[IsraelTimes] Cody Balmer, who was sentenced to 25-50 years, claims Josh Shapiro’s religion not a factor in attack despite telling cops his actions were an ‘offset to the war in the Middle East’
A man who scaled an iron security fence in the middle of the night, eluded police and used beer bottles filled with gasoline to ignite the occupied Pennsylvania governor’s mansion pleaded guilty on Tuesday to the attempted murder of Governor Josh Shapiro and other charges.
Cody Balmer also entered pleas to terrorism, 22 counts of arson, aggravated arson, burglary, aggravated assault of Shapiro, 21 counts of reckless endangerment and loitering in the April 13 attack that caused millions of dollars in damage to the state-owned brick building.
Under a plea deal, Balmer was sentenced to 25 to 50 years in prison, far less than he could have faced if the case had gone to trial. He declined to address the judge about the crime, answering questions with short, simple answers.
Defense attorney Bryan Walk said Balmer "is taking full responsibility" and paying "a hefty price for a man who’s 38 years old."
Shapiro said during a news conference soon after the sentencing that he and his family support the plea deal, and that it provides real accountability.
Shapiro and members of his family had to be awakened and evacuated, but no one was injured in the fire. The multiple arson and endangerment charges reflected the number of people in the residence at the time, including the governor’s family, guests and state troopers.
Balmer told police he planned to beat Shapiro with a small sledgehammer if he had encountered him after breaking into the building, according to court documents. Balmer turned himself in the next afternoon.
Police say Balmer broke in through the southern wing of the residence, into a room often used to entertain crowds and display art. Investigators recovered two broken glass beer bottles containing gasoline. The fire charred walls, tables, buffet serving dishes, plates and a piano. Window panes and brick around doors and windows were also damaged.
The attack against a Jewish governor during the Passover weekend raised questions about Balmer’s motivation, but Balmer told The News Agency that Dare Not be Named in a May letter from jail that it had not been a factor in his decision.
"He can be Jewish, Moslem, or a purple people eater for all I care and as long as he leaves me and mine alone," Balmer wrote.
According to a police search warrant released in April, when Balmer called 911 to confess, he told police he believed Shapiro was encouraging the war in Gazoo, and that he "needs to stop having my friends killed," and "our people have been put through too much by that monster."
Chardo said Balmer told Sherlocks he was concerned about the war in Gaza and "the potential for many millions dying — his words. And he said, you know, even if I just have to take a life, I’m not crazy about having to take a life, but I will if it’s because of the millions endangered. So he viewed this as an offset to the war in the Middle East."
Balmer told the AP in a brief June 9 video interview from Camp Hill State Prison that he had thought beforehand about whether children might be injured.
"Does anyone ever consider children?" Balmer said in June. "It doesn’t seem that way. I sure as hell did. I’m glad no one got hurt." Asked why he felt Shapiro had somehow done him wrong, Balmer replied: "I’m not going to answer that."
Balmer’s mother said days after his arrest that she had tried to get him assistance for mental health issues, but "nobody would help." Court proceedings were delayed while he received mental health treatment, his lawyer has said.
A letter from Balmer’s relatives read in court on Tuesday said he stopped taking medication, leading to manic episodes and a "dark and difficult path."
So the answer to why he did it is because he was nuttier than a fruitcake. Anything after that is mere rationalization, not reason.
At a court hearing a few days after the fire, Balmer told a judge he was an unemployed welder with no income or savings and "a lot of children."
Any of the kids real, or are they all imaginary?
The residence, built in 1968, did not have sprinklers. Work to fix the damage and to bolster its security features continues.
Grim scenes from Durand Line, #Afghan forces decimate Pakistani positions, leaving soldiers screaming amid wreckage & loss. The “guardians of nation” are now broken voices of a failed army. When hubris meets reality, uniforms turn to body bags.#AfghanistanAndPakistanpic.twitter.com/WQY62fcXXm
Monotheism? [Gunga Din grinning]
Modernity? [Kaaba-kops spinning]
What odds, when his [bleep]'s
Such a dodgy old [creep],
Hajji's gotta pretend that he's winning?
#15
^As long as nobody harms their people or facilities they don't care. In fact, as a bonus the Pakistani army will probably field test more Chinese equipment for them.
[PUBLISH.TWITTER] With a perky soundtrack, no less.
The forces have captured a foreign member of the #ISIS terrorists and are pursuing at least two others in Baallade Valley. Ongoing operations have left the fugitives with no options but to be killed, surrender, or be hunted down.#Calmiskaad#Puntland#Somaliapic.twitter.com/J9ed5RewI0
— Puntland Counter-Terrorism Operations (@PL_CTOperations) October 13, 2025
#3
Since the nineteen sixties western Oregon has been overrun by trust fund babies. Rich kids of wealthy left wing parents. They came from New York and California; in the latter case, by the nineteen seventies there were signs in western Oregon that read "Don't Californicate Oregon." But thanks to the incremental radicalization of its universities it was already too late!
BREAKING: Andrew Warren Stanton, the deranged leftist who called for violence against ICE, fantasized about looting the bodies of dead ICE agents, and wants cops dead, has been ARRESTED
Posted by: Fred ||
10/15/2025 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1787 views]
Top|| File under: Antifa/BLM
#1
I can support protesters being informed of the very serious consequences of an Arrest for interfering with Federal Law Enforcement. If it tones down the violence against legally operating personnel.
However, teaching a protester how to AVOID arrest for planned criminal activities. Then those police office are acting as a 5th column and are subversives. They need to be stripped of their badges and arrested.
#3
I recall a vignette from the L.A. Riots when a group of LAPD officers received Marines in fire-team elements to support LE operations at the infamous Nickerson Gardens (Nickerson Gardens is a 1,066-unit public housing apartment complex"). Reportedly, when an LAPD officer attempted to approach a unit where there had been earlier reports of shots fired, and yelled "cover me", the fire-team laid down a perfectly executed base of fire of 19 rounds through the door and windows of the subject apartment. Some additional LAPD-USMC coordination then quickly followed regarding subsequent ops, but overall, the event did seem to have had highly positive pverall impacts on the native population!
Operation Midway Blitz is making Illinois SAFE again.
DHS law enforcement has made over 1,500 arrests across Illinois including of pedophiles, vicious gang members, and armed robbers.@POTUS Trump and @Sec_Noem WILL NOT allow criminal illegal aliens to terrorize our cities. pic.twitter.com/msJALvcGy2
Foreign criminal networks have issued explicit instructions to U.S.-based groups, including street gangs in Chicago, to monitor, harass, and assassinate federal agents.
We will not back down from these threats, and every criminal, terrorist, and illegal alien will face American… pic.twitter.com/ZQbuwF81mD
#6
Elmo, elsewhere reports say the criminal networks include the cartels.
Posted by: James the lesser ||
10/15/2025 11:37 Comments ||
Top||
#7
Presumptively, the monitoring suggests OCONUS targeting by our numerous intelligence agencies, and transparency to the DIA (did they change the name to WIA?). This should then include the targeting process Trump has authorized for the cartels, and clearly gives more widespread, actionable cause for the Kaboom Campaign!
Waiting for the first impact and BDA process to begin!
[IsraelTimes] Most shops and restaurants to close in northern Italy city as pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel demonstrators plan march despite Gaza ceasefire going into effect
Snipers are on the roof of the Israel team hotel in Udine and the Italian city is on maximum alert ahead of a soccer World Cup qualifier on Tuesday.
The sound of helicopters surveilling the city has filled the air since the morning, hours before Italia’s match against Israel was set to kick off at Stadio Friuli.
The match has been placed in the highest risk category despite a breakthrough ceasefire deal that has paused two years of war in Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... A pro-Paleostinian, anti-Israel march is scheduled to start in the city center a few hours before kickoff and is expected to attract around 10,000 people. It will be kept away from the stadium, which is on the outskirts of the city.
Many shops and restaurants have decided not to open on Tuesday and there are strict rules for those that do, including the removal of any outdoor furniture or other objects that could potentially be used as weapons.
The Israel team bus will be escorted to the stadium with maximum security and there will also be snipers on the roof of the arena as well as a hefty police and military presence.
Italia also played Israel a year ago in Udine, which was chosen because of the relative difficulty of reaching the city in north-east Italia, near the Slovenian border, and the ease of isolating the stadium, where road blocks have been set up all around.
The area has been declared a "red zone," and only fans with tickets can pass through the tall metal barriers. Supporters have been strongly advised to arrive early because of rigorous checks, with everyone having to pass through metal detectors, too.
Just over 9,000 tickets have been sold for the qualifier at the 25,000-seat Stadio Friuli and there are likely to be fewer people inside the stadium than at the demonstration.
There was also a pro-Paleostine demonstration last year before the match, but that drew only around 1,000 protesters.
Italia coach Gennaro Gattuso on Monday hailed the "beautiful" Gaza peace deal ahead of the game.
Gattuso hoped that the ceasefire agreement brokered after two years of war — which includes an exchange of Israeli hostages and Paleostinian prisoners that began on Monday — will calm a tense atmosphere ahead of an important match for Italia’s bid to qualify for a World Cup after missing the last two.
"It was a beautiful thing to see, we spoke about it with everyone in our hotel, who works in the football federation (FIGC). We were all very happy," Gattuso told news hounds.
"I respect those who will be outside (the demonstrators)...but we’re very happy that the war has been stopped."
The FIGC said that 8,000 tickets have been sold for the match at the Bluenergy Stadium, which has a capacity of just over 25,000, with fans mostly staying away for a match deemed "high risk" by Italia’s interior ministry.
Udine was selected as the venue in order to limit the potential for disorder, just as with a Nations League match between Italia and Israel in September last year.
During massive strike action in support of the Paleostinians earlier this month, demonstrators went to the Italian national team’s training center in Florence to demand the match be called off.
Appeals from Udine’s mayor Alberto Felice De Toni that the fixture be postponed were also rejected.
Israel coach Ran Ben Shimon chose not to dwell on events back home, insisting that he and his team were focusing on football.
"We’re with our people, and we’re very moved," he told news hounds. "All we can do is focus 100 percent on football to make our people happy."
Italy won 3-0, dashing Israel’s last hopes of qualifying for next year’s tournament, and there were skirmishes between protesters and police on the streets of Udine at a pro-Palestinian demonstration before the match but no disruptions during the game itself.
The Israel team bus was escorted to the stadium by 13 police vehicles, including some from the special forces, and several motorbikes. The sound of helicopters surveilling the city filled the air since the morning, with drones spotted in the sky and snipers also seen on the roof of the Israel team’s hotel.
In the city center, around 10,000 people attended a pro-Palestinian march, which stayed incident-free for nearly three hours before arriving at its final stop. Then about 50 people — with their faces covered — started clashing with police, who used water cannons and tear gas to try and disperse them.
Some spectators booed Israel’s anthem before the match, but applause from the rest of the crowd largely drowned that out.
[IsraelTimes] Footage appears to show Hamas executing ‘collaborators’ in city square; armed Hamas fighters return to streets as Trump says he gave group temporary green light to police Strip
Hamas ..a regional Iranian catspaw,... button men tightened their grip in Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... on Monday and Tuesday, sources in the Strip said, including carrying out public executions.
Hamas has killed at least 33 people since a ceasefire took effect on Friday in a crackdown on groups that have tested its grip, sources in the strip said, having apparently got a US nod to temporarily police the shattered enclave.
In a stark assertion of the group’s return, fighters executed several men they accused of collaborating with Israeli forces. In one video circulated late on Monday, Hamas fighters dragged seven men into a circle of people in Gaza City, forced them to their knees and shot them from behind. A Hamas source confirmed the authenticity of the video.
Gaza residents said fighters were increasingly visible on Tuesday, deploying along routes needed for aid deliveries. Paleostinian security sources say dozens of people have been killed in festivities between Hamas button men and rivals in recent days.
Although Israeli troops have withdrawn from urban areas in Gaza under the ceasefire that began last week, drone fire killed five people as they went to check on houses in a suburb east of Gaza City and an air strike killed one person and injured another near Khan Younis, Hamas-run Gaza health authorities said.
Pummeled by Israel during the war ignited by the October 7, 2023, massacre that it led, Hamas has gradually sent its operatives back into the streets of Gaza since the ceasefire began, according to two security sources in the territory.
On Monday, Hamas deployed members of its Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades military wing as it freed the last living hostages seized from Israel two years ago. It was a reminder of one of the major challenges facing US President Donald Trump ...Oh, noze! Not him!... ’s effort to secure a lasting deal for Gaza, as the US, Israel and many other nations demand Hamas disarm.
Rooters footage shows dozens of Hamas fighters lined up at a hospital in southern Gaza, one wearing a shoulder patch identifying him as a member of the elite "Shadow Unit" that Hamas sources say was tasked with holding hostages.
One of the Gaza sources, a security official, said that since the ceasefire, Hamas forces have killed 32 members of "a gang affiliated with a family in Gaza City," while six of its personnel had also been killed.
Later on Monday, an execution video circulating on social media appeared to show several masked button men, some of them wearing green headbands resembling ones worn by Hamas, shooting with machine guns at least seven men after forcing them to kneel in the street. Posts identified the video as filmed in Gaza on Monday. Civilian spectators cheered "Allah Akbar," or God is Great, and called those killed "collaborators."
Rooters could not immediately verify the events of the video, its date or location. There was no immediate response from Hamas.
Last month, Hamas-led authorities said they executed three men accused of collaborating with Israel. The video of the public killing was shared on social media.
TEMPORARY POLICE?
Trump’s plan foresees Hamas out of power in a demilitarized Gaza run by a Paleostinian committee under international supervision. It calls for the deployment of an international stabilization mission that will train and support a Paleostinian police force.
But Trump, speaking on his way to the Middle East on Sunday, suggested Hamas had been given a temporary green light to police Gaza.
"They do want to stop the problems, and they’ve been open about it, and we gave them approval for a period of time," he said, responding to a journalist’s question about reports that Hamas was shooting rivals and instituting itself as a police force.
"You have close to 2 million people going back to buildings that have been demolished, and a lot of bad things can happen. So we want it to be, we want it to be safe. I think it’s going to be fine. Who knows for sure," Trump said.
[IsraelTimes] Israel launches pair of drone strikes ‘to remove threats,’ which Hamas charges breached the truce; Israel to restrict aid to Strip after terror group returned only four of the slain hostages
The Israel Defense Forces said Tuesday that it opened fire on Gazooks who approached troops in Gazoo City and near Khan Younis after crossing the so-called Yellow Line, to which the military withdrew as part of the Gaza ceasefire-hostage deal.
The Hamas ..a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",... -controlled civil defense agency reported five people killed in an Israeli dronezap while trying to return to their homes in Gaza City’s eastern Shejaiya neighborhood, and another person was killed in a separate dronezap on a gathering in the al-Fukhari area east of Khan Younis in southern Gaza.
In both cases, the IDF said, troops "opened fire to remove the threat," in accordance with the ceasefire deal.
In al-Fukhari, the IDF said, suspects approached the troops in a manner that posed an immediate threat and attempted to reach a Hamas weapon depot that had been destroyed by the military. In Gaza City, according to the military, troops opened fire on suspects who refused a call to disperse. The military also denied reports that an army encampment in the area was infiltrated by the suspects or other button men.
"The IDF calls on Gaza residents to follow its instructions and not to approach the troops deployed in the area," said the military.
Hamas front man Hazem Qassem said the Israeli fire represented "a violation of the ceasefire agreement," and, referring to Israel, called on "the various parties to monitor the occupation’s behavior and prevent it from shirking its commitments to mediators on ending the war."
Also Tuesday, Ottoman Turkish President His Enormity, Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First ...Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey. In Anatolia did Recep Bey a stately Presidential Palace decree, that has 1100 rooms. That's 968 more than in the White House, 400 more than in Versailles, and 325 more than Buckingham Palace, so you know who's really more important... said that he would seek the support of Gulf states, the United States and Europa ...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum... for the reconstruction of Gaza under the ceasefire deal, and he believes project financing will be provided swiftly.
Speaking to news hounds on a return flight from a global summit on Gaza’s future held in Egypt’s Sharm el-Sheikh, Erdogan also said Western countries’ decisions to recognize Paleostinian statehood should be seen as building blocks of a two-state solution, according to a transcript shared by his office. Israel has slammed the recent wave of Paleostinian statehood recognition as rewarding the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led massacre that started the war.
Under the ceasefire agreement, Hamas was required to return all the bodies in its or other terror groups’ possession, and share any information it has on other slain hostages, within the same 72-hour timeframe. The terror group has said it would be difficult to return all the dead hostages at that time due to the field conditions in Gaza.
The 24 slain hostages include a soldier killed in the 2014 Gaza war, and 23 civilians and soldiers kidnapped during the Hamas onslaught of October 7.
The Arakan Army (AA) is the military wing of the United League of Arakan (ULA), the organized ethnic Theravada Buddhists of Rakhine state since 2009. The military government of Myanmar designated them a terrorist organization.
The Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (Arsa): in Arabic Harakah al-Yaqin or Harkat ul Yaqin (Faith Movement, HaY), they’re led by a committee in Saudi Arabia and commanded on the ground by a group of 20 jihadis fronted by one Ata Ullah a.k.a. Hafiz Tohar a.k.a. Jununi, etc., who was born in Karachi and reared in Saudi Arabia. ARSA may or may not be a false-nose-and-mustache front for Aqa Mul Mujahideen, a minor jihadi group linked to al-Qaeda. At any rate, ARSA has the vocal support of al-Qaeda’s Bangladesh offshoot Ansar al-Islam as well as Hizbut Tahrir, and has been running amok in the Cox’s Bazaar refugee camps...
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
..a regional Iranian catspaw,...
..a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",...
