WOULD-BE CARJACKER SHOT, KILLED IN APPARENT CASE OF SELF-DEFENSE
PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) — A man is dead after being shot multiple times in Philadelphia’s Pennsport section early Tuesday morning.
Police responded to the 1400 block of S. Front Street around 5 a.m.
When they arrived, they found a man between 18 and 22 years old with multiple gunshot wounds. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
According to police, the deceased was one of two individuals who attempted to carjack a 38-year-old man in the former United Artist Theater parking lot.
The victim pulled a weapon and shot one of the would-be carjackers in what police say looks like a case of self-defense.
The shooter did remain at the scene, was briefly detained, and then later released by investigators.
In a surveillance video viewed by Action News, you can see a person run from the direction of the parking lot and then collapse by a utility pole moments later.
About five minutes later, someone approaches the body to seemingly check on the person.
Neighbors who live nearby said they heard what sounded like gunshots during this time.
The noise was so loud that Zion Aregahegn said it woke her out of her sleep.
“I heard a loud boom or a bang kind of sound,” Aregahegn said. “A few seconds later, I heard someone shout. I couldn’t tell what they were saying. It was just-someone shouted.”
Aregahegn said she generally felt safe in the neighborhood but had some recent concerns about activity under the I-95 overpass. She said it was a place where people often parked and used drugs.
She’s called the police in the past but said she got little to no help.
“A lot of people pull up under here to fix their cars and I’ve seen people passed out doing drugs under there,” Aregahegn recalled.
Jordan Lewis, who lives up the street from where the incident happened, said she often passes the area on her morning run.
She said she had noticed people doing drugs under the overpass but never saw or heard of any violence breaking out there.
“Usually, it’s kind of quiet. I run on the trail along the water and there’s a lot of homeless people but they never really bother me or anything like that,” she said.
Lewis said she always tries to be aware of her surroundings but this incident heightened her instincts to be on the lookout even more.
No other details have been released at this time and police are investigating this incident.
BLUF
Like spoiled trust fund babies living an opulent lifestyle off the profits of a company grandpa built, but they don’t understand, many Americans (including many Americans with power) simply have never put any thought into why our society has succeeded or what makes it work.
How Many Load-Bearing Walls Have to Come Down Before America Collapses?
My friend Glenn Reynolds, who also has an excellent Substack you may want to subscribe to, just released a piece called Civilizational Jenga. The main focus of it was the Colorado Supreme Court’s foolish decision to pull Trump’s access to the ballot in Colorado over his supposed “insurrection” on January 6, 2021.
Setting aside the fact that a large percentage of the country, myself included, doesn’t believe the Jan 6. riot was an “insurrection,” it puts the cart before the horse. Trump has yet to be put on trial for insurrection.
For a handful of leftwing judges (and yes, they’re all Democrats) to just arbitrarily decide that he committed insurrection without him being convicted of it at a trial is not much different than deciding he committed murder without proving it at a trial. It’s an obvious attempt to misuse the court system for political reasons and if it were to stick and Trump were to become the nominee, it would practically demand that Republicans pull the same dirty trick against Joe Biden. Does it seem like a healthy precedent for political parties to be trying to win elections by default by illegitimately kicking their potential opponents off the ballot? No, it does not.
This column is not going to attempt to litigate Trump’s various court cases and rule on which ones may be justified and which ones may be political, but there is a very good reason that Americans have diligently avoided charging former presidents with crimes. That’s because it’s inevitably going to be highly controversial, polarizing and it’s dangerous to a Republic for a political party to believe that the only way they can get justice is to be in charge.
If one political party in a country concludes that their choices are to be in charge or be in jail, democracy suddenly becomes a very secondary concern. As Glenn Reynolds notes in his column, Abe Lincoln was kept off the ballot in 10 states back in 1860. Of course, that year is best remembered as the year before the Civil War.
This crap-for-brains will continue until we suffer a major defeat, or the nation collapses and what we replace it with takes care of business.
BREAKING: The United States @SpaceForceDoD Has A New LT Colonel Who Is Suffering The Severe Mental Illness Of Believing He's A Woman! pic.twitter.com/bp2uoNkmTY
— John Basham (@JohnBasham) December 30, 2023
Bills of 2023 | Newsom signs ‘sin tax’ on guns and ammo
Assembly Bill 28 by Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel, a Woodland Hills Democrat, imposes an 11% excise tax on retailers and manufacturers for sales of guns or ammunition.
Modeled on a similar federal levy for wildlife conservation, the tax could bring in an estimated $160 million annually for violence intervention programs, school safety improvements and law enforcement efforts to confiscate guns from people who are prohibited from owning them.
Who Supports It
Facing a higher two-thirds threshold for approval, the measure received widespread backing from Democratic lawmakers who argue that it would provide an essential, steady stream of funding to further California’s gun safety efforts. Gun control advocates, physicians and nurses groups, local elected officials and even some police departments also endorsed it.
Who Opposes It
Gun rights groups contend the tax will unfairly burden lawful owners of firearms, particularly sports shooters and hunters who frequently buy ammunition, because businesses will simply pass the cost on to customers. They have suggested they will sue to stop it. Their complaint was echoed by Republicans and some Democrats who spoke against the measure in the Legislature.
Why It Matters
Lawmakers unsuccessfully pursued sales or excise taxes on guns and ammunition half a dozen times over the past decade, some of which never even got a hearing. Gabriel credited a changing political climate for finally pushing the policy through this session — including parents’ anxiety over regular active shooter drills at schools and widespread anger over last year’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling that tossed long-standing restrictions on carrying concealed weapons.
“The public is demanding this of us,” Gabriel told CalMatters. “They are demanding that we have more solutions, that we protect their kids, to protect their communities.”
Gov. Gavin Newsom, a vocal proponent of gun safety measures who has repeatedly discouraged legislators from pursuing new taxes in recent years, faced a choice between two key governing principles.
The Governor’s Call
Newsom signed the bill Sept. 26 in an event with California Attorney General Rob Bonta, Gabriel and gun safety advocates. The governor, who has been skeptical of tax increases, said this bill is different and will fund school safety, mental health and other violence prevention programs. “This is not a general income tax,” Newsom said. “From my perspective, it’s more of a sin tax.”
December 30
534 – The second and final edition of the Code of Justinian comes into effect in the Byzantine Empire
1066 – A moslem mob storms the royal palace in Granada, crucifies Jewish vizier Joseph ibn Naghrela and massacres most of the Jewish population of the city.
1813 – British soldiers burn Buffalo New York during the War of 1812
1816 – The Treaty of St. Louis between the United States and the united Ottawa, Ojibwa, and Potawatomi Indian tribes is ratified, ceding land between Lake Michigan and the Illinois river.
1825 – The Treaty of St. Louis between the United States and the Shawnee Nation is ratified, ceding land around Cape Girardeau Missouri
1853 – The United States completes the Gadsden Purchase, buying land from Mexico to facilitate railroad building in the Southwest.
1890 – Following the Wounded Knee Massacre, Lakota warriors engage U.S. Army troops near White Clay Creek approximately 15 miles north of Pine Ridge where it was reported that the Lakota had burned the Drexel Mission Church.
1903 – A fire at the Iroquois Theater in Chicago, Illinois kills at least 605 people.
1922 – The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics is formed.
1972 – The United States halts mission Linebacker II, the heavy bombing of North Vietnam when Hanoi agrees to return to peace negotiations
1990 – Chief Warrant 4, Gene E, Barner, Missouri National Guard dies, age 51, at home, of cancer.
2006 – Former President of Iraq, Saddam Hussein is executed by hanging
2009 – A suicide bomber kills 9 people at Forward Operating Base Chapman, in Afghanistan.
To give you a sense of the immense and growing size of illegal immigration! https://t.co/DcMQIUbCOM
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 29, 2023
The Biden Administration Hasn’t Just Abandoned You, It’s Actively Trying to Subject You to Invasion
The federal government has many jobs. In fact, I’d say it has more than it should, but one of its primary duties is to guard and protect our borders. Since day one of the Biden administration, it has done its level best to ignore that duty and at times, make it even harder for the states to do.
As Becca Lower reported recently, Texas has made moves to batten down the border and see to it that the uncontrolled flow of illegal immigration is halted. The Biden administration’s response was to threaten to sue Texas for the effort to do what the federal government is refusing to do:
The Justice Department said it would file a lawsuit against SB4 if Texas did not assure federal officials by Jan. 3 that the state would refrain from enforcing the law as planned in March, according to a letter sent to Gov. Greg Abbott on Dec. 28 and obtained by CBS News. In addition to creating illegal entry crimes at the state level, the law would allow Texas judges to issue de facto deportation orders.
In its letter, the Justice Department said SB4 would effectively criminalize actions that are already illegal at the federal level, undermine relations with Mexico and prevent officials from enforcing federal immigration laws, including those designed to grant refuge to migrants fleeing persecution.
The ever-ridiculous KJP doubled down on the federal government’s decision by referring to Texas’s border protection as racist, claiming that the immigration laws don’t “make the communities in Texas safer” and saying Republicans are just trying to “demonize immigrants and also dehumanize immigrants.”
WH press sec says the new immigration law in Texas "does not make the communities in Texas safer" and claims "it is very much in line with what many Republicans like to do or tend to do which is demonize immigrants and also dehumanize immigrants." pic.twitter.com/4zn8vKeAKg
— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) December 19, 2023
This is all ridiculous, of course. Not only does illegal immigration bring waves of crime of all kinds, including drug and sex trafficking, but it’s not just the people of Texas who are affected either. Blue cities such as Chicago and New York are also being invaded.
And that’s the issue. We’re being invaded and our government is helping. It would be one thing if they were doing nothing. In fact, that would be preferable to what they’re doing now, which is actively trying to hold the border open so that more illegal immigrants can come in.
Our own federal government has sided with the invasion force.
At this point, it’s not too extreme to say that your own federal government has turned against you. It’s continuously tried to empower anything that could possibly cause you problems like the IRS, and weaponized federal agencies like the FBI against parents looking after their children.
And the open border is just one more example of how your own government has abandoned its duties and actively worked against you. It is you vs. them, and you still have to endure one more year of the Biden administration’s control over your nation.
It’s safe to say that it has to be stopped. This kind of anti-American government is unsustainable and our nation will bear the scars the Biden admin inflicted on it for decades to come. And who knows what kind of fallout we’ll experience from so much illegal immigration as time progresses. We’re not just talking about cartel members here. We’re also talking about radical terrorists from the Middle East and agents from other countries.
Your federal government is not your federal government. It serves its own purposes, not yours.
I have never ‘got’ the affectation of getting one’s body tattooed , but whatever….
I GUESS SHE DIDN’T MEET ANY ‘INNOCENT CIVILIANS’ DURING HER TIME IN GAZA- Sara Hoyt
A 21-year-old Israeli-French tattoo artist who was abducted by Hamas has recalled the horrors that she faced in Gaza in her first interview, saying she “went through a holocaust” during her 54 days in captivity.
Mia Schem was asked in a preview clip of an interview with Channel 13 why she decided to open up about her experience at the hands of the terrorists.
“It was important to me to relay the truth about the nature of the people who live in Gaza, who they are truly are and what I experienced there,” the young woman tells journalist Lior Veroslavski in the clip released Thursday.
Veroslavski replies, “It was important to you that the world understands what?”
“That I went through a holocaust,” the former hostage says, matter-of-factly. “Everyone over there is a terrorist.” Schem adds that after being kidnapped from a musical festival in southern Israel on Oct. 7, she was held by a civilian family in Gaza that was involved with the terror group.
“Suddenly I realized that I’m with a family,” she says. “Suddenly I’m asking myself questions: Why am I in some family’s home? Why are there kids here? Why is there a wife?”
Schem, a resident of Shoham in central Israel, was recently released as part of a temporary cease-fire between Hamas and the Jewish state.
She appeared on Instagram sporting a defiant new tattoo that reads, “We will dance again.” Her new ink includes the date of the attack.
“I will never forget October 7, 2023,” she wrote in the post.
“The pain and the fear, the difficult sights, the friends who won’t come back, and those we must bring back. But we will win, we will dance!” Schem added.
Shortly after the start of the war, Schem was seen in a chilling video released by Hamas showing her getting treated by a veterinarian for a wound on her right arm.
“At the moment, I am in Gaza,” she said in Hebrew in the clip, adding that she was taken across the border, where she underwent a three-hour surgery for her undisclosed injuries.
BLUF
It’s too bad none of the scores of journalism contests out there yet offers a fake news category. If one did, the 14 stories chosen by the Trace would be award winners.
The ‘most memorable gun violence journalism of 2023,’ according to the Trace
If there was a Pulitzer category for gaslighting, the stories chosen by the Trace would all be serious contenders.
The Trace, the propaganda arm of former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg’s antigun empire, recently published their picks for “The Most Memorable Gun Violence Journalism of 2023.”
If there was a Pulitzer Prize category for gaslighting or agitprop, the 14 stories highlighted by the Trace would all be serious contenders.
Honolulu Has Cut Off Gun Sales
Gun sales have been blocked for much of December in Hawaii’s largest city.
That’s what the Hawaii Firearms Coalition, a local gun-rights group, claimed in a statement on Wednesday. It said the Honolulu Police Department (HPD) has advised gun purchase or carry permit applicants they won’t process them without a currently-unattainable training certification. And it’s unclear when those permits might become available again.
“It has been brought to our attention from multiple sources that the Honolulu Police Department, under the guidance of Police Chief Logan, is no longer processing ANY firearms permit applications or concealed carry applications until after the new year, and he has the ability to verify or certify instructors,” the group posted on social media. “The department requires all applications submitted after December 18th to provide proof of instruction by a certified/verified instructor before processing their application.
“The problem?????? He hasn’t certified or verified any instructors.”
The Honolulu Police Department did not return multiple calls seeking comment on the situation.
Any questions why I call them bureaucraps?
ATF Takes MI Man’s Guns Despite His Expunged Record
No matter how much you hate the ATF, it’s probably not enough.
Besides the fact that a name like “Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives” should be the name of a retail outlet, there’s the fact that they don’t just try to regulate the industry. They actively oppose your right to keep and bear arms.
We’ve seen numerous cases of the bureau trying to infringe on people’s rights, even violating the law in some cases in order to do so.
But their latest stunt is potentially even worse.
The way Jeramy Wilburn sees it, he only messed up once. The poor decision-making of a child shouldn’t determine one’s freedoms for the rest of their life, he argues.
The 34-year-old Allen Park resident was known for making YouTube videos about gun safety. He’s also a fan of sport shooting and until this past November was free to partake.
Then the Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agency took away his firearms because of a past domestic violence conviction which happened years ago. This, despite having the conviction expunged in 2022.
Wilburn’s conviction was a misdemeanor in 2008. As punishment, the judge put him on probation and ordered him to take a domestic violence class – no jail time. And in February 2022, that one mistake was wiped from his record.
Wilburn’s record was expunged. Legally speaking, it was like his conviction never happened. It was wiped from his record.
Unfortunately for him, though, the ATF seems to feel otherwise.
But, in a federal lawsuit brought by Wilburn and Morris, the two argue that isn’t the case. They argue Wilburn should be allowed to possess a firearm. But the feds say Wilburn could still be convicted of domestic violence again.
“It’s unfair for them to say he should be forever barred, forever prohibited from carrying a firearm just because he potentially could get a second offense,” said Morris.
Honestly, this is a terrifying argument that, if allowed to stand, could eventually set a precedent for all kinds of other problems.
Could Wilburn be convicted of domestic violence again? Hypothetically, sure. The fact that he’s gone 15 years without doing so suggests what happened was isolated and he’s unlikely to do so again, but it’s also largely irrelevant.
We don’t punish people based on what they might do, only what they’ve done in the past.
Had the conviction not been expunged, that would be one thing, but it was. His record was wiped clean. This is essentially him getting his rights restored, only that probably wasn’t an option since he only had a misdemeanor charge.
Yet let’s understand that taking his guns because he might be convicted of domestic violence again isn’t all that different from deciding you or I can’t have guns because we might get convicted for domestic violence at some point in the future.
They don’t have the authority to do this, which is why Wilburn is taking the ATF to court. I’m glad he’s doing so and I pray that he doesn’t have to wait too long to get his guns back. They never should have been taken from him in the first place based on the facts we know.
So no, it’s probably not possible to hate the ATF enough.
Something to take into real consideration in these times
Is There Strength in Numbers? Critical Considerations When Forming a Mutual Assistance Group
This is not an article on how to form a mutual assistance group. It’s a discussion of the things to consider before trying to form such a group.
When things are tough, it’s usually better to be a member of the pack than a lone wolf. That would seem to be true for a SHTF situation, but it may not be as straightforward as it sounds. Is organizing your neighborhood to work together in an emergency realistic or not? I am not referring to a short-term emergency like everyone being snowed in or the aftermath of a storm. I am talking about the kind of long-term TEOTWAWKI crisis that has long-lasting ramifications for survival.
Organizing people in your community or neighborhood into a mutual assistance survival group (MAG) with the intention of working together in a world-changing crisis is something that warrants a great deal of thought and consideration. Failure to do so could reduce your chances of survival rather than enhancing them.
December 29
1170 – Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, is assassinated inside Canterbury Cathedral by followers of King Henry II
1607 – According to John Smith, Pocahontas, daughter of Powhatan leader Wahunsenacawh, successfully pleads for his life after tribal leaders attempt to kill him.
1778 – During the Revolutionary War, 3000 British soldiers under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Archibald Campbell capture Savannah, Georgia.
1812 – The USS Constitution, under the command of Captain William Bainbridge, captures HMS Java off the coast of Brazil
1835 – The Treaty of New Echota is signed, ceding all the lands of the Cherokee tribe east of the Mississippi River to the United States.
1845 – In accordance with the International Boundary Delimitation, the United States annexes the Republic of Texas, following the manifest destiny doctrine and is admitted as the 28th state.
1876 – A railroad bridge over the Ashtabula River northeast of Cleveland collapses while the Pacific Express of the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway passes over it, killing 92 of the 160 passengers and crew aboard.
1890 – On the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, in South Dakota, 300 Lakota and 31 Army soldiers are killed in battle near Wounded Knee creek when the U.S. troops attempt to disarm the camp.
1934 – Japan renounces the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922 and the London Naval Treaty of 1930 which limited construction of warships and begins to rearm.
1939 – The prototype of the Consolidated B-24 Liberator bomber makes its first flight.
1949 – KC2XAK of Bridgeport, Connecticut becomes the first Ultra High Frequency television station to operate a daily schedule on UHF channel 24.
1970- The Occupational Safety and Health Act is signed into law by President Nixon, creating bureaucrapacy OSHA
1972 – Eastern Air Lines Flight 401, a Lockheed L-1011 TriStar, crashes in the Florida Everglades on approach to Miami International Airport, Florida, killing 101 of the 176 passengers and crew aboard.
1975 – A bomb placed by unknown terrorists explodes at LaGuardia Airport in New York City, killing 11 people and injuring 74.
2018 – The lowest recorded temperature of -111C (-167F) is registered by the NOAA-20 satellite in the western Pacific at top of a large storm system.
The Colorado Supreme Court gave up their credibility for nothing! 😂😂😂 https://t.co/Qm8M0yxYJK
— Oilfield Teufel Hund 🇺🇸 (@Beard_oh) December 28, 2023
UK: Welsh Government is using 14-year-old Welsh girls to attract migrant men to the country
Migrants arriving in Europe come from Africa and Asia where pedophilia is wide spread.
Wales is using little girls to encourage migrants to move to Wales and claim benefits and housings. pic.twitter.com/pjKIeoCQae
— Klaus Arminius (@Klaus_Arminius) December 26, 2023