Deadly explosions kill more than 100 at event honoring Iranian general killed by US.
The blasts struck an event marking the fourth anniversary of the killing of Gen. Qassem Soleimani, the head of the Revolutionary Guard’s elite Quds Force, who died in a U.S. drone strike in Iraq in January 2020. The explosions occurred near his grave site in Kerman, about 500 miles southeast of the capital, Tehran.
Wednesday is derived from Old English Wōdnesdæg ‘day of Woden’ the English equivalent of the god Odin, the ruler of all the other gods in Norse mythology
In Germany, the day is called Mittwoch “Mid Week”
In French mercredi, Spanish miércoles or Italian mercoledì, the day’s name is derived from Latin dies Mercurii ‘day of Mercury’.
American Water Facilities Targeted by Foreign Cyber Attacks
Water utilities are warning of a recent increase in cyber attacks against their facilities that appear to be coming from foreign hackers.
Experts are now warning that cyber attacks are putting the water supply at risk as their frequency increases.
The tiny Aliquippa water authority in western Pennsylvania was perhaps the least-suspecting victim of an international cyber attack.
It had never had outside help in protecting its systems from a cyber attack, either at its existing plant that dates to the 1930s or the new $18.5 million one it is building.
Then it — along with several other water utilities — was struck by hackers targeting a piece of equipment.
Federal authorities say the hackers are Iranian-backed and targetted specific equipment because it is Israeli-made.
“If you told me to list 10 things that would go wrong with our water authority, this would not be on the list,” said Matthew Mottes, the chairman of the authority that handles water and wastewater for about 22,000 people in the woodsy exurbs around a one-time steel town outside Pittsburgh.
The hacking of the Municipal Water Authority of Aliquippa is prompting new warnings from U.S. security officials at a time when states and the federal government are wrestling with how to harden water utilities against cyber attacks.
The danger, officials say, is hackers gaining control of automated equipment to shut down pumps that supply drinking water or contaminate drinking water by reprogramming automated chemical treatments.
Besides Iran, other potentially hostile geopolitical rivals, including Communist China, are viewed by U.S. officials as a threat.
A number of states have sought to step up scrutiny to protect the water supply.
However, water authority advocates say the money and the expertise are what is really lacking for a sector of more than 50,000 water utilities.
Most water utilities are local authorities that, like Aliquippa’s, serve corners of the country where residents are of modest means and cybersecurity professionals are scarce.
Using smallish sized UAV for what is essentially level bombing.
We live in a time of miracles and wonders.
Details on the Backfire UAV here: https://t.co/TP50WAIc3Q
Of note, if you don't think terrorists will use this capability here soon, you're not thinking. https://t.co/OFGDP0OL4Z
— cdrsalamander (@cdrsalamander) January 1, 2024
and the standard crap-for-brains: “We’ll just pass a law. That’ll stop ’em!”
Yes, I am sure terrorists will follow all EU and FAA regulations, as they always do.
— cdrsalamander (@cdrsalamander) January 2, 2024
Typically Tyrannical: Biden Admin Slips Out Slew Of ‘Regulations’ Over Holidays
As tyrants so often do, on December 29th the Biden Administration quietly slid out a “slow-news/Holiday-hidden” announcement of many more “regulations” it is imposing on your market choices of home appliances.
And to add insult to injury, it’s all for their religion-like claim to be preventing a Kali-esque demigod, “anthropogenic climate change” from destroying the world.
It’s a false religion, backed by fake claims of “science” and false claims of “savings” that they’re imposing on you.
Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year.
Indeed, as American families gathered for the Holidays, the Biden Department of Energy (DOE) under slick, smarmy, “enriched by stock options received from palsy corporations” DOE head Jennifer Granholm and her cult released the song of Kali.
Nick Pope reports on it, for DailyCaller:
“The Department of Energy (DOE) finalized or proposed a bevy of regulatory actions cracking down on numerous appliances on Friday.
The DOE proposed new rules designed to promote ‘energy efficient’ commercial fans and blowers, and also finalized energy efficiency standards for refrigerators and freezers, the agency announced Friday. The regulatory actions are the latest in a string of moves by the Biden administration intended to phase out a host of fossil fuel-powered appliances and replace them on the market with more energy efficient, and often electric, equivalents.”
I suspect that you, too, might be wondering where their vaunted US Constitution hides the so-called “authority” for the feds to create a DOE, let alone tell private makers of appliances what they can and cannot offer you to freely purchase or leave on the showroom floor. Perhaps, you, also, might be scratching your head over the easy way elitist bureaucrats and politicians claim to define for US what is “efficient.”
Well, you’d better extend the sentiment of “Silent Night” to your potential protestations about those matters, because, of course, the mandates are for YOUR OWN GOOD, to stop their magic monster of “anthropogenic climate change,” and if you should question either their mandates or their faulty claims of “science,” you are an apostate of the new religion.
Looks Like There’s Massive Non-Compliance With Illinois Gun Registration
The deadline for Illinois gun owners to register their banned “assault weapons” with the state police has come and gone, and contrary to the predictions of Gov. J.B. Pritzker it looks like there was no last-minute flood of registrations. According to the latest figures from the Illinois State Police, about 15,000 FOID holders had registered one or more firearm, “large capacity” magazine, or other device named in the Protect Illinois Communities Act as of late last week; about double the number that the ISP had previously reported, but still fewer than one percent of the nearly two million Firearm Owner ID card holders in the state.
Not everyone who possesses a valid FOID card ones one or more of the guns banned under the Protect Illinois Communities Act, but my guess is that the vast majority of them own either a firearm covered under PICA or a “large capacity” magazine that’s supposed to be registered with the state police. Compliance with the registration looks to be almost non-existent, which raises the question of how, exactly, the new ban will be enforced going forward.
In November, state police said it is up to prosecutors in the state’s 102 counties to enforce the law, but it’s unclear what penalties would be in store for those who fail to register their weapons. Penalties can vary for illegal weapons. Carrying or possessing unauthorized assault weapons could result in a misdemeanor, with one year in jail or a fine of up to $2,500. Manufacturing, selling, or purchasing an unauthorized weapon could constitute a felony and result in up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $25,000.
Kane County Sheriff Ron Hain explained that his deputies won’t be going door to door to find residents who may have a FOID card and “asking to see all of their weapons.” He said the law works more during high-profile investigations.
“However, if we are investigating a criminal organization and we do come across firearms that are in violation of the assault weapons ban, we will certainly use this new law to enhance criminal charges against them,” Hain said.
While some sheriffs like Hain say they’ll enforce the law if there are more serious charges attached, other sheriffs and even some state’s attorneys have indicated they have no plans on enforcing the law at all, much to the chagrin of gun control advocates, anti-gun politicians, and their allies in the media.
Fair Fight et al v. True the Vote et al | Case No. 2:20-cv-0302-SCJ
HOUSTON, TX, January 2, 2024 – True the Vote (TTV) declares a decisive triumph in their legal battle against Stacy Abrams’ Fair Fight, legal teams led by Marc Elias, and the Biden Department of Justice. A federal court in the Northern District of Georgia today affirmed that citizens have the right to lawfully petition their government in support of election integrity without fear of persecution or prosecution.
In a resounding vindication, TTV successfully defended its actions of December 2020, aiding Georgia citizens in filing elector challenges based on data showing over 364,000 voters appeared to be ineligible to vote due to change in residency.
This victory is a testament to every American’s constitutional right to free speech and the importance of actively participating in the electoral process.
True the Vote President Catherine Engelbrecht affirmed, “Today’s ruling sends a clear message to those who would attempt to control the course of our nation through lawfare and intimidation. American citizens will not be silenced.”
True the Vote lead attorney Jake Evans stated, “After almost three years of litigation and a two-week federal trial with plaintiff calling 12 witnesses, Judge Steven Jones awarded a complete defense verdict for all defendants. This decision is monumental. It vindicates True the Vote in totality and establishes that eligibility challenges under Section 230 are a proper method to ensure voter rolls are accurate. I am grateful to help achieve this great victory.”
Engelbrecht added, “This is an answer to the prayers of faithful patriots across America.”
True the Vote remains steadfast in its mission to support trustworthy elections and looks forward to assisting citizens in future such lawful efforts.
True the Vote Wins Federal Election Lawsuit in Georgia
A federal judge finds after a non-jury trial that election watchdogs making voter registration challenges did not violate the Voting Rights Act.
The conservative vote-monitoring organization True the Vote’s challenges to Georgia voters’ eligibility didn’t amount to voter intimidation in the 2020 election, a federal judge ruled on Jan. 2.
U.S. District Judge Steve C. Jones, in a 145-page ruling that was issued a little less than two months after the end of a civil trial, found that the defendants didn’t violate the Voting Rights Act.
Who did this? 🧐
Walk like a Joe Biden..🎶🎵 😆🤣🤣 pic.twitter.com/cVJKdY4LBs— John IFB (@JohnKMaga) January 1, 2024
Israeli drone kills deputy Hamas chief in Beirut
BEIRUT, Jan 2 (Reuters) – Deputy Hamas chief Saleh al-Arouri was killed on Tuesday night in an Israeli drone strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs of Dahiyeh, a stronghold of the allied Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, three security sources told Reuters.
In response to questions from Reuters, the Israeli military said it does not respond to reports in the foreign media.
Lebanon’s national news agency said six people were killed when the drone struck a Hamas office. Two security sources said the strike had targeted a meeting and that another Palestinian militant commander was among them, but there were no details on the additional four casualties.
Mark Regev, an adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, told MSNBC that Israel had not taken responsibility for this attack, but “whoever did it, it must be clear: That this was not an attack on the Lebanese state.”
“Whoever did this did a surgical strike against the Hamas leadership,” Regev said in the interview.
Arouri was deputy head of Hamas’s politburo and a founder of its military wing, the Qassam Brigades, which carried out a deadly assault in Israeli territory on Oct. 7.
This is a mockery of a presidency
Ryan Seacrest asks Joe Biden what he has been eating.
Biden: "I've been eating everything that's put in front of me! I've eaten pasta, which I love. Eaten a lot of chicken, chicken parmesan…"
Then Jill Biden has to remind Joe: "And ice cream!"
Sad. pic.twitter.com/tVROTPFf31
— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) January 1, 2024
New Year, Same Old Ninth Circuit
My wife has watched way too many sappy Christmas rom-coms over the holiday break. It’s one of her guilty pleasures, even though she knows from the get-go how the story is going to play out. Girl meets guy under improbable circumstances, there’s immediate friction with an undercurrent of attraction, they get together, there’s a huge blowup, and yet they manage to reconcile and live happily ever after. The characters and the locations may change, but the story is basically always the same.
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals is like the Hallmark Channel of the judicial system, at least when it comes to gun control fans. No matter what law is being challenged or how egregiously it violates our Second Amendment rights, lawsuits in the Ninth Circuit seem to follow the same script: gun owners sue, a judge agrees that the law is likely to be unconstitutional and grants an injunction, only to have it stayed and eventually overturned. Sometimes we get a plot twist and a three-judge panel will uphold the injunction, but inevitably that decision is overruled by an en banc review. No matter how improbable or untenable the decision may be, anti-gunners are assured of a happy ending in the Ninth.
Not once in the fifteen years since the Heller decision was handed down has the Ninth Circuit ultimately concluded that a gun control law goes too far and abridges a fundamental right, and though it’s still fairly early the appellate court looks to be keeping that streak alive by allowing California’s new “gun-free zones” to take effect today after a rare Saturday ruling to grant an administrative stay of Judge Cormac Carney’s injunction halting enforcement of the new bans in supposedly sensitive places… including virtually every publicly accessible business that doesn’t specifically post signage welcoming concealed carry holders.
Continued Massacres of Christians in Nigeria Ensured by Citizen Disarmament
“A never-ending massacre of Christians being ‘killed for sport’ is reportedly happening in Nigeria, yet the world appears to be largely deaf to the matter,” Fox News reported Saturday. “More than 52,000 Christians ‘have been butchered or hacked to death for being Christians’ since 2009 in Nigeria, according to Intersociety, a civil society group based in Onitsha.”
“Christians are killed for sport, especially Christian children,” Rev. Johnnie Moore, a former commissioner for the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, and president of the Congress of Christian Leaders told Fox. “Entire villages are burnt and pillaged. Thousands of churches have been destroyed. Children and women are hunted.
Improve Your Shooting: The 50-Round Skill Sustainment Course of Fire
In case you didn’t already know it, if you don’t continue to shoot over time, you will slowly lose your shooting skills. Ammunition is more reasonable that it was a couple of years ago, but you still want to make the most of your training dome and dollars. How do you maintain your skill set without burning through a lot of ammunition? Simple: take your time and make every shot a count.
Dry fire practice at home is a great way to keep your skills sharp. If you add a Mantis X training system, that’s even better. Travis Pike gave the Mantis five stars and Jeremy gave it four. Yes, it runs over $200 or about the price of 250 rounds of 9mm ammo. I haven’t formally reviewed my own personally-owned unit, in part because I haven’t used it as much as I’d like yet. At the same time I’ve used it enough that I strongly recommend it for new and experienced shooters alike.
Even at that, though, no matter how much dry fire and Mantis X practice you complete, everyone needs real, live-fire handgun practice.
Remember, aim small miss small. If you keep all fifty rounds on the target, move back to ten or fifteen yards and repeat (if you have enough gun food). Continue reading “”
Notice, ‘locally made submachineguns’
4 Terrorists Killed in Samaria Gunfight; IDF Soldier Wounded
Israel Defense Forces soldiers killed four Palestinian terrorists during a raid overnight Monday in the village of Azzun, near Qalqilya in Samaria.
Troops from the 8211th Reserves Battalion were shot at from a house in the village and returned fire, eliminating the terrorists, according to the IDF.
One Israeli soldier was moderately wounded during the gun battle.
Following the exchange, troops confiscated three locally made submachine guns from the home.
In other raids across Judea and Samaria, Israeli troops arrested seven wanted terror suspects and confiscated weapons.
Since the start of the war against Hamas on Oct. 7, 2,550 wanted individuals have been arrested throughout Judea and Samaria and the Jordan Valley, including 1,300 Hamas members.
The operations come amid unrelenting Palestinian attacks in the territories.
Two Israelis were wounded Sunday in a stabbing attack at the Mishor Adumim industrial zone, located east of Jerusalem in Judea.
Magen David Adom paramedics treated the victims, both security guards, at the scene before evacuating them, fully conscious and in stable condition, to the capital’s Hadassah Medical Center on Mount Scopus.
MDA said one of the victims, a 24-year-old woman, was in good-to-moderate condition, while the other, a man in his 20s, sustained minor wounds in the attack.
A day earlier, an Israel Defense Forces soldier was seriously injured in a vehicular assault near the al-Fawwar camp, located south of Hebron in Judea.
The victim, a reserve soldier from the IDF’s 7018th Battalion, was treated on the scene before being evacuated to Soroka Medical Center in Beersheva.
That attack took place close to where five Israeli soldiers were injured, including one seriously, in a similar car-ramming Friday.
IDF troops continue operating in Gaza:
🔺ELIMINATED: Adil Mismah, the Nukhba Company Commander of Deir al-Balah who took part in Hamas’ October 7 invasion and massacre and attack on other communities surrounding Gaza.
🔺In Shejaiya, troops struck Hamas and Islamic Jihad terror…
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) January 1, 2024
Tuesday is derived from Old English Tiwesdæg meaning “Tīw’s Day”, the day of Tiw or Týr, the god of single combat, law, and justice in Norse mythology.
