Category: Goobermint

Police Website Reveals CDC Suppressing Defensive Gun Use Data

According to a report from Law Enforcement Today, recent revelations have exposed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for allegedly suppressing data on defensive gun use (DGU). This action has ignited debates over the transparency and potential politicization of the agency’s research on gun policy and public health.

The CDC, which studies various factors contributing to injury and mortality including firearm incidents, has been criticized for omitting defensive gun use statistics from its public communications. Despite commissioning a study from The National Academies’ Institute of Medicine and National Research Council, which recognized DGUs as a “common occurrence,” the CDC chose to exclude these statistics following pressure from gun-control advocates.

Documents obtained via Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests revealed that individuals such as Mark Bryant of the Gun Violence Archive, Devin Hughes of GVPedia, and Po Murray engaged with top CDC officials. They were introduced by the White House and Senator Dick Durbin’s office and pressed the CDC to downplay DGU frequencies, which range from estimates of 60,000 to 2.5 million annually in the U.S.

Mark Bryant was particularly outspoken, vehemently opposing the highest estimates of DGU. He was quoted in correspondence saying, “that statistic needs to be killed, buried, dug up, killed again and buried again. It is highly misleading, used out of context, and holds zero value even as an outlier in honest discussions surrounding DGUs.”

Despite initial reluctance, the CDC ultimately removed references to DGUs from its publications, a move that has been perceived as aligning the agency more with gun-control advocacy groups than with unbiased scientific inquiry. This has raised concerns about the CDC’s commitment to providing comprehensive and unbiased data.

Gary Kleck, professor emeritus at Florida State University’s College of Criminology and Criminal Justice and a long-time researcher of DGUs, criticized the CDC’s actions, suggesting they indicate the agency is a tool of gun-control advocates rather than a neutral body. Kleck, whose research supports at least 760,000 DGUs annually, emphasized the importance of rigorous methodology and empirical evidence in academic research.

This situation highlights the ongoing tension between scientific research and political influence, particularly in the contentious arena of gun policy. Critics argue that the CDC’s actions compromise its credibility as an evidence-based institution and call for greater transparency and accountability in its research practices.

“CDC is just aligning itself with the gun-control advocacy groups. It’s just saying: ‘we are their tool, and we will do their bidding.’ And that’s not what a government agency should do,” Kleck told Eddie Killian, the author of the Law Enforcement Today article.

Combine a small apocalyptic sect with one of its major prophecies being fulfilled, as they saw it, by a law enforcement agency who it is said were looking for headlines to bolster its reputation for an increased budget, and what you wind up with is this.

The Waco Siege: What Happened When the Feds Laid Siege to the Branch Davidian Compound

“The record of the Waco incident documents mistakes. What the record from Waco does not evidence, however, is any improper motive or intent on the part of law enforcement.”

The siege of the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas, is an important event in American history because it directly led to one of the biggest terrorist attacks on American soil – the bombing of the Oklahoma City Federal Building. It’s not necessary to defend this act of terrorism to understand why the entire freedom movement of the time was so incensed by it. Indeed, it stood as a symbol of federal overreach and the corruption of the Clinton Administration.

It’s important to separate fact from fiction when it comes to the siege of Waco, just as it is important to do so with the siege of Ruby Ridge or the attack on the American consulate in Benghazi. With every event, it is important to stick to the facts and what can be extrapolated from them to make the strongest argument about what went wrong and why, and what could be done differently in the future.

Continue reading “”

In a nutshell, the military is going to have real problems trying to pull this off.

Might Turn Out That POTATUS’ Gonzo Gaza Pier Plan Was a Blessing in Disguise.

No, no, no – I haven’t lost my cotton-pickin’ mind. Hear me out on this one.

Let’s recap what the plan was for those in the backseats.

POTATUS used the time he spent shrieking during what was billed as a “State of the Union” to drop the little bombshell that he was directing United States assets – read that as our military – to build a “floating pier” off of Gaza for humanitarian relief. That declaration was immediately followed by a blatant lie about “no US boots” would be “on the ground” as part of this evolution. Anyone with half a brain hearing this – which, in fairness, automatically excludes POTATUS – knew it was an impossibility to build such a thing WITHOUT “boots on the ground.”

US forces will build a temporary dock on the Gaza shoreline to allow delivery of humanitarian aid on a large scale, Joe Biden announced in his State of the Union speech, amid warnings of a widespread famine among the territory’s 2.3 million Palestinians.

…“Tonight, I’m directing the US military to lead an emergency mission to establish a temporary pier in the Mediterranean on the Gaza coast that can receive large ships carrying food, water, medicine and temporary shelters,” the president said.

He promised “no US boots will be on the ground”, and said: “This temporary pier would enable a massive increase in the amount of humanitarian assistance getting into Gaza every day.”

Those same rational types also realized that it would put any American personnel on or offshore directly in harm’s way, like rubber ducks in a carnival tub for the taking.

That was my main problem with potentially yet another administration-orchestrated snafu where only our military paid the price for their supreme incompetence and indifference to risk. I will admit to voicing boisterous and vociferous objections at every opportunity.

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BOOM: White House Blows Up as Israel Hits Iran

There’s an old joke about how the New York Times would announce the end of the world. “World to End Tomorrow; Women and Minorities Affected Most.” I’m here to tell you today that the real victims of Israel’s Thursday night airstrikes on Iran are in the Biden White House — and just two miles away in Washington’s exclusive Kalorama neighborhood.
I’ll get to that last part in a moment.

PJ Media’s own Paula Bolyard stayed up late last night to give you the up-to-the-minute coverage but, now that the dust has had a little while to settle, I’ve taken the zero-dark-thirty shift (Mountain Time) to serve up a little perspective with your morning coffee.

Please notice that Iran launched an unprecedentedly large drone and missile strike on Israel Saturday but everything they had either malfunctioned or was shot down. Israel seems to have hit Iran with impunity and, according to my friend and colleague Jennifer van Laar’s source, Israeli Air Force (IAF) warplanes simply did not show up on Iranian or Russian radar. Ponder for just a moment what that might have meant in the Russo-Ukraine War, had the West gotten serious from the start about arming Ukraine.

But I digress.

This one is a real stumper for the Biden administration. While there are no indications yet that the IAF hit any sites related to Iran’s mostly peaceful nuclear weapons program, it’s safe to say that the Obama-Biden Iran nuclear deal got “blowed up real good” last night.

Jen’s source also claims that the strike was “expected to be hypertargeted to eliminate IRN nuclear program and kill key personnel, eliminate known and suspected launch facilities” but nobody has admitted that’s what actually happened. “Iranian state press has reported that Tehran’s atomic facilities were left unharmed,” for whatever that’s worth.

Taking their cue from Barack Obama’s disastrous Middle East foreign policy, the White House has spent the last three years giving Tehran almost anything they wanted — relaxed sanctions, pallets of cash, treating Hamas with kid gloves, etc. — in exchange for pretending to do a somewhat better job of hiding their nuclear weapons program.

Whether or not Israel struck Iran’s nuclear sites, the IAF has proven that they can hit anything in Iran and there isn’t a damn thing Tehran can do to stop them. I’m not saying that Iran can’t strike back, because they surely will. Although I suspect that, after last night, Tehran might go back to using their proxies in Syria, Gaza, Yemen, etc instead of attacking Israel directly again. Whatever the case, the point remains that Iran’s air defenses cannot stop, hinder, or even see Israeli warplanes.

Biden’s Middle East foreign policy is in tatters, blown up along with whatever else Israel hit last night. Barack Obama, the architect of Biden’s Iran deals (and so much else), has failed this country — and the world — yet again, seven years after leaving office. The Arab-Israeli peace that Donald Trump’s team of SecState Mike Pompeo and Jared Kushner had worked so hard to create was tossed aside by Biden-Obama in 2021 in favor of making Iran the dominant regional power.

Now there’s no peace anywhere to be found. This is the inevitable result of making one of the world’s worst actors the cornerstone of your regional peace efforts.

Or maybe war was what they wanted all along.

VA halts taking away gun rights from veterans who require help managing their benefits — but only for 6 months

WASHINGTON — A new ban that has stopped the Department of Veterans Affairs from taking away the gun rights of veterans who are found to be incapable of managing their own financial affairs will expire in six months, VA officials said.

The VA in March ended its weekly practice of submitting the names of veterans appointed fiduciaries to handle their VA disability benefits to the FBI’s national background check database. The database contains information on people prohibited from buying or receiving firearms. Inclusion in the database legally disqualifies veterans from owning, possessing or buying firearms from licensed dealers.

The VA’s Veterans Benefits Administration, which disperses monthly benefit payments to veterans, has been required by federal law upon the VA’s appointment of a fiduciary to manage a veteran’s benefits to submit the veteran’s name to the FBI’s National Instant Background Check System, or NICS, as ineligible to own or possess firearms, according to the agency.

The new temporary provision does not overturn current law but essentially blocks VA from adding the names of veterans appointed fiduciaries to “the FBI-prohibited persons database in the NICS system,” said Aidan Johnston, director of federal affairs for the Gunowners of America, a nonprofit lobbying organization with two million members. Terrence Hayes, the VA press secretary, said the provision restricts VA from “using appropriated funds” to make reports to the NICS system without a court order or ruling.

The provision had bipartisan support, including from Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee Chairman Jon Tester, D-Mont., who for several years sought to overturn the practice by the Veterans Benefits Administration to notify the NICS system of veterans appointed fiduciaries. Tester said he knew of veterans who refused to apply for or collect VA benefits because they were worried about losing their gun rights. He said the law has punished people who receive VA benefits but need help managing their money.

The new legislation does not amend the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act, which authorizes the VA to report the names of “incompetent beneficiaries” to the FBI database that gun dealers check before selling firearms. Passage of the Brady Act in 1993 led to the establishment of the national background check system for firearm licensees.

Since 1998, the VA has reported veterans appointed fiduciaries to the NICS database. But the new policy, while temporary, means only those veterans declared by a court or magistrate as mentally incompetent and an imminent danger to themselves or others will be reported to the NICS system and legally lose their right to buy, possess or own a firearm. Navy veteran Abraham Conrique, an 82-year-old, part-time cab driver in Maryland, said he understands there are situations when a veteran should not have access to a gun, given his own personal history of service-related mental health problems. “I never had a court hearing over my mental health. But I’m smart enough to know that I shouldn’t have firearms with my level of PTSD. Some veterans need those restrictions,” said Conrique, who referred to his own diagnoses in 2020 for post-traumatic stress disorder. But only a judge should have the power to make that decision, said Conrique, a petty officer second class during the Vietnam War, with deployments in Vietnam and Japan.

The policy was adopted as an amendment to the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2024, signed into law last month. But it has an expiration date of Sept. 30, which is the end of fiscal 2024, said Kathleen McCarthy, communications director for the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs. “I will note that we are working on a permanent solution to this issue,” she said. “Anything that’s included in an appropriations bill is only authorized for that fiscal year, so next year the policy would need to be included in the appropriations bill for the following fiscal year and so on.”

The temporary provision is also limited in scope. It does not restore gun rights to veterans appointed fiduciaries prior to March 2024. The Veterans of Foreign Wars, Disabled American Veterans and American Legion have expressed support for legislation to end permanently the VA practice of submitting the names of veterans to the FBI’s database.

Patrick Murray, the VFW’s national legislative director, said at a hearing last month of the Senate and House Veterans’ Affairs committees that a VA administrator “should not be the person who removes the constitutional right to gun ownership. That is for a judge or magistrate to decide.”

Woke Soros-Funded Oakland DA Pamela Price Will Face Recall Vote After Nearly 80,000 Signed Petition to Oust Her Over Soaring Crime in Dem-Led City

Progressive Oakland District Attorney Pamela Price is set to face a recall after just 15 months, with a mass movement to get rid of her getting enough signatures over the soaring crime rate in the area.

Alameda County DA Price has been under pressure over the soaring levels of crime in the Bay Area city, with a recall effort she has claimed is ‘financed by billionaires’ and based in ‘hatred and racism’ gaining momentum.

Price herself has taken over $1 million from three political action committees funded by left-wing billionaire George Soros, according to the Washington Times. Continue reading “”

It does make you wonder if the demoncraps aren’t actually invested in gun manufacturers. I mean, they are a duplicitous lot.

Americans Stock Up on Firearms in Response to Biden’s Pushes for Gun Control

American citizens are stocking up on firearms as Democrat President Joe Biden ramps up pressure to strip them of their Second Amendment rights, according to a new report.

A bombshell study from a pro-gun group found that so-called “high-capacity magazines,” often defined by liberals as magazines with more than 10 rounds, are extremely common despite the efforts of Biden to demonize them.

In fact, the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) discovered that Americans collectively own 700 million magazines with a greater capacity than 10 rounds, a new report shows.

Biden’s extreme anti-gun rhetoric, especially his comments about the futility of an American militia against a standing army, have not helped calm the nerves of millions of Americans who see gun ownership as the last defense against tyranny.

But Biden has a tall task indeed if he wants to get Americans to forfeit their firearms.

The National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) found that 46 percent of detachable magazines owned by Americans are rifle magazines with a capacity of over 30 rounds.

The findings are a stinging rebuke of Biden’s alarmist gun rhetoric, which often paints “assault weapons” and high-capacity magazines as dangerous and unusual “weapons of war.”

In a statement, NSSF Senior Vice President & General Counsel Lawrence G. Keane said:

“The data establishes that law-abiding gun owners overwhelmingly choose magazines that have the capacity to hold more than ten rounds for lawful purposes including self-defense, target shooting, and hunting.”

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Californians Arming Up for Self-Defense as Illegals Flood into Cities

Californians are arming up for self-defense as the U.S. Border Patrol carries out street drop-offs of illegal immigrants in and around cities like San Diego.

The New York Post reported that “roughly 125,000 migrants have been released onto the streets in the San Diego area since September,” and many area residents are reacting by purchasing firearms and ammunition for themselves and their families.

Cory Gautereaux owns a gun store, Firearms Unlimited California, in northeast San Diego and he has seen business increase as more and more illegals are let loose on the streets.

Gautereaux said, “The problem for people that live around the gun store is the street dropoffs.”

He added, “That’s driven business to us.”

On October 11, 2023, the Daily Mail noted that the Border Patrol “[released] 13,000 migrants onto San Diego streets in a month due to overflowing shelters.”

The Post pointed out that gun shop customer Keith Carnevale echoed Gautereaux’s observations, “My wife and I have had home defense guns for many years. Recently, though, with all the stuff that’s happening south of the border and all the people coming over, my concerns have broadened.”

Carnevale indicated his whole family is now armed.

California has more gun controls than any state in the Union. Those controls include a ten-day waiting period for gun purchases; this means Californians who fear for their lives and go to a gun store to acquire a firearm for self-defense have to wait ten business days before taking possession of the gun.

Elizabeth Goitein

Call Your Reps Now – Tell them to vote “NO” on the extension of warrantless government surveillance.
Buried in the Section 702 reauthorization bill (RISAA) passed by the House on Friday is the biggest expansion of domestic surveillance since the Patriot Act. Senator Wyden calls this power “terrifying,” and he’s right. 2/25 twitter.com/RonWyden/statu…
Ron Wyden
@RonWyden
Apr 12
View on Twitter
This bill represents one of the most dramatic and terrifying expansions of government surveillance authority in history. I will do everything in my power to stop it from passing in the Senate.
I’ll explain how this new power works. Under current law, the government can compel “electronic communications service providers” that have direct access to communications to assist the NSA in conducting Section 702 surveillance. 3/25
In practice, that means companies like Verizon and Google must turn over the communications of the targets of Section 702 surveillance. (The targets must be foreigners overseas, although the communications can—and do—include communications with Americans.) 4/25
Through a seemingly innocuous change to the definition of “electronic communications surveillance provider,” an amendment offered by House intel committee (HPSCI) leaders and passed by the House vastly expands the universe of entities that can be compelled to assist the NSA. 5/25
If the bill becomes law, any company or individual that provides ANY service whatsoever may be forced to assist in NSA surveillance, as long as they have access to equipment on which communications are transmitted or stored—such as routers, servers, cell towers, etc. 6/25
That sweeps in an enormous range of U.S. businesses that provide wifi to their customers and therefore have access to equipment on which communications transit. Barber shops, laundromats, fitness centers, hardware stores, dentist’s offices… the list goes on and on. 7/25
It also includes commercial landlords that rent out the office space where tens of millions of Americans go to work every day—offices of journalists, lawyers, nonprofits, financial advisors, health care providers, and more. 8/25
When the amendment was first unveiled, one of the FISA Court amici took the highly unusual step of sounding a public alarm. Civil liberties advocates noted that the provision would encompass hotels, libraries, and coffee shops. 9/25 zwillgen.com/law-enforcemen…
zwillgen.com/law-enforcemen…
House Intelligence Committee FISA “Reform” Bill Would Greatly Expand the Class of Businesses and…
The version HPSCI leaders offered Friday therefore exempts… hotels, library shops, and coffee shops, plus a handful of other establishments. But as the FISA Court amicus promptly pointed out, the vast majority of U.S. businesses remain fair game. 10/25 zwillgen.com/law-enforcemen…
zwillgen.com/law-enforcemen…
FISA 702 Reauthorization Amendments: The Second Time is Not the Charm
The amendment even extends to service providers who come into our homes. House cleaners, plumbers, people performing repairs, and IT services providers have access to laptops and routers inside our homes and could be forced to serve as surrogate spies. 11/25
None of these people or businesses would be allowed to tell anyone about the assistance they were compelled to provide. They would be under a gag order, and they would face heavy penalties if they failed to comply with it. 12/25
That’s not even the worst part. Unlike Google and Verizon, most of these businesses and individuals lack the ability to isolate and turn over a target’s communications. So they would be required to give the NSA access to the equipment itself… 13/25
…or to use techniques or devices (presumably provided by the NSA) to copy and turn over entire communications streams and/or repositories of stored communications, which would inevitably include vast quantities of wholly domestic communications. 14/25
The NSA, having wholesale access to domestic communications on an unprecedented scale, would then be on the “honor system” to pull out and retain only the communications of approved foreign targets. (Let that sink in.) 15/25
HPSCI leaders deny that the administration has any intent to use this provision so broadly. Supposedly, there is a single type of service provider that the government wants to rope in. But they didn’t want anyone to know what that service provider was… 16/25
…so they hid the real goal by writing the amendment as broadly and vaguely as possible. But no worries, Americans! The administration isn’t actually going to USE all the power it just persuaded the House to give it. 17/25
I cannot overstate how mindblowingly irresponsible that is. I don’t think *any* administration should be trusted with an Orwellian power like this one. But even if *this* administration doesn’t plan to make full use of it… (Go ahead and fill in the blank.) 18/25
There are certain powers a government should not have in a democracy. The ability to force ordinary businesses and individuals to serve as surrogate spies is one of them. Even if the targets are supposed to be foreigners, a power this sweeping WILL be abused. 19/25
By the way, when a privacy advocate tried to get @Jim Himes 🇺🇸🇺🇦 to engage on this issue, here is the thoughtful and conscientious reply given by the ranking member of HPSCI, a man who clearly cares deeply about civil liberties. 20/25 twitter.com/jahimes/status…
Jim Himes
@jahimes
Apr 14
View on Twitter
You do that. But life is really too short to engage with people who need to use bombastic absurdities like “Stasi-like”. Yes I know exactly what is in there. Some of it is classified. And none of it is remotely “Stasi-like”. Sell your nonsense elsewhere.
The Senate MUST stop this train before it is too late. The Senate is scheduled to vote on the House-passed bill this week. If there’s an opportunity to remove this provision, senators should remove it. If not, they should vote against the bill. 21/25
The White House will tell senators they have no choice other than to pass the House bill, because Section 702 expires on April 19, and trying to fix the House bill—or pass different legislation—would take too long. But the April 19 deadline exists only on paper. 22/25
The administration has already obtained FISA Court approval to continue Section 702 surveillance until April 2025. According to the administration itself, that approval “grandfathers” surveillance for a full year, even if Section 702 expires. 23/25 news.bgov.com/bloomberg-gove…
news.bgov.com/bloomberg-gove…
FISA Court Approves One-Year Extension of Surveillance Power
A notional deadline is no reason to create a surveillance state. The Senate must take the time to get this right. It’s not just our civil liberties that are at stake—it’s our democracy. @Michael Bennet @SenatorBooker @Sherrod Brown @Senator Laphonza Butler @Sen. Maria Cantwell… 24/25
…@Senator Ben Cardin @Office of Sen. Coons @Senator John Fetterman @Senator John Hickenlooper @Senator Ben Ray Luján @Chris Murphy 🟧 @Senator Patty Murray @Ossoff’s Office @Senator Alex Padilla @Senator Jacky Rosen @Senator Brian Schatz @Senator Tina Smith @Sen. Debbie Stabenow @Senator Reverend Raphael Warnock @Senator Peter Welch 25/25

San Diego federal lawsuit challenges law banning most non-California residents from carrying guns

A firearms advocacy group and three people who live in Pennsylvania, Idaho and New Mexico filed a lawsuit Thursday in San Diego federal court challenging a state law that mostly bans non-California residents from carrying guns in the state.

The lawsuit alleges that the regulation violates the Second Amendment and 14th Amendment and should be overturned. It claims the law is “unconstitutionally restrictive” and bars the plaintiffs from carrying guns in California even though each have been issued concealed-carry permits in their home states.

“Individuals like Plaintiffs do not lose protection of their rights under the First Amendment’s speech or religion clauses when they cross state lines. Nor do they lose their protections under the Fourth Amendment’s prohibition on unreasonable searches and seizures,” the lawsuit alleges. “They likewise do not surrender their Second Amendment protected rights when they travel outside their home state.”

The office of state Attorney General Rob Bonta, who is the named defendant in the case, did not respond to a request for comment. Bonta’s office has vigorously defended the state’s challenged gun laws and other weapons laws in the past.
The lawsuit alleges that the three plaintiffs live out of state and wish to carry firearms when they visit California but are legally barred from doing so. The suit claims that the main exception to the law — for certain people who live out of state but operate a business in California and spend significant time at the business — is so narrow that it’s irrelevant.

Included among the plaintiffs is Christopher Hoffman, a Pittsburgh resident who lived in San Diego County between 1990 and 2012. According to the lawsuit, the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department previously issued Hoffman a concealed-carry weapon, or CCW, license on multiple occasions when he resided in the county.

“Hoffman … frequently returns to San Diego County to visit family and friends,” the lawsuit states. “Hoffman desires to carry a firearm in public for self-defense while he visits California and would do so if California law permitted him to.”

Continue reading “”

Joe Biden Is a Sniveling, Unabashed Coward

Joe Biden is a coward in every sense of the word. Cowardice emanates from him like rotting garbage. Cowardice overflows his speeches like a drain backing up from a clogged sewer line. Cowardice infects everything he touches. The well from which he extracts his cowardice is truly bottomless. To witness it, in its shameless, reeking putrescence, is utterly cringeworthy.

There is nothing beneath the man. There is nothing he won’t say or do to retain power. This is true of many politicians, but most understand in some Machiavellian sense that at least some show of strength, however artificial, is required from time to time. Even Barack Obama had a moral compass that, on rare occasions, would spring to life just long enough to effect confident, decisive decisions like killing Osama bin Laden (you should recall that everyone in the room except Biden supported the move, a point of shame about which he brags).

Over the years, Biden’s media quislings have laughably associated many virtuous adjectives with him in efforts to fortify his reputation. Decent. Moderate. Accomplished. Steady. Lucid. It is telling that nobody, not even the most ludicrous of leftist outlets, has ever called him brave.

That’s with good reason. And anybody still quietly harboring that delusion before this past weekend just got the red pill they needed. His betrayal of Israel should cement for any fence-sitters what the Russians, Chinese, and Iranians already knew full well: that Biden has all the spine of a common garden worm.

To recap, Iran fired roughly three hundred weapons at Israel, the first time that Iran has attacked Israel directly rather than through its regional proxies. At this, I must make two observations before moving on. First, the “drone” attack on Israel included 100 ballistic missiles. Second, the Iranian strikes against Israel weren’t “retaliatory.” They were part of a half-century Iranian policy of exterminating the Jewish nation of Israel. The Hamas attack of October 7 was this policy in action. By definition, any strike by Israel against Iran is retaliatory, not vice versa.

Back to the point. Less than a day after the unprecedented attack, Biden allegedly told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “that we have to think carefully and strategically” about the risks of escalation. An Islamic terrorist regime just fired 300 drones and missiles at an allied democracy to achieve its stated goal of finishing the job that Hitler started. But we wouldn’t want to risk escalation, would we?

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‘You got a win. Take the win’: Joe Biden tells Netanyahu

Joe Biden reportedly warned Benjamin Netanyahu that the US will not participate in any Israeli counter-attacks against Iran.

The US president and his senior advisers are highly concerned that an Israeli response to Iran’s attack would lead to a regional war with catastrophic consequences, US officials told Axios.

On Saturday evening, Iran launched its first-ever direct attack on Israel, involving more than 300 drones and missiles. The attack came in retaliation to an airstrike in Syria on April 1 that killed seven of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps – Israel has neither confirmed nor denied responsibility.

Mr Biden said the US and Israel had shot down “nearly all” of the drones and missiles launched by Tehran overnight, aided also by Britain, France and Jordan. Israel said 99 per cent were intercepted without hitting their targets and that “very little damage” had been caused.

American forces intercepted 70 drones and at least three ballistic missiles, according to CNN, while Mr Biden also said that US support for Israel was “ironclad”.

“You got a win. Take the win,” Mr Biden reportedly told Mr Netanyahu, adding that the US will not participate in any offensive operations. Mr Netanyahu reportedly said that he understands the US’s position.

Iran has said the attacks “achieved all its objectives” and that it is not planning any further operations. It warned Israel against taking any “reckless” actions, and said it would not hesitate to retaliate with a “much stronger response”.

However, Israel has said the “campaign is not over yet”.

Lloyd Austin, the US secretary of defence, has asked that Israel notify the US ahead of any response against Iran.

World leaders have condemned Iran’s attack, with regional powers Saudi Arabia and Egypt calling for restraint. Leaders from the G7 will hold a video conference later on Sunday to discuss the Iranian strikes and coordinate a united diplomatic response.

Joe Biden Approved Iran’s Assault on Israel ‘Within Certain Limits’.

On Saturday, Iran initiated a barrage of drones and ballistic missiles at Israel. Thankfully, most of them were successfully intercepted and caused minimal damage. Of course, in a stunning move, President Biden is pushing Israel not to retaliate. It’s hard to imagine why Biden would do that, except when you consider that Joe Biden has been appeasing Iran since his days as Barack Obama’s vice president.

With that in mind, it’s also not surprising—though it’s still shocking— that Joe Biden not only had prior knowledge of Iran’s assault on Israel but also technically gave it the green light under certain conditions, according to a report from the Jerusalem Post.

Iran informed Turkey in advance of its planned operation against Israel, a Turkish diplomatic source told Reuters on Sunday, adding that Washington had conveyed to Tehran via Ankara that any action it took had to be “within certain limits.”

Turkey, which has denounced Israel for its campaign on Gaza, said earlier on Sunday that it did not want a further escalation of tensions in the region.

The Turkish source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan had spoken to both his US  Iranian counterparts in the past week to discuss the planned Iranian operation, adding Ankara had been made aware of possible developments.

Earlier this week, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke to Fidan to make clear that escalation in the Middle East was not in anyone’s interest.

“Iran informed us in advance of what would happen. Possible developments also came up during the meeting with Blinken, and they (the US) conveyed to Iran through us that this reaction must be within certain limits,” the source said.

I’ve said before that, despite his public support for Israel, Biden has not been a friend to the Jewish state. And this report proves that. Joe Biden publicly told Iran not to attack Israel. When it was clear they didn’t give a hoot what he said, the Biden administration basically said it was fine to attack Israel as long as the attack was “within certain limits.”

And then Joe went on vacation.

Related: Trump Warned We Were on the Brink of WWIII Under Joe Biden, and He’s Been Proven Right

Considering the size and intensity of the attack, it’s reasonable to question whether Iran heeded that warning, but I would say it’s obvious Iran’s leaders did not.

So, let’s recap the facts here: Joe Biden told Iran’s leaders not to attack Israel, but they ignored him. Then he said they could attack Israel with some restrictions, though they clearly ignored that as well. Now, Biden is telling Israel not to retaliate.

In short, Biden is still appeasing Iran.

Why is Joe Biden still kowtowing to Iran and throwing Israel under the bus? I can’t answer that, but I know that Israel can’t listen to Biden because doing so threatens its existence.

Will the mainstream media report on this interesting development? Not likely. Make no mistake about it: The media will always cover for Joe Biden. They will spin this conflict as Joe Biden displaying leadership and resolve on the world stage. They’ll prop Biden up as a strong and confident leader, hoping it will become true if they repeat the lie often enough, while we’re supposed to pretend that we’re not on the precipice of World War III.

THE DEEP MEANING OF “DON’T:”

Would that President Biden had not warned the Iranian regime not to attack Israel with his pitiful “don’t” yesterday. In Bidenspeak, “don’t” is an invitation. It something like the shout-out for contestants to “come on down” on The Price Is Right.

 

Q.E.D.

 

Democrat-Run St. Louis Enters ‘Doom Loop.’

“The office district is empty, with boarded up towers, copper thieves, and failing retail,” reports the Wall Street Journal of Democrat-run St. Louis, Missouri. “[E]ven the Panera outlet shut down. The city is desperately trying to reverse the ‘doom loop.’”

Let’s look at the mayoral history of the doom-looping St. Louis, shall we?

Oh, look, there hasn’t been a Republican mayor in St. Louis since — not a typo — 1949. For 75 years, the people of St. Louis have voted for More of the Same, so excuse me if I don’t whip out a violin over all this unavoidable doom looping.

“Cities such as San Francisco and Chicago are trying to save their downtown office districts from spiraling into a doom loop,” writes the Wall Street Journal. “St. Louis is already trapped in one.”

The Journal notes:

As offices sit empty, shops and restaurants close and abandoned buildings become voids that suck the life out of the streets around them. Locals often find boarded-up buildings depressing and empty sidewalks scary. So even fewer people commute downtown.

This self-reinforcing cycle accelerated in recent years as the pandemic emptied offices. St. Louis’s central business district had the steepest drop in foot traffic of 66 major North American cities between the start of the pandemic and last summer, according to the University of Toronto’s School of Cities. Traffic has improved some in the past 12 months, but at a slower rate than many Midwestern cities.

In the immortal words of Jerry Seinfeld: Yeah, that’s a shame.

Back in 2006, downtown’s AT&T Tower building sold for $205 million. In 2022, it sold for $4 million.

Crime, naturally, is a problem. The Wall Street Journal describes a barbecue joint’s smoker pierced with a bullet hole, businesses already struggling forced to pay for private security, broken windows, graffiti, otherwise empty roads filled with reckless drivers, buildings destroyed by the homeless and copper thieves…

The city is trying to regroup with $50,000 cash payouts to small businesses that open up downtown. There’s a campaign that’s “adding landscaping, bike lanes, and traffic barriers.”

The idea is “to put more people on the street doing positive things,” Kurt Weigle of Greater St. Louis Inc. told the Wall Street Journal.

Democrats can either do something about reducing crime, taxes, and regulations or not. That’s what it comes down to. Bike lanes in a city where people drive like maniacs make about as much sense as screen doors on submarines.

I lived in a Midwest downtown for a couple of years in the mid-80s. There’s nothing better than a vibrant, safe downtown atmosphere with all the people and plenty to do, including the free amusement of the library, bookstores, and museums. This didn’t have to happen to St. Louis or San Francisco. Over the past century, Americans learned how to govern modern cities and reduce crime. The reversal of those policies was a deliberate decision made by Democrats. The fact that those Democrats remain in office is a deliberate decision made by voters. None of them deserve your sympathy.