Posts on Thursday, October 26, 2023

The U.S. military conducted strikes against two facilities in eastern Syria used by Iranian-backed groups in retaliation for recent attacks against U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria. "The United States does not seek conflict and has no intention nor desire to engage in further hostilities, but these Iranian-backed attacks against U.S. forces are unacceptable and must stop," Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a statement Thursday night. Iranian-backed groups have targeted U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria with a mix of drones and rockets at least 16 times since Oct. 17, according to the Pentagon. The most recent attack took place Thursday in Erbil, Iraq,

New video footage posted on social media Thursday contradicts claims by Democratic Rep. Jamaal Bowman of New York about why he pulled a fire alarm. (snip) footage posted on Twitter by Spectrum News NY1 Washington Correspondent Kevin Frey shows Bowman taking down the emergency exit signs. (snip) The 30-second video posted by Frey shows Bowman removing signs from the door, pulling the fire alarm and walking away while holding the signs. Bowman did not appear to make any effort to open the doors in the video.

This article originally appeared on JoeHoft.com and was republished with permission......General Michael Flynn joined the Joe Hoft Show on TNT Radio on Wednesday to discuss a myriad of issues impacting the US today. In an exclusive interview, General Michael Flynn shared his observations and thoughts regarding topics from the Speaker of the House to the potential war in the Middle East. Here are some of the comments General Flynn shared: We are going to have to fight for the truth for it to be exposed.He then discussed the piece he wrote on Twitter the other day, where he shared: Americans see the truth:

RAFAH, Gaza Strip — Israeli troops and tanks briefly raided northern Gaza overnight, the military said Thursday, engaging with Hamas fighters and targeting anti-tank weapons in order to “prepare the battlefield” before an expected ground invasion. The third Israeli raid since the war began came after more than two weeks of devastating airstrikes that have left thousands dead, and more than 1 million displaced from their homes, in the small, densely-populated territory. Arab leaders made a joint plea Thursday for a cease-fire to end civilian suffering and allow humanitarian aid into Gaza, where Israel has imposed a suffocating siege ever since Hamas’ rampage and hostage-taking in southern Israel ignited the war.

Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) joined Steve Bannon on The War Room on Thursday after conservative outsider Mike Johnson was elected House Speaker on Wednesday. Rep. Mace was one of eight Republicans who voted to remove Kevin McCarthy after just nine months as Speaker. (X) It took several votes by House Republicans before a Speaker was chosen and agreed to by the caucus. Now we know why. According to Matt Gaetz and Nancy Mace, McCarthy was working behind the scenes to derail any potential candidate for Speaker including Jim Jordan, arguably the most popular Republican in Congress.

A top Biden-appointed prosecutor verified whistleblower claims that he declined to prosecute Hunter Biden for tax crimes, but bizarrely blamed being 'resource-strapped' as the main reason behind his decision. DailyMail.com reviewed the transcript of a closed-door House Judiciary Committee interview with U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada for the Central District of California. Estrada's interview comes after IRS whistleblowers Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler testified under oath that Hunter Biden received 'special' treatment in the investigation into his financial dealings.

The manager at Sparetime bowling alley led 'countless' children to safety before he was shot in the legs during the Maine massacre that left 18 dead and 13 injured. Thomas Giberti risked his life directing kids to a secure area in the bowling alley while under fire during the shooting, according to New England Bowling. The shooter, Robert Card, walked into the Lewiston, Maine bowling alley carrying an AR-15-style rifle around 7pm Wednesday and began firing while a children's bowling league was going on.

An intensive manhunt is still underway for a suspect in Wednesday's shooting rampage at a bowling alley and a restaurant that left at least 18 dead and 13 injured in Lewiston, Maine, according to authorities. Robert Card, 40, is facing an arrest warrant for eight counts of murder and should be considered armed and dangerous, police said. He is a certified firearms instructor and a member of the US Army Reserves, according to law enforcement. Police are urging residents to shelter in place and report any suspicious activity to authorities. Lewiston is the state's second-largest city and is located about 36 miles north of Portland.

Minnesota Rep. Dean Phillips' expected decision to launch a long shot Democratic primary challenge against President Joe Biden on Friday has upset several major non-white members of the party who think him starting a campaign by filing for the New Hampshire primary will be emblematic of what they argued was his "disregard" for Democrats' emphasis on the South and diverse voters. "He's skipping a very diverse state to go to a non-diverse state," one senior Black Democrat, who requested anonymity to speak candidly, told ABC News, adding, "I think that is a telltale sign of where your values are." Phillips'

President Joe Biden’s approval rating sunk eleven percentage points among Democrats in just over one month amid destabilization in the Middle East, a Gallup poll published Thursday found. Biden’s approval among his party plummeted from 86 percent to a record low of 75 percent, as the Democrat party struggles with large swaths of support for Palestinians, many of whom sympathize with the Hamas terrorists, Axios reported: Biden is at risk of alienating members of his own party with his unequivocal support for Israel, which has carried out a weeks-long bombardment and total siege of Gaza in response to Hamas’ Oct. 7 terrorist attacks.

Loud bangs were heard at the home of Maine mass shooter Robert Card's parents on Thursday evening, with the FBI encircling the property and demanding anyone inside come out. The road to the rural home was blocked, NewsNation reported, and police using megaphones said: 'FBI - open the door. FBI - come out now.' Card, 40, has been on the run since murdering 18 people on Wednesday night in Lewiston, 15 miles from his Bowdoin home.

The FBI’s Foreign Influence Task Force used a sham assessment opened by FBI headquarters to cull reporting from confidential human sources (CHS) throughout the country related to the Biden family and then falsely brand the intelligence as “foreign disinformation,” Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, revealed Wednesday. Wednesday’s explosive news suggests the DOJ and FBI’s Biden-family protection program encompassed many more players than previously known. But it is the involvement of the Foreign Influence Task Force that demands an immediate response by the House, namely the launching of an impeachment inquiry of FBI Director Christopher Wray

Sure, you could study hard to get a degree. But at Spelman, where I taught, you could also get a top administrator to change your grades. When I accepted a tenure-track position in the economics department of Spelman College in the spring of 2021, handing out bogus grades was the last thing on my mind. Spelman, after all, has a great reputation. Based in Atlanta, it’s a women-only historically black college, one of the oldest in the country; for the past 15 years, it’s been rated the number one HBCU by U.S. News & World Report.

My mother, who passed away last year, was a Holocaust survivor. As is typical with Jewish mothers, she was proud that I went to law school and even more proud when I was admitted to practice before the United States Supreme Court. She also detested arrogance, so she frequently responded to my comments and professional achievements with “my son, the Chacham.” [snip] My mother would say that there was no way the Jewish people could experience another Holocaust or other form of mass persecution, in large part because Israel exists and in larger part because the world had learned its lesson

Yesterday, The Wall Street Journal published a bombshell report, identifying an arms-trafficking scheme in which “Iran and its allies” have been smuggling heavy weapons and small arms to the jihadi terrorists occupying certain areas of Israel; see the lede below: Long before Hamas militants burst out of their Gaza stronghold [snip] the arms flowing from the terrorist regimes to the smaller terrorist groups, often comes disguised as aid packages.[snip] after [an] earthquake in Turkey and Syria, Iran “began hauling large quantities of weapons to Syria” in shipments disguised as aid

The white smoke billowed from atop the Capitol Rotunda, informing the masses that we have a Speaker of the House. Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA) was elected on Wednesday on a party-line vote. Amid the jubilation that the 22-day grinding halt of the House of Representatives has now ended, it’s worth remembering that electing a Speaker is the easy part. The decision of who will lead the majority caucus in the House has mostly never been in doubt for the entire history of the Republic. What that leader does is the more fraught question, and the situation Johnson faces is in no way easier than what now-backbencher Kevin McCarthy had to deal

The pilot who allegedly tried to crash an Alaska Airlines commuter plane while over Portland told the pilots who overpowered him that he “was not OK.” He later admitted to FBI agents that he took “magic mushrooms” for the first time about two days before he tried to crash the plane with 83 souls on board. This is the same drug that psychedelic aficionados have been falling all over themselves to decriminalize all over the country. But fans of using psilocybin, the active ingredient in these “magic mushrooms,” say there’s no way the pilot would have turned violent and tried to murder passengers

"Squad" Democrat Rep. Jamaal Bowman of New York pleaded guilty in D.C. Superior Court on charges that he illegally pulled a House office building fire alarm. (snip) Bowman got a plea deal: Write a letter of apology to the U.S. Capitol Police and pay a $1,000 fine. D.C. Superior Court Judge Dorsey Jones told Bowman that he could face six months in prison and a $1,000 fine if he does not write the letter of apology. Bowman's office told Fox News Digital that the congressman's deal with the D.C. attorney general would see the charges withdrawn if he writes the letter and pays the fine.

Liberals used to decry the influence of money in politics. But in Joe Biden’s America, we have seen the rise of a noxious new generation of left-wing donors. I identify some of the biggest power players in Joe Biden’s American in my book New York Times bestselling book Breaking Biden. Joe Biden is the quintessential oligarch. He has empowered America’s moneyed elite, and they have empowered him. Biden’s 2020 campaign was the first to raise over $1 billion. Democrats raised more $600 million more in “dark money” than Republicans in 2020. Look for those numbers to explode even higher in 2024.

Special Counsel Jack Smith asked Judge Tanya Chutkan to impose a strict federal gag order on Trump and send him to jail if he talks about any witnesses. In August Trump was hit with 4 counts in Jack Smith’s January 6 case up in DC: Conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding, and conspiracy against rights. Jack Smith is using the DC J6 case to gag Trump. The special counsel’s prosecutors accused Trump of attempting to “prejudice the jury pool through disparaging and inflammatory attacks on the citizens of this District, the Court, prosecutors, and prospective witnesses.”

President Joe Biden called the mass-shooting in Maine 'another senseless and tragic mass shooting' and urged residents to 'heed the warnings and guidance of local officials' as the suspect remains at large. He also said the federal government wasn't doing enough to deter such events and called on Republicans in Congress to work with him on legislation to ban assault rifles and expand background checks. 'Today, in the wake of yet another tragedy, I urge Republican lawmakers in Congress to fulfill their duty to protect the American people. Work with us to pass a bill banning assault weapons and high-capacity magazines,

Actor and former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger revealed Wednesday he is convinced his own skills and leadership abilities would combine to make him a “great” U.S. president. “I feel like I would make a great president,” the unabashed 75-year-old said in an interview with the BBC. “But I feel that, at the same time, everything I’ve accomplished was because of America.” Schwarzenegger is barred from running because he was born in Austria, where he lived until he was 19. The U.S. Constitution specifies the holder of the highest office in the land must be a “natural-born citizen.”

The sitting president of the Paterson City Council, already under indictment in a 2020 election fraud probe, faces new charges after state authorities say they uncovered evidence that he “personally collected ballots” in violation of New Jersey election law and tampered with witnesses in the case. The fresh accusations against Alex Mendez provide new details in an long-looming vote-by-mail fraud probe that drew national attention after former President Donald Trump invoked the case in his attacks on the legitimacy of the 2020 presidential race.

Ever since the terrorist murderers in Hamas attacked Israel almost three weeks ago, we’ve been witnessing the disgusting spectacle of American college students very vocally condemning Israel, some of which the esteemed VodkaPundit recently chronicled. For being attacked. Yes, parents, this is what a small fortune gets you when you send your kids off to have their minds polluted by the leftist filth that controls Academia. These kids didn’t come out of the womb being virulently anti-Semitic, they had to be conditioned. To be sure, the American public education indoctrination mill helped get them there, but it’s the lunatics in Academia’s ivory towers who are responsible for the finished product.

Jewish students at a New York City college were locked inside a school library on Wednesday as a pro-Palestinian rally moved through the building, with protesters banging on the doors and chanting ‘free, free Palestine,’ video shows. Video of the students in the library made the rounds on social media, on Wednesday afternoon. In one video, protesters were seen outside the library as Jewish students sit at a table and attempt to study. On the other side of the glass, students are seen holding up signs protesting Israel’s occupation of Palestine. Jake Novak, the former media director at the Israeli Consulate in New York, posted on the social media

What is now occurring in Israel is no act of happenstance or the result of failed policy. It is the execution of a premeditated plan of destruction that Obama began, and Biden is trying to finish. The American left has long desired to eliminate Judeo-Christian followers. Their reasoning is simple: you cannot conquer, subjugate, and enslave a population that refuses to accept the rule of an earthly authority. With Barack Obama leading the American left and pulling the strings on the Biden marionette, the plan is in motion. They seek to destroy Israel, followed by erasing Christians, whether through genocide (as in parts of Africa) or criminalizing Christianity.

The electric vehicle industry is barely making it with all the cushy subsidies, grants, and backroom deals… imagine if these car companies were actually forced to manufacture a sellable and profitable product, and produce their own wealth instead of just stealing ours? Just two days back, a regular AT contributor noted that the Big Three automakers were diminishing E.V. output because, according to The Wall Street Journal, coupled with a “need” to make rechargeable cars more profitable, there is a “slowing demand” for consumers. Yesterday, Fox News reported on a “sweeping first-of-its-kind” Texas Public Policy Foundation analysis put together by “energy experts” Jason Isaac and Brent Bennett, which revealed

This is both sad and hilarious. Sad because this piece by Jake Sullivan explains the “Biden Doctrine” in foreign policy, and hilarious because its publication demonstrates just how badly run this administration is. Sullivan is Biden’s National Security Advisor, and in that role, he has presided along with Biden over some of the worst foreign policy blunders in a generation. That is a high bar, too. Think Obama and Ukraine, Hillary and Obama in Libya, the “Arab Spring” debacles. Only George W. Bush’s invasion of Iraq could be said to be worse than Biden’s management of foreign policy. It has been Obama on steroids.

A week before its attack Hamas agreed to another truce with Israel. The agreement negotiated by Qatar, Egypt and the United Nations traded an end to border attacks for more imports, a bigger fishing zone and more work permits that allowed 20,000 Gaza Muslims to enter Israel. The agreement reached between Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, and Sukkot, the conclusion of the High Holy Days season, offered an end to the explosives and rocks being hurled at Israeli soldiers on the border and the incendiary balloons starting fires on Israeli farms. And terrorist attacks on civilians like the murder of Batsheva Nigri: a kindergarten teacher shot

It’s been quite clear for more than two decades that some people in the West just have to have global warming. They want it. They need it. It’s their oxygen. It is to these close-minded, irrational, sometimes neurotic and too-often grifting people that we dedicate this editorial. To follow up on Wednesday’s editorial, we’ll point out: The very folks who screech the most about the emergency of climate change don’t live their lives as if they believe that it’s an existential threat. Barack Obama owns a pair of coastal mansions that will be underwater within years if some of the warming alarmists’ forecasts are correct.

The hundreds of millions of dollars the Qataris have given Hamas during the past decade have been instrumental in helping the terrorist group to develop the infrastructure that enabled it to carry out its murderous assault on Israel in the first place. Qatar would like the world to believe that it is acting as an honest broker with its efforts to secure the release of the Gaza captives. But the reality is that it deserves to be condemned by the West as a state that sponsors global terrorism, so long as it maintains its indefensible support for Hamas.

Several years ago, I wrote a column entitled, “Something Evil This Way Comes” because there had been so many incidents occurring which defied common sense and smacked of nothing short of evil. Consequently, it came as no surprise that our diocese restored having the St. Michael prayer said at the end of each mass. I’ll bet many Catholics believe that Saint Michael is one of our saints but we adopted him from Judaism.(snip) What I did not know is that Michael is the guardian prince of Israel and is responsible for the care of Israel.

The embarrassing impasse in the House of Representatives has finally ended, as Louisiana’s Mike Johnson has been elected Speaker. So, who is Mike Johnson, and why was he finally able to succeed where several more notable House members failed? I suspect that the answer has more to do with desperation than anything else. The Republican Party was made to look ridiculous, not so much by the party’s divisions as by the utter lack of party loyalty and discipline that was revealed by one failed vote after another. Most likely, Republicans coalesced behind Johnson–a little-known commodity, who has never been a committee chairman–to stop the bleeding.

Tensions between Israel and the United Nations are heightened after a series of comments about Hamas led to U.N. visas being denied. U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said Tuesday during a meeting of the Security Council the terrorist attacks against Israel Oct. 7 "did not happen in a vacuum."[Snip]"We will refuse to grant visas to U.N. representatives," said Israeli U.N. Ambassador Gilad Erdan. "We have already refused to give one to Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Martin Griffiths. "It’s time to teach them a lesson." Erdan, who described Guterres’ remarks as "shocking" before calling for his resignation, doubled down Wednesday on his call for Guterres to step down.

We’ve seen this sort of thing happen before. Just a couple years ago there was a wave of anti-Semitic attacks with notable incidents in New York City and Los Angeles. Now it seems to be happening again. Last night a deranged man broke into a Jewish family’s home in Studio City, CA and threatened to kill them. The couple’s four children were home at the time. The break-in happened around 5:20 a.m. in the 3000 block of Laurel Canyon Boulevard, according to Los Angeles Police. The victim, who is nine months pregnant, told KTLA’s Ellina Abovian that the intruder first kicked in the door to their master bedroom.