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Almost immediately after a gunman tried to kill Donald Trump as he spoke July 13 at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, gun control zealots twisted the assassination attempt into an opportunity to blame the Second Amendment and lawful gun owners. They, as they so often do in the aftermath of any national news story involving the criminal misuse of firearms, immediately demanded restrictive gun control. Some journalists even went so far as to insinuate that the former president essentially brought this on himself because of his pro-Second Amendment stance when he was president. Perhaps they should have waited for just a few breaths before making fools of themselves. Now, over two weeks later, we know that it wasn’t the Second Amendment or Pennsylvania’s allegedly lax gun laws that almost got Trump killed. Rather, it was government ineptitude. The number of inexplicable decisions and unanswered questions about Trump’s Secret Service security detail that day is long and seems to be growing with every news cycle. And so far, this appears to be one of the most egregious failures in the history of government-provided personal protection. It rivals the night that President Abraham Lincoln’s security guard left his post outside the President’s Box at Ford’s Theatre and got roaring drunk at a bar across the street. This is, of course, far from the first time that gun control activists have sought to leverage an emotionally charged atmosphere to further their own agenda. These efforts typically occur in the aftermath of mass public shootings, but high-profile political assassinations have successfully been used to garner support for gun control legislation. Federal law today generally prohibits the importation of foreign-made firearms for civilian sales, in large part because the gunman who fatally shot President John F. Kennedy in 1963 used a bolt-action rifle initially designed and manufactured for the Italian army and later imported as a military surplus weapon to be sold on the civilian market. Similarly, the foundation of the current federal background-check system for gun sales was put into place in 1993 and named after James Brady, the White House press secretary left partially paralyzed during the 1981 assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan. Reagan’s shooter had a significant history of serious mental health issues and weapons-related criminal offenses that prohibited him from legally purchasing or possessing firearms. This is something that, under the Brady Act’s mandatory background check required for licensed dealers, would’ve been detected by the pawn shop at which the shooter purchased the gun with which he shot Reagan. During these previous assassination-based pushes for more gun control, activists’ demands were at least related (if only nominally, in the case of Kennedy’s assassin) to how the gunman acquired his weapon. That’s clearly not the case here. Forget, for just a minute, the serious constitutional concerns inherent with so many of these policies. Forget, too, that basing national gun policy on preventing the rarest forms of gun violence is an irrational and ineffective way to do public policy. The simple reality is that not one of the policies demanded by gun control activists in the wake of the Trump shooting would meaningfully affect the dead suspect’s ability to carry out his plan. This wasn’t about a lack of “universal” background checks. The shooter’s father legally purchased the weapon over a decade ago from a federally licensed gun store, where he would have been required to pass a background check. Officials initially believed that the 20-year-old shooter asked to borrow the gun on the day of the Trump shooting, something to which his father agreed and didn’t find out of the ordinary. Officials now believe that the suspect had, at some point, legally purchased the gun from his father. It doesn’t matter. Even if the shooter legally purchased the weapon through a private intrastate sale—the only type of sale for which background checks currently aren’t required under federal law—imposing a mandatory background check on that sale wouldn’t have changed anything. The shooter wasn’t a prohibited person whose attempt to purchase a gun would have been prevented by a failed background check. FBI officials confirmed that he had no prior criminal history, and there’s no indication he struggled with serious mental health issues that would have legally disqualified him from gun ownership. This is only reinforced by the fact that he’d recently passed a background check for his job as a dietary aide at a nursing home. Nor was this a problem with Pennsylvania’s open-carry laws, as some have suggested. Yes, the state generally allows ordinary, law-abiding adults to carry rifles openly in public spaces. But state and federal law enforcement can (and routinely do) set up secure perimeters around special events and prohibit people from carrying weapons in the vicinity of campaign rallies. There’s absolutely no evidence at this point that open-carry laws were in any way relevant to any security decisions made by the Secret Service or local police that day in Pennsylvania. The gunman wasn’t exactly walking around with his rifle visible, but rather appears to have concealed his rifle in a backpack until he climbed atop the roof from which he shot at Trump. Some sources say they believe that he’d stashed the weapon on the roof days in advance. And let’s be honest: If the shooter had openly carried a firearm, there’s simply no world in which a rifle-wielding civilian standing just outside the perimeter of a presidential campaign rally isn’t going to be treated as a serious threat. In fact, this is precisely why bystanders were so concerned when they saw a man on the roof with a rifle and tried so hard to alert police. Open-carry laws don’t magically prevent rational people from comprehending atypical and unusually threatening circumstances.   And this shooting certainly wouldn’t have been prevented if Pennsylvania banned the possession of so-called assault weapons. The simple reality is that none of the cosmetic features that distinguish an “assault weapon” from a “non-assault weapon” were relevant to the shooter hitting his target. If anything, had the gunman used a more traditional “precision” hunting rifle with a larger caliber round, longer barrel, and a bipod attachment, he may well have been more accurate from that distance. A lack of “assault weapon” features hasn’t stopped previous would-be assassins, in the slightest. Kennedy was fatally shot with a bolt-action rifle that ironically wouldn’t be condemned today by gun control advocates as an “assault weapon” or “weapon of war,” despite having been literally produced for military arsenals. Similarly, the man who killed the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in April 1968 used a pump-action rifle that, despite firing a far more powerful round than the rifle used to shoot at Trump, would escape “assault weapon” designations. Both the man who killed Sen. Robert F. Kennedy in May 1968 and the man who attempted to kill Reagan 13 years later used revolvers. Handguns also were used in the 2002 assassination of New York City Councilman James E. Davis; the 2008 mass shooting at a Kirkwood, Missouri, City Council meeting that killed Mayor Mike Swoboda and five others; and the 2011 shooting in Tucson, Arizona, that killed a federal judge and seriously wounded Rep. Gabby Giffords. The list of utterly irrelevant gun control restrictions proposed in the aftermath of the attempted assassination of Trump goes on. Magazine capacity limits? The suspect fired fewer than 10 rounds, as has been the case in virtually every successful or attempted assassination involving a firearm in the nation’s history. Waiting periods? The shooter didn’t use a recently purchased weapon and this seems to have been anything but a spur-of-the-moment decision. Safe storage laws? Trump’s shooter was a 20-year-old adult who used his own legally possessed firearm, not a minor or prohibited person who accessed another gun owner’s unsecured weapon. Raising the age of commercial gun sales to 21? While such a law would prohibit gun stores from selling to individuals under age 21, they wouldn’t prohibit mere possession for law-abiding young adults. Such laws also universally allow for parents to transfer long guns to their non-prohibited adult children—the exact type of transfer that happened here. It doesn’t matter how you spin it. Pennsylvania’s gun laws are completely irrelevant to the attempt to assassinate Trump. That’s because, at the end of the day, this isn’t a story about failed gun laws. This is a story about a series of government failures—failures for which gun control activists now want to punish ordinary, peaceable gun owners.    We ought not let them. The post After Assassination Attempt on Trump, Some Want to Hold Gun Owners Responsible for Government Failures appeared first on The Daily Signal.

A pregnant cat was left alone outside. She fawned over the people who helped her and waited until a stormy day to have kittens. Heathers and her kittensCoastal Bend Cat RescueA tabby cat was left behind when her family was evicted. Heavily pregnant, she wandered the street with no place to take shelter.A local animal rescuer noticed her situation and rushed to her aid. Believing the cat would give birth any day, she contacted Coastal Bend Cat Rescue (CBCR) and asked if they had any room in a foster home for her.Despite being completely full, the CBCR team couldn't bear leaving the cat outside. "One look at this sweet face had me cleaning out an extra bathroom and moving her in," Mary Huckabee, a CBCR officer, told Love Meow. She was left behind on the street when her family was evictedCoastal Bend Cat RescueNamed Heathers, the expectant mother cat toured around her new space and began rearranging blankets in her nest. "That made us think she would have her babies any moment. Then, we waited and waited, and this really big girl got bigger and bigger."Back in her element, Heathers quickly blossomed, fawning over the people who let her into their home. "She wants pets and cuddles all day long. Two hands are better than one." Coastal Bend Cat RescueWhen her carers entered the room, Heathers immediately made a beeline to them, brushing against them for pets. She was starved of affection, trying to make up for those days on the streets."She waited until a hurricane (Beryl) threatened the coastal bend to deliver her babies." She gave birth to six tiny tabbiesCoastal Bend Cat RescueFortunately, her location escaped the worst impacts of the hurricane. Heathers brought six healthy kittens, all tabbies, safely into the world."Named Princess Bride, Footloose, Ghostbuster, Gremlin, Karate Kid, and ET, this tabby crew could pack a theater with their adorableness. They love to eat, sleep, and eat some more. We expect they will grow to be just as round as mama." Coastal Bend Cat RescueHeathers worked around the clock to keep her kittens well-fed and clean. She kept a watchful eye on her mini-mes but was always delighted to take a break and receive attention from her humans.In one week, the kittens were sporting rotund bellies, wiggling around the nest with newfound strength. Coastal Bend Cat RescueBefore the kittens could see, they found their squeaky voices and used them unabashedly to demand their wants and needs.Heathers gently wrapped them in her arms, doting on them tenderly. Despite what she'd been through, she remained a joyful soul, constantly purring and making "biscuits." Coastal Bend Cat RescueAs the kittens' eyes opened and ears unfolded, their curiosity about the world around them grew.They started waddling around, strengthening their legs, attempting to venture out of their comfy nest. Heathers kept her eyes peeled, making sure her littles wouldn't wander far or get themselves into trouble. Coastal Bend Cat Rescue"They have so many beautiful, different tabby patterns and spotted bellies. They are as chonky as their mom, who still looked quite stout even after delivering six babies. They are starting to explore their area and show us their personalities."With a roof over their heads and a kind family to cater to their needs, Heathers can enjoy some me-time without worrying about where her next meal will come from. Coastal Bend Cat Rescue"In about 8-10 weeks, they will be available for adoption at The Cattery (a cage-free cat shelter). We can't wait to see them grow up." Coastal Bend Cat RescueShare this story with your friends. More on Heathers and her kittens and Coastal Bend Cat Rescue on Instagram and Facebook.Related story: Stray Cat Shows Up at the Right House on Cold Night, Slowly Finds Confidence When He Decides to Be Indoor Cat

Fauci Lied, Beagles Died

The mainstream media briefly broke its lying streak when many news outlets finally began admitting that Joe Biden was cognitively declining following his debate against Donald Trump. Unfortunately, that little bright spot of truth was short-lived. Now that Vice President Kamala Harris is the presumed Democratic presidential nominee, the media has corrected course and is spreading lie after lie to aid her campaign. But a peek into the VP’s archives will reveal the truth: “Kamala Harris is an absolute extremist and extraordinarily dangerous.” Glenn Beck gives several examples: Don’t Believe The Media's Lies: 5 Reasons Why Kamala Harris Is A RADICAL Leftist www.youtube.com 1. When Harris spoke at the Islamic Center of Southern California, she said, “We must have the courage to object when they use that term ‘radical Islamic terrorism,’ which ignores how Muslims have been the greatest victims of terror. And we must also have the courage to reject that term ‘illegal alien.’” 2. At a United Workers convention, Harris stated, “An undocumented immigrant is not a criminal, and we have to correct course in this conversation.” 3. In a 2018 interview with MSNBC, when asked about signs saying “abolish ICE,” Harris said, “I think there's no question that we've got to critically re-examine ICE and its role and the way that it is being administered and the work it is doing, and we need to probably think about starting from scratch.” 4. During an interview with CNN, Harris boldly stated, “There’s no question I’m in favor of banning fracking. … We have to just acknowledge that the residual impact of fracking is enormous in terms of the impact on the health and safety of community.” 5. Harris tearfully said during an NBC interview, “When I look at the fact that in our country we're looking at somewhere around 600 bills being composed or passed – anti-LGBTQ, a book ban, a policy approach that is ‘don't say gay.’ People that are in fear for their life, people afraid to be.” 6. In a 2020 “Ebro in the Morning” Zoom interview, Harris was asked where she stood on “defund the police.” Her answer was, “Defund the police – the issue behind it is that we need to reimagine how we are creating safety, and when you have many cities that have one-third of their entire city budget focused on policing, we know that is not the smart way and the best way or the right way to achieve safety. For too long the status quo thinking has been you get more safety by putting more cops on the street. Well, that's wrong.” Glenn speculates that “a lot of this information [about Kamala Harris] is going to be lost” in the coming days, as the media tries to erase her radical past to make her more palatable for voters. “They’re all in lockstep again,” he says, referring to the mainstream media and the Democratic party, but “we will make sure that you have access to the truth,” he says, promising to find and post everything he can on Harris before it’s deleted. “She's coming in as this radical, and the press will obscure that and make anybody who says any different into conspiracy theorists.” Want more from Glenn Beck?To enjoy more of Glenn’s masterful storytelling, thought-provoking analysis, and uncanny ability to make sense of the chaos, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

“Kill confirmed.”Dramatic new ground-level video captured by a resident of Butler, Pennsylvania, provides a front-row view of the desperate police search for would-be assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks in the more than four minutes before he unleashed his eight-shot sniper attack on former President Donald J. Trump.An account on X with the first name "Dave" and the handle @RealDJStew724 posted a 9-minute, 27-second video that covered the period from 4 minutes, 55 seconds before the shooting at 6:11 p.m. to 4 minutes, 32 seconds after the first shot was fired.The videographer was located on the south side of American Glass Research Building 6, from which Crooks launched his rooftop AR-15 rifle attack. Dave watched police officers run around the building looking at the roof, trying to spot Crooks, the video showed.The man hid behind a tree for cover.“Oh my God, there’s somebody in this building,” he said as four police officers flanked the south side and east end of the single-story warehouse building.'They shot him in the head. Big poof of hair!'Trump’s speech heard in the background on the video includes ironically timed words, considering the danger he was in. “We have millions and millions of people in our country that shouldn’t be here,” the former president told tens of thousands of rally-goers about 130 yards away. “Dangerous people. Criminals, we have criminals. We have drug dealers. We have people that should not be here.”The video showed bystanders fleeing for cover to near the chain link fence south of the building at the edge of the Butler Farm Show Inc. property. “Make yourself small, brah, I don’t know what’s going on,” the videographer said to someone off camera.In the video, Crooks was not visible to police and spectators on the ground except for a brief period when he raised his head above the roof peak. Crooks would have needed to do this in order to sight his target and fire. He was visible for 12 video frames, starting at the video's 4 minute, 50 second mark. The first crack of a rifle shot was was heard five seconds later. — (@) Just before the first shot was fired, a voice in the distance bellowed, “He’s got a gun!”Crooks’ first shot was fired just after 6:11 p.m., followed by two other shots, the audio on the video indicated. Crooks then fired five more shots in rapid succession. Less than a second later, another shot was heard, likely fired by a counter-sniper. Ten seconds later, the final shot was heard on the video from another counter-sniper.“Get down, guys, get down!” the videographer said to bystanders nearby. “Yeah, just get down. Get behind this tree with me. Get behind this tree.”One of the spectators near the tree shared what he saw in a series of emotional remarks.“They f***ing picked that dude off!” he said.“F*** yeah, I saw a big poof of hair go up in the air." “They shot him in the head. Big poof of hair!”One of the bystanders shouted a question to a passing police officer, “Head shot?”The videographer then repeated what he said was the officer's reply: “Kill confirmed."On July 29, the @RealDJStew724 account called attention on X to a part of his video that appeared to show an object flying behind the blue water tower located east of the American Glass Research property. The object was flying at a high rate of speed. It appeared on at least three frames of the video and possibly a fourth.The possible drone appeared to fly toward Crooks and Building 6 fewer than 10 seconds before Crooks opened fire on President Trump and the rally crowd. A whistleblower told Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) that local law enforcement officials offered anti-drone coverage for the Trump event but the Secret Service repeatedly turned it down.During a U.S. Senate hearing July 30 on the attempted assassination, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said a law enforcement drone system was supposed to be in use by 3 p.m., but because of "cellular bandwidth problems," it was not operational until 5:20 p.m.Blaze News contacted the U.S. Secret Service to determine whether the object on the video was a law-enforcement drone. "We would respectfully refer you to the FBI as they are handling the investigation," said Secret Service spokesman Joseph Routh.Blaze News contacted the FBI about the drone but had not received a reply by publication time.The new video includes a clear view of the blue water tower east of the American Glass Research campus. Video taken about 15 seconds before the shooting captures the full height of the water tower, including the catwalk about midway up the tank. There are no people present. — (@) One of the popular theories on social media claims a gunman fired at Trump from the nearby water tower.Former FBI Special Agent Kyle Seraphin said the video should dispel two theories of the shooting."For all of you who have been talking about multiple shooters... This audio is really simple," Seraphin wrote on X. "8 shots by Crooks. 1 round from a suppressed (counter-sniper) weapon. Then a pause and a final from a suppressed weapon. Sounds like a different counter-sniper. No water tower. 3 shooters."Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

“I have terrible news, Josh. And I wanted you to know first,” said my friend and boss Jack Buckby on July 25. Lancashire Hudson, the content creation agency he'd founded, had finally lost its battle with the bots.There is no keeping your head down and working quietly as a conservative in media anymore. The left and its ever-more-powerful digital golem will find you and finish you. Our cash-strapped clients had been increasingly turning to AI for the daily news, marketing, and other copy they needed for their ad-supported websites and newsletters. This writing wasn't nearly as effective, but it was far cheaper.Overnight, Jack and I lost our jobs and our ability to pay our bills. Thirty talented, hard-working writers and editors in our company lost theirs, too.The coming disruptionWe often think of AI as a threat to manual labor or low-level service jobs, but the truth is it's got creatives like us squarely in its sights as well. It's not as if we hadn't seen it coming. The immediate benefits of automating are all too clear, especially if a company is struggling. “AI is cheap, accessible, and easy," Jack tells me. "[Even if] it's not necessarily good." That said, this quick fix could end up damaging the brand in the long run. “it’s not the answer for businesses who want to maintain a good relationship with their audience and customers," says Jack."Ask yourself, when you pick up the phone to call a company and you’re greeted by a robot, how do you feel? If you were told that an article you read in a newspaper was generated by AI, would you feel compelled to read it still? No. The honest answer is 'no,' and if your audience and customers are humans, your content should be, too.” It's this vision that kept Jack fighting — until the economic reality could no longer be denied. A monster of their own makingWhile the whole media industry is feeling the pinch, companies out of step with dominant progressive views are particularly hard hit, many Lancashire Hudson clients among them. “I’ve had clients’ websites completely destroyed by Google shutting off traffic from their news search engines for mildly criticizing the vaccine roll out. They didn’t post anything in opposition to the vaccine, but instead, opposition to the mandates — and it wasn’t even a view shared by most of the staff. It was a single op-ed. And the site was destroyed," says Jack.This kind of Big Tech censorship is what finally did Lancashire Hudson in. Jack has been through this before. If you’ve heard of him, it is probably because he was once the enfant terrible of the English far right. As a young man from a working-class Northern English town, Jack fell in with an extreme crowd of angry, disaffected young men. They had reasons to be angry. What good-paying jobs were left had to be competed over with foreigners and “asylum seekers.” These young English men were told they were moral scum for being white, English, and blue collar.That’s when Jack discovered the actual racism, anti-Semitism, and violence bubbling under the surface of his new “community.” As he grew up, he grew alarmed, and he pulled back into a more traditional conservative position.This experience led him to a realization: It is the relentless social and economic punishment the left dishes out to conservatives and working people that is creating the “extremist far right” the left loves to hate. He tells the story in his book "Monster of Their Own Making."Hiring the un-hirableJack built Lancashire Hudson specifically to offer work to people who have a hard time getting it. His employees included Claire, a retired schoolteacher who lives in the Midwest and supplemented her small income with daily writing as she cares for her husband and disabled sister. And Denise, disabled and homebound but a quick and talented writer who can turn out perfect copy in 15 minutes. Her job with Jack was the first time in years that she made her own way instead of relying on benefits.Jack has also reached out to those shut out from the job market for ideological reasons. Anton, for example, has a journalism degree but can’t find work in media because he’s been seen having conservative opinions in public. Patricia is a married mother with a new baby who relied on work at Lancashire Hudson after her English university pushed her out of a 10-year administrative role because she was not sufficiently woke-compliant.Then there's me. At the end of 2022, I was pushed out of my 20-year career heading a consumer protection nonprofit when an internal coup branded me a racist, bigoted, misogynist transphobe for my personal, off-work political views. My job as editor with Lancashire Hudson kept me afloat.The left's digital golemIn a way, losing these jobs is a second, indirect cancellation. There is no keeping your head down and working quietly as a conservative in media anymore. The left and its ever-more-powerful digital golem will find you and finish you. Take it from us. We’re watching an entire industry eat itself alive. The problem is not only that humans are being pushed out of the field. If we think news is biased to the left now, how much worse will it get when we remember that AI models are being trained on the biased, leftist, partisan content that comes from traditional and legacy media?As Jack puts it: “When Google and Big Tech companies restrict visibility and traffic to businesses with which they do not agree, they destroy livelihoods. When they restrict advertising income, they say it’s OK to have one opinion but not OK to hold another. Ultimately, many businesses are being forced to make huge financial cuts just to stay alive, and in some instances, that means replacing workers with AI. The companies that toe the line might not have to. That’s not good for unifying the country, and it’s not good for our political discourse.”We’re trying to retool and figure out a way to work again, but everyone is feeling blindly through this new world of increasing digital control and digitally created “content.” I can’t tell you how to navigate this world because I’m learning as I go. But I hope you hear my warning: Your job, your career, is not safe, including all of you fellow “creatives." If you’re a conservative, your number is going to come up for cancellation quicker than others. Prepare yourself.In the meantime, Jack and I are looking for those companies that want quality content produced, overseen, and quality-checked by real humans with real principles. All of us who care about excellence, truth, and accountability that works for a world of humans had better find each other soon.

When Donald Trump Jr. told Tucker Carlson that the assassination attempt on his father was not a coincidence and that anyone who said so was a “freaking idiot,” he vocalized and normalized what many Americans have been silently asking — was the shooting an inside job? More and more people in the field of national security, some of whom have chosen to remain anonymous, have come forward and said something to the effect of, "Yes, evidence is suggesting that Crooks was groomed and assisted." Of course, this begs the question: Then who is complicit in the crime? Investigative journalist and Blaze Media correspondent Steve Baker joins “Blaze News Tonight” to go over the accumulated puzzle pieces that are beginning to paint a clearer picture of what exactly happened on July 13 in Butler, Pennsylvania. Donald Trump Jr.: Trump Assassination Attempt Not a 'Coincidence' | 7/29/2024 youtu.be Blaze Media was “very fortunate to have sources on the ground on the evening of July 13 as well as the next morning before the Secret Service gag order went into effect,” says Baker, adding that the “single-most significant thing” that Blaze sources discovered was that “the radio coms were ... ‘siloed.”’ Baker explains that Secret Service and local law enforcement at the rally “were not in communication with each other because they were not prepped” prior to the rally. “When things started going wrong and then suspicions began being raised about this particular guy, Thomas Crooks, on the ground ... they couldn't get communications back to verify that he was not a blue-on-blue situation,” ultimately allowing for “the first shot to be fired.” However, the question remains: Was this lack of communication and preparation purposeful? Clearly Donald Trump Jr. thinks so. To hear more of the conversation, watch the episode above. Want more from 'Blaze News Tonight'?To enjoy more provocative opinions, expert analysis, and breaking stories you won’t see anywhere else, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.