FLORIDA Published May 24, 2023 4:55pm EDT Florida man who had AK-47 in car was headed to CIA before he was arrested
A Florida man who police say had an AK-47 rifle in his car was arrested outside a northern Virginia preschool after he told officers he was headed to CIA headquarters, police said Wednesday.
Fairfax County Police said the man was charged with possessing a firearm at a school, a felony, after his arrest on Tuesday.
Police say officers were called to Dolley Madison Preschool in McLean, which is less than a mile from CIA headquarters, where they took the man into custody.
According to the preschool, the man asked to use the bathroom around 11 a.m. Tuesday but was denied access to the building.
The man was unarmed when police responded, but officers searched his vehicle and found the AK-47 as well as a handgun and extensive ammunition, police said.
He was arraigned Wednesday at Fairfax County General District Court and is being held pending a preliminary hearing scheduled for July. Online court records do not list an attorney.
-Fox News
Popocatépetl volcano spews smoke and ash, putting millions of Mexicans on alert
Popocatépetl volcano just outside Mexico City has been erupting occasionally since 1994, but over the past week it has rumbled every day.
Scientists have recorded hundreds of explosions, and webcams trained on the volcano have shown it spewing incandescent material. From Mexico City, you can see a column of ash rising from the summit.
Like Mount Vesuvius in Italy and Mount St. Helens in Washington state, Popocatépetl is a stratovolcano capable of catastrophic, explosive eruptions, the last of which came around the year 800.
Scientists in Mexico say it's impossible to tell how long this new activity will last, or whether recent activity might lead to such a blast. But they say the 17,700-foot volcano, known locally as El Popo, will give enough warning to evacuate the millions who could be in danger.
Mexico has deployed about 7,000 troops to the region to help prepare for an evacuation if one is needed. More than 25 million people live within 60 miles of the peak.
-Eyder Peralta, NPR News
Right now, in the United States of America we have a debt ceiling crisis. And yes, there are consequences when the debt ceiling is not raised in the middle of the year and the government has spent all the money. The interesting thing is that they are trying to say that the Republicans are to blame. But McCarthy has been talking about the debt ceiling since he came in as speaker. The Republicans have been talking about it since November of last year. And Nancy Pelosi decided not to do anything with it.
Once McCarthy came in, all that he asked for were some cuts to various projects that have nothing to do with US infrastructure, sustainability, or debts. And right now, they are trying to push the REINS Act through with the raising of the debt ceiling. This act states that if any administration, including the DHS, FBI, ATF, etc., wants to put forth a policy change which would affect American citizens in the sense of arrest, or one that has the cost of over $100 million, then that administration would have to take it to Congress and Congress would have to vote on it.
And this is actually very smart because what this does is it limits the power of the executive branch, as well as all the administrations under it. But of course, the Democrats want nothing to do with this. And this is why they are pushing back on the debt ceiling. Do the Democrats have any regrets?
Watch here:
This simply is not true. It was the Republican Senators that brought up communications pertaining to the debt ceiling. And it was the House of Representatives that refused to touch it.
Watch here:
Watch here:
Shady Black Lives Matter Org Headed to Total Bankruptcy – Still Giving Seven Figure Salaries to Board Members and Co-Founder’s Family
The Washington Free Beacon obtained tax documents Tuesday showing the Marxist Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation (BLM GNF) plunged millions of dollars into the red. The BLM GNF was founded in November 2020 ostensibly to provide a more formal of structuring of the BLM Movement.
At the same time, BLM GNF is still doling out millions of dollars to relatives of its co-founder Patrisse Cullors and several board members. As the Daily Mail notes, Cullors resigned in May 2021.
Cullors once claimed that financial disclosures would be “triggering” and “unsafe.” Now we know what she wanted to cover up.
The Free Beacon reported:
Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation ran an $8.5 million deficit and saw the value of its investment accounts plummet by nearly $10 million in the most recent tax year, financial disclosures show. The group logged a $961,000 loss on a securities sale of $172,000, suggesting the charity weathered a staggering 85 percent loss on the transaction.
These troubles didn’t stop BLM from doling out seven-figure contracts to friends and family of its former executive director Patrisse Cullors, who once said charity financial disclosures were “triggering” and “deeply unsafe.”
It’s no surprise that Cullors was so fearful of disclosing Black Lives Matter’s finances to the public. The revelations in Black Lives Matter’s latest Form 990 show that the group is on the fast track to financial insolvency, and that the excesses of Cullors’s tenure have not abated under her chosen successor, Shalomyah Bowers.
The financial losses come after a year of missteps and setbacks for the embattled charity. BLM raised just $9.3 million in its 2022 fiscal year, down 88 percent from its haul the year prior. Black Lives Matter was forced to shut off its online fundraising streams in February 2022 due to compliance and transparency issues in several liberal states.
The group has blown through two-thirds of the $90 million it raised in the wake of George Floyd’s death in the summer of 2020. BLM spent about $12 million of those funds on luxury homes in Los Angeles and Toronto.
Do not forget, as The Gateway Pundit previously reported that donations to BLM were also going directly to ActBlue, the fundraising platform for the DNC. It is not clear how many MILLIONS OF DOLLARS the Democrats raised by pushing this ruse on the American public.
-Cullen Linebarger, The Gateway Pundit
This is one of the big ones for me. Because with the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, we learned that they had given approximately $85 billion to Black Lives Matter. But now BLM is close to filing bankruptcy. It appears that people are no longer giving them any money. Probably because of all things they were buying for their own benefit, such as mansions, cars, and property, as well as they fact that did not help a single person with that money.
Tech Layoff Mania Sparks 200,000 Job Cuts As New Grads Pursue Careers On Wall Street
One month ago, we cited a job recruiter who was asked if the tech layoff cycle was over. Her response was, "We are definitely not done yet." This brings us to the latest data that shows 200,000 tech jobs have been lost since the beginning of the year.
According to the jobs tracking website Layoff.fyi, 199,047 jobs from 702 tech firms have been slashed in the last five months. The pace at which firms are hemorrhaging jobs every month is worsening.
Bloomberg said data from Levels.fyi, a site collecting industry pay data, shows tech firms are decreasing offers to new employees. This data showed compensation packages plunged 25% in March when compared to the same month last year. Also, stock options have become less appealing to new recruits as many startups listed on public stock exchanges have plunged into bear market territory.
"There's a lot of chaos in Big Tech — we're seeing a course correction with a lot of firing," Amy Lui Abel, a global talent partner at talent firm Lee Hecht Harrison, told Bloomberg. This has led many college graduates to search for jobs in finance instead of tech, as explained by Abel:
"But on Wall Street, you work really hard and you make a lot of money. That's the deal."
Recall IBM CEO Arvind Krishna recently said the company expects to pause hiring for roles it thinks could be replaced with artificial intelligence in the coming years.
Making matters worse, Goldman Sachs recently told clients that AI could result in 300 million layoffs across the Western world by the decade's end.
Many of these jobs are never coming back because of AI.
And why is that? Well, after two years of declining margins due to runaway inflation and soaring input prices, the worst of the profit margin recession is apparently behind us. The layoff wave will aid in the recovery of margin compression.
As for those searching for jobs, the shifting labor market and proliferation of AI suggest tech jobs are contracting while new grads turn their attention to finance jobs.
-Tyler Durden, Zerohedge
During covid we witnessed a V-shaped recovery. And this happened because of the stimulus money and the PPP money that had been funneled into businesses, corporations, and to the American people. During that time, many people had lost their jobs and had no money in their savings accounts. They had to use that money just to keep themselves afloat.
That stimulus money had produced an artificial stimulus within their bank accounts, and it was utilized within the markets. The tech companies received stimulus money as well, and this caused a hiring frenzy, which Donald Trump wanted. So, all of these companies like Microsoft, Amazon, Google, etc. started hiring people, but they also had the stimulus money. And this money was being put back into the system which allowed this system to sustain itself.
But we would not be in this situation right now if we would have maintained that growth. If GDP growth continued and inflation continued on its track, we would not even be noticing the inflation happening right now. The GDP growth is a negative bounty for that inflationary growth. And as long as you have a positive GDP growth that is ahead of your inflationary growth then there will not be any problems with the economy.
Well, we had that for a long time. We had an economy that was progressing and making advancements and these companies were getting back on track. They were hiring hundreds of thousands of people. But once Joe Biden came in, all of that stopped. The economy started tanking because of hyperinflation and because of the energy and gas cuts that he made his first day in office with those 17 executive orders.
Everyone’s savings accounts started dropping almost instantaneously because of the rising prices of energy, gas, and food. People started going bankrupt and no longer had the money to sustain themselves. Therefore, they could not go out and buy any excess merchandise. And if you can’t buy the merchandise, products and services from these companies, then the companies no longer need the people to produce those goods. And once this happens, those companies are forced to make layoffs and the cycle starts over again.
Volt Typhoon targets US critical infrastructure with living-off-the-land techniques
Microsoft has uncovered stealthy and targeted malicious activity focused on post-compromise credential access and network system discovery aimed at critical infrastructure organizations in the United States. The attack is carried out by Volt Typhoon, a state-sponsored actor based in China that typically focuses on espionage and information gathering. Microsoft assesses with moderate confidence that this Volt Typhoon campaign is pursuing development of capabilities that could disrupt critical communications infrastructure between the United States and Asia region during future crises.
Volt Typhoon has been active since mid-2021 and has targeted critical infrastructure organizations in Guam and elsewhere in the United States. In this campaign, the affected organizations span the communications, manufacturing, utility, transportation, construction, maritime, government, information technology, and education sectors. Observed behavior suggests that the threat actor intends to perform espionage and maintain access without being detected for as long as possible. Microsoft is choosing to highlight this Volt Typhoon activity at this time because of our significant concern around the potential for further impact to our customers. Although our visibility into these threats has given us the ability to deploy detections to our customers, the lack of visibility into other parts of the actor’s activity compelled us to drive broader community awareness and further investigations and protections across the security ecosystem.
To achieve their objective, the threat actor puts strong emphasis on stealth in this campaign, relying almost exclusively on living-off-the-land techniques and hands-on-keyboard activity. They issue commands via the command line to (1) collect data, including credentials from local and network systems, (2) put the data into an archive file to stage it for exfiltration, and then (3) use the stolen valid credentials to maintain persistence. In addition, Volt Typhoon tries to blend into normal network activity by routing traffic through compromised small office and home office (SOHO) network equipment, including routers, firewalls, and VPN hardware. They have also been observed using custom versions of open-source tools to establish a command and control (C2) channel over proxy to further stay under the radar.
-Microsoft Threat Intelligence
So far, we have seen over 195 food processing, manufacturing, and distribution facilities catch fire. We have also seen around 52 oil and gas facilities attacked last year, as well as around 25 this year. I have talked about how these are attacks on our infrastructure and were most likely being done through cyber-crimes. And the way that they will do this is through the hacking of an automated machine that is networked within these facilities.
The firmware that operates these machines can be hacked into and changed to adjust the parameters inside of it. If a hacker was able to get into the main computer system and offset the parameters just slightly to where there would not be any red flags or any bells and whistles going off, they could cause the machine to overload, overheat, or breakdown much faster than expected. So, let’s say that someone went in and did this to these machines several years ago, it would take that much time before we started seeing the effects of it.
What Microsoft is saying here is exactly what we have been saying. But what is even more interesting about this is that just the other day we saw 100 US Congressmen being issued satellite phones, although only 50 of them accepted the phones. And now we are seeing the release of this information. Now it is starting to make sense. China has infiltrated the infrastructure of telecommunications here in the United States and can shut it down at any point.
CNN Ratings Continue to Crash Following Trump-Inflicted Disaster
Trump was on top of his game during the town hall and sharper than ever. He displayed his characteristic quick wit and forward-thinking on his feet when questioned by CNN host Katilin Collins. Many believe CNN saw this as an opportunity to invite the former president on their platform and embarrass him in front of a live audience. However, Trump stood his ground and exposed the network.
Breitbart’s John Nolte wrote about the town hall:
CNN is a political outfit, and whether you are a politician, a super PAC, or a lobbying group, the last thing a political outfit can afford is to lose its base of support. Your base is everything, and CNN’s teeny-tiny base is about 450,000 members of the Woke Gestapo and a handful of conservatives who can’t stop hate-watching.
That fact is the real reason last night was a catastrophe for CNN. By handing Trump a forum and allowing Trump to look as good as he did—and he’s never been better—CNN alienated and infuriated its base. Look around. The resentment from the Woke Gestapo is everywhere, and the Woke Gestapo doesn’t forgive.
CNN also took a rating hit after the town hall backfired on them. Before the event, CNN was averaging 494,000 primetime viewers and 111,000 key demographic viewers in the 25-54 age range. Reports show the latest week’s ratings to be:
Saturday, May 13: 278,000 – 74,000
Sunday, May 14: 401,000 – 88,000
Monday, May 15: 485,000 – 117,000
Tuesday, May 16: 397,000 – 80,000
Wednesday, May 17: 460,000 – 115,000
Thursday, May 18: 431,000 – 111,000
Friday, May 19: 350,000 – 73,000
This week’s average ratings total 400,000 primetime viewers and 94,000 key demographic viewers. This is almost a 20 percent drop in total primetime viewership for CNN. MSNBC and Fox News averaged viewership that is well into the millions.
-Ellis Robinson, American Tribune
Apparently, the left no longer wants to watch CNN because they had Donald Trump on.
Rep. Jim Jordan Sends Letter to FBI Demanding J6 Pipe Bomber Update – FBI Has Information on Suspect’s License Plate Number But Have Made No Arrests?
Over two years ago, on January 5, 2021, a suspect planted pipe bombs near the Washington DC RNC and DNC headquarters the night before the January 6, 2021 protests.
The culprit was caught on video but never caught by the FBI – the greatest intelligence service in the world.
The US Capitol was shut down on January 6 after the feds found the bombs near the Republican and Democrat Party headquarters.
As previously reported — A mysterious suspect planted two pipe bombs at the RNC and DNC DC Headquarters and safely detonated by a bomb squad on January 6.
The suspect planted the pipe bombs on January 5, the night before the Capitol riot.
The FBI continued to drip out new videos of the suspect who placed two pipe bombs at the DNC and RNC the night before the Capitol riot in the months following the incident.
A whistleblower stepped forward in 2022 and disclosed that the FBI was withholding information on the investigation.
In 2023 the FBI finally offered a $500,000 reward for information on the alleged bomber. Maybe they need to check who was on duty that night?
The FBI still can’t find the person. Interesting.
Now FBI whistleblower Kyle Seraphin says the technicians who worked on the program told him the devices were inoperable.
It was likely just a propaganda operation used to attack Trump supporters. Who would ever do such a thing?
On Wednesday, Representatives Jim Jordan (R-OH), Andy Biggs (R-AZ), and Bill Posey (R-FL) sent a letter to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), demanding an update on the case of the J6 pipe bomber.
Rep. Jordan’s letter highlights a crucial detail that has come to light: the FBI may possess information about the license plate number of the suspect’s vehicle.
“As part of our oversight investigation into the pipe bombs placed near the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee and Republican National Committee on January 5, 2021. At the start of the 118th Congress on January 17, 2023, we reiterated this request. To date, you have failed to comply,” reads the letter.
-Jim Hoft, Gateway Pundit
Now this is the interesting part. The reason that the FBI they gave for the image they released being so blurry was that the camera that was used had a very low frame rate. But the type of camera they are referring to has not been used since the 1960s. There was also a professional who spoke out about this around 6 months ago, saying that he did an analysis of the video that the FBI released to the news agencies. And what he found out is that the footage that the image was taken from had been manipulated. The pixelation was not the problem. They were not using a low frame rate camera. What they had done instead was purposely slowed down the footage and elongated the frames.
Comer & Grassley Blast FBI for Refusing to Provide Subpoenaed Record Alleging Then-VP Biden Engaged in a Bribery Scheme
House Committee on Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) and Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) today are blasting FBI Director Christopher Wray for defying a congressional subpoena for an unclassified record alleging a criminal scheme involving then-Vice President Joe Biden and a foreign national. The document, an FBI-generated FD-1023 form, allegedly details an arrangement involving an exchange of money for policy decisions. In a new letter to Director Wray, Chairman Comer warns that if the FBI fails to produce the record by May 30, 2023, the Oversight Committee will initiate contempt of Congress proceedings.
“The FBI’s refusal to provide this single document is obstructionist. Whistleblower disclosures that Joe Biden may have been involved in a criminal bribery scheme as Vice President track closely with what we are seeing in our investigation into the Biden family’s influence peddling schemes. Congress and the American people need to know what, if anything, the FBI did to verify the allegations contained within this record. If Director Wray refuses to hand over this unclassified record, the Oversight Committee will begin contempt of Congress proceedings,” said Chairman Comer.
FBI staff indicated to Oversight Committee staff the search terms contained in Chairman Comer’s subpoena were broad because there were many responsive documents containing the term “Biden” in its confidential human source database for June 2020. Chairman Comer is narrowing the breadth of the subpoena by providing two additional terms that may be referenced in the FD-1023 form: “June 30, 2020” and “five million.” These terms relate to the date on the FD-1023 form and its reference to the amount of money the foreign national allegedly paid to receive the desired policy outcome.
“The FBI has continued to tie itself in knots to ignore a legitimate subpoena from Congress, which has a constitutional duty of oversight. The Bureau’s developed a serious reputation problem through its spate of failures and overreach, and leadership is doing it no favors by attempting to stiff-arm Congress. The FBI knows exactly what document Chairman Comer and I are seeking, and if they know us at all, they know we will get it, one way or another. If FBI leadership truly cares about protecting the agency’s reputation, they’d cooperate. These needless delays only harm the Bureau,” Senator Grassley said.
Chairman Comer issued a subpoena for the unclassified FBI record on May 3, 2023 with a return date of May 10, 2023. After the FBI failed to produce the record, Oversight Committee counsel have attended two in-person meetings with FBI officials where they again refused to produce the FD-1023 form or offer any reasonable accommodation that would allow the Committee to review the document. On May 16, 2023, Senator Grassley and Chairman Comer requested a phone call with Director Wray to discuss the subpoena, but despite repeated requests the FBI has not scheduled a phone call.
-House Oversight Committee
This is huge and I hope they do it. This gives them the grounds to remove him. And there are already articles of impeachment filed against him.
Watch here:
Trump’s campaign poses an exponential threat to the deep state. And this is why they are throwing everything they got at it. But one of the theories surrounding Desantis running for President is that this allows all the deep staters to be flushed out. Because now we can identify who they are. Now we are seeing their true colors.
This is a message from Jack, the Founder and former CEO of Twitter. I find it incredibly interesting that he would say this, considering his company was financed by In-Q-Tel, an incubator ran by the Central Intelligence Agency. He also gave the CIA, NSA, and FBI plenty of access to his platform while he was CEO.
Democrat Blasts Her Own Party, Says Colleagues Are Attempting to Take Her Down Using Bribes
A Georgia Democrat is angry with her own party and lashed out at colleagues on Saturday, alleging they are attempting to take her “out.”
State Rep. Mesha Mainor accused her own party of putting the needs of people in the country illegally over those of black American children, adding on Twitter that she is “a sitting Democrat in the Georgia House of Representatives and the Democrat Party Establishment is looking to take me out.”
“I’m tired of hearing certain folks in my party chant Black Lives Matter during Election Years but are NOWHERE to be found any other year,” she added in a post containing a video.
Reports said that Mainor initially angered members of her party when she became the only Democrat in the state legislature to support a GOP-led school choice bill that was backed by Republican Gov. Brian Kemp.
“I support parent choice because some parents have children in schools where their needs are not being met,” she said in an interview with Fox News Digital.
“Why is no one fighting for young Black minds? Why isn’t that one of the things that we’re fighting for?” Mainor said of her fellow progressives. “I actually say you’re a hypocrite. That’s what I tell them directly. You are being a hypocrite. There are state lawmakers right now where their children are in schools that they’re not even zoned for… They’re lying about their address, state lawmakers, but they won’t vote for this bill.”
“In my district in particular, we have schools with 3 percent reading proficiency, 3 percent have obtained math proficiency by the eighth grade. And so to say that this is just how it is and that the kid needs to just suffer these consequences, I don’t agree with that. And I don’t think that all parents agree with that either,” she told the outlet.
-Jon Doughtery, Conservative Brief
NYC Mayor Eric Adams asks to suspend 'right to shelter' for migrants
Mayor Eric Adams is seeking to suspend New York City's "right to shelter," claiming his administration can no longer guarantee housing for the tens of thousands of illegal immigrants arriving.
Adams petitioned a judge Tuesday to clarify the city's obligation or lack thereof.
"It is in the best interest of everyone, including those seeking to come to the United States, to be upfront that New York City cannot single-handedly provide care to everyone crossing our border," Adams said.
The mayor added, "Being dishonest about this will only result in our system collapsing, and we need our government partners to know the truth and do their share."
Last month, Adams claimed the migrant crisis the country is facing has "destroyed" his city.
"[The] city is being destroyed by the migrant crisis," Adams said during the discussion.
Adams even appeared to take a hit at politicians from his own city, suggesting they are not doing much to fix the issue at hand.
"None of my folks came to Washington, D.C., to fight for the resources, that's going to undermine every agency in our city," Adams said.
In a memo from the New York City Office of Management, reported by the New York Post, the city will spend an estimated $4.2 billion on costs related to migrants and asylum seekers that would be spent through June 30, 2023, and the end of fiscal year 2024.
According to the internal city memo, Democratic New York Gov. Kathy Hochul's plan would reimburse the city for up to $1 billion in migrant aid, which only covers 29% of expected shelter costs.
-Timothy H.J. Nerozzi, Fox News
"There's Poop Everywhere": San Francisco's Office District Not Only A Ghost Town, It's Also Covered In Sh*t
Everyone knows that San Francisco is the nation's largest public toilet - requiring the city to employ six-figure 'poop patrol' cleanup team, however a new report from the city Controller's Office really puts things in poo-spective.
For starters, feces were found far more often in commercial sectors, covering "approximately 50% of street segments in Key Commercial Areas and 30% in the Citywide survey," second only to broken glass as can be seen in the 'illegal dumping' section.
If you're wondering about the city's fecal methodology, look no further than a footnote on page 43;
Feces also includes bags filled with feces that are not inside trash receptacles. Feces that are spread or smeared on the street, sidewalk, or other objects along the evaluation route are counted. Stains that appear to be related to feces but have been cleaned are not counted. Bird droppings are excluded.
As far as where most of the poo is found, Nob Hill takes the top spot, followed by the Tenderloin and The Mission districts.
"It’s terrible; this street is covered," Tenderloin resident Joe Souza told The San Francisco Standard earlier this month. "There’s poop everywhere. You always see it along the wall and in front of the garage there."
Meanwhile, nearly 2/3 of key commercial routes reported moderate to severe street litter, vs. 41% of the citywide streets struggling with the same problem.
As the San Francisco Standard reports;
San Francisco’s commercial and residential streets are also highly tagged up, with every neighborhood except one—Visitacion Valley—reporting high levels of graffiti last year. The issue is once again worse in commercial areas, of which 71% said they had severe or moderate graffiti.
“In terms of actual counts of graffiti observed, there were about 10 times (160,000 vs. 16,000 respectively) as many instances of graffiti reported in the Key Commercial Areas survey in comparison to the Citywide sample,” the report said.
And San Francisco’s favorite cleanliness fixation, human or animal feces, continues to be a sore spot for the city: Almost half of the surveyed commercial areas observed feces. Citywide, that figure was just 30%.
* * *
San Francisco's poopocalypse comes amid a staggering commercial office vacancy rate as a combination of pandemic-era work-from-home policies, and people fleeing the city's notorious violence and poo-covered streets have made the once-thriving city into a ghost town.
-Tyler Durden, Zerohedge
This is what happens when you decriminalize all drugs.
Watch here:
If a drug addict is arrested on the streets for possession, they should not be taken to jail. They should be taken to mandatory rehab. Not only does it cost less than sending them to prison, but the time spent would also be around 3 months instead of 2 years. And if they do not want treatment, then let them go to jail at that point. Give them the choice. But with this methodology, they are just going to hand out syringes and let people do their drugs in “peace.” But if these other cities like San Francisco are any report to this, we will continue to see the same things happening. We have seen dead animals in the streets with syringes attached to them because these animals will jump into trash containers and walk the streets looking for food and they will get stuck by the syringes. Not only that, but what happens when a child is walking down the street on their way to school and steps on one of these syringes? This is a major concern.
Federal court deals blow to ATF pistol brace rule ahead of gun accessory registration deadline
A federal appeals court has temporarily blocked the Biden administration from fully enforcing new regulations on pistols with stabilizing braces, gun accessories that President Biden has called "especially dangerous" after they were used in several mass shootings.
The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday enjoined the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives from enforcing its new rule against gun owners and Second Amendment groups who filed a lawsuit challenging the regulation. The temporary injunction comes days before a deadline for individuals to register their pistol braces with ATF, destroy them, or remove the accessories from their weapons. Those that do not comply with the regulation by May 31 will be forced to pay a fee. The consequences for those that choose not to register their firearm with a stabilizing brace and keep it include up to 10 years' imprisonment or $10,000 in fines or both, according to ATF.
Gun rights groups have argued in court that the stabilizing brace rule violates the Constitution by requiring millions of gun owners to register their weapons. The Firearms Policy Coalition (FPC), one of the plaintiffs in the case, has called the rule "onerous and unconstitutional." FPC brought the case to the Fifth Circuit after appealing a lower-court order from a Texas judge who declined to block enforcement of the rule while the challenge proceeds through court.
The stabilizing brace rule was introduced as part of the comprehensive gun crime strategy Biden announced in April 2021 in response to the massacre at a grocery store in Boulder, Colorado, where a gunman used a firearm with a stabilizing brace to kill 10 people. In 2019, another mass murderer used a stabilizing brace in a shooting in Dayton, Ohio, that killed nine people.
ATF defines stabilizing braces as an accessory "that provides a surface area that allows the weapon to be fired from the shoulder, so long as other factors that indicate that the firearm is designed, made, and intended to be fired from the shoulder."
ATF's rule, which was finalized on Jan. 13, categorizes pistols with attached stabilizing braces as short-barreled rifles, which are heavily regulated by Congress because they are both accurate and concealable, making them dangerous in the wrong hands. Biden has accused the gun industry of attempting to circumvent federal regulations by selling stabilizing braces, which he and his administration claim can "essentially convert a pistol into a short-barreled rifle."
-Chris Pandolfo, Fox News
This was the same ATF that went to the manufacturers of these gun braces, got the records of who they sold and distributed to, and started showing up at their homes, telling people to hand them over. And this did not happen because of Congress passing a new law. This happened because the ATF changed their rules, making you a criminal overnight. This is how they are going to try to come after the second amendment. But the REINS act actually stops this from happening. If the REINS act had been in place during this time, that would have never happened.
Illegal Migrants Must be Forced to Leave France, Minister Says
Bruno Le Maire, France’s Minister for Finance, has said that the country must force illegal migrants in the country to leave, and that the Macron administration cannot be “lax” in dealing with the issue.
It comes as the resurging migrant crisis becomes an ever-growing problem in Europe, with even some progressive officials on the continent coming around to the implementation of border-strengthening measures while others continue to push for mass migration.
According to a report by Le Figaro, Le Maire appears to be of the opinion that the country’s approach to immigration must change, pushing for the neoliberal government to be “firm” in tackling illegals.
“Firmness does not mean that we will do things contrary to European law or the Constitution,” he explained. “Firmness means: a foreigner in an irregular situation must leave, a foreigner must speak French if he wants to come to France.”
He went on to add that officials should be looking to deal with the massive influx of illegals without succumbing to “populism”, a possible reference to the surge in support for Marine Le Pen and the country’s right wing.
“Let’s not be accused of being lax or angelic,” Le Maire said. “Let’s be firm, without excessive words, without populism, without being contrary to our identity.”
Le Maire’s statement that France should embrace “firmness” when fighting illegal immigration comes as Europe contends with a surge in asylum claims only rivalled by the influx of illegals seen in 2015 and 2016.
-Peter Caddle, Breitbart News
You are seeing crime run rampant in the streets of places like London and Paris and it is a complete nightmare. They are having a migrant crisis as well. And this is happening because this is one of the aspects of a color revolution. You let in impoverished people illegally that flood the cities, and this brings in crime, drugs, and destabilization within the social and cultural centers.
Chinese scientists war-game hypersonic strike on US carrier group in South China Sea
Hypersonic weapons could be “catastrophic” for the most potent aircraft carrier group in the US fleet, according to war game simulations run by a team of military planners in China.
Over 20 intense battles, Chinese forces sank the USS Gerald R. Ford carrier fleet with a volley of 24 hypersonic anti-ship missiles, in a simulation run on a mainstream war game software platform used by China’s military.
In the scenario, the US vessels are attacked after continuing to approach a China-claimed island in the South China Sea despite repeated warnings.
A paper detailing the war game was published in May by the Chinese-language Journal of Test and Measurement Technology. It is the first time the results of simulated hypersonic strikes against a US carrier group have been made public.
The researchers, led by Cao Hongsong from the North University of China, said almost every US surface vessel was shattered by the attack and eventually sank in the simulation.
The war games suggested the US carrier group – previously regarded as unsinkable by conventional weapons – could be “destroyed with certainty” by a relatively small number of hypersonic strikes, they said.
The team said two hypersonic anti-ship missile models with vastly different performances were unleashed in the simulation, with some launched from as far away as the Gobi Desert.
The Chinese military displayed “unusual prowess in their sophisticated launch strategy” which consisted of an intentionally complex three-wave attack meant to deceive and overcome the formidable defense systems of the US carrier group, the paper said.
Military planners use sophisticated war game simulations to evaluate various scenarios and develop strategies, but they cannot be relied on over real-world testing and evaluation.
Some military experts caution that the real-world performance of these missiles may differ from what is predicted by simulations due to terrain, weather and other unforeseeable factors.
It therefore remained critical for government leaders and the public to approach these simulations with caution and realism, the researchers said.
-Stephen Chen, South China Morning Post
Does that sound like a trading partner that you should be selling your land, your farms, or your debt bonds to?
Hong Kong’s leader says police will investigate suspicious withdrawals from organ donation register
Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee said police will investigate suspicious applications from people seeking to withdraw from the city’s organ donation system, condemning the alleged attempt to damage the program as shameful.
The city’s organ donation registration system received nearly 5,800 withdrawal applications in the five months since December, when the government raised the possibility of establishing an organ transplant mutual assistance program with mainland China. More than half of the withdrawal applications were found to be invalid, either as duplicate applications or coming from people who had never opted in.
At a regular media briefing Tuesday, Lee pointed to those who withdrew their applications without ever registering, calling the moves suspicious.
“I severely condemn those who attempt to cause damages to this noble system which saves lives through organ donations,” he said. “This is a shameful act.”
Hong Kong, a former British colony that returned to China in 1997, has a separate system for matching donated organs to patients and does not have any standing mechanism to share cadaveric organs with institutions in mainland China. Cross-border organ transplants have been permitted on a case-by-case basis.
Under an opt-in system, Hong Kong currently has more than 357,000 registrants in the financial hub that houses 7 million people. Organ donations have been met with resistance in both Hong Kong and China because of an ingrained cultural desire to keep bodies intact.
The government issued a strongly worded statement Monday, saying it could not rule out that a small number of people made withdrawal attempts in a bid to undermine the reputation of the system and to increase the administrative burden. Without naming any platforms or any individuals, it said a small number of people had distorted the virtue of organ donation by promoting the idea that donors should scrutinize the identity of the recipients online. Some also urged others to withdraw from the system, it added.
On Hong Kong’s Reddit-like forum LIHKG — where pro-democracy supporters discussed strategies for the 2019 anti-government movement — some users were skeptical about the proposed system. Others posted a link for making withdrawals from the register.
-Kanis Leung, AP News
Ukrainian terrorists went into Belgorod with US armored vehicles, and now we are seeing the propaganda arm come out of Ukraine. We know that the Ukrainians are Nazis and have groups such as the Azov Battalion. And Russia has been talking about the denazification of Ukraine for quite some time. The former Ministry of Infrastructure in Ukraine has said that Russia wants to take back all of the old Soviet Union states and recreate their empire. That this has been a goal of Russia in the sense of nationalism for a very long time. And there might actually be some truth to this.
Three scientists working on Russia’s hypersonic missile program charged with TREASON
Russia’s hypersonic missile program is in turmoil and some scientists involved have warned that the country’s research on these weapons is facing “impending collapse.”
The warning was part of an open letter written by the colleagues of three scientists working on Russia’s hypersonic missiles who were recently hit with charges of treason.
The scientists involved were all employees of the Khristianovich Institute of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics in Siberia and were detained on suspicions of high treason. However, the letter ‘s authors maintained that the men are innocent and that their academic achievements are honorable. The letter pointed out that the men – Alexander Shiplyuk, Valery Zvegintsev and Anatoly Maslov – opted to remain in Russia instead of taking on more prestigious and highly paid work overseas.
Shipyluk and Maslov were arrested last summer, while news of Zvegintsev’s arrest came this month. Shipyluk was in charge of the institute’s hypersonic technologies lab, while Maslov is a respected expert in aero gas dynamics. At the time that news of Maslov’s arrest was reported, the institute released an open letter supporting him and started raising money for the families of the two scientists to help with legal expenses. Maslov’s case is reportedly being investigated by the Russian secret service.
Those behind the letter are taking a serious risk in defending individuals charged with treason, which can carry a maximum sentence of life in jail after Russian President Vladimir Putin signed legal amendments last month raising the penalty for treason from 20 years in prison.
However, they believe that the men might have been arrested just for doing their jobs, including participating in international scientific projects and presenting research at conferences. According to the letter, the men’s work was checked by the institute on multiple occasions to make sure it did not contain any “restricted information.”
The letter stated: “In this situation, we are not only afraid for the fate of our colleagues. We just do not understand how to continue to do our job.” It also voiced concerns about the potential for “a rapid decline in the level of research” if employees are too scared of possible arrest to perform their work.
In fact, they fear high-profile cases like these could discourage young scientists in Russia from remaining in the field, which could have the effect of setting back Russia’s scientific endeavors significantly. It could be much like what happened when the Soviet Union collapsed and the country experienced significant “brain drain” as talent left the country. The letter cautioned: “Domestic science may not endure the second such blow.”
While the Kremlin is reportedly aware of the letter defending the scientists, a spokesperson said the matter would be dealt with by Russian special services. He added: “This is a very serious accusation.”
-Cassie B., Natural News
They are not really stating what happened here. But Russia is being very cautious in the sense of espionage and how things leak. After what happened with the collapse of the Soviet Union and the mass infiltration of US intelligence within Russia, they have taken wide precautions to make sure that does not happen again.
'We Are Coming For You': The North Face Goes Full Woke With New Ad Featuring Drag Queen Asking Customers To 'Come Out' In 'Summer Of Pride' Campaign
On Wednesday, The North Face, the outdoor apparel company, launched a new ad campaign titled 'Out In Nature'. The campaign was launched with a now-viral ad featuring a homosexual drag queen asking viewers to "come out."
The North Face's pride collection, which can be viewed on its website, features various clothing options emblazoned with the rainbow with merchandise for both adults and children. In addition to the merch, the company also partnered up with drag queen Pattie Gonia to hold their second-annual 'Summer of Pride Tour'.
"For the second year in a row, we’ve teamed up with Pattie Gonia to celebrate Pride and bring camp to the outdoors—and you’re invited!" the company says on its website. "Join us for a day of hiking, drag, community, and more."
In addition to the launch on its website, the company also released an ad featuring the drag queen.
"Hi, It's me Pattie Gonia, a real-life homosexual," the ad begins. "And today I'm here with The North Face. We are here to invite you to come out.... in nature with us!"
"We like to call this little tour, the Summer of Pride," the drag queen says. "This tour has everything. Hiking, community, art, lesbians, lesbians making art. Last year we gay sashayed across the nation and celebrated pride. Across the nation with hundreds of you across the nation."
"This year we are back again with two new stops," he explained, those being Atlanta, Georgia, and Salt Lake City, Utah, adding, "We are coming for you."
The ad is already facing immense backlash on Twitter. "Can anyone explain how the heck this ad helps [The North Face] sell outdoor clothes?" asked Robby Starbuck. "They’re screaming at you to not buy their products if this violates your values. Accept their challenge. The North Face is owned by the VF Corporation which also owns Supreme, Vans, and Timberland."
"In a new ad, with clothing and apparel targeted to adults and kids, clothing company The North Face has a man in drag with a full mustache and mini dress promoting pride and telling viewers to 'Come Out,'" another user wrote. "This is the new normal. Every company will push this and will accept the conservative backlash until we do something. Bud Light was only the beginning of how bad it’s going to get."
"The North Face has now gone full transgender with a drag queen commercial," wrote Ian Miles Cheong. "Because nothing says "rugged outdoorsman" like a man in a wig and a rainbow-colored dress."
-Sterling Mosley, DC Enquirer
Asia water, energy supplies at risk as climate woes mount
SINGAPORE: Climate-related disruptions to the crucial Hindu Kush-Himalayan water system are posing risks to economic development and energy security in 16 Asian countries, and concerted action is needed to protect regional water flows, researchers said on Wednesday.
The basins of the 10 major rivers that flow from the Hindu Kush-Himalayan water towers are home to 1.9 trillion people and generate $4.3 trillion in annual GDP, and climate change impacts like glacial melt and extreme weather are already posing “grave threats”, the China Water Risk think tank said.
The researchers warned that all rivers would face “escalating and compounding water risks … if we are unable to rein in emissions,” and that the further construction of water-intensive energy infrastructure was aggravating the problems.
The 10 rivers include the Ganges and the Brahmaputra running into India and Bangladesh, China’s Yangtze and Yellow rivers as well as transboundary waterways like the Mekong and the Salween.
They support almost three quarters of hydropower and 44% of coal-fired power in the 16 countries, which also include Afghanistan, Nepal and Southeast Asia.
As much as 865 gigawatts (GW) of power capacity along the 10 rivers is considered vulnerable to climate risk, with most of it reliant on water. More than 300 GW - enough to power Japan - is situated in regions facing “high” or “extremely high” water risks, the researchers added.
China’s Yangtze river basin, which supports around a third of the country’s population and around 15% of its power capacity, experienced a record-long drought last year, with plummeting hydroelectric output disrupting global supply chains.
Since the drought, governments approved dozens of new coal-fired plants to allay future hydropower disruptions.
However, coal-fired power also needs water and the surge in capacity in China and India could further aggravate shortages. As climate risks mount, countries are under pressure to draw up policies that ensure the “dovetailing” of energy and water security, the researchers noted.
“As power choices can impact water and the lack of water can strand power assets, water security should decide energy security,” they said.
-Business Recorder
United States water supplies are at risk as well. They have been pushing the climate propaganda for quite some time, and water is the next war.
2018 Image taken from the cell phone of the pilot of an F-18
Leaked photo from Pentagon UFO task force shows 'silver cube' hovering over the Atlantic at 35,000ft - as classified reports reveal concerns 'aliens' could be operating beneath the world's seas
The existence of two classified Pentagon reports on UFOs has been revealed, the contents of which include a leaked photo depicting a mysterious object hovering over the Atlantic.
The DoD's Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force issued the two classified intelligence 'position reports' in 2018 and the summer of this year, and they circulated widely in the U.S. intelligence community, according to a detailed account from The Debrief based on interviews with multiple intelligence sources.
The position reports' startling contents included a leaked photo that has never before been made public, accounts of 'Unidentified Aerial Phenomena' (UAP) emerging from the ocean and soaring through the sky, and an admission that extraterrestrial origins for the objects cannot be ruled out.
'These revelations are extraordinary and give the public a genuine peek behind the curtain when it comes to how the US government is handling the ufo issue,' Nick Pope, who investigated UFOs for the UK Ministry of Defense, told DailyMail.com.
'What this new information does is confirm that the US government is taking the UFO phenomenon more seriously than ever before,' he added. 'I anticipate further revelations shortly.'
The Pentagon did not immediately respond to an inquiry from DailyMail.com requesting confirmation of the existence of the two position reports, as well as the authenticity of a leaked cockpit photo included in one of the reports.
The leaked photo, published by The Debrief on Thursday, was included in the 2018 position report, two DoD and one intelligence source told the outlet.
The leaked photo was captured in 2018 off the East Coast of the United States by a military pilot using his cell phone camera, the sources said.
The photo was previously described as depicting an 'unidentified silver 'cube-shaped' object' hovering over the ocean at an altitude of roughly 30,000 to 35,000.
It appears that the image was captured by the backseat weapons systems operator of what appears to be an F/A-18 fighter jet.
Experts were baffled by the photo but noted that the object somewhat resembles a GPS dropsonde, an atmospheric profiling device designed to be dropped from aircraft, typically over a hurricane.
However, the object in the photo does not have the GPS transponder dangling from it as a dropsonde does -- and dropsondes plunge toward the Earth at 10 to 12 meters per second, rather than hover in the air.
It is possible that the object is some other kind of weather balloon -- but the Pentagon task force found it baffling enough to include in their report.
The 2018 report is said to have provided a general overview of the UAP topic and included details of previous military encounters, as well as a frank admission that the origin of many UAP could not be determined.
-Keith Griffith, Daily Mail
Scientists Working to Generate Electricity From Thin Air Make Breakthrough
Scientists have invented a device that can continuously generate electricity from thin air, offering a glimpse of a possible sustainable energy source that can be made of almost any material and runs on the ambient humidity that surrounds all of us, reports a new study.
The novel “air generator,” or Air-gen, is made from materials with holes that are under 100 nanometers in length, which is a scale thousand times smaller than a human hair. This design can pull electricity from water droplets in the air for much longer periods than previous concepts, the researchers report, suggesting that it could eventually provide a continuous and sustainable source of power. Researchers hope the technique could eventually help to fight climate change by serving as an alternative to fossil fuels.
If you’ve ever seen a bolt of lightning streak across the sky, you’ve already had a sneak peek of the untapped power that is hidden in ambient air. This energy is fueled by the electrical charges of water droplets in the air, a phenomenon that has inspired many attempts to harvest humidity by inducing imbalances in charged waters with special devices. Many of these techniques only work for short periods, or require expensive materials, which presents practical challenges for efficiency and scalability.
Now, researchers at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, have developed an Air-gen device that yields electricity from contact with water droplets that pass through its porous material. In this way, the Air-gen technology creates “a spontaneous and sustained charging gradient for continuous electric output” that “opens a wide door for the broad exploration of sustainable electricity from ambient air,” according to a study published on Wednesday in Advanced Materials.
“One day we may get clean electricity literally anywhere, anytime by using Air-gen technology (i.e., the concept of ‘ubiquitous powering’), because air humidity is 24/7 continuous and everywhere,” Jun Yao, an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at UMass Amherst and senior author of the study, said in an email to Motherboard.
“The basis for broad-scale power is that the air contains a huge amount of electricity,” he added. “So, if we make Air-gen bigger, we can get larger-volume power—that volume can certainly extend to usage for daily-life functions.”
-Becky Ferreira, Vice News