Only in California. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. Officials won’t tell taxpayers how $1.2 billion is being spent on a building for the Governor, Lt. Governor, and lawmakers. Instead of transparency, over two thousand people have signed NDAs. They are under strict guidance not to reveal anything, or they will end up in legal trouble. Taxpayers […] The post People Working on California Government Building Had to Sign an NDA appeared first on www.independentsentinel.com.

There is a story going around that Iranians smuggled nine surface-to-air missiles into the country and are targeting Donald Trump’s plane. So far, there is no evidence, but people are concerned. Is it possible? Sure.  Three Iranians, allegedly tied to the Revolutionary Guards, hacked the Trump campaign and gave the data to the Harris campaign. […] The post Surface-to-Air Missiles Smuggled by Iranians to Target Trump? appeared first on www.independentsentinel.com.

Recently, there’s been deep concern expressed by some Christian commentators about my new film, “Am I Racist.” Thee pundits are troubled by the film because, they say, we used deceptive tactics to capture the footage. This is profoundly problematic, they say. They are disturbed. A Christian has made a movie that is interesting and funny and effective and that appeals to a wide audience — and this of course is a cause for great alarm among the sorts of Christians who want to make sure that we never do anything interesting, funny, or effective, especially if it appeals to a wide audience. No, what they want, always, are things that are lame, boring, redundant and insular. I’ve already addressed the arguments these people have made. I don’t need to address it again. And yet here we are. I happened to see a clip posted to Twitter by the account Woke Preacher Clips. This is a conversation on a podcast called “Holy Post,” hosted by Phil Vischer, best known as one of the creators of “Veggie Tales.” Vischer has gone woke in recent years — or maybe always was, I don’t know. But it’s no great surprise that he is apparently not a fan of mine. He’s joined on this episode by Pastor Mike Erre and Skye Jethani, who is now a Christian speaker and was once, I believe, also a pastor. These three brilliant minds came together to talk about the film — a film that, as far as I can tell, none of them have seen. Listen: I’m going to let them continue but I do want to interject here to say, yes, actually, we do need more of that in the Christian world — comedy, satire, using the Left’s own methods against them. That is, without question, something we need more of. But these three men disagree. Let’s get to their argument, even though they didn’t see the movie and haven’t the slightest damned clue what they’re even talking about. Still, here it is: I want to interject one more time, briefly, before we hear them make their compelling case against the movie they didn’t watch. I just want you to notice the tone. You see the guy on bottom left with his head in his hands, rolling his eyes. Pastor Erre is flippant and dismissive. So is Phil Vischer. The whole thing is so beneath them, so silly. It’s absurd that they are even lowering themselves to discuss my film. That’s the general tone, which pervades all the rest of what we’re about to hear. It’s also the attitude that these types of people usually have when discussing me or my work. But notice something — they’re discussing my work. I am now discussing them discussing my work. But I’m not discussing any of their work. Nobody is. That’s because they haven’t done anything remotely worth discussing. They haven’t done anything at all. Vischer made “Veggie Tales” 30 years ago, which is fine. That was a successful series about singing vegetables. It was something though, at least. But these other two — and Visher himself, post “Veggie Tales” — haven’t done anything, ever, to move or impact the culture in any way. They hang out in their pretentious, woke pseudo-Christian bubble, smelling their own farts and telling themselves how much smarter and more nuanced and sophisticated they are. But they don’t do anything. They don’t create anything. Instead they spend their time dismissively critiquing the people who are actually doing and creating. And, look, I’m used to having useless people criticize me. That happens every day. But when they do it with such a snide attitude — that’s where it annoys me. WATCH: The Matt Walsh Show Here’s my challenge to any of the three dudes in that podcast. Go out and create something — anything at all — that makes a noticeable and positive cultural impact. I don’t mean something that your liberal Christian friends like. I mean something that moves the culture in some way. Something that people outside of your bubble have to sit up and take note of, and grapple with, and think about. Make anything that achieves that. Could be a show, a movie, a song, even a podcast. Not the one you’re currently on. That has zero impact. Just anything at all that makes an impact. That’s my challenge. And I would suggest that if you can’t do that — if you can’t even conceive of how to go about doing that — then you should probably have a little humility and wipe the smarmy smirks off your faces. Not only that, but you aren’t qualified to hold the positions you currently hold. You should not be in a self appointed position of Christian leadership or as a supposed Christian thought leader if you actually don’t know how to effectively spread a message of truth and fight back against evil in modern culture. You really should be sitting and listening, not talking to an audience, because you don’t have anything worthwhile to say. But maybe I’m being harsh. Let me now continue listening to them so that we can find out if they do in fact have something worthwhile to say. There is a lot there. All of it bad. It is a confused, morally and theologically incoherent stew of nonsense. And it is coming from exactly the sort of weak, ineffectual, uninspired, utterly useless, limp-wristed, spineless little mealy-mouthed empty vessels who have all but destroyed the Christian church in the West. And that’s why I get a little heated about this. It’s not because I’m defending the movie. The movie doesn’t need defense. It’s doing great. The audience response has been overwhelmingly positive. It’s certainly not worth getting upset about the opinions of these three guys nobody cares about. What upsets me is that these three guys — and the legions of Christian “leaders” just like them — have done catastrophic damage to the body of Christ. And that damage can best be summarized by the statement from the man on the bottom right of the screen — Pastor Erre. It was a statement enthusiastically co-signed by the other two. He said: “You can’t follow the Sermon on the Mount and engage in a culture war.” That very concisely summarizes the effeminate, castrated form of Christianity that has invaded the christian church like a parasite. And it could not possibly be more wrong. You might as well say that you can’t be a good boxer if you know how to throw a punch. It is a statement that misses the point so much as to be basically unintelligible. It is a wrongness so wrong that it induces stroke symptoms in those who encounter it. No, pastor. Let me clear this up for you. You can’t follow the Sermon on the Mount unless you engage in the culture war. “Do not light a candle and put it under a bushel.” “Let your light shine before men.” That’s what Jesus tells us in the Sermon on the Mount. And that is the culture war. It is being a light, a flame, a torch of truth in the darkness. What do you think a culture war is? Let’s break this down. I’ll try to make it as simple as possible for you: Culture is nothing less than everything that makes up society — our institutions, our traditions, our customs, our art, our collective achievements. Everything that defines our society. That is the culture. The culture war, therefore, is the fight over that. Am I Racist? Is In Theaters NOW — Get Your Tickets Here! Nearly every aspect of our society — of our culture — is now controlled and defined by an ideology that not only denies but aggressively militates against Christian values and christian teaching. It’s an ideology that embraces and promotes debauchery, relativism, self-worship. An ideology that celebrates the mass slaughter of the unborn. An ideology that seeks to inflame resentment, suspicion, and hostility between different races. Which is what our movie deals with. We want to stop that, defeat that ideology and install Christian values in its place. The other option is to surrender. Tell me, pastor, which part of the Sermon on the Mount calls for us to surrender to evil? Where did you see that? Can you quote me a chapter and verse on that one? What I see when I read the Scriptures are continued, relentless calls to fight evil, not lie down and acquiesce to it. But you know all of that, don’t you? See, people like you pretend to be too good for the “culture war.” You stick up your nose and act like you’re above it all. But in reality, you are yourself actively fighting a culture war. You’re fighting one right now. All three of you in that video were fighting a culture war in the video itself. It’s just that you’re fighting on the other side. Trying to convince us not to fight is a battle tactic that you are employing. You are employing it on behalf of the side that despised Christian values, Christian teaching, and the truth of the Gospel. And, sadly, this tactic has been very effective up to this point. But that’s starting to change now, finally. We see you people for what you really are, and what you’re really doing, and who you are really aligned with.

Data from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) that was released this week show that hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens in the U.S. are serious criminals. Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-TX) released the data as Vice President Kamala Harris was set to make her first serious visit to the southern border where she is responsible for the administration’s disastrous policies that have led to more than 10 million illegal aliens pouring into the U.S. “As of July 21, 2024, there were 662,566 noncitizens with criminal histories on ICE’s national docket, which includes those detained by ICE, and on the agency’s non-detained docket,” said Patrick J. Lechleitner, Deputy Director and Senior Official Performing the Duties of the Director for ICE, in a letter to Gonzales. “Of those, 435,719 are convicted criminals, and 226,847 have pending criminal charges,” he added. The data included a chart that listed the charge, if the illegal alien was detained, and if they were convicted or had charges pending. The most disturbing stats were the number of criminals convicted of serious crimes who are not detained because of Democrat sanctuary policies, including: Arson: 792 Assault: 62,231 Burglary: 14,301 Dangerous Drugs: 56,533 Fraud: 15,979 Homicide: 13,099 Kidnapping: 2,521 Sexual Assault: 15,811 Weapon Offenses: 13,423 Gonzales said that the staggering numbers were a direct result of the Biden-Harris administration’s policies. Am I Racist? Is In Theaters NOW — Get Your Tickets Here! “The truth is clear—illegal immigrants with a criminal record are coming into our country,” he said. “The data released by ICE is beyond disturbing, and it should be a wake-up call for the Biden-Harris administration and cities across the country that hide behind sanctuary policies. It’s time for Washington to move past rhetoric and toward results.” “Americans deserve to feel safe in their communities,” he continued. “As an Appropriator, I will do everything in my power to ensure ICE has the resources necessary to deport noncitizens with a criminal record—this must be a priority. The Biden-Harris administration also plays a part in cleaning up the mess their failed policies have created. They have the ear of sanctuary city mayors—it’s time to encourage them to reverse course and put the safety of American citizens first.”

Two global warming protesters who threw cans of tomato soup over the glass frame of Vincent Van Gogh’s “Sunflower” painting have been sentenced to time in prison for their actions. On Friday, a London court sentenced Anna Holland, 22, and Phoebe Plummer, 23, from the activist group Just Stop Oil, to two years and 20 months in prison for their so-called protest against fossil fuels at a museum in London in 2022, CNN reported. Both Holland and Plummer were found guilty of criminal damage to the pieces of art’s gold-colored frame.  Judge Christopher Hehir blasted the two for their actions against the “cultural treasure,” which he said could have been “seriously damaged or even destroyed” by them by throwing soup on the paintings and then glueing their hands to the museum wall. The “Sunflowers” painting is valued at nearly $85 million. “Soup might have seeped through the glass. You couldn’t have cared less if the painting was damaged or not,” Hehir said in court. “You had no right to do what you did to ‘Sunflowers.’” ? BREAKING: 3 YEARS 8 MONTHS COMBINED IN PRISON FOR THROWING SOUP ⛓️ Phoebe and Anna have just been sentenced to 2 years and 20 months in prison respectively after throwing soup over the glass frame of Van Gogh’s ‘Sunflowers’. ? Phoebe received a further 3 months for… pic.twitter.com/JBjCgObiic — Just Stop Oil (@JustStop_Oil) September 27, 2024 Plummer was also sentenced to an additional 3 months in prison for her part in a “slow march” in the road in October 2023 in London. “You clearly think your beliefs give you the right to commit crimes when you feel like it,” Hehir said. “You do not.” Am I Racist? Is In Theaters NOW — Get Your Tickets Here! Shortly after the sentences were handed down, more vandals from the same protest group shared a clip of three peeople  throwing cans of soup over the glass on not one but two Vincent Van Gogh paintings “in the ‘Poets and Lovers’ exhibition at the National Gallery,” per the post on X. The London judge is the same person who handed down sentences in July to five other so-called climate activists in the U.K. from Just Stop Oil or its allied group, Extinction Rebellion. The court found the vandals guilty of “conspiring intentionally to cause a public nuisance,” after it had recruited people to climb structures along the M25 — a major traffic route around London — in November 2022, the outlet noted. Hehir sentenced four out of five of the activists to four-year jail terms, while the group’s co-founder, Roger Hallam, was handed a five year sentence. Related: WATCH: Global Warming Protesters Vandalize One Of World’s Most Iconic Art Masterpieces

Blake Shelton and Gwen Stefani welcomed a new family member to their family—an adorable kitten that they nursed back to health after finding him weak and abandoned. Blake Shelton and Gwen Stefani Welcome A Kitten To Their Family View this post on Instagram A post shared by Gwen Stefani (@gwenstefani) Gwen shared a touching video that showed them caring for the kitten when he was malnourished and fighting for his life. Then, it transitioned to now and showed their four-legged friend happy and healthy. The caption shares, “He was hardly alive + so sick, but with a lot of love + nurturing, he became a healthy kitten. We’re so grateful that he’s a part of our family.” They named this adorable new addition Corn Shelton. Gwen Stefani and Blake Shelton introduced their new family member on September 26. Now, fans love Corn as much as the couple loves him. Furthermore, commenters were sure to praise Gwen and Blake for being so kind and taking the kitten in. One user wrote, “God led him to the right house .” Another added, “He found a good house lol, and he has no idea.” A third chimed in, “Omggg so precious! So happy he’s healthy and with u guys and now has a family with lots of love.” Blake Shelton’s Big, Loving Family Although the couple doesn’t post many pictures of their fur babies online, they seem to have quite a few. PEOPLE wrote, “It’s thought she has another cat and two dogs called Betty and Ginger, along with the farm animals on the ranch she and husband Shelton live on in Tishomingo, Oklahoma.” Also, in 2023, Gwen Stefani shared a clip of her cat having kittens, so pet parents have their hands full with incredibly cute critters. When these stars are not busy making music, they are busy saving and loving all of the animals in the world. We are so happy that Blake Shelton and Gwen Stefani welcomed little kitten Corn to their family. The source of the featured image is here. The post Blake Shelton & Gwen Stefani Introduce Their Newest “Family” Member In Sweet Video appeared first on InspireMore.

'Considerably more unsafe!'

Vail Resorts would lay off 14 percent of its corporate workforce

North Carolina has removed nearly 750,000 ineligible voter records from its rolls in the past 20 months, or more than 1,200 per day, the North Carolina State Board of Elections said Thursday.  BREAKING: The North Carolina Election Board just revealed that they have removed 750,000 names from the voter rolls, including 130,000 dead people and 290,000 registrations that were duplicatesThis comes after Republicans filed a lawsuit, showing 225,000 names were unlawfully… pic.twitter.com/sU98iLraiT— George (@BehizyTweets) September 26, 2024 The election board’s announcement also says that the board follows “careful policies” to ensure that only ineligible records are removed, not those of eligible voters, and spells out the reasons why registrants are removed.   Those reasons include moving to a new location, inactive voter status, felony status, death, duplicate registration, requests to be removed, or lack of citizenship.   “North Carolina election officials should be commended for taking the steps necessary to guarantee the accuracy of the state’s voter rolls by removing individuals who have died, moved out of state, been convicted of a felony, or otherwise become ineligible to vote,” says Hans von Spakovsky, manager of the Election Law Reform Initiative and senior legal fellow at The Heritage Foundation, adding: By doing so, they are protecting the franchise of the voters of North Carolina from being diluted and offset by invalid votes. But election officials are also complying with the requirements of federal law that require states to have accurate voter registration lists.   Von Spakovsky served two years as a member of the Federal Election Commission, the agency that enforces federal campaign finance laws and oversees public funding for presidential campaigns. Von Spakovsky was also appointed to the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity in 2017 by then-President Trump, according to The Washington Post.  The North Carolina election board’s announcement says that the most common reason why voter registrants were removed from the rolls is due to moving to another address, with nearly 290,000 registrants being removed for that reason among the more than 747,000 total. The second leading reason for removal is that some voters hold an “inactive status,” with 33% of registrants falling into that category.   An “inactive status” indicates that the registrants have skipped voting in at least two general federal elections and did not respond to their county board of election’s attempts to contact them, according to the state board.   The deaths of registrants account for more than 17% of those removed from the rolls.   The announcement of the removal of registrants comes after North Carolina residents’ complaints about voter registration forms neglecting to require a driver’s license number or the last four digits of a Social Security number, according to a late August lawsuit filed by North Carolina Republicans.   NCGOP_v._NCSBE_-_Verified_Complaint_1724443002Download The lawsuit was filed by the Republican National Committee and the North Carolina Republican Party, which said in the document that the state had failed to act on complaints about ineligible people remaining on voter rolls.  North Carolina removes 747,000 from voter rolls, citing ineligibility That’s a lot of ineligible voters removed https://t.co/lenfMv8KHL— Julio Rosa ?? (@combatinsight) September 27, 2024 The state election board says that North Carolina has nearly 7.7 million registered voters.   The post North Carolina Removes 750,000 Ineligible Voters From Its Rolls appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Red Alert: 'Intentional' Faulty Welds During Maintenance on Our Subs and Carriers?