Citing threats to public safety and national security “so elevated all at once,” FBI director Christopher Wray seeks a budget of $11.3 billion, a 6.1 percent increase over fiscal year 2023. While members of Congress think it over, they might run a few questions by the director. Threats to national security may indeed be escalating in 2024. So are threats to the rights and freedoms of the people. Last August in Utah, an FBI SWAT team killed Craig Robertson, a 75-year-old woodworker, for threats against Joe Biden he had allegedly posted on line. Utah Sen. Mike Lee wonders if the shooting of Robertson was justified, but Wray has kept rather quiet about the killing. The agency tasked to protect the president is the Secret Service, so why did the FBI mount this deadly operation? Has the bureau conducted an investigation of this shooting? Will the FBI release the autopsy report? Who gave the order to use deadly force? Did the FBI shooter or shooters receive any kind of commendation? (READ MORE from Lloyd Billingsley: The New South-North Economic Dialogue) “The mission of the FBI is to protect the American people and uphold the Constitution of the United States.” If so, why is the FBI arresting pro-life activists such as Mark Houck for simply exercising their right of free speech? Last year Houck was acquitted on federal charges stemming from a 2021 incident in Pennsylvania. Has that challenged the FBI over the wisdom of this policy? Are parents who protest peacefully at school board meetings really domestic terrorists and violent extremists? “Ahead of the threat through leadership, agility, and integration — outlines the FBI’s desired strategic position,” reads the FBI’s vision statement. “The FBI will achieve this by continuously evolving to mitigate existing threats and recognizing and anticipating threats it has not yet seen.” The people have a right to wonder how this vision plays out in reality. In 2016, actual terrorist Omar Mateen gunned down 49 people and wounded more than 50 others at a nightclub in Orlando, Florida. Why did the FBI fail to prevent this act of terrorism? Why did the FBI play no role in the takedown of Mateen? In 2015 in San Bernardino, California, terrorists Syed Farook and Tashfeen Malik murdered 14 people and wounded more than 20 others. Why did the FBI fail to prevent this mass murder? Why did the FBI play no role in the takedown of the terrorists? As in Orlando, that was accomplished by local police, with no civilian casualties. Russian intelligence warned the FBI about Tamerlan Tsarnaev. Why did the FBI fail to prevent Tamerlan and brother Dzhokhar from bombing the Boston Marathon in 2013? The attack claimed three lives and wounded more than 250 others. In 2009, the FBI was aware that U.S. Army Maj. Nidal Hasan, a self-proclaimed “soldier of Allah,” was communicating with al-Qaeda terrorist Anwar al-Awlaki about killing Americans. The Washington office of the FBI judged that Hasan was “not involved in terrorist activities” and dropped the surveillance. On November 5, 2009 at Fort Hood, Texas, Hasan murdered 13 American soldiers, including Pvt. Francheska Velez, who was pregnant. The more than 30 wounded included Sgt. Alonzo Lunsford, who took seven bullets from Hasan. Who gave the order to drop the surveillance on Hasan? Was any FBI official disciplined, demoted, or dismissed over that failure?  Why did the FBI fail to stop the massive terrorist attack of September 11, 2001, and the first attack on the World Trade Center in 1993? That year the FBI was involved in the assault on the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas, in which military tanks were deployed. Seventy-five people perished, including 25 children. The year before in rural Idaho, the FBI deployed military force against the family of Randy Weaver. FBI sniper Lon Horiuchi shot dead Randy’s wife Vicki as she held her infant child. The mother was unarmed, not under arrest, and not wanted for any crime. Snipers are trained carefully to “acquire” the target, so slim chance the shooting was accidental, as the FBI maintains. Director Wray, who was never an FBI agent, is doubtless aware of this incident. What are his views on government deployment of military force against civilians? The people have a right to know, especially in an election year. Members of Congress might also ask Christopher Wray if the FBI has covert operations such as  “Crossfire Hurricane” or “Midyear Exam” in the works against any candidate, member of Congress, or private citizen. The people have a right to know. (READ MORE: Biden FCC Threatens Free Speech by Restoring Internet Regulations) Threats to national security may indeed be escalating in 2024. So are threats to the rights and freedoms of the people. Congress should hold off on the $11.3 billion until Christopher Wray answers some hard questions about the FBI’s actual record upholding the Constitution. To guard against mounting security threats, the incoming Congress might look for better ways to spend $11.3 billion. Lloyd Billingsley is a policy fellow at the Independent Institute in Oakland, Calif. The post Does the FBI Deserve $11.3 Billion? appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.

Lina Khan, President Biden’s Federal Trade Commission chairwoman, says that she isn’t a fan of anti-consumer monopolies. That’s great; both sides of the aisle should agree that action against problematic behemoths is warranted. However, cherry-picking which companies do and don’t receive government scrutiny, seemingly for political reasons, is not so great. Unfortunately, this “winners and losers” approach to Khan’s regulatory work has become commonplace, and it’s greatly affecting American consumers’ welfare. Comer must identify any revolving doors that exist between this agency and its favored industry actors. Case in point: Recently, the Biden FTC again went after groups known as pharmacy benefit companies, which health plans hire to negotiate their prices down. Khan and others have accused these companies of skimming too much of the cost-savings they accrue for themselves. While it’s fine that Khan keeps looking into PBMs — it’s her job, after all, and I supported strong oversight and reviews of PBMs while in Congress — it’s quite odd that, over the last three years, she hasn’t seemed willing to even initiate a cursory investigation of any of the other corporate entities within the supply chain that may be ballooning consumers’ healthcare bills. Thus far, the Big Pharma companies that shower political leaders with campaign contributions have evaded her scrutiny, as have the problem hospitals that data shows are price gouging. When it comes to healthcare, it seems that the special healthcare interests that treat the Biden administration and Democrats in Congress well have evaded scrutiny. In contrast, the interest groups they disfavor regularly receive the administrator’s regulatory gulag. This isn’t how the FTC — one of the leading pro-consumer agencies in the country — is supposed to function. To her credit, Khan has remained reasonably transparent about being unfair throughout her FTC tenure. In 2021, her commission even rescinded the consumer welfare standard. This policy guidepost ensured the FTC interceded in the economy when consumers faced harm from predatory business interests — and only in such cases. (READ MORE: Beware Congress’ Latest Big Pharma Enrichment Scheme) Rescinding this standard benefited the Biden administration, giving it more political power. It has significantly increased the White House’s ability to weaponize the state against its political enemies in various industries while keeping other potentially harmful conglomerates that it sees as allies protected. But this increased power came at an incalculable cost to the health of the American republic. It transformed yet another once invaluable governmental institution into dust, turning one of consumers’ most reliable public sector allies into an enemy. Republicans need to stop this mockery of our age-old institutions. Although the GOP doesn’t control the White House or the Senate, it does control the House of Representatives. It’s here that they can shine in rooting out any potential corruption at the FTC and recovering its consumer-oriented mission. The best man for this job is Rep. James Comer (R-KY), who has chaired the powerful House Oversight and Accountability Committee since 2020 and served it well. His committee, the main investigative committee of the House, has earned a hard-won reputation for exposing waste, fraud, and abuse. So far, on healthcare specifically, Rep. Comer has (like Khan) held extensive hearings on PBMs, but he hasn’t yet started investigating the drug companies or hospitals. He needs to add them to his healthcare investigatory pile to ensure that Khan and Biden don’t get away with picking winners and losers — and fair pricing and level playing fields in the healthcare industry can finally emerge. (READ MORE: FTC: Let Europe Run America) Beyond this one issue, Rep. Comer should also go broader and investigate Lina Khan and the Biden FTC more broadly. He needs to determine if there have been meetings or other questionable interactions between the commission and Big Pharma and the other special interests helped by the commission’s selective regulatory agenda. Comer must identify any revolving doors that exist between this agency and its favored industry actors. We’re all keeping our popcorn on standby. Renee Ellmers is a Registered Nurse and former member of Congress from North Carolina. The post Biden’s FTC Must Not Pick Winners and Losers appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.

Hollywood needs to make more movies like Richard Linklater’s Hit Man which is currently streaming on Netflix along with a limited theater release. The movie tells the story of a college professor Gary Johnson (Glen Powell) who assists the police department by posing as a contract killer to entrap would-be murderers. Gary’s life spirals out of control when he falls in love with Madison (Adria Arjona) who has requested that he take out her abusive husband. A mélange of genres from suspense to film noir to romantic comedy to morality tale, Hit Man is an intelligent and engaging film that makes you want to watch it a second time. Hit Man is also appealing because like other recently released films … it is not woke. Co-written by Linklater and Powell, Hit Man is loosely based on the life of the real Gary Johnson  profiled in a 2001 Texas Monthly article by Skip Hollandsworth. When we meet Gary in the film, he is a professor of psychology at the University of New Orleans who has a side job assisting the police department with technical surveillance.  When the police department’s current “fake hit man” Jasper (Austin Amelio) gets suspended for a physical altercation with teenagers, Gary gets called up to take his place. His colleagues at the police department soon discover that this mild-mannered professor has a natural ability for role-playing along with an affinity for believable disguises. And before you know it, he has significantly improved the department’s undercover arrest statistics. One of the film’s most humorous  scenes takes place when Gary meets with Craig, a potential client (Mike Markoff) and describes in vivid detail his method for killing people and disposing of their bodies. The scene is funny because Gary is making the whole story up as he goes along yet Craig takes this graphic account as evidence that he is a hard core killer. Gary’s double life gets complicated when he meets Madison. First he tells her to take the money that she would have paid him to “kill” her husband to create a new life for herself. Then he later runs into her after she has supposedly divorced her husband and they become romantically involved. Of course, nothing is completely as it seems and Linklater keeps us guessing as to the character’s true intentions. The film is smart in that it poses moral questions without preaching a particular orthodoxy, an approach which is refreshing in today’s social justice driven culture. Powell who has been acting for the last twenty years is now suddenly Hollywood’s latest “it guy’. He is a wonderfully expressive and contemplative actor who at times appears to be channeling a mix of Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt. And the beautiful Arjona recalls a young Salma Hayek or Eva Mendes. Together, they have amazing chemistry both in and out of the love scenes. These are two physically attractive people who are made even more enticing by their emotional intensity. It is as if they share a secret about which we the audience may only speculate. The supporting cast including Austin Amelio, Sanjay Rao, Retta and Gralen Bryant Banks are also first-rate. Hit Man is also appealing because like other recently released films  The Fall Guy  and Ghostbusters: The Frozen Empire , which I also reviewed for these pages, it is not woke. Furthermore, Hit Man despite its subject matter also reaffirms traditional family values and the supremacy of good over evil. This recent crop of traditional values films from  a cancel-culture soil presents a hopeful harbinger that society has not gone completely off the ideological cliff. There are still people out there like Richard Linklater who want to tell stories about heroes who are still fighting the good fight against those who seek to tear our civilization apart. The distribution of Hit Man represents a curious departure from past models in that Netflix purchased the film for $20 million at the Venice Film Festival but only released the film in a limited number of theaters on May 31 before making it also available for streaming on June 7. Industry analysts have questioned this approach given the movie’s positive reviews and have expressed concern that by limiting the scope and duration of the film’s exclusive in theater availability, Netflix risks burying it with its other offerings. The results of this strategy remain to be seen but the film’s positive buzz with a Rotten Tomatoes 97 percent Tomatometer and a 95 percent Audience Score bode well for its finding a wide audience. I highly recommend Hit Man as an entertaining genre-blending cinema experience with sharp writing and excellent performances that also celebrates traditional values. And watch out for Glen Powell. He is about to become a big star. READ MORE reviews by Leonora Cravotta: Anthony Esolen Exposes Modern Liberal Fallacies in The Lies of Our Time The Fall Guy Honors Stunt People, Traditional Values Netflix Takes Liberties With Tom Wolfe’s A Man in Full The post <i>Hit Man</i> Is Destined To Become a Hit appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.

List of Characters Man: a 30-something year-old man attending a gay pride parade. Volunteer: a 30-something year-old male assigned by parade organizers to hand out fliers and paraphernalia along the parade route. The scene: A man watches a pride parade roll by when a volunteer handing out free SWAG approaches him. Volunteer: Hi, welcome to the gay pride parade! Please have a free pride T-shirt! Man: Wow, thank you! Nice design! What a vibrant rainbow. The unicorn wearing leather chaps is a nice flourish. Volunteer: Yeah, go ahead and put it on. Man: Oh, no thanks. I’ll put it on later. Volunteer. No. Put it on. Man (nervously): Uh, no thanks? Volunteer (after 10 seconds of unnerving silence): Put. The shirt on. Now! Man (terrified): I, uh, don’t want to. Volunteer (fuming): You don’t like gay people! Man: I’m at a gay pride parade! Volunteer: Are you gay? Man: No. But I largely support gay causes. Volunteer: You’re all talk — you probably don’t support gay marriage! Man: I was best man at my brother’s wedding to his husband in the Hamptons! Volunteer: Ah, I know — you don’t support trans women! Man: I do, too! Volunteer: Really? If you support trans women, then you won’t mind having sex with one. Man: Well, that’s just fine and—wait a minute! (Looking skyward as if reflecting on advanced calculus.) Does that mean … Y chromosome … Big Adam’s apple … Look, I don’t want to put the T-shirt on. Volunteer: Do you support Queers for Radical Islamic Terror? Man: Wait. Do you mean Queers for Palestine? Volunteer: Same thing. Man: Of course not. It’s impossible to support people whose extreme religious dictates, by and large, seek to kill homosexuals merely because they exist! Let me ask you: is gay marriage legal in Gaza? Volunteer: Not at the moment. Man: Why? Volunteer: Because they tend to throw the wedding parties off hotel roofs. Man: That’s right! They’re fanatics! The chalk outlines of Bert and Ernie can be seen on Sesame Street Gaza! And they’re not even gay! Supporting Queers for Palestine is like supporting Embryos for Abortion. Volunteer: Do you support drag queen story hours for children at public libraries or family-friendly drag shows? Man: I, well, no. I don’t support any man or woman presenting anything remotely sexual — gay or straight — to children beyond its procreative meaning. Heck, I remember that from the fourth grade. But children are impressionable and easily confused, and there’s no need for kindergartners to learn about gratuitous sex. Kids should never view images of oral sex or a sex act of any kind in books available in school libraries. And I would wager a vast majority of gay people who want to live their lives agree with me. Volunteer: Did Hitler dedicate Mein Kampf to you? You are a Neanderthal fit to be pilloried. What do you have against gay people? Man: Nothing! It’s just that — Volunteer: Ah! I knew it! Just that what? Man: I don’t think you should call it Pride Month. Volunteer: Why not? Man: Because Pride is one of the seven deadly sins. It’s considered the deadliest sin that leads to all other sins. It’s the excessive love of one’s own excellence. Remember, Proverbs 16:18 says, “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.” Volunteer: Haughty spirit? What does John Kerry have to do with any of this? Man: Can you name one other month when we celebrate sin? I mean, it’s not like we label July Gluttony Month. Volunteer: You idiot. This is the United States of America. Have you been to a Waffle House? We celebrate Gluttony every day of the year! Man: I appreciate the T-shirt. I don’t want to wear it now. Volunteer: You are selfishness with man boobs. Man: Listen to me! I want to know one thing. Why do you want me to put on this shirt so badly? Volunteer: Because people like you need to learn tolerance! READ MORE satire from Matt Manochio: Book Chapter: Noem vs. The Cartel It’s Good That Some Truth Is Suppressed The NBC News Job Ad For a Republican Political Analyst The post The Pride Play appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.

from Jim Crenshaw:  TRUTH LIVES on at https://sgtreport.tv/

by Matt Agorist, The Free Thought Project: (Covert Action Magazine) A confluence of horrific policies is converging that threatens the freedom of homeless people in the United States. Governors and big city mayors across the western United States are demanding the “right” to drive the homeless from view and have pushed for the Supreme Court to […]

Results in France look as bad as had been forecast, per exit polls. Macon’s party barely gets 2nd place – and less than half the 31.5% of the National Rally of Marine Le Pen. Will have consequences in France, but also Europe. pic.twitter.com/MaFBAWHz6H — Stanley Pignal (@spignal) June 9, 2024

Influential alt.rock trio Failure were tipped for stardom, but imploded in a haze of drugs and exasperation

Right-wing victories being celebrated across Europe, but France is perhaps the biggest story, with Emmanuel Macron calling new elections following his party’s catastrophic defeat. FRANCE: REMIX News Perhaps the biggest news following European Parliament elections were the results from France, which saw France’s National Rally Party (headed by Marine Le Pen) storm into first place […]