A case for Edward Snowden
Posted By: Mercedes44, 1/15/2025 6:19:29 AM
There was a time when the mere mention of Edward Snowden’s name stirred a visceral reaction in me. I thought he was a traitor who had betrayed his country by leaking classified information from the National Security Agency. Like many Americans, I was swept up in the tide of post-9/11 patriotism, a sentiment that, in hindsight, was both genuine and grossly manipulated. It wasn’t until I heard Snowden speak a year or two after he defected to Russia that I realized how I had been bamboozled by my government. Edward Snowden wasn’t a turncoat;
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Armed residents of wildfire ravaged communities in Los Angeles county have reportedly taken to guarding their homes in defiance of government-mandated evacuation orders.
A contingent of homeowners in Altadena and the Pacific Palisades have been on a desperate neighborhood watch amid the ongoing blazes that have wrought destruction and resulted in looters attempting to take advantage of tragic circumstances, Some homeowners have started taking matters into their own hands – patrolling neighborhoods in defiance of Los Angeles County officials.
AP
Some of those residents patrolling their beleaguered streets are even toting firearms for fear of their safety and lawless looters.
On Wednesday, we reported that Israel and Hamas had reached a tentative ceasefire deal, which will result in the release of some of the terror group’s hostages. Debate has raged in the ensuing hours over whether it is a good deal for Israel and which American commander-in-chief deserves the credit: lame-duck President Joe Biden or incoming President-elect Donald Trump. While we certainly hope for the release of all the hostages taken in Hamas’ savage Oct. 7, 2023 attack, their newest chief is sounding anything but peaceful. In fact, despite the deal being reached, Hamas leader Khalil al-Haya delivered a sick,
It looks like Kamala Harris's classy streak is over.
For awhile there, we thought something had changed in her when she graciously certified the 2024 election in the Senate and put on a decent appearance at Jimmy Carter's funeral. It seemed like a politically smart way of distinguishing herself from bitter Joe Biden and preserving her political viability.
But now the old Kamala is back, classless as ever, refusing to give the incoming vice president, J.D. Vance and his young family, a courtesy tour of the Naval Observatory, which serves as the vice presidential residence. She even could have proudly shown him all the renovations she had done.
A case for Edward Snowden
7 replies
There was a time when the mere mention of Edward Snowden’s name stirred a visceral reaction in me. I thought he was a traitor who had betrayed his country by leaking classified information from the National Security Agency.
Like many Americans, I was swept up in the tide of post-9/11 patriotism, a sentiment that, in hindsight, was both genuine and grossly manipulated. It wasn’t until I heard Snowden speak a year or two after he defected to Russia that I realized how I had been bamboozled by my government. Edward Snowden wasn’t a turncoat;
Kamala Harris eyeing post-loss life in
NYC as second gentleman tours $20K-a-month
luxury space 19 replies
NYC as second gentleman tours $20K-a-month
luxury space 19 replies
It’s not the White House. But… it’s a short walk to the Park?
Kamala Harris is eyeing post-loss life in New York, we hear.
Page Six spies say that Doug Emhoff toured a $20,000-a-month three-bedroom at the Park Loggia luxury condo building on the Upper West Side last week. (“The missus was missing,” said the source.) No word yet if the power pair plan to take the apartment.
Meanwhile, a source said, “Not from me, but I heard they were looking to be bicoastal.”
A third said that the soon-to-be-former VEEP and Second Gentleman intend for Los Angeles to continue to be their base when they leave Number One Observatory Circle this week,
When Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm and her staff of clowns bungled a four-day ramble in 2023 to show off the wonder of electric vehicles, the lasting impression would be the report of her advance team blocking an open charger so she wouldn’t have to wait for one. A federal report, however, reveals details that cast the entire charade in an even worse light.
The Granholm tour was to take her from Charlotte, N.C., to Memphis, Tenn., and was intended to justify the billions of taxpayers’ dollars the Biden administration was pouring into green energy initiatives. The message was lost when it was learned, two months after the incident,
Fire, Snow And A Storm Of Climate Nonsense
11 replies
Los Angeles is burning and the East Coast and Midwest have been walloped by cold and snow. Naturally, the global warming alarmists screech and honk about human reliance of fossil fuels. It a gross and irresponsible assumption.
It never takes long for the foolish to break out and Vermont socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders didn’t disappoint on Wednesday when he tweeted: “80,000 people told to evacuate. Blazes 0% contained. Eight months since the area has seen rain. The scale of damage and loss is unimaginable. Climate change is real, not ‘a hoax.’ Donald Trump must treat this like the existential crisis it is.”
As we’ve reported, Meta is nuking its fact-checking division and is going to rely on a Community Notes-type system similar to what rival social media platform X uses. Meta property Facebook in particular was notorious for censoring people and outlets over the last four years, especially when users criticized the Biden administration, its Green New Deal policies, COVID policy, and other hot-button issues. Essentially, it became a de facto arm of the Democrat Party, and now that the Trump administration is coming to town, there’s a whole lot of groveling and finger-pointing.
The fact-checking industry is obviously not pleased that they’re taking a lot of the blame,
In what will certainly stir controversy on the right, JD Vance made an important clarification about how the incoming Donald Trump administration will handle January 6th participants: Violent offenders will not be pardoned. Speaking to Shannon Bream on "Fox News Sunday," Vance was asked who exactly would be eligible for a pardon. The soon-to-be-vice president didn't shy away from the question. Many of the larger Trump-supporting accounts on social media are already lashing out at Vance, but it needs to be noted that neither Donald Trump nor JD Vance ever promised a blanket pardon for all those charged over January 6th.
One of the most wonderful things about Christianity is that there’s remarkable diversity in the way we can worship, provided we believe in the essentials of the faith. After the Protestant Reformation, denominations sprang up that allowed for variations in thoughts on secondary theological issues as well as styles of worship.
In more recent years, the “mainline” denominations, so called because they were the churches along the main roads in towns, have opted for theological and political liberalism (and downright heresy) and have seen a resulting decline. Denominations still loom large on the landscape of American Christianity, but their influence is on the downslope, according to some new research.
The notoriously political Judge Juan Merchan sentenced President-elect Donald Trump Friday morning for his ridiculous ‘hush money’ conviction in Manhattan. The Lawfare effort was entirely to position President Trump as the first convicted felon in the White House. That’s it. That’s the sum of motive and intent. To create a narrative.
That’s what lawfare is all about, creating public perceptions and using the judicial system to advance political goals. Few people care about the issues and the entire case is likely to be thrown out on a host of appeal reasonings.
Tulsi Gabbard Now Supports FISA-702 In
Order to Get Confirmed as Director of
National Intelligence 8 replies
Order to Get Confirmed as Director of
National Intelligence 8 replies
As the story is told [SEE HERE], and it aligns with every scintilla of researched data on the darkest and deepest elements of the Deep State, DNI nominee Tulsi Gabbard has reversed her position and will now support FISA-702, the warrantless searches of American communication and electronic metadata.
Apparently the FISA process and the 702 aspect (specific to American citizens) is the line in the sand the Senate Select Intelligence Committee has drawn. If Tulsi Gabbard does not support it, her confirmation is in doubt. As a result, she has reportedly reversed her position and now supports it.
This is absolutely par for the course.
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Are the Obamas headed for a divorce?
The tabloids are abuzz after Michelle Obama skipped Jimmy Carter’s funeral and announced she won’t be attending Trump’s inauguration.
Barack Obama attended Jimmy Carter’s funeral alone after his wife had a so-called scheduling conflict.
“Former President Barack Obama is confirmed to attend the 60th Inaugural Ceremonies. Former First Lady Michelle Obama will not attend the upcoming inauguration.” – Michelle Obama’s spox said.
Rumors are swirling that Michelle and Barack are on the outs.
Hunter Biden has reportedly lost hundreds of his treasured artworks in the Los Angeles wildfires.
According to The New York Post, Hunter’s artworks went up in flames as wildfires continued to ravage the city, leaving thousands of properties in its wake.
The report states:
A trove of nearly 200 artworks by Hunter Biden has been destroyed — one of the casualties of the wildfires ravaging Los Angeles, The Post has learned.
The controversial art had been in storage near the Pacific Palisades home of Hunter’s Hollywood attorney Kevin Morris and is valued at “millions of dollars,” a source close to the Biden family said.
Netanyahu’s office says cabinet won’t meet to approve ceasefire deal until Hamas backs down on 'last minute concessions'
Israel’s security cabinet has delayed a planned meeting to approve a ceasefire and hostage deal with Hamas in Gaza, with Benjamin Netanyahu’s office accusing Hamas of attempting to obtain ‘last minute concessions’ on some aspects of the deal.
Reuters quotes Netanyahu’s office saying “Hamas reneges on parts of the agreement reached with the mediators and Israel in an effort to extort last minute concessions. The Israeli cabinet will not convene until the mediators notify Israel that Hamas has accepted all elements of the agreement.”
Toxic RINO Senator Lisa Murkowski (AK) was asked whether she will confirm Trump’s nominees on Thursday as confirmations hearings were underway.
Several of Trump’s Cabinet nominees have faced questioning from senators this week.
A Daily Caller reporter caught up with Lisa Murkowski and asked her whether she will vote to confirm Trump’s Cabinet picks.
Murkowski said it’s “premature.”
“I think it’s premature to ask where I will be on any nominee until this process actually gets moving. I’m doing what I do best which is learning a lot,” Murkowski said.
Ratings-challenged CNN will reportedly move veteran anchor Wolf Blitzer to a new slot in the mornings as part of a wider reshuffle by the embattled cable news pioneer’s boss Mark Thompson. The 76-year-old Blitzer, one of the network’s longest-tenured anchors and current host of “The Situation Room” at 6 p.m., will be teamed with Pamela Brown on a new morning show, sources told Status newsletter on Thursday. The shakeup could also include frequent Donald Trump antagonist Jim Acosta being bounced as anchor of “CNN Newsroom” at 10 a.m., the sources said.
MILWAUKEE — Bob Uecker, who parlayed a forgettable playing career into a punch line for movie and TV appearances as “Mr. Baseball” and a Hall of Fame broadcasting tenure, has died. He was 90.
The Milwaukee Brewers, whose games Uecker had broadcast for over half a century, announced his death Thursday morning, calling it “one of the most difficult days in Milwaukee Brewers history.” In a statement released by the club, Uecker’s family said he had battled small cell lung cancer since early 2023.
“Even in the face of this challenge, his enthusiasm for life was always present, never allowing his spirit to falter,” the family said.
On Wednesday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Alex Wagner Tonight,” MSNBC host Ayman Mohyeldin reacted to the ceasefire and hostage release deal by arguing that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “could have delivered this victory to Joe Biden eight months ago, prior to a U.S. election in which the U.S. candidate for the Democratic Party, the vice president, could have been running on a ceasefire deal. He did not do that. And he did not do that, by design,” and “it is hard to imagine that the Prime Minister of Israel has entered into this ceasefire deal without knowing that, on the back end of it,
Armed residents of wildfire ravaged communities in Los Angeles county have reportedly taken to guarding their homes in defiance of government-mandated evacuation orders.
A contingent of homeowners in Altadena and the Pacific Palisades have been on a desperate neighborhood watch amid the ongoing blazes that have wrought destruction and resulted in looters attempting to take advantage of tragic circumstances, Some homeowners have started taking matters into their own hands – patrolling neighborhoods in defiance of Los Angeles County officials.
AP
Some of those residents patrolling their beleaguered streets are even toting firearms for fear of their safety and lawless looters.
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D) will skip President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration ceremony on Monday, a spokesperson for the congresswoman said.
While the spokesperson did not disclose a reason why Pelosi will be absent from the event to ABC News, the longtime California lawmaker claimed in a January 5 episode of CBS’s Face the Nation that Trump “called out to these people to continue their violence” on January 6, 2021, and that her husband, Paul Pelosi, ended up “being a victim of all of that” rhetoric.However, she was present for the certification of the presidential election results on January 6, the day after she made that statement on CBS, ABC reported.
The issue of child grooming has been something conservatives have been sounding alarm bells over for years thanks in part to leftist legislators who think introducing LGBTQ propaganda to children as part of the school curriculum is a good thing, and to educators who eagerly go along with it.
There has also been the rise of so-called "kid-friendly" drag queens, and hyper-sexualized content on Disney, with the latter's opposition to Florida's parental rights bill being one big flashpoint for the national debate on what was needed to be done to protect children - and the rights of their parents
A watchdog investigation into outgoing Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin’s hospitalization in 2024 found that his secretive hospital stay resulted in heightened national security risk, in part because Austin took medication with the potential to impair cognitive function while still in sole command of the Pentagon.
The Pentagon’s inspector general interviewed 44 witnesses and reviewed 56 million pieces of data during a year-long investigation into three separate periods when Austin was hospitalized for medical procedures related to prostate cancer and kept the White House and top Defense officials in the dark about what was going on, prompting a political firestorm. The review concludes that Austin needlessly risked national security
Get ready for an even bigger chill. Siberian
air to make Trump swearing-in coldest
in 40 years 14 replies
air to make Trump swearing-in coldest
in 40 years 14 replies
New Orleans—The vast majority of Americans are about to get an extended taste of frigid Siberian weather. Another polar vortex disruption will stretch Arctic air across the top of the globe and make Donald Trump’s second inauguration the coldest in 40 years, meteorologists said.
After starting in the Rockies Thursday night, the cold will blast eastward and as far south as the upper Florida peninsula over several days. Up to 280 million Americans will have a day or two where it’s colder than Anchorage, Alaska, said private meteorologist Ryan Maue.
“This would be one of the coldest outbreaks certainly of the past 10 years, 15 years,” said winter weather expert