PUNCTURING THE ‘SOUTHERN STRATEGY’ MYTH: Don Surber addresses that perennial illusion trotted out every four years by Democrats and their media allies — the idea that 1964 GOP presidential nominee Barry Goldwater carried only his home state of Arizona and five Deep South states, thereby launching a fundamental realignment in American politics.

Those five Southern states were the anchor of the  “Solid South” that had been uniformly Democratic since the Civil War aka “the Late Unpleasantness.” Goldwater carrying them against LBJ supposedly signified the GOP becoming the favored party of bigots, KKKers, ignorant rednecks and fans of Jim Crow.

Not true — not even close to true — and the historical facts on the ground cited by Surber today prove it.

FORGOTTEN FACTS ABOUT THE LEBANESE ‘CIVIL WAR:’ The most basic of those forgotten facts is that it was not a civil war, it was a classic genocide conducted by Hezbollah against Lebanon’s historic Christian population. Richard Pollock has the gruesome facts from eyewitnesses and victims.

FRANKLIN GRAHAM TO HEAD FEMA: It would be such a drastic step down for him, but the Samaritan’s Purse founder and chief always seems to be several steps ahead of the bureaucrats at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

And, since FEMA is itself a bureaucratic disaster area of the first magnitude, I suggest in my latest PJMedia column, that perhaps it’s time to appeal to Graham to take a leave of absence for some public service?

EVERYTHING THEY TOLD YOU ABOUT COLUMBUS WAS BUNK: Rod Martin points out the crucial importance of two facts in understanding the significance of Columbus to the subsequent development of the New World.

First, the germs bearing the diseases brought to the New World by Columbus and subsequent Europeans, especially the Spanish, wiped out 80-90 percent of the native populations from Canada to Brazil. Much of North, Central and South America was unoccupied or only occasionally occupied.

Second, the Europeans didn’t even know about the existence of those germs bearing those diseases, therefore holding them responsible for “genocide of the Native inhabitants” is a myth used by power-hungry Leftist myth-makers to generate shame based on a whole sequence of derivative myths that are constantly used as a weapon against those feeling the shame.

Martin reprinted this essay that he originally penned in 2015 this weekend to commemorate Columbus Day on October 14. The facts Martin marshals are even more relevant today than they were in 2015.

TODAY HE’S CENSORED. TOMORROW IT’S YOU: Freedom of speech and thought either applies to everybody, including those with whom we disagree, or, sooner or later, it is enjoyed by nobody but the censors. Consider the case of Ball State University Physics Professor Eric Hedin.

HOW COULD THEY HAVE MISSED RYAN ROUTH? That is the question that demands answers after reading “From Hawaii to Florida: Tracing Ryan Routh’s Path to Attempted Trump Assassination,” by Janice Hisle, Samantha Pointer and Arjun Singh of The Epoch Times. You won’t find anywhere a more comprehensive, revelatory examination of the deranged man who was within a heartbeat of pulling the trigger and killing Donald Trump.

Here’s just one small vignette among the many details the reporting trio gathered in their deep-dive into Routh’s life, from humanitarian aid worker Chelsea Walsh, who may well have known the man better than anybody else:

“When a panhandler insistently sought money, Routh’s reaction stunned her. ‘He kicked the homeless guy in the town square,’ she said. Yet Routh had repeatedly proclaimed that a desire to help his fellow man inspired him to travel to Ukraine, 8,000 miles from his transplanted home in Hawaii.”

Walsh was so disturbed by by what she knew of Routh that she returned to the U.S. from Ukraine and immediately spent an hour relaying her concerns to a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) official:

“She recalls the official telling her that foreign issues were outside his agency’s purview; its work is limited to ‘threats to national security.’ To that, Walsh says she responded: ‘Well, then you guys need to keep an eye on Ryan Routh, because he’s a ticking time bomb. He’s coming back [to the U.S.], and he lives in Hawaii.’

“The official ‘kind of nodded,’ Walsh said. He took copies of Walsh’s ID and a notebook. ‘He said that he would pass the information on to, you know, whoever in the intelligence community,’ Walsh recalled.”

Go read the whole thing, you will, as Glenn says, want to just keep scrolling.

10 STATE ABORTION BALLOT INITIATIVES: the Washington Stand’s Ben Johnson lays out the stakes in the 10 states where pro-abortion activists have succeeded in getting ballot proposals extending abortion-on-demand through the ninth month.

HERE’S THE BOTTOM LINE ON BIDEN BORDER: New video on X has man in Arizona explaining to an illegal immigrant how he and his car full of friends can be registered to vote. Both of the guys in the video must have heard Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y) “saying the quiet part out loud.”

THIS IS NOT A WEIGHT LOSS PITCH: Did you know that every cell in your body contains six feet of DNA strands? And, since there are three trillion cells in your body, that means there are 18 trillion feet of DNA strands in each of us. Now that’s some serious irreducible complexity!  Check it out today on HillFaith.

SURVEY SAYS TRUMP LOSING MESSAGING WAR: Results from the latest Issues & Insights/TIPP Poll are a warning about the deepening power of the Left’s control of the Mainstream Media (MSM) one month out from the November election.

“Our latest poll, taken of 997 likely voters, finds that more voters say they trust Harris (who’s already announced $4 trillion in tax hikes) than Trump to cut taxes by a 48 percent -45 percent margin. Among the crucial independent voters, the margin is even greater – 49 percent to 36 percent. That’s not all. More trust Harris to bring about energy independence, 48 percent -47 percent.

But it’s not simply a matter of the MSM’s influence, according to I&I, which points to Donald Trump’s longstanding lack of ability to stay on message.

DEATH MAY NOT END CONSCIOUSNESS: Dr. Sam Parnia, a Brit who is Associate Professor of Medicine at NYU, is not a follower of any religion. He is a medical doctor and a scientist researching what happens to human consciousness after death.

And, in this “Closer to Truth” interview with Robert Lawrence Kuhn, Parnia says the evidence is growing that consciousness doesn’t stop when the heart and brain cease functioning.

Kuhn asks Parnia some tough questions, particularly regarding the issue of materiality, and there aren’t answers, yet, for several of the most important but this interview is absolutely fascinating.

50 YEARS OF PALESTINIAN TERRORISM: Today marks one year since thousands of Hamas terrorists poured over the border from Gaza into Israel and went on a horrendous spree killing, raping, beheading, maiming, and burning more than 1,200 men, women and children, including infants.

The terrorists also took 230 Israelis and people from other nations, including seven from America as hostages. It is estimated that barely 100 of those hostages remain in the hands of the terrorists, but many of those are undoubtedly dead.

Richard Pollock, for his October 7 remembrance column on Substack this morning, has assembled a heart-breaking chronicle of Palestinian/ Islamic Jihadist terrorism committed in the past half-century. As he writes:

“May we understand that October 7 was not a rare occurrence. Terrorism is the main weapon used in the world of Islamic Jihadi revolution.

“Terrorism against innocent civilians has become the prime strategy for Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, Syria, the Muslim Brotherhood, ISIS and Iran.

“The long history of terrorism against innocents is outlined below. But the terrorism of October 7 especially stands out for its depravity, immorality and sheer evil.”

Richard and I have worked together on investigative journalism staff for nearly a decade and I consider him one of the best, ever. As he notes in his column, he’s been under the weather for a month, so I hope readers will pause and say a prayer for his complete recovery and return of his strength for many, many more columns.

EXPOSED! LEFT TARGETS RIGHT’S FOIA ACCESS: John Kerry made it clear (as if there was previously any doubt) that the Left wants to rewrite the First Amendment. Now, as I explain in my latest PJMedia column, we learn the Left wants to bar conservatives from using the Freedom of Information Act.

ABORTION PILL SAFE FOR MOM? In a word, no. Data compiled by the FDA shows women using the abortion pill experience far more side effects requiring emergency room visits than Tylenol users, according to the latest  “What Would You Say” video on HillFaith. And thus does another Lie of the Left go down in flames.

FREE SPEECH WIN IN VIRGINIA: French teacher Peter Vlaming was fired by West Point (Va.) public schools officials when he refused to use the pronouns insisted upon by a student undergoing sex transitioning procedures, according to the Christian Post.

But Vlaming, refusing to submit quietly, sought out legal representation by the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) and sued the school board. He won this week, including a settlement of $575,000 in damages and attorneys fees, plus agreement by the board to remove the firing from Vlaming’s official records.

MUST-READ ON FREEDOM OF SPEECH: Independent journalist Matt Taibbi’s speech to the “Rescue the Republic” gathering in the nation’s capital is a stirring call to protect every American’s God-given right to disagree openly and loudly with Officialdom’s accepted opinion.

It’s a lengthy oration but well worth your time in reading as it is full of wisdom about history, raw truths about the people who think they have a divine right to tell the rest of us what to think and say, and, most important, a heaping helping of good ole American orneriness. God Bless Matt Taibbi.

RIGHT THERE BETWEEN YOUR EARS: The most amazing, marvelous, incredible supercomputer ever seen on this good Earth, that is. It’s your brain, which, as John 10:10’s “Three Pounds of Wonder” video on HillFaith demonstrates, far outdistances even Frontier at Oak Ridge, presently the world’s most powerful manmade supercomputer.

WHAT ABOUT THE INDEPENDENTS? It’s a truism that elections in America are typically decided by the middle, and that made up mostly of independents. But a new survey highlighted today by Issues & Insights suggests the vast majority of independents are significantly more conservative than folks in the media would like the rest of us to believe.

HEART-BREAKING VIDEO: Millions of U.S. tax dollars continue to flow from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to labs in China that conduct research experiments involving things like severing the spines of Beagle puppies. The White Coat Waste Project (WCW) report that includes a video of a Beagle dragging itself around a lab with useless rear legs. Even if you aren’t a “dog person,” this video ought to make your blood boil.

‘PREFERRED PRONOUNS’ AND REALITY: There is a move afoot in certain evangelical quarters to convince Christians that they should bow to the demands of Transgenderism and use preferred pronouns.

But as the latest “What Would You Say?” video from the Colson Center on HillFaith makes clear, what is really being demanded is the obliteration of words as describers of reality and their being reduced to little more than expressions of unreal feelings.

IRS DIRECT FILE MAY BE DIRECT LINE TO HACKERS: New report from the Treasury Department’s Inspector-General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) finds significant risk that taxpayers using the Direct File program allowing IRS agent to prepare their tax returns could see their most sensitive financial information stolen by hackers. My latest PJMedia column has the details.

HARRIS LOSES TO QUAYLE: Just as Jimmy Carter sighed with relief over the fact Joe Biden relieved the Georgian of the “Worst President Ever” title, Issues & Insights reports that those uproarious laughs you may be hearing are Dan Quayle, who has been relieved by Kamala Harris of the undeserved (in his case) title of “Worst Vice-President Ever.”

HOW FAUCI’S INNER CIRCLE PROTECTED WUHAN: The full story of the relationship between Tony Fauci, the former NIAID Administrator and highest-paid federal employee in the country, and China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology may never be known, but Emily Kopp at U.S. Right to Know advances the ball in a major way today.

“Some of the NIAID officials who helped [EcoHealth Alliance chief Peter] Daszak were key to approving his coronavirus research in Wuhan in the first place, including gain-of-function research, research that can enhances the pathogenicity or transmissibility of a pathogen.

“Some of these NIAID officials had spent years championing gain-of-function research as worth the risks, congressional transcripts also show. Namely, [Fauci science advisor David] Morens and another NIAID employee named “Jeff T.” were the liaisons between the scientific community and Fauci during the years-long debates about gain-of-function research leading up to the pandemic, one email shows.

“After the pandemic arose, Morens and another NIAID scientist named Jeffery Taubenberger wrote an editorial defending EcoHealth and referred to people concerned about gain-of-function research as ‘luddites’ and ‘the complaining crowd.’

“Thousands of pages of grant proposals and other documents obtained by U.S. Right to Know show that EcoHealth planned to use the new NIAID funding to continue research similar to the work that had brought the group under scrutiny, using the very same viral samples. Most of the NIAID employees who helped Daszak maintain funding amid the pandemic still retain positions of influence at NIAID.”

That last sentence above is a big reason why you should take the time to read this report in its entirety.

ROADMAP FOR AMERICAN RECOVERY: Tim Goeglein’s latest book is “Stumbling Toward Utopia” and it is a truly excellent explanation of how the Left, including the Marxists, the “New” Left and the Progressive Democrats, brought America to where we are today. Check out my review over on PJMedia.

DO NOT MISS CHARLIE MARTIN’S PAGER REPORT: Over on PJMedia, Charlie Martin, who knows a thing or three about intel matters, assesses the significance and likely enduring impact of Israel’s exploding Hezbollah pagers. There is indeed much more to this amazing accomplishment by Mossad than first meets the eye.