The plight of Eastern Europe only gets more troubling as the governmental shakeup continues for the nations embroiled in a generations-old clash over land.
One of Ukraine's most prominent figures abroad, Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, resigned on Wednesday in anticipation of a leadership shakeup in the country, as The Associated Press reported.
Seven people were murdered in a western city as a result of Russian strikes, which occurred just one day after one of the most devastating missile attacks since the war started.
No reason was given by Kuleba, 43, for his resignation. With the resignations of four additional ministers submitted late Tuesday, this reorganization is likely to be the largest since the Russian invasion in February 2022.
The war is about to hit a critical stage and commemorate its 1,000th day in November. Last week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy hinted that a reorganization was on the horizon.
On Wednesday, he stated that "new energy, and that includes in diplomacy" is necessary for Ukraine. Neither he nor the visiting Irish prime minister Simon Harris knew whether the candidates would accept his invitation to join the cabinet, therefore he could not name any replacements at this time, he said during a news conference in Kyiv.
Keeping the Ukrainian people's spirits up and strengthening their resolve for another harsh winter are two of Zelenskyy's top priorities as the country continues its grinding battle of attrition with its larger neighbor.
The electrical grid in Ukraine has been under attack from Russia, which has disrupted heat and water supply and disabled almost 70% of the country's generation capacity.
The tragic assault on Wednesday in Lviv, a city far from the front lines but close to the NATO member Poland, demonstrated how vulnerable all of Ukraine is to Moscow's long-range capabilities.
After months of depressing news from the eastern front line, the Ukrainian army's daring foray into Russia's Kursk border region over a month ago lifted Ukrainian morale.
The long-term objectives of the incursion remain unknown, however, according to Zelenskyy, Ukraine aims to establish a buffer zone in that area to deter Russian attacks that cross the border.
Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia, is determined to further entrench his army in eastern Ukraine. The Kremlin's onslaught in Donetsk, where Ukraine is deficient in air defenses and troops, and the long-range missile strikes that have repeatedly struck civilian areas of Ukraine, indicate that Putin will continue to be uncompromising and unyielding in his pursuit of suppressing Ukrainian resistance.
Late Tuesday, the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington think tank, stated that Putin is of the opinion that Russia can "slowly and indefinitely subsume Ukraine through grinding advances" and "by outlasting Western support" for Kyiv.
Zelenskyy is also considering the possibility of a change in the level of important U.S. military support for his country in the wake of the November presidential election.
Republicans have racked up several victories in cases to determine voting rules in several swing states in recent weeks, giving them a better chance of electoral success in November.
The Republican National Committee has filed 100 lawsuits in 25 states along with 150,000 lawyers and volunteer poll watchers to ensure fair elections across the country.
The Supreme Court allowed Arizona to require proof of citizenship to vote, changing the dual ballot system it has used since 2013 that allowed potential non-citizens to vote in presidential and congressional elections.
The RNC is also working to get Michigan and Wisconsin to enforce their rules requiring the hiring of an equal number of Democrat and Republican poll workers.
Currently, Detroit has been accused of hiring seven times more Democrats than Republicans.
In May, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Pennsylvania had to enforce its own law that disqualified absentee ballots that weren't dated.
This law prevented people from mailing in their ballots after Election Day and still having them counted, which could invite voter fraud.
In the 2020 election cycle, these undated absentee ballots were counted in violation of the existing law, and it was justified as a way to make sure every vote was counted.
The ACLU argued vehemently that the date on the ballot was "irrelevant," but in reality it's the only way to make sure ballots are legitimate and are submitted when they are supposed to be.
There are many other cases pending before various courts that may or may not get decided before the election on November 5, 2024.
The bottom line is that Democrats benefit when illegitimate votes are counted, which gives them the motivation to prevent safeguards that will lead to fair voting and prevent fraud.
It should be telling that Democrats want non-citizens to vote, and they want people to be able to vote multiple times if they can get away with it.
When Democrats say they want more people to vote, they are being disingenuous.
They want to win, they want power, and they don't care how they get it.
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson said during a "CBS Sunday Morning" interview that she supports a binding code of ethics for the nation's highest court.
“From my perspective, I don’t have any problem with an enforceable code,” Jackson said while plugging her new memoir.
“A binding code of ethics is pretty standard for judges. And so I guess the question is, ‘Is the Supreme Court any different?’” Jackson said. “And I guess I have not seen a persuasive reason as to why the court is different than the other courts.”
She did qualify her support as being "general," rather than supporting any specific legislation at this point.
The court has come under criticism in recent months for not having its own binding code of ethics after stories broke of several justices not disclosing gifts they received from wealthy friends, mainly rides on private jets and luxury vacations.
It was first reported that Justice Clarence Thomas did so, but it was later revealed that he was told he didn't have to disclose the gifts from Harlan Crow, a wealthy businessman and longtime personal friend.
There were no cases that ever came before the court involving Crow, but the left screamed about it for months anyway.
The court adopted its own code of ethics last year, but it was non-binding.
Jackson refused to discuss Thomas during the interview.
According to reports, most of the current justices accepted some kind of gifts, and many former justices also did.
Jackson is the newest member of the court, appointed by President Joe Biden.
She may have avoided accepting gifts because of the controversy surrounding them or just may not have disclosed any gifts yet if she did receive any.
Gabe Roth of Fix the Courts said about justices accepting gifts:
Supreme Court justices should not be accepting gifts, let alone the hundreds of freebies worth millions of dollars they’ve received over the years. Public servants who make four times the median local salary, and who can make millions writing books on any topic they like, can afford to pay for their own vacations, vehicles, hunting excursions and club memberships — to say nothing of the influence the gift-givers are buying with their ‘generosity.’ The ethics crisis at the Court won’t begin to abate until justices adopt stricter gift acceptance rules.
“It really boils down to impartality,” Jackson told CBS. “That’s what the rules are about. People are entitled to know if you’re accepting gifts as a judge, so that they can evaluate whether or not your opinions are impartial.”
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
Both Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are blasting Hamas after the bodies of six hostages held by Hamas, including that of 23-year-old American Hersh Goldberg-Polin, were recovered overnight Saturday.
"I am devastated and outraged. Hersh was among the innocents brutally attacked while attending a music festival for peace in Israel on October 7," Biden said.
"He lost his arm helping friends and strangers during Hamas' savage massacre. He had just turned 23. He planned to travel the world. I have gotten to know his parents, Jon and Rachel. They have been courageous, wise, and steadfast, even as they have endured the unimaginable. They have been relentless and irrepressible champions of their son and of all the hostages held in unconscionable conditions.
"I admire them and grieve with them more deeply than words can express. I know all Americans tonight will have them in their prayers, just as Jill and I will. I have worked tirelessly to bring their beloved Hersh safely to them and am heartbroken by the news of his death. It is as tragic as it is reprehensible.
"Make no mistake, Hamas leaders will pay for these crimes. And we will keep working around the clock for a deal to secure the release of the remaining hostages."
Harris, the 2024 Democratic nominee for president, said: "Hamas is an evil terrorist organization. With these murders, Hamas has even more American blood on its hands.
"I strongly condemn Hamas' continued brutality, and so must the entire world. From its massacre of 1,200 people to sexual violence, taking of hostages, and these murders, Hamas' depravity is evident and horrifying. The threat Hamas poses to the people of Israel – and American citizens in Israel – must be eliminated and Hamas cannot control Gaza. The Palestinian people too have suffered under Hamas' rule for nearly two decades.
"As vice president, I have no higher priority than the safety of American citizens, wherever they are in the world. President Biden and I will never waver in our commitment to free the Americans and all those held hostage in Gaza."
The other hostages have been identified as Eden Yerushalmi, 24, Almog Sarusi, 25, Alexander Lobanov, 32, Carmel Gat, 40, and Master Sgt. Ori Danino, 25.
"Together with the entire nation, my wife and I share in the heavy grief of the families. We all mourn with them," said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday.
"I wish to express my deep appreciation to our forces, the brave IDF soldiers and Shin Bet fighters, who risked their lives to return of our sons and daughters.
"I say to the Hamas terrorists who murdered our abductees, and I say to their leaders: Your blood is on your heads," he continued.
"We will not rest or be silent. We will pursue you, reach you and hold you to account."
Israel President Isaac Herzog said "the heart of an entire nation is shattered to pieces with the news. … On behalf of the State of Israel, I embrace their families with all my heart, and apologize for failing to bring them home safely.
"The blood of our brothers cries out to us. Our sisters and brothers are still there enduring hell. The supreme covenant between the state and its citizens is to ensure their safety. We have the sacred and urgent mission to bring them home," added Herzog.
If you aren't concerned about freedom of speech yet, perhaps what is happening in Brazil will wake you up to the fact that the elite do NOT like it when normal citizens have a chance to make their voices heard:
According to TheHill.com, "A Brazilian Supreme Court justice ordered the immediate suspension of social media platform X throughout the country Friday, after the platform refused to name a new legal representative amid an ongoing feud."
Justice Alexandre de Moraes has officially instructed internet service providers and app stores in Brazil to completely shut down servicing X in Brazil within FIVE DAYS of his ruling.
To prove he's serious on this issue, it would appear as though he's also introducing a fine of up to $9,000 per day to anyone caught using the site formerly known as Twitter on a VPN. The judge's order will remain in place until Elon Musk's company complies with all court orders and pays all fines, according to Brazil's Supreme Court's website.
Elon Musk had been ordered on August 28 to "appoint a legal representative within 24 hours or face a ban in Brazil." Musk did not comply.
The platform formerly known as Twitter seemed to know what was coming:
X's Global Government Affairs team said on August 29 that "it expected the justice to 'soon' order the platform to be shut down in the country 'simply because we would not comply with his illegal orders to censor his political opponents.' The site formerly known as Twitter started having problems in Brazil a short while ago, when Judge de Moraes ordered X to suspend certain accounts from the site.
Brazil was so serious about censorship on Twitter that if the social media giant failed to comply with de Moraes' orders to censor certain accounts, "the judge said he would levy a daily fine of $3,650 against the company and order the arrest of its representative, Rachel Nova Conceicao."
Elon Musk said in a statement that this was NOT acceptable:
"Free speech is the bedrock of democracy and an unelected pseudo-judge in Brazil is destroying it for political purpose."
He then added another post on social media:
"The oppressive regime in Brazil is so afraid of the people learning the truth that they will bankrupt anyone who tries."
It is unclear how this battle between X and Brazil will ultimately shake out. Elon Musk has indicated that free speech is very important to him, but there have also been reports that X may eventually comply with Brazil's government's requests in order to keep operating in the country.
What do you think Elon Musk should do in this situation?
The controversy surrounding Tim Walz's claims about his military service is not dying down.
In fact, Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA), a retired National Guard member with four decades of service, has challenged Walz to release his emails and documents about his military service and deployments publicly to show that he has nothing to hide.
"He should just release them if he is proud of his service [and] if he is proud of the things.....all of us, generally speaking, are proud of our uniform service......our military service, and [if] he is proud of those conversations and his decision making thoughts at that moment," Perry said Thursday on the John Solomon Reports podcast.
Accusations that Walz lied about his service have ramped up in recent weeks since Vice President and Democrat Presidential nominee Kamala Harris chose the Minnesota Governor as her running mate in 2024.
Walz claimed in his autobiography and initially on the Harris campaign website that he retired from the military as a "command sergeant major," but the campaign site later changed this to reflect the fact that he was demoted before his retirement.
"He essentially just lied about the rank that he achieved because he never achieved that rank. He didn't retire at that rank," Perry, who retired in 2019 from the National Guard as an Army brigadier general and flying combat missions in Iraq, said.
Walz was also accused of suddenly retiring when his unit was called up to be deployed to Iraq in 2005 to avoid having to go to the war zone.
Perry suggested that his avoidance of military deployment would be reflective of his service as vice president.
"He's going to be willing to accept the good parts of service, but when it comes to the sacrifices that come with service, he's going to cut and run," Perry said. "You know how we know that? Because we've seen him do it."
Republican veterans--50 of them--signed a letter on Wednesday blasting Walz for lying about his military service.
“The Office of the Vice President is a position that requires the trust of the American people and a solemn commitment to duty on behalf of the United States of America,” the letter stated. “As veterans who have served our nation, we feel compelled to address your egregious misrepresentations and urge you to come clean to the American people.”
“You have stated that you are ‘damn proud’ of your service, and like any American veteran, you should be,” it continued. “But there is no honor in lying about the nature of your service. Repeatedly claiming to be a ‘Retired Command Sergeant Major’ when you did not complete the requirements was not honorable."
The House Oversight Committee noted that it is investigating Walz for having connections to the Chinese Communist Party.
"Mr. Walz has visited China 30 times, served as a fellow at a Chinese institution that maintains a devotion to the CCP, and spoke alongside the President of a Chinese organization the State Department exposed as a CCP effort to influence and co-opt local leaders," the House Oversight Committee wrote on the social media platform, X.
Former President Barack Obama still has jokes from the sidelines as he weighs in on the political climate, seeming to attempt to tip the scales in the DNC's favor.
The former president, pushed by his party as a bastion of charisma and Democrat ideals, had his image glued together with the racial diversity that served as a dog whistle to all the guilty feelings of the left-wing Democrat voters.
Case in point, despite the plethora of social and international issues that grew increasingly worse during the two terms Obama spent in office, Democrats call "tan-gate" one of the most controversial issues in his time in office.
To mark the tenth anniversary of the tan suit controversy, former President Obama praised Vice President Harris in a social media post.
Last week, he shared side-by-side photographs of himself wearing his tan suit from 2014 and Harris wearing a tan suit at the Democratic National Convention.
Ten years ago, his decision to don a tan suit while discussing ISIS in Iraq and Syria and Russia's intervention in Ukraine sparked an online outcry.
“How it started. How it’s going. Ten years later, and it’s still a good look!” Obama wrote in a post on social media platforms X and Instagram.
How it started. How it's going.
Ten years later, and it's still a good look! https://t.co/NKXRGNgJPv pic.twitter.com/KeI1gn7HSg
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) August 28, 2024
Additionally, he provided a hyperlink to IWillVote.com, a website that is funded by the Democratic National Committee and is designed to motivate Americans to verify their voter registration status.
In 2014, Obama's fashion choice prompted controversy among some pundits for not being serious enough, resulting in the suit becoming an iconic item as numerous social media users shared memes of the ensemble.
Since that time, social media users and other politicians have continued to ridicule the online uproar that Obama's tan suit has sparked.
During the former president's birthday week in 2021, President Biden appeared to pay tribute to Obama by wearing a tan attire.
Harris was seen at the venue in a tan suit one day before Obama's address at the Democratic National Convention last week.The New York Times observed that Harris's decision to wear a tan suit on Day 1 of the convention deviated from the conventional colors of red, white, and blue.
Harris's decision to wear a tan suit was compared to Obama's decision from approximately a decade earlier by a significant number of social media users. Some have speculated that Harris was attempting to align himself with popular culture.
Americans have been waiting with baited breath to hear how Vice President Kamala Harris will perform when being interviewed, and those questions (and hopefully others) could soon be answered.
While the Harris campaign wasn't in any way deluded enough to put Harris in front of an interviewer who was likely to do anything beyond pitch her softballs the entire interview, she is, finally, going to be interviewed, as Breitbart News reported.
Alex Marquardt, the host of CNN's "Situation Room" and the Chief National Security Correspondent, made the announcement on Tuesday that the 2024 Democratic presidential candidate will be conducting her first interview as a candidate a joint interview with 2024 Democratic vice presidential candidate Minnesota Governor Tim Walz (D) with CNN on Thursday.
This will also be the first time that the two candidates have conducted an interview together as a ticket.
According to CNN Political Director David Chalian, Harris and Walz will be interviewed by CNN Chief Political Correspondent and anchor Dana Bash in Georgia on Thursday. The interview will be shown as a primetime special at nine o'clock Eastern time on Thursday.
Following this, Marquardt stated that Chalian, in his capacity as Political Director, will have a part in assisting Bash in the formulation of questions, and he inquired about the problems that Bash will concentrate on.
The response from Chalian was that although the economy is unquestionably the most significant problem, there are a great deal of other problems for which "we just haven't heard from her, yet, in this capacity, as the Democratic nominee."
The interview comes as Harris faces the pressure of being the Democrat nominee without actually being voted in by the American people.
It is no doubt not lost on the Harris campaign that she is only leading the ticket because her name was on the Biden-Harris ticket, and the campaign would have lost tens of millions of dollars of already pledged donations if Democrats had put forward any other candidate to be the Democrat nominee.
This has spread fear among many and prompted a dreary forecast from Fox News’ Karl Rove, who said during a recent segment for the station that the optimism seen by the Harris campaign could be misplaced.
The analyst cited polling from earlier this week that suggested Harris is performing worse than both President Joe Biden at this time in 2020 and former first lady Hillary Clinton in 2015.
Fox anchor Brett Baire cited a warning that has been offered to Harris where she was told that the practice of avoiding the media and keeping her policy plans close to the vest could be a move borne out of "conceit and foolhardiness."
Rove responded, saying “She [Harris] needs to be more specific. Let’s not be critical of her by saying she has to have a Democrat Congress and a Democrat Senate in order to get these things done.
"Because the same can be said for Donald Trump; he has to have a Republican Senate and a Republican House to get everything done. But people want to know where you’re coming from, and they want to know enough about the specifics to get their hands around it."
The Supreme Court has struck down large portions of the Biden agenda this summer, making it more difficult for Vice President Kamala Harris to make claims about what she helped accomplish as his second-in-command.
Biden and his administration's habit of using executive orders to get around a divided Congress is coming back to bite him now, when Harris needs to rest on those laurels if she has any hope of rallying the Democrat base to her side.
Here are some of the rulings and their implications.
The Chevron doctrine allowing non-elected officials from government agencies to make laws and rules was struck down after 40 years, and could bring an end to what conservatives call the deep state without having to fire anyone.
The statute of limitations for challenging federal regulations was removed, allowing more of those challenges to go forward.
The ability of agencies to use internal judges to settle disputes was stripped away.
Whether Harris gets elected or not, the Democrat power base will be greatly curtailed by these three rulings.
The rulings could further decimate Biden's efforts to shift student loan burdens to taxpayers and
In addition, lower courts are busy starting the process of striking down even more of Biden's executive overreach.
A Texas judge blocked Biden's ban on noncompete clauses, and a Mississippi judge refused to go along with enshrining special treatment for transgender Americans in health care.
Leftist officials are up in arms over the changes.
“We have an extremist Supreme Court with a very political agenda that is willing to overturn decades of precedent,” Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), the House Progressive Caucus chair, said during one interview. “It has changed the legal strategy.”
Biden has trampled on the Constitution with impunity and bragged about it for the last three-and-a-half years, but it's all beginning to catch up to him now.
No doubt they'll continue to lie about what they've done and how, but those paying attention will know the truth.
A Michigan judge on Saturday overruled a decision to keep independent presidential candidate Cornel West off the ballot in that state.
Michigan Court of Claims Judge James Robert Redford ordered the Michigan Bureau of Elections to qualify West and his running mate for the ballot if they show they have obtained the correct number of valid signatures.
Michigan’s secretary of state and the director of the Bureau of Elections “misapplied the law in finding otherwise," he wrote in his opinion.
The director of the Bureau of Elections notified West's campaign earlier in the month that he was disqualified for the ballot because of “defects in the notarization” of his affidavit of identity (AOI), but Redford said the AOIs filed “cannot serve as a mechanism to exclude them from the ballot.”
West celebrated the ruling, saying,
This ruling is not just a legal victory—it is a moral victory for everyone who believes in the sanctity of the democratic process. Our campaign submitted over 26,000 signatures, significantly more than required, which the court recognized as a legitimate expression of the people’s will.
“We are grateful for this affirmation and promise to continue championing the rights of all voters,” he added.
He announced in June that he had enough signatures to get on the ballot, and has since also qualified in Maine and other states.
West is currently polling around 1% of the vote, but some state races in 2020 were decided by less than that margin.
Michigan is a swing state that could have a very close finish in 2024.
The state and Rosa Holliday are filing appeals in the case.
West is a far-left activist whose candidacy is more likely to hurt Vice President Kamala Harris than former President Donald Trump.
Democrats have a 4-3 majority on the court, which shouldn't, but might, help to determine whether Redford's ruling will stand.
The ballot will be down one candidate after Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said last week he was suspending his candidacy to support Trump.
While Trump had a decent lead nationally against President Joe Biden, Biden's exit from the race and the insertion of Harris have tightened it to something of a dead heat at the moment.