Thursday, October 24, 2024

Victory within Reach


Victory is such a glorious word.  Anybody who has ever felt victorious knows exactly what I mean.  Those of us who have been lucky enough to grasp it also know that it does not last.  It arrives, fills the soul with a warm sensation of contentment and gratitude, and vanishes almost as quickly as it appeared.  Once the effervescence of victory blows away, those who felt its touch speak of it with reverence.  The word is pronounced more slowly and with more care as the passage of time pushes it deeper into our memories.

I hope President Trump is re-elected in the next couple weeks and that those reading now will feel what I describe above.  Some might say, “It’s just politics,” or “It doesn’t really matter,” or “We never win.”  But it isn’t just politics, it matters a great deal, and winning is only a small component of the 2024 election.  You can walk into a casino, pull the lever on a slot machine, and become a big winner.  But you will not feel victorious.

Why is that?  Because victory is about so much more than winning.  Victory is success in a struggle against overwhelming odds.  It is the completion of a challenge with almost unbearable difficulties.  To be victorious is to push through pain and anguish.  It requires transforming into something greater than you were when you started the journey.  It comes with physical and emotional costs.  That’s why victory tastes so sweet.  It is an exotic fruit that grows on a tiny island in the middle of a vast ocean.  Once you find it, nothing ever tastes the same.

Have we suffered?  Absolutely.  We’ve endured as politicians sent the best blue-collar jobs overseas and manufacturing towns collapsed.  We’ve watched the Federal Reserve print dollar bills on demand, lawmakers jack up the national debt to once unimaginable sums, and investment banks gamble with our retirement savings.  We’ve fought wars for “American freedom” only to discover that the people pushing those wars could not care less about our constitutional rights or individual liberties.  We’ve seen the American dream fade as the cost of living precipitously rises and opportunities for economic advancement disappear.  We’ve witnessed the fracturing of the Union as the federal government intentionally disregards immigration law and floods the country with tens of millions of foreign nationals with little interest in assimilation.  We’ve experienced cartel violence while officials cook the books and lie about crime going down.  Hell, yes, we’ve suffered...but we’ve also persevered.

We also haven’t been sitting on our hands all this time.  We’ve written persuasively about America’s problems, worked to get people elected, and utilized new communication platforms to grow a consequential political movement that is unlike anything the country has seen.  We bucked Establishment Republicans with the rise of the Tea Party.  We refused to get back in line so that Uniparty decepticons such as Mitch McConnell, Paul Ryan, Liz Cheney, and Mitt Romney could continue to abuse our patience and loyalty for their own personal advantage.  We pushed the candidacy of Donald Trump even as condescending political operatives and propaganda-spewing news networks told us his election was impossible.  We resisted the relentless psychological campaigns meant to shame us into capitulation.  We remained steadfast through the Russia collusion hoax, the Mueller Inquisition, fake emoluments and quid-pro-quo scandals, Antifa violence, false allegations of racism and misogyny, and two ridiculous impeachments.  We have been called “bigots,” “nativists,” “deplorables,” “idiots,” “nutjobs,” “insurrectionists,” and even “domestic terrorists.”  Some of our most passionate members have been arrested in the dead of night, jailed without the possibility of bail, convicted in kangaroo courts, and summarily imprisoned.  And yet...we stand strong still today.  

Along our journey, we’ve learned an awful lot.  First and foremost, we realized that the people who have long run the Republican Party have more in common with Barack Obama and Chuck Schumer than they do with the average Republican voter.  In fact, it has become pretty clear that ninety percent of the Republicans in the Senate and over half of those in the House of Representatives don’t really like us at all.  They say the right things around election season.  They make sure to pick up a rifle or shotgun for a quick photo op.  They talk about freedom when it suits their purpose.  They applaud patriotism while pushing for endless war.  

Then they turn around and work against us.  They are quick to denounce patriotic Americans willing to defend their freedoms as “whack-o-birds” and “hobbits.”  They do nothing while the federal government conspires with social media companies to censor our speech.  They say little as pro-life activists are arrested for silent prayer.  They are mum as Democrat prosecutors and partisan judges persecute conservatives for their beliefs.  They deny the existence of election fraud even when documented evidence is impossible to ignore.  They all but disappear while President Trump, his advisers, and his supporters have their lives and liberty put in jeopardy.  Most have never been our friends. 

Anybody who’s ever read Sun Tzu’s Art of War knows the importance of this observation: “If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.  If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained, you will also suffer a defeat.  If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.”  What many of us did not know until the last decade, however, is that we have been stuck in that third, wretched category for quite some time.  We have not understood the globalists running the Democrat party.  We have not understood the globalists running the Republican party.  We have been destined for defeat.

How could we possibly secure our borders, grow the real economy (as opposed to Wall Street’s magic house of financial pyramid schemes), reduce crime, increase intra- and inter-generational social mobility, and protect the Bill of Rights when both sides of the Uniparty coin have been fighting — either overtly or covertly — against us?  We have failed to accomplish any of our goals over the last century because too many Americans did not understand what they were fighting.  They did not understand that both political parties work together to spread harmful lies.  They could not fathom the grotesque powers and malicious influences of the unelected, unconstitutional Deep State.  

However, over the first quarter of the twenty-first century — a period of terror attacks, prolonged foreign wars, economic volatility, metastasizing government surveillance and censorship, and the concentrated efforts of the Washington Establishment to overthrow the people’s electoral workaround in Donald Trump — the hypnotizing illusions that have kept us dumb and docile have finally been shattered.  The days of beating ourselves because we fail to understand who we are and what our enemies want are over.  

Now, that’s progress worthy of the label!  That’s the hard, painful path that must be taken for anything of value to ever be won.  These are the heavy costs of future victory.

Time and again this election cycle, Americans tell pollsters that the four most important issues for them are (1) inflation, (2) economic hardship, (3) illegal immigration, and (4) rising crime.  The Biden/Harris/Garland/Wray Machiavellian monster answers their concerns with outrageous lies.  The Leviathan tells us that inflation is down, that the economy has never been better, that illegal immigration is a myth, and that the country is safer than ever.  Perhaps if Americans did not see the malicious Deep State for what it is, the federal government’s propaganda would still be effective.  Americans have suffered too much, though, and their suffering has been enlightening.

Get out and vote.  Claim your slice of victory.  Savor this fleeting moment.  The real work is just beginning.



X22, And we Know, and more- Oct 24

 




Liberal Government Slashing Immigration

 Long-term cuts to permanent residents and temporary residents.

After years of criticism and years of driving down the bargaining power of Canadian workers, pushing housing out of reach for millions, weakening our social cohesion, and overstressing our public services, the Liberal government is finally changing course on immigration.

Speaking to the media, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Immigration Minister Marc Miller announced significant cuts to permanent residents and temporary foreign workers along with a shift towards economic immigration.

Here are some key elements of the planned changes from the official government announcement:

“We are reducing our permanent resident targets. Compared to last year’s plan, we are:

  • reducing from 500,000 permanent residents to 395,000 in 2025
  • reducing from 500,000 permanent residents to 380,000 in 2026
  • setting a target of 365,000 permanent residents in 2027″

“Specifically, compared to each previous year, we will see Canada’s temporary population decline by

445,901 in 2025
445,662 in 2026
a modest increase of 17,439 in 2027″

The government is increasing the percentage of immigrant intake that occurs through the economic immigration stream to 61.7%.

You can watch the announcement here:

While this is a shift in the right direction, much of the damage from extreme immigration increases has already been done.

As noted by Scotiabank economist Derek Holt in a detailed report on the Canadian economy, “mismanagement of Canada’s immigration programs will cost this country for many years.”

“A significant negative, however, is that mismanagement of Canada’s immigration programs will cost this country for many years. Potential immigrants have choices. They’ve seen Canada ramp up in uncontrolled fashion, then throw their status in limbo and then remove many of them midstream. Potential future arrivals have to be able to rely on the rules for years at a time in order to have confidence in their decision to arrive in Canada. Otherwise, they’ll go to, say, the US, or Australia, or NZ etc. Why court the risk of future instability in Canadian immigration policies after deciding to take the leap? There must be accountability for the damage done to Canada’s stature as a welcoming, reliable nation for new arrivals. Frankly, as both an economist and a Canadian, I’m utterly ashamed of how this government has so severely botched the immigration file for several years now.”

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre slammed the Liberal flip-flop:

“Today’s immigration flip-flop is a massive admission of failure by Justin Trudeau.

Desperate to save himself from Liberal MPs who want him gone, Trudeau now admits his immigration policies caused housing, health care and jobs crises. But he can’t fix what he broke.”

The Liberals will now be hoping that Canadians give them credit for ‘fixing’ the immigration system without noticing it was the Liberals who broke it in the first place.

If the long-term polling numbers are any indication, that is unlikely to work.

Spencer Fernando


https://spencerfernando.com/2024/10/24/liberal-government-slashing-immigration/

We Have to Win the Senate Bigly


Things are looking great for Trump right now, and even the regime media is hinting at a Trump victory. Of course, it’s not a done deal. It’s never a done deal. We have got to get out there and work like we’re ten points behind instead of two or three points ahead. You better get off your fourth point of contact and go vote right now if voting is open in your state and you haven’t done it yet. But all that aside, we still need a fallback defensive position in case Trump loses and a base to go on the offensive if he wins. We must take the Senate, and not by just a little. We need to win it bigly.

If we are forced to pay for our sins as a country by enduring four years of that shrill San Francisco pinko Kamala Harris spewing inanities at us and trying to turn us into a less tropical version of Venezuela, we’re going to need a Senate majority to curb her excesses and her enthusiasm. We’re pretty much guaranteed to win one Senate seat in West Virginia when that state comes to its senses, but mincing moron Tim Walz would be her tie-breaking vote as vice president. That’s a hard no. A Kamala Harris administration with a Senate majority would be the exact opposite of brat.

We also need a real Senate majority if Donald Trump wins, not just 50 senators with JD Vance breaking the tie. You can’t trust Lisa Murkowski. She’s the only species of snake native to Alaska. You can’t trust Susan Collins either. She’s a maple syrup moderate, which I don’t hold against her because she doesn’t pretend to be anything else. She is what she is, and she’s the best we’re ever going to get from Maine. Nor can you trust the invertebrates like Tom Tillises or the gimps like Jim Lankford – gee, thanks for handing Kamala her #1 bogus bipartisan immigration talking point, you goofy tool. Worse, the GOP caucus without the hard-core voices of our 2024 slate might end up being run by John Cornyn after McConnell leaves. This is the political genius who gave Kamala her other big bipartisan talking point by supporting a stupid gun control bill. What kind of senator from Texas supports a gun control bill? The kind who’s going to be a sap and try to “work across the aisle,” meaning he will inevitably get rolled by the Democrats. No thanks.

So we can’t have 51 or even 52 senators in our majority because that won’t really be a majority at all. We need 53 to 55, and that’s doable.

Of course, you’ve got to do the doing.

I’ve reached out to my sources, and this is what the Senate races look like right now according to folks in the know. I don’t give names, and you should take what I say for what you think it might be worth. I’m trying to be objective here, and sometimes being objective means saying things that you don’t want to hear. Conversely, when I hear things that I want to hear I instantly become suspicious. For better or worse, I’m a little bit suspicious right now because I’m hearing some pretty good things.

First, the holds. In my newly adopted part-time home state of Texas, Ted Cruz is not going to lose to that gender-freak guy. Rick Scott will not lose in Florida to the non-entity running against him. There’s not going to be an upset in Nebraska. Based conservative Jim Banks will easily win in Indiana. We’re going to hold all our seats. Now, let’s talk about our gains.

As we said, West Virginia is off the table for the Democrats. We’re getting Jim Justice there, and he’s got an awesome dog. That’s 50.

The next most likely is Tim Sheehan in Montana. He will be Number 51. The polling is pretty clear and the experts all agree. It looks like that fake cowboy/farmer/lobbyist-steak-dinner perennial Jon Tester will finally get sent packing to Montana, which will be pretty traumatic considering that, for all intents and purposes, he is a longtime Beltway resident. 

I’ve got it on good authority that Bernie Moreno, who is a great guy, is probably going to beat Sherrod Brown in Ohio. Brown has been spending money on his campaign like he’s been spending taxpayer money, which is to say promiscuously, but his numbers are just collapsing. The NRSC has Moreno up by two. It’s not a done deal, but it’s going to be pretty hard for Trump to take the state by about ten points while that communist wins another term. And people in the know about Ohio tell me Moreno is going to do it. That’s 52.

The next guy, Dave McCormick, is especially close to my heart because my family comes from Pennsylvania, because we are both Gulf War veterans, and because we’ve gotten to know each other a little bit over the years. Dave is a great guy with a compelling story and a perfect fit for Pennsylvania. He’s got the momentum, but he’s not quite there yet. He’s running about a point behind. My Pennsylvania contacts tell me that not only is President Trump going to take that state but he’s going to take Dave to Washington with him. That’s 53.

Now it gets harder – well, all of them except West Virginia are hard, but they are doable. 

In Wisconsin, the NRSC thinks Eric Hovde is up a point on prog mediocrity Tammy Baldwin. That sounds like crazy talk on the surface, but then you remember that Ron Johnson keeps winning there when everybody keeps writing him off. Hovde is a great candidate. He was terrific in his debate against that sanctimonious Democrat hack. She tried to accuse him of hating on her for being gay, and he pointed out that what he was hating on was Baldwin’s love interest gaming the stock market with insider information. Ouch. Trump is slightly ahead, and we have a good chance at seat number 54 in the cheese state.

In Michigan, Mike Rogers is taking on Elissa Slotkin. She’s a generic lib cat lady with all the usual generic lib cat lady obsessions, except she was in the CIA – as if that’s a selling point. The NRSC is convinced this race is a tie, a total tossup. But if Trump takes the state, he may take Mike Rogers with him. That would be 55.

Now, we’re just getting into the landslide territory because the other races are a lot harder.

I adore Kari Lake, and she’s been hitting her Marxist opponent, Ruben Gallego, hard in Arizona on his scummy divorce antics as well as his general communism. She clobbered him in their debate. As I’ve written before, Kari is running a different campaign this time in that she’s working to rebuild the Arizona Republican coalition that had shattered over recent years while reaching out to others. She told me, “Even Democrats in places like Tucson are telling me they will vote for me and President Trump. They now see that the only way to get a strong economy, a secure border and safe streets is through America First policies.” The polls say she is slightly behind, but the momentum is all for the Republicans right now. An upset here would be spectacular, and don’t think it can’t happen if the GOP has an incredible night. She would be Senator Number 56.

Retired Army Wounded Warrior Sam Brown has been running behind in Nevada, but he seems to have some momentum going into the home stretch. He has sliced into the lead of time-serving hack Jackie Rosen, and he just had a great debate where he really put her in her place. Nevada has been a personal heartbreak to me because I was a big supporter of Adam Laxalt, and it was so close yet so far last time. I would love to see this incredible soldier be Senator Number 57.

Then there are the real long shots. We can’t write them off, but let’s not get our hopes up.

Retired Navy officer Hung Cao is working to make it happen in Virginia. Trump is still behind in that state, so this is a really hard one. It would be a huge upset and require a massive GOP landslide to happen. He would be Number 58.

Nella Domenici would be Number 59 if there is a miracle in New Mexico. The Dems are worried enough to have just made a small ad but for their guy. This is a big reach for Trump, who is not going to win that godforsaken state unless it’s a massive blowout of Mondalian proportions.

And then there’s Maryland with Larry Hogan. I’m not going to lie – I find him incredibly annoying. But Larry Hogan is the best we’re ever going to do in Maryland, and I am a huge believer in saying “Yes” to success. Ronald Reagan used to say that someone who votes with you 80% of the time is not an enemy but an ally. Well, someone who votes with you 60% of the time is not an enemy but a Republican from Maryland, and I’ll take that over a straight-up leftist any day. Hogan is behind in the polls in this hugely Democratic state, but he came from way far behind to win the governorship, and he knows his state. This is a huge reach, but it is not outside the range of plausibility. Imagine having a seat in Maryland as our 60th seat.

My over and under right now, just under two weeks out? 54 seats. Yeah, I’m an optimist, but I think there’s reason to be. 

Just don’t get complacent. Things are pretty good now. Everything could go right, and we could have a huge sweep. Everything could go wrong, and we could have another 2022. We don’t control the outcome. We only control what we ourselves do. We control what we give to these campaigns. We control how we volunteer to help. We control if we speak to friends, neighbors, and family about the importance of voting Republican down ballot. But most of all, we control when and how we vote. If you do nothing else, get out there and vote right now if your state allows it. Don’t wait. Don’t dilly-dally. Bank that vote. Go do it right now. Vote for Trump and vote for a Republican senator and congressman. What are you waiting for? Put down your iPhone and go vote.



Zelensky’s ‘Victory Plan’ Calls for U.S. and NATO Troop Involvement in Ukraine’s War with Russia

 Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky presented a "victory plan" that involved replacing U.S. troops stationed in Europe with Ukrainian forces, contingent on NATO and U.S. approval.


The Media Are The Scum Of The Earth


However much you hate the progressive corporate media, double it. Then double it again. After that, triple it and you’re getting close to where you should start hating these people. There isn’t a good person among the lot of them, there really isn’t, as they happily dance on the graves of dead loved ones and lie with impunity about Donald Trump under the banner of “truth-tellers.”

Hypocrisy is the wrong word, as it is not strong enough. It’s not that the left has double standards – one for them, another for everyone else. They have standards for everyone else and absolutely none for them. They don’t have to change the standards they hold themselves to because they hold themselves to nothing. It is “agenda ΓΌber alles,” written in its original German on purpose. 

The Atlantic is a prime example of how the left-wing echo chamber operates. They “report” a piece about a upcoming book, working hard to make sure their fellow travelers make some cash, and declare Donald Trump has a history of praising Adolf Hitler and his generals. Weird how this tidbit of information about the most investigate human being on the planet escaped reporting for 4 years, but now someone finally decided to tell it!

That person is John Kelly, a retired partisan General who was fired at Trump’s Chief of Staff and has been scrambling to worm his way back into the good graces of the establishment left ever since. 

Kelly started by spreading lies about Trump declaring soldiers who died in the D-Day invasion “suckers” and “losers.” He’s the only person claiming this, likely the source who “leaked” it to The Atlantic in 2020. Literally everyone else in the room denied it happened, but The Atlantic is the plaything of Lauren Powell Jobs, unaccomplished widow of Steve Jobs, who uses her inherited wealth to advance the left-wing agenda that gives this otherwise vacationing “philanthropist” meaning in life. 

She publicly admitted she owns the rag for the express purpose of serving her political whims, to create narratives for extremists leftists to use. Anyone with self-respect working there would quit, that none have tells you pretty much everything.

Worried that Democrats might lose, Kelly returned to The Atlantic with another story – something he seemingly just remembered, though the Democrat Party Press insists he’s told the story privately to them in the past. We all know how shy Kelly is about being publicly critical of Trump over the last 4 years, and we know how the media would never, ever report something critical of the former President they’d only heard in private, as that would be a lot like reporting something from an anonymous source with an axe to grind.

Oh yeah, that’s exactly what this is. 

The choices are actually pretty simple: A) John Kelly is lying because he’s a Democrat working to elect Democrats, or B) John Kelly, only 2 weeks before an election, was so overwhelmed with feelings that he decided to publicly tell a story he’d been blabbing all over town for years that – even in a town where second-hand rumors about Trump are treated as gospel truth and lead the nightly news – has been held as closely as the identity of Deep Throat was by those very same rumormongers. 

Which seems more likely? 

A causal mention about Doug Emhoff, husband of Kamala Harris, being credibly accused of smacking an ex-girlfriend across the face because he was upset she was talking to another man shut down the network, but a story with less proof about something, again, everyone else in the room denies ON THE RECORD, leads the day.

Democrats really are the scum of the Earth. 

The same Atlantic story claims Trump smeared a murdered soldier, Private Vanessa Guillen, swore about her and complained about the cost of her funeral. This, once again, is something everyone involved openly denies on the record, including the family of the slain soldier. The soldier’s sister even publicly called on Democrats to stop exploiting her sister’s murder. They won’t. They’re scum.

The Atlantic lied about this, too. They don’t care. There are no standards there, only narratives, according to beneficiary Jobs. The family of Amber Thurman, the Georgia woman Democrats pretend died from an abortion ban who actually got her abortion and died from medical malpractice as a resulting infection went untreated, has asked Democrats to stop dancing on their loved one’s grave and exploiting their tragedy. They have not and will not. Scum.

They will dance on any grave they think will give them an advantage, no matter how painful it is to the family or how big the lie is they have to tell. These are not the actions of good people.

Scum of the Earth is too kind for these people, but like “hypocrisy” not accurately capturing how Democrats function, it will have to do until new words are created to fill the gap. Or maybe we could just use old ones, words Democrats have either abandoned or changed to fit their political needs. Maybe “women” will work, since the true victims of most of the policies of the left are women and Democrats claim complete ignorance as to what one is, it seems to be unused these days. Well, except when it comes to abortion, when they all suddenly become gynecologists. Maybe not.

Oh well, scum of the Earth will do, at least for now.



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Welcome to 

The π–πŸ‘π π““π“π“˜π“›π“¨ 𝓗𝓾𝓢𝓸𝓻, π“œπ“Ύπ“Όπ“²π“¬, 𝓐𝓻𝓽, π“žπ“Ÿπ“”π“ 𝓣𝓗𝓑𝓔𝓐𝓓 

Here’s a place to share cartoons, jokes, music, art, nature, 
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No politics or divisive posts on this thread. 

This feature will appear every day at 1pm mountain time. 


Parks Canada “colonialism” apology tour to begin in Jasper

The Liberal government is rolling out a formal Indigenous apology tour at national parks across Canada beginning with the wildfire-ravaged Jasper National Park. 


As part of its nationwide initiative to redress what the Liberals call Parks Canada’s history of “colonial policies,” a total of 27 national parks have been flagged for formal place-based apologies. 

Jasper National Park was supposed to be the first heritage site to issue such an apology coinciding with the opening of the new Jasper Indigenous Exhibit, an outdoor interpretive display near the Jasper Information Centre on Sept. 7 and 8, 2024. 

However, the exhibit’s grand opening event was delayed by the devastating 2024 Jasper wildfire which ravaged 30% of the town, causing $880 million in insurance damage and burning an estimated 32,722 hectares of land. 

Although the exhibit was untouched by the fire, Parks Canada had shut down the site until further notice. 

Documents obtained by True North via an access to information request show that Parks Canada is preparing “place-based apologies” for each site where its past actions have affected Indigenous peoples.

The documents show that the department under the direction of Environment and Parks Minister Steven Guilbeault remains committed to the apology campaign, with dozens of parks, including Banff National Park, Pacific Rim National Park Reserve, and Cape Breton Highlands National Park, identified as future sites for apologies. 


True North contacted Parks Canada for clarification but did not receive a response by the deadline.

A February 7, 2024, document titled “Parks Canada Guidance: Place-based Apologies and Redress” underscores the Liberal government’s rationale behind the initiative.

“Parks Canada and its predecessor organizations have had a long history of employing colonial policies and practices to establish protected heritage places with varying consequences for Indigenous peoples,” the document states.

This apology initiative is part of the Liberal government’s broader action plan to implement the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, specifically Action Plan Measure 110. 

This measure calls for coordinated acknowledgements, apologies and actions in response to the supposed historic harms caused by the establishment and operation of heritage sites administered by Parks Canada.

As part of the UNDRIP Act, Parks Canada is mandated to co-develop site-specific apologies with Indigenous nations, and the agency has even committed to further implementing redress-related actions. 

So Apparently We Won't Know Who the Next POTUS Is Until Two Weeks After Election

Sarah Arnold reporting for Townhall 

Election officials in one of the largest counties in Arizona, which ultimately decides the election in the critical swing state, are already warning Americans that voting tabulation could take weeks to conclude. 

Maricopa County officials are asking people for “patience” as they tally up the final votes, which they say could take between 10 and 14 days. Deputy Elections Director Jennifer Liewer blames longer-than-usual ballots and the high interest in the 2024 election. 

This year’s ballot in the state will be two pages long and have an average of 79 races per ballot. More than 400,000 people in Maricopa County have already cast their ballots, and over 2.1 million voters are expected to show up at the polls this year. As a result, election officials are encouraging people to vote early. 

“We are seeing a little bit of a lag of where we were in 2020, but the last few days, we've actually seen an uptick in turnout," Scott Jarrett, Maricopa County elections director, said. "So I am expecting that we will start approaching very close to those 2020 numbers.”

Officials are also urging people to vote in person on Election Day instead of dropping off their ballots on November 4 to “ensure smooth, secure operations.” Maricopa County has taken measures to avoid a 2022 repeat, which turned out to be pure chaos at the polls, by hiring extra staffers and bringing in more high-speed tabulators. The county has faced dozens of election issues due to a "technology issue” that caused shocking discrepancies during the last election cycle. 

In 2022, in-person voters were turned away because of “machine errors” despite several close races between a highly contentious election, including that state’s attorney general and gubernatorial races. The election took more than five days to conclude. In the end, the races were decided by a narrow escape that led to GOP candidate Kari Lake filing a lawsuit, blaming the “rigged system.” 

reported earlier this year that America First Legal (AFL) filed an amended lawsuit against several Arizona counties, including Maricopa, for failing to remove non-citizens from its voter rolls. The swing state has previously been a victim of election fraud despite Democrats dismissing any concerns about election insecurity.



Macron pledges $108 million at Lebanon aid confab, slams Israel for ‘sowing barbarism’

 

PARIS — France pledged to provide a 100-million euro ($108-million) package to support Lebanon at an international conference Thursday, as President Emmanuel Macron said “massive aid” is needed to support the country where war between the Hezbollah terror group and Israel has displaced a million people and deepened an economic crisis.

“In the immediate term, massive aid is needed for the Lebanese population, both for the hundreds of thousands of people displaced by the war and for the communities hosting them,” Macron said in his opening speech at the conference.

French organizers hope participants’ financial pledges of humanitarian aid will meet the $426 million the United Nations says is urgently needed.  


Italy this week announced new aid of 10 million euros ($10.8 million) and Germany on Wednesday pledged an additional 60 million euros ($64.7 million) for people in Lebanon.

Macron condemned Israel for continuing its military operations in Lebanon against Hezbollah, “in the south, in Beirut, elsewhere, and that the number of civilian victims continues to rise,” and reiterated his call for a ceasefire.  


Hezbollah must “stop its provocations… and indiscriminate strikes” against Israel, Macron said.  


But Israel “knows from experience that its military successes do not necessarily represent victory in Lebanon,” Macron said.

“I’m not sure that you can defend a civilization by sowing barbarism yourself,” he added.  


Paris also seeks to help restore Lebanon’s sovereignty and strengthen its institutions.

The country, where Hezbollah effectively operates as a state within a state, has been without a president for two years while political factions fail to agree on a new one.

However, hopes for diplomatic progress in Paris may be stymied by the absence of Iran and Israel, who were not among the 70 countries and 15 international organizations invited, while the US was represented only by a deputy to Secretary of State Antony Blinken.  


The international conference comes as critics say Macron’s diplomatic approach in the Middle East has been blurred by his apparent evolving approach and sometimes chaotic communication.

Still, France’s historic links with Lebanon, a former colony, and its influential diplomacy give Paris momentum to coordinate “a proper response to the massive challenge that the war in Lebanon now poses,” said Middle East expert Rym Montaz, editor in chief of Carnegie Europe’s blog Strategic Europe.

The French “are trying to make sure that international donors get to hear firsthand from the actors on the ground in Lebanon who can best describe the most immediate needs caused by the Israeli aggression that has forcibly displaced 20% of the Lebanese population over the course of two weeks,” she said. 


In recent weeks, Macron appeared to toughen his stance against Israel while repeatedly calling for a ceasefire in both Lebanon and Gaza, condemning the “unbearable human toll.” He reiterated his call on Monday while speaking by phone with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his office said.

There have been recent tensions between the French and Israeli leaders, especially after Macron called for a halt to arms exports for use in Gaza.

Macron has also strongly condemned what he says is the “deliberate” targeting by Israel of UN peacekeepers in southern Lebanon, which Israel has denied.

Thursday’s conference involves ministers and officials from over 70 countries and international organizations, including the European Union and regional partners, Macron’s office said.  


France also aims at coordinating international support to strengthen Lebanon’s armed forces so they can “deploy more broadly and efficiently” in the country’s south as part of a potential deal to end the war. Such a deal could see Hezbollah withdraw its forces from the border.  


International support may include equipment, training and financial aid to hire troops and ensure the army’s daily needs, Macron’s office said.

Lebanon’s army has been hit hard by five years of economic crisis. It has an aging arsenal and no air defenses.

The Lebanese army has about 80,000 troops, around 5,000 of them deployed in the south. Hezbollah has more than 100,000 fighters, according to the terror group’s late leader, Hassan Nasrallah. Hezbollah’s arsenal — built with support from Iran — is more advanced.  


The Lebanese army’s deployment is a key part of UN Security Council resolution 1701 that ended the 2006 war between Hezbollah and Israel, and requires that the Lebanese Armed Forces be the only force with arms in southern Lebanon.

The resolution has gone largely unenforced since it was passed in 2006, allowing Hezbollah to build up a formidable arms cache and defensive capabilities, with neither UNIFIL peacekeepers nor the LAF willing to challenge the Iran-backed terror group. 


https://www.timesofisrael.com/macron-pledges-108-million-at-lebanon-aid-confab-slams-israel-for-sowing-barbarism/

In The Final Stretch Of The Campaign, Kamala Gets Very Small And Very Dangerous



How quickly we went from “joy” and “vibes” to angry and desperate. Also dangerous.

Kamala Harris on Wednesday delivered remarks outside the vice president’s formal residence in Washington, and it was nothing short of appalling. Using an immediately discredited and very obviously campaign-coordinated article in The Atlantic from the previous day, plus a New York Times interview from a disgruntled former Trump administration official, she stated in her official capacity that her opponent is “increasingly unhinged and unstable.” She promised that in a second Trump term, he would be a president of “unchecked power,” adding that his behavior has shown him to be “deeply troubling and incredibly dangerous.”

Kamala stopped just short of officially declaring Trump an enemy of the state, though at the rate she and her allies in the national media are accelerating, it will be no surprise when she does. The entire shocking display was like watching a gambling addict down $25,000 in a single night and on his last chip, only to lose again. She has not a cent left to her name, and rent is due tomorrow.

It’s clear what Kamala’s campaign tried to do. It conspired with The New York Times and The Atlantic to simultaneously publish stories of microwaved lines — that Trump is Hitler, that he aspires to authoritarian heights of power, and that he harbors nothing but “disdain” for the U.S. military and the unfortunate. CNN ran coverage of the two articles all morning, and with the media happy to comply for the sake of helping Kamala, the White House announced that the vice president would be delivering prepared remarks that afternoon.

She spoke for three minutes, citing Trump’s former White House Chief of Staff John Kelly, who told the Times everything Kamala’s campaign needed him to say — that Trump is Hitler, that he aspires to authoritarian heights of power, and that he harbors nothing but “disdain” for the U.S. military and the unfortunate. Then she retreated indoors without taking questions.

As a reminder, Kelly has the distinction of serving the longest of any of Trump’s chiefs of staff, and we are to believe that he lacked the decency and honor to alert the American people to the president heaping praise on Hitler when he was in a position to truly do something about it. But now, four years later, we’re expected to take him seriously.

It’s incredibly tiresome, but what do they have left now that Trump is not in jail and still alive? A normal person would say, “Well, they could win the election,” but these aren’t normal people. They know they’re on track to lose, and they don’t believe in elections anyway.

This is a dark campaign. It’s a desperate campaign. They’re willing to try anything, as we’ve seen. Kamala looked silly but she’s serious. And at this stage, she’s dangerous.