near our neighborhood;

Western North Carolina is synonymous with the Blue Ridge Mountains, a rich Appalachian history, and world-renowned tourist destinations.

In fact, over the last 2 years, Asheville Regional Airport has pumped more than 2 million visitors in and out of the Asheville area. However, Asheville is also becoming synonymous with a few other things as of recent — violent crime, an exploding homeless crisis, and an affordability problem.

For the purposes of this op-ed, we will focus on the violent crime and homeless crisis.

…

Asheville’s police department has been understaffed for several years. This directly followed the 2020 George Floyd riots, which brought hundreds of protesters into downtown Asheville, along with hundreds of thousands of dollars of damage to local businesses. Ironically, many of those same downtown local businesses decided their best move was to sign a letter condemning the police department as racists and Nazis for what happened in Minnesota. Taking the hint, 39% of Asheville’s police officers realized that now was the time to throw in the towel.

The narrative of all cops being “racists” and “Nazis” was now fully engrained into the minds of most on the far left. And with no support from the community, and more specifically the city council, cops retired and quit at a rate never seen before. About 40% of the force was gone in an instant. Maybe one of the worst things we saw during the protests was when far-left activists delivered a casket filled with dirt and manure to the front door of the police department...........more........

 i'm wondering how many more of these we'll see in the coming months. larry johnson has ongoing thoughts about all of this;

I will be updating this during the next several hours. Here was my initial reaction. It sounded like a 22 caliber, but it could have been larger, such as a .223 or .556. The diameter of the bullet is the same but the .223 and .556 carry more powder and can travel farther — effective up to 300 yards. The big take away is that Secret Service failed to fully secure the perimeter outside the venue. The shooter was killed by counter-sniper fire...........more.......

 the question becomes was the shooter a lone wolf or part of something bigger;

I’m not going to narrate what you can witness with your own eyes and ears.  The camera lens is pointed toward two U.S Secret Service protective detail snipers on the roof behind President Trump. One is the spotter. Turn on sound.  You can clearly see both USSS spot the shooter, do nothing, wait for the incoming fire, then respond.

Again, video might not last. WATCH:..........more...........

 the show goes on;

For those who still think a possibility exists of Joe Biden taking the nomination from the 2024 Democrat Convention, just stop.  There is no way for Joe Biden to be the nominee with this scale of democrats pushing him out.

President Trump doesn’t have to spend a dime. There is so much anti-Biden publicity from within his own party, no further criticism is needed.  The donors are blasting Biden, Hollywood is blasting Biden, the delegates to the convention and party officials are blasting him; the list is very long.  Biden is toast.

It is important to remember, however, that what we are witnessing is not some random sequence of events as an outcome of a debate; this is a well-coordinated, organized and top-down constructed removal operation that was long in the planning {SEE HERE}.  Joe Biden was always going to be removed and replaced at the DNC convention in Chicago.  Do not be distracted from this fundamental baseline, this was the plan.

The latest voice to join the chorus of those isolating, ridiculing and marginalizing the figurehead of their party, is Bill Maher.  WATCH:........more........

the european elections revealed the corrupt nature of that illusory 'democracy'.  while the opposition got more than an overwhelming result, the way their process is arranged, the ones that they voted against still got a position that will foil the wishes of the citizens;

Global media outlets are discussing the importance of recent elections in France, Britain and Iran as if they are groundbreaking developments.

On the surface, there were notable surprises. In both France and the UK, the right-wing — split in half into conservative and “populist” camps — suffered outcomes that ranged from disappointing to devastating. In Iran, the country’s first ever non-Persian president was narrowly elected on a platform of restoring ties with the United States and Europe, as well as implications that he will liberalize some of the nation’s domestic laws governing hijab-wearing.

Yet in all three cases, nothing major is expected to change. The Labour and Conservative Party in Britain have largely converged on issues such as foreign policy and immigration. In France, the parliament will be split between leftists, neo-liberals, and Marine Le Pen’s National Rally, making it likely that Macron will either keep the current gay Jewish Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, or appoint a caretaker government after meeting with his American backers at the upcoming NATO summit. In Iran, incoming “reformist” president Masoud Pezeshkian has already began distancing himself from his campaign promises and deferred to the nation’s Guardian Council regarding plans to continue deepening ties with Russia and continuing to fully support Hezbollah, Hamas and the Houthis.

Business is expected to continue as usual, but there are still some takeaways worth discussing.........more..........

 the ongoing genocide is overshadowing the resistance on the west bank in palestine;

At any other time in Palestinian history, the West Bank’s resistance to Israel’s lethal military raids and colonial encroachments would earn the title of a third intifada.

Since 7 October, Israel’s military has intensified its raids into occupied West Bank cities, towns and refugee camps. These military operations, which often involve special units and an array of armored vehicles and bulldozers, have wrought widespread devastation, severely damaging electricity networks, water and sewage infrastructure, uprooting roads and destroying homes.

In the West Bank, Israel has been killing Palestinians by various means.

Israeli forces shoot Palestinians at protests, during military incursions or even by carrying out extrajudicial executions.

Now, even aerial attacks in the occupied West Bank is not an unusual occurrence, after the practice was dormant since the second intifada until last summer. Since 7 October, Israel has conducted dozens of airstrikes in the occupied West Bank, killing at least 86 Palestinians, including 14 children, according to records kept by UN monitoring group OCHA.

Armed Palestinian cells have expanded and refined their tactics to resist and confront Israel’s military raids, particularly in northern cities and refugee camps. One such tactic has been the wider use of explosive devices planted within roads where Israeli armored vehicles pass. Palestinians remotely detonate the explosive devices, killing and injuring a number of Israeli soldiers in recent months.

Refined resistance............more...........

 four and a half minutes with a witness who saw the shooter minutes before and attempted to warn cops;

watch......