SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The latest news from the rebuilding effort following the Los Angeles wildfires confirms everything we’ve all come to believe about the nature of the state’s bureaucracies. As of July 2, Los Angeles County’s permitting progress dashboard — a clever way for residents to track the rebuilding process — showed that only one building permit has been approved in Pacific Palisades and only 46 have been approved in the Eaton unincorporated area.  That’s excruciatingly slow progress more than five months after the fires ended. It’s especially striking given that Gov. Gavin Newsom exempted via executive order reconstruction projects from the cumbersome California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and the Coastal Act. State, city, and county officials have — to their credit — embraced every kind of streamlining reform including a self-certification process for housing projects. And, still, there’s little to show for it in terms of actual rebuilding. As the Southern California News Group opined, “In reality, California governments have built a massive bureaucratic process that impedes construction of anything — and it’s not easy to unravel even after an emergency and when top leaders are committed to doing so.” It pointed to news reports examining real-world anecdotes of people trying to navigate this labyrinth. This frustrating situation is a reminder of (Jerry) Pournelle’s Iron Law of Bureaucracy, named after the scientist and science-fiction writer: “[I]n any bureaucratic organization there will be two kinds of people: First, there will be those who are devoted to the goals of the organization. … Secondly, there will be those dedicated to the organization itself. … The Iron Law states that in every case the second group will gain and keep control of the organization. It will write the rules, and control promotions within the organization.”  And then there are plenty of other realities of bureaucracy, such as its risk-averse nature. If you work in a bureaucracy, you can more easily destroy your career by approving something too quickly — and rarely face any punishment for moving too slowly. There’s little accountability, too. Sadly, California was once an entrepreneurial haven, but our state has spent decades building bureaucracies that operate mainly for the benefits of those who work for them. In recent years, California’s Democrats have been trying to roll back some of these regulatory impediments, especially those that impede housing construction. It’s not that they’ve suddenly lost their interest in government, but they’ve realized that this regulatory edifice is threatening their own policy goals. The state’s high housing costs have genuinely concerned them, exacerbated the homelessness situation, and upset the voting public. As I’ve reported here for The American Spectator, CEQA is the biggest obstacle. It requires volumes of paperwork and reviews for virtually every proposed construction project. It allows basically any “stakeholder” to file or threaten a lawsuit over CEQA compliance, which delays projects, adds costs to them, and kills many others. Members of both parties in Sacramento know the depth of the problem, but there’s been insufficient effort — except on a piecemeal basis — to solve it. But just as I was about to give up for this year, Gov. Gavin Newsom decided to play hard ball and announced last week — just a few days from the budget-signing deadline — that he would hold up the entire budget unless the Legislature passed a wide-ranging (although the specifics were still evolving) CEQA reform. The ultimate measure, which was cobbled together in two separate bills, exempts nine types of projects from CEQA requirements. It tightens up the standards for filing CEQA lawsuits. Environmentalists were livid and filled the public hearing room. They issued their predictable statements. Sen. Scott Wiener — a progressive San Francisco Democrat who has nonetheless led the charge on housing reform — even berated their “melodramatic statements.” The Legislature voted overwhelmingly in favor of the reforms, with the only “no” vote coming from a senator who objected to  Newsom’s last-minute tactics. Newsom of course signed the laws. It will take time to see if these reforms will really change the way CEQA operates. As we saw in Los Angeles, even with legal changes, it’s hard to redirect bureaucracies from their organizational goals back toward their original, often-laudatory objectives. For example, CEQA has long impeded even environmentally friendly projects, so it’s hard to argue that it actually helps the environment.  The governor’s tactics also showed that, yes, the Legislature can make meaningful change. The big question is if it actually wants to do so. Steven Greenhut is Western region director for the R Street Institute. Write to him at sgreenhut@rstreet.org. The post %POSTLINK% appeared first on %BLOGLINK%.

Former Obama speechwriter David Litt has been making the media rounds for his new book, It’s Only Drowning, which he has touted as the “Hillbilly Elegy for People Who Hate JD Vance.” His media tour follows other admissions from the Left that the Democratic Party has lost touch with much of the country, and particularly young men. Democrats recently launched a $20 million project to “study young men and how Democrats can reach them,” which has been accompanied by lame attempts to cater to young men. Litt’s book chronicles his emotional journey through an early-onset midlife crisis and existential dread of COVID, which he overcomes with therapy and taking up surfing. Surfing helps him have a hobby other than “reading the news and worrying” and allows him to practice facing his fears. But surfing also positions him to develop a friendship with his vaguely conservative (but non-voting) brother-in-law, Matt, who is not a D.C. cosmopolitan but rather an electrician who runs his own company. Litt describes their differences: “He drove a Dodge Ram; I drove a Subaru. He lifted weights to death metal; I jogged to Lizzo. He was a Joe Rogan superfan; I was a Stephen Sondheim aficionado.” By no means a man’s man, Litt struggles to find common ground with Matt, but they bond through their surfing experiences. The book itself is not particularly noteworthy, although much of it is humorous and even self-aware enough to not be an oppressive read. However, whereas Vance’s book sympathetically explained how Trump’s populism appealed to Middle America, Litt’s book, as one reviewer noted, “comes across as elitist, its ideas outdated amid the current moment.” More interesting than the book itself are Litt’s conclusions about politics and the Democratic Party — because he’s drawing all the wrong ones. Still rearing from its second loss to Trump, the Left is wandering further into the wilderness. Despite his self-described lack of manly vitality, Litt believes that his surfing experiences led him to discover the key to the “manosphere” (by which he just seems to mean younger men who are generally conservative, and not necessarily alt-right egg-slonkers). When he was asked by Vanity Fair for his “insights” applicable to wider politics, he responded that “at the heart of the manosphere is the idea that you’re self-sufficient. And that no one’s telling you what to do.” Maybe the surfing community is closer to the hippie side, but Litt has utterly missed the mark on what motivates most young men. He characterizes them as if the “manosphere” is a collection of Ayn Rand–era libertarians, rather than understanding them as reacting to a political and cultural landscape decades in decline. Maybe Litt should have taken better notes from Hillbilly Elegy: the reason working-class men don’t support further Middle Eastern regime-change wars (the example he uses) is not because that involves “someone telling you what to do,” but because coastal elites have been preoccupied with wars on the other side of the world while neglecting their own country as it deteriorated. As an Obama speechwriter, Litt and those like him played an active role in this decline. Another part of the problem with Litt’s analysis is that believes he’s comprehended the lives of Middle Americans by joining what is in reality an incredibly unique and niche community. What’s more, Litt is hardly living the life of your average surfer dude; he takes surfing trips to Spain, France, Hawaii, and an artificial wave pool in Waco, Texas. Good for him that he’s had these great experiences, but the fact that he believes surfers in foreign countries and at expensive wave parks are representative of the MAGA base at large highlights how out of touch D.C. types truly are. However, Litt’s biggest takeaway from writing his memoir is that “Democrats Need More Hobbies” if they’re going to win elections. He concludes that “the great divide between [him and the voters who reelected Trump] is that I constantly think about politics and they do not.” Citing a poll on how much voters paid attention to news about the election, Litt says that Harris was favored by a majority of those who “paid a great deal of attention to politics,” whereas Trump won among those answering “none at all.” Litt’s takeaway: Democrats need to have hobbies to pander to those uninformed masses of Trump supporters. “The way we can do it is by demonstrating we have interests and lives outside of politics. Candidates talking about things they do for fun outside of work might be more important than ever,” he wrote. Again, Litt spotlights a poignant reality but displays a bewildering blindness to its implications. Yes, Trump appeals to those who don’t constantly live in the world of politics. But the reason most people don’t constantly follow politics is not because they have a bunch of hobbies, but because they have real lives and real struggles. Normal people do have hobbies, but they also have families (with kids), bills to pay, and God to worship. Rather than focusing on hobbies as the means to understand conservatives, those on the left could start by leading more meaningful lives. For example, Litt (though married) has intentionally avoided having children, just like many in coastal elite circles. During the COVID lockdowns, Litt gave an interview during which he was asked his favorite quarantine activity. His response: “Luxuriating in the fact that we have no young children.” The fact that so many of America’s ruling class choose to remain childless certainly contributes to the country’s divisions. In contrast, Litt’s solution is for Democrats to be more trivial. But as he points out, Democrats are already trying “desperately” to make politics fun and “appear relatable,” and they’re failing spectacularly. Joy was the theme of the last Democratic National Convention, and Harris could not stop trying to make “joy cometh in the morning” catch on. But Democrats’ politics are obviously not fun. Litt’s advice is that Democratic candidates need to show off more non-political hobbies, participate in more episodes of entertainment podcasts like Call Her Daddy, and “double down on … traditional celebrities such as Taylor Swift and Beyoncé, who both endorsed Harris in 2024.” If only Luke Skywalker and the Avengers had assembled to endorse Harris, she would have won! The reality is that Democrats have consistently brought their hobbies and frivolities into politics, and it’s largely been insufferably cringeworthy. Harris tried to appear normal last fall by acting as if she had an obsession with Doritos and collard greens. In 2016, Hillary Clinton claimed that she always carried hot sauce in her purse, in imitation of a Beyonce lyric. When questioned whether she was just pandering to black people, Clinton countered, “Okay. Is it working?” The great irony of the Left’s attempts to force fun into politics is that Trump (and Vance as well) excels at being fun with effortless ease. And no one would say that Trump’s golfing hobby is the reason he appeals to so many Americans. Trump is genuinely a generational comedic talent. He doesn’t need to force it. In a viral moment, Vance recently recounted a story where Trump pressed a big red button in the Oval Office during an intense phone call, “and he looks at me and goes, ‘Nuclear.’” A few minutes later, a staffer brings a can of Diet Coke. The story is humorous, but it also shows that Trump’s wit is authentic, even when the cameras aren’t present. The story reveals one other key point: Trump is so engaging not because he brings hobbies into politics, but because he’s able to have fun while dealing with serious things. READ MORE from Jonah Apel: RFK Jr. Shows Why America Needs the MAHA Agenda Five Key Takeaways From Pew Report on Trump’s Reelection What C. S. Lewis Can Tell Us About New IVF Eugenics Technology The post %POSTLINK% appeared first on %BLOGLINK%.

Online meltdowns in the wake of President Donald Trump’s victory are all too familiar to Americans. Screams and tears became passé as liberals publicly displayed their cries of agony that Kamala Harris would not be inaugurated in 2025. However, in the midst of these unhinged reactions, there rose a much calmer group of liberal women who were smiling and laughing quietly as Trump took office.  The morning after the election, the “4 a.m. Club” was born. According to Gia Prism, a leader of the movement, there are thousands, or even millions of women in the club. On TikTok, there are over 30,000 videos with ‘#4amclub’ in their description. This cult-like group believes that before the election was decided in favor of Trump, a “spiritual call” was sent out to them, waking them at 4 the morning on November 6 and telling them that in an alternate universe or dimension, Kamala Harris won the presidency.  The leader of the group, a self-proclaimed psychic and healer who goes by Gia Prism online, explains what the group is all about: “We do not believe that the results we have now are the results we are going to end up with…[because] we were part of something unexplainable that happened to us on election night,” she said in reference to the thousands of women who were allegedly spiritually awakened at 4 a.m. on November 6.  Prism calls the experience “mystical” and members of the club now broadly refer to the moment as an awakening, in which women were enlightened to the spiritual world. These women claim that dreams of a Democrat victory filled their sleep. Others say that guides, angels, and ancestors told them everything would “be okay” and that the election was not what it seemed. Prism herself posted a video a few days after the election was over claiming that Kamala Harris appeared to her in a vision to reassure Prism that she would still ultimately triumph.  Overall, instead of accepting the results of the 2024 election, the 4 a.m. Club is holding out hope that a massive shift is taking place. According to Prism and her followers, Trump’s second term is somehow ushering in the “divine feminine” and a new order in which equity and progressivism thrive. The supposed call that went out on election night compels the 4 a.m. Club to “anchor the timeline” in which Harris is president. According to Prism, being an anchor means being a “physical vessel” for energy to enter, and from your body it can enter into the earth and become available in this timeline.  The belief that Harris won the election in a different timeline has fostered conspiracy theories. The Club believes that many things are possible since Harris is supposed to be in power. These strange theories include the president suffering a brain bleed, lower-level members of his staff being removed from power before he can follow suit, or Trump not being real, but having a body double. Justifiably, many on the right will be tempted to laugh this fringe phenomenon off. But it is important to shed light on this movement.  While the theories posited by the 4 a.m. Club are laughable, they are also offensive when one considers that they are coming from members of the same party that has constantly accused Republicans of delusion and denial related to the 2020 election. Now, they are looking to the stars and tarot cards for answers from alternate dimensions.  What the Club has made clear is that Democrats are still unable to face the reality of Donald Trump’s second term. No matter how many times The Club manifests a different election outcome or how patiently they await a change in leadership, Trump continues to implement his agenda.       The post %POSTLINK% appeared first on %BLOGLINK%.

Republicans swept the Evangelical Christian vote and won a historic margin among Catholics in the 2024 presidential election. These two groups of religious voters have similar priorities and increasingly similar voting habits. Nonetheless, certain differences remain. The unity of the Evangelical right was on display last week as the Faith and Freedom Coalition hosted its annual Road to Majority Conference from June 26 to June 28 of 2025. This largely Evangelical Christian organization, which mobilizes people of faith, has led voter outreach efforts for Republican candidates and lobbied for issues including support for Israel and opposition to abortion. This year, the organization’s keynote conference hosted dozens of speakers, including members of both houses of Congress, pastors from the Evangelical community, and political activists. The American Spectator asked Faith and Freedom Coalition President Ralph Reed about the ability of his majority non-denominational Evangelical Christian organization to appeal outside of that demographic, particularly to American Catholic conservatives.  Reed responded with an appeal to the Catholics of America, saying “we are all in this together” while noting the presence of many Catholics in the audience, including the coalition’s incoming CEO.  A recent study from Pew Research showed that Trump won Catholic voters by 55 percent to 43 percent in the 2024 election. In comparison, he won 81 percent of the vote among white Evangelical Protestants and 70 percent of the vote among Hispanic and Asian Protestant voters.  Akin to many Evangelicals, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has stated that “the threat of abortion remains our preeminent priority.” In this, they are united with the vast majority of Evangelical Protestant voters. However, Evangelicals are more likely to support the Trump administration’s agenda across the board. Catholic leadership has determined several times that Catholic social teaching clashes with current conservative priorities and recently denounced the Big Beautiful Bill as legislation that “takes from the poor to give to the wealthy” due to cuts to Medicaid, environmental protections, and its alignment with the administration’s immigration policy. Protestants as a whole have less traditional adherence to ecclesiastical hierarchy, resulting in a more independent approach to church and other religious practices. Evangelical Christians in particular approach political issues in the sphere of self, family, or an individual church rather than taking guidance from a larger institution. “Common Values, Common Enemies” Support for Israel and its prioritization remains the largest visible divide between Evangelical and Catholic Americans. Israel’s right to exist was a high priority for the Road to Majority Conference.  Seeing support for Israel as a Biblical necessity represents the preeminent view in Evangelical Christian circles and one that has caused support for Israel to emerge as a major issue among religious right groups such as the Faith and Freedom Coalition. Perhaps the most vociferously pro-Israel speaker was Lindsey Graham, a Baptist. He described America’s relationship with the State of Israel as one of “common values” and “common enemies,” but also grounded his remarks in dispensationalist theology. Dispensationalism, pioneered by the 19th-century Reverend John Nelson Darby, an Anglican that left to form his Plymouth Brethren, broadly affirms the belief that the modern Jewish people and the nation of Israel are the legitimate successors of the Old Testament Israelites. Dispensationalism is highly influential in modern American Evangelical circles.  Graham stated that “God blesses those who bless the Jews,” speaking in support of the notion that the Jewish people maintain a unique covenant with the divine. He has previously referred to the conflict in the Middle East as a “religious war.” His views are echoed by those of Coalition president Ralph Reed, who stated that God “promised the land of Israel to the Jews” in introductory remarks. Senator Ted Cruz, another strong supporter of the U.S. strike against Iran, maintained full support for President Trump’s actions in Iran. Cruz, whose father pastors an evangelical megachurch, has previously endorsed dispensationalist views.  Cruz harkened to a recent spat during an interview with Tucker Carlson, also of an Evangelical Protestant background. In that interview, Cruz argued that Christians have a duty to support the state of Israel on religious grounds, stating that he “was taught from the Bible that those who bless Israel will be blessed.”  Israel: Higher Priority for Evangelicals  The Catholic Church broadly does not believe Christians have a unique religious commitment to support Israel. As the church explicitly holds itself to be the continuation of the ancient Kingdom of Israel, it places no particular prophetic emphasis on the modern State of Israel. Eighty-two percent of white Evangelicals and 51 percent of black Evangelicals believe Israel was given to the Jewish people by God.   Only 38 percent of Catholics agree with this view, with Hispanic Catholics nominally more likely. Interestingly, this is still a higher proportion than liberal Reform Jews, only 35 percent of whom agreed with the statement. Sixty-six percent of white Evangelical Protestants stated that the Israel-Hamas War was “very” or “somewhat” important to them, and 72 percent expressed support for Israel. Among Catholics, only 56 percent regarded the war as important, and only 45 percent reported a favorable view of Israel. That is not to say that Catholic support for Israel is anywhere close to nonexistent. The Catholic Church affirms that Jews and Catholics worship the same God. American conservative Catholics such as William F. Buckley Jr. and Michael Novak have long also been strong supporters of Israel. Dr. Andre Villenueve is a Catholic scholar from Michigan leading the organization Catholics for Israel. He spoke to The American Spectator to explain his strong stance. He and the organization supports the Jewish state as “the only nation in the Middle East where Christians live in security and freely practice their faith.”  Villenueve told The American Spectator that he sees “no reason why Catholics cannot hold at the same time that God’s promises to Israel are fulfilled in the Church” and that “God still remains faithful to his original promises to [the old] Israel.”  However, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has given statements in line with critiques of Israel from global Catholic leaders such as Pope Francis. In contrast, American Evangelicals have generally given a united front, exemplified by the speakers of the Road to Majority Conference, where no Catholic speakers focused on the Israel issue.  Church in Rome and at Home Divided on Immigration Among the speakers was Border Czar Tom Homan, a Catholic, who remembered having “worked for six presidents,” all of whom, “including Clinton and Obama, took some steps to try to secure the border because they understood you can’t have strong national security if you don’t have border security.” Homan implored the audience to support the Trump administration’s measures to cut down on illegal immigration, asking, “What’s the downside of a secure border? What’s the downside of less women getting raped? What’s the downside of less children dying? What’s the downside of the cartel making billions of dollars less?” Homan remains “a devout Mass-goer.” However, his position has put him at odds with the bishops at the head of the Roman Catholic Church in America, who have criticized the Trump administration’s immigration policy in statements declaring “firm solidarity with our immigrant brothers and sisters.”  The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has instead endorsed “generous pathways to full citizenship” for illegal immigrants, citing the Roman Catholic Catechism’s declaration that wealthy nations “are obliged, to the extent they are able, to welcome the foreigner in search of the security and the means of livelihood which he cannot find in his country of origin.”  Homan, however, has often characterized his views in humanitarian terms reminiscent of statements from the bishops. In his 2020 memoir, Homan recounts coming upon a group of illegal migrants who had died from heat stroke while being smuggled across the border, including a child the same age as Homan’s son.  Homan heard “several survivors later [testify] that the innocent little boy was the first to perish, crying ‘Daddy, Daddy, I’m dying,’” after which Homan “knelt down and put my hand on his small head, and I prayed for him.” Controversial Theology Advising the White House Paul White, Senior Advisor to the White House Faith Office, also spoke at Road to Majority. She touted the creation of the office and her relationship with the president. White said that in 2015, she told Trump, “We felt that the word of the Lord was ‘you are going to be president.’” The Floridian megachurch pastor has faced a multitude of criticisms from conservative Christians. Even in Evangelical circles, she was compared to Satan by the satirical Babylon Bee.  White often frames offering sizable donations to her church as the scriptural duty of her congregants, preaching that blessings come from monetary offerings. White faced an investigation by the Senate Finance Committee from 2007 to 2011, following the use of church offerings for the enrichment of herself and her family. A plethora of additional criticisms by theological leaders and institutions have cast doubt on the veracity of the Christianity White has brought to the Trump administration. Christian News reported further backlash by American faith leaders over White’s appointment, including Southern Baptist theologian Russell D. Moore, who “described White as a charlatan and recognized her as a heretic by every orthodox Christian, of whatever tribe.” Paula White’s theology has included promises to worshippers that God will “give you prosperity, take sickness away from you, give you a long life, bring increase and inheritance, and give a special year of blessing.” The appointment of White has resulted in theological criticisms from many on the religious right, but it has not led to a mass departure of Evangelical voters from Trump’s base. This is likely because while many Christians seek faith to be more central to American political institutions, that is not the primary concern of elected officials.  Catholics are more likely to be influenced broadly by church leadership on administrative policies and appointments. Evangelical voters operate in more localized spheres, within which the Paula White controversy has largely remained.  Both major denominations of American Christianity have found agreement in theological criticisms of White, but neither denomination has shown any indication of abandoning the Trump administration because of her appointment.  READ MORE from Andrew Gondy and Shiv Parihar: An Afrikaner in America Laments for His Homeland Trump Wins $16 Million in Paramount Settlement Over Kamala Harris Interview The post %POSTLINK% appeared first on %BLOGLINK%.

NEW MERCH - https://thebestpoliticalshirts.com/ They ADMITTED It — Israel-Iran Will ERUPT AGAIN Highlights The U.S. is running low on munitions, impacting its ability to support Ukraine and escalating focus on Middle East conflicts. Israel and Iran’s 12-day conflict cost the U.S. billions and resulted in a temporary ceasefire, but tensions remain high. ? Secret negotiations between Israel and Russia over Iran and Syria signal complex geopolitical shifts. ? U.S.-Iran relations deteriorate as Iran halts cooperation with nuclear watchdogs and threatens cyber disclosures involving Trump associates. U.S. lawmakers are considering supplying Israel with B2 bunker-buster bombs despite low stockpiles. ?️ A fragile 60-day Gaza ceasefire offers a glimmer of hope toward broader Middle East peace, contingent on Hamas’s political dissolution. Key Insights ⚠️ U.S. Munitions Depletion Reflects Overextension and Strategic Recalibration: The video reveals that the United States has significantly drained its missile defense stockpiles due to multiple simultaneous conflicts—especially the Israel-Iran skirmish and ongoing support for Ukraine. This shortage forces a strategic pivot, limiting aid to Ukraine and intensifying support for Israel. The depletion underscores the strain on U.S. military resources and signals an urgent need for NATO allies to increase their defense spending, as continually emphasized by Trump. This dynamic highlights the unsustainable burden borne by the U.S. in global military engagements and may foreshadow changes in foreign policy priorities. ? Middle East as a Nexus of Proxy Conflicts and Power Realignments: The ongoing instability in the Middle East involves a complex web of actors, including Israel, Iran, Russia, China, and the U.S. The video details secret talks between Israel and Russia regarding Iran and Syria, suggesting a pragmatic but uneasy cooperation despite competing interests. Meanwhile, Iran’s pivot towards China for military support indi..

Astronomers just discovered that an absolutely gigantic space rock that they have never seen before has entered our solar system. For now, they are referring to this giant space rock as “A11pl3Z”, and they are scrambling to find out all they can about it. At this stage, they don’t even know if it is a comet, an asteroid or something else. What they do know is that it is very large. According to one estimate, it is 12 miles wide. That means that Apophis is just a tiny pebble compared to this monster. They also know that it is getting closer to the Sun, although the exact trajectory of the object is uncertain. As it speeds toward the Sun, it appears that Mars will be the planet that has the closest encounter with this giant space rock. Is there a possibility that it could actually collide with Mars? We are being told that the reason astronomers have never seen this giant space rock before is because it originally comes from another solar system… There is a growing buzz in the astronomy community about a new object with a hyperbolic trajectory that is moving toward the inner Solar System. Early on Wednesday, the European Space Agency confirmed that the object, tentatively known as A11pl3Z, did indeed have interstellar origins. “Astronomers may have just discovered the third interstellar object passing through the Solar System!” the agency’s Operations account shared on Bluesky. “ESA’s Planetary Defenders are observing the object, provisionally known as #A11pl3Z, right now using telescopes around the world.” In recent years, two other giant space rocks that traveled into our solar system from somewhere else have been discovered. Oumuamua was the first, and Borisov was the second. Now, A11pl3Z will be the third example of this phenomenon… There’s a new object in the solar system headed toward the sun, and it may have come from interstellar space. We only know of two other interstellar objects that have entered into our solar system before, ‘Oumuamua and Comet 2I/Borisov. The nature of ‘Oumuamua is still a matter of debate, and the second was a comet from another solar system. And now we may have a third interstellar visitor. Currently named A11pl3Z, this object has a trajectory that suggests it didn’t originate inside our own solar system. The primary reason why astronomers have become convinced that A11pl3Z did not originate in our solar system is because it has an extremely hyperbolic trajectory… An engineer at the University of Arizona’s Catalina Sky Survey, David Rankin, said recent estimates of the object’s eccentricity are about 6. A purely circular orbit has an eccentricity value of 0, and anything above 1 is hyperbolic. Essentially, this is a very, very strong indication that A11pl3Z originated outside of the Solar System. I agree with that analysis. In fact, as I discuss in my new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next”, I am convinced that it will become increasingly common for us to encounter enormous interstellar objects as the entire Alpha Centauri system travels directly toward us at a speed of approximately 79,000 kilometers per hour. Right now, A11pl3Z is on the other side of the Sun, and it is reportedly already inside the orbit of Jupiter… A11pl3Z is currently slightly inside the orbit of Jupiter, but on almost exactly the opposite side of the Sun, so it has not been affected by the giant planet’s gravity. First detected by the ATLAS sky survey on July 1, A11pl3Z was announced on BlueSky by astronomy student K Ly with the handle astrafoxen. The discovery set off a scramble by other observatories to see if they had images of it that they had overlooked, which could help refine its orbit. This is a brand new discovery. To me, it is quite alarming that this absolutely gigantic space rock got so close before our astronomers were finally able to spot it. And with each passing day, it will be getting even closer. According to Daily Galaxy, it is being estimated that A11pl3Z will come within approximately 0.4 AU of Mars in early October… It will pass Mars at approximately 0.4 AU, barely within the observable range of the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. As A11pl3Z moves closer, the object’s characteristics will likely become clearer, adding to the growing body of knowledge regarding interstellar objects. If that estimate turns out to be accurate, A11pl3Z will pass Mars at a very safe distance. But as I did more research, I discovered that another estimate has A11pl3Z “coming within just 0.2 au of the Red Planet” on October 3rd… A11pl3Z is currently about 3.8 astronomical units (au) from Earth, according to Avi Loeb, an astronomer at Harvard University. One astronomical unit is equal to the average distance between the Earth and the Sun. On October 3, it should make a close approach to Mars, coming within just 0.2 au of the Red Planet, Universe Today reports. Is it going to be 0.4 AU or 0.2 AU? There is an enormous difference between those two estimates. And what if both estimates are wrong? If you shave off another 0.2 AU, there is a possibility that A11pl3Z could actually collide with Mars. So what would happen if a giant space rock that is 12 miles wide were to collide with Mars? According to astronomer Marshall Eubanks, A11pl3Z is traveling at a speed of approximately 56 miles per second… Scientists estimate it could be up to 12 miles across. It could also set a new speed record, ripping by the Earth with a relative velocity of around 56 miles per second, according to radio astronomer Marshall Eubanks. If an object that big and traveling that fast were to hit something, the destructive power would be unimaginable. The good news is that A11pl3Z is not expected to come anywhere close to our planet. In fact, the closest that it is expected to get to our planet is 1.35 AU on October 30th… A11pl3Z should make its closest approach to the Sun on October 29 and its closest approach to Earth on October 30, both at a distance of 1.35 au. But for a moment, let’s consider what would happen if a space rock that size was heading directly toward the Earth. Needless to say, we would be facing an extinction-level event. In fact, scientists have estimated that if an asteroid that is just 7 or 8 miles wide hit us it would “wipe out most everything on Earth”… For an asteroid to wipe out most everything on Earth, it would have to be massive. Scientists estimate it would take an asteroid about 7 to 8 miles (11 to 12 kilometers) wide crashing into the Earth. Once it made impact, it would create a tremendous dust plume that would envelope the entire planet, block out the sun and raise temperatures where the asteroid made impact. Billions would die, and much of life on the planet would be destroyed. But, scientists believe some would survive. So let’s watch A11pl3Z very closely. There appears to be no chance that it will hit Earth. But if it did hit Mars, how would we be affected? Let’s hope that we don’t find out… Michael’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com. About the Author: Michael Snyder’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com. He has also written nine other books that are available on Amazon.com including “Chaos”, “End Times”, “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”.  When you purchase any of Michael’s books you help to support the work that he is doing.  You can also get his articles by email as soon as he publishes them by subscribing to his Substack newsletter.  Michael has published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and he always freely and happily allows others to republish those articles on their own websites.  These are such troubled times, and people need hope.  John 3:16 tells us about the hope that God has given us through Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”  If you have not already done so, we strongly urge you to invite Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior today. The post A Newly Discovered Interstellar Object That Is 12 Miles Wide Is Rapidly Speeding Toward The Sun – Could It Potentially Collide With Mars? appeared first on End Of The American Dream.

by Craig Hemke, Sprott Money: Gold Price Consolidation Signals Opportunity The gold price has been range bound for the past two months, and it appears it may stay that way a while longer. The trader positioning revealed by the weekly Commitment of Traders report may reveal some clues as to when we might expect the next move […]

by Jim Hoft, The Gateway Pundit: On Tuesday Senator Chuck Grassley released new information from declassified documents that reveal the FBI blocked an investigation into the allegations that the Chinese Communist Party manufactured thousands of fake driver’s licenses and shipped them to the US in a scheme to help Joe Biden win the election by […]

Well said Shabbos.