This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
A township in Michigan has adopted a resolution stating its newly adopted status as a "Second Amendment Sanctuary," because of the threat of the "infringement on the right of law-abiding citizens to keep and bear arms."
"We, the people of Holton Township, Michigan, through this resolution, hereby declare our Inalienable rights, our freedom, and our Liberty as guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States of America."
A report in the Midwesterner explains the board resolution also included an addendum to form a militia.
The action by Holton Township's trustees followed the announcement by nearby Livingston County, which a few months ago also described itself a "Second Amendment Sanctuary."
Specifically, Holton officials insist it means they will not enforce red-flag laws restricting gun and ammunition possession.
Red flag laws are becoming more and more popular across the United States and multiple states have adopted them. They simply allow individuals, family members, and more, to complain to a court about someone they dislike, and the court then makes an ex parte decision to suspend the constitutional rights of the targeted person.
The board members, four of whom were present, voted unanimously in support of the plan.
They opened by quoting the U.S. Constitution's Second Amendment, which states, "A well-regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed."
That's incorporated into the states through the Due Process clause, they note.
Then they cite a list of Supreme Court decisions that establish and protect the rights of firearms possession and self-defense.
"The Holton Township Board declares and confirms express opposition to any law that would unconstitutionally restrict the rights of the citizens of Holton Township to keep and bear arms," they explained.
It then states the board "declares and confirms to express its intent to stand as a Sanctuary Township for Second Amendment rights, and to oppose, within the limits of the Constitution of the United States and the Commonwealth of Michigan, any efforts to unconstitutionally restrict such rights."
The board's accompanying "Militia Public Security Act" states the township is adopting "policies necessary for the security and rights of Holton Township residents."
It explains, "Legal residents of Holton Township with primary residency in the township are eligible to join the militia and may make their intentions known by acknowledging their intent on social media, explicitly telling friends or family members they wish to join, or stating their intent by letter to the Township Militia."
Then the board notes an age requirement of being at least 18, and the need to pass a federal firearms background check.
The report said, "Militia members must provide their own firearms, adhering to all federal, executive, county, and state regulations. According to the addendum, long guns with stocks that hit the shoulder, including semi-automatic rifles and shotguns, must have been legal by federal law since March 27, 2021. Pistols and handguns, including semi-automatics, are required to have been legal by federal law since March 27, 2021, as well."
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
Saying things that leftists don't endorse is dangerous in America these days.
Writing it is even worse.
After all, the "woke" crowd has set up an industry of processes for their complaints about statements that don't agree with their ideology, creating both condemnation and censorship for those ideas as most social media companies go along.
One federal judge already has likened it to the horrific "Ministry of Truth" created by Orwell and the Supreme Court now is looking at the loss of free speech.
The campaign has been highly effective in that activist social media companies have even demonetized conservative organizations when they make statements that are fully backed by the truth and science simply because they don't align with Marxist ideology.
And the question now is whether Joe Biden, who has taken America so far into left field there are corn stalks visible, is exempt.
The question is raised by constitutional expert Jonathan Turley, who not only has testified as a constitutional expert before Congress but has represented members in court.
He pointed out a recent State Department "dissent memo" that blasted Biden's position on the war against Israel.
"What was most notable about the memo is that some administration staffers accused President Joe Biden of 'spreading misinformation'" he explained.
"It was a moment of crushing irony for some of us who have written and testified against the Biden administration’s censorship efforts. The question is whether, under the administration’s own standards, President Biden should now be banned or blacklisted to protect what his administration has called our 'cognitive infrastructure.'"
He explained Biden, and other Democrats in Congress, for years "have resisted every effort to expose the sprawling government censorship program that one federal judge described as an 'Orwellian Ministry of Truth.' As I have written previously, it included grants to academic and third-party organizations to create a global system of blacklists and to pressure advertisers to withdraw support from conservative sites."
He noted the House Judiciary Committee recently revealed "another layer" in the Democrats' system, which is "switchboarding." Under that, which has been confirmed by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, the administration intends to control the nation's "cognitive infrastructure," and eliminate misinformation, disinformation, and malformation, which is information "based on fact, but used out of context."
The result of the Democrat plan has been that researchers and politicians, "even satirical sites" have been banned and blacklisted.
"No level of censorship seemed to be sufficient for President Biden, who once claimed that social media companies were 'killing people' by not silencing more dissenting voices," Turley wrote.
The problem now is that those in Biden's own administration are accusing him of spreading misinformation.
"The five-page State Department memo was signed by 100 State and U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) employees and was accompanied by a social media post by a junior foreign affairs staffer, accusing Biden of being 'complicit in genocide' in Gaza. The memo accuses Biden of 'spreading misinformation,' citing his Oct. 10 speech supporting Israel, and accuses Israel of committing 'war crimes and/or crimes against humanity under international law.'"
The letter also charges Biden with ignoring facts, which accusations have been sufficient in the past for him to demand censorship. And leftist media outlets have been spreading false information, too, he said.
"There is, of course, not even a whisper (let alone a loud demand) for censorship or suspension of any of these figures or outlets because that is not how the administration’s policies over 'misinformation, disinformation, and malformation' — what it terms 'MDM' — work. The administration at one point insisted that it would police this 'MDM space' to target views on a sweeping range of subjects, including racial justice and the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan."
And, he wondered, "What will the Biden MDM space rangers do with President Biden?"
"Nothing," he said.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
Joe Biden's newest to help Iran, which funds Hamas and its terror attacks on civilians, would give the Islamic regime another $10 billion.
It's a report in the Washington Free Beacon that explains the scheme involves a "sanctions waiver" to give Iran a channel to grab $10 billion in funds that previously were frozen and now are held in Iraq.
The plan comes only weeks after Hamas, a terror group supported financially by Iran, launched an atrocity-filled attack on Israelis that left 1,400 dead.
The waiver plan to extend sanctions relief follows earlier relief issued in July and soon expire, the report said.
"It allows Iraq to transfer frozen electricity payments into Iranian-owned bank accounts in Europe and Oman. The waiver renewal is driving concerns that the Biden administration is maintaining financial avenues for Tehran as the country’s terrorist proxies foment chaos across the Middle East," the report said.
Richard Goldberg, of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said in the report, "The world is living in a post-Oct. 7 world, but the White House is still running an Oct. 6 policy toward Iran.
"Why should Iran have any access to more than $10 billion after sponsoring one of the worst terrorist attacks against American citizens and the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust? It would make more sense to freeze all of these accounts and keep every penny out of Tehran's hands."
Just weeks ago the Biden administration facilitated access for Iran to a $6 billion ransom payment.
The report explained, "The Trump administration first allowed Iraq to import electricity and gas from Iran, but only on the condition that the payments were kept in an escrow account in Baghdad. The Biden administration continued to issue that waiver, and then broadened it in July so that Iraq could move more than $10 billion outside the country, enabling Tehran to draw on the funds for its budget and humanitarian needs. In late October, the governor of the Central Bank of Iran reportedly discussed expediting Iran's access to the funds with his Omani counterpart."
The Biden administration repeatedly has made the claim that the money doesn't go to Iran for terror funding, but the money can only be used for "non-sanctioned purposes."
Critics point out that cash is fungible, meaning contributing to any of Iran's causes gives the rogue Islamic regime the ability to divert more of its own funding to terror causes.
A commentary by Islam expert Robert Spencer at JIhadWatch said, "No surprise here. Despite its claims to support Israel, the Biden regime has made it abundantly clear that it does not support the Jewish state."
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
Hamas' war on Israel has put in a bull's-eye not only Israeli civilians, hundreds of whom were killed on that day of atrocities on Oct 7.
Also in the cross-hairs are Palestinian children who live in neighborhoods where Hamas arsenals are placed and people who have been shot and killed while trying to evacuate before Israeli military movements.
It's because Hamas uses civilians, even its own, as shields for its weaponry.
And now the agenda has moved to an extreme, with civilians in hospitals part of the warfare.
It's that Hamas has refused a humanitarian delivery of fuel to a hospital.
The Jerusalem Post has posted online recordings of conversations revealing the agenda.
The report said Israeli security forces delivered 300 liters of diesel fuel to Shifa Hospital in Gaza, but later got word Hamas terrorists had intercepted it.
Meanwhile, Hamas criticized Israel, with, "The offer [300 liters of fuel] belittles the pain and suffering of the patients who are trapped inside without water, food, or electricity. This quantity is not enough to operate hospital generators for more than thirty minutes."
Hamas also claimed that the hospital is run by the Palestinian health ministry, not the terror organization.
The Post report noted the IDF recordings of the event reveal an exchange between someone with the Coordination and Liaison Administration (CLA), which administers civilian policy regarding the Israeli government's activity in the Gaza Strip, and an official from Shifa Hospital.
The plan was for fuel to be delivered by the CLA, then its workers would "move back so that they won't be next to the junction" and the hospital could retrieve the fuel.
Then a video showed IDF soldiers delivering the fuel, and the last recording was a conversation between a health official in Gaza and the IDF, during which the health official explained Yusef Abu Rish, director general of Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry, refused permission for the hospital to get the fuel.
The IDF has volunteered to help evacuate babies from the hospital, and Israeli forces have told everyone to leave, as Hamas has a command center under and around the facility.
Estimates say about 500 patients remain.
WND previously reported on a video that documented the deaths of Gaza civilians who apparently were heeding Israeli warnings to evacuate.
The video was aired on a recent podcast by Amir Tsarfati, a respected Israeli commentator and former IDF officer who converted to Christianity.
The video, with the images of the slain appearing starting at about the 5:00 mark:
Tsarfati said Israel which is trying to eliminate the threat from the terrorists of Hamas, who are headquartered there.
When people responded to warnings to evacuate, Tsarfati said, Hamas began "using their own people as human shields. If they move, then they shoot to kill."
He said the video was provided of "one of the roads" that evacuees were trying to use.
"Take a look at what happened to those who tried to leave northern Gaza down south, and Hamas saw them," he said.
The video shows bodies strewn along a road.
That report noted Hamas was preventing people from evacuating.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
A student at a California middle school has been suspended for wearing glare-reducing "eye black" at a football game, mimicking the actions of professional, college, and high school students alike.
And now the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression is calling for the punishment to be rescinded.
"Muirlands Middle School has no authority to discipline J.A. for his non-disruptive, constitutionally protected display of team spirit," the free speech organization officials have told the school in a letter.
They ask school officials to remove any mention of the incident from J.A.'s school record and lift a ban on the student's attendance at sports events.
Further, the school needs to renew its commitment to "binding First Amendment obligations."
"Anyone who spends any amount of time watching sports will see players wearing eye black — black paint or grease applied under the eyes. Traditionally, athletes use eye black to mitigate glare from the sun or stadium lights, but it also has aesthetic appeal," FIRE explained in a report.
"As one sports analyst put it back in 2008, 'The real reason everyone loves to wear eye black is that it looks totally cool, like modern war paint.' Some athletes go with the classic two black lines under the eyes. But for many others, the more eye black, the better."
J.A., in fact, used eye black that was under his eyes and spread down his cheeks, copying professional players whose images were documented by FIRE.
J.A. was at the game, wearing the eye black, without incident.
"However, about a week after the game, the Muirlands Middle School principal called J.A. and his parents to a meeting, where he told them J.A. would be suspended for two days and banned from future athletic events for wearing 'blackface' at the football game. The disciplinary notice describes J.A.’s alleged offense as 'painted his face black at a football game' and categorizes the incident as 'Offensive comment, intent to harm.'"
That, FIRE's report said, "is preposterous."
"Merriam-Webster defines 'blackface' as “dark makeup worn to mimic the appearance of a black person and especially to mock or ridicule black people.' Blackface has its origins in racist minstrel shows featuring white actors caricaturing black people, including by covering their entire faces in dark makeup and stereotypically exaggerating their facial features," FIRE explained.
J.A., instead, was following "a popular warpaint-inspired trend of athletes applying large amounts of eye black under their eyes, which has no racial connotations whatsoever," FIRE told the school.
The organization documented that the Supreme Court already has concluded that "school officials cannot restrict student speech based on speculative, 'undifferentiated fear' that it will cause disruption or feelings of unpleasantness or discomfort among the student body."
FIRE is calling for a response from the school no later than Nov. 22.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
The legacy American television networks, ABC, CBS and NBC, must really want Joe Biden to win to 2024 presidential election.
Or someone the Democrat Party would suddenly suggest to replace him if his "senior moments" of scattered thoughts and fumbled speeches become worse than they already are.
That's according to a new study that reveals the networks, all of which promoted the false "Russia collusion" narrative against President Trump in the 2016 race and hid the truth about the Biden family scandals confirmed in that laptop computer Hunter Biden left behind in 2020, have started suppressing any reporting about GOP challengers to Trump for the GOP nomination.
And nearly all of their reporting on Trump is negative.
A Washington Examiner report by columnist Paul Bedard bluntly described it as "election interference" by the media.
The details come in a report at Newsbusters, the Media Research Center outlet.
It explains, "With the third Republican presidential debate set for Wednesday, the Big Three broadcast networks have abandoned their coverage of former President Donald Trump’s Republican presidential challengers. Instead, their evening newscasts have assumed the challenger role themselves, pounding the frontrunner with overwhelmingly (93%) negative coverage.
"Presidential election campaigns are a time for a party to showcase its ideas, but the networks are also suppressing Republicans’ policy agenda in favor of overwhelming coverage of the legal cases brought against Trump by various Democratic prosecutors. Less than seven percent of the GOP coverage has been about the issues (27 minutes), vs. 320 minutes (77%) spent on Trump’s legal situation."
MRC said it looked at all coverage of the GOP candidates and campaign on the three networks' evening newcasts from Aug. 1 through Oct. 31.
They spent 380 minutes on Trump, 74% of all GOP candidate airtime.
Ron DeSantis got about 30 minutes, Mike Pence 14. All others were in the single digits.
But the issues discussed by the candidates were ignored.
"There’s no way the networks could have avoided covering Donald Trump’s legal issues, but the degree to which they’ve crowded out the normal discourse of presidential campaigns is extraordinary. In the past three months, evening news viewers heard 131 minutes about special counsel Jack Smith’s January 6 case against Trump. Another 112 minutes was spent on Fulton County Democratic D.A. Fani Willis’s case about post-election activity in Georgia, while Democratic New York Attorney General Letitia James’s civil fraud case against Trump and his company garnered 46 minutes of airtime," the MRC reported.
And it's getting worse, the report said, with the networks spending only two minutes on GOP policy during October, and most of the total 84 minutes spent on the GOP going to those Democrat attacks on Trump.
The MRC reporting, in fact, credited the "media's unrelenting hostility towards President Trump" for putting Biden in the White House.
"From his first months in office in 2017, throughout 2018 and 2019, and during the 2020 election year, the networks assaulted Trump with the most hostile press coverage any U.S. president has ever been forced to deal with," the report said.
In what has to be bad news for the networks, however, the report noted the "unprecedented attacks … seem not to have hurt Trump's standing with conservative or Republican voters."
Now, the report said, "history is repeating itself: The networks are once again hitting Donald Trump with the worst press ever faced by a leading politician."
The report described the unrelenting attacks on Trump as "election interference."
Bedard commented, "The big three TV networks — CBS, NBC, and ABC — are doing their best to live up to former President Donald Trump’s charge that they are 'truly the enemy of the people.'"
He noted MRC reporter Rich Noyes affirmed, "negative coverage of Trump helped Joe Biden win in 2020. He said that the liberal media are playing the same game plan for 2024 but earlier than normal, shifting to offense a year before the election."
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
Legacy media reporters across the West are failing the public by refusing to disclose the bias that is coming out in reports regarding Hamas' terrorism against Israel, and the Middle East democracy's response, according to a new report.
The problem is that the media, without qualification or explanation, is quoting Hamas' narrative on what is developing in Gaza.
According to an Investigative Project on Terrorism, one problem was with CNN.
That organization said, "As Israel's genocide in the Gaza Strip entered its 17th day today, the death toll climbed to over 5,085, according to latest reports."
But the "source" was the "Palestinian Information Centre," which likely gets its messaging from Hamas.
And then from the BBC, which said, "More than 5,000 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed in air and artillery strikes carried out by the Israeli military in response, according to Gaza's health ministry."
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
Iran long has been known as the world's foremost funder of terrorism, with proxies including Hezbollah and Hamas, the terror group that last month invaded Israel and massacred 1,400 with atrocities that left the civilized world stunned.
Now its chief is offering a direct threat to America.
It is the Middle East Media Research Institute that is reporting on a recent speech by Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
He said in an address this week on Iranian television that "death to America" is not just a slogan, it's a policy.
He said Western countries could not "make excuses" for anti-Israel and anti-American protests in England, France, Italy, and the U.S., and this is why there are claims that Iran was behind rallies in England. Khamenei mockingly asked whether these rallies were organized by the London Basij or the Paris Basij, according to MEMRI.
Khamenei said,"The situation between America and Iran is this: When you chant 'Death to America!' it is not just a slogan – it is a policy. I have stated the reasons previously. For many years, from the 1940s to the 1970s – that is 30 years – the Americans did everything they could do against the Iranian nation. They hit Iran in any way they could – financially, economically, politically, scientifically, and morally."
And he blamed the U.S. for the existence of his arch-enemy: Israel.
"If it were not for America's support, if it were not for the support of U.S. weapons, the corrupt and artificial Zionist regime would have been destroyed in the first week. It would have collapsed. The Americans are behind this," he claimed.
He continued, "In Western countries – in England, France, Italy, and various U.S. states – people took to the streets in large numbers, chanting slogans against Israel and in many cases, against America. This tarnished [Western] reputation. They really do not have any remedy for this. They cannot make excuses for this. That is why we saw some idiot saying that Iran was behind the rallies in England. Perhaps the Basij in London is behind this... Or maybe the Basij of Paris."
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
An official for the Hamas terrorist organization, which just weeks ago launched a war against Israel by invading and committing atrocities that left some 1,400 innocent Israeli civilians dead, now says it is the responsibility of the United Nations to protect its own civilians from Israel's military response.
Israel has, in fact, launched a series of air strikes on known Hamas operations in Gaza since the Hamas terror attack, in which militants drugged themselves and carried instructions to commit atrocities, such as burning whole families alive and beheading babies.
The air strikes have done damage to Hamas' military components, but as those installations often are adjacent to housing, or even hospitals, ancillary damage has been unavoidable.
Further, Hamas has constructed hundreds of miles of tunnels for its terror equipment, personnel, and campaigns, which will require on-the-ground Israeli military operations to neutralize.
Now Mousa Abu Marzouk, of Hamas' "Political Bureau," says those tunnels are for Hamas fighters and are not intended to protect civilians.
According to a report from the Middle East Media Research Institute, Marzouk said during an interview on Russia Today TV that since 75% of the residents in the Gaza Strip are refugees, it is the responsibility of the United Nations to protect them.
He was asked about the "500 kilometers of tunnels," and why Hamas failed to provide any bomb shelters for civilians.
He said, "We have built the tunnels because we have no other way of protecting ourselves from being targeted and killed. These tunnels are meant to protect us from the airplanes. We are fighting from inside the tunnels."
In fact, the agenda appears to be to keep civilians close by Hamas' military installations to act as shields, as previous reports confirm Hamas had closed roads to evacuees, who had been warned by Israel of the coming offensive.
In fact, he charged that the United Nations must not only protect civilians but provide for them.
"Everybody knows that 75% of the people in the Gaza Strip are refugees, and it is the responsibility of the United Nations to protect them. According to the Geneva Convention, it is the responsibility of the occupation to provide them with all the services as long as they are under occupation," Marzouk said.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
Turkey's Islamist President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is blasting Israel as a "war criminal to the world" that is committing an "open and despicable massacre" against Gazans, in a fiery, pro-Hamas speech at a massive rally in Istanbul organized by his AKP Party.
Erdogan, a longtime defender of Hamas who rejects the Western powers' classification of Hamas as a terrorist organization, has ramped up his rhetoric against the Jewish state following Israel's declaration of war and retaliatory campaign against Hamas terrorists, who reportedly killed 1,400 Israelis – including many civilians – in a surprise attack Oct. 7.
Earlier last week, Erdogan called Hamas "freedom fighters" and canceled a planned trip to Israel.
At the pro-Palestinian rally in Istanbul attended by hundreds of thousands, Erdogan questioned Israel's historic claim to their Middle East homeland: "Hey Israel, how did you come here? How did you enter here?" he asked rhetorically to the flag-waving throng. "You are an occupier. You are an organization. The Turkish people know this," he said. "Israel, we will declare you as a war criminal to the world."
"What is being done in Gaza is not defense, but an open and despicable massacre," Erdogan said. "This determined and faithful stance exhibited by Gazans will be written in history as a glorious epic of resistance."
He issued a seeming threat to thrust Turkey into the Israel-Hamas war, declaring: "Oh Western Powers! – Do you want a New War between the Crescent and you Crusaders again?"
"We can come at any night unexpectantly," he said, as the crowd chanted, "Turkish military to Gaza!" according to one X post on the speech by @ElephanCivics, who titled it, "WW3 Update."
Israel responded to the speech by pulling its diplomats from Ankara and calling for a reassessment of relations with Turkey, which Sunday celebrated its 100-year anniversary as a modern secular state.
“In light of the escalating rhetoric from Turkey, I have instructed the return of diplomatic representatives from Turkey in order to reassess Israel-Turkey relations,” Foreign Minister Eli Cohen said in a statement reported by the Times of Israel Saturday.
U.S. Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., quickly condemned Erdogan: "Hamas murders innocent babies, burns families alive & is holding Americans hostage. Erdogan has again shown that his interests don’t align with those of the U.S....We need to seriously consider Turkey’s membership in NATO if it’s willing to side with Iran-backed terrorists."
But the Biden administration's State Department spokesman Monday refused to condemn Erdogan for his harsh, anti-Israel statements, saying only that the White House "disagrees" with Erdogan's comments as it has disagreed with him in the past:
Erdogan sanctions anti-Israel rallies
The foreign policy group Foundation for Defense of Democracies, in an article published six days before the huge rally, said the anti-Israel rhetoric "is not an unusual move for Erdogan, as his desire to undermine Israel is becoming clearer by the day."
The FDD report notes that "since 2011, Erdogan has helped Hamas establish a headquarters in Turkey and harbored its operatives and senior leadership."
It listed other examples of Erdogan encouraging public anger against Israel:
The writer, Sinan Ciddi, associate professor of Security Studies at the Command and Staff College-Marine Corps University and Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, notes the protests "are significant developments, as public rallies have largely been banned in Turkey since 2013. Apparently, if they are anti-Israeli in focus, they are permissible."
Turkey's "democracy" is far from perfect and heavily favors Erdogan's long-running rule against his political opponents.
"Some 90% of Turkey’s media is in the hands of the government or its backers, according to Reporters Without Borders, ensuring overwhelming airtime for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who won re-election on Sunday," Euronews reported March 30, in an article titled: "Turkish election 'free but not fair', say international observers."