Joe Biden is shifting blame for the rise in crime across the country while also claiming it’s Republicans that are lying about who’s behind the push to defund America’s police departments.
During his Town Hall on CNN Wednesday, Biden actually claimed crime is down, but then said gun violence and murder rates are up. He then focused on his reputation as a gun control senator during his time in congress while stating he’s looking to get rid of everything from 9mm pistols to rifles.
They're not hiding their intentions. Joe Biden says he wants to ban handguns — not merely AR-15s like their previous dishonest talking points suggested. Watch Biden stumble through this town hall answer. pic.twitter.com/DI3CDTN1wL
— (((Jason Rantz))) on KTTH Radio (@jasonrantz) July 22, 2021
“The idea that you need a weapon that can have the ability to fire 20, 30, 40, 50, 120 shots from that weapon whether it’s a 9mm, pistol or whether it’s a riffle is ridiculous,” said Biden. “I’m continuing to push to eliminate those things, but I’m not lucky enough to get that done in a near term.”
Democrats want to come home to Texas to talk about election laws in “good faith,” but that flew out the window along with their chartered plane to D.C.
As we previously covered, Texas Democrats fled the state as its Republican-dominated legislature was to pass an election security bill that would diametrically oppose the radical HR1 (for the people act) Democrats on the federal level wish to impose on the nation. This circus included a private plane, press appearances, try-hard tweetstorms, and COVID-19 spreading.
They wanted to tell you they were protecting the rights of voters, but HR1 is far from anything of the sort.
It would appear that at least one Democrat is ready to come home with the claim that he fled the state in solidarity with his fellow leftists, but now he’s ready to come home and talk about Texas’s voting standards in “good faith” according to a statement he released.
“I proudly stood with my Democratic colleagues and left Texas to ensure House Bill 3 would not be approved as introduced. A small working group of Democrats decided to begin active discussions here in Austin on improving HB 3 and asked that I return to establish open communication lines,” Cortez said. “I returned to Texas to try to engage in good faith dialogue about the aspects of the bill that I, and others, think are harmful.”
I respect and stood with my Democratic colleagues in Washington DC. I stand by my convictions about full and open access to voting for all Texans. I’m here to work on that immediately. #TXLegepic.twitter.com/DsNsFS2GC7
— Rep. Philip Cortez, Ph.D. (@CortezPhilip) July 21, 2021
“AN ACT relating to a forensic audit of 2020 election results in certain counties.”
QUICK FACTS:
Texas Representative Steve Toth (R-The Woodlands) has filed a bill for a forensic audit in the top thirteen high-population counties in Texas, each county representing about half a million Texans.
The two-page bill (HB 241) will “appoint an independent third party to conduct a forensic audit of the general election that took place on November 3, 2020.”
These forensic audits will take place “in each county with a population of 415,000 or more.”
HB 241 mandates these audits to begin “no later than November 1, 2021” and to be completed “not later than February 1, 2022.”
By March 1, 2022, the auditors must submit a report “detailing any anomalies or discrepancies in voter data, ballot data, or tabulation” to “the governor, lieutenant governor, speaker of the house of representatives, and each member of the legislature.”
Toth represents Texas’ fifteenth state house district.
THE TEXAS COUNTIES TO BE AUDITED:
Harris
Dallas
Bexar
Tarrant
Travis
Collin
Denton
Hidalgo
Fort Bend
El Paso
Montgomery
Williamson
Cameron
WHEN THE BILL TAKES EFFECT:
The Act will take effect “immediately if it receives a vote of two-thirds of all the members elected to each house,” according to the bill.
But even if the Act does not receive the necessary votes for immediate effect, it will still take effect “on the 91st day after the last day of the legislative session.”
WHAT REP. TOTH SAID:
“Prior to the special session, I met with constituents across District 15 in South Montgomery County. The Texas Voter Confidence Act is a product of those meetings and a direct request from the voters who sent me to Austin,” Toth said, according to The Texan. “Texans want to know more about the claims of voter fraud and deserve to have confidence in their elections.”
WHAT THE COUNTY JUDGE SAID:
County Judge Mark Keough (Montgomery County) supported HB 241 saying, “Representative Toth’s proposed bill is timely and necessary with a view to exposing any instances of fraud during the 2020 election and reassuring Texas voters that their votes were accurately counted.”
“I fully support passage of this bill and look forward to the results of the audit,” Judge Keough added.
BACKGROUND:
The Texas attorney general’s election integrity unit reported that there are 510 alleged offenses against 43 defendants currently pending prosecution at a hearing in March, notes The Texan.
There are almost 400 election fraud investigations under way in Texas. Jonathan White, the chief of the election fraud section, said that prosecutions are at an “all-time high.”
Rep. Toth’s bill comes as Democrats stalled a special session called by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott after they fled the state to prevent Republicans from passing an election reform bill.
‘We’re up to 17, 18 dead ones this year,’ Sheriff Arvin West said.
Just miles from El Paso lies Hudspeth County, a sparsely populated ranching community that’s faced an unprecedented flood of migrants since October, and with them, an influx of crime and death, residents and law enforcement told Fox News.
Two ranchers, along with a detained illegal immigrant, spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear of the Mexican cartels, which profit off trafficking migrants across the border.
The Texas community has seen several break-ins allegedly committed by illegal immigrants, including a recent one where firearms were stolen, Hudspeth County Sheriff Arvin West told Fox News in an exclusive interview from his office in Sierra Blanca, which also houses the county jail.
The town, the largest in the county, is home to around 800 residents and most of the migrants flooding in have been from the Northern Triangle countries of El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala.
“We’ve had several break-ins. Typically they break in, they try to find food, water, things to continue on their journey,” West said. “Here recently, we had a break in where they broke into the house and stole a bunch of guns. That’s a big concern.”
One rancher who would only speak on the condition of anonymity showed Fox News four structures on his sprawling property that he said were illegally entered by migrants. In one case, the rancher said the burglars ransacked the kitchen of an old ranch house in search of food. In another instance, he told Fox News migrants kicked down the door of a small structure at the back of the property.
West blamed the influx of illegal crossings and crime on the Biden administration, though he noted the surge began even prior to his election.
“I think the biggest thing is the Biden administration. Prior to him even being elected we saw this surge come up,” he said.
Marty Bustamonte, chief of staff in the Hudspeth County sheriff’s office, blamed the surge along the border, in part, because of the media.
Joe Biden’s promise of unity appears to be nowhere to be seen on Capitol Hill. The two major parties continue to clash on the bipartisan infrastructure deal as Senate Republicans block a vote to open debate on the nearly $1 trillion measure.
On Wednesday, the GOP derailed Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s (D-N.Y.) attempt to jam through the incomplete legislation in a 49-to-51 vote, which fell short of the 60 it needed.
Democrats are playing Russian roulette with taxpayer dollars. Their latest reckless tax and spending spree is threatening the stability of our economy, while their last one continues to dampen our recovery. pic.twitter.com/uRFRlZwF4z
Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said it would be hard to make a final decision in good faith when there is no text, no outcome, no bipartisan agreement and nothing for the congressional office to evaluate.
“And certainly nothing on which to vote, not yet,” said the top Republican. “So obviously, as the democratic leader tries to force a closure vote on a bill that does not exist, it will fail. Around here we typical write the bills before we vote on them.”
As RedState reported (see here and here) last night, Joe Biden’s CNN “town hall” was the disaster you’d expect to have been. The usual brain-melting moments made an appearance, including this 40 straight seconds of me having no idea what this guy is trying to say.
Regardless, one clip really stuck out to me. It came from the question and answer portion of the event where an obviously left-leaning individual asks what Biden is going to do from a federal standpoint to stop gun violence.
Biden’s answer includes a big admission as well as a strawman that really gives the game away.
There it is. Biden outright says he wants to ban handguns.
He also says crime is down, which is an utterly insane lie.
Now, does he “outright say” he wants to ban handguns? Some would argue that he doesn’t because he doesn’t say “I want to ban handguns.” But practically, that’s exactly what he’s stumping for. If you watch the clip, Biden goes on a rant about no one needing an “assault weapon” that can hold 20 rounds or more. When he mentions the kinds of weapons he’s talking about, he actually says handguns. Now, not all handguns can take 20 round magazines, but a lot of them, including some of the most popular ones, can (probably a Glock if I’m speculating on ownership numbers).
But even his claim that he wants to ban “assault weapons” in general is nonsensical. Long rifles in total make up a tiny fraction of gun violence deaths. We are talking about less than 0.1%. Of those, an even smaller number are committed with modern sporting rifles like the AR15. In other words, the obsession with “assault weapons” as a solution to gun crime is pure idiocy. It’s like trying to cure heart disease by cutting off your thumb.
At the peak of the disruption, at least 33,000 websites worldwide were offline due to Akamai experiencing DNS failures. Right now, around 14,000 remain offline, a dramatic decrease since Akamai announced it “fixed” the problem about an hour ago.
Earlier, we noted Akamai edge DNS was the issue behind tens of thousands of websites going offline worldwide.
Akamai tweeted that they “have implemented a fix for this issue, and based on current observations, the service is resuming normal operations. We will continue to monitor to ensure that the impact has been fully mitigated.”
We have implemented a fix for this issue, and based on current observations, the service is resuming normal operations. We will continue to monitor to ensure that the impact has been fully mitigated.
Update (1249ET): DNS services appear to be coming back online after nearly 33,000 websites were offline due to DNS failure.
* * *
Update (1237ET): More than 32,000 websites are down worldwide as a massive DNS failure originated a little after 1100ET. Oracle shines more light on what sparked the outage. It says:
Identified – We are monitoring a global issue related to Akamai edge DNS that is impacting access to many internet resources, including Oracle cloud properties. Resources within the Oracle cloud are continuing to run and are not impacted by this event.
* * *
At least 30,000 websites are down worldwide. There appears to be a major DNS, or Domain Name System failure that began shortly after 1100ET. DNS acts as the phone directory of the internet, translating names of websites into IP addresses.
The problem could be stemming from content delivery company Akamai Technologies. A statement from the company says:
Investigating – We are aware of an emerging issue with the Edge DNS service. We are actively investigating the issue. If you have questions or are experiencing impact due to this issue, please contact Akamai Technical Support. In the interest of time, we are providing you the most current information available, which is subject to changes, corrections, and updates.
Lara Trump, Fox News contributor, said that she refuses to mask her children for the upcoming 2021-2022 school year.
President Joe Biden during a Wednesday night town hall event said that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention may suggest that all children under the age of 12 years and those who are unvaccinated wear face coverings while in school.
What are the details?
During a Thursday morning “Fox & Friends” appearance, Lara, wife of Eric Trump, told Fox News’ Ainsley Earhardt that she believes the idea of masking children for school is “absolutely ludicrous.”
“I think it’s absolutely ludicrous,” she thundered. “First of all, we know the efficacy of masks has been long disputed. It was Dr. [Anthony] Fauci who, a year and a half ago, remember, told us all if it makes you feel better, wear a mask. But we didn’t have to wear masks originally. He said it wasn’t going to really do anything. Then they told us masks, then they said three masks. But as it relates to kids, I mean, I can tell you that it is almost impossible for my 3-year-old son to keep a mask on.”
Lara added that she believes children suffer greatly due to wearing masks in public and social settings and said that science initially stated that children get only very mild cases of COVID-19 in most instances.
“It gives them headaches,” she complained. “From a social perspective, they can’t see the faces of the other children. We know also if we’re following the science, Ainsley, like we were supposed to do the entire time that, thank goodness, children do not get COVID in the same way that adults do. If they get it, they get a very mild case of it. They’re not the super spreaders we were originally told they might be. So the idea that we’re going the make our children sit in school masked up all day long, I think, is absolutely ludicrous.”
She also noted that depriving kids of coming into contact with regular germs may sabotage a growing child’s immune system.
“My daughter, Carolina, last week had a cold,” Lara recalled. “Every parent knows that’s a nightmare. I was so thrilled because I know that she is actually getting in contact with viruses and germs and bacteria that will allow her to develop an immune system. This is absolutely insane that we are considering making these poor kids sit in school in masks.”
She concluded, “As a parent, I can tell you I am not going to be masking up my children. It is not going to happen for us.”
