectly invalidated as “different address” because the voters entered their “residence address” as directed by the Petition, and according to the form and wording required by the Registrar, instead of their “addresses registered.” There is also substantial concern that the Registrar may have failed to properly notify voters of involuntary changes to their registered address, potentially leading to signatures being improperly invalidated.
Recall Committee to file for injunctive relief against Registrar of Voters imminently:
- The Registrar has placed arbitrary and capricious limitations on the review process that substantially limit review hours, workstations, number of reviewers, access to information necessary to determine the legitimacy of a signature invalidation, and more.
- Under the current restrictions imposed by the Registrar, it will take more than a year to review the invalidated signatures.
- The Recall DA George Gascon Committee is preparing to file for injunctive relief (as early as next week) to seek the expanded access and additional information necessary to conduct a meaningful review.
- Given the troubling findings from the initial review of invalidated signatures, it is imperative that a complete and timely review of all invalidated signatures be permitted to take place.
- For additional information on the current limitations put in place by the Registrar, and the expanded access requested by attorneys representing the Recall DA George Gascon Committee, please refer to this lettersent to Dean Logan on September 21, 2022.
Inaccurate and inflated number of required signatures for qualification of the recall due to bloated voter rolls:
- According to estimates from independent and non-partisan data analysts, Los Angeles County active voter rolls were artificially inflated by at least 208,000, and as much as 515,000, when the number of signatures required for qualification of the recall was originally set. Those estimates do not account for those who died out of state but are still registered in LA County.
- This problem has been persistent. In 2019, LA County was sued and agreed to remove5 million inactive voters from its voter rolls because LA County had failed to maintain and clean up its voter rolls for years, and had more voters on its voter rolls than actual citizens. Federal law requires such removal. The Registrar also agreed to ensure the accuracy of its active voter rolls moving forward.
- Unlike the qualification thresholds for other recalls (which are typically based on a percentage of voter turnout from previous elections) LA County requires signatures from 10% of ALL Los Angeles County registered voters on its active voter rolls. Thus, the failure to maintain accurate voter rolls creates an inherently inaccurate and inflated signature requirement to qualify.
- The original requirement of 566,857 signatures to qualify (based on bloated voter rolls showing 5,668,569 active voters at the time) should have been set anywhere from 515,357 to 546,357.
- This issue alone could substantially affect the outcome of the recall given that the Registrar has already identified what it deems to be 520,050 valid signatures. This does not even account for the signatures that were clearly wrongfully invalidated.
Archbishop Chaput: Joe Biden ‘not in communion with the Catholic faith’
THOMAS D. WILLIAMS, PH.D. (Oct. 23) Breitbart News
ROME — The formidable former archbishop of Philadelphia, Charles Chaput, said Saturday that President Joe Biden is not in communion with the Catholic Church, warning that any priest who gives him Holy Communion “participates in his hypocrisy.” Speaking at a Eucharistic symposium in the diocese of Arlington on October 22, Archbishop Chaput said that “Biden’s apostasy on the abortion issue” is the most “repugnant example” of cultural assimilation of Catholics into secular America, while insisting that this sort of apostasy should prompt significant public consequences.
“When you freely break communion with the Church of Jesus Christ and her teachings, you can’t pretend to be in communion when it’s convenient,” Chaput stated. “That’s a form of lying,” he said. “Mr. Biden is not in communion with the Catholic faith. And any priest who now provides Communion to the president participates in his hypocrisy.”
In the past, Mr. Biden said he was personally opposed to abortion and opposed using taxpayer dollars to fund it, but he now fully supports abortion-on-demand and has made abortion rights a hallmark of his presidency. Biden has urged Congress to pass legislation codifying a right to abortion, promising to sign it next January, the 50th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade ruling, which was struck down by the Supreme Court last June.
In his address Saturday, Archbishop Chaput said that American Catholics have struggled for 200 years to fit into mainstream American culture. “We succeeded,” he said, “but in the process, we’ve been digested and bleached out by the culture, rather than leavening it in a fertile way with a distinctive Catholic witness.”
Joe Biden’s vocal support for abortion is the most egregious example, the archbishop said, but he’s “not alone.” “We’ve forgotten who we are as a believing people,” Chaput said. “This is both a cause and a symptom of today’s lukewarm Catholic spirit, in our nation’s culture and within the Church herself. But that can change, and it needs to change, starting with each of us here.”
In 2020, Chaput said Biden’s support for abortion rights meant that he “should stop defining himself as a devout Catholic” and “should not receive Holy Communion.” “Public figures who identify as ‘Catholic’ give scandal to the faithful when receiving Communion by creating the impression that the moral laws of the Church are optional,” Chaput wrote at the time. “And bishops give similar scandal by not speaking up publicly about the issue and danger of sacrilege.”
Pro-life group demands gov’t investigate covert network trafficking abortion pills into the US
By Samantha Kamman, (Oct. 26) Christian Post
A pro-life group is calling on Congress and drug enforcement agencies to take action amid reports that organizations in Mexico are funneling abortion pills into states that have banned their use. Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life Action, the activist division of the pro-life group Students for Life of America, has demanded in a letter to members of Congress that they address the issue following a “shocking new report” about a “drug cartel at the Mexican border” that is shipping abortion-inducing pills into the U.S.
The group wants Congress to instruct the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and the Federal Bureau of Investigation to investigate drug crimes involving abortion pills. The SFLA president called on Congress to require the Food and Drug Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency to conduct a new impact study on chemical abortions, given the widespread and sometimes illegal use of the pills.
As The Washington Post reported last week, several covert networks are running a pipeline through Mexico to deliver abortion pills to women in states that have banned abortion after the overturning of Roe v. Wade in June. The abortion pill suppliers are funded anonymously, reportedly securing the drug for $1.50 a dose from international pharmacies or free via donations. An unnamed group in the U.S. then receives the pills through the mail and sends them to pregnant women seeking to abort their babies.
Las Libres, one of the many Mexican groups involved in the illegal scheme, told The Washington Post that its organization alone is “on track to help terminate approximately 20,000 pregnancies this year in the United States. That amounts to about 20 percent of all legal abortions that took place in 2019 in the 13 states where abortion is now almost entirely banned,” The Washington Post reported.
Sandra Cardona Alanís, the leader and co-founder of Red Necesito Abortar, another Mexico-based group supplying abortion pills, said that once her group gets the pills to the U.S., “they can distribute them across the whole country. As deadly as the two-pill regiment that the FDA allows can be, the chemical abortion pills sold at the border can carry an even greater risk as some will sell only one pill, saving them money but raising the risks,” Hawkins wrote in SFLA’s letter to lawmakers.
“One need only look at other drug cartel efforts to understand the tremendous risk to women who may not be taking the drugs they think they ordered and may not survive the experience, not to mention the impact on the preborn.”
Hawkins stressed that the safety risks and the strain chemical abortions place on the U.S. healthcare system warrant a congressional response. She also cited the need for an investigation into possible environmental concerns due to the improper disposal of aborted human remains, linking to a column she wrote for The Washington Times in 2020.
As Carole Novielli reported for the pro-life group Live Action in May, women who undergo chemical abortions typically take the pills at home and dispose of their babies’ remains themselves. The pro-life researcher noted that this likely saves abortion facilities money they would have spent hiring a waste disposal company to remove the remains.
According to a 2015 study titled “Incidence of Emergency Room Department Visits and Complications After Abortion,” chemical abortions have a higher complication rate than surgical ones. The study analyzed data from 2009 and 2010 to assess the abortion complication rate for California women who had abortions through Medicaid and women who were treated at the emergency room instead of the clinic.
Researchers found that the complication rate was 5.2% for women who took the abortion pill compared to 1.3% for women who had a first-trimester surgical abortion. The major complication rate for the abortion pill was 0.31% in contrast to 0.16% for first-trimester surgical abortions.
Our Hope
Ex-Satanist who hated Christians has life turned around
Billy Hallowell (Oct. 26) CBN News
A man who spent more than three decades embroiled in the occult is sharing his incredible story of leaving Satanism behind, finding freedom in Christ — and now spreading the Gospel to others. Brian Cole explained on the finale episode of “The Playing With Fire Podcast” that, as a little boy, he didn’t feel like he belonged anywhere. “I didn’t understand who I was in Christ,” he said. “I was 10 years old and I had an abusive father … I was bullied at school and my mom forced us to go to church.”
Cole said he was also emotionally abused at his church. Every dynamic in his life left him feeling alone and disconnected — until he met a group of older kids who took him in. “They were talking to me, they were paying attention to me,” he said. “They weren’t calling me names and beating me down.” Cole soon realized the kids he befriended were involved in Satanism — a belief system polar opposite from his family’s church experience. While he wasn’t drawn in by the theology, Cole said he “wanted to do whatever these kids were doing.”
So, before long, he was partaking. Listen to Cole share his decades-long experience in the occult as well as his healing: “One of the first rituals I was in, they were going to sacrifice a squirrel. I told them I would not do that,” he said, noting that he had always loved animals. “They said, ‘Well, [Satan] demands blood, so you’re going to have to cut yourself,’ so I did. And that ended up being an addiction for 33 years — the cutting and self-mutilation.”
As time progressed, Cole said the fear Satanism sparked — and the rebellion — further attracted him. At first, it wasn’t a theological connection; instead, it was more of a “dabbling.” He would trash Christian symbols in graveyards and smash nativities. “I was kind of the dabbling guy from 10 until I was 18 years old,” he said. “When I turned 18, I got arrested … I got a 10-year sentence and, when I went into prison, that’s when it went from dabbling to all-in [on Satanism].”
Cole said he started ordering books on the occult and ceremonial magic and spent the majority of his days reading and studying — and that’s not all. “I got a tattoo of a cross … on the bottom of my left foot so I could stomp on God whenever I walked,” he said. Over time, Cole said he started to get uncomfortable with the role Satan played in his life and the power evil yielded. In 1987, he shifted away from Satanism and toward other forms of the occult — but he often revisited his old ways and used Tarot Cards among other tools. “In the occult … I’d just sit down and allow myself to be possessed and just start writing stuff,” Cole said, noting that he even kept a dream journal.
The most intriguing element of his journey? Despite believing in Satan, he didn’t believe in God. “I didn’t believe Jesus existed,” he said. “I thought this Bible was another mythology book … One of my biggest religions was hating Christians.” But everything changed in 2009, when Cole, then age 44, was once again arrested. He realized his life of crime wasn’t working and that something desperately needed to change. “I had tried to commit suicide … I just didn’t want to live anymore,” he said.
Cole started to cautiously explore the Bible as he embarked on a quest to get off drugs and change his life. Despite his skepticism and scoffing, he read and explored. Then, one day, he came back to his room and found a book randomly laying on the floor of his jail cell: Lee Strobel’s “The Case for Christ,” a text that documents Strobel’s journey from atheism into faith. “When I got done with that book, I could no longer deny the fact that Jesus existed on this earth,” he said. “All my life I had sought truth.”
Cole found that truth transformed his life, and is now a pastor. “This has set me free in so many ways I can’t even explain it,” he said as he became visibly emotional. Listen to Cole’s entire story on the finale of “The Playing With Fire Podcast.”
(Michael Hernandez, co-founder of the Citizens Journal—Ventura County’s online news service is a former Southern California daily newspaper journalist and religion and news editor. Mr. Hernandez can be contacted at [email protected] and is editor of “America: The End and Our Hope”.)
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