The past month has brought news of myriad spectacular triumphs by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), at the expense of Israel’s, America’s, and the West’s mortal enemies in the Mideast: Iran and its putrid proxies. In a few weeks, the IDF has: (1) destroyed the last terrorist brigades of Hamas in Gaza and killed its terror mastermind Yahya Sinwar; (2) is well underway to dismantling Hezbollah’s huge arsenal of rockets and terrorist army; (3) retaliated against the Houthis in Yemen — even as they hold world commercial shipping hostage in the Red Sea; and (4) frustrated Iran’s feeble long-distance efforts to damage Israel. Gilder recently called Israel “the leader of the Free World.” The relatively timid terror-state/proxy response to Israel’s going on full-bore offense attests to: (1) the effectiveness of Israel’s actions; (2) the fear thereby instilled in terrorist leaders contemplating reprisal; (3) the fecklessness of American efforts — increasingly ignored by Israel — to temper Israel’s response, in the absurd hopes that negotiations will yield a deal that ends the fighting; and (4) the equally absurd hopes that a ceasefire will lead to a durable “just and lasting” peace agreement. Gilder on Israel Enter George Gilder in 2024, one of the premier American intellectuals of the past half-century, with the second edition of his 2009 book, The Israel Test. Therein, he provides abundant anecdotes and data to persuade readers that Israel, not America, is now the leader of the free world; and further, that if the West does not wake up and follow Israel’s lead, it, too, will collapse. Gilder (a colleague of mine at the Seattle-based Discovery Institute), combines historical scholarship, much of it unknown to the American public — by even many actively involved in Mideast issues — with acute analysis of the underlying dynamics and future prospects for change. Gilder describes the astonishing agricultural contributions Jews emigrating to the Holy Land made on land barren for 1,200 years, beginning with the 7th century Muslim conquest and reaching its nadir during the last 400 years of the Ottoman empire. The land in question, Britain’s Palestine Mandate, was topographically similar to Southern California, with even more potential for productive growth. Beginning with the first settlement, established in 1878, Jewish immigrants within 50 years made the land fertile, conquering malaria in the process. Notably, Jews purchased tracts of land at above-market prices from absentee Arab owners (effendi), and subsidized relocation for displaced tenant farmers. Gilder divides the postwar period into three segments. From 1948 to 1967 Jordan ruled Judea and Samaria (a/k/a the West Bank), and Egypt held sway over the Sinai Peninsula and the Gaza Strip. Under the socialist superintendence of the United Nations, stagnation in refugee camps was the order of the day. But those in Palestine under Arab governance nonetheless did better than those trapped in UN camps. The second period, 1967-1990, saw Israeli administration of territories recovered during the Six Day War, albeit Sinai reverted to Egyptian control in 1979. West Bank and Gaza economies boomed. Until the 1987 First Intifada (“shaking off”), Palestinians enjoyed unprecedented prosperity, one of the fastest growth rates worldwide. Save for Arabs living in the U.S., the average Palestinian did better than typical Arabs living in any other country. The third period, 1991-present, was dominated by the 1993 Oslo Accords that created the risibly named “peace process.” Upon terrorist Yasir Arafat’s return to take over the Palestine Authority (PA), the Palestinian economy cratered. Under terrorist kleptocrats, it has never recovered, embracing what Arab leader Musa Almai told Jewish Agency leader David Ben-Gurion in 1934: “I would prefer that the country remains impoverished and barren for another 100 years, until we ourselves are able to develop it on our own.” But this period was also marked by Israel’s transformation into “Startup Nation.” It came to pass because Bibi, Ariel Sharon’s finance minister, sought a U.S. sovereign loan guarantee to give Israel access to Western financial markets. President Bush’s treasury secretary, John Snow, conditioned the loan on Israel shrinking the size of its public sector. Within a few years, Israel’s public sector shrank from 60 to 20 percent of its GDP. The Bottom Line Gilder recently called Israel “the leader of the Free World.” As America equivocates, Israel acts. If Israel succeeds, Pax Judaica will supplant Pax Americana. If Israel fails, we will see neither Pax Sinica nor Pax Sovietica, but a chaotic era of sauve qui peut (“save oneself who can”). READ MORE from John C. Wohlstetter: Fixing Presidential Debates: Lose the Moderators Will 2024 Bring Doom for the Filibuster and the Court? John C. Wohlstetter is the author of Presidential Succession: Constitution, Congress and National Security (Gold Institute Press, 2024) The post Israel and the Twilight of the Terror Masters appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.

America’s intelligence agencies have been politicized to such an extent by left-wing ideologues in recent years that they have been transformed from respected defenders of American national security interests into a leftist police state bureaucracy.  This is the basic premise of Dr. J. Michael Waller’s book, Big Intel: How the CIA and FBI Went from Cold War Heroes to Deep State Villains. Dr. Waller provided an in-depth discussion of his book and the current state of America’s intel agencies at an event hosted by the Bastiat Society of Washington, DC on September 6, 2024. Thus, he favors a new executive order to abolish the FBI and transfer its useful functions to other agencies. Waller’s talk outlined the historical timeline of this transformation, via a long communist “Red thread,” dating back more than a century to a meeting in 1922 at the Marx-Engels Institute in Moscow. The meeting was attended by the leaders of the European communist parties to consider how to spread the revolution into the Western democracies, including the United States, after having recently succeeded with Lenin’s Bolshevik revolution in Russia in 1917. Their first target was Germany.  The communists’ strategy for a takeover of Germany was to foment distrust and dissatisfaction with the country’s relatively new constitutional republic, the Weimer Republic, established in 1919.  Unfortunately for the communists, Hitler’s National Socialist German Workers’ Party, aka the Nazis, had the same idea, capitalized on turmoil created by the communists, and successfully preempted the communists’ takeover of the country. The ideological force behind the communists’ agenda in Germany was an unofficial school of thought known as the Frankfurt School, established in 1923 at Goethe University in Frankfurt, Germany.  Its purpose was to promote the communist ideology of Karl Marx.  After Hitler achieved power in 1933, most of the scholars of the Frankfurt School fled Germany to other European countries and to the United States. In the United States, prominent Marxist scholars from the Frankfurt School established a presence at Columbia University in 1934 under the name of the Institute for Social Research.  This group of Frankfurt School scholars developed and promoted the ideas of critical theory, which espouses relentless criticism of an existing order for the purpose of destroying it and replacing it with a new communist revolutionary order. Critical theory led to the development of critical law theory, critical race theory, and critical gender theory.  Dr. Waller stated during his talk that critical law theory gradually spread throughout American higher education and is now taught at almost every law school in the United States.  This has led to law school graduates trained in critical law theory to gravitate to legal careers that advocate the various forms of critical theory, which, in practical employment terms, means careers primarily in leftwing advocacy groups and government. Critical race theory and critical gender theory have gradually become established social policies in the federal government under the name of “diversity, equity, and inclusion” or DEI policy. Essentially, DEI rejects the primacy of individual rights, merit-based advance, objectivity, and excellence on the grounds that these concepts are merely strategies used by the dominant group (white men) to subjugate minority racial, gender, and sexuality groups. Critical law theory and DEI policy is now so prevalent in the federal government that Dr. Waller stated up to 97 percent of political donations from U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) employees are given to Democrats per Federal Election Commission data.  This is an indicator of how politically-lopsided the DOJ has become in favoring Democrats and socialist, left-wing policy over Republicans and conservative policy. Thus, the federal agency most responsible for enforcing U.S. law is also one of the most politically biased and not representative of most of the country. The predominance of attorneys trained in critical law theory at American law schools and now employed at the DOJ has spread into the FBI and the other intelligence agencies.  Thus, Waller’s reference to the “Red thread” means that the long-term objective of the communist leaders who met at the Marxist-Engels Institute in Moscow in 1922 has been significantly achieved with the gradual spread of Marxist progressive ideology throughout American institutions. Waller Names Names Waller mentioned several recent U.S. government officials with radical anti-American backgrounds who burrowed into the government bureaucracy many years ago and eventually rose to its most senior positions. For example, former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder was a self-described leftist radical during his college days at Columbia University where he participated in student riots and an armed takeover of a Columbia University ROTC office in 1970. Also, Obama’s CIA director, John Brennan, voted for Communist Party USA presidential candidate Gus Hall in the 1976 U.S. presidential election.  And Obama’s FBI director, James Comey, actually identified himself as a communist during his college days in an October 2003 interview with New York magazine.  The magazine suggested that Comey had ill-defined, self-promoting political views and a soul that was “up for grabs.” Waller explained that former senior government officials such as Holder, Brennan, and Comey are only representative of a new and much larger generation of like-minded officials that have spread throughout the intelligence agencies. It is Waller’s belief that critical theory now permeates the intelligence agencies to the point that open support and advocacy of DEI policies are now required for promotions, coveted assignments, pay raises, and bonuses.  Therefore, he argues, DEI policies within the intelligence agencies should be treated as a foreign-sponsored counter-intelligence problem, but the counter-intelligence and the public corruption divisions within the FBI are the two most politically corrupt parts of the FBI and should be the first to be cleaned out. The cultural decay and politicization of America’s intelligence agencies has become so deep and widespread that Waller believes simply changing the political leadership of the agencies or restructuring the organizational charts will not solve their systemic problems.  The problems can only be addressed by dramatically downsizing these agencies as well as drastic recruiting reforms, including banning hiring from schools that push critical theory. Interestingly, Waller points out that the FBI was never created by an act of Congress but by an executive order in 1908.  Thus, he favors a new executive order to abolish the FBI and transfer its useful functions to other agencies, such as the DOJ and the U.S. Marshals Service. As for the CIA, Waller commented that it is too large at 35,000 employees and wastes billions of dollars on intelligence information that can be found in the public domain. Rather, the CIA should only comprise around 1,500 employees who are engaged in needed covert intelligence activities. Needless to say, Waller paints a very dark picture of the current state of America’s intelligence agencies. He sees them as degraded and heavily-politicized left-wing bureaucracies that have compromised their intended missions of neutral service to the nation’s security and protecting the U.S. Constitution.  Waller’s book Big Intel is a must-read for those interested in this history and his discussion at the Bastiat Society of Washington, DC event on September 6, 2024 is found on Youtube here. READ MORE from Steve Dewey: Scholar: Kamala Harris Borrows From Karl Marx Turmoil at the FDIC Steve Dewey is a retired federal financial regulator and founder of GeoFinancial Trends, LLC (www.geofinancialtrends.org) and writes on Substack (stevedewey.substack.com).  He can be reached at steve@geofinancialtrends.org The post Expert Michael Waller: America’s Intel Agencies Are Compromised appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.

Israeli Police and Israel Defense Force (IDF) forensic teams spent the first day of the Jewish High Holiday of Sukkot on Thursday, October 17, working to determine if the body of one of the three terrorists killed the previous day in Gaza belonged to the top Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.  While incarcerated, Sinwar underwent life-saving brain surgery by Israeli doctors after an Israeli dentist discovered a brain tumor. “At this time, the identity of the terrorist cannot be confirmed,” the IDF stated Thursday afternoon amid mounting anticipation. But by early evening, reports confirmed that Sinwar had in fact been eliminated. Sinwar had been the military commander and political leader of the Hamas chapter in Gaza until early August when he was announced as the new leader of Hamas — which also operates in the West Bank and minimally in Lebanon, Egypt, Qatar, and Turkey — following the Israeli air strike that killed former leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran.  The incident leading to Sinwar’s death began on Wednesday, October 16, when IDF troops from the 828th Bislamach Brigade, operating in the southern Gazan city of Rafah, observed three Hamas officials entering a building. The Brigade was soon met with resistance and a fire fight broke out with Hamas combatants on the ground floor. After confirming that no hostages were kept in the vicinity, the troops called for an artillery strike that collapsed part of the building. While inspecting the rubble, the soldiers noticed that one of the bodies — with a hole in the head due to collapsed concrete — looked strikingly similar to Sinwar.  The body of the suspect was not moved from the demolition site for several hours due to a high threat of booby-traps in the area and the fact that the military vest on the body contained several grenades which could have been rigged. Part of a finger, however, was removed to expedite identity testing. Large caches of money and hi-tech communication devices were also found next to the body.  Despite rumors spreading like wildfire and headlines over the holiday that rushed to proclaim Sinwar’s death, the IDF maintained that a full forensic investigation must be conducted before conclusions are made. The body was extracted and brought to Israel late on Thursday and the IDF and police set to work determining whether or not the DNA, dental samples, and fingerprints from the cadaver belonged to Sinwar, a process that can take up to several hours. Israel possesses samples of Sinwar’s DNA, fingerprints, and dental records from the time the terrorist leader had spent much of his adult life in Israeli prisons. Over the course of the war, Sinwar had been among the most wanted terrorists for his mastermind planning of the October 7 attack. Earlier this year, in February, IDF Spokesman Daniel Hagari released footage of Sinwar walking through the Gaza tunnels and stated: “The hunt for Sinwar will not stop until we catch him, dead or alive.” The terrorist leader managed to evade detection for an entire year, with many intelligence officials suspecting him to be hiding amongst Israeli hostages as human shields deep within the tunnels of Gaza. Upon hearing the news on Thursday afternoon, Israel Defense Minister Yoav Gallant tweeted on X a quote from Leviticus 26: “You will pursue your enemies, and they will fall before you by the sword.”  Although the IDF was not intentionally pursuing any leads on Sinwar when they engaged in Rafah on Wednesday —they did not know he was one of the officials entering the building — his confirmed elimination is something of a crown jewel in the long roster of Hamas and Hezbollah leaders assassinated in recent months by the IDF’s intelligence-informed precision strikes.  Born in 1962 in the Gaza city of Khan Younis, Sinwar joined Hamas soon after Sheikh Ahmed Yassin founded the terrorist group in 1987. He oversaw the terrorist group’s internal security and intelligence within Gaza and implemented ruthless means of torture or death to anyone accused of collaborating with Israel, earning him the moniker “butcher of Khan Younis.” Sinwar Spent Years in Israel Ironically, he became fluent in Hebrew during his 23 years in Israeli prison where he served four life-terms for killing Israeli soldiers and Palestinian collaborators. While incarcerated, Sinwar underwent life-saving brain surgery by Israeli doctors after an Israeli dentist discovered a brain tumor. He was then released in 2011, along with 1,027 other security prisoners, in exchange for the kidnapped IDF soldier Gilad Shalit.    When the IDF acted alone to take out Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in his underground bunker in Beirut on September 27, US officials in Washington responded with frustration for not being informed until the mission was well underway. This time, Defense Minister Gallant promptly informed his U.S. counterpart, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, of the likelihood of Sinwar’s death as the body was being investigated.  Although the U.S. has maintained unyielding military and political support for Israel over the past 12 months, the war has no doubt strained U.S.-Israel relations. Earlier this week, Israel received the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery from the U.S. — an advanced interception system to help deter and repel ballistic missile attacks from Iran as seen on April 14 and October 1. Yet, at the same time, the Biden White House is pressuring Israel Prime Minister Netanyahu to scale down IDF military campaigns in Gaza, where over 100 Israeli hostages are still missing, and to restrain from bombing Hezbollah arsenals in Beirut. Recently, the White House has rubbed shoulders with Jerusalem over insufficient aid to Gazan civilians as increased Israel vetting security delays or restricts aid trucks from Jordan on suspicion of arms smuggling.  In any given week it seems hard to pin down what exactly the current White House’s clear objectives are in the Middle East. On the other hand, Israel’s committed, intelligence-informed, precise, and timely targeting of top Hamas and Hezbollah leaders presents a clear statement of strength and deliberate retaliation for perpetrations against the Jewish state. Many of these targets also come with hefty U.S. bounties on their heads for killing U.S. servicemembers. Sinwar’s elimination is a significant blow to the Hamas leadership and another Israeli facilitated act of rightly deserved justice.  READ MORE from Bennett Tucker: Israel Fends Off Massive Iranian Missile Barrage Nasrallah’s Death: Israel Takes Step Toward Victory The post Israel Eliminates the ‘Butcher of Khan Younis’ appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.

WASHINGTON — In the middle of Kamala Harris’ Fox News interview Wednesday night, anchor Bret Baier brought up the vice president’s failure to articulate how she would govern differently from President Joe Biden during previous appearances on The View and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. Both times, Harris was asked how she would contrast herself. Both times, she fudged her answer. Asked if she would support government funding for gender transitioning among … inmates and detainees, Harris responded, “I will follow the law.” So when Baier asked Harris how her presidency would diverge from Biden’s, she should have seen it coming and been prepared with a brilliant answer. This is what she said: “Let me be very clear, my presidency will not be a continuation of Joe Biden’s presidency. And like every new president that comes into office, I will bring my life experiences, my professional experiences, and fresh and new ideas. I represent a new generation of leadership. I, for example, am someone who has not spent the majority of my career in Washington, D.C. I invite ideas whether it be from Republicans who support me who were just onstage with me minutes ago and the business sector and others who can contribute to the decisions that I make about, for example, my plan for increasing the supply of housing in America and bringing down the cost of housing.” When Baier interrupted her less-than-enlightening remarks, Harris countered that he needed to “let me finish” — which is her way of reminding women voters of the moment in 2020 when she schooled then-Vice President Mike Pence for interrupting her during their debate. “If you don’t mind letting me finish,” Harris noted, “we can have conversation, OK?” It’s four years later, and “let me finish” is her best rhetorical move. And it’s followed by empty filibusters. Either Harris doesn’t want voters to know what she thinks on illegal immigration, or she doesn’t know what she thinks. When Baier asked Harris a simple question — “How many illegal immigrants would you estimate your administration has released into the country over the last three and a half years?” — Harris had no answer. Instead, she offered her usual stale rhetoric about “a broken immigration system that needs to be repaired.” When Baier pressed Harris for a real answer, she went where she always goes: She hit Republicans for rejecting a bipartisan immigration bill this year. Fun fact that you’ll never hear from Harris: Biden could have passed an immigration bill during his first two years in office, when Democrats also controlled Congress. It didn’t happen. Could it be that Democrats didn’t want to solve the problem because they wanted to use it as an election issue — the accusation she frequently tosses at Trump? Harris could have offered that she changed her mind on the border after millions entered the country illegally and blue cities had to deal with waves of unvetted migrants in need of housing and other services, but then she would risk alienating progressives who favor an open border. Harris offered that she does not support decriminalizing border crossings. But that doesn’t mean a Harris administration would treat enforcement as a priority. Asked if she would support government funding for gender transitioning among transgender inmates and detainees, Harris responded, “I will follow the law.” So again, voters are left with a guessing game. Does Harris still believe in policies she embraced as a typical California Democrat, or has she seen the light? I was pleased that Baier asked the question that other journalists have failed to pose: When did Harris notice that Biden’s mental faculties diminished? And I was not surprised at her answer: Biden “has the judgment and experience” to serve in office, and besides, Biden “is not on the ballot.” True, Kamala Harris is on the ballot. And she doesn’t want voters to know where she stands. READ MORE from Debra J. Saunders: Why I’m Voting for Donald Trump Who Wants to Increase the National Debt? Both Trump and Harris Contact Review-Journal Washington columnist Debra J. Saunders at dsaunders@reviewjournal.com. Follow @debrajsaunders on X. COPYRIGHT 2024 CREATORS.COM The post Don’t Interrupt Kamala Harris With Questions appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.

There are two approaches to election prognostications. One is talked about ad infinitum as the election date approaches. The other is almost never mentioned, because it is not run by the media. The former group include the pollsters — the Gallups, Wall Street Journal, all legacy media outlets etc. — grand seers that predicate their results (and their paychecks) on statistics (data) that are at the heart of probability theory. Operating with a herd mentality at their toil — no one seems to want to climb out on that limb and run the risk of being wrong in their calculations (Hillary, 2016, remember?) — which of course brings us back to their paychecks. Given our two options … which one would you choose for accuracy, reliability, and honesty? That other group of fortune tellers are the “oddsmakers.” Their forecasting is not driven by polls. Rather, they listen to what people actually believe about who is more likely to win and are willing to put their money (their “paychecks”) at risk in doing so. No one calls and asks them what they think about this “elephant” or that “donkey (some prefer ‘jackass’).” No, it is the ones with the paycheck who call the oddsmakers and ultimately wager with their own money who they actually believe will win, not who they hope will. And they do this because they know there is no hype, spin, manipulation or agenda involved — just the odds which are derived from the preferred choices of those willing to wager their own money on — either this “elephant” or that “donkey.” The moment for choices is rapidly approaching. What is interesting is that if you compare these two camps of prognosticators, they yield vastly different results. Just remember, one is based on what someone wants to happen (with little at risk except perhaps their pride) and the other is a function of what an enormous number of people believe will happen — and are willing to risk hard earned money to underwrite their choice. It’s the specific knowledge of the “experts” against the cumulative knowledge of the crowd. The Election and the Pollsters The headline reads “US election ‘too close to call’ in swing states — Wall Street Journal poll.” According to the “probability gurus” at the Journal, Donald Trump and Kamala Harris are locked in a dead heat in all seven of the battleground states that will decide the outcome of next month’s presidential election. Sampling 4,200 voters (“registered” voters, not “likely” voters), the poll found Harris with an “oh-so-slight” lead over Trump in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, and Wisconsin, and Trump holding a slim advantage in Nevada, North Carolina and Pennsylvania. The Journal noted, however, that no lead is wider than two percentage points, except in Nevada, where Trump leads by five points. Across all seven swing states, Trump leads Harris by 46 percent to 45 percent, the poll found. Republicans and Democrats alike support their respective candidates, with independents preferring Harris to Trump (40 percent to 39 percent). Voters surveyed by the Journal ranked the economy and immigration as their top two issues of concern. They favored Trump on economic issues by 10 points, immigration and border security by 16, while Harris beats Trump on the issue of abortion by 16 points. Let us not forget — these are the same “political experts” who had Hillary Clinton with an 85 percent chance of in 2016 against the former president. The Election and the Oddsmakers But then there is that other approach to prognostication – the one based on choices of the public driven by their own risk assessment denominated in dollars. Though they headlines are fewer, they tell the story. From an October 15 New York Times headline, “Prediction Markets Tell a Different Story From the Polls.” And this recently from Business Insider, “The Trump trade is back on as betting markets swing in favor of a win for the former president.” Both U.S. and international betting markets shifted this weekend towards a Trump victory, with prediction sites such as BetOnline, Polymarket, PredictIt, and Kalshi all predicting Trump’s presidential chances are stronger than the incumbent V.P. In case you hadn’t noticed — stemming from the vice president’s deafening silence refusing to give unassisted interviews (ala CBS) — some continue to take her seriously. How is this possible? As of this date — October 18 — according to an average of betting odds by news website and data aggregator RealClearPolitics, oddsmakers give the Republican nominee a 58.5 percent chance of winning, and Harris a 40.4 percent chance. The Republican nominee took a particularly sharp lead October 14 with oddsmakers BetOnline (140-120), Bet365 (138-110) and Bovada (135-115). Bet365 posts its latest — October 18 — U.S. presidential election odds showing Trump with (163) a 61.9 percent implied probability to win the election over Harris’s (130) a 43.4 percent chance. The blockchain-based election betting site Polymarket priced in — October 18 — a 60 percent chance of a Trump victory, breaking the 60 percent threshold for the first time since late July, days after President Joe Biden bowed out of the race. Today, after three assassination attempts and an opponent with no platform other than a failed Biden agenda and “abortion advocacy,” the election still remains Trump’s to lose. Given our two options regarding prognostications for the upcoming November election and what drives the results, which one would you choose for accuracy, reliability, and honesty? The one with the spin based on hope (and utter contempt for the other candidate) or the one where someone’s “paycheck” is at risk? The latter really do not care whether they like or dislike the other candidate — their only interest is in who is likely to win — and they are willing to “put their money where their mouth is.” READ MORE from F. Andrew Wolf Jr.: Tolerance Is Just One of Many Important Virtues Kennedy Endorses Trump, Media Endorses Kamala The post The Election Prognosticators: Experts vs. the Crowd appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.

Ozzy Osbourne (pictured), Foreigner and Peter Frampton were officially inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame during a ceremony in Cleveland (home of the Hall) on 10/19. Present to accept the Foreigner award were original singer Lou Gramm, keyboardist Al Greenwood, and bassist Rick Wills. Guitarist Mick Jones missed the event for health reasons while drummer Dennis Elliot passed because he had issues with the scheduling. “It’s always been driven by my passion for guitar playing,” Frampton said of his career in his acceptance speech, The singer/guitarist had been eligible as a solo artist since ’97. Blues legends Alexis Korner and John Mayall were inducted in the Musical Influence category and MC5 (inducted by Rage Against The Machine’s Tom Morello) were honored in the Musical Excellence category. Non-Rock inductees include Kool & The Gang, Mary J. Blige Cher, Dave Matthews Band, A Tribe Called Quest, Big Mama Thornton, Jimmy Buffett and Dionne Warwick. ### The post Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame’s Official Inductions appeared first on RockinTown.

from The HighWire with Del Bigtree: TRUTH LIVES on at https://sgtreport.tv/

from The National Pulse: An independent panel investigating the attempted assassination of former President Donald J. Trump at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, has issued a scathing report, warning that similar incidents “can and will happen again” unless the Secret Service undergoes serious reforms. The 35-page report, commissioned by Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, highlights critical errors […]

In an interview, California Gov. Gavin Newsom backed Elon Musk in his dispute with the state’s agency that blocked a plan to increase SpaceX rocket launches off the Pacific coast. “The California Coastal Commission rejected the U.S. Air Force’s plans that permitted SpaceX to launch up to 50 rockets per year from Vandenberg Air Force Base in Santa Barbara County,” 100 Percent Fed Up previously reported. “I’m with Elon,” Newsom told the outlet. “I didn’t like that,” he added. "I'm With Elon": Gavin Newsom Unexpectedly Backs SpaceX In California Lawsuit Against Rogue Democrats  https://t.co/V8KRSsJ2Hv — zerohedge (@zerohedge) October 19, 2024 POLITICO reports: Musk sued the California Coastal Commission on Tuesday in federal court in Los Angeles, alleging it “engaged in naked political discrimination” when commissioners cited his support for former President Donald Trump in rejecting a Department of Defense proposal to expand the number of SpaceX launches at Vandenberg Space Force Base. “Look, I’m not helping the legal case,” Newsom acknowledged. He added, “You can’t bring up that explicit level of politics.” Newsom indicated he broadly agreed with the lawsuit and that the independent agency should have confined its debate to the merits of the permit rather than engage in a discussion of Musk’s political activities. “These are friends of mine that said that,” said Newsom, who appoints some of the members. “These are good commissioners. But you got to call balls and strikes. And trust me, I’m not big on the Elon Musk bandwagon right now. So that’s me calling balls and strikes.” ‘I’m with Elon’: Newsom sides with Musk over California agency on SpaceX launches https://t.co/IxEF0DjXXc — POLITICO (@politico) October 18, 2024 Per Zero Hedge: Newsom sided with SpaceX in the lawsuit and pointed out that an independent agency should have been involved, politics aside, in the decision-making process for rocket launches at the base. Newsom understands that, unlike many Democrats, SpaceX has become a critical part of national security rocket programs. In fact, Musk’s rocket company is quite literally America’s space program in terms of space launches and total mass catapulted into low Earth Orbit. SpaceX will even rescue Boeing’s stranded crew at the International Space Station early next year. Using data from BryceTech, SpaceX launched 525 spacecraft into orbit in the first quarter, far outpacing China and Russia. Musk is America’s rocket program: SpaceX launched about 429,125 kg of spacecraft upmass in the first quarter, significantly outpacing China’s rocket program (China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation), which launched a measly 29,426 kg. Much of this is due to SpaceX’s Starlink deployment in LEO, as thousands of these satellites provide high-speed internet coverage to millions of customers worldwide. WATCH:

A ferry dock collapse on Georgia’s Sapelo Island has tragically killed at least seven people. According to the Georgia Department of Natural Resources (Georgia DNR), a portion of the Marsh Landing Dock on the island collapsed around 4:30 p.m. The freak accident caused up to 20 people to plummet into the water. One of the deaths reportedly was the chaplain of the state agency which operates the dock. “At least 20 people went into the water and they are working to determined injuries. This was shot by someone shortly before the collapse showing what it looks like,” FOX 5 Atlanta anchor Eric Perry said. WATCH: BREAKING: 7 people are dead after a dock collapsed on Sapelo Island(outside of Savannah). At least 20 people went into the water and they are working to determined injuries. This was shot by someone shortly before the collapse showing what it looks like ⁦@FOX5Atlanta⁩ pic.twitter.com/mii2Bz9ZTV — Eric Perry (@Ericperrytv) October 19, 2024 FOX 5 Atlanta reports: Multiple people were taken to hospitals, and crews from the U.S. Coast Guard, the McIntosh County Fire Department, the Georgia Department of Natural Resources and others were searching the water, according to spokesperson Tyler Jones of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, which operates the dock. Jones said a gangway at the dock collapsed and sent people plunging into the water. It happened as crowds gathered on the island for a celebration of its tiny Gullah-Geechee community of Black slave descendants. “There have been seven fatalities confirmed,” Jones said. “There have been multiple people transported to area hospitals, and we are continuing to search the water for individuals.” Jones said he did not know what caused the gangway to collapse, but officials believe there were at least 20 people on it at the time. The gangway connected an outer dock where people board the ferry to another dock onshore. Sapelo Island is about 60 miles south of Savannah and can be reached from the mainland by boat. Seven dead after ferry dock gangway collapses on Georgia's Sapelo Island https://t.co/6vKG0acqfN pic.twitter.com/Et4b9HwVmy — Daily Mail Online (@MailOnline) October 19, 2024 Tragedy on coastal Georgia's Sapelo Island, where the dock's gangway collapsed Saturday, killing at least seven people. An annual festival of Gullah Geechee culture was happening on the island. Here's a photo of the dock that I took aboard a ferry last month on a reporting trip. https://t.co/f1R2yt7cRh pic.twitter.com/E0a0gYIpBT — Benjamin Payne (@benjaminpayne) October 20, 2024 From the New York Post: Three survivors in their 20s who got on the ferry said they heard the ramp collapse behind them and saw everyone who was standing on the dock fall into the water, including an elderly woman using a walker. The group was visiting from Florida to attend Cultural Heritage Day when they saw four bodies, floating face-down in the water, pulled out to sea due to the low tide currents. Members of the McIntosh County Shouters were also among those who were swept into the water, according to County Commissioner Rogert Lotson, adding that they have all survived, to his knowledge.“Many of those who were on the ramp and many of the injured and dead are elderly,” Lotson said. “It is a big tragedy for the county.” The fatal incident happened as crowds gathered on the island to celebrate its tiny Gullah-Geechee community of Black slave descendants for Cultural Day, according to ABC News. The annual event spotlights the island’s tiny community of Hogg Hummock, which is home to a few dozen Black residents and consists of dirt roads and modest homes founded by former slaves from the cotton plantation of Thomas Spalding, the outlet reported.