Twin suicide bombings in Pakistan kill at least 57 people.

 

Medics tend to a man wounded in one of the blasts. 

Twin suicide bombings in Pakistan kill at least 57 people and leave 58 wounded, with both numbers expected to rise. Reuters. The bombings were at a mosque belonging to the Barlvi sect at a celebration of the prophet Muhammad's birthday. More hardline sects consider such veneration of Muhmmad to be blasphemy. A deputy police superintendent was among the people killed as he tried to stop one of the bombers. Pakistan has seen an uptick in attacks in the provinces bordering Pakistan, mostly caused by hardline Sunni Muslims under the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). However the Taliban have denied responsibility for this attack. 

My Comment:

Just a quick post about a story that probably isn't getting the coverage it deserves. Islamic terrorism is still a threat and it's one that tends to get ignored these days due to all the other distractions out there. Indeed, today most of the news coverage is for the death of Diane Feinstein, but I tend to think a bunch of people dying in a terror attack is more important to cover than the death of someone that has been at death's door all year. 

This was a pretty major pair of attacks involving multiple bombers and could very well end with triple digit fatalities in the end, though it's unclear how much the death toll would rise. Tragically, one of the bombings was almost prevented with a police superintendent doing his best to stop it. Alas, he failed and died with the rest of the casualties. 

It's unclear who is responsible for this attack. The Pakistani Taliban, TTP, has denied the bombings and they remain the prime suspects, just because of how active they are in the region. They tend to attack civilians less than groups like ISIS or al-Qaeda would, but I don't think either group has a major presence in Pakistan anymore. Indeed, both groups are mere shadows of what they once were. 

Pakistan isn't the most stable country in the world right now, in addition to the Taliban insurgency they have their own political problems. If it were to fall into chaos, which isn't that likely, it could be used as a new base for more international terror groups like al-Qaeda and ISIS. As it stands right now, TTP isn't really a threat to anyone but Pakistani citizens and their government. 

Either way, this attack was especially disgusting as it seemed to have killed a large number of children at a house of worship. Given the number of children that died it does not surprise me that TTP denied responsibility, even if they probably did do it. 

RFK Jr. blasts big corporations pricing Americans out of home ownership.

 

RFK Jr. Benzinga

Democratic presidential candidate RFK Jr. blasts big corporations pricing Americans out of home ownership. Benzinga. RFK Jr. says that three giant corporations, BlackRock, Vanguard and State Street are coming after single family homes. Those corporations are able to outbid family buyers and can secure loans at a dramatically lower cost. Kennedy projects by 2030 the big corporations will control 60% of all single family homes in America. Kennedy said he would offer loans at a much lower rate and would make those cheap loans exclusively to individuals. The Federal Reserve has raised interest rates to try and reduce inflation but has made the yearly income necessary to purchase a median priced home is now $117,100. 

My Comment:

RFK Jr. is missing the elephant in the room and that is uncontrolled immigration, which is also causing real estate to skyrocket. To be fair, most of those illegal immigrants aren't buying homes, but they are driving up housing costs in general. If these people were getting deported prices would come down quite a bit. 

But the actions of these corporations is a major problem as well. They can absolutely outbid anyone that is trying to buy a house, often by offering tens of thousands of dollars over asking price. People simply can't compete with that, even if they are wealthy themselves. And middle class people? Forget it.

Nobody seems to be willing to do anything about this either. RFK Jr. is the only candidate I hear talking about it in either party, and he has basically no chance of winning in 2024. You would think Republicans, who hate BlackRock, would be pushing back against this but they are not. I think that's a mistake because the middle class and even upper middle class voters they need to win in 2024 are deeply concerned about this issue. 

But I also don't know what could be done about this, short of banning big corporations from buying single family homes, and that sounds like it would be hugely disruptive and possibly illegal. Breaking up these big investment firms might be a solution but again, can it even be done? And is there anyone willing to do it? 

I don't know if RFK's idea of giving people low interest loans would help things. Even if the cost of loans was a lot cheaper it still wouldn't do anything to stop these big firms from offering tens of thousands of dollars above asking price. It might help with the absurdly high loan prices right now but that's not the real problem. 

This issue is petty close to me, I have been looking for a home for the past couple of years but I just can't keep up with rising interest rates. Home prices here in Northeast Wisconsin are comparatively low but with interest rates going up my savings goal keeps getting higher and higher. And I am not even at the point where I'm actively putting offers on homes. It really feels like I am going to be stuck in an apartment forever...

Why are Republicans more skeptical of the Ukraine war?

 

Destroyed Ukrainian armor. Reuters. 

The Ukraine War continues, with hundreds of soldiers dying every day. Cracks are starting to form in the support for the war among Americans, many of whom are questioning why they are continuing to send billions of dollars of aid to the war. Those people generally have one thing in common, they are conservative or Republican. 

To be fair, there are many on the right that support the Ukraine War. And the people there are levels of support for the war. Some people simply think we have spent to much, some think we never should have supported in the first place and some think we are supporting the wrong side. It is far from unanimous. 

Regardless, it would be surprising for a person from 20 years ago to see how the opinions on war have changed. Back during the Iraq and Afghanistan war the support for those conflicts was almost universal on the right while Democrats were a lot more divided. Now the opinions have flipped with the Democrats almost universally supporting the war and Republicans are about the only ones questioning it. 

So why did this happen? It is a major change. Democrats have become the warhawk party while the Republicans are now the peace party. I am less interested in why the Democrats changed, for me it seems pretty obvious that it's a combination of not wanting to criticizing their own party and a general hatred of Russia that predates the conflict. But why did Republicans switch?

First of all, Donald Trump has a lot to do with it. Trump was the first antiwar president we have had in my lifetime at least. Trump had always been critical of our armed conflicts and did not get us involved in any new wars. He also started the process to ending the war in Afghanistan and is one of a few higher ranking politicians that says the war should end. 

This has allowed antiwar Republicans to become more outspoken. After all, some of this is monkey-see monkey-do. Trump is popular so that means many of his positions become popular as well. And it gives credibility to antiwar voices that were ignored in the party for a very long time. When people have that cover from the leader of the party they can speak out as well. 

Second, neocons have been pretty much discredited by current events. They started four wars in the past 20 years and all of them have been failures. In Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan and Libya the wars ended with pain and misery and a lot of dead and wounded soldiers, many of them who had Republican family members. 

Back during the Iraq and Afghanistan wars it was possible to still think that funding a major war is something that would work. It started to become clear that it wasn't going to work out that way before the end of George Bush's term and it got dramatically worse in Obama's. Iraq almost fell to ISIS and we never got even close to winning in Afghanistan. Libya failed almost immediately and went from a relatively safe country to a failed state that also almost fell to ISIS. And Syria? We never even managed to overthrow Bashar al-Assad, let alone accomplish any of our any goals. And it too, almost fell to ISIS. 

With Neocons being so discredited and being largely removed from the party, thanks to Donald Trump, the biggest pro-war group in the Republican coalition has largely fallen from the limelight. There are still quite a few of them left in Congress and the media but they will be quickly replaced by other groups, like MAGA Republicans, who are a lot more skeptical of war entirely. 

Third, Republicans tend to be a lot more resistant to the type of propaganda that Ukraine is putting out. It doesn't help that much of what Ukraine has claimed has been easily debunked or is laugh out loud ridiculous, like the Ghost of Kiev. 

Ukrainian propaganda also is pretty obviously targeted to American leftists. They put a, rather deranged, transgender person as their spokesman for a reason. They are all about trying to portray themselves as the plucky rebels fighting against the evil empire, which is such a common them on the left that it's got to be intentional. But that kind of propaganda does not play well on the right since it's so obviously not targeted towards them. 

It also makes it very clear which side of the culture war the Ukrainians have chosen, despite not being leftists themselves. Indeed, Ukraine is generally far-right and anti-democratic, but they are playing to the people that are willing to pay for them. Republicans know this and are turned off. Indeed, it's the main reason why I went from being neutral to honestly wanting Russia to win. 

Fourth, Russia is generally seen as, well, just being another country. Unlike Democrats who appear to think that Russia is the evilest country in the world, many Republicans at least see that they are morally gray at worst and not that different from the United States. They are also generally against the worst excesses of the left. 

Vladimir Putin is also a more sympathetic person among the right. Putin may be a brutal dictator, but given the choice of living under him or living under Joe Biden, another brutal dictator, I know what I would choose. I would rather live under Donald Trump but without that choice... Putin is also perceived as masculine and a Christian, which may or may not be accurate but doesn't engender the hate that Putin gets from the left. 

Fifth, Zelensky himself is controversial among the right. He had a major role in the 2020 election and the first impeachment of Donald Trump. I have always felt that Zelensky could have saved us from the utter destruction of the Biden presidency if he had simply exposed his corruption. He did not and he got the war Democrats wanted for years with Russia. 

But the most obvious reason why the GOP is more skeptical of the war? It's because they can more easily see that Russia is winning. The right has more military knowledge in general and anyone that has had any experience studying it knows whoever has the most manpower and industrial production will win. Russia certainly does in this war so it's clear to many on the right that it's a lost cause, regardless of their feelings on Russia or Ukraine. 

They are also a lot more likely to seek out alternative sources of information about the war that isn't the mainstream media. Indeed, the media being all in on the war is probably another reason as well, they lie about everything else, why not the war? And if you read any source that isn't all in on Ukraine you can quickly see that things aren't going that well for the Ukrainians. 

Regardless, these reasons aren't universal and it will take more time before more Americans are on board at ending the war. And I have zero idea how to reach the Democrats, they are all in on the war. When the war finally enters the endgame it's going to be really wild for them. But I do think that these reasons are a good explanation as to why the Republicans are more skeptical of the war than Democrats. 

Target closing nine stores due to rampant shoplifting and theft.

 

File photo of a closed Target story. Yahoo News/Getty.

Target is closing nine stores in major cities due to rampant shoplifting and theft. Yahoo Finance. The stores include one in Harlem New York, two in Seattle, three in Oakland and San Francisco and three in Portland. Target made the decision because of "inventory shrinkage" an industry term for shoplifting and theft, was already at $500 million for 2023. Last year it was $700 million. Target invested heavily in anti-theft measures like security guards and anti-theft devices. Target is one of several businesses targeted by organized shoplifting schemes. Total numbers for "inventory shrinkage" across retail ended up being $112 billion last year. 

My Comment:

This is what happens when crime is allowed to run out of control. Businesses get shut down and people are no longer able to shop. Target has their own problems but it is pretty amazing that the shoplifting problem is forcing them to close all these stores. 

It's not a coincidence that these stores were located at some of the worst cities in the United States. Seattle, Oakland/San Francisco and Portland are some of the most lawless cites in the United States and they are also among the most lenient on criminals. It is no surprise that Target was losing millions of dollars due to theft there. 

How much of this is due to organized crime and how much is due to run of the mill criminals is an open question. Both groups certainly exist and there is an open question how many people actually are in both groups. A lot of attacks are organized on social media and it allows people to join in larger groups to avoid prosecution. 

Not that much is being done by law enforcement to arrest these people in the first place. This big liberal cities have other priorities and can't keep up with serious crimes, let alone shoplifting gangs. And they have all defunded law enforcement and hate when cops actually arrest people, especially when they are minorities, no matter how guilty they are. 

Targets efforts to stop this mostly failed largely because there are only so many things security guards and anti-theft devices can do. Guards don't have arrest powers and are there to observe and report and if the cops don't show up or do nothing they can't do much. They could try and detain people if they are committing felonies but I sure wouldn't want to try that in a lefty city like Portland or Seattle, especially since these criminals aren't above using violence to get what they want. 

What would work to stop these criminals? Well, allowing business owners to use violence to protect their property would probably work. People might like stealing but they aren't generally willing to risk their lives on it. Of course, that's not on the table with these liberal cities and the suggestion is mostly tongue in cheek. 

A more serious suggestion is actual police work. Beat cops could be stationed at these stores and arrest shoplifters as they commit crimes. Detectives could be assigned to investigate and break up the crime rings and re-sellers. And the prosecutors and courts could punish these criminals to the full extent of the law. 

But that's not what is happening and I don't see it happening anytime soon. The Democrats are making sure that criminals can run amok, and I will never understand why. They always seem to side with criminals over their victims. And as long as that is the case and those people are still in power we will see even more stores closing. 

Canada honors Ukrainian World War II veteran and then found out he was a member of the Waffen SS.

 

Yaroslav Hunka (right). BBC/Alamy.

Canada honored a Ukrainian World War II veteran than then found out that he was a member of the Waffen SS. BBC. Yaroslav Hunka was honored by House Commons Speaker Anthony Rota, who called him a hero. However, Kunka was a member of the 14th Waffen SS Grenadier Division, a Nazi unit that was made up of Ukrainian volunteers and were accused of atrocities against civilians. The incident was an international embarrassment and Rota quickly backed off of his support and Canadian Prime Minster Justin Trudeau condemned it. Ukraine has long faced accusations of using Nazis in their war against Russia and Russia has used that fact to justify the war. 

My Comment:

I'm a day late on this story but I thought it was important to cover given how utterly embarrassing it was for Canada. This was either a deliberate provocation or an act of utter incompetence. I am guessing it is the second, apparently Rota didn't even do the bare minimum vetting you would think you would do automatically before inviting someone to a major event like this. 

In retrospect this should have been incredibly obvious to anyone that has even a high school education on the Eastern Front in World War II. Pretty much everyone who fought against the Russians in World War II was either a Nazi or an ally of the Nazis with only Finland remaining even remotely sympathetic. Not that the Soviets were any better, given that they were communists, but, again, this should be very obvious stuff.  

I think ignorance of history like this is pretty common. Indeed, I don't think there would be anywhere near the support Ukraine. Ukraine has a long history of supporting Nazis and I do think there is truth to Russia's complaints about Ukraine needing to be denazified. It absolutely brings a lot of moral ambiguity to the war that a lot of people refuse to acknowledge. 

Indeed, Trudeau went right back to supporting Ukraine after this incident and was more upset that Russia would get propaganda out of this. He said that the idea that Ukraine is full of Nazis is Russian disinformation, despite the fact that everyone should know by now that Nazis are fairly common in the Ukrainian armed forces.  

The one person I haven't heard much from during this incident is Zelensky himself. Zelensky tends to get a free hand with this stuff since he is ethnically Jewish but he doesn't seem to mind Nazis all that much. You would think that Zelensky would be more outspoken about people that presumably want to kill him because he's a member of a religion they hate, but you would also think that Nazis wouldn't join up to fight for a country led by a Jew. It just shows how complicated the Ukraine war is. 

Regardless, this whole thing was completely avoidable. It does not speak well for the competence of House Speaker Anthony Rota and it also doesn't speak well for all the lemmings clapping along when he was honoring Hunka. Like I said, it should have been obvious from the start that this guy was a Nazi and the fact that nobody caught it was a huge embarrassment for Canada... 

New ABC/Washington Post poll shows Donald Trump beating Joe Biden 51 to 42.

 

ABC News/Washington Post.

A new ABC News/Washington Post poll shows Donald Trump beating Joe Biden 51 to 42. ABC News. Biden's approval is 19 points under water and his approval ratings on major topics like the economy, immigration and would even blame Biden on a potential government shutdown coming from Congress. Trump's approval rating is also under water but at a 48 to 49% split, essentially tied and a major improvement since he left the White House. Trump also has 51% support in the primary race while only 33% of Joe Biden's voters support him with 62% wanting someone else. The Economy seems to be a major factor with Biden only get 25% approval on the question. 

ABC News/Washington Post.

My Comment:

This poll is a bit of an outlier with most polls showing Biden and Trump essentially tied. But there is reason to think that this one is closer to the truth than those are. There are a few polls that have Trump up a few points but not this many. So the question is how accurate it is.

My guess is that it is fairly spot on. Everyone is sick of Joe Biden and his presidency and a lot of people just want someone different. If that person is Donald Trump then so be it. Even people that hate Trump are starting to come around to the fact that they were better under him then they are under Biden. People are willing to overlook a lot when the other guy is failing this badly. 

The economy is a huge part of this as you can see from that 2nd image that Biden is getting wrecked on it. Which is funny since he is essentially running on the economy, which is just bizarre. You would think that Biden would try to run on absolutely anything else but he's been touting "Bidenomics" for months now, asking people to trust him and not their lying eyes. 

People know that they are spending way more money on things. Inflation less worse than it was but that only means the rate is slower, not that prices are going down. Food prices and gasoline especially are out of control and aren't counted in the inflation rate but they are things that are just killing people now. People can't even afford McDonalds these days, let alone going grocery shopping. Prices are up across the board, and with the sole exception of eggs, they aren't gong down. 

Rent and housing are also up and are a direct consequence of Biden's other major failure, the border crisis. With millions of people crossing the border since Biden's term started people are noticing that they can't afford housing anymore, due to the massive increase of demand. And people know that this is all by design by Biden. He wants rent high and wages low because it primarily hurts people that aren't voting for him. People know he's acting out of spite and are sick of it. 

What is dangerous is that the Democrats may decide that Joe Biden is dead weight and may dump him for someone else. It's not going to be RFK Jr or Marianne Williamson, the two supposed competitors for the White House race in 2024, neither of them would be approved by the party. But there are a few other viable candidates, most notable California Governor Gavin Newsome, that could replace Biden if he would only drop out. 

But Biden doesn't seem like he is willing to do so and unless he changes his mind or something terrible happens, he will likely be the candidate in 2024. And it's even more likely that Donald Trump will be the candidate in 2024 for the GOP. People that want new blood appear to be out of luck.

If that is the outcome and this poll is even remotely accurate then Trump should win in a landslide. And I don't see how Biden could possibly turn it around. Despite that he does not at all seem concerned that he's going to lose. My guess is that he knows that the voter fraud that put him in office in the first place is still around. But perhaps he shouldn't be so confident, after all there is only so much voter fraud that people will accept. 

Senator Bob Menendez indicted for political corruption and bribery from Egypt

 

Senator Bob Menedez. USA Today/AP.

New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez has been indicted for political corruption and bribery on behalf of Egypt. USA Today. This is the 2nd time Menendez has been charged with corruption though charges in his first case were eventually dropped. Menendez and his wife are accused of taking bribes, including money, gold, mortgage payments and a Mercedes-Benz car. 

CBS News had more information about what the purpose of the bribes were. Menendez was on the foreign relations committee and had oversite over foreign military aid, including Egypt. The bribers were able to secure the release of aid that had been held back for years with the money they bribed Menendez with. Three New Jersey businessmen, including Wael Hana, were indicted along with Menendez. Hana served as the go between for Menendez and the Egyptian government. 

My Comment:

It's utterly absurd that Bob Menendez was able to serve as a senator after the first round of corruption charges back in 2015. To be fair, those charges were eventually dropped after a jury was unable to reach a verdict. But you would think that both the Democratic Party and the voters of New Jersey would have used that to ditch him during the 2018 Senate Race. They didn't and this was the result. 

Even wore, Menendez was able to keep the large amount of power he had. There was zero reason why he should have been on the foreign policy committee after the first charges were laid against him. With accusations of corruption already being there he was in an excellent position for someone else to try and bribe and it turns out that they were able to do so. 

The bribery was pretty over the top. Menendez was given solid gold bars and a car and when he was raided by the feds his jacket was full of thousands of dollars. Given the huge amount of money he took you get the feeling that Menendez was greedy even by the standards of a corrupt politicians. 

Egypt deserves quite a bit of criticism for what they did here. They corrupted (an already corrupt) Senator to get deals for their foreign policy. Sanctions and other problems were removed for them, not to mention they were enriching their agent, Wael Hana. You can argue that those sanctions shouldn't have been there in the first place, and Egypt was free to argue that, but they bribed a senator instead. 

I have little doubt that Menendez is guilty. He's been known as a crook for a long time and it would make obvious sense that he did something similar again. He also would not have good explanations on how he was able to get these thousands of dollars and gold bars. These charges are serious and I would not be surprised if Menendez tries to cut a deal to avoid a long stay in prison. 

I do think that this time Menendez will no longer have a career. These accusations are pretty rock solid and it's to the point where even Democrats are calling for him to resign. It is really saying something that they stood by him during the last go around but this time they are kicking him out. I am guessing he won't be a senator for much longer. 

All that being said, I don't think Menendez and his behavior are unique among our Senators and members of Congress. He was just the one that got caught, probably because he was very sloppy about it. One does wonder how so many of these elected officials come into office being fairly poor but end up millionaires when they finally retire. 

I also think that this is an effort by our criminal justice system to try and reassure people that they aren't totally in the bag of the Democratic Party. They want to be able to say that they don't only persecute Republicans like Donald Trump and the January 6th political prisoners. It won't work, because those cases are either extremely flimsy (like the Trump case) or massively overcharged (the January 6th cases). Menendez, on the other hand, seems like a sacrifice by the powers that be, with the additional benefit of him being guilty as sin. 

Joe Biden announced another $325 million in military aid for Ukraine, on top of the $24 billion he is begging from congress...

 

Joe Biden and Volodymry Zelensky. NBC News/AFP.

Joe Biden has announced another $325 million in military aid for Ukraine, on top of the $24 billion is demanding from Congress. NBC News. The aid package will include cluster munitions, air defense weapons and anti tank weapons. Biden announced the aid package with Zelensky in the country. It is the forth aid package in six weeks and is designed to improve deficiencies in air defense. The package is separate from the $24 billion that Biden is requesting from congress. However, some Republicans are balking at the high price tag and limited results from the Ukraine war. Congress has already send $113 billion to Ukraine. 

My Comment:

This is getting out of control. It seems like every day we are sending even more money to Ukraine and for little result. I personally find it utterly disgusting, especially since Ukraine will never be in a position to pay us back even partially for this aid. 

Indeed, we never had any reason to participate in this war in the first place. Russia was not a threat to us and would never have been a threat to us if we hadn't been in NATO. We made them a threat to us by starting the coup in Ukraine and then aiding them in their civil war. And when the war calmed down we started arming them and encouraged them to attack Russia. Russia didn't stand for that and now we are out at least $113 billion and may be facing a nuclear war. For no reason. 

And what is worse, we have very little to show for it. Russia, far from being destroyed by this war, is thriving now. Economic sanctions did nothing but push Russia into the arms of China and develop an independent economy that now threatens American dominance. They now have built up their army to the point where the are stronger now than they were before the war. 

Even worse, the results on the battlefield has been abysmal. Though Ukraine has taken some ground they have paid an absurd price for it and are now so short of manpower they are drafting women, old men and even children. And there has been almost no movement on the front lines for quite some time. Not that it matters in an attritional conflict like Ukraine, as long as the Russians can outproduce and outnumber the Ukrainians the war is lost. 

In a sane world the US Government would be cutting their losses and cutting the Ukrainians off. Indeed, some people in Congress are finally pushing back against the endless spending. But I don't know if there are enough of them, all in the GOP, to actually cut of funding. Doing so would be the right thing to do but our leadership appears to be insane. 

Indeed, any rational person can see that Ukraine won't win the war but Biden and his team are just doubling down again. He keeps doing the exact same thing and getting the same results. Now he's sending M1 Abrams tanks even after similar tanks from Germany and the UK, the Leopard and Challengers, had very little effect on the battlefield. It's a very good example of how out of touch our elites are in this country... 

Massive protests against gender ideology break out in Canada under the 1 million march 4 children group.

 

Protesters in Ottawa. The National Post.

Massive protests against gender ideology broke out today in Canada under the 1 Million March 4 Children group. The National Post. The group is against gender ideology in schools. They want more transparency and parental notification of gender ideology. Counter protests also happened, and had the support of many government officials. However, the premier of New Brunswick supported the protests and said his policies, that require parents to be notified of any pronoun changes or other gender changes. 

My Comment:

It's very difficult to see what is actually going on in Canada right now from the outside looking in. International new media outlets are simply not covering these protests at all, even conservative outlets like Fox News, Breitbart or the New York Post. And Canadian news outlets? Even the supposedly conservative news outlet, The National Post, was pretty obviously on the side of the counter protesters. 

That means I have to go with what I see on social media and that isn't very clear either. If you look at conservative sources these protests were huge and outnumbered the counter protests. If you look at LGBT accounts you would see the opposite thing. I generally give the protesters accounts more credibility but that could be bias. Without unbiased reporting and not being there on the ground, it's hard to tell. 

What is clear is that the protests were very widespread in a liberal country like Canada. It is also clear that the protesters were fairly diverse. There were a lot of older whites but I also so a lot of black and Muslim protesters. It's an unusual alliance but one that makes sense, both groups do not want gender ideology in schools and are going to team up together. 

There were counter protests as well but they seemed smaller and made up of exclusively younger people, other then the politicians of course. They also seemed to be pretty exclusively to be members of the LGBT community and not "normal" folks, for a lack of a better term. That of course makes sense, but it does make me question how much support the LGBT community has. 

The media and the government in Canada is demonizing these protests as bigoted and phobic but that cry has worn thin over the years. When everything is transphobic eventually nothing is. And it's been the constant refrain from the Justin Trudeau government, any criticism of him or his policies at all is framed as bigotry of some form. I don't think these attacks are landing and they obviously have very little relation to reality. 

As for the dispute that started these protests I agree with them. It's absurd that children are being essentially groomed into LGBT beliefs. I don't know if I would support a total ban on children learning about this stuff, Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual people exist of course, but I think there should be some more limits on what they are doing. I'd limit to explaining that gay people exist and not much beyond that. I'm a lot less sympathetic to trans ideology, I don't think there is such a thing as a natural trans child. 

What is incredibly disturbing is the fact that these policies are being put into place that keep parents from knowing what is going on with their kids. It's absurd that schools can tell children that they are trans but the parents aren't allowed to be notified about it. I know the counterargument is that these children could be harmed by their parents. I don't buy that outside of a few very limited circumstances. Much more likely is that those children have a heart to heart with their parents and the vast majority of them will end up reverting back to normal. Regardless, this not happening is a reasonable demand for these protesters to make. 

I do think that these protests are a good example of the backlash against the LGBT community, and by that I mostly mean the T portion of that group. I don't like lumping LGB with T but they are the ones that chose that. Regardless, people are clearly angry about the things people are doing and the backlash is getting stronger. Just a few years ago people would not have shown up like this but now there are people out there even in Canada pushing back against this stuff. 

Democrats admit that Donald Trump scooped them on the auto strike issue.

 

UAW workers on the picket line. Politico. 

Yesterday I wrote about how Donald Trump was skipping the 2nd GOP debate in order to speak to striking members of the UAW union. Today Politico has an article up about how Trump "scooped" Democrats on the issue, basically admitting that the move was a smart one. Indeed, one of the UAW people quoted in the article said "it was kind of genius".

Other Democrats admitted in the article that Trump owns the issue now and put Biden in a tough place. If he comes down in favor of the strikers then he looks like he is following the leader. If he doesn't do anything though then Trump has a very good chance of peeling off voters. 

Either way, I think this is an example of Trump running a better campaign than he did in 2020. Trump kind of dropped the ball in 2020 and didn't hit Biden on the issues that mattered, like immigration and foreign policy. Now Trump is hitting Biden in a place that could hurt him in 2024, peeling off voters that have been a major voting block for Democrats for pretty much all of recent history. 

This isn't the first time Trump has done this to Biden and it shouldn't be the last. Going to East Palestine Ohio long before anyone in the Biden administration did was a similar move. I do think Trump screwed up by not doing the same thing in Maui, but oh well, it's too late now. Trump just needs to keep it up. Biden is screwing up so badly that Trump should have plenty of opportunities to punish him on the campaign trail. 

Donald Trump will visit striking auto workers instead of participating in the 2nd GOP Debate.

 

Donald Trump during the Pray Vote Stand Summit. AP. 

Donald Trump will visit striking auto workers instead of participating in the 2nd GOP Debate. AP. Trump says he is focusing on beating Joe Biden due to his massive lead in the GOP primary polling. He has focused on striking autoworkers who he says are being targeted for destruction by the Biden Administration via electric car mandates and "green" energy policies. Trump has focused on working class Americans like the striking autoworkers. Despite the positive attention to union members, the UAW spokesman attacked Trump. 

My Comment:

This is a good move by Trump. I have already argued that it makes zero sense for Donald Trump to participate in GOP debates when he's got the majority of primary voters on his side in the first place. Especially since the moderators would be biased against him and the fact that people like Chris Christie will do nothing but attack him. Trump is a good debater, which isn't really arguable, but the juice isn't worth the squeeze. 

I also think that Trump's speech is likely to get better ratings than the debate. For most people the GOP race is settled and there isn't really anyone who can beat Trump. DeSantis is a joke right now, and nobody else really seems to be in it to win it. Ramaswamy and Haley are appearing to position themselves for the VP nod while Christie and Hutchinson are only in there to get on the talk show circuit to attack Trump. There really isn't a reason to watch a debate between a bunch of also-rans. 

As for the strike, I kind of thought the demands were a bit much but I do understand why they are making them. People are struggling right now and an autoworker job is supposed to provide for a family. Given how stagnant wages are right now and high corporate profits are I don't blame people for striking. 

There is, of course, a risk that the dispute will be resolved before this speech is supposed to happen. The UAW now has another reason to do so as they hate Trump because they are more of a booster of the Democrats than an actual union. Despite the workers themselves likely welcoming Trump and probably voting for him as well, the union heads are firmly in the hands of the Democratic Party. 

I do think that Trump has a point about Biden making war on the auto industry. There is little reason to switch to electric vehicles in the first place and doing so will make us incredibly reliant on China for rare earth metals for the batteries. Speaking of rare earth metals, there are probably not enough produced to meet the demand for new cars so this is just going to screw over everyone. The fact that Biden and his team is focused on electric vehicles instead of hybrids, which are both more affordable, proven technology and doesn't become a brick if the electric grid goes down.

Going after labor is also a good idea for the GOP in general. I think that labor understands that Democratic polices are not in their interests and I do think that labor is generally ignored and taken for granted by the party. Trump has little to lose to make a play for these voters and a lot to gain. It's just one other group that he could try and peel away from the Democrats. 

Armed man arrested impersonating a US Marshal at a Robert F. Kennedy Jr. campaign event.

 

Robert F. Kennedy. New York Post/Getty.

An armed man was arrested impersonating a US Marshal at a Robert F. Kennedy Jr. campaign event in California. New York Post. The man was armed with two pistols and had extra ammo, an US Marshal service badge and a federal id and claimed to be a member of RFK Jr's security detail. He was spotted and detained by Gavin de Becker and Associates, an elite protection firm RFK hired due to fears for his life. Kennedy's family has a history of political assassinations as both RFK's uncle, President John Kennedy, and his father, Robert F. Kennedy Sr, were cut down by assassins. RFK Jr has requested secret service protection but has been denied. The man arrested in the incident, Adrian Paul Aispuro, 44, was charged with illegally carrying a concealed weapon. 

I’m very grateful that alert and fast-acting protectors from Gavin de Becker and Associates (GDBA) spotted and detained an armed man who attempted to approach me at my Hispanic Heritage speech at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre in Los Angeles tonight. The man, wearing two shoulder… pic.twitter.com/vvJc0Gtk4o

— Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@RobertKennedyJr) September 16, 2023

 My Comment:

This was an apparent assassination attempt at the only serious candidate opposing Joe Biden in the 2024 race so I think it is absolutely worth a blog post about. Had his security team not been on the ball the man arrested in this case would have had the opportunity to do so at least. Given who RFK Jr is and what has happened in his family before it would not even have been surprising. 

Are we sure this was an assassination attempt? Not really. Mr. Aispuro may have had other motivations to come to a RFK Jr event dressed as a US Marshal while claiming to be part of his security detail and carrying two weapons. One struggles to think of what those motivations might be but perhaps it was the product of a delusional mind, or perhaps he was just trying to figure out what he could get away with. 

Would Aispuro's plan worked, if he was indeed trying to kill RFK Jr? It probably had a better chance than most. If RFK Jr wasn't already paranoid about being assassination, with good reason it appears, he would not have had the strict security that he had. If he had been going after some of the minor candidates on the GOP side and their hired security was not on the ball I think he could have gotten close enough to the candidate to attempt the assassination. That it failed is less of a condemnation of his supposed plan and more of an accomplishment by his security team. 

I do think that out of the candidates running only Trump and Biden face a bigger assassination risk than RFK Jr. RFK has views that are outside the mainstream for many people and he is hated by a large group of people because of it. He also has an unique history of assassination in his family. And he has made enemies with the powers that be in this country. It is not surprising that someone apparently tried to take him down, it is surprising that someone waited this long to do so. 

RFK Jr has requested Secret Service protection due to the threats on his life and has been denied. The Biden administration says he does not qualify but it's not without precedent. Barack Obama asked for and received Secret Service protection as far back as 2007 during his run for the Presidency in 2008. I don't think it's arguable that RFK Jr. is facing similar threats. 

I think it's obviously politics keeping RFK Jr from getting Secret Service protection. If I am being charitable it's because the Biden administration wants to legitimize his candidacy as a serious challenger to Joe Biden. If I am being uncharitable, which is a good idea when it comes to Joe Biden and his administration, they care not at all if he is assassination and would welcome it if it were to happen. 

As for RFK Jr himself, he remains a long shot as the Democratic candidate. He never really had much of a chance given the media bias against his beliefs and the fact that he tends to appeal more to old school blue dog Democrats and independents than the core progressives that make up the Democratic Party in 2024. He has been out of the media for awhile now and this incident will probably do little to revive his campaign. 

Hunter Biden indicted for three felony weapons charges.

 

Hunter Biden. ABC News/Reuters.

Joe Biden's son, Hunter Biden, has been indicted for three felony weapons charges. ABC News. Biden is charged for lying on his ATF form 4473 which asks if you are addicted to drugs. Near the same time Hunter Biden bought his handgun, a .38 Special Colt Cobra, he had admitted in his biography that he was a daily user of crack cocaine. Biden has been charged two counts of lying while purchasing a firearm and a third count of being a drug addict illegally obtaining a firearm. Together the charges would impose a maximum of 25 years. Biden had made a deal with prosecutors where he would plea to two misdemeanor tax charges and a pre-trial diversion for the gun charge but the deal fell apart after the judge ruled that the immunity would have included charges far beyond the scope of the deal. The law Biden is charged under has recently been challenged and ruled unconstitutional in the 5th Circuit, but would not apply since Biden's case was in Delaware. 

My Comment:

There is quite a bit of irony in this. Joe Biden has been a champion for gun control and a foe for gun rights for as long as he has been in power. Now his son has been charged with a serious gun crime and his only hope is that the gun rights community's recent victory in NYSRPA v Bruen allows Hunter to get off the hook. 

Still, Hunter Biden's behavior was so egregious here that he absolutely should have been charged. It's an open and shut case because all the prosecutors need to prove is that Hunter Biden was a drug addict when he bought the Colt Cobra. Given that there are dozens of leaked pictures taken around the time he bought the gun where he was smoking crack and the fact that he admitted as much in his biography, it's going to be extremely easy to prove.

Indeed, Biden has no real hope other than some other kind of plea deal being made or the law changing. Given how the last plea deal, the so called "sweetheart deal" that would have covered all of his criminal behavior, fell apart dramatically I don't see that happening. At least not a deal that ends with him without a felony criminal conviction. I guess he could still make one that would keep him out of prison for 25 years but even that is no sure thing. 

As for the law changing it is very possible. NYSRPA v Bruen was one of the biggest Supreme Court cases ever and the strict standard it set puts a lot of gun laws in jeopardy, including the background check law. The 5th Circuit has already ruled that the drug question fails to meet the standard set in Bruen where there had to be a historical precedent for the law to go against the right to keep and bear arms. So far that only applies in that circuit, Delaware is in the 3rd Circuit so it wouldn't apply there anyways, but there could be more cases working their way through the pipeline. 

Indeed, it could be Hunter Biden's case that could do it if he and his lawyers were so inclined and I think they would have a good chance at it, given how strict the Bruen standard is and the 5th Circuit's ruling. Doing so would be hilarious as the background check law is pretty popular and there are going to be a lot of people wondering why the son of an anti-gun president is making such a pro-gun argument. 

Does this hurt Joe Biden's 2024 chances? I'm not sure. The general thought has been that if people had been exposed to Hunter Biden's rather dramatic criminal activity the 2024 election would have easily gone to Trump, but that obviously didn't happen because big tech covered it up and called it "misinformation" when it was clearly true. Nobody can really deny that Hunter Biden is a criminal scumbag now so it could taint Joe Biden, especially considering the accusations against himself. 

On the other hand, I get the feeling that Biden's corruption is already baked into his candidacy. I doubt people will be thinking about Hunter Biden's gun charges when the voting actually happens, and it's also not even clear if Joe Biden will be the candidate given his advanced age, criminal behavior and low poll ratings. 

The good news is that this may restore a tiny bit of faith in the criminal justice system, which isn't saying a whole lot these days. Hunter Biden's behavior here was really beyond the pale and it really seemed like he was acting like being the president's son would get him out of anything. When his behavior was this egregious? He is going to be charged. 

Of course I don't have too much faith in our system when Donald Trump is facing ridiculous charges in an attempt to stop him from winning in 2024 and many January 6th defendants are rotting in jail or prison, some who weren't even there. Indeed, I fully expect to see yet another indictment against Donald Trump for some nonsense in response to this indictment. 

Mexican government presented with bizarre "alien" bodies at UFO hearing.

 

One of the supposed aliens. NPR/Reuters. 

During an UFO hearing in Mexico a ufologist presented two bodies that he claimed were extraterrestrial in origin. NPR. Jamie Maussan brought two caskets with him and reveled him to Mexico's congress. The bodies were small with large heads and three fingers and toes. They were found in Peru in 2017 and Maussan testified under oath that the bodies were non-human. These claims have been made before but experts say that the artifacts are likely either human mummies or manipulated hoaxes. The hearings had more serious claims being made, including testimony from Ryan Graves, a US Navy pilot that testified in hearings before America's Congress as well. Graves expressed disappointment, describing the bodies as an "unsubstantiated stunt."

  

🚨 Jaime Maussan presenta dos cuerpos íntegros de supuestos extraterrestres disecados en la Cámara de Diputados.#VIDEO : Maru Rojas pic.twitter.com/cnaJk7kjAx

— Grupo Fórmula (@Radio_Formula) September 13, 2023

My Comment:

I had fun with this one on Twitter this morning. As someone who is at least open to the possibility that alien life has visited Earth at some point, I found the claim here pretty obviously ridiculous. Those "aliens" look incredibly fake. 

Those are the fakest looking aliens I have ever seen. It would be hilarious if it was real though, imagine the aliens coming up to you looking like that, you would laugh in their faces.

— Jeff H (@politicswarblog) September 13, 2023

I did have fun with the idea that the aliens are real and they really look like that. They look like little gremlins that have been cobbled together with paper mache and dirt and look like they have never been alive in the first place. If aliens do look like that one would question how on earth they would have evolved that way. Of course the things are supposed to be 1000 years old but even accounting for that, they would look pretty ridiculous. 

I think it's pretty obviously a hoax. I guess it could be a mummy of a human child, or perhaps a monkey but they just look like they were doctored up as a hoax. They simply do not pass the smell test for me and given the reaction on Twitter today I don't think a lot of people are convinced. They don't look like something that was ever alive and the faces alone scream fake to me. 

It also doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Why would a couple of aliens just be chilling out in a cave somewhere until some people start a diatom mine in the area and find them? How would they even get there, there was no evidence of a ship or anything in the area? Did they go for a joyride and get drunk and wander into a cave an die? 

I do tend to agree with Graves, this stunt likely set back the idea that UFOs/UAPs are a serious issue that should be studied. Indeed, hoaxes have been fairly frequent in the UFO community and it's not surprising that there would be another one when the issue is becoming more relevant. Some people are saying that this stunt was a deliberate attempt to discredit the issue, which seems like a stretch, but probably has some truth to it regardless if it was deliberate or not. 

What is strange is that people claim that bodies have been recovered from UFO's before. That was hinted at during the testimony before America's Congress. Very little details of that have been revealed. But if it is real I doubt that what they found in anyway resembles the "aliens" in this debacle. 

House Speaker Kevin McCarty to greenlight impeachment inquiry vote for Joe Biden

 

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R). Fox News/Getty.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is expected to greenlight an impeachment inquiry vote against Joe Biden. Fox News. McCarthy is expected to say that an inquiry vote is the "next logical step" after reviewing findings from House committees which have been investigating the Biden family. Three committees have found evidence that Biden's son, Hunter Biden, leveraged his name to create deals with foreign governments. An impeachment inquiry would try to determine if Biden himself benefited from these deals illegally. 218 votes would be needed to launch the investigation but it is unclear if McCarthy has the votes as there are a few Republicans who do not support the investigation, either because they are skeptical against the charges or because they feel McCarthy is trying to use the vote to distract from budget issues and a possible government shutdown. However, if McCarthy were to not call the vote there is a real chance he would be removed from the House Speaker job. 

My Comment:

I certainly believe that Biden should absolutely be impeached and removed from office, along with Kamala Harris. Biden has been a terrible president on almost any level and there are dozens of reasons to impeach him. McCarthy appears to be going after the personal corruption angle but that's not even close to the worse thing he has done. Afghanistan, Ukraine, the border and the 2020 election are all valid reasons to remove Biden post-haste. 

But it's not going to happen. Even if this inquiry happens and managed to pass through the House, the trial would be in the Senate and there is no way that there are the 66 votes needed to remove Biden from office. Democrats will stick by their leader even if he was found in bed with a dead woman or live boy (and given the multiple videos of Biden sniffing, grabbing and straight up groping children we already know they don't care). And even getting all the Republicans in the Senate on board is a big ask as well. 

It might not even get that far as McCarthy might not have the GOP votes to actually start this inquiry. He can only afford to lose five votes and with two quoted as being skeptical about it he has very little room to maneuver. If he loses just a few more people then this whole thing would be done and it would be both hugely humiliating for him personally but it would totally demoralize the Republican Party. 

He absolutely does not have a choice though, Biden's corruption is so obvious at this point, to ignore it is to almost participate in it. There is little doubt in the average Republican or even Independent mind that Biden is in fact guilty of the crimes he is accused of. The only people that disagree either haven't heard the evidence (due to a captured media) or because they know it's true and are lying to protect their guy. If McCarthy were to not call this vote he would likely be kicked out of the job as Speaker of the House and it would be a major stain on his record. 

I don't really see how anyone in the Republican Party can disagree with impeaching Biden. I do understand that people want to deal with the budget and stop the Democrats from doing what they are doing, but that can also be done at the same time as impeaching Biden. The only thing I can think of is that they think it will hurt the party with voters, drawing the wrong lessons from Bill Clinton's impeachment and its failure to help Republicans. 

The big difference this time is that Biden is not only obviously guilty, he is also dramatically less popular than Clinton ever was. Plus it just looks weak to not respond to the Democrats' politically motivated show trials of Donald Trump. The Democrats will prosecute their political enemies using made up charges based on nothing but when Biden is stone cold guilty of the charges they won't even try to impeach him? Something's got to be done and it's only really a shame that it took the House so long to do so, given they chamber was captured last year. 

The only way I can see an impeachment inquiry backfiring is if the Democrats use it as an excuse to get rid of Joe Biden. Biden's historically unpopular, senile and incompetent. He could be replaced by someone that could actually campaign, like Gavin Newsome. Though I would approve of this since I am team "anyone but Biden", it could make it harder to win back the White House in 2024. With that being said, it sure seems like the Democrats are sticking with Biden through hell or high water, so I doubt that outcome would happen. 

New Mexico's governor makes illegal executive order banning carrying of guns.

 

New Mexico Governor  Lujan Grisham. Fox News. 

New Mexico Governor Lujan Grisham has issued an illegal executive order banning the legal carrying of guns in Albuquerque and the surrounding Bernalillo County. Fox News. Saying that not only is the constitution not absolute she also said that her oath of office was also not absolute. The ban would issue civil fines for carrying weapons legally, either openly or concealed, regardless of their permit status. Legal experts challenged the order saying it was blatantly unconstitutional and was designed to be judgement proof as the 30 day expiration date would render any challenge moot. 

Governor Lujan Grisham says her duty to uphold her oath to the constitution is "not absolute" pic.twitter.com/Mla4rcNXMX

— Beau Hightower (@beauhightowerdn) September 8, 2023

My Comment:

This is, without a doubt, the most unconstitutional thing that any governor has ever done in my lifetime. There is no legal or moral justification for this and it will not hold up under any judicial scrutiny whatsoever. It is the worst thing I have ever seen from our government and that is really saying a lot. 

The closest thing I can think of is during Hurricane Katrina where some people had their legally owned firearms confiscated during the disaster. That was made illegal afterwards by an act of congress and was of dubious legality during the time. But in that case there was an actual disaster. There is no such disaster in Albuquerque, just crime and a governor that refuses to deal with it. 

Albuquerque does have a very high murder rate but it certainly isn't people carrying their guns legally that are committing these crimes. Indeed, this order, if there was anyone foolish enough to actually follow it, would lead to making these people even more vulnerable to crime as they would not be able to defend themselves. The people that are committing these crimes are of a totally separate demographic. 

It is telling that the Democratic governor is so afraid of using tools that actually work, such as stop and frisk that she would rather punish the law abiding. Such efforts have been called racist but Terry stops have a long legal history and could be used to help find the people carrying weapons illegally. But instead she's going after people that have every right to carry guns. CCW is permitted but open carry is legal for anyone over the age of 19 in New Mexico. 

Bizarrely, the governor is using a public health order to enforce this and that is another strange argument from the Democrats when it comes to gun rights. High murder rates are very obviously a public order and criminal justice issue, not a public health issue and the theory should be laughed out of court. Even then, this goes beyond even what happened during the Coronavirus pandemic. I can't see any way that this is justified in the realm of public health

Indeed, this ruling flies in the face of the precedent set in NYSRAP v Bruen which ruled that people have a right to carry their weapons outside of the home and that any restrictions on the 2nd amendment have to have a historical precedent during the founding father's era. This executive order is a pretty obvious and intentional violation of that Supreme Court case. I can't see how it wouldn't be overturned when it eventually makes it to the court unless, of course, it is considered moot. 

The order seems like it would be unenforceable on its face. I really don't know the open carry culture of New Mexico but if it is anywhere near what it is in Wisconsin I doubt there would be many people open carrying in the first place, outside of a direct protest of this order. And in that case there is a real chance of violence if the cops are stupid enough to try and push the point. And it's laughable that they would even suggest you could ban CCW because the whole point in carrying a weapon concealed is that people don't know they will have it. 

The way I see it this has a few ways of going down. First, Governor Grisham backs down and revokes the executive order. or it gets overruled by the courts Given that everyone in the country, even a few gun control advocates, are saying that she can't legally do this that is a very real possibility. The condemnation I have seen on this seems almost universal and when you have lost David Hogg and Ted Lieu, of all people, you are in trouble with your base. 

I support gun safety but there is no such thing as a state public health emergency exception to the U.S. Constitution. https://t.co/6GfbOZLc7g

— David Hogg 🟧 (@davidhogg111) September 9, 2023

 

I support gun safety laws. However, this order from the Governor of New Mexico violates the U.S. Constitution. No state in the union can suspend the federal Constitution. There is no such thing as a state public health emergency exception to the U.S. Constitution. https://t.co/kOhLMtaOl2

— Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) September 9, 2023

Another option is that this order is kept in place but is simply not enforced. It's unclear who would be enforcing this order in the first place, from what I understand Albuquerque police have already said it won't be them, though the county Sherriff has said otherwise. I don't see most beat cops wanting anything to do with this and I think there is a good chance that everyone simply ignores the order. 

The other possibility is violence. Given the blatant illegality of the order and the fact that gun rights supporters are simply sick of such idiocy from our leadership, it's very possible that an incident could happen. Any cop that tries to enforce this with someone who is carrying to protest the law could end up dead and that's not an exaggeration, and their would be moral and legal justification for it. Given the blatant constitutional problems with the order, civilians have the justification to ignore it. I sincerely hope that doesn't happen but they say when you play with fire you can get burned. And this isn't just a fire it's an inferno. 

There is going to be action against this order and I believe there have been filings already to legally fight this ruling. People are also calling for the impeachment, resignation and/or arrest of Governor Grisham. I don't see any of those being that likely but it is certainly what should happen. At the very least I see this going to the courts and the courts ruling against her and hopefully they do it soon. Because the longer this order remains in place the more likely it will be that violence will happen because of it. 

Editor's Note: Vacation

 As always around this time of year I will be on vacation starting tomorrow. That means that posting might be infrequent or at unusual times. Given the crappy weather we are expecting next week, there might not be that much change in posting. 

US issues threat against North Korea for possible arms deal with Russia.

 

Kim Jong Un and Vladimir Putin. Fox News/Getty.

The United States has issued a threat against North Korea for a possible arms deal with Russia. Fox News. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said that North Korea would "pay a price" in the international community. Kim Jong Un is expected to visit Moscow and Vladimir Putin as soon as next week. Russia wants artillery shells and missiles from North Korea while North Korea wants tech for satellites and nuclear submarines, in addition to food aid. 

My Comment:

The deal between Russia and North Korea isn't really new news, it's been reported for awhile. It does seem very likely that it will happen. Both sides would benefit from the deal greatly. Russia would replenish its depleted stockpiles of weapons while North Korea would get the technology and food aid they desire. It's win win for both of them. 

This is, of course, bad news for the current American regime. Sending North Korea into the arms of Russia is a pretty big own goal, especially since it is a major reversal from what we had under Donald Trump. Trump had a good personal relationship with Kim Jong Un and had influence on him. He treated him like an equal and it meant that the relationship warmed to the point that North Korea was no longer a real issue in the region. 

Biden, of course, screwed it all up, just like he has for pretty much every foreign policy decision. North Korea no longer cares what we have to say about them and are more than willing to cut a deal with Russia as Russia is at least paying attention to their needs. And I am sure that Kim Jon Un knows that the neocons in the White House want another war and if they can't get it in Russia, Taiwan or Iran, they will get it in North Korea. They are right to try and cut a deal with Russia, it's the most sensible move they could make. 

And there is almost nothing the United States can do about it short of war. Like I said, Biden threw away any relationship we had with Kim Jong Un and we are already sanctioning the country. What else is there to do? Maybe dropping sanctions if they stop, but there is basically no way Biden would do that, sanctions are almost a religious belief for his administration. 

I actually think this is more about Russia gaining more power over North Korea than any actual need for artillery shells. Russia is making enough shells that they aren't really having that much in terms of supply issues but I guess they could be at the limit of what they can produce. Bringing North Korea into their fold is probably the main reason they are doing this... 

Video shows the first British made Challenger Tank destroyed in combat...

 

BBC analysis identifying the destroyed tank as a Challenger 2. Getty/TikTok.

A new video from social media shows a destroyed British Challenger 2 tank in Ukraine. BBC. The tank hit an anti-tank mine and caught fire, forcing the tank crew to evacuate. The tank was then destroyed by a Russian Lancet drone. It is the first confirmed combat loss of a Challenger 2 tank, despite a long combat history. The tank was likely assigned to the 82 Air Assault brigade, which is deployed in Ukraine's southern offensive near Robotyne. The tanks crew reportedly survived the tanks destruction. 

My Comment:

The above video was reportedly recorded by civilians fleeing the fighting. It also shows a Soviet era tank abandoned as well. Given that the vehicle they were driving in had bullet holes in the windshield and there was some kind of rifle fire near the end of the vehicle I bet the people that recorded the video have an interesting story to tell. 

There has been some misinformation about this incident on Twitter and other platforms. Some people are falsely claiming that the tank was destroyed by the Ukrainians themselves. These NAFO trolls claim that the Ukrainian crew dropped Molotov cocktails in the tank to prevent its capture. Those claims appear to be false given that multiple news outlets confirm the tank was hit by a drone strike after hitting a mine and being set on fire. 

As for the "invincible" western tanks this confirms what we already knew about them. They aren't actually that hard to take out. This tank hit an anti-tank mine and started to burn, which is a fairly mundane way for a tank to be taken out. The tank was then hit by a Russian Lancet drone which was probably overkill but understandable. Russia didn't want this tank to be taken back from the front lines and repaired. Destroying that before it happened was the right move and ended up being a propaganda coup for the Russians. 

Given that Ukraine only got 12 of these tanks any combat losses are going to be felt pretty hard. Ukraine is rapidly running out of armor due their fairly baffling insistence to continue the summer offensive even though it's clear that it has failed. The losses they are taking now would be better used to defend themselves from Russia's inevitable counterattack. 

Like the Leopard before it, this loss shows that tanks are not the end all be all for battle anymore. They are vulnerable to mines and drones and aren't going to be able to turn the trend of battle all by themselves. Indeed, this is the first time these tanks have really been challenged. The Challenger 2s fought in Iraq but never really faced an opponent that had comparable technology like they have in Ukraine

If there is something good to say about these Western tanks is that crew survivability is fairly good. This tank hit a mind powerful enough to both disable it and set it on fire and the crew was able to escape. It's unclear if any of them were wounded but regardless that is a pretty good performance. I've heard similar things about the Leopards and Bradley Fighting Vehicles. It's not much of an advantage but it is welcome for the Ukrainians given their massive manpower shortage. 

As for the battle of Robotyne it seems clear that Ukraine is in trouble. From what I understand the areas the Ukrainians have captured are all low lying and are under heavy artillery and rocket fire from the Russians who have the high ground. Given the heavy casualties and the fact that even Ukraine's reserves are getting mauled at this point it's no surprise that Ukraine fired their Defense Minister. 

Jill Biden tests positive for the Coronavirus. Is it part of a push to bring back restrictions?

 

File photo of Jill Biden. Fox News/AP.

Jill Biden has tested positive for the Coronavirus. Fox News. Joe Biden was tested as well and has tested negative. Jill Biden reports only mild symptoms and it is the 2nd time she has had Covid. Jill Biden has been double vaccinated and double boosted for the disease but still caught it. The incident comes after reports of a resurgence in cases and rumors of a return to restrictions. 

My Comment:

Normally someone catching what is the equivalent of a bad cold or a weak flu would not be national news but these are the times we are in. To be fair, Jill Biden is 72 years old which is about the time people should start to worry if they get a respiratory virus of any kind. She's still at an extremely low risk. 

There is also a minor concern that Jill might have passed her virus over to Joe Biden who would be at elevated risk given his advanced age and generally poor health. Biden, quite frankly, looks like a stiff breeze could take him out so him getting a Coronavirus infection would possibly be an issue for him. So far he has tested negative and if he were to get sick he would get the best treatment money can buy. 

Still, this whole thing makes me nervous. Nobody cares about the coronavirus anymore and the pandemic is essentially over. The virus has mutated to a dramatically less dangerous form and most people have a level of immunity from the virus. 

Indeed, I personally don't care at all. Someone at work was sick with a cold last week and other than my general hypochondria I wasn't worried at all. Given that I was exposed to the virus dozens of times and never caught it as far as I am aware (or had it and I didn't know it), I'm not sure why I would be worried in the first place. 

But given the fact that Jill Biden is a public figure and people are generally talking about bringing back Coronavirus restrictions I am concerned that this will be used as evidence that the restrictions should come back. If someone as famous as Jill Biden can catch the virus you can too, though I don't know why anyone would care. 

What I do know is that even rumors of returning restrictions caused a massive outrage and at least one of the few companies that tried to bring back the mask mandates, Lionsgate, has already lifted it. I really don't think people will actually go back to the way things were in 2020, even if Jill Biden dies from this virus, an outcome that is extremely unlikely. 

But the Biden administration might try it anyways. Keep in mind the only reason why they "won" in 2020 is because of mail in voting and the last minute changes they did to voting laws. A return to 2020 style restrictions could allow them to do the same thing and is about the only thing, short of assassinating Donald Trump (which seems to be on the table for these people) that would allow Biden to "win" in 2024...