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The October, 2024 National Instant background Check System (NICS) numbers are in. They do not show a significant difference in the trends. Both October gun sales and NICS checks are the fifth highest for October, which has been a consistent theme in 2024. While a bit lower than in 2023, the gun sales and NICS checks are still high by historical standards. Gun sales for October 2024 are estimated at 1.26 million firearms, about 94% of what they were in October 2023. NICS checks for October were about 5% higher than they were in 2023. Both NICS checks and NICS-related...

Consumer prices rose 0.2 percent in October and 2.6 percent over the previous 12 months as inflation slowly but surely returns to pre-pandemic norms, according to new Labor Department data released Wednesday. Economists surveyed by the Wall Street Journal had expected the consumer price index (CPI) to rise 0.2 percent last month and 2.4 percent over the past year. Core CPI, which excludes more volatile food and energy prices, rose 0.3 percent last month. The shelter index accounted for more than half of then overall monthly increase, rising 0.4 percent in October, according to the Labor Department. Shelter prices were...

October 2024 was both the second-warmest and second-driest October ever recorded in the U.S., according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The 48 contiguous U.S. states saw an average temperature of 59 degrees Fahrenheit in October, 4.9 degrees warmer than the 20th century average, according to NOAA. Only one previous October, 1963, was hotter in the 130 years of NOAA’s records. Multiple states experienced their outright warmest October on record, including Arizona, New Mexico, Texas and Utah, while California, Colorado, Montana and Wyoming all saw their second warmest. The month was among the 10 warmest Octobers for a...

On Monday’s broadcast of Newsmax TV’s “The Record,” Harvard Law Professor Emeritus Alan Dershowitz reacted to 2024 Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris running ads with different messages on Israel aimed at different groups by stating that Harris “basically is saying there are fine people on both sides of what happened on October 7.” Dershowitz said, “Well, she basically is saying there are fine people on both sides of what happened on October 7. She has praised some of the protesters who have called Israel’s response genocide. It’s like saying there are fine people on the side of 9/11....

The MONTHLY Gardening Thread is a gathering of folks that love soil, seeds and plants of all kinds. From complete newbies that are looking to start that first potted plant, to gardeners with some acreage, to Master Gardener level and beyond, we would love to hear from you. If you have specific question about a plant/problem you are having, please remember to state the Growing Zone where you are located. This thread is a non-political respite. No matter what, you won’t be flamed, and the only dumb question is the one that isn’t asked. It is impossible to hijack the...

On Wednesday night, another “October Surprise” story against Donald Trump dropped, and like the others, it doesn’t pass the smell test.According to the story, which The Guardian published, a former model named Stacey Williams, “who says she met Donald Trump through the late sexual abuser Jeffrey Epstein... has accused the former president of groping and sexually touching her in an incident in Trump Tower in 1993, in what she believed was a ‘twisted game’ between the two men.”It was curious that after it broke, I couldn’t find any domestic media outlets that had picked it up. I’m not sure if...

Veteran political journalist Mark Halperin, who was among the first to report that President Biden would withdraw from the race in July, revealed on Tuesday that there is a "certain story" that has been pitched to major news outlets that — if true — could derail Donald Trump's 2024 presidential campaign in its final days. Speaking on his "Morning Meeting" show on YouTube, Halperin shared that although he does not believe the story is accurate, its impact—if it were—would be the October Surprise the political media has been waiting for. "I know of one story... I don't believe it is...

Todd Richman, the co-chair of Democratic Majority for Israel, was beaten and had his Israeli flag stolen on Monday at a pro-terror protest in New York City to commemorate the October 7 attack. As Breitbart News reported, there were pro-Hamas demonstrators at Columbia University on Monday, as part of city-wide protests by anti-Israel activists. Video of explicitly pro-terror protesters circulated on social media as well, with one group of protesters calling for Tel Aviv — Israel’s tech-savvy, left-wing, secular

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivered a message of hope and resilience on Monday to his country’s official memorial to the victims of the terror attack of October 7, 2023, including the 100 hostages still in Gaza. His full speech follows (translated from Hebrew by the Government Press Office): Citizens of Israel, A year ago, on October 7th, we were all hurled into a critical battle. That day, a Saturday, the Sabbath and the holiday of Simchat Torah, will be etched in the history of our nation as a day of grief and loss, of unimaginable agony. On that day,...

Voters with an Arab heritage could tank Vice President Kamala Harris’s chances of carrying the 31 combined Electoral College votes in the key battlegrounds of Michigan and Georgia. Arab American voters, who typically vote for Democrats by a 2-to-1 ratio, are not so fond of Harris following the administration’s handling of the Hamas/Israel war that spread into Lebanon this month, drawing in the Iranian proxy terrorist organization of Hezbollah. A recent Arab American Institute poll showed former President Trump leading Harris among Arab voters by four points nationally. In 2020, President Joe Biden won 60 percent of their votes.

President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris used exactly the same language in a portion of their statements marking the first anniversary of the October 7 terror attacks as they called for an end to war in Lebanon. Hamas terrorists attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, killing roughly 1200 people, including dozens of Americans. The Iran-backed terror group also took over 250 hostages; four Americans remain among the living hostages in Gaza. Both Biden and Harris’s statements expressed horror at the attacks, solidarity with the victims, and hopes for the return of the hostages. Both supported Israel’s right to...

Vice President Kamala Harris issued a statement Monday in commemoration of the October 7, 2023, terror attack on Israel, expressing sympathy for the victims but adding that she would “always fight for the Palestinian people.” Harris’s message continues a pattern of equivocation by the Biden administration — showing solidarity with Israel against terrorism, but also showing solidarity with the Palestinian cause in whose name the terror was committed. While describing the October 7 attack in graphic terms, and calling for the release of the remaining hostages, Harris also added that she was “heartbroken over the scale of death and destruction...

Israel paused Monday to observe the anniversary of the terror attack of October 7, 2023, when Iranian-backed Hamas terrorists brutally murdered 1200 Israelis and abducted over 250 hostages, often torturing and raping their victims. In the year since, Israel has smashed the Hamas terrorist organization in Gaza; begun uprooting Hezbollah terrorists from its northern border; destroyed facilities in Yemen used by Houthi rebels; and threatened Iran itself with attack. Israelis cannot move on past October 7 while there are still roughly 100 hostages being held by Hamas. Though some 34 are believed to be dead, many are thought to be...

Israel is bracing for possible terror attacks, including the firing of long-range rockets from Gaza, as the anniversary of October 7 looms on Monday. On Sunday, a gunman burst into the central bus station in the southern city of Be’er Sheva, wounding at least seven people before being killed. (Update: One person was reported killed and ten wounded.) The country will remain on high alert for similar attacks. Meanwhile, Israelis are preparing for a variety of commemorations of the Hamas terror attack of October 7, 2023, which launched a war that has lasted a year.

The British rock band Pink Floyd’s entire catalog of hits has reportedly suffered a stunning devaluation of $100 million, thanks in large part to frontman Roger Waters’ outbursts against Israel, including his outrageous claim that the October 7 Hamas terror attacks were justified. Pink Floyd has agreed to sell its recorded-music and name-and-likeness rights to Sony Music for approximately $400 million, sources confirmed to Variety on Thursday. But that valuation represents a drop of $100 million from the band’s asking price of $500 million.

Welcome back to our monthly guide to all things whisk(e)y. Please check out our more in-depth looks at new releases here, including bottles from Angel’s Envy, BHAKTA, The Macallan, Octomore, SirDavis, Row 94 and more.

We’ve got about 75 more days left until the election, and who knows what the hell will happen that will change everything? If the last 25 years have been any indication, something will happen, and it’s going to be weird. We only have black swans anymore. We need to be looking for the white swan among the black flock. What can happen? Well, there’s the Democratic National Convention. It’s going on as I write this and we might see total chaos. The Democrats, on the streets, inside the arena, and aboard the abortion/castration RV, could show America their true colors...

The United Nations (UN) has admitted that nine employees of the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) may have participated in the Hamas terror attack of October 7. Israel said earlier this year that at least 12 UNRWA employees had participated in the terror attack. There were also reports that UNRWA staff praised the attacks, and that many UNRWA employees were members of terror groups. The U.S. suspended funding to UNRWA when Israel made the accusations; many other donor nations followed. An initial “independent” investigation found that there was insufficient evidence to substantiate Israel’s claims. (Israel rejected the results of...

As the nation’s largest southern border crossings finally receive mainstream media coverage years into an unprecedented illegal immigration crisis, untold numbers of “fighting age males” dressed in military uniforms are entering the United States through remote areas with no Border Patrol presence. It is a palpable security lapse unlikely to be reported by most news outlets and local, federal, and state law enforcement sources have provided Judicial Watch with detailed accounts, reports, diagrams, and photos of the situation which is terrorizing residents in a once harmonious Arizona town just a few miles from Mexico. They blame the Biden administration’s catastrophic...