Wednesday, November 20, 2024
L.A. Enacts Sanctuary City Ordinance to Prepare for Trump's Mass Deportations
The Los Angeles City Council on Tuesday approved a so-called “sanctuary city” ordinance that bars city resources from being used for immigration enforcement and city departments from sharing information on people without legal status with federal immigration authorities, in anticipation of potential mass deportations under President-elect Donald Trump. Council members voted unanimously on the measure, joining more than a dozen cities across the United States with similar provisions. Sanctuary cities or states are not legal terms but have come to symbolize a pledge to protect and support immigrant communities and decline to voluntarily supply information to immigration enforcement officials. Advocates say they are havens for immigrants to feel safe and be able to report crime without fear of deportation. The measure will come back to the council for a second vote as a formality. Mayor Karen Bass, who has the power to veto it, has said she supports the ordinance. With Trump's promises of a vast immigration crackdown upon his return to the White House in January, immigration advocates urged Los Angeles council members to move swiftly. “We're going to send a very clear message that the city of Los Angeles will not cooperate with ICE in any way,” said councilmember Hugo Soto-Martinez, referring to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. “We want people to feel protected and be able to have faith in their government and that women can report domestic violence, crimes.” Soto-Martinez, one of the councilmembers who introduced the initial motion last year, said his parents and many of his constituents are immigrants without legal status. They are “embedded in the larger community,” from cooking and cleaning houses to working as nannies, he said. But it’s unclear how much will change under the ordinance since the city already does not cooperate with federal immigration authorities. The Los Angeles Police Department has a policy mandating that officers not inquire about a person's immigration status or make arrests based on legal status. Its new police chief Jim McDonnell has also pledged not to cooperate with mass deportations work or federal agencies on immigration enforcement issues. Former Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti issued an executive directive in 2019 that offered protections to immigrants, but Tuesday’s ordinance would codify those protections into city law. The state of California has similar protections. Former California Gov. Jerry Brown signed sanctuary state legislation in 2017 to bar police from asking people about their immigration status or participating in federal immigration enforcement activities. Then-President Trump responded by attempting to withhold funding from sanctuary cities and favor cities that pledge to cooperate with immigration enforcement for federal grants. Cities from New York to San Francisco have long-standing policies to support immigrants, but criticism of those measures grew with the influx of migrants. Some of the backlash occurred after Republican governors in Texas and Florida began busing migrants to Democratic-led “sanctuary cities” last year in what critics have called political stunts. New York City Mayor Eric Adams has since called for expanded cooperation between local police and federal immigration authorities, attacking the current city policies limiting such communication as detrimental to public safety. Migrants were also bused to Los Angeles, though in smaller numbers. More than 100 people gathered on the steps of city hall Tuesday morning ahead of the vote to urge the city council to enact the ordinance. Martha Arévalo, executive director of the Central American Resource Center in LA, called the law “long overdue.” “This is Trump 2.0 where he ran on a platform of hate and division and separating families and mass deportations,” Arevalo insisted. “It's traumatic to the immigrant community. There's a lot of trauma, there's a lot of fear.” Supporters of the sanctuary city ordinance, many of whom are people without legal status themselves, spoke on their personal experiences with the threat of deportation. “I grew up in the shadows, constantly fearing separation from my loved ones and being sent back to a place we had fought so hard to escape,” said Jesus Carreon, a current student at Harvard Law School and graduate of University of Southern California, asking the council to vote in favor of the sanctuary policy. Some brought up concerns that it could encourage more migrants without legal status to come to the city and take resources away from addressing homelessness. “I'm sure there's millions of people that want to come to LA and we can't be a sanctuary city for everybody,” Charles Brister told the city council before the vote. “We have people in this city who don't have beds, American citizens who are homeless.” Mayor Bass said recently that “this moment demands urgency. Immigrant protections make our communities stronger and our city better.” |
Newsweek Gets Mocked Into Next Week for 'Fact-Checking' Supposed 18th-Century Painting of Trump
Sometimes—actually, a lot lately—a news outlet faceplants so badly that you almost feel sorry for them. Almost. It’s hard to feel sorry for Newsweek, though, because this fail is so stupid that you almost can’t help but laugh out loud. As our sister site Twitchy reported, the outlet decided a clearly joking tweet accompanied by an equally obviously AI-generated image was worthy of a fact check. Do these people get paid for this? Here’s how it went down: a user named “bone” posted to social media, saying, “This 1721 painting by Deitz Nuützen predicted the Trump-Elon-RFK McDonalds dinner.” You don’t even have to look any further to know that what follows next is either going to be a joke or the ravings of a lunatic. In this case, the name of the “painter” (search for Deez Nutz if you don't get it) should have set off the alarm bells of anyone with a clue:
You see this, you chortle, and you move on with your day—but not Newsweek. Bring on the fact-checkers! As of this writing, Newsweek has not pulled the idiotic report from their website. X owner Elon Musk’s reputation of being incredibly smart survived this devious attempt at misinformation—he clearly wasn’t fooled:
The mainstream media has a truly terrible record on “fact-checking”: Do You Want More RFK Jr.? Because This Is How You Get More RFK Jr. Busting the Fact-Checkers, or Why Fact-Checkers Stink (VIP) “Bone” himself got a kick out of the silliness:
He even created a mock detailed history of the imagined painter; this is just part of it:
Troll level 11. I almost feel sorry for the poor guy who had to write the fact check. After all, if your editor tells you to write something up, you better get to it.
This may not be as embarrassing as Joe and Mika’s epic flip flop over at MSNBC, where they went from eight years of calling Trump Hitler to suddenly visiting him at Mar-a-Lago to kiss the ring, but it’s still pretty humiliating.
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This Fight Between Cenk Uygur and Left-Wing Pollster Is Glorious: 'You Were Preposterously Wrong’
It seems left-on-left crime is starting to heat up following spectacularly wrong polling predictions in the 2024 presidential election. And it's a thing of beauty. Tensions boiled over on a Tuesday edition of "Piers Morgan Uncensored" when progressive commentator Cenk Uygur and supposed polling "Nostradamus" Allan Lichtman got into a glorified pillow fight on live television. Lichtman, who touts a method known as the "13 Keys" to make his predictions, had Kamala Harris winning the election at first in a landslide, then later revising to a slightly closer contest. It turned out it was Donald Trump who took home the electoral landslide. And Lichtman, rather than pivoting and promising to tweak his methodology, blamed misinformed voters. Uygur
used that argument as a launching point to absolutely tee off on
Lichtman. In fact, you could practically hear shattered glass and WWE
announcer Jim Ross shouting, "Bah God, that's "Don’t blame the voters. I think, look, we can get into this discussion, but one, I think you’re blaming the voters," Uygur began. "I think it’s a terrible idea, and look, I debated Professor Lichtman before. I told him his theories about 'the keys' were absurd. I was right; he was wrong. I said he’d lose his keys." Uygur has cautioned in the past against blaming voters over an election result his fellow progressives might not like. Lichtman immediately interjected, saying, "You were not right, and I was not wrong,” and called Cenk's comments a "cheap shot." Naturally, Uygur simply pointed out that, bro, you did get the election wrong. “Who won? You live in a total world of denial!” he fired back. The polling industry as a whole lives in a world of denial. When Lichtman attempted to tout his credentials — being a professor for 51 years and publishing numerous books — Uygur slapped him back with: "You got it wrong! You were preposterously, stupidly wrong.” Sounds like a media slogan in the works — MSNBC and/or CNN: Preposterously, Stupidly Wrong. The looks on the faces of other panelists as the argument devolved were simply hilarious. "White Dude for Harris" Harry Sisson couldn't stop grinning like a goof during the exchange. Fox News pundit Juan Williams was left shaking his head several times. And Lichtman with the pouting — I mean, you love to see it. “I will not sit here and stand for personal attacks, for blasphemy against me. You don’t need to do that,” a petulant Lichtman said, most likely stomping his foot and adjusting whatever that is sitting atop his head. “Blasphemy against you?!" Uygur scoffed. "Who the hell are you? Are you Jesus Christ?” If I had known this was going to happen on Piers Morgan's show, I would have gladly watched this fight over the Jake Paul-Mike Tyson bout. I mean this — THIS — was popcorn-worthy. This isn't Lichtman's first tussle over the election. Just weeks before Election Day, he was getting into an online catfight with Nate Silver, who also views his "13 Keys" method of predicting as kind of ridiculous. The polling "guru" explained away his failed prediction in the 2024 contest on "disinformation" and Elon Musk, saying, "Once you dissolve truth, democracy dissolves along with it." The only thing dissolving right now is his brain cells. |
Election Predictor Who Said Trump Would Lose Has a Total Meltdown on Piers Morgan's Show
What a rumble. Piers Morgan’s show was a source of elite television viewing as a panel of liberals, which included Juan Williams, Allan Lichtman, and The Young Turks’ Cenk Uygur, devolved into chaos regarding the results of the 2024 election. Uygur and Lichtman were the two who were duking it out, where the progressive host called out Lichtman for being dead wrong about the race. That set off Lichtman, a historian, who totally imploded. Lichtman is known for his Keys to the White House model, where he said that Donald Trump would lose to Kamala Harris. Uygur thought this method was absurd, and when Lichtman tried to defend his work, mayhem ensued. The Young Turks co-host became increasingly frustrated, saying that Lichtman needed a tall glass of shut the hell up since he was wrong about the election. Lichtman said Uygur could say whatever he wanted but wouldn’t stand for personal attacks. This tennis match of insults went back and forth as the rest of the panel looked on—but even non-conservatives were entertained. The line of this bout is when Lichtman accuses Uygur of committing blasphemy against him as if he's some sort of god (via Daily Caller):
Lichtman then tried to rattle off his academic benchmarks and bibliography, which are irrelevant. He was wrong about his 2024 prediction, along with the rest of his colleagues, which shows how the Democratic Party has become too exclusionary, regional, insulated, and incapable of speaking to voters. Lichtman’s live show on election night is just as hilarious as he sees Kamala Harris’ 2024 hopes die with every passing hour: I could watch his meltdown on a loop. It's also not the first time he got snippy over people poking fun at his prediction.
Hey, Alan, you're wrong. Trending on Townhall Videos |
CNN Host Highlights What's Killing the Dems Right Now
Her show might get chaotic, especially when Scott Jennings is invited onto the panel to slap down liberal narratives with ease. Former guest Ryan Girdusky was another top assassin of liberal narratives on Abby Phillip’s show before being banned for telling Medhi Hassan, a known terrorist sympathizer, that he hoped his beeper didn’t go off—a funny reference to Israel’s operation that planted explosives in the pagers of Hezbollah operatives. Hassan had insinuated that Girdusky was a neo-Nazi before, but it was Girdusky who got the Themistocles treatment. Yet, despite Phillip’s obvious political leanings, she knows what’s eating away at Democrats. She made these points known during an event for Harvard Kennedy School’s Institute of Politics on November 19. It’s not some secret—it’s the party becoming too cloistered in their ivory towers, clinging to their higher education degrees while wallowing in a sea of confirmation bias and overall condescension. The activist class has engulfed the party. It has led to a regime of groupthink, where challenging its ethos is met with swift vengeance:
Phillip noted that Republicans were trapped in this whirlpool pre-Trump. The president-elect broke that system, allowing for the GOP to become the party of the working class. The 2024 election showed that Trumpism was here to stay and that Republicans were now a multi-racial, working-class party. I disagree vociferously that the activist class of the Democrats is diverse—it’s overly white, overeducated, wealthy, and insufferable. Only the white American progressive thinks this country is akin to Nazi Germany or Apartheid South Africa; nonwhite liberals, generally, don’t think like this. While Republicans were able to make the shift, it was only possible because Trump wrested power from the party elites. Democrats don’t have that person yet, and reactions to their 2024 loss show that none are interested in self-reflection. Today’s liberal is too snobby and self-righteous to course correct, at least for now.
Trending on Townhall Videos |
AOC Criticized For Claiming Pro-Israel Lobby Group Caused Democrats To Lose 2024 Elections
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) speaks to reporters as she arrives
for a vote series at the U.S. Capitol on September 25, 2024 in
Washington, DC. “Squad” member and far-left Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) is now blaming the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) for Democrats’ Election Day losses, triggering a firestorm from critics who say she would rather blame Jews than second guess her party’s own policies.
The chaos was prompted by a comment from Bernie Sanders’ adviser, Jeremy Slevin, who noted that Democrats need to have a reckoning over their ties to corporate and industry lobbies, which he believes have “too much influence” over the Democrat Party. However, X users were quick to call out Ocasio-Cortez’s post, maintaining that the bipartisan pro-Israel group is important and that AOC was falling into an anti-Semitic conversation yet again in order to shift blame from Democrat policies.
Meanwhile, other users pointed out the irony in the squad member’s critique of AIPAC, which typically helps Democrat candidates’ popularity grow.
AOC’s assertion that U.S. support for Israel is declining is untrue, according to recent polls. A Harvard-Harris poll from October found that a staggering 81% of Americans support Israel over Hamas. Among Democrats, 76% say that they back Israel as well. AIPAC lists their priorities as strengthening U.S.-Israeli relations, combatting terrorism, promoting peace, opposing anti-Israel discrimination, and countering Iran’s nuclear aggression. Soon after, the group responded quickly to AOC on X on Sunday night, countering the Democrat with a “fact check” on what Democrat voters believe is popular, attaching the winning results of AIPAC-backed candidates in Democrat primaries. Stay informed! Receive breaking news blasts directly to your inbox for free. Subscribe here. https://www.oann.com/alerts |
Trump Attends SpaceX Starship's Latest Launch Alongside GOP Allies
BROWNSVILLE, TEXAS – NOVEMBER 19: Elon Musk speaks with U.S.
President-elect Donald Trump (R) and guests including Donald Trump Jr.
(2nd from left), Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) (C) and Kevin Cramer (R-ND) at a
viewing of the launch of the sixth test flight of the SpaceX Starship
rocket on November 19, 2024 in Brownsville, Texas. SpaceX’s billionaire
owner, Elon Musk, a Trump confidante, has been tapped to lead the new
Department of Government Efficiency alongside former presidential
candidate Vivek Ramaswamy. President-elect Donald Trump attended SpaceX’s latest test flight launch, surrounded by a posse of Trump supporters and incoming cabinet members in his administration. At 5 p.m. ET on Tuesday, SpaceX launched its Starship rocket in its most recent test flight. However, the company failed to capture its booster after takeoff. Following a previous run that resulted in a successful catch, SpaceX was hoping to do it again, but after analyzing the flight data, the company decided to make a water landing instead. With new improvements to the booster’s propulsion systems aimed for a smoother and faster capture using the launchpad’s “Mechazilla” claws, today’s flight still represents SpaceX’s fastest turnaround yet. Elon Musk, the CEO of SpaceX, President-elect Donald Trump, his son, Donald Trump Jr., Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND), and more of the MAGA posse attended the celebration at SpaceX’s Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas. SpaceX captured a rocket booster on its Texas launchpad during its fifth test last month as it made its way back to Earth. On X, CEO Elon Musk wrote that a significant “step towards making life multiplanetary was made today.” This time around, the Starship made a flawless “flip” landing that stretched the vessel to its limit after successfully flying across the world to the Indian Ocean. Starship’s systems managed to withstand the strain as it flew at supersonic speeds above the clouds, maintaining the craft’s stability until a last-minute rocket restart managed to flip it vertically. Despite the turbulent landing, the craft landed intact after splashing down in the Indian Ocean. Musk has become one of the president-elect’s most devoted supporters, contributing millions to a pro-Trump super PAC that supported initiatives to increase election turnout. He has also been seen at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida consistently since Election Day. Musk laid out specific goals for the test launch of Starship and its Super Heavy booster. He wanted to see the restart of the ship’s Raptor engines in space, which will be necessary for Starship to be a reusable vessel for SpaceX. The test must also see a steeper angle for re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere. Lastly, the founder wanted to see a “faster/harder” Super Heavy booster catch.
Stay informed! Receive breaking news blasts directly to your inbox for free. Subscribe here. https://www.oann.com/alerts |
Tuesday, November 19, 2024
Iran Funneled $7M a Month to Hamas for Oct. 7 Attack, Documents Reveal
In the years leading up to Hamas' Oct. 7 invasion and massacre, the Iranian regime served as the terror group's main strategic supporter, supplying weapons, training, and hundreds of millions of dollars in funds.
This was revealed by new Hamas documents that were found by Israeli soldiers in the Gaza Strip, including letters written by senior commanders, according to a recent report by the Israeli Meir Amit Center, a non-governmental organization with ties to the Israeli intelligence community.
"The documents also provide new information on Iranian involvement in preparations for Hamas ahead of the October 7, 2023 attack, including the coordination with Hezbollah and the deployment of Hamas in the Lebanese arena."
The report noted that while the newly-discovered documents do not confirm the regime's claim of being unaware of the timing of Hamas' attack, they revealed that "Hamas coordinated with Iran for about two years in the preparation of a strategic operation against Israel, with the leaderships of Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran preparing both at the strategic and tactical level for a defining event against Israel."
The documents highlight the enormous scope of Iran's financial involvement in the Gaza Strip. One document dated July 30, 2020, signed by a deputy of Marwan Issa, the late second-in-command of Hamas' military wing, and addressed to former Gaza leader Yahya Sinwar, lists money transfers totaling $154 million between July 2014 and July 2020.
The documents also show that the regime regularly decreased or halted the money transfers during periods of political disagreements, using the funds as a pressure tool to influence the terror group.
For example, in 2022, Hamas renewed ties with Syria's Assad regime due to Iranian pressure to unite its "Axis of Resistance."
According to a letter sent to Sinwar and his deputy Khalil al-Hayya by Issa in December 2022, the terror group agreed with Iran that a special monthly budget of $7 million over the following year would be used to prepare for a major confrontation with Israel.
This document is also part of a lawsuit filed by families of American victims of the Oct. 7 attack in a U.S. Federal Court on Sunday, according to The Times of Israel.
The letter also detailed a smuggling operation conducted through Houthi-controlled areas in Yemen to supply Hamas with ammunition.
Hamas outlined methods for smuggling weapons from Yemen through a network of smugglers it apparently completely trusted, even suggesting the possibility of using a submarine for transport.
In addition to funding and weapons supply, Iran provided training to Hamas fighters. According to the documents, Hamas operated an elite "Shadow Unit" that was under the direct command of Sinwar and was sent to Iran for training. This included special training to operate Iranian-made drones, with the letters explicitly stating the special unit was preparing for major operations against Israel.
Another letter sent by Khaled Meshaal to Issa shows that Iran also stood behind Hamas' efforts to establish a military presence in Lebanon. The plan was for up to 10,000 Hamas operatives to be recruited in Lebanon and operate under instructions of Hezbollah's Radwan Force.
"Iran has been the main strategic supporter of Hamas since 2014," stated the report. "Senior Hamas officials also publicly thanked the regime in Tehran for the assistance with military means that helped to strike deep in Israel."
The report lists several examples of this, like Yahya Sinwar saying in May 2019 that Iran provided the "resistance" with the missiles that made it possible to strike the cities of Beersheva and Tel Aviv during shorter conflicts in 2012 and 2014.
After the "Guardian of the Walls" conflict in May 2021, Ismail Haniyeh, head of Hamas' political bureau, again thanked Iran for its support with weapons and money.
Alongside support for Hamas' military arm, the Iranian regime transferred funds and equipment to other terror organizations active in the Gaza Strip – Palestinian Islamic Jihad, in particular – and financed "civil, educational and cultural projects" in the enclave.
This included efforts to "Shiitize" the majority Sunni Gaza Strip, for example, by funding celebrations of the Iranian "Quds Day" feast or distributing materials celebrating the former Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani, the report stated.
Republished with permission from All Israel News
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