November 2

1675 – Plymouth Colony governor Josiah Winslow leads a colonial Militia against the Narragansett tribe during King Philip’s War.

1734 – Daniel Boone is born in a log cabin in Oley Valley, Pennsylvania.

1889 – North Dakota and South Dakota are admitted as the 39th and 40th U.S. states.

1912 – Engaging in the bloodiest battle of the 1st Balkan War, with both sides suffering over 20% casualties, the heavier armed Bulgarian Army defeats Ottoman Empire Army at modern day Lüleburgaz, Turkey, east of the Bosphorus, opening the way to Constantinople.

1914 –The Russian Empire declares war on the Ottoman Empire, closing the Dardanelles passage from the Mediterranean Ocean to the Black Sea.

1917 – The Balfour Declaration proclaims British support for the “establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people” with the clear understanding “that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities”.

1920 – Station KDKA in Pittsburgh starts broadcasting as the first commercial U.S. radio station.

1930 – Le’ul Ras Täfäri Mäkonnän is crowned Haile Selassie I  – Negusa Nagast – Emperor of Ethiopia

1947 – Howard Hughes performs the maiden, and only, flight of the Hughes H-4 Hercules “Spruce Goose” seaplane off Cabrillo Beach, Los Angeles.

1963 – South Vietnamese President Ngô Đình Diệm and his brother Ngô Đình Nhu are assassinated following a military coup.

1965 – Norman Morrison, a 31 year old Quaker, sets himself on fire in front of the river entrance to the Pentagon to protest the use of napalm in the Vietnam war.

1967 –  A group of retired former presidential advisors termed,”The Wise Men” who had been formed and advised Democrat administrations since the days of President Roosevelt in World War II, advise President Johnson that the American people should be given more ‘optimistic’ reports on the progress of the war.

1983 – President Reagan signs the bill into law creating Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

1984 – Serial murderer Velma Barfield becomes the first woman executed in the United States, in this case, North Carolina, since 1962.

1999 – A disgruntled employee of the Xerox corporation in Honolulu, Hawaii, shoots and kills 7 co-workers and wounds another before fleeing and later surrendering to police.

2000 – Expedition 1 arrives at the International Space Station for the first long duration stay onboard. From this day to present, a continuous human presence in space on the station remains uninterrupted.

2016 – The Chicago Cubs defeat the Cleveland Indians to win their first World Series in 108 years.

Coffee County homeowner shoots lone intruder, suspect in custody

MANCHESTER, Tenn. (WSMV) – The Coffee County Sheriff’s Office is investigating a home invasion in the Beechgrove area Monday morning.

The sheriff’s office said the lone intruder was shot by the homeowner during the home invasion, and the suspect is in custody. Initially, the CCSO said it was possible there were other suspects but have since clarified the one suspect is responsible for the home invasion.

The intruder remains at a local hospital. At last check, he was about to go into surgery.

The CCSO warned residents to be cautious Monday morning. The investigation remains ongoing.

We Will Not Comply: Only .1% of Illinois Gun Owners Have Registered Their Newly Banned Guns So Far

According to Illinois State Police data, 2,415,481 gun owners call the Land o’ Lincoln home. Earlier this year, Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed the so-called Protect Illinois Communities Act into law which banned the most many of the most popular guns used for self-defense. Under the law, existing owners of these now verboten firearms must register their guns by January 1, 2024 or face felony charges.

Four weeks into the gun registration window, exactly 2430 of those FOID holders have registered their guns, accessories, or .50 caliber firearms. That works out to .1006%, or about one in a thousand.

What’s even more remarkable is the number of FOID holders choosing to comply has fallen with each passing week.

In other words, Illinois gun owners have declined to participate in the state’s gun ban.

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This elitist snob starts with an opinion that he states as fact and then moves on from there building a large sand castle

Textualist or not, does Johnson, or anyone, really, believe that if we could question Madison today, he would say that it was his intent to allow this country to be awash in guns, including automatic weapons that serve no good purpose other than as instruments of war or mass killings?

The obvious answer is YES! Madison and his fellow patriots had just fought off what they considered a tyrannical government, and they believed the people had that right and that responsibility to ensure a free state. “Weapons of War”™ (*gasp* Horrors!) were exactly the kind of “arms” the second was intended to protect, just in case the government was stupid enough to not realize that in the future. That does not even address the issue that there exists tens of millions of these rifles in the nation that are used for lawful purposes daily.

He claims he is ‘incredulous’. I find myself also being incredulous that someone who has held and holds such positions can also hold such a flawed opinion, especially after the Supreme Court had ruled on the matter so many times, starting in the 1800s with Cruikshank and on to just last year in Bruen. Actually I wish he would hold his breath.

Speaker Johnson’s hypocritical First and Second Amendment contradictions

From Court to Campus: Former Federal Judge John E. Jones III Takes Helm ...
Former (thank God) Federal Judge John E. Jones III, President of Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania

I am a college president. And I am afraid.

The mass killing last week in the college town of Lewiston, Maine, is the 36th this year in the United States, according to an AP/USA Today/Northeastern University mass killings database. The 18 who were murdered bring us to a total of nearly 200 victims of these ghastly events.

Sadly, it is easy to predict that there will be more of them before the year is out. Which community — college town or not — will bear the weight of the next tragedy?

I am also a former federal judge. And I am incredulous.

The House of Representatives has a new Speaker, Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.). During a 2016 sermon at the Christian Center in Shreveport, La., Johnson blamed mass school shootings on a “series of cultural shifts” in the United States that included teaching Darwin’s theory of evolution and erasing creationism from society. Last week, Johnson opined that it was inappropriate to discuss gun control “in the middle of a crisis” and that “it’s not the weapon, it’s the underlying problem.”

The suspected Maine shooter reportedly used a “Ruger SFAR” rifle “chambered for high-powered .308 ammunition.” The weapon is “larger and more powerful than the regular ammunition carried in the rifles of soldiers and SWAT teams.”

Johnson is a staunch defender of what he believes the Second Amendment to the Constitution represents. Its wording, which includes “the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed” has for generations been the subject of various interpretations and countless lawsuits.

Interestingly, the same Bill of Rights that contains the Second Amendment also features the First Amendment. Within it is the establishment clause, which prohibits the government from making any law “respecting an establishment of religion.”

In 2005, I presided over the landmark case of Kitzmiller v. Dover in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania. At its conclusion, I ruled that a school district’s policy introducing a concept known as intelligent design into the ninth-grade biology curriculum was, in fact, tantamount to teaching creationism, and thus violated the establishment clause. In rendering this opinion, I carefully followed the First Amendment’s dictates as well as Supreme Court precedent. The decision was not appealed and still stands.

It is my educated guess that Speaker Johnson, a trained lawyer, sees himself as a textualist. That is, he believes in the ordinary meaning of a legal text. I have always thought that to be an interesting interpretive theory so far as it goes, but far too unrealistic in practice. The Second Amendment was drafted largely by James Madison, who of course later served as president of the United States.

Textualist or not, does Johnson, or anyone, really, believe that if we could question Madison today, he would say that it was his intent to allow this country to be awash in guns, including automatic weapons that serve no good purpose other than as instruments of war or mass killings? It is absurd to think that Madison, a brilliant scholar and statesman, would endorse that view. In fact, I think he’d be as incredulous as I am that anyone could so torture the amendment he carefully drafted in this fashion.

I find myself endeavoring mightily to explain to my students how we arrived at this point, and why we lack the political will to pass reasonable gun legislation that would make us all safer. I have no good answers to their inquiries. They are afraid, and I share their apprehensions.

And so, I ask new Speaker Johnson and his colleagues these questions: Where is your courage, and when is the right time to pass legislation designed to end these slaughters? I will not hold my breath waiting for answers.

So, it’s confirmed. He was another nutjob, this time one on a vendetta, that the authorities knew about, but “the system” let slip through the cracks, by incompetence, inability or negligence.

Maine shooter thought local businesses attacked in shooting were spreading ‘pedophile’ rumors about him

Maine law enforcement officers investigating last week’s mass shooting in Lewiston have shared evidence that suggests the U.S. Army reservist Robert Card, who killed 18 people at a bowling alley and a bar, may have intentionally targeted individuals at those locations.

On Tuesday, Maine State Police and the Maine Department of Public Safety released a trove of documents on Card, including search warrants, affidavits, criminal records and more that shed light on a possible motive after Card, 40, carried out a deadly rampage at the Schemengees Bar and Grille and Just In Time bowling alley that also wounded 13 other victims on Oct. 25.

According to multiple witnesses, including Card’s brother and son, Card knew people at both locations and may have believed they were calling him a “pedophile.” Card experienced a similar incident over the summer when he accused fellow members of his Army Reserves unit of calling him a pedophile. The incident prompted Army officials to have him undergo a mental health evaluation.

One affidavit reveals Card’s brother told police that the eventual mass shooting suspect thought there was a “conspiracy” involving people “accusing him of being a pedophile.”

State police interviewed a witness just hours after the shooting began, who said Card believed local businesses, including Schemengees Bar and Grille and the Just-In-Time Recreation bowling alley, were “broadcasting online that Robert was a pedophile.” Card, according to his brother, also believed that some businesses were spreading rumors of him being a pedophile online.

Another witness interviewed by police said Card specifically mentioned Joey Walker, the manager of Schemengees Bar and Grille, as one of the people who he thought had disparaged him, according to an affidavit filed in a request to access Card’s cell phone records. Walker was among those killed.

The same witness, whose name was redacted, told police he previously traveled with Card to both the bowling alley and bar, and that Card knew people at both locations.

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November 1

365 – The Alemanni tribe cross the Rhine and invade Gaul. This is considered the beginning of the rivalry between what would later be Germany and France, that nearly 1500 years later would result in the Franco-Prussian War, which was a major factor in the alliances of World War I and finally led to World War II.

1503 – Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere is elected Pope Julius II

1512 – The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, painted by Michelangelo under the patronage of Pope Julius II, is exhibited to the public for the first time.

1520 –  On All Saints Day, Ferdinand Magellan’s fleet enters the Strait of Magellan. He names it Estrecho de Todos los Santos  -Strait of All Saints – and plants a flag to claim the land on behalf of the King of Spain

1604 – Shakespeare’s play Othello opens at Whitehall Palace in London.

1611 – Shakespeare’s play The Tempest opens at Whitehall Palace in London.

1683 – The British Crown colony of New York is subdivided into 12 counties.

1765 – The British Parliament enacts the Stamp Act on the Thirteen Colonies in order to help pay for British military operations in North America.

1800 – John Adams becomes the first President of the United States to live in the White House.

1848 – The first U.S. medical school for women opens; Boston Female Medical School, which later merges with the Boston University School of Medicine

1870 – The United States Weather Bureau makes its first official meteorological forecast.

1897 – The first Library of Congress building opens to the public

1911 – Italian Army Air Corp Lieutenant Giulio Gavotti, flying a Etrich Taube monoplane, makes the first aerial combat bomb run, dropping several grenades on the Tagiura Oasis in northwest Libya during the Italo-Turkish War

1918 – The worst rapid transit accident in U.S. history occurs on the New York City Subway BMT Brighton Line, when a train derails under the intersection of Malbone Street and Flatbush Avenue, killing 102 and injuring 250 of the 650 passengers and crew aboard.

1922 – The last sultan of the Ottoman Empire, Mehmed VI, abdicates ending the empire.

1942 – The 1st Marine Division, reinforced by a regiment of the 2nd Division, and the U.S. Army Americal Division begin offensive operations on Guadalcanal, crossing the Matanikau river to engage the Japanese.

1943 – The 3rd Marine Division stages landings on Bougainville in the Solomon Islands

1949 – Eastern Air Lines Flight 537, a Douglas DC-4, enroute from Boston, Massachusetts, to Washington, D.C., collides in midair with a Bolivian Air Force Lockheed P-38 Lightning over Alexandria, Virginia killing all 55 passengers and crew aboard, the pilot of the fighter surviving.

1950 – Puerto Rican nationalists Griselio Torresola and Oscar Collazo attempt to assassinate President Truman at Blair House, mortally wounding White House Police officer Leslie Coffelt, who kills Torresola before dying, while Secret Service agents wound and arrest Collazo.

1951 – During Operation Buster–Jangle, in Nevada, 6500 U.S. soldiers are purposefully exposed to 3 atomic explosions.

1952 – During Operation Ivy, at the Eniwetok atoll, the U.S. detonates the first thermonuclear device, code named Mike resulting in a 10.4 megaton explosion.

1955 – United Airlines Flight 629, a Douglas DC-6 enroute from Denver to Seattle, is destroyed in flight by a bomb placed in luggage and crashes near Longmont, Colorado, killing all 44 passengers and crew aboard.

1957 – The Mackinac Bridge opens to traffic connecting Michigan’s upper and lower peninsulas.

1968 – The Motion Picture Association of America’s film rating system is officially introduced, originating with the ratings G, M, R, and X.

1982 – Honda opens the first Asian automobile factory in Marysville, Ohio.

1993 – The Maastricht Treaty takes effect, formally establishing the European Union.

2008 – Xtabay singer Yma Sumac dies in Los Angeles, age 86.

2015 – Actor, lawyer, and politician Fred Dalton Thompson, dies in Nashville, age 73.

Well, if the goobermint would have secured the border…….

‘A Time for Vigilance’: FBI Dir. Christopher Wray Warns of Heightened Threats to the Homeland

FBI Director Christopher Wray testified before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs on Tuesday morning. The hearing was titled “Threats to the Homeland.”

In conjunction with his appearance, Wray submitted a 15-page statement covering the following topics:

  • Key Threats and Challenges
  • National Security
    • Terrorism Threats
    • Cyber
    • Foreign Intelligence Threats
    • National Counterintelligence Task Force
    • Transnational Repression and Other Counterintelligence Threats
  • Criminal Threats
    • Violent Crime
    • Transnational Organized Crime
    • Crimes Against Children and Human Trafficking
  • Reauthorization of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act

But it was Wray’s testimony regarding the heightened risk of attacks here in the U.S. that really caught the attention. This exchange between Wray and Senator Rick Scott (R-FL) highlights the danger of the times.

WRAY: What has now increased is the greater possibility of one of these foreign terrorist organizations directing an attack in the United States. We haven’t seen evidence that it’s actually happening yet, but what we have seen is — and I listed them off in my opening remarks — one terrorist organization after another calling for attacks.

SCOTT: We should wake up.

WRAY: It is a time to be concerned. We are in a dangerous period.

SCOTT: So, is the FBI able to track all threats and prevent these individuals from conducting an attack on U.S. soil?

WRAY: I couldn’t say that we’re able to detect all individuals. The people that we know about — as Secretary Rumsfeld used to say, ‘the known-known’ — we’re quite good at, together with our partners. But it is the unknown-unknown that I worry about quite a bit.

SCOTT: So, Director Wray, can you say that we do not have either individual foreign terrorists or terror cells affiliated with foreign groups currently operating in the United States?

WRAY: Well, we’re not — we’re not tracking that, but again, I come back to what it is: The gaps in our intelligence are real, and it’s something that we have concerns about.

SCOTT: So, Director Wray, so…what would you say right now to the American public — because, like, in my state, I’ve got a significant Jewish population. They’re scared to go to synagogue, Chabad. They’re scared to send their kids to day schools. So — but it’s not just them. It’s other individuals, like my daughters called me and said: Should they be sending their kids to school? What would you tell Americans right now about the threat today as compared to before?

WRAY: This is not a time for panic, but it is a time for vigilance. We shouldn’t stop conducting our daily lives, going to schools, houses of worship, and so forth. But we should be vigilant. You often hear the expression “If you see something, say something.”  That’s never been more true than now. And that’s probably partly why the American people are reporting more tips and leads to us and we’re pursuing those threats and leads as vigorously and responsibly as we can.

Wray acknowledged the very real threat of terrorist groups like Hamas conducting attacks on U.S. soil.

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The Gun Control Industry and the Media Want New Laws in Maine That Would Have Done Nothing to Stop the Lewiston Shooting.

Despite the failures that are being discovered that led to the Lewiston, Maine shooting, the Gun Control Industry is, as usual, pointing at the state’s allegedly lax regulation of guns. Michael Bloomberg’s anti-gun agitprop outlet The Trace asked, Will Maine’s Permissive Gun Laws Change After the Lewiston Shooting?

It’s certainly possible. Democrats are in full control of state government, so the odds are in their favor in that regard. That doesn’t mean, however, that there would be any merit to changing Maine’s gun laws. Not given the laws they’re talking about.

It’s becoming clear that they see this as a “grab bag” opportunity to enact more gun control laws in the Pine Tree State. They aren’t just talking about laws that could plausibly have made a difference in this case, either. They want to crack down on gun rights in general.

Maine doesn’t have restrictions on AR-style rifles, like the one apparently used by the Lewiston gunman, nor does it regulate high-capacity magazines.

If the killer had used a Mini-14 with a ten-round magazine, would the death toll have been lower? That seems a tenuous claim, considering how fast reloads actually happen when someone knows what they are doing (as this veteran and firearm instructor did, sadly). And it was reported that the Parkland shooter used 10-round magazines on purpose because they fit better into his backpack. Yet he managed to kill and wound a similar number of people.

…a measure requiring the prompt reporting of lost or stolen firearms…

This is one of the rare gun laws I do support, so long as it provides a fair amount of time to comply, and conditioned on when you become aware of a lost or stolen gun. If you become aware you lost a gun or had one stolen, tell the police about it ASAP. But such a law, of course, wouldn’t have done anything to stop the Maine shooting if it had been on the books.

But [Bates College professor Michael] Rocque said the state’s “inconsistent” rules around guns — which require residents to take a safety course and exam to qualify for a hunting license but don’t require anything of concealed handgun carriers — are in dire need of an update.

This is where the push for more gun control after a tragedy really becomes something of a loot-fest, trying to take full advantage of the situation while it’s still in the news. Carry permit requirements are completely irrelevant to mass shooters. They obviously aren’t going to be concerned in the slightest about not having a carry permit when their intention is to commit mass murder.

It’s an utterly absurd argument that, again, would have had no impact at all on what Robert Card did.

Even outside of the mass shooting context, Professor Rocque’s implication is that the lack of a permit requirement is inherently unsafe. That’s an extraordinary claim, given that Maine has one of the lowest homicide rates in the nation. Maine’s homicide rate is so low that more people were killed in Lewiston in this one incident than are usually murdered in the state in an entire year.

The Trace article concludes that while other gun control pushes aren’t possible under the state’s rules until next year, they can still try to enact universal background checks in January.

Again, that would have had zero impact on the Lewiston shooter. The Lewiston killer bought his guns legally. When that happened or whether or not he lied about his history of mental illness at the time isn’t yet clear, but he did undergo a background check.

As is so frequently the case, the Gun Control Industry and politicians seem determined to punish the community of law-abiding gun owners for the inherent failures of the regulatory system they’ve built

As more details are learned about Robert Card, his mental history, and the failures of law enforcement in this situation, the more it becomes clear that Maine’s allegedly lax gun laws did nothing to make the Lewiston shooting possible. And the new laws The Trace and gun control advocates are calling for in response would do nothing to prevent another similar situation.

California Democrats Disarm Synagogues

Here’s a story I missed from September that takes on an even more sinister cast in retrospect.

Firearms Policy Coalition (FPC) announced the filing of a new Second Amendment lawsuit challenging multiple parts of California SB2, which unilaterally declares numerous locations as “sensitive places” where California will now ban the carry of firearms by licensed, law-abiding Californians. The complaint in Carralero v. Bonta can be viewed at FPCLegal.org.

“SB2 restricts where persons with licenses to carry a concealed weapon may legally exercise their constitutional right to wear, carry, or transport firearms. And it does so in ways that are fundamentally inconsistent with the Second Amendment and the Supreme Court’s decision in Bruen,” argues the complaint. “The Second Amendment does not tolerate these restrictions. This Court should enter judgment enjoining their enforcement and declaring them unconstitutional.”

“With Gov. Newsom’s signing of SB2 today, California continues to exhibit its disdain for the rights of Californians, the U.S. Constitution, and the Supreme Court’s Bruen decision,” said Cody J. Wisniewski, FPC Action Foundation’s General Counsel and Vice President of Legal, and FPC’s counsel. “Unfortunately for California, and contrary to Governor Newsom’s misguided statements, the state does not have the power to unilaterally overrule individual rights and constitutional protections. Fortunately, courts across the nation have already struck down laws just like SB2, and we expect the same result here.”

FPC is joined in this lawsuit by three individuals, Orange County Gun Owners, San Diego County Gun Owners, and California Gun Rights Foundation.

If Democrats actually revered the Supreme Court as much as they claim to, Bruen would have ended their attempts to pass Second Amendment infringing legislation. But the goal of disarming the civilian population is only slightly less sacred a Democratic Party cause than taxpayer-funded abortions. So they soldier on trying to thwart the Constitution.

Here is the relevant text of SB2.

This bill would remove those exemptions, except as specified. The bill would make it a crime to bring an unloaded firearm into, or upon the grounds of, any residence of the Governor, any other constitutional officer, or Member of the Legislature. The bill would also prohibit a licensee from carrying a firearm to specified locations, including, among other places, a building designated for a court proceeding and a place of worship, as defined, with specific exceptions. By expanding the scope of an existing crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program.

Well, it’s not like any particular houses of worship are under particular threats from particular terrorist organizations, now is it?

Just four years ago on the last day of Passover, a man armed with a rifle burst into a synagogue in Poway, near San Diego, fatally shot one woman and injured three other congregants, including the synagogue’s rabbi.

A year before, an even more horrific attack on a Pittsburgh synagogue left 11 dead.

In the aftermath of the attack on Israel, many American Jews are arming themselves. But in California, not only will Jews and worshippers in other faiths be banned from protecting themselves in their houses of worship, but would-be killers will know that potential victims in “sensitive” areas will be unarmed.

Everywhere in the west, the radical left is protesting to support Hamas, despite (or perhaps because) of the latter’s calls to completely destroy the Jews. Meanwhile, Gavin Newsom and California Democrats are disarming law-abiding Jewish American citizens in their synagogues.

What are the odds?

Everything the social justice crowd told us was a lie.

Everything the social justice crowd has said for the past 15 years has been a lie.

The movement gained a foothold in American culture around 2008, riding a wave of popular reexaminations of race relations, political divisions, and systemic disparities. It styled itself as an honorable call to right the wrongs of society, both historical and contemporaneous.

The past three weeks, however, have served as definitive proof that the benevolent emperor is a naked tyrant. The warriors for the oppressed are not so noble and selfless as they claim. Neither are they singularly motivated by the ideals of “inclusivity,” “equity,” and “diversity.” They’re as greedy, vicious, prejudiced, and hateful as the oppressors they accuse.

The “social justice” crowd has only ever cared about acquiring power and influence, creeping toward this goal via emotional blackmail, intimidation campaigns, and even occasional violence. Theirs is not a cause for justice, but for self-enrichment; a relatively bloodless conquest for power and treasure. They simply disguise their self-interest in the language of “justice” and altruism, all the while plotting new ways to seize for themselves the “privilege” and “power” they envy in others.

Nothing has done so fine a job of laying bare this reality as Hamas’s Oct. 7 slaughter of 1,400 Israelis, mostly civilians, including children. Since that day of mass murder, social justice activists have flooded city streets and college campuses across the West, cheering war crimes and calling for the destruction of Israel.

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Finally found the vid the other post was referring to.
For Miss Bialik, (80s- 90s teen actor and an actual PhD researcher in Neuroscience) known for her liberal bent in politics, this seems to be quite the kick in the teeth for her to finally realize that the left never was her friend.

They’re not anti-war. They’re just on the other side.

Yale campus newspaper censors pro-Israel writer’s column on Hamas beheading men, raping women.