Israel has been at war on several fronts for more than a year at this point, and is rapidly expending ammo and missiles, especially as it tries to shoot down what are now dozens of projectiles daily sent from Hezbollah positions in Lebanon.

Hezbollah is estimated to have an arsenal of hundreds of thousands of rockets and drones of various sizes. Israel’s formidable anti-air defense systems have been regularly engaging inbound threats, sometimes expending hundreds of interceptors a day – and this was particularly true during the Oct.1st Iranian ballistic missile attack.

Israel has long heavily relied on the United States to supply it with heavy artillery, bombs, and missiles – but now appears to be running low on interceptors amid the daily firefights. 

A new Financial Times report warns that Israel’s missile defense shield is being stretched thin, and that the country is more heavily relying on Washington to fill the gaps.

“Israel faces a looming shortage of interceptor missiles as it shores up air defenses to protect the country from attacks by Iran and its proxies, according to industry executives, former military officials and analysts,” FT writes.

“The US is racing to help close gaps in Israel’s protective shield, announcing on Sunday the deployment of a Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (Thaad) antimissile battery, ahead of an expected retaliatory strike from Israel on Iran that risks further regional escalation.”

One analyst and former US senior defense official, Dana Stroul, stated that “Israel’s munitions issue is serious. Stroul, a pro-Israel and anti-Iran hawk, has described that “If Iran responds to an Israel attack [with a massive air strike campaign], and Hizbollah joins in too, Israel air defenses will be stretched.”

She underscored the limitations in such a scenario for the Pentagon’s stockpiles: “The US can’t continue supplying Ukraine and Israel at the same pace. We are reaching a tipping point.”

We’ve highlighted before that Israel likely cannot sustain wars on multiple fronts without steady support and weapons shipments from the US. As conflict – and Washington involvement – from Eastern Europe to the Middle East escalates, it remains that the only ‘winners’ are the major US defense firms:

Boaz Levy, CEO of Israel Aerospace Industries which produces missile interceptors, adds: “Some of our lines are working 24 hours, seven days a week. Our goal is to meet all our obligations.”

Palestinian media has meanwhile taken note…

“Supply constraints” and the demands of war have left the Israeli military “relying on the US to fill the gaps in protective shields”.

In recent days, the US announced it is deploying the anti-missile system THAAD to Israel as it continues to provide “ironclad” support for its… pic.twitter.com/Ngt2iGXKPG

— Quds News Network (@QudsNen) October 15, 2024

During two separate rounds of Iranian missile attacks on Israel of the past year, the US has deployed warships and fighter jets to assist Israel in shooting down inbound projectiles. But systems like the Iron Dome, Arrow, and David’s Sling remain vital to Israel’s daily defense, especially given Hezbollah’s ramped-up attacks on the north of late. The US has now sent the Army’s THAAD missile defense system.

Will the US ever cut off Israel? It is unlikely, given that both sides of the aisle tend to be led by “Israel firsters” – and sadly the presidential race is no different.

Authored by Jack Phllips via The Epoch Times,

Mask mandates will be returning to several counties in California’s San Francisco Bay Area starting next month.

The orders, which were handed down by individual counties, apply mainly to health care workers, although at least two Bay Area counties have extended the requirement to visitors and patients.

A similar mandate was handed down broadly across the Bay Area for the 2023–2024 fall-through-spring period.

Health officials in counties who have issued upcoming mask mandates say that the face coverings are designed to reduce the spread of COVID-19, influenza, and other respiratory viruses, harking back to the COVID-19 pandemic when mandates were widespread across much of the United States.

Where the Mandates Are Going Into Effect

Alameda County, which encompasses the city of Oakland, issued an order last month that mandates staff at health care facilities to wear masks between Nov. 1, 2024, and March 31, 2025.

“The fall and winter of 2023-2024 saw substantial waves of RSV, flu and COVID19, and a similar pattern is expected this year,” the health order said, adding that such viruses “typically circulate and peak in Alameda County during the late fall and winter months.”

It warned that any violation of the order’s provision in Alameda County “constitutes an imminent threat and menace to public health, constitutes a public nuisance, and is punishable by fine, imprisonment, or both.”

The mandate only applies to staff and not patients or visitors.

Authorities in Contra Costa County issued a similar health order on Sept. 26 requiring health care staff to wear masks for the same time period with similar penalties. It also applies only to staff and not patients.

“The masking of personnel in these facilities is necessary to provide a layer of protection to patients during the respiratory season when risk of exposure is highest,” the county said.

Napa County issued an Oct. 1 health order that mandates health care workers in health care facilities wear masks. It doesn’t apply to visitors and patients.

“This Order requires each of these facilities implement and enforce a program requiring healthcare workers, regardless of vaccination status, to mask while in patient care areas. This order supersedes prior standing masking orders directed at healthcare workers,” the county wrote.

Going a step further, Santa Clara County—which includes San Jose—will require all people inside health care facilities, including visitors and patients, to wear masks from Nov. 1 to March 31, 2025. Exceptions are made for children under age 2 and people with medical issues in which a mask could interfere with the individual’s breathing or cannot remove a mask without assistance.

“Preventive measures like wearing a mask in crowded indoor places and staying home when you are sick continue to add layers of protection against respiratory viruses,” the county said in a news release issued last month. “Just like last year, the April 2023 health order will continue to require masks in all patient care areas of health care facilities starting November 1 and continuing through the winter respiratory virus period.”

Not Every Bay Area County Has Them

Sonoma, Solano, Marin, and San Francisco counties have not indicated whether mask mandates will go into effect at health care facilities, according to an Epoch Times review of recent orders from the counties.

Outside California

Aside from the Bay Area, it appears no other counties anywhere else in the United States will issue similar mandates at health care facilities.

However, if data provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) show cases of COVID-19 rising again, other areas may reintroduce mask mandates. Last winter, New York City reimposed a mask mandate at its hospitals as officials cited a rise in cases of the virus.

Over the summer, mask mandates were implemented for a period of time by at least two U.S. health care providers. The Tuba City Regional Health Care Corporation in Arizona said in early August that it would reinstate mask mandates at its facilities in the state for at least two weeks, while the Baystate Health in Massachusetts also implemented one in late August.

What the CDC’s Data Shows

As of Oct. 10, the CDC’s wastewater tracking tool shows that COVID-19 levels across the United States are currently at “low” levels, down from the “very high” amounts reported in mid-August. In August, COVID-19-related deaths in the United States were near all-time lows, according to the CDC’s historical data on the virus.

COVID-19 is now the 10th leading cause of death in the United States, according to a CDC report released over the summer. Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, the virus was the nation’s third leading cause of death. It dropped to fourth in 2022.

Authored by Thaddeus McCotter via American Greatness,

Presently, we are embroiled in a presidential campaign. It is the apex of political messaging, as both parties and their well-heeled allies bombard the electorate with varying promises, claims, smears, and deceits.

One of the Democrats’ and their “Never Trump” cohorts’ favorite narratives is that the GOP candidate, former president Trump, is divisive and that he must be defeated to allow the Democrat nominee, Vice President Harris, to unite the nation. To believe this, one must concur with the Democrats and Never Trumpers on two counts: first, Mr. Trump, his MAGA supporters, and the GOP are divisive; and, second, Ms. Harris and the Democrats are not divisive but rather a unifying political force.

For purposes of this piece, let us stipulate Mr. Trump and his MAGA and GOP supporters are “divisive,” if only for the simple reason they dissent from the Democrats radical, extreme, and dangerous agenda; and, moreover, unapologetically champion the populist and conservative principles and policies they believe will promote and protect the liberty, prosperity, and security of our free republic.

Nonetheless, even with this stipulation, it is impossible for an objective mind to conclude Ms. Harris and her Democrat supporters are a unifying force within our deeply divided nation. The Democrats are, by design, a divisive party that premises its campaigns and policies upon identity politics—race, gender, class, etc.; and, at root, offers the electorate varying and increasing levels of paranoia and dependence upon the Leviathan—i.e., the administrative state, which is controlled by their cohorts who are ensconced within the unaccountable and remunerative sinecures housed in the bowels of the federal bureaucracy.

Consider the Democrats’ demanding the citizenry’s obeisance to their DIE (“diversity, inclusivity, and equity”) secular religion, which one is compelled to believe above all else.

The left defines “diversity” with external traits, not internal thoughts. In sum, this inherently divides the entire population by physical traits and social castes into “manageable” political blocs—the “Balkanization” of the American electorate. Their root fallacy is that how you look determines how you think. The left purports it is using one’s “lived experience” to make this differentiation, but this experience is presumed to have occurred (even if it has not) based on your external appearance and/or economic status. Such a prejudicial pronouncement upon one’s fellow citizens is patronizing, demeaning, and—in its most heinous manifestations—racist. (Why do you think progressives have expended so much energy trying to redefine and dilute the definition of “racism” to weaponize it against, not racists, but non-leftists?)

Once an individual has been pigeonholed into one of the Democrats’ diversity classifications and it is marked with its “social credit” connotations, these leftist social engineers will cajole and coerce them into their “inclusive” collective, wherein what matters is not individual rights but one’s allegiance to the left’s ideological dictates. True, some individual rights and licenses are granted by the state, but they are in addition to our unalienable, God-given rights we already possess and that cannot be infringed by the state. The left disagrees, believing the state is the ultimate grantor of rights and that “Our Democracy” must not be impaired by the antiquated concept of unalienable, God-given constitutional rights. Consequently, the left believes a citizen’s rights are not God-given but rather government-given. As such, they constitute not unalienable rights; they are arbitrary and conditional licenses. This subordinates the citizens’ sovereignty to the supremacy of the state.

As the Supreme State doles its licenses, it will decide what is “equitable.” This is merely another of the left’s euphemisms for socialism—as is Ms. Harris’s “Opportunity Society.” But once citizens have been civically and economically diminished by the Democrats’ delineating and dividing them on basis of physical traits and economic status and by being subsumed into a leftist collective, Americans will have little recourse to dissent, let alone rid themselves of such a repressive, autocratic socialist regime.

Why would people subject themselves to this DIE agenda This is where the left’s paranoia pimping enters stage left. The Democrats aver that they and their administrative state are needed to protect citizens from sundry conspiracies out to block Americans’ pursuit of happiness—or worse. Hence, the Greek chorus of Democrats wailing about “Systemic Racism,” “The Patriarchy,” “Threats to Democracy,” and so forth. This is literally a party that smears its opponents as existential threats to “Our Democracy” and demands these opponents be crushed so that they may never again threaten it. Such inherently divisive narratives are designed to lure people into the illusory “security” of the one extant entity capable of controlling Americans’ lives—“Their Government.”

So, how does a progressive manage to believe they are the champions of “Our Democracy,” even as they burn it to the ground to persecute their opponents? By reason of a simple intellectual sleight-of-hand. When Democrats bleat “Our Democracy,” it is a “prog whistle” that, translated, means “Our Party.” Conflating the fortunes of their party with those of the country, the Democrats have the capacity for enormous self-regard that allows them to engage in immense amounts of cognitive dissonance and self-justification as they attempt to foist their reckless, harmful agenda on Americans.

Yes, Republicans also believe their fortunes will save “Our Republic.” But there is a critical distinction. Democrats define “unity” as a uniformity of agreement. Republicans define “unity” as a uniformity of acceptance.

This explains why the Democrats are hellbent to force their DIE ideology on people and why Republicans oppose it. It is an overlooked irony that the left, which obsesses over the diversity of external traits, demands the conformity of internal thoughts. The Twentieth Century is replete with bitter instances of such an ideology’s failed attempts to dictate a rigid uniformity of ideological agreement in the vainglorious hopes of recreating and perfecting humanity.

The answer to such state coercion is still federalism and pluralism. A limited, divided government charged with protecting the unalienable God-given rights of sovereign citizens remains the surest path upon which to pursue one’s happiness. The acceptance required is of the ground rules of the nation—of the constitution, of the peaceable means of effectuating constructive change, of someone else’s thoughts and their right to hold and advocate them, and of your reciprocal right to disagree and oppose their ideas. E pluribus unum—“Out of many, one”—has well served and enriched our nation and must remain the abiding goal.

Again, the left deems federalism and pluralism as bars to the implementation of their autocratic, socialist state, which will determine and map your pursuit of happiness whether you like it or not. It is evinced in why the left crafted the word “diversity” to supplant “pluralism.” Ponder that the root of the word, “div-,” as is found in words such as “divisive,” “divest,” “divorce,” and so forth, that do not exactly scream “unity.”

Nor does their pushing of their “Our Democracy” narrative to supplant the reality we live in a constitutional republic with limits upon its enumerated and citizen-delegated powers; and the duty to serve as a guardian of our unalienable God-given rights and the U.S. Constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic—be they a dictator or a mob.

As they do, the left reveals how their clamor and connivance for “Our Democracy” merely mark “Their Duplicity.”

A full two weeks have passed since Iran’s October 1st ballistic missile attack on Israel, which involved some 200 projectiles, many of which caused destruction on the ground (though Israel has been tight-lipped on the extent of it).

The big question has remained: when will Israel retaliate and what form will it take? The Biden administration has over the last many days reportedly been urging for Israel to avoid hitting nuclear sites as well as energy sites. But there have been conflicting reports.

For example on Monday, Harper’s Magazine editor Andrew Cockburn wrote, “Word in Washington is that Biden has approved Israeli strike on Iran’s Natanz nuclear site.”

However, within hours after this speculative statement on X, The Washington Post reported that Israel is walking back from the prospect of bombing oil as well as nuclear facilities.

“Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has told the Biden administration he is willing to strike military rather than oil or nuclear facilities in Iran, according to two officials familiar with the matter, suggesting a more limited counterstrike aimed at preventing a full-scale war,” the Monday afternoon report said.

President Biden in a phone call with PM Netanyahu last Wednesday reportedly conveyed serious concern that any counterstrikes could lead to all-out war if not kept ‘limited’.

Monday’s afternoon WaPo headline was enough to send oil prices falling, also after morning reports of China’s weak demand…

At the time of last week’s phone call, Netanyahu had reportedly expressed that he favors attacks on the Islamic Republic’s military infrastructure.

The Washington Post now appears to be chalking this up as a win for Biden diplomacy:

Netanyahu was in a “more moderated place” in that discussion than he had previously been, said the U.S. official, describing the call between the two leaders.

The apparent softening of the prime minister’s stance factored into Biden’s decision to send a powerful missile defense system to Israel, both officials said.

So the quid pro quo becomes clear… this is in reference to weekend reports saying the US is sending the THAAD anti-air missile defense system to Israel, for protection against Iran, which will include US troop operators. 

However, at a moment that Israel is already engaged militarily on several fronts, especially in Lebanon with Iran-backed Hezbollah, absolutely nothing is certain.

There remain plenty of hawks in Bibi’s security cabinet who are urging Israel to go big in its response. It is also the case that Netanyahu has been talking about taking out Iran’s nuclear program for many years at this point.

Authored by Joseph Lord via The Epoch Times,

Thousands turned out to the Bayfront Convention Center on Sept. 29 to hear former President Donald Trump speak. Hundreds more gathered outside the convention center to watch Trump’s speech on a jumbo display, while nearby stands were set up to register voters, hawk mail-in ballots, and hand out Trump-Vance yard signs and bumper stickers.

There’s a reason for that: Erie County, which hosts the city of Erie, is a strong indicator of who will win Pennsylvania. Since 1980, with the exception of 1988, the county has backed the winner of statewide presidential races.

While it doesn’t rise to the level of a national bellwether—it’s often backed candidates who went on to lose the general election—since 2008, it’s ultimately backed the candidate who won Pennsylvania.

That makes it a crucial county in 2024, when the winner of Pennsylvania is highly expected by pundits to win the entire election.

As recently as 2008 and 2012, the Democratic Party was king in the county: In his election and reelection bid, President Barack Obama won the county by 20 points and 16.9 points respectively. But in 2016, Trump shifted the county by 18.5 points in Republicans’ favor, and won the county by 1.6 percent.

In 2020, reflecting the razor-thin margins of the election in the state and nationwide, President Joe Biden carried the county by just 1 percent, or 1,417 votes.

The changing politics can be attributed in part to the area’s cultural and demographic background.

A few hours’ drive north of Pittsburgh, Erie County sits at the northwestern end of Pennsylvania, bordering the Great Lake of the same name, upstate New York, and Ohio.

The city of Erie, home to large immigrant and university student populations, is Pennsylvania’s fifth most populous, lying at the northern edge of the county. Beyond that, the area has several suburban areas and developments. The southern half of the county is largely rural, home to several scattered, small townships.

The county’s Rust Belt origins are on full display in Erie, with defunct factories and industrial centers dotting the city and its environs.

An Oct. 2 photo of one of the many former industrial centers in Erie County that have long been shuttered. Joseph Lord/The Epoch Times

Demographics

In many ways, the county, with its mix of urban, suburban, and rural voters, reflects larger voter distributions in Pennsylvania.

“I try to explain it this way: if you take all of Pennsylvania … and you shrink it down, it’s Erie, because we’ve got large industry, we’ve got tool and die … the small mom and pop places. The southern part of the county is all rural, strictly agriculture. You’ve got diversity,” Tom Eddy, chairman of the Erie County GOP, told The Epoch Times.

According to the Census Bureau, the county is home to around 271,000 people.

Around 83 percent of them are white. At an average household income of around $60,663, many voters in the area fall squarely into the white working class, a key electorate for both parties.

This demographic has trended toward Republicans since Trump entered politics. In 2008, about 55 percent of them backed Obama. In 2016, Trump’s first presidential campaign, 62 percent of the white working class voted for him. In 2020, their support dipped to 59 percent.

For Democrats, the goal is to largely hold onto their minority share of the demographic, while expanding among suburban, white collar, and Erie city voters—all demographics more favorable to the party in recent years.

Erie County Democratic Party Chairman Sam Talarico—a former schoolteacher who’s been involved in Democratic politics since 2000—acknowledged that in Erie and across the country, Democrats are increasingly struggling with the white working class.

On the other hand, he noted that suburban areas—such as Fairview Township and Harborcreek, which border the city center to the east and west—are shifting in Democrats’ favor.

“Fairview is our most affluent community, and it used to be a Republican stronghold. It’s about 50/50, right now, possibly a little more blue, and it’s turning bluer,” Talarico said.

Democrats are also striving to keep their substantial lead in the city itself, a lead aided by the city’s vast student and immigrant population—two demographics that also favor the Democratic Party.

Trump and the Republicans, meanwhile, are seeking to expand their lead among the white working class—which makes up a substantial swath of the Pennsylvania electorate—and to win over independents.

Signs along a major roadway show support for former President Donald Trump, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), and Senate contender Dave McCormick in Erie County, Pa., on Sept. 30. Joseph Lord/The Epoch Times

Eddy noted that Democrats do maintain a slight advantage in voter registration in the county, with about 10,000 more registered Democrats than registered Republicans. But the most crucial bloc for both parties is the county’s 35,000 independents.

“I think the big swing is going to be the independent voter,” Eddy said. “They’re the ones that make the difference.”

Speaking about the closing gap between registered Republicans and Democrats in recent years, Talarico said, “I’m not going to say it isn’t concerning. It is.”

But like Eddy, Talarico said the real “X factor” will be the independents.

And many of those independents, he noted, are young people—a demographic that tends to favor Democrats, particularly young women.

For Republicans and Democrats on the ground, the stakes are clear: As goes Erie, so goes Pennsylvania; and as goes Pennsylvania, so goes the election.

Republican Enthusiasm

With just about a month left until the election, Erie County appears more politically active than ever: Bumper stickers, billboards, and yard signs expressing support for one candidate or the other litter the area, with a noticeably stronger showing of “Trump/Vance” signs.

There are strong indicators of Republican enthusiasm.

At GOP headquarters in Erie—a small office space in a strip mall just outside the city center—county residents stopped by in droves.

Republicans’ base of operations in Erie County, Pa., on Oct. 1. Joseph Lord/The Epoch Times

Almost every 10 minutes, a new person came into the office requesting voter registration forms, mail-in ballots, or apparel to show their support for Trump. Many offered $20 donations in exchange for a dwindling supply of Trump shirts. Several purchased apparel for their children.

The office is filling yellow file envelopes with voter registrations and mail-in ballots almost every day—including many who have never voted before. Often, the Republicans run out of apparel to offer voters due to the high demand.

“The energy level is extremely high. That’s what I’ve noticed more than I’ve noticed in any of the other elections,” Eddy said.

The Erie County Democratic headquarters is a few miles away in downtown Erie, comprising a large office space a few dozen blocks from the city center.

Compared to Republican headquarters, the energy level is noticeably muted and less chaotic. Volunteers could be seen talking, watching television, and taking calls in the office’s large backroom area. A handful of other volunteers and voters circled through to collect party apparel, yard signs, or bumper stickers.

While it’s harder to access the building by vehicle, with only a limited number of meter-based parking spots outside, the subdued atmosphere reflects the uncertain position Democrats find themselves in.

Democrats’ headquarters in Erie, Pa., on Oct. 2, 2024. Joseph Lord/The Epoch Times

While Talarico noted that “on paper” his party’s prospects look bleak, Talarico told The Epoch Times that he still sees reason for optimism.

“The most compelling thing I’ve seen is enthusiasm,” he said.

Before Biden’s departure, Democrats had just 60 or so volunteers; since Harris took over the ticket, that number has jumped to 320. Around 250 people attended a vice presidential debate watch party hosted by the county party.

Talarico also noted that Democrats have seen vast success in the county in recent nonpresidential elections.

That’s true. In 2022, Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) handily defeated Republican Mehmet Oz in Erie County, winning 53 percent of the vote to Oz’s 44 percent. Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro enjoyed greater success the same year, defeating his Republican opponent by a landslide 22-point margin in Erie County.

Thus, Talarico said, Democrats’ position might not be “as dire as it looks on paper.”

‘Trump Factories’

It’s not just the Erie County Republican Party that’s hard at work trying to flip the county back to Trump’s camp.

Leo Williard, a small business owner, has set up what he calls “Trump factories” in two auto dealerships owned by his friend and located just outside downtown Erie.

While still managing his own business, Williard told The Epoch Times that he spends hours every week talking to and converting Democratic voters to Trump’s side.

Williard said he was inspired to do so by the city of Erie’s Democratic leanings: While the rural and suburban areas are more evenly divided, the city itself votes overwhelmingly for Democrats.

Many of those who come into the dealership are from the city, he said.

“And we started talking to those people, and I have a table set up in the corner of his office up there that I call the ‘Trump corner.’ I call this whole process the ‘Trump factory,’” Williard said, adding that he was bringing as many as five to 15 Democrats a day over to Trump’s side.

“You can’t believe the people we are turning from Democrat to Trump.”

For many, financial concerns—particularly inflation—are the most pressing issue, Williard said, agreeing that inflation could be described as “the No. 1 issue” in the county right now. The modest income of many residents makes the hit harder than it might be in more affluent areas, Williard said.

Williard said that Democrats’ decision to nominate Vice President Kamala Harris did energize the Democratic base in the city, but he is confident.

“I still think that Erie County, based on the work I see being done and the enthusiasm I see, will go red. I think it will turn the state red,” Williard said.

Republicans have seen strong signs for optimism—but recent Democratic victories in the county still undercut any sort of certainty.