PrairiePundit

 Red State: Now that Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA) has been elected as the Speaker of the House , you know that Democrats are desperately trying to dig up any kind of dirt that they can find on him. Democrats target anyone who might stand in the way of their power, so you know it's a good sign that they're having such a meltdown over Johnson. But you know how hard up they must be with The Atlantic’s effort to attack Johnson. It’s pretty comical, truthfully. If this is all they can come up with, Democrats are going to spend a lot of time gnashing their teeth. What have they come up with? Something truly juicy? Hold onto your hat; you may not believe how bad it is. According to The Atlantic, Mike Johnson’s great-great-great grandfather was a Confederate soldier. Oh my, how will Mike Johnson survive the horrible scandal? Talk about a spectacularly ridiculous failure; one might think this was the Babylon Bee or some other humor outlet. When they have to go that far to find “dirt” on Mi...

 Newsbusters: First the Washington Post , then the New York Times went after the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, one year after techno-entrepreneur Elon Musk purchased it and shone a light on the previous regimes squelching of conservative voices in favor of liberal “blue checks” and other anointed ones, and possibly swinging the 2020 election to Democrat Joe Biden (see “ Twitter Files ”). Reporters Steven Lee Myers, Stuart Thompson, and Tiffany Hsu collaborated on the “interactive” online project “ The Consequences of Elon Musk’s Ownership of X.” (At least the Times only needed three reporters to conjure up fear and loathing against Musk and X; the Post required four.) The introduction featured three blocks of text interspersed among graphics, demonstrating this was less a technology news story than an anti-Musk rant.... ... There is much more. Liberals never perceive their own comments as "misinformation" but use that term to attack conservative content the...

Times of Israel: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says that calls for a ceasefire between Israel and Gaza are calls for Israel to surrender to Hamas. “Israel will not agree to a cessation of hostilities after the horrific attacks of October 7,” says Netanyahu in comments in English to the foreign media. “Calls for a ceasefire are a call for Israel to surrender to Hamas, to surrender to terror, to surrender to barbarism. That will not happen. Ladies and gentlemen, the Bible says that there is a time for peace and a time for war. This is a time for war.” Netanyahu says nobody would have called on the US to agree to a ceasefire following the Pearl Harbor attack during World War II. “The horrors that Hamas perpetrated on October 7 remind us that we will not realize the promise of a better future unless we, the civilized world, are willing to fight the barbarians. Because the barbarians are ready to fight us… and usher in a world of fear and darkness,” says Netanyahu. “This is a turning po...

 YNews: Russian forces carried out several unsuccessful offensive operations on the Kupiansk, Avdiivka and Marinka fronts and made attempts to regain the positions they had previously lost on the Bakhmut and Zaporizhzhia fronts over the course of Sunday, 29 October. Source: General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on Facebook , information as of 18:00 on 29 October Details: Over the course of the day, Ukraine’s defence forces clashed with Russian forces 40 times. Russian forces carried out a missile strike and 57 airstrikes and deployed multiple-launch rocket systems (MLRS) 22 times to attack the positions of Ukrainian troops and civilian settlements, injuring civilians and damaging private residential houses and other civilian infrastructure facilities. Russia also deployed five Shahed-136/131 attack drones to attack Ukraine on the night of 28-29 October. Ukraine’s air defence downed all five of the Russian drones. The situation in eastern and southern Ukraine remains difficul...

 USA Today: As Israeli troops push deeper into Gaza in retaliation for the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks, the ground attack won’t look quite like the door-to-door skirmishes seen in Fallujah, Mosul and other past urban clashes. Instead, it will happen largely out of sight and underground, deep in a warren of connecting tunnels that Hamas has been digging and lining with concrete for more than a decade. The battle to control and destroy this subterranean labyrinth, estimated at more than 300 miles, will be a key strategy for the Israeli military, according to military analysts and experts – and will make the incursion into Gaza unlike any past urban conflict. For these “de-tunneling” operations, specialized units code-named Samur – Hebrew for “weasel” – expect to squeeze through the narrow passages and find rocket assembly lines, stores of small arms and mortars and, deeper still, Hamas’ leaders’ lodging and headquarters – much of it probably booby-trapped with homemade bombs. They may also ...

 Jonathon Turley: ... What is new now, according to House Republicans, is an emerging pattern of how the Bidens turned influence-peddling into the equivalent of the family’s personal savings & loan operation. Money moving between key family members was labeled as a "loan" in at least one instance, and Hunter has claimed other money as “loans” — a framing that not only offered plausible deniability but non-taxable income. Two IRS whistleblowers, who testified before House investigators in July, highlighted the use of a loan allegedly to evade public disclosure and taxation. Hunter allegedly took large payments from dubious foreign sources and listed them as “loans,” despite no evidence of repayment or any standard loan agreement. This month, House investigators discovered that, in 2018, the president’s brother James received two loans totaling $600,000 from Americore Health, which they described as “a financially distressed and failing rural hospital operator.” Accord...

 Miranda Devine: Closed-door testimony by former Pittsburgh US Attorney Scott Brady to the Senate Judiciary Committee last week is a chilling case study of how credible corruption allegations against President Biden and his family were covered up by the FBI and DOJ — before and after the 2020 election. Brady’s testimony fits a pattern revealed by Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) last week , in which over 40 confidential human sources gave information to the FBI, over several years, about potential criminal activity involving the president, his brother James and son Hunter. In a blistering letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland on Wednesday, Grassley alleged ongoing efforts “among certain Justice Department and FBI officials to improperly delay and stop full and complete investigative activity into the Biden family.” Few people know that better than Brady. On Jan. 3, 2020, Brady was tasked by then-AG Bill Barr to vet allegations about Biden corruption that had been pouring into the ...

The Lid: ... “The stark reality for proponents of EVs and for the dreamers in the federal government, who are using fuel economy regulations to force manufacturers to produce ever more EVs,” they conclude, “is that the true cost of an EV is in no way close to a comparable ICEV [internal combustion engine vehicle]. Our conservative estimate is that the average EV accrues $48,698 in subsidies and $4,569 in extra charging and electricity costs over 10 years, for $53,267, or $16.12 per equivalent gallon of gasoline. Without increased and sustained government favors, EVs will remain more expensive than ICEVs for many years to come.” The piece also indicates that Ford is losing $70,000 on each EV it sells.  About the only place I have seen Ford EVs is in their display areas.  The Ford Lightning truck has significant range limitations.  Their other EV is a version of the Mustang.

 ISW: ... Russian forces continue to use “Storm-Z” assault units predominantly made up of prisoner recruits in highly attritional infantry-led frontal assaults. Ukrainian Tavriisk Group of Forces Spokesperson Colonel Oleksandr Shtupun stated on October 30 that Russian forces are preparing to conduct “meat assaults” (colloquial jargon for infantry-led frontal assaults) near Avdiivka and are training “Storm-Z” assault units for future assaults without equipment.[21] A Russian milblogger reportedly serving in the Avdiivka direction claimed that “meat assaults” are when Russian infantry forces attack without artillery support to suppress Ukrainian firing positions.[22] The milblogger claimed that when two Russian regiments conduct ”meat assaults” side by side, the seam between the areas of responsibility of both regiments remains unsecured and vulnerable to Ukrainian counterattacks. Another Russian milblogger claimed that “Storm-Z” assault detachments in the Avdiivka direction and on B...

 Fox News: Since the Oct. 7 attacks committed against Israel by Hamas, there has been an outpouring of protests across the world not condemning the terror group but rather the Jewish State, which is still reeling from the murder of over 1,400 Israelis. But perhaps the most extreme displays from the Hamas-sympathizing supporters are coming from American college campuses. Here are some examples of the jarring actions and rhetoric coming from both students and professors alike. Harvard student groups say Israel was ‘entirely responsible’ for attack More than 30 student groups at Harvard co-signed a letter declaring they "hold the Israeli regime entirely responsible for all unfolding violence." "Today’s events did not occur in a vacuum," the letter read. "For the last two decades, millions of Palestinians in Gaza have been forced to live in an open-air prison. Israeli officials promise to ‘open the gates of hell,’ and the massacres in Gaza have already commenced. ...

  Guardian: Israeli tanks and infantry have advanced on Gaza City from two directions, with tanks reported to be on the main north-south road, in an apparent effort to cut the strip into two. Reports in the Hebrew media, statements from Hamas and Palestinian witness accounts, described Israeli armour operating close to the Mediterranean coast in the north of Gaza in an area where Hamas said it was engaged in heavy fighting. Witnesses said Israeli tanks had advanced to cut the main north-south Salah al-Din road south of Gaza City and were operating on the outskirts of the Zaytun district and Shejaiya neighbourhood of Gaza City. Video taken by a local journalist was said to show an Israeli tank and bulldozer in central Gaza blocking the main highway and firing on a car, which was seen exploding. Meanwhile, Israel said it had rescued a female soldier kidnapped during Hamas’s 7 October massacre in southern Israel. The soldier was named as Ori Megidish, a private who serves as a borde...

 Corpus Christi Caller-Times: Federal judge orders US border authorities to cease cutting razor wire installed by Texas The order by U.S. Judge Alia Moses will remain in effect pending the outcome of a hearing next week in Del Rio. Hopefully, this will lead to a permanent stop of Biden's irresponsible border policies. 

 American Update: DeSantis Slams Biden For Charging Americans Evacuees From Israel While Paying To Fly Illegal Immigrants DeSantis has been evacuating Florida citizens free of cost. 

 Brian Wang: Russia’s Air Force is getting wrecked in the Ukraine War. China’s Air Force is mainly copies of the same Russian planes that are getting wrecked in the Ukraine. The US military has no interest in telling everyone how pathetic the Russian and Chinese Air Force is. Why? The US military wants to justify getting more planes and more equipment. The collapse of the Soviet Union and now the failure of the Russian military in the Ukraine has exposed the planes and pilots of potential American opponents as garbage. Russian and Chinese military engines only operate for 4000 hours or less before needing to be replaced while American fighter engines can last for 12000 hours of operation. This means they have fewer engine hours to support training pilots. ... Chinese copies of Russian planes tend to have better electronics but engines that are inferior to the Russian engines. The Shenyang J-11 is a copy of the Russian Su-27. The J-6, a clone of the supersonic MiG-19, which has a je...

 Daily Mail: Henchmen for Venezuela's dictator and many of the South American country's worst criminals have crossed over the US border and are now causing chaos in major American cities, including Dallas, Miami and Chicago , multiple sources tell the DailyMail.com. In Dallas, the Venezuelan neighborhood known as 'Villa Dallas' has descended into mayhem. For months, once peaceful apartment complexes have been the scene of illegal street races, beatings, shootings and extortion attempts. Residents, overwhelmingly migrants who recently made the harrowing trek through several countries to reach America and are seeking asylum, pointed to videos of fights between armed men, broken windows and reckless drivers speeding through parking lots. One disturbing clip shows a man with a shirt over his head wailed on by several men. The man appears to be unconscious until he moves his arm and is then kicked in the head. Meanwhile, a car's tires can be heard screeching in the backg...

 CNN: ... “If you had asked me four years ago what I thought about natural hydrogen, I would have told you ‘oh, it doesn’t exist,’” said Geoffrey Ellis, a geochemist with the US Geological Survey. “Hydrogen’s out there, we know it’s around,” he said, but scientists thought big accumulations weren’t possible. Then he found out about Mali. Arguably, the catalyst for the current interest in white hydrogen can be traced to this West African country. In 1987, in the village of Bourakébougou, a driller was left with burns after a water well unexpectedly exploded as he leaned over the edge of it while smoking a cigarette. The well was swiftly plugged and abandoned until 2011, when it was unplugged by an oil and gas company and reportedly found to be producing a gas that was 98% hydrogen . The hydrogen was used to power the village, and more than a decade later, it is still producing. When a study came out about the well in 2018, it caught the attention of the science community, including...

 Business Insider: A Russian soldier described the "slaughter" of 1,000 0f his comrades and said they don't stand a chance against well-prepared Ukrainian forces, according to a leaked phone call released by Ukraine's Military Intelligence Directorate (GUR.) On the call, the soldier tells his mother that the whole forest is "dotted with dead soldiers" as Russia tries to take the village of Ivanivka in Kherson Oblast, per a translation by The Kyiv Post. "There's such a slaughter going on there!" he said. "More than a thousand were killed." He describes Russian forces suffering heavy losses when coming up against heavily fortified Ukrainian positions. He said that when a unit of 20 Russians assaulted a Ukrainian position, only "two or three come back." In one instance, he said, a handful of Ukrainian soldiers fended off hundreds of Russian troops. "Yesterday Sam flew the plane and said that just eight people were sitting ...

 John Lucas: Has a single member of the White House staff ever held a dying American soldier in his arms as he bled out, calling for his mother? Have any of them ever loaded the blood-soaked bodies of his wounded and killed onto a medivac helicopter and then endured sleepless nights thinking about the visits their families are about to get and the ensuing destruction of their lives and dreams?  These were the first questions that popped into my mind when I saw the  report from Politico  that the Biden administration is promoting the war in Ukraine because it is good for American business. I think the members of the administration could not have experienced these things because, if they had,  and  if they had one ounce of humanity in them, they could not possibly have promoted war on the “it’s good for business” rationale. Apparently, multiple White House aides have been involved in this abomination because Politico is quite specific: The White Hou...

 Breitbart: Migrants Apprehended in Texas-Based Border Sectors in 2 Years Exceeds Houston Population Biden has never explained why he is allowing this.  It is hard to see how the US benefits from it.

 Washington Examiner: C urrently, next year’s  presidential race  looks more like 2016’s than 2020’s. Even though it appears likely that President  Joe Biden  will face off against former President  Donald Trump  in a rematch, 2024 stands to be more of a rehash — only this time without Hillary. After dramatically improving the Democrats’ results from years before, Biden has dug himself into a Hillary Clinton-sized pit in just three years. His record-low approval ratings among even Democratic primary voters leave his party with two questions: Are Democrats preparing for the right race? And can Biden dig himself out? In  2020 , Biden won 51.3% of the popular vote and 306 electoral votes. Though his margin in each of the five pivotal states (Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania) was less than 3 percentage points in terms of their popular votes, Biden’s results were a significant improvement over Clinton’s 2016 presidential performa...

 The Lid: Rashida’s ‘Extensive Fundraising Ties’ To Hamas Activists — Here’s The 411 Our Regime Media Is So Broken That It Takes Foreign News Outlets To Break News About American Politicians. Canary Mission , a watchdog group committed to exposing hatred and antisemitism promoted by organizations and individuals, has  compiled a file  on Michigan Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, and boy, is it a doozy! ... Among other things, it leads to an understanding of why she was reluctant to condemn Hamas's war crimes in their recent attacks on Israel.  See, also: The “Darkest Evil That Can Exist”: Journalists See Revelations of Unfathomable Horrors from Oct 7 Hamas Must Be Totally Destroyed. And:   The Mask Isn’t Just Off the ‘Palestinians’, but the Pro-Palestinian Movement A group of anti-Israel protesters were heard chanting "long live Hamas." The good news, such as it is, is that the mask is off the ‘Palestinians’ and it’s also off their supporters. They’re feeling their ...

 Daily Wire: Israel unleashed fury on northern Gaza Friday night after repeatedly urging civilians to evacuate the area for the last two weeks as it seeks to permanently eradicate Hamas, the Palestinian terrorist group that is responsible for murdering more than 1,400 Israelis, wounding 5,200+ more, and kidnapping 200+ people. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said that it struck 150 underground sites in Hamas’ vast underground terror tunnels that allow the terrorists to meet, organize, and move undetected throughout Gaza. The terrorists also store weapons, ammunition, and other military supplies in the tunnels. The terrorists use hardwired landlines, which allowed them to communicate without being intercepted by Israeli intelligence as they plotted the October 7 attacks. “During the attack, terrorists of the terrorist organization Hamas were eliminated and combat tunnels, underground combat spaces and other underground terrorist infrastructures were destroyed,” the IDF said in a st...

 NY Post: If it weren’t taken for granted by now that everything that comes out of the Biden administration is a colossal screwup, it would be shocking that anyone shaping foreign policy for the White House is still employed there. National security adviser Jake Sullivan’s embarrassing, 7,000-word drivel in Foreign Affairs magazine should leave no doubt. “The Middle East is quieter than it has been in decades,” read his piece — which went to press just days before Hamas’ savage attack on innocent Israelis . President Biden’s “disciplined approach frees up resources for other global priorities, reduces the risk of new Middle Eastern conflicts, and ensures that U.S. interests are protected on a far more sustainable basis.” Yes, “challenges remain,” particularly in the West Bank, Sullivan conceded. But “we have de-escalated crises in Gaza and restored direct diplomacy between the parties after years of its absence.” Uh, you fell for Hamas’ grand charade, is more like. And so much for ...

 Breitbart: Fifty-six percent of those arrested by the Washington, DC, Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) in 2023 can thank U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Matthew Graves for being released back on the street, where many taxpayers fear for their lives. Nominated to the position by President Joe Biden and confirmed by the Senate in 2021, Graves is Joe Biden’s handpicked Yale Law graduate to serve as both the local and the federal prosecutor for the nation’s capital. He is in charge of prosecuting crimes from misdemeanor drug possession to murders. He also has the capacity to prosecute federal crimes, such as financial fraud and terrorism. Graves claims to be “committed to ensuring the fair and impartial administration of justice for all Americans,” but many taxpaying residents cannot walk their dog, enjoy a local park, or pick up groceries without fear of being stabbed, robbed, or gunned down in the District, a 68-square-mile area described as a “war zone” and “the m...