Fighting for Food Freedom: A Georgia Farmer’s Stand Against Bureaucratic Overreach

Lush vegetable garden featuring raised beds, trellises, and a variety of plants growing under a clear blue sky.

Charming garden shop entrance featuring a wooden porch, colorful flower pots, and a welcoming "Open" sign.
Jones Creek Farm/Image courtesy of Stephanie Jones

“I never set out to battle county government. I simply wanted to sell the food I grow—healthy, local produce and value-added goods—to my neighbors,” Georgia farmer Stephanie Jones shared with The Gateway Pundit.

Recently, The Gateway Pundit spoke with Stephanie Jones, owner of Jones Creek Farm, a small family farm in Liberty County, Georgia.

In an era when Americans are increasingly demanding transparency and control over what ends up on their plates, the farm-to-table movement has emerged as a powerful counter to our industrialized food system.

By supporting small farmers and cottage food businesses, communities gain access to fresher, more nutritious food while strengthening local economies and preserving agricultural traditions.

These direct connections between growers and consumers are vital—not only for economic resilience, but for restoring personal agency over the food we eat.

This push for greater food sovereignty sits at the heart of the growing MAHA (Make America Healthy Again) movement, which seeks to reduce chronic disease by reforming agricultural policy, empowering small producers, and challenging the dominance of ultra-processed foods.

In this interview, this dedicated Georgia farmer shares her firsthand battle with local bureaucracy and her vision for a more resilient, community-centered food system.

Q: Stephanie, can you tell us about the current situation with your farm stand and the county?

A: The county recently paused our operations, claiming that because we sell items from other local Georgia vendors, we are operating a ‘retail store’ rather than a farm stand. Because our land isn’t zoned for commercial retail, they required us to file for a Conditional Use Permit.

We have complied and filed for the permit under that retail definition just to keep the process moving, but the reality is that a retail label completely misrepresents what we do. We are not a big-box store; we are a working family farm dedicated to community wellness and local food security.

In fact, Georgia state law explicitly protects agritourism and farm stands, allowing us to sell value-added products that are grown, baked, or produced right here in Georgia without needing a retail license. These items—like local olive oil, pecans, cane syrup, fresh eggs, regional dairy, fresh flowers, and organic baked goods from local cottage food bakers—help draw traffic to the farm and support our fellow small business owners.

We have provided the county with the specific state statutes that protect our right to operate. It is incredibly frustrating to be forced into a rigid bureaucratic box when our only goal is to connect our neighbors with healthy, local food, but we are hopeful the county will work with us to recognize the state-level protections designed for farms like ours.

Lush vegetable garden featuring raised beds, trellises, and a variety of plants growing under a clear blue sky.
Jones Creek Farm/Image courtesy of Stephanie Jones

Q: What would you like to see happen next with this movement?

A: I would like people to understand the importance of “Food Freedom,” and the vital need for accessible farm stands in every community. This goes far beyond my own stand — it’s about giving people real choices for their food. Roadside stands, farm stands like mine, or even a cottage food baker who has all the required labeling and licensing and wants to set up a pop-up table at the end of their driveway. The freedom to choose how we get our food is very important when the alternative is heavily processed foods in the grocery store.

Q: Your story involves more than just produce. Can you share an example of how your farm stand has impacted someone’s life?

A: Absolutely. My sourdough baker, DreamsDay Preppers, is the perfect example of why these stands matter. She lives with MS and uses a cane; she cannot hold a traditional job. But selling her preservative-free sourdough at my stand allows her to pay her mortgage and contribute to her household.

Since the county shut us down, she has lost that essential income.

Display of freshly baked bread loaves and assorted baked goods on a wooden shelf in a cozy shop.
Jones Creek Farm/Image courtesy of Stephanie Jones

Q: You’ve mentioned a conflict between local rules and state law. What legal protections do you believe should apply to your farm stand?

A: My struggle highlights a growing friction between local bureaucratic zoning and the state-level protections intended to support Georgia’s agricultural economy. Our county has little to no ordinances written to support local farms.

I am pushing for my county to recognize that a farm stand selling third-party vendor products is a legitimate agricultural extension, protected by several state-level frameworks:

Agritourism & Right to Farm: Georgia law supports agritourism, allowing farms to integrate direct-to-consumer sales to keep family farms financially viable. The spirit of the Georgia Right to Farm protections is to allow farmers to pursue these essential revenue streams — including selling value-added products — without being stifled by restrictive, non-agricultural zoning ordinances.

Interior of a local market featuring shelves of homemade goods, jars of sauces, and fresh flowers, creating a vibrant and inviting shopping atmosphere.
Jones Creek Farm/Image courtesy of Stephanie Jones

HB 398 (Cottage Food Laws): Recent legislative shifts, specifically HB 398, were designed to support small-scale producers. This law authorizes the production and sale of cottage food items like sourdough and aims to foster community food access. While local authorities retain some zoning oversight, these state protections emphasize that small-scale production should be encouraged, not penalized.

Agricultural Exemption: Georgia state law generally prohibits municipalities from levying taxes or license fees on the sale of agricultural products raised in the state. By forcing a small farm stand to carry the same “retail” burden as a commercial store, the county is misclassifying a community food hub as a standard retail development.

Q: What frustrates you most about the current food system?

A: The disconnect is profound. If bread from a grocery store can sit on a counter for six weeks without molding, we have to question our food system. People are craving alternatives to the highly processed, dye-filled, and pesticide-heavy options on supermarket shelves.

Q: What does a successful farm stand look like in your vision?

A: My daily reality is a 90-hour work week, but the feedback I get from my community is what keeps me going. They tell me daily how grateful they are for an alternative. I envision this stand as a hub for local food security. The go-to for local organic farm fresh products.

Glass pitcher with herbal tea, honey jar, and dried herbs in a bowl on wooden display.
Jones Creek Farm/Image courtesy of Stephanie Jones

Q: You mentioned eggs, which brings in backyard hens. Why is that part of this conversation?

A: Across the nation, restrictive ordinances frequently criminalize the tradition of keeping backyard hens. Yet there was a time when the government didn’t just permit backyard poultry — it actively encouraged it as a pillar of self-reliance.

True food freedom must include the right to raise one’s own food. Allowing every household to keep hens is a common-sense solution: it empowers families to secure their own protein, diverts kitchen waste from landfills, and creates a sustainable, closed-loop system.

Several towns in Belgium and France (such as Mouscron, Diest, Etterbeek, and Colmar) have implemented municipal programs where they offered free or deeply discounted chickens to residents. The primary motivation was waste management.

By providing residents with chickens, the towns aimed to reduce the volume of food scraps entering the municipal waste stream.

In Diest, Belgium, the program reportedly distributed chickens to thousands of families and achieved significant reductions in landfill waste. We could encourage local governments to implement similar ideas here in the USA.

Q: What’s the bigger picture you hope people understand?

A: We need a system where communities can feed themselves without government overreach.

We need the freedom to choose where our food comes from and how it is grown. This is a popular movement across the nation.

Local food security is a growing issue, so I have tried to combat that here on my farm by recently starting a small garden group where I teach 22 ladies how to grow food without the use of pesticides and chemical fertilizers, focusing instead on soil health. By offering healthy alternatives and teaching others to grow healthy food, I hope to encourage more people to find better food options.

 

The post Fighting for Food Freedom: A Georgia Farmer’s Stand Against Bureaucratic Overreach appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

Watch How a Hijab-Wearing AOC Is Treated by a Muslim Male Audience as She Tries Pandering to Them During Eid Celebration in New York City

Woman in a pink scarf speaking at a public event, holding a microphone with a crowd in the background.

Woman in a pink scarf speaking at a public event, holding a microphone with a crowd in the background.
AOC wearing a hijab while addressing an audience during Eid celebrations in New York City.

A Muslim male crowd gave AOC a rude welcome as she attempted to pander to them at a prominent Muslim holiday celebration in New York City.

As The Gateway Pundit previously reported, AOC was seen wearing a hijab at an Eid Celebration in New York City, which was attended by Muslim men.

Addressing a crowd on Wednesday, AOC called on people to “renew our commitments to one another” so together they “can bring light into the darkness.”

Despite claiming to be a feminist who wants to dismantle the patriarchy, the hijab is widely seen as a symbol of female repression intended to prevent Islamic women from attracting the attention of men.

Despite AOC’s pandering, the Muslim audience was unmoved.

Instead of listening, the attendees ignored what she was saying and started speaking among themselves.

In addition, the background noise completely muffled her speech.

So much disrespect for AOC.

WATCH:

In contrast, look at how the audience received Mamdani:

Islamists are more than happy to vote for leftist politicians like AOC because she will help usher in demographic changes favorable to them and appeal to their anti-Semitic beliefs.

But make no mistake: they respect women like AOC as much as dirt.

What happened on Wednesday was no accident.

The post Watch How a Hijab-Wearing AOC Is Treated by a Muslim Male Audience as She Tries Pandering to Them During Eid Celebration in New York City appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

Mexican Chamber of Deputies Passes Reform Allowing Election Annulment for Foreign Interference, Raising Serious Concerns About Morena’s Intentions

Interior view of the Mexican Congress chamber featuring the national flag, seating arrangements, and decorative walls, showcasing a formal legislative environment.

This Thursday, after a marathon overnight session, Mexico’s Chamber of Deputies—dominated by the ruling Morena party and its allies—approved q constitutional reform that adds “foreign intervention” as a new ground for annulling elections.

The measure passed with 307 votes in favor, 128 against, and one abstention. The Senate has already approved the constitutional amendment but this reforms still requires ratification by a majority of Mexico’s state legislatures before becoming part of the Constitution

Constitutional Changes

The change modifies Article 41, Section VI of the Constitution, enabling the Electoral Tribunal to nullify elections when acts of foreign interference — by governments, organizations, or even individuals — are deemed to have seriously influenced voter preferences or results.

Ricardo Monreal, Morena’s coordinator in the Chamber, introduced last-minute adjustments to the wording amid criticism, but the core mechanism remains broad. Secondary legal reforms were partially deferred.

Why was this change approved now

Morena and President Claudia Sheinbaum defended the reform as a necessary safeguard for national sovereignty against external threats, citing disinformation, media pressure, and diplomatic statements — often pointing implicitly or explicitly toward the United States and international critics. Monreal argued it closes a legal gap and protects the popular will.

However, the rushed process — pushed through an extraordinary session with limited debate and after other controversial reforms — has fueled deep skepticism.

Morena’s supermajority enabled swift passage through party discipline, despite opposition warnings. Critics argue the timing is suspiciously convenient: introduced amid tensions with the U.S., opposition gains in some areas, and broader institutional changes that strengthen Morena’s control.

Morena’s True Intentions

While protecting elections from genuine foreign meddling sounds reasonable, many analysts and opposition figures view this reform as a thinly veiled tool for power consolidation rather than a good-faith defense of democracy. The vaguely worded criteria for what constitutes “decisive influence” — potentially including foreign media coverage, social media activity, NGO reports, or diplomatic criticism — grant significant discretion to institutions perceived as aligned with Morena.

Opposition leaders, including from PAN, PRI, and MC, have denounced it as a mechanism to “annul elections a la carte” if results do not favor the ruling party. Ricardo Anaya and others warned that it opens the door for selective application, allowing Morena to challenge unfavorable outcomes under the guise of sovereignty. The reform’s broad scope could chill free speech, international scrutiny, and legitimate journalism — all while Morena has shown less concern for domestic issues like organized crime influence in elections.

This move fits a larger pattern under Morena: judicial reforms, changes to electoral oversight, and institutional tweaks that critics say tilt the playing field in their favor. Rather than strengthening democracy, it risks undermining electoral certainty and public trust, especially with the Electoral Tribunal seen as sympathetic to the ruling coalition.

The haste and lack of broad consensus suggest the primary goal may be insulating Morena from future political losses rather than addressing proven, widespread foreign threats. L

Comparison with the United States

In the U.S., foreign election interference is addressed through prevention, investigation, and sanctions — not post-hoc annulment of results. Laws ban foreign contributions, with enforcement via the DOJ, FEC, and intelligence agencies. High-profile cases (e.g., 2016 Russian activities) led to probes, indictments, and reforms, but completed elections are not overturned on broad interference claims due to decentralized state administration and high legal thresholds. Mexico’s approach creates a more direct — and potentially more subjective — judicial override, which opponents fear could be abused.

What is next for Mexico

The Senate is expected to take up the measure soon. If approved, the reform could apply to future elections, though secondary details were delayed. Its real danger lies in implementation: an ambiguous tool in the hands of a dominant political force inevitably invites accusations of authoritarian overreach.

This reform shows Morena’s willingness to bend institutional rules to its advantage under the banner of patriotism. While cloaked in sovereignty rhetoric, the reform casts doubt on the party’s commitment to fair, transparent democracy — prioritizing control over genuine electoral integrity.

The post Mexican Chamber of Deputies Passes Reform Allowing Election Annulment for Foreign Interference, Raising Serious Concerns About Morena’s Intentions appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

Viral TRUMP Buffalo Triggers Sudden Government U-Turn…

Patriotic graphic featuring an eagle, the Capitol building, and the word 'WATCH'

A rare albino buffalo in Bangladesh just exposed how fast governments move when a viral spectacle threatens embarrassment, even as they move painfully slow on problems that actually crush ordinary people.

Story Snapshot

  • A 700‑kilogram albino buffalo nicknamed “Donald Trump” was minutes from ritual slaughter for Eid al‑Adha when Bangladesh’s government abruptly ordered it spared.[1][2]
  • The Home Ministry cited “security issues” and “unprecedented public interest” after videos of the animal, famous for its Trump‑like blond tuft, went viral.[1][2][3]
  • Officials refunded the buyer and transferred the buffalo to the national zoo in Dhaka, turning a private religious sacrifice into a state‑managed media event.[1][2]
  • The episode shows how online outrage and elite image‑management can override ordinary traditions, feeding distrust in political and bureaucratic decision‑making worldwide.

The Viral Buffalo And The Last‑Minute Government Rescue

A rare albino buffalo in Bangladesh, nicknamed “Donald Trump” for a distinctive blond tuft of hair on its forehead, became an overnight sensation after videos of it spread widely online.[1][2][3] The nearly 700‑kilogram animal had already been sold for ritual slaughter ahead of the Muslim festival of Eid al‑Adha, a time when millions of animals are killed as part of religious observance.[1][2] As crowds gathered for a glimpse, the unusual interest transformed a routine sacrifice into a national spectacle.[1][3]

According to a Home Ministry official, the decision to spare the buffalo was taken “at the last moment” because of security concerns and the “unprecedented public interest” surrounding the animal.[1][2] Reports say Home Minister Salahuddin Ahmed ordered that the buyer be refunded and that the buffalo be taken instead to the national zoo in Dhaka.[1] That directive effectively reversed a completed private sale in favor of state custody, with no allegation of wrongdoing by the owner or the market where it was purchased.[1][2]

From Private Ritual To State Spectacle

News outlets describe how the buffalo’s Trump‑like appearance helped drive its fame, with its pale coat and blond forelock repeatedly highlighted in coverage.[1][3] Once the animal’s image spread, large crowds reportedly traveled to see it in person, increasing pressure on local authorities to manage safety, traffic, and potential unrest.[1][2] By citing “security issues,” the government framed the intervention less as an animal‑rights gesture and more as a public‑order decision shaped by viral attention.[1]

After the order, the buyer received a refund and the buffalo was transported to the Dhaka national zoo, where it is expected to undergo quarantine and health checks before going on display.[1][2] That shift turned a religious sacrifice into a state‑sponsored attraction, with the same animal now serving as a tourist draw rather than a household’s act of worship. The move fits a pattern where authorities redirect high‑profile animals into controlled environments once media attention reaches a certain level.[1][2]

What This Says About Power, Image, And Ordinary People

This small story from Bangladesh resonates far beyond one buffalo because it highlights how quickly governments respond when optics, reputation, and viral narratives are on the line.[1][2] Officials moved rapidly to avoid images of a “Donald Trump” buffalo being sacrificed, likely calculating the domestic and international backlash such footage could generate.[1] That kind of agility stands in sharp contrast to the slow or nonexistent response many citizens experience on bread‑and‑butter issues like inflation, corruption, or basic public safety.

For Americans on both the right and the left who already suspect that political and bureaucratic elites care more about headlines than hard realities, episodes like this reinforce a familiar pattern.[1][2] Decisions appear driven less by consistent principles and more by what will play best on social media and global news feeds. Whether one sees the buffalo’s rescue as a harmless feel‑good story, an intrusion on religious practice, or a publicity maneuver, it is another reminder that officials often act fastest when their image, not citizens’ daily struggles, is at stake.

Sources:

[1] Web – Rare Buffalo Goes Viral For Resembling Trump. Fame Spares It From …

[2] Web – Viral albino buffalo named ‘Donald Trump’ spared Eid sacrifice in …

[3] Web – ‘Donald Trump buffalo’ SAVED from Eid slaughter after Bangladesh …

The Hat Lady’s Reflection of the 2020 Election Process – Part II

Woman in a large white hat speaking at an Arizona election integrity hearing with legislators in attendance.

The Hatlady’s Reflection of the 2020 Election – Part II

Disclaimer: This narrative reflects the firsthand observations, recollections, testimony, and preserved records of Linda Brickman related to Arizona’s 2020 election process. Some claims and interpretations discussed remain disputed and publicly debated.

We Still Need Sunlight to Help Restore Public Trust in Elections…

Linda Brickman was a veteran election worker, supervisor and trainer for over 20 years at the precinct level and at the Maricopa County Tabulation and Election Center (MCTEC) before becoming the Chairman of the Republican Party in Maricopa County during the 2020 Election.

It was with that background and experience that she worked at MCTEC during the 2020 Election cycle in various capacities, including Signature Verification, Adjudication, and the Duplication Rooms.

During the 2020 cycle, along with her co-workers, she experienced things she had never witnessed before.

Below are her firsthand recollections and perspectives of the 2020 Election and beyond.

In 2020, she never expected to become part of one of the most controversial elections in modern American history.

At the time, Ms. Brickman was serving as Chair of the Maricopa County Republican Committee and participated directly in multiple aspects of Arizona’s election observation and oversight process. What began as civic involvement quickly became something far more serious as questions emerged regarding election procedures, observer access, signature verification practices, and the certification of voting equipment used in Maricopa County.

For more than four years, public debate surrounding the 2020 election has largely been divided into two extremes: those who insist nothing went wrong, and those who believe the entire system was corrupted.

But lost in the middle are the firsthand witnesses — individuals who were physically present during portions of the process and who documented what they personally observed in real time.

This article is not based upon internet rumors, social media commentary, or secondhand speculation…

It is based upon those firsthand experiences, contemporaneous notes, sworn declarations, legislative testimony, official correspondence, and preserved records related to Arizona’s 2020 election process.

These materials even include communications involving public officials, election personnel, legislative bodies, and legal representatives associated with Dominion Voting Systems.

Reasonable people may ultimately reach different conclusions regarding the significance of the events described here…

However, public confidence in elections depends not only upon outcomes, but also upon transparency, accountability, procedural consistency, and the willingness to examine concerns raised by citizens who directly participated in the process.

What follows is a chronological review of documents, testimony, and firsthand observations connected to the administration of Arizona’s 2020 election in Maricopa County.

SECTION 1- 3 were in Part I

The Hatlady’s Reflection of the 2020 Election Process – PART I

SECTION 4 — THE REFUSAL TO CERTIFY

According to Brickman’s account, the decision to refuse certification of the Logic and Accuracy testing process was not made lightly.

After reviewing portions of the testing procedures and documenting concerns she believed affected the integrity and transparency of the process, Brickman signed the L&A Testing Certificate with a notation declining certification.

What followed, according to her recollection, was an unexpected confrontation.

Brickman states that shortly after indicating she would not certify the testing process, she was asked to step into a separate room away from the main tabulation area. Anticipating the seriousness of the conversation, she requested that her husband, an election lawyer, accompany her as a witness, having remained with her throughout the day’s proceedings.

According to Brickman, pressure was then applied to reconsider and reverse her decision not to certify the testing results. She maintains that she refused.

Brickman later explained that, in her view, reversing her position would have compromised the credibility of the Maricopa County Republican Committee’s Election Integrity efforts and the concerns she believed had already been identified during the process.

She further recalls responding that election officials and county leadership should have considered the potential consequences before implementing procedures and equipment that had already become the subject of growing public concern and controversy.

The exchange, according to Brickman, became “tense.”

After leaving the room, she walked back through the tabulation area where portions of the testing had occurred, exited the building, and addressed members of the public and media who had gathered outside.

Despite the controversy surrounding the moment, Brickman states that she left believing she had done what she felt obligated to do: document her concerns honestly and refuse certification based upon the observations and questions she believed remained unresolved.

That decision would soon place her at the center of an expanding public and political controversy surrounding Arizona’s 2020 election process.

The dispute surrounding the L&A testing process would later expand beyond legislative hearings and public debate. It would eventually draw legal attention from representatives associated with Dominion Voting Systems itself.

SECTION 5 — FROM INTERNAL CONCERNS TO PUBLIC TESTIMONY

What began as internal concerns surrounding election procedures soon moved into the public arena.

As questions surrounding Arizona’s 2020 election intensified, legislative hearings, public meetings, citizen testimony, and election-related investigations became increasingly common throughout the state. Maricopa County quickly emerged as the focal point of national attention as lawmakers, election officials, observers, and members of the public debated whether proper procedures had been consistently followed during the administration of the election.

Brickman would eventually testify publicly regarding the events she stated she personally witnessed during portions of the election process, including concerns involving the Logic and Accuracy testing procedures, observer access, ballot handling questions, and signature verification issues.

Additional declarations, timelines, correspondence, and supporting materials were later preserved as part of an expanding collection of records connected to those concerns. Among those materials were legislative testimony, written statements, procedural notes, and communications involving election officials and party representatives.

The controversy surrounding Arizona’s election administration increasingly divided public opinion.

Supporters of the election process argued that extensive audits, reviews, and court decisions ultimately upheld the official election results…

Critics, however, continued raising concerns involving non-Legislative changes, including, transparency, procedural consistency, chain-of-custody questions, observer limitations, and the handling of signature verification procedures under Arizona law.

Throughout that period, Brickman continued publicly defending her decision not to certify the Logic and Accuracy testing process, maintaining that the concerns she documented had never been fully addressed to her satisfaction.

As public attention intensified, so did the pressure surrounding individuals who had spoken publicly regarding the election.

That pressure would eventually take a more direct legal form.

SECTION 6 — ESCALATING NATIONAL ATTENTION

As controversy surrounding Arizona’s election procedures intensified, the issues raised in Maricopa County increasingly drew state and national attention.

Brickman’s testimony and public statements eventually expanded beyond local election discussions and county meetings. In addition to appearing before Arizona legislative committees regarding election procedures and Logic and Accuracy testing concerns, Brickman also participated in hearings connected to former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s broader examination of election-related allegations following the 2020 presidential election.

By that stage, Arizona had become one of several battleground states at the center of intense national scrutiny regarding election administration, mail-in voting procedures, ballot verification standards, observer access, and voting system certification.

At the same time, public pressure surrounding those speaking out about election concerns continued to increase.

According to Brickman, one of the most defining moments of that period came when she received a formal Cease-and-Desist Letter connected to statements she had made regarding Dominion Voting Systems.

Rather than silencing her, Brickman states the letter had the opposite effect.

In her view, the legal warning reinforced her belief that citizens who directly participated in portions of the election process had an obligation to continue speaking publicly about what they witnessed, documented, and questioned during the administration of the 2020 election.

Brickman maintains that, by that point, remaining silent was no longer an option.

The controversy surrounding the election had grown far beyond partisan politics. For many involved, including Brickman, the issue had become one of public accountability, transparency, and confidence in the electoral process itself.

SECTION 7 — THE DOMINION LETTER

As public controversy surrounding the 2020 election continued expanding nationally, legal pressure increasingly became part of the public landscape surrounding election-related claims and testimony.

Attorneys representing voting technology companies, media organizations, political figures, and private individuals began issuing legal warnings and defamation notices connected to public statements involving election systems and election administration; and they or their surrogates launched lawfare cases against conservative election attorneys who filed cases or spoke out publicly, and filed baseless ethics complaints with the State Bar, resulting in attorneys backing down, being suspended, and in some cases being disbarred!

Within that environment, Brickman received a formal Cease-and-Desist Letter associated with statements she had made concerning Dominion Voting Systems.

The letter marked a turning point.

Until that point, much of the controversy surrounding the election had centered on procedural concerns, certification questions, legislative testimony, and public debate. The arrival of formal legal correspondence introduced a new reality: individuals publicly raising concerns about election procedures could themselves become the subject of legal scrutiny and pressure.

According to Brickman, the letter did not intimidate her into silence. Instead, it reinforced her belief that citizens who directly witnessed portions of the election process had a responsibility to continue speaking openly about what they observed and documented.

By then, Brickman had already publicly refused certification of the Logic and Accuracy testing process, testified before legislative bodies, communicated concerns to elected officials, preserved extensive records connected to the events surrounding Arizona’s 2020 election, and was called to testify as a witness in election lawsuits and State Bar disciplinary actions.

She maintains that remaining silent after receiving the letter would have contradicted the very reasons she had chosen to speak publicly in the first place.

According to Brickman’s recollection, the legal warning ultimately strengthened her resolve rather than weakening it.

For Brickman, the issue had evolved beyond politics or party affiliation. In her view, the larger question had become whether ordinary citizens who participated directly in election oversight and observation could publicly raise concerns about election procedures without fear of intimidation or suppression.

The controversy surrounding Arizona’s election process continued intensifying throughout the months that followed. Legislative hearings, public testimony, media investigations, citizen audits, and legal disputes increasingly transformed Maricopa County into one of the central battlegrounds in the national debate over election integrity and public confidence in American elections.

Despite the growing controversy surrounding the 2020 election and the increasing public scrutiny directed toward election systems and procedures, Maricopa County leadership ultimately chose to continue its contractual relationship with Dominion Voting Systems, despite documentation and evidence showing serious legal problems, that Courts in Arizona refused to allow into the record.

According to public records and contemporaneous discussions surrounding the election aftermath, the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors later approved the continuation of Dominion’s contract for an additional term rather than terminating the relationship.

For critics of the election process, the decision became another source of frustration and public distrust. Many individuals who had raised concerns regarding election procedures, certification questions, and voting equipment believed the renewal signaled that county leadership had no intention of reconsidering or reevaluating the systems that had become the focus of intense public controversy.

Supporters of the decision, however, maintained that election systems had functioned properly and that continuing the contractual relationship reflected confidence in the county’s election administration and certification procedures.

The disagreement further deepened an already widening divide between election officials seeking to defend the integrity of the process and citizens who continued demanding additional transparency, investigation, and accountability regarding the administration of Arizona’s 2020 election.

SECTION 8 — AN ATMOSPHERE OF ESCALATION

As the controversy surrounding Arizona’s 2020 election intensified, the atmosphere surrounding election personnel, observers, volunteers, attorneys, and party officials became increasingly tense and uncertain.

According to Brickman, complaints, disclosures, witness statements, and election-related concerns were arriving from multiple directions during the weeks and months following the election. Public scrutiny surrounding Maricopa County continued growing as legislative hearings expanded, attorneys became increasingly involved, and national attention focused heavily on Arizona’s election procedures.

During that same period, Brickman recalls additional incidents that reinforced her belief that the controversy had moved far beyond ordinary political disagreement.

Among those events was the sudden departure of an immediate supervisor connected to suspicious activities involving the signature verification process in which Brickman had participated extensively. According to Brickman’s recollection, the supervisor was called into a separate meeting and later presented with a Formal Notice for a Deposition in connection with an election-related lawsuit. Shortly thereafter, and right before her deposition was scheduled to take place, the individual reportedly resigned and left the state permanently. Brickman states she never saw or heard from the supervisor again.

At the same time, election-related complaints and disclosures were increasingly being directed toward the Arizona Republican Party, legislative officials, and attorneys associated with ongoing election litigation and post-election review efforts.

National legal teams connected to President Donald Trump’s post-election challenges also became increasingly involved in Arizona-related disputes and investigations as public scrutiny surrounding Maricopa County continued escalating.

Meanwhile, according to critics of the election process, frustration also grew regarding what many viewed as a lack of meaningful public response from Arizona’s Attorney General’s Office concerning election-related concerns and allegations being raised throughout the state.

For many individuals involved in the controversy, the atmosphere surrounding Arizona’s election aftermath increasingly felt less like an ordinary political dispute and more like an expanding legal, institutional, and public-relations battle unfolding in real time.

According to Brickman, the emotional strain surrounding portions of the election process affected individuals across political lines. She recalls that many of the working environments connected to election operations became increasingly tense, emotionally exhausting, and difficult to navigate as controversy surrounding the election intensified.

Brickman states that she remained involved because she believed the work being performed was important and hoped the atmosphere surrounding the process would improve over time. In her recollection, however, the tensions only continued escalating.

And those who continued to raise questions and speak out, were blacklisted from working at county election facilities in current or subsequent election cycles.

In one work area connected to the 2020 election operations, Brickman recalls a moment in which a Democratic-affiliated coworker became visibly emotional and expressed deep distress regarding what she believed she had witnessed during portions of the ballot adjudication process when the screen on the Dominion machines appeared to have changed ballots from one candidate to another. When Brickman and her co-worker raised the issue with their supervisor, nothing was done to either investigate or correct the changed ballots, and later Brickman was disciplined for bringing the matter up.

Brickman states the incident left a lasting impression on her because it reinforced the extent to which tensions, confusion, and distrust had begun affecting not only outside observers and political activists, but also individuals working inside portions of the election environment itself.

Regardless of political affiliation, the atmosphere surrounding the election had become emotionally charged, legally sensitive, and increasingly consumed by questions that many participants believed were never fully resolved.

After years of controversy, investigations, hearings, accusations, and public debate, many Americans still remain sharply divided regarding the events surrounding the 2020 election. Some believe every question has already been answered. Others believe many questions were never fully addressed at all.

See Ms. Brickman’s testimony after the 2020 election in front of Rudy Giuliani and the world.

Postscript from Ms. Brickman:

I understand that reasonable people may continue reaching different conclusions.

What I can say with certainty is that the events described in these pages were real to those of us who experienced them firsthand.

The meetings were real.
The pressure was real.
The testimony was real.
The documents were real.

And the decisions made in those moments carried consequences that extended far beyond politics.

I did not enter the 2020 election process expecting controversy, national attention, or legal threats. I became involved because I believed citizens had both a right and a responsibility to observe and participate in the electoral process honestly and transparently.

When concerns arose, I documented them.
When questions remained unanswered, I spoke publicly about them.

And when pressure was applied to remain silent, I chose not to remain silent.

History will ultimately decide how the events surrounding the 2020 election are remembered. My responsibility was never to determine history’s final judgment.

My responsibility was simply to tell the truth about what I personally witnessed, preserve the records I believed mattered, and leave future generations with an honest account of one of the most controversial periods in modern American election history.

It is my HOPE that the TRUTH will eventually PREVAIL!

Linda Brickman

PS: I still wear a hat every day.

The post The Hat Lady’s Reflection of the 2020 Election Process – Part II appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio Announces Deportation and Third-Country Acceptance Agreements for Illegal Immigrants and Non-Nationals with More Than 20 Countries

Senator Marco Rubio seated at a Senate hearing, displaying a serious expression while listening to discussions on national security.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated yesterday on television that the United States has secured agreements with 20 countries around the world to accept people living illegally in the U.S. and deport them when returning them to their country of origin is not feasible.

Just after these remarks, made during a cabinet-related discussion, broader updates emerged regarding immigration enforcement. Rubio explained: “One of the key things we’ve achieved is that 20 countries have now signed third-country agreements… We’ve gotten 20 countries around the world to sign agreements allowing us to deport people to those places.”

These arrangements — commonly known as “safe third country” or third-country removal agreements — allow the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to send non-citizens to countries other than their homeland when direct repatriation faces obstacles, such as refusal by the home country to accept them, documentation issues, or legal complications.

How the Strategy Works as a Pressure Tool

Rubio highlighted a practical effect of these agreements: they serve as leverage to encourage voluntary departures. He stated: “What usually happens when you go to the person who is here illegally and tell them, ‘We’re going to send you to this third country,’ suddenly they decide they would rather return to their home country.”

This more aggressive enforcement strategy aligns with the Trump administration’s immigration objectives. According to the approach currently being implemented by DHS, informing migrants that they may be removed to a distant third country often leads them to stop resisting and instead agree to deportation to their country of origin.

Immigration Priorities Under the Trump Administration

The announcement builds on the administration’s broader immigration priorities, which include accelerating removals of individuals with criminal records or final deportation orders.

El Salvador, under President Nayib Bukele, has emerged as a prominent partner by accepting deportees of multiple nationalities — including some foreign criminals — and housing them in detention facilities.

Public reports indicate that the U.S. has sought or secured agreements with more than 20 countries, with some sources suggesting the number could be as high as 27 by early 2026. Countries mentioned in public reporting include partners in Africa and Latin America, although the full official list referenced by Rubio has not been publicly detailed.

Among the Hispanic nations known to cooperate in these operations are Costa Rica, Mexico, Panama, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Ecuador, in addition to Rwanda, Sudan, and Uganda.

The administration has actively pursued additional partners, emphasizing deterrence and stricter immigration enforcement. Some agreements reportedly involve financial incentives or diplomatic arrangements, prompting criticism from congressional Democrats over costs and human rights concerns.

Legal and Operational Framework

U.S. immigration law (Section 241 of the Immigration and Nationality Act) authorizes deportation to a third country when removal to the designated country of origin is considered “impracticable, inadvisable, or impossible.”

These agreements expand deportation options beyond traditional repatriation, with the goal of reducing backlogs and avoiding delays.

Critics have raised concerns about conditions in receiving countries and due process protections, while supporters argue the policy is an essential enforcement tool that strengthens border security and public safety.

Rubio’s remarks underscore the administration’s ongoing diplomatic efforts to support DHS operations and fulfill campaign promises on immigration enforcement and border security.

The administration continues seeking additional agreements to expand its deportation capabilities.

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What Makes a Monet a Monet?

What Makes a Monet a Monet?

Artificial intelligence forces us to rethink artistic authenticity.

TOPSHOT-FRANCE-ART-PAINTING-AUCTION

To mark the centenary of Claude Monet’s death, the auction house Sotheby’s sold Les Îles de Port-Villez and Vétheuil, effet du matin, two Monets that had gone unseen by the public for a century, hidden away in a private collection. The plein air works sold for a staggering $19.7 million in April, smashing pre-sale estimates. One hundred years after his death, Monet’s stature appears more secure than ever, even as the art world enters a new age of imitation and fakery.

Far from the auction houses of Paris and the climate-controlled vaults of private collectors, Monet was being litigated this month in a much stranger arena: the social media platform X. An anonymous account posted an image in the style of Monet and said it had been generated using artificial intelligence. Thousands of users confidently dissected the digital painting’s supposed flaws: the muddy composition, its incoherent brushwork, and  the “soulless” texture so often associated with AI-generated art. The catch, revealed later, was that the image was not synthetic at all. It was a genuine Monet from the famous Nymphéas series.

The revelation sent the discourse spiraling. Some users felt duped. Others delighted in the prank itself. What can be agreed upon is that the episode turned into a sort of populist referendum on artistic expertise. In an online ecosystem increasingly suspicious of institutions, cultural gatekeepers, and artificial intelligence itself, the stunt exposed just how little trust people should have in their own ability to distinguish a masterpiece from an algorithmic imitation.

Long before artificial intelligence began generating images on command, Orson Welles understood that authenticity was often a matter of suggestion. In his brilliant and beguiling 1973 essay film F for Fake, Welles explored the concept of artistic legitimacy through the exploits of famed art forger Elmyr de Hory and the writer Clifford Irving, whose fabricated autobiography of reclusive billionaire Howard Hughes initially deceived the literary world. The great contribution of F for Fake was its thesis that authenticity almost never exists on its own. Paintings, especially, are filtered through provenance, expertise, institutions, and the stories built around them. Change the story surrounding an image, and the image itself begins to change.

In the era of generative AI, Irving’s distinction feels newly relevant. Much of the contemporary panic surrounding synthetic art concerns not imitation itself, but the fear that the imitation may become convincing enough to collapse the distinction entirely. Speaking of not only his own work but of fakery in general, Irving once stated: “The important distinction to make when you’re talking about the genuine quality of a painting is not so much whether it’s a real painting or a fake. It’s whether it’s a good fake or a bad fake.”

Welles understood performance not merely as entertainment, but as a mechanism of belief. After all, his career began with a similarly unforgettable act of forgery. At the age of 23, Welles rocketed to national prominence after his radio dramatization of War of the Worlds convinced listeners nationwide that an actual Martian invasion of New Jersey was underway. Even his landmark Citizen Kane drew its power from mythologizing and dissecting the life of actual newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst. As with all successful forgeries, the boundary between truth and fiction was left for the audience to negotiate.

Pablo Picasso recognized that modern art had transformed authenticity into a kind of performance long before artificial intelligence arrived. By the 1930s, counterfeit Picassos circulated so widely that attribution itself became unstable. For example, 100 etchings that Picasso produced for art dealer Ambroise Vollard during the period only further complicated the notion of artistic singularity. Their reproducibility reduced the very concept of “masterpiece” to something that could be at once serialized and authenticated largely via signature and provenance. Picasso appeared delighted by the ambiguity surrounding authorship. “I can paint false Picassos as well as anybody,” he once quipped. The joke concealed a deeper truth: Once an artist becomes a brand, imitation ceases to be an aberration and becomes part of the work itself.

Which all leads us back to Monet and the widely-debated hoax on X claiming that a genuine Monet had been generated by artificial intelligence. It may help to begin with a simpler question: what actually makes a Monet a Monet? His method as an oil painter was based on the material attributes and behavior of paint itself. Monet was well known for his impasto technique, built on the thick application of oil paint. Working quickly outdoors, he layered color while tracking shifting light as it changed around him. His canvases often resolve into broken brushwork and atmospheric depth, their surfaces seeming to dissolve into illumination rather than representation. In such a context, seeing is believing, and the screen introduces a distance that complicates questions of authenticity and authorship.

On X, criticism of the Monet image ranged from anti-AI suspicion to anti-art dismissal. Some users suggested that if a Monet could be so easily replicated by machines, then what, precisely, made Monet’s work so remarkable in the first place? This way of thinking is frequently seen in online discussions that cast doubt on the validity of modern and contemporary painting, especially when it involves artists who are thought to be unduly cynical or disengaged from traditional mastery. Institutional validation rather than technical competence is core to such arguments, and artists such as Cy Twombly, Mark Rothko, and Basquiat often become shorthand for a broader skepticism about contemporary painting in general. On the opposite end of the spectrum, anti-AI commenters insisted that artificial intelligence is fundamentally incapable of producing a genuine masterpiece, since it lacks the subjective interiority that is associated with artistic greatness.

What both responses reveal, however, is less a disagreement about artificial intelligence than a shared uncertainty about how art is recognized at all. Whether through suspicion of contemporary painting or faith in a human “soul,” each position returns to the same assumption: that authenticity resides somewhere beyond interpretation. However, the history of forgery, reproduction, and artistic self-branding indicates otherwise. From Welles to Picasso to Monet himself, meaning has never truly been separate from how it’s seen. The question isn’t whether the image is real or fake, but what the viewer is required to believe in order to see it at all.

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Eighty Years of Hurt

Eighty Years of Hurt

A new book examines the corrosive roots of the Israel–Palestine conflict.

Right Wing Supporters Take Part In March Towards Gaza
(Photo by Amir Levy/Getty Images)

Israel: What Went Wrong?
By Omer Bartov
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
244 pages, $28.00

An Israeli defense minister received a stunning letter from a history professor at Tel Aviv University. The academic, a veteran of the Yom Kippur War in his early 30s, warned the country’s top civilian defense official that Israeli soldiers were at risk of being indoctrinated to abuse Palestinian civilians in ways similar to how German soldiers had been conditioned to brutalize “subhuman” Slavs and Jews on the Eastern Front.

The defense minister was Yitzhak Rabin. It was the late 1980s. The first intifada was underway. Rabin had allegedly instructed the IDF to break the bones of Palestinian children caught throwing stones at the Israeli occupiers. The professor was Omer Bartov, whose research delved into why young German men internalized Nazi ideology—dehumanization of the other—even before they donned a Wehrmacht uniform.

Rabin responded to Bartov in the form of a single written sentence: “How dare you compare the IDF to the Wehrmacht.”

This story appears early in Bartov’s concise, unsparing portrait of a country’s descent into barbarism. Israel: What Went Wrong? is both an indictment and a plea—an indictment of radical Zionism and a plea for mercy, reconciliation, and peace in a land bathed in blood for the better part of the past 80 years. Given what’s transpiring now, nearly 40 years after Rabin dismissed Bartov’s history lesson (and before Rabin himself changed course), the university professor’s letter proved prescient.

In the 31 months since the Hamas onslaught of October 7, 2023, Israeli leaders have repeatedly called for unleashing immense violence and deprivation to render Gaza unlivable. Bartov fills pages with quotes like this one from IDF Major General Ghassan Alian: “Human animals must be treated as such… There will be no electricity and no water. There will only be destruction.” Such attitudes permeate society. Based on his recent visits there, Bartov reports that most ordinary Israelis now see Palestinians as less worthy of life.

“Of course, the Israeli public long ago became inured to the brutal occupation that has characterized the country for almost six decades. But the scale of what was being perpetrated in Gaza by the IDF was as unprecedented as the complete indifference most Israelis showed to what was being done in their name,” he writes.

Omer Bartov was born in a different Israel in 1954, although he argues the seeds of today’s catastrophe had been planted even then. A presence at Brown University since 2000, Bartov is an eminent scholar of war and genocide. He has also written extensively on the conflict consuming his native country, and was among the first major historians to publicly condemn Israel’s destruction of Gaza as potentially genocidal. He brings a great deal of credibility to the debate over whether the state founded as a refuge for Holocaust survivors is perpetrating “the crime of crimes.”

But when did Israel start going wrong, to use Bartov’s phrase? To find the answer, Bartov takes us back to the Jewish state’s founding in May 1948. He does not argue that Zionism was inherently genocidal, but that the movement’s prevailing leaders chose to make it fundamentally incompatible with a large Palestinian population. Citing the work of the Israeli legal scholar Yoram Schachar, Bartov points to the frantic drafting of Israel’s Declaration of Independence “and why the commitment it made to adopt a formal written constitution was never kept.” Moreover, its founders refused to define Israel’s borders, unwilling to relinquish hopes for the entirety of the Land of Israel.

Although the declaration plainly stated that the Jewish people had an irrevocable legal and moral right to establish a state, the document avoided the term “democratic.” And while it pledged to “ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its citizens,” these rights have never been “enshrined in any of the country’s overarching basic laws, let alone in a Constitution,” Bartov notes. The enlightened phrasing seems to have been lifted from the UN Charter to satisfy the demands of the 1947 Partition Plan.

David Ben-Gurion opposed adopting a constitution, and the consequences were evident immediately. The approximately 150,000 Palestinian Arabs remaining within the new state lived under martial law until 1966, and hundreds of new Jewish towns were built on land confiscated from Arabs. So despite its eloquent commitment to equal rights, Ben-Gurion seems to have intended for the Declaration of Independence “largely to serve foreign policy and propaganda needs.” In theory and in practice, Zionism—whether in its secular or religious form—rendered impossible true equality and democracy by “privileging one ethnicity over another,” Bartov says.

Since 1967, Israel has ruled over millions of Palestinians (thousands of whom had been turned into refugees in 1948) who have few or no rights at all. Decades of occupation bred violence and dehumanization on all sides, birthing Islamist resistance movements every bit as uncompromising as the right-wing fanatics in Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition today.

At the same time, the cancer of occupation has metastasized and deeply eroded the liberal structures and values within pre-1967 Israel itself. So, this argument continues, wars of annihilation in Gaza and southern Lebanon, coinciding with ceaseless settler terrorism in the West Bank, were logical outcomes. This is why Bartov concludes Zionism is now irreparably broken and needs to be discarded in favor of a universalist value system.

Was this descent inevitable, though? The answer matters because it may tell us whether Zionism can be reformed away from the racist, expansionist, irrational ideology it has become. The answer is not entirely clear: “One can only wish Zionism had been transcended — historicized, liberalized, and universalized — when the time was right, eight decades ago,” Bartov concludes. 

Israel: What Went Wrong? has unsurprisingly not been published in Israel, as the vast majority of Jewish Israelis appear unready to reckon with the consequences of a war shot through with revenge. Americans would do well to read it, but most hardly need convincing that today’s Israel is an unworthy international partner and ultimately a strategic liability. Sixty percent of U.S. adults view Israel unfavorably, a big jump from the pre-war 41 percent of 2022, according to thePew Research Center. Disapproval runs even higher among the younger generations.

One needn’t be a polling expert to understand why. Gaza’s pitiless destruction was live-streamed on our smartphones and social media feeds. Those who protested Israel’s conduct, especially those who believed it to be genocidal, were often smeared as antisemites. To Bartov, obsessively conflating legitimate criticism of a foreign government that receives billions in U.S. aid with Jew-hatred is another reason why Israel is on the road to outcast pariah status and possibly self-destruction. 

“Israel is now the best excuse for antisemites everywhere, a nation whose addiction to violence and oppression, reliance on great powers and financial clout, and constant harping on the horrors of the Holocaust as an excuse for untethered violence against Palestinians are making even some of its erstwhile supporters shrink from it in discomfort, or horror and disgust,” he writes. 

Of all the tragic outcomes, this stings the most. Israel stands as isolated as ever, as decades of war and occupation failed to solve the fundamental problem created by its existence, the dispossession of millions of Palestinians. 

In 1947, the Auschwitz survivor Primo Levi published his memoir If This Is a Man. It recognized the humanity of an emaciated, starving creature, male or female, brutally forced to work in the freezing cold and caking mud. While still in the death camp, Levi had already transcended his particular identity to feel anguish and compassion for all suffering, oppressed, persecuted humankind, and anger at those outside the Shoah’s horrors who had sealed themselves in denial and complacency.

We might contrast Levi’s humanity to the tone of a motivational speech delivered by 95-year-old Israeli military veteran Ezra Yachin to IDF troops before they invaded Gaza. Yachin told the soldiers to “wipe out their memory, their families, mothers and children.” As Bartov notes, President Isaac Herzog rewarded Yachin with a certificate of honor.

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Britain’s Underbelly Is on the Ballot

Britain’s Underbelly Is on the Ballot

The decline of British high streets is finally compelling a political response.

Aziz barbers, traditional Turkish barber shop, Melksham, Wiltshire, England, UK
UK Special Coverage

Britain is a country where political discussion is carefully stage-managed. The government, the national broadcasters, the legacy press, and the courts all in their own ways try to fetter political discussion, especially around issues of immigration and crime. This is particularly the case when these two issues overlap. 

Since the 1960s, the British government has introduced a range of laws intended to manage the tensions of multiculturalism, which emerged after the earliest waves of postwar mass immigration. Unsurprisingly, the public did not especially like the advent of multiculturalism and mass-immigration. The state, however, decided that the correct response was to implement a range of laws intended to suppress public discontent and censor political speech. Various laws around race relations, public order, and access to welfare were introduced between the 1960s and ’80s, and they remain on the statute book today, criminalising speech and suppressing political discussion in person and online. 

But occasionally these structures crack under the pressure of public opinion and political reality. One area where this has happened is regarding the seedy underbelly of modern Britain, where immigration, organized crime, and degraded high streets overlap. 

For years, people wondered why “Turkish barbershops” kept on appearing on British high streets, with seemingly zero customers, often in areas with no Turkish population to speak of. Who is paying the bills? How do these shops function, why do they only take cash payments, who is running them, and who allowed them to open? Two to three years ago, those asking these questions were confined to forums or social media, as the mainstream press tended to ignore something so mundane. Sometimes these online murmurs made it onto the right-wing TV channel GB News, where accusations of money laundering made it onto the airwaves, but often they were ignored, dismissed as a function of a post-pandemic boom in male grooming, or reasoned away because there are low barriers to entry to setting up these shops, and they served a clear customer demand. 

But a series of criminal investigations made the issue impossible to ignore at the highest level. The Evening Standard reported in 2025 that 

over the past three years, several major crime rings have been linked to London barber shops. Hammersmith barber Tarek Namouz, who owned Boss Crew Barbers, was sentenced to 12 years in prison for sending £11,000 to fund terrorist activity in Syria in 2022. A people-smuggling plot was also uncovered at a barber shop in Colindale the same year. Gul Wali Jabarkhel was jailed for 10 years after offering lorry drivers thousands of pounds to illegally bring people into the UK across the Channel.

Meanwhile, former barber Hewa Rahimpur was sentenced to 11 years behind bars for buying boats for up to 10,000 migrants so they could cross the Channel into the UK. He had run a barber shop with a friend in Lewisham before he began selling sweets and tobacco from a kiosk in Ilford.

Elsewhere, CSG Barbers in Lewisham was exposed to be an illegal hideout and DIY casino used by two Albanian brothers running vast amounts of cocaine from London up into the Midlands in March 2022.

For nearly a year, the “Eddie line” led by brothers Edmund and Edward Haziri ran drugs up to Swadlincote, north-west Leicestershire and east Staffordshire. The brothers were ultimately both jailed for 15 years, alongside eight others connected to the drug’s line.

This is just one flavor of the sort of criminal activity that has been taking place through shopfronts in London alone. The problem is arguably worse in poorer parts of the country, tucked away from the public eye. The South Wales town of Porth, with a population of only 6,000, finds itself with over a dozen of these shops, much to locals’ confusion. The situation in neighboring Welsh town Blackwood is similar, and tensions between rival-owned barbershops erupted into public violence, with a mass brawl including stabbings taking place last year. Swinging machetes in the street is not the expected behaviour of a British barber. Indeed, many investigations into these businesses have found that the owners are linked not just to the drug trade in the UK, but terrorist financing and illegal immigration.

Barbers are not the only businesses involved, though they have attracted the most attention. Vape shops and mini supermarkets have been used for criminal enterprises as well, according to the BBC, which has published a number of reports into this phenomena since the National Crime Agency launched a nationwide investigation into criminality on the high street last year. 

The issue is far more sinister than drug trafficking or smuggling illegal cigarettes, however, as serious as those issues are. A local council worker in Dudley, in England’s West Midlands, revealed that girls as young as 11 were being sexually abused in high street shops in the town, with cases of abuse and exploitation happening for years. Information collected by the local Trading Standards body—a local government enforcement agency—found that children were being lured to secret locations from the shops to collect cigarettes and vapes before being assaulted or abused. This is reminiscent of the rape gang scandal which has taken place up and down the country for decades, and is a sign that similar forms of child exploitation continue to this day. 

This is a modern British tragedy. It sits at the intersection of a number of policy failures the country has experienced. Some of these failures are more mundane than others. As consumer habits changed, British town centers in poorer parts of the country went into decline. Once-busy high streets fell empty as people preferred to shop out-of-town or online. The heavy taxation and regulation of cigarettes and vapes has encouraged a booming black market. These are trends which are seen across the world. 

But a succession of poor decisions have been taken which have accelerated the degradation of so many town centers. In a rush to avoid negative headlines around empty high streets, cash-strapped local councils have allowed these shops to operate, turning a blind eye to their activities as long as they pay their business rates. As upwardly mobile Brits left declining, post-industrial towns, many of the remaining houses have been requisitioned by the government to house illegal immigrants, refugees or homeless people that the state has various legal responsibilities to protect. 

With underpowered local enforcement bodies, a welfare state that subsidizes criminality, and a political class wary of addressing the effects of decades of unwanted immigration, these towns have become a petri dish for the development of a seedy and grisly underbelly to the country. Largely hidden from view, it is where some of Britain’s poorest and most lost people interact with slum landlords and immigrant gangs, far away from the authorities and polite society. 

But as mentioned earlier, something is starting to crack. While the picture is bleak, what were once the subject of posts on Reddit and X are now the focus of national crime investigations. Politicians across the political spectrum seem to have realised that public anger cannot be put back in its box. The rapid hardening of the public consensus on immigration, in particular, is testament to this. It is as if a new permission structure has been created, opening up a much broader and more radical range of solutions.

Despite the Labour Party’s likely leftward tilt following Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s leadership woes this spring, his potential challenger, Andy Burnham, has been at pains to say he supports policies which would significantly curtail welfare access to migrants and make it easier to deport even legal immigrants in Britain. Britain’s problems will not be solved overnight, nor will the country’s faded high streets burst into bloom tomorrow, but if things which were only sayable on corners of social media are driving policy and law enforcement two or three later, then maybe the light at the end of the tunnel is closer than we think.

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NEW: “I’ll Kill Your Whole F*cking Family!” – Anti ICE Rioter Arrested After Threatening to Murder Agent and His Family, Another Arrested for Biting Agents (VIDEO)

Protester wearing goggles shouts aggressive threats during a night demonstration in Newark, NJ, highlighting tensions at a federal agent confrontation.

Protester wearing goggles shouts aggressive threats during a night demonstration in Newark, NJ, highlighting tensions at a federal agent confrontation.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche announced on Friday that two wicked leftists have been arrested, one who threatened to kill an ICE agent and his family, and another who is accused of biting agents, outside the Delaney Hall Detention Center in Newark, New Jersey.

Anti-ICE rioters occupied the Newark facility this week, setting up barricades to block vehicles leaving the facility and assaulting feds in a violent uprising against the government for arresting criminals. As The Gateway Pundit reported, two individuals were arrested this week after attacking agents with a chemical substance near the ICE facility.

(VIDEO) Democrat Senator Andy Kim Pepper Sprayed by ICE During Memorial Day Riot at ICE Facility

Another crazed lunatic was caught on video screaming at agents, “I’ll kill your whole f*cking family! Your whole f*cking family is dead! Your children, your wife, all dead!”

He continued, “I have your face, motherf*cker! You’re dead. Dead!”

Acting Attorney General Blanche responded to the incident during an interview with Fox’s Will Cain on Thursday, noting that the Department of Justice knows his face, and “We will find him.”

Think about how disgusting this individual is, threatening his family and his children with death,” Blanche said. “We see his face, and we will find him, and when we find him, we will arrest him because it is a crime not only to threaten law enforcement, but not surprisingly, to threaten their family as well.”

WATCH:

The next day, Blanche announced the suspect’s arrest. “Told you,” he said, adding “FAFO.”

According to Fox’s Alexis McAdams, the suspect has been identified as Nicholas Scelfo. He faces felony charges related to the threat.

The Department of Homeland Security also wrote on X, “Justice will be served. The Trump Administration will always have the backs of our heroic law enforcement as they put their lives on the line to protect our nation.”

Blanche also announced earlier that a rioter, identified as Brendan John Geier, was arrested and charged after kicking and biting ICE agents.

In gruesome photos of agents’ injuries, gnarly gashes and teeth marks are seen on the agents’ skin:

Anti-ICE rioter in Newark BITES federal agents

Blanche wrote on X:

Today @TheJusticeDept charged rioter Brendan John Geier for allegedly kicking and biting ICE officers at Delaney Hall last night. We will not tolerate the vicious attacks on ICE officers we’ve seen in New Jersey the last few days. These riots are clearly not “peaceful protests” as you can see from the photos of these horrific wounds. Assault a federal officer, you’ll be held accountable.

The post NEW: “I’ll Kill Your Whole F*cking Family!” – Anti ICE Rioter Arrested After Threatening to Murder Agent and His Family, Another Arrested for Biting Agents (VIDEO) appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.