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This Video Will Get Donald Trump Elected
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O’Keefe Goes Undercover: White House Official Gives Tell All on Behind the Scenes Discussions Surrounding Joe Biden’s Mental Health Decline & Kamala Harris’ Unpopularity Within the Administration – “What They Can’t Say Publicly”
O’Keefe Media Group has released part two of their investigative series in Washington, DC, where an unwitting Biden White House whistleblower admitted that Joe Biden’s mental health is in decline, and there are closed-door discussions about how to remove Kamala Harris from the 2024 ticket without stirring a “scandal” and giving poor optics to the American people.
Charlie Kraiger, a Cybersecurity policy analyst and Foreign affairs Desk Officer in the Executive Office at the White House, tells O’Keefe that he protects “the networks of the federal agencies, who you give all your information to,” and his team is “the President’s voice” concerning policy making.
After telling O’Keefe that Joe and Kamala will be the nominees in 2024, “sadly,” he divulged the secret discussions about Joe Biden’s mental fitness for a second term and Kamala Harris’ unpopularity within the administration, including with black staff who have “quit on her en masse.”
Kraiger added, “She’s not popular, but you can’t remove the first black lady to be Vice President from the goddamn presidential ticket!”
“Like, what kind of message are you going to send to African American voters? How would you spin that?” he continued.
Though Biden’s condition has not been clinically diagnosed “yet,” said Kraiger, he still believes that Biden’s mental health is in decline and notes that his colleagues are aware. “He is definitely slowing down,” Kraiger told O’Keefe.
Speaking about what he’s heard in the Executive Office, Kraiger said, “They’re really concerned about it,” and “I think they need to get rid of him or get rid of her.”
“But no one in modern history has ever said, like, ‘We’re not going to renominate the president for a second term.’”
And Michelle Obama is not coming to the rescue for the Democrats, according to Kraiger, who said, “I had a meeting with Michelle Obama…. Someone asked her, ‘Will you ever run for office?’ And she said, ‘No’ Empathically.” She was like, ‘I’ve seen all this sh*t my husband has had to go through, and that does not interest me.’”
One week ago, The Gateway Pundit also reported that O’Keefe Media Group released an explosive story after a congressional insider told him that congress members are coerced into voting a certain way by party leadership, leveraging secret affairs and “sex parties” against them.
“Madison Cawthorn wasn’t lying, neither,” said the source.
It also became apparent that the animus between competing parties in Washington is all a facade, as the intern for Republicans in Congress was actually a Trump-hating Democrat, which his former employer, Rep. Bruce Westerman (R-AR), did not seem to care about.
Watch the full video here.
O’Keefe is expected to release more footage tomorrow from his encounter with Charlie Kraiger after the Biden White House official ran out of the restaurant, tailed by O’Keefe and two undercover cameramen.
WATCH:
BREAKING VIDEO: Top White House Cyber Official tells O’Keefe in Disguise “they can’t say it publicly” the White House wants to replace Kamala Harris and Confirms President @JoeBiden mental decline: “Biden is definitely slowing down.”
“I’m just telling you what I’ve heard… they’re really concerned about it” …“I think they need to get rid of him or her.”
“But no one in modern history has ever said, like, ‘We’re not going to renominate the president for a second term.’”
Charlie Kraiger @CharlieKraiger, a Cybersecurity policy analyst and Foreign affairs Desk Officer in the Executive Office at the White House, tells O’Keefe “I had a meeting with Michelle Obama @michelleobama …. Someone asked her, ‘Will you ever run for office?’ And she said, ‘No’ Empathically.” She was like, ‘I’ve seen all this shit my husband has had to go through and that does not interest me.’
“@VP @KamalaHarris hemorrhages black staff. She can’t keep black staff. They quit on her en masse”
“She will be the vice president nominee. There was a debate about removing her from the ticket, but sadly they didn’t, she’s not popular, but you can’t remove the first black lady to be vice president from the Goddamn presidential ticket. Like what kind of message are you going to send to like African-American voters…People would be like, “What the fuck?” Like she’s a woman and she’s multiracial.”
-Jordan Conradson, The Gateway Pundit
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Appeals Court Finds FBI Did Violate 4th Amendment Rights of Los Angeles Residents by Seizing Hundreds of Safety Deposit Boxes without ‘Any Legal Basis’
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals found that the FBI violated the Constitutional rights of some Beverly Hills residents by seizing hundreds of safety deposit boxes without ‘any legal basis.’
In 2021, the feds seized $85 million in cash, precious metals and family heirlooms stored in about 800 safe deposit boxes in Los Angeles.
A class-action lawsuit claims the FBI “exceeded the search warrant approved by the court” when it raided storage provider, US Private Vaults (USPV) and snooped through the contents of the safe deposit boxes.
USPV was indicted by the feds for conspiracy to sell drugs and launder money, however the owners of the boxes are not accused of committing any crimes.
The search warrant only authorized the FBI to inspect the safe deposit boxes to “identify their owners in order to notify them” about claiming their property.
The FBI agents were caught on video going through the boxes, tearing open packages with coins after already identifying the owner’s name.
“Items appear to be missing” – The owner’s lawyer told the Los Angeles Times the FBI’s list of inventory left out $75,000 in gold coins.
The Institute for Justice, a watchdog accountability group is spearheading the fight and filed a temporary restraining order this week on behalf of several owners who stand to lose the contents of their safe deposit boxes if a federal judge doesn’t intervene.
This is the “most outrageous Fourth Amendment abuse that the Institute for Justice has ever seen,” Frommer, the IJ attorney, said when it announced the case. “It is like the government breaking into every apartment in a building because the landlord was dealing drugs in the lobby.”
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals found that the FBI violated the 4th Amendment rights of the Los Angeles residents by seizing 1,400 safety deposit boxes.
“Writing for the 9th Circuit panel Tuesday, Circuit Judge Milan D. Smith Jr. found that the government had gone beyond the scope of its warrant — and its own rules for taking inventory of property that is not the subject of a warrant but is nonetheless in its possession — by searching the boxes and launching subsequent criminal investigations based on their contents,” The Los Angeles Times reported.
Judge Milan Smith Jr., a Bush appointee, blasted the federal government for its unlawful search and seizure.
“Smith, an appointee of President George W. Bush, also wrote that it was “particularly troubling” that the government could not explain how far it believed it could go with such “inventory” searches. Without such an explanation, he wrote, it was unclear how those searches differed from the sort of limitless searches that existed in pre-revolutionary America — and which prompted the 4th Amendment to be written into the Constitution in the first place.” the newspaper said.
The Los Angeles Times reported:
The FBI violated people’s constitutional rights when it opened and “inventoried” the contents of hundreds of safe-deposit boxes during a raid on a Beverly Hills vault in 2021, a federal appellate court ruled Tuesday.
The ruling by a three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals reverses a lower court decision in favor of the FBI. The panel found that the agency’s cataloging of the contents of the privately rented boxes, without individual criminal warrants for each, violated the box holders’ 4th Amendment rights against unreasonable searches and seizures.
The ruling requires federal officials to destroy any inventory records they have kept on hundreds of box holders who have otherwise been found faultless and had their physical property returned. Officials must also destroy records that have been included in a criminal law enforcement database called Sentinel.
-Cristina Laila, The Gateway Pundit
White House Refuses to Hand Over Transcript of Biden’s Ukraine Speech Where He Called For Firing of Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin
The House Oversight Committee on Wednesday said the White House is refusing to hand over the transcript of Joe Biden’s Ukraine speech where he called for the firing of Ukrainian prosecutor general Viktor Shokin.
“The White House is REFUSING to hand over early drafts of President Biden’s 2015 Ukraine speech where he called for the firing of the Ukrainian prosecutor, Viktor Shokin.” the House Oversight Committee said.
“These drafts are important as it is believed, based on public reporting, that the then-VP “called an audible” and changed U.S. policy toward Ukraine to benefit his son on the plane ride to Ukraine,” the Committee said. “Joe Biden later bragged about withholding a U.S. loan guarantee if Ukraine did not fire the prosecutor.”
“For more than five months the White House has declined to authorize the production of these draft speeches to the Oversight Committee or to assert a valid privilege over them,” the letter to White House Counsel Edward Siskel said.
The House Oversight Committee said they will ‘consider the use of compulsory process’ if Biden doesn’t cooperate.
What are they waiting for??
In 2015 Joe Biden made a speech to the Ukrainian Rada in Kiev in which he demanded the firing of Ukrainian prosecutor general Viktor Shokin.
Viktor Shokin
“As the Prime Minister and the President heard me often say, I never tell another man or another nation or another woman what’s in their interest. But I can tell you, you cannot name me a single democracy in the world where the cancer of corruption is prevalent. You cannot name me one. They are thoroughly inconsistent. And it’s not enough to set up a new anti-corruption bureau and establish a special prosecutor fighting corruption. The Office of the General Prosecutor desperately needs reform. The judiciary should be overhauled. The energy sector needs to be competitive, ruled by market principles — not sweetheart deals. It’s not enough to push through laws to increase transparency with regard to official sources of income. Senior elected officials have to remove all conflicts between their business interest and their government responsibilities. Every other democracy in the world — that system pertains,” Biden said in his 2015 speech, according to White House archives.
A few years later speaking on a panel before the Council on Foreign Relations, Joe Biden publicly bragged about bribing Ukraine with $1 billion to fire Viktor Shokin, the Ukrainian Prosecutor General who was investigating Burisma corruption.
Viktor Shokin was investigating Mykola Zlovchesky, the Ukrainian oligarch who owned Burisma Holdings, the natural gas company that was paying Hunter Biden millions of dollars in an influence peddling scheme.
Biden strong-armed Ukraine into firing Shokin to protect his son Hunter and publicly bragged about the scalp.
I “said: I’m leaving in six hours. If the prosecutor is not fired, you’re not getting the money. Well, son of a bitch. He got fired,” Biden said in 2018.
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-Cristina Laila, The Gateway Pundit
Midnight Vote Moves Mayorkas Impeachment Much Closer to Reality: ‘The Time for Accountability Is Now’
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas may become the first Cabinet member to be impeached in 1876 after the House Homeland Security Committee voted early Wednesday morning to send two articles of impeachment against him to the full House.
The committee approved the articles in an 18-to-15 vote along party lines, CBS News reported, citing “willful and systemic refusal to comply with the law” and “breach of public trust” in the secretary’s approach to the border crisis.
The full House is expected to take up the issue next week.
“We cannot allow this man to remain in office any longer,” committee chair Mark Green of Tennessee told CBS. “The time for accountability is now.”
House Democrats, unsurprisingly, called the Republican-led effort to impeach Mayorkas a “sham.”
“Neither of the impeachment charges the committee will consider today are a high crime or misdemeanor,” said committee ranking member Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, according to CBS.
He said the “impeachment scheme is a dangerous attempt to distort the Constitution,” Axios reported.
Perhaps more surprisingly, one of the lawyers who defended former President Donald Trump during his impeachment hearings, Alan Dershowitz, agreed with him.
In an Tuesday Op-Ed for The Hill published titled “Republicans who voted against impeaching Trump should not vote to impeach Mayorkas,” Dershowitz argued that, just as Trump had not been charged with “treason, bribery, and other high crimes or misdemeanors,” as the Constitution specifies for impeachment, so the current impeachment proceedings were based on “equally vague and unconstitutional grounds.”
“Whatever else Mayorkas may or may not have done, he has not committed bribery, treason, or high crimes and misdemeanors,” he wrote, accusing some Republicans of being ready to apply a “double standard” because they dislike the Biden administration’s policies.
He also noted — as did both CBS and Axios in their reports — that Mayorkas would not be convicted in the Democrat-controlled Senate and would therefore remain in his current position, no matter how the House votes on the impeachment articles.
The right-leaning editorial board of The Wall Street Journal was more direct it its opinion piece, “Impeaching Mayorkas Achieves Nothing.”
Republicans on the committee argued that “misdemeanor” when the Constitution was written could have referred to “the act of demeaning oneself,” CBS reported, which would essentially lower the bar for impeachment to include anything that any House member found objectionable.
“If that becomes the new precedent, then the floodgates will open and you will have frivolous impeachments from here until the end of time,” Rhode Island’s Rep. Seth Magaziner said during the hearing.
If the House impeaches Mayorkas, he will become only the second Cabinet member ever to receive that dubious honor, and the first in 148 years.
Secretary of War William Belknap, a former Civil War general and member of President Ulysses Grant’s Cabinet from 1869 to 1876, when the House voted to impeach him for what the U.S. Senate website describes as “a pattern of corruption blatant even by the standards of the scandal-tarnished Grant administration.”
Despite the fact that Belknap had already resigned his Cabinet post, a majority of the Senate voted to convict him. However, the number of conviction votes fell well short of the two-thirds threshold required by the Constitution, so he was acquitted.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
-George C. Upper III, The Western Journal; The Gateway Pundit
REPORT: Biden Regime Launching Scheme to ‘Effectively’ Disrupt Private Gun Sales Before the 2024 Election
Whistleblowers within the ATF have alleged the Biden regime is launching a scheme to enact an effective ban on private gun sales before the 2024 Presidential election. If successful, this would be among the most significant assaults on the 2nd Amendment in American history.
According to Empower Oversight President Tristan Leavitt, the ATF, at the behest of the Biden White House, has drafted a 1,300-page document justifying a rule that would “effectively” ban the sale of all private firearms.
Back on March 14, 2023, Joe Biden issued an executive order in order to “clarify the definition of who is engaged in the business of dealing in firearms, and thus required to become Federal firearms licensees (FFLs), in order to increase compliance with the Federal background check requirement for firearm sales.” The purpose was to move America as close as possible to universal background checks without new legislation.
The Federalist notes the rule would accomplish this effective ban on private gun sales simply by mandating background checks on all personal firearm exchanges. The person tasked with this grave assault on the 2nd Amendment is Senior Policy Counsel Eric Epstein, who worked as the Phoenix Field Office’s Division Counsel during Operation Wide Received (a precursor of Operation Fast and Furious).
Leavitt notes this rule not only violates the Second Amendment but also overrides the separation of powers section of the Constitution. This grants “all legislative Powers” to Congress while requiring that the President “take care that the laws be faithfully executed.”
This is far from the first time the Biden regime has targeted America’s gun owners. The Gateway Pundit reported last year the ATF issued a rule banning millions of guns and threatening gun owners with up to a decade in prison for refusing to comply.
The Regime also launched a scheme to enhance the ATF’s illegal gun registry, prompting a warning from Gun Owners of America (GOA).
Even if the courts strike down this rule assuming it is enacted, what is to stop the Regime from enforcing it anyway?
-Cullen Linebarger, The Gateway Pundit
Measure That Blue State Voted for Resulted in 241% Increase in Opioid Deaths, Forces Dems to Declare State of Emergency
You would think decriminalizing hard drugs would be universally recognized as a bad idea, but it seems the leaders and citizens of Oregon didn’t see it that way until the time came to reap the consequences.
And it seems the time to reap those consequences is just about now, considering that, according to a story in CNN, Oregon has been forced to declare a 90-day “state of emergency” in downtown Portland, due to an ongoing and increasingly alarming drug addiction crisis, specifically to the drug fentanyl.
As reported in CNN, “Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek, Multnomah County Chair Jessica Vega Pederson and Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler each made an emergency declaration to address the public health and public safety crisis in Portland’s Central City, citing overdoses, deaths and fear driven by fentanyl use.”
The reason behind this crisis stems from the now infamous Measure 110, “which decriminalized some use of hard-drugs, including fentanyl, a potent synthetic opioid” and passed in the Oregon State Legislature back in 2020.
As a result, “[o]piod overdose deaths in the state increased from 280 in 2019 to 956 in 2022,” an astounding 241 percent increase.
If only there was some way this could’ve been avoided.
At least the Oregonian leaders are doing something about it — though maybe not quite enough.
Part of the plan for Portland’s 90-day state of emergency is setting up a command center in the middle of the city, which will measure the effects of fentanyl use and addiction on Portland’s citizens and direct addicts to the relevant treatment centers.
The other part of the plan “include[s] two public health campaigns and increased outreach to get people into treatment, recovery and housing services.”
But, at least per CNN’s report, this effort is only targeting fentanyl — why not any other hard drugs?
Measure 110 decriminalized more than just fentanyl, including in its scope heroin, cocaine, and methamphetamines — all hard drugs whose effects are nearly as bad as those of fentanyl.
Granted, fentanyl has been much in the news lately, and with the border crisis going the way it is, there’s only going to be more pouring into the country.
Still, dependency on these drugs can be just as deadly as fentanyl addiction.
But we’ve yet to address the elephant in the room underlying the mess facing Portland now.
How did Measure 110 pass at all?
After all, it seems like a should be such an obviously bad idea on the surface, something no one of sound mind would propose, let alone something a large enough swath of average citizens would vote for.
Well, if you’re familiar with left-wing ideas about drugs and how to handle addiction, perhaps it won’t be as surprising.
For one, many folks on the left have been leading a crusade for decades to decriminalize drugs and drug use, beginning with marijuana, but now, clearly, they’re pushing for the hard stuff.
According to such folks’ reasoning, throwing addicts in prison doesn’t actually solve the underlying root of the problem; it just prevents them from getting treatment.
So the argument goes, if more addicts got treatment instead of going to prison, then that would eventually conquer the crises of addiction rampant in our cities.
Such was the argument at least of local left-wing news outlet The Oregonian, who claimed, when the measure was still in consideration, that “[b]roadening access to services so that adults – and juveniles – can easily get assistance is a public health solution more closely tied with what is ultimately a public health problem. Oregonians should make clear this is a priority for the state and vote ‘yes’ on Measure 110.”
Unfortunately for the utopian aspirations of left-wing politicians, real life does not quite work that way, and all the citizens of Oregon who voted for this preposterous measure are finding out the hard way.
If you decriminalize the possession and use of hard drugs, or at least “reclassify the offense of possessing small amounts of illicit drugs from crimes to violations,” most folks inclined to use them will just feel more free to indulge their addictions, since they will face no (or less) consequences for their debilitating habit.
As for the folks who created and the folks who voted for Measure 110?
Well, as the old saying goes, play stupid games, win stupid prizes.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
-Allison Anton, The Western Journal; The Gateway Pundit
Comedian Tells Joe Rogan He’s No Longer on the Left, Reveals What Made Him Say, ‘I Can’t Do It Anymore’
Stand-up comedian, actor, and podcaster Bobby Lee, known for his appearances on shows like “MADtv” and films like “A Very Harold and Kumar Christmas,” is not exactly what one would call a “family values conservative.”
But during an appearance on “The Joe Rogan Experience” with podcaster Joe Rogan, Lee admitted that he’s now in what he considers the “middle” politically.
During the show, Rogan praised “regular people” from Boston and admitted that he used to be a part of the “blue bubble” and was “one hundred percent a left-leaning person who lived in Los Angeles” and who never voted Republican, especially with any social issues although he said he was a little more conservative when it came to financial issues.
“But California went nuts, man. It’s gone like full communist. It’s out of its f***g mind,” Rogan said, going on to specifically criticize its “insane” approach to law enforcement, including no-cash bail and lax theft prosecution policies that have damaged once-great cities like San Francisco.
“San Francisco is non-existent,” he said.
“They ruined it,” Lee agreed with Rogan.
Rogan said that Californians could bring the state back, but only if they had some “hardcore Rudy Giuliani type motherf***er to come in there and knock heads.” He said that “nobody wants that. They’re peace, love and granola and f***ing wear a mask.”
“I’m in the middle now,” Lee whispered as if making a horrifying admission. “I never thought I would I would ever say that.”
Lee said that his change in attitude had only occurred in the last year — and said it was liberals who brought it about.
“I just went — I can’t do it anymore,” he said.
“People that you thought were aligned with you are now like mad at you about s***,” he said.
“They’re in a cult,” Rogan cut in, likening the current political climate to a closed religious group, including the excommunication, shaming, and “group think.”
“It’s a cult,” he said, and Lee agreed.
Rogan said that the left will attack you like people in a cult will attack you — not for reasonable beliefs — but “like someone attacks religious beliefs.”
As an example, he cited men claiming to be “transgender” to use women’s public bathrooms, pointing out that creeps and pedophiles are “real.”
“It doesn’t mean trans people aren’t real also,” he said. “But those guys are f***ing real.”
“And to even say that those guys are real, you get excommunicated, you get treated like you’re a Nazi,” Rogan said.
“I never even cared about it,” Lee said, raising his voice in frustration.
“Yeah, I mean… whatever you want, I don’t give a s***… you know what I mean?” he said.
“But it’s like … I can’t do it anymore,” Lee said.
A video excerpt of the conversation is below:
Rogan and Lee’s comments were dead on. Conservatives may disapprove of some levels of humor, but they will support the comedian’s right to speak.
The left, on the other hand, is fine with filth or the mocking of organized religion, but don’t you dare question their dogmas or sacred cows. Joke about race, gender, or any form of non-heterosexuality, and you can kiss your career goodbye.
In an interview with comedian Rob Schneider on the U.K. talk show “The Dinosaur Hour,” according to GB News, veteran British comedian John Cleese, well known for his work on “Monty Python’s Flying Circus” and “Fawlty Towers,” referred to the new “woke” ideology as “totalitarianism.” [3.00 on website]
“It is,” Schneider responded. “It’s a closed system of thought or fundamentalism, which means ‘This is the way the world is, and that’s the way it is, and that’s the way I want to keep it.'”
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
-Rachel M. Emmanuel, The Western Journal; The Gateway Pundit
WATCH: Georgia Lawmaker Captures Video of Illegal Aliens Tucked Away in Hidden Room Under Military Protection at Atlanta Airport
The Daily Caller obtained an exclusive video of illegal aliens being held in a secret room at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta.
Republican Georgia State Senator Colton Moore on Tuesday captured video of illegal aliens tucked away hidden under military guard at the Atlanta airport. The Georgia lawmaker learned about the hidden illegals from a whistleblower who works at the airport.
The anonymous whistleblower noticed an increase in illegals coming through the airport.
A video exclusively obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation appears to show a U.S. service member guarding a room chock-full of illegal immigrants at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International airport.
Republican state Sen. Colton Moore, who is the vice chairman of the Georgia Freedom Caucus, took the video Tuesday night and told the DCNF that he learned of the hidden room full of migrants through a “whistleblower” at Atlanta’s airport, who noticed an influx of illegal migrants coming through the facility in recent months. In the video, there appears to be a uniformed soldier guarding a room full of migrants and volunteers with a group called Team Libertad, which boasts of helping migrants travel on its social media accounts.
“We’re all getting them flights to where they need to be,” a man who identified himself as a volunteer from Team Libertad says in the video. “These are just recently documented travelers getting released from ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] getting to where they need to be.”
The video shows a room that looks like it is guarded by a uniformed soldier. There is also a volunteer from a group called Libertad which is an NGO that helps illegal aliens.
When State Senator Colton Moore attempted to get in to take closer video, he was stopped and prevented from documenting further footage.
“Actually you cannot get a video. No, no, you are not allowed.” That was the response from those preventing him from getting more video.
Exclusive footage from Jennie Taer from the Daily Caller.
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Georgia Senator Colton Moore accused Governor Brian Kemp and Joe Biden of treason.
“I went to Atlanta Airport after a Whistleblower reported to me a room guarded by U.S. Military FULL of Illegal Aliens,” Senator Moore said on X.
“Brian Kemp, Joe Biden this is a total dereliction of your duty and breach of public trust onto Georgians. GA Borders are Breached. TREASON!” the Georgia lawmaker said.
“We are being invaded and the State and Federal Government are backing this human trafficking operation of unimaginable size at the Largest Airport in the World,” he said.
Airports across the country have seen illegals flying to various cities across the US. Tucson is one example of this as reported by TGP in November of 2023.
An estimated 11 million illegals have poured into the US in the last three years.
The Biden regime has failed to uphold the Constitution. The Federal Government is responsible for protecting our nation from foreign invasion in Article IV, Section 4 Of the US Constitution and has failed to do so.
-David Greyson, The Gateway Pundit
NEW: Biden to Name Dirty John Podesta as New Climate Czar to Replace John Kerry
Joe Biden will name Clintonite John Podesta as the new Climate Envoy to replace John Kerry, according to the Washington Post.
Last summer the Biden Regime trotted out Podesta, a current Biden advisor and former Chief of Staff to Bill Clinton, to lecture us on ‘climate change.’
Podesta admitted Joe Biden’s so-called ‘Inflation Reduction Act’ is actually the Marxist green new deal repackaged with a different name.
“We have to cut the carbon pollution that’s driving the climate crisis and that’s what the ‘Inflation Reduction Act’ is all about!” Podesta said last August.
Podesta also absurdly claimed Americans across the political spectrum support climate change mandates.
“Across the political spectrum, they support the movement to cleaner forms of energy, cleaner forms of transportation!” Podesta said.
WATCH:
Earlier this month it was reported that John Kerry will step down as Joe Biden’s Climate Envoy this winter or early spring.
Kerry, 80, was appointed as Joe Biden’s Climate Czar in November 2020 during the transition.
John Kerry, the private-jet-setting hypocrite, operated in secret for three years.
Protect the Public’s Trust (PPT) filed a FOIA lawsuit in an effort to obtain emails between John Kerry’s office and various climate change groups.
The emails turned over to PPT from John Kerry’s office were heavily redacted.
Not one staffer’s name was revealed.
Fox News obtained the documents from PPT.
“It hardly seems in the public interest, in fact it appears the antithesis of serving the public interest, to hide the names of government officials who are communicating with controversial outside activist organizations that are attempting to influence government policy,” PPT director Michael Chamberlain told Fox News Digital.
Last July Congressman Brian Mast asked John Kerry to identify the senior staff working in his office on taxpayer’s dime.
Kerry refused to identify his senior staffers and threw a tantrum after Rep. Mast pressed him to be transparent.
John Podesta, a lifelong corrupt DC Democrat will also likely be operating in secret.
-Cristina Laila, The Gateway Pundit
Joe Biden to Visit East Palestine, Ohio a Year After the Disaster Since It’s an Election Year
On Feb. 3, 2022, just before 9 p.m. Eastern, a Norfolk Southern train derailed near East Palestine, Ohio, a small Midwestern town of about 4,800 people near the Ohio border with Pennsylvania.
At least 11 of the train cars that derailed contained hazardous materials. Several cars were carrying vinyl chloride, a cancer-causing substance.
Government officials decided to burn the chemicals rather than let them drain onto the ground. The chemical explosion was enormous. The chemicals formed a gigantic toxic plume over the town.
Toxic chemical explosion in East Palestine, Ohio after 2023 train derailment.
Joe Biden promised to visit at some point and still has yet to show his face there.
Trump visited almost immediately and got a hero’s welcome, prompting a visit from our completely useless transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg, which was nothing more than a lame attempt to save face by the Biden administration.
In this video, Karine Jean-Pierre is repeatedly asked by the press when Biden is going to visit the town and she just keeps putting them off.
Biden simply doesn’t care. How else is anyone supposed to take this?
Do people realize how many vacation days Biden has taken in the last year? Yet he couldn’t find the time to visit Ohio?
The White House announced on Wednesday that Joe Biden will be visiting East Palestine, Ohio in Februay. A date was not listed.
President Trump visited the disaster site nearly a year ago after the horrific disaster.
The people are not fooled.
East Palestine, OH Business Owner: “… The leader of our country did not show up to the greatest catastrophe of 2023. And now, he’s going to show up because it’s an election year… the polls show President Trump came and supported us when he didn’t have to.”
-Jim Hoft, The Gateway Pundit
Former Trump Admin Official in Critical Condition After Being Shot During a Carjacking Spree in D.C.
Image Credit: Mike Gill (LinkedIn); ABC7 News
Mike Gill, a prominent Republican figure and former Chief Operating Officer of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) during Donald Trump’s administration, was critically injured in a violent carjacking incident in Washington, D.C., on Monday night, the Daily Wire reported.
Gill was attacked while waiting in his car to pick up his wife from her office on K Street, a bustling area just blocks away from the White House, at approximately 5:45 pm, ABC7 News reported.
“We can confirm that Mike Gill was the victim of the shooting at the 900 block of K Street Northwest on Monday evening and is in critical condition,” Erica Richardson, a spokesperson for the Gill family, told The Daily Wire.
Eyewitness Yolanda Douglas described the harrowing scene, where Gill’s wife discovered him injured after he had called her downstairs. “Oh my God, that’s my husband,” she exclaimed upon finding him.
The assailant, after shooting Gill, continued the rampage, committing at least two more carjackings and one attempted carjacking, one of which resulted in another victim’s death.
The carjacking trail led to Prince George’s County, Maryland, where law enforcement eventually confronted the suspect. The individual, engaged in a shootout with Maryland State Police, was later killed by the police.
Police later identified the victim as 35-year-old Alberto Vasquez Jr.
Source: Jacob Walker per ABC7 News
Here is a timeline of the events as described by ABC7 News:
5:45 p.m. Monday:
Location: 900 block of K Street Northwest
Event: The suspect entered a parked vehicle and shot the driver, critically injuring them. The victim is identified as Mike Gill.
Around 7:05 p.m.:
Location: 1000 block of 3rd Street NE
Event: Attempted carjacking by the suspect, but was unsuccessful.
Around 7:17 p.m.:
Location: 1200 block of 3rd Street and N Street NE
Event: Reports of a shooting. The suspect shot a man and stole his 2016 gray Chrysler 200 with D.C. tags. The victim later died. The vehicle was later recovered in Takoma Park.
Post 7:17 p.m.:
Event: The suspect committed multiple other carjackings, including a Toyota Camry.
11:23 p.m.:
Location: University Park in Prince George’s County
Event: Carjacking of a blue Nissan Rogue from a rideshare driver. The suspect hit the victim in the head with a gun and stole the Nissan. The victim was not seriously hurt.
Around 2:30 a.m.:
Location: Near Rt. 198 exit on I-95 South in Laurel
Event: The suspect shot at the windshield of a trooper’s vehicle. No one was hit.
Around 3:00 a.m. Tuesday:
Location: Near DC 295, close to Exit 1
Event: The suspect drove past a D.C. police officer, shot the door of the officer’s vehicle, and drove away. The officer was not injured.
Around 4:30 a.m.:
Location: New Carrollton
Event: Police located the Nissan Rogue. An officer-involved shooting occurred.
Gill, appointed in 2016 as the Republican member of D.C.’s Board of Elections, served until July 2020. His notable career includes roles as COO of the CFTC, Chief of Staff to CFTC Chairman Christopher Giancarlo, and a significant part in regulatory reform, according to Daily Wire.
Mr. Gill’s family sent FOX 5’s Shomari Stone the following statement:
“Mike is an amazing husband, father, friend and colleague. He has a wonderful sense of humor, no matter the situation. He makes friends with everyone – and is always looking for opportunities to bring people together and make them feel included and loved.
His warmth and kindness have touched the lives of many, evident in the outpouring of love and support his family has have received during this difficult time. Mike’s remarkable ability to connect with others transcends boundaries.
His genuine interest in people and his innate ability to make everyone feel valued and included have been instrumental in fostering a sense of community wherever he goes. Whether it’s through his infectious laughter, his genuine concern for others, or his innate ability to find common ground, Mike is a catalyst for unity and friendship.
The most important thing about Mike that all of his friends know is how much he loves his family and how proud he is of his three children. You can’t know Mike without hearing proud stories of each one of his kids, and hearing about his love and respect for his wife, Kristina.”
-Jim Hoft, The Gateway Pundit
Watch:
Who is Justin Mohn? Levittown man in YouTube beheading video sued government, made music
On his social media, Justin Mohn describes himself as a musician, producer, author of seven books available on Amazon, the commander of America’s national network of militias, acting President of the United States and maybe The Messiah.
Bucks County law enforcement have added a new title to the list: murder suspect.
Mohn, 32, was charged Wednesday in the death of his 68-year-old father, Michael Mohn, whose decapitated body was found in a bathroom of his Middletown home Tuesday evening, police said.
According to court documents, Justin Mohn used a machete and a large kitchen knife, both found in a bathtub by police, who also recovered the victim's head wrapped in plastic in a large cooking pot.
Police apprehended Mohn in Fort Indiantown Gap, home to a National Guard Training Center some 100 miles and two hours away from Bucks County. It was unclear why Mohn traveled to the area where the military installation bills itself as the busiest training center in the nation.
Mohn was arraigned on murder charges at midnight in Fort Indiantown Gap, said Middletown Police Lt. Pete Feeney. He confirmed Michael Mohn was found decapitated in the home.
Mohn has also been charged with possession of an instrument of crime and abuse of corpse. Other charges may be filed later Wednesday.
Justin Mohn, who is a suspect in the murder and beheading of his father, Michael Mohn on January 30, 2024.
What we know about Middletown murder Middletown man posts video claiming to show beheaded father in Levittown
Arrest at military installation: What police found when they arrested Levittown beheading suspect at Fort Indiantown Gap
Mohn's Militia Youtube video: 'A call to arms'
In a 14-1/2 minute rant against the federal government posted on YouTube on Tuesday, Justin Mohn displayed what he said was the severed head of his father, describing the victim as a 20-year federal employee.
Mohn did not admit to killing his father, who authorities confirmed was a federal worker, in the video, but he called for the execution of all federal workers, claiming they have betrayed American citizens. Michael Mohn was a retired civil engineer with the Army Corps of Engineers.
“All federal agents, US Marshals, federal judges and border patrol are to be killed or captured, tortured for information and publicly executed for betraying their country,” Mohn said in the Youtube video that has since been taken down off the site. “Earn your place in heaven by sending a traitor to hell early.”
Throughout the video, which appeared to be filmed in a bedroom, Mohn railed against what he described as far-left, Woke, pro-immigrant, pro-Black Lives Matter and pro-LGBTQ deep-state labor racketeers and tax-evading big tech companies influences in the federal government that he said are destroying America.
YouTube took down the video, around 10:30 p.m. Tuesday, after it has been posted for about six hours and was viewed more than 6,000 times.
In the video, Mohn declared himself the acting U.S. president, and ordered “all militia and patriots” to kill federal employees and seize federal buildings including courthouses. He said he had access to $10 million and put $1 million bounties on high-ranking government officials.
What was found in Levittown home: Machete found in bathtub of Levittown home where Justin Mohn beheaded father: Police
Justin Mohn of Levittown described self as musician, author
The graphic video begins with Mohn holding up his father's head, wrapped in plastic, several times as he appears to read a maifesto of sorts, giving orders and making claims against the government. Authorities acknowledged seeing the video, biut would not comment on its contents Tuesday night as their investigation continued.
Law enforcement officials Tuesday night released little information about Mohn, only identifying him as the victim's youngest son, but his online footprint offered a vastly different portrait than his YouTube video. It also provided context for his disdain for the federal government.
On his Facebook page, “Justin Mohn -Music” which had 71 followers Tuesday, he promoted two of his albums, “The Story of Humanity” and “Colorfunkinrado,” which he said were released in 2017 and 2018.
He described his music style as a blend of “rock, funk, and hip-hop using piano and organ as primary instruments. Along with explicit lyrics,drums, synthesized bass and other synthesized instruments.”
On his Amazon page, Mohn, a 2010 graduate of Neshaminy High School, described himself as the author of seven books and musician who has released three albums and one single. At Neshaminy, he was voted class clown runner up and played soccer, according to the yearbook.
“His life story is unbelievable and there may not be enough words to describe him, but one may begin to understand his complexity and experiences through his art. He only wishes to bring positive change to the world,” his Amazon profile said.
Justin Mohn of Levittown is captured in this screenshot of the gruesome YouTube video he allegedly made after beheading his father in Levittown on Tuesday, Jan. 30, 2024.
Levittown beheading suspect Justin Mohn had sued government over student loans
In legal filings in the U.S. Eastern District Court in Philadelphia, though, Mohn displayed his deep dissatisfaction with the federal government, specifically the U.S. Department of Education.
Since 2022, Mohn has sued the U.S. Department of Education secretary Miguel Cordona and the U.S. Department of Education twice and last year the U.S. Attorney’s Office and The Attorney General of the United States. The court dismissed all the suits, which Mohn filed pro-se meaning he represented himself.
In the most recent court opinion in December, U.S. Judge Mark Kearney wrote Mohn’s arguments in his latest suit, which sought $10 million, were similar to ones the court previously dismissed.
“He essentially claims the United States lent him money which he needed to repay under a student loan contract beginning in late 2014 but this loan allowed him to get a college education and he cannot find a satisfactory job as an overeducated white man to repay the loan,” Kearney wrote.
In his opinion, Kearney wrote that Mohn graduated from Penn State University in May 2014 with a bachelor’s degree in agribusiness management.
Kearney — who Mohn threatened by name in the YouTube video — wrote that Mohn started repaying his student loans six months after he graduated, but he could not find full time work.
He moved to Colorado to take a full-time job at a credit union, according to the opinion. He later took a full-time job with an insurance company for a higher hourly wage, though the opinion didn’t specify what it was..
“He views his work postgraduate years as ‘malemployment.’” Kearney wrote.
This article originally appeared on Bucks County Courier Times: Levittown beheading suspect railed agaist government, called miliita to arms
-Jo Ciavaglia and JD Mullane, Bucks County Courier Times; yahoo!news
Days of Darkness: How one woman escaped the conspiracy theory trap that has ensnared millions
WASHINGTON (AP) — At first his stories seemed harmless. Tales about secret organizations plotting to take over the world, about the good guys working to save it, and about the proof that, if you knew where to look, was hiding in plain sight.
To Ramona, her boyfriend Don’s tales of conspiracy theories sounded like a movie. A lot of it didn’t make much sense, but Ramona would nod along anyway. Don enjoyed telling his stories and showing off what he’d read online. He always knew the answer.
Consumed by visions of an apocalyptic battle between good and evil, convinced by her boyfriend that a New World Order would begin at any time, Ramona fell into a trap that has ensnared millions of Americans and even, at times, hijacked national politics. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
The pair met while still in high school. They worked at the same fast-food place in Ramona’s hometown in western Tennessee. They started dating a few years later. Don was a big guy, good with engines, somebody who could fix anything. Ramona had always wanted to be a teacher and was enrolled at a nearby college. Sometimes she struggled with anxiety, but with Don she felt safe.
The couple moved in together as COVID-19 swept the globe. To Don, the pandemic and the global response to it were filled with clues pointing to some kind of conspiracy, orchestrated by America’s leaders and the media. Maybe the virus was accidentally leaked from a lab; maybe it was a bioweapon. Don also suspected the lockdowns had a nefarious purpose, and he believed the vaccines were unsafe, perhaps designed to kill.
Don’s wild stories had seemed innocent and even silly before, but in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic they suddenly seemed plausible. At a scary time, when questions about the virus outnumbered answers, the conspiracy theories filled in some of the blanks.
“I have a lot of fear about what I can’t control,” Ramona, now 23, said of her vulnerable mindset as COVID-19 spread. Ramona agreed to tell her story to The Associated Press after she detailed her experiences on a forum for recovering conspiracy theorists. The AP is not fully identifying Ramona or her ex-boyfriend to protect her privacy and safety. “The stuff he was telling me, it made me feel like at least we understood. He had an explanation for what was going on. I didn’t realize what I was getting into.”
This alternate reality nourished by these conspiracy theories would transform Ramona’s life, sending her down a dark path of paranoia and loneliness that upended her life and spun her dreams of the future into turmoil. Convinced that a “New World Order” was already underway, she fell into a trap that has ensnared millions of Americans and even, at times, hijacked the nation’s politics.
Isolated from friends and family, distrustful of the explanations offered by officials and the media, Ramona and Don began to prepare. The military might try to put Americans like them in concentration camps run by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA. They had to be ready to flee.
The couple began stockpiling food and supplies. Don started a “go-bag” containing survival gear. He used their modest savings to buy a rifle, a handgun and ammunition.
One cold day in January 2021, Don read about a power outage in Vatican City on one of his conspiracy theory websites. The couple discussed what it might mean: Perhaps the Pope had been secretly arrested for his role in the conspiracy to control the world. Or maybe the bad guys had knocked out the power so they could smuggle child sex victims in or out of the Vatican.
Either way, the outage meant something big was happening. There are no coincidences. Just clues to be deciphered.
A few hours later, Ramona was in the bedroom when the lights in their Tennessee home flickered and then went out. Don started yelling. Ramona says he sounded almost exhilarated.
“He comes running into the bedroom,” Ramona recalled. “He says, ‘Honey, we gotta go. This is it!’”
They loaded their guns and the dog into the truck and drove into the darkness.
Ramona stands for a portrait Tuesday, Oct. 10, 2023, in Cordova, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE
The AP spoke with more than a dozen people whose lives were disrupted by conspiracy theories — either because they believed them or because a close loved one did.
Many spoke of the social isolation that comes from spending more and more time on conspiracy theory websites and message boards.
They talked about money lost to investment scams or products that claimed to reverse aging or cure COVID-19. They talked about a mounting sense of paranoia and distrust as they began to lose faith in their community and their fellow Americans.
Former believers said conspiracy theories offered them meaning when they felt empty, even if those promises proved to be hollow themselves.
“I was suicidal before I got into conspiracy theories,” said Antonio Perez, 45, a Hawaii man who became obsessed with Sept. 11 conspiracy theories and QAnon until he decided they were interfering with his life two years ago. Back then, when he first found other online conspiracy theorists, he was ecstatic. “It’s like: My God, I’ve finally found my people!”
Antonio Perez looks out at Kawailoa Bay in Kauai, Hawaii on Nov. 5, 2023. (AP Photo/Eugene Garcia)
“I think I got a sense of self-importance” from conspiracy theories, Perez said. He believed that he alone “was figuring everything out. It all ties into wanting to be a hero.”
Belief in conspiracy theories is a common, and usually harmless, part of people’s instinctive need to identify threats and explain the unknown. They can be an entertaining diversion for many, though for some, obsessive interest in these claims can lead to social isolation, paranoia and distrust.
Such beliefs also create their own community.
Websites, streaming podcasts, online forums and Facebook groups have created virtual refuges for conspiracy theorists. They are places to speculate and swap information without worrying about the mockery of outsiders, virtual clubs where, for a few hours at least, the unseen forces behind the headlines can be seen and understood.
Similar online communities have sprouted for the family members and loved ones left behind when someone is consumed by conspiracy theories such as QAnon.
On forums on Reddit and other sites, they mourn lost relationships and bemoan the fantasy worlds that consumed their loved ones.
-David Klepper, AP News
When QAnon fundraises for Kari Lake ... she shows up
Image Credit: Kari Lake has attempted to pivot from her 2022 campaign for governor, when she ran a campaign heavily focused on election denialism. | Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP
Republican Senate candidate Kari Lake is headlining a campaign fundraiser on Friday hosted by two wealthy QAnon supporters, according to an invitation obtained by POLITICO.
Caryn and Michael Borland, who have shared numerous QAnon posts on their social media platforms, are holding the fundraiser for the likely GOP nominee at their mansion in Prescott, Arizona. Tickets for the Lake fundraiser are sold on a sliding scale, from $50 per person to $13,200 to be a “Leadership Committee” co-chair, $6,600 to be a “co-host” and $3,300 to be a “sponsor.”
The couple last caught public attention when a fundraiser they were going to host in Montana for former Vice President Mike Pence was canceled after the Associated Press reported on their QAnon ties. Though he didn’t give a reason, he had previously said QAnon was a “conspiracy theory.”
Lake, a former local news anchor, has attempted to pivot from her 2022 campaign for governor, when she ran a campaign heavily focused on election denialism. She lost that election to Democrat Katie Hobbs, but never conceded the race.
In the general election, she would face Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), who last quarter raised $3.3 million, and potentially incumbent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, now an independent, who has not announced yet if she will run for reelection. Her election speeches in her run for Senate this cycle have focused on economic issues, and even made some overtures to Democrats.
During her gubernatorial run, she had dinner with reputed top QAnon figure Ron Watkins and noted in July that she received a huge response when she appeared on the QAnon-linked internet show “X22 Report.” In recent years, Lake has embraced other false narratives, including saying that she took hydroxychloroquine to avoid getting Covid-19 and also raising doubts about whether Covid-19 vaccines worked.
QAnon is a sprawling conspiracy theory whose followers believe Trump secretly battled a cabal of Satan-worshiping child sex traffickers who worked in the “deep state.” Almost a quarter of Republicans, as well as 7 percent of Democrats, believed in QAnon, according to a 2021 Public Religion Research Institute poll.
Experts worry the prevalence of the QAnon conspiracy theory undermines democratic institutions and the legitimacy of elections — a huge concern as Trump returns to the presidential ballot in 2024.
A representative of the Lake campaign declined to comment. Michael Borland hung up on POLITICO when reached by phone while Caryn Borland didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Caryn Borland is a Christian musician. There are conflicting accounts of how the Borlands met. The couple told the Concordia University Irvine, where the Borlands donated money for part of a music building bearing their name, that they met in church, but ProPublica reported that they had met working together at a grocery store. The publication said that she received a significant inheritance from her dad and a multimillion dollar trust fund, with one former associate telling the publication that “they were not even middle class, then they inherited a massive fortune.”
After it was reported in 2020 that the Borlands had taken part in spreading QAnon material on Twitter and Facebook, the two reportedly made their Twitter accounts private and Michael Borland deleted QAnon content off of his Facebook page, which had earlier included a number of QAnon logos, its oath and its famous slogan, “Where We Go One, We Go All.” The couple visited the White House in August 2020 and in 2019 posted a picture with Trump and had dinner with Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.).
The Borlands previously donated more than a million dollars to a Donald Trump-Republican National Committee joint fundraising committee, along with their son who gave another $580,000. The couple have also maxed out to Lake’s campaign, each donating a total of $6,600 to Lake, according to new FEC records.
Lake has been a supporter of Trump’s third presidential bid. She campaigned for him in Iowa ahead of the caucuses. Some have even floated her name as a possible VP choice for Trump.
Trump, like Lake, has been playing footsie with QAnon. In recent years, he posted a picture of himself on Truth Social wearing a “Q” pin with a “Q” slogan in 2022 and reposting a montage highlight reel, which included the QAnon slogans “WWG1WGA” and “the storm is coming.” Trump has refused to dismiss the theory when asked about by journalists, saying that it was growing in popularity and that he had a lot of supporters who were in the QAnon community. He also posted references to QAnon on his Truth Social account dozens of times in 2023.
In 2019, the FBI’s Phoenix field office labeled QAnon a domestic terrorism threat, saying in an intelligence bulletin that conspiracy theories like QAnon are “occasionally driving both groups and individual extremists to carry out criminal or violent acts.”
After announcing her new campaign in October, Lake has earned the backing of several Republican senators and she even frequently texts with NRSC Chair Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.).
Lake raised $2.1 million during her first quarter in the race. She so far has no serious challengers in the primary.
-Daniel Lippman, Politico
Scientists Discover Stunning Evidence of Multiple Lost Prehistoric Societies
IMAGE: BAKER, RIGAUD, ET. AL.
Your choice in jewelry can say a lot about you: That you follow a particular religion, graduated with an engineering degree, or you’re just a fan of the latest viral aesthetic.
Now, new research shows that jewelry was just as important for distinguishing different cultures in ancient Europe as it is for signaling your allegiance to a particular group today.
The study, published in Nature Human Behaviour, reveals the existence of nine distinct groups that were lost to time and haven’t conclusively shown up in genetic data. Through the study of ancient artifacts, researchers were able to identify previously-unknown cultures living across Europe between 34,000 and 24,000 years ago, showing the power of these artifacts in writing our complex human histories.
The research focused on people who archeologists had previously thought all belonged to a single group called the Gravettians—Ice Age hunter-gatherers who braved the bitter cold and created some of the most iconic artifacts we know about today, including voluptuous sculptures like the Venus of Willendorf.
In the study, researchers from France created and analyzed a database of more than 130 personal ornaments from Gravettian burial and housing sites across Europe. The pieces ranged from carved ivory or amber pendants, to beads made from coral or human bone, to barnacle, bear or bison bone adornments.They first grouped the ornaments based on shared visual characteristics, then looked at where they’d found the objects and put them into subsets. Finally, they ran two different mathematical analyses to confirm that their groupings were valid.
The researchers saw that particular pieces of jewelry clustered together in different locations, representing nine distinct cultural groups, not just one homogenous population. There was a particularly clear split between eastern Europeans—who preferred to wear jewelry made from ivory, stone, or teeth—and western Europeans—who liked shells and teeth, study co-author Jack Baker told Motherboard in an email.
Other recent DNA and archeological evidence had hinted that Gravettians may in fact be a number of different people groups, representing different populations or technical abilities; this latest study puts the proverbial nail in the ancient coffin. “Our results are similar to the DNA evidence but we have shown that sometimes different genetic groups wore the same things and that sometimes the same genetic groups wore the same thing,” said Baker.
“The findings of the study actually fit quite well with the growing number of studies showing that the Gravettian is actually much more culturally diversified than was previously thought,” said Anaïs Vignoles, an archaeologist who specializes in the Gravettian period but who wasn’t involved in the study.
“There are some discrepancies between the genetic data and cultural data associated with ornaments,” said Cosimo Posth, an archeologist from Universität Tübingen who wasn’t involved in the study. For example, he points out that the southern Europe Gravettian groups were more similar to the western European groups than to the eastern ones, according to the ornament analysis, whereas the DNA evidence he and his team collected says the opposite. “This is to be expected because obviously different peoples can wear similar ornaments and similar peoples can wear different ornaments, as we see in this case.”
In Posth’s study, he compared DNA evidence with mortuary practices and found good agreement between the two. He says this is a sign that different aspects of culture may have stronger or weaker connections with genetic data. “It seems that certain aspects of a population's culture are more dictated by fashion such as ornaments and others are more related to biological connections such as mortuary practices.”
Some experts say that archeology has come to over-rely on genetic evidence when it comes to painting a picture of our historic past. The authors emphasize the importance of including both personal adornments and biological data when trying to understand paleolithic cultures.
Vignoles says one of the big shortcomings of the latest study is that it’s not clear how contextual data, such as other cultural artifacts, were used to date the ornaments. “Most of the occurrences used in the data set were recovered by old excavations, which have not necessarily been revised, and this can have huge implications on the chronological attribution of the ornaments.” She adds that there’s not enough information from the study alone to assess whether this affected the author’s interpretations.
Jewelry doesn’t serve any survival function, unlike other ancient artifacts like spearheads or pottery, so archeologists think it was purely to communicate traits or milestones like reaching a certain age or family ties. “Jewelry was used to transmit social and cultural information, much like today,” Baker, currently a PhD researcher at the Université de Bordeaux, said. “What you wear and how you wear it is a clear and unambiguous signal to others showing which group you belong to. Also, within groups it could show social status—again much like today!”
The messages people communicated by wearing ornaments changed over time, but some symbols that represented the human body remained relatively unchanged, the study found.
The findings confirmed a theoretical framework known as isolation-by-distance, where people who are closer together geographically will share the same culture by sharing or trading artifacts. The theory therefore predicts that other factors like language, topography, or the environment played a minor role in creating long lasting boundaries between groups.
Of course, what these ornaments were made of comes down to what materials were available wherever people were living. But ultimately, it was culture driving which items they picked from the environment, not the environment dictating what they wore.
“The hypothesis that cultural ornaments diversity is probably the result of multiple factors including ecology, raw material availability and a certain sense of identity, is quite reasonable,” said Vignoles. “I personally believe that the relationship between humans and their environment is profoundly cultural.”
-Mirjam Guesgen, Vice
Incredible maps reveal where in the body different types of MUSIC are felt - from sad songs in your chest to happy tunes in your toes
Whether it's a slow love song or an upbeat dance anthem, songs have a unique way of evoking emotions in people.
Now, scientists have revealed exactly where in the body different types of music are felt.
Somewhat unsurprisingly, sad songs evoke a response in the heart and the pit of the stomach.
Meanwhile, aggressive songs really do get us hot-headed, according to researchers from the Turku PET Center in Finland.
'Music's influence on the body is universal,' said Vesa Putkinen, lead author of the study.
Scientists have revealed exactly where in the body different types of music are felt. Somewhat unsurprisingly, sad songs evoke a response in the heart and the pit of the stomach. Meanwhile, aggressive songs really do get us hot-headed.
Whether it's a slow love song or an upbeat dance anthem, songs have a unique way of evoking emotions in people (stock image).
Music is often described as the 'universal language that everyone speaks', with previous studies showing that when people across cultures hear their favourite song, they can't resist moving.
However, until now, little research has looked at how music evokes bodily sensations across cultures.
In their new study, the team enlisted 2,000 participants – half of who were from Europe or North American, and half from China.
The participants were shown silhouettes of human bodies, and asked to indicate which bodily region they thought would be activated in response to different styles of music.
The results revealed that the different styles of music caused very different bodily sensations.
Sad or tender songs were felt in the head, chest and pit of the stomach, while scary or aggressive songs were mostly felt in the head.
Meanwhile, both happy and danceable songs were felt in the head and the feet.
The researchers also discovered that the emotions and bodily sensations evoked by music were similar across Western and Asian listeners.
The researchers also discovered that the emotions and bodily sensations evoked by music were similar across Western and Asian listeners (stock image).
‘Certain acoustic features of music were associated with similar emotions in both Western and Asian listeners,' said Professor Lauri Nummenmaa, co-author of the study.
'Music with a clear beat was found happy and danceable while dissonance in music was associated with aggressiveness.
'Since these sensations are similar across different cultures, music-induced emotions are likely independent of culture and learning and based on inherited biological mechanisms.'
According to the researchers, the findings suggest that music may have emerged as a way to boost social interaction.
'People move to music in all cultures and synchronized postures, movements and vocalizations are a universal sign for affiliation,' Dr Putkinen said.
'Music may have emerged during the evolution of human species to promote social interaction and sense of community by synchronizing the bodies and emotions of the listeners.'
-Shivali Best, The Daily Mail
Transgenderism and Reverse Discrimination Negatively Impacts the U.S. Military, According to Hundreds of Service Members
Photo: U.S. Army photo by Sarah Patterson
Over 200 men and women currently serving in the U.S. military took part in an independent survey conducted by the author. Through part of the anonymous questionnaire, service members were able to anonymously express their views about Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) training in the military.
Nearly 86 percent of the survey’s 229 participants, representing all branches of the military, said they have been required to participate in DEI training. One of the survey’s participants, Lt. Col. Randy Davis (a pseudonym), has served in the Marine Corps for over 15 years.
He shared his views with The Gateway Pundit using a pseudonym because of concern about reprisals. The Marine Corps officer also emphasized that his views don’t reflect those of the Department of Defense, Department of the Navy, or U.S. Marine Corps.
Although he was not required to participate in training specifically identified as DEI training, Lt. Col. Davis admitted, “I was clearly exposed to the sharing of material that was undoubtedly part of the DEI movement without having the label.”
For example, he cited flyers handed out at career fairs and Pride Month billboards that have “gone out of their way” to promote diversity.
A Military Forced to Confront Transgenderism
The acceptance of a person’s gender identity, which may not be their biological gender, is integral part of the DEI movement.
In the U.S. military, transgender personnel who can meet the standards for service are now serving openly alongside other service members.
Nearly 42 percent of the survey’s participants have served with someone who identifies himself or herself as transgender.
Of the 229 participants, 212 of them acknowledged having a moral or religious objection to transgenderism.
Only 12 percent of the survey’s participants have been forced to use pronouns to identify themselves or others.
While it’s not required in the Marine Corps, Lt. Col. Davis said, “I have coworkers that use [pronouns] on their email signature blocks.” If the use of pronouns was ever mandatory, he said he would not comply and would leave the service.
Lt. Col. Davis has not knowingly worked alongside a transgender service member, but he was aware of “a whole host of planning meetings to figure out how to incorporate a female recruit—who identified as a male—into male recruit training without treating her differently than other recruits.”
For him, “when Tommy is supposed to be a male, but has female parts,” it’s difficult to handle the issue in the unique environment of recruit training without creating an incident.
Over 93 percent of the survey’s participants also revealed that they feel “forced to believe” in transgenderism. Lt. Col. Davis agreed with the majority of the participants. Nevertheless, he said he would not have a particular problem serving beside a transgender service member.
He admitted, “It would be awkward, [but] it’s more about the fact that the military makes such a strong effort to shove it in your face, forcing us to confront it on so many levels, and that’s what’s getting uncomfortable.”
“They’ve created this general fear that if you miscategorize someone’s gender, you could be held up on charges like it’s a hate crime when it could be an honest mistake,” the Marine Corps officer said.
He explained that “if they’re addressed in a way that doesn’t match up with their ‘identity,’ then it’s automatically considered harassment and you’re going to get punished.”
Skin Color Over Merit
Being qualified to perform one’s duty in the U.S. military is not always a reason someone gets the job.
Over 53 percent of the survey’s participants said “[they] know someone who has been the subject of reverse discrimination and denied an opportunity for someone less qualified to meet DEI goals.”
Lt. Col. Davis said he witnessed reverse discrimination in the selection of a Brigadier General. “When the unofficial selection went up to a former Secretary of Defense, it was pushed back down because too many white males were selected,” he said.
“There was not enough diversity on the selection list of generals, apparently.”
After reevaluating those eligible for promotion, a new selection list released with more diversity including “people of color,” another officer was selected, despite the first leader being more qualified.
“I don’t have a problem with a diversity mission, per se, but leaders must be selected for being the most qualified based off of merit and potential,” he explained.
Interestingly, Lt. Col. Davis is also aware of black officers who question their own abilities, some wondering if they were promoted based on the color of their skin or their merit.
Whether it’s a push for transgenderism or favoring the less qualified, nearly 91 percent of the survey’s participants believe DEI training has impacted combat readiness negatively. And according to the survey’s participants, this should be a grave concern to the people of America.
-Guest post by J.M. Phelps, The Gateway Pundit