[FOX] The chemical that was released has been identified as glycidyl methacrylate by city officials and MC Tank, Inc., a liquid chemical transportation company that said its equipment was involved in the incident.
Officials said in a Wednesday news conference that the chemical is a carcinogen if ingested at certain levels. The company said glycidyl methacrylate is used in plastic coatings.
People driving within the shelter-in-place zone were asked by officials to use the recirculation mode in their car air conditioners.
[Dawn] The National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency said on Tuesday that a prime suspect in a case involving the sale of counterfeit US postage stamps had been arrested in Lahore.
The US Attorney’s Office of the Southern District of Florida had identified the suspect as a 33-year-old from Khanewal. It said in a statement last month that he was accused of operating "an unauthorised website that allegedly sold more than five million counterfeit US postage labels", causing more than $126 million in losses to the US Postal Service
NCCIA’s Lahore Zone Additional Director Atif Ameer announced his arrest at a presser, saying that the counterfeit postage labels were sold over a period of three years.
He said the suspect operated a website — LabelsBank.com — from August 2023 to September 2026 and used it to market and sell counterfeit US postage stamps online.
"More than five million stamps were sold through the website at a price of around $2 per stamp. Based on the alleged volume of sales, the total value of the transactions has been estimated at approximately Rs35 billion," he said, adding that the agency also focused on the financial channels used to receive and move proceeds from the business.
MONEY TRAIL
Flanked by Lahore NCCIA Deputy Director Waqas Saeed, Ameer said that 16 bank accounts had been used in the scam. Seven of the accounts were operated by the suspect, five by his brother, two by his wife, and one each by his sister and aunt.
The NCCIA officer said the agency had expanded the investigation across several parts of the country.
"Eight special teams had been formed in Punjab ...1. Little Orphan Annie's bodyguard
2. A province of Pakistain ruled by one of the Sharif brothers
3. A province of India. It is majority (60 percent) Sikh and Hindoo (37 percent), which means it has relatively few Moslem riots
.... , Islamabad and Sindh to trace the suspect and investigate the network," he said and added the teams conducted raids at 35 locations and questioned 47 people as part of the investigation.
"Investigators also employed digital and forensic techniques to establish the suspect’s movements and identify people associated with the operation."
Ameer said that Sherlocks analysed 122 call-data records, 50 IMEI-tracking reports and audio and video recordings from 120 cameras.
"Artificial intelligence and other modern technological tools were also used during the investigation. A locator operation continued for 10 days as Sherlocks attempted to establish the suspect’s whereabouts and trace his activities," he said.
The NCCIA said the major focus of the investigation was the financial trail generated by the online sale of the counterfeit stamps.
"We are examining transactions conducted through the 16 bank accounts and attempting to determine the flow of funds between the accounts allegedly belonging to the suspect and his relatives.
"The involvement of family members is also being examined as part of the investigation, particularly the alleged use of their bank accounts in connection with the online business," the additional director said.
He said the role of other individuals in operating the website, processing orders, receiving payments or distributing the counterfeit stamps was also being probed.
"Investigators are also working to establish the full scale of the operation and verify the volume and value of the transactions," he said.
[Breitbart] The Social Security Administration (SSA) announced Tuesday that it has corrected records for nearly 15% of all active Social Security numbers (SSN), adding missing death and citizenship data as part of the Trump administration’s drive to curb benefits fraud.
The agency called it the most comprehensive cleanup of the Social Security Number database in its 91-year history. The corrections touched roughly 330 million U.S. citizens and nearly 390 million total records. SSA laid out the figures in a statement released Tuesday.
Commissioner Frank J. Bisignano cast the database as foundational to the federal government.
“The Social Security Number database is our country’s books and records. The database’s accuracy is essential to maintaining integrity of government services for citizens,” Bisignano said. “This is the first time SSA has undertaken an effort of this scale.”
The agency said it added 17 million dates of death to records that previously lacked them, drawing on internal SSA systems and Department of State data. It updated about 25 million records with missing citizenship information using the Department of Homeland Security’s Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements, or SAVE, service.
Another 8.5 million records with inaccurate citizenship status are still being corrected, the commissioner said. SSA added that it has put stronger internal controls in place to prevent manual-entry errors going forward.
Reuters, which reported the figures Tuesday, noted that the agency administers benefits for tens of millions of older Americans and people with disabilities. President Donald Trump vowed to attack fraud and waste in the system after returning to office.
Bisignano, who also leads the IRS, has described the work as reconciling the agency’s Numident master file. Records once showed numberholders who appeared to be “150 or 160 years old,” he said in an interview with The Baltimore Sun, adding that such entries “create vulnerabilities.”
The cleanup follows the Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE) move in March 2025 to mark roughly 3.2 million numberholders aged 120 and older as deceased.
Democrats have challenged the administration’s handling of the death files. A former SSA employee told Congress the agency was pressured to assign death dates to living people, and Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) wrote Bisignano demanding answers. SSA denied adding 2.7 million names to its Death Master File.
A federal judge separately blocked the administration’s SAVE citizenship database earlier this year.
Given the Democrat Voter rolls are shrinking by the 100's of 1,000's. I kinda wonder which LSD talking head will be running to the Media Mic's & TV Cameras.
I can hear the whine now.
Trump is killing dead people and keeping invited non-US Citizens from getting their SSA checks and voting.
How about a realistic SSA COLA that matches the actual real cost of Living increases for 2025-2026 fiscal year? Because, even Wally World has increased typical needed item prices more than 8+ % in the last year.
A few photos at the link. What a dreary place — surely there is somewhere nicer for Grandma to hang out in in all of Flushing, Queens, New York City.
[FoxNews] The CMS administrator questioned staff about inflated attendance records and wheelchair charges during a fraud crackdown
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz confronted employees at two New York City senior care centers over suspected Medicaid fraud, challenging their billing practices as Fox News Digital got an exclusive look at the crackdown in action.
Oz, accompanied by senior federal health officials, delivered warning letters to Kent Senior Care and Evergreen Adult Day Care in Flushing, Queens, during a broader fraud crackdown that involved the FBI, the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General, the NYPD and other agencies.
The letters notified the facilities that their billing practices had raised concerns among federal authorities. The two visits by Oz were part of a broader crackdown in which CMS officials conducted more than 80 visits and delivered warning letters to providers across New York City on Tuesday.
Fox News Digital accompanied Oz as he pressed employees about questionable billing records and challenged their explanations for how taxpayer dollars were being spent.
"The whole experience was suspicious," Oz told Fox News Digital in an exclusive interview following the visits.
Oz said federal authorities were conducting a broader crackdown that included arrests, search warrants and efforts to stop certain operators from billing Medicaid, although Fox News Digital did not independently witness those enforcement actions at either Queens facility.
Kent Senior Care declined comment during a phone call with Fox News Digital on Tuesday. Evergreen Adult Day Care did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment. One imagines not. OZ QUESTIONS SENIOR CENTER DIRECTOR: 'WE DON'T BELIEVE YOU'
The first stop came around 8:30 a.m. at Kent Senior Care, where Oz entered the facility and personally handed its director a letter from the federal government notifying the business that its billing practices were under scrutiny.
"The bills are much higher than they should be," Oz told the director. "The billing is for more people. It doesn't look very crowded here."
The director pushed back during the exchange, explaining that it was still early and additional seniors would arrive later in the morning, as Oz questioned whether the facility's Medicaid billing records accurately reflected its actual attendance.
The occupancy of the space was 70 persons, according to an observe posted maximum occupancy sign on the wall.
"The bills we're getting are as though it's completely full all the time," Oz said.
The director maintained that the facility billed only for seniors who actually attended, and that it required participants to sign attendance sheets.
"You're getting this letter from the U.S. Government because we don't believe you," he told the director.
During the exchange, Oz also questioned why the center's billing records appeared to reflect seniors attending five days a week when the director acknowledged that many participants typically attended only two or three days.
The director insisted the facility billed for actual attendance and said some seniors attended more frequently than others.
The confrontation intensified when Oz and other federal officials raised questions about specialized transportation services billed for seniors using wheelchairs.
"I don't see any wheelchairs here," Oz told the director.
Fox News Digital observed seniors inside the facility, including individuals using walking aids, but did not see anyone using a wheelchair during the visit.
Another official said billing records included charges for specialized wheelchair transportation, raising questions about whether the services had been provided and which company was responsible for submitting the charges.
The director said some seniors had mobility difficulties, including those recovering from strokes, and that the facility had wheelchairs available. He also said that workers could have copied information from previous files instead of properly updating the billing codes as it applied to wheelchair use.
"Probably he just copy and pasted," the director said.
Dropping down to the end:
OZ ALLEGES ORGANIZED CRIME TIES TO NYC MEDICAID FRAUD
Oz said federal authorities believed organized criminal networks were exploiting the Medicaid-funded programs by offering seniors money to attend facilities and then billing the government for services that were not actually provided.
Oz alleged that individuals he described as being connected to the "Chinese mafia" were paying some seniors between $1,000 and $1,200 to participate in fraudulent billing arrangements, though the administrator did not identify a specific criminal organization or provide supporting evidence during the interview.
Oz said the federal government had identified significant spikes in billing across the industry and claimed that annual spending on the programs had approached $1 billion.
"We know from the billing here that there's no way this business is running in the way that they claim to be running without something being wrong," Oz told Fox News Digital.
"Is it an innocent mistake? A hundred times in a row, I don't think so."
Oz alleged that proceeds from fraudulent Medicaid billing schemes were being used to finance other criminal activities, including money laundering and human trafficking, although Fox News Digital had not independently verified those connections or established any such link to the two facilities visited.
"It's really a clubhouse for crime," Oz said while describing the alleged broader scheme.
He said fraud accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic and criticized the previous administration for failing to address what he described as rapidly rising spending and suspicious billing.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul acknowledged the crackdown on Tuesday, calling it part of a "massive effort to combat fraud and abuse" in Medicaid and confirming that state health officials had joined federal and state law enforcement in targeting suspected fraud at social adult day care programs.
While Oz personally delivered warning letters to the two Queens facilities, state, local and federal law enforcement officials were simultaneously conducting searches at other locations across New York City as part of the coordinated crackdown.
Specific details about the facilities targeted, individuals involved and evidence recovered were not immediately available as the investigations remained ongoing.
[Telegraph] Normandy veteran Kenneth Hay, who survived being captured just weeks after D-Day and spent years educating children about World War Two, has died aged 101.
Hay, from Upminster in east London, served in the 4th Dorset Infantry Regiment. He was captured a month after the allied invasion of northern France and survived a 1,000-mile (1,609km) forced march in eastern Europe until he was liberated by US forces.
His death was announced on Sunday by the British Normandy Memorial, for which he was an ambassador.
The organisation said he was an "extraordinary gentleman whose remarkable life will never be forgotten".
In its statement on social media, the British Normandy Memorial added: "His passion for education was unwavering.
"The countless schoolchildren whose lives he touched with his stories of courage and resilience nicknamed him 'Grandad Ken'.
"We extend our most sincere condolences to Ken's sons Chris and Jeremy, all the Hay family and his very many friends."
[Westminster College, American Churchill Museum, Fulton, Mo.] The Defence of Freedom and Peace
I avail myself with relief of the opportunity of speaking to the people of the United States. I do not know how long such liberties will be allowed. The stations of uncensored expression are closing down; the lights are going out; but there is still time for those to whom freedom and parliamentary government mean something, to consult together. Let me, then, speak in truth and earnestness while time remains.
The American people have, it seems to me, formed a true judgment upon the disaster which has befallen Europe. They realise, perhaps more clearly than the French and British publics have yet done, the far-reaching consequences of the abandonment and ruin of the Czechoslovak Republic. I hold to the conviction I expressed some months ago, that if in April, May or June, Great Britain, France, and Russia had jointly declared that they would act together upon Nazi Germany if Herr Hitler committed an act of unprovoked aggression against this small State, and if they had told Poland, Yugoslavia, and Rumania what they meant to do in good time, and invited them to join the combination of peace-defending Powers, I hold that the German Dictator would have been confronted with such a formidable array that he would have been deterred from his purpose. This would also have been an opportunity for all the peace-loving and moderate forces in Germany, together with the chiefs of the German Army, to make a great effort to re-establish something like sane and civilised conditions in their own country. If the risks of war which were run by France and Britain at the last moment had been boldly faced in good time, and plain declarations made, and meant, how different would our prospects be today!
But all these backward speculations belong to history. It is no good using hard words among friends about the past, and reproaching one another for what cannot be recalled. It is the future, not the past, that demands our earnest and anxious thought. We must recognize that the Parliamentary democracies and liberal, peaceful forces have everywhere sustained a defeat which leaves them weaker, morally and physically, to cope with dangers which have vastly grown. But the cause of freedom has in it a recuperative power and virtue which can draw from misfortune new hope and new strength. If ever there was a time when men and women who cherish the ideals of the founders of the British and American Constitutions should take earnest counsel with one another, that time is now.
All the world wishes for peace and security. Have we gained it by the sacrifice of the Czechoslovak Republic? Here was the model democratic State of Central Europe, a country where minorities were treated better than anywhere else. It has been deserted, destroyed and devoured. It is now being digested. The question which is of interest to a lot of ordinary people, common people, is whether this destruction of the Czechoslovak Republic will bring upon the world a blessing or a curse.
We must all hope it will bring a blessing; that after we have averted our gaze for a while from the process of subjugation and liquidation, everyone will breathe more freely; that a load will be taken off our chests; we shall be able to say to ourselves: "Well, that's out of the way, anyhow. Now let's get on with our regular daily life." But are these hopes well founded or are we merely making the best of what we had not the force and virtue to stop? That is the question that the English-speaking peoples in all their lands must ask themselves to-day. Is this the end, or is there more to come?
There is another question which arises out of this. Can peace, goodwill, and confidence be built upon submission to wrong-doing backed by force? One may put this question in the largest form. Has any benefit or progress ever been achieved by the human race by submission to organized and calculated violence? As we look back over the long story of the nations we must see that, on the contrary, their glory has been founded upon the spirit of resistance to tyranny and injustice, especially when these evils seemed to be backed by heavier force. Since the dawn of the Christian era a certain way of life has slowly been shaping itself among the Western peoples, and certain standards of conduct and government have come to be esteemed. After many miseries and prolonged confusion, there arose into the broad light of day the conception of the right of the individual; his right to be consulted in the government of his country; his right to invoke the law even against the State itself. Independent Courts of Justice were created to affirm and inforce this hard-won custom. Thus was assured throughout the English-speaking world, and in France by the stern lessons of the Revolution, what Kipling called, "Leave to live by no man's leave underneath the law." Now in this resides all that makes existence precious to man, and all that confers honour and health upon the State.
We are confronted with another theme. It is not a new theme; it leaps out upon us from the Dark Ages' racial persecution, religious intolerance, deprivation of free speech, the conception of the citizen as a mere soulless fraction of the State. To this has been added the cult of war. Children are to be taught in their earliest schooling the delights and profits of conquest and aggression. A whole mighty community has been drawn painfully, by severe privations, into a warlike frame. They are held in this condition, which they relish no more than we do, by a party organisation, several millions strong, who derive all kinds of profits, good and bad, from the upkeep of the regime. Like the Communists, the Nazis tolerate no opinion but their own. Like the Communists, they feed on hatred. Like the Communists, they must seek, from time to time, and always at shorter intervals, a new target, a new prize, a new victim. The Dictator, in all his pride, is held in the grip of his Party machine. He can go forward; he cannot go back. He must blood his hounds and show them sport, or else, like Actaeon of old, be devoured by them. All-strong without, he is all-weak within. As Byron wrote a hundred years ago: "These Pagod things of Sabre sway, with fronts of brass and feet of clay."
No one must, however, underrate the power and efficiency of a totalitarian state. Where the whole population of a great country, amiable, good-hearted, peace-loving people are gripped by the neck and by the hair by a Communist or a Nazi tyranny—for they are the same things spelt in different ways—the rulers for the time being can exercise a power for the purposes of war and external domination before which the ordinary free parliamentary societies are at a grievous practical disadvantage. We have to recognise this.
And then, on top of all, comes this wonderful mastery of the air which our century has discovered, but of which, alas, mankind has so far shown itself unworthy. Here is this air power with its claim to torture and terrorise the women and children, the civil population of neighbouring countries. This combination of medieval passion, a party caucus, the weapons of modern science, and the blackmailing power of air-bombing, is the most monstrous menace to peace, order and fertile progress that has appeared in the world since the Mongol invasions of the thirteenth century.
The culminating question to which I have been leading is whether the world as we have known it—the great and hopeful world of before the war, the world of increasing hope and enjoyment for the common man, the world of honoured tradition and expanding science—should meet this menace by submission or by resistance. Let us see, then, whether the means of resistance remain to us today. We have sustained an immense disaster; the renown of France is dimmed. In spite of her brave, efficient army, her influence is profoundly diminished. No one has a right to say that Britain, for all her blundering, has broken her word — indeed, when it was too late, she was better than her word. Nevertheless, Europe lies at this moment abashed and distracted before the triumphant assertions of dictatorial power. In the Spanish Peninsula, a purely Spanish quarrel has been carried by the intervention, or shall I say the "non-intervention" (to quote the current Jargon) of Dictators into the region of a world cause. But it is not only in Europe that these oppressions prevail. China is being torn to pieces by a military clique in Japan; the poor, tormented Chinese people there are making a brave and stubborn defence. The ancient empire of Ethiopia has been overrun. The Ethiopians were taught to look to the sanctity of public law, to the tribunal of many nations gathered in majestic union.
But all failed; they were deceived, and now they are winning back their right to live by beginning again from the bottom a struggle on primordial lines. Even in South America the Nazi regime begins to undermine the fabric of Brazilian society.
Far away, happily protected by the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, you, the people of the United States, to whom I now have the chance to speak, are the spectators, and I may add the increasingly involved spectators of these tragedies and crimes. We are left in no doubt where American conviction and sympathies lie; but will you wait until British freedom and independence have succumbed, and then take up the cause when it is three-quarters ruined, yourselves alone? I hear that they are saying in the United States that because England and France have failed to do their duty therefore the American people can wash their hands of the whole business. This may be the passing mood of many people, but there is no sense in it. If things have got much worse, all the more must we try to cope with them.
For, after all, survey the remaining forces of civilisation; they are overwhelming. If only they were united in a common conception of right and duty, there would be no war. On the contrary, the German people, industrious, faithful, valiant, but alas! lacking in the proper spirit of civic independence, liberated from their present nightmare, would take their honoured place in the vanguard of human society. Alexander the Great remarked that the people of Asia were slaves because they had not learned to pronounce the word "No." Let that not be the epitaph of the English-speaking peoples or of Parliamentary democracy, or of France, or of the many surviving liberal States of Europe.
There, in one single word, is the resolve which the forces of freedom and progress, of tolerance and good will, should take. It is not in the power of one nation, however formidably armed, still less is it in the power of a small group of men, violent, ruthless men, who have always to cast their eyes back over their shoulders, to cramp and fetter the forward march of human destiny. The preponderant world forces are upon our side; they have but to be combined to be obeyed.
We must arm. Britain must arm. America must arm. If, through an earnest desire for peace, we have placed ourselves at a disadvantage, we must make up for it by redoubled exertions, and, if necessary, by fortitude in suffering. We shall, no doubt, arm. Britain, casting away the habits of centuries, will decree national service upon her citizens. The British people will stand erect, and will face whatever may be coming.
But arms—instrumentalities, as President Wilson called them—are not sufficient by themselves. We must add to them the power of ideas. People say we ought not to allow ourselves to be drawn into a theoretical antagonism between Nazidom and democracy; but the antagonism is here now. It is this very conflict of spiritual and moral ideas which gives the free countries a great part of their strength. You see these dictators on their pedestals, surrounded by the bayonets of their soldiers and the truncheons of their police. On all sides they are guarded by masses of armed men, cannons, aeroplanes, fortifications, and the like—they boast and vaunt themselves before the world, yet in their hearts there is unspoken fear. They are afraid of words and thoughts; words spoken abroad, thoughts stirring at home—all the more powerful because forbidden—terrify them. A little mouse of thought appears in the room, and even the mightiest potentates are thrown into panic. They make frantic efforts to bar our thoughts and words; they are afraid of the workings of the human mind. Cannons, airplanes, they can manufacture in large quantities; but how are they to quell the natural promptings of human nature, which after all these centuries of trial and progress has inherited a whole armoury of potent and indestructible knowledge?
Dictatorship—the fetish worship of one man—is a passing phase. A state of society where men may not speak their minds, where children denounce their parents to the police, where a business man or small shopkeeper ruins his competitor by telling tales about his private opinions; such a state of society cannot long endure if brought into contact with the healthy outside world. The light of civilised progress with its tolerances and co-operation, with its dignities and joys, has often in the past been blotted out. But I hold the belief that we have now at last got far enough ahead of barbarism to control it, and to avert it, if only we realise what is afoot and make up our minds in time. We shall do it in the end. But how much harder our toil for every day's delay!
Is this a call to war? Does anyone pretend that preparation for resistance to aggression is unleashing war? I declare it to be the sole guarantee of peace. We need the swift gathering of forces to confront not only military but moral aggression; the resolute and sober acceptance of their duty by the English-speaking peoples and by all the nations, great and small, who wish to walk with them. Their faithful and zealous comradeship would almost between night and morning clear the path of progress and banish from all our lives the fear which already darkens the sunlight to hundreds of millions of men.
Winston Churchill
October 16, 1938
Broadcast to the United States from London
#3
He had no money or food growing up. When you are hungry you don’t have time to worry about things like what gender am i this week. It will take a real reset, no money or food for the world for several years. That’ll get priorities straightened out.
#4
More than likely, he comes from the very deep end of the gene pool. From that end you can drink, smoke and eat unhealthy foods and still live a very long life.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited
[Regnum] Amid the growing threat of drone use, NATO countries will deploy additional assets, including reconnaissance assets, to the Black Sea region. This was announced on October 20 by Alliance spokesperson Allison Hart.
"NATO will deploy additional assets to the region, including for surveillance, reconnaissance, and forensic operations," Hart said on social media.
According to her, the corresponding decision was made following the meeting of ambassadors of the alliance countries within the North Atlantic Council.
Earlier, Vladislav Maslennikov, Director of the Russian Foreign Ministry's Department of European Affairs, stated that NATO members are demonstrating interest in the Black Sea region, despite Turkey's restrictions on merchant shipping following drone attacks. The diplomat noted that NATO allies have also increased their reconnaissance activity in the region. Reconnaissance aircraft based in Constanta, Romania, are constantly monitoring the Black Sea, and NATO is sharing the data they obtain with Ukraine. Maslennikov added that NATO has no intention of reducing its activity, expressing readiness for a further escalation of tensions in the Black Sea region.
In August, the Turkish government stated that Ankara would not allow warships into the Black Sea and would adhere to the Montreux Convention on the status of the Bosphorus and Dardanelles Straits, despite some NATO countries pressuring Turkey to expand naval access amid ongoing tensions.
[FoxBusinessNews] The jobs include seasonal, part-time and full-time roles across Amazon’s US operations network
Amazon announced Tuesday that it is hiring more than 300,000 workers across the U.S. for the holiday season.
The jobs include seasonal, part-time and full-time roles across Amazon's U.S. core operations network, with new openings expected to be posted weekly from October through December.
Seasonal employees will earn an average of $20 an hour. Full-time operations workers start at a minimum of $20 an hour, according to the company.
Average hourly pay across Amazon's core operations workforce is nearly $24.
The retail giant also announced an expansion of healthcare benefits.
Starting Jan. 1, 2027, seasonal employees who work at least 30 hours per week will be eligible for healthcare coverage beginning on their first day of employment.
Plans will start at $5 per week with $5 copays, the company said.
Seasonal workers hired before Jan. 1 who meet the eligibility requirements will gain access to the coverage when the new benefit takes effect.
The hiring surge marks Amazon's first increase in holiday recruitment in three years as it prepares for a jump in orders, according to Reuters.
The announcement also follows Amazon's recent investment of more than $1.5 billion in additional pay for its U.S. core operations workforce.
[Breitbart] Abortion is on the ballot in four states in 2026, including Missouri, Idaho, Virginia, and Nevada.
Voters in Virginia will be voting on whether to enshrine the right to abortion in their state constitution, and a ballot measure in Idaho would create a statutory right to abortion in the state. In Missouri, voters have the chance to undo a ballot measure from 2024 that added a right to abortion to the state constitution.
Constitutional ballot measures in particular are effective as an offensive weapon because they are basically irreversible — they change a state constitution, take precedence over laws passed by state legislatures, and can only be overturned by another ballot measure or lengthy legal battles. Abortion measures in the wake of the Dobbs decision have typically been propped up by left-wing organizations and affiliates with deep pockets — such as Planned Parenthood and the ACLU — out-of-state dark money groups, and billionaires with eugenicist leanings, oftentimes outspending pro-life organizations by double or triple.
Almost every pro-abortion-related ballot measure since the fall of Roe v. Wade has been successful. During the 2022 special elections, Kansans rejected a ballot measure that would have established that the state Constitution does not include a right to abortion. During the 2022 midterms, voters in California, Michigan, and Vermont codified abortion into their constitutions. At the same time, voters in Montana rejected a ballot measure that would have given rights to babies born alive in botched abortions. Voters in Kentucky also rejected an amendment similar to the one in Kansas. In November 2023, Ohioans voted to codify the supposed right to abortion in their state Constitution via Issue 1.
In November 2024, seven states voted in favor of pro-abortion measures, while three states rejected them, breaking the left’s winning streak. The states that rejected abortion measures last election cycle included Florida, South Dakota, and Nebraska.
A 77-year-old Florida man was executed on Tuesday for killing a sheriff's deputy more than 40 years ago, marking the Sunshine State's 18th execution of the year as Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis continues an accelerated pace of executions.
William Reaves was pronounced dead at 6:12 p.m. at Florida State Prison near Starke following a three-drug injection. He was convicted of first-degree murder in connection with the September 1986 shooting death of Indian River County sheriff's deputy Richard Raczkoski.
[Gateway] New York Times journalist Jeremy Peters recently appeared on MSNOW and told hosts Joe and Mika that large numbers of lifelong Democrats in Michigan, particularly Jewish Democrats, are crossing party lines to vote Republican for the first time.
Peters describes this as a ’big deal’ and goes on to say that he can’t think of a race where the opposite is happening. He is right about that. There is no race in this election cycle that is causing Republicans to vote for a Democrat candidate.
In Michigan, this is happening because a huge number of voters in the state simply do not trust Abdul El-Sayed.
Wow, how generous! Now it's a race!
I, for one, welcome... er... *hides his face*
Sure, it's wonderful news
When a few frigid Jooz
Want Mohammed to stop at third base!
#3
After the mid-terms are over, I think we'll find a lot of people who previously voted for Democrats either stayed home or voted Republican. IIRC, Jewish voters were a major source of donations for the Democrats. I bet that has changed as well.
[KhaamaPress] A 57-year-old Afghan father of 58 children says he struggles to feed and support his family of four wives in Uruzgan province, where poverty has left some children going to bed hungry.
Mohammad Sadiq spoke to the BBC about the challenges of raising his large family, including the difficulty of remembering all his children’s names. He said he sometimes counts them around the family meal, only to discover that one is missing because a child is staying elsewhere. Sadiq and his wives have also lost 14 children over the years, according to the report.
Sadiq works at a car dealership, where he says he earns about 1,000 Afghanis when a vehicle is sold. He said the income is insufficient to meet the family’s needs, and some of his children also work to help support the household. Some collect paper and plastic to use as fuel.
The family generally prepares two meals a day, breakfast and dinner, with two of the women responsible for cooking. During winter, family members eat together inside their rooms, while in summer they gather in the courtyard. Sleeping arrangements are cramped, with six or seven people sometimes sharing a thin blanket.
The BBC report describes a home with rooms lacking conventional doors and windows, where thin curtains serve as door coverings. The space used for bathing is also used for washing clothes and dishes and, at times, as a toilet. Despite the difficult conditions, Sadiq said he had tried to send his children to school, although education costs remain a challenge.
Sadiq said his aim in having a large family was to increase the number of followers of the Prophet Muhammad. He also described the practical consequences of having so many children, recalling an occasion when he mistakenly gave a holy man the name of the wrong daughter during a marriage ceremony. He said he often calls his children "my son" or "my child" because he cannot always recall every name.
The BBC reported that Sadiq’s four wives married him when they were between 13 and 16 years old. He said he was 20 when he married his first wife and explained that he had needed time to save the bride price before each marriage.
The account raises concerns about child marriage and the health risks associated with early and repeated pregnancies. Girls who marry and become pregnant during adolescence can face increased health risks, while repeated pregnancies can place additional strain on mothers’ health. Access to healthcare remains a challenge in parts of Afghanistan, particularly in remote communities.
Sadiq, who says he cannot read or write, has appealed to the government, aid organizations and businesspeople for help supporting his family. He said his two main hopes were for his children to receive an education and to have enough food.
#5
Old Marster Sadiq ain't got enough wood,
So his smokehouse don't hold what it could.
"I'm po' but I'm willin'
To own all my chillun!
[scared kid scurries past in a hood]
#2
We can take humans out of the loop entirely and just start bombing the shit out of Iran, Russia and Gaza with no human intervention. Thus, no more stupid ICC bullshit because there will be no people involved.
by Aaron-Matthew Lariosa
[USNInews] USS Charleston (LCS-18) was tracked by Chinese forces on Tuesday after the ship “illegally intruded” into the area surrounding a contested South China Sea maritime feature, according to Beijing.
Chinese forces were dispatched to monitor the Independence-class LCS near Sabina Shoal early Tuesday, the PLA said. China claims the maritime feature under its 10-Dash Line territorial assertion.
“The U.S. action infringes upon China’s sovereign rights and interests, jeopardizes maritime security, and is detrimental to regional peace and stability. The U.S. side should immediately cease such activities. Forces of the STC remain on high alert at all times to resolutely safeguard national sovereignty and security and uphold regional peace and stability,” the People’s Liberation Army Southern Theater Command said in a statement.
The PLA Navy, China Coast Guard cutters and China Maritime Militia vessels have maintained Beijing’s presence at Sabina Shoal since a 2024 standoff with Manila. These operations are sustained by a large forward-deployed Chinese force in the Spratly Islands, which is host to several reclaimed land bases with air fields, ports, sensors and anti-aircraft and anti-ship missile systems.
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.
...1. Little Orphan Annie's bodyguard
