GUBMINT FEDS 3
*4 23
MERRI OK
SEE DOGE COUP ONLY POSSIBLE BC OF DECADES OF THIS BS
SEE DEEP STATE BS [REBOOT 3 26 TRUMP ASSASS]
see grift hype anger fear
see conspiracy
see coastal elite
see They are coming for (control concept) agenda
see tyranny control concept alarmism gives govt control
see irs OVERREACH
climate lockdown morano ingraham}:
SEE WAR ON XIAN
SEE FREEDOM GOD TERM
SEE MASK VAXX LOCKDOWN
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1 26 PROLLY NEGLECTED BUT CAME UP 2X TODAY: ONE WAS DAVID FRENCH RULE OF LAW RENEE GOOD PRETTI SHOOT
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an 9 26 sean duffy
Trump official torn apart for claim he doesn’t trust government he works for
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AN 126
One prominent conservative writer is arguing that the White House's response to the fatal shooting of 37 year-old U.S. citizen Alex Pretti by federal agents in Minneapolis, Minnesota last weekend marks a turning point in how President Donald Trump's administration views its relationship with the law.
In a Monday conversation hosted the New York Times' Matthew Rose, conservative columnist David French – speaking alongside the Times' Lydia Polgreen and Michelle Goldberg — asserted that Pretti's death is merely the latest escalation from a president who has continued to push the legal envelope. French cautioned that Americans are collectively "witnessing the total breakdown of any meaningful system of accountability for federal officials."
"The combination of President Trump’s Jan. 6 pardons, his ongoing campaign of pardoning friends and allies, his politicized prosecutions and now his administration’s assurances that federal officers have immunity are creating a new legal reality in the United States," he wrote. "The national government is becoming functionally lawless, and the legal system is struggling to contain his corruption." ...
NUMBER 2
Absolutists At WallBuilders Suddenly Find An Exception After The Latest ICE Shooting
01/26/2026
by
For years, the trio of Christian nationalist pseudo-historians at WallBuilders have been radical Second Amendment absolutists, with founder David Barton asserting over and over again that the Constitution protects not just an individual right to own guns, but that is places absolutely "no limitation" on an individual's right to own "whatever you can get your hands," including tanks, fighter jets, and even nuclear weapons.
"We need the ability to protect and defend ourselves against [the] government," said Barton's son, Tim, in 2018. "We wanted to make sure the people had the same means of defense as a government might have offensive weapons, so we need the same level of weapons to defend ourselves as we're going to be attacked with because we didn't want to disadvantage the people from being able to defend themselves against a tyrannical government."
WallBuilders has dedicated multiple episodes of its radio program to highlighting "the critical role that informed, active citizenship, and the Second Amendment play in protecting our cherished liberties." Those programs featured presentations delivered by WallBuilders co-host Rick Green, who teaches "constitutional defense" courses at his Patriot Academy that provide "physical and intellectual training on the 2nd Amendment ... so that you can better understand the history and importance of the great Right to Self-Defense."
The entire premise of Green's course is that "all Americans" should be carrying weapons everywhere at all times and be trained and prepared to protect themselves and other, especially "from the tyranny of the government."
Given such views, one would expect that Green and the Bartons would be outraged by the killing of Alex Prettiby ICE agents in Minneapolis over the weekend. Pretti, who was filming ICE agents during an operation, was legally carrying a weapon in a holster when he was confronted by multiple ICE agents who shoved him to the ground and attempted to subdue him. During the scrum, one agent removed Pretti's weapon just seconds before another agent fired multiple shots into Pretti's back, killing him.
On their radio program today, Green and the Bartons blamed Pretti for his own death.
"I think we do a pretty good job of being intellectually honest and being consistent," Green said. "You mentioned this thing in Minneapolis. We have always said—whether it was the BLM riots of 2020, whether it was Jan. 6th at the Capitol, whether it was these things in Minneapolis, wherever it is—we have always consistently said, 'You don't fight law enforcement.' You don't go in and physically be violent with law enforcement. You are asking for trouble. You don't resist arrest. You don't climb through a broken window; that's the last line of defense for police officers defending members of Congress from what was literally on that side of the Capitol, a mob. You don't take a gun into a protest situation like this where you could end up in a scuffle with police officers."
"So," Green continued, "we can be intellectually honest and consistent in this. It's not based on our emotions or who the player is in that situation, who's president, who's protesting or not protesting, it's based on the principles. And I just want to point that out because I can't say that about even some of our conservative friends. Sometimes they the position based on who the players are, whereas we take the position—we try to, and I think, again, we're pretty consistent to this—we take the position based on what the principles are."
"You know, this guy that got shot and all about him being the victim; look, when it turns out you don't have any ID on you and you came in with multiple magazines, don't tell me you're a peaceful protester," David Barton replied. "In a court of law, that establishes intent right there. You have no ID; you leave that away so you can't be ID'd, and you carry multiple magazines? Not good."
"All three of us talk openly about the fact we conceal carry all the time," Tim Barton added. "It's going to be very unusual if you find us without having a handgun on us. And Rick, I know for you and me often, we'll carry multiple magazines and pocket knives, sometimes a tourniquet. We carry different things, so it's not crazy that somebody might have a firearm and have multiple magazines. However, when law enforcement is doing an operation and then you go to intervene, as you would call it, or interfere, as they would acknowledge, and then you put hands on an officer?"
"We don't yet have all the information," Tim Barton continued. "We haven't seen it all. So we don't know if in the wrestling, they saw his shirt lifted, they see the gun, or if he actually reached for the gun. We don't know. We know somebody yells 'gun.' We know they discharge their firearms, and we know he goes to stand before Jesus. That's what we know. But the bottom line is even if you are legally carrying, when you put your hands on an officer and it goes to the ground, at that point, you've already messed up so many ways. If you're showing up without ID, it could be because you have intention and motive beyond what maybe the liberal media is pretending like he did. But even if you were an innocent bystander, you don't intervene and put hands on an officer and you go to the ground where there's a firearm and there's multiple officers telling you to stop resisting and you continue to resist."
There are multiple videos documenting the deadly confrontation and none of them show any evidence of Pretti ever "putting hands" on any of the ICE officers or brandishing his weapon. Every video shows Pretti directing traffic while filming ICE officers and then attempting to help another protester who had been shoved by an agent, at which point Pretti was doused with pepper spray and attacked by multiple agents, one of whom fatally shot him moments later.
WallBuilders has spent decades promoting a truly radical interpretation of the Second Amendment while openly encouraging everyone to exercise their Second Amendment rights at all times and in all places in order to fend off "a tyrannical government." But when a protestor documenting government brutality is killed by authorities, WallBuilders rushes to defend the government and blame that protester for legally carrying a firearm while absurdly praising itself for its supposed commitment to principles and intellectual consistency.
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MMA
03/18/26
March 17, 2026, edition of Newsmax's Carl Higbie: Frontline
CARL HIGBIE (HOST): Alright, for more on the SAVE Act, I want to bring in my friend, CPAC Chairman Matt Schlapp. Alright, this is huge that it passed this hurdle. But some people are saying that it's just not going to get anywhere because of the filibuster.
MATT SCHLAPP (GUEST): Yeah. So in the old days they used to have real filibusters. Filibuster means talk a bill to death. And you got to love the Senate, they decided that that would be too much work. So you just have to threaten to talk of bill to death. And that kills the bill. And Mike Lee's saying, hey, that shouldn't work anymore.
HIGBIE: Yeah, no, it's just unbelievable to me. And I — look, I think that they should just blow the filibuster and do this whole thing anyway because it's — like, I say all the time, this is why people need guns in this country, because a government is willing to go 80% against the country. It's unbelievable.
//
03/18/26 8:49 AM EDT
03/17/26 11:47 AM EDT
03/17/26
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AN 1 26
Donald Trump has historically performed well with various voter groups who, for one reason or another, view him as "anti-establishment," but now, according to a new analysis from The Atlantic, he faces a "shrinking coalition" as these voters increasingly see him as "the system" he once seemed to oppose.
Writing for The Atlantic on Monday, journalist Jonathan Chait outlined the numerous "reversals" of his past campaign promises that are now alienating his 2024 coalition. Despite claiming that he would only ramp up deportations of criminals, an idea Chait argued was resonant with Latino communities, his actual policies now see anyone and everyone in that community under fire by ICE. Despite pledging to end costly overseas military conflicts, he has now carried out a contentious strike against Venezuela and has eyes on deploying troops to seize Greenland. Once touting himself as a champion of free speech, Trump has instead "relentlessly cracked down on the speech that he opposes," including against people critical of Israel and of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk after his killing.
These and many other "reversals" outlined by Chait share one particular trait: "alienating anti-system voters because [Trump] now controls the system."
"His appeal lay in his opposition to established power, but now that he has it, he is flexing it gleefully," Chait explained. "He is the warmonger, the censor, the face of the Epstein cover-up. It is hard to remain an outsider while holding the world’s most powerful job."
Trump remained somewhat immune to this phenomenon during his first term, as despite his many betrayals of campaign promises back then, he faced much more pushback from the system designed to keep presidential power in check and suffered numerous high-profile political defeats. Chait argued that this made Trump seem, to these "anti-system" voters, like "an outsider within his own presidency," who "fought the law, and the law won."
"Trump is no longer making this complaint about the established forces working against him, because he has solved this problem," Chait wrote. "His presidency is filled with loyalists. He has largely overcome any reluctance that officials might have had in carrying out his most unethical or illegal demands. He can’t present himself as anti-system, because he has become the system... Trump seems to assume that voters share his own worship of power. His most intense fans may revel in his displays of dominance, but his least attached supporters — the ones who turned him from a loser in 2020 to a winner in 2024 — are recoiling."
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MMA // DEEP STATE FALSE FLAG BS
November 24, 2025, edition of Newsmax's Carl Higbie Frontline
CARL HIGBIE (HOST): Folks, don't doubt me on this one. I literally did this in other countries.
But this is just the current lever being pulled. They've been prepping this for 10 years. They've been trying to cast Donald Trump as crazy, unconstitutional or whatever else, trying to create the vulnerability to crack his support. And none of it's true. Here from the manual quote, a vulnerability — it's critical when its exploitation will significantly influence the threat's ability, the threat being Trump — ability to conduct support or operations; operations in this case, meaning carefully convinced young service members that striking a drug boat in international waters might be an illegal order without saying it, because it's not.
Oh, Carl, the military can't — the CIA can't actually be using a psy-ops campaign on the American people. You bet they can.
You ever heard of the Smith-Mundt Act of 1948? This actually prohibited the US government from disseminating government-funded propaganda or psychological operations materials on American citizens. Well, the Smith-Mundt Modernization Act of 2012, which was incorporated into the National Defense Authorization Act of 2013, signed by president, then Barack Obama, changed that. Specifically, section 1078 — got the receipts, folks. The primary goal was to remove limits to the United States government's ability to counter foreign propaganda. This basically showed the government the ability to influence US public opinion. I mean, don't even get me started on the Patriot Act and how it allowed it to spy on all Americans, but whatever.
So think about this.
If your opinion has gone negative of Trump, especially in the last few weeks, folks, you are likely a victim of a massive psy-ops.
:{:{Trump hasn't changed in the last three weeks. Your opinion might have because of the psy-ops funneled through all these liberal medias because they're the easiest to convince to toe this line because they hate Donald Trump. That's their vulnerability that I just told you about to exploit by people like these six Democrats. They did this with Russian collusion. Hillary Clinton had them open an investigation to legitimize just the claim of it. And after $50 million dollars, they found nothing. They knew there never was anything, that wasn't the point. }:
The point was to convince half the country before an election it was, though. Hunter Biden's laptop, with the 51 former officials saying that it's Russian disinformation. With the Trump very fine people comment where they literally tried to erase the other half of his sentence that said, quote, and I'm not talking about the neo-Nazis. They should be condemned totally. Covid, oh, and the power grab that followed that as a response. That was a test to see how far they could go and what they could get away with. These are all psy-ops on the American people, straight out — literally verbatim out of the Army field manual.}:
This illegal order campaign that they're running, no different. That is why they need to recall these people to active duty and court martial them for sedition, because the US government right now, via those six Democrats, is treating American citizens like our own enemy combatants.
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NOTE SHILLENBERGER
// BS ABOUT FBI LABEL PTA TERRORISTS?
an 5 25
Salon Reporter Amanda Marcotte says director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard is knowingly cultivating violence from supporters of President Donald Trump by inflating the facts of a federal memo on the role COVID-19 disinformation played in domestic terrorism.
Marcotte says Gabbard declassified the memo and took it to the right-wing punditry circuit, pushing the “flat-out lie” that President Joe Biden was labeling Americans as "terrorists" because they opposed COVID-19 mitigation measures like masks and vaccines. The memo does not say this, and Biden did no such thing, says Marcotte, but by pushing this lie, Gabbard is encouraging the kind of radicalization “that does lead to domestic terrorism.”
“For those who bother to read the 2021 memo, the report isn't surprising, but simply stating the obvious fact that far-right extremists ‘threatened or plotted violence against the healthcare sector and state and local government officials’ in 2020,” Marcotte writes.
READ MORE: Trump gives up the game and tells half of America what he really thinks about them
The memo anticipated there could be a secondary round of threats in 2021 in response to the COVID-19 vaccine, but it did not equate the U.S. anti-vaccine movement with terrorism. Rather, the memo was careful to identify members of organized militias and white supremacist groups as using anti-vaccine sentiment as an excuse to foment violent threats.
“The average anti-vaccination MAGA rube is not part of this memo,” Marcotte said. “They may be disease vectors, but no, the FBI did not think they were terrorists.”
But that did not stop Gabbard from appearing on Fox News last week and for "using their First Amendment rights" and to label them a "domestic terror threat."
A footnote on Page 4 of the memo declared, "The mere advocacy of political or social positions, political activism, use of strong rhetoric, or generalized philosophical embrace of violent tactics may not constitute violent extremism and are constitutionally protected." Yet Gabbard “keeps shamelessly lying about this,” says Marcotte.
READ MORE:'It's happening to me again!' South African president mocks Trump to laughing audience
“She retweeted right-wing pundit Michael Shellenberger'sdeclaration that "the Biden administration viewed millions of Americans as a terrorist threat." She also retweeted Cain insisting that the Biden administration labeled ‘some COVID-19 opponents 'domestic violent extremists,' as if it was their views on COVID-19 alone that drew the label.
Marcotte argues the jingoistic wordplay gives cover to an administration declaring its own war on free speech as Trump moves “to arrest people who have broken no laws, simply because they voice opinions he doesn't like.” She is also encouraging more violent extremism by creating a victim narrative in the MAGA community “that extremists can use to justify violence.”
“Her story is that they are innocent people unjustly targeted by the nefarious Biden administration. Having been recast as victims, any violence they commit now can be narrated as 'self-defense' against the imaginary Democrats coming for their free speech rights,” Marcotte said.
Read the full Salon report here.
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AN 7 25 TEX TRIB
In the week after the tragic July 4 flooding in Kerr County, several officials have blamed taxpayer pressure as the reason flood warning sirens were never installed along the Guadalupe River.
“The public reeled at the cost,” Kerr County Judge Rob Kelly told reporters one day after the rain pushed Guadalupe River levels more than 32 feet, resulting in nearly 100 deaths in the county, as of Thursday.
A community that overwhelmingly voted for President Donald Trump in 2016, 2020 and 2024, Kerr County constructed an economic engine on the allure of the Guadalupe River. Government leaders acknowledged the need for more disaster mitigation, including a $1 million flood warning system that would better alert the public to emergencies, to sustain that growth, but they were hamstrung by a small and tightfisted tax base.
An examination of transcripts since 2016 from Kerr County’s governing body, the commissioners court, offers a peek into a small Texas county paralyzed by two competing interests: to make one of the country’s most dangerous region for flash flooding safer and to heed to near constant calls from constituents to reduce property taxes and government waste.
“This is a pretty conservative county,” said former Kerr County Judge Tom Pollard, 86. “Politically, of course, and financially as well.”
County zeroes in on river safety in 2016
Cary Burgess, a local meteorologist whose weather reports can be found in the Kerrville Daily Times or heard on Hill Country radio stations, has noticed the construction all along the Guadalupe for the better part of the last decade.
More Texans and out-of-state residents have been discovering the river’s pristine waters lined with bald cypress trees, a long-time draw for camping, hiking and kayaking, and they have been coming in droves to build more homes and businesses along the water’s edge. If any of the newcomers were familiar with the last deadly flood in 1987 that killed 10 evacuating teenagers, they found the river’s threat easy to dismiss.
“They’ve been building up and building up and building up and doing more and more projects along the river that were getting dangerous,” Burgess recalls. “And people are building on this river, my gosh, they don't even know what this river's capable of.”
By the time the 1987 flood hit, the county had grown to about 35,000 people. Today, there are about 53,000 people living in Kerr County.
In 2016, Kerr County commissioners already knew they were getting outpaced by neighboring, rapidly growing counties on installing better flood warning systems and were looking for ways to pull ahead.
During a March 28 meeting that year, they said as much.
“Even though this is probably one of the highest flood-prone regions in the entire state where a lot of people are involved, their systems are state of the art,” Commissioner Tom Moser said then. He discussed how other counties like Comal had moved to sirens and more modern flood warning systems.
“And the current one that we have, it will give – all it does is flashing light,” explained W.B. “Dub” Thomas, the county’s emergency management coordinator. “I mean all – that's all you get at river crossings or wherever they're located at.”
Kerr County already had signed on with a company that allowed its residents to opt in and get a CodeRED alert about dangerous weather conditions. But Thomas urged the commissioners court to strive for something more. Cell service along the headwaters of the Guadalupe near Hunt was spotty in the western half of Kerr County, making a redundant system of alerts even more necessary.
“I think we need a system that can be operated or controlled by a centralized location where – whether it's the Sheriff's communication personnel, myself or whatever, and it's just a redundant system that will complement what we currently have,” Thomas said that year.
By the next year, officials had sent off its application for a $731,413 grant to FEMA to help bring $976,000 worth of flood warning upgrades, including 10 high water detection systems without flashers, 20 gauges, possible outdoor sirens, and more.
“The purpose of this project is to provide Kerr County with a flood warning system,” the county wrote in its application. “The System will be utilized for mass notification to citizens about high water levels and flooding conditions throughout Kerr County.”
But the Texas Division of Emergency Management, which oversees billions of FEMA dollars designed to prevent disasters, denied the application because they didn’t have a current hazard mitigation plan. They resubmitted it, news outlets reported, but by then, priority was given to counties that had suffered damage from Hurricane Harvey.
Political skepticism about a windfall
All that concern about warning systems seemed to fade over the next five years, as the political atmosphere throughout the county became more polarized and COVID fatigue frayed local residents’ nerves.
In 2021, Kerr County was awarded a $10.2 million windfall from the American Rescue Plan Act, or ARPA, which Congress passed that same year to support local governments impacted by the pandemic. Cities and counties were given flexibility to use the money on a variety of expenses, including those related to storm-related infrastructure. Corpus Christi, for example, allocated $15 million of its ARPA funding to “rehabilitate and/or replace aging storm water infrastructure.” Waco’s McLennan County spent $868,000 on low water crossings.
Kerr County did not opt for ARPA to fund flood warning systems despite commissioners discussing such projects nearly two dozen times since 2016. In fact, a survey sent to residents about ARPA spending showed that 42% of the 180 responses wanted to reject the $10 million bonus altogether, largely on political grounds.
“I’m here to ask this court today to send this money back to the Biden administration, which I consider to be the most criminal treasonous communist government ever to hold the White House,” one resident told commissioners in April 2022, fearing strings were attached to the money.
“We don't want to be bought by the federal government, thank you very much,” another resident told commissioners. “We'd like the federal government to stay out of Kerr County and their money.”
Even Kelly, the Kerr County judge remarked that this “old law partner” – U.S. Sen. John Cornyn – had told him that if the county did not spend the money it would go back to blue states.
“As far as where that money sits for the next year or two, my old law partner John Cornyn tells me that if we send it back it’s going to New Jersey or it’s going to New York or it’s going to … or California,” Kelly said. “And so I don’t know if I’d rather be the custodian of the money until we decide what we have to do with it rather than giving it back to the government to spend it on values that we in Kerr County don’t agree with.”
When it was all said and done, the county approved $7 million in ARPA dollars ona public safety radio communications system for the sheriff’s department and county fire services to meet the community’s needs for the next 10 years, although earlier estimates put that contract at $5 million. Another $1 million went to sheriff’s employees in the form of stipends and raises, and just over $600,000 went towards additional county positions. A new walking path was also created with the ARPA money.
While much has been made of the ARPA spending, it’s not clear if residents or the commissioners understood at the time they could have applied the funds to a warning system. Kelly, the Kerr County judge, and Thomas have declined repeated requests for interviews. Moser, who is no longer a commissioner, did not immediately respond to a Texas Tribune interview request.
Many Kerr County residents, including those who don’t normally follow every cog-turn of government proceedings, have now been poring over the county commissioners meetings this week including Ingram City Council member Raymond Howard. They’ve been digging into ARPA spending and other ways that the county missed opportunities to procure $1 million to implement the warning system commissioners wanted almost 10 years ago, and to prevent the devastating death toll from this week.
A week ago, Howard spent the early morning hours of July 4 knocking on neighbors’ doors to alert them to the flooding after he himself ignored the first two phone alerts on his phone in the middle of the night.
In the week since, the more he’s learned about Kerr County’s county inaction on a flood warning system, the angrier he has become.
“Well, they were obviously thinking about it because they brought it up 20 times since 2016 and never did anything on it,” Howard said, adding that he never thought to ask the city to install sirens previously because he didn’t realize the need for it. “I’m pretty pissed about that.”
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AHA mebbe // gubmint, trump admin fail tern 2 always biden/ his admin fault: air traffic, fema notif texas flood noem, bessant defiicit
eg
AN 7 25
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is facing backlash after accusing Democrats of "blowing out the deficit in 2020" — a year when Donald Trump was president.
In an interview with CNN's Dana Bash on Sunday morning, Bessent blamed the Democratic Party for the 2020 deficit crisis, despite the fact that the Republican Party controlled the White House at the time.
His comments quickly sparked criticism and mockery on social media, with many pointing out the contradiction.
READ MORE:'Hapless president' deserves 'no courtesy': Trump ripped in scathing NYT op-ed
Singer-songwriter Ricky Davila wrote: "MAGA fraudster Scott Bessent falsely accused the Democratic Party of blowing out the deficit in 2020. Problem with that bulls--- accusation is that the orange felon was in office in 2020, not President Biden. They literally lie about everything."
Democratic activist Lucas Sanders wrote: "Scott Bessent: 'The Democratic Party blew out the deficit in 2020.' WHAT? Can someone tell him who was the president in 2020?"
"Does the Treasury Secretary know who controlled the White House and Senate in 2020?" wrote a user.
"MAGA always drop to the Ad Hominem attack when they're unable to defend their horrible policies," said a user on X.
READ MORE:The Supreme Court just made it so that you can no longer look away
"Who wants to remind him who the president was in 2020? Also, Trump is now blowing up the deficit even more than Biden ever did," wrote another.
"They love trying to rewrite history. Biden became president in Jan 2021. All the stuff they complain happened with Covid started in 2020, and they always blame that on Biden too," said another X user.
Many also criticized the host for not fact-checking Bessent.
"This is WHY Americans are so ill informed. She didn't correct him! She just ignored that and moved on. When the media talking heads don't correct the record the zombies just beleive what they hear!" remarked a user.
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an 6 25
If you think viruses are fake, chemtrails are real and public health is a conspiracy, you’re probably up in arms about four hundred potentially diseased Canadian ostriches.
Federal inspectors are poised to euthanize the flock to contain a novel strain of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) that killed 69 ostriches on a remote farm in Edgewood, British Columbia.
After losing their court case to save the flock, the owners of Universal Ostrich Farms invited the dregs of the antigovernment antivax trucker convoy that paralyzed Ottawa to surround the premises to stop the cull.
The fate of the ostriches has become a cause célèbre in rightwing media. We didn’t hear a peep out of maga when Trump declared open season on migratory birds, but every self-respecting antivaxer is an ostrich fancier now. In keeping with their philosophy of governance by trolling, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr and his wingman Dr. Mehmet Oz are stirring the pot.
Oz offered to adopt the enormous flightless birds and bring them to live on his 900-acre Florida estate because, apparently, we don’t have enough bird flu at home. “The Canadians should stop putting their heads in the sand,” he said, indulging in a little light colonialism. “We just have to get [the ostriches] out of Canada.”
After initially rejecting the offer, a spokesperson said the farmers would consider it as a last resort. Oz’s grandiose gesture coincided with HHS’s abrupt cancellation of a $766 million contract with Moderna to finish testing a promising mRNA bird flu vaccine.
“I think this is an incredibly stupid idea,” said Dr. Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at the University of Saskatchewan. Oz is pitching the move as an opportunity to study the effects of bird flu in ostriches, but Rasmussen sees zero scientific value in his plan because “[t]here are no controls, no baseline immunological data, no testing, and no clear experimental objective.”
The birds wouldn’t pose an imminent threat to the health of Americans, Rasmussen says, but they would pose a risk to Oz’s employees and the birds could also spread the virus to wild birds and animals in Florida.
Highly pathogenic avian influenza can be lethal to people. Currently, the virus does not spread readily between humans, but if it mutated, experts say, it could cause a pandemic several times deadlier than covid.
The farm’s owners insist that their birds are healthy, but they actually have no way of knowing. Ostriches can be asymptomatic carriers of the virus, Rasmussen warns. The birds could be passing the bug around like the world’s tallest kindergarten class.
The longer the virus circulates, the more opportunities it has to mutate into something more dangerous. Experts fear that someday, somewhere in some innocent-looking duck or chicken or ostrich, the virus will mutate into a human-to-human transmissible variant. It’s a numbers game. That’s one reason why the Canadian authorities stamp out HPAI wherever they find it. Nobody wants to be responsible for Ostrich Zero. Another reason is that Canada is bound by trade agreements to stamp out HPAI and British Columbia poultry farmers are locked out of key export markets until the flock is culled. Finally, stamp-out is the law in Canada and the courts have found no basis to overrule CFIA.
Showing no awareness that Canada is a sovereign nation with laws, treaty obligations, and a justice system, Kennedy tried to browbeat the head of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) into sparing the birds. Because “my fans love ostriches and hate the government” isn’t a persuasive argument, Kennedy insinuated that Universal Ostrich is actually an elite biomedical research outfit probing the mysteries of bird flu. The birds should be spared, he argued, because the flock is in a controlled environment where it can be studied.
However, court records paint a picture of a decidedly uncontrolled environment on an ordinary farm with lax biosecurity. The owners have produced no evidence to CFIA that any research is taking place on the premises and in the agency’s opinion, “the current physical facilities at their location are not suitable for controlled research activities or trials.” The farm has also been fined $20,000 by CFIA for failing to report the outbreak and failing to follow quarantine procedures. This lackadaisical attitude is particularly alarming because the farm is on the great Pacific Flyway, a river of migratory birds that runs from Patagonia to Alaska and is a major conduit for novel strains of bird flu. The ostriches live in giant outdoor pens that bring them into direct contact with wild birds.
To add insult to injury, the owners have invited strangers from all across the country to commune with the birds, creating even more opportunities to spread the virus. Rasmussen notes that “the avian freedom fighters of the True North are not abiding by quarantine protocols and are in the pens with the ostriches.”
Luckily, the Canadians don’t take our overexcitable Secretary of Health and Human Services any more seriously than we do. Asked about Kennedy’s pressure campaign, Canadian Minister of Agriculture Heath MacDonald said he didn’t think it was appropriate for Canadians to make major decisions based on social media. CFIA says it is still planning to euthanize the birds.
A normal HHS secretary might have qualms about egging on antigovernment protesters on friendly foreign soil, but not Kennedy. Dozens of protesters have been gathered at the farm for weeks and additional reinforcements rolled in recently. The atmosphere is festive with merch, live music and plenty of drumming for the ostriches.
However, if protesters tried to resist federal agents, the situation could devolve into another standoff like we saw at the Bundy ranch, the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, and the siege of Ottawa. In the winter of 2022, a convoy of antivax truckers laid siege to Canada’s capital city for three weeks. As a private citizen, Kennedy supported the convoy financially and assailed the Canadian government as “a monster” for freezing the occupiers’ bank accounts.
The Universal Ostrich conflict is unique because instead of protesting the containment of an existing pandemic, these extremists might be causing the next one. By offering to import the birds and killing the most promising bird flu vaccine, Kennedy and Oz are only too eager to help.
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ROOT IN GUBMINT?
MMA
Sean Hannity has a lot to say about the “stupid flu shot” all of a sudden
Sean Hannity used to tell his audience about getting the flu shot every year and how much it helped him. Now, he’s calling it a “stupid flu shot.”
Written by Helena Hind
Research contributions from Alicia Sadowski & Isabella Corrao
Published 05/29/25
Citation
Fox News, 9/16/2020
After years of assuring his audience that he regularly gets his yearly flu vaccination, Sean Hannity has suddenly changed his tune, casting doubt on the efficacy of the “stupid flu shot” during the May 28 edition of his radio show.
The MAGA propagandist’s comments come as harmful anti-vaccine policy takes root in the Trump administration, with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. bucking the normal scientific review process and removing the COVID-19 vaccine from the CDC’s recommended immunizations for children and those who are pregnant.
During the May 28 edition of The Sean Hannity Show, guest Dr. Brian Tyson claimed that COVID-19 booster vaccines are “negative effective, just like last year's flu shot.” Hannity jumped in: “Well, people don't understand that. Every year, they will start producing a flu virus. They're guessing what flu is likely to hit. They don't know for sure”
The Fox News host continued: “My understanding is they're wrong 75% of the time, and people, you know, annually go get the stupid flu shot anyway.”
Sean Hannity attacks COVID vaccines and the “stupid flu shot”
May 28, 2025
Audio file
Audio
Citation
From the May 28, 2025, edition of Premiere Radio Networks' The Sean Hannity Show
SEAN HANNITY (HOST): And even the creator, who I know you're familiar with, Dr. Robert Malone, was very outspoken, and he came on this program often. And he said that mRNA technology has not been perfected. He did support emergency authorization vaccinations for people over 65 that had preexisting conditions and comorbidities because they were the ones that were more likely to be -- their lives would be put in jeopardy by the virus. He absolutely was crystal clear. It was not designed for healthy people that were younger, meaning below the age of 65, and it's absolutely not designed for children.
Now, he's the one that created the technology that allowed for the creation of this, and he's saying this. And then he gets excoriated like you got excoriated for trying alternative treatment, which, by the way, studies, since that time have proven that you were right about things like hydroxychloroquine taken early, mitigating circumstances.
How many studies now have come out confirming that? How many studies have come out showing that masks really didn't help? How many studies came out, you know, showing that your protocols actually worked? How many patients' lives did you save, and how many patients did you lose in the process?
DR. BRIAN TYSON (GUEST): Yeah. I mean, it's -- so you're 100% correct. If you go to the website c19.org, you'll be able to pull up all the different treatments and all of the studies that are listed underneath those. There's over 400 studies on hydroxychloroquine, there's over 300 studies on ivermectin.
What we found was early treatment is the key. It's not about vaccines at this point because these vaccines are not effective. Actually, they're negative effective, just like last year's flu shot. Last year's flu shot had a negative efficacy of 26%, meaning those who got the flu shot were more likely to get the flu. It's the same thing with these COVID vaccine boosters.
HANNITY: Well, people don't understand that. Every year, they will start producing a flu virus. They're guessing what flu is likely to hit. They don't know for sure. And my understanding is that they're wrong 75% of the time, and people, you know, annually go get the stupid flu shot anyway.
TYSON: Yeah. But they made $6 billion off of it last year. And that's the problem. When you continuously approve vaccines without data and without research -- this is where you know the MAHA movement is -- hopefully it's going to make some ground -- you can't continue to produce vaccines without seeing the results. And you have to start holding the pharmaceutical companies accountable.
Once upon a time, Hannity was among those who chose to “go get the stupid flu shot” every year. In April 2020, the Fox host told his radio listeners it was “my choice” to “get a flu shot every year.” Months later, he said his choice to get his annual shot is “what freedom’s all about."
That November, in an attempt to assure his listeners that the COVID-19 vaccine was safe, he said he has “taken the flu shot for many, many years with no side effects at all whatsoever… it’s helped me."
Hannity also proclaimed his dedication to regular flu immunization to his Fox News audience: “I choose to get the flu shot every year and some of my friends think I’m nuts."
Video
Citation
From the September 16, 2020, edition of Fox News' Hannity
Hannity’s sudden reversal on the “stupid flu shot” is hardly surprising, considering his yearslong assault on the COVID-19 vaccine, his network’s dedication to pushing anti-vaccine narratives, and the Trump administration’s adoption of vaccine skepticism as policy.
Meanwhile, the American Medical Association recommends on its website that “everyone aged six months or older should receive an annual flu shot.” The AMA has more on the flu vaccine and the COVID vaccine here. On its YouTube page, the AMA also its
for the flu and COVID vaccine in 2024.
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an 5 25
CNN reports a violent militia-style group is targeting Doppler weather radar towers, believing them to be dangerous weather control devices.
Emails from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s security office reveal the group Veterans on Patrol, which the Southern Poverty Law Center defines as an anti-government militia organization, views the National Weather Service network of Doppler radars as “weather weapons.”
“This group is advocating for anyone and everyone to join them in conducting penetration drills on NEXRAD sites to identify weaknesses which can be used to ultimately destroy the sites,” the email stated, using an acronym for the weather radar network.
READ MORE: Trump ally reportedly set to arrest journalists who revealed his secret pact with gangs
“The group referred to the NEXRAD system towers as ‘weather weapons,’ and claimed there were no laws preventing American citizens from destroying the ‘weapons,’” the email states.
The email, sent to the general National Weather Service workforce on May 1, was unclear about what the group believes the radars are capable of doing. The emblematic ball towers of NWS’ NEXRAD, or “next generation radar,” network have been in place since the 1990s and detect precipitation in the atmosphere.
Tower sensors can also pinpoint the presence of tornadoes and severe thunderstorms and prepare the way for life-saving storm warnings and intervention. The Federal Aviation Administration and the US Air Force system also use the system for anticipate weather.
“We obviously deal with some fringe folks every now and then (chemtrails mostly), but specific threats to target facilities is pretty rare,” one anonymous NWS staff member told CNN. “Given the general temperature of the country right now, this is stuff is especially concerning.”
READ MORE:Trump just issued a threat to all of us
Among other actions, NOAA’s security office advised NWS implement a buddy system when working at remote sites and to be alert for suspicious activity.
Read the full CNN report here.
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mma
February 11, 2025, edition of The Benny Show, streamed on YouTube
BENNY JOHNSON (HOST): Ladies and gentlemen, I have good and glorious news for you, and it's the reason why our stream was a minute late this morning. We have broken news of the FEMA top official, chief financial officer Mary Comans, has been fired by President Trump.
The top official at FEMA breaking here first, ladies and gentlemen, directly from our sources at DHS. FEMA is being gutted by Donald Trump.
This is the person in charge of billions of dollars in funding for FEMA who defied — please put it up — who defied President Trump and sent $60 million to criminal aliens in New York for luxury hotels, fired. Here's her photo.
We heard that they would be gutting positions. We didn't know it'd be the number one person at FEMA. How sick is the rot inside of our federal government? Breaking news this morning. This is your front seat to the golden era. Expect a lot more of this. We're working on some very big and very breaking stories. We are a dog with a bone. We are not going to let up on these corrupt, sickening bureaucrats.
More on the chief financial officer of FEMA getting walked out of the building by security, which is what just happened in Washington DC.
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01/29/25
01/27/25
02/10/25
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Trump’s DHS freezes FEMA grant money hours after judge orders funding to be distributed
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SEE OMB VOUGHT 2025 IMPOUNDMENT BS
Greg Gutfeld tells federal workers “you should be thankful you are getting fired”
01/29/25 MMA
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an 1 25
This was not a terrorist attack, it was a wake up call,” reads a line in written notes authorities made public last week from Matthew Livelsberger, the driver of the Cybertruck who killed himself in the vehicle shortly before it exploded in front of a Trump hotel in Las Vegas on New Year’s Day.
The combat veteran’s writings include poignant passages, as when he expressed the need to “cleanse my mind of the brothers I’ve lost and relieve myself of the burden of the lives I took.”
But Livelsberger also expresses warmed-over manosphere tropes and anti-Democratic clichés from the Republican 2024 campaign.
“Masculinity is good and men must be leaders.”
“Thankfully we rejected the DEI candidate and will have a real President instead of Weekend at Bernie’s.”
“Rally around the Trump, Musk, Kennedy, and ride this wave to the highest hegemony for all Americans!”
Those sound pretty much like rote red meat talking points slung around by JD Vance, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Steve Bannon, or whichever Trumpworld podcaster might be trending at any given time.
But other lines in Livelsberger’s notes invoke something less banal, and more violent, envisioning what reads like a January 6 style attack on the nation’s institutions, but on steroids.
“Military and vets move on DC starting now. Militias facilitate and augment this activity.”*
“Occupy every major road along fed buildings and the campus of fed buildings by the hundreds of thousands.”*
“Lock the highways around down with semis right after everybody gets in. Hold until the purge is complete.”*
“Try peaceful means first, but be prepared to fight to get the Dems out of the fed government and military by any means necessary. They all must go and a hard reset must occur for our country to avoid collapse.”*
Briefing reporters last week after Livelsberger’s life ended in a rented Tesla in front of a Trump hotel, law enforcement officials said Livelsberger appeared to have “no animosity” toward Donald Trump.
While delivering that briefing, Clark County Sheriff Kevin McMahill and FBI Special Agent in Charge Spencer Evans knew that not only did Livelsberger have no animosity toward Trump, but in fact was cheering on Trump, and Trumpism.
McMahill and Evans left that part out, along with Livelsberger’s calls for uprooting people he didn’t agree with from the government and the military “by any means necessary.”
Law enforcement officials weren’t the only ones glossing over the story.
Media reports on Livelsberger, in Nevada and nationally, have downplayed his Trump-friendly extremism, when they’ve mentioned it at all.
When law enforcement officials suggested the Cybertruck driver hadn’t indicated any malice toward Trump (and when they knew but neglected to mention the driver was actually a Trump fan), it seemed a relevant observation at the time, lest the motive for blowing up a truck made and sold by Trump’s right-hand billionaire Elon Musk in front of a hotel with Trump’s name on it might be seen as a statement of disapproval of both men.
Livelsberger’s action clearly wasn’t that. It might have been an homage to them though.
This week law enforcement provided more passages Livelsberger wrote in in the days leading up to the explosion, which show Livelsberger used ChatGPT to learn how to turn a Cybertruck into a garbage fire, was convinced he was being tailed on his way to Las Vegas, and had intended to carry out his plan at the Grand Canyon Skywalk.
And in one of the quotes authorities released, Livelsberger wrote: “As much as the MSM will paint me out to be some terrorist and monster, I had no intent on taking out anyone but myself if that happens. I am deeply sorry to anyone that gets hurt.”
It didn’t go exactly as Livelsberger intended. Seven people were hurt. Blessedly, their injuries were minor.
And the MSM — the mainstream media — did not paint him out to be some terrorist or monster.
Perhaps had bystanders been seriously injured or killed, the media would be paying more attention to the fact that whatever other things were going on with Livelsberger, one of those things was the radicalization of a Trump sympathizer into a violent extremist.
But as if taking its cue from McMahill and Evans, the media coverage has mostly left that part out.
Well, there have been other salacious or compelling storylines to focus on: a Cybertruck exploding in front of a Trump hotel; “very strange similarities” between Livelsberger and Shamsud-Din Jabbar, who killed New Orleans revelers with a truck earlier on New Year’s Day; the prospect of AI’s new role as an instruction guide for DIY explosive devices; and, of course, the tragedy of a hero’s fall.
Livelsberger left behind statements calling for an armed, violent assault on the nation’s most important public institutions, to be carried out by people of whom he approved. He called for a “purge” of people of whom he disapproved from the nation’s institutions “by any means necessary.” And, according to his journaling, he envisioned it all as a triumphant ride on the “Trump, Musk, Kennedy…wave to the highest hegemony for all Americans!”
And we’ve reached the point where the vast majority of the media doesn’t regard that as a particularly important part of the story, if they mention it at all.
Maybe the media hasn’t taken Livelsberger’s political extremism seriously because it happened in a place the media (and the nation) has a habit of not taking very seriously. Bizarre thing happens in Las Vegas, must be a day that ends in a y, etc. In which case Livelsberger’s hope that Las Vegas would be a prime location to place a wake up call was a miscalculation.
Or with everyone from Mark Zuckerberg to members of Congress from both parties to all the billionaires to pockets of the media surrendering in advance to Trump, maybe wake up calls are just passé anymore.
Portions of this column were originally published in the Daily Current newsletter, which is free and which you can subscribe to here.*
Nevada Current is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Nevada Current maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Hugh Jackson for questions: info@nevadacurrent.com.
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Biden 'doubling down' in the face of 'absurdity' with latest climate push, expert says
Fox Business
Climate Depot executive editor Marc Morano reacts to comments from a Senate hearing on climate concerns and sounds off on the Biden ...
december 19, 2024
05:29
foghorn
Biden ‘doubling down’ in the face of ‘absurdity’ with latest climate push, expert says
Climate Depot executive editor Marc Morano reacts to comments from a Senate hearing on climate concerns and sounds off on the Biden administration's latest climate push on 'The Bottom Line.'
nyt ben keys}:
ditch home; extremiest arent you? cli hypoc on blast hdline; cli obsession ethos; expose absurdity; wharton prof; un says exteme wether not increasing; own hse in flood zone; nyt long hist gone aftr home racism, cli emergency, houses more dang to cli than cars; doing all the things they tell us not to do giant homes oprah
kerry pvt jet and ---?]
lame duck joe pedal to metal on his cli agenda; new emission targets; cuts GG 60 percent by 2035; gum up sys w new regs; very easy to undo; climate agenda hates us hates am way, 2x down in face of ... magical thinking paperwork climate agenda get us out of paris treaty by going to congress; woman: fear based agenda, requires their intervation; misnamed IRA is really the grn new deal; get rid of epa endangerment finding; day 1 reverse agancy pentagon abolish every climate agy and goal do fast and rapid, do in 2 wks
dr_benjamin_jkeystestimonysenatebudgetcommittee
Testimony of Benjamin J. Keys, Ph.D. Rowan Family Foundation Professor, Professor of Real Estate and Finance,
The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania Hearing
on “Next to the Fall: The Climate-Driven Insurance Crisis is Here – And Getting Worse”
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mma 12 24
Right-wing media use reported drone sightings to push conspiracy theories
With bizarre speculation about aliens, missing nuclear weapons, and government plots to fake an alien invasion or hinder a forthcoming Trump presidency, right-wing media figures have stoked panic over recent reports of drone sightings
Written by Jack Winstanley & Gideon Taaffe
Research contributions from Jack Wheatley
Published 12/20/24 mma
Even though officials have stated that recent reports of unidentified drone sightings were mostly innocuous “commercial drones” or “even stars that were mistakenly reported as drones,” right-wing media figures have peddled conspiracy theories alleging the sightings indicated some sort of nefarious activity. While some have pushed wild claims about a supposed “dirty bomb” missing in New Jersey and alien UFOs coming to Earth, others have baselessly alleged various government conspiracy theories, including a “psyop” to hinder Trump's forthcoming presidency, a fake alien invasion, or a power grab.
- ## Amid an influx of reported drone sightings and viral social media posts, officials have said that many are lawful drones, planes, or stars
- At least 5,000 reported sightings of drones or unidentified aircraft have been reported in New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia, Massachusetts, and New York since November. Many of these alleged sightings have been spread on social media along with theories about who’s behind the drones. Though the FBI has received thousands of reports of sightings, the agency noted that only about 100 have resulted in “tips.” Reuters, [12/16/24; NBC News, 12/16/24; USA Today, 12/17/24]
- White House spokesperson John Kirby stated in a press conference that many of the drones spotted were “a combination of lawful commercial drones, hobbyist drones and law enforcement drones as well as manned fixed wing aircraft, helicopters, and even stars that were mistakenly reported as drones.” The FBI has warned that people should not take action against drones. Pilots have reportedly been hit in the eyes with lasers and officials are concerned about people shooting down manned aircraft. WHYY, [12/16/24; USA Today, 12/17/24; 404 Media, 12/18/24]
- Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas stated on December 15 that “there’s no question that people are seeing drones,” but cautioned that sightings may be overreported, and that in some cases manned aircraft could have been falsely identified as drones. Mayorkas additionally noted during an appearance on CNN’s The Situation Room that “we know of no foreign involvement with respect to the sightings in the Northeast, and we are vigilant in investigating this matter.” Forbes, [12/19/24; CNN, 12/16/24]
- Mayorkas also noted that in 2023 the Federal Aviation Administration changed a rule to allow drones to fly at night.In an interview with ABC News’ This Week on December 15, Mayorkas suggested that the rule change “may be one of the reasons why now people are seeing more drones than they did before." Newsweek, [12/15/24; Vox, 12/17/24]
- ## Right-wing media figures and social media users have speculated that the government was looking for a “dirty bomb” that was smuggled into the country
- Following claims on social media from Saxon Aerospace CEO John Ferguson — and an X user who picked up the claim and earned millions of views — that the drones could be looking for a “gas leak” or “radioactive material,” right-wing pundits have taken that theory and used it to suggest that the radioactive material stems from a potential nuclear weapon known as a dirty bomb.
- X user Jersey Futures picked up Ferguson’s theory and speculated that the drones were “american made HPGe nuclear detector drones,” earning 2.7 million views. Jersey Futures, who claimed to have “spent 1/3 of my career as an RF engineer,” speculated that the drones were “collecting information in how public will react (PsyOp) and testing their ability to sweep a port city like NY for dirty bombs.” X, [12/13/24]
- ZeroHedge, a far-right blog that is known for trafficking in conspiracy theories, picked up Jersey Futures' claim and wrote a post about it. ZeroHedge, [12/16/24; Vanity Fair, 6/16/20]
- Far-right figure Laura Loomer picked up Jersey Futures' claim, replying, “Interesting thread.” X, [12/15/24]
- Real America's Voice's Grant Stinchfield posted a podcast in The Gateway Pundit titled “The search for a dirty bomb?”An accompanying blog noted: “There is one plausible explanation. The drones are searching for something, possibly radiation or traces of chemical emissions. The no other theory makes any sense.” The Gateway Pundit, [12/16/24]
- Right-wing commentator Bill Mitchell shared Jersey Futures' post.Mitchell: “This drone CEO says he thinks the drones are looking for nukes or dirty bombs! This is scary and actually explains why the government wouldn't want to say what they are doing - to prevent a mass panic.” Twitter/X, [12/16/24]
- Alex Jones questioned, “Are UAVs Across America Looking For Smuggled/Stolen Dirty Nuclear Bomb?”Twitter/X, [12/16/24]
- On Truth Social, right-wing radio host Wayne Allyn Root claimed, “This is DESPERATE search for radiation because CIA believes a nuclear dirty bomb has been smuggled into USA.”Root added, “this is all because of Biden-Kamala open borders. Terrorist cells & now nuclear device in USA.” Truth Social, [12/14/24]
- On X, right-wing outlet The Conservative Brief suggested that a U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission notice of missing radioactive material could be “a possible explanation for the mysterious drones seen all over the east coast?!” On December 5, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission issued an alert that a piece of medical equipment with trace amounts of radioactive material had been lost in transit in New Jersey. The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection stated that the material “has been located” and that drones were not used to locate the material. Twitter/X, [12/16/24; ABC News, 12/17/24]
- Vicki McKenna, a conservative radio host, shared the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission notice, adding, “The hell is going on here?” Twitter/X, [12/16/24]
- ## Some right-wing media figures suggested aliens could be responsible for the drones
- Fox News guest and former Navy pilot Ryan Graves suggested that the drones are UFOs and are “beyond our state of the art.” Graves: “Well, for a number of years, people have been reporting what is known as unidentified anomalous phenomena, which are unattributed, unknown objects of unknown intent that seem to be exhibiting performance characteristics that are beyond our state of the art. … The whole behavior in general doesn't leave very much room for other options if it is not a foreign adversary.” Fox News, *The Story with Martha MacCallum*, [12/12/24]
- Noting that Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) has “better information” than other people,OutKick’sClay Travis asked, “Based on the information that you’ve seen, what’s a reasonable hypothesis about what’s going on?”Mace argued that it needs to be “on the table” that the drones could be from “outer space” or “outside the universe.” Mace also stated, “I pray that they’re ours, but we should also know why they’re out there. Are they looking for radiation? Are they looking for a missing nuclear warhead?” Mediaite, [12/17/24]
- On Newsmax, host Rob Finnerty teased, “Could these be UFOs? Could these be from another planet? Think about it.”He added, describing his own supposed sighting, “It was kind of eerie too. It moved east to west faster than anything I’ve ever seen before, which means one of two things: Either our technology, the U.S. military, is well beyond anything the public is aware of, or this was something not from this planet. It’s that simple.” Newsmax, *Finnerty*, [12/16/24]
- ## Right-wing media figures said the drone sightings are a government “psyop,” with some claiming it’s intended to target Trump
- Right-wing media figures have used a grab bag of conspiracy theories to suggest the drones are deceiving the American people and the government is performing a psychological operation on its citizens, with some saying the goal is to target Trump or gain power.
Some contend the drones are part of a government plot to fake an alien invasion. This idea mirrors the “Project Blue Beam” conspiracy theory alleging global elites will create an alien invasion to justify authoritarian control.
- The National Desk’sArmstrong Williams suggested that the drones are an attempt by the “deep state” to cancel Trump’s inauguration.Williams claimed intelligence officials have told him that “the government is purposely creating confusion,” adding, “If you have all these drones out of nowhere, some of the drones, definitely from our government, other drones we have no idea where they're coming from. Can you imagine if this continues that there would be an attempt to cancel the inauguration?” Sinclair Broadcast Group, *The National Desk*, [12/16/24]
- The Gateway Pundit’s Paul Serran suggested that the drone sightings are “a Psyop to have the country in a bad shape” and to “break the climate of national love story with the incoming Trump administration.” Serran also asserted that “given the fact that the US has not unleashed its assets to deter this phenomenon … the explanation that makes more sense is that it’s American drones.” The Gateway Pundit, [12/15/24]
- Finnerty speculated on Newsmax that the drones could be “a government psyop to keep forever wars going and double or triple or quadruple the U.S. Defense budget on Joe Biden’s way out the door.” He also suggested that the drones were “probably launched to divert our attention from what else might be happening in the skies.” Newsmax, *Finnerty*, [12/17/24]
- Right-wing podcaster Benny Johnson suggested that the government is “gonna stage a fake alien invasion” to “steal Trump's swagger and create a emergency.” He added, “You can't cut government spending, right, if there's — if the aliens invade.” YouTube, *The Benny Show*, [12/11/24]
- Far-right blogger Patrick Howley suggested claims of “aliens” may be used to undermine Trump’s inauguration.He wrote: “They're going to do ‘aliens’ before the inauguration, aren't they? That said, UFO's are 100 percent real but I don't believe for a minute that the Feds are clueless about what they are.” Twitter/X, [12/11/24; Daily Dot, 1/27/24; The Daily Beast, 4/29/22]
- Alex Jones posted a video and wrote, “Researcher Dr. Steven Greer Accurately Predicted Rollout Of Project Blue Beam That's Happening Now.”Twitter/X, [12/11/24]
- Former Fox News producer Kyle Becker shared a video of Fox News’ Jesse Watters discussing the drone sightings, adding, “The Biden administration started with an illegal alien invasion and is ending with an actual alien invasion.”Twitter/X, [12/18/24]
- Becker also claimed in a social media post that “the Feds want to use these ‘lawful drone’ sightings as a pretext for new legislation that will undoubtedly empower the government.”He added, “I think we got our answer on why these drones are being allowed to operate instead of being blown to smithereens. Just another government power grab.” Twitter/X, [12/12/24]
- Far-right podcaster and Trump ally Laura Loomer posted, “Are they drones? Or is this project blue beam?”She added, “What if this is a project blue beam effort to psyop Congress into increasing defense spending?” Twitter/X, [12/13/24]
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12 24 pattern targets FDIC; tesla crash data kia 40 of 45 excessive data collection trans 2
an 12 24
Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) said the time has arrived for the Transportation Security Administration to be grounded – and he has at least one Republican in the lower chamber on board.
Lee made the comments on Monday in a string of social media remarks where he also called for an end to the Affordable Care Act when lawmakers return next month with a Republican trifecta.
“Congress should abolish TSA,” Lee told his social media followers on X. “If Congress somehow can’t abolish it, Congress should at least (1) privatize it, and then (2) require what remains of TSA to truly compete with private security contractors.”
The Utah senator’s announcement caught the attention of Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO), who reposted Lee’s comment with her own remark: “Hear, hear!” she wrote.
The proposal to do away with the TSA – created weeks after the 9/11 terrorist attacks – would upend safety measures for the country’s mass transportation. But the agency has landed on the radar of conservatives who have criticized it for overstepping its authority and violating peoples’ rights.
Congressional Republicans have promised to gut several federal agencies when Donald Trump reemerges in the White House next month, including the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, or ATF, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Department of Education.
Lee in March also proposed axing the TSA.
But political scientist Rachel Bitecofer pushed back on the suggestion being floated by Lee and other conservatives with a stinging two-word rebuke: "OK moron," she wrote in an X reply above a photo of a second plane preparing to slam into the World Trade Center on 9/11.
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an 12 24
At least 27 House Republicans are urging President-elect Donald Trump to end the Internal Revenue Service's Direct File program as soon as he returns to the White House and begins his second term. But Direct File also has plenty of supporters, including MSNBC's Hayes Brown.
In an opinion column published on December 15, Brown argues that House Republicans have a motivation for wanting to abolish Direct File: making it more "painful" for Americans to file their taxes.
"In the fall of 2023, the Internal Revenue Service announced a pilot program that would allow some Americans to file their taxes directly to the agency — for free," Brown explains. "The Direct File service managed to go against at least a half-dozen federal government stereotypes: it was new and novel in a system that loathes change, it allowed people to be more efficient with their time, and the people who used it this past tax season had plenty of good things to say about their experience."
READ MORE:[New Kristi Noem proposal would fund Christian ‘segregation academies’
Brown adds, "In May, the IRS said the program would be expanded and made permanent. But of course, there are Republicans who would like nothing more than to strangle a popular government initiative in its cradle."
According to Brown, House Republicans who oppose Direct File believe that abolishing the program will make it easier for their party to carry out tax cuts for wealthy Americans.
"The more friction in the system, the more visible of a target the IRS becomes for average Americans," Brown explains. "The more people who are frustrated with the IRS, the better their case for cutting even more taxes for the wealthy. It also doesn't hurt to be in the good graces of massive tax preparation companies like Intuit, which have spent years and millions of dollars to ensure that filing taxes is as painful a process as possible. Among the reforms they blocked was a plan to go further than Direct File, letting many taxpayers file pre-populated forms for free."
Brown continues, "The net effect is that there's no upside to murdering Direct File ahead of tax season beyond making the federal government less responsive and useful in the eyes of Americans. Republicans can falsely claim that they're trying to save taxpayers' money from the clutches of the IRS. It's clear what they're really trying to claw back is a massive refund of Americans’ time and energy in the name of making everything a little bit worse."
READ MORE:['Trump ’28': Bannon calls for third term
*Hayes Brown's full MSNBC opinion column is available at this link.
ref 1 biz insider
- IRS has gradually rolled out a program to allow Americans to directly file taxes with the IRS.
- It's designed to make filing taxes simpler and easier.
- A group of Republicans want Donald Trump to end it, saying it's government overreach.
More than two dozen House Republicans are asking President-elect Donald Trump to terminate the Internal Revenue Service's free direct tax-filing system as soon as day one of his presidency.
Republican Reps. Adrian Smith of Nebraska and Chuck Edwards of North Carolina sent a letter to the president-elect on Tuesday urging him to end the program via executive order, saying it posed a "threat to taxpayers' freedom from government overreach."
The letter was signed by 27 other Republicans and is also addressed to Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, the co-leads of the Department of Government Efficiency.
The program came about as the result of the Inflation Reduction Act, which included $15 million in funding to study the creation of a website allowing Americans to directly file their taxes to the IRS for free. That led to the rollout of a pilot program that was available in 12 states last year and is set to expand to 24 states in 2025.
A spokesperson for the IRS didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
Many Americans rely on tax-prep companies such as TurboTax and H&R Block to do their taxes each year. The new program is designed to compete with those programs and make filing easier and less costly for Americans.
Smith and Edwards argued in their letter that the program represented a conflict of interest for the IRS — that the agency shouldn't be in charge of both assessing taxes and enforcing them. The duo wrote that the agency "has little incentive to ensure hardworking Americans do not pay more than they owe in taxes."
They also cast the free Direct File program as an example of the "weaponization of government against Americans," a long-standing focus of Trump and the MAGA-aligned right.
It's unclear whether Trump will take the lawmakers up on their request, and the Trump-Vance transition didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
Republicans have broadly sought to roll back the $80 billion in additional funding for the IRS that was included in the Inflation Reduction Act, saying it will be used to enable the agency to target conservatives and ordinary taxpayers.
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MOFO BIZZARROWORLD
Smith, Edwards, Colleagues Call for Day-One Elimination of IRS Direct File
December 10, 2024
Washington, D.C. - Today, Congressman Adrian Smith (R-NE) and Chuck Edwards (R-NC) along with 27 House colleagues sent a letter asking President Trump to immediately end the IRS' unlawful Direct File pilot program upon taking office in January. Copies of the letter were addressed to Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, Trump's selections to lead his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) as well as Treasury Secretary-Designee Scott Bessent, and Trump's selection to lead the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Russell Vought.
Cosigners of the letter include:
Reps. Mike Kelly (R-PA), Carol Miller (R-WV), Mark Alford (R-MO), Rick Allen (R-GA), Don Bacon (R-NE), Vern Buchanan (R-FL), Mike Carey (R-OH), Ron Estes (R-KS), Michelle Fischbach (R-MN), Andrew Garbarino (R-NY), Kevin Hern (R-OK) Erin Houchin (R-IN), Young Kim (R-CA), David Kustoff (R-TN), Darin LaHood (R-IL), Greg Murphy (R-NC), August Pfluger (R-TX), Keith Self (R-TX), Pete Sessions (R-TX), Greg Steube (R-FL), Claudia Tenney (R-NY), William Timmons (R-SC), Beth Van Duyne (R-TX), Steve Womack (R-AR), Andrew Clyde (R-GA), Nathaniel Moran (R-TX), and Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY)
In the letter the members said:
"We write to urge you to take immediate action, including a day-one executive order, to end the Internal Revenue Service’s (IRS) unauthorized and wasteful Direct File pilot program. The program’s creation and ongoing expansion pose a threat to taxpayers’ freedom from government overreach, and its shaky rollout and structural flaws have already come at a steep price.
...
"This is deeply concerning and a clear conflict of interest.
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"Under the Biden-Harris administration, the IRS has undertaken an aggressive expansion of its influence, fueled by the exorbitant $80 billion provided by the Inflation Reduction Act, in which it has repeatedly overstepped its authority and targeted hardworking Americans with audits...Even prior, the IRS has a long record of abusing its authority to target political opponents.
How can we entrust the IRS to responsibly prepare and enforce taxes when it has encroached on Americans’ individual liberties at every opportunity? And how can we trust future administrations to not do as the Biden-Harris administration has done in wielding the IRS as a tool to silence political opponents and control private citizens? We should act now to end Direct File to protect Americans from further overreach.
...
"Instead of Direct File, the IRS should be focused on improving its functionality and service to American taxpayers. Under the Biden-Harris administration, Americans experienced significant delays in receiving their tax returns, and the agency has failed to reduce the federal deficit despite the bloated enforcement funding provided by the Inflation Reduction Act. The agency’s existing issues will only be compounded by an expanded Direct File venture..."
Read the full letter here.
BACKGROUND:
Smith and Edwards introduced legislation in July of this year to terminate the IRS’s unauthorized Direct File program. Smith also introduced legislation, passed by the House in January 2023, to repeal the Biden-Harris administration’s $80 billion IRS expansion.
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// hurric BS?
alternet-
Extremists posing as aid workers urge NC locals to tear down cell towers and hit military
Michael Lewis Arthur Meyer booking photo from 2018
Michael Lewis Arthur Meyer booking photo from 2018 (Courtesy Tucson Police Department)
Jordan Green November 02, 2024
A group of anti-government extremists who showed up in western North Carolina promising to provide disaster relief after Hurricane Helene is now threatening to destroy cell-phone towers and sabotage military vehicles.
The group, Veterans on Patrol, attracted attention by setting up a disaster relief staging area in the parking lot of the Ingles grocery store in Lake Lure, about 50 miles from Asheville.
But locals, including some who initially cooperated with the group, began to complain about threats and harassment.
Over the past three weeks, members of the group, which falsely claims that Helene was caused by a “weather weapon,” have been making conspiracy-driven claims that the U.S. military is attempting to kill U.S. citizens with “directed energy weapons.”
ALSO READ: Inside the grift that could cost Donald Trump the election
Veterans on Patrol’s channel on the encrypted social-media platform Telegram posted a message on Thursday displaying photos of what appears to be a cell tower on a mountaintop. The message asserted that locals “are in Live Exercises where the United States Military is permitted to destroy your homes, bodies and minds,” while suggesting that equipment on the tower “is solely for providing the U.S. military the means to murder Americans.”
“Focus on tearing down their weapons,” the message reads. It continues, “All it takes is one weapon tower being toppled with the stated reason spoken boldly.”
Another message posted in the group’s Telegram channel appears to advocate for sabotaging military vehicles and assets.
“Simple acts of pouring sugar into fuel tanks of military equipment, backup power systems, and personal vehicles of military personnel can wreak havoc on those who murdered all these people out here,” reads the message, which was posted on Wednesday.
Soldiers from Fort Liberty and Fort Campbell have deployed to western North Carolina to assist in the disaster response, along with National Guard members from nine states.
Veterans on Patrol is led by Michael Lewis Arthur Meyer, who has a long history of anti-government extremism, dating back at least 10 years. Meyer, according to the extremism watchdog group Southern Poverty Law Center, is not a veteran.
Reached by phone on Friday, Meyer doubled down on the threats.
“Jesus used bullwhips and flipped tables,” he told Raw Story. “We’re going to use our bullwhips and topple towers.”
At first during the interview, Meyer argued that the Telegram messages weren’t advocating for targeting cell towers, saying instead that the group would “surgically” remove the supposed “directed energy weapons." He went on to say that they would provide Appalachian residents with generators and Starlink boxes so they could maintain power and communication links.
Asked about the message referencing “pouring sugar into fuel tanks,” Meyer told Raw Story: “We’re going to destroy your tanks…. You want to get dirty? That’s what we should be doing.”
Veterans on Patrol has promoted multiple conspiracy theories based on false claims since arriving in western North Carolina.
One message posted on Telegram on Oct. 22 claimed that “Helene was a Weather Weapon steered to destroy the area, while also claiming that the investment fund BlackRock is attempting a “land grab” and describing the storm and its aftermath as “an act of war perpetrated against the People.”
As the final day of voting in the presidential election approaches, posts on the group’s Telegram channel have taken on an increasingly urgent tone.
The Oct. 22 post claimed that “stolen elections” are a real phenomenon, along with “weather weapons,” “Satanic pedophiles” and “adrenochrome," which refers to a QAnon conspiracy theory that a cabal of elites tortures children to extract a chemical from their bodies which is then used as a recreational drug.
In another post last week, a Veterans on Patrol member nicknamed “Shepherd” claimed that the U.S. Air Force command is instructing pilots “to deploy additional weather weapons.” The post goes on to say, “These people don’t have 2 weeks to wait for vote and 3 months to hopefully wait for a Regime change.”
Another message on the group channel that was published on Wednesday suggests without basis that Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff is the beneficiary of BlackRock’s supposed landgrab.
Speaking to Raw Story, Meyer seemed to all but dare law enforcement to intervene.
“For people to go and do something to prevent weapons from being deployed — that’s not a crime,” he said. “If they want to bring this to court and charge us with conspiracy, then let’s go.”
The FBI did not respond to an inquiry about Veterans on Patrol's activities, but Meyer told Raw Story in an email that he "would imagine the FBI knows full well what we are attempting through Operation Leaning Tower."
Meyer told Raw Story that he notified the office of Gov. Roy Cooper about his "operation." Cooper's office did not immediately respond to a voicemail message from Raw Story.
Phone calls from Raw Story for this story to officials in Lake Lure and Rutherford County, which surrounds the town, went unreturned.
Meyer’s history of extremism dates back to the Bundy Ranch standoff, when armed militants faced down the FBI and other federal agencies in 2014 during a dispute over rancher Cliven Bundy’s refusal to pay grazing fees. Meyer’s involvement in the Bundy Ranch standoff came to light later, when the Oregonian reported that he and a group of friends got into a brawl with other anti-government extremists during the standoff at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, which Bundy and a group of armed supporters had occupied.
Meyer founded Veterans on Patrol in Arizona in 2015, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. Prior to presenting itself as a disaster response group in the aftermath of Helene, Veterans on Patrol has claimed its efforts were directed towards rescuing children from sex trafficking, addressing veteran suicide and dubious claims that the military is maliciously harming civilians. Meyer’s activities have frequently landed him in trouble with law enforcement.
Meyer was arrested twice in 2015 after emergency responders talked him down from a light pole in Surprise, Ariz. in 2015.
In 2018, was arrested by the police in Tucson, Ariz. for trespassing and an outstanding warrant for an assault charge, after occupying a tower on an industrial property. A press release from the Tucson Police Department claimed that Meyer “found an abandoned homeless encampment” on the property, “and fictitiously declared, without evidence or corroboration, that the area was the site of a sex-trafficking ring.”
The Tucson police said they received complaints from Tucson residents that Meyer and his followers had threatened and intimidated them, and Meyer made “multiple threatening and hostile remarks directed towards various elected and appointed officials” through social media.
In the summer of 2024, before Hurricane Helene, Veterans on Patrol was active in Spokane, Wash. In Telegram message from July 2, 2024, Veterans on Patrol announced to the police that it “would no longer be safe” for one of its officers “to work his beat.” The channel also posted the home addresses of city council members.
NOW READ: Fox News is the reason the race is close
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Are Government workers being hunted?Over at one of my favorite Substack newsletters, Radical Reports, Teddy Wilson lets us know that at least one man radicalized by Trump’s and Vance’s lies about FEMA and the federal government has been arrested and jailed. He had an AR-style rifle and two handguns, and was apparently out “hunting” federal workers trying to rescue or assist victims of Hurricane Helene. Wilson also reports on Nazi groups affiliated with the GOP passing out recruiting information, even handing flyers to children. Between Trump, Fox “News,” and rightwing hate radio, the rightwing movement in America is having a moment. The big question is whether a decisive Trump defeat will take the wind out of their sails and, like with the Klan in the 1940s, lead to a decline in their power and influence, or if they’ll succeed in expanding their hate and threats against America’s first Black woman president and her administration. I’m not taking bets, and could argue either.
ref ted wilson
Morning Briefing: Threats against aid workers fueled by misinformation have reportedly continued to “affect hurricane recovery efforts in North Carolina,” and local law enforcement “arrested a man and charged him with allegedly threatening to harm Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) workers in the area.”
William Jacob Parsons was arrested and charged “under a law that makes it illegal to carry a weapon in a way that threatens the public,” and was apparently “armed with anAR-style rifle and two handguns.”
Government emergency workers responding to the damage caused by Hurricane Helene in North Carolina were reportedly “relocated over the weekend amid concerns that ‘armed militia’ could pose a threat to their safety,” however, there has been no evidence of militia groups “targeting relief workers.”
During a “Trump Boat Parade” in Jupiter, Florida group of neo-Nazis joined Trump supporters by “waving swastika flags, shouting ‘White Power,’ ‘Heil Trump,’ and ‘Make America White Again,’” and the video of the incident “was promoted by the Goyim Defense League,” a neo-Nazi White Supremacists group based in Florida.
In Wethersfield, Connecticut, families have reportedly raised concerns “over white supremacy flyers turning up in their neighborhoods, and in some cases, being handed out to children,” and the “flyers advertised the neo-Nazi group NSC-13.”
In Tucson, Arizona, the Pima County Democratic Party has reportedly adjusted the party’s office hours due to "political violence and active security threats," and party officials apparently received “threatening phone calls.”
Rachel Walden, Republican candidate for the Arizona Corporation Commission, has repeatedly expressed belief in far right conspiracy theories, including making false claims about climate change, COVID vaccines, and that “MS-13 gang was a creation of the CIA.”
an 10 24
A progressive policy group in North Carolina was among those expressing alarm on Sunday as news spread that federal emergency workers were forced to evacuate an area hit hard by Hurricane Helene late last month after officials warned that "armed militias" were "hunting" hurricane response teams.
But the news didn't come as a shock to Carolina Forward, an independent think tank, considering that it came after weeks of lies from Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump about the Biden administration and the Federal Emergency Management Agency's (FEMA) response to the hurricane.
"This is what MAGA does," said Carolina Forward on social media. "Eventually, their lies have real world consequences."
As The Washington PostreportedSunday evening, a U.S. Forest Service official sent an urgent message to other federal agencies involved in the recovery on Saturday afternoon, saying FEMA had advised all federal responders in Rutherford County, North Carolina "to stand down and evacuate the county immediately."
National Guard troops in the area, said the official, "had come across x2 trucks of armed militia saying there were out hunting FEMA."
The message was verified by two federal officials.
"It's terrible because a lot of these folks who need assistance are refusing it because they believe the stuff people are saying about FEMA and the government... And it's sad because they are probably the ones who need the help the most."
Emergency responders moved to a "safe area" and paused their work in Rutherford County, where they had been delivering supplies and clearing trees from roads in order to help search-and-rescue crews.
"Let's be clear: Armed militia are terrorizing FEMA rescue workers and causing important work to stop because Donald Trump spread lies and disinformation about the hurricane. This is on the Republican candidate for president with help from Elon Musk," saidmedia critic Jennifer Schulze, referring to the billionaire owner of X who has used the social media platform to amplify Trump's lies. "Shameful and disqualifying."
The forced pause in the work is just the latest example of the measurable impact of statements made by Trump and his running mate, U.S. Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), about FEMA in the wake of hurricanes Helene and Milton.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas warned last Thursday that federal employees, thousands of whom have been deployed to states including North Carolina and Florida to help with the response to the devastating storms, have received threats in recent days. Meteorologists have received angry messages from people convinced that weather experts and government officials "are creating and directing hurricanes," The Guardianreportedlast week.
"I have had a bunch of people saying I created and steered the hurricane, there are people assuming we control the weather," Katie Nickolaou, a meteorologist in Michigan, toldThe Guardian. "I have had to point out that a hurricane has the energy of 10,000 nuclear bombs and we can't hope to control that. But it's taken a turn to more violent rhetoric, especially with people saying those who created Milton should be killed."
President Joe Biden was driven to address Trump's lies about the hurricane response last week, saying the disinformation was "undermining confidence in the incredible rescue and recovery work that has already been taken and will continue to be taken."
Since Helene swept through a number of states late last month, catching communities in western North Carolina off-guard with devastating flooding, Trump has baselessly claimed that:
- Biden ignored a call for help from Republican Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, who denied Trump's claim;
- He received unspecified "reports" that North Carolina officials were "going out of their way to not help people in Republican areas";
- Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, spent "all her FEMA money" on housing for undocumented immigrants; and
- FEMA is providing only $750 to people who lost their homes.
Riva Duncan, a former Forest Service official in hard-hit Asheville, North Carolina, told the Postthat locals have told FEMA employees who have arrived with aid to to help with repairs, "We don't want your help here."
"It's terrible because a lot of these folks who need assistance are refusing it because they believe the stuff people are saying about FEMA and the government," Duncan told the newspaper. "And it's sad because they are probably the ones who need the help the most."
In the town of Chimney Rock in Rutherford County, FEMA has shifted to working in secure areas in fixed locations instead of going door to door to assess community needs, the Post reported, "out of an abundance of caution."
Matt Ortega, a web developer in Oakland, California, said the impact of Trump's baseless claims about the hurricane response mirror that of his earlier lies about Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, where schools and government business ground to a halt in recent weeks due to bomb threats stemming from claims that Haitian people were stealing neighbors' pets and eating them.
"Trump and Republicans' FEMA lies [incur] a debt, just as they did in Springfield," said Ortega. "The people who pay it are children whose schools are closed due to bomb threats in Springfield and recovery aid workers when militias are 'out hunting FEMA.'"
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an 10 24
Revealed: Bundy collaborator fueled FEMA conspiracy in Hurricane Helene aftermath
Clockwise from upper right: Ammon Bundy, Ryan Bundy, Brian Cavalier, Shawna Cox, Pete Santilli, Jon Ritzheimer, Ryan Payne, Joe O'Shaughnessy
Jordan GreenandRaw StoryOctober 14, 2024
Only 30 minutes after billionaire Elon Musk began publicly accusing the federal government of blocking his company from delivering the satellite internet components to the disaster zone in western North Carolina, another extraordinary claim popped up on X.
“NC State Police issue statement that they will start arresting any federal employees trying to hinder rescue operations,” an Arizona man named Joseph O’Shaughnessy wrote on X Oct. 4.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, quickly disputed the claim from Musk, who owns both SpaceX and the social media platform X and would speak at Trump’s rally in Butler, Pa. the following day. But O’Shaughnessy’s claim piggy-backing off Musk's post added a new layer to manufactured intrigue: a potential clash between state and federal authorities in a region traumatized by the staggering loss.
The statement is completely false, and it comes from someone with a history of armed confrontation with the FBI and other federal agencies. O’Shaughnessy served prison time for his role in the armed occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon in 2016 and was also charged in the standoff at Cliven Bundy’s ranch in 2014.
Prior to his involvement in the Bundy ranch standoff, O’Shaughnessy had been arrested for disorderly conduct, domestic violence and drugs, according to federal prosecutors.
“If you tie back to this guy, you’ll see that nothing reliable comes from that guy,” First Sgt. Christopher Knox, a public information officer for the N.C. State Highway Patrol, told Raw Story. “That’s not a trusted source of information. That information is not true in any way, shape or form.”
Knox pointed out that North Carolina doesn’t even have an agency called “NC State Police.” The claim is even more dubious if one considers that State Highway Patrol in North Carolina is under the command of Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper, an ally of Vice President Kamala Harris. From a purely partisan standpoint, it is unlikely the two agencies would end up in an adversarial position with one another.
O'Shaughnessy responded to an inquiry from Raw Story by sending an AI-generated GIF of Trump dancing through a direct message on X.
While O’Shaughnessy’s post was quickly shot down by X users who pointed out that no such agency exists in North Carolina, it landed within a matrix of false claims by Trump allies that has created a mutually reinforced narrative, belied by the facts on the ground, that the federal government is abandoning the people of western North Carolina.
O’Shaughnessy’s post was reshared 18,000 times, including Trump’s former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, who has a long history of promoting conspiracy theories despite a professional background that requires an ability to separate fact from fantasy astutely.
Before joining the Trump administration, Flynn held the highest military intelligence position as head of the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency, re-shared O’Shaughnessy’s post, writing: “Finally, some good news!”
Flynn, who has persistently used his X account to push apocalyptic messages about the impending breakup of the United States, has also pushed misinformation related to the disaster. During an Oct. 4 interview with right-wing influencer Benny Johnson, Flynn said there were “reports” about “illegals” raping children, while describing the flood-ravaged region as a “warzone.”
Flynn also could not be reached for comment for this story.
Johnson, who interviewed Flynn on his show, was recently employed by a media company alleged by federal prosecutors to be a front for a Russian influence operation. Johnson and other conservative influencers linked to the company have said they were victims of the scheme. During his interview with Flynn on Oct. 4, Johnson echoed many of the same themes as his guest during his opening monologue for the segment, claiming that the federal government has “chosen” immigrants over Trump supporters.
“Our federal government has left you to die in whatever small, inconsequential town that you come from because you are a Trump voter, because you support MAGA, because you are America first,” he said.
Flynn wasn’t the only one who greeted O’Shaughnessy’s bogus claim about a state law enforcement agency challenging the federal government.
Gianna Miceli, who co-hosts a podcast that promotes sovereign citizen ideology, enthused: “Now we have a jurisdiction war happening! What a great time for people to learn some lessons about who is the government and who is not.”
“Exactly,” O’Shaughnessy responded.
In another reply to O’Shaughnessy’s thread, Miceli falsely claimed: “FEMA is a private for-profit corporation. It is not government.”
O’Shaughnessy’s false claim that a state agency in North Carolina is threatening to arrest federal agents in the run-up to the 2024 presidential election fits a pattern with not only his involvement in the 2014 Bundy ranch standoff and 2016 Malheur occupation, but also the effort to overturn the 2020 election.
Bundy ranch, Malheur occupation and Stop the Steal 2020
O’Shaughnessy was described in a federal indictment in response to the Bundy ranch standoff as a “mid-level leader and organizer of the conspiracy who, among other things: organized gunmen and other followers; led gunmen and other followers in the assault and extortion of federal law enforcement at the impound site; organized protection for members of the criminal enterprise; and organized armed patrols and security checkpoints.”
Similarly, federal prosecutors would later describe O’Shaughnessy as a “mid-level organizer” of the Malheur occupation. In a video interview during the occupation, according to the criminal complaint, O’Shaughnessy said: “I’m right now in the process of trying to set up a constitutional security protection force to make sure these federal agents and these law enforcement don’t just come in here like cowboys.”
O’Shaughnessy pleaded guilty to conspiracy to impede federal officers for his conduct during the Malheur occupation, but the government dismissed charges in the Bundy ranch case. O’Shaughnessy was sentenced to time served, and reportedly spent one year and nine months in custody for the two cases.
O’Shaughnessy has described Roger Stone, a political consultant and longtime confidant of Trump, as a “hero and a mentor.” Like Flynn, Stone was pivotal in mobilizing a pressure campaign to overturn the 2020 election. Immediately following the 2020 election, Stone privately strategized with Flynn, the Washington Post reported.
O’Shaughnessy’s Instagram account shows that he was with Stone during a dinner in Florida with Stop the Steal organizer Ali Alexander in November 2020. Another post shows dated Dec. 11, 2020, the eve of the pro-Trump Jericho March rally in Washington, D.C. includes a photo that shows Stone drinking with InfoWars conspiracy trafficker Alex Jones.
It is unclear what, if anything, O’Shaughnessy discussed with Stone, Jones and Alexander when they met on those two occasions.
A false claim that evolved out of Elon Musk’s dustup with FEMA
In his false post about state law enforcement threatening to arrest their counterparts last week, O’Shaughnessy appears to have taken a cue from Nick Sortor, a right-wing videographer who spent the past week in the Asheville area delivering Starlink terminals while producing media assailing the federal government response to the disaster.
In an Oct. 3 X post, Sortor thanked Musk and SpaceX “for bringing us another truckload of Starlinks. A photo in the post shows an officer wearing a North Carolina State Highway Patrol uniform holding a box labeled “Starlink,” while a video shows police vehicles that appear to be providing an escort for Sortor down a winding mountain road.
The following day, Sortor replied to Musk’s post accusing FEMA of preventing his engineers from allowing him to deliver supplies. In his reply, Sortor appears to reference the State Highway Patrol, while using the same misnomer that O’Shaughnessy would later use.
“Let me know where the blockades are and we’ll have the NC State Police move them out of the way,” Sortor wrote. “Already did it once, which is one reason why we have an escort now. FEMA has zero jurisdiction.
“Trust me,” he added. “They’re not going to win this one.”
Twenty-four minutes later, O’Shaughnessy made his post claiming that the “NC State Police” were prepared to start arresting federal agents.
Challenged to substantiate his claim, O’Shaughnessy responded to one detractor by writing, “Calm down stranger danger, my boys were one of the 1st on-scene to bring aid…. I am the source.”
O’Shaughnessy didn’t identify his “boys” on the ground in North Carolina, but on Sunday he praised Sortor for delivering the Starlink terminals, writing, “And everyone, please follow @nicksortor. He’s the one who made it happen.”
Manufacturing a fake turf war between FEMA and state law enforcement doesn’t help the residents of western North Carolina, Christopher Knox, the State Highway Patrol spokesperson, told Raw Story. Instead of relying on dubious accounts on X, Knox recommended that people seek information about the recovery effort from trusted sources such as the NC Department of Public Safety.
“There’s a lot of people hurting and a lot of people looking for resources,” Knox said. “We hate that there’s stuff out there slowing the response. Getting people to the right sources is a big goal of the state of North Carolina.”
NOW READ: The Purge is real: Inside the GOP's 2024 playbook to disenfranchise voters
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10/10/2024 rww
by
- Mark Meckler says that "FEMA shouldn't exist in the first place" because the federal government should have no role in responding to natural disasters.
- Rob McCoy claims that the United States is currently facing the "third most critical junction in American history," after the American Revolution and the Civil War.
- Rick Green asserts that Christians must be politically engaged because "Jesus spent a lot of time talking about politics."
- Vincent James declares that "denying Christ should be worse than denying the Holocaust."
- Finally, Joel Webbon calls for "millions of deportations" followed by a ban on all immigration for decades.
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total shameless rubber projection
mma 10 24
October 7, 2024, edition of Fox News' Jesse Watters Primetime
JESSE WATTERS (HOST): What drives them crazy is that they can't control you. And it's why they're trying to silence Donald Trump by any means necessary because his success is an indictment of them, their incompetence, their sedition, their authoritarianism. This election's a battle for survival. It's not just about Trump. It's about the future of the country and whether it will remain free and fair as it was founded.
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hurricane helene fema bs only 750, no money for NC b/c migrants lux hotel, if make claim they will take your land lithium BA
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mma 10 24
North Carolina Trump event organizer Clay Clark pushed Hurricane Helene “weather manipulation” conspiracy theory
Clark is organizing two pro-Trump events in North Carolina this month
Written by Eric Hananoki
Published 10/07/24
Pro-Trump ally Clay Clark, who said that he was recently “tasked by Eric Trump” to organize an upcoming meeting hosted by former President Donald Trump in North Carolina, also pushed the conspiracy theory that the government was behind Hurricane Helene through “weather manipulation” so that it could apparently seize control of a North Carolina town’s lithium deposits.
Clark appeared on the October 3 edition of The Pete Santilli Show, where he said: “Weather manipulation is real, and the town or the area that was most devastated by the flood happens to be in a town that sits on America's largest lithium deposits.”
Video
CitationFrom the October 3, 2024, edition of The Pete Santilli Show
CLAY CLARK: HAARP, look it up, folks. HAARP, H.A.A.R.P. You might not know about it. It stands for High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program. Weather manipulation is real, and the town or the area that was most devastated by the flood happens to be in a town that sits on America's largest lithium deposits.
And lithium is what makes electric cars slash the Green New Deal possible. Right? So the local people don't want to move out of their homes because they don't want to have their backyard turned into a mining site.
And so the locals who live in a small town, they don't want to leave their town and turn their community and town into a mining site, basically a big hole in the ground. And so that just happens to be the town that was impacted by the floods.
He added: “Weather can now be weaponized. So we're in a unique time.”
He also wrote on social media: "#NorthCarolinaFloods | The U.S. Has Over 6 Million Tons of Identified Lithium Resources. The Majority of This Lithium Has Been Identified In Kings Mountain, North Carolina.' - U.S. Geological Survey + Weather Modification 101? What Is Weather Modification?"
Clark’s conspiracy theory is false. The government has not controlledHurricane Helene through weather manipulation and has not attempted to steal lithium from North Carolina through this tragedy.
Clark recently wrote that “I have been both honored and tasked by Eric Trump and Doctor Ben Carson with organizing this 11th Hour Faith Leaders Meeting hosted by the 45th President of the United States, Donald J. Trump and Doctor Ben Carson.” The event is on October 21 in North Carolina. He has numerous other ties to Team Trump:
- Clark has met with former President Donald Trump.
- Clark is heavily tied to Eric Trump, who has called the conspiracy theorist “a dear friend of mine.” He also said of Clark: “I love him more than anybody on Earth.” The two regularly appear in the media together, including most recently during a bizarre appearance on “prophet” Julie Green’s podcast.
- Clark said he’s “been asked by certain people if I’d be willing to help in the White House, and if they want to lower their standards and have me do it, that’s fine.”
- Clark said that he “had dinner with Devin [Nunes],” a key Trump ally and the CEO of Trump’s Truth Social company.
- Clark co-founded and helps organize the pro-Trump “ReAwaken America” tour, which is led by Clark and disgraced former Trump national security adviser Mike Flynn. The tour, which has repeatedly been held at Trump properties, has platformed numerous Hitler-promoting antisemites. The tour has also hosted numerous other Trump officials, including Donald Trump Jr. and Republican National Committee co-Chair Lara Trump.
Clark's next stop on his ReAwaken America tour is also in North Carolina and, according to Clark, will feature “basically President Trump’s inner circle, so Peter Navarro, Eric Trump, Gen. Flynn, Kash Patel, Alina Habba.”
Another key Trump ally, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), also recently used Hurricane Helene to claim that “they can control the weather.”
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gmail bs
September 27, 2024
'The Science' is becoming a consensus enforcement mechanism: Marc Morano
Rebel News
Climate Depot's Marc Morano joins The Ezra Levant Show, where he says that mainstream science has become heavily politicized, especially in the ...
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Trudeau blathers to sparse crowd at UN Summit of the Future - Rebel News
Rebel News
'The Science' is becoming a consensus enforcement mechanism: Marc Morano.
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ORIGIN KOCH BS LIBTARD THOM 3
AN 9 24
alternet-no lnx
Inside the billionaire's trick to keep people from voting
Thom Hartmann
September 23, 2024
Outside of Oprah Winfrey and Michael Jordan (and a hedge fund guy), just about all American billionaires are white. And while their white privilege helped most of them to become billionaires in the first place, for the politically active billionaires on the right, it’s their money that they care about the most.
Fred Koch, the founding patriarch of the Koch family, was an early supporter of the John Birch Society (JBS), which vigorously opposed any efforts to reduce the powers of the very wealthy white people or elevate the wealth or political power of poor or working-class people. Their most public positions in the 1950s and 1960s were against racial integration and communism— the ultimate method for leveling the fortunes of the rich. The JBS opposed virtually all “welfare” legislation, from Social Security to Medicare to unemployment insurance, calling it socialism and equating it with a softer version of communism. Around that same time, a Russian immigrant who’d fled the Soviet Union (her father had lost his pharmacy shop to the Bolshevik Revolution) came to America with dreams of becoming a great author or actress. Alisa Zinovyevna Rosenbaum chose the stage and pen name of Ayn Rand, and in the 1950s she wrote a rather simplistic novel celebrating inherited wealth.
In Atlas Shrugged, a young woman and her hapless brother inherit a railroad from their father and try to grow it strong over opposition from the unions, which want a safe workplace and reasonable pay. As George Monbiot wrote:
In a notorious passage, she argues that all the passengers in a train filled with poisoned fumes deserved their fate. One, for instance, was a teacher who taught children to be team players; one was a mother married to a civil servant, who cared for her children; one was a housewife “who believed that she had the right to elect politicians, of whom she knew nothing.”35
It means nothing, in other words, if average people are ground into the dirt. But when people who inherited wealth face challenges, particularly those from average working families, they should be able to utterly destroy them.
ALSO READ: Trump has a brand new front in the Haitian conspiracy push
In a subsequent novel, The Fountainhead, one of the “producers” of her mythology rapes a woman, but it’s all good because the woman decides that she enjoys it mid-rape. Monbiot boils it down simply: “Rand’s is the philosophy of the psychopath, a misanthropic fantasy of cruelty, revenge, and greed.”
While Fred Koch was helping the JBS in its fight against taxes and regulation, his sons were apparently reading Ayn Rand and taking her philosophy of radical selfishness to heart. They were also, by the 1970s, running the Koch oil operation and having constant struggles with regulators, particularly during the Carter administration.
Looking for political juice, David Koch joined and then largely took over the Libertarian Party in the late 1970s.
That political party had been created by the Foundation for Economic Education (FEE), a lobbying group formed in 1946 that represented the Big Three carmakers, the top three US oil companies, Monsanto, DuPont, GE, Merrill Lynch, Eli Lilly, and both US Steel and Republic Steel. Robert Welch, the founder of the John Birch Society, was on its board of directors, as were United Fruit president Herb Cornuelle; National Association of Manufacturers director and DuPont and GM board member Donaldson Brown; and Leonard Read, a longtime US Chamber of Commerce executive.
The mission of the new libertarian movement was straightforward: to lobby for the interests of big business and the uber-wealthy people that such business had created.
The same year that the FEE was created and they began the rollout of libertarianism, Congress busted an obscure University of Chicago economist named Milton Friedman for illegally shilling for the real estate industry.
As Mark Ames wrote:
The purpose of the FEE—and libertarianism, as it was originally created—was to supplement big business lobbying with a pseudo-intellectual, pseudo-economics rationale to back up its policy and legislative attacks on labor and government regulations.
This background is important in the Milton Friedman story because Friedman is a founder of libertarianism and neoliberalism, and because the corrupt lobbying deal he was busted playing a part in was arranged through the Foundation for Economic Education.36
Friedman was later implicated in the aftermath of the brutal and violent takedown of democracy in Chile, and his acolytes helped privatize the state-owned properties of the Soviet Union, creating the kleptocratic and oligarchic government that now runs Russia and many of the former Soviet states. Libertarianism, it turns out, has had real-world impacts, which include the deaths of hundreds of thousands.
No country has ever successfully established a libertarian form of economy or governance; it was, after all, a scam set up to front for the very rich, and the corporations that made them that way. But that hasn’t stopped libertarian and corporatist ideologues from trying.
While Chile and Russia are well-known examples, few Americans seem to remember how George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, and Donald Rumsfeld simply stood on the sidelines watching as the treasures of Iraq were looted after the United States took down their government.
It was to be a Grand Experiment: they’d finally prove that without government interference in a nation’s economy or social systems, an utopia would emerge. L. Paul Bremer was their front man, arriving in Iraq on May 2, 2003, to begin the process of “freeing” the country’s economy so that the world’s corporations would flood in and create a paradise.
As Naomi Klein wrote for Harper’s Magazine in an article titled “Baghdad Year Zero”:
The tone of Bremer’s tenure was set with his first major act on the job: he fired 500,000 state workers, most of them soldiers, but also doctors, nurses, teachers, publishers, and printers. Next, he flung open the country’s borders to absolutely unrestricted imports: no tariffs, no duties, no inspections, no taxes. Iraq, Bremer declared two weeks after he arrived, was “open for business.”
One month later, Bremer unveiled the centerpiece of his reforms. Before the invasion, Iraq’s non-oil-related economy had been dominated by 200 state-owned companies, which produced everything from cement to paper to washing machines. In June, Bremer flew to an economic summit in Jordan and announced that these firms would be privatized immediately. “Getting inefficient state enterprises into private hands,” he said, “is essential for Iraq’s economic recovery.” It would be the largest state liquidation sale since the collapse of the Soviet Union.37
Once again, Milton Friedman, the FEE’s heirs, and libertarianism made a few more billionaires and destroyed the lives of literally millions of people.
The source of the funds being channeled to Friedman back in 1949 was a man named Herbert Nelson, who was the chief lobbyist and executive vice president of the National Association of Real Estate Boards, which not only was opposed to rent control laws but also had one of the largest lobbying budgets in Washington, DC.
Congressional investigators found a letter he wrote in 1949 saying:
“I do not believe in democracy. I think it stinks. I don’t think anybody except direct taxpayers should be allowed to vote.
“I don’t believe women should be allowed to vote at all. Ever since they started, our public affairs have been in a worse mess than ever.”38
Although the details are still a bit fuzzy, it appears that libertarianism (and the creation of a political party using that name) was Nelson’s idea, or at least one he promoted vigorously. With a budget of over $60 million (in today’s dollars), Nelson hired the FEE to come up with a third party that would argue for the interests of the wealthy developers and landlords he represented. The FEE, in turn, hired Milton Friedman.
Reason Magazine, heavily funded by the Kochs, was the main voice of the libertarian movement in the 1970s, and in 1977 it published a fascinating article by Moshe Kroy that described how libertarians should market their free-market fundamentalism to skeptical Americans.
Noting that it was important not to lie to people outright, Kroy wrote:
“The point is that you can use tricks—and you’d better, if you really want libertarianism to have a fighting chance.”39
The tricks involved repackaging and reframing libertarian dogma and using “salesmanship.”
For example, Kroy asserted that the average person wouldn’t understand an abstraction like individual rights. So don’t even bother explaining how libertarianism would shrink government and empower corporations and the rich. “Instead,” Kroy wrote”
“[W]hat you can do is to explain to him that libertarianism is just against one thing: CRIME. By crime you mean just what he means: theft, robbery, kidnapping, enslavement. He will of course agree, because he thinks this is obvious. Then you just explain (at great length, and with many examples) that taxation is armed robbery, that inflation through deficit spending and money printing is theft—as well as forgery of money—that draft is basically kidnapping, etc.”40
This was something the average person could understand. The government that people thought would protect them from polluting corporations, would provide an efficient court and fiscal system to protect their jobs and bank accounts from corporate grifters, and would defend their lives in war if necessary—that government was, in fact, an evil thing.
If the billionaires could get the average American to look at government the way that oil, chemical, real estate, and banking industry billionaires did, and just elect politicians who were bought and paid for by those industries, then things would get very, very easy.
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September 16, 2024, edition of Newsmax's Greg Kelly Reports
GREG KELLY (HOST): So you may have noticed something. You know, you could say, technically, these folks are not threatening the president of the United States, President Trump. They're complaining about what a threat he would pose. But that's where — they're too cute by half. They think they're getting away with it. They're not getting it by me. They are trying to justify — they're trying to authorize, I do believe, the assassination of President Trump. It's — can I show you something? This is Judge Luttig, very strange guy. He was a conservative. The Bushes loved him for a long time. Then he felt snubbed. He didn't get to the Supreme Court. Now he's just bitter and mean and wrong and all kinds of things. But listen to what he said during the January 6th hearings about President Trump and you and me. Listen carefully, please.
...
KELLY: Wow. So Donald Trump and his allies and supporters, that's us, we are a clear and present danger to American democracy. What does that mean, clear and present danger? It sounds, like, really serious, but if you look it up, it actually means that they can break the law and they can suspend portions of the Constitution to deal with the threat. This gets very, very creepy. I do believe that the government has, essentially, authorized itself to do what should be the unthinkable against President Trump. mma
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mma 8 24
August 26, 2024, edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends
RACHEL CAMPOS-DUFFY (FOX NEWS HOST): What's the other side? It's a globalist ticket with these mystery puppet masters running it. We don't really know who is making the decisions on the other side. And I think this is so interesting because so many times people say, you know, "we want unity" and they accuse Donald Trump, in particular, of being so divisive and here you have RFK Jr., you know, a prominent Democrat and Donald Trump, the nominee for the Republican Party, reaching across the aisle, to find common ground. And I was thinking, Ainsley, what are those common issues?
It's the border. The economy, government surveillance, free speech, peace in the world, and food policy. Think about the other side, we just had a week of the Democrat convention. I can't tell you what their policies are. Other than abortion. And so I just think these are huge issues, the one's that I laid out for you that RFK and Donald Trump agree on. I think this is a real threat just to the system and kind of speaks to what I always thought, Donald Trump isn't really running against Kamala Harris, he is running against a corrupt system. And I think he's promising, along with RFK Jr. and JD Vance, to sort of blow up that system, expose the corruption. And nowhere do you see that more than in our food policy.
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grift based on fear of gubmint they are coming for your dollars:
mma 6 24
Swiss America is a gold and silver trading company, for which Trump promotes “The Secret War on Cash,” a report warning consumers about Democrat lawmakers supposedly pushing for a “digital dollar that could allow the government to tell us what we can and cannot buy,” and teaching them how to protect themselves from such “threats facing our freedom and your hard-earned money.” Trump advertised for Swiss America 27 times in this period.
Still of Lara Trump above Swiss America logo
CitationScreenshot of the March 26, 2024, edition of The Right View
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charlie Kirk’s Turning Point connects far-right extremists with the Republican National Committee and the Trump campaign
The Turning Point event this past weekend featured a number of extremists, with at least two speakers using the phrase “Christ is king” — an antisemitic dog whistle long favored by the white nationalist “groyper” movement
WRITTEN BY JOHN KNEFEL
RESEARCH CONTRIBUTIONS FROM MADELINE PELTZ, SOPHIE LAWTON & ALEX KAPLAN
PUBLISHED 06/18/24
Several right-wing extremist figures spoke at a weekend event organized by conservative radio host Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point Action, which is partnering with the Republican National Committee and former President Donald Trump's campaign. At least two speeches included the phrase “Christ is king,” an antisemitic dog whistle long favored by white nationalists.
Speakers at The People’s Convention included right-wing pundit Candace Owens, who has a history of making antisemitic remarks and appears to be associating herself with Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes; neo-Nazi collaborator and Pizzagate conspiracy theory peddler Jack Posobiec; and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. The presence of these figures is not surprising, given the significant ties Kirk and Turning Point have to right-wing extremists and white nationalists.
The three-day summit illustrated how Turning Point Action and its affiliate Turning Point USA have come to serve as a bridge between official Republican Party institutions and the more openly bigoted and extremist elements of Trump’s movement. Over the weekend, CNN reported that the Trump campaign is working with Turning Point Action. Politico wrote that Turning Point “has become a central player in the party apparatus,” as “part of recent collaborations between the [Trump] campaign, RNC and outside groups.” In May, The Washington Post reported that the RNC was adopting a “leaner” approach and was considering outsourcing much of its voter outreach to TPUSA and other right-wing organizations.
Speaking directly after Kirk on the event’s opening day, Owens opened and closed her speech with the phrase “Christ is king” — a slogan long used by Fuentes’ “groyper” movement that has gained antisemitic connotations through its use in far-right-wing contexts. Last November, Owens used the phrase to troll Ben Shapiro, her then-colleague at The Daily Wire — one flare-up in a monthslong feud between the two. The Daily Wire and Owens “ended their relationship” in March, according to CEO Jeremy Boreing.
“When you do come together and you do start a family, for the love of God, put Christ first,” Owens said, prompting an audience chant of: “Christ is king.”
“Correct, and we’re going to lead out on that chant,” Owens responded.
Owens then claimed that Democrats and liberals are bringing “the full weight of the government” against Trump, but that “Trump is just one step — they’ve always been after Jesus Christ.”
“Christ is king,” Owens said in closing.
Video
CitationFrom the June 14, 2024, Rumble livestream of Turning Point USA's The People's Convention
On the third day of the event, Posobiec echoed Owens.
“We understand this is a war against the demonic, this is a spiritual war!” Posobiec shouted, raising a rosary in his clenched fist. “We can only defeat a spiritual war with Christ as king because Christ is king.”
“Christ is king,” he repeated.
That phrase wasn’t the only example of the groypers’ influence on Turning Point. In 2021, Chet Hanks attempted to manufacture a viral moment for himself by calling for a “white boy summer,” but the phrase was quickly adopted by neo-Nazis and other extremists, including followers of Fuentes. On Sunday, Posobiec took the stage next to a banner reading “WHITE BOY SUMMER” and tossed hats branded with the slogan to the crowd.
Video
CitationFrom a June 16, 2024, Rumble livestream of Turning Point USA's The People's Conference
Posobiec then introduced Jones, appearing fresh off a court order to liquidate his assets in order to pay surviving members of the Sandy Hook massacre whom he’d repeatedly defamed by claiming the shooting was a false flag.
“The answer to 1984 is 1776,” Jones said before attempting to lead the crowd in a “1776” chant — a dog whistle that signifies opposition to the anti-racist 1619 Project.
“Just three or four days ago, the great folks at Turning Point Action invited me on here. I’m very blessed and honored to be here,” Jones said before pushing an election denialist conspiracy theory. “We are in the very center, the TCF Center, where almost four years ago, in the dead of night, they stole the election not just from our amazing president, but from us.”
Later in his speech, Jones repeated another conspiracy theory he’d helped spread in May when he falsely claimed President Joe Biden had hatched a scheme to kill Trump. “They are going to try to assassinate President Trump, make no mistake about that,” Jones said.
Video
CitationFrom a June 16, 2024, Rumble livestream of Turning Point USA's The People's Conference
Posobiec, standing next to Jones, praised his career. “Alex Jones has spent 30 years being the loudest voice for freedom, for liberty, and for anti-war that this world has seen,” Posobiec said.
Other notable speakers included anti-LGBTQ extremist James Lindsay and QAnon conspiracy theory peddler Scott Presler, who was present during the January 6 attempted insurrection and previously worked at anti-Muslim hate group Act for America. In March, RNC co-chair Lara Trump said she was interested in hiring Presler to be “part of the team” to help with “the largest legal ballot harvesting operation in the entire country,” which will be “started by the RNC.”
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trump ASSASS bs
Charlie Kirk: The FBI is “doing the work that brown shirts would do. That's how you get Auschwitz.”
05/22/24
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BONUS DO NOT HAVE TO ADMIT CLIMATE CHANGE
recall tx drought some yrs back was prayer
oregon was antifa
mma 3 24
Conspiracy theorists and right-wing influencers are attributing unprecedented wildfires in Texas to a government attack using so-called directed energy weapons (DEWs), while others say the fires were an act of “retaliation” from the federal government motivated by an ongoing stand-off over migration at the state’s southern border. Dozens of videos and posts falsely insist that the claim is backed up by remarks President Joe Biden made during his February 29 visit to Brownsville, Texas.
While discussing how “up-to-date standards and building codes” could help reduce property damage from wildfires, Biden said, “If you fly over these areas that are burnt to the ground, and you see in the midst of 20 homes that are just totally destroyed, one home is sitting because it has the right roof on it.”
Claims that Biden was somehow suggesting that certain roofs are immune to the impacts of DEWs while other structures were intentionally targeted in the fires are proliferating on X (formerly Twitter) and TikTok, along with related conspiracy theories suggesting the fires were payback for the state defying federal border policy.
In 2024, climate change is already fueling extreme weather all around the country — including the Texas fires}:
- Texas is currently experiencing the largest wildfire in state history. The Smokehouse Creek Fire has burned over 1 million acres and was 74% contained as of March 7. It is one of at least three wildfires currently burning the state’s Panhandle region, destroying homes and agricultural land as farmers struggle to evacuate livestock. At least 7,000 cattle and two people have died. CNN, [3/1/24; The New York Times, 3/7/24; CBS, 3/7/24; Newsweek, 3/7/24]
- The exact cause of the fire is currently under investigation, but Xcel Energy has acknowledged “that its facilities appear to have been involved in an ignition of the Smokehouse Creek fire.” According to The Texas Tribune, “A lawsuit filed last week by homeowners accused the power company of neglecting to maintain power lines.” The Texas Tribune, [3/7/24]
- The Smokehouse Creek Fire was supercharged by hot, dry, windy conditions linked to climate change. CNN wrote: “Its severity was due to a perfect storm of environmental factors: highly flammable grasses and strong winds combined with record-high temperatures and dry conditions — the kind of extreme weather often exacerbated by climate change.” CNN, [3/1/24]
- This February was likely the hottest on record, featuring “the highest global average temperature ever recorded for that month, thanks to climate change.”The unusually warm month followed a “lost winter” in the Midwest and extreme rainfall and flooding on the West Coast. Reuters, [2/29/24; Axios, 3/4/24; NPR, 2/6/24]
A conspiracy theory about blue objects being immune to so-called government weapons has been brewing since the Lahaina fires}:
- For years, conspiracy theorists maintained that wildfires have been set intentionally by the government using “directed energy weapons,” which are supposedly in space. The idea resurfaced on social media in 2023 after wildfires in Lahaina, Hawaii, killed over 100 people. Vice, [8/15/23; The New York Times, 2/13/24]
- Directed energy weapons are real, but there is no evidence that they’re being used to start wildfires. It has been widely acknowledged that DEWs such as lasers and high-powered microwaves are being researched and invested in by militaries around the world. However, those technologies aren’t being used at scale, and experts say they could not have been used without being noticed. The Dispatch, [2/20/24; AFP, 3/1/24]
- In photos and videos of the devastation in Hawaii, some blue objects appeared to be less burned than their surroundings, leading conspiracy theorists to believe the color has special properties. In particular, some pointed to a blue car, blue umbrellas, and even one of Oprah Winfrey’s homes (which turned out to be an hour’s drive from where the fires occurred) and concluded that blue objects cannot be damaged by DEWs. There is no evidence to support this. Media Matters, [8/23/23; TikTok, 8/16/23; Newsweek, 8/14/23]
- There was nothing notably unusual about the damage in Lahaina, and wildfire patterns are often unpredictable.“It’s actually very common that wildfires will burn out structures and vehicles but leave surrounding trees, utility poles, and other vegetation unscathed,” Michael Gollner, an associate professor of mechanical engineering who leads a fire research lab at the University of California, Berkeley, told AP News. The Associated Press, [8/14/23]
- Some roof designs are more wildfire resistant than others, but not because they’re blue. According to Fire Safe Marin, a nonprofit dedicated to reducing fire hazards in California, some roofing materials are more fire-resistant than others, and debris left to accumulate in gutters or roof tiles with certain shapes that allow animals to build nests can provide more fuel for a fire. Fire Safe Marin, accessed [3/4/24]
X and TikTok users claim Biden’s roof comment is evidence of foul play}:
- Social media users are speculating that Biden was referring to homes with blue roofs when he said “one home is sitting because it has the right roof on it,” apparently confirming their suspicions about the fires being set intentionally by government weapons.
- On TikTok, Media Matters identified dozens of videos with hundreds of thousands of views theorizing that Biden was referring to a blue roof.The videos suggest that Biden “slipped up” or “said the quiet part out loud” by mentioning houses with “the right kind of roof,” alleging that he meant a blue roof. One video read, “Is this motherfucker admitting it was a direct attack on fellow Texans?" Another user complained that her previous video pushing the conspiracy theory had been taken down for promoting misinformation against TikTok’s community guidelines. “He let the truth actually slip and they’re trying to sponge it from the internet,” she claimed. TikTok, [3/2/24, 3/2/24; TikTok Community Guidelines, accessed 3/4/24]
- Video file
Video Player
- Conspiracy theory account Wall Street Apes wrote: “Fact Checkers Say The Blue Roof Connection It’s A ‘Conspiracy Theory.’ The Rest Of Us Say It’s DEWs, Direct Energy Weapons.” On X, the account wrote: “We Saw The Untouched Blue Roof In The Maui Fire, We Saw The Same Thing In The Chili Fire, Joe Biden Confirmed Houses Will Burn In The Texas Fire UNLESS ‘They had the right roof on it’ Here’s the United States Military & FEMA having a ‘Blue Roof Program’… Coincidence? Fact Checkers Say The Blue Roof Connection It’s A ‘Conspiracy Theory.’ The Rest Of Us Say It’s DEWs, Direct Energy Weapons.” Twitter/X, [3/2/24]
- One TikTok video, which had at least 480,000 views but has seemingly been deleted, suggested Biden accidentally revealed the use of a DEW. “So did Joe Biden make a booboo in his speech in Texas today,” the user said. “The old man’s rambling like always, he’s talking about the fires in Texas at the border, but then he says the only houses that are left standing have the right roofs on them. … I don’t know man, it’s weird. Remember Oprah’s house, it was left standing, it had a blue roof. A lot of things that were blue didn’t really get touched by fire, isn’t that kind of odd?” TikTok, [2/29/24]
- Conspiracy theory account Concerned Citizen wrote that Biden was “literally admitting if you have the correct roof on your home then DEW won’t burn your house to the ground.” On X, the account wrote: “‘One Home sitting there because they had the right roof on it.’ The President saying the quiet part out loud again. Is this the President literally admitting if you have the correct roof on your home then DEW won’t burn your house to the ground? It’s a blue roof by the way. Thank me later.” Twitter/X, [3/1/24]
- Right-wing influencer Liz Churchill: “Freudian Slip Joe Biden possibly speaking of EMP Weapons.”Twitter/X, [2/29/24]
- Another TikTok video, which had at least 358,000 views before it was deleted, featured text that said, “Remember the blue roofs during the Lahaina fires? Biden just seemed to confirm our suspicions.” TikTok, [2/29/24]
- A co-host of the QAnon podcast BrainStorm, who goes by “Joe Rambo,” claimed that Biden was declassifying secret information and shared a post suggesting the president “admit DEWs don’t affect your home if the roof is painted blue.” Twitter/X, [2/29/24]
- Crypto influencer and right-wing conspiracy theorist Tara Bull shared a clip of Biden’s speech along with a TikTok video promoting Lahaina fire conspiracy theories about the color blue, writing: “What did Biden just say about the fire not burning homes that have ‘the right roof’?” Twitter/X, [2/29/24]
- Right-wing MAGA account “I Meme Therefore I Am” wrote: “Did Biden just confirm that they use Directed Energy Weapons and that's why houses with blue roofs don't catch on fire?” Twitter/X, [2/29/24]
- Shannon Townsend, co-host of the QAnon program MG Show, alluded to the conspiracy theory, sharing the clip of Biden’s February 29 remarks and writing: “The house with the blue roof? That what Biden is talking about here?” Twitter/X, [2/29/24]
- Another conspiracy theorist account shared Biden’s remarks and wrote “Blue Roof ‘Conspiracy Theory’ Confirmed.” The post continued: “Pedo Joe Telling You That Viewing The Wild Fire Damage From Above Shows How a Whole Line of Houses Can be Completely Destroyed But One Is Left Standing Because It Had The ‘RIGHT ROOF’ On It. Telling Us What We Already Know Joey, Blue Roofs Are The Fail Safe.” Twitter/X, [2/29/24]
- QAnon account Shadow of Ezra also boosted the conspiracy theory: “Biden suggested that having the right type of roof could offer protection from wildfires. People are speculating that he may have implied a specific roof color. What do you think he really means?” Twitter/X, [2/29/24]
- QAnon account Jack Straw: “#BREAKING: Joe Biden accidentally confirms direct energy weapons are the cause of wildfires by saying you should have the right roof.” Twitter/X, [2/29/24]
Other online content creators speculate that the wildfires are “retaliation” for Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s dispute with the administration’s border policies}:
- Abbott has been highly critical of the Biden administration’s approach to handling migration at the southern border. In January, Abbott deployed Texas state police to block U.S. Border Patrol from entering Shelby Park at Eagle Pass, which has been turned into a holding center. Texas has also continued to erect razor wire between Shelby Park and the Rio Grande River after a Supreme Court ruling found that federal agents had the right to remove the wire.
On social media, some conspiracy theorists and right-wing influencers alleged that the government started the fires deliberately to punish Texas for not complying with the Supreme Court ruling, or suggested that migrants were somehow involved in starting the Smokehouse Creek Fire.
- One TikTok user claimed the fire is “suspicious” because Texas “wasn’t going for all this BS,” in a video with over 1 million views. Other users commented that the fires were “man made,” claiming that “TEXAS is OBVIOUSLY under attack by the government” as “Biden’s retaliation for [what] Texas did to the border.” TikTok, [2/28/24]
- OneTikTok video with at least 660,000 views suggested the fires happened because “TX gave a big FU to the feds” and “now they’re hit with a big ol wildfire that’s nearing a nuclear weapons facility.” The user also implied that the Texas fires and Lahaina fires were connected, adding, “Some of y’all might not get that, but the right ones will.” TikTok, [2/28/24]
- On X, another conspiracy theory account claimed the fire was an act of sabotage “because of Biden’s open borders.” The user wrote: “TEXAS: RUMORED Sabotage hits near nuclear weapons facility in Texas as fires rage towards the nuclear plant from Amarillo Texas, just north of the Pantex Nuclear Weapons Facility plant! Foreign agents struck again because of Biden’s open borders AND THE INFLUX OF ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS/TERRORISTS.” Twitter/X, [2/28/24]
- In a now-deleted tweet, right-wing media figure Rogan O’Handley, known online as “DC_Draino,” wrote: “Texas now has its 2nd largest wildfire in state history. Over 500,000 acres burned. How much you want to bet this was caused by our open border crisis?” Twitter/X, [2/28/24]
- Conspiracy theory account US Civil Defense News: “Foreign agents struck again because of Biden’s open borders!” The full post read, “Update: Sabotage hits nuclear weapons facility in Texas as fires rage towards the nuclear plant!! Video footage from Amarillo Texas, just north of the Pantex Nuclear Weapons Facility plant! Foreign agents struck again because of Biden’s open borders!!” Twitter/, [2/28/24]
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gmail 5 24
am houston now fox levin
Major Summer Protests
ByB.D. Hobbs
Apr 29, 2024
If the anti-Israel protests that are happening across the U.S. aren't bad enough, the radical climate cult is getting ready to wreck havoc this summer.
A group called 'Climate Defiance' is calling for a "historic blockade" of the Congressional Baseball Game, an annual competition where Republican and Democratic members of Congress compete in America’s favorite pastime.
"And what they're instead turning this into is, how can anyone play a game when the country is boiling, and the world is dying" said Marc Morano at the Climate Depot, "To save the climate, we need to legislate a better climate."
That is the left's agenda, and the ultimate goal is pretty simple.
"For Joe Biden to declare a national climate emergency" Morano told KTRH, "Which would give him Covid-like, and 9-11 executive powers, for which he could bypass democracy, and implement the 'Green New Deal' without a vote of Congress. That is really what this pressure is, it's just another way to put America down the road to a climate lockdown."
And if you think that sounds crazy or extreme? It is already happening in Europe, where 'going green' has been catostrophic.
"Just last week the German Transport Minister floated the idea of weekend car bans, in order to meet their net zero climate goals in Germany" noted Morano, "That is the kind of stuff, it's up to your imagination what Joe Biden could do."
The radical climate activists, who Morano says are actually doing the bidding of the elites, want Biden to do something before the November election.
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an 2 24
Middletown Township, Pennsylvania man was arrested after claiming to have beheaded his father, a longtime federal government employee, and posting gruesome video of what he said is the severed head to social media. The suspect, 32 or 33 year-old Justin Mohn, is facing first degree murder charges. He also decried “far left woke mobs,” BLM and LGBTQ people, President Joe Biden, the federal government, and spewed other right-wing conspiracy theories.
“Some of the talking points made by Mohn echoed those of prominent online conspiracy theorists and far-right political commentators,” local news outlet LevittownNow.com reports.
“Mohn made inflammatory statements advocating for attacks on federal employees and properties. He expressed hostility towards illegal immigrants, President Joe Biden, senior federal officials, communists, ‘far-left woke mobs,’ Black Lives Matter supporters, and members of the LGBTQ community,” LevittownNow.com added. “In his rant, Mohn discussed Christian scriptures, called for debt cancellation, called for more adherence to Judeo-Christian values, spoke about human trafficking, and accused a major tech company of tax evasion. Additionally, he claimed that militias should protect him and mentioned previous FBI threats of arrest.”
READ MORE: ‘You Bend the Knee to the Orange Jesus’: Democrat Blasts House Republicans in Fiery Takedown
WPVI, a local ABC affiliate, adds that “Mohn referred to himself as a militia leader and called his father a traitor to the country for being a federal employee for 20 years.
“In the video, which YouTube has since removed, the son called his father a ‘traitor’ and said he’s happy that he is dead,” The Philadelphia Inquirer adds. ”’He is now in hell for eternity,’ he said, according to the complaint.”
The New York Post notes that in the since-removed YouTube video, “the man, who identifies himself as Justin Mohn, says to the camera before going on an unhinged rant against the government in line with QAnon conspiracy theories, calling for ‘militias’ across the US to unite and kill federal officials ‘on site.'”
“Mohn faces charges of first-degree murder, abuse of corpse and possessing instruments of crime, according to a Middletown Township Police Department criminal docket viewed by The Post,” the paper adds
--
qanon dad killed 2 kids? wife?
- Tom Winter, Valeriya Antonshchuk, Patrick Smith and Caroline Radnofsky @ NBC News: Pennsylvania man arrested after allegedly killing his father and displaying his decapitated head on YouTube.
In the video, which has since been removed, Justin Mohn says his father was a federal employee and refers to him as a traitor while voicing right-wing conspiracy theories.
- Angry White Men: Stew Peters: Somalis Are ‘Filthy Cockroaches That’ve Infested’ Minneapolis.
On the Jan. 30, 2024 episode of his Rumble show, white nationalist and Holocaust denier Stew Peters went on a vile, racist rant about Somali immigrants. While interviewing British Neo-Nazi Mark Collett, Peters called Somalis “gross,” “low IQ” “parasites” and “filthy cockroaches” who “infested the city of Minneapolis” and “hate white people.”
- Kiera Butler @ Mother Jones: Anti-Vax Influencer Stew Peters Has a New Fixation: “The Jews.”
He says he’s not sure whether Hitler was a bad guy, because of all the “propaganda.”
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PSY-OP ERRUPTION 1 24 AROUND TAYLOR SWIFT SUPERBOWL TIGHT END PFIZER AD VACCINE
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Exclusive: Circuit Court Ruling on Biden DOE's Appliance Regulation 'a Win' for Americans
PJ Media
Climate Depot's Marc Morano called the DOE's revoked regulations “a complete bypassing of democracy through the unelected regulatory state” and ...
Exclusive: Circuit Court Ruling on Biden DOE’s Appliance Regulation ‘a Win’ for Americans
CATHERINE SALGADO | 6:52 PM ON JANUARY 09, 2024
The Biden Department of Energy (DOE) just lost a case on its heavy and damaging regulation of laundry and dishwashing machines, and a consumer advocate is celebrating the move as “a win” for Americans’ “consumer choice.”
Fifth Circuit Court judges Clement, Wilson, and Oldham ruled on Jan. 8: “In 2022, the Department of Energy tightened the regulatory regime surrounding America’s dishwashers and laundry machines. Petitioners sued. The Department’s actions were arbitrary and capricious. So we grant the petition and remand to the Department.”
The Biden administration has been attempting to wage a war on appliances on multiple occasions and fronts, partly due to its radical and unscientific climate alarmist agenda.
Consumers’ Research Executive Director Will Hild is one expert who sees the court ruling as a victory. Consumers’ Research is a consumer advocacy organization that says it is “focused on educating consumers on the policies, products, and services of concern to them and to promote the freedom to act on that knowledge and understanding.”
This new ruling against the DOE appears to be pro-freedom and pro-consumer. “This is a fantastic ruling for American consumers,” Hild said in exclusive comments to PJ Media.
Hild explained that the DOE appliance regulations came out of the Biden administration’s Environmental, Social, and Governance goals (ESG, or woke standards poisoning our government and businesses). “These regulations were part of Biden’s ESG agenda, that was more about pushing a radical environmentalist agenda than protecting and serving consumers, and today is a win for consumer choice and our standard of living,” Hild said.
*For Our VIPs:I’m So Glad I Have a Gas Stove Right Now
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AN 1 24
During a December 19 campaign event in Iowa, 2024 GOP presidential frontrunner Donald Trump promised far-right white evangelicals that if he returns to the White House in January 2025, he will set up a Christian nationalist task force within in the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ).
Trump told the crowd, "As soon as I get back in the Oval Office, I'll also immediately end the war on Christians. I don't know if you feel it. You have a war. There's a war…. Upon taking office, I will create a new federal task force on fighting anti-Christian bias to be led by a fully reformed Department of Justice that's fair and equitable. Its mission will be to investigate all forms of illegal discrimination, harassment and persecution against Christians in America."
MSNBC's Sarah Posner, in an opinion column published this week, slams Trump's proposal as yet another example of Trump's "authoritarian" mindset and his emphasis on "the theme of Christian persecution."
Posner, author of the 2021 book "Unholy: How White Christian Nationalists Powered the Trump Presidency, and the Devastating Legacy They Left Behind," explains, "In recent campaign stops and on social media, Donald Trump has reprised lies aimed at inciting his Christian Right base against Joe Biden. These tirades, centered on the false charge that the Biden Administration is persecuting Christians, aren't just Trump's typically dubious claims. Much like Trump's lies about a stolen election, they are designed to immerse his loyalists in a grievance-laden alternative reality in which Trump alone can rescue them from an evil government threatening their freedom."
Trump, Posner warns, will continue to "feed the Christian Right’s persecution complex."
"One needs to look no further than Trump's efforts during his first term, combined with his 2024 pledges to govern like a dictator, to see the authoritarian steps he is taking when it comes to 'protecting' his base's religious freedom," Posner writes. "He is leaving little doubt that he will do whatever it takes to retain the loyalty of the base that has stood by him through an insurrection, two impeachments, and now, multiple criminal indictments. He is saying loudly and clearly that as part of his broader disparagement of the rule of law, he would shred everyone else's rights in the name of his loyalists' 'freedom.'"
READ MORE:'I won the election and he was the loser': Biden torches Trump
*Read Sarah Posner's full MSNBC column at this link.
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an 12 23 no lnx
'Kill yourself now so we can save ammo!' How Trump's violent movement could conquer America
:
Thom Hartmann
December 29, 2023
How would you react if one day you were sitting at home and the phone rang and when you picked it up you heard a man shout:
“Kill yourself now so we can save ammo!”}:
Moments later, an email arrives that says:
“I hope the Federal government hangs you and your daughter from the Capitol dome, you treasonous piece of shit! I pray that I will be sitting close enough to hear your necks snap.”}:
This is what happened to “Shaye” Moss and Ruby Freeman when Trump and Giuliani decided to blame Trump’s loss in Georgia on them, incorrectly claiming they were stuffing ballots for Biden. Just a few hours later, a mob with torches and a bullhorn showed up at Freeman’s house, although she’d already left after being warned by the FBI that she was on the “kill list” of a January 6th defendant they’d just arrested.
Mitt Romney, speaking with writer McKay Coppins for his book “Romney: A Reckoning,” told him the story of multiple Republican senators who were so terrified of violence at the hands of Trump’s fascist followers that they set aside their consciences and voted against convicting him of trying to blackmail Zelenskyy and, later, trying to overthrow the government of the United States.
“One Republican congressman confided to Romney that he wanted to vote for Trump’s second impeachment, but chose not to out of fear for his family’s safety. The congressman reasoned that Trump would be impeached by House Democrats with or without him — why put his wife and children at risk if it wouldn’t change the outcome?}:
“Later, during the Senate trial, Romney heard the same calculation while talking with a small group of Republican colleagues. When one senator, a member of leadership, said he was leaning toward voting to convict, the others urged him to reconsider. You can’t do that, Romney recalled someone saying. Think of your personal safety, said another. Think of your children. The senator eventually decided they were right.”}:
I know liberals and regular reporters in the media who are quite happy trash-talking Biden but are frankly terrified of the possibility that Trump or one of his high-profile followers might sic Trump’s fascist fan boys on them. As a result, they self-censor.
Similarly, multiple judges in the past few months have been given the chance to take Trump off the ticket because of his clear violation of the Constitution’s 14th Amendment by inciting and supporting an insurrection. Each one whiffed, and their legal logic was so thin it’s reasonable to conclude they’re also unwilling to have their families suffer the death threats and harassment that comes with being an “enemy of Trump.”
When the justices on the Colorado Supreme Court finally found the spine to vote him off the ballot, within hours the threats began. Now they’re having to pay for security for themselves and their family members, and go to sleep every night dreading the possibility that a lone wolf Trump supporter — like the one who broke into Paul Pelosi’s home and attacked him with a hammer — may be looking for them, too.
As NBC News reported, Trump’s followers reacted to the Colorado justices with predictable ferocity:
“’This ends when we kill these f--kers,’ a user wrote on a pro-Trump forum that was used by several Jan. 6 rioters.}:
“’Kill judges. Behead judges. Roundhouse kick a judge into the concrete,’ read a post on a fringe website. ‘Slam dunk a judge’s baby into the trashcan.’”}:
NBC’s Ryan Reilly added:
“The threats fit into a predictable and familiar pattern, seen time and time again after legal developments against Trump.”}:
Thus, Jack Smith was unable to find even four Supreme Court justices who were willing to grant cert to hear his challenge to Trump’s claim of absolute immunity from prosecution; terrified, they left the case with the DC Circuit Court of Appeals in the hope those judges will draw Trump’s ire — and his followers’ fire — thus diluting their own risk.
This is how fascism takes over a nation from within: with violence and the fear of violence.
I’ve been doing what is now the nation’s largest progressive radio/TV show for 20 years, reaching an estimated audience of 6 million a week. My writings here on HartmannReport.com are frequently reprinted by other progressive media.
The result is that I regularly get threats, although this is not a phenomenon shared by my rightwing colleagues. When I asked a couple of rightwing radio hosts I’ve known for years if they get threats of violence or death, each said, “No.”
There is no movement advocating political violence on either the American left or in the center. It is entirely confined to the American right, and the media needs to admit that and the FBI needs to recalibrate their efforts.
As fascism expert and historian Emilio Gentile noted about how fascist movements start and gain power:
“In the beginning there was violence.”}:
Violence and the threats of violence are the key to understanding fascists like Trump and the movements they inspire.
As any professional interrogator can tell you, deep down inside, all of us humans are really just scared little kids. The more we’re broken down by the circumstances of life or government policy, the less secure we feel, the harder it is to get by in life, and the more scared we become.
And, for many people, out of that fear comes the willingness — hell, the enthusiasm — to embrace “big daddy” in the form of a tough guy leader who promises to “restore” those who feel the fear back to their previous (or imagined future) positions of power, wealth, and authority.
This becomes particularly easy for fascist leaders when their followers are convinced that the nation’s government has become hopelessly corrupt, a project rightwing fossil fuel billionaires, rightwing media, and Republican politicians have been promoting here in the US for decades.
Ever since the Reagan Revolution, in their zeal to cut their own taxes and stop regulation of the fossil fuel and other polluting industries, they’ve been hammering the message that our government has been seized by “deep state socialists” bent on destroying our country.
Republicans and the billionaires who own them have repeated this conspiracy theory so often for the last few decades that an entire religion, Qanon, as arisen around it.
This belief, that much of what our government does is illegitimate or even malicious, makes it easy for low-information voters to bind themselves to a fascist “reform movement” that promises better times ahead.
As fascist followers act out their violent threats against their leaders’ perceived enemies, they get an inner sense of strength and the feeling that they’ve joined a community: that diminishes their own fear for a short while.
The more an “other” — political enemies; racial, religious, and gender minorities; women — are blamed for the ills of the nation, the more vigilante-style violence against them is justified and the more violent the future becomes.
When the state pushes back against that violence, as America did after January 6th, the calls for increased violence become even louder. Trump is practically shouting “kill them!” with a bullhorn and even our court system is afraid to stop him by throwing him into jail as they would have any other common criminal who encouraged such violence against judges, juries, witnesses, court officials, and their families.
Calling people to violence by denouncing those being scapegoated is central to fascist politics.
Mussolini used to feature Italian “whistleblowers” who, like Joe McCarthy here back in the day, would call out “corrupt” government officials whose only real crime was not supporting him. Hitler had every radio station in Germany play phone calls from local citizens who denounced their neighbors for sympathizing with Jews, socialists, or trade union organizers.
Once publicly targeted in these ways, mobs or lone-wolf assassins would descend on these people’s homes. After a few well-publicized beatings and killings, everybody from media figures to politicians to judges backed away from trying to stop fascists or even hold them accountable.
When he was rising to power in Hungary, for example, Victor Orbàn’s right-hand-man led a torchlight march into a Budapest Roma neighborhood threatening to burn the “gypsies” — who fled in terror — out of their homes. More recently, Orbán started arresting people who “defamed” him on social media.
Soon, nobody in or out of the government is willing to stand up to the fascists; it’s too dangerous and too exhausting. Being the object of regular threats of violence or death is not something anybody would volunteer for unless they saw the stakes as being very, very important.
This is what Trump and the GOP he’s captured are working toward: the silencing of dissent and accountability, replacing them with fear and a guilty complicity. Just take a look at the state of social media today, particularly Xitter and Facebook, which have dialed back on their content moderation and thus loosed the fascists on anybody who dares criticize Trump or the GOP.
As Michael Ebner wrote in his book “Ordinary Violence in Mussolini’s Italy”:
“The Fascist state ruled Italy violently, projecting its coercive power deeply and diffusely into society through confinement, imprisonment, low-level physical assaults, economic deprivations, intimidation, discrimination and other quotidian forms of coercion.
“Moreover, by promoting denunciatory practices, the regime cemented the loyalties of 'upstanding' citizens while suppressing opponents, dissenters and social outsiders.”
Trump is telling us right up right now that he intends to rule as a fascist if he’s able to either win or seize power through other means in 2024. Informally, his militia followers will be showing up at polling places next fall to intimidate voters; they see themselves as the shock troops of the new GOP.
Formally, he’s planning on ending your and my protections against state-sponsored police violence, which he openly intends to deploy against anybody who opposes him and his regime:
“I am also going to indemnify our police officers. This is a big thing, and it’s a brand-new thing, and I think it’s so important. I’m going to indemnify, through the federal government, all police officers and law enforcement officials throughout the United States from being destroyed by the radical left for taking strong actions against crime.”
When Trump says “crime,” of course, he’s using the same fascist-speak that Hitler, Mussolini, Putin, and Orbán use that means “minorities” and “political enemies.”
And his followers are listening and acting.
The Anti-Defamation League published a report finding there have been more than 170 murders committed by rightwing (and, I’d add, therefore probably Trump-aligned) extremists over the past five years; only 3 deaths could be attributed to people “on the left.” None of the victims were “criminals.”
So, how does a nation deal with an epidemic of violent rhetoric and actual violent attempts?
SEE OFFENSIVE:
Fascists are always a minority when they rise to power in a country. They’re experts at manipulating democratic systems — particularly through things like voter suppression, gerrymandering, voter roll purges, and voter intimidation — to seize power, and then corrupting the existing systems and laws in ways that keep them in power.
At the moment, the fascist movement in the US is very much confined within the GOP and aligned with fringe militia and fundamentalist religious factions.
Merrick Garland should have come down on them hard as soon as he assumed his job as Attorney General; because he dithered for two full years until he was shamed into appointing Jack Smith by the January 6th Committee, Trump’s fascist followers have gained considerable momentum.
By continuing to refuse to investigate or prosecute the people who are still in power and conspired with Trump to overthrow our government, Garland further empowers America’s homegrown fascist movement. This must stop, and news that the FBI has finally acquired some of the content of Congressman Scott Perry’s phone is a positive sign, albeit too little and too late.
But the ultimate victory over fascism in America has to be in the ballot box rather than the courthouse. Americans who believe in democracy and reject strongman oligarchy must turn out next November in overwhelming numbers and so shatter the GOP that the party will be forced to reinvent itself in a way that includes purging itself of its fascist-supporting members.
And we damn well better succeed, because fascists never give you a second chance to defeat them or hold them to account. If we try to stop them and fail, Trump has already told us he’ll have a nice cold cell waiting for you and me in the concentration camps he promises to build to hold “millions.”
There is pretty much nothing more important now than waking up our friends and neighbors to this threat…
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// false flag
mma 11 23 j6 tapes
- ## Police suffered injuries at the hands of the rioters and allowed some movement in an attempt to de-escalate
- The police union has said 140 police officers suffered injuries from January 6.The Washington Post, [1/27/21]
- Police battled to keep rioters out of the Capitol but in some cases stood by because they were outnumbered or engaged politely to try to de-escalate.CNN reported:
The claim that the rioters were invited into the Capitol is false. ... There were hours-long battles between police and rioters near some entrances. CNN obtained footage from police body-worn cameras showing how dozens of officers engaged in hand-to-hand combat with rioters in a desperate effort to keep them out of the building. There are plenty of instances where rioters waltzed into the Capitol without a fight, but only after they had stormed past barricades and, in some cases, even stepped through broken windows. In some areas, police were so outnumbered by the mob that they retreated, stood aside or tried to politely engage with rioters to de-escalate the situation rather than fighting or making arrests, but that is clearly not the same as welcoming rioters into the building. CNN, [1/4/22]
- Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger stated that Capitol Police “did their best to use de-escalation tactics to try to talk rioters into getting each other to leave the building.” In a memo to staff, Manger disputed “outrageous and false” claims that Capitol Police served as “tour guides” for Jacob Chansley, aka the QAnon Shaman. Manger wrote that “Capitol Police were badly outnumbered on Jan. 6” and that “those officers did their best to use de-escalation tactics to try to talk rioters into getting each other to leave the building.” The Washington Post, [3/7/23]
- Capitol Police officers testified to the January 6 Committee that the day was “nothing short of brutal,” that there was “carnage” and it was a “war scene.” The committee also aired body camera footage from the officers that showed rioters shoving officers and pushing down barricades outside the Capitol. NPR, [7/27/21, 6/23/21, The Associated Press, 6/10/22]
- Police onsite were massively outnumbered by rioters, with an estimated 2,000 people entering the Capitol building and under 200 officers at the Capitol building itself. Forbes, [12/16/21, ABC7, 1/6/22]
- ## Right-wing media claim police allowed protestors to enter the Capitol and suggest that means it wasn’t a violent insurrection
- Newsmax host Greg Kelly stated that it is “actually not true” that rioters broke into the Capitol and instead “some people were invited inside, and the police officers seemed to welcome them there.” While showing footage of protestors entering, Kelly also asserted that “this blows open the preferred January 6 narrative.” Newsmax, *Greg Kelly Reports*, [11/17/23]
- Newsmax host Eric Bolling said the footage shows Capitol police “escorting the protestors.” He asked his guest Rudy Giuliani, “I mean, does that look like an overthrow of the United States government to you, sir?” Newsmax, *Eric Bolling The Balance*, [11/17/23]
- Also on Newsmax, host Rob Schmitt claimed that protesters in the Capitol looked like they were taking “a tour,” adding that the “QAnon Shaman was actually escorted into the Capitol by police.” Schmitt acknowledged that there was some violence but nevertheless told his audience, “This is a much different day than it was portrayed by the media and by your members of Congress” and called the footage “an important reminder to always, always question what you are told by your government.” In fact, as The Associated Press reported in March, court documents and video footage from the attack show that the QAnon Shaman “entered the Capitol without permission, was repeatedly asked to leave the building and was not accompanied at all times.” Newsmax, *Rob Schmitt Tonight*, [11/17/23; The Associated Press, 3/7/23]
- Conservative podcast host Kyle Becker called the footage “bizarre” for showing rioters “casually walking the halls.”He posted, “This newly released J6 video is BIZARRE. All of these dangerous ‘insurrectionists’ casually walking the halls... right next to Capitol Police and FBI agents in full riot gear. WHAT is going on here? 👀” Twitter/X, [11/18/23]
- Right-wing personality Liz Wheeler claimed that Capitol police were “directing the insurrectionists” with a “handshake & pat on the back.” She posted, “Capitol police directing the insurrectionists who to insurrection with a handshake & pat on the back. Mark my words, the key to alllll of this lies with Nancy Pelosi.” Twitter/X, [11/17/23]
- Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk asserted that “the J6 Committee’s violent insurrection narrative has crumbled” and called for the immediate release of rioters. He posted, “And just like that the J6 Committee’s violent insurrection narrative has crumbled. The Capitol Police facilitated the protesters passage through the building. The vast majority of J6ers should be immediately released.” Twitter/X, [11/17/23]
- Conservative commentator Benny Johnson noted police “were giving handshakes to protestors” and determined that “this is not an insurrection.” He posted, “Capitol Police were giving handshakes to protesters. Now ask yourselves this; In which ‘insurrection’ or ‘Rebellion’ in history would this have happened in? None — because this is not an ‘insurrection.’” Twitter/X, [11/17/23]
- Conservative commentator Rogan O'Handley, also known as DC Draino, posted, “Wow what an ‘insurrection’! Watch as J6ers slowly walk past Capitol Police who just watch. Democrats said this was worse than 9/11.” X, [11/17/23]
- Right-wing conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer dismissed concerns of right-wing violence at the Capitol because Capitol police were “fist-bumping” rioters. She said: “Oh, if these cops are so concerned, and this was really worse than 9/11 and Pearl Harbor combined, and, you know, it's like a modern day Nazi rally in our nation's capital, why is it that the Capitol Police are fist-bumping these people?” Rumble, *Loomer Unleashed*, [11/17/23]
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Inside the Mar-a-Lago Premiere of 'Police State': 'We're Already in One'
Trump wasn't at Mar-a-Lago for a red-carpet movie premiere Wednesday night, but his presence was felt — and celebrated — by around 500 conservative influencers, media personalities and politicians who partied at the former president's Florida home without him.
The premiere was for Dinesh D'Souza's documentary, Police State, about allegedly normal, harmless Americans who say they've been arrested, harassed or censored by various branches of the U.S. government.
While not there, Trump posted online his support for the film and midway through the party D'Souza read the message aloud to guests. The movie exposes "the witch hunt that the deep state has against me. And the police state is coming for you," Trump wrote.
D'Souza also alluded to a civil trial where Trump is accused of exaggerating the value of his assets, including Mar-a-Lago, which Trump said was worth more than $1 billion while a judge has said it's value is between $18 million-$27 million.
"It's hard to believe this place is worth only $18 million," D'Souza told the assembled in a large hall near the swimming pool.
"Maybe some of us should buy it; sell it for $400 million and use the profits to buy Fox News," he joked to laughter and applause.
:{:{From left, Dinesh D'Souza speaks alongside Debbie D'Souza and Dan and Paula Bongino at the premiere of "Police State" at Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago club and estate on November 1, 2023. The film is about allegedly normal, harmless Americans who say they've been arrested, harassed or censored by various branches of the U.S. government.}:
While progressives typically dismiss D'Souza's work as conspiratorial, a Rasmussen poll in September found that 72 percent of voters are worried that the U.S. is becoming a police state, which the poll described as a tyrannical government that engages in mass surveillance, censorship, ideological indoctrination and targeting of political opponents.
What Americans fail to agree on is from which side of the aisle the threat comes from. D'Souza's film tries to make the case it is mainly from the left, though he does criticize a few Republicans — most notably former President George W. Bush — for their alleged contributions.
Progressives also often discount D'Souza's movies because he pleaded guilty in 2014 to enlisting the help of a straw donor so that he could give more money than was allowed by law to a Senate candidate.
After D'Souza served his sentence, Trump pardoned him, and D'Souza briefly revisits the episode in his movie.
While Rotten Tomatoes gives the movie an 82 percent audience score at time of publishing, a critic at the progressive outlet, Mother Jones, calls it the work of "far-right fringe characters" and laments: "None of the alleged victims in Police State are innocent people like George Floyd or Breonna Taylor, who literally died at the hands of overzealous cops."
But at Wednesday's premiere, the movie earned a standing ovation.
Off to the sidelines, D'Souza told Newsweek that he has run into several odd problems in the distribution and marketing of the film, which he says has thus far played for two nights at mostly sold-out theaters, raking in about $1.5 million.
Most notably, he accused the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network of the U.S. Department of the Treasury of "intercepting" a $106,000 payment to Salem Media to purchase ads for the movie.
"We now have to retrieve our funds, and it's going to be a hassle," he said.
Newsweek has reached out to the Treasury Department and will update this story should it respond.
Newsweek reviewed documentation indicating that the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has held up funds D'Souza attempted to wire to Salem for the purpose of advertising.
OFAC's stated mission is to enforce trade sanctions based on national security goals that include terrorist threats, weapons of mass destruction and narcotics traffickers.
"Why would they intercept our domestic wire? They can't seize our money and pretend there is some legitimate government purpose for doing it," D'Souza said.
D'Souza, a former adviser to President Ronald Reagan, is the right's most successful producer of conservative documentaries. In 2012, his debut movie, 2016: Obama's America, scored $33 million at the box office, enough to become the second most popular political documentary of all time, after Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11.
Partners in the film include YouTube competitor Rumble, which is streaming the movie, and talk-radio host Dan Bongino.
Ahead of the film, Bongino motioned toward Rumble CEO Chris Pavlovski and said: "His idea was to create a free speech, free idea platform...Make no mistake — this guy's got a lot of guts."
U.S. Senate candidate Kari Lake told Newsweek: "We are living in a police state. It's pretty apparent. Look at January 6 and the two tiers of justice. Our rights are slipping away and more people are waking up to it."
:{:{Senate candidate Kari Lake attends the "Police State" premiere at Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago on November 1, 2023. She says it is "pretty apparent" Americans live in a police state}:
D'Souza said that authorities who claimed to be saving democracy, upholding the rule of law, fighting misinformation and saving lives with COVID restrictions have abused their power.
A police state is "coming to us in disguise. It's coming to us marching behind the slogans of virtue," he said. "The task of this film is to strip away the facade."
When D'Souza introduced the families of some of those who were arrested during the January 6, 2021, riots at the U.S. Capitol, the crowd applauded.
Will Pope, who attended the premiere and the riots, and has been charged with several crimes associated with the latter, told Newsweek: "Nobody there that day was trying to overthrow the government. Most are normal people who don't mean you any harm, and they love America."
Actor Kevin Sorbo, who played TV's Hercules in the 1980s and stars mostly in faith-based films like God's Not Dead nowadays, told Newsweek: "Free speech has been disappearing quickly. That's the truth, but the truth is kryptonite to Hollywood and to Washington, D.C."
:{:{'Hercules' actor Kevin Sorbo takes a selfie at Mar-a-Lago. Donald Trump's estate hosted the premiere of the documentary "Police State" on November 1.}:
Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who is facing charges in Fulton County, Georgia, that allege he tried to subvert the will of voters in 2020, similar to charges against Trump, told Newsweek that the mainstream media is biased against conservatives.
"The coverage is consistent with the country. A large percentage of it, through Biden, is becoming fascist," he said. "The coverage is despicable, disgraceful, unpatriotic and, at times, supportive of criminal conspiracies, and I include Newsweek."
Fox News personality Leo Terrell, who switched from liberal to conservative in 2016, told Newsweek that Police State is a timely movie for all Americans, but added: "Liberals won't watch it, but they should."
Actor Nick Searcy, who plays a composite FBI character in Police State, was at the January 6 riots and made a documentary about it, dubbed Capitol Punishment. He told Newsweek that he's working on a sequel.
"The suppression of free speech should concern both sides. The intimidation of everyday Americans can happen to anyone," he said.
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an 1123
in 2020, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer was, according to the FBI and U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) officials, the target of a kidnapping plot by far-right militia extremists. The would-be kidnappers, angry over Whitmer's response to the COVID-19 pandemic, reportedly planned to subject her to a fake "trial" and execute her if convicted.
Altogether, 14 people faced federal criminal charges for their alleged roles in the plot; five were convicted by a jury, four entered "guilty" pleas, and five were acquitted. Two of the ones who were acquitted, twin brothers Michael and William Null, were recently honored by far-right Michigan State Rep. Rachelle Smit — who, the Daily Beast reports, honored them at a late-October ceremony."
In a report published on November 8, the Daily Beast's Kelly Weill emphasizes that Smit and other far-right MAGA Republicans are seriously distorting the facts in the plot to kidnap Whitmer.
At the ceremony, Weill reports, Smit gave Michael and Wiliam Null a certificate that read, "Michael Null is an outstanding example of the kind of person who is not content to sit idly while the forces of tyranny attack our Republic. Through his courageous efforts to expose the government's false-flag Whitmer conspiracy, he has made it clear that we all have opportunities each and every day to put our love of country to good use in helping out our fellow citizens."
The certificate also said, "Michael Null could have given up. His government — state and federal — betrayed him: it sent members of its secret police forces to concoct a plot to 'kidnap' Gretchen Whitmer, and to persecute innocent men in this government-orchestrated conspiracy, for the purpose of political theater and political gain."
But Smit, according to Weill, downplays the fact that nine of the defendants in the Whitmer case were either convicted or pled guilty.
"When the FBI announced the arrests of 14 men accused of plotting to kidnap Whitmer, Michigan’s Democratic governor in 2020, commentators on the right were quick to call it a hoax," Weill explains. "While on the 2022 campaign trail, Michigan Republicans even falsely accused Whitmer of concocting the plot herself. When two men were acquitted in the scheme, a GOP gubernatorial candidate running against Whitmer baselessly asserted that 'the FBI conceived a plot to kidnap Gretchen Whitmer and preyed on Michiganders to push it along.'"
READ MORE:'Bitter disputes' and MAGA extremism are leaving the Michigan GOP 'starving for cash': report
The MAGA gubernatorial candidate that Weill is referring to is Garrett Soldano.Far-right conspiracy theorist Julie Kelly, Weill notes, has also described the kidnapping plot as a "hoax."
In response to Smit honoring the Hull Brothers, former Michigan GOP Chairman Jeff Timmer told the Beast, "It's this normalizing, inch by inch, of political violence, making what would've previously been intolerable tolerable in the sense that we just have become numb to it. It's not too distant — if it's distant at all — from the Republican Party, its elected officials, and its party officers…. many of whom, prominent members of Congress from Michigan, members of the legislature, members of the elected party apparatus, have ties to these people who were part of the kidnapping plot."
Barbara McQuade, a former federal prosecutor and frequent legal analyst for MSNBC, described honoring the Hull Brothers as "a very dangerous and reckless move."
McQuade told the Beast, "They were acquitted at trial. And certainly, that means that the jury found that the government had failed to prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt, and we should respect that verdict. But it's quite another thing to celebrate political violence."
*Read The Daily Beast's full report at this link (subscription required).
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https://www.alternet.org/republicans-are-disproportionately-credulous-misinformation/
Why Republicans are 'disproportionately credulous about health-related misinformation': analysis
WASHINGTON, DC - JULY 20: Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) speaks to reporters following a Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee hearing at the Dirksen Senate Office Building on July 20, 2021 in Washington, DC. The committee heard testimony about the Biden administration's ongoing plans to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic and Delta variant. (Photo by Stefani Reynolds-Pool/Getty Images).
Brandon Gage August 22, 2023
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, conservative politicians like United States Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, (R-Georgia), Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R), and former President Donald Trump established themselves as faucets of "wildly conspiratorial" "health-related misinformation," according to The Washington Post's Philip Bump, who examines why those tactics have been successful amongst Republican votersin a Tuesday analysis of KFF surveys.
"Greene, of course, has a well-earned reputation as a purveyor of conspiracy theories and misinformation," Bump notes. "But this particular bit of performed skepticism was not an area in which she was freelancing. In recent days there has been a resurgence in the idea that the government is attempting to manipulate the citizenry through COVID-19, with 'I WILL NOT COMPLY' trending — yes, in all caps — on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, on Tuesday morning. That refusal to comply centers on nonexistent or theoretical mandates, which doesn't seem to have dissipated the energy."
Bump adds that "new research shows the extent to which Republicans are disproportionately credulous about health-related misinformation. It's not just that there is an uprising against an imaginary imposition, it's also that Republicans are consistently more likely to express belief in false claims related to COVID-19 and other things. Greene is by no means alone."
The data, Bump explains, shows that "Republicans were on average 20 percent more likely to state that they believed the false claims were accurate. Foremost among them: the regularly debunked idea that the coronavirus vaccine has caused thousands of deaths in otherwise healthy people. Nearly half of Republicans think that's true."
Moreover, nearly fifty percent "also think thativermectin is an effective treatment for the COVID-19 virus, which it is not. This has long been a leading example of how partisanship infiltrated the discussion about COVID-19 treatments, with other research showing that in places that voted for Donald Trump, people were more likely to seek information about the drug, and more prescriptions for it were written."
Bump points out that there is a correlation between belief in fake facts about SARS-COV-2 and deaths from the disease, mainly due to doubts about the efficacy of vaccinations, stating that "research made public last year found that after vaccines became widely available, Republicans made up more of the COVID-19-related deaths in Ohio and Florida."
Bump continues, "KFF found that abouttwo-thirds of Democrats didn’t believe any of the false claims about COVID-19 or vaccines. Only about a quarter of Republicans — and not many more independents — fell into the same category."
READ MORE: 'Clearly defined body count': Florida and Ohio Republicans experienced 43 percent more COVID deaths than Dems
Respondents were questioned about "other health-related subjects, including gun violence," Bump adds. "Again, Republicans were more likely than Democrats to believe false claims about gun violence. In this case, independents landed closer to the middle."
Bump contends that partisan bias lies at the heart of the disparity, writing, "The claims centered on COVID-19 and vaccines are largely ones that have been debunked by health professionals or government actors, groups that are viewed more skeptically by independents. KFF's research shows that while most Americans trust their personal doctors' health recommendations, that trust drops off when respondents were asked about the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or state and local health officials. Independents were less trusting of state and local health officials' recommendation than were Republicans."
Bump stresses that "Democrats are far more trusting of recommendations from the Biden administration than Trump; for Republicans, it's the opposite," which based on KFF's figures is attributable to the absorption of alternative media narratives
"That Republicans often cite Fox News as a source for information — and are about as likely to say they consume Newsmax as they are to view CNN — comports with the higher acceptance of false claims about guns," says Bump. "These are not generally questions adjudicated in the context of public health (despite the obvious overlap with health concerns). Things like Fox News' frequent presentations about gun crime or school shootings, generally framed through a right-wing lens, likely contribute to the imbalance."
Bump observes that "it's probably less that the respondents believe the false claims than they are willing to express some acceptance of them, given how their politics establishes that as a standard response."
Bump concludes, "In Ohio and Florida, at least, this seems to have been proved — at times — deadly."
View Bump's report at this link (subscription required).
BUSTED: ‘Right-wing misinformation’ newspaper gave a GOP presidential candidate up to $5 million in salary
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an 8 23
some fraudsters prey on people's better instincts, using their compassion against them. Federal prosecutors allege that two men who were arrested on Thursday, August 17 did exactly that in elaborate fraud operations.
According to New York Times reporters Chris Cameron and David A. Fahrenthold, federal prosecutors allege that Richard Zeitlin and Robert Piaro "bilked small donors who had wanted to support causes such as aid for military veterans and breast cancer research."
Federal Southern District of New York prosecutor Damian Williams allege that Zeitlin and Piaro "exploited these important causes and the good intentions of everyday citizens."
Cameron and Fahrenthold report, "Mr. Zeitlin, 53, of Las Vegas, is charged with fraud, obstruction of justice and conspiracy. Mr. Piaro, 73, of Fredonia, Wisconsin is charged with wire fraud and mail fraud. Both face lengthy prison sentences if convicted. The indictments do not say that Mr. Zeitlin and Mr. Piaro were working together on the same scheme, though Mr. Williams said they had lied to and stolen from donors who thought they were giving to groups aiding veterans, law enforcement and the fight against breast cancer."
The reporters note that Southern District prosecutors allege that Zeitlin instructed his call center employees to tell donors they would be helping veterans by "getting them the medical needs the VA doesn't provide." And they allege that Piaro "made and authorized others to make fraudulent claims" about how donations to different political action committees would be spent."
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mma 8 23
no lnx
The FBI killed a Utah man who issued numerous death threats. Far-right figures are now claiming the Biden administration is coming to kill conservatives.
Emerging narratives echo right-wing reaction to the infamous 1992 raid in Ruby Ridge, Idaho
WRITTEN BY MADELINE PELTZ
PUBLISHED 08/11/23
After a Utah man was shot and killed by the FBI following a months long investigation into threats against President Joe Biden, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, and other public officials, some extremist right-wing media figures are now spinning the incident to claim the federal government is willing to kill any critic of Democrats.
In the early morning hours of August 9, the FBI served warrants at the home of Craig Deleeuw Robertson, who was killed by an agent. According to CBS News, charging documents against Robertson alleged that he made multiple explicit “online posts” that “showed an intent to kill Mr. Biden,” who was scheduled to appear in Utah later that day. The charging documents reportedly claim Robertson also wrote about fulfilling a “dream” of killing Bragg, the New York DA who earlier this year indicted former President Donald Trump. NBC News reported that the FBI alleges Robertson’s social media posts also “mentioned many other politicians, including New York Attorney General Letitia James, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland and California Gov. Gavin Newsom.”
There is a significant lack of information regarding Robertson’s death so far. NBC reports that the raid is “under review by the FBI’s Inspection Division,” and according to CBS, “authorities have not publicly confirmed the man who was killed is the man named in the complaint.” And any government killing is worth giving heavy scrutiny to, regardless of the circumstance. There are reasonable questions here and the FBI must answer them or be held accountable.
Some right-wing media figures, however, have already jumped to extreme fearmongering about the incident to claim the Biden administration is intentionally using deadly force against Democrats’ online critics.
“Stop the Steal” organizer Ali Alexander wrote on Telegram: “The FBI is now killing online critics of Biden. This is all by design."
Ali Utah
CitationScreenshot from Ali Alexander's Telegram channel
On his Real America’s Voice show, neo-Nazi collaborator Jack Posobiec said, “This looks like a show of force. This looks like a message. This looks like a message being sent to the people of this country — threaten us and we’ll show up at your home at 6:15 in the morning and take you out. That’s what it looks like, folks.”
On Twitter (recently rebranded as X), “alt-right” activist and rape apologist Mike Cernovich wrote that Robertson’s death “was to send a message” after the “FBI assassination team” had “sworn an oath to demons.”
Cernovich
CitationScreenshot from Mike Cernovich's Twitter account
On Fox News, Laura Ingraham said the killing “kind of amounts to a smear” with the “implicit” message to “millions of Americans who may have supported President Trump or other conservatives implying that they can’t be trusted or, I don’t know, is it when in doubt, shoot first, ask questions later?”
Other far-right figures posted similar comments about the incident on social media, writing that the FBI had shot Robertson “in cold blood because he criticized Joe Biden online,” and claiming that the government “basically said that they wanted to kill a Biden critic to set an example.” On GETTR, former Trump adviser Steve Bannon simply wrote, “In Cold Blood,” and linked to a tweet from Posobiec.
This commentary is reminiscent of the radical right’s reactions to the Ruby Ridge incident of 1992, an 11-day standoff in Idaho between federal agents and the family of Randy Weaver, a Christian fundamentalist affiliated with the far-right white separatist movement. The standoff resulted in the deaths of Weaver’s wife, son, and a federal marshal.
On the August 10 edition of his show THOUGHTCRIME, Charlie Kirk specifically invoked Ruby Ridge and the deadly 1993 siege on a cult compound in Waco, Texas, saying “We know from Waco and Ruby Ridge that there's some really bad people that could be in the FBI. We know that.”
Video
CitationFrom the August 10, 2023, edition of Thoughtcrime
Rudy Ridge became a critical political touchstone among far-right activists and inspired acts of domestic terrorism, including the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing which killed 168 people, including 19 children, and injured 759.
In a 2017 interview with ABC News, Jess Walter, a reporter who covered the incident of Ruby Ridge, explained, “The fallout from Ruby Ridge was [that it] sort of mainstreamed some of those really right-wing conspiratorial beliefs and, in many ways, when you have conspiracy buffs saying the government’s out to kill you, and then a case like that happens, it just continues to reverberate and echo.”
“Right-wing media starts in the era after this,” the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Heidi Beirich also noted. “All of this builds out of the rage that was symbolized with this event.”
Pagination
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IN THIS ARTICLE
Ali Alexander
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Related
Neo-Nazi collaborator Jack Posobiec: “I'm sure that you know someone in your life” who posts explicit, repeated death threats against government officials
08/11/23 1
Laura Ingraham suggests the FBI executed man who had made repeated threats to assassinate multiple political enemies of Donald Trump
08/10/23
Media Matters weekly newsletter, August 11
08/11/23
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https://www.mediamatters.org/climate-deniers/15-nonsensical-comments-made-right-wing-media-during-2023s-summer-climate-fueled
15 nonsensical comments made by right-wing media during 2023’s summer of climate-fueled extreme weather events
Special PROGRAMS
CLIMATE & ENERGY
WRITTEN BY ALLISON FISHER
PUBLISHED 08/07/23
July 2023 was the earth’s hottest month on record, punctuated by record-shattering extreme heat events, catastrophic floods, and historic wildfires. While major media outlets sounded the alarm on the climate crisis, climate denial and downplay reached a fever pitch among right-wing media outlets and influencers.
Many in the right-wing media have downplayed the record heat — suggesting that it’s normal summer weather, despite clear evidence that the intensity of this summer’s heat waves would not have been possible without climate change — or dismissed its lethal impact by arguing that more people die of cold than heat. Others have said those linking July’s extreme weather to climate change are weaponizing these events to push a radical climate agenda or call for climate lockdowns.
Here are 15 other examples that illustrate the lengths to which right-wing media are going — often deploying nonsensical arguments or outright lies that attempt to ignore the fact that there is scientific consensus that carbon emissions are heating our planet— to maintain climate denial in the face of climate-fueled catastrophes:
1 in
- response to extreme weather that grounded planes in the Northeast, Fox host Rachel Campos-Duffy said the left is “trying to control the weather” and “trying to be God.” Fox News, Fox & Friends, [7/3/23]
- Responding to calls for climate action, Newsmax host Eric Bolling denied that human activity is responsible for warming: “Real scientists, meaning those not purchased by the kings of propaganda, well, they’ll tell you there is actually no such thing as climate change.” Newsmax, Eric Bolling The Balance, [7/11/23]
- Fossil fuel shill Steve Milloy on Newsmax’s Rob Schmitt Tonight: “The Earth is greener than ever before. Have we affected the planet and wildlife? Yeah, sure. But you know, in the end, it's been, I think, positive. The Earth is carrying more life now than ever before thanks to warming, thanks to CO2, thanks to fossil fuel use.” Newsmax, Rob Schmitt Tonight, [7/11/23]
- Newsmax host Greg Kelly said that “LGBTQ+IA whatever has been kind of pushed so relentlessly. … I think climate change and the whole phony debate about it has something to do with it,” suggesting the goal is to decrease population in order to reduce climate impacts. Newsmax, Greg Kelly Reports, [7/11/23]
- Fox host Jesse Watters suggested that U.S. special presidential envoy for climateJohn Kerry made it “impossible” to believe in climate change because according to Watters he lied about using a private plane. Fox News, Jesse Watters Primetime, [7/13/23]
- Conservative radio and Fox News host Mark Levin on his radioshow said climate change is a religion not based on science: “This is a religion. This is an ideology. This isn’t science. ...Don't you see how hot it is in Nevada? In the middle of the damn summer?It's what we have air conditioning for.”Westwood One, The Mark Levin Show, [7/13/23]
- Far-right media host Steven Crowder claims that carbon dioxide is not pollution because plants use it: “Is carbon dioxide the — basically, you know, the neurotoxin atmospheric poison that people make it out to be? Because you just pointed out plants thrive on it.” Rumble, Louder with Crowder, [7/15/23]
- Fox host Greg Gutfeld attempted to downplay the record-breaking heat with bizarre logic: “The problem with using weather — like saying, ‘This place broke records’ — how many states,how many countries didn't break records? Nobody ever provides you the context. They’re going, ‘Three countries had record-breaking heat waves.’ It’s like, well, how many countries are there?” Fox News, The Five, [7/17/23]
- The Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh claimed that the record heat is not a result of human activity but the sun: “The sun … that’s what calls the shots on Earth. It determines the temperature. It determines everything in terms of weather. … And until you can figure out a way to literally control the sun, there is basically nothing we can do to intentionally and significantly raise, lower, or otherwise affect the temperature on Earth.” The Daily Wire, The Matt Walsh Show, [7/18/23]
- The Daily Wire’s Ben Shapiro: “Thank God we have this thing called air conditioning. … You know what’s a great cure for being super-duper hot outside? Being a first world country.” The Daily Wire, The Ben Shapiro Show, [7/20/23]
- Fox Business host Larry Kudlow on America Reports: “This is not an overly hot July. ... Hot weather happens in some places; cooler weather happens in other places. We do not have a climate catastrophe.” Fox News, America Reports, [7/21/23]
- :{Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk on climate science and why carbon dioxide is not pollution: “The science is not solid. The science is debated. They look at science as if it is religious, irrefutable dogma.” Kirk added, “The built-in premise of the climate hoax is carbon is bad. OK, well, carbon is life, actually. …:{ Don’t plants thrive on carbon dioxide?}:” :{Real America’s Voice:(style="background-color:#ffff66ff"):}:, The Charlie Kirk Show, [7/24/23]}:
- On The Ingraham Angle, American Majority founder Ned Ryun called climate change a “hoax”: “It is nothing more than an attempt to manipulate people into a state of fear to have them give more control over to a ruling elitewho would take this hoax and enforce it through a whole host of means:{.” Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, :(style="background-color:#ffffffff"):}:[7/27/23:{]}:
- :{:{On America’s Newsroom, fossil fuel shill Daniel Turner deliberately conflated weather with climate}:: “And if you look at the weather forecast for this great city, where I’m born and raised, next Friday is mid-70s. So we are in what's called a heat wave.” :{Fox News, America’s Newsroom:(style="background-color:#6633ffff"):}:, [7/28/23]}:
- Climate denier Marc Morano on Jesse Watters Primetime blamed global wildfires on arsonists, dismissing the role of climate change: “This is a global problem of people starting this. Now, is it climate change? Well, this would be the equivalent of blowing up a dam or sabotaging a dam and allowing a valley to flood and then saying, oh, look, climate change is causing more floods.” Fox News, Jesse Watters Primetime, [7/28/23]
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Next page
Related
Right-wing media deny climate change in face of deadly and record-breaking extreme weather event
07/20/23
Right-wing media downplay the hottest day in modern history with the help of Twitter’s community notes feature
07/11/23
Only 5% of national TV news segments on the record-shattering heat wave that scorched Texas mentioned climate change
07/03/23
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https://twitter.com/RightWingWatch/status/1673383652409876482
call for prayer ### river
carbon credit party 2 yrs, sign contract to die, watch movie, woman breasts 7 yo dick cut off heroes, already cda woman killed herself good for earth 23 states hu compost for food we eat bugs
June 26, 2023
- If you missed the right-wing Road To Majority conference last week, we can pretty much sum it all up for you in just one word: Woke.
- Tim Barton says that critics have to use ad hominem attacks on him and his father, Christian nationalist pseudo-historian David Barton, for not having any academic credentials as historians because they know they can’t attack the history they present “because what we’re promoting is actually true.”
- The fact that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is hosting a “health policy roundtable” featuring unhinged anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist Sherri Tenpenny should tell you all you need to know.
- Jarrin Jackson is angry that GOP figures talk generically about God: “Be specific. Jesus Christ. The One of Scripture. The One Who rose (bodily) from the grave for the remission of sins. It is a deception to not be specific when He so clearly changed the course of history on the cross. Don’t let Muslims smuggle in Allah. Or Buddhists Buddha. Or Jews ‘not Christ’. Or pagans Thor. Or atheists science & reason. Christ is King.”
- Sean Feucht brags that members of Congress helped him sneak into the U.S Capitol so that he could take communion in the Rotunda: “We laid hands all over that place. We brought oil. We brought shofars. We’re crazy.”
- Finally, if you arrive at church to find Alex Jones up on stage with your pastor, ranting about how they’ll require you “to cut your children’s genitals off to get ESG money” as they mandate “government-forced suicide” perhaps it is time to find another church?
Tags: Alex Jones Jarrin Jackson Rodney Howard-Browne Sean Feucht Tim Barton Leftovers Road to Majority Conference Faith and Freedom Coalition
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SPLC year in hate rept
As Militia Numbers Decline, Antigovernment Threat Persists
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ca is officially a devil term/ verb
no lnx twit vid
'So we’re legislating nothing': Texas Democrat stumps GOP sponsor of anti-'tyrannical government' bill
Brandon Gage
May 07, 2023
Texas State Representative Jarvis Johnson [AA] (D-Houston) stumped State Representative Carrie Isaac (R-Dripping Springs) during last Thursday's debate over a proposal that Isaac sponsored to supposedly shield Texans from California's "tyrannical government."
Chron explained on Friday that "House Bill 3137 stops a municipality from instituting regulations surrounding the transfer, possession, wearing, carrying, ownership, storage, transportation, licensing, or registration of firearms, air guns, knives, ammunition, or firearm-related gun supplies or accessories. At the same time, the bill prohibits local governments from requiring gun owners to get liability insurance for damages resulting from negligent or willful acts involving firearms."
The outlet also noted that "according to a February report by Reuters, the San Jose bill passed in January 2022 with an ordinance requiring gun owners to obtain liability insurance to cover negligence or accidents from using firearms. The San Jose bill also requires gun owners to pay a yearly fee to gun violence prevention organizations the city manager picks. Due to pending litigation, the bill hasn't been enforced in the city yet."
READ MORE: 'Now it’s God’s fault': Texas Republican slammed for claiming 'the almighty' controls shootings
Bit by bit, Johnson poked holes in Isaac's assertions.
"What does your bill specifically do?" Johnson asked Isaac.
"It will not allow municipalities to require insurance on firearms," Isaac replied.
"So otherwise, other words, does your bill prohibit mayors, city councils, and county commissioners from legally governing themselves when it comes to guns?" Johnson wondered.
READ MORE: Marjorie Taylor Greene blames Texas mall shooting on 'mental illness' and 'evil forces'
"They do not have this right," Isaac declared.
"They don't have the right to do what?" Johnson followed up.
"To infringe upon our second amendment," Isaac said.
"Who — you mean again, cities, mayors," Johnson clarified.
"Correct," Isaac confirmed.
"Do mayors, city councils, and county commissioners have a right to pass laws that protect the citizens of their community?" Johnson posited.
"As long as it doesn't infringe on our constitutional rights," Isaac responded as her comrades began surrounding her.
"The constitutional right to do what?" Johnson pressed.
"To protect ourselves with our Second Amendment," Isaac proclaimed.
"From what?" Johnson continued.
"From a tyrannical government," Isaac reiterated.
"A tyrannical government. Which government currently is being tyrannical?" Johnson asked.
"Say that again, I'm sorry," Isaac requested.
"Which government is currently being tyrannical?" Johnson repeated.
Isaac struggled to provide a coherent answer.
"Yeah. It would prevent any tyrannical gun, any tyrannical," she said amid whispers from her colleagues.
"Is there a municipality currently that this law is in place?" Johnson asked.
:{:{}:
}:
"That's not what this is about," a male voice grumbles.
:{:{}:
}:
"Yes, actually there is," Isaac stated.
:{:{}:
}:
"Where?" asked Johnson.
:{:{}:
}:
"San Jose, California," Isaac said.
"Oh, I, I didn't know we were California. I'm asking in Texas..." Johnson quipped.
"I'm sorry, say that again," Isaac requested again.
:{:{}:
}:
"Is there a city in Texas?" Johnson asked more forcefully.
:{:{}:
}:
At this point, Isaac was being fed answers.
"Answer every question. Keep saying what you want us say," Isaac was told.
"Um, no, there is not, and that's the, and this still will prevent that from happening here in Texas," Isaac insisted.
"So then that means we're legislating nothing?" Johnson pointed out.
"We're preventing it from happening here in Texas," Isaac shot back.
"So it hasn't happened yet," Johnson said.
"That's correct," Isaac agreed.
"So, again, we're legislating nothing," Johnson added.
"Don't California my Texas," Isaac snapped.
"Are we legislating nothing?" Johnson asked one last time, albeit in vain. "So we're legislating nothing."
Watch below or at this link.
READ MORE: 'Uvalde would like a word': Texas Republican scolded for blaming Friday’s mass shooting on 'the migrants'
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Neither 'compassion' nor 'leadership': Greg Abbott blasted for calling shooting victims 'illegal immigrants' ›
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Texas relaxed gun laws after recent mass shootings | AP News ›
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...>The resolution, which is largely symbolic, is influenced by the writings of a Wisconsin pastor who promotes the idea of resistance to civil authority. The commissioners who voted for the resolution,all Christian, are committed to the idea that God has blessed America.
We wish to highlight freedoms and constitutional rights which have been violated over the past few years as well as those currently at risk due to societal and political pressures,” said Ottawa County vice chair Sylvia Rhodea in a prepared statement prior to the vote Wednesday (May 24).
Among those violations she mentioned was a “requiredaffirmation of a Marxist DEI value systemfor some county positions,” which she said conflicts with her religious beliefs. (DEI is an acronym for “diversity, equity and inclusion,” an organizational framework that promotes full participation of people or groups that have historically been underrepresented.) She also noted individual freedoms that were “repeatedly violated” during the coronavirus pandemic.
The 9-1 vote, with the lone Democrat on the Board of Commissioners opposing the measure, came after midnight, following six hours of public comment. It was the latest foray for the newly elected board, which swept into office in January on a platform of restoring the county’sJudeo-Christian heritage and thwartingtyranny, government overreach and injustice.</p>
Hundreds of residents of Ottawa County crammed into the commissioners’ meeting room and an overflow room on Tuesday. By a 3-2 ratio, they begged the commissioners not to adopt the resolution.
;If every local governmental unit saw its role as interpreting and following the Constitution as they see fit, our democracy would collapse and our country would fall into chaos,” said Milton Nieuwsma of Holland, Michigan, who spoke up at the meeting.
The>resolution adopted ;not to authorize or appropriate funds, resources, employees, agencies, contractors, buildings, or offices for the purpose of enforcing any statute, law, rule, order or regulation that restricts the rights of any law-abiding citizen affirmed by the United States Constitution.”
It was not clear if the county intended, for example, to resist a red flag law that aims to keep firearms away from those at risk of harming themselves or others. Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed the red flag law on Monday.
Ottawa County, which voted for Donald Trump by >nearly 60% in 2020, is a deeply red county in a blue state that went for President Joe Biden.
Last year, a newly formed organization called Ottawa Impact unseated eight incumbent Republican county commissioners to win a controlling majority of the 11-member board. (Two of those commissioners have since publicly distanced themselves from the group but nonetheless voted to approve the “constitutional county” resolution.)
"Vice-Chairperson Sylvia Rhodea, second from right, speaks during an Ottawa County Board of Commissioners meeting, Tuesday, May 23, 2023, in Grand Haven, Michigan. Vice Chairperson Sylvia Rhodea, second from right, speaks during an Ottawa County Board of Commissioners meeting, May 23, 2023, in Grand Haven, Michigan.
The new commissioners became politically active after the county and state health departments shut down a Hudsonville Christian school for not complying with a 2020 coronavirus mask mandate that resulted in an outbreak.
While Ottawa County has long been the province of Dutch settlers with
a distinct Calvinist brand of Christianity, it has recently been consumed by a more muscular form of evangelical Christianity common in other parts of the country. That Christianity, sometimes called Christian nationalism, maintains that preserving a Christian America may require overturning laws.
RELATEd https://religionnews.com/2023/05/17/what-is-christian-nationalism-anyway/">What is Christian nationalism, anyway?
In their first meeting on Jan. 3, the new commissioners fired the county administrator and legal counsel, closed the county’s office for diversity, equity and inclusion and attempted to demote the health officer. They also changed the county motto from “Ottawa County: Where You Belong” to “Ottawa County: Where Freedom Rings.”
;They are about this far-right agenda of ‘We’re going to do things their way,’ and by the way, ‘we’re going to use Scripture to get there,’” said Roger Bergman, the sole incumbent Republican commissioner who was not defeated in 2020. He was not present at Tuesday’s meeting.
In drafting the resolution to become a “constitutional county,” the commissioners were relying on the writings of Matt Trewhella, a Brookfield, Wisconsin, pastor who in the 1990s created an anti-abortion militia and more recently has been active in promoting the idea of resistance to civil authorities based on the ideas of John Calvin and the Magdeburg Confession of 1550, which called on Protestant pastors to resist political tyranny.<
Pastor Matthew Trewhella gives an online sermon in an Oct. 2022 video>Pastor Matt Trewhella gives an online sermon in an October 2022 video. Video screen grab
Trewhella gave a talk at an Ottawa County GOP fundraiser on May 10, where his self-published 2013 book, “The Doctrine of the Lesser Magistrates,” was available. His newest venture is awebsitecalled County Before Country: Expanding God’s Kingdom through Christian Localism.
Both Joe Moss, the new chairman of the county commission, as well as Rhodea, his vice chair, endorsed Trewhella’s book and made a YouTube
to promote his ideas.
“Understand, the wicked tyrants always count on the blithe compliance of the lesser authorities in order to get their evil down in the fabric of society,” Trewhella said at the May 10 GOP fundraiser, according to an audio recording of his talk. “The interposition of the lesser authorities is massively important to stop evil in a nation.”
County commissioners are generally tasked with overseeing the health and safety of residents. They supervise those who plow the roads, maintain the parks and issue licenses and certificates.
Resolutions like this, say law experts, have no teeth.<;re assertions of ideological spleen,” said Nicholas Bagley, a law professor at the University of Michigan. “It’s a way for the counties to signal that they are unhappy with the direction the state is going. But legally the declarations are meaningless.”
Still, many residents expressed shock and dismay at their county commissioners’ actions Tuesday. They included a Michigan State University student who was barricaded in a gym on campus during the Feb. 13 mass shooting that resulted in the deaths of three students. She begged commissioners not to disregard new gun safety laws.
David Barnosky, a retired pipeline surveyor who began a Facebook group called Ottawa Objects, said the new commissioners have abrogated power that is not theirs.
“They think they know everything,” said Barnosky. “They’re not even close.”
RELATED: https://religionnews.com/2023/01/06/a-christian-nationalist-taxonomy/">Who are the Christian nationalists? A taxonomy for the post-Jan. 6 world
This story was reported with support from the Stiefel Freethought Foundation
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https://www.newsmax.com/newsmax-tv/marc-morano-climate-energy-bans/2023/05/07/id/1118901/
gmail 5 23
no lnx
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people on the left may be dismissing bans against natural gas-powered stoves and other items as conspiracy theories, but the push to block such items in the name of fighting climate change is today's "reality," Climate Depot founder Marc Morano, a former member of the Senate Environmental and Public Works Committee, told Newsmax on Sunday.
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"I'm old enough to remember when The New York Times called this a conspiracy theory just two months ago," Morano commented on Newsmax's "Wake Up America," while referring to the state's push to ban gas stoves in new construction. "They're going after every aspect of modern society to punish us for our climate sins."
He added that the "ideology" is "masquerading as a religion or even a cult" of people who believe that "by banning gas lawnmowers, gas stoves, and gas-powered vehicles that they're going to somehow improve hurricanes and tornadoes and Mother Earth will be smiling at us."
Morano pointed out that a few years ago, Discovery Magazine reported that the "air conditioner is killing the planet."
That led to The Washington Post saying, "'we don't need air conditioning. Neither do you,'" said Morano. "Spain just this past year was saying that residents aren't going to be able to turn their air conditioner colder than 81. Time magazine is talking about how air conditioners are terrible for the planet. Well, all of that is the ideology of activists who literally want to shut down our modern way…what's next in the regulatory agenda to go after our air conditioners are gone? After all our appliances?"
Advocates are also going after "meat eating; they've gone after our energy," he added. "They're collapsing our energy, transportation, food, our free speech. The fix is in."
Meanwhile, he said he was glad to see climate activists protesting at the Met Gala last week, as that is "where the ruling class elite is [who are] pushing all of these restrictions on the rest of us."
But still, the activists that went after the Met Gala and who are vandalizing works of art in galleries "are funded by the same people who attend the Met Gala," said Morano. "In other words, these are thebig millionaires and billionaires and corporate leftist groups that literally are paying these agitators to go out and create all this havoc in order to have a net zero climate-safe world."
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Related Stories:
New York on Verge of Being First State to Ban Natural Gas
Ninth Circuit Tosses Out Ban on Gas Stoves
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WTF?
same weekend PU truck plows into migrants
https://www.alternet.org/texas-state-rep-almighty-shootings/
https://www.alternet.org/texas-democrat-greg-abbott-explain/ dem call out
gop wants more guns https://www.alternet.org/texas-lawmaker-god-responsible-shooting/
https://www.alternet.org/she-had-no-face/
an 5 23
no lnx vid twt
texas Governor Greg Abbott declined to say whether he would support measures to reduce gun violence during an appearance on Fox News Sunday.
Abbott's remarks come a day after eight people were murdered in Saturday's mass shooting — the 199th so far in 2023 — at the Allen Premium Outlets in Allen, Texas.
Speaking with anchor Shannon Bream, Abbott blamed "the government" for the massacre.
READ MORE: 'Now it’s God’s fault': Texas Republican slammed for claiming 'the almighty' controls shootings
"And I'll be going up to Allen [DOGGED BY UVALDE FUNDRAISER FAIL?] later today to begin the process, uh, providing hope and, and healing. But I gotta tell you that there are questions that are lingering that the families want answers to, and that is, why did this happen?Why did the government do this? How did this happen? And I know that those families need an answer as quickly as possible," Abbott said. "And then the last thing I'll tell you, and, andI just wanna reiterate my gratitude and the gratitude of all Texans for the swift response of that police officer — you had just a single police officer who had to confront, uh, that dangerous gunman — and did the right thing by taking swift action to eliminate the gunman. [just happened to be there on another case?] And we are great for that officer's heroism."
Bream addressed recent Fox News polling showing that reasonable restrictions have enormous public support.
"Just out from Fox News. When you ask people what they wouldfavor, background checks for guns, enforcing existing gun laws, legal age to 21, requiring mental health checks, flagging people for danger to self, all of those score at more than eighty percent. Are there things that you would consider in Texas or that you think Congress should consider at a federal level along those lines?" Bream asked.
"Well, on the federal level, as you know, some laws were passed last year to begin to address this. At the state level, listen, this is something that we've been grappling with over the past year. And there are some potential easy solutions such as passing laws that we're working on right now to get guns out of the hands of dangerous criminals [AA?] and to criminals into increased penalties for criminals who possess guns," replied Abbott, who has loosened firearm laws in the Lone Star State in spite of the recent spikes in violence.
READ MORE: 'So we’re legislating nothing': Texas Democrat stumps GOP sponsor of anti-'tyrannical government' bill
"But, Shannon, we need to, to recognize a reality. What we've seen across the United States over the past year or two. And that is a, an increased number of shootings in both red states and blue states. Shannon, we've seen an increased number of shootings in states with easy gun laws as well as states with very strict gun laws," Abbott continued. "I think that the state in which the largest number of victims, uh, have occurred this year is in California where they have very tough gun laws where 11 people died."
That statement is demonstrably false. According to WiseVoter.org, California ranks 44th in terms of gun deaths per capita, with 8.5 per 100,000. Texas, however, sits at 26th, with 14.2 per 100,000.
"And so one thing that we can observe very easily, and that is there has been a dramatic increase in the amount of anger and violence that's taking place in America," Abbott stated. "And what Texas is doing in a big-time way, we are working to address that anger and violence by going to its root cause, which is addressing the mental health problems behind it."
But the governor was not quite finished.
"One, one last thing about this, Shannon, and that is, it truly seems today that America is more divided than we've been in decades," he declared, adding that "we gotta find a way in this country where we can once again reunite Americans as Americans and come together as one big family, and in that regard, find ways to reduce violence in our country."
Watch the clips below or at this link.
READ MORE: 'She had no face': Witness and father recalls 'carnage' from Saturday’s Texas mass shooting
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morano gmail 5 23
uSA Today is raising the eco-warrior cry over the new “battleground” in the fight against the climate bogeyman: Americans’ lawns.
No, we’re not kidding.
The liberal newspaper doom mongered how “[g]as leaf blowers and lawn mowers are shockingly bad for the planet” and praised how “[b]ans are beginning to spread.” USA Today immediately kicked off its nutty April 30 climate agitprop by making it seem like the fight against lawnmowers was a noble crusade against Thanos’ minions in Marvel’s Avengers: Endgame (2019): “Your lawn may be the next climate change battleground. And parks. And playgrounds.”
The newspaper ludicrously propagandized that “[r]egulators and clean-air advocates are increasingly eyeing the pollution emitted by small gasoline engines used to power lawn mowers and leaf blowers as they seek to blunt climate change.” The newspaper apparently found this nonstory so important that it plastered the item on the front page of its May 1 print edition. [Climate avengers, assemble!]
twt no lnx
in other words: sure, small business owners may have their profit margins sliced significantly, but at least it’s in the name of fighting ManBearPig. The newspaper praised California, Denver, Colorado and Washington, D.C. as crusaders leading the regulatory fight against the supposed lawn mower threat. “Here we go again,” Climate Depot Founder Marc Morano said in comments to MRC Business. “Every day Americans wake up to find that some new unelected bureaucracy or bureaucrat has determined that in order to save the planet, a major modern tool or convenience is going to be banned.” Morano blasted USA Today for pushing woke, eco agitprop:
Forcing Americans to pay three times higher for electric equipment in order to save the planet and meet climate goals -- is unacceptable.
All Americans need to know about these restrictions, said JunkScience.com founder Steve Milloy, is that “the government can still use gas-powered blowers but residents and their lawn care companies can't. It's obviously not about air quality.” Rather, Milloy stated, “it's about left-wing government asserting more and more mindless control over our lives. Even if it was true that gas-powered lawn equipment somehow affected air quality or were too noisy, I'd rather suffer that than rogue government.”
Of course, USA Today never mentioned anything about the existence of homeowner association [HOA(s)] regulations that commonly regulate household landscaping across many communities in the U.S. HOA-USA.com estimated that there are currently 370,000 HOAs in the U.S. representing over 40 million households.
One of the common HOA violations that should be avoided, said BankRate.com, involved landscaping.“HOAs are responsible for the community’s curb appeal, so expect yours to have rules about overgrown lawns, weeds and unkempt exteriors.” So by USA Today’s logic, it’s either Americans living or operating in HOA communities pay a small fortune to upgrade their landscaping equipment or risk a possible HOA fine.
"Will Bill Gates, Leonardo DiCaprio, Al Gore, John Kerry, and UN officials give up private jet flying,"Morano questioned. "Or is it just ordinary Americans who have to give up gas leaf blowers, gas stoves, and gas lawn mowers?"
Conservatives are under attack. Contact USA Today Interim Editor-in-Chief Michael McCarter at EIC@usatoday.com and demand his publication quit targeting Americans’ landscaping equipment.
Marc Morano
Business
Global Warming
Pollution
ESG
USA Today
Environment
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Cali Bureaucrats Bans Sale of Diesel Trucks After 2036
Washington Examiner’s ‘Liberal Media Scream’ With the MRC’s Assessment
Bloomberg LP Insanely Boasts About Its Latest Anti-AmericanESGPush on Companies
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mma 4 23 plot to make us buy fat pills
on watters
RACHEL CAMPOS-DUFFY (HOST): Pandemic would have been a really great time to scare America back into shape. We learned early on that one of the biggest predictors of COVID-related deaths was obesity.
But what did Democrats do? They shut down the playgrounds, gyms, and they forced you to stay in your house and order takeout. Instead of focusing on our health, America put on the pandemic equivalent of the freshman 15.
...
If her response sounds strange, this might put some of the missing pieces together. Dr. Stanford has taken thousands of dollars from pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk which manufactures the miracle weight loss drug Ozempic. Can you say conflict of interest?
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https://www.mediamatters.org/alex-jones/alex-jones-praises-robert-f-kennedy-jr-listening-infowars
no lnx vid
Alex Jones praises Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for listening to Infowars
Jones: “Kennedy's definitely awake, and knows what's going on, and has been listening to the show for a very long time”
WRITTEN BY MEDIA MATTERS STAFF
PUBLISHED 04/21/23
Video CitationFrom the April 21, 2023, edition of Infowars' The Alex Jones Show
ALEX JONES (HOST): The line in the sand, folks, is the children. You let 'em come after our children, you don't fight 'em with everything you've got, God's gonna cut you off for eternity. And we will burn. Absence from God is a hell unspeakable.
Let's go back to the phone calls, I want to hurry through them now. What was your point, Jerry, that you wanted to get to? Thanks for the plugs and things, but what were the points you wanted to make about RFK Jr.?
CALLER: You know, I watched his entire speech the other day, and I listened giving him a chance thinking he was just gonna be another Democrat, but I gotta be honest, I am a two-time Trumper, and I am not a Trumper at all anymore. He's still pushing the shots, I agree with Justin, one of your last callers. Joe Biggs, he's still in jail. He left you standing high and dry at the Capitol. He hasn't come out. I mean if people don't see that he's part of the problem, they're crazy. But after listening to Bobby Kennedy Jr., and I was a Democrat up until I was 22 and I'm 58 and I've switched, but I actually thought to myself after watching that speech, everything he said was fantastic, if he's the real deal -- I mean, I think we gotta give him a look. And yesterday when I was on hold you mentioned you were gonna do a Saturday show on him. Better yet, you should invite him on! I mean come on --
JONES: Well, no, no, here's the deal. I've talked to Kennedy's people and they say, we're talking 20 years ago, 10 years ago, they go, Mr. Kennedy respects you and thinks you're doing great work but obviously you are so toxic with some people that it would hurt some of his long-term plans. He's been planning to run for president forever, he's been building his network. I think he's a good man overall, don't agree with all his policies, but I know he's a real -- I mean you can feel it, discernment, see it, America first, he gets it. And I think he should get the nomination from the Democrats, and then it can be Trump versus him or however that's gonna go down. But I don't think Kennedy should come on because with his constituents that would probably hurt him and might lose it.
But yes, Kennedy is a listener. I'll leave it at that. We have the same publisher of his books, of my book, and I'm not gonna try to get Kennedy in trouble with this, and of course, he can deny it if he wants, that's fine, but Kennedy's definitely awake, and knows what's going on, and has been listening to the show for a very long time. I mean, my gosh, I've been at the forefront of the JFK assassination and Robert F. Kennedy assassination information and of course covered it forever.Well, he knows better than anybody what really happened, so that'll kind of wake you up when the government kills your dad and your uncle.
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mma 4 23
no lnx
Charlie Kirk says government borrowing is “creating the precondition for a massive confiscation of private property”
Kirk: “The amount we're borrowing is going to incentivize the federal government to confiscate more assets”
WRITTEN BY MEDIA MATTERS STAFF
PUBLISHED 04/20/23
Video
CitationFrom the April 20, 2023, edition of The Charlie Kirk Show
CHARLIE KIRK (HOST): This is going - the amount we're borrowing is going to incentivize the federal government to confiscate more assets because they'll say okay well in order for us to then be able to balance our books, then let's just say that if you have three homes we're going to take two of them. I am not kidding. They are creating the precondition for a massive confiscation of private property and a mass confiscation of wealth.
When you borrow you can either default on your debt or one of these lunatics is going to say you know, look, why don't we just go pay your fair share and we're going to go confiscate hundreds of billions of dollars from the plutocrats and the oligarchs and by the way if you have a high ESG score you'll be exempt. This is the way they're headed.
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mma 4 23
LAURA INGRAHAM (GUEST): The dual sense of justice, that there's one style of justice if you're connected to liberals and there's another type of justice -- which is injustice -- if you don't agree with the in-crowd. Whether it's on immigration, or China, or, you know, all the wars, or, you know, government spending, you're a deplorable. They use the word "deplorable" for a reason.
Michelle Obama said, "It's the first time I'm proud to be an American" for a reason. They believed it. They believe that everyone in this audience, every one of you sitting here tonight, they -- if they could,I really believe they would shut you down, whether put you in a camp, or put you -- send you away somewhere so you're never heard from again.
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