Hurricane Ian made landfall on Florida’s southwest coast yesterday as a category 4 hurricane, causing extensive damage from high winds, torrential rain and storm swells so high that some houses were knocked off their foundations and floated away. After crossing the state, Ian weakened to a tropical storm early this morning. But it could strengthen again as it passes back over the Atlantic and heads toward Georgia and the Carolinas. Here’s a link to Fox News’ continuous feed of the latest hurricane news:

https://www.foxnews.com/live-news/hurricane-ian-tracker-2022-news-path-weather-09-29-2022

Over two million people are without electricity, and it’s still too early to assess all the damage, but it’s expected to be unprecedented. President Biden has declared Charlotte, Collier, DeSoto, Hardee, Hillsborough, Lee, Manatee, Pinellas and Sarasota Counties disaster areas. Despite millions evacuating, others stayed behind, either out of necessity or because they thought they could ride it out or were new arrivals to Florida and didn’t realize how bad it could be. The sheriff of Lee County couldn’t confirm the number of fatalities, but he said he fears they’re in the hundreds (let’s all pray that turns out to be incorrect.)

I hope you’ll join me in saying prayers for those who were in the storm’s path and those who are in its future path, and in saluting the many first responders, volunteers and good neighbors who have acted with outstanding courage to save both people and animals who were threatened by the high winds and water. Also for those from faith-based charities who are rushing aid and supplies to storm victims. If you’d like to help, a donation to Samaritan’s Purse will ensure that almost every cent goes directly to help disaster victims as soon as possible: http://www.samaritanspurse.org

As I mentioned yesterday, some leftist media figures were unconscionably hoping for massive hurricane damage and already attacking Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for allegedly botching the response to a hurricane that hadn’t even arrived yet. But they’re obviously not used to dealing with competent leaders because DeSantis disappointed them by having an extraordinary response set up and ready to go.

Paula Bolyard at PJ Media outlines some of the extensive measures in place, from releasing food stamp benefits early to let people stock up to ensuring that 100% of senior homes had generators. If you are in Florida, this is also a useful list, since it includes which agencies are responsible for which duties, such as where to find out what schools are closed.

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/paula-bolyard/2022/09/28/all-hand-on-deck-heres-a-massive-list-of-gov-desantiss-extraordinary-preparations-for-hurricane-ian-n1633073

Kristen Clarke

A lot of people are demanding to know why the Biden DOJ decided that a local assault case against pro-life activist Mark Houck that was so shaky it was thrown out of court was used as the basis of a federal charge worthy of a massive, guns-drawn arrest raid. Well, we might now know:

According to this report by Victoria Taft at PJ Media, the case against Houck was pulled out of mothballs by Kristen Clarke, the Biden Administration’s chief of the civil rights division of the DOJ. In opposing her appointment, several Republican Senators warned that she was rabidly political, with a history of celebrating criminals and calling for defunding police, and she would abuse her office to settle scores against people whose views she disagreed with. Sen. Ted Cruz called her “one of the most radical nominees ever put forward for any position in the federal government” and “completely unfit to serve;” but that not being a disqualifier for this Administration, she got the position anyway.

Ms Taft writes, “A former DOJ prosecutor told me the other day, ‘It’s not just Merrick Garland, Victoria. There’s a boss that makes these calls before Merrick Garland ever hears of a case. Name the names.’ So let’s name her name: Kristen Clarke.”

I have a feeling it’s a name we’ll unfortunately be hearing a lot more often before 2025 blessedly arrives.

YouTube works to suppress new Italian PM

After an inspiring speech by Italy’s conservative, soon-to-be Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni went viral, Google-owned YouTube, of course, deleted it. She and her surprise victory have the leftist globalists so terrified, they’re resorting to their kneejerk response to anyone who threatens them: call them “fascists” and try to censor them so nobody can hear what they actually have to say.

Fortunately, that speech is still accessible in other places, and Meloni gave another one that’s just as terrific. As one commenter put it, watch this and you’ll quickly realize why the establishment is afraid of her.

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/athena-thorne/2022/09/28/youtube-may-have-yanked-new-italian-pms-viral-speech-but-this-ones-just-as-good-n1632978

And speaking of YouTube censorship of “wrongthink,” they just did it to conservative Laura Loomer…

https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2022/09/28/google-silences-women-youtube-removes-laura-loomer-speech-claiming-misinformation/

And even to iconoclastic British comedian Russel Brand, who is, not surprisingly, not going along quietly with being censored. He admitted that he got a small detail wrong in a commentary on COVID treatments, but to illustrate YouTube’s bias, he pointed out all the leftwing media reports from soutvrd like MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow that got things wildly wrong, but are still up on YouTube.

https://redstate.com/brandon_morse/2022/09/28/russell-brand-isnt-taking-youtubes-obvious-abuse-of-bias-quietly-calls-them-out-in-new-video-n634199

Brand is also the latest content creator to start posting all his videos on the competing free speech platform, Rumble, which recently went public on the stock exchange. I don’t give stock tips, but if YouTube is going to keep censoring content that at least half the country agrees with, it sounds like Rumble has a better business model.

Jacinda Ardern: "The face of authoritarianism

 New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is best known in the US for instituting one of the most iron-fisted, rights-crushing COVID lockdowns in the world. Recently, she spoke at the UN, where she called for creating a new Internet with “rules and transparency” to prevent people from voicing “misinformation.” She described freedom of speech on the Internet as a “weapon of war.”

https://instapundit.com/545102/

I like journalist Glenn Greenwald’s analysis: “This is the face of authoritarianism - even though it looks different than you were taught to expect. And it's the mindset of tyrants everywhere. This is someone so inebriated by her sense of righteousness and superiority that she views dissent as an evil too dangerous to allow.”

I will just add this: I may not agree with her idiotic attack on freedom of speech…but I will defend to the death her right to say it.

 I JUST WANTED TO SAY: 

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