Daily News Brief for Friday, September 15th, 2023

This is Garrison Hardie with your CrossPolitic Daily News Brief for Friday, September 15th, 2023. 
 
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https://thepostmillennial.com/breaking-hunter-biden-indicted-on-gun-charges-in-delaware?utm_campaign=64487
 
Hunter Biden indicted on gun charges in Delaware
 
Hunter Biden has been indicted on felony gun charges in the state of Delaware. This after a plea deal fell through earlier this summer that would have let him off the hook for the charges, so long as he met certain conditions.
 
Biden had been accused of lying on an FBI background check form in order to purchase a firearm, one Colt Cobra 38SPL revolver. He said that he was not a drug user when, in fact, he was. This was revealed in his own memoir Beautiful Things.
 
The indictment reads that Biden violated Chapter 44, Title 18 of the United States Code by falsely asserting that he was not a drug user on ATF Form 4473. That form required that the buyer must state that he is aware that "making any false oral or written statement... is a crime punishable as a felony under Federal law, and may violate State and /or local law."
 
Biden was indicted on three counts. The first is that Biden "knowingly made a false and fictitious written statement, intended and likely to deceive that dealer with respect to a fact material to the lawfulness of the sale of the firearm..."
 
That count further provides that Biden gave a "written statement on Form 4473 certifying that he was not an unlawful user of, and addicted to, any stimulant, narcotic drug, and any other controlled substance, when in fact, as he knew, that statement was false and fictitious."
 
The second count states that he made this false statement knowingly "to be kept" in the records of the company from which he made the purchase. The third count is that Biden then possessed the weapon unlawfully.
 
The indictment, delivered by a grand jury, was signed off on by special counsel David Weiss, who is also the US Attorney for the State of Delaware.
 
Biden was set to plead guilty to tax charges in June, with the expectation that the gun charge would be dismissed. Weiss, who was prosecuting the case for the state of Delaware and the Department of Justice, was anticipated to make a deal for a diversion agreement for the gun charge. Chris Clark, Biden's attorney, said at the time that "A firearm charge, which will be subject to a pretrial diversion agreement and will not be the subject of the plea agreement, will also be filed by the Government."
 
That deal fell apart in July after US District Judge Maryellen Noreika recognized that in the diversion agreement, it appeared that both defense and prosecution had agreed that Biden would also gain immunity for any charges stemming from not having filed as a foreign agent when conducting business deals overseas. The prosecutors explained that this was not their understanding, at which point the defense also did not go along with the plea deal.
 
The maximum prison term for lying on the ATF form is 10 years.
 
Hunter's father, President Joe Biden, is a staunch proponent of gun control legislation. He routinely touts the importance of universal background checks, claiming that this way people who should not have guns will get guns.
 
After mass shooting events during his presidency he has stressed the need for background checks before firearms purchases are permitted to be made. He has also pressed for a "major crackdown" on gun dealers, the very kinds of gun dealers to whom his son submitted falsified records.
 
He has also demanded that more states enact "red flag" laws, which allow family members to have law enforcement take a gun from a gun owner in the event that a family member or concerned person claims that gun owner is not stable enough to own a gun.
 
Biden further said that the right to bear arms, as secured by the Bill of Rights under the Second Amendment, is "not absolute," and that no right "is absolute."
 
Biden said that "the Second Amendment, like all other rights, is not absolute."
 
https://thenationalpulse.com/2023/09/13/eu-parliament-legislates-for-the-sale-of-human-embryos/
 
EU Parliament Legislates for The Sale of Human Embryos.
 
Members of the European Parliament have voted overwhelmingly in favor of a new “Substances of Human Origin” (SoHO) framework, which permits the sale of human embryos and degrades human life to be the equivalent of any other cells or tissue.
 
 The measures are set to regulate the supply and donations of so-called “substances,” such as blood, cells, and tissue, used for medically assisted reproduction as well as other procedures, including transfusions and transplants. They also allow people to receive “compensation or reimbursement for losses or expenses incurred” when making a donation. 
 
The measures passed in the parliament by 483 votes to 52 on Tuesday, despite amendments proposed by conservatives to prevent the use of fetuses for financial gain being voted down. Those who voted in favor also ignored the appeals made by the Commission of Bishops’ Conferences of the European Union, which argued: “Human life is not just a ‘substance of human origin’…human life from the beginning, including unborn life ‘possesses its own dignity, right, and independent right of protection.'” 
 
Director of the NBIC Ethics think tank, Laetitia Pouliquen, also warned after the vote passed that it would create a “highest-bidder body and fertility market” across the continent. The new framework will be sent to the European Council, with further discussions to start at the beginning of the next year.
 
https://dailycaller.com/2023/09/13/hurricane-lee-margot-new-england-atlantic-develop/
 
Hurricane Lee Grows So Terrifyingly Huge, It Doesn’t Matter If It Makes Landfall. We’re In Trouble.
 
Hurricane Lee increased to an absolutely enormous storm overnight Tuesday into Wednesday, and is currently estimated to be roughly 1,000 kilometers (621 miles) across.
 
Even if Hurricane Lee doesn’t make landfall, its current trajectory is going to cause coastal flooding and extremely strong winds off the shores of the Northeast and into Atlantic Canada throughout the week, multiple forecasters said Tuesday night and Wednesday morning. While AccuWeather hopes Lee will be downgraded to a Cat. 2 storm by Friday, down to a Cat. 1 or Tropical Storm by Saturday and Sunday, there are multiple landfall scenarios being monitored at this time.
 
New England is already suffering from extensive flooding, which left vehicles stranded and homes damaged, as seen in footage shared online. Things would probably only get worse should Lee’s trajectory shift and sit over the region.
 
At the same time, Hurricane Margot is heading in almost the exact same direction as Lee, but coming at the Northeast and Atlantic Canada from the middle of the Atlantic Ocean at the time of writing. But regardless of where Lee lands, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) said there “will be little to no significance on exactly where the center reaches the coast.” The entire area is under threat of hazards, according to the agency, and all those living within it should prepare immediately.
 
Two additional areas of disorganized storms are currently brewing between North Africa and northern South America, in a similar region to where Lee and Margot first formed. The NHC estimates a 50% chance these areas turn into a single cyclone in the 48 hours from the time of writing. As late summer weather continues to plague the U.S., we are almost certainly on track for a fall defined by hurricanes.
 
https://thenationalpulse.com/2023/09/13/homicides-up-29-in-bowsers-d-c/
 
Homicides Up 29% in Bowser’s D.C.
 
Homicides in Democrat-dominated Washington D.C. are up by 29 percent compared to this time last year, with annual murders on course to hit their highest total in 20 years. 
 
There has been an even sharper 67 percent rise in robberies, and minors are increasingly entangled in the crime wave as both perpetrators and victims. Forty-one youths aged 12 to 15 had been arrested for carjackings and 81 under-18s had been shot as of the end of August – up from 61 over the same time frame in 2022 and 37 in 2021. 
 
The Democratic Party dominates D.C. politics, with Mayor Muriel Bowser and the D.C. Council all being Democrats or “Independents” whose previous affiliation was Democrat. 
 
Mayor Bowser has claimed she wants to “throw every resource at reducing crime” and she has increased the latest public safety budget – but during the ‘Defund the Police’ mania following the death of George Floyd in 2020 the Counil trimmed $32 million from police funding, as $4.8 million was splurged on the creation of Black Lives Matter Plaza. 
 
Bowser’s apologists sometimes complain that the federal government is in charge of prosecutors and some other criminal justice functionaries in D.C., although the federal government is also under Democrat control at present.