Blog

Opioids More Likely To Kill Than Car Crashes Or Suicide

The National Safety Council reports that Americans are more likely to die from an opioid overdose than a car crash or suicide.

As Statista’;s Katharina Buchholz shows in the following chart, the likelihood of dying from opioid use in the U.S. increased from lifetime odds of one in 96 in 2017 to one in 57 in 2023 (down from one in 55 in 2022).

The same year, someone living in the U.S. only had one in 87 odds of dying of suicide and a one in 95 chance of dying in a car crash.

Potent and deadly synthetic opioid fentanyl – which is often mixed with heroin without the knowledge of drug users – contributed to this dismal development together with the ongoing crisis of prescription pain killer misuse.

The U.S. experienced 105,000 overdose deaths in 2023, down from 2022 after a severe uptick during the coronavirus pandemic.

The most likely cause of death in the U.S. continues to be heart disease with lifetime odds of 1 in 6, followed by cancer and stroke.

Covid-19 lifetime odds were similar to those of stroke in previous years, but are no longer reported by the source.

Despite being a common fear, the chances of dying due to gun assault stand at only one in 238, but are still greater than drowning or choking to death, which have odds of around one in 1,000 and one in 2,500, respectively.

Dying in a dog attack remains highly unlikely with the chances of that happening at one in 44,499.

Dying in a hurricane or tornado or any other storm event is actually more likely at one in 39,192.

Keep reading

Mueller Family Statement on Robert Mueller’s Health Decline Comes Into Question After Insiders Refute Claims

A statement provided to The New York Times about Robert Mueller’s declining health is now in question after attorneys and people with insider knowledge refute the claims.

As TGP reported earlier this month, Robert Mueller, former FBI Director who was tapped as special counsel to investigate President Trump’s 2016 ‘collusion’ with Russia is reportedly in a memory-care facility.

Earlier this month RealClearInvestigations reporter Paul Sperry revealed Robert Mueller, 80, has been living in a memory-care facility for the past few years.

“House Oversight Committee has subpoenaed Robert Mueller to appear for a Sept. 2 deposition to provide details from an FBI investigation of Jeffrey Epstein from decades ago — even though sources tell me Mueller has been living in a memory-care facility for the past few years,” Paul Sperry said.

Mueller will not be able to testify to Congress this week.

On Sunday evening The New York Times reported that Mueller got diagnosed with Parkinson’s four years ago and has had difficulty speaking in the last few months.

The Mueller family statement also claimed that Robert Mueller taught at his law school during fall of 2021 and 2022.

“Bob was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in the summer of 2021. He retired from the practice of law at the end of that year. He taught at his law school alma mater during the fall of both 2021 and 2022, and he retired at the end of 2022,” Mueller’s family said in a statement to The New York Times.

However, lawyers and insiders have refuted the Mueller family’s claims. Mueller allegedly did not teach at his law school in 2021 and 2022 because he was too mentally incapacitated to teach.

Mueller was reportedly in such bad shape that his star prosecutor from the Russia witch hunt had to step in and teach the classes.

Keep reading

Populist Ex-Czech PM Babis Hospitalized After Attack During Campaign Rally

Former Czech populist Prime Minister Andrej Babis was hospitalized Monday after he was attacked by a man with a walking stick at a rally ahead of next month’s parliamentary elections.

The assault happened in the town of Dobra in eastern Czech Republic. Police said they immediately detained the assailant and were investigating the attack as hooliganism.

Babis was taken to a hospital in the nearby town of Frydek-Mistek for a medical check, his centrist ANO (YES) movement said. It was not immediately clear if he was injured.

Prime Minister Petr Fiala and Interior Minister Vit Rakusan condemned the attack, calling it unacceptable.

ANO is currently in the opposition but stands a good chance to win the Oct. 3-4 parliamentary elections, according to public polls.

Babis, who became prime minister in 2017, lost the 2021 parliamentary election. He also contended for the largely ceremonial post of president in January 2023 but lost to Petr Pavel, a retired army general.

Keep reading

SEND IN THE US MARSHALS: After Locking New County Recorder Out of System, Maricopa County is Attempting to Illegally Delete Records Ahead of Potential DOJ Investigations

Maricopa County officials are attempting to delete emails that potentially relate to the 2020 and 2022 elections, as well as irregularities in the 2024 elections, amid potential investigations by Trump Administration officials into the election fraud. 

In a letter to Maricopa County Manager Jen Pokorski, newly elected Republican County Recorder Justin Heap sounded the alarm on the Maricopa County Enterprise Technology and Innovation (ETI) department’s plans to delete archived emails from previous administrations. These documents are the subject of outstanding public records requests and may be of value in an official investigation.

Heap argues that the destruction of these emails would violate Arizona law, relating to record retention, and county policies. He further asks that the records be maintained due to their historical significance and in order to fulfill public records requests.

Local activist Merissa Hamilton says the move by Maricopa County is “suspect,” as “Trump Administration officials signal fresh probes into 2020 concerns and beyond.”

Elections in Maricopa County have come under intense scrutiny following the 2020 election, which was stolen from Trump, and the 2022 election, where 60% of the voting machines miraculously failed on election day and robbed then-gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake, then-Attorney General candidate Abe Hamadeh, and others of a win.

As The Gateway Pundit reported, Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon announced last month that the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division is investigating violations of federal voting laws and cracking down on state voter rolls. This likely includes a deeper dive into Arizona, a hotbed for election irregularities, especially in 2020 and 2022.

Previously, US Rep. Abe Hamadeh, whose 2022 election was stolen by just 280 votes, also told The Gateway Pundit that he met with FBI Director Kash Patel and signaled that the FBI is looking at what happened in Arizona. “I’m still seeking justice. I’m just going to say, stay tuned to see what happens. We haven’t forgotten,” Hamadeh said.

Hamadeh later alerted the Department of Justice to potential illegal activity in Arizona and several western states after a whistleblower came forward with “credible claims” of election security violations involving the Arizona-based ballot printing firm, Runbeck Election Services. Runbeck, which surely has email correspondence with County officials, allegedly commingled blank ballots with voted mail-in ballots in a warehouse during the 2024 vote-counting process. The shady private entity, founded by leftists, transports and scans Maricopa County mail-in ballots with no chain of custody and little oversight before they are processed and counted by the County.

Additionally, just last week, it was revealed by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard that documents related to corruption in the 2020 election were found “tucked away in the back of safes in random offices” in “burn bags.” The evidence of election fraud is expected to be made public shortly.

The emails could also include collusion between Maricopa County officials and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) to censor so-called “election deniers” and The Gateway Pundit’s reporting on Maricopa County elections.

Keep reading

DHS’s New Election Integrity Czar Has Receipts On Pennsylvania’s 2020 Fraud

Left-wing media outlets pounced this week to attack President Donald Trump’s new appointee for the Department of Homeland Security’s election-integrity czar.

Outlets including the Associated Press and ProPublica accused Heather Honey of being an “election denier” for the doubts she has cast over the 2020 election outcome.

However, Honey’s supporters pointed to the fact that she has the receipts to back up her skepticism—including evidence that Pennsylvania, a hotbed for vote fraud by many accounts, finished with 121,240 more votes than voters.

“Heather Honey’s work has never been refuted,” wrote Liz Harrington, Trump’s former campaign spokesperson. “She’s uncovered enough evidence to overturn the fraudulent 2020 election in multiple states.”

Trump could have clinched the election with Pennsylvania and Georgia—another hotly contested battleground state where questions over rampant fraud have yet to be fully resolved.

Left-wing activists, including Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, waged several lawfare attacks on Trump and his allies to ensure that previous efforts to investigate were punished.

Trump adviser Rudy Giuliani was sued for raising questions about the after-hours ballot counting at the Atlanta county’s State Farm Arena following video evidence suggesting that an election official had pulled cases of hidden ballots from beneath a table and scanned them multiple times.

Honey—who worked closely with Trump’s campaign lawyers such as Public Interest Legal Foundation chair Cleta Mitchell—played significant roles in the efforts to challenge Georgia’s final ballot count and the forensic audit of Arizona’s election, which uncovered widespread irregularities.

According to Mitchell, she confirmed more votes than voters in Michigan, as well.

“Her expertise is the study of systems to identify vulnerabilities that could be exploited by potential fraudsters and she was struck by what she saw in 2020 and started applying her expertise to research on election systems,” Mitchell wrote in a post defending Honey following the media smear attack.

Keep reading

Cause of Death Officially Revealed for Biden-Appointed US Attorney Found Dead in Her Home – Had Led High-Profile Investigations Into CIA Leaks and Russian Fraud Cases

The cause of death for a prominent former Biden-appointed US Attorney has been officially released months after her death.

As The Gateway Pundit reported, Biden-era US Attorney Jessica Aber for the Eastern District of Virginia was found dead in her Alexandria, Virginia, back in March.

Aber’s family said she suffered from epilepsy and speculated that she passed away after an epileptic seizure.

However, they were waiting for more information from the medical examiner.

Now, the Alexandria Medical Examiner’s office has ruled that Aber suffered a “sudden unexpected death in epilepsy” while sleeping, confirming the family’s suspicion.

The New York Post points out that it’s unclear why it took so long to confirm Aber’s cause of death, especially since the Alexandria Police Department previously stated that detectives “found no evidence suggesting that her death was caused by anything other than natural causes.” One would think this would have been quickly confirmed.

As The Daily Mail notes, fatal epileptic seizures are rare, but are considered a significant risk for people who suffer from the disorder. Those episodes most often occur when the individuals are asleep, like Aber was

The Gateway Pundit previously reported that Alexandria Police responded to the 900 block of Beverley Drive for the report of an unresponsive woman on March 22. Officers located a deceased woman. Following notification of family members, the Alexandria Police Department confirmed that the woman’s identity was that of the 43-year-old Aber.

Aber was known for spearheading high-profile investigations into CIA intelligence leaks, war crime allegations tied to individuals linked with Russia, and suspects involved in transferring sensitive U.S. technology to Moscow.

She was also a lead prosecutor in the high-profile case against a former ABC journalist who went missing after the FBI raided his home and seized his laptop. He pleaded guilty to federal child pornography charges.

The timing of Aber’s death, just two months after resigning and amid her involvement in sensitive cases, sparked discussion.

Keep reading

A deep dive into Trump Derangement Syndrome

Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS), is a sociological, psychological, and political phenomenon.  The central characteristic is not disagreeing with Donald Trump, but rather an intense dislike, disdain for, devaluing of, despising of, and/or hatred of Donald J. Trump.  TDS began as soon as Trump made the public decision to become an American politician and run for president of the United States.

An unspoken but evident and fanatical vow among sufferers of TDS is never, ever to acknowledge or give Trump any credit for good and positive things he does for America.  Even peace in the Mid-East or Ukraine would never result in Trump being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, which that Obama won for nothing but his utopian Cairo speech.

A corollary to the above vow by TDS afflicted individuals is to relentlessly and tirelessly criticize and disparage Trump for any proposal he suggests, or policy he introduces.  Trump’s sincere efforts to help America are to be condemned as racist, sexist, dictatorial, or Hitlerian-fascist.  Such criticism, especially by liberal Democrat pundits must be made with a studied tone of sanctimony and self-righteousness modeled on the voice tone of Scott Pelley of CBS.

Another basic requirement to quality for the diagnosis of TDS is that the TDS-afflicted must stay perpetually mindful of the Russia Hoax that took forty million taxpayer dollars of Robert Mueller’s investigation to disprove, and two bogus impeachment debacles to convince Americans that Trump is a pushover, lapdog, and colluding agent against America with Vladimir Putin of Russia.  Such a connection with evil Putin must be relentlessly believed and asserted.

And finally, with or without factual proof, the TDS victim must tie Trump to the violence that occurred during the pageantry and protests of January 6, 2021.  No mention of the Democrat-supported violence of the Summer of 2020 in Washington, D.C., Minneapolis, or Portland and Seattle can be acknowledged, and BLM and George Floyd must always be held in absolute reverence.

The Social and Psychological Domain of TDS

Trump the Political Aggressor, Identification with the Aggressor,* and Hatred of the Aggressor by the Group Self.**

*The phrase identification with the aggressor was coined by Sandor Ferenczi.  It is a paradoxical behavior that can be explained only as a defense mechanism, which involves the victim of aggression or harm acting like the aggressor.

**Group self: There is a parallel process by which an individual’s sense of himself as part of a group is formed.  In essence, inner representations of our self and our self-in-a-group are parallel and conjoined during early developmental and maturational personality experiences.

In individual psychology, psychoanalysts describe identification with the aggressor in their work with individuals, particularly traumatized individuals.  In observing Trump operate politically, it is striking to observe what can be called identification with and/or hatred of the aggressor at the large group psychological level.  In his large political rallies, Trump is applauded, cheered, and adored by the crowds of supporters as he insults, demeans, and caricatures political opponents.  They radiate an almost joyful identification with their aggressor-hero, Donald Trump.  Many in Trump’s campaign style crowds have felt traumatized and hurt by trade and other government policies that they feel took their jobs away in the oil, coal, or manufacturing industries.  Trump was their aggressor-savior.

Democrat and even some Republican politicians with TDS, however, more than resent and hate Trump at subconscious and conscious levels because of his aggressive, bullying, political style and behavior.  They seem to feel victimized or traumatized emotionally and politically.  Trump sometimes starts such political fights, and certainly, if attacked, will predictably escalate his aggression to win a personal fight at all costs.

Keep reading

Reps. Thomas Massie and Ro Khanna to Hold Press Conference with 10 Epstein Victims on Wednesday Amid House Push to Declassify Epstein Files

Reps. Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Ro Khanna (D-CA) are set to hold a news conference with ten Jeffrey Epstein victims on Wednesday as they continue pressing for the declassification of the Epstein files. 

Massie and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) previously joined forces with Ro Khanna on a discharge petition aimed at compelling a full House vote on releasing classified Jeffrey Epstein files. Khanna said that 12 Democrats and 12 Republicans have signed onto the petition.

As The Gateway Pundit reported, however, House Speaker Mike Johnson adjourned the House early, and lawmakers fled DC for the entire month of August after reported tensions over the petition. Johnson later blasted Massie for not bringing the petition to the floor during the Biden years and now “clammoring” about it.

Massie had previously demanded the release of the Epstein client list, but did not act like he is now. Still, it is unclear if it would have had the support necessary to pass when Biden was President, and this is an issue that prominent supporters of President Trump– including current FBI Director Kash Patel– championed to help Trump get elected.

Keep reading

Is climate change REALLY making people allergic to meat?

Ticks responsible for giving people a “meat allergy” are spreading further and wider because the planet is warming.

That’s the story, anyway.

The disease is called Alpha-Gal Syndrome, it is a condition where your body produces an immune response to galactose-alpha-1,3-galactose, a carbohydrate found in mammalian meat.

It was first noted in the mid-2000s, when cancer patients began to display symptoms of anaphylaxis after being treated with the monoclonal antibody drug Cetuximab.

Then, in the early 2010s, researchers found a correlation between increased alpha-gal antibody reaction and repeated tick bites.

Since then, the prevalence of alpha-gal has been increasing year-on-year, with the CDC now estimating almost 500,000 people suffer from this “meat allergy” in the US alone.

Why are these numbers increasing?

Because of climate change, apparently. You see, the warmer weather is causing the tick population to increase, so more people are being bitten, so more people become allergic to meat.

It’s all very…neat, don’t you think?

Myths built upon convenient myths, each reinforcing the other. Just as people “should” be eating less meat to (allegedly) help fight climate change, a disease emerges that forces people to eat less meat…because of climate change.

The reality – if we can even call it that – is that alpha gal is a “confounding condition”, that’s what this Guardian article calls it anyway…

Keep reading

MSNBC Host Does Absolutely DEMENTED Monologue About How Democrats Need to ‘Start’ Fighting Dirty

For anyone who doesn’t remember, Ali Velshi of MSNBC is the guy who stood in front of a burning building during the 2020 riots and declared that the situation was mostly a protest.

Now he has just done a monologue on the air that must be witnessed to be believed.

Velshi thinks Democrats need to ‘start’ fighting dirty. Apparently, the non-stop investigations, frivolous lawsuits, meaningless impeachments and assassination attempts just weren’t dirty enough.

At one point in his insane rambling, Velshi declares that the Republican party is no longer functioning. That will be news to them, considering that they currently control all three branches of government and the Supreme Court.

Velshi also claims here that he is not a Democrat, and not here to do PR for Democrats, then goes on to do exactly that for almost eight minutes.

There are so many things wrong with this monologue that it’s amazing it made it to air, but it’s a window into the deluded mind of the left.

Partial transcript via Real Clear Politics:

ALI VELSHI, MSNBC HOST: Today we speak with some reverence about the U.S. Constitution. The document, remarkable for its time, that established our democracy and still guides and informs our rights and freedoms to this day. But when the U.S. Constitution was presented to the Founding Fathers for ratification, they weren’t universally enthusiastic about it.

In 1787, ever the optimist, 81-year-old Benjamin Franklin delivered his final speech to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. He had to convince several delegates to sign on to the Constitution. Many of them harbored hesitations.

In fact, Franklin had a few himself. He acknowledged that the Constitution was indeed flawed and left space for the possibility that over time, as society and opinions changed, so would this document. But despite its faults, Franklin believed this Constitution was better than the alternative, living under a monarchy without representative democracy.

It was the no-kings movement of the time. Franklin was able to persuade the holdouts. The Constitution was signed, and the United States of America was born.

It is said that on the way out of the convention, Benjamin Franklin was asked what sort of government the delegates had just created. He responded, quote, “A republic, if you can keep it.”

Our Constitution, and more broadly, our democracy, has been resilient, more of a cactus than a rose. But it does require some attention. Even in easy times, this democracy needs care.

And we’re not in easy times. Right now, it’s in dire need of defense, and it needs defenders who are willing to do whatever it takes.

True democracy also requires the competition of ideas. When that does not exist, political parties stop functioning properly. And when even one of our two major parties stops functioning, democracy itself is put at risk.

We all know by now that the Republican Party is no longer a functioning political party in America. It is a fully captured vessel of authoritarianism, which makes it even more vital that the Democratic Party rise to this moment in defense of our democracy. But whether national democratic leadership is unwilling or simply unable to do so, they are largely not rising to this moment.

Keep reading