Populism is bigger than Trump

America’s populist revolt must free itself from the mire of Trumpism.

It’s been more than seven years since Donald Trump first announced his candidacy for US president. Remember him waving, as he glided down that big gold escalator in Trump Tower? The prospect of a Trump presidency was essentially a joke back then. Among the journalists present, many of them were new on the job, given the assignment as a bit of a laugh. ‘I was thinking this will be something goofy and funny to cover’, one reporter who was there told Politico in 2019, in a piece looking back on that fateful day. Fast forward to 2022 and Trump has just launched his bid for re-election, following his ousting by Democrat Joe Biden at the 2020 election, to a crowd of adoring fans and hangers-on at his Florida resort.

I love Trump but DeSantis may be the stronger candidate. But never count The Donald out.

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The (Latest) Moderate Gun Group

A report from a new group, 97Percent, seeks common ground on gun-control legislation.

The idea of a centrist version of the National Rifle Association—a group for gun owners that would be open to at least some gun-control legislation—is not new. It’s also not been particularly successful. Have you heard of the Independent Firearm Owners Association? Did you know Gabby Giffords’s gun-control group has a Gun Owners for Safety spinoff?

The latest iteration of this concept is 97Percent, which seeks common ground between gun owners and the rest of the country. It doesn’t purport to be a grassroots organization, but it uses polls and focus groups to guide its policy recommendations, giving special attention to gun restrictions that even gun owners support.

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Former Russian mercenary: the truth about the Wagner Group

In 2015, Marat Gabidullin, a Russian airborne forces veteran and former bodyguard, joined the Wagner Group. The private military company (PMC), infamous for their ruthless military tactics and elite soldiers, is funded by oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin. It first emerged in the Donbas region of Ukraine, stirring up separatist action after the Maidan Revolution of 2014.

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Two women tied up and shamed by China Covid security for not wearing masks to collect a takeaway

Two women were tied up and left in the street after they reportedly picked up a takeaway meal without wearing masks, in a humiliating abuse of power by officials enforcing China’s strict Covid rules.

A video showed the two visibly distressed women with their hands tied at a checkpoint near the entrance to a residential compound in the southern city of Guangzhou on Thursday.

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Elon Musk Restores Babylon Bee to Twitter, Promises to Shadowban Wrongthink

Today Elon Musk announced that Twitter’s new policy is “freedom of speech, but not freedom of reach,” then explaining that the platform would be using the same shadowbanning system that has unfairly affected conservatives and has been criticized for years. Musk also announced that the Babylon Bee, Jordan Peterson, and Kathy Griffin had been restored to the platform, but that the “Trump decision has not yet been made.”

Business as usual. Never think an oligarch is your friend.

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White supremacist mass-murderer ‘agrees to plead guilty’ to state charges six months after killing 10 black people at Buffalo supermarket

The white supremacist who killed 10 people in a racist mass shooting at a Buffalo supermarket plans to plead guilty to all of the state charges against him, according to lawyers representing families of the victims.

Payton Gendron, 19, is scheduled to appear in court Monday, according to court records. His lawyers didn’t respond to phone messages or emails Thursday and prosecutors declined to comment on the nature of the court appearance.

John Elmore, an attorney for the families of two of the 10 Black people who were killed in the shooting, said Gendron´s lawyers disclosed in recent weeks that he planned to plead guilty to all of the counts in the state indictment and waive his right to appeal.

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The college mass murder being all but ignored

The UVA shooting is making a lot of headlines right about now. The shooting already has its own Wikipedia page and is a major topic of discussion in political circles. Some are calling for gun control and other legislative efforts to try and prevent this from happening again.

I get it.

But it’s always funny to me how mass murder is apparently only bad because of the gun.

Only the Post is giving the Idaho murders much coverage.

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Time for Ukraine to talk to Russia? ‘Nuts!’

‘Ukrainians do not want any negotiations,’ Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov says. This time, he’s right.

LVIV, Ukraine — “One thing is for sure: the Ukrainians do not want any negotiations,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Thursday in Moscow.

And never has he uttered a truer word.

They don’t.

No one wants to sit down with foes who bomb their homes indiscriminately and target their energy infrastructure, plunging households into darkness and forcing surgeons in hospitals to perform operations by torchlight.


Did Zelensky Try to Dupe the World Into WW3? It Sure Looks Like It…

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An “Ultra Violent Cult” Is Stealing Cars & Using Canadian Real Estate To Launder Money: FINTRAC

Canadian real estate, an “ultra violent cult,” money laundering, and Toronto’s stolen cars. Sounds like a spy thriller, but that’s reality in Canada, according to FINTRAC. In 2017, the financial intelligence agency assessed the money laundering threat of an organized crime group called Black Axe. The group infiltrated the government, conducts mass fraud, and runs a Toronto-based car theft ring. FINTRAC found nearly 1 in 5 suspicious transaction reports linked to Black Axe, involved real estate.

More… The ultra-violent cult that became a global mafia

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Halton school board has the power to ban trans teacher’s outfit, it’s just too scared to use it

… Recently the Halton District School Board has pronounced that it is legally unable to impose a dress code on Lemieux, thereby becoming an international laughing stock. The suggestion is so stupid and contrary to the law that we wonder what motivated it. However, the pronouncement has cowed parents who had been agitating for the board to stop her teaching their children in that attire.

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Burlington defunded its police department. You’ll never guess what happened next

Maybe it isn’t news that the liberal town that launched Bernie Sanders ‘s political career defunded its police department in the wake of George Floyd ’s murder. And maybe it isn’t news that crime got worse in Burlington, Vermont, immediately after the police force was forced to cut jobs.

But the New York Times wrote a lengthy article documenting how crime has risen in the 45,000-person city since the City Council voted to cut the police force by 30%. The quotes from the otherwise liberal residents of the city are quite revealing.

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Dr. Kieran Moore goes unmasked at party after ‘strongly recommending’ masks ‘in all indoor public settings’

Several prominent public health advocates — including Ontario’s chief medical officer of health — went maskless at a Toronto Life party for the 50 most influential residents of 2022 this week.

Dr. Kieran Moore, who only days earlier had “strongly recommended” Ontarians wear a mask in indoor public spaces to protect the youngest children from a potentially severe respiratory illness circulating in the province, was spotted on a video taken at the party not wearing a mask.

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Mohammed bin Salman: Saudi leader given US immunity over Khashoggi killing

The US has determined that Saudi Arabia’s de facto leader – Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman – has immunity from a lawsuit filed by murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s fiancé.

Mr Khashoggi, a prominent Saudi critic, was murdered at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in October 2018.

US intelligence has said it believes Prince Mohammed ordered the killing.


Oh no Bezos is upset!

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Jeffrey Epstein Docs to Be Unsealed

After a judge concluded that the public interest trumps the right to privacy, dozens of court documents related to Jeffrey Epstein’s contacts will be made public, according to a report.

On Friday, Judge Loretta Preska ordered that sealed documents about eight Epstein associates must be unsealed despite the assertion of one of the subjects that the release of the documents would “wrongfully harm (his) privacy and reputation.”

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