Daily News Roundup
U.S. DEBT CLOCK:
NOTABLE QUOTES
J.B. Shurk for Gatestone Institute: The word “democracy” appears to have become polite shorthand for insisting that an insular minority in control of the government always knows what is best for the vast, unrepresented majority. Even worse, it sometimes seems nothing more than a convenient disguise for camouflaging abuses of power. “Democracy” may not mean the same thing as “aristocracy,” “oligarchy,” “empire,” or “dictatorship,” but in this day and age, it has sadly acquired the same peculiar aftertaste.
Issues & Insights Editorial Board: In answer to our earlier question, yes, Democrats are driven by authoritarian urges. When Barack Obama said just before the 2008 election that “we are five days away from fundamentally transforming the United States of America,” he wasn’t talking about restoring lost liberty. He was telling his party that its campaign of conquest had picked up the pace.
John Daniel Davidson is a senior editor at The Federalist: FISA is there to give the intelligence community legal and political cover when they get caught. It’s time for ordinary Americans to wake up and realize what our government is doing to us. Under the pretext of keeping us safe from foreign terrorists, the intelligence community has erected a vast surveillance apparatus that targets American citizens — and it will not under any circumstances allow that apparatus to be reformed. Which is why it should be dismantled completely.
Daniel Greenfield contributor to Frontpage Magazine: Troubled young men seeking direction used to join the military, but now they find only wokeness there. The culture banishes young men, telling them they suffer from toxic masculinity and they drift into movements like those run by Muslim convert and alleged sex trafficker Andrew Tate or into Islam itself which preaches they can find meaning by killing Christians. America needs to do more than spy on these young men, it needs to give them something to fight for. Because if it does not, Islam will.
Steven Kritz. M.D. contributor to Brownstone Institute: Is it any wonder that we are where we are? I mentioned earlier that life expectancy declined for three years in a row beginning in 2015. The fact is, since 2017, the general trend in life expectancy has continued to trend downward. While lifestyle is certainly an important factor in this decline, we better start looking at whether our healthcare system is adding to this disaster. A major impediment, in my opinion, is that the people best positioned within the healthcare system to make the necessary changes have been rendered impotent. Potentially worse, the new system for training physicians may not provide this critical group with the skill sets needed to understand what has to be done to turn this ship around.
DEMOCRAT PARTY MARXIST PLAYBOOK: ABOLISH THE SECOND AMENDMENT
Hubbard: Biden targets ‘gun show loophole’ by expanding background checks, dealer registration requirements
The Biden administration Thursday announced a new rule that requires thousands of gun vendors to register as federally licensed firearms dealers and then run background checks on customers in an attempt to close the so-called “gun show loophole,” and the related “online sale loophole.”
The White House said the rule is an implementation of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which Congress passed in 2022, although it is likely to be challenged in court. The Biden administration acknowledged that over the past two decades “there have been numerous failed efforts to close these loopholes and expand background checks,” but through the Bipartisan Safer Communities act, “President Biden accomplished what many had tried for the past 20 years.” […] The National Rifle Association has said, “There is no ‘gun show loophole,'” and “There is no ‘online sales’ loophole,” because federal law already requires dealers to conduct background checks before selling or transferring any firearm.
James Woods X post: The entire gun debate made simple for leftists.
See the photo on X/Twitter.
BIDEN’S DEMOCRAT PARTY MARXIST PLAYBOOK: PERSECUTE YOUR OPPOSITION, PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP & HIS FORMER TRUMP EMPLOYEES, SUPPORTERS & WH STAFF
Jewell: Dems Used Campaign Funds To Pay For Biden’s Legal Bills While Hitting Trump For Doing The Same Thing
Despite criticizing former President Donald Trump for using campaign donations to help pay his massive legal bills, Democrats also used campaign funds to help President Joe Biden pay lawyers during the special counsel probe into his handling of classified documents, according to Axios.
The outlet reported on Friday that between July 2023 and February 2024, the Democratic National Committee paid over $1.5 million to lawyers or firms that represented Biden during the classified documents probe, according to the DNC’s financial filings. In recent days, the Biden campaign has slammed Trump for spending campaign donations on legal fees while claiming that “every single dime” given to the Biden-Harris campaign is spent on “talking to voters.”
THE CORRUPT & DANGEROUS U.S. INTELLIGENCE AGENCIES & THE ADMINISTRATIVE STATE APPARATUS
TheLibertyDaily: Deep State Media: Catherine Herridge Testifies How CBS Locked Her Out
Watch the 5: 39 minute Herridge testimony: https://rumble.com/v4oxsd5-deep-state-media-catherine-herridge-testifies-how-cbs-locked-her-out.html
War Room: Garrett Ziegler Explains The Directory He Has Put Together To Cull The Deep State
There are 59 people in the DOJ directory. Today’s focus is on two of the people who left the DOJ and are now working on the Trump investigation. Conflicts of interest identified.
Watch the 5:23 https://rumble.com/v4omziu-garrett-ziegler-explains-the-directory-he-has-put-together-to-cull-the-deep.html
Folks: Vote Out the IRS
Recent polls reveal that 64% of Americans believe their taxes are too high. Perhaps an even greater percentage despise the IRS and support Republican efforts to abolish it. In January 2023, Rep. Buddy Carter (R-Ga.) introduced the Fair Tax Act, which included language to abolish the personal income tax and rein in the IRS. But nothing has come of the Fair Tax Act, and even that bill would simply shift taxes from the personal income tax to a national consumption tax similar to European VAT taxes. America does not need another form of taxation, especially one where the level of tax can easily be raised, as with state sales taxes. What America needs is lower spending levels and the elimination of all taxes on individuals. This country belongs to its citizenry, and they have the right to decide how they are taxed and how their taxes are spent. But for a very long time, they have not exercised that right. As I see it, the IRS has lost all credibility and needs to be eliminated. […] Some will ask whether eliminating the personal income tax and the IRS would reduce revenues needed for national defense, Social Security, and other necessary programs. The reality is that an elimination of the personal income tax would save money: the $144 billion spent annually. . . .
Read more: https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2024/04/vote_out_the_irs.html
2024 ELECTION
AZFEC: Is Arizona Turning Blue? The Latest Voter Registration Numbers Tell a Different Story.
Everyone knows that political pundits, social media influencers, and the corporate media love a good narrative. And one of their favorites for years has been the claim that Arizona is trending blue—that a demographic shift toward Democrats is inevitable.This ‘conventional wisdom’ is repeated so often that much of the Republican political class in the state has accepted it as fact. Some are even advising candidates that the only path forward for Republicans is to abandon their conservative principles, embrace center-left policy solutions, and settle for a future of divided government. But a funny thing about narratives and conventional wisdom: numbers don’t lie, especially those showing party preference when people are registering to vote.Last month, the Secretary of State updated the statewide voter registration data prior to the Presidential Preference Election. The latest figures show that Republicans are once again the largest voting bloc in Arizona, surpassing Independents by nearly 40,000. This is certainly an important development—especially given all the attention it received on social media when Independent registrations surpassed Republicans last year. But that’s not the most significant voter registration trend. It’s the one that could spell doom for the Democratic party in our state’s upcoming election.
THE FIGHT FOR ELECTION INTEGRITY
Elder: The NPR-Listening ‘Elite 1%’
Consider this proposition: “Suppose that your favorite candidate loses a close election. However, people on the campaign know that they can win by cheating without being caught. Would you rather have your candidate win by cheating or lose by playing fair?” Just 7% of Americans said, “Win by cheating.” This is from a startling new Scott Rasmussen poll. Rasmussen then put this question to those the pollster calls “the elite 1%.” They make over $150,000 per year, have a postgraduate degree, live in densely populated areas and give President Joe Biden an 82% approval rating. Why poll this group? Rasmussen said: “A heavy concentration of them went to one of 12 elite schools. […] [H]alf the policy positions in government, half the corporate board positions in America, are held by people who went to one of these dozen schools.” Thirty-five percent of this group said they would rather their candidate win by cheating than lose by playing fair. It gets worse. Rasmussen put the question to a subset of this elite 1%, whom the pollster calls the “politically obsessed,” defined as those who talk about politics every day. Among this group, the number who would rather win by cheating jumps to 69%.
Read more: https://jewishworldreview.com/cols/elder041224.php
THERE ARE SOME THINGS ONE CAN ALWAYS COUNT ON
Greenfield: Chicago Dems Plotted the World’s Greatest Jailbreak to Steal a Presidential Election
During the Civil War, Democrats came up with a unique plan to find more voters. “They will vote early and often, and they will fight,” Charles Walsh, a top figure in the Democratic political machine who had unsuccessfully run for Sheriff of Cook County, promised. The year was 1864 and Walsh, the “doorkeeper’ of the Illinois House, who lost an election to a Republican by less than 800 votes, had a plan to win a presidential election the Chicago Way. It was simple. Abraham Lincoln was so associated with Illinois that “Land of Lincoln” would become its name, but Chicago was a whole other matter. Could Chicago Democrats hope to win Illinois? The Democrats had bet big on Chicago by bringing the Democratic National Convention to town. […] But Chicago Democrats were thinking even bigger with the world’s greatest jailbreak by bringing in tens of thousands of heavily armed Confederate Democrats who would, in Walsh’s words “vote early and often, and they will fight.” In typical Chicago fashion, Walsh linked fighting and voting together. […] What was once a Democrat conspiracy is now just Democrat policy.
BIDEN/HARRIS/OBAMA’S AMERICA LAST REGIME: RADICAL TRANSFORMATION OF FOREIGN POLICY
Pilkington: Yellen pitches Bidenomics in Beijing — making America a laughingstock
Imagine your family finds your cooking so revolting, they refuse to eat it — and in response you decide it’s time to take a plate over to your neighbor’s house. This is precisely what the Biden administration is doing with its economic platform. It’s no secret Americans are sick of Bidenomics.
A recent Economist/YouGov survey showed 29% of voters are worried more about the economy and inflation than any other issue. Only 22% of black Americans, 13% of Hispanics and 18% of young adults — all key would-be Biden voters — think they are better off financially than they were a year ago. The verdict is in: Voters do not like what Joe is cooking. Rather than reflect on these numbers, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen found herself in China this week offering a round of slops to the locals.
BIDEN/HARRIS/OBAMA’S AMERICA LAST REGIME: RADICAL TRANSFORMATION OF AMERICA
Shurk: ‘Democracy’ Has a Peculiar Aftertaste
- If you live in a “democracy” where everyone routinely votes to censor and imprison one another, you still live in a police state.
- The word “democracy” appears to have become polite shorthand for insisting that an insular minority in control of the American government always knows what is best for the vast, unrepresented majority. Even worse, it sometimes seems nothing more than a convenient disguise for camouflaging abuses of power.
The American system of government is a federation of sovereign states that retain inherent powers not specifically delegated to the national government. It is a republic that separates discrete powers among coequal and competing branches of government — namely the Legislative, Executive, and Judicial. It is a representative democracy that empowers the people to vote into office those who presumably will best serve their interests. Most importantly, it is a constitutional system that severely limits government’s authority and proscribes government agents from infringing upon freedoms retained by the people.
Just to be indisputably clear that the government is forbidden from rewriting its own delegated powers in such a way that they violate an American’s God-given liberties, the first ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution — the Bill of Rights — act as a redundancy measure and explicit warning to state actors not to infringe upon or water down the rights delineated there.
Read more: https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20564/democracy
THE DEMOCRAT PARTY MARXIST PLAYBOOK: PROMOTE, GLORIFY & NORMALIZE PERVERSION
Larson: Democrats Will Champion Despicable Pedophilia Within Five Years, or Less
Rush Limbaugh warned Democrats would eventually promote pedophilia. Progressivism never stops. Its advocates never say, “This is far enough.” No sooner is one objective completed than left-wing agitators shout that a new social justice battle be waged. […] Transgender teachers inculcate in toddlers unnatural values. Progressive advocates insist graphic, aberrant XXX imagery be welcomed in school libraries. Transgender actors and characters polluted entertainment. They’ve been featured in TV shows including The Bold and the Beautiful, Medical Center, and Star Trek: Discovery. Among recent American films that portrayed transgenders sympathetically were Cowboys and West Side Story. Numerous foreign movies tout transgenderism. It surely won’t be long before a television network presents a transgender newsreader. Competing networks will doubtlessly follow suit, lest they be perceived as insufficiently woke. Transgenderism is validated by psychiatric and other medical professions that stopped caring about patient welfare long ago, and instead, champion woke delusions. The profit motive exerts tremendous attraction; there are millions to be reaped from hormone treatments and sex-organ mutilations. To opine that the deviant “road to progress” will lead to pedophilia is not mere conjecture. Preliminary moves in that direction have already been undertaken. […] Progressives, including those in political office, don’t view moral wrongs as negative phenomena to be punished and hopefully eradicated, but alternative choices deserving of societal respect and accommodation. Last March, per the Lexington Herald-Leader, the Kentucky House considered a bill that criminalized possession, trafficking, importation, or promotion of child sex dolls. In commenting on that legislation, Democrat State Senator Karen Berg expressed the terrible view that such perverted devices might be beneficial: . . . .
Read more at American Thinker.
Murray: NC man arrested showing his ding-dong and soliciting showers with his fellow females […] in a Planet Fitness women’s locker room
I’m stunned—all the “transgender rights” people said this would never happen! Here are the details from a report out today at New York Post: […] one of the females in the locker room was a minor. […] To be fair though, Miller was arguably just doing what he thought was acceptable, following the example set before him by the very same high-profile politicians pushing for his “trans” rights and visibility—grown men showering with young girls isn’t okay? I think Joe Biden’s record might indicate otherwise. If you’re wondering what “she” looks like, here ya go: […] It’s hard to feel much sympathy for the victimized women, as they willingly continued to patronize an establishment that died on the hill of the perverts;. . .
Read more at American Thinker.
WAR IN ISRAEL
Fitzgerald: If Israel Remains Undeterred by American Pressure
Israel has no choice: it has to continue to fight until Hamas is destroyed, and that means it must defy the Bidenites, who are trying to prevent the IDF’s entry into Rafah, where four battalions of Hamas fighters remain intact. If they are not destroyed, Hamas will still be standing, and in the eyes of the Arabs and Muslims, will thereby have emerged victorious. The Bidenites fail to understand this. Nor do they realize that a perceived victory by Hamas has consequences not only for Israel, but for the entire Western world. More on the present state of US-Israel relations can be found here: “The big chill sets in, once again,” by David M. Weinberg, Israel Hayom, March 31, 2024: . . . .
Read more: https://www.frontpagemag.com/if-israel-remains-undeterred-by-american-pressure/
Johnson: IS HAMAS WINNING?
In his current School of War podcast Aaron hosts Michael Doran to talk about the Israel-Hamas war and the broader regional competition with Iran. Doran is Senior Fellow and Director of the Center for Peace and Security in the Middle East at the Hudson Institute. I found this to be the most illuminating and/or thought provoking discussion of the war that I have listened to over the past month. I thought some readers might find it of interest.
Read more/Listen to the 37 minute interview:https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2024/04/is-hamas-winning.php
THE CURENT STATE OF HEALTHCARE
(A case study) State Rep. Mooney, ALEC: Alabama’s hospital crisis and the Medicaid expansion mirage
Rural hospitals, once beacons of care in the heartlands, find themselves in dire straits. Patient numbers are dwindling, the uninsured population is swelling, and attracting skilled healthcare professionals is akin to finding a needle in a haystack. Now, some are heralding Medicaid Expansion as the remedy to their financial woes. But, after delving into the data, it’s clear that expansion is nothing but a billion-dollar boondoggle with no long-term salvation in sight. States that have embraced Medicaid Expansion under the Affordable Care Act are witnessing a grim reality: one in four of their hospitals are on the brink of closure. Nearly fifty rural hospitals in these states have shuttered since the inception of expansion. What’s more, a 2020 Guidehouse study revealed that three out of the top five states with the highest percentage of essential community hospitals in danger are those expanding Medicaid. Shockingly, 76% of rural patients in these areas choose to seek care far from their communities in the hope of better care. […] The notion that expanding Medicaid will rescue Alabama hospitals is pure folly. It will only balloon state spending and reliance on federal aid. Taxpayers foot the bill regardless of the funding source, but it’s state budgets that will bear the brunt.
PEACEFULLY & PATRIOTICALLY HAVE YOUR VOICES HEARD
Galardi: Meet The Outspoken Women Leading The Fight Against Men Invading Their Spaces
With the increase of men wanting to compete in women’s sports, it often seems like it’s women who hate women’s sports the most. Consider South Carolina women’s head basketball coach Dawn Staley and her recent comments that anyone “who considers themselves a woman” should be allowed to play in women’s sports. Thankfully, other prominent women are beginning to strike back to protect fairness in women’s sports. Jennifer Sey is one of them. One of the most outspoken women to challenge Covid school closures, Sey, is also one of the loudest when it comes to opposing men in women’s sports, and she’s putting her money where her mouth is. The former CMO at Levi’s was coerced out of her job for condemning the multiple-year school lockdowns in Commufornia in 2020 and beyond. She is not only a marketing maven but has an IQ higher than your average Ivy League president. She can define what a woman is and has recently launched an athletic clothing line to prove it. Her new venture, XX-XY brands itself as the “only athletic brand that stands up for women.” […] Sey has joined other strong and courageous women who are leading the charge when it comes to proclaiming the reality of human nature.
OTHER NEWS, COMMENTARY, OPINION
(Updated) Greenfield: Muslim Convert Planned Ramadan Attack on 21 Idaho Churches
Coeur d’Alene, an Idaho city with a population of over 50,000, had too many churches. Alexander Scott Mercurio, a new teen convert to Islam, had a plan to “fix that real soon.” Ramadan was almost over and Mercurio was unhappy because he believed that he was a bad Muslim who hadn’t even assaulted, let alone killed any Christians, and would go to hell. “I am a hypocrite who has not even spat in the face of a kafir (non-Muslim),” he complained in online chats. “Let alone spilled their blood and induced terror into their hearts and minds.” Mercurio wasn’t sure if he could be considered a good Muslim without killing Christians. “I really don’t want to miss out on the opportunity for jihad in Ramadan,” he worried. While the bloody Islamic holiday of Ramadan is often used as a pretext to warn America, Israel and other countries to stop fighting Islamic terrorists lest it offend Muslims, it’s actually a time of redoubled terrorism. And Mercurio wanted to get in on that murderous spiritual opportunity.
Read more: https://www.frontpagemag.com/muslim-convert-planned-ramadan-attack-on-21-idaho-churches/
Hammer: Shocking moment UC Berkeley law students who were invited to Jewish dean’s house for dinner turn on him with pro-Palestine rant as his wife begs them to leave
The viral video made rounds Wednesday, hours after the students attended the Oakland home of Erwin Chemerinsky. The first of three dinners they planned to host, the occasion turned sour when Malak Afaneh, co-president of Berkeley Law Students for Justice in Palestine, rose to protest the school’s investment in arms manufacturers for Israel. Law school professor Catherine Fisk, Chemerinsky’s wife, was filmed trying to snatch the woman’s cellphone out of her hand as she filmed, pulling at her clothes, and putting her arm around her as she urged her to leave. In a statement issued Thursday, Chemerinsky, who is Jewish, asserted that he was ‘saddened’ by the protest, but said he told the students his home was ‘not a forum for free speech.’ Others claim the duo violated the student’s constitutional rights.
Read more/Watch the 2:45 minute video: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13297643/uc-berkeley-law-student-jewish-dean-palestine-israel-genocide.html
DeFeo: Oklahoma lawmakers detail illegal immigration bill
The bill creates the crime of impermissible occupation if a “person willfully and without permission enters and remains in the State of Oklahoma without having first obtained legal authorization to enter the United States,” according to House Speaker Charles McCall and Senate Speaker Pro Tem Greg Treat. Anyone convicted of the crime the first time would be forced to leave the state within 72 hours of a date on the court order and banned from reentering the state. The first offense is a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail and a maximum $500 fine. Second convictions are felonies with penalties of […] The legislation, expected to be filed next week, also bans Oklahoma cities from becoming “sanctuary cities” that do not enforce immigration laws.
TUCKER UNDER FIRE
Joel Pollak Threader: Allow me to respond to @TuckerCarlson’s interview here with @MuntherIsaac by talking about the facts, rather than speculating about whether Tucker hates Israel, or is an antisemite. He says he is concerned about Christians; I’ll accept that. But there’s no excuse for this. (1/nn) First, a fact about Bethlehem. Christians used to be a majority there; they are now a minority. The Palestinian Authority has been Islamizing the city since taking control of Bethlehem 30 years ago. Israeli “occupation” is hardly the primary issue. (2/10) Another fact: Bethlehem has become an antisemitic city under Palestinian control, far worse to Jews than even to Christians. In 2007, I was told not to speak Hebrew there; in 2023, I was told to remove my yarmulke, or cover it with a hat. In the birthplace of Jesus, a Jew. (3/10)
Read more/Watch the 43 minute Tucker interview: https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1777875038903087440.html
Schachtel: Say what you mean and mean what you say
Tucker Carlson, a man who I admire and deeply respect for his fearless reporting on the biggest issues of our day, had a guest on his program earlier this week with whom I share radically different perspectives. This man is named Munther Isaac. He’s a Lutheran pastor in Bethlehem, an area governed by the Palestinian Authority. I am an unapologetically patriotic American Jew from New Jersey. I believe that Israel is a nation that brings a lot more good to the world than bad, and I strongly consider it to be by far the most righteous country in the Middle East. I was fiercely critical of Israel’s policies during the Covid era, and I strongly believe that no nation should be free from robust criticism. Now, pastor Isaac does not believe that Israel has the right to exist whatsoever, as he considers the entirety of both Israeli and Palestinian lands as “occupied” Palestinian territory. Had Tucker Carlson or his guest revealed that much, the conversation would be much more honest and insightful. […] After watching the interview, I dug up more information on Mr Isaac. I found a sermon he delivered one day after the horrific October 7 massacre, in which he applauded the barbaric Hamas attack and excused it as a form of “resistance.” He described the innocent young men and women who were slaughtered at the music festival as a bunch of “wealthy people” who basically had it coming for them, declaring that he was “shocked by the strength of the Palestinian man who defied his siege.”
Read more: https://www.dossier.today/p/say-what-you-mean-and-mean-what-you
INTERNATIONAL
Foreign Desk News: World’s Largest Muslim Country Will Normalize Ties with Israel: Report
The newspaper stated that the Asian nation, the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country, has been in secret negotiations for several months with Jerusalem and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development to finalize a normalization agreement. The talks reportedly come as Jakarta is seeking OECD membership and must overcome Israel’s insistence that all participating nations have official recognition with one another. Applicants must also undergo a series of regulatory reforms and have unanimous support to join the 38-member institution.
