The Violent Ones

The left has always loved violence:

The Left has been prone to violence since Year Zero. In the early 1900s, the United States was awash in communist and anarchist bombings, culminating in the deaths of 30 people on Wall Street in 1920. Most cultural depictions of the ’60s upheavals were of a genteel, peace-loving movement, but it was imbued with extremists, as well. By the 1970s, left-wing terrorist groups such as the Weather Underground were setting off bombs at the Capitol, police stations, the Pentagon, and state attorneys general offices. In an 18-month period between 1971 and 1972, there were an amazing 2,500 bombings in the U.S. by leftist groups. Worse, then as now, violence was often ignored or idealized by the “intellectual” Left. When I was young, leftists would sometimes commemorate mass murderers such as Che Guevara or Mao Zedong. Today, feted contemporary public intellectuals such as Ta-Nehisi Coates write books celebrating terrorism. The late Kathy Boudin, a former Weather Underground member who was involved in a Brinks truck robbery that killed two innocent people, operated the Columbia University’s “Center for Justice” for decades.

It's their history, but it's become our problem...

Sky Patrol

The drone mystery continues:

According to National Security Council Spokesman John Kirby the "drones" people are seeing and reporting are manned planes and there is no reason for alarm. Kirby's remarks also dispute claims from Republican Congressman Jeff Van Drew Wednesday that the drones were coming into New Jersey from the ocean and off of a mothership owned by Iran. "From very high sources, very qualified sources, very responsible sources, I'm going to tell you the real deal. Iran launched a mothership, probably about a month ago, that contains these drones...I'm going to tell you the deal, it's off the East Coast of America, they've launched drones. This is from high sources I don't same this lightly," Van Drew said during an interview with Fox News Wednesday. "Know that Iran made a deal with China to purchase drones, motherships and technology in order to go forward. The sources I have are good." "These drones should be shot down," Van Drew continued. "The military is on alert with this."

In the meantime, watch the skies...

Disinformation Disengagement

The State Department is getting rid of its disinformation department:

The move comes amid a lawsuit from Texas AG Ken Paxton and several conservative media outlets listed a GEC-funded "dynamic exclusion list" of websites it doesn't like, which it would then distribute to ad tech companies - such as Microsoft's Xandr - in order to try and "defund and downrank these worst offenders," and deprive said sites of ad revenue. As Headline News' Ken Silva notes further; it’s unclear how the GEC’s closure will affect the lawsuit. Monday’s court filing said lawyers for all parties are still discussing the implications. According to revelations from the “Twitter Files”—a trove of internal records about the censorship decision made within the social media company—the GEC funded groups such as the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab, which in turn compiled blacklists of Twitter accounts that were supposedly tied to foreign disinformation campaigns. The Digital Forensic Research Lab sent those blacklists to Twitter so that the company could deactivate the accounts listed.

Looks like they'll have to censor people the old-fashioned way...

Blue Bust

Act Blue's scam revealed:

ActBlue, the massive online fund-raising platform for liberal causes, has informed Congress it did not automatically block donations made with foreign-bought gift cards until recently, a potentially significant revelation in an ongoing investigation into whether China, Russia, Iran or Venezuela routed illicit money to Democrat candidates. House Administratrion Chairman Bryan Steil, R-Wis., whose panel oversees election integrity, told Just the News on Tuesday that ActBlue turned over documents under subpoena showing a major change in September to its donor verification policies designed to protect against illicit money flowing into political campaigns. ActBlue disclosed that it updated its policies on Sept. 9 to “automatically reject donations that use foreign prepaid/gift cards, domestic gift cards, are from high-risk/sanctioned countries, and have the highest level of risk as determined,” by its solution provider, Sift. The change occurred just three days after Steil introduced the Secure Handling of Internet Electronic Donations (SHIELD) Act on Sept. 6 to ensure foreign money stayed out of online political fundraising. Before the change, Steil said, donations made with foreign gift cards were not automatically rejected by ActBlue before the change.

They needed as much as they could launder...

Gas Drivers

People want what they can afford:

Speaking with Automotive News, Mazda CEO Masahiro Moro said ICE has a long future in America. Even at the end of the decade, traditional gas cars and mild-hybrid models will make up about two-thirds of annual sales. Plug-in hybrids and EVs will represent the remaining third. In other words, most vehicles will still have a gas engine five years from now. "Customers are looking for affordable solutions rather than electrified solutions. They are looking for better value. They are still looking for a reliable internal combustion engine. But we will be capable of making everything some version of electrified, including mild hybrid. Looking at US customers, they are looking for better, reliable engines." Mazda's head honcho primarily referred to entry-level models, specifically the 3 and CX-30. Moro believes EV growth in the US has slowed down in the last 18 months or so, adding the trend will likely continue in the foreseeable future. That buys the company more time to develop a lithium-ion battery entirely in-house. The goal is to have it ready for 2030 in plug-in hybrids and purely electric cars. Expect a much higher energy density and "very short" charging times. Interestingly, the engineers already have a "very advanced research base for solid-state batteries." In the meantime, work is underway on a two-rotor gas engine that will serve as a generator. It will be more potent than the single-rotor setup used by the MX-30 e-Skyactiv R-EV, which we mentioned earlier. In addition, Mazda is engineering a completely new gas engine, dubbed Skyactiv-Z. It will be used in production cars starting in 2027 when it will gradually replace the Skyactiv-G and Skyactiv-X powertrains.

Gas is still getting you there...

Campaign Cracks

She's a racist, they said:

“After Ms. Harris’ loss, Black campaign employees set up a call to talk about career opportunities with Angela Rye, a political strategist and podcast host. The discussion quickly shifted as they shared their anger at how the campaign had treated them, and how underfunded and haphazard their field operations had been in several battleground states, according to a recording of the call obtained by The Times,” the article reads. Some staffers were also reportedly peeved that the campaign did not hire enough people of color or contract with consulting firms that had Black or Latino owners. The Times story cites staff members who alleged that many campaign offices in Philadelphia were “filthy and lacked basic supplies like tables, chairs, cleaning products and printers.” Some campaign offices targeting predominantly Black communities were moved to upscale areas, far from the areas they were assigned to serve, according to the Times.

Not in their neighborhood...

Care Collapse

Obamacare didn't work:

Frustration over denials and medical costs has fueled an outpouring of vitriol against health insurance companies in the wake of the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. Also last week, a similar outcry led Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield to reverse a decision to limit anesthesia coverage during surgeries. The anger may be rooted in fears that unexpected medical costs could prove financially ruinous, as well as concerns that essential care could be denied by an insurer, putting health and well-being at risk even for those who have health insurance. Some of those anxieties are well-founded: The top cause of bankruptcy in the U.S. is health care-related debt, underscoring the financial stresses that can stem from high medical costs. In fact, most adults say they worry about their ability to pay for health care services or unexpected medical bills, a sentiment shared by people regardless of whether they're financially comfortable or struggling, a KFF survey found earlier this year.

"Free" care is never free...