Author name: Shay Bottomley

National Affairs

Presidential Medal of Freedom Award Winner Was Photographed With Would-Be Trump Assassin Months Before Arrest

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President Joe Biden has awarded a Presidential Medal of Freedom to a man who appeared in a photo with the would-be assassin of Donald Trump.

José Andrés, who was among 19 people awarded the medal, was photographed with Ryan Wesley Routh – the man arrested on suspicion of attempting to assassinate the Republican on his Florida golf course in Sept. 2024.

The background, which features an array of miniature Ukrainian flags, suggests the photo taken some time after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in Feb. 2022 but likely before Routh’s Sept. 2024 arrest.

It is not known if Routh and Andrés had any connection prior to the photograph. The chef, credited with popularizing the concept of tapas dining, received the award for his humanitarian work with the World Central Kitchen.

Although most likely a coincidence, some questioned the optics of Biden’s decision to award Andrés a medal.

Others believed, given the photo’s widespread circulation following Routh’s arrest, that Biden had intended to send a message.

Democrats

Chuck Schumer Thinks Voters “Didn’t Realize How Much” The Democrats Had Done For Them

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Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said he believes the Democrats lost the 2024 elections because Americans “didn’t realize how much” the party had done for them.

Sen. Schumer was appearing on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday, Jan. 5 when he was quizzed on a range of topics including the forthcoming Donald Trump administration. He was also questioned on the reasons for his party’s overwhelming defeat following remarks by Democrat strategist James Carville, who said the party had lost due to its poor handling of the economy.

Schumer disagreed with Carville’s analysis, and adding that the Democrats had failed to connect with “working families” due to a focus on the technicalities of lawmaking.

“We did a lot of good things, but all too often, we talked about the mechanics of the legislation and the details of the legislation, and we really didn’t show the kind of empathy and concern to average working families who didn’t realize how much we had done, and how much we cared for them.  

Many on social media were skeptical of Schumer’s reasoning as to why the Democrats lost the election.

Others said how they felt worse off under the Democrats than they did the GOP.

National Affairs

South Carolina Sees Largest Influx Of New Residents, California Bottom Of The Pile For Fifth Year In Succession

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Americans are flocking to Republican states in large numbers while Democrat-controlled jurisdictions are seeing the fewest new arrivals, according to a U-Haul’s annual Growth Index.

South Carolina, which is controlled by the GOP in eight of the state’s nine executive offices, in addition to its governorship, State House, and State, topped the list with arrivals accounting for 51.7% of all one-way U-Haul traffic in and out of the state throughout 2024. Texas, having topped the list for three successive years, fell to second, while North Carolina rounded out the top three.

Liberal states saw the fewest new arrivals. California, for the fifth year in a row, ranked bottom of the 50 states, behind Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania.

“Migration to the Southeast and Southwest continues as families gauge their cost of living, job opportunities, quality of life and other factors that go into relocating to a new state,” said U-Haul International president John ‘J.T.’ Taylor. “Out-migration remains prevalent for a number of markets across the Northeast, Midwest and West Coast — and particularly California.”

The full list is below:

2024 U-Haul Growth States

1.SOUTH CAROLINA (4)
2.TEXAS (1)
3.NORTH CAROLINA (3)
4.FLORIDA (2)
5.TENNESSEE (5)
6.ARIZONA (8)
7.WASHINGTON (7)
8.INDIANA (27)
9.UTAH (13)
10.IDAHO (6)
11.OKLAHOMA (41)
12.ARKANSAS (17)
13.MAINE (31)
14.OHIO (23)
15.GEORGIA (18)
16.ALABAMA (22)
17.VIRGINIA (10)
18.MINNESOTA (20)
19.SOUTH DAKOTA (19)
20.VERMONT (12)
21.DELAWARE (15)
22.WISCONSIN (26)
23.IOWA (24)
24.MONTANA (21)
25.KENTUCKY (29)
26.HAWAII (25)
27.ALASKA (34)
28.MISSOURI (28)
29.NEBRASKA (35)
30.WEST VIRGINIA (30)
31.NORTH DAKOTA (32)
32.KANSAS (33)
33.NEW HAMPSHIRE (40)
34.OREGON (37)
35.NEVADA (11)
36.WYOMING (14)
37.NEW MEXICO (16)
38.RHODE ISLAND (36)
39.MISSISSIPPI (39)
40.COLORADO (9)
41.CONNECTICUT (42)
42.MARYLAND (44)
43.MICHIGAN (46)
44.LOUISIANA (45)
45.ILLINOIS (48)
46.PENNSYLVANIA (38)
47.NEW YORK (43)
48.NEW JERSEY (47)
49.MASSACHUSETTS (49)
50.CALIFORNIA (50)

Social media users offered their own insight into the data.

Others highlighted how California was once again bottom of the list.

Congress

WATCH: J.D. Vance Laughs As Kamala Harris Swears In New Senators

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Vice President-elect J.D. Vance had a smile on his face at the swearing-in of Senators on Friday, Jan. 3, as his predecessor-to-be recited an Oath of Allegiance.

Kamala Harris, now into her final three weeks as Vice President, was swearing in the six new Republican and Democrat Senators, as well as Vance, as Congress welcomed its newest members.

In what is usually a dull and procedural event, the soon-to-be Veep was spotted chuckling at the situation as Harris swore in the country’s newest Senators, perhaps at how amusing it was that he’d be getting sworn into her job shortly.

Vance appeared to be laughing at a comment or action by his colleague on his left, before returning focus onto Harris. It left many on social media wondering what the Republican found amusing.

Another user noticed an inaccuracy.

Some were also looking forward to the coming days.

crime

New Orleans Police Superintendent Says City Had Barriers To Prevent New Year’s Attack, But She Did Not Know About Them

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New Orleans Police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick confirmed that the city had effective anti-vehicle barriers available to be deployed on New Year’s Eve, but says they weren’t because she was unaware of their existence.

Questions remain unanswered surrounding the horrific events in the city which saw a Texas man inspired by Islamic State mow down pedestrians on Bourbon Street, killing at least 14 in the process and wounding dozens more.

The city had removed anti-vehicle bollards due to functional issues and was in the process of replacing them. However, officials opted to use police patrol cars as a barrier instead, which were circumvented when the attacker drove on the sidewalk and onto Bourbon Street.

On Thursday, Superintendent Kirkpatrick confirmed that L-shaped Archer barriers had been installed, and the street was open for business. However, she gave a confusing response to a journalist asking where the anti-vehicle barriers had come from.

“Actually, we have them. I didn’t know about them, but we have them, and so we have been able now to put them out,” she told reporters, adding that it was “not a matter of pointing blame anywhere” given that the attacker was “hell-bent” on destruction. “This man was going to do his best, and if it hadn’t been on Bourbon, he was going to go somewhere else,” she added. “We have this. We’re going to implement it. End of story.”

Last year, Kirkpatrick herself was on duty when she struck two pedestrians with a vehicle.

Many were critical of the Superintendent’s response, and lack of action into preventing the heinous attack.

Others noted Kirkpatrick’s policing history in Oakland, CA, and more recently in New Orleans.

Illegal Immigration

MSNBC Finally Acknowledges That Joe Biden Failed On The Border

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MSNBC made a rare public admission about the sheer scale of illegal border crossings under President Joe Biden’s tenure in office – now that there are no consequences for making such an admission.

The left-wing network, which was outed by one of its own producers as a propaganda machine for the Democratic Party during last year’s election campaign, often spun the border crisis to favor the Biden administration. An April 2024 article described it as an “economic success story,” while another write-up from July insisted the border conditions were “improving.”

Even though immigration was one of the top concerns throughout the election, nearly all mainstream media outlets refused to report on the large influx of migrants, which saw border encounters increase at least four-fold compared to the first Donald Trump administration.

However, with a second Trump term just over two weeks away, MSNBC acknowledged how border encounters were a major factor in the country’s decision to vote Republican last November – I suppose in an attempt to make themselves look honest in their reporting for a brief change.

Admitting that the border crisis was not “not Biden’s finest moment,” MSNBC analyst Steve Rattner said, “You can see what happened here. Trump is not wrong when he talks about how border crossings were quite low. They were running about 74,000 a month when he left office. They, in fact, did shoot up. Some of it was some things Biden said, and some was they put a moratorium, for example, on deportations. But, in fact, we did get up here almost to 300,000 a month.”

Some on social media noted the significance of a shift in this reporting from MSNBC.

Others said that Biden’s border policies were intentional in increasing illegal migration.

Democrats

Jasmine Crockett Stumbles Over Call To Advise Donald Trump In A “Very Elementary Way”

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Rep. Jasmine Crockett struggled to get her words out as the Democrat called for Donald Trump’s advisors to explain geopolitical topics to him in a “very elementary way.”

The Texas Rep. appeared on MSNBC over the weekend to discuss Trump’s transitional period ahead of next month’s inauguration. 

Crockett, like many liberals, has expressed concern with Trump’s approach to dealing with foreign allies in relation to cross-border crime and immigration, while also raising interest in the possibility of acquiring Greenland from Danish control. However, amusingly, the 43-year-old appeared to struggle with her sentences when asked for her views on the forthcoming president. 

“I, I, I, I don’t know. I mean, it is, it is, it is crazy that this guy is about to walk into the White House for a second time,” she spluttered.

After going on a monologue about Trump’s approach to foreign nations, including a closer working relationship with Russia and Vladimir Putin, Crockett added, nonsensically, “We’ve got to have really good people around Trump, and right now the people he’s picking are not the best people because somebody needs to explain to him in a very elementary way why we don’t go after our friends.”

Many on social media were critical of Crockett.

Others compared her to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

Media

The Left Finally Admits That Joe Biden Suffered From Cognitive Decline In His Presidency

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Hindsight is a wonderful thing, particularly when you’ve just lost an election.

For many months, the Democrats told the world that President Joe Biden was a) fit to run the country, and b) fit to run again.

We all know what happened next; the Democrats ousted Biden in what was effectively a coup and replaced him with an unelected candidate who still went on to lose the election.

A must-watch montage shows how the left constantly brushed aside over the aging Biden’s mental deterioration. It features Democrat lawmakers, White House Press Secretaries and left-wing media analysts consistently “informing” the public that Biden was in good health just weeks before he was asked to step aside.

However, some have suddenly become critical of their colleagues’ efforts to mask the President’s condition. On CBS News, analyst Jan Crawford called out her own network’s failure to report on Biden’s mental decline over the past year or so – though his mental decline was evident his *entire* presidency.

Citing a Wall Street Journal report into how the President’s senility was shielded by his overly supportive advisors, Crawford said, “It’s starting to emerge now that his advisors kind of managed his limitations been reported in the Wall Street Journal for four years, and yet he insisted that he could still run for president.”

She added, “We should have much more forcefully questioned whether he was fit for office for another four years, which could have led to a primary for the Democrats.”

But, to put out the obvious, it’s only now that Biden won’t be taking a second term that the media feels comfortable actually telling the truth. Had they felt that Biden could still win in 2024 following his disastrous debate performance, they’d all have simply pretended, in unison, that it was a one-off night for him.

Many conservatives commented how Biden’s condition was apparent throughout much of his tenure in office, and how the media is simply trying to retain some semblance of credibility.

Others were critical of the mainstream media’s prolonged defense of the President.

crime

In-N-Out Owner Says “Absolutely Dangerous” Crime Rate In Oakland Forced First Permanent Closure EVER

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The owner of fast-food franchise In-N-Out said the company was forced to close its Oakland restaurant due to a relentless crime wave.

Lynsi Snyder said the “absolutely dangerous” conditions, which saw 300 days of violence in a single year, forced the first permanent closure of an In-N-Out restaurant in the company’s 76-year history. The recessions 1949, 1953, 1958, 1960-61, 1969-70, 1973-75, 1980, 1981-82, early 1990s recession, early 2000s recession, 2008-09 global financial crisis, and COVID lockdowns didn’t kill off a single one of their stores – but liberal policies on crime did.

In an interview with PragerU, Snyder detailed the sheer scale of incidents surrounding the restaurant in the liberal-controlled city.

“There were car burglaries, violence, fights, theft – there was a lot,” Snyder said in the interview. “There was actually gun shots went through the store, stabbings – it was a lot.”

“Gun shots went through the store, stabbings… it was huge.”

“The amount of time it would take for the police to get there was alarming,” she added. “For the safety of our associates, it was just not okay.”

The closure came after police logged 1,335 criminal incidents in its location since 2019 alone.

Watch:

Many on social media agreed with Snyder’s remarks over crime in Oakland and California as a whole.

Others said that the liberal government in the state had been responsible for the crime wave.

Florida

Florida Democrat Becomes Second House Rep. To Join GOP Just Weeks After 2024 Election

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Florida State Rep. Hillary Cassel has become the second Florida House Democrat to jump to the GOP since the 2024 elections.

In a statement made on Friday, Dec. 27, the Rep. for Broward County’s House District 101 said she had switched to the GOP Supermajority, citing support for a “better, more prosperous Florida” among Republicans as well as skepticism over the Democratic Party’s support for Israel.

“As a mother, I want to help build a world where our children are judged on their character and their actions not their labels,” Cassel wrote. “As a proud Jewish woman, I have been increasingly troubled by the Democratic Party’s failure to unequivocally support Israel and its willingness to tolerate extreme progressive voices that justify or condone acts of terrorism.”

She admitted that she “won’t always agree on every detail with every Republican,” but noted she would “always have input, collaboration, and respect” within the GOP.

Cassel is Florida’s second House Rep. to defect to the GOP after Tampa Rep. Susan Valdes switched earlier in December.

Cassel’s switch attracted criticism from liberals on social media.

She did, however, receive some support from conservatives.


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