Posts on Monday, January 23, 2023

Seven people were killed in a mass shooting that spanned two separate scenes in Half Moon Bay Monday afternoon, according to the San Mateo County Sheriff's Office. Four victims were found dead at about 2:22 p.m. along the 12700 block of Cabrillo Highway, the sheriff's office said. Another victim was transported to Stanford Medical Center with life-threatening injuries. Shortly after that discovery, three more victims were found dead at a separate scene in the area, according to the sheriff's office. The suspect, 67-year-old Half Moon Bay resident Zhao Chunli, was taken into custody at about 4:40 p.m. after he was found in his vehicle

President Joe Biden’s personal attorneys reportedly misled the Department of Justice (DOJ) in November about classified documents being stored at his Wilmington residence. Shortly after documents at the Penn Biden Center were unearthed on November 2, the White House and DOJ reportedly agreed to hide the scandal from the American people. It’s unclear why Biden’s personal attorneys were initially searching for his illegally stashed documents. The White House has failed to provide the initial reason or cause for the search. After the initial discovery on November 2, Biden’s personal attorneys told the DOJ that the only location where troves of classified were stored was at the Penn Biden Center,

On Saturday Pelosi spawn, Alexandra Pelosi, claimed the Paul Pelosi scandal prompted her mother to perform an exorcism on their home in San Francisco. The New York Times reported: “I think that weighed really heavy on her soul. I think she felt really guilty. I think that really broke her. Over Thanksgiving, she had priests coming, trying to have an exorcism of the house and having prayer services,” Alexandra told the publication. But then the next day the FOX and Friends Weekend hosts reported that There Was NO EXORCISM at the Pelosi home. The local Catholic Church confirmed the news.

Before we get into the question of how long it will take to replenish U.S. military stockpiles depleted by Joe Biden’s ongoing aid to Ukraine, let’s first catch up. My colleague Streiff has written extensively on the Russia-Ukraine War, including the eagerness of Biden and the Democrat Party to fund the endless war. Here are several of Streiff’s reports: White House Asks for Another $37 Billion in Ukraine Aid; Congress Needs to Say No- 40 Nations Meet at Ramstein to Coordinate Ukraine Aid and Further Integrate Ukraine Into NATO-

MSNB-see ya later! Morale is at an all-time low at MSNBC after nearly 70 behind-the-scenes staffers were kicked to the curb — and the mass firing has left survivors fuming over cable host Rachel Maddow's $30 million deal, RadarOnline.com has learned. MSNBC hotshot Maddow, 49, hauls home the hefty annual salary — despite whittling down her on-air responsibilities at the network to one day per week after inking her 2021 deal. "Rachel has gone from being the hero of the network to the most hated," dished an insider. "People in TV are not rich. The hosts are rich. Everyone else is struggling

The woke snowflakes have beclowned themselves again. A Norwegian transgender activist group is demanding that Apple Music and Spotify remove one of Aretha Franklin’s hit songs because of its allegedly offensive lyrics. The Trans Cultural Mindfulness Alliance (TCMA) is targeting Franklin’s 1968 hit “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman,” which they say “perpetuates multiple harmful anti-trans stereotypes.” The group claims, “There is no such thing as a ‘natural’ woman” and is calling on the streaming platforms to cancel the song. [Tweet] Many reacted to the tweet by questioning whether the Twitter account is actually a parody account.

The White House on Monday pledged to “accommodate legitimate oversight interests” in response to House Oversight and Accountability Committee Chairman James Comer’s (R-Ky.) request for materials related to classified documents found at President Biden’s old office and Delaware home. White House counsel Stuart Delery wrote to Comer that the administration does not have possession of the documents the National Archives and Department of Justice (DOJ) have taken as part of the investigation into Biden’s handling of classified materials.

The Republican National Committee says the next GOP nominee for president will not participate in debates set up by the Commission on Presidential Debates, citing concerns of partisan bias. Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel told organizations applying to host a debate not to "waste your time." She sent a letter to the commission with a history of the RNC voicing concerns over the debate structure, along with a list of changes to enact before Republican presidential candidates will consider going on the debate stage. The letter serves as a prelude to a rule change in the RNC winter meeting to "prohibit future Republican nominees from participating in CPD-sponsored debates."

When you run a city on the values of (personal) truth, (social) justice, and the (anti) American way of life, there are bound to be consequences, no matter how hard you try to ignore them. That may include the spike in violence in New York City, the crime and homelessness throughout California, or the general collapse of Portland, Ore., on every front. For Seattle, it includes those things and a fentanyl crisis that is claiming lives at an alarming rate. The rate is so high that the King County Coroner is running out of places to store the bodies.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) has officially selected Reps. Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Eric Swalwell (D-CA) to the House Intelligence Committee. This is despite Speaker Kevin McCarthy's (R-CA) promises he would not let that happen, setting up quite the likely showdown between the two party leaders. Earlier this afternoon, Rep. Schiff responded over Twitter, with just the kind of response you'd expect.The tweet includes a letter from Jeffries to McCarthy making his case to name Schiff and Swalwell to the committee.

The Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) advisory panel on vaccines is set to consider an annual schedule for the coronavirus vaccine, akin to how flu vaccines are administered, when it meets this week. The FDA’s Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC) will meet Thursday to discuss how to simplify and streamline the COVID-19 vaccination process, including the composition of coronavirus vaccines and the recommended scheduling for these shots. The rapid evolution of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, resulting in variants with an improved ability to escape immune protection, means that “periodically updating the composition of COVID-19 vaccines as needed,” as was done with the updated bivalent booster

A jury on Monday convicted four members of the extremist group the Oath Keepers of seditious conspiracy. The jury started deliberations Thursday morning after a five-week trial. Prosecutors said the four defendants — Roberto Minuta, Joseph Hackett, David Moerschel and Edward Vallejo — used a “perverted version of American history” to justify their actions on Jan. 6, 2021. “Attacking the Capitol was a means to an end,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Louis Manzo told jurors during closing arguments Wednesday. He said the group took advantage of the riot and seized the opportunity to fulfill their goal of preventing Congress from counting the electoral votes and confirming Joe Biden as the winner

Does Jeff Bezos love football more than he loves newspapers? That’s a question getting tossed around the nation’s capital as its NFL franchise hits the block. Chatter is growing that Amazon’s billionaire founder is looking to clear the way for a purchase of the Washington Commanders by selling the Washington Post — with speculation boosted last month by leaked video of publisher Fred Ryan disclosing layoff plans at an unruly town hall meeting. The problem for Bezos reportedly is that the Commanders’ embattled owner, Dan Snyder, is still sore over the storied newspaper’s series of exposes alleging a toxic management culture at the team

Charles McGonigal, a former FBI official involved in the investigation of Donald Trump’s ties to Russia, was charged with violating sanctions and collaborating with Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska. According to federal prosecutors, McGonigal received $225,000 from a Russian intelligence officer in exchange for his help in having sanctions targeting Deripaska lifted. “Charles McGonigal, a former high-level FBI official, and Sergey Shestakov, a Court interpreter, violated U.S. sanctions by agreeing to provide services to Oleg Deripaska, a sanctioned Russian oligarch. They both previously worked with Deripaska to attempt to have his sanctions removed, and, as public servants, they should have known better,”

Twitter may be a cesspool of inflammatory accusations, half-truths, and despicable child pornography. But there can be no doubt that it is a primary way to make one’s voice heard — the digital town square, to steal a phrase that has already been used to death. That is, of course, unless you have been shown the door of that town square and told never to return. Such was the case for President Donald Trump, who used Twitter throughout his campaign and during his term in office to great effect until the bird flipped him the bird. The Twitter ban in question was enacted after the Jan. 6 incident

A former top FBI official in New York has been arrested over his ties to a Russian oligarch, law enforcement sources told ABC News Monday. Charles McGonigal, who was the special agent in charge of counterintelligence in the FBI's New York Field Office, is under arrest over his ties to Oleg Deripaska, a Russian billionaire who has been sanctioned by the United States and criminally charged last year with violating those sanctions. McGonigal retired from the FBI in 2018. He was arrested Saturday afternoon after he arrived at JFK Airport following travel in Sri Lanka, the sources said.CORRECTIONS*

Via TGP reader David Valentine — I am going to share a letter with you that I recieved from Ryan Samsel. In this letter he will share some of his experiences that he has had to endure since being detained and held as a political prisoner for over two years. Ryan will share his thoughts with us as Ryan is sitting in a cell and how he feels that we Americans should be standing up for our country. He will ask all Americans for a call to action to “write to our Congress to remind them how he and other Jan 6ers are overcharged, and that their due process is being violated.

Dozens of House Democrats have proposed legislation that would eliminate the debt ceiling, which would allow the government to borrow without any limit set by Congress. The federal government hit the $31.381 trillion debt ceiling last week, and House Republicans are pushing for commitments to cut back on the record growth in federal spending before agreeing to allow more borrowing. But Democrats accuse Republicans of setting up the possibility of prohibiting a debt ceiling hike, which would make the government unable to fund all of its current obligations. Democrats say a better idea is to eliminate all limits on federal borrowing and allow

Former Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) spoke with Breitbart News about how the federal government’s handling of President Joe Biden’s classified documents scandal compared to how they investigated former President Donald Trump is “an obvious showing of the two-tiered justice system.” Breitbart News Saturday host Matthew Boyle opened the interview by asking Nunes to provide his perspective on President Joe Biden’s classified document scandal and how it differs from the FBI’s raid on former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence. LISTEN: (Audio) Nunes explained how the government’s handling of Biden’s classified document scandal is “an obvious showing of the two-tiered justice system.” “It comes down to, once again, whatever they accuse you of doing, they’re

An Arkansas man who was photographed during the Jan. 6 riot with his feet on a desk in then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office, was found guilty on all counts Monday after brief jury deliberations. Richard Barnett faced eight charges stemming from the insurrection, including theft of government property. He said repeatedly in court last week that he regretted what transpired at the Capitol that day but did not consider his actions illegal. Barnett appears in images from the riot reclining in a chair in the speaker's office, with his feet propped up, and what the government referred to as a “stun device” tucked in his pants. Before leaving Pelosi’s office,

Bloomberg Business Week, no foe of green energy, headlines: Wind Turbines Taller Than the Statue of Liberty Are Falling Over.” [snip] A motorist had reported that one of the huge turbines at a nearby wind farm had collapsed in dramatic fashion. The steel tower, which once stood hundreds of feet tall, was buckled in half, and the turbine blades, whose rotation took the machine higher than the Statue of Liberty, were splayed across the wheat field below. The turbine, made by General Electric Co., had been in operation less than a year.

We are now three years after the COVID-19 apocalypse began, and the CDC and WHO still refuse to acknowledge that the virus was created in and escaped from the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV). But they, along with all our institutions, have lied so often and so egregiously that 72% of the public doesn’t believe them. If nothing else, that is a very positive sign. The evidence for the lab leak is as overwhelming as the evidence for a zoonotic origin is non-existent. For anyone trained in the art of biology to deny the lab origin betrays either deceit or, worse, willful ignorance.

It’s a longstanding trick used by administrations hoping to bury bad news: dump it on a Friday night, knowing that weekend news staffs are thin and audiences are smaller than during the week. The news media are not oblivious to this, and have often chosen to push back at politicians’ attempt to manage the news by hammering such a bad news story even harder. That’s not what happened this weekend, though. This weekend, the networks did exactly what the Biden administration hoped they would do by barely covering a devastating report about the crisis at the U.S.-Mexican border.

The Thursday evening edition of the PBS NewsHour devoted 11 minutes to the apparent foolishness…of cooking with gas. Science correspondent Miles O’Brien condescendingly mocked anyone who would dare not throw out their gas stoves and purchase more expensive induction stoves, given the obvious health hazards of natural gas (a danger the liberal press learned about a few days go and won’t stop shrieking over). GEOFF BENNETT, host: There's been quite a bit of heated debate lately about gas stoves and potential government regulation. The fire was lit last week after recent studies linked asthma with the use of gas stoves.

The heroic bystander who took down the Monterey Park gunman after he murdered 10 people at a California dance hall has spoken out to describe how he took the 72-year-old down, saying his 'primal instinct' told him to attack.  Brandon Tsay was at the Lai Lai Ballroom and Studio in Alhambra at 10.40pm last night when gunman Huu Can Tran burst through the doors armed with an illegal, semi-automatic pistol.  He has since told Good Morning America and The New York Times how he was helping out on Saturday night at his family's business when dozens had come to the ballroom for a Lunar New Year party. Tran had already killed 10 people

People in an Atlanta neighborhood are concerned about a possible long-term closure of their Walmart after a fire closed the store a month ago. It’s the location on Martin Luther King Jr. Drive in northwest Atlanta. Channel 2 Action News spoke with those in the community about the importance of the store. “Losing this store will be a huge loss to the community,” Atlanta City Councilman Byron Amos said. The Westside United Coalition and Vine City Civic Association held a community candlelight vigil on Sunday night on the closure of the Vine City Walmart. The store opened in January 2013.

The George Santos story is truly emblematic of our times. He arrived from Brazil full of ambition and running fast from creditors. A man of modest means and talents, he soon sought to increase his status and became involved with the Republican Party. He ran for Congress as a married, Catholic Republican a few years ago, but lost to an incumbent. Determined to win, he then reinvented himself as a gay, Jewish Republican and won the now-open seat. It turned out his opponent and the media were both asleep at the switch. His prior-claimed jobs at Citigroup and Goldman Sachs, his college degree, his religion

Poverty in America is so bad that some people can barely afford their cell phones. In much of the rest of the world, poor people starve to death, or die of what in America are ordinary, survivable diseases or injuries. In America, injustice is so bad that many lawyers appointed by the court cannot get their clients acquitted of the crimes they committed, and must settle for a plea bargain. Elsewhere, to be accused is to be found guilty and imprisoned in hell-hole cellars, innocence being irrelevant to the courts of so-called justice.

College dorm life is interesting — it introduces burgeoning adults to people of all types. But some students would prefer not to be among those who are different. And at a school on the East Coast, some won’t have to be. At New York’s Ithaca College, a specialized housing provision has been made. Established in 1892, the institution is keeping up with the times. Hence, its “Open Pages” residential community. If you’re something other than “cisgender,” you’ll be right at home at the 20-bed facility. From Ithaca.edu: Open Pages is a transgender and nonbinary RLC (Residence Learning Community). The goal of Open Pages is to provide

In his own discreet way, President Joe Biden’s “personal” attorney Bob Bauer is back in the news again. On Saturday, Bauer released a statement about a new discovery of documents chez Biden. According to Bauer, the Justice Department "took possession of materials it deemed within the scope of its inquiry, including six items consisting of documents with classification markings and surrounding materials, some of which were from the President's service in the Senate and some of which were from his tenure as Vice President." This same CBS News report notes that this new find comes after 10 or so classified documents “were discovered

President Joe Biden of course adopted a sanctimonious stance when it was reported that classified documents were found at Donald Trump’s Florida estate. “Totally irresponsible,” said the man who has been keeping classified documents going back to his years in the Senate. As infuriating as his comment was, Biden might be guilty of more than hypocrisy. Biden has left a growing trail of classified documents behind him, including papers from his Senate “service” as well as his terms as vice president. They’ve been turned up at Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement in Washington – the “think tank” where Biden kept an office

Something's happening here.  Last month Tucker Carlson made the case for the CIA's direct involvement in President Kennedy's assassination.  This month he has made the case for the CIA's direct involvement in President Nixon's forced resignation.  Tying the two events together, Carlson outlines a chief motive for the Agency's alleged actions against Nixon by highlighting a recorded conversation between Nixon and then-CIA Director Richard Helms in which Nixon told Helms to his face that he knew "who shot John," an accusation from the president that the director answered with telling silence.  In publicly prosecuting the Intelligence Community for taking down Nixon, Carlson notes that four of the five Watergate burglars worked for the CIA, that young metro reporter Bob Woodward

Nothing is spontaneous with these people. It’s always a planned and organized operation. As Kristinn Taylor reported earlier – Pro=abortion protesters marched in front of the home of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh Sunday evening, chanting threats as they slowly paraded by. (Photo) The protesters chanted in call and response as they marched past a line of police in front of Kavanaugh’s Chevy Chase, Maryland home, “Cut his time short! A rapist should not rule the court!” and “No privacy for us! No peace for you!”

The Biden Administration announced another record-setting month for migrant encounters along the U.S.-Mexico border. The report of nearly 252,000 migrant encounters came in a Friday-night after-hours news dump. This represents the largest single-month report in U.S. history. U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) released the December Southwest Land Border Encounters Report early Friday evening. The report revealed that U.S. Border Patrol agents and CBP officers encountered 251,487 migrants in the month of December 2022.

King Charles and Queen Consort Camilla were all smiles as they greeted royal fans outside of St Mary Magdalene church on the Sandringham estate today.  The monarch, 74, wrapped up warm in a brown long-line coat and red scarf as he attended the church service in Norfolk this morning. Meanwhile, the Queen Consort, 75, protected herself from the winter chill in a thick wool coat that matched her husband's outerwear.  The royal looked sophisticated in a fur-lined hat and smart black boots as the couple made their way to the service at the church where the Royal Family gather every Christmas.

Vice President Kamala Harris omitted the right to “life” when quoting from the Declaration of Independence during her pro-abortion remarks on the 50th anniversary of the now-overturned Roe v. Wade Supreme Court case. Harris spoke in Tallahassee, Florida, on the 50th anniversary of Roe, the landmark abortion case that the U.S. Supreme Court overturned last summer. “We are here today because we collectively believe and know, America is a promise – it is a promise of freedom and liberty,” Harris said before quoting from the Declaration, which declares that the rights to “Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness” are natural rights. However, Harris conveniently omitted “life” as she quoted

Joe Biden is panicking.  An astonishing fifth trove of classified documents was discovered in the president’s Delaware mansion Friday, not by his own lawyers this time, but during a more thorough 13-hour search by the Department of Justice while he holed up in his beach house in Rehoboth, which ought to be next on the DOJ search list.  Biden’s Attorney General Merrick Garland has had the audacity to appoint a special counsel to investigate Biden.  His long-term trusted factotum Ron Klain is bailing out.  And someone at the White House is throwing his trusted longtime executive assistant Kathy Chung under the bus.

In a 1789 letter to the British philosopher Richard Price, Thomas Jefferson observed that “wherever the people are well informed they can be trusted with their own government.” By that standard, it’s no longer clear that the American electorate is equipped for the task. Jefferson was, of course, an ardent advocate of a free press whose primary function would be to provide the voters with enough information about the government’s actions to assess the soundness of its policies. Unfortunately, it’s unlikely that he would dignify today’s corporate media with the appellation “free press.”