With inflation, prices are up pretty much across the board, but if you’re looking for a new gun for recreation or self-defense, here’s a hint: the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) is offering them at an absolute steal. Seriously, the federal agency tasked with enforcing firearms regulations has such poor security that thousands of guns and gun parts once in its possession disappeared in the hands of thieves. And it has yet to fully implement recommended reforms.
It’s facing a readiness crisis and underfunding, among other issues
China’s 20th Party Congress concluded on October 23, and President Xi Jinping secured a norm-breaking third term as leader of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). With the Politburo Standing Committee stacked with close confidants and dissent virtually wiped out, Xi is the strongest he has ever been.
Xi has also redoubled the Party’s commitment to taking the island of Taiwan, by force if necessary. Secretary of State Antony Blinken recently said that China “was determined to pursue reunification on a much faster timeline.” The alarm has been repeatedly sounded by American military officials, with speculation that a Chinese invasion of Taiwan could occur as soon as 2023.
Canadians, outside of dual citizens, can’t vote in America’s midterms, but the results may well shape the country’s trajectory in the years to come.
The current crisis around inflation, a probable recession, rising heating costs and electricity prices, with increases in Canada of upwards of 50 percent or more, as well soaring food prices are clearly shaped by global forces. But the economic crisis also has roots in the well-financed green movement’s war on fossil fuels. These turn out to be critical to such industries as manufacturing and logistics while the drive to ban natural gas based fertilizers constitutes a gun at the head at the farms that feed the world.
There’s no need for America to fight major wars on two fronts.
There are very serious people, like Thomas Mahnken of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, who are suggesting that the United States may soon be engaged in a world war in Europe over Ukraine and the Far East over Taiwan. Mahnken in an article in Foreign Affairs suggests that American policymakers should start studying the Allied victory in the Second World War, especially the mobilization of industry, science, and technology, as well as the “sequencing” strategy that prioritized the war in Europe over the war in the Pacific.
The NYT, NBC, Time, are in a panic. The Republicans are fielding a list of 67 black, Latino, Asian and Native American candidates.
There was that English cartoon in which a Labor candidate approaches two voters of the working class and asks them: “Why don’t you racist fascists vote Labor?”. Something similar is happening in America among the leaders of the Democrat Party. Minorities, a historic pool of votes for progressives, are moving to the right.
The New York Times is in a panic. The Republicans are fielding a list of 67 black, Latino, Asian and Native American candidates. NBC is panicking to report that Republicans are winning among Hispanics. Bloomberg is panicking: “Republicans have the record [votes] of black and Hispanic candidates despite Trump …”. Time Magazine is panicking because in California (where the “woke revolution” has sickened minorities) Asians are looking to the right. The Washington Post panics: “The Hispanic voting margin for the Dems shrinks.” Again the New York Times: “Hispanics are shifting to the right.”
Most Americans are moderate and pragmatic, but politics is dominated by cranks.
Elections are never easy to predict. But whatever the outcome of America’s Midterms next month, it does seem certain that vast swathes of the American electorate will be largely ignored. In state after state, voters face a Hobson’s choice between abortion-banning, election-denying Trump loyalists on the one hand and Democrats embracing the Biden administration’s unpopular economic and cultural agenda on the other.
The time is long overdue for American officials to put the American people first.
Is Europe threatened or not?
For months, the United Kingdom has been leading the charge against Russia over Ukraine. When serving as foreign secretary, Liz Truss, recently ousted as prime minister, hired a Beatles tribute band to lobby Secretary of State Antony Blinken to take a tougher stand toward Moscow. Then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson even more ostentatiously played uber-hawk when visiting Ukraine, mimicking Winston Churchill, about whom Johnson wrote a biography. London’s message appeared to be “Follow Me!”
VANCOUVER — One of the most puzzling aspects of American politics to foreigners living in western democracies is the two-party straitjacket that hinders renewal. Appearing on NBC’s Meet the Press, Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., spoke of her interest in preventing former president Donald Trump from ever again running the country and mentioned that Trump being the Republican nominee would “shatter” the party and give rise to a new “conservative” party.
Biden gets the blame for the military’s woes, and rightly so.
A report released by the Heritage Foundation last week found that the U.S. military is weaker than it has been in recent years. Every year, the Heritage Foundation releases its military strength index based on attributes used to measure military readiness for global conflicts. The 2023 Index of U.S. Military Strength reported that the military is “weak” and “at growing risk of not being able to meet the demands of defending America’s vital national interests.” Never in the nine-year history of the index’s report has our military been ranked so low.
OTTAWA, Ont. — Antony Blinken touched down in Ottawa Thursday, confirming that VIP U.S. government aircrafts are, in fact, capable of landing in Canada.
At least the secretary of State showed up. That’s more than can be said of his boss, President Joe Biden, who has yet to set foot in Canada — the United States’ top trading partner — since taking office. And there’s no sign of a presidential trip anytime soon.
No one can be bothered wasting time on Junior not even dementia Joe. Biden probably thinks Canada is in Mexico anyway.
A pair of prison vans approached the terminal at Tianjin Binhai International Airport carrying two Canadians, blindfolded and disoriented from 1,019 days in captivity.
On the moonlit tarmac, an unmarked U.S. Gulfstream jet waited to take them home. Nearby, the Canadian ambassador paced the carpeted lounge.
Fifteen time zones away, an Air China Boeing 777 stood ready at Vancouver International Airport. Armed officers of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police kept watch in the terminal. A Chinese executive in Manolo Blahnik heels strode past them, carrying a bag with a Carolina Herrera dress shaded the same vibrant red as China’s flag and trailed by an entourage of lawyers, aides and diplomats who called her Madam Meng. She, too, was headed home.
America’s heartlands are still haunted by despair
In 1982, Bruce Springsteen was at the height of his powers. Seven years earlier, his third album, Born to Run, had brought him global fame. “Springsteen is everything that has been claimed for him,” declared Rolling Stone. Critic Dave Marsh said he was “comparable to all the greats”. John Rockwell called him “the next Mick Jagger”. His next two albums, Darkness at the Edge of Town and The River, did nothing to dim his blazing star.
Minority staff for the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee have released an interim report on the origins of the COVID-19 virus. The 35-page report argues that a lab leak is the most likely explanation for the origin of the virus.
The assailant who attacked House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband in the couple’s San Francisco home early Friday was hunting for the powerful Democratic pol, according to a shocking report.
The unidentified male suspect shouted, “Where is Nancy? Where is Nancy?” before attacking 82-year-old Paul Pelosi with a hammer, CNN reported.
San Francisco Police Chief Bill Scott was scheduled to give an update on the attack and the investigation at 1pm ET.
On September 11, 2001, nineteen terrorists slammed commercial airliners into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and a field in Pennsylvania. This unprecedented attack against the United States killed 3,000 Americans. The United States responded with a complete reorganization of our nation’s approach to homeland security and counterterrorism.
Since 9/11, enterprises in China and cartels in Mexico have produced and exported thousands of pounds of a lethal chemical that has killed over 100,000 Americans. Despite this deadly assault on America, there has been no decisive whole-of-government reaction by the United States to solve this problem. In fact, there has been almost no coordinated reaction at all.
