by | Apr 30, 2024 | Aggregate
Judge Juan Merchan, a Democrat donor, is presiding over President Donald Trump’s case in New York. (@MSNBC / Twitter)
Radical far-left New York Judge Juan Merchan fined President Donald Trump $9,000 for speaking out in his own defense and violating his gag order in the ongoing lawfare trial in New York City.
Merchan also threatened President Trump with jailing if he continues to publicly defend himself in the case.
The prosecution has yet to define a crime in this latest lawfare case supported by the Biden regime.
Trump is not allowed to speak out in his defense.
But the liberal mainstream media willingly pushed the regime narrative day after day describing the case to the American public in an ongoing string of lies.
‘
America is now a banana republic thanks to the bitter, vile Marxist Democrats.
MSNBC reported:
Judge Juan Merchan found Donald Trump in contempt on Tuesday for violating a gag order nine times, imposing $1,000 fines for each violation.
Manhattan prosecutors had asked the judge to hold Trump in contempt for alleged violations of the order barring him from speaking out against witnesses, jurors, and others.
Under state law, Merchan could fine Trump up to $1,000 or jail him for up to 30 days. The state asked the judge to fine Trump and instruct him to take down offending posts. Notably, the prosecutor in court last week said Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office wasn’t yet asking for incarceration and argued that Trump seemed to be angling for that.
Prosecutors raised the former president’s posts on social media and his campaign website as violating Merchan’s order. One of the allegedly offending posts was one in which Trump purportedly quoted Fox News host Jesse Watters as saying, “They are catching undercover Liberal Activists lying to the Judge in order to get on the Trump Jury.”
The post Trump-Hating Judge Juan Merchan Fines Trump $9,000 for Violating Unconstitutional Gag Order in Ongoing NY Lawfare Trial – Threatens Jailing appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.
by | Apr 30, 2024 | Aggregate
I have been trying to offer short and focused updates on the war in Ukraine, but now it seems impossible, since the amount of activity in so many parts of the 600-mile long frontline is simply dizzying.
So I will try here to pack as much information as possible to show just how close to collapse are Kiev’s defenses in Donetsk region.
Report by the New York Times says Russian Federation troops liberated 12 settlements in just the last week of offensive in the Donbas.
Much like Ukrainian forces are retreating and taking up new defensive lines, so does the MSM, that is abandoning some propaganda narratives and taking up others further behind in their fake triumphalism.
Some of the media reports now hear ‘military bloggers on both sides’, and not just the ‘Ukrainian Military PR lie machine’.
WATCH: Heavy ground battles in Chasov Yar.
WATCH: Heavy ground battles in Chasov Yar. pic.twitter.com/a6UNAhKJkg
— Paul Serran (@paul_serran) April 30, 2024
And much of the distressing news for Kiev is coming from their own forces on the ground, tired of pretending.
For instance, Swiss paper Blick (behind a paywall) brings the unvarnished opinions of frontline Ukrainian officers:
“’The Russians will capture Donbass by October, then the conflict will freeze, and we will have to negotiate with Putin’, predicts Sergei, an officer of the brigade located in Chasov Yar.”
WATCH: a traditional Odessa school nicknamed ‘Hogwarts Castle’ was struck and caught fire.
A traditional Odessa school nicknamed ‘Hogwarts Castle’ was struck and caught fire. pic.twitter.com/GP0sHrzV5Z
— Paul Serran (@paul_serran) April 30, 2024
They point out three reasons: lack of people, and new US aid ‘arrives too late’.
“The third reason is the leadership style of Commander-in-Chief Syrsky, which the publication calls ‘the paralyzing effect of the Butcher’.
Syrsky’s appointment “caused a bad mood in many places at the front, as they were sent on combat missions with no ammunition, with too few people.
The Guardian reported:
“Russia has consolidated recent battlefield gains in the east of Ukraine, and is attempting to break through Ukrainian defensive lines before a long-awaited package of US military assistance arrives at the frontline.”
Russians have expanded a narrow corridor around the rural settlement of Ocheretyne. The fighting there followed a rare surprise Russian attack, because with the present-day ISR capabilities one side is always able to know the other’s movements.
WATCH: Russian forces use a large-scale aerosol curtain to disguise troop movement from enemy drones.
Russian forces use a large-scale aerosol curtain to disguise troop movement from enemy drones. pic.twitter.com/DQUEzBkaUv
— Paul Serran (@paul_serran) April 30, 2024
“According to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), the Kremlin is seeking to exploit a window of opportunity before US assistance is delivered. Moscow has been bringing in reinforcements and has a threefold advantage in some sectors. Its recent tactical gains suggest an ambitious plan to encircle the Ukrainian garrison cities of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk in a summer offensive. Whether it will succeed is unclear. Russia is unlikely to overwhelm Ukrainian defences, the ISW said last week.”
Ukrainian service personnel complain that they are completely outgunned. Russian warplanes able to operate freely close to the frontline. Ukraine has fewer tanks and armored vehicles.
WATCH: Russian forces storm Ocheretyne.
WATCH: Russian forces storm Ocheretyne. pic.twitter.com/743TLMo5ux
— Paul Serran (@paul_serran) April 30, 2024
Russian Armed Forces are trying to disrupt the supply of American weapons to Ukraine, with Bloomberg reporting that strikes are increasingly focusing on military installations and logistics.
“’The Russian military is rapidly moving forward in the eastern direction, while exhausted Ukrainian troops wait for desperately needed American weapons’, the article says.”
The Russian armed forces struck a major railroad hub in the settlement of Borovaya, the Kharkov region, where Ukrainian forces were distributing servicemen, equipment, and ammunition to the frontlines.
WATCH: Russian air defense system destroys reconnaissance Ukrainian drone in the border area.
Russian air defense system destroys reconnaissance Ukrainian drone in the border area. pic.twitter.com/hYjXS9vqd4
— Paul Serran (@paul_serran) April 30, 2024
Besides targeting power and railroad infrastructure, Russians are targeting foreign fighters. Sunday, Russian drones hit a hotel in the southern port city of Mykolaiv, targeting ‘English-speaking mercenaries’.
A reconnaissance UAV also discovered a temporary deployment point for foreign mercenaries of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in Kharkov.
Russian Telegram channels: “Additional reconnaissance revealed that there were more than 150 mercenaries in two buildings. A high-precision missile strike was carried out at the coordinates of the buildings, as a result of which 40 mercenaries from central and western Europe were instantly demobilized, and more than 55 were injured of varying degrees of severity.
Even ‘the butcher’ now has to concede the repeated defeats.
BBC reported:
“Ukraine’s commander-in-chief has said the situation on the frontline has worsened in the face of multiple Russian attacks. Oleksandr Syrsky said Ukrainian forces had withdrawn from positions in the eastern Donetsk region.
[…] ‘The situation at the front has worsened’, Gen Syrsky said in a post on the Telegram messaging service on Sunday.”
Advancing forces made further gains in multiple locations along the eastern front in Ukraine.
CNN reported:
“One of Russia’s main efforts is in the Donetsk region. Ukraine’s DeepState monitoring group, which updates daily changes in frontline positions, shows Russian forces pushing forward in eight different locations along 20-25 kms of frontline in one 24-hour period.
[…] Elsewhere, about 180kms (112 miles) to the north, Russia’s forces have also achieved their first successes in almost three months along that part of the frontline that cuts into Kharkov region.
With withdrawals and losses accumulating, military bloggers such as Myroshnykov and the DeepState site have both taken aim at official Ukrainian communications, accusing the [Ukrainian] armed forces of increasingly unrealistic updates from the battlefield.”
Watch: enormous cemetery of Ukrainian forces in Sumy region.
Watch: enormous cemetery of Ukrainian forces in Sumy region. pic.twitter.com/lve38v9HTQ
— Paul Serran (@paul_serran) April 30, 2024
Syrsky acknowledged that Ukraine’s overall situation had deteriorated.
“’The situation at the front has escalated. Trying to seize the strategic initiative and break through the front line, the enemy has concentrated its main efforts in several directions, creating a significant advantage in forces and in means’, he added.”
Russia’s stepped-up tempo may be a precursor to a major offensive attempt later this spring.
Also, a Ukrainian soldier from the Nazi Azov battalion offered a frank analysis of the country’s war effort.
Sputnik reported:
“’No one is willing to join the Armed Forces of Ukraine nowadays’, said the soldier, identified as ‘Niko’, to a local news outlet. The soldier continues to fight on despite having lost one of his legs in combat, insisting that there is no one to replace him.
[…] The soldier added that ‘literally no one’ is willing to go to Ukraine’s front lines.
[…] Fighting-age Ukrainians “do whatever they come up with” to try to escape the draft the soldier added, including “swimming across the Tisa River and drowning themselves in there.” Some 22 Ukrainians have reportedly died attempting to cross the river separating Ukraine from Romania.”
It is estimated that 1.5 million men of military age are currently in hiding across Ukraine. Ukrainian military personnel are also increasingly deserting, with over 100,000 deserters on the run.
WATCH: A man from Odessa escapes military recruiters hunting Ukrainians to send to the meat grinder.
WATCH: A man from Odessa escapes military recruiters hunting Ukrainians to send to the meat grinder. pic.twitter.com/C4sa2gP0zs
— Paul Serran (@paul_serran) April 30, 2024
Reuters reported:
“Russia has been rearming faster than the West, has a larger army than before the invasion and has a population several times larger than Ukraine which is trying to draft more men into its army.
Russia says it will achieve all its aims in what it calls the ‘special military operation’ in Ukraine, parts of which Moscow now says it considers to be Russian territory.”
While I’m trying not to talk about the multiple conquests by the Russian forces, one simply can’t be avoided: Russian sources report that after heavy fighting, the settlement of Rabotyno was returned under full control of the Russian Armed Forces. This is the same settlement Ukrainians captured during the failed summer counteroffensive in 2023.
Ukrainian military analyst: “Judging by the footage, the Russians captured most of the village of Rabotyno, which was taken during the summer counter-offensive of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. They hung their flag on a building in the northern part of the village.”
WATCH: Russians reportedly took back Rabotyno, the only Ukrainian conquest in their Summer Offensive.
WATCH: Russians reportedly took back Rabotyno, the only Ukrainian conquest in their Summer Offensive. pic.twitter.com/DOJgBe0ucH
— Paul Serran (@paul_serran) April 30, 2024
Read more:
Fast-Paced Russian Offensive Yields Over a Dozen Conquered Cities and Villages, as Ukrainian Morale Is Collapsing Along the Front, With Over 100K Troops Deserting Their Positions
The post THE EDGE OF COLLAPSE: Ukrainian Troops Say Russia Will Take Donbas Region by October, Complain ‘NO ONE Wants To Fight for Kiev’ – MSM Adjusts Coverage in Anticipation of Defeat (VIDEOS) appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.
by | Apr 30, 2024 | Aggregate
The cost of gasoline is once again surging across the U.S. as the Biden regime continues its war on energy independence.
Bloomberg reports that with only six months to go until the all-important presidential election, Biden’s efforts to lower the cost at the pump are in “jeopardy.”
The report states:
The calculus is getting tricky for Biden before an election in which the rising cost of living is expected to figure prominently in voting decisions. History has shown that the fortunes of US presidents are closely tied to prices at the pump, even though they have little control over the oil market in the short term. As violence roils the Middle East, US
gasoline prices have surged 18% this year—and the
summer driving season hasn’t started.
The Biden administration is just pathologically allergic to anything that would increase oil prices, and they have telegraphed that over and over again,” says Jim Lucier, managing director at Capital Alpha Partners, a research group in Washington. But, he adds, there’s not much the president can really do about it: “Biden is in a box on this question.”
Yet despite the political benefit of bringing costs down, Biden has only sought to exacerbate the problem in recent months through his support of the climate change hoax.
According to an analysis by The Center Square, Biden has taken at least 200 different actions to undermine America’s access to energy resources. These include shutting down the Keystone XL Pipeline, canceling exploration to various oil reserves and imposing burdensome regulations across the entire sector.
Meanwhile, a recent study by Moody’s Analytics found that high gas prices could cost Joe Biden re-election as ordinary people feel the financial pain of his leftist policies.
“Biden gets a small tailwind from the year-over-year decline in gasoline prices, but the expected late-2024 increase erodes much of the benefit,” Moody’s wrote. “Having said this, forecasting oil prices is especially difficult, and if prices move up much more than anticipated, the damage to Biden’s re-election bid will quickly mount.”
The post Cost of Gasoline Surges Again Under Biden, Up 18 Percent in Just Four Months appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.
by | Apr 30, 2024 | Aggregate
Credit: St. George, Louisiana Facebook
Residents in Louisiana’s Democrat-run capital city have won a historic battle to secede and create their own city following a lengthy court battle.
As the New York Times reported, the Louisiana Supreme Court cleared the way on Friday for a group of mostly-white, affluent residents of Baton Rouge to secede and form the new city of St. George. This is the first city incorporated in the Pelican State in almost two decades.
In the 4-3 ruling, the justices found that lower courts were wrong in blocking St George’s creation over concerns of its financial viability.
Andrew Murrell, one of the leaders of the St. George movement, released the following statement after the Louisiana Supreme Court’s decision.
This is the culmination of citizens exercising their constitutional rights. We voted and we won.
Whether you are for or you are against St. George, now is your opportunity, a historic opportunity, to create a city from the beginning, from the ground up. It’s your ideas, it’s your policies, it’s your way of life and now you can come together and put those out there and have someone accountable to you.
Now, we begin the process of delivering on our promises of a better city. We welcome both our friends and foes to the table to create St. George.
The Times reported that in 2015, supporters failed to collect enough signatures to bring their proposal up for a vote but prevailed in 2019 before a lengthy court battle stalled the initiative.
The New York Post notes that Sharon Weston Broome, the mayor-president who leads the combined Baton Rouge and East Baton Rouge Parish governments, previously sued the St. George organizers. She whined that the secession would suck more than $48 million in yearly tax revenue from the local government.
St. George will be Louisiana’s sixth largest city in terms of population, with nearly 100,000 people.
St. George will likely be a GOP stronghold as well, given its heavily white population. In 2020, white Louisianans supported President Trump by a 77%–22% margin while blacks supported Joe Biden by 88%–10%.
While Broome committed to serving the residents of St. George following the vote, others fumed. The local NAACP released a statement slamming the new town and warning the development would negatively impact Baton Rouge’s education system and “community representation.”
The St. George plan poses significant risks to our education system, threatens the continuity of critical programs, and challenges community representation. The creation of a new municipality introduces considerable uncertainty around funding allocation for our schools, jeopardizing the cornerstone of our community’s future: education.
The post Democracy in Action: Louisiana Residents Win Right to Secede from Democrat-Run State Capital and Create their Own City appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.
by | Apr 30, 2024 | Aggregate
TIME magazine has released a major cover story preparing its readers for Trump’s return to the White House.
In a long-form interview with the former president, journalist Eric Cortellessa establishes Trump’s key failing in his first term in office; he didn’t go far enough.
According to Cortellessa, Trump is planning his retribution through a series of policies, including a mass deportation campaign, gutting the deep state, and pardoning those involved in the January 6th protests.
#BREAKING: Trump Featured on @TIME Magazine Cover Following Recent Interview:
Trump: “Biden has done so many things so badly. And I’m not even talking the overt crime. I’m talking about the border, allowing all of the death and destruction at the border” pic.twitter.com/R5KueKkQv0
— Andy Hidalgo (@realandyhidalgo) April 30, 2024
The article, which is filled with the typical left-wing falsehoods, states:
What emerged in two interviews with Trump, and conversations with more than a dozen of his closest advisers and confidants, were the outlines of an imperial presidency that would reshape America and its role in the world.
To carry out a deportation operation designed to remove more than 11 million people from the country, Trump told me, he would be willing to build migrant detention camps and deploy the U.S. military, both at the border and inland. He would let red states monitor women’s pregnancies and prosecute those who violate abortion bans. He would, at his personal discretion, withhold funds appropriated by Congress, according to top advisers. He would be willing to fire a U.S. Attorney who doesn’t carry out his order to prosecute someone, breaking with a tradition of independent law enforcement that dates from America’s founding.
He is weighing pardons for every one of his supporters accused of attacking the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, more than 800 of whom have pleaded guilty or been convicted by a jury. He might not come to the aid of an attacked ally in Europe or Asia if he felt that country wasn’t paying enough for its own defense. He would gut the U.S. civil service, deploy the National Guard to American cities as he sees fit, close the White House pandemic-preparedness office, and staff his Administration with acolytes who back his false assertion that the 2020 election was stolen.
Fearing a backlash from Democrats, TIME also published a separate article outlining their decision to present Trump in such a positive light:
Interviewing political leaders has been a staple of TIME’s journalism for decades, as we report on the most influential people in the world and bring those insights to our readers and viewers. With six months to go until the U.S Presidential election, we want our coverage of this campaign to be of service to our readers, and to help the world and American voters understand what the candidates would do if elected.
Today, Donald Trump is in a better position to win the White House than at any point in the previous two campaigns. TIME’s Eric Cortellessa, who covers the Trump campaign, interviewed the former President twice in April to hear from Trump himself what a second term would look like.
Trump was TIME’s Person of the Year in 2016, while the magazine has previously acknowledged that there was a conspiracy to remove him from office back in 2020. If he can overcome the Democratic election fraud, he may reprise that accolade in 2024.
The post TIME Magazine Prepares For Trump 2.0 With ‘If He Wins’ Cover Story, Outlines EPIC Second Term Agenda appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.
