The importance of a strong power grid cannot be emphasized enough. Often, when a grid fails, the results are terrifying. Of all the major power grids in the world, the United States’ is one of the more vulnerable to attack.
State-sponsored hackers from the likes of Iran, Russia, and, unsurprisingly, China pose a real threat to the United States’ electrical transmission lines. However, there’s another (far less obvious) threat to the grid: electric vehicles (EVs).
Yes, you read that right.
The Biden administration is desperate to consign the internal combustion engine to the dustbin of history. In this radical shift to embrace a new, zero-emission world, Americans are being told to embrace EVs. Such an embrace, however, requires a stellar power grid, the very thing the United States lacks.
Just to be clear, the U.S. power grid involves a huge network of transmission lines, power plants, and distribution centers. The United States has three major grids: the eastern grid, the western grid, and the ERCOT grid, otherwise known as the Texas grid. Of the three, the eastern grid is the largest.
Although the three grids can operate independently, they’re also connected. A failed grid means no power for tens of millions of citizens and prolonged periods of darkness. Imagine a power grid failure in the likes of Los Angeles or New York. The two cities are already riddled with crime; grid failures would make things many times worse.
Attacks Since 2016
In 2018, the Department of Homeland Security announced that Russian hackers had hijacked the control rooms of various electric utilities. This allowed the hackers to disrupt power flows and cause blackouts.
Rather alarmingly, the DHS conceded that the attacks had been occurring since 2016, the same year the Russians started attacking Ukraine’s grid. Although the Russians have strenuously denied the attack, such denials appear to conflict with reality.
As tensions between Russia and the United States escalate, and tensions with China, another hacker-friendly country, intensify, expect more disruptions to the grid.
However, as mentioned, Americans must concern themselves with more “benign” threats. A recent paper, published in Applied Energy, discussed the threat of EVs to the grid. Currently, there are 2.5 million EVs in the United States; 4 in 5 owners opt to charge their cars overnight. This decision, according to the researchers, is putting a considerable strain on power grids.
By 2025, the United States will have more than 20 million EVs on its roads. According to Bloomberg, by 2030, more than half of car sales will be electric. The strain is increasing, and power grids are ill-equipped to shoulder the load.
If Bloomberg’s projection proves to be correct, then, as the researchers note, it will take 5.4 gigawatts of energy storage to charge EVs. To put 5.4 gigawatts into perspective, one nuclear power plant produces 1 gigawatt of energy. The United States currently has 55 power plants. To facilitate the new EV revolution, the United States requires many more. Considering California, the largest state in the country, has moved to ban the sale of gas-powered cars, and other states are considering introducing similar measures, the United States needs to get a move on. Time is very much of the essence.
What would happen if, say, the power grid was to fail in EV-crazed California? To answer that question, we need only rewind a few months. This past summer, plagued by scorching hot temperatures, the Golden State’s power grid came incredibly close to collapsing.
It survived, but only just.
The grid will be tested again. With California’s desire to boost EV sales, the next test could prove to be an unmitigated disaster. Energy is a finite resource, a fact that seems to be lost on so many EV enthusiasts.
In truth, the nation’s power grid is already on its last legs. It has been for years. In a sobering piece for Smithsonian Magazine, Massoud Amin, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Minnesota, explained the many ways in which the country’s power grid—“the most complex” one ever assembled—could fail. The grid, he wrote, “underpins our economy, our quality of life, our society.” Without it, society would be brought to a screeching halt. Crime would rise. Lives would be lost. Chaos would reign supreme.
By 2025, according to the American Society for Civil Engineers, the inability of the United States to maintain its many power lines will cost the country dearly—$130 billion, to be exact. EVs, so often hailed as the best thing since sliced bread, come with a whole host of sizable problems.
Across the United States, as the author Ben Guess recently noted, there are currently 21 EVs per public charging port. By 2030, to keep up with EV purchasing trends, the United States must install almost 500 charging ports every day for the next eight years.
Does this sound realistic to you?
Even if the United States does somehow manage to install enough ports, the grid simply isn’t strong enough to support the battery-related demands. This is a point that needs to be emphasized, repeatedly and unapologetically. Yes, state-sponsored hackers are a threat, but state-sponsored EV initiatives aren’t exactly harmless. In the blind embrace of all things green, we must not lose sight of the bigger picture, the objective realities that stare us straight in the face.
Sen. Raphael Warnock’s (D., Ga.) church-owned low-income apartment complex has been slapped with multiple Atlanta city housing code violations over rodent and bug infestations, hazardous mold, and overflowing trash rooms, according to city records obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.
Records from the Atlanta Police Department’s Code Enforcement Section paint a troubling picture of the living conditions at the housing complex—revealing that the problems date back to at least 2016 and were considered serious enough for the city to intervene on multiple occasions.
The records raise new questions for Warnock, who serves as CEO and senior pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church, which owns 99 percent of the Columbia Tower buildings through a shell company. Since taking office in 2021, the senator has positioned himself as a champion for fair and safe housing and said earlier this year that “housing is dignity.”
Warnock has defended the church’s ownership of Columbia Tower and Columbia Senior Residences at MLK Village apartments after the Free Beacon first reported in October on the building’s eviction proceedings against tenants. In a recent debate, Warnock said the report on the evictions was an attempt to “sully the name of Martin Luther King Jr.’s church,” which spends “every day every week feeding the hungry and the homeless.”
Warnock in January sent a letter to the Department of Defense in response to reports about “repair delays, toxic mold, pests,” and other housing problems on U.S. military bases.
Warnock said it was “shameful” that service members “had to deal with these poor living conditions in the first place.”
“Housing is dignity,” he wrote. “I will continue pushing the federal government to make sure we’re doing everything we can to provide our courageous men and women in uniform, and their families, with the resources and support they need not just to live, but thrive.”
Yet Warnock hasn’t publicly raised concerns about similar complaints from residents at the housing complex owned by his church.
The Free Beacon received over 70 pages of inspection records, tenant complaints, photographs, and correspondence from the Atlanta Police Department’s Code Enforcement Section, which led to at least four housing code violations against Columbia between 2016 and 2019.
In August 2016, the city of Atlanta received tenant complaints about “mice, roaches, and bugs infestation” at Columbia Tower. Inspectors found that the “dwelling unit is infested by insects” and cited Columbia for a housing maintenance violation.
Two years later, the city filed another code violation notice against Columbia, after multiple complaints about water leakage, flooding, and overflowing trash around the building that was attracting “rodents such as rats and possums.” Inspectors cited “junk, trash, & debris on premises” and “ceiling surfaces [that] are soiled and unsanitary” in the violation notice, which included photos of water damage and piles of garbage.
In October 2019, a tenant told the city that he had been dealing with a bug infestation for eight months and said he had health problems due to overflowing trash outside his apartment. “Dumpster fumes are affecting his health,” said the complaint, a situation that the city flagged as “highly hazardous.” Another tenant reported in 2020 that his “baseboard [was] missing, causing spiders to come inside the apartments,” which had been “going on since October.”
Water damage and flooding were also a problem, according to records. Columbia received another violation notice in June 2018 after a tenant complained that water leaking inside her walls was “causing electrical problems such as blue flames when she turn[s] on the lights,” according to a record. A photograph appeared to show fire damage on the electrical outlet. The city flagged the violation as “highly hazardous.”
The city in September 2019 filed another housing violation citation against Columbia, which included photos of black mold growing in a closet, water damage, and dead bugs. Inspectors cited an “infestation of roaches,” “soiled cabinets/mold,” an “unsanitary trash room,” and an “unsanitary stairway” in the building.
The records echo firsthand accounts from Columbia residents, who talked to the Free Beacon in October and said there are still extensive sanitation and maintenance problems at the housing complex.
“We have a smell here,” one resident told the Free Beacon. “The trash room has this overwhelming trash smell. As soon as you come in the building, it inundates you. It’s just in your face. And it’s embarrassing.”
Residents said the building management lets garbage pile up in the trash rooms and the building’s chute for days, leading to an overflow of waste.
“The aroma of the trash was so horrific and ridiculous,” said another resident, who lives on the first floor of the building near the waste room.
Another tenant told the Free Beacon about filth in the building’s ventilation system, saying, “The vents haven’t been blown out for years. The dust, it’s sickening, actually.”
SEOUL (Reuters)—South Korea‘s military said it scrambled fighter jets after detecting about 180 North Korean military flights north of the two countries’ border over four hours on Friday.
The North Korean aircraft flew north of the so-called tactical action line, north of the Military Demarcation Line between the two Koreas, South Korea‘s military said in a statement. The virtual line is used as a basis for South Korean air defence operations, a South Korean official said.
South Korea scrambled 80 aircraft, including, F-35A stealth fighters, in response. About 240 aircraft participating in the Vigilant Storm exercises with the United States continued the drills, the military said.
A flight of 10 North Korean warplanes made similar manoeuvres last month, prompting South Korea to scramble jets.
The manoeuvres came after North Korea fired more than 80 rounds of artillery into the sea overnight, and the launch of multiple missiles into the sea on Thursday, including a possible failed intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).
The launches prompted the United States and South Korea to extend air drills that have angered Pyongyang.
(Reporting by Soo-hyang Choi; Editing by Jacqueline Wong and Alex Richardson)
New Georgia Project, once helmed by Sen. Raphael Warnock, purges top officials
The nonprofit founded by Stacey Abrams and led by Sen. Raphael Warnock between 2017 and 2019 is beset by turmoil and infighting just days ahead of the midterm elections. Since late June, the New Georgia Project has dismissed its top finance, legal, and operation officials.
Founded by Abrams in 2013, the New Georgia Project served as “the poster child” of Abrams’s efforts to boost Democrats in the state, according to Axios. Though Abrams and Warnock are no longer affiliated with the group, both are on the ballot next Tuesday, and the New Georgia Project worked to expand the non-white electorate in the Peach State. In 2020 alone it raised nearly $25 million from donors including the left-wing dark money behemoth Tides Foundation and the George Soros-bankrolled Center for Popular Democracy.
But over the past eight weeks, the group has suffered a major brain drain. The group’s “leadership team” consisted of eight people in September, according to web archives, but four of those positions are now vacant, including the chief operations officer, chief legal officer, chief financial officer, and chief communications officer.
A recording of an Oct. 7 video conference call shared with the Free Beacon shows the director of human resources, Earvin Hopkins, dismissing the New Georgia Project’s chief operating officer as well as its directors of design and digital marketing. On the same call, Hopkins told employees that the group could no longer afford to pay the employees who were being let go.
The New Georgia Project has also gone without a top accountant since chief financial officer Randall Frazier was fired in late June. A former executive with the group, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said Frazier was terminated after warning the group’s leaders that they were engaged in potential financial impropriety and urging them to bring in a forensic accountant to right the ship.
“I was in the room when he brought it up to all the leadership again and again and again, and was there when he was fired,” the former executive said. Frazier, according to the former executive, said he couldn’t do his job without violating the law, though he did not elaborate on why he believed that to be the case.
Internal communications also show the group’s leaders were touchy about who had access to their finances. A former executive, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said New Georgia Project’s CEO Kendra Cotton rejected her request on Sept. 13 to grant an independent auditor access to their accounting software. Just weeks earlier, on Aug. 30, Cotton responded to a request from the group’s chief operating officer that the group hire a new accountant: “We are HYPER SENSITIVE about who we let around our financial info,” Cotton wrote in a text message reviewed by the Free Beacon.
Frazier declined to comment, citing a nondisclosure agreement with the New Georgia Project. His former lead accountant at the New Georgia Project, Ambria Hardy, declined to comment.
Cotton did not respond to a request for comment, but New Georgia Project employees were instructed on Thursday afternoon to notify Cotton “immediately” if contacted by members of the press. Speaking to reporters, a text message warned, is a violation of the New Georgia Project policy.
Text message sent to New Georgia Project employees on Nov. 3, 2022.
Though they are no longer formally affiliated with the group, Abrams and Warnock have maintained ties with New Georgia Project leaders, including board chairman Francys Johnson. Warnock appointed Johnson to his “Federal Nominations Advisory Commission” in March 2021, and he is also a regular at Abrams campaign events. In September he cohosted a get-out-the-vote rally for her in Atlanta.
Johnson, who did not respond to a request for comment, was appointed chairman of the New Georgia Project’s board in 2020 after Warnock announced his first bid for the Senate. He served as president of the Georgia NAACP and mounted a failed congressional bid as a Democrat in 2018.
Though Hopkins, the human resources chief, cited financial constraints when dismissing employees in October, the New Georgia Project ended 2020 with over $17 million in cash reserves after starting the year with just $232,000 in the bank, according to the charity’s Form 990 tax return. The group did not respond to a request for a copy of its 2021 Form 990.
Internal communications reviewed by the Free Beacon also reveal the New Georgia Project misrepresented the reason former CEO Nsé Ufot left the group last month. According to a “love letter” written by Ufot and posted to the New Georgia Project’s website, she stepped down from her position “out of love.” But in at least one private correspondence, those communications show, Johnson claimed to have “fired” Ufot along with the then-chief legal officer and deputy general counsel. Ufot did not respond to a request for comment.
The New Georgia Project is the third Abrams-founded group to face allegations of financial impropriety. A state ethics commission concluded in August that New Georgia Project likely violated the law during Abrams’s 2018 gubernatorial campaign. The group and its affiliated New Georgia Project Action Fund were accused of failing to report $4.2 million in contributions and $3 million in expenditures incurred between 2017 and 2019.
Legal experts also raised questions about the finances of Abrams’s Fair Fight Action after the group doled out $9.4 million to a law firm run by Abrams’s current campaign chair, Allegra Lawrence-Hardy. Fair Fight Action’s political action committee launched an internal investigation into its finances in October, after Fox News reported the PAC funneled a combined $178,000 to close friends and family of its political director, Andre Fields, though they had no relevant political experience.
Warnock’s church is also facing scrutiny in the final weeks before Election Day. The Georgia Secretary of State’s Securities and Charities Division launched an investigation into a charity controlled by the church in mid-October to determine why it is operating in the state without registering with state authorities. Ebenezer Baptist Church, which pays Warnock a $7,417-per-month housing allowance, owns 99 percent of a low-income apartment building through the charity that moved to evict residents during the pandemic for past-due rent as low as $28.55.
Chinese spyware app TikTok has hired a longtime Democratic flack who served as President Joe Biden’s 2020 campaign press secretary and deputy Pentagon spokesman, the Daily Mailreported Wednesday.
The news that TikTok hired former Biden spokesman Jamal Brown first appeared “in one line of a Politico newsletter on Tuesday,” with TikTok not publicizing it. Brown has changed his Twitter bio to reflect his new job, at which he will “manage policy communications for the Americas, primarily focusing on the United States.”
Brown’s hire comes as evidence mounts that TikTok’s Chinese parent company spies on American citizens. The Biden administration has allowed that company, which spends millions on lobbying, to dodge federal regulations, the Washington Free Beaconreported.
Federal Communications Commission commissioner Brendan Carr on Tuesday called for the federal government to ban TikTok.
Sen. Josh Hawley (R., Mo.) called Brown’s move from the Pentagon to the social media app “alarming,” saying it shows a “cozy relationship between the Biden Defense Department and TikTok.”
In light of the government scrutiny, the former Biden administration spokesman is a particularly “well-connected hire” for the Chinese app, the Daily Mail noted.
Presidential historian Michael Beschloss on Wednesday night bemoaned to MSNBC’s Chris Hayes the bleak future of American democracy should Republican candidates win their races next Tuesday, claiming a GOP victory would bring “a brutal authoritarian system” and end “our rule of law.”
On MSNBC’s All In With Chris Hayes, Beschloss, one of President Joe Biden’s favorite historians, echoed Biden’s rallying speech earlier Wednesday evening, claiming the most important issue on the ballot is Republicans’ threat to democracy, not inflation or other concerns. Numerous polls show that voters think otherwise. Beschloss is among many liberals trying to shift voters’ focus away from skyrocketing inflation and the rising crime rates in Democrat-led cities.
“A historian 50 years from now—if historians are allowed to write in this country and if there are still free publishing houses and a free press, which I’m not certain of,” Beschloss said. “But if that is true, a historian will say, what was at stake tonight and this week was the fact whether we will be a democracy in the future, whether our children will be arrested and conceivably killed.”
Before introducing Beschloss, Hayes played a clip of Biden’s speech in which the president said electing MAGA Republicans is a “path to chaos,” a claim with which Hayes agreed.
“Whether we take that path to chaos, whether we continue to march down it, is one of the major choices—if not the major choice—voters face this coming Tuesday,” said Hayes.
Beschloss—who is in Biden’s elite circle of historians and has compared Biden to former presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and Lyndon B. Johnson “in terms of transforming the country in important ways in a short time”—also agreed that the president was “absolutely right.”
“We could be six days away from losing our rule of law,” Beschloss said. “We’re on the edge of a brutal authoritarian system, and it could be a week away.”
Pat Harrigan’s young daughters were sleeping when a bullet smashed through his parents’ house in Hickory, N.C.
What happened: Several days before Joe Biden accused his Republican opponents of condoning political violence, someone fired a bullet into the family home of a GOP congressional candidate in North Carolina.
The incident, first reported on Thursday, occurred on Oct. 18. Pat Harrigan, a U.S. Army Special Forces veteran running in the state’s new 14th Congressional District, was not present when a bullet smashed through the laundry room window of the Hickory, N.C., residence where his parents and young daughters were staying.
Marla Harrigan, 74, told The Associated Press on Thursday that she and her husband James Harrigan were watching television down the hall when a bullet shattered their laundry room window on the night of Oct. 18. The Hickory Police Department responded to their 911 call and noted in the police report that the incident involved a firearm.
The congressional candidate’s children, ages 3 and 5, were asleep in the bedroom directly above the room where the shooting occurred, Marla Harrigan said. The bullet came from a densely wooded area and did not wake the kids.
She said the two children have been living with their grandparents in Hickory, about 57 miles northwest of Charlotte, for much of the campaign cycle. They have since been relocated out of state “out of an abundance of caution after the shooting,” she said, adding that her son is urging his parents to leave town as well.
“It’s just disconcerting, especially with the children there,” Marla Harrigan told the AP. “This campaign is so stressful, and we feel so badly for our son because, you know, he’s terribly stressed about his children … and now they’re gone, they’re not with their parents and it’s just very, very disruptive.”
Police are still investigating the incident.
Why it matters: Biden, journalists, and other Democrats have repeatedly blamed Republicans for the rise in politically motivated violence—while ignoring acts of violence against Republicans.
The president’s speech this week cited the January 6 uprising and the recent attack on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D., Calif.) husband by a nudist lunatic, but did not mention the attempted assassination of Supreme Court justice Brett Kavanaugh or the murder of 18-year-old Cayler Ellingson in September. The alleged perpetrator, Shannon Brandt, told police he ran over the teen with his car following a “political argument” because he thought Ellington was “part of a Republican extremist group.”
Tom Carper, who gave former wife black eye, makes major investment in fund that shorts stocks
A Democratic senator who publicly claims the economy is “moving in the right direction” under Joe Biden placed a bet against the U.S. economy last month, according to Senate financial disclosures.
Sen. Tom Carper (D., Del.), who once punched his former wife in the face hard enough to give her a black eye, disclosed this week a purchase of up to $110,000 in shares of Ranger Equity Bear ETF, a fund that shorts stocks on the expectation that the market will decline. Investors often use short funds as a hedge against economic downturns.
The trades suggest Carper is far more bearish on the economy than he lets on in public. In July, Carper credited Biden with moving the economy “in the right direction.” On Oct. 7, he claimed the president’s “leadership” was to thank for a “huge” increase in jobs. Carper and his second wife purchased shares of the short fund on Oct. 10, according to his financial disclosures.
A Carper spokeswoman says all the family’s transactions are handled independently by a financial adviser.
“Senator Carper and his wife, Martha, have always been careful to ensure that their financial investments are handled separately by a financial advisor who makes decisions and transactions independently,” the spokeswoman said.
Democrats have scrambled to spin the economy in positive terms ahead of the midterm elections, in which they are expected to suffer heavy losses amid growing concerns over the economy and inflation. In a speech last week, Biden denied the economy is headed toward a recession and claimed “our economic recovery is continuing to power forward.”
“As I have said before, it is never a good bet to bet against the American people,” said Biden.
Carper, a member of the Senate Finance Committee, made the trades amid growing bipartisan support to ban members of Congress from trading public stocks to prevent them from profiting off inside information. The legislation gained steam after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) threw her weight behind it. Pelosi endorsed the plan after she and her husband came under fire for buying millions of dollars in stock options in companies with business before Congress. Pelosi has made $140 million since 2008 off of stock trades she now hopes to ban, the Free Beaconreported.
Carper, who has credited Biden for his start in politics, has been accused of conflicts of interest before. He held up to $685,000 worth of shares of energy companies while serving on the Environment and Public Works Committee, the Washington Free Beaconreported.
Carper made the latest trades with his second wife, Martha Stacy Carper. He admitted in a 1998 interview resurfaced in 2017 by the Free Beacon to slapping his first wife, Diane Isaacs, during “a heated argument” in 1981. Carper reportedly admitted in a court deposition that he hit Isaacs so hard she got a black eye. He lied on the campaign trail throughout his political career, denying that he ever got violent.
NBA star Kyrie Irving left the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) with egg on its face after the group pledged to partner with Irving and his team, the Brooklyn Nets, to steer a $1 million donation to Jewish organizations following Irving promotion of an anti-Semitic documentary. Then, on Thursday, Irving said that — actually — he had nothing to apologize for.
Now, the ADL is backtracking, with CEO Jonathan Greenblatt pledging not to take any money from Irving but saying he is nonetheless willing to “engage in a process of healing and learning” with the unapologetic anti-Semite.
“Although we will not accept any funds from him, if Kyrie is open to direct dialogue to repair the harm that he has caused and to engage in a process of healing and learning in a sincere manner, [ADL] is open to engaging with him,” Greenblatt said. “Time and action will tell.”
Irving ignited a media firestorm last week by promoting a book and movie that denies the Holocaust occurred and portrays Jewish people as a nefarious bogeyman. Irving issued a statement admitting responsibility for the “negative impact” of his post but ultimately doubled down this week, saying during a Thursday press conference, “I cannot be anti-Semitic.”
The brouhaha over Irving’s anti-Semitic beliefs is a blow to one of America’s oldest and most respected Jewish institutions. The ADL, under the leadership of former Obama administration official Greenblatt, has been plagued by accusations it provides cover to Democrats while only exerting pressure on conservative voices it sees as promoting anti-Semitic views. In recent years, the ADL has charged a litany of conservative groups with promoting anti-Semitism while ignoring similar instances on the left, prompting some in the Jewish community to call it an “echo chamber of left-wing Democratic politics.” The ADL also has made overtures to the anti-Semitic Black Lives Matter movement despite its support for the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement, as well as the far-left anti-Israel group J Street.
“This is another unfortunate misstep for an ADL that seems to have placed partisanship and even fundraising ahead of fighting antisemitism,” Rabbi Yaakov Menken, managing director of the Coalition for Jewish Values, America’s largest rabbinic public policy group, told the Washington Free Beacon. “After curating a false narrative tying anti-Semitism to white supremacy above all else, it rushed to take a donation from Irving instead of the real consequences that, as ESPN sportscasters have pointed out, the NBA would immediately have levied against someone endorsing bigotry against any other minority group. The ADL bought into a double standard because Irving doesn’t fit the narrative they painted. One can only hope they learn from this embarrassment.”
The Nets suspended Irving indefinitely as a result of his refusal to apologize for spreading Jew hatred.
The star player first courted criticism when he promoted a movie called Hebrews to Negroes: Wake Up Black America, which promotes a slew of anti-Semitic conspiracy theories and tropes. The Brooklyn Nets condemned Irving’s social media posts and, in a joint statement with the ADL, Irving said he opposes “all forms of hatred and oppression and stand[s] strong with communities that are marginalized and impacted every day.”
The statement was issued with a pledge by the Nets and Irving to each donate $500,000 to organizations like the ADL that combat hate and anti-Semitism.
“In light of the events from the past week, we commend the Brooklyn Nets and Kyrie Irving for listening to the concerns of everyone who spoke out against anti-Semitism and taking it as an opportunity to learn and do better,” the ADL tweeted on Wednesday.
That good will, however, crumbled by Thursday, when Irving stood his ground during a bizarre press conference in which he “refused to say he was sorry, refused to say he didn’t hold anti-Semitic beliefs, refused to say the Holocaust happened and cast himself as the victim in the entire saga,” according to the New York Post.
Irving, during that press conference, claimed, “I cannot be anti-Semitic if I know where I come from.”
The episode forced Greenblatt’s ADL to make an about-face on the issue. The ADL leader said on Friday that his organization will no longer accept any funds from Irving or the Nets but that it is open to further engagement.
“Although we will not accept any funds from him, if Kyrie is open to direct dialogue to repair the harm that he has caused and to engage in a process of healing and learning in a sincere manner, ADL is open to engaging with him. Time and action will tell,” Greenblatt tweeted.
Greenblatt also said he supports the NBA team’s decision to indefinitely suspend Irving, writing in a tweet that the player “has been given ample opportunity to do the right thing, apologize and condemn antisemitism. He has failed at almost every step along the way. This suspension is well-deserved.”
An ADL spokesman directed the Free Beacon to Greenblatt’s tweets when questioned about the episode.
Charles Jacobs, president of the Jewish Leadership Project, an advocacy group, told the Free Beacon that the episode should serve as a wake-up call to the ADL.
“The ADL, the Jewish community’s most powerful defense agency, has been downplaying or ignoring Jew-hatred from politically incorrect sources—leftist anti-Zionists, Islamist preachers, and black supremacists—for decades, yet they’ll accuse right-wingers of anti-Semitism even when, sometimes, there isn’t any,” Jacobs said. “They have abandoned their mission and become little more than another left-wing political organization, therefore losing credibility within the Jewish community that is suffering from the surge in Jew-hatred that built under their watch.”
Irving explicitly apologized Thursday night after the suspension was handed down, saying he was “deeply sorry” for promoting false anti-Semitic narratives. The Nets, however, said the late apology is not sufficient to end the suspension, and Irving will not play until he takes concrete steps to address his anti-Semitic views.
“Such failure to disavow antisemitism when given a clear opportunity to do so is deeply disturbing, is against the values of our organization, and constitutes conduct detrimental to the team,” the Nets said in a statement issued on Thursday. “Accordingly, we are of the view that [Irving] is currently unfit to be associated with the Brooklyn Nets. We have decided that Kyrie will serve a suspension without pay until he satisfies a series of objective remedial measures that address the harmful impact of his conduct.”
Sen. Patty Murray (D., Wash.) was hammering baby formula manufacturers to help alleviate a nationwide shortage until August. That just so happens to be when the chief lobbyist for the industry’s trade group nearly maxed out donations to her campaign.
Murray, who chairs the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, in May urged the Infant Nutrition Council of America to “take immediate action” to end the “unacceptable burden” the crisis was placing on American families. Three months later, Murray’s campaign accepted $2,750 from the trade group’s lobbyist. Lobbyists representing Abbott Laboratories, the largest member of the trade group, also contributed to Murray’s campaign. Lori Denham, a partner at Kountoupes, Denham, Carr, and Reid in June donated $1,000 to the campaign. Lisa Kountoupes, another partner at the firm, donated $1,500 this year to the senator. Jessica Schulken, a principal at the Russell Group in July contributed $1,500 to Murray.
The veteran Democratic senator has since fallen silent on the issue. She successfully removed provisions meant to address the baby formula shortage from a September FDA reauthorization bill, according to Roll Call.
Murray’s seeming capitulation to the baby formula lobby could hurt her in a tight reelection race against Tiffany Smiley. The Republican candidate has frequently criticized her opponent as a Washington, D.C., insider, saying Murray is “not the mom in tennis shoes” she once pitched herself as. Murray has served 30 years in the upper chamber.
Elisa Carlson, a spokeswoman for Smiley’s campaign, said Murray’s actions were not surprising.
“This is a classic Washington, D.C., move: complaining about a problem, lining your pockets from the source of the problem, and then doing nothing,” Carlson told the Free Beacon. “After 30 years in the Senate, Patty Murray has become Washington, D.C.”
Murray’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
Abbott, the largest U.S. manufacturer of baby formula, in February shut down one of its plants in Michigan after its products killed two infants. The closure worsened existing baby formula shortages caused by pandemic disruptions to supply chains. Stores are still struggling to keep baby formula in stock, and the Biden administration is blaming supply chain disruptions and manufacturers for the delays, Politicoreported on Wednesday.
The Infant Nutrition Council of America ramped up its lobbying efforts during the formula shortages this year, hiring Blanche Lincoln, a former Democratic senator, as its top lobbyist. The trade group retained Lincoln’s firm for $50,000 in the second quarter and $90,000 in the third quarter. Lincoln served as a senator from Arkansas from 1999 to 2011.
Line items in the reauthorization bill proposed by Sen. Richard Burr (R., N.C.) would have required infant formula manufacturers to report to the agency within the first week of supply disruptions. Murray promised in June that she was “absolutely going to keep pushing to hold the FDA and industry accountable so we can get answers on the formula crisis and make sure this never happens again,” Bloombergreported.
Emergency services have been called to MLK Village in Atlanta hundreds of times since 2020
A maintenance man charged with brutally murdering a tenant. A sex offender who slept in the hallways. A dead body left in an apartment for days, found covered in flies.
These are just a few disturbing tales of the living conditions in apartments owned by Sen. Raphael Warnock’s (D., Ga.) church, gathered from interviews with residents and hundreds of pages of Atlanta Police Department, Fire Department, and court records obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.
Atlanta police and firefighters have been called to Columbia Tower and the Columbia Senior Residences at MLK Village in Atlanta hundreds of times since 2020, the records show. Responding officers have been met with corpses and people trapped in elevators, as well as fights, burglaries, and car thefts. Both buildings are owned by the Ebenezer Baptist Church, where Warnock serves as senior pastor.
The Free Beacon also learned that Columbia Tower management hired a convicted murderer now charged with killing a female tenant who lived with him at Columbia Senior Residences, which is just across the street from the apartment building.
“They hired a guy who killed his girlfriend. He was the maintenance guy who was living in the senior building and he had a record already,” a resident told the Free Beacon in October. “Why would you hire a person like that who has keys to the building? I understand second chances, but this person already had a background in murdering someone, and you give him keys to our apartment?”
The records could pose problems for Warnock, who is seeking to defeat Republican challenger Herschel Walker amid rising crime. Crime is one of Atlanta voters’ main concerns heading into next week’s midterm elections, polls show. Homicides have increased in Atlanta by at least 60 percent since 2019, according to 11Alive News, citing Atlanta Police Department crime data.
Warnock has advocated for softer crime policies, including ending cash bail. He has criticized the American prison system as a “scandal on the soul of America,” and called to end “mass incarceration.” Warnock has also championed safe housing during his time in the Senate, saying earlier this year that “housing is dignity.”
But records tell another story. Police have been called to Columbia Tower and the Columbia Senior Residences over 150 times since January, in response to allegations of larceny, fighting, and criminal trespassing. The Fire Department has been called to Columbia Tower 153 times since January 2020, sometimes to rescue people trapped or stranded due to broken elevators.
Firefighters also reported making gruesome discoveries at the apartment building.
“The person was stiff as a board and his jaw was locked,” firefighters reported in April 2020 upon conducting a welfare check on a resident who was missing for three days. “Engine 10 crew checked for a pulse and there was no pulse. The person appears to have been dead for a couple of days because there were a lot of flys [sic] around the person. This was an elderly male.”
Firefighters discovered another dead body at the apartment complex in January 2021. “E10 investigated and checked for a pulse, no pulse was found,” an incident report states.
In August, a man reported that his car was stolen from the back parking lot. In July, Atlanta police detained a man who “continues to trespass on the property by sleeping in the hallway of the building on the third floor,” according to a police report. The man, a sex offender with a history of violence and an outstanding warrant, had been subject to a no-trespassing court order by Columbia Residential months earlier, but continued to enter the building, an employee told police.
In the spring of 2020, Columbia Residential hired a new maintenance man named Anthony Bernard Stokes, a convicted murderer who had been released from prison two years earlier after serving decades for a 1992 homicide. Fulton County prosecutors allege that just months after he started the job, Stokes killed his 56-year-old girlfriend, Sean Macklin, in the apartment they shared at Columbia Senior Residences.
Stokes had a key to every room in Columbia Tower when he worked at the apartment building, residents told the Free Beacon.
Shortly after Stokes started working at Columbia Tower, Macklin’s daughter reported her missing after not hearing from her for several days. The daughter said Macklin previously told her that Stokes “had broke bones in her feet with a hammer amongst other injuries in the recent past,” according to an arrest affidavit.
Investigators claimed Stokes killed Macklin in the early morning hours of Nov. 6, 2020, and disposed of her body, potentially with the aid of the building’s garbage system, according to an arrest affidavit. They said Stokes was seen in surveillance footage around 4:48 a.m. leaving the apartment and walking to the parking lot, where he unsuccessfully tried to “cover the surveillance camera up with a black plastic bag.” He then pulled his truck “around the corner to the driveway that contains the trash compactor,” which was out of view of cameras.
The bed of Stokes’s truck was empty when he backed up to the compactor. But a few minutes later, he was spotted on camera driving away with “numerous items in the bed of the truck including an extra-large box,” according to the affidavit. A subsequent police search of the apartment found traces of blood on the floor, countertop, and bathroom door handle, according to the affidavit.
In May 2020, around the time Columbia Residential hired Stokes, firefighters reported that an unnamed maintenance worker refused to open a locked apartment room door in which a Columbia Tower resident was “screaming and making strange noises as if he was having trouble breathing.”
“The next door neighbor called building maintenance and advised them to come open the apartment door for unit … and the maintenance guy stated that he would not do it,” firefighters wrote in an incident report. “Since the maintenance worker would not open the door, Engine 10 had to force it open and break it.”
“Patient had a facial droop as if he had a stroke and fell to the ground,” firefighters reported. The man was cool to the touch and could not speak, but was alert, firefighters added.
It’s not clear if the unnamed maintenance worker who refused to open the door was Stokes. Columbia Residential did not return a request for comment.
Fire department incident reports for Columbia Tower appear to corroborate accounts of residents who told the Free Beacon in October that they’ve witnessed firefighters hauling their handicapped neighbors to and from their rooms because of the building’s chronically broken elevators.
“Invalid Occupants unable to get to their apartments due to elevators not working in the building,” firefighters said in a March 2022 incident report. “Contacted building manager who came to the scene to ensure the elevators were fixed.”
Firefighters have had to rescue several residents trapped inside Columbia Tower’s malfunctioning elevators on two occasions, one in July 2020, and another in March 2022, incident reports show.
Firefighters said in a March 2021 incident report they couldn’t carry a Columbia Tower resident up to her 12th-floor room, and that she would have to wait for maintenance to fix the elevators. In September 2021, however, firefighters reported assisting an elderly resident down the stairs from her room on the 7th floor of the building.
Warnock’s church, which pays the senator a $7,417 monthly housing allowance, owns Columbia Tower through a network of shell organizations connected to the Ebenezer Building Foundation, a 501(c)(3) charity that delegates all management duties to the church and identifies Warnock as its principal officer in its IRS Form 990 filings.
Warnock’s church also owns Columbia Senior Residences through a similar arrangement. According to Fulton County property records, the complex is owned by MLK Village Real Estate Holdings LLC, a company founded in 2016 by Kenneth Palmer, a member of the Ebenezer Baptist Church Board of Trustees. The LLC also shares the address as the church, Georgia business records show.
Former President Donald Trump’s former fundraiser, Tom Barrack, was found not guilty on Friday after facing charges that he acted as an unregistered foreign agent during the Trump administration and then lied to the FBI.
Described also as a longtime adviser and friend to Trump, Barrack was also acquitted of obstruction of justice and making false statements to FBI agents in 2019 about his interactions with Emirati officials and their representatives. Barrack’s former assistant and co-defendant, Matthew Grimes, was also acquitted of acting as a foreign agent and conspiracy to act as a foreign agent.
“It’s these people who should take the victory lap,” Barrack told Reuters after the not guilty verdict was read. “I’m so moved by them and by the system,” he added.
Prosecutors alleged that Barrack had used his friendship with Trump to “illegally provide” officials in the United Arab Emirates access and inside information to the Trump administration.
Prosecutors alleged that messages showed that Barrack received input from Emirati officials and intermediaries on what to say about the Middle East in TV interviews, and passed along sensitive details about U.S. foreign policy and personnel appointments.
“The defendants unlocked the back door of the American political system—its campaigns, its media, its government—to the UAE,” Ryan Harris, one of the prosecutors, said on Tuesday during closing arguments, according to the New York Times.
During the trial, Trump wrote on Truth Social that Barrack is a “highly respected businessman” and did not believe he worked as a foreign agent of the United Arab Emirates.
Former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin was called to testify in Barrack’s defense about a meeting with him in June 2017 when Barrack disagreed with Trump’s comments about backing a blockade on trade with Qatar.
“[Barack] came in with the idea of telling me that he thought the President had made a mistake supporting the blockade and going through his reasoning why,” Mnuchin testified. “His position was clearly in support of Qatar.”
His lawyers also said that Barrack wanted better relations between the United States and Middle Eastern countries, he never agreed to act under the United Arab Emirates’ “direction or control.” He also said, “I never did anything wrong.”
“This whole prosecution has been an act of misdirection,” Randall Jackson, one of Barrack’s attorneys, said during closing arguments on Tuesday in a Brooklyn courtroom, according to the NY Times. “What exactly did Tom and Matthew influence? What exactly did they say that wasn’t true?”
The San Francisco prosecutor investigating the man accused of hitting Paul Pelosi with a hammer last week is vowing to limit the public’s access to evidence surrounding the case.
In an interview with CNN on Wednesday, San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins said a “very limited number of family members” will be able to access evidence in the case, including police body-camera footage and the 911 call. Pelosi is the longtime husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).
“For us, revealing that evidence through the media is just not what we think is appropriate,” Jenkins told the network on Thursday. “We want to make sure that this individual is held accountable for these egregious acts,” she also said. “For us, we’re going to make sure that we limit the evidence as much as possible in order to get that done.”
The evidence includes footage of the alleged hammer attack by David DePape, 42, that sent Paul Pelosi to the hospital for about six days. He was released on Thursday evening, according to the House speaker’s office.
DePape is accused of breaking into the Pelosi home when she wasn’t there before he approached Paul Pelosi while he was sleeping and asked him where his wife was, according to court documents. Later, he allegedly told investigators that he wanted to break Speaker Pelosi’s kneecaps.
In the incident, DePape allowed Pelosi to use the bathroom, where he called the police. When officers arrived, the court papers said, both DePape and Pelosi had their hand on the same hammer. They told the suspect to drop the hammer, and he swung it at Pelosi’s head, officials said.
Jenkins told CNN that DePape has been cooperative with investigators and “submitted to a lengthy interview” before he obtained a lawyer.
“What was going on in his mind as to why he did that, I can’t speak to that. But what is very clear to me from viewing that body worn camera is he tried to kill Mr. Pelosi,” San Francisco police chief Bill Scott told reporters this week.
Questions have emerged about why Pelosi’s home had no security and why Capitol Police were not monitoring cameras at the home amid Democrats’ politically charged claims that extremists are threatening U.S. institutions. Speaker Pelosi is second in line to the presidency after Vice President Kamala Harris.
On Wednesday, the Capitol Police issued a statement saying that it will carry out an internal review of its security protocols following the attack. It said that its Command Center has “access to roughly 1,800 cameras” and said there are cameras “used to actively monitor the Speaker’s San Francisco residence around the clock when she is there.”
In an election year that has Democrats often using the “extremist” label on the GOP to distract from the country’s economic problems, experts say that the rush by mainstream media to blame “right-wing extremism” for the attack on the husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calf.), has actually harmed the Democrats,
This summer the Democrats used the Jan. 6 Committee hearings, amplified by the media, to highlight the “danger to democracy” that the GOP allegedly poses to the country. But one observer said that the quickness with which some media outlets alleged that the attack on Paul Pelosi was the result of a conservative obsession—before more detail about the alleged assailant came to light—betrayed an underlying agenda.
“It would have behooved them to just wait [and get the facts], but instead they have painted an entire part of the country, everybody, as an extremist” over the attack, Carla Miller, national spokesperson for Law Enforcement Today, the largest law enforcement-owned media company in the United States, told The Epoch Times.
“The message from the media is clear: If you’re against the Democrats, you’re an extremist. And I think it’s definitely done more harm to them than good,” said Miller.
David DePape, center, films in San Francisco, Calif., on Dec. 19, 2013. (Eric Risberg/AP Photo)
‘Morally Outrageous’
The attack, coming as early voting and mail-in ballots were coming in for the midterm elections, allowed the liberal establishment media to almost happily lunge at the chance to paint Republicans as extremists, said Adam Guillette, president of Accuracy in Media, one the nation’s oldest conservative media watchdogs.
“I think it’s morally outrageous when journalists celebrate tragedies like this, which, is exactly how some of them reported this story,” Guillette told The Epoch Times.
“You almost felt like some of these journalists saw this as a political opportunity to score points in the final days of the election. And in reality, it’s just a terrible story about a deranged man,” he added.
The former girlfriend of David DePape, the alleged attacker, has told the media that the 42-year-old has serious mental health issues. The former girlfriend’s lawyer also told The Epoch Times that
DePape embraced extreme views of both the left and the right.
One conservative media strategist said that if the idea was for the media to try to give the Democratic Party a boost in the election, it’s “not likely to work in the favor of Democrats.”
DePape, who is residing in the country illegally, represents “a failure to deal with crime and mental health issues for which Democrats will mostly be held responsible,” Tony Marsh of Savanna Communications, who assisted then-candidate Glenn Youngkin win Virginia’s governor’s race in 2021, told The Epoch Times.
“It’s also likely to reinforce the public’s view that both parties have created a kind of toxic political environment by catering to their fringe bases of support,” added Marsh.
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and her husband Paul Pelosi arrive in the Crypt of the US Capitol for President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration ceremony to be the 46th President of the United States on January 20, 2021 in Washington, DC. (Jim Lo Scalzo-Pool/Getty Images)
Media Message Has Hurt Democrats
Jeremiah Boehner, social director for San Francisco’s Young Republicans believes that the media narrative has especially hurt Democrats among younger and independent voters.
“The independent voters in San Francisco know that this was an addict driven crazy by his addiction,” which has become an all-too-common sight for San Franciscans living under a Democrat hegemony, said Boehner.
If anything, local residents are used to Pelosi being harassed and targeted by radical, progressives, said Boehner, who is 37.
“Nancy Pelosi is unpopular with the radical left in San Francisco. When there’s a protest at her home its generally the leftists, not Republicans or independents,” he added.
DePape was a well-known nudist activist, as has been widely reported.
Pelosi has previously condemned nudism in a 2013 interview with the Huffington Post after her home city outlawed public nudity.
“Enough with the public nudity,” Pelosi told The Huffington Post when asked about the city’s ban. “Please. We have our standards.”
Transparency
Miller of Law Enforcement Today said that DePape’s activism was more likely the cause of the attack, based on law enforcement reports and comments from people who know DePape.
“Based on some of the information that’s come out from his girlfriend about his stances and issues, it doesn’t necessarily seem that that’s even being portrayed by the media correctly,” Miller said.
“I think that the media should be a lot more responsible especially when they’re supposed to be a credible place we [can] get the truth,” said Miller, adding that the media should report only on the actual information they have at the time instead of “their speculation or potentially pushing a scripted narrative for a certain agenda.”
But Miller also blamed the police for being coy about releasing information on the case, especially because it involves someone high profile.
The authorities in San Francisco have refused to release the body cam footage and the 911 call from the night of the attack.
The San Francisco Police Department denied a public records request from The Epoch Times for body camera footage from the officers who responded to the Pelosi home, stating that “disclosure of information may endanger successful completion of the investigation.”
When police hold back information that the public has a right to know, especially with someone involved in a position of public trust, it just fuels speculation, said Miller.
Miller contrasted the slow-moving release of information in the Pelosi case to the quick release of video and other evidence demanded by politicians and the public when the case involves alleged police violence during the apprehension of an alleged criminal.
“I think, unfortunately, there’s a different standard, when it comes to somebody who is high profile and powerful like this,” Miller said,
Lack of Trust
If the same level of transparency were applied in this case, Miller contended, then this would prevent false information from finding traction.
“Unfortunately, what we’ve seen is that the longer that the facts are kept secret, the bigger danger [of] what I call ‘conspiracy speculation’,” which she said is the manufacturing of stories that contain false information.
“And because of the way the world works, even if information is retracted or refuted, it doesn’t matter if the fake narratives are out there on either side already,” added Miller.
Boehner, said for example, that he understands how some conservatives might find it incredible that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s mansion didn’t have security the night Paul Pelosi was attacked, but since Boehner is a resident who sees the house regularly, he can attest to this.
“I live here and I drive by her house regularly. Unless Nancy is in town there is no security guard and it’s not in a gated community,” said Boehner.
But Marsh said there is a big difference between a meme on Facebook and what the Democrats and the media are doing.
“What will also hurt Democrats is the obvious hypocrisy they display when they claim conservative rhetoric resulted in the attack, even after Biden gives a speech in which he claims half the voters in America are a threat to democracy and must be stopped,” said Marsh in reference to Biden’s summer speech in Philadelphia, which was widely criticized by Republicans.
On Nov. 2, Biden in a speech again took aim at “extreme MAGA Republicans,” saying they posed a threat to democracy.
“I think voters will forgive much, but they don’t like it when they feel like they’re being played. That’s a huge problem with Biden and the Democrat leadership,” said Marsh.
‘Moral Corruption’
The problem, said Guillette of Accuracy in Media, is that the people who run the media in the United States today just want to sell people what they want to hear whether it’s true or not.
“Today’s mainstream media speaks in an echo chamber. So if a [TV] host tells her audience that this was caused by Trump, she does so because the audience wants to think that this was caused by Trump,” said Guillette.
“That has caused the media to have record-low ratings and has led to record-low diminishing trust in the media amongst mainstream Americans,” he added.
Marsh agreed, arguing that the lack of trust in the news media and government isn’t coincidental.
“America’s culture is sick and we’re all breathing in a noxious gas of confused values and bankrupt morality that is corrupting the essential ingredients of a civil society,” he said.
And unfortunately, events like the Pelosi attack, highlight that bankruptcy and moral corruption, rather than diminish it, said Marsh.
The Epoch Times has reached out to the San Francisco Police Department, Democratic National Committee, and White House for comment.
The Michigan Supreme Court on Thursday allowed local election clerks to use new poll challenger guidelines issued by Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson in the form of a manual, which a judge had previously found to violate the law.
The high court’s ruling temporarily stops an Oct. 20 ruling by a Michigan Court of Claims judge that found Benson, a Democrat, had “exceeded [her] authority” in certain parts of a new election manual published in May.
That Michigan judge’s now-paused order had blocked Benson’s new manual, which required increased credentialing for poll challengers and banned personal electronic devices in absentee counting boards.
The case, which made its way to Michigan’s highest court, will now be determined in a final ruling that will come after the midterm elections, while it waits to go through an appeals process.
Michigan Supreme Court Justice Richard Bernstein, a Democratic appointee, found there were “clearly significant legal issues at play,” but it wouldn’t be feasible to review the case “in the time left before Election Day.”
The ruling is a loss for the plaintiffs who on Wednesday asked the Michigan Court of Claims to declare Benson in contempt of court for noncompliance with an Oct. 20 court order.
Benson was previously accused of noncompliance with a court order in another case when she failed to convince a judge to dismiss a case that could force her to remove over 25,000 deceased people from Michigan’s voter rolls.
Poll workers board up windows of the ballot counting area at the TCF Center in Detroit on Nov. 4, 2020. (Seth Herald/AFP via Getty Images)
The five plaintiffs in the case, a group of citizens concerned about protecting the rights of challengers and poll watchers from infringement by Benson’s nonconforming or extra-legal guidelines, are known collectively as O’Halloran et al.
The Michigan Republican Party and the Republican National Committee joined the lawsuit as plaintiffs.
Benson’s legal defense team includes the Elias Law Group, founded by nationally known Democrat strategist Marc Elias, which was also involved in a lawsuit challenging ballot drop box watchers in Arizona.
Benson celebrated the Michigan Supreme Court ruling, saying she’s grateful her updated challenger guidelines and protocols, which were used in the August primaries, “remain in effect for next week’s general election.”
“We’ve long been confident in the legality of the Michigan Bureau of Elections’ guidelines surrounding election challengers and their rightful balance providing transparency while protecting voters and poll workers from disruptions and intimidation,” Benson said in a statement.
Lawsuit
Michigan Court of Claims Judge Brock Swartzle’s Oct. 20 ruling found that some provisions in Benson’s manual had not gone through the proper rule-making procedure with input from the public and state lawmakers.
The court found that the guidance Benson issued, therefore, didn’t have the force and effect of law.
Benson’s new manual outlines the rights and duties of election challengers and poll watchers.
She created it in response to confrontations between election officials and poll challengers and watchers during the 2020 presidential election.
The new guidance outlines that challengers can’t take personal electronic devices into counting rooms where absentee ballots are processed prior to polls closing. Challengers will also have to communicate with a “challenger liaison” instead of election officials.
The Republican plaintiffs asked Swartzle to cancel Benson’s updated election manual, arguing it should have been issued as a promulgated rule as per the law instead of as an instructive guide.
They argued that the manual violates Section 733 of the Michigan Election Law, and they asserted that the manual was distributed to election clerks unlawfully.
A judge on Thursday granted New York Attorney General Letitia James’ request to have an independent court monitor to oversee the Trump Organization’s submission of financial information in a civil lawsuit.
The latest decision by New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron comes in a civil lawsuit James filed (pdf) on Sept. 21 against former President Donald Trump, the Trump Organization, three of his children, and others, alleging “years of financial fraud to obtain a host of economic benefits.” Trump has criticized the lawsuit, calling it a politically motivated attack.
James then asked a judge in mid-October (pdf) to block Trump from moving his assets to a new holding company he formed amid the pending civil lawsuit. Her request came after she noted that the Trump Organization registered a new company called “Trump Organization II LLC” on the same day she filed the civil lawsuit.
She also sought for an independent court monitor, which she said would oversee any new financial disclosure that the Trump Organization makes to banks and insurers, “to ensure they are not fraudulent.”
The court monitor will be a third-party expert to be named by the court at a later date. James’ office and Trump and other defendants in the case will have until Nov. 10 to each suggest three potential monitors for the court to consider and have until Nov. 15 to comment on each other’s nominations.
“This court will appoint an independent monitor, to be paid by defendants, for the purpose of ensuring compliance with this order,” Engoron wrote in the order (pdf) Thursday.
“If the monitor reasonably determines that defendants have violated this order, the monitor shall immediately report that matter to [Office of the Attorney General of the State of New York], defendants, and this Court.”
Engoron also barred the Trump Organization from selling, transferring, or disposing of any non-cash assets without having 14 days of written notice to James’ office and to the court.
‘Communism Come to Our Shores’: Trump
In a press release Thursday, James said the court’s decision “will ensure that Donald Trump and his companies cannot continue the extensive fraud that we uncovered and will require the appointment of an independent monitor to oversee compliance at the Trump Organization.”
Trump in a response to the court decision called the situation a manifestation of communism.
“A puppet judge of the New York Attorney General and other sworn enemies of President Trump and the Republican Party has just issued a ruling never before seen anywhere in America,” Trump said on his Truth Social platform. “It is Communism come to our shores.”
He added: “Businesses will be fleeing New York, which they already are, for other states and other countries. Today’s ridiculous ruling by a politically-motivated, hand-picked judge makes it even more vital for courts in both New York and Florida to do the right thing and stop this inquisition. We have to fight back against radical tyranny and save our Country!”
Former President Donald Trump walks to a vehicle outside of Trump Tower in New York on Aug. 10, 2022. (Stringer/AFP via Getty Images)
Trump Sues New York AG
Trump had on Wednesday filed a lawsuit in Florida State Circuit Court against James, alleging that she has contravened both New York and Florida law in engaging in a “war of intimidation and harassment” against him, his family, his business interests, and associates. The suit is seeking to bar James from obtaining records from a trust that holds ownership of the Trump Organization.
The complaint (pdf) states that James has “repeatedly abused her position as Attorney General for the State of New York to pursue a relentless, pernicious, public, and unapologetic crusade against President Trump … with the stated goal of destroying him personally, financially, and politically.”
The complaint noted that James started to make threats against Trump even before she was elected as New York’s attorney general—”at a time when she possessed no actual information or insight into President Trump’s business.”
Former President Donald Trump and New York Attorney General Letitia James. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images; David Dee Delgado/Getty Images)
Civil Lawsuit Seeking $250 Million
James in her September civil lawsuit alleged that Trump and others at the Trump Organization “falsely inflated his net worth by billions of dollars” to induce banks to lend money “on more favorable terms than would otherwise have been available to the company.”
The lawsuit alleged “more than 200 false and misleading valuations of assets included in the 11 Statements covering 2011 through 2021.”
James’ office, among multiple demands, is asking the Trump Organization to pay a fine of at least $250 million in “restitution” for the people of New York.
It also asked the court to bar the Trump Organization from entering into any New York state commercial real estate acquisitions for five years and block Trump and his children from serving as an officer or director of any corporation or business entity in New York.
It’s arguably the most-watched midterm race in America: the battle between Democrat Senate candidate John Fetterman and GOP challenger Dr. Mehmet Oz.
The polls have gone back and forth in the past few weeks, and a few have shown Oz holding the advantage. Others claim Fetterman maintains a slim edge despite losing a huge lead over the summer.
But a new violation accusation just hit Fetterman — and it could have a definite impact.
Ethics complaints are common in the world of politics, especially in regards to financial transactions. Many citizens wonder how so many elected officials get so wealthy, for example.
That’s where the Center for Accountability and Government Ethics (CAGE) comes in.
The organization filed a complaint on October 24, and it puts Fetterman front-and-center. They’re claiming that he’s in violation of a non-profit law, which could reflect poorly on his reputation.
Via The Daily Caller:
The Center for Accountability and Government Ethics (CAGE) filed a complaint on Oct. 24 alleging that Democratic Senate candidate John Fetterman violated Pennsylvania non-profit law through his purchase of several properties in Braddock, Pennsylvania.
Fetterman was mayor of Braddock between 2006 and 2019, and now he’s under scrutiny for a financial investment that might be a clear violation.
The Democrat owns 8 properties and that includes a few vacant lots. The CAGE complaint alleges that Fetterman “bought and sold one of the properties in a way that violated Pennsylvania non-profit law and his organization’s charter.”
Apparently, Fetterman bought a property for $75,000 in 2007. Four years later, he sold it to Braddock Redux for just $1.
Then three years after that, Braddock Redux sold it back to Fetterman for $1,100, which means the Democrat got the property for only 8% of its market value. This odd series of transactions raised a few red flags.
Here’s a statement from the complaint:
The transaction history, the minimal value of the sale price of the property to Mr. Fetterman, and the magnitude of the discount of the property in question when compared to other properties on the same block give rise to the appearance of improper conduct.
The president of a non-profit organization directing the organization to sell an asset to the president at a below-market rate would appear to be a clear violation of fiduciary obligations.
After a questionable debate performance, it looked like Fetterman’s lead had dwindled even further.
This is the sort of news that could negatively impact the race, giving Dr. Oz a boost. However, the Democrat has the backing of both President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.
That may or may not help his cause, but any accusation that involves a violation could pose a problem.
Midterm voting is just days away, and it’ll be up to the PA residents to determine if Fetterman is both fit to serve, and the correct choice for Washington.
Key Takeaways:
Democrat Senate candidate John Fetterman got hit with an ethics violation complaint.
It involves one of his 8 properties, and the odd transaction history that goes with it.
This allegation could hurt Fetterman’s chances in his race against Dr. Oz, which is currently a toss-up.
With only five days before Americans vote in midterm elections that will decide the course of Joe Biden’s term in office, one battleground state candidate has sparked a brand new kind of pre-election debate.
That new debate is whether Pennsylvania’s lieutenant governor and Democratic Senate candidate John Fetterman is fit to hold office, given his string of embarrassing appearances and speeches resulting from medical problems he’s experiencing from a stroke he had in May.
A clip making the rounds Thursday has many voters wondering if this guy should be anywhere near a campaign trail, let alone hold the voting and decision power of a U.S. senator. In the clip, posted by the Republican National Committee, Fetterman rambled on about … high school football? I think?
Here’s a rough transcription of his words: “I think that anyone who ever plays football in high school was, you know, at kind of a trade out kind of football camp and there wasn’t any interest I have come play here.”
According to the RNC’s YouTube channel, the video came from a Fetterman appearance at Penn State. Fetterman was campaigning at the school in State College, Pennsylvania, on Wednesday with Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro, the Democratic candidate for governor of the Keystone State.
The post had received more than 420,000 views by Thursday afternoon.
Not surprisingly, commenters on the Twitter post had mixed responses.
While many are either for or against Fetterman, politically speaking, many users reacted with what appears to be genuine sympathy, given that it appears Fetterman is seemingly being exploited and used by his family, his handlers and the Democratic Party with no regard for his post-stroke cognitive status.
“I have empathy for stroke victims. He needs time and help recovering with therapy. He does not need to continue this Senate campaign. He is not ready and his campaign managers/team need to stop this for his sake!” one Twitter user wrote.
I have empathy for stroke victims. He needs time and help recovering with therapy. He does not need to continue this Senate campaign. He is not ready and his campaign managers/team need to stop this for his sake!
The clip came in the wake of several interviews in which Fetterman provided scrambled, confusing, often incoherent responses to basic questions. CNN’s Don Lemon interviewed the Pennsylvania candidate recently and asked Fetterman about the white-hot inflation issue.
“What do you think the biggest cause of inflation is, and should the Biden administration be doing more?” Lemon asked Fetterman.
“Uh, I just do. I think that, that simply is also, yeah, let’s talk about the trillions in in massive tax or uh, tax uh, cuts to the corporate, uh, tax structure is well true …,” Fetterman responded.
No honest and reasonable person can watch Fetterman issue such responses and be excited to vote for him on Election Day. It’s absolutely tragic that he suffered a stroke and, as often pointed out by his critics, it would be better for Fetterman to sit this one out and take the time needed to recover properly.
We’re talking about the U.S. Senate — one of the highest elected offices an individual can hold in the United States. It’s a position that includes the power to make and change the laws that affect our daily lives.
Trusting Fetterman, in his current state, to make such critical decisions — when he can’t even correctly comprehend or answer simple debate questions — is a fool’s approach.
Fetterman’s Republican challenger, Dr. Mehmet Oz, admittedly isn’t the strongest Republican candidate out there. However, as more Pennsylvanians question Fetterman’s candidacy and watch him repeatedly display his poor health and inability to provide clear answers to concerned voters, it’s no wonder Oz is now overtaking him in the polls.
In one of the first post-debate polls from Emerson College Polling/The Hill, Oz, at 48 percent of support, now leads Fetterman, who garnered 46 percent of support. The poll indicated that 4 percent of respondents are still undecided, giving both candidates a last-ditch chance to earn those crucial votes.
The poll of 1,000 likely voters was conducted Oct. 28-31, and had a margin of error of 3 percentage points, according to Emerson College Polling
Spencer Kimball, executive director of Emerson College Polling, pointed to one particular tidbit from the latest poll that shows just how profound the impact of the Oct. 25 Fetterman-Oz debate was on voters.
“Of those who say they have heard, seen, or read a lot about the debate, Oz leads Fetterman 55 percent to 41 percent. Among those who have heard, seen, or read only a little or nothing about the debate, Fetterman leads 56 percent to 28 percent,” Kimball said, according to a news release.
We can speculate all day, but only next week will we know for sure what Pennsylvania voters are thinking. Are they willing to give Fetterman a medical pass, or will they come to their senses and realize that we need a healthy, sharp individual holding office?
Typically, when a plan falls apart, people will have contingencies to fall back on. Or, if you’re Batman, your contingencies have contingencies.
Given the way the Democrats’ midterm strategies have materialized, it’s safe to say Bruce Wayne is not an employee of President Joe Biden’s administration.
But you know who is employed by that administration? Chief of Staff Ronald Klain. And Klain’s latest remarks truly illustrate just how desperate Democrats have gotten as the 2022 midterm reckoning is rapidly approaching.
With various battleground races (such as Arizona and Pennsylvania) trending in the wrong direction for Democrats, Klain pulled a page straight from Batman’s biggest villains: Issuing ominous threats and hoping those threats will lead to others bending the knee.
Just watch this clip and try not to envision Klain’s face covered in Joker makeup:
“The president decided a few days ago that it was important to issue one final warning on this issue,” Klain said. “To make very clear to leave no doubt that we have people out there still peddling the big lie. People now raising the issue of election denial in this election.”
Klain’s words echo his boss’. Remember that blood-red background when Biden touted just how much danger democracy was in? Klain’s latest statements are just an extension of that mindset.
This desperate rhetoric from Democrats and the left is hardly a surprise.
What else are they going to campaign on with just days left until midterms? Out-of-control crime? Soaring inflation?
Honestly, threatening voters probably is a more sound strategy than promoting actual policy right now for the Democrats.
But just because it’s a “better” strategy hardly means it’s a viable one. This rhetoric from Biden and his camp are falling on deaf ears when it comes to voters (again, just look at what is happening in Arizona and Pennsylvania, but also New York, where a Republican gubernatorial candidate is running tight with the incumbent Democrat).
And making matters even worse for Democrats, the ears that their rhetoric does manage to penetrate aren’t having any of this nonsense.
Take, for instance, the panel on the wildly successful “Outnumbered” show on Fox News. They saw right through the ploy of Biden’s ongoing rhetoric:
“The threat of democracy only matters when it’s rhetoric because it’s all about getting those votes on the ballot,” Emily Compagno explained. “This just illustrates that their rhetoric — crime, migrant safety, education — it’s a sham and so are their principles.”
Harris Faulkner, took a different approach to her analysis. Forget the Democrat principles (they sure have), Faulkner was more worried about the left trying to hijack another narrative.
“They’re trying to change the optics of what it takes to win an election in five days,” Faulkner said. “But the truth of the matter is, he said to half the country, if you don’t vote for him, you’re going to break America.”
The effectiveness of the Biden administration’s latest rhetoric, to try and convince moderates or voters on the fence that a vote for the GOP is a vote for Armageddon, will be on full display in just a few short days.
Midterms will take place on Tuesday, and all the threats in the world won’t matter much once those votes are tabulated.
A protestor pointed out an inconvenient truth for former President Barack Obama during his Wednesday rally in support of Democratic candidates in Arizona.
Conservative social media personality Drew Hernandez reminded Obama that gubernatorial candidate Katie Hobbs has been held liable for discrimination against a former black employee in two civil discrimination lawsuits.
Hernandez filmed the stunt and even got a response from the 44th President himself.
BREAKING: Today I called out @BarackObama for supporting @katiehobbs , a woman running for AZ Gov who has a history of discriminating against BLACK PEOPLE at the Democrats Rally here in PHX, AZ
Democrat supporters unleashed screaming in my face and deported me from the rally pic.twitter.com/1noTXduzZ6
Hernandez shouted about Hobbs’ “discrimination against black people” as the crowd of Democrats began to boo his message.
The conservative influencer is referring to two different jury decisions in which ex-Arizona Senate Democrats aide Talonya Adams was ultimately awarded $2.75 million (capped at $300,000) from the state of Arizona as compensation for Hobbs’ discrimination, according to KPNX-TV.
Hobbs was the party’s Senate Minority Leader at the time.
Hobbs was accused of underpaying Adams, a black woman, in the discrimination case. After Adams brought up a pay inequity between her and other employees, Hobbs was one of several Arizona legislators who decided to fire her.
Democrat hecklers swarmed Mitt Romney’s 2012 campaign events, with the eventual loser of the election claiming Obama was responsible for sending them, according to Politico.
Former President Donald Trump wasn’t as politically correct with disruptive hecklers as Romney was. Agitators have staged stunts during events for Republicans running in Arizona this cycle, keeping the proud progressive tradition going.
Hernandez pointed out more Democratic hypocrisy as rally muscle escorted him out of the high school gym in which the event was held.
“The Democrats are deporting me again! Here we go.”
Obama got into a similar exchange with a heckler at a Michigan campaign event last month.
Republican New Hampshire Senate candidate and retired U.S. Army general Don Bolduc was attacked by a protester Wednesday before taking the stage for a debate with Sen. Maggie Hassan (D.), Bolduc’s campaign said.
“Prior to the debate, an individual in the crowd gathered outside attempted to punch the general and was quickly apprehended and arrested,” a spokesperson for Bolduc’s campaign told Boston 25 News.
Police in Goffstown, N.H., where the debate was held at Saint Anselm College, said the assailant was Joseph Hart, a 37-year-old from Rhode Island. Police said that before the attack the college told Hart he was not welcome on the property. After he attacked Bolduc, Hart was “taken into custody … and charged with criminal trespass and disorderly conduct.”
The attack comes as Democrats this week have accused Republicans of fostering a climate of political violence following a break-in and assault against Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s husband Paul Pelosi. The alleged assailant in that case, a Canadian citizen who police say broke into the Pelosis’ home with a hammer and zip ties, was in the United States illegally and faces possible deportation.
Kevin Donohoe, a spokesman for Hassan, condemned the attack on Bolduc and said the assailant was a libertarian activist who had run-ins with Hassan’s campaign staff.
“Disgusting behavior,” Donohoe said. “We saw this same libertarian party activist get aggressive with our campaign volunteers at this debate and the last.”
The attempted assault on Bolduc comes as polls show the Republican neck and neck with Hassan days ahead of the midterm election.
WASHINGTON (Reuters)—The U.S. Department of Energy on Thursday said it sold 15 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to six companies, completing the last batch of the largest-ever release from the stockpile announced by Joe Biden in March.
The contracts were awarded to Phillips 66, Marathon Petroleum Supply and Trading LLC, Shell Trading (US), Valero Marketing and Supply, Macquarie Commodities Trading US, and Equinor Marketing and Trading, the Energy Department said in a statement. Deliveries will take place from Dec. 1 to Dec. 31.
Biden sold 180 million barrels of oil from the reserve to fight oil prices that had spiked on concerns about Russia’s war on Ukraine, stronger demand as global consumers emerged from the pandemic, and U.S. drillers struggling at first to boost output.
The oil price jump helped push U.S. inflation to the highest level in 40 years.
The U.S. president announced a plan last month to begin refilling the stockpile when U.S. crude is around $70 a barrel, a level he said would allow drillers to profit while being a good deal for taxpayers. The U.S. benchmark was around $89 on Thursday.
The U.S. Treasury estimated that the 180 million barrel sale cut gasoline prices by up to about 40 cents per gallon compared to what they would have been absent the release.
But the sale also bled the SPR, meant to be a protection against shocks in energy markets, to the lowest level since May 1984. And it helped to sour U.S. relations with Saudi Arabia which sided with Russia in early October in a deep oil production cut.
Biden said on Oct. 19 the United States is ready to tap the SPR again early next year to rein in prices.
‘To claim that I’m not here, I don’t exist, I’m not human, that’s absolute ignorance,’ the Michigan Republican said
A Michigan resident and former Democrat whom Michigan gubernatorial candidate Tudor Dixon (R.) referenced in a debate last week called out CBS late night host Stephen Colbert for doubting his existence.
On Oct. 26 Colbert mocked Dixon on The Late Show for being “an anti-choice MAGA Republican” and said she “made up” a story about a man who left the Democratic Party. Colbert’s attempt to undermine Dixon’s comments came as Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D.) faces a tight gubernatorial race in the historically blue Michigan. With Election Day less than a week away, Democrats and the liberal media across the country are already bemoaning a probable red wave.
In the debate, Dixon relayed a conversation she had with Muslim-American Khalil Othman in which he expressed his concerns about sexually explicit books in his son’s school library.
“And he said,” Dixon recounted, leaving out Othman’s name, “‘I went to the Democrats and I said, I cannot believe that this is in there.’ … He said because Democrats won’t stand up for our children and go back to the basics, ‘I’m leaving the Democratic Party.'”
Colbert, before playing the clip on his show, referred to the man as a “guy she totally made up.” After the clip, Colbert responded, “Ok fine. That happened,” making sarcastic quotation marks with his hands.
But Othman confirmed to the Detroit Free Press that he is a real person and did make those comments at a Dixon rally a few days before the debate.
“To claim that I’m not here, I don’t exist, I’m not human, that’s absolute ignorance,” Othman, a former Dearborn, Mich., city council candidate, told the Free Press. “If [Colbert] did his due diligence and start researching or has his team do a little bit of research of who’s this person who attended Dixon’s rally, they will be able to find my name right away easy on social media. Just Google it.”
Othman referred to a Facebook post he made with pictures from the Oct. 21 rally.
“Ever since immigrating to this great country almost 20 years ago, I’ve been a loyal Democrat,” Othman wrote in his Facebook post. “Never once did I ever vote Republican. However, the situation with the sexually explicit material in the schools was for me a bridge too far. When it comes to my kids and my family, I will not budge. Family before party!”
Dixon’s campaign confirmed Dixon was referencing Othman in her speech. On Sunday, Dixon responded to Colbert’s blunder.
“I told his story … and Stephen Colbert picks it up. … And they make this whole skit about how this has never happened. That’s what he said, this story never happened. That’s where the Democrats are right now. You don’t exist, your stories are not important.”
“Right now, it’s a crunch time for both candidates,” Othman said. “And [Colbert’s] trying whatever he can do with his media influence to hurt her campaign. He doesn’t know me.”
Critics say Biden admin shunning conservative prime minister
The Biden administration will not say when the president plans on calling newly elected Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to congratulate him on his victory, drawing accusations the U.S. administration is trying to isolate the conservative Jewish leader before he even takes office.
Asked on Thursday afternoon if President Joe Biden has any plans to phone Netanyahu following his victory this week in the Israeli elections, a White House spokesman told the Washington Free Beacon, “We don’t have any call to preview at this point.”
The Israeli media reported on Thursday that Biden is expected to call Netanyahu some time over the weekend, citing the U.S. president’s packed schedule campaigning around America’s midterm elections. But the White House would not confirm these reports when asked by the Free Beacon.
Biden called Brazil’s newly elected far-left president-elect, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, on Monday, just a day after that country’s elections. This discrepancy is fueling accusations the Biden administration is taking a chilly approach to its diplomacy with Netanyahu, who made history by being elected as Israel’s prime minister for the third time.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told the Free Beacon that the president’s delay in calling Netanyahu “is not an accident.”
“President Biden rushed to call Lula, a committed anti-American Chavista, but is finding every possible excuse not to call the next Prime Minister of Israel. That is not an accident,” Cruz said. “Biden has spent his entire administration undermining America’s allies and boosting America’s enemies. The next Republican Congress is going to leverage aggressive oversight and legislation to reverse that recklessness.”
This is not the first time Biden has been accused of dissing Netanyahu. It took Biden nearly a month to call Netanyahu upon taking office in 2021, fueling speculation Biden was trying to create some distance with Israel after four years of warm relations under former president Donald Trump. When outgoing Israeli prime minister Naftali Bennett was elected, it took Biden just two hours to call and congratulate him.
Omri Ceren, a national security adviser for Cruz, said reports that Biden is too busy campaigning to call Netanyahu are “nonsense.”
“Biden found time call [sic] Lula the day after his election—and that was on Monday so it’s not like Biden wasn’t midterm campaigning,” Ceren wrote on Twitter. “Also if he calls this weekend, it will still be before the midterms. Why can’t this [administration] just admit what their foreign policy is?”
On Wednesday, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre declined to comment on Netanyahu’s win, even as it became clear he was poised to emerge victorious in the elections. “It is too early to speculate, as you know, on the exact composition of the next governing coalition until all the votes are counted.”
Netanyahu’s conservative coalition is set to take over Israel’s government once the results are formally certified on Nov. 9. The Biden administration found a willing partner in Israel’s outgoing prime minister Yair Lapid, whose liberal government more closely aligned with the Democratic administration and its effort to funnel millions of dollars to the Palestinian government.
Conflict with the Biden administration is much more likely under Netanyahu’s leadership, particularly in light of the U.S. government’s efforts to reopen diplomacy with the Palestinian government even as it incites attacks against Israel and pays convicted terrorists and their families’ stipends.
Netanyahu enjoyed close relations with former president Donald Trump and helped his administration take the historic step of recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s undivided capital city. The Trump-Netanyahu alliance also brokered a historic set of peace agreements between Israel and its former Arab foes in Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates. The Biden administration, upon taking office, initially had a policy of not referring to these peace agreements by their formal name, the Abraham Accords, the Free Beaconreported at the time.
Column: The policies responsible for the coming Democratic disaster
New York governor Kathy Hochul is a case study in denial. The unelected Democrat is in trouble because she won’t acknowledge the danger of rising crime. When challenger Lee Zeldin, a Republican congressman from Long Island, brought up public safety during last week’s debate, Hochul scoffed. “I don’t know why that’s so important to you,” she said. She might as well have stuck her tongue out at voters. Support for Zeldin has surged in recent days.
Hochul may yet win. New York hasn’t voted for a Republican governor since 2002. Whatever the outcome—and Zeldin has a path to victory—the takeaway is clear: Crime is once again a matter of national concern.
Look at the polls. Sixty-one percent of registered voters told the Pew Research Center this month that violent crime is very important to their midterm vote. An October Gallup poll had crime in third place, after the economy and abortion. The October Fox poll showed that crime was second only to inflation in voters’ minds. According to another recent Gallup survey, a record 56 percent of Americans say there is more crime in their area than there was last year.
Hochul blames this sentiment on mass delusion. “These are master manipulators,” she told MSNBC on October 30. “They have this conspiracy going all across America trying to convince people in Democratic states that they’re not safe.” Hochul didn’t say who “they” are. She meant Republicans.
The truth is that Hochul is the one who’s out of touch. The reason voters are worried about crime is that crime has been rising. Sensational stories of subway murders, carjackings, kidnappings, and shoplifting are not isolated events. Murder and assaults have increased nationwide since 2019. Murder has dropped off somewhat since the beginning of this year, but the decline has been unevenly distributed and other forms of violent crime are going up. The lawlessness that spread across the country in 2020 hasn’t abated.
Nor do voters believe that Democrats can restore order. An ABC News-Ipsos poll from October showed that a measly 22 percent of registered voters trust Democrats to handle crime. Thirty-seven percent trust the GOP. Republicans also had a 15-point advantage over Democrats on crime in the October Fox poll.
The trend is visible in individual campaigns. In September, Mandela Barnes was tied with Republican senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin. Then Johnson’s campaign and Mitch McConnell’s Senate Leadership Fund began running ads that attacked Barnes’s positions on crime. Johnson has been in the lead since. Also in September, John Fetterman was ahead of Mehmet Oz in the race for Pennsylvania’s open Senate seat. Then the crime ads went up. Oz began to gain.
The attacks work because Progressive Democrats like Barnes and Fetterman hold views on crime that are outside the mainstream. Over the past decade, the movement for criminal justice reform radicalized into advocacy for emptying prisons, or decarceration. Progressive prosecutors such as Kim Foxx in Chicago, Larry Krasner in Philadelphia, George Gascón in Los Angeles, Chesa Boudin in San Francisco, and Alvin Bragg in New York City refused to press charges for many crimes and sought light sentences for the infractions they did pursue. In 2019, New York ended cash bail for most felonies and misdemeanors. In 2020, Progressive Democrats began slashing police budgets.
Criminals maneuver easily within such permissive environments. Most cities are sanctuaries that do not cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Nonprofits and local governments subsidize alcohol and drug addiction. Homeless encampments dot the landscape. The scent of highly potent legal marijuana fills the air. In Baltimore, squeegee kids harass motorists. In New York, turnstile jumping is rampant. Major retail chains have closed locations in downtown San Francisco, Philadelphia, and D.C. Antisocial behavior has flourished.
The Progressive Left rejected the lessons of the past. They repudiated the legacy of the tough-on-crime 1990s, when Democrats and Republicans alike built prisons, imposed harsh sentences on criminals, hired more police officers, used the death penalty, and adopted “broken windows” and community policing techniques. Progressives continued to pursue their false notion of social justice even as the body count went up. They ignored the voters yelling stop.
In the spring of 2020, left-wing data scientist David Shor shared research on his social media account that showed Republicans deriving electoral benefit from voter backlash against riots. He was fired from his job. In November 2020, Republicans proved Shor’s point by unexpectedly picking up 14 House seats. The Left didn’t bat an eye.
True, President Biden avoided the “Defund the Police” slogan. He promised to spend more money on law enforcement while cracking down on guns. His message was drowned out by the apostles of the cultural Left in politics, education, and the media, who condemn policing and sentencing as racist and the criminal justice system as irredeemable. The ineffectual Biden has little sway over the pandering governors and loopy prosecutors behind the crime surge.
The commitment to decarceration and decriminalization persists. Neither Eric Adams’s election as mayor of New York nor the recall of Chesa Boudin in San Francisco has halted it. New York’s bail reform may be responsible for Kathy Hochul’s defeat, yet Illinois governor J.B. Pritzker wants a similar measure to take effect in the Prairie State next year.
The New York Times expresses wonderment that voters in Kenosha, Wis., blame incumbent Democratic governor Tony Evers for presiding over the riot that turned their city into a burned-out husk—the nerve! The scourge of crime may elect Oz to the U.S. Senate, yet District Attorney Krasner is focused more on potential election interference. “We have handcuffs, we have jail cells, and we have juries who will be here,” he said at a press conference on extremism this week. That news might come as a surprise to anyone who’s followed his career. Now that Krasner has acknowledged the existence of cuffs and jails, maybe he can use them to lock up the crooks terrorizing Philadelphia?
He won’t. Krasner and company are ideologues who believe that they are insulated from the destructive consequences of their own agendas. Voters are about to teach Progressive Democrats a lesson: Crime doesn’t pay.
Florida-based hedge fund Elliott Management recently warned clients in a letter obtained by media outlets that the world is “on the path to hyperinflation” and a financial crisis so severe that it could even lead to societal collapse.
The letter, as reported by the Financial Times and Business Insider, urged clients to remain vigilant as the global economy and financial markets face “extremely challenging” circumstances in which investors will find it hard to turn a profit.
Elliott, which is one of the world’s biggest hedge funds, with some $56 billion in assets under management, warned of “frightening and seriously negative possibilities” on the horizon while putting much of the blame for the looming crisis on ultra-loose central bank policies.
The letter said that central bankers had been “dishonest” about the causes of high inflation now gripping many countries when policymakers blamed price spikes on supply-chain dislocations rather than the pandemic-era flood of easy money.
Reinforcing the view that the current bout of inflation wasn’t a supply-side phenomenon, a team of economists found in a recent study that around 60 percent of inflation in the United States was caused by a stimulus-fueled surge in demand, though supply-chain bottlenecks made it worse.
While noting that it’s not a foregone conclusion, the hedge fund warned that the world is on the road to hyperinflation, which could result in “global societal collapse or international strife.”
Elliott also warned of more big drops in major stock markets and the possibility of a “seriously adverse unwind of the everything bubble.”
The Epoch Times has reached out to Elliott Management with a request for confirmation of the contents of the letter and comment on its projections, but did not receive a response from the hedge fund.
With its dire prediction, Elliott joins other prominent voices who have warned that the global economy is headed for a worse outcome than the Wall Street consensus view for a period of sluggish growth followed by a relatively short and shallow recession.
‘Stagflationary Debt Crisis’
Economist Nouriel Roubini, who’s been dubbed “Dr. Doom” for his gloomy-yet-accurate prediction of the 2008 market meltdown, told Bloomberg in a recent interview that the United States is back in Great Financial Crisis territory—but now there are even more problems and cause for concern.
“In addition to the economic, monetary, and financial risks—and there are new ones—now we’re going toward stagflation like we’ve never seen since the 1970s,” Roubini said during an appearance on the “Bloomberg Surveillance” program on Oct. 25, where he warned of a looming debt crisis as borrowing costs surge as central banks hike rates feverishly in a desperate bid to tame runaway inflation.
Roubini said private and public debt levels globally have exploded from 200 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2000 to around 350 percent of GDP today, with the economist blaming ultra-loose central bank policies that made borrowing cheap and encouraged households, businesses, and countries to take on ever bigger debt loads, even though many were barely solvent.
“That’s why we’re not only going to have inflation and stagflation but we’ll have a stagflationary debt crisis,” Roubini predicted.
‘Something Worse’ Than a Hard Recession
JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon recently predicted the likelihood of a downturn in the U.S economy and warned that “something worse” than a hard recession could be on the horizon.
“Right now, it’s kind of sunny, things are doing fine. Everyone thinks the Federal Reserve can handle this. That hurricane is right out there, down the road, coming our way. We just don’t know if it’s a minor one or Superstorm Sandy,” he said at a banking conference in midsummer.
Dimon broke down the odds for several possible outcomes for the economy.
“What is out there? There are storm clouds. Rates, QT [quantitative tightening], oil, Ukraine, war, China,” Dimon said. “If I had to put odds: soft landing 10 percent. Harder landing, mild recession, 20 percent, 30 percent. Harder recession, 20 percent, 30 percent. And maybe something worse at 20 percent to 30 percent.”
Roubini said in his interview on Bloomberg that he continues to believe that it’s “delusional” for analysts to expect a short and shallow recession and that he’s convinced it will be long and severe.
An even worse possibility is if a number of “mega trends” materialize and feed off each other—including geopolitical risks and the rise of job-killing AI and automation—leading to a “dystopian future,” Roubini warned.
“It’s not just the end of the world economy … it could be even global war.”
Tuomas Malinen, CEO and chief economist at GnS Economics, a Helsinki-based macroeconomic consultancy, wrote in a recent op-ed in The Epoch Times that central banks have helped create a “self-sustaining process of inflation” that could continue to spiral into hyperinflation.
Democrats didn’t address voters’ concerns, says Richard Baris
Richard Baris, director of Big Data Poll (BDP), says polling has been misused by media to influence voters and donors. Polling has become more inaccurate, especially in the last four election cycles, because it lacks balance, integrity, and transparency, Baris added.
BDP has been more accurate in its predictions of election winners and recently found that there is a large enough swing among college-educated, independent voters to likely make a historic impact in the upcoming midterm elections.
This group of independents also includes “a lot of suburban women, which is fueling, overall, a lead for the Republican Party on the generic ballot that is pretty historic,” Baris said during an interview for EpochTV’s “American Thought Leaders” program. The full interview will premiere on Thursday, November 3 at 7:30pm ET on EpochTV.
The generic ballot is a political poll that asks which political party the person would vote for if the election were held that day, rather than which specific candidate they plan to vote for.
Many polls, including BDP, found a margin of 17 to 18 points for independent, suburban women voters that live in metro-suburban regions who are leaning toward the GOP, Baris said.
Baris said Trump was able to grab the majority of rural votes in his 2016 victory but had trouble with these other areas, and “those are the regions right now that are moving so fast away from Democrats,” he said. “And the impact is likely to be greater than we think.”
The vast majority of pollsters do not have enough empathy or humility to be effective at their jobs and get a diverse enough polling sample because they don’t even like the voters they are trying to poll, Baris said.
Gas prices—seen here at more than $7 a gallon—are displayed at a Chevron gas station in Mill Valley, Calif., on Oct. 3, 2022. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
Besides the swing of independent suburban women, history is on the side of the Republicans because typically, the sitting president’s party loses in the House and Senate races, particularly when the economy is in such chaos, said Baris.
The only time in recent history when that has not been true was in 2002, because the United States had just gone through 9/11 and voters felt the GOP and President George W. Bush could better protect the nation from terrorists, he said.
Baris said Democrats were trying to create that level of fear with the Jan. 6 Commission.
“Unfortunately for them, that’s just not what voters want to vote on. Voters are voting on cost-of-living, inflation, economy, and jobs,” he said. “The overwhelming sentiment is a sentiment that things cost too much, things are out of control, and that we need to make a change.”
Baris believes there were voters in 2020 who had no complaints about the Trump economy but voted for Biden because they didn’t like the turbulence of Trump’s presidency.
“It wasn’t that they didn’t approve of how Trump handled the economy,” he said. “It’s just the boat was rocking every day, and they were getting nauseous from it.”
People shop at a supermarket in Montebello, Calif., on Aug. 23, 2022. (Frederic J. Brown/AFP/Getty Images)
Democrats Focus on the Wrong Issues
Baris said the Democrats miscalculated the reason they won the presidency in 2020.
Voters in the 2020 election were not “repudiating the Republican message and repudiating Donald Trump and affirming [the Democrats],” said Baris. Because of their wrong assessment, Democrats have emphasized things like Jan. 6, the Paul Pelosi attack, and abortion over the economy, which is now costing them.
“They expect Americans to just drop everything, not care that they can’t fill up their grocery cart, not care that they can’t fill up their gas tank, not care that they can’t purchase new clothes for their kids—or at least, maybe they can, but it’s a lot more than it was two years ago,” Baris said. “They want them to drop all of those concerns for their latest distraction, and Americans just aren’t doing it. They’re not going to do it”
The economy, inflation, and jobs are foremost on voters’ minds, and immigration and abortion come in around No. 3 for voters, he said.
The vast majority of voters who say abortion is their top concern are Democrats, and nearly the same number of independents will cite illegal immigration and border security as their no. 1 issue, he said.
Crime comes in at about No. 5 on the list of national voters’ concerns, said Baris, but it rises to No. 2 with rank distribution.
“Sometimes we like to use something called rank distribution, which will actually ask people to choose your No. 1 issue, but then rank them in the order of importance,” he said. With this method, “abortion falls every time in rank distribution because it’s not cited broadly.”
Votes are counted by staff at the Maricopa County Elections Department office in Phoenix on Nov. 5, 2020. (Courtney Pedroza/Getty Images)
Election Integrity Concerns
Voters in swing states like Arizona, Florida, and Georgia cite election security and integrity as a top concern and want tighter voting laws like Voter ID and limited mail-in ballots, Baris said.
These same states, especially Georgia, have seen record voter turnout despite Democrats saying that Georgia’s voting laws were suppressing the vote and discriminating against black and minority voters.
“The bottom line is there never was evidence to suggest [voter suppression], and the share of minority vote has consistently gone up,” said Baris.
Arizona Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake during a rally in Chandler, Ariz., on Oct. 18, 2022. (Allan Stein/The Epoch Times)
Governor’s Races
Baris said the Democrat Party put enormous amounts of money (50–1) into the governor’s race in Pennsylvania, and BDP shows Republican Doug Mastriano down four points from his Democrat challenger, Josh Shapiro. Consequently, he expects Mastriano to lose next week, but there is still a chance he could make a surprise win, Baris said.
“The Democrats are smart enough to know that Pennsylvania is the Keystone State for a reason. And if you can control Pennsylvania during a presidential election, you can deny someone the presidency,” he said. “I mean, that’s a reality.”
In Arizona, BDP has Republican Kari Lake in the lead for governorship, but the Senate races there are too close in polling to predict. If Lake can win over the independent voters, Baris believes she will definitely win over Democrat Katie Hobbs.
Citizens should be aware that counting votes is different from state to state, and it may take up to a week before a final winner is called, Baris said. In states like Washington, which take longer to count mail-in ballots, it may initially appear that the Democrat candidate has won, he said.
“And then over a number of days, as more Election Day vote is counted, it’ll chip away and get tighter and tighter and tighter, kind of a reverse effect of what we’re going to see in some of these other states like Pennsylvania,” he said.
CRIME, ACCORDING TO “EXPERTS” DOES NOT OCCUR, BECAUSE IT IS UNLAWFUL.
No one reads the Twitter fact checks. That’s what they rely upon, anyway. Which is why they are able to cite such openly ludicrous information in the face of serious voter fraud allegations.
On Wednesday, nationally syndicated radio personality Jesse Kelly alleged: “PRO TIP: If your state cannot count every vote on election night, there’s cheating in your state. Entire nations count their votes on Election Day. If you can’t, it’s because you don’t want to.”
Almost immediately, Kelly’s tweet was restricted, unable to be shared, and branded with a “Misleading” label. So I clicked it, to find out what, in particular, was misleading.
PRO TIP: If your state cannot count every vote on election night, there’s cheating in your state. Entire nations count their votes on Election Day.
The Twitter link leads to a hodgepodge of information clearly not suited to the average voter. It begins: “Voter fraud is rare in US elections, according to Reuters, The Associated Press and election experts. Moreover, other forms of absentee balloting – such as mail-in voting and ballot drop boxes – include ‘built-in checks’ to ensure security and reliability, fact-checkers report.”
Pretty vague. And the last time I checked, Reuters and the Associated Press are not independent election observers. Anonymized, or unnamed “election experts” also scarcely constitute a “fact check”. So, we have to dip deeper.
The first citation provided is, in fact, to a Reuters article from August 2020, re-shared to Twitter on April 2022. The article is also anonymized, using the byline “Reuters Staff” instead of attributing the work to a named human being. The headline reads: “Fact check: Post showing mail ballot applications from past tenants misleadingly oversimplifies voter fraud.
This part is interesting because even in the Reuters headline it doesn’t claim voter fraud is non-existent, nor does it refer to all allegations of voter fraud. Rather, the article appears to explicitly deal with one, singular post shared by a U.S. Air Force veteran in Texas, dating back to May 23, 2020. The post doesn’t relate to Texas, but rather, Michigan, underscoring the point that this was not a claim being made by the veteran, but rather, was a meme being shared at the time.
Perhaps even more curiously, Reuters explains:
To allege that this tenant could “send all these in and receive 5 ballots to vote” is misleading. Experts consulted by Reuters explained that while a voter might receive erroneous absentee ballot applications, to send these applications back, receive somebody else’s ballot and then submit it, would be committing a series of crimes.
This is in no way a “fact check” of the meme, nor of Jesse Kelly’s claim. The “election expert” cited beneath this explanation – that crime cannot be committed because it would be illegal to do so – is former Michigan state election director, Christopher Thomas.
Thomas was appointed by Michigan Democrat Secretary of State Richard Austin in 1981, and has most recently been sharing links to left-wing websites in support of the anti-life Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel. He was also appointed to the Presidential Commission on Election Administration by President Barack Obama.
Thomas – now a “fellow” at the Bipartisan Policy Center – run by President Obama’s former energy advisor Jason Grumet and funded by major U.S. corporations – actually admitted that the 2020 election was “not perfect” and recently made a similar point to Kelly: that mail-in ballot returns should not take days to tabulate and disclose.
Twitter’s second link in “debunking” Kelly’s opinion is simply a tweet by a Turkish graduate student at Georgetown University, who also writes “fact checks” for Reuters.
Reuters Fact Check re-examined how and why voter fraud is exceedingly rare in the U.S. ahead of the 2022 midterms: https://t.co/YlwLLGFfAh
Togrul’s article quotes more “experts” who claim that because they have found no evidence of mass voter fraud, it does not exist. The link also provides plenty of evidence to show that voter fraud – despite their claims over small numbers – is prevalent in American elections.
Twitter’s third link in its “fact check” of Kelly is somehow even more vague: a mid-thread tweet, once again from Reuters, which states: “Ahead of the 2020 presidential election and afterwards, Reuters addressed multiple allegations by social media users claiming to show evidence of voter fraud. These cases, however, had logical explanations, such as miscaptioned imagery and footage taken out of context.”
Ahead of the 2020 presidential election and afterwards, Reuters addressed multiple allegations by social media users claiming to show evidence of voter fraud. These cases, however, had logical explanations, such as miscaptioned imagery and footage taken out of context
This “fact check” thread goes on, plonking random articles from Reuters and the Associated Press together with no discernible order, nor context.
Perhaps the greatest “tell” about the dishonesty in all of this is the lack of evidence presented to the contrary, of which there exists plenty.
The Heritage Foundation, for example, maintains a database of reported election fraud incidents alongside the ramifications. An Alaska election, not mentioned by Reuters, the Associated Press, or Twitter, saw one in 12 ballots rejected due to postal errors and voter identity discrepancies.
The “fact check” leaves out AP’s own claim from 2020, that mass mail-in voting has “featured high-profile errors – 100,000 faulty mail ballots sent out in New York, 50,000 in Columbus, Ohio, and a vendor supplying that state and Pennsylvania blaming delays in sending ballots on overwhelming demand.”
In reality, the “fact check” is simply a mechanism by which to suppress constitutionally protected speech – Jesse Kelly’s informed opinion – and mislead the wider public about the dangers of mass, mail-in voting.
If Elon Musk is serious about “freeing the bird,” he will put an end to such antediluvian methods of stacking the information decks towards one side or another.
The man who allegedly attacked Paul Pelosi is an illegal immigrant, U.S. officials have confirmed.
“U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) lodged an immigration detainer on Canadian national David DePape with San Francisco County Jail, Nov. 1, following his Oct. 28 arrest,” the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) told The Epoch Times in an email.
DHS is the parent agency of ICE, which is tasked with removing people who are in the United States illegally.
Immigration detainers are placed on suspects who are illegal immigrants. They are meant to prevent state or local officials from releasing the suspects.
If a suspect is due to be released, the detainer means officials hand over the person to federal officials, unless local officials defy the request.
Adam Lipson, DePape’s public defender, indicated after DePape’s arraignment this week that he was representing an illegal immigrant.
“He currently has a federal hold so he can’t be released anyway,” Lipson told reporters when asked about the motion for no bail entered by the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office.
Lipson could not be reached for comment.
A Canadian government spokesperson told The Epoch Times via email that Canadian officials “are engaging with local authorities” but declined to provide more information.
“Nobody in America should be victimized by an illegal alien. The illegal alien crime rate here should be exactly 0.0%,” the National Border Patrol Council, the Border Patrol’s union, said in a statement.
Immigration records show DePape entered the United States in March 2008 as a temporary visitor.
Canadians are generally admitted without a visa if they are visiting for business or pleasure and can typically stay in the United States for up to six months.
DePape is set to appear again in San Francisco court on Friday.
In an aerial view, San Francisco police officers and FBI agents gather in front of the home of U.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi in San Francisco, Calif., on Oct. 28, 2022. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
Allegations
According to charging documents and the motion to detain, DePape broke into the Pelosi residence early Oct. 28 and found Paul Pelosi in a bedroom. DePape asked about Paul Pelosi’s wife, U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). Paul Pelosi said she was not there. According to the U.S. Capitol Police, Nancy Pelosi was in Washington.
DePape later assaulted Paul Pelosi in front of police officers who responded to a 911 call Paul Pelosi made.
DePape told officers that he was “sick of the insane [expletive] level of lies coming out of Washington, D.C.,” and that he “came here to have a little chat” with Nancy Pelosi, according to court documents. DePape said he intended to take Nancy Pelosi hostage and ask her questions. If she did not tell the truth, he said, he would break her kneecaps.
DePape said that Nancy Pelosi would then have to be wheeled into Congress, “which would show other Members of Congress there were consequences to actions,” according to an FBI affidavit supporting the federal charges against the man.
DePape also said he wanted to use Nancy Pelosi to “lure” another person to the scene, but authorities have not identified that person. DePape had multiple targets, including a local professor, according to the district attorney’s office.
DePape pleaded not guilty to all state charges, including attempted murder, on Tuesday. He faces up to life in prison if convicted.
David DePape, the suspect in the hammer attack on Paul Pelosi, has embraced left-wing and right-wing conspiracy theories, according to the lawyer who has been in touch with DePape’s former girlfriend.
The former girlfriend, Oxane “Gypsy” Taub, is herself in a women’s prison for 20 crimes involving a teen boy.
Taub’s attorney, Christopher Dobbins, told The Epoch Times on Nov. 2 that based on his conversations with Taub the theories about DePape being a right-wing extremist seem to be off base.
Dobbins thinks DePape tends to believe conspiracy theories in general, whether they’re left-wing or right-wing.
“He’s all over the place,” Dobbins said.
Dobbins said he has heard from Taub by phone frequently since news broke that DePape, 42, was arrested in the Oct. 28 breach of the Pelosi mansion in San Francisco. She has expressed a lot of concern for DePape, Dobbins said.
Taub has been trying to raise funds for DePape’s defense, Dobbins said.
Oxane “Gypsy” Taub, 53, ex-girlfriend of hammer attack suspect David DePape, is shown in a mugshot dated Dec. 15, 2021. (Courtesy California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation)
Statements from Dobbins and a neighbor shed new light on DePape’s unorthodox lifestyle, his apparent homelessness, and his thought processes.
“Even though he’s probably Public Enemy No. 1 right now,” and DePape and Taub have apparently been estranged for a while, Taub still cares for her ex, Dobbins said.
She thinks he’s deeply troubled and has serious mental issues, Dobbins said. The two have known each other for many years and both were pictured in San Francisco newspapers in 2013 when they were protesting city ordinances banning public nudity.
Taub asked Dobbins to defend DePape; Dobbins said he declined the offer, choosing to steer away from a potential conflict of interest involving his representation of Taub.
Lawyer Contests ‘Fixated’ Claim
DePape is the father of two of Taub’s three children. A daughter, fathered by another man, is grown; two boys, in their late teens or early adulthood, have been living alone at their mother’s property during her legal troubles, Dobbins said.
Now 53, Taub is imprisoned near Los Angeles for offenses involving a teen boy, prosecutors said in a news release when a jury convicted her in August 2021.
Dobbins points out that his client testified in her own defense, and she still asserts that she is innocent. She testified that her actions toward the boy were misinterpreted.
The teen was a schoolmate of one of her sons, and Taub was convinced the boy was being abused, Dobbins said. She believed she was being helpful to him, as she was repeatedly contacting him after being told to stop, Dobbins said. But “she never touched him,” he declared.
David DePape’s former camper van currently belonging to his ex-girlfriend Oxane Taub, in Berkeley, Calif., on Oct. 30, 2022 (Lear Zhou/The Epoch Times).
Prosecutors, however, said Taub “became fixated on a 14-year-old boy in 2018,” and committed the offenses.
That was how the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office put it in a news release.
Prosecutors issued the release in August 2021 after a jury found Taub guilty of four felonies—attempted child abduction, stalking, and two counts of dissuading a witness—plus 16 misdemeanors: a count of molestation and 15 violations of court orders to stay away from the boy.
“Over the course of 14 months, she sent him numerous obsessive emails, created blogs directed at him, used his friends to send him messages, and eventually tried to abduct him a few blocks from his school in Berkeley,” the release said. “While the case was pending, Taub also tried to dissuade the victim from testifying.”
DePape Lived in School Bus
Dobbins, who was a schoolteacher before he became an attorney 14 years ago, said Taub is one of the most interesting, unusual clients he has ever encountered.
He described her as a free spirit and a well-intentioned idealist who can be misunderstood. “She is a kind of out-there person, kind of pushing the envelope,” he said, acknowledging that her nudist, bohemian lifestyle irritates her neighbors; he said he had visited the area several times.
David DePape’s former house, camper van, and yellow school bus that belong to his former girlfriend, Oxane Taub, in Berkeley, Calif., on Oct. 30, 2022 (Lear Zhou/The Epoch Times).
Ryan La Coste, who resides near the house where Taub lived in the 1500 block of Woolsey St., Berkeley, Calif., told The Epoch Times that he only saw DePape “in passing,” but he believes DePape sometimes lived in a yellow school bus that is parked at the property.
Authorities have said they believe DePape mostly was living in a garage on Shasta Street in Richmond, Calif., for the past two years.
La Coste said DePape sporadically showed up in the Berkeley neighborhood even after Taub was incarcerated. La Coste believes he most recently saw DePape staying in the bus a couple of months ago.
La Coste has lived in the neighborhood for five or six years. Right after he moved in, “the problems started immediately” at Taub’s house, he said.
“Children was setting fires out here. They were dressed in like snorkeling gear and swim trunks, setting fires and smoke was coming into my house,” he said. “So I was like, trying to go tell their mother, not knowing who she was.”
Ryan La Coste, neighbor directly behind David DePape’s former house currently belonging to his former girlfriend Oxane Taub at 1526 Woolsey Street in Berkeley, Calif., on Oct. 30, 2022. (Lear Zhou/The Epoch Times).
Later that evening, he got a call that was “super-weird,” he said. “They said I threatened to kill her children…and it just got worse and worse from there…it was just kind of like a constant flow of bugging me and disturbing me and trying to pick fights with me.”
That stopped only after Taub was locked up on the charges involving the young boy. She is eligible for parole in January, court records show.
La Coste described DePape and a parade of other “characters” coming and going at Taub’s property, “almost like a hippie collective.”
“They’ve had people camping right here, trying to sell me drugs over the fence,” he said, “And, you know, they’re active nudists; they’re plastered all over the internet.”
Even Taub’s sons have been known to be “just standing there, naked,” La Coste said, even in front of his 13-year-old niece.
Psychedelic Experiences?
La Coste also said he found it strange that Taub was enamored of a psychoactive substance called ibogaine—which she would go to Mexico to obtain and then frequently offered to others, including him.
Ibogaine is found in the African rainforest shrub known as Tabernanthe Iboga. “It is unlicensed but used in the treatment of drug and alcohol addiction,” according to a 2016 report in the National Library of Medicine. “However, reports of ibogaine’s toxicity are cause for concern.”
Asked to respond to La Coste’s statements about ibogaine, Dobbins acknowledged that his client testified about the drug during her trial last year, and acknowledged that she tried to offer it to the young man she was hanging around.
A modified pride flag with cannabis leaves at the front entrance of David DePape’s former house currently belonging to his former girlfriend, Oxane Taub, in Berkeley, Calif., on Oct. 30, 2022 (Lear Zhou/The Epoch Times).
Taub mistakenly believed that Alameda County Superior Court Judge Mark McCannon and jurors would understand “that healing was her big thing,” Dobbins said, and she believes ibogaine “is supposed to be mind-healing.” Dobbins thinks her testimony backfired.
Dobbins said Taub is a native of Moscow, Russia, and she believed in having her day in court in America, so she turned down a plea deal and a very short prison term. She was sentenced to more than six years in prison but is able to get out early under California laws that give credit for discipline-free behavior.
Dobbins knew nothing about a business filed in 2019 under Taub’s name, called Life on the Street Support Services Inc., but he said it fit with his understanding of her desire to assist others.
La Coste said Taub and the people who hang around her house are hard to figure out. While they profess to be “all loving and everything,” a surprising amount of anger comes out of the house.
They put up flags and signs supporting various groups and causes, yet, La Coste said, “they’ll turn around and be extremely rude to their neighbors.”
New Hampshire’s Republican Senate candidate Donald C. Bolduc was the victim of an attempted assault moments before his Nov. 2 debate against incumbent Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.), his campaign announced.
According to video footage circulating online, Bolduc was among a cheering crowd of supporters outside the New Hampshire Institute of Politics on the Saint Anselm College campus late on Wednesday when the attacker, who hasn’t been identified, allegedly “hit” him.
“He hit me. He hit me,” Bolduc is heard shouting in the clip, although it is unclear from the video owing to law enforcement quickly apprehending the suspect and blocking the view.
Bolduc, a retired Army brigadier general, also mentioned the incident near the end of the second and final debate ahead of the Nov. 8 midterm elections.
“It’s a sign of political problems—Republicans and Democrats—that fuel issues with people that get them to the point where they are just so upset at an individual that they strike out at them. Happened to me outside just before I came in,” Bolduc said, noting that this kind of behavior is wrong and needs to be stopped.
The Army veteran referred to the attack while responding to a question from a moderator who asked what he would do to prevent incidents of political violence in the United States such as the recent hammer attack against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband Paul.
Angie Wong, a spokeswoman for Bolduc’s campaign, denounced the incident on social media, confirming that Bolduc was unharmed and “his attacker arrested.”
“We’ve got to stop the political violence encouraged by hate speeches from our leaders. [Bolduc] was attacked before his debate tonight. Luckily he is ok and his attacker arrested,” Wong said on Twitter.
It is unclear if the assailant is a supporter of the Republican nominee’s Democrat opponent.
The New Hampshire Goffstown Police Department was unable to comment on the matter Thursday night.
According to Kevin Donohoe, Hassan’s campaign communications director, the suspect is a “libertarian party activist” who also targeted volunteers of Hassan’s campaign.
“Disgusting behavior. We saw this same libertarian party activist get aggressive with our campaign volunteers at this debate and the last,” Donohoe claimed on Twitter.
The Senate race in New Hampshire has tightened considerably in the last month. A recent poll conducted by the Saint Anselm College Survey Center showed Bolduc having a one-point lead as the two vie for a key Senate seat.
‘Failed Policies’
During Wednesday’s final debate, Bolduc, who served 10 tours in Afghanistan and was awarded two Purple Hearts, framed Hassan as “a career politician” while pointing to record-high inflation under the administration of President Joe Biden, whom he said Hassan “100 percent supports.”
Senegalese Chief of Staff Mamadou Sow (C) awards U.S. Gen. Donald C. Bolduc (L) with the officer decoration of the National Order of the Lion during the closing ceremony of the three-week joint military exercise between African, U.S. and European troops, known as Flintlock in Saint Louis, on Feb. 29, 2016. (Seyllou/AFP via Getty Images)
“Heating and eating, these are the issues, and she completely avoids that,” Bolduc said. “The first time I heard her use the word inflation was tonight; she doesn’t ever talk about it.”
“She skips all around [inflation] … because she’s caused it, all her votes in the Senate have caused this heating and eating issue that we have retirees going back to work,” he said. “She’s created it with her 100 percent support to Joe Biden’s failed policies.”
Hassan, meanwhile, agreed inflation is hurting New Hampshire families and is straining small businesses as she touted Democrats’ work of passing legislation that will lower costs.
“Look, right now, I have stood up to big pharma and worked to pass legislation that will lower people’s prescription drug costs; my opponent says he wouldn’t have done that,” Hassan said.
Hassan also said she helped to pass the bipartisan infrastructure law Biden signed last year as well as the “CHIPS and Science Act,” allocating $280 billion in funding toward boosting domestic semiconductor manufacturing and various research endeavors.
U.S. Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.) speaks at a Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs/Rules and Administration Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington on March 3, 2021. (Shawn Thew/Pool via Getty Images)
While the economy and rising costs that come with inflation such as energy and food were the main talking points of Wednesday’s debate, other takeaways include the border crisis, abortion, and views on alleged fraud in the 2020 presidential election, among several other issues.
Abortion Is ‘State Issue’
The verbal crossfire opened with a divergence on abortion rights, which Democrats have bet on as their winning ticket, vowing to enshrine abortion access into federal law should they secure a majority in both chambers.
Bolduc said he views abortion as an issue to be settled at the state level as he “promised all Granite Staters” that he wouldn’t “vote for any federal legislation that has to do with abortion.”
Hassan, meanwhile, avoided a question by a moderator on whether she’ll support abortion up until birth, saying the decision has to be made by a woman and her doctor.
“This is about a fundamental right of a woman to make her own health care decisions,” Hassan said, side-stepping the moderator’s question while accusing Bolduc of supporting “a nationwide abortion ban.”
“He is a yes vote for a nationwide abortion ban and he’s trying to conceal it,” she claimed, to which Bolduc responded, “That is an absolute lie.”
“[Hassan], once again, hasn’t even answered the question. That was the finest Washington, D.C. career politician non-answer I’ve ever heard,” Bolduc said. “I believe the federal government should stay out of it, and I believe in the state rights and the state law. And that is the end of the discussion.”
In a new piece, Teen Vogue gets the midterms factually wrong – which provides more disinformation than information in its attempt to “educate the influencers of tomorrow.”
Misinformation is being fed to readers here: “House terms are two years, and candidates can serve up to six terms.” No, the House is not term-limited. “A senator can serve two terms.” Nor is the Senate. The Presidency is term-limited, some governors are, some state legislatures, but not Congress.
We might also argue with this, concerning House and Senate: “Each state has representatives in these two groups.” Not really, no. It is indeed the state that is represented in the Senate but it’s actually the district that is represented in the House.
This is more confusing than actually entirely wrong:
“On the state level, there will be 36 governorships and 30 state attorney general offices on ballots. Of the 36 governorships, 20 of them are currently occupied by Republicans. Although these state positions might seem less important than congressional seats, winning a majority in these areas would allow Democrats to pursue liberal legislation outside of Washington, D.C.”
You’d want a majority of each state legislature, yes, but a majority of governors or attorneys general is irrelevant. Each one is the only one in each state, their sway holds over each single state only. What everyone else is doing is irrelevant to them.
The bits they have updated from 2018 are odd, too.
“That’s why it’s important for Democrats to replace retiring Justice Stephen Breyer well before the midterms,” according to the piece. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson took her seat on the court, replacing Breyer, four months ago.
It’s not as if they’ve not had to check the piece. It is, as they tell us, an updated rerun of something from the 2018 midterms. That should be long enough for even a fashion magazine to be able to get the facts right.
Teen Vogue ranks at No. 446 in news and media publishers in the U.S. It gains some 5.1 million visits a month from that position. The greater importance of the site is that it has a very concentrated readership – fairly obviously teen girls. Further, it claims to want to “educate the influencers of the future.” Which is a good aim; we share it. It’s just that education has to be more factually based than this.
If Teen Vogue is getting something so obviously checkable as whether the House and Senate are term-limited or not wrong then what are they misleading, rather than educating, those influencers of the future about on other subjects?
This article originally appeared in Accuracy in Media. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News. Republished with permission.
The Supreme Court is hearing arguments over a case that could totally transform American colleges. For decades, institutions of higher learning have prioritized admissions based on race. Affirmative action is a policy that gives certain applicants special privilege because they are a person of color.
This policy has discriminated against students who otherwise would have gotten into college. Lawsuits against this practice reached the highest court. One advocate for affirmative action defended it before Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, claiming it ensured “diversity.” When he defined diversity for Thomas, the justice gave a withering rebuke.
From The Western Journal:
North Carolina Solicitor General Ryan Y. Park sought to convince the court of the value of affirmative action, claiming that its use resulted in “diverse” groups of people performing at a higher level…
Thomas scrutinized what the state considers “diversity,” noting that the word “seems to mean everything for everyone.” He asked York for a specific definition and to explain how what he described benefited the University of North Carolina…
Thomas wasn’t having it, and delivered a brutal line on the argument:
“Well, I guess I don’t put much stock in that because I’ve heard similar arguments in favor of segregation, too,” he said.
Woah. Justice Thomas rejected the often-used word “diversity,” which Democrats throw around to get their way. The justice claimed that this word often means “everything to everyone” and demanded the Solicitor General defend it.
The best Park could come up with was the claim that a “diverse” group of people provide the “most efficient decisions.” Whatever that means. It was a pretty weak argument and the justice wasn’t buying it for a minute.
But his response was absolutely crushing to affirmative action. He said similar arguments were made to defend segregation, the practice of separating black and white citizens.
Boom.
The use of affirmative action is not unlike segregation, which is why Thomas was bold enough to bring it up. Affirmative action–while claiming to help people of color–actually separates Americans on the basis of race or social status. It assigns value to a person because of their ethnicity or skin color–destroying anything remotely related to equality among Americans.
Yet, for years, colleges have exploited affirmative action, because it puts them on the government’s good side. A college with a high number of students of color can brag about how “diverse” it is–without having to prove if that is achieving anything good.
The normally quiet Justice Thomas just struck a killing blow against this agenda. And it could end very soon.
Key Takeaways:
Supreme Court Justice Thomas blasted “diversity” during a case on affirmative action.
He pressed the NC Solicitor General to define the word, finding his definition lacking.
Thomas said the same arguments were used to defend segregation, a damning response.
With Joe Biden dragging his party down, Democrats have few stars to help their fading 2022 chances. Democrats in close races are staying far away from Joe Biden. But some candidates are particularly worried since they supported Joe Biden every step of the way.
That’s probably why they managed to dig up Barack Obama to help. The former president showed up at a rally to help an embattled Democrat who is fighting for re-election. Democrats have been leaning on Barry to salvage their midterm chances. But as soon as he mount the stage, they realized their scheme backfired.
From The Post Millennial:
As Obama was talking about stopping “dangerous” rhetoric ahead of the election, one man shouted “Mr. President! There’s more people that are going to get hurt if we go into nuclear war!”
“Right now, we’re on the verge of nuclear war thanks to what you did in Ukraine in 2014. Why won’t you tell the truth about what you did… in Ukraine in 2014?”
Uh-oh. While Obama was trying to help Democrats in their desperate re-election bids, a man at a rally called him out over what he did in Ukraine in 2014. He heckled Obama, getting the crowd to erupt in chants.
But even after Obama got the man expelled, another woman started criticizing Obama. She accused him of having a hand in the current Ukraine war saying, “You overthrew Ukraine in 2014.” Wow, this is pretty painful. Right now, many fear a nuclear war with Russia over Ukraine.
Russian dictator Putin has threatened nuclear war with any country that stands in his way of taking over Ukraine. The United States, while refusing to send troops, has spent billions to arm Ukraine. It could only be a matter of time before Russia retaliates against the U.S.
It seems critics in this crowd blamed Obama for sowing the seeds of this conflict back in 2014. Obama was notorious for failing on the world stage. Many of his decisions led to chaos in the Middle East and Europe.
Obama stoked Russia’s wrath at least once, by installing missile launchers in Eastern Europe. Russia considered this a direct threat against them.
I find it pretty hilarious how liberals are turning on their once-precious golden boy. Democrats thought Obama could salvage their 2022 chances. Instead, he is helping to dig up old wounds and new controversies. That’s the last thing they wanted at a rally.
Key Takeaways:
Obama was heckled at a rally in support of Democrats’ 2022 campaign.
People in the crowd blamed Obama for a possible nuclear war, over his actions in 2014.
Democrats were hoping Obama could save them this election cycle.
These people don’t just tell lies; they tell whoppers.
The latest is Democrat Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois, who tweeted “Free speech does not include spreading misinformation to downplay political violence.”
Free speech does not include spreading misinformation to downplay political violence.
Let’s start with saying the First Amendment does not, in general, outlaw spreading of misinformation. We’ll come back to that in a moment.
Secondly, Durbin talks of downplaying political violence. That’s a reference to a comment made by new Twitter owner Elon Musk about the recent brutal attack on Paul Pelosi, husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
“In the days since Musk took Twitter private, the platform has seen an uptick in hate speech, and Musk himself used the platform and his influence to spread a baseless conspiracy theory about a violent attack on an elected official’s business,” Durbin tweeted.
In the days since Musk took Twitter private, the platform has seen an uptick in hate speech, and Musk himself used the platform and his influence to spread a baseless conspiracy theory about a violent attack on an elected official’s family member.
In a tweet, Musk shared a link pushing unsubstantiated theories about the attack on Pelosi. Following heavy criticism, he removed the tweet.
The only hate speech surrounding the attack of which I am aware are claims by Democrats that former President Donald Trump broke into the Pelosi residence and personally attacked Paul Pelosi.
Okay, that’s an exaggeration – misinformation, if you will – but it makes a point about the tone Democrats have adopted in that they are repeating the claim that hate speech by Republicans prompted the attack on Pelosi.
That’s false, of course. But can they legally say that? According to the First Amendment: yes.
Attempting to marshal his case, Durbin provides a link to a Wikipedia site, which he says shows limits to the First Amendment, implying such limits should be imposed on Musk and others.
Of course, reading of the link shows no such thing. Yes, it says there are limits to free speech which “include obscenity, fraud, child pornography, speech integral to illegal conduct, speech that incites imminent lawless action, speech that violates intellectual property law, true threats, and commercial speech such as advertising.
“Defamation that causes harm to reputation is a tort and also an exception to free speech,” the Wikipedia entry says.
And there are civil and criminal liabilities in certain “false statements of fact,” which mainly have to do with libel and slander and negligence.
Tellingly, “lies about the government” are for the most part completely protected by the First Amendment, Wikipedia says. And the courts give wide berth to false statements about public figures.
Durbin’s dubious claims about First Amendment limitations launched a tirade of criticism.
Republican Congressman Dan Crenshaw of Texas tweeted the First Amendment literally does allow spreading what some would call misinformation. “You’re a big boy (and a lawyer I thought…?) Correct the narrative. I have to do it everyday when you yahoos try to tell the people the Inflation Reduction Act reduces inflation, or when you claim there’s no such thing as gender.”
It literally does include that. You’re a big boy (and a lawyer I thought..?)
Correct the narrative. I have to do it every day when you yahoos try to tell people the Inflation Reduction Act reduces inflation, or when you claim there’s no such thing as gender. https://t.co/nICaQKZGFA
Marketer Caleb Hull, in refering to Durbin’s criticism of misinformation, tweeted “You just described CNN” as the cable network showed fiery Kenosha, Wisconsin, rioting with the label “mostly peaceful protests.”
“Yes it does,” tweeted Babylon Bee Managing Editor Joel Berry regarding First Amendment allowance to spread information, true or false. “And you ought to know since that’s what you did for two years while this country burned.”
Yes it does, and you ought to know since that’s what you did for 2 years while this country burned. https://t.co/Sot9ozJzGw
“We simply must start electing people with at least a minimal level of civil literacy. This is not that. Embarrassingly not that,” tweeted First Amendment lawyer Ari Cohn.
We simply must start electing people with at least a minimal level of civil literacy.
A generation ago, there was general respect for the First Amendment. To be sure, there occasionally would be a politician of some kind who wanted to require journalists to have licenses or some such thing.
And there were lots of politicians who liked the First Amendment only when they got good press.
But for the most part, the First Amendment was considered to be off limits. And the news media were zealous in guarding it, knowing it was the charter under which they operated.
But that’s all changed. Now media cozy up to their political masters and together they work to stamp out what they see as the evil of free speech.
Dick Durbin’s desire to limit free expression is nothing new. Guys like this have always been around. The Founders knew that.
New Twitter CEO Elon Musk had a little joust on the platform with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York on Wednesday over his plans to institute an $8 per month charge for Twitter Blue and the blue check denoting certified status.
“Lmao at a billionaire earnestly trying to sell people on the idea that ‘free speech’ is actually a $8/mo subscription plan,” the congresswoman tweeted.
Musk replied, “Your feedback is appreciated, now pay $8.”
On Tuesday, Musk tweeted, “Twitter’s current lords & peasants system for who has or doesn’t have a blue checkmark is bulls***. Power to the people! Blue for $8/month.”
WARNING: The following contains vulgar language that some readers will find offensive.
Twitter’s current lords & peasants system for who has or doesn’t have a blue checkmark is bullshit.
The self-described “Chief Twit” elaborated that for the $8 monthly fee, the user gets “Priority in replies, mentions & search, which is essential to defeat spam/scam – Ability to post long video & audio – Half as many ads.”
The price will be adjusted by country.
Musk further explained that there will be a secondary tag below the blue check to signify someone is a public figure.
There will be a secondary tag below the name for someone who is a public figure, which is already the case for politicians
Looks like a classic business negotiation strategy: Come in high, when you really have a lower figure in mind.
In April, when Musk and Twitter reached an agreement for him to buy the platform, AOC tweeted, “Tired of having to collectively stress about what explosion of hate crimes is happening bc some billionaire with an ego problem unilaterally controls a massive communication platform and skews it because Tucker Carlson or Peter Thiel took him to dinner and made him feel special.”
Musk responded, “Stop hitting on me, I’m really shy.”
White House takes credit for increase in Social Security payments, which are adjusted for inflation under law
With rising consumer prices on the top of voters’ minds just days from the November midterm elections, the White House is arguing that inflation is actually a good thing for America’s senior citizens.
On Tuesday evening, the White House said “seniors are getting the biggest increase in their Social Security checks in 10 years through President Biden’s leadership.” The post from President Joe Biden takes credit for a boost to Social Security payments, around 8.7 percent for 2023, that occurred because Social Security payments must adjust to the approximate rate of inflation each year by law.
The White House’s claim was subsequently fact checked by Twitter—and deleted—but follows a recent pattern by both the president and his staff in which they assert Biden deserves credit for rising Social Security payments. Biden does not, nor does anyone in the White House, have any control over how much the program pays out.
A White House official told the Free Beacon that their tweet was deleted because “the point was incomplete.” The official also referred to an Oct. 12 statement from press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre that said “seniors and other Americans on Social Security [sic] are will learn precisely how much their monthly checks will increase.”
“We will put more money in their pockets,” the statement said.
Not only does the White House have no control over the adjustments to Social Security payments, but more money leaving the Social Security Trust Fund means it will go bankrupt sooner, economists say.
“This isn’t a generous gift from the president, it’s an automatic reimbursement for a lot of the pain retirees have been feeling for the past year,” Manhattan Institute economist Brian Riedl told the Washington Free Beacon. “A generous cost-of-living adjustment could certainly move up the Social Security Trust Fund’s exhaustion day by a few years.”
Economists across the political spectrum agree that several of Biden’s spending programs, such as the nearly $2 trillion American Rescue Plan, contributed to today’s historically high inflation. Economists also fear his latest proposal, canceling up to $20,000 of student loans for millions, could drive consumer prices even higher.
Prior to the new cost-of-living adjustment, the Social Security Trust Fund was estimated to go bankrupt in 2034. At that point, Social Security payments would stop unless Congress appropriated new funding.
Social Security currently operates at a loss. Last year, the program paid out $56 billion more than it took in through taxes.
“If policymakers continue to do nothing to shore up Social Security, all beneficiaries will face an immediate 20 percent cut at the time of insolvency,” Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget president Maya MacGuineas said in a statement. “The longer we wait to secure [Social Security], the larger and sharper the adjustments will need to be.”
Roughly 47 million Americans rely on Social Security for their retirement, a number that is expected to rise in the coming years as more Baby Boomers drop out of the workforce. When the Social Security Trust Fund runs out of money in 2034, the program will only be receiving enough tax revenue to pay 77 percent of benefits.
A June report from the Social Security administration, released before the new cost-of-living adjustments, concluded that both Social Security and Medicare “face long-term financing shortfalls under currently scheduled benefits and financing.”
“We’ve been kicking this can down the road, these inflation adjustments just mean that lawmakers will be having to face this issue sooner than before,” Riedl said. “Ultimately I think seniors would prefer 2 percent inflation with a 2 percent Social Security cost of living adjustment than 8 percent inflation with an 8 percent cost of living adjustment.”
Ingredient prices are up 50 percent as families struggle to afford price hike
Following the June expiration of a federal pandemic program to provide free lunch to all students, school districts are raising prices and offering fewer options in cafeterias across the country in the face of soaring inflation.
Ingredient prices are up by 50 percent or higher, and schools are pushing the costs on to families, increasing the price of lunch by as much as 50 cents, while offering fewer meal options.
Many families are struggling to afford the spike in prices, the Wall Street Journalreported:
Sarah Kemmerling, a day care provider in Lafayette, Colo., and mother of two, said the end of free school meals this year and a price increase of 50 cents, to $4 a lunch, put additional pressure on her household finances, which were already tight.
Ms. Kemmerling’s family paid about $140 for school meals for her two children in fourth and seventh grades last month, a figure that was higher than her utility bills, she said. Her household’s annual income is about $55,000, she said, including wages earned by her husband, a mechanic.
David Esrati’s controversial statements have Democrats on edge
He mocks women who refuse to touch male ejaculate, takes pictures of children in his local library, and uses the N-word on social media. He’s the Democratic congressional nominee for Ohio’s 10th Congressional District, and he’s not going anywhere.
David Esrati is challenging 10-term Rep. Mike Turner (R., Ohio) after winning a crowded Democratic nomination in May with just 32 percent of the vote. The local businessman and political provocateur’s multi-decade political career has been marked by a seemingly endless string of profane and inflammatory comments, made in defiant Facebook posts or rambling livestream monologues.
Like in March 2016, when he took issue with an article posted on Facebook that said women are often left unsatisfied after sex. “I don’t know why so many women are incapable of telling us what’s going on,” Esrati commented. “If sex sucks- it’s probably because you aren’t communicating well.”
“I could just as easily rant about women who never initiate, who refuse to touch or taste cum, or about the vanilla sex they pass off like it’s a gift,” Esrati added. “Frankly- most of America is sexually repressed and confused. Especially here in the Dunlop region of the Bible Belt.”
Or in June 2019, when Esrati dismissed charges that he used the N-word by saying he was only quoting comedian Dave Chappelle, and then went on to defend himself in a 2,000-word blog where he used the word twice.
“For the record, I’m the asshole honky who tells kids on the basketball court that the use of that word is inappropriate,” Esrati said in the post. “I gave up trying to question it at the barbershop I’ve been going to for the last half-dozen years. … I get the lecture about the use of the word ‘Nigga’ vs ‘Nigger’ — as if that matters.”
Speaking to the Washington Free Beacon Tuesday, Esrati doubled down on the claim that he was simply quoting Chapelle.
“I do not use that word. I am not a racist,” Esrati emphasized.
Esrati will be on the ballot next Tuesday in Ohio’s 10th district as Democrats grapple with a weak slate of candidates in critical races across the country. Republican Mehmet Oz opened a lead in Pennsylvania’s senate race following stroke victim John Fetterman’s rough debate performance. Republicans have also closed the gap on Democrats in critical senate races in Nevada, Arizona, and Georgia.
Esrati may be proud of his provocative past, but his party is not. Esrati is running with almost no support from Democrats at any level. The Ohio Democratic Party disavowed his candidacy, citing his “inflammatory and offensive language.” The Montgomery County Democratic Party refused to endorse Esrati in September, and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has made no public mention of Esrati’s candidacy.
But no matter how far they run, Esrati’s still the Democrats’ problem.
“The fact that David Esrati is the candidate for Ohio 10 proves just how badly the DCCC has failed their party,” a Republican strategist told the Free Beacon. “This is a massive recruiting failure and I’d hate to be a Democrat operative next week,” the strategist added, predicting that Democrats will lose their House majority.
Esrati struck a similar note in a blog post Monday, writing “It’s too bad the DCCC doesn’t have a clue on how to promote their message or their candidates- including me, if they really want to maintain control of the house and senate.”
It’s a far cry from 2020, when the DCCC threw its support behind Desiree Tims, who raised over $2 million during her campaign against Turner. Democrats’ refusal to boost Esrati is particularly notable since the Ohio 10th is slightly more favorable for Democrats this cycle, according to the Cook Political Report.
But not every Democrat has disavowed Esrati. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D., Ohio), chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, cut Esrati a $2,500 check from his leadership PAC in late July enclosed in a handwritten note saying: “David — we count on you.” Esrati said he did not solicit Brown’s contribution, telling the Free Beacon “it just came.” Brown did not return a request for comment.
Esrati has raised $40,600 for his campaign as of Oct. 19, almost all of which has been paid to his company, Next Wave Marketing, according to Federal Election Commission records. Esrati reported in his candidate financial disclosure that his firm’s purpose is “Helping my clients make money.” He told the Free Beacon his campaign works with his personal company because it buys products at wholesale prices.
Esrati rose to local prominence in 1996 when Turner, then the mayor of Dayton, had him arrested and removed from a city commission meeting for wearing a ninja mask. Esrati filed a lawsuit over his arrest, which led to a $100,000 settlement from the city, which Esrati said was used to pay his lawyers. It’s not the only time Esrati has parlayed his antics into a lucrative settlement.
In August 2017, security guards kicked Esrati out of the Dayton Metro Library for taking pictures of patrons, some of which he took without first asking for permission. Esrati detailed how he took pictures of an “adorable” young girl at the library in a blog post describing the incident.
“I wandered over to the Eichelberger auditorium- and was taking pictures then, when a young girl was playing on the stage,” he wrote. “Her mother asked if she was ruining my photo- and of course, I said no. She was adorable. Snap, Snap, Snap, Snap, Snap.”
He sued over the library’s attempts to refuse to hand over security footage of the incident, which led to a $39,446 settlement for Esrati. He said the footage proved he did nothing wrong.
Esrati did not deny taking pictures of children at the library during an interview Tuesday with the Free Beacon.
“She was like, 17, probably!” Esrati said. “It was a totally innocuous picture, the problem is the guard suggested I was a pedophile.”
“There are no laws against taking pictures of children in public, okay?” he said. “These people are insane, they’re making assertions that they have no factual or legal basis. It is not a crime, you lose all rights to privacy in public. I was absolutely within my rights, there’s no question.”
Esrati has also railed against sex offender laws. “25% or more of my high school class would have probably made it on the sex offenders list by these rules… Sex offender registries are insane,” he wrote in a July 2015 Facebook post.
More recently, in April 2020, Esrati attacked his neighbor for “outing” a sex offender. “You are a really stupid woman,” Esrati wrote in a direct message to his neighbor after she notified members of a private Facebook group that a sex offender lived in their neighborhood.
Esrati still stands by this, telling the Free Beacon that the registered sex offender in question had done his time in prison and was living peacefully in the neighborhood.
“He’s done his time. If you’re not doing anything wrong, where are we supposed to put you, Gitmo?” Esrati said. “Let’s talk about real subjects, thank you.”
Three hours after speaking to the Free Beacon Tuesday, Esrati broadcast a YouTube livestream in which he confirmed he posted a rant against women who won’t touch male ejaculate in 2016 and used the N-word in a 2019 Facebook post. He also doubled down on his criticism of sex offender registries.
“He thought he was Clark Kent- asking about every little heinous thing I may have said online in the last 20 years,” Esrati said of this Free Beacon reporter. “Like saying ‘sex offender registries’ are unconstitutional—which is a part of the argument.”
63 percent of Great Lakes State voters less likely to back Nessel over controversial comment
Michigan Democratic attorney general Dana Nessel in June said drag queens should be in “every school.” Michigan voters disagree, according to a new poll obtained exclusively by the Washington Free Beacon.
The October poll, which Lansing-based firm Marketing Resource Group conducted for the Michigan Freedom Fund, shows that 63 percent of registered Michigan voters are less likely to back Nessel due to her “drag queen for every school” comment. The overwhelming majority of those voters—55 percent—said they were “much less likely” to support Nessel over the remark, while 8 percent said they were “somewhat less likely.” The Democrat’s controversial comment, which came during a Michigan Department of Civil Rights education summit, even played poorly in deep-blue Detroit, where 59 percent of voters said it made them less likely to back Nessel. Just 12 percent of voters statewide, meanwhile, said the statement made them more likely to vote for Nessel.
Nessel, whose consumption of two Bloody Marys left her passed out drunk in the stands at the October 2021 Michigan-Michigan State football game, is embroiled in a close reelection bid against Republican challenger Matthew DePerno. With Election Day just one week away, a Detroit Newspoll found DePerno trailing Nessel by just 1 point. Some Republican groups think Nessel’s “extreme” education agenda could turn the tide—a Michigan for Freedom ad, for example, includes Nessel’s “drag queen for every school” remark and accuses the Democrat of “pushing politics into schools.”
Nessel, whose campaign did not return a request for comment, has since argued that her drag queen comment was a joke. But the Democrat’s June speech generally defended the idea of placing drag queens around kids, and Nessel also said a staffer asked her “not to speak about drag queens,” suggesting her team understood it would prompt political blowback.
“Let me say this—drag queens, not only are they not hurting our kids, drag queens make everything better. Drag queens are fun. Drag queens are entertainment,” Nessel said. “And you know what I’ll say, that was totally not poll-tested? I say this: a drag queen for every school! That is what would be fun for the kids and lift them up when they are having emotional issues.”
Nessel is no stranger to controversy. Beyond “Tailgate-Gate,” which saw the Democrat escorted out of last year’s rivalry game in East Lansing in a wheelchair, Nessel in June 2021 attempted to arrest Michigan restaurant owner Marlena Hackney ahead of an appearance on Tucker Carlson Tonight, where Hackney was set to discuss her defiance of Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s (D.) stringent lockdown orders. “Do we know her whereabouts? We should just have her picked up before she goes on. This is outrageous,” Nessel wrote in an email at the time.
Virginia is the top state in the country for business less than a year after Republican governor Glenn Youngkin replaced former Democratic governor Ralph Northam, according to rankings calculated by business magazine Site Selection.
Using an index that combines economic metrics, other publications’ rankings, and Site Selection‘s survey of business executives, the magazine ranked Virginia as the best business climate in the country. Site Selectionrated Virginia 10th in the index last year.
The rapid rise in the rankings comes almost a year after Youngkin took office following an upset win in a state that Joe Biden won by 10 points in 2020. Youngkin campaigned on a pledge to make Virginia “open for business” by removing pandemic restrictions to ensure that “our travel and tourism industry is open.”
“I come to this role with the perspective of a business leader, so I have a keen understanding of what companies are looking for,” Youngkin, the former CEO of the Carlyle Group, told Site Selection. “Step one for me is to make sure we are putting in place frameworks around a tax-friendly world, a business-friendly regulatory environment, an education system that supports the development of the best workforce, safe communities, and finally a set of principles about how government is run so that it works for efficiency.”
Youngkin said he invests a great deal of his own time to work toward bringing business to Virginia.
“I dedicate a meaningful amount of my calendar time to economic development activities, making sure we’re thinking through the long-term needs of business,” the governor said. “You might think of me as Virginia’s chief business development officer.”
Democratic Texas congressman Henry Cuellar and his brother, a Texas sheriff, received thousands of dollars from a family with close ties to Mexico’s “notoriously brutal” Los Zetas cartel, National Reviewreported Monday.
Cuellar, who is facing a tough reelection race this year, in 2006 received $1,000 from the then-wife of Antonio Peña Arguelles, a money launderer for Los Zetas, which U.S. officials have called “the most technologically advanced, sophisticated, and dangerous cartel operating in Mexico.” Peña Arguelles, who in 2014 was sentenced to more than two years in U.S. federal prison, himself donated $1,500 to Cuellar’s brother, Webb County sheriff Martin Cuellar (D.).
While the San Antonio Express-News at the time reported on the donations, the story “never garnered national attention and largely disappeared” after Henry Cuellar reportedly gave the money to charity, National Review noted.
The National Review report comes as the United States faces an unprecedented migrant crisis, with two million illegal immigrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border since last October. The Biden administration has faced widespread criticism, including from Cuellar, for its handling of the crisis.
It also comes as Cuellar faces corruption allegations, with the FBI in January raiding his home and campaign office. The multiple scandals have added up to the congressman’s toughest reelection fight since he first took office in 2005.
“Cuellar’s strange donation link to an alleged conduit for one of the largest and most violent cartels in the region could be a liability,” National Review noted:
Cartels leave a heavy footprint in the Rio Grande Valley, and a large segment of the region’s economy is linked to Border Patrol jobs. Notably, the National Border Patrol Council—the labor union representing some 18,000 Border Patrol agents—opted to endorse Cuellar’s Republican challenger, Cassy Garcia, over the Democratic incumbent this year, despite having routinely endorsed Cuellar in past elections.
Cuellar’s campaign told National Review after publication that “resurfacing this 10-year-old story is a blatant smear attempt” and insisted that Cuellar “had no knowledge” of the Peña Arguelles family’s background.
At a voter outreach event on Saturday, Georgia Democratic senator Raphael Warnock’s church featured a fiery sermon from a reverend who denounced evangelical Christianity as the “ideological basis” for slavery and white supremacy.
The Ebenezer Baptist Church, where Warnock serves as senior pastor, hosted a “Super Voter Saturday” panel discussion last weekend and aired a pre-taped 2020 sermon by Rev. Billy Honor. The event took place just a few days before voters will head to the polls in Georgia, which has one of the largest evangelical Christian populations in the United States.
“There is nothing about evangelical white Christianity that would make you think it values black lives,” said Honor in the sermon. “The fact is that this is a tradition that devalues black bodies, so much so that the devaluing of black bodies is about as American as apple pie.”
While Warnock did not speak at the event, his name was at the top of a welcome message to attendees that played at the beginning of the program. The sermon could reignite concerns about Warnock’s own controversial statements and promotion of extremist rhetoric, including a sermon in which he said Americans need to repent for their “whiteness” and his defense of anti-Semitic pastor Rev. Jeremiah Wright.
Honor added that “evangelical Christianity” was the “ideological basis for the enslavement of Africans, the expansion of white supremacy, the resistance to reconstruction, the acceptance of racial segregation laws, and the recent dismissal of the Black Lives Matter movement to end murders of black bodies by police.”
Warnock’s opponent, Republican Herschel Walker, said the sermon promoted “division and hate” and slammed Warnock for hosting it at his church.
“Raphael Warnock and his allies believe America is a bad country full of hateful people,” Walker told the Washington Free Beacon. “They even smear evangelicals who love Jesus as racist. They should be ashamed.”
“Their politics of division and hate has gone too far, and I won’t let them get away with it,” Walker added. “I’m going to fight for our state and our country. Love is stronger than hate, and with God’s help we will defeat them and prove that grace and hope is more powerful than their lies and division.”
Warnock did not respond to a request for comment.
White evangelicals make up over a quarter of registered voters in Georgia, according to a Marist poll conducted in September.
Tiffany Roberts, the social justice chair at Ebenezer, introduced the video and told the audience on Saturday that Honor “delivered [this] sermon for us at Ebenezer two years ago about Jesus’ legacy as a social justice warrior and the importance of the vote” and called it “one of my favorite sermons in life.” The replayed speech was followed by a live, in-person panel discussion about voter outreach that included organizers from liberal groups Care in Action and When We All Vote.
Warnock argued in late 2016 that Americans needed to “repent” for their “worship of whiteness,” the Washington Free Beaconreported in 2020. He also defended a speech by anti-Semitic pastor Rev. Jeremiah Wright—which compared U.S. leaders to al Qaeda and claimed the government invented HIV to kill black people—as a “very fine sermon.”
Warnock signed a letter in 2019 comparing Israel’s actions in the West Bank with “the military occupation of Namibia by apartheid South Africa.” In 2013, he also defended the Nation of Islam, a radical group led by anti-Semitic preacher Louis Farrakhan, for keeping black churches “honest.”
“We’ve needed the witness of the Nation of Islam, in a real sense, to put a fire under us and keep us honest,” said Warnock.
Honor, who delivered the sermon, is also an organizing director with the New Georgia Project, a left-leaning voter advocacy group founded by Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams and previously led by Warnock. Prior to the airing of his speech at Ebenezer, Honor described Wright as an “honorable freedom fighting American.” He also called the U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement “one of this country’s biggest enforcers of state sponsored white supremacy.”
A dark money group that wants to defund police and abolish federal immigration agencies has poured hundreds of thousands of dollars into the Arizona Senate race, providing a last-minute boost for Democratic senator Mark Kelly, whose once-sizable lead has evaporated ahead of Election Day.
Living United for Change in Arizona has spent nearly $350,000 since Oct. 21 to help the Kelly campaign, according to Federal Election Commission records. The expenditures have gone to pay wages for canvassers to knock on doors in the Grand Canyon State to turn out the vote for Kelly.
The donations create an uneasy alliance for Kelly, who fashions himself a moderate criminal justice reformer. Living United, which has received funding from left-wing billionaire George Soros, has called for defunding the Phoenix Police Department, saying, “The police do not protect or serve us.” The group, which has held protests outside Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities, made national headlines in October 2021 after its members filmed Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D., Ariz.) in a bathroom on the campus of Arizona State University and grilled her over her opposition to ending the filibuster to pass a voting bill.
The group’s support comes at a pivotal moment for Kelly, whose double-digit lead over Republican Blake Masters has disappeared amid growing concerns about crime and the economy. A recent poll from the progressive Data for Progress found Kelly tied with Masters. The poll also found that Latino voters favored Kelly by a 58-37 margin, down considerably from Kelly’s support among the group in the 2020 special election.
While the Kelly campaign does not directly work with Living United on the canvassing effort, Living United has paid $210,000 to FieldCorps, a consulting firm with links to Kelly. Francisco Heredia, a Mesa city councilman who owns FieldCorps, has campaigned this year for Kelly. The Kelly campaign lists Heredia as a member of its “Latinos for Kelly Coalition.” Living United paid another $138,546 to ADP Payroll to cover wages for canvassers, according to campaign finance disclosures.
Living United’s political action committee received around $1 million in funding in the 2020 cycle from the left-wing voter mobilization groups Civic Participation Action Fund and the Movement Voter Project. The group’s activist arm, which organizes anti-police and anti-ICE rallies, has been funded by numerous dark money progressive groups. The Sixteen Thirty Fund and the New Venture Fund, neither of which is required to disclose its donors, in 2019 gave $165,000 and $40,000, respectively, according to the Capital Research Center. Soros’s Open Society Foundations in 2019 gave $1.5 million to Living United “to support policy advocacy led by communities of color in Arizona.”
Living United campaigned last month for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Katie Hobbs, Fox News reported.
The Kelly campaign and Living United did not respond to requests for comment.
Old man warns of ‘dark forces’ threatening democracy
Joe Biden delivered an unusual speech Wednesday night, urging Americans who don’t support his policies to vote for Democratic candidates anyway in order to save democracy from “Extreme MAGA Republicans” and other “dark forces” threatening to destroy the country.
“We must vote knowing what’s at stake and not just the policy of the moment,” Biden said at Union Station in Washington, D.C., the former site of a massive homeless encampment. “In our bones, we know democracy is at risk.”
The president framed the upcoming midterm elections as “a struggle for the very soul of America,” implicitly scolding voters who might be inclined to support Republicans because they’re concerned about the rising cost of living due to the rampant inflation on Biden’s watch.
Americans should not base their votes on petty personal concerns, the president argued, because this was a “defining moment” for the country that required “all Americans regardless of party” to speak with “one unified voice” in support of Democrats. “This is no ordinary year,” he said. “So I ask you to think long and hard about the moment we are in.”
Biden, 79, began the speech by drawing a direct connection between the January 6th storming of the Capitol building and last week’s attack on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D., Calif.) husband, who was bludgeoned with a hammer by a deranged nudist in San Francisco. “We don’t settle our differences in America with a riot, a mob, or a bullet or a hammer, we settle them peacively [sic] at the battle blox [sic]— ballot box,” the president articulated.
Both events were “the consequences of lies” peddled by the “defeated former president” and his allies who comprise the “extreme MAGA element of the Republican Party,” which Biden described as a “minority” but also the “driving force” of the GOP.
Questioning the legitimacy of an election was simply “un-American,” said Biden, who warned earlier this year that the 2022 election “would easily be illegitimate” unless Congress approved a sweeping election reform bill. (The legislation didn’t pass.) He went on to tout the “record turnout” across the country, which has complicated Democratic efforts to accuse Republicans of voter suppression.
The speech, which was reportedly co-written by celebrity historian Jon Meacham, was riddled with clichés that probably won’t resonate with the average voter, but might inspire the handful of #Resistance weirdos to tweet passionately: “Democracies are more than a form of government, they’re a way of being.” “We must vote knowing who we have been, what we’re at risk of becoming.” “This is not about me. It’s about all of us. It’s about what makes America, America.”
When the president’s speech was announced on Tuesday, it was widely viewed as a last-ditch effort to save the Democratic Party from crushing defeat at the ballot box. Reports indicate Biden was motivated to give the speech in response to polling data that suggest Republicans are likely to retake control of the House and possibly the Senate as well. He was also concerned that a number of so-called election deniers—including some that Democrats actively supported in primary elections earlier this year—were on track to win. When the speech was over, the purpose was less clear.
Those who watched the roughly 30-minute address could have saved themselves the time by watching MSNBC’s Joy Reid interview failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton the previous night. “I think that with all of the noise that we’ve gotten in this election season, I don’t think that people are really able to grasp [the threat Republicans pose to democracy],” Clinton said. “But more importantly, I’m not sure they really understand the threats to their way of life.”
It’s the most inspiring closing message Democrats can muster at this point. It’s also what they’ve been saying non-stop for the better part of two years. And when they lose, after the hysteria has died down, they will inevitably lament that they failed to communicate their message effectively.
THE FIGHT BETWEEN EARL JACKSON AND MARY BROWN IS LITERALLY A FIGHT FOR YOUR CHILDRENS’ FUTURES.
evin Whitt – a former transsexual turned pro-family activist – has been campaigning for Earl Jackson, a Republican candidate for the 301st District Court in Dallas, TX, which is at the center of a high-profile case involving a minor transitioning to the opposite sex.
Having lived a transsexual life – including as a prostitute, phone sex operator, dominatrix, and webcam “model” – Whitt, who has since embraced Christianity, rightly insists, “That lifestyle is not for anybody and certainly not for children.”
Whitt lived as a transsexual for 22 years before becoming a Christian. While in that world, he was introduced to drag performances and also became a “drag queen”. This was the gateway for his involvement in the adult-sex industry. Thankfully, he is now a loud voice for protecting children in Texas, and an equally loud voice in critique of 301st District Court Judge Mary Brown.
The 301st District Court.
Critics of Judge Mary Brown, who presides over the 301st District court, frequently cite the case of James Younger, a nine-year-old boy whose pediatrician mother has been forcibly transitioning him to female since James was a toddler. The child’s father, Jeff Younger, opposes the social and medical transition of his son.
Despite these objections, the court’s appointed therapist, his public school, and the Judge Brown have forged ahead with allowing the social transition of James Younger. Judge Brown recently ruled that the mother, Anne Georgulas, can even relocate to California with her children, and that the father may not know where Georgulas resides with the boys. In September, California became a “sanctuary state” for child gender modification. Jeff Younger fears his son will soon begin medical transitioning, which could sterilize him and have other health impacts that also last a life time.
Judge Brown’s heavy-handedness is also noteworthy in the case.
She placed a gag order on James’s father to prevent him talking to his political representatives, members of the press, and running an effective campaign for office as he has worked to stop child gender modification in Texas. The gag order was placed “in the best interest of the children,” while violating Mr. Younger’s right to free speech. For violating the order, Judge Brown ordered supervised visits for Mr. Younger.
This punitive action led to the father having to spend a great deal of money to see his sons. He declined the supervised visits, citing a lack of trust in the process with the court-appointed supervisors. Mr. Younger said he believed it to be a trap wherein his refusal to use feminine pronouns or call his son by a female name would be considered “child abuse” by the supervisors, therapists, and ultimately, the 301st District Court.
The point of supervised visits is to ensure children see a parent which is ‘in the best interest of the children.’ Judge Brown said in one hearing that if Mr. Younger didn’t utilize the supervised visits, she would be inclined to restrict his access further. Judge Brown has misused the ‘best interest’ aspect of family law to favor the mother and her intentions surrounding the gender of her son.
Write Ins Across the Board.
With a fully write-in election just days away, Judge Brown is now also the subject of an ethics complaint which alleges some funds received for her campaign are from Georgulas’s lawyers, who are “Platinum Donors.” The heads of the law firm representing the Georgulas also appear to serve on Brown’s Campaign Committee.
The three candidates for the 301st District Court are all write-in candidates. Brown herself failed to get on the ballot as the Democratic nominee.
“When it comes to voting for judges, we need people of integrity, not people who are corrupt, unethical cheaters who facilitate the transitioning of minors with heavy-handed legal tactics that deny a parent their natural right to protect their child from unnecessary and harmful procedures,” said Kevin Whitt.
WHITT CAMPAIGNING FOR JACKSON.
With early voting underway, Whitt is campaigning for Earl Jackson, a GOP-endorsed choice for the 301st District Court.
Whitt has been organizing greeters and block walkers as well as making calls for Earl Jackson’s campaign.
“I am hopeful that people will take the time to write in Jackson and take down Brown when they go in the voting booth. The situation with Jeff Younger and his boys is not unique, and not a one-off. We need to clean up the family courts and get judges in that respect families and parental rights.”
U.S. cybersecurity chief Jen Easterly said the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) does “not censor information,” and voters should expect “normal” errors and glitches, such as burst water pipes, during the midterm elections next week.
A week out from the U.S. midterm elections, Easterly, a Biden appointee, has talked about CISA’s role in securing election infrastructure and the risk vector of disinformation and misinformation.
“I want to be really clear about what CISA’s role is in this. You know, we are not an intel agency. We’re not a law enforcement agency,” she said during a talk at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington-based think tank.
“We don’t work with the platforms on what they do around content. That is entirely their decision. It is their terms of service. And I want to be very clear about this: We do not censor information.”
“I want to be very clear,” she added with emphasis. “We do not censor anything. What social media platforms do, what the news does, is entirely their decision.”
CISA, which sits within the Department of Homeland Security, was set up in 2018 to “understand, manage, and reduce risk” to the critical cyber and physical infrastructure Americans rely on every day, Easterly said. This includes election infrastructure.
A large group of protesters on the East steps of the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, 2021. (Jon Cherry/Getty Images)
Errors, Glitches, Burst Water Pipes Are ‘Normal’ in Elections: Easterly
The cybersecurity chief said voters should expect errors and glitches in the upcoming midterms, which she insisted were normal. As such, she said election officials asked her to pass on a message to Americans.
“There are going to be errors. There are going to be glitches. That happens in every election. But that’s why there are multiple layers of security controls and resilience built into the system,” she said.
“These things are going to happen … somebody will forget their key to the polling place, a water pipe will burst … [These] are normal things. They’re not nefarious,” she added.
Election officials sometimes face physical intimidation as a result of misinformation about election integrity spread by foreign bad actors, Easterly said.
A voter places a ballot in a drop box outside of the Maricopa County Elections Department in Phoenix, Arizona, on Aug. 2, 2022. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
While this makes misinformation and disinformation an ongoing concern for CISA, Easterly said the agency saw no “credible or specific” information about efforts to “disrupt or compromise” election infrastructure this year.
However, she said there continue to be efforts by “foreign adversaries to sow discord among the American people, to undermine confidence in the integration of our elections, and to incite violence against election officials.”
“It’s a significant concern because you think about these adversaries that are trying to sow discord, that are trying to break us apart, about Americans that are trying to undermine, you know, integrity in our elections,” she said.
“We are very concerned about this,” she added.
She noted that elections are not run by the federal government but by state and local officials, who “deserve to be safe.” She said she’s confident CISA has “done everything we can to make election infrastructure as secure and as resilient as possible.”
Lawsuit Alleges CISA ‘Directed Censorship’
Easterly is one of several key officials in President Joe Biden’s administration ordered to testify under oath in a deposition about their roles in a case alleging collusion between the federal government and Big Tech companies to censor users.
The plaintiffs in the case, the attorneys general of Louisiana and Missouri and others, allege that Easterly “supervises the ‘nerve center’ of federally directed censorship,” according to a court filing.
CISA, which sits within the Department of Homeland Security, is accused of “directly flagging misinformation to social-media companies for censorship.”
Further, Easterly is accused of claiming that speech on social media is a form of “infrastructure” which therefore falls within “her agency’s mission to protect ‘infrastructure.’” Easterly is quoted in the court filing as claiming that “the most critical infrastructure is a cognitive infrastructure.”
The lawsuit also notes text messages between Easterly and a former CISA agent, Matt Masterson, who now works at a social media platform, which ultimately centers around how Easterly allegedly “seeks greater censorship and that this would be done by federal pressure on social media platforms to increase censorship.”
Former White House press secretary Jen Psaki and Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases and Biden’s chief medical adviser, are among the other officials ordered to be deposed.
The White House has sought to block most depositions but not Fauci’s.
Lawyers for the government officials have argued in a motion filed on Oct. 27 that plaintiffs shouldn’t be able to depose Easterly; Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, a Biden appointee; and Rob Flaherty, a deputy assistant to the president.
“The Court’s Depositions Order would require the relevant high-ranking government officials to divert time from their professional duties to prepare for, and participate in, time-consuming depositions,” the motion states.
The plaintiffs assert that Easterly must be deposed because she has “unique knowledge about the scope and nature of communications between CISA, DHS, and other federal officials,” according to a court filing.
They further assert she needs to be deposed because CISA disclosed extensive oral communications and meetings between CISA officials and social media platforms, and plaintiffs believe that as director of the agency, Easterly would have detailed knowledge of what CISA is disclosing.
When the judge originally ordered Easterly to be deposed, he found that any burden imposed on her is “outweighed by the need to determine whether the First Amendment right of free speech was suppressed.”
Arizona state Rep. Mark Finchem is crediting Twitter’s new owner, Elon Musk, after Twitter suspended his account for no apparent reason on Oct. 31 and the company restored it less than an hour later.
He said it looks like Musk came to his defense.
“He said, ‘Let me look into it.’ Forty-five minutes later, he posted that our Twitter feed was back on,” said Finchem, the Trump-endorsed Republican candidate for Arizona secretary of state.
However, it wasn’t clear whether Musk directly intervened on Finchem’s behalf. Musk began firing top executives after he finalized the purchase of the social media platform for $44 billion last week.
Arizona state Rep. Mark Finchem, the Republican candidate for Arizona secretary of state, holds a T-shirt bearing a campaign slogan at a recent political gathering in Prescott, Ariz. (Allan Stein/The Epoch Times)
Finchem said it appeared that some “leftist” at Twitter shut his account down just eight days before the Nov. 8 midterm election.
He said “of course” it was politically motivated.
“I didn’t even know what we did to offend the political sensibilities of whoever the leftist was that decided to interfere with free speech,” Finchem told The Epoch Times. “I’m very thankful Elon Musk took action, which is what he said he would do when he decided to acquire Twitter.”
Finchem said Musk appears to be “getting rid of people who hate this country’s First Amendment.”
“[There’s] no place for people like that,” Finchem said. “Because here’s what ends up happening: You start seeing these social media platforms becoming regulated public utilities.
“I don’t want to go there. Because any time a government puts its hand on something, it never quite turns out the way you want it to.”
He said he prefers a private-sector solution to the online censorship of conservatives, “and I think that’s what Elon Musk has done here.”
“He’s restored free speech—plain and simple—and he gets the credit for that.”
If Musk’s behavior is a “leading indicator” of his new business model for Twitter, Finchem said he’s all for it.
“I think he will make it so that [Twitter is not controlled] by one group with one voice,” he said. “I think that’s important.”
Finchem’s Democratic opponent in the Nov. 8 election is former Maricopa County Recorder Adrian Fontes.
Unintended Boost
Finchem said the “leftist meltdown” at Twitter over his restored account has given his campaign a political “shot in the arm.”
In less than 24 hours, his 51,000 followers on Twitter had swelled to 71,000, he said. He said there was no explanation other than people are angry over censorship.
“I’m sensing we’re going to see a big red wave,” Finchem said. “Many Democrats will cross over, and they will be very specific about voting for policy people.”
Could there be a November surprise from Democrats?
The home invasion beating of Nancy Pelosi’s husband has one of her former neighbors perplexed.
Marjorie Campbell expressed her surprise that the crime happened, speaking in an interview with the Daily Mail published on Tuesday.
The ex-neighbor described the constant presence of a security detail outside the residence.
A 42-year-old man is charged with entering the Pelosi home and beating Paul Pelosi with a hammer early Friday morning, expressing his intent for a confrontation with the Speaker herself.
‘There were black cars outside that house, particularly up on Normandie Terrace, all of the time,” Campbell said of her experiences as a Pelosi family neighbor.
“When she was there, there certainly was a huge presence. And my impression was that the house was constantly monitored.”
Nancy Pelosi wasn’t in town on the night of the home invasion.
San Francisco Police ultimately responded to the scene after Paul Pelosi made a 911 call from a phone inside a bathroom, and found suspect David DePape struggling with the 82-year-old Pelosi over a hammer.
In Campbell’s experience, the Pelosi family security detail was present outside their home regardless of the Speaker’s whereabouts. The former neighbor now lives in Utah.
Is there more to the story?Yes No
Completing this poll entitles you to The Western Journal news updates free of charge. You may opt out at anytime. You also agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
“I don’t distinguish between her being there and not being there. There were always multiple cars.”
Campbell was a neighbor of the Pelosis on San Francisco’s Broadway Street for 10 years, according to the Daily Mail.
The circumstances of a home invasion attack on the spouse of a woman third in line to the presidency have raised questions related to the security of her residence.
Private security expert Tony Schiena pointed to Pelosi’s home security as woefully inadequate, speaking to the Daily Mail.
The former CIA agent described the breach as an “obvious security failure for the family of a high-profile politician to be so vulnerable and exposed.”
Campbell described the Pelosi family’s security measures as so stringent that they interfered with her own electronic devices.
“There was monitoring equipment to make sure that residents couldn’t be spied on remotely from any place in the neighborhood, which involved something that interfered with our computer,” Campbell recalled.
DePape is facing federal charges for an assault on the spouse of a federal official, according to the Department of Justice.
Fox News host Tucker Carlson on Monday pushed back against claims that the man accused of attacking Paul Pelosi Friday is a right-wing extremist.
MSNBC host Mika Brzezinski, for example, portrayed DePape as a tool of the right, in comments posted by The Wrap.
“Deranged right-wing fanatics, Trump-media allies and some of the most powerful people in the world were feverishly trying to stir up conspiracy theories that distracted from the central political headline of this story: that years of Republican propaganda and Trump-fueled fascism led 42-year-old David DePape to break into Nancy Pelosi’s San Francisco home, seemingly with the intent to harm her,” Brzezinski said.
“Are we to insist that this attack was not the direct result of the dangerous, violent rhetoric we have heard from Donald Trump’s Republican party over the last six years? The deranged man who violently assaulted Paul Pelosi got his idea from somewhere. Are we supposed to ignore the fact that threats against the House Speaker have been specific for quite some time?” she said.
In one 47-second clip posted to Twitter, Carlson summed up DePape by saying he “is a mentally ill, drug addicted, illegal alien nudist who takes hallucinogens and lives in a hippie school bus in Berkeley with a BLM banner and pride flag out front… What does this sound like to you?”
Tucker Carlson:
“[David DePape] is a mentally ill, drug addicted, illegal alien nudist who takes hallucinogens and lives in a hippie school bus in Berkeley with a BLM banner and pride flag out front… What does this sound like to you?”pic.twitter.com/edF0gYqKps
DePape faces eight charges from the incident, two federal charges and six state charges. According to a news release from the Department of Justice, DePape faces federal charges of assault of an immediate family member of a United States official with the intent to retaliate against the official on account of the performance of official duties, and one count of attempted kidnapping of a United States official on account of the performance of official duties.
On top of those charges, San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins said DePape will be charged with state crimes of attempted murder, burglary, assault with a deadly weapon, elder abuse, false imprisonment of an elder and threats to a public official and their family, according to The Hill.
Carlson said the question of “who exactly is David DePape” may not be fully answered because “many in the media seem studiously uninterested.”
Carlson cited the work of reported Michael Shellenberger, who dug out some details Carlson shared.
“Apparently, DePape was camping full-time in a dilapidated Ken-Kesey-style school bus, complete with a gay pride flag out front and a sign that reads ‘Berkeley Stands Against Hate.’ Behind the bus hangs a BLM banner. So politically, this picture could not be clearer. You know where this guy stands,” Carlson said.
He said that more digging revealed DePape to be “a hallucinogenic drug enthusiast and a semiprofessional nudist. He often appeared at nudist theme events.”
He noted that San Francisco police have not released any information on any criminal history of DePape.
Carlson referenced a San Francisco Chronicle report on DePape in which his long-term girlfriend Oxane “Gypsy” Taub said DePape was at one time convinced that “he was Jesus for a year.”
“He has never been able to hold a job,” she said. “He has been homeless. This person really does suffer from mental illness and that is probably why he was there at 2 a.m.”
“So, to restate, the perpetrator in this violent crime against Paul Pelosi is a mentally ill, drug-addicted illegal alien nudist who takes hallucinogens and lives in a hippie school bus in Berkeley with a BLM banner and a pride flag out front. Take those uncontested facts and let them rattle around your brain for a moment until a recognizable pattern emerges. What does this sound like to you? If you guessed, this is obviously a textbook case of homegrown right-wing extremism, well, then, obviously, you’ve been watching a lot of cable news today,” he said.
”The bottom line is, ladies and gentlemen, the mentally ill, homeless, illegal alien, drug addict who lives in a painted school bus in Berkeley with the BLM flag is actually, despite all appearances, another member of Donald Trump’s QAnon army,” Carlson said.
Carlson then noted the reason for painting DePape as an agent of the right is pure politics, because “midterm elections are next Tuesday and Democrats are in trouble, and they believe the attack on Paul Pelosi might help them.”
“It’s hilarious and brazen and shameless and the second the midterms are over, they’ll stop, but the point is, as always, all the journalists got the same memo and they’re all running with the same memo, of course using exactly the same words,” he said.
Joe Biden railed off two false statements in two sentences during a speech in Florida on Tuesday.
The 79-year-old first claimed that there’s a war ongoing in Iraq, confusing the nation with Ukraine as he outlined his excuse for crippling inflation and sky-high gas prices gutting Americans at the pump.
After correcting himself, followed up the misstatement by falsely taking on the mantle of a Gold Star father for himself.
“Thinking of Iraq because that’s where my son died,” Biden said, in reference to his deceased son Beau Biden.
BIDEN: “Inflation is a worldwide problem right now because of the war in Iraq and the impact on oil from what Russia’s doing — excuse me, the war in Ukraine — I’m thinking of Iraq because that’s where my son died, because he died.”
“The, uh, because he died,” Biden followed up, in an unclear statement that could’ve been meant as a correction.
Beau Biden deployed to Iraq as a JAG lawyer in a Delaware National Guard unit in 2009. Biden’s older son, who also served as Delaware Attorney General, died of brain cancer six years after he returned from the deployment.
Biden has described his son as an Iraq War casualty numerous times — reason enough to think his statement might be more than a gaffe and is instead a sincere belief.
Joe Biden said that Beau Biden “lost his life in Iraq” as recently as last month.
Biden has previously suggested that his son’s fatal brain cancer was the result of breathing in fumes from military burn pits in Iraq, according to The Washington Post.
Granted, the long-term health consequences of burn pit exposure are real and can be linked to fatalities. Many veterans of the Global War on Terror have health problems in connection to the pits.
But it’s speculation. Not fact. And there is a difference between being killed in action in a combat zone and dying of long-term health consequences incurred through military service.
Biden’s statement gives the impression of the former.
It is not appropriate for Biden to take on the guise of a Gold Star relative, especially in the politically charged context of election speeches.
That honor is reserved for Americans who lost their loved ones in the line of military duty.
The Supreme Court’s conservative justices on Monday suggested they would vote to overturn the legal basis for affirmative action in college admissions.
The High Court heard oral arguments in two cases brought by Students for Fair Admissions against Harvard University and the University of North Carolina. The plaintiffs argue the universities are discriminating against Asian and white applicants, while attorneys representing the schools have defended the race-conscious admissions policies as lawful and necessary to achieve racial diversity. Questions from the Court’s conservative justices—many of whom have dissented against past affirmative action cases—indicated they were sympathetic to the plaintiffs’ argument.
Justice Clarence Thomas, Justice Samuel Alito, and Chief Justice John Roberts all dissented in a 2016 case before the Supreme Court that allowed for race-based admissions at the University of Texas. On Monday, Thomas and Alito reserved their toughest questioning for attorneys who said such admissions practices improve educational outcomes.
“I guess I don’t put much stock in that, because I’ve heard similar arguments for segregation,” Thomas said in response. He also took issue with attorneys who argued the practices promote diversity.
“I’ve heard the word diversity quite a few times, and I don’t have a clue what it means,” Thomas said. “It seems to mean everything for everyone.”
Alito also questioned the notion and asked how the universities could favor “underrepresented minority” candidates for admission without “disadvantaging” other students.
The comments could signal the Court’s willingness to continue overturning long-standinglegal precedents. Mark Smith, a senior fellow in law and public policy at the Federalist Society, notes that “the Court has already done this by overruling Roe v. Wade in Dobbs and in confirming that lower courts must enforce the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms.” The admissions cases would have broad implications since they concern both a private institution and a public university.
The cases implicitly and explicitly call on the Court to revisit past decisions. Students for Fair Admissions asked the Court to overturn a 2003 ruling in Grutter v. Bollinger, which held that institutions of higher education may use race as a factor in admissions. At the time, Thomas remarked the decision would worsen racial equality.
“When blacks take positions in the highest places of government, industry, or academia,” Thomas wrote in a dissenting opinion, “it is an open question today whether their skin color played a part in their advancement.”
In her majority opinion, Justice Sandra Day O’Connor had implied the decision was in some sense provisional. She wrote the “Court expects that 25 years from now, the use of racial preferences will no longer be necessary to further the interest approved today.” Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett touched on this in questions put to one of the lawyers defending the University of North Carolina.
“These racial classifications are potentially dangerous and must have a logical end point,” Kavanaugh said.
“When is your sunset?” Barrett asked. “How do you know when you’re done?”
Justice Neil Gorsuch said the race-conscious policies were difficult to distinguish from an outright racial quota, which the Court outlawed in the 1978 case Regents of the University of California v. Bakke. The manner of admissions, he said, was reminiscent of similar “holistic admissions approaches” that Harvard “used as cover for quotas for Jewish persons” during the 1920s.
“I’m struggling still to understand how you distinguish between what this Court has said is impermissible, a quota, with what you argue should be permissible going forward, which is diversity,” Gorsuch said in an exchange with North Carolina solicitor general Ryan Park. “How can you do diversity without taking account of numbers?”
The remarks take aim at the Court’s decision in Bakke to permit certain racial preferences in higher education even as it outlawed quotas.
Students for Fair Admissions initially filed lawsuits against the universities in 2014, saying their policies violated the Constitution and Civil Rights Act. Harvard and the University of North Carolina claim race is used as an admissions criterion along with other factors, including grade point average, socioeconomic status, and extracurricular activities. The Supreme Court took up the pair of cases in January.
In a revealing exchange between Roberts and Seth Waxman, a lawyer for Harvard, the chief justice pressed the attorney on the unique issue of racial discrimination in the nation’s history. Waxman had argued factoring race into admissions was as significant “as being an oboe player in a year in which the Harvard Radcliffe Orchestra needs an oboe player will be the tip.”
“We did not fight a civil war about oboe players,” Roberts replied. “We did fight a civil war to eliminate racial discrimination. And that’s why it’s a matter of considerable concern.”
Dem groups rush to save Rep. Joe Morelle against Republican challenger La’Ron Singletary
A former police chief’s crime-centered campaign has Democrats sweating in deep-blue Rochester, N.Y., where incumbent congressman Joe Morelle suddenly finds himself on upset alert.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D., Calif.) House Majority PAC dropped $275,000 on an ad buy to help Morelle that will air this week, Politicoreported Monday. The spending suggests Democrats are increasingly nervous about Morelle’s campaign against Republican La’Ron Singletary, a former Rochester police chief who has focused his campaign message on the city’s homicide surge following a state bail reform law that went into effect at the start of 2020.
Singletary, who is black, was not expected to give Morelle a run for his money. The incumbent Democrat cruised to reelection in 2020, defeating his Republican challenger by 20 points. New York’s redistricting process went on to make Morelle’s 25th Congressional District slightly less blue, but President Joe Biden still would have won the newly drawn district by 20 points two years ago. Morelle also holds a strong financial advantage over Singletary, having spent $800,000 on TV ads to Singletary’s $160,000 prior to House Majority PAC’s ad buy.
Morelle is far from the only surprisingly vulnerable Democratic incumbent with Election Day just one week away. In deep-blue Southern California, Rep. Julia Brownley is begging her Democratic colleagues for cash as internal polling shows she could lose to Republican Matt Jacobs in a newly drawn district Biden also would have won by 20 points in 2020. Like Singletary, Jacobs—a former federal prosecutor—has centered much of his campaign on a law-and-order message as Los Angeles County deals with rising homicides. Nonpartisan election handicapper Cook Political Report on Tuesday changed its rating of Brownley’s race from “Solid D” to “Lean D,” one of 10 rating changes that favored Republicans.
“Things are not great,” one House Democrat told NBC News in a piece published Sunday. “Everyone knows that.”
‘I don’t believe there is a path forward for anything other than a ban,’ said Brendan Carr
WASHINGTON (Reuters)—The federal government should take action to rein in online media platform TikTok Inc, one of the U.S. FCC’s commissioners said in an interview, Axios reported on Tuesday.
“I don’t believe there is a path forward for anything other than a ban,” the Federal Communications Commission’s Brendan Carr told the news outlet, citing recent revelations about how TikTok and its Chinese parent ByteDance handle data of U.S. users.
(Reporting by Susan Heavey; Editing by Chris Gallagher)
Sen. Chris Murphy’s letter comes as ‘free speech absolutist’ Tesla CEO looks to rollback censorship on platform
Just days after Elon Musk completed his takeover of Twitter, a top Democratic lawmaker is calling on the Biden administration to investigate the Tesla CEO’s $44 billion purchase.
In a letter Monday, Sen. Chris Murphy (D., Conn.) requested that Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen “immediately conduct a review” of the funding Musk used from Saudi Arabia and Qatar, arguing Twitter is vital for government communication and is susceptible to foreign influence. The two countries’ stakes comprise 5 percent of Twitter’s new funding.
“Any potential that Twitter’s foreign ownership will result in increased censorship, misinformation, or political violence is a grave national security concern,” Murphy wrote.
The Democrat’s letter comes as Musk, a self-described “free speech absolutist,” looks to ease censorship and reverse permanent bans, including on former president Donald Trump’s account.
Murphy, who made headlines in September for blocking a bill to increase school security and mental health resources, acknowledged the countries’ stakes were “non-controlling” but said a company with Americans’ “sensitive personal data” should be protected.
Musk took over the company last week, tweeting Friday: “The bird is freed.” He is reportedly expected to lay off a quarter of the tech company’s workforce.
The Biden administration is reportedly weighing an investigation into Musk’s activities, including the social media takeover.
Report sheds light on Iran-Russia-China nexus and illicit use of American tech
The Iranian-made drones Russia is using to kill Ukrainians are being powered by Chinese technology, showing that the Communist regime is playing a larger role in the conflict than previously known, according to a watchdog group.
Chinese Communist technology is “enabling Iran to manufacture and supply drones to Russian forces,” according to the Institute for Science and International Security, a think tank that closely monitors Iran’s military infrastructure. “It appears that Chinese companies are supplying Iran with copies of Western commodities to produce UAV combat drones.” Components used to power these drones also appear to originate from companies based in the United States and Europe.
The findings could spell trouble for the Western companies involved in this drone technology, as trade of this nature is heavily sanctioned by the United States and European governments. While it is more than likely Iran is procuring this technology on the black market with China’s help, watchdogs including the Institute for Science and International Security are calling on the Biden administration to more aggressively police these networks. This includes stopping negotiations aimed at reviving the 2015 nuclear accord until Iran ends its military trade with Moscow.
“A priority is to understand how foreign parts are ending up in Iranian drones,” the institute says in its latest report. “Discovering Iranian procurement networks can start with the Western suppliers, who would be expected to cooperate with authorities. From there, authorities need to systematically expose Iran’s procurement network, identifying trading companies, distributors, shipping companies, agents friendly to Iran, and ultimately those in Iran organizing these purchases.”
Iran has already supplied Russia with hundreds of drones, which contain lethal missile technology. Tehran has reportedly agreed to supply at least a thousand, “if not thousands, of additional drone systems and eventually export short-range ballistic missiles,” according to the report.
The components powering these drones appear to have originated in Austria, Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States, according to the group, and include “off-the-shelf parts” used in civilian aircraft and drones.
A State Department spokesman said anyone linked to the flow of arms from Iran to Russia could be subject to U.S. sanctions.
Iran’s Shahed-136, one of several drones being used by Russia, contains an electronic signal receiver reportedly produced by the U.S.-based Texas Instruments, according to the findings. The fuel pump for this drone is allegedly produced by TI Automotive, a U.S. subsidiary of TI Fluid Systems, according to the report.
A spokesman for TI Automotive told the Washington Free Beacon it is aware of the allegations but cannot confirm the veracity of them.
“We have not examined this particular part and are not able to confirm any aspect of the Twitter post, including the use of these items,” the spokesman said. “That said, the photo appears to be of a standard fuel pump manufactured by TI Fluid Systems that is readily available as a service part through retailers and distributors in Europe. TI Fluid Systems does not sell this pump or any parts to customers in Iran and does not support or authorize any sale or distribution of our parts to Iran.”
Texas Instruments did not respond to a request for comment.
The Shahed-136 drone is also powered by an engine produced by China’s Beijing MicroPilot Flight Control Systems, according to the report. It is based on a model aircraft engine designed by the German company Limbach Flugmotoren GmbH & Co.KG.
“Iran has a long history of illicitly procuring Limbach engines for its drone program,” according to the report. “In 2012, Limbach opened a subsidiary in China, Xiamen Limbach Aircraft Engine Co., Ltd., to produce the L550 series and other engines. It is unclear how Beijing MicroPilot Flight Control Systems obtained the design for the L550 series engine, or if Limbach or its agent sold the design to the company under a license.”
Iran’s military sales to Russia, which Tehran denies are happening, constitute a violation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 2231, which formally codified the 2015 nuclear agreement. Under that measure, Iran is barred from engaging in military trade of this nature—a violation made all the more egregious by U.N. Security Council member Russia’s involvement in the situation.
“One immediate action is to acknowledge that a revival of the JCPOA should not occur unless Iran stops exporting drones and Iranian drones are no longer used in Ukraine,” the Institute for Science and International Security says in its report, referring to the nuclear agreement by its official acronym. “The people of Ukraine who are suffering such grievous losses from Iranian drones deserve no less.”
Behnam Ben Taleblu, an Iran analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said Iran has long been reliant on the black-market trade for its military needs.
“Iran has a long history of not only illicitly procuring dual-use and commercially available materials and technology for its military programs, but also reverse-engineering them at home,” Taleblu told the Free Beacon. The United States can help combat this situation by providing regional allies with “commensurate short-range air defense systems” capable of destroying Tehran’s weaponry.
Democrats aren’t just out of touch with America, they’re out of touch with their own voters
Black voters are concerned about violent crime. Most Americans agree, with one notable exception: White liberals.
According to a recent Pew survey of registered voters, 82 percent of black Democrats said violent crime was a “very important” issue in the 2022 election, compared with just 33 percent of white Democrats.
Overall, 61 percent of registered voters described violent crime as a very important factor when deciding who to vote for in the upcoming midterm election. The groups least likely to agree with that assessment were Democratic voters (49 percent), voters under 30 (44 percent), voters with graduate degrees (44 percent), and self-described liberals (34 percent).
Gov. Kathy Hochul (D., N.Y.) is a white liberal running in a state President Joe Biden won by 23 points. Nevertheless, her Republican challenger, Rep. Lee Zeldin, is within striking distance thanks in part to his campaign’s focus on violent crime. “Mr. Zeldin could win because independents are siding with Republicans on crime and inflation rather than with Democrats, whose concerns over protecting democracy take precedence,” former Clinton adviser Mark Penn wrote in the New York Times this week.
The Democratic Party’s increasingly radical approach to crime in recent years has already provoked a backlash from voters. Even the liberal residents of San Francisco were outraged at District Attorney Chesa Boudin’s attempt to create a “fair” justice system by refusing to punish criminals. Boudin was recalled in June by a vote of 55 percent to 45 percent. The following month, voters in deep-blue Maryland voted to oust Baltimore state’s attorney Marilyn Mosby, who adopted similar “reforms” even as murder rates soared.
Generally speaking, journalists and other Democrats have struggled to address or even acknowledge voter concerns about crime. They repeatedly attack Republican efforts to highlight crime in campaign ads as “racist dog whistles.” They occasionally point to charts and graphs to explain that voters are wrong to be concerned. They have already started blaming voters for destroying democracy by prioritizing inflation and crime over the latest revelations from the January 6 select committee.
Hochul’s response during an interview with Al Sharpton on MSNBC epitomized her party’s flippant approach. “These are master manipulators,” she said of Republicans. “They have this conspiracy going all across America trying to convince people in Democratic states that they’re not as safe. Well guess what? They’re also not only election deniers, they’re data deniers.”
Students whose last two years of high school were marred by school lockdowns and online learning are now falling behind at college, the New York Times reports.
Members of the class of 2022, who were sophomores when the pandemic began, are struggling to keep up in their freshman college courses, feeling like they lost two years of education in high school. With the latest results from the Education Department showing a dismal decline in fourth- and eighth-grade math and reading scores, universities fear that students struggling to catch up may be an ongoing trend among college freshmen.
Enrollment in undergraduate programs has fallen 4.2 percent since 2020, according to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. Benedict College in Columbia, S.C., saw its first-year enrollment, which normally sits at about 700 students, drop to 378 this term. According to the school’s president, Dr. Roslyn Clark Artis, the college’s math department has particularly seen “significant remediation needs.”
“We are now two and a half weeks past midterm, and our grades are telling the tale: Students are struggling in math,” Artis told the Times.
The increase in students needing extra help to pass their classes has led professors and administrators across the country to dumb down their courses and look for better tutoring resources, the Times reports:
At Texas A&M University, some math classes saw higher rates of Ds, Fs, as well as more withdrawals, over the course of the pandemic. The problems have been particularly bad for first-year students, said Paulo Lima-Filho, the executive director of the university’s math learning center, which provides tutoring.
Students of all kinds seemed to lack sharp foundational math skills and rigorous study habits, he said. And some students had flawed understandings of basic concepts, which particularly worried him.
“That gap will propagate through the generation of the cohort,” Dr. Lima-Filho said. “Colleges are going to have to make an extra effort to bridge that gap.”
After two years of pandemic shutdowns, colleges also report significant increases in students’ social anxiety and academic apathy.
Christopher Basgier, the director of writing at Auburn University, said the number of freshmen seeking tutoring has dropped. “It may be that because they spent more time learning from home, they aren’t used to going out and seeking that kind of extra help,” Basgier told the Times.
“We have had students—for the first time in my 10 years as a college president—say to me, ‘Do we have to attend the parties?'” Artis said. “There’s almost anxiety associated with coming back into a social setting.”
Singer John Legend says there should be ‘significantly fewer police’ with less funding
Pennsylvania Senate candidate John Fetterman—who has blasted Republican Mehmet Oz as a celebrity who has no place in the Senate—is touting endorsements from two Hollywood celebrities who support the movement to defund police.
Fetterman on Monday cited endorsements from actress Kerry Washington and singer John Legend as part of a last-minute fundraising plea before next week’s election. Both celebrities have called to defund law enforcement. In a June 2020 social media post with the hashtag #DefundThePolice, Washington referred to police as a “system that continues to kill us and put us in cages.” Legend said “there should be significantly fewer police,” and called to “take away police funding and reroute it towards community needs.”
It’s the latest example of Fetterman cozying up to anti-police activists while claiming to support funding for law enforcement. As lieutenant governor, his appointee to serve on the Pennsylvania Board of Pardons called to “disarm the police” and referred to cop killer Mumia Abu-Jamal as a friend, the Washington Free Beaconreported. Fetterman hosted a campaign event on 9/11 with an activist who supports the Defund The Police movement. He toured Philadelphia in September with three city council members who have called to defund police.
Republicans have hammered Fetterman over his support for progressive criminal justice policies, highlighting his past calls to decriminalize all drugs and to release one-third of all state prisoners. The wave of negative ads, as well as questions about Fetterman’s health following a stroke, have cut into what was once a double-digit lead for Fetterman over Republican Mehmet Oz. A poll conducted after their debate last week had Oz leading Fetterman by roughly two points.
Fetterman has defended his record as chairman of the Board of Pardons, which he has called a “bully pulpit” to advance progressive criminal justice policies. Fetterman has voted to commute life prison sentences for several first-degree murderers, often over the wishes of victims’ families. When asked in an interview this week whether he regrets his votes to free killers from prison, Fetterman said he was “proud” of his record fighting crime as mayor of Braddock, Pa.
As mayor of the Pittsburgh suburb, Fetterman was best known for pulling a shotgun on an unarmed black jogger he falsely suspected of firing off an assault rifle.
Fetterman, who has attacked Oz for being a celebrity doctor, has courted celebrities to help his campaign. He will appear for an interview on The View this Friday and is campaigning with President Obama this weekend.
Fetterman’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
A week after his bumbling Senate debate performance, Democratic candidate John Fetterman is still struggling to explain his position on fracking.
Pressed in an interview with CNN’s Don Lemon, the stroke victim said he is “very supportive” of the oil-extraction process because Pennsylvania has passed “some of the strongest environmental regulations” on fracking.
Lemon pushed back, noting the laws went into effect in 2016 and Fetterman denounced fracking in 2018.
“In 2017, I was actually very supportive of fracking directly across the street from where I live, as well, too,” Fetterman replied. The 2018 denunciation was on a progressive YouTube show, where the then-mayor said, “I don’t support fracking, at all, and I never have.”
Lemon was seeking clarification on the moment during the Oct. 25 debate when Fetterman said he did support it.
“I do support fracking. And I don’t, I don’t. I support fracking, and I stand, and I do support fracking,” Fetterman said during the debate.
Since the disastrous debate between Fetterman and Republican opponent Mehmet Oz, the Democrat has fallen in the polls. A recent survey found 47.6 percent of voters would vote for Oz while only 45.9 percent would back Fetterman.
The Washington Commanders are raising questions about the nexus between the law and public relations firms representing former team employees and the Democrats on the House Oversight Committee who launched an investigation last year into the team’s workplace culture.
Lawyers for the franchise suggested in a letter to the House Oversight Committee last week that the law firm Katz Banks Kumin LLP—best known for its representation of Brett Kavanaugh accuser Christine Blasey Ford—and the public relations firm SKDK may have a “financial stake in the outcome of the investigation.”
It’s a delicate way of saying this: Both Debra Katz and Lisa Banks are donors to members of the Oversight Committee, including Rep. Jamie Raskin (D., Md.), whose investigation into the Washington Commanders is in turn providing their firm with a lot of business. Similarly, Democrats on the committee have a cozy relationship with SKDK, which runs communications campaigns for Democratic politicians and left-wing organizations—and which is providing those services for the former Commanders employees.
It’s not the only optics problem the investigation has run into: Oversight Committee member Raja Krishnamoorthi (D., Ill.) abruptly canceled a fundraiser in the spring that was set to be hosted by a prominent Democratic family behind a campaign to boycott the Commanders. The lobbyists and would-be hosts, Tom and Mike Manatos, touted Krishnamoorthi as their best shot at “getting rid of Snyder,” a reference to Commanders owner Dan Snyder.
Last week’s letter from the team’s legal counsel is the latest salvo in one of Washington’s most bizarre congressional investigations. Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D., N.Y.) launched the probe last October, after the Commanders paid a $10 million fine to the NFL following an investigation into workplace conditions at the franchise. Republicans have questioned why a congressional committee tasked with investigating waste, fraud, and abuse in the federal government is investigating a private sports franchise.
According to the team’s lawyers at the firm Holland & Knight, House Democrats have been “uninterested” in receiving evidence they say would debunk the allegations made by two Katz Banks clients, former Commanders cheerleader Melanie Coburn and former team vice president of sales Jason Friedman. The lawyers offered to share evidence that contradicts their claims of a toxic workplace in an Oct. 5 letter but said they have not heard back from the committee. They said Katz Banks responded to the letter instead, raising additional questions about the relationship with the committee.
“Based on the fact that the only response to our letter came from Katz Banks, and not from you, it appears that this private law firm is now acting as the de facto legal counsel for the Committee,” the lawyers wrote to Maloney, the co-chair of the Oversight Committee panel.
“The firm’s protracted involvement in this investigation raises significant questions about the source of the firm’s funding and/or its financial stake in the outcome of the investigation,” the lawyers said.
The Oversight Committee did not respond to a request for comment.
A 2018 investigation found the Democratic gubernatorial candidate fostered a ‘sexually hostile environment’ in the Oregon statehouse
Tina Kotek has built an image as a protector of “women’s rights,” touting her efforts to end workplace discrimination and defend survivors of sexual assault throughout her career. But a review of her time as Oregon House speaker reveals a record of neglect and disregard for sexual harassment.
Complaints and lawsuits filed at the height of the #MeToo movement allege that Kotek for years ignored accusations of sexual misconduct against state lawmakers. One of those complaints alleges that a lawmaker groped female state senators as well as interns—and that Kotek looked the other way. Another charges that a state representative told a young woman working in the legislature “to get ready for a birthday spanking,” according to notes Kotek took about the incident, but that Kotek did nothing. And an investigation by Oregon’s labor commissioner in 2018 found Kotek had fostered a “sexually hostile environment in the Capitol.”
That record is a far cry from the pro-woman advocacy she’s leaned on throughout her gubernatorial run, during which she has told voters that she has “fought to advance equity for women” and described herself as a “leader with a proven record of standing up for women’s rights and protections.” With a week to go until Election Day, Kotek is in a close race against Republican opponent Christine Drazan, with the RealClearPolitics average giving Drazan a 1.7-point lead. Kotek served as House speaker from 2013 to 2022, when she announced her run for governor.
But Jackie Sandmeyer, an official tasked with handling misconduct complaints in the Oregon legislature, said Kotek was willing to do anything to keep her office quiet.
“Kotek thinks she is a tough lesbian, but really she will try to bribe you to keep you quiet,” Sandmeyer told her successor as legislative equity officer, Nate Monson. “She’ll offer you whatever you want—money, resources for the office.”
Kotek allowed female interns to work for state senator Jeff Kruse (R.) even though she knew he had a history of groping female colleagues, the labor commissioner’s investigation revealed. State senator Sara Gelser had accused Kruse in 2016 of sexually harassing her before the interns were hired at the close of the year. Kruse called the interns “sexy” and subjected them to “a lot of hugging,” occasionally trailing his fingers across the bottom of their breasts, an independent investigator found.
The report also revealed that Kotek kept notes in 2013 on a Democratic state representative who joked about introducing a female aide as a “stripper” on the House floor, the Oregonianreported. Kotek knew about the incident four years before it surfaced.
In 2017, Kotek said the representative was made aware that his conduct was inappropriate and that the complainant was satisfied with the way in which the matter had been resolved. She also said in 2019 she disagrees with the labor commissioner’s report and is “committed to the ongoing work to make the Capitol a model workplace free of harassment.”
That same year, a legal aide in the legislature sued Kotek and the state Senate president for failing to protect her from being fired after she reported the accusations against Kruse. Gail Stevens, a former deputy legislative counsel, said her boss, Legislative Counsel Dexter Johnson, let her go after she had “reported unlawful conduct, mismanagement, and abuses of power at the Oregon State Capitol.”
Kotek’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
Monson, Oregon’s most recent legislative equity officer, filed a lawsuit this year alleging that Kotek and other legislators similarly pushed him out of his job after he uncovered other sexual harassment complaints. One involved Democratic state representative Diego Hernandez, who resigned in 2021 following sexual harassment accusations from five women.
Hernandez’s case has shed light on what some legislators view as a pattern of general workplace abuse from Kotek. In a separate workplace complaint, a legislator testifying before a House committee in October said that Kotek created a hostile work environment as speaker and drove Hernandez to the point of suicide, the Associated Press reported. That committee deadlocked on Monday over the accusation, with two Democrats voting against holding Kotek responsible, saying her conduct was neither “severe or pervasive.”
Melissa Healy, an attorney at Stoel Rives law firm in Portland, investigated Hernandez’s case and found that Kotek’s behavior hadn’t crossed any lines. Healy donatedthousandsof dollarsduringKotek’sspeakership to the Campaign for Equal Justice, a left-wing legal group on whose advisory committee Kotek has served since 2013.
Stoel Rives is also one of two law firms tasked with operating the Oregon legislature’s equity office after Monson left his post.
Kotek’s performance against Drazan has Democrats worried they may lose Oregon in the upcoming election. The Democratic Governors Association and other liberal groups have spent millions in the state in the past two months.
The Case For Christian Nationalism by Stephen Wolfe is the definitive argument for both the existence of things called “nations” and for that entity adopting the Christian religion. In September, Andrew Torba and I published Christian Nationalism, and we intended it as a digestible introduction and defense of the movement to renew and recover America’s heritage as a Christian nation. Wolfe, a political scientist with a Ph.D. and fellowship at Princeton, has written a detailed deep dive into the topic. If the book Christian Nationalism, whets your appetite, Wolfe’s 400+ page book, The Case for Christian Nationalism, is the seven-course meal you crave.
What makes Wolfe’s book so important?
Critics of Christian Nationalism constantly decry both “nationalism” and “Christian Nationalism” as idolatrous, unbiblical, tyrannical, “racist,” and undemocratic. But Wolfe gives precise, sustained, and detailed arguments that demonstrate that both “nationalism” and “Christian Nationalism” are positive goods. Take for instance his definition of nationalism:
“Nationalism refers to a totality of national action, consisting of civil laws and social facts (e.g., culture), conducted by a nation as a nation, in order to procure for itself both earthly and heavenly good.” Wolfe spends nearly 100 pages carefully explaining what each of these three things means, which should lead the reader to recognize as plain as day just how hysterical the critics are.
Is “a nation pursuing its own good as a nation” sinful? Idolatrous? Racist? Tyrannical? Of course not. Substitute any other organized group of human beings and it sounds just as preposterous. “A family pursuing its own good as a family”? “A boy scout troop pursuing its own good as a boy scout troop”? A corporation pursuing its own good as a corporation”? To say these things are idolatrous or sinful would be to say that their very existence is sinful.
In Chapter 3, which alone is worth the price of the book, Wolfe powerfully explains the root of the peculiar phenomenon of ‘the suicide of the modern West’:
“Western man is enamored with his ideology of universality; it is the chief and only ground of his self-regard. His in-group is all people—it is a universal in-group. Everyone is an object of his beneficence. But in perverse fashion he is his own in-group’s out group. The object of his regard is the non-Westerner at the Westerner’s expense—a bizarre self-denigration rooted in guilt and malaise. Loss and humiliation is the point, however. It is euphoric to him; his own degradation is thrilling. This is his psycho-sexual ethno-masochism, the most pernicious illness of the Western mind.”Wolfe, The Case for Christian Nationalism, pp. 168-169.
Wolfe continues:
“The Western mind needs to be critiqued in order to free it from exploitation and self-disparagement. The key is having the moral and psychological fortitude to endure the psychological discomfort that arise from affirming the truth and denying the false and absurd. Indeed, you must critique and deliberately decline to act on certain mental habits designed to extinguish this discomfort, such as accusations (whether against oneself or others) like “racist” or “fascist” or “xenophobe”; appeals to universality; and ascribing altruism.”ibid, p. 170.
For generations, Westerners, and Americans in particular, have been catechized to believe 1. that the values unique to their culture are held by all people everywhere throughout all time, and 2. Our national sins are uniquely and incalculably worse than all other peoples and we must assume a posture of guilt. Wolfe points out that until these false habits of mind are eradicated among our people, we will continue to see our nation invaded and our people dispossessed. This degradation leads to cities, institutions, and national identities that our ancestors built over generations, captured and destroyed. In short, it is a chapter that demonstrates that it is okay for Americans to put America first. It is okay for your nation to put its people’s interests as its top priority; it is insane that anyone can make you feel guilty for something natural to every organized group of people everywhere for all of history.
After establishing the idea that a nation pursuing its own earthly and heavenly good is good and right, Wolfe goes on in Chapter 4 to give a defense of the idea of a Christian nation pursuing it’s own earthly and heavenly good. He defends the application of “Christian” as a descriptor against the objection that only individuals and not nations can be saved by pointing out that there are all sorts of organized groups of Christians, especially non-voluntary organized groups like the Christian family. So it stands to reason that there can be nations ordered under the kingship of Jesus Christ and that the civil governments of the nation can act for the nation’s heavenly good.
Wolfe’s 5th and 6th Chapters deal with cultural Christianity and civil law, respectively; subjects that the critics of Christian political engagement (and Christian Nationalism more specifically) often bring up as a sort of “gotcha” argument intended to shut down any serious discussion. But far from a bad thing that causes people to believe they are Christians when they are not, Wolfe defines cultural Christianity as the “…social facticity in the service of the Christian religion. A Christian nation as nation has social power and as a Christian nation this power is directed to Christian ends. Thus Christian nations have a social force that prejudices the people for Christian belief and practice.” (ibid, p. 210)
It is not a question of whether you will have a culture directing people to certain beliefs but rather which culture directs people to certain beliefs. The souls of a nation’s people should have that culture directing them to the truth of God’s Word than it is to have a culture directing them to falsehood and sin.
Compare this perspective to the leading lights of “Big Eva” like Russell Moore, who celebrate the decline of Christianity as a cultural force in America, rejoicing that we don’t have “Mayberry” anymore, because “Mayberry leads to hell just as surely as Gomorrah does.” Wolfe eviscerates this subversive, cowardly, defeatist, glee at the destruction of a once-Christian nation:
Mayberry is the fictional North Carolinian town of The Andy Griffith Show. That show depicts a Southern form of commodious life: a community of few and small concerns, high social trust, and ease of life. The residents had common songs and customs, often singing them together on porches, at times for consolation. They all went to church on Sundays. The children, known by all, ran around town perfectly safe, being protected and watched by the community. Any American who watches that lighthearted, heartwarming show cannot but feel nostalgia for an America lost by negligence and malevolence. But as Moore says, it was “hardly revival.” He prefers “a Roman Empire hostile to the core to” Christianity. In other words, Moore wants society and government that actively destroy communities like Mayberry and use every means to manipulate your children to reject Christ. He doesn’t want mere liberal neutrality, but active hostility.ibid, pp. 288-289.
The head of the Christian nation, what Wolfe calls “The Christian Prince” is the subject of Chapter 7, and therein he presents the argument for a Christian civil leader who will enact law for the national will and defend and pursue his people’s earthly and heavenly good. And, in this chapter, Wolfe courageously confronts the issue which will prevent great men from assuming the leadership we so desperately need in another paragraph that alone makes the book worth its weight in gold:
Our age suffers from a dearth of great men. This is largely because acquiring power and influence requires one to debase himself with egalitarian appeal. We live under a de facto gynocracy where masculinity is pathologized in the name of “fairness” and “equity.” To achieve acceptance or relevance today, men must become female-adjacent; that is, to adjust to toxic-feminine conditions of empowerment: sameness, credentialism, risk-aversion, victimology, and passive-aggression. Mediocrity today is barely concealed by institution-dependent accolades. Therapy and self-care is praised as an achievement; struggle and self-willed action is deemed toxic. Competition, agonistic assertion, and the pursuit of concrete achievement threaten the egalitarian regime. Instead of analytical thought, viewpoints are backed by institutionally conferred credibility and by threats of managerial-bureaucratic reprisal for disagreement. Everything must be rigged for “equitable” outcomes, which suppresses spontaneous hierarchy formation. Masculinity is enlisted as a means to empower the female objects of empathy (the abstract “marginalized”)—at the man’s expense. As a result, Western nations are leading themselves into decline (especially demographically) as feminine empathy, which is suitable for the domestic sphere, enacts gynocratic contradictions and self-destructive inclusivist policies. We should not ascribe greatness to most of the powerful men of our time; great men lead other men and together direct their nation to its destiny. Great men show that heroic masculinity is not simply about “protecting the weak” but leading the whole to greatness. In civil affairs today, men should go their own way.ibid, p. 322.
The most controversial chapter by far of Wolfe’s already very polemical book is Chapter 8 “Revolution.” Here Wolfe gives his justification for the people of a nation casting off a tyrannical and unjust government and establishing what he calls a “just and more suitable political arrangement.” In this thorough and detailed argument, Wolfe establishes certain conditions where a revolt against a tyrannical government can be justified.
Consider the father/child relation. The child ought to obey his father within the scope of fatherly order. But if the father were to lose his mind and seek to murder the son, the son is free to resist, seize, and incapacitate his father. In this case, a son indeed resists his father, but the father is subject to resistance not as a father but as a fellow man, and the son resists him but not as a son. In other words, in assaulting his son, the father is not acting fatherly (viz. not acting within the scope of fatherly authority) but as a deranged man, and all deranged men can be resisted. The same is true with the husband/wife and other relations. In each case, the principle is that when some superior acts in ways ill-fitting his office, he acts not as a superior but as a fellow man and, thus, as an equal, albeit under the pretense of superiority and authority. For this reason, the authority can be resisted as an aggressor, though he retains his title as a father, military officer, ship captain, or civic leader.ibid, p. 327.
In other words, if a dad or a husband can be so abusive that he can be resisted, so can all other human authorities. Wolfe explains precisely what, then, constitutes a tyrant who has abdicated his office by his conduct, “a tyrant in effect is one who, though having the appearance of civil authority, is but a man ordering fellow men to great evil” (p. 330) and he goes on to give a detailed list of arguments defining what conditions meet the definition of tyrannical abuse.
From here Wolfe goes into a discussion of the kind of tyrannical abuse that faces Christians in the modern age, and distinguishes it from the kind of tyranny we have faced in the past:
We are ever-vigilant for that explicit, outward, open, physical, declared, and official persecution. We received this expectation from Christian tradition—a tradition formed in times very different from our own. But we don’t live in the same world as our spiritual forefathers, in the world of Foxe’s Book of Martyrs. The powers of our modern world—the ones that undermined true religion in the West—are more implicit and psychological; they operate in the normalization of secularism. It’s normalization is evident in the fact that “normal” people affirm it, live it, and expect it. Our secularist minds are shaped for it, and thus theological traditions that are clearly opposed to secularism had to be recast as its greatest adherents (e.g., modern two kingdom theology). With our minds enmeshed in the secularist norm, we confidently think that pleading for religious exemptions before secularist overlords is the timeless politics of Jesus. How convenient for us that we happen to live in secularist times. ibid, p. 337
It is at this point that Wolfe dissects the deepest psychological objection to Christian Nationalism that is so often held by many sincere Christians:
The idea of Christian dominion of public space makes even your typical Christian uncomfortable. When confronted with the accusation of “Christian nationalism,” for example, we retreat to universality. That is, we claim that we want “freedom for all” and that Christian values “benefit everyone equally,” and we point to hospitals, charities, adoptions, and a love for the “outcast.” But this is a mental habit that our spiritual forefathers did not have; they were not habitually trained to retreat to universality, to justify all their claims of public life by making the other the chief beneficiary, nor to make the object of policy all people without discrimination. Nor did they need or seek the approval of the godless to order their communities to God. The retreat to universality is an expression not of Christianity but of normalized modern liberalism, operating as a background assumption for Christian ethics, exegesis, and theology. It ought to be deconstructed.ibid, p. 338
After answering objections by citing Romans 13 and explaining his position on the lesser magistrate, Wolfe concludes this explosive chapter, not by downplaying his conclusions as the product of meaningless, ivory tower, intellectual blathering, but rather as a call to action. He calls for the same Christian spirit of those who first built Christendom to enliven our hearts and to break free of the psychological chains of secularism.
In Chapter 9, Wolfe answers objections regarding liberty of conscience, stating that the Anglo-American Protestant political and religious tradition that existed in the earliest era of America, which tolerated other religions but did not grant them political power, is a good model to base the ideas of the Christian nationalist project’s view of religious liberty in the future. This leads directly into Chapter 10, which persuasively demonstrates that the American political and religious tradition was that of a thoroughly and explicitly Christian nation. Wolfe masterfully debunks secularist propaganda and outright lies, showing that from initial colonization even to the supposedly “secular” founding of the independent American Republic, was in fact the demonstrable out-working of the Anglo-Protestant religious tradition. Accordingly, the Christian nationalist in America can and should model our project after this heritage we share. America has a particular religious tradition, a tradition that has been subverted over generations by secularists, but a tradition we can and must stand firmly within.
After spending 430 heavily-footnoted pages presenting a thorough, academic case for Christian nationalism, Wolfe concludes with a call to action. In this call to action, he describes what the Christian nationalist is up against, the Globalist American Empire (GAE), the gynocracy that animates the GAE, and all that it will take to overcome it, including and especially overcoming the slavish pathologies beaten into the evangelical mind. Your reward at the end of this feast is the dessert of fervent encouragement. You will reach the end of the book and understand that we have all that we need to win, it just takes action!
Wolfe’s book is precisely what we need at this moment. He is an accomplished scholar and provides exactly the clear, logical, precise arguments that Christian nationalists need to defend Christian engagement in politics that is anything other than the typical automatic surrender to secularism. If you want to bolster your understanding of Christian political engagement and if you want to be heavily armed with every possible argument those who demand your surrender will muster, you absolutely must read this book.
Andrew Isker is the pastor of 4th Street Evangelical Church in Waseca, MN. He is a graduate of Minnesota State University and Greyfriar’s Hall Ministerial Training School, and he has served churches in Missouri, West Virginia, and Minnesota. He is the author (with Andrew Torba) of Christian Nationalism, and the author of the forthcoming book, The Boniface Option. Andrew, his wife Kara, and their five children reside in his hometown of Waseca, MN. He can be found on Gab @BonifaceOption.
The founders of the election integrity group True the Vote were jailed on Oct. 31 by a federal judge for contempt of court.
U.S. marshals detained Catherine Engelbrecht and Gregg Phillips after a hearing in federal court in Dallas, according to a court docket entry.
Court filings show U.S. District Judge Kenneth Hoyt, the Reagan appointee overseeing a lawsuit against True the Vote, Engelbrecht, and Phillips, ordered the defendants jailed after they refused to share information, including all people who have had or still have possession of any information from Konnech computers.
Konnech is an election management software firm whose CEO was arrested in October for allegedly stealing poll worker data and hosting it on servers in China.
Konnech sued True the Vote prior to the arrest, alleging that the election integrity group and its founders gained unauthorized access to its computers and gained information from them.
In the lawsuit and a motion for a temporary restraining order (TRO), Konnech said that the defendants made “completely baseless claims” that Konnech’s CEO and employees were Chinese operatives and that the FBI was investigating Konnech.
“The truth is that Konnech is a U.S. company founded and operated by a U.S. citizen who has no affiliation with the Chinese Communist Party whatsoever,” Konnech said, adding that all of its U.S. customer data “is secured and stored exclusively on protected computers located within the United States.”
That was part of the $2.9 million contract Konnech reached with Los Angeles County, but Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón, a Democrat who charged Konnech CEO Eugene Yu, said investigators found that information “was stored on servers in the People’s Republic of China.”
True the Vote said Konnech’s claims that they hacked into Konnech servers were false and that they accessed a server in China using a “pre-loaded password that did not even require typing in a password to enter the server.”
Hoyt in September ordered the defendants to stop accessing the computers and to return all property and data obtained from the computers. He also ordered them to identify each person and group involved in accessing the computers and to disclose to Konnech how the computers were accessed.
Defendants told the court in a sealed letter that they wouldn’t identify the source of the data, “arguing that to do so would hinder an FBI investigation concerning the matter, or jeopardizing ‘national security,’” Hoyt said in a recent order.
Defendants said they turned over the person’s identity to the FBI and that they shouldn’t have to make that name available to Konnech. Text messages submitted to the court were sent between Engelbrecht and FBI agents, according to an affidavit from the former.
Phillips said in an affidavit that defendants would “comply fully” with Hoyt’s order and that the name of the person who accessed information from a computer was revealed in court during a recent hearing. According to Votebeat, that person is Mike Hasson. A summons was issued to Hasson on Oct. 31.
Phillips also said that Hasson and FBI agents were the only people who had access to the information.
But Phillips and Engelbrecht are still refusing to reveal other information, including the name of another person who was present when Phillips viewed some of the data in 2021.
The defendants will be detained “until they fully comply” with Hoyt’s order to disclose information, according to a summary of the hearing.
“True the Vote calls for the immediate release of founder Catherine Engelbrecht and contractor Gregg Phillips, who were jailed for contempt today for refusing to deliver to Konnech the name of the third party who was present at a presentation of evidence of Konnech’s wrongdoing,” True the Vote said in a statement to The Epoch Times. “This evidence was provided to the LA District Attorney’s office in their investigation of Konnech, which resulted in the arrest of CEO Eugene Yu.
“True the Vote attorneys are expediting an appeal seeking to have Engelbrecht and Phillips released.”
“Trust, honesty, and respect will always be our highest values, regarding both our work and our lives,” Engelbrecht added. “As a result, we will be held in jail until we agree to give up the name of a person we believe was not covered under the terms of the judge’s TRO.”
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered counties to not count any ballots that are in undated or incorrectly dated envelopes in the upcoming Nov. 8 elections, siding with national and state Republican groups in a lawsuit filed just over two weeks ago.
“The Pennsylvania county boards of elections are hereby ORDERED to refrain from counting any absentee and mail-in ballots received for the November 8, 2022 general election that are contained in undated or incorrectly dated outer envelopes,” the court said in its order (pdf).
It added, “We hereby DIRECT that the Pennsylvania county boards of elections segregate and preserve any ballots contained in undated or incorrectly dated outer envelopes.”
Court justices were split 3–3 on whether not counting these ballots would violate 52 US Code section 10101 (a)(2)(B), a voting provision under the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
The provision states that “no person acting under color of law shall deny the right of any individual to vote in any election because of an error or omission on any record or paper relating to any application, registration, or other act requisite to voting, if such error or omission is not material in determining whether such individual is qualified under State law to vote in such election.”
Chief Justice Debra Todd, and Justices Christine Donohue and David Wecht—all Democrats—would find a violation of federal law if ballots were thrown out based on requiring a date, the court order states. Meanwhile, Justice Kevin Dougherty, a Democrat, and Justices Sallie Updyke Mundy and Kevin Brobson, both Republicans, would not find a violation of federal law. The court is down one member after Chief Justice Max Baer died in September.
The court said that opinions for the decision are “to follow.”
Republicans Sought Expedited Review
The latest court decision comes after the Republican National Committee (RNC), the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), and the Republican Party of Pennsylvania in October joined in filing a lawsuit to block undated mail-in ballots and absentee ballots from being counted, even if they are received on time.
In a petition, the group asked for an expedited review, which requires the court to use its special power to bypass the lower courts in taking up the case. On Oct. 21, the court granted the request, a move that suggested it regards the matter as urgent and important.
Pennsylvania Department of State officials argued that state law between 1945 to 1968 had directed counties to set aside mail-in ballots when the date on the envelope was later than the election day. But in 1968, the state law was changed, resulting in the deletion of a section in the law that required counties to set aside ballots based on the date on the return envelope, the officials noted.
Republicans asked the justices to rule on the language of Pennsylvania’s law, which states that an absentee or mail-in voter “shall … fill out, date and sign the declaration” printed on the outer envelope of the ballot. They asked the court that if it doesn’t order counties to throw out the undated or incorrectly dated ballots, then it should at least order counties to segregate the ballots.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed the individual petitioners from the case due to lack of standing, while determining that the RNC, NRCC, and the Pennsylvania GOP have standing.
Prior to the latest legal fight, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had ruled in May that having dates on the return envelope is not mandatory, and that mail-in ballots without the date had to be counted in a 2021 Pennsylvania judge race.
The ruling was welcomed by Democrats, including the Pennsylvania Department of State under the administration of Gov. Tom Wolf, a Democrat. It immediately adjusted its nonbinding guidance to say that counties should count undated ballots.
But the U.S. Supreme Court in October vacated the decision by the appeals court, and dismissed the case as moot.
Pennsylvania state law requires that voters handwrite a date on the outer envelope when they send in mail ballots. However, the date that’s handwritten on the envelope is not used to verify whether a ballot has been received on time for the election, because the ballots are supposed to be time-stamped when they arrive at county offices.
“I DON’T KNOW ABOUT YOU, BUT I WILL TAKE MEAN TWEETS AND $2.00 GAS ANY DAY OF THE WEEK.”
Remember the good ole days… way back in 2020… when the United States was an exporter of energy and the price of gas was $2.17 per gallon? Today, the United States – and indeed the world – is in a self-inflicted energy crisis.
Globally, the energy sector is a complete disaster. “Tightening markets for liquefied natural gas (LNG) worldwide and major oil producers cutting supply have put the world in the middle of ‘the first truly global energy crisis,’ the head of the International Energy Agency (IEA) said.”
While the Biden government celebrates the price of gas coming down from its summer highs, Americans are still being hurt at the pump, and it is still impacting our supply chain. In addition, the President is actively attempting to rewrite history by claiming gas was more than $5.00 per gallon when he took office.
It was not.
The average price of a gallon gas in the United States is $3.76, per AAA. This is up from $2.40 per gallon the week after Joe Biden was inaugurated as President in 2021.
The cost of diesel, the fuel that fuels our supply chain, is $5.34 per gallon, up from $2.73 when Biden took office.
It didn’t have to be this way. Biden’s war on fossil fuels and the push for the “green new deal,” is certainly to blame, too.
In January 2021, President Biden signed executive orders directing the secretary of the Interior Department to halt new oil and natural gas leases on public lands and waters.
President Biden also revoked the permit for the Keystone XL pipeline. He then paused oil and gas leases in February 2022.
As gas prices surged over the summer of 2022, the Biden administration didn’t relax regulations to unleash our energy power. Instead, the President begged countries such as Saudi Arabia and Venezuela to pump more oil. He even went as far as to ask Saudi Arabia and the OPEC+ nations to delay their decrease in production until after the mid-term elections.
The results of Biden’s energy policy have been devastating to the American people and our national security.
“The Biden administration is the first White House to repeatedly draw down the emergency stockpile over several months in an explicit bid to lower prices at the pump.”
The Biden government will release another “15 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve… in a bid to drive fuel prices down.” This will bring the total number of barrels released to 180 million since March. The nation’s strategic oil reserves are now at their lowest levels since 1984.
We are also seeing an unprecedented decline in the nation’s diesel fuel supplies. Per Reuters, stocks “of diesel and other distillate fuel oils were just 106 million barrels on October 21, the lowest… since the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) started collecting weekly data in 1982.” The United States is now down to less than 25 days of supply of diesel fuel.
To make matters worse, the United States “has just a 26-day supply of heating oil… the smallest store for this time of year in at least three decades… heating costs this winter are already forecast to be the highest since at least 1997,” per Bloomberg.
So, we have reached a near-perfect disaster where the government has declared war on the fossil fuel industry, our “allies” have cut supply, and we are about to run out of diesel fuel just before the holiday season, so the retail industry will be devastated. In addition, you probably won’t be able to heat your home if you live in the Northeastern portion of the United States.
I don’t know about you, but I will take mean tweets and $2.00 gas any day of the week.
In the wake of Sunday’s presidential run off in Brazil, the contest between former President of Brazil Lula and current President of Brazil – the wildly popular Jair Bolsonaro – has been upended by massive protests and unrest as the tabulation of the results currently show Lula leading Bolsonaro by hair under two percentage points.
This mass civil unrest has been in the making, arguably since the day Bolsonaro announced his candidacy in 2016, and definitely since he won the presidency in 2018.
The globalist/Marxist resistance to Bolsonaro’s presence at the highest level of Brazilian politics has been unflinching and unrelenting, mostly directed by the hopelessly corrupt Supreme Court of Brazil. At every turn, Bolsonaro has faced stonewall opposition to his attempted service towards the citizens of Brazil. Now, with the endless questions about the electoral integrity of the runoff results in this most recent election – in a country notorious for fraudulent elections in the first place – Bolsonaro’s supporters have decided to take matters into their own hands. They are hoping their mass uprisings across the country will energize Bolsonaro to take control of the increasingly deteriorating situation.
On Monday evening, I started to receive footage and reports from contacts in Brazil about the situation, with claims that real news was being actively buried by their media. Some went as far as to say that the protests and unrests were “fake”. The footage I began publishing to my Twitter feed – now risibly tagged with a “Misleading” label – was aimed at eliminating this notion.
HAPPENING NOW: Things are developing quickly in Brazil, and not in a good way after the election that was STOLEN from Bolsonaro.
The police are starting to join with the Bolsonarista truck drivers who are protesting the fraudulent results of the Brazilian election. pic.twitter.com/FFWV7EOuDu
The footage starts with a Brazilian gentleman stating, in Portuguese, that truck drivers had commenced major protests, and that the some Brazilian military officers and units had begun to join them. Reports circulated, alleging that Federal SWAT Police (National Force), São Paolo Civilian Police, National Road Police, and Military Police had started joining the protesters and providing logistical and operational support for them.
This energetic series of events raises the question: what is the intended result of these uprisings?
The answer is a lot simpler than one might think: The pro-Bolsonaro protesters coordinated the protests and uprisings to convince the military to join them in contesting the results of the questionable election with its demonstrable irregularities. They hope that by coordinating mass demonstration, they can enlist local police support, and leverage that to signal to the military that they need to support Bolsonaro. This, in turn, would embolden Bolsonaro himself. It is important to note that there are virtually no mechanisms to audit or recount election results in Brazil (except if the challenge is brought by a supermajority of the Brazilian Senate, which Bolsonaro is poised to have in January should he successfully contest the results of this election). Protestors feel military support for any action contesting the election results is, therefore, key.
The people hoping the Brazilian military would read the signal have been served with their first major roadblock: Bolsonaro, without saying he’s conceding or accepting the tabulated results of the election, promised to “do what is lawful”, having no means to stop the Lula team from filing the transfer documentation required to begin the transition to the Lula presidency.
Sources on the ground suggest the pro-Bolsonaro protests failed to muster up the support needed to enlist the top brass so far, with reasons two-fold:
The military brass is not concerned about Bolsonaro, the citizens of Brazil, or anything beyond their pensions;
The corrupt Supreme Court is likely to pursue challengers. Lula’s previous administration was notorious jailing geriatric military leaders at the time under the guise of “human rights violations”.
In the case that the military brass did secure such guarantees – as all political maneuvering is intended to do – they may alert Bolsonaro that he does not have their support to contest the results, and that Bolsonaro’s best bet is to begin the transfer of government. Such a move would be a monumental setback for the burgeoning nationalist populist movements worldwide.
This is probably the toughest problem Bolsonaro faces, though some still hold on to hope. Bolsonaro recently said the protests are legitimate, and this legitimization allows demonstrators to continue and intensifying their work, even as the Lula clique tries to weasel its way into transition.
If Lula re-assumes the Presidency, his first likely orders of business will be to bless an already runaway judiciary to come completely off the chain and start the political persecution of the pro-Bolsonaro groups: including truck drivers, farmers, construction workers, police, and military personnel. This is the first domino. The weaponized judiciary of Brazil will persecute congressmen, senators, ministers, and inevitably Bolsonaro himself. The regime must reclaim its legislative and bureaucratic apparatus in the wake of an otherwise successful election for Bolsonaro’s party and ruling coalition.
The only thing standing in its way? Ordinary, patriotic Brazilians.
Restrictions tighten despite court ruling in case involving social media
Southwest Airlines and a labor union seem to have learned little from the case of pro-life flight attendant Charlene Carter, several longtime employees told The Epoch Times.
On July 14, a federal jury unanimously awarded Carter more than $5 million, declaring that Southwest illegally fired her in 2017 for “protected speech”—and that her union helped get her fired instead of protecting her.
After Carter used Facebook to express religious views on abortion and criticize the flight attendants’ union, a union official reported her posts to Southwest, leading to her dismissal.
Now, three months after jurors found that Southwest and the union violated Carter’s rights, recent events have struck a raw nerve among her former coworkers and union members.
The emerging controversy represents the nation’s latest example of an employer clashing with employees over the privacy of electronic communications—especially during off-duty hours.
Charlene Carter, who worked for Southwest Airlines as a flight attendant for 21 years before she was fired, holds her former Southwest flight attendant’s uniform at her home in Aurora, Colo., on Aug. 30, 2022. (Michael Ciaglo for The Epoch Times)
‘A Lot of Fear’
Speaking on condition of anonymity, a half-dozen Southwest employees shared their concerns with The Epoch Times; three are pilots, and three are flight attendants.
The employees fear that if their names were divulged, they would lose their jobs.
They also said their employer appears to be signaling that just about anyone could be fired for conduct similar to Carter’s.
They point to a new far-reaching policing of private electronic communications. One such policy applies to workers’ use of social media and “any other form of electronic communication.”
Southwest Airlines passengers check in at Chicago Midway International Airport in a file photo. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)
The employees say that, despite the Carter verdict, Southwest has continued investigating employees for online statements, including some made in private chat groups. The employees said several workers have been summoned to “fact-finding” meetings over pronouns that the company urges employees to use with transgender coworkers.
Southwest’s recent actions have “created a lot of fear” among the rank and file, a flight attendant said.
The flight attendants’ labor union, Transport Workers Union of America Local 556, doesn’t seem to be pushing back on behalf of its members, flight attendants said in interviews.
The Epoch Times repeatedly sought comment from the company and the union but received no response.
Encrypted Messages
In light of recent developments at Southwest, workers are afraid that they could become the next victim of a “targeted assassination,” a flight attendant said, using a term that surfaced in the Carter case.
During her trial, documents and testimony revealed that a union activist advocated “targeted assassinations”—using the company’s strict social media policy to get the union’s enemies fired.
That trend seems to be continuing, a flight attendant said in an Oct. 28 interview.
Southwest Airlines planes are seen in a file photograph. (Ross D. Franklin/AP Photo)
“The union activists, those who hate the conservatives and the Christians, are actively copying, looking for information that they can use to harm those that they disagree with,” she said.
Two other flight attendants said they share that belief.
Southwest’s communication-policing practices appeared to be broadening even before the new policies were distributed, flight attendants said.
Moles “infiltrated” private groups using an encrypted messaging service, then provided screenshots of messages to Southwest, the flight attendants said.
The company later questioned employees about that content, noting that Southwest’s inquiries are “not just limited to traditional social media anymore,” according to the flight attendants.
Clicking Blindly?
In early October, Southwest began sending electronic notices telling employees that they were “required” to acknowledge a set of policies by 11:59 p.m. Central time on Oct. 31.
The messages stated that failure to acknowledge the policies by the deadline could result in unspecified “disciplinary action.”
Four of the six policies caused concern among the interviewed employees. Those policies deal with social media, information security, and privacy of information.
Many colleagues, especially new hires, may mindlessly click a box indicating that they “acknowledge and confirm acceptance of the policies” without reading the documents, according to the interviewed employees.
“I would say 99 percent of the employees don’t know what they clicked,” a flight attendant said. “They just trust the company, and they check the box—and it will be to their detriment.”
If an employee faces discipline for policy violations and the case goes to court, the company can pull out the documentation and say, “You signed it,” according to a flight attendant.
‘Disgusted’
The policies described in the company’s message fill dozens of pages. Parts of those records disturbed the interviewed employees.
One pilot said, “I read what I could, and I got disgusted with it. I decided not to read it the rest of the way.”
In particular, the pilot disapproves of a provision stating that the company can share personal information with third parties. The data can also be stored or transferred outside the United States.
Other employees pointed out that Southwest’s definition of “personal information” traipses into unexpected territory, including health conditions, “religious or philosophical beliefs,” and sexual orientation.
The pilot was also concerned about the “broad range” of rules applying to employee communications.
He said he’s refusing to complete the forms. So are other pilots, even though they don’t know how the company will react, he said.
The pilot said he found the new policies especially troubling in light of the Carter case.
“I’m glad she ‘took one for the team,’ and it worked out for her,” he said. “But she suffered a lot.”
Carter Awaits Decision
Carter, 57, previously told The Epoch Times her highly personal reason for opposing abortion: She suffered medical issues and lifelong regret over her decision to terminate her first pregnancy when she was 19.
She’s a Christian who believes God has forgiven her. She has vowed to use her personal story to protect the unborn.
As of Oct. 29, Carter, who lives in Colorado, was still waiting for a judge to decide how he’ll impose the will of the jury that heard her case in Texas, where Southwest is based.
Monetary damages have yet to be set; jurors weren’t told that laws cap the amount below the $5 million award they calculated for Carter. The company, Local 556, and Carter’s lawyers have all argued for changes to the jury award.
Money aside, Carter’s lawyers are asking the judge to order Southwest to reinstate her and to compensate her for the five years of pay she missed while fighting the court case.
They also want the judge to forbid the union and the company “from engaging in any of the activities that the Court declares and the jury found to be unlawful,” court records show.
‘Big Brother-y’
Jeff Childers, a Florida attorney whose practice includes constitutional and business law, said courts have repeatedly held that “employees have no general right to privacy inside the workplace.”
And employers are given a wide berth to impose work rules, he said.
Childers isn’t involved with the Southwest employees but agreed to comment on the controversy for The Epoch Times.
Based upon information provided to him, Childers said Southwest’s policies “appear to be legal.”
Still, he said the policies seem to be “kind of ‘Big-Brother-y.’”
A copy of George Orwell’s novel “1984” sits on a table in New York on Feb. 26, 2021. In the book, “Big Brother” watches everything that the citizens do. (Chung I Ho/The Epoch Times)
Childers also thinks the company’s definition of social media could rightfully be considered “overbroad,” as employees claim.
According to employees, the company stated, “Social media means all communication, posts, or content of any sort on the internet … as well as any other form of electronic communication.”
The company also stated that it “reserves the right to review, track and monitor your social media activity that is available to the public … or that another person may bring to Southwest Airlines’ attention.”
Therefore, the company stated, employees “should have no expectation of privacy” in these communications.
Three of the interviewed employees say that those statements and others, taken together, make them worry that anything they communicate to anyone, even with no mention of Southwest, could land them in hot water with the company.
“I think that anything on my private iPhone or iPad is now subject to investigation by Southwest Airlines,” one flight attendant said.
She has recently talked to roughly 10 coworkers who share her concerns, and she said thousands of pilots and flight attendants participate in private messaging groups that have been focusing on the policies lately.
“None of us feel safe” from the company’s intrusions into messages that should be private, the flight attendant said.
If any of the employees face discipline and take legal action as Carter did, Childers said he’s unsure how courts might handle cases in which nonpublic messages, such as those in a private encrypted messaging group, may have been used against an employee.
That’s a novel angle, he said.
“The law is slow. It takes a while to catch up to new technologies,” Childers said.
Asked how he would advise employees who are concerned about their employer’s social media policies, Childers said, “I would tell them what I tell every single one of my clients, which is, ‘Never put anything in writing that you don’t want the entire world to see.’”
Seeking Help
Worried Southwest employees have consulted with multiple attorneys.
One law firm advised workers to send a message telling the company that they received the policy but “explicitly do not ‘agree’” with it.
The employees were also advised to state that they don’t consent to personal information being collected and disseminated to third parties “absent a valid, enforceable court order.”
The law firm also suggested that the policy “does not constitute an ‘agreement’ or contract” and that any attempt by Southwest to negotiate contracts with unionized employees would violate the Railway Labor Act.
The flight attendants argue that the company shouldn’t be able to impose employment conditions on them or other unionized employees unilaterally.
However, at several recent meetings in multiple cities, union officials told members of Local 556 that they were powerless to do anything about the controversial policies.
“Why are they bailing out?” one flight attendant asked. “They have a responsibility to negotiate on behalf of the members. They’re just relinquishing all of that power, and they’re saying, ‘There’s nothing we can do.’ Then why are you here if you’re not going to protect your members?”
The U.S. Supreme Court on Nov. 1 temporarily blocked Congress from obtaining former President Donald Trump’s tax returns.
Chief Justice John Roberts, a George W. Bush appointee, stayed an appeals court order that had ruled a congressional panel could gain access to the documents. The appeals court order was set to take effect on Nov. 3.
Roberts’ stay is temporary, pending further developments in the case.
Rep. Richard Neal (D-Mass.), chairman of the House Committee on Ways and Means, has for years been trying to obtain Trump’s returns, asserting that they are necessary as the panel considers possibly updating how audits of presidents are done.
Trump said that the true purpose is to release the returns to the public.
Neal is not seeking the records of any other president, and has said that “unraveling President Trump’s sophisticated tax avoidance” was one of the reasons he thought Trump should release his returns.
U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), said in 2017 that the returns would “be useful” in investigating “what … the Russians have on Donald Trump” and that investigations into Trump were going to continue in 2019 because she “want[ed] to see him in prison.”
Trump sued the IRS and its parent agency, the Department of Treasury, in 2019 to stop officials from giving his returns to Neal.
U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden, a Trump appointee, threw out the lawsuit in 2021, finding that federal law “requires great deference to facially valid congressional inquiries” and that the presidential audit program could be subject to legislation.
“That conclusion all but decides the Court’s analysis,” McFadden said, even as statements from Neal and Pelosi “plausibly show mixed motives underlying the” request for the returns.
In August, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit upheld the ruling. U.S. Circuit Judge David Sentelle, a Reagan appointee writing for the three-judge panel, said the court could not probe the motives of legislators and that Neal “has identified a legitimate legislative purpose that it requires information to accomplish.”
“At this stage, it is not our place to delve deeper than this,” he added.
U.S. Circuit Judge Karen LeCraft Henderson, a George H.W. Bush appointee, offered a concurring opinion in which she diverged from her colleagues on one point.
“Although I agree with my colleagues that the burdens imposed on the Presidency by the Committee’s Request do not rise to the level of a separation-of-powers violation, I conclude that the burdens borne by the Executive Branch are more severe and warrant much closer scrutiny than my colleagues have given them,” she said, adding later that the potential of Congress to threaten a sitting president with a post-presidency request “in order to influence the President while in office should not be dismissed so quickly.”
A mom of two crushed by her grocery bills decided to take matters into her own hands. She devised a money-saving method with a handy acronym, and when it saved $1,000 for her family on groceries every month, she shared it with the world.
Becky Guiles, 42, is a mother and entrepreneur from upstate New York. She and her husband, Jason, have two children together: George, 8, and Colden, 6.
Guiles told The Epoch Times: “Our grocery costs were increasing at a rapid rate. Some months I was paying $1,400 or more for our family of four! It was killing our budget, I had to do something.
“I did hours and hours of research … I needed a plan that didn’t take me hours a week in planning, coupon clipping, or running to a million different stores chasing sales.”
Becky Guiles, 42, is a mother and entrepreneur from upstate New York. (Courtesy of Becky Guiles)
Guiles then came up with the BORES method, a five-step action plan for saving money on groceries that is easy to remember and follow.
The BORES method states: B=Budget (Guiles recommends $100 per person, per month), O=Organize (check the pantry before you shop), R=Reduce/Reuse (such as using pickle juice for fast-perishing foods and vegetable scraps for broth), E=Extend (freeze items such as milk), and S=Simplify (everything!).
According to Guiles, there are some common mistakes most people make while grocery shopping. The three significant ones include not setting a budget, not planning meals, and buying pre-prepared food.
She said: “If you buy a bag of onions, it is more expensive than buying single onions and putting them in a bag yourself. Also, cheese that is already cut into cubes is more expensive than a brick of cheese.”
Guiles also recommends grocery shopping online to avoid the impulse of buying from a store.
The frugal mom thinks every step of the BORES method is equally necessary in order to make massive savings. But speaking from her own experience, her most significant savings in both time and money happened when she simplified her family’s meal plan; they choose five to ten of their favorite meals and eat them on rotation.
“I am not a super-organized money nerd who is disciplined; if I can do it, anyone can,” Guiles said. “When we dug ourselves out of debt, the crippling stress I was feeling about money went away. From there on out, it has been my mission to help other women and mommas change where they are with money so they can no longer feel the stress, shame, and anxiety.”
Guiles began sharing her money-saving tips on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube as “The Freebie Lady” and has gained a huge following. She claims everyone who tries and follows through with her BORES method saves money, “even if they don’t do all the steps, just some.”
Apart from using the BORES method to save on grocery costs, Guiles has suggested four other areas where costs can be cut down.
1. Insurance: Call your insurance companies and ask them if there is any way you can lower your rate. If they say no, call three or four other companies and tell them you are looking to lower your rate.
2. Cut cable: Nowadays there are tons of places online you can get free cable.
3. Switch to a low-cost phone carrier: There are tons of cell phone companies now that don’t have buildings. They are online but use national cell towers. Many are very inexpensive.
4. Cut subscriptions: Most of us have subscriptions that we don’t even know we have, and that we are wasting money on monthly, even weekly.
“Change doesn’t happen unless change happens,” Guiles said, adding the caveat, “Remember you can’t do it all, all at the same time. If you try to save money in every aspect of your life, you are going to get burnt out and give up quickly … [concentrate] on one area of your life, like grocery shopping, get great at cutting down there, and then move on to another area.”
Today, Guiles has a prominent social media presence and is successfully teaching others how to take control of their money.
A man arrested in the home invasion beating of Paul Pelosi, the husband of Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, is an illegal immigrant, according to a report Monday.
Fox News journalist Bill Melugin, citing a source with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, tweeted that David DePape is in the country illegally.
The source described DePape as a “longtime” visa overstay, Melugin said.
NEW: Per ICE source, David DePape, the suspect accused of beating Paul Pelosi in his home with a hammer after breaking in, is currently in the U.S. illegally as a “longtime” visa overstay. @FoxNews
In interviews with CNN, relatives of DePape said he grew up in British Columbia before moving from Canada to California decades ago.
San Francisco police described finding the 42-year-old DePape in the Pelosi residence early on Friday morning, struggling with the 82-year-old Paul Pelosi over a hammer.
They said the suspect pulled the hammer away from Pelosi and violently assaulted him with it. Both men were hospitalized after the incident.
DePape allegedly sought Nancy Pelosi herself, saying, “Where is Nancy? Where is Nancy?” after confronting her husband in the bedroom of their home, CBS News reported. She was not there.
KRON-TV in San Francisco reported that DePape is part of a nudist activist group in the city’s Castro district. A blog published under his name expresses beliefs in a variety of far-fetched internet conspiracy theories emanating from both the right and the left.
Some of the Berkeley resident’s neighbors reportedly describe him as a habitual drug user who exhibited symptoms of mental illness.
The media are portraying the suspect in the attack on Nancy Pelosi’s husband as a man fundamentally driven by right-wing ideology. But it’s obvious to anyone who looks that what drove David DePape to violence was drug-induced paranoid psychosis.https://t.co/qfs5zHokni
A federal criminal complaint charges the suspect with the attempted kidnapping of a federal official and an assault on the immediate family member of a federal official.
Critics of California’s “sanctuary state” laws pointed to DePape’s visa status as evidence of the failure of such policies.
Wait, so you’re saying if we actually enforced our immigration laws in California, Paul Pelosi’s attacker wouldn’t have been here to commit the offense! Good to know. https://t.co/9AzulL1s87
Details surrounding the suspect who allegedly broke into the private residence of Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and assaulted her husband, Paul Pelosi, with a hammer, continued to emerge on Monday.
According to CBS News, suspect David DePape reportedly had a “list” of various people “he wanted to target.” The list was reportedly confirmed to the outlet by law enforcement sources close to the ongoing case.
Those sources, according to CBS, added that DePape might have intended to hurt additional people. The outlet noted that the list wasn’t considered a “hit list” at this time, but added that the people on the list could have possibly been DePape’s future targets.
Presumably, more will be revealed when DePape is arraigned on several charges, including attempted homicide, assault with a deadly weapon, burglary and elder abuse. Prosecutors were said to be taking their time with the federal charges, as DePape is in custody and no longer a threat to the public.
Reports indicated that DePape yelled “Where’s Nancy?” multiple times as he squared off with Paul Pelosi. According to CBS News, DePape wanted to keep Pelosi restrained and tied up while he awaited Nancy Pelosi’s return.
Before DePape managed to restrain Pelosi, police said he was able to momentarily escape to a bathroom, where he dialed 9-1-1 for help. The encounter reportedly took place on the second floor of Pelosi’s home.
San Francisco police say when they arrived at the scene, they witnessed the two men struggling over gaining control of the hammer. At that moment, DePape managed to gain full control of the hammer and immediately struck Pelosi in the skull, causing him to be transported to the hospital with serious injuries.
The responding police were able to successfully “tackle” DePape and ultimately made the arrest.
“It was a forced entry into the rear door of the home, and that he ultimately did make his way upstairs, which is where he ultimately confronted Mr. Pelosi,” San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins told ABC News.
Some of the original reporting on the high-profile attack indicated that during the 9-1-1 call Pelosi described DePape as a “friend.” San Francisco law enforcement, during its first press conference, also suggested that a third person was in Pelosi’s residence at the time of the attack.
Those two reports were later pulled back, as NBC News correspondent Tom Winter tweeted Sunday.
MORE: The SFPD also says that there were only TWO people inside the Pelosi home (Paul Pelosi and DePape) when they responded, clarifying statements made at Friday’s press conference which seemed to indicate there was a third person inside the home who opened the door. (2/2)
“Our children, our grandchildren and I are heartbroken and traumatized by the life-threatening attack on our Pop,” Pelosi wrote. “We are grateful for the quick response of law enforcement and emergency services and for the life-saving medical care he is receiving. Please know that the outpouring of prayers and warm wishes are a comfort to our family and helping Paul make progress with his recovery.”
The attack sparked intense political backlash, as several high-profile Democrats, including President Joe Biden and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, both pinned most of the blame for the attack on Republican rhetoric.
However, it’s still unclear as to what DePape’s motives were. Whether or not his motives were political will be the next big development in this story.
DePape will reportedly be in court for his arraignment on Tuesday.
As Elon Musk moved through the final steps of acquiring Twitter, the co-founder of the social media giant, Jack Dorsey, unveiled that he plans to eventually launch a new social media platform, called Bluesky Social, and its testing is getting underway.
On Tuesday, just two days before Musk officially acquired Twitter, Dorsey announced that Bluesky Social, a “blockchain-base” social media platform, was beginning testing and getting closer to a public launch, Business Insider reported.
Bluesky was actually founded back in 2019 as a kind of research platform for making social media less centralized. It was meant to be an “open and decentralized” standard for social media, the Independent reported.
It is based on blockchains, which means that the platform “brings decentralized and permissionless blockchain protocols to platforms built for facilitating connection and content-sharing between people,” Cryptopedia reported in an explanation of blockchain social media.
Blockchains are an integral part of the technology behind cryptocurrency, the Independent added.
But though Bluesky has been around since 2019, this recent announcement from Dorsey shows that it is coming into its next phase of development and one step closer to being usable.
Bluesky Social is not actually being launched but is starting beta testing, Insider reported.
For this testing stage, Bluesky has been gathering thousands of users to sign up and try it out.
Bluesky tweeted on its official Twitter account on Oct. 20 that it already had 30,000 signups.
“Wow. 30k signups for our app’s waiting list in the last two days! Thanks for the overwhelming interest, we’ll do our best to get you in soon,” Bluesky tweeted.
Wow. 30k signups for our app’s waiting list in the last two days! Thanks for the overwhelming interest, we’ll do our best to get you in soon. 🔜
One aspect of Bluesky that has been reportedly appealing is that the technology it’s built on gives users control over algorithms, instead of the platform moderating them, Gizmodo reported.
“What’s perhaps most interesting and actually tenable in today’s social media ecosystem is the promise that the AT Protocol will let users control their own algorithms … What this supposedly means is that users can dictate how much of certain content they wish to receive and from where,” Gizmodo explained.
That is why Bluesky described itself on the website as “creators independence from platforms, developers the freedom to build and users a choice in their experience.”
Though Bluesky was originally founded with funding from Twitter, the social media giant does not have controlling shares in the fledgling platform, the Independent reported.
Bluesky also clarified in April that the funding from Twitter did not come with any strings attached.
“Twitter’s funding of Bluesky is not subject to any conditions except one: that Bluesky is to research and develop technologies that enable open and decentralized public conversation,” the tweet read.
Twitter’s funding of Bluesky is not subject to any conditions except one: that Bluesky is to research and develop technologies that enable open and decentralized public conversation.
A Texas business owner who said the quiet part out loud when looking for employees is getting a reaction.
Walter Parsons posted a sign reading “Now hiring non-stupid people,” after a frustrating revolving door of hires who did not work out at his Pets Gone Wild Resort in Pasadena, Texas, according to KHOU.
It did not take long for a critic to call, he said, according to the Houston Chronicle.
“I said, ‘Ma’am, I’m sorry but (there are) a whole lot worse words out there that people are using that are offensive. I’m not going to take it down,’” Parsons said,
“We’re trying to weed out the people that do come in. We hired one last week that lasted three days,” Parsons said to KHOU.
He said he has been trying more traditional approaches without much success.
He also said many employees fail to understand that he expects them to do work on work time.
“Repeatedly, ‘get off your cell phone, you’ve got dogs to watch. OK, put the cell phone up, go back out there.’ Twenty minutes later, she’s back on her cell phone,” Parsons said. “At least be as smart as I am.”
“This was the very first one at the top of the page. We got a good laugh out of it. My wife says get it, and I said alright that’s fine,” Parsons said.
It was not fine to a woman KHOU identified only as Taylor N.
“What does it say to prior employees? ‘Oh, we think you’re stupid so we’re trying to hire somebody that we think is smarter than you?”’ she said.
“The fact that they felt so emboldened to put something up there like that, it’s disgusting, it’s distasteful and it’s unprofessional,” Taylor N. said.
Some customers who drop their pets off at the business have a better opinion of the sign.
“I just saw the sign yesterday, and I laughed because we knew it was Walter’s sense of humor, and we took it in jest,” pet owner Candace Reyes, a customer since January 2021, said to the Houston Chronicle. “I can see why some people might be offended, but you do hope they hire responsible people.”
Parsons said whether it was the buzz over the sign or just being visible, he has received three good applicants for his latest opening and will be taking down the sign, according to KHOU.
“Come through here and take a tour and take a look at the responsibility that we have. Would you put your child somewhere that wasn’t dedicated, that didn’t have smart people in it?” Parsons said.
Here is a disturbing story. It demonstrates intrigue, corruption and disdain for American principles at the highest level.
Perhaps the saddest thing about this story is that you probably won’t be surprised. Especially if you’ve been paying attention for the past few years.
The story is this: Twitter and other social media platforms have been cozy with the Department of Homeland Security to squelch what DHS calls “misinformation,” “disinformation” and “malinformation,” or “MDM,” according to an investigative report published Monday by The Intercept.
Job one for Musk was to not only fire CEO Parag Agrawal but also Vijaya Gadde, Twitter’s top lawyer and the individual responsible for booting former President Donald Trump off the platform and for censoring the Hunter Biden laptop story in the run-up to the 2020 election.
You probably remember a few months ago when DHS rolled out what it called its Disinformation Governance Board, designed to go after “MDM” on social media. A firestorm of bad publicity meant the Biden administration had to quickly yank it offstage.
But the concept is still around and Gadde has been part of it.
Gadde is a member of an advisory committee of the DHS Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). In June, the committee put out a report that essentially outlined a need to get around the First Amendment to stop “MDM” since it “poses a significant risk to critical functions like elections, public health, financial services and emergency response.”
Also, The Intercept reported on DHS documents saying the agency is going after “MDM” on “the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic and the efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines, racial justice, U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan and the nature of U.S. support to Ukraine.”
In other words, DHS wants to push the Biden administration’s line on many of the controversies Americans might be discussing on social media, and attack or suppress other views that oppose it.
And Twitter has been right there in the middle of it.
Lee Fang, one of the authors of The Intercept article, tweeted that Gadde had met monthly with DHS to discuss censorship and, along with Facebook, Twitter “created special portals for the government to rapidly request takedowns of content.”
The emails and documents show close collaboration b/w DHS & private sector. Twitter’s Vijaya Gadde (fired by @elonmusk last week) met monthly with DHS to discuss censorship plans. Microsoft exec texted DHS: “Platforms have got to get comfortable with gov’t” pic.twitter.com/Z19yLM3miB
In March, top officials of Twitter and JPMorgan Chase met with Laura Dehmlow, section chief of the FBI’s Foreign Influence Task Force. Dehmlow said subversive information on the internet could undercut support for the U.S. government, according to notes of the meeting reported by The Intercept.
In a statement for The Intercept report, a Twitter representative said the company does not “coordinate with other entities when making content moderation decisions,” following, rather, its own rules in such situations.
Still, Twitter joined other tech companies in monthly meetings with the FBI, CISA and other government agencies to determine how to handle misinformation leading up to the 2020 elections, according to NBC News.
In 2018, DHS began notifying social media companies of what it described as voting disinformation appearing on their platforms. The following year, DHS developed the Foreign Influence and Interference Branch which morphed in 2020 to track communication regarding COVID-19, The Intercept said.
Varied U.S. intelligence agencies moderated social media surrounding the 2020 election and leading up to the November voting there were regular emails among officials of Twitter, DHS and the Center for Internet Security regarding takedown procedures for social media postings.
And while the Disinformation Governance Board was scrapped, DHS in August published a document titled “DHS Needs a Unified Strategy to Counter Disinformation Campaigns.”
In it, DHS intones “such campaigns may aim to erode public trust in our government and the Nation’s critical infrastructure sectors, negatively affect public discourse, or even sway elections.”
Sway elections? You think? Hasn’t that been a major aim of Silicon Valley?
Of course, DHS does not address a key foundational principle which allows for pesky ideas that the Department of Homeland Security considers “MDM.”
It’s contained in the document that proclaims, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
The Founders, ever conscious of man’s corruption, knew what’s now called “MDM” would be protected by the First Amendment, but, as in other parts of the Bill of Rights, they also knew liberty was more important than government convenience.
Twitter, as The Intercept report shows, clearly has been involved in the federal government’s attempts to outsource censorship and suppression of dissent.
Musk, Twitter’s new owner, has publicly declared himself to be a “free speech absolutist.”
Clearly, something has to give.
There’s no telling where the company will go now that Musk is in charge, but he was right about one of his first major personnel moves.
(Reuters)—Twitter, which was acquired last week by billionaire Elon Musk, plans to let go of a quarter of its workforce as part of what is expected to be a first round of layoffs, the Washington Post reported on Monday, citing a person familiar with the matter.
Celebrity lawyer Alex Spiro, a long-time Musk legal representative, led the conversations about the job cuts, according to the report.
Twitter had over 7,000 employees at the end of 2021, according to a regulatory filing and a quarter of the headcount amounts to nearly 2,000 employees.
Musk denied a New York Times report about laying off Twitter employees at a date earlier than Nov. 1 to avoid stock grants due on the day.
Twitter did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Musk fired Twitter Chief Executive Parag Agrawal, Finance Chief Ned Segal and Legal Affairs and Policy Chief Vijaya Gadde on completion of a six-month $44 billion buyout saga of the social media platform on Thursday, sources told Reuters.
(Reporting by Akash Sriram in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta)
‘He had hundreds of chances to do the right thing but he chose violence,’ Sonya Douglass says of Nevada Rep. Steven Horsford
Roughly two years after Democrat Steven Horsford admitted to a years-long affair with an intern, the Nevada congressman is threatening to take legal action against his ex-wife if she discusses the ordeal publicly, she said Sunday.
“I was just minding my business until Steven and his attorney demanded I sign an NDA that would ban me from speaking about my 22-year marriage, his 10-year affair, and our divorce FOREVER,” Sonya Douglass said of Horsford in a Sunday morning tweet. “It includes $10,000 fines for each remark or social post. Even to a therapist!”
Douglass’s accusation comes as Horsford navigates a difficult reelection bid against Republican Sam Peters. Douglass said Horsford is “already blaming” a prospective loss on her and “refuses to take responsibility for his own actions.”
“He had hundreds of chances to do the right thing but he chose violence,” she added. “But I don’t respond well to bullying or intimidation so here we are.”
I was just minding my business 💅🏼 until Steven and his attorney demanded I sign an NDA that would ban me from speaking about my 22-year marriage, his 10-year affair, and our divorce FOREVER. It includes $10,000 fines for each remark or social post. Even to a therapist! Y’all! 😂
Horsford in May 2020 acknowledged that he had a years-long extramarital affair with Gabriela Linder. The pair met in 2009, when Linder was a 21-year-old intern for then-U.S. Senate majority leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.). Horsford was 36 at the time. According to Linder, the affair initially lasted a year and a half before it resumed from 2017 to 2019, when Horsford joined Congress.
The 2020 revelation rocked Horsford’s campaign, particularly given that the Democrat’s political website described Horsford as a “devoted family man.” At the time, Linder said Horsford should “step out of public office for some time” to “do some atoning.” But Horsford refused to drop out of the race and went on to secure a second term in Congress, defeating Republican Jim Marchant by 5 points. Horsford is now running for a third term, a decision that Douglass criticized in March.
“I have remained silent for nearly two years and want it to be clear that I am not enjoying the pain that my children and I continue to suffer since [Horsford] told me the day after Mother’s Day about his 10-year affair AFTER already speaking to his staff and attorneys,” Douglass, a Columbia University professor, tweeted. “And that he would choose to file for reelection and force us to endure yet another season of living through the sordid details of the #horsfordaffair with #mistressforcongress rather than granting us the time and space to heal as a family.”
Horsford, who did not return a request for comment, also faced ethics issues as a result of the affair. Horsford in 2020 acknowledged sending Linder money through his company, R&R Resources+, prompting a complaint from government watchdog Americans for Public Trust. “Ultimately, his conduct for the past 10 years destroys the credibility of his office and fails to maintain the integrity of the House,” the complaint stated.
Horsford and Peters will face off at the polls in just eight days. Horsford has raised $4.6 million to Peters’s $1.8 million.
A fuel supply company is warning of an impending diesel shortage impacting the southeastern United States, due in part to the low supply of diesel reserves.
Mansfield Energy, which delivers more than three billion gallons of fuel annually in North America, said in a memo on Friday that conditions in the diesel supply market are “rapidly devolving” and that the company expects several states to experience serious effects from the shortage. The announcement comes days after the Energy Information Administration reported that diesel reserves are at their lowest level since 2008, Fox News reports:
The company speculated that the shortage could be generated from “poor pipeline shipping economies” and a historically low supply of diesel reserves.
“Poor pipeline shipping economics and historically low diesel inventories are combining to cause shortages in various markets throughout the Southeast,” the company said. “These have been occurring sporadically, with areas like Tennessee seeing particularly acute challenges.”
States that are expected to experience serious effects of the shortage include Maryland, Virginia, Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, North Carolina and South Carolina. …
“Because conditions are rapidly devolving and market economics are changing significantly each day, Mansfield is moving to Alert Level 4 to address market volatility,” Mansfield’s press statement said.
The company continued, “Mansfield is also moving the Southeast to Code Red, requesting 72-hour notice for deliveries when possible to ensure fuel and freight can be secured at economical levels.”
Record-high fuel prices have given the Biden administration headaches ahead of next week’s midterm elections. The White House reportedly threatened to take executive action against oil companies if they fail to lower prices for consumers.
Saifullah Paracha allegedly met with Osama bin Laden before 9/11 terror attack
The Biden administration last week released a Guantanamo Bay inmate accused of assisting al Qaeda’s financial transactions after the 9/11 terror attacks.
Cleared for release in May 2021 and returned to Pakistan Saturday, 75-year-old Saifullah Paracha has been in custody since 2003. He was never charged with a crime but had been deemed too dangerous for release until last year.
Holding Paracha under the law of war “was no longer necessary to protect against a continuing significant threat to the security of the United States,” the Department of Defense said in a statement.
Paracha was accused of meeting with Osama bin Laden before the attacks, the New York Times reports:
In his file, U.S. intelligence agencies said he had helped Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the accused mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, “facilitate financial transactions and propaganda” after the attacks, and said he met with Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan before the attacks as part of a delegation of Pakistani dignitaries.
For his part, Mr. Paracha claimed in an unsuccessful federal court petition for his release that he did not know Mr. Mohammed’s true identity or his role in the Sept. 11 plot. He said he held some money for him and allowed Mr. Mohammed’s nephew to use an editing studio in Karachi out of a sense of Muslim kinship, not ideology, and he denounced violence and denied affiliation with Al Qaeda.
Thirty-five detainees remain at the prison, and 20 are eligible for transfer. The Biden administration has released several inmates, including one in March who helped plan the 9/11 attacks.
China, Russia, Iran sowing dissent ahead of midterm elections
Communist China is behind a massive online disinformation campaign aimed at undermining the upcoming U.S. midterm elections, according to findings by a cybersecurity group.
China is using a network of social media accounts and altered news articles to “sow division both between the U.S. and its allies and within the U.S. political system itself,” according to a threat assessment by Mandiant, a cybersecurity and intelligence organization that works with governments and the public sector. China’s latest efforts to undermine the American democratic process come amid parallel attempts by Russia and Iran to interfere with the upcoming elections.
The CCP influence operation, dubbed Dragonbridge, is attracting concern in the cybersecurity sector for its “aggressive attempts to discredit the U.S. democratic process, including attempts to discourage Americans from voting in the 2022 U.S. midterm elections,” according to Mandiant’s research. The organization assesses “with high confidence” that the online campaign is “operating in support of the political interests of the People’s Republic of China.”
Efforts by foreign actors to meddle in the upcoming elections have fueled concerns among federal authorities, including the FBI, which recently warned that an Iranian government-backed hacking collective is working to target U.S. entities. Russia also “is working to amplify doubts about the integrity of U.S. elections” as voters head to the polls next week, according to the Associated Press.
The CCP’s Dragonbridge operation has similar hallmarks to those of other foreign actors, according to Mandiant. Dragonbridge, through a network of online social media accounts that obfuscate their true identity, is promoting “narratives that appeared intended to discredit and undermine the U.S. political system.”
In September, for instance, Dragonbridge-affiliated accounts posted an English-language video on online platforms that included “content attempting to discourage Americans from voting in the upcoming U.S. midterm elections.” Like the efforts helmed by Russia and Iran, China wants to sow doubts about “the efficacy of voting and of U.S. government institutions more broadly,” according to Mandiant.
The video, portions of which were captured by Mandiant, claimed “the solution to America’s ills is not to vote for someone,” but to “root out this ineffective and incapacitated system”—a narrative that mirrors those promoted by U.S.-based radical groups on the left and right.
Chinese operators also promoted rhetoric meant to divide Americans and reinforce the impression that the country is irrevocably broken.
Dragonbridge content collected by Mandiant promotes the narrative “that political infighting, partisanship, polarization, and division had become fundamental aspects of American democracy. The campaign also pointed to frequent mentions of ‘civil war’ on social media and incidents of politically motivated violence, including confrontations between individuals supporting opposing parties and acts against the FBI, as evidence of the deterioration of the political process and its impending demise.”
The group also has been observed altering actual news articles and pushing content that appears to be legitimate but is actually the product of CCP manipulation.
Throughout the 2022 election cycle, the CCP-orchestrated campaign has exhibited “aggressiveness through both the content of its narratives and its willingness to experiment with new tactics to accomplish its aims,” according to Mandiant. This includes attempts to mobilize American protesters to take to the streets and potentially commit violent acts.
“Such persistence, combined with clear intent and scale, renders the campaign a priority for monitoring,” the security group warned.
John Hultquist, head of threat intelligence for Mandiant, said in a statement that while Russia and Iran are more aggressive in their efforts to undermine U.S. elections, “what’s troubling [about the CCP groups is] their aggressive growth.”
Mandela Barnes, the Wisconsin Democratic Senate candidate, said in 2015 that he believes “oil is destroying the world”—an apocalyptic claim that conflicts with his more recent campaign promise to try to make gas more affordable for consumers.
“Oil is destroying the world in every possible way,” Barnes, Wisconsin’s lieutenant governor, said on Twitter in 2015.
The remark is the latest evidence of Barnes’s extreme opposition to domestic energy production, which he has attempted to soften on the campaign trail. The news comes as Democratic leaders have struggled with political fallout from rising energy prices, after years of demonizing and blocking domestic oil and gas projects.
Since launching his campaign, Barnes has emphasized his support for renewable energy and transitioning away from fossil fuels while also saying he wants to “lower gas prices” for consumers.
“What we need to do is reduce carbon emissions. What we also need to do is move towards a clean energy economy and make sure Wisconsin is in the driver’s seat,” Barnes during a debate.
The Barnes campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
Before running for Senate, Barnes took a more vocal and aggressive stance against domestic energy use.
In 2019, he told a panel at the U.N. Climate Change Conference in Spain that he opposed any “new pipeline construction,” including the expansion of Enbridge Line 5, northern Wisconsin’s primary oil and gas line, because residents would “use it.” The pipeline is the major heating and power source for northern Wisconsin, where temperatures often fall to 40 degrees below zero.
“We also shouldn’t be in a place where we’re even encouraging new pipeline construction,” said Barnes in a video of the event obtained from the U.N. archive by the Washington Free Beacon. “Because if the infrastructure is there, then people are going to use it.”
During the same event, Barnes also claimed that climate change is caused by “capitalism”—and said the solution to the climate crisis “is to stymie capitalism the way it is in America.”
“How greedy can humanity be? The reason why we’re in this mess is the pursuit of greed. It’s capitalism run amok, that’s why we’re in this predicament now,” said Barnes.
As lieutenant governor, Barnes also led a commission on climate change that proposed divesting state pension funds from fossil fuels, instituting a carbon tax, and requiring schools to teach a racially focused “climate justice” curriculum. In addition, the administration in which he serves proposed a gas tax hike.
Comment comes as crime spikes in New York governor’s state
Even as crime has emerged as the top issue among likely voters in the New York gubernatorial race, Democratic incumbent Kathy Hochul called people who mention it “data deniers” and conspirators.
“These are master manipulators,” Hochul told MSNBC’s Al Sharpton on Sunday, referencing Republicans who point to her state’s crime surge. “They have this conspiracy going all across America to try and convince people that in Democratic states they’re not as safe.”
In a recent poll by Quinnipiac University, crime ranked highest among New York voter issues, with 28 percent of respondents selecting it as the most urgent issue facing the state. When this year’s rates are compared with the five-year average of 2017 to 2021 at the same point, shooting incidents resulting in injury or death in the state have jumped up 23.8 percent this year. The amount of individuals killed by gun violence, meanwhile, is up 45.9 percent.
Last week, Hochul downplayed the issue as a few “high-profile instances” creating a “sense of fear.”
Crime in New York City is up 29.64 percent compared with this time last year, according to the latest city statistics. While murder is down 13.8 percent, robbery is up 32.4 percent, rape is up 10.9 percent, and hate crimes increased by 12.6 percent.
Hochul’s comment comes days after she said she did not understand why crime “is so important” to her opponent, Republican Lee Zeldin. The two are in a closer-than-expected race, with Hochul up 6.8 points, according to FiveThirtyEight. Former governor Andrew Cuomo (D.) won by more than 23 points in 2018.
Derrick Harkins campaigned for Warnock in 2020 while earning over $175,000 from the DNC
A New York Times profile of Sen. Raphael Warnock quotes a federal official who downplays the Georgia Democrat’s ties to a management company that evicted low-income residents. But the Times neglected to disclose one thing: The official was a paid Democratic operative who helped elect Warnock in 2020.
Derrick Harkins, director of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships at the Department of Housing and Urban Development, told the Times it is “just not correct” to say Warnock’s Ebenezer Baptist Church had a direct hand in filing eviction notices against residents of its low-income apartment building. The Democratic National Committee paid Harkins over $175,000 in political consulting fees in 2019 and 2020. As the DNC’s director of interfaith outreach, Harkins boosted Warnock in his runoff campaign against former Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R., Ga.).
Maya King, the Times reporter who wrote the profile, did not return a request for comment.
Harkins’s defense of Warnock comes as the Democratic senator has relinquished a sizable lead over his Republican challenger, Herschel Walker, amid a deluge of negative ads that have cut against his favorability rating. Warnock now trails Walker by 1.4 percentage points in the RealClearPoliticspolling average with just over a week remaining until Election Day.
Harkins told the Times that Warnock “is certainly not overseeing the operational elements of a property that is part of the larger portfolio that’s under the umbrella of what Ebenezer has put together.” But Ebenezer Baptist Church lists Warnock as the principal officer of a charity through which it owns 99 percent of Columbia Tower at MLK Village. Warnock serves as senior pastor of the church, which pays him a $7,417-per-month housing allowance on top of his Senate salary.
Ebenezer contracted with Columbia Residential to manage the property on its behalf. The company, which owns the remaining 1 percent of the building, was one of the top corporate landlord evictors in 2021. Out of 1,587 corporate landlords across the country, only 30 filed more eviction lawsuits in 2021 than Columbia Residential, the Washington Free Beaconreported.
Court records show Columbia Residential filed 15 eviction lawsuits against residents of the building during the pandemic. Fulton County marshals have carried out two court-ordered writs of possession at the property since 2020, the records show, and one resident accused the building in September of changing his locks and temporarily evicting him without notice.
Columbia Residential told the Times that it only files eviction notices in “certain circumstances,” and that its legal threats rarely reach the point where it actually evicts and removes residents from their homes. The property management company also said no evictions have been carried out at the property since 2020.
But Columbia Tower residents had to pay burdensome court fees to stave off Columbia Residential’s eviction threats during the pandemic. One building resident told the Free Beacon in October that she was served an eviction notice after having been just one day late paying her rent. The resident said she had to pay more than $300 in court fees—a figure equivalent to about two months of rent—before Columbia Residential dropped its eviction lawsuit.
According to the Times profile, Warnock compared himself to Martin Luther King, Jr. when asked by a supporter about “criticism of his mixing of faith and politics.”
“That puts me in good company,” Warnock said. “That’s what they did to Dr. King. They challenged his Christian identity.”
Dem congressman paid tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars to husband’s ‘old friend’ who simultaneously worked full-time as a magazine editor
New York Democratic congressman Sean Patrick Maloney gave a taxpayer-funded job to a longtime family friend who had no political experience and simultaneously worked full-time as a magazine editor, records reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon show.
Maloney from September 2019 to July 2020 employed Hollywood journalist Kevin Sessums in his official office, according to House disbursement disclosures. On Facebook, Sessums has repeatedlyboasted of knowing Maloney and his husband, Randy Florke, “for 30 years,” and Sessums regularlyrefers to Florke as “an old friend.” It’s unclear exactly what Sessums did in Maloney’s office—the Democrat’s spending records merely list Sessums as a “staff” member and offer no specific title—but Sessums almost certainly did not work for Maloney full time. That’s because he worked as editor-in-chief of his own entertainment magazine—sessumsMagazine.com—during his entire time in Maloney’s office, according to his LinkedIn, which does not mention his work for Maloney.
This is not the first time Maloney, who is facing a surprisingly difficult reelection bid against Republican Mike Lawler, has used taxpayer funds to pay one of his husband’s personal friends. From March to October 2021, Maloney’s office paid thousands to Erick Ramos, who also worked as Florke’s personal trainer at the time. The ordeal prompted a political headache for Maloney, with Lawler accusing the Democrat of thinking “that ethics rules don’t apply to him.” “That’s what happens when you’ve been a Washington insider for too long,” the Republican’s campaign told the Daily Mail.
Maloney paid Sessums, who did not return a request for comment, roughly $3,000 a month in taxpayer funds, allowing his husband’s “old friend” to pocket nearly $40,000 during the 10-month gig. Sessums wrote a daily column for his magazine as he collected the taxpayer-funded cash—in some of those columns, Sessums detailed personal travel to New Orleans, Mississippi, and London on days in which the House was in session.
Sessums’s job in Maloney’s office was his first in politics—prior to his role as an apparently part-time House staffer, Sessums interviewed A-list celebrities as a Vanity Fair writer, a job he lost after a falling-out with his editor that led to “a long descent into substance abuse, followed by unemployment and a time on food stamps,” according to the New York Times. Sessums went on to work as an editor for FourTwoNine magazine before launching his own publication.
Maloney spokeswoman Mia Ehrenberg said Sessums “worked as a communication staffer” and offered no further details on his responsibilities. She acknowledged Sessums “had a personal project separate from his House employment.” Ehrenberg did not return questions on the Maloney family’s personal relationship with Sessums and whether Sessums only worked part-time in Maloney’s office.
Maloney joined Congress in 2013 and became chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) eight years later, meaning he is tasked with maintaining Democrats’ House majority. Maloney was not seen as politically vulnerable entering 2022—a DCCC chair has not lost reelection since 1980, according to election handicapper Cook Political Report, and Maloney assured his colleagues in April that he did not “see a scenario” where he would have to “spend party resources on his own race.” Months later, however, Maloney did just that, with the DCCC announcing last week that it would spend $600,000on an ad attacking Maloney’s opponent. That announcement came as the Cook Political Report moved Maloney’s race from “lean Democrat” to “toss up” and as Republican polling showed Lawler with a 2-point lead. Perhaps the best evidence of Maloney’s vulnerability: VoteVets, a PAC that supports Democratic veterans, last week announced a $1.2 million ad buy to help Maloney, who is not a veteran.
“When Republicans’ top Super PAC announced an ad buy against [Maloney] in April, many assumed it was a gambit to troll or distract the DCCC chair,” Dave Wasserman, the Cook Political Report’s House editor, wrote on Oct. 24. “But two weeks out from Election Day, Maloney finds himself in deep danger, simultaneously fighting for his political life in his Hudson Valley seat and desperately trying to prevent Democrats from being swept out of the House majority.”
Maloney will face Lawler in one week after he emerged from his August primary, which saw liberal state senator Alessandra Biaggi challenge the incumbent Democrat over his decision to run in Rep. Mondaire Jones’s (D., N.Y.) 17th Congressional District, forcing Jones to run elsewhere. Maloney has raised $5 million to Lawler’s $1.1 million as of Oct. 19.
Jennifer Wexton repeatedly dropped rape charges as Loudoun County prosecutor.
Rep. Jennifer Wexton (D., Va.) says she’s worked tirelessly in Congress as a defender of abused women. But as a county prosecutor, Wexton went easy on rapists.
While serving as a Loudoun County prosecutor in 2001, Wexton had two rapists plead to misdemeanors, letting them walk after just months in prison, according to court records obtained by the Washington Free Beacon. One man was charged with raping a woman four times in the same day. The other, an illegal immigrant, abducted his female victim and forced her into the woods before raping her. Under Virginia law, the men were eligible to serve at minimum five years in prison for each rape. According to Andrew Kersey, a former prosecutor who served in Fairfax County around the same time as Wexton, these plea agreements were unusually lenient.
“There were times I resolved a rape charge as a misdemeanor sexual battery charge with time served. But it was rare,” Kersey told the Free Beacon. “That suggests a prosecutor who was reluctant to fight tough but serious cases before a jury.”
The records undercut a central part of Wexton’s claim that she’s “fighting for survivors of domestic violence” and “holding abusers accountable,” a central part of her campaign message. Her sentencing record could also hurt her chances against Republican candidate Hung Cao as Americans are souring on lenient criminal justice policies. Sixty-eight percent of voters list crime as a “very important” issue heading into the 2022 midterms, according to an October Harvard CAPS-Harris poll. Wexton leads Cao by just two points, according to an October poll by OnMessage.
Wexton’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
Samuel Flores was charged with four counts of rape and one count of abduction with intent to defile in February 2001, court records show. He forcibly abducted a woman from her workplace, raped her in his car, then took her to his home and raped her three more times after locking her in a bedroom, according to a copy of his criminal complaint. “Each time she pleaded to be taken home, he slapped her,” causing contusions, the complaint states. A magistrate held Flores without bond before trial, noting that the weight of the evidence was “good.” But Wexton allowed Flores to plead to one count of sexual battery in April 2001, and he served less than two months before he was released.
Months later, Walter Hernandez, an illegal immigrant from El Salvador, abducted a 19-year-old woman, forced her into the woods, and raped her, according to his criminal complaint. A magistrate said the weight of the evidence against Hernandez was “strong,” and he was not granted bail. But in August 2001, Wexton had his charges reduced to sexual battery. He served four months in prison before his release.
In 2004, Wexton also prosecuted a man who had 28 years of his 40-year sentence suspended after he broke into a woman’s apartment in the middle of the night and raped her. The man only had to serve 12 years in prison.
Wexton has long touted her advocacy for rape victims during campaigns. While running for Virginia state senate in 2014, Wexton ran a controversial ad where she said she would “fight just as hard against tea party Republicans” as she did against rapists. As a state senator two years later, Wexton voted against a bill that would have made public sex offenders’ employment information.
In 2019, Wexton endorsed Loudoun County prosecutor Buta Biberaj (D.), saying a vote for her was a vote for “a safer, more equitable Loudoun.” Since her election, Biberaj has made decisions that have threatened public safety, including hiring a registered sex offender and mistakenly releasing a murder suspect from jail, the Free Beacon reported.
They allege coverup discredited them and a GOP gubernatorial candidate
Colorado parents are accusing the state’s second-largest school district of a “furry” cover-up that mocked parents and erroneously discredited a GOP gubernatorial candidate.
During her campaign, Heidi Ganahl, a Republican running for governor, has voiced concerns about the “furry” trend among students.
The controversy started on Sept. 24 when Ganahl told a local radio host about the existence of so-called “furries” in Colorado schools. She later named Jefferson County a furry hotspot.
Furries or “animal avengers” are students who hiss and bark and claw at the air while dressed in animal tails, ears, fur gloves, or other costume attire. Furries sometimes wear collars with leashes attached, allowing themselves to be “walked” by peers.
A person dressed as a “furry” sits under blooming cherry trees along the Tidal Basin on April 5, 2021 in Washington. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
Some mainstream media have reported the trend is a myth, created by conservatives falsely raising concerns about schools. However, teachers, school administrators, and parents around the country have told The Epoch Times that the furry movement, indeed, is a growing and disturbing trend.
Ganahl told 710 KNUS radio host Jimmy Sengenberger that “not many people know that we have furries in Colorado schools—kids identifying as cats. It sounds absolutely ridiculous, but it’s happening all over Colorado, and schools are tolerating it. It’s insane.”
“We’ve got to focus on the basic blocking and tackling of teaching our kids how to read, write, and do math, and not put up with this nonsense in the classroom,” Ganahl said later on KWGN-TV Channel 2.
“I just heard from over 100 parents identifying 30 different schools that this is happening. [In] Jefferson County there’s a lot of this going on.”
The Jeffco Public School district fired back on Sept. 28 and 29 with a statement released to local news outlets saying, “There are no litter boxes in our buildings and students are not allowed to come to school in costume. There are no furries or students identifying as such during the school day.”
Ganahl’s comments and the school district’s denial about furries were picked up by Democrats. Their comments and the resulting reaction caused a firestorm among liberal media outlets on the state and national level that smeared the claim as a right-wing conspiracy theory.
Neither parents nor Ganahl made claims of litter boxes being used by furries at schools.
Lindsay Datko, head of parent group Jeffco Kids First, says the school lied about “furries” being in schools.
School officials’ denial added the issue of litter boxes to the conversation.
Lindsay Datko, who heads the 6,000-member Jeffco Kids First watchdog group, said parents have been complaining about furries in Jefferson County schools for months. The school district lied publicly to cover up the problem, she said.
“They commented as a school district on a political article. They meddled in politics as our school district,” she said.
Datko proved what she knew was true by filing open records requests for emails on the matter, which are now posted on Jeffcokidsfirst.com’s site.
Multiple emails concerning disruptive furry behavior dating back to March show that school superintendent Tracy Dorland, school board president Stephanie Schooley, and other school officials and board members knew about the problem.
The district also received emails from parents complaining about the officials’ denial to media that furries were a concern.
“A child in my life felt so awkward in their neighborhood high school that allows full furry attire, especially when that furry would growl and bark at them in the hallway on a daily basis, that they decided to leave the school,” according to an Aug. 19 email from a former teacher and administrator.
In an Aug. 18 email concerning Drake Middle School, the writer noted students cheered at the announcement that the school would no longer allow ears or tails to be worn by students.
Protestors rally outside Luther Jackson Middle School before a Fairfax County Public Schools board meeting in Falls Church, Va., on Sept. 15. (Terri Wu/The Epoch Times)
Another parent noted in an Oct. 1 email that the school district made “clearly a false statement,” and suggested the statement should be corrected with the media.
The Epoch Times contacted the district’s communications department requesting comment about the denial of the furry issue and the documents showing officials knew of complaints for months.
“We respectfully decline to comment any further on this issue,” according to an emailed statement from the district’s media relations team. “If parents have individual concerns about an unproductive learning environment or bullying in their schools, we encourage them to contact their principal and community superintendent.”
Parent Darlene Edwards said instead of denying problems at Jefferson County schools, the administration needs to address them.
“It’s definitely interesting that they’re trying to shush it under the rug. I don’t understand the motivation for that, you know—it’s a nationwide issue,” she said.
Edwards, a liberal supportive of diversity and inclusion, said this isn’t about politics. It’s about distractions that hurt a child’s ability to learn, she said.
Her 8th Grade son, who has autism, has complained about the furries, who also go by the name “animal avengers,” at Wayne Carle Middle School, she said.
“He’s like, ‘Mom, they’re wearing collars and leashes, and they’re being walked around by other kids.’”
Parents and students gather in protest of school district policies at the Placentia Yorba Linda Unified School District offices in Placentia, Calif., on Jan. 18. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)
When her son called one of the furries “weird” for barking in class, he was the one who was reprimanded, Edwards said.
Her niece, a 6th Grader at the same middle school, said furries there get on all fours during recess so they can be walked on leashes by other students. Edwards said that her niece witnessed students putting their faces into food to eat, like cats or dogs do, at lunch instead of using utensils.
Datko, a former teacher with two students in the district, said furries have been reported in most of the district’s middle and high schools in the district of 69,000 students near Golden, Colorado. She added that the behavior disrupts the educational environment and intimidates other students.
She recounted a recent story from a 17-year-old, who went to turn in a chemistry assignment and was greeted at the door by furries who hissed at him. He felt uncomfortable. So he left and had to turn in the paper late.
Datko said she’s puzzled why school officials tolerate this type of disruptive dress, yet won’t let students wear baseball caps to school.
Datko said Jefferson County public schools are closing campuses because they have lost 5,000 students to other schooling options since the pandemic. She blames the exodus on the district’s lack of respect for parental rights.
Many parents have started homeschooling their children or have placed them in private or charter schools. She added that parents learned that schools surveyed students asking them to declare their preferred pronouns.
And administrators advised teachers to change the name of the Gender and Sexual Alliance club, so parents wouldn’t know their children were involved in an LGBT organization.
“I’ve heard from substitute teachers who will go in and say that on their roster, it says, in front of the parent, you use this name, and then to the child, you use this name. So they’re just basically deceiving parents, right and left,” Datko said.
It’s disturbing, Datko said, because preserving the family is critical to society. When schools don’t respect parents, it puts our entire society at risk, she said.
“I love public schools,” she said. “But it’s just becoming more and more clear how important choices are for parents, because they’re not being honored.”
With political campaigns in their closing days, and early voting already begun in many states, polls show some key governors’ races tightening—even as the Democratic candidates have vastly outspent their Republican rivals.
In Arizona, polls show Democrat Katie Hobbs, who had stayed roughly even with the Trump-endorsed Republican Kari Lake, now falling behind. The Real Clear Politics (RCP) average of polls in the race had Lake, a longtime anchor for Fox’s Phoenix affiliate, ahead by 4.2 percentage points this past week. Hobbs has raised $5 million to Lake’s $3.8 million, according to Transparency USA. Lake has been largely absent from the airwaves and did the same in the Republican primary.
In Michigan, the race has tightened to put Republican challenger Tudor Dixon within the margin of error in polling against Democratic incumbent Gretchen Whitmer. Whitmer, who has raised five times more cash than Dixon, according to campaign finance tracker Transparency USA, had led by double digits throughout the summer.
However, Whitmer’s most recent RCP average shows a 3.3-point lead in polls taken through Oct. 29, and the political website now rates the race a toss-up.
In Pennsylvania, Republican challenger Doug Mastriano continues to trail Democrat Josh Shapiro, who has overwhelmingly outspent him. Large Republican PACs had mostly declined to support Mastriano until now, reportedly amid concerns about his presence on the U.S. Capitol grounds on Jan. 6, 2021.
While no major poll has shown Mastriano ahead, the race tightened in late October, and Shapiro’s lead in the RCP average of polls is 6.7 points.
Tudor Dixon, the Republican candidate for Michigan governor, speaks during a Save America rally at Macomb County Community College Sports and Expo Center in Warren, Mich., on Oct. 1, 2022. (Jeff Kowalsky/AFP via Getty Images)
In New York, a race that Republicans didn’t think was within reach, Democrat incumbent Kathy Hochul has seen her double-digit lead over Republican congressman Lee Zeldin dwindle to single digits. A gaffe by Hochul during their Oct. 25 televised debate was notable.
Zeldin charged that violent crime was rampant in New York’s subways and streets and that, meanwhile, Hochul wasn’t considering policies to lock criminals up.
She responded, “Anyone who commits a crime under our laws, especially with the changes made to bail, has consequences. I don’t know why that’s so important to you.”
Hochul’s lead in the RCP average was 12.4 percentage points in early October, but closed to 5.3 points even before the debate. Zeldin had raised far less than the $45.8 million claimed by Hochul’s camp but has reportedly seen millions flowing in late in the race.
(Left) New York Republican gubernatorial nominee Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-N.Y.) speaks during a press conference at the entrance to the Rikers Island jail in New York on Oct. 24, 2022. (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images); (Right) New York Gov. Kathy Hochul speaks onstage during The 2022 Concordia Annual Summit-Day 2 at the Sheraton New York on Sept. 20, 2022. (John Lamparski/Getty Images for Concordia Summit)
Analysts downplayed the disparity in candidates’ fundraising.
Jacob Neiheisel, an associate professor of political science at the University at Buffalo, says outsiders shouldn’t rush to conclusions about a shortage of money or running fewer ads.
“It can mean [donors] are not worried about those races or that they have better prospects elsewhere. It can mean they feel OK in those places, or it could be that it’s a lost cause, and they’re backing out.”
Campaigns might meanwhile be spending money unobtrusively on digital media, he told The Epoch Times.
“If they believe there’s a wave favoring Republicans, Republican money will come fast and furious in places like Arizona and Michigan,” GOP strategist Adam Goodman told The Epoch Times.
Goodman is a veteran of four decades of campaigns and is now a Washington-based consultant for the Tampa-based Ballard & Associates. He has been a national political commentator on Fox, CNN, and MSNBC and was the first Edward R. Murrow senior fellow at Tufts University’s Fletcher School of International Relations.
Republican campaign ad maker and political consultant Adam Goodman of Ballard & Associates. (Photo courtesy of Adam Goodman.)
All late Republican money wouldn’t be used for television ads, Goodman said. Much would go to targeting key voter groups digitally. The New York City market, a significant concern for Zeldin, is costly for broadcast television. But Zeldin could put ads on cable television in the suburban counties ringing New York City and upstate.
“He has to maximize in the New York exurbs, and he can afford to do that on cable,” Goodman said.
In Arizona, it will be easier for Lake to use the airwaves if she seeks to, he said.
“The price of admission is less.”
The Phoenix market, specifically communities such as Scottsdale, Tempe, Maricopa, and the Phoenix suburbs generally, are reachable for her, at the very least through digital media and cable television, he said.
“If you can afford a ’60 Minutes’ spot, great,” Goodman said. “If not, do an aggressive digital media campaign accented by cable. Social media is driving trends more than ever. Trends drive polls, and polls drive political fates.
“The floodgates of Republican money can open up.”
The Dobbs decision by the Supreme Court in June that overturned Roe v. Wade had given Democrats months of momentum to mobilize voters, but its impact seems to be fading, and the momentum has shifted to Republicans.
“Now, the doors are open again. So investment decisions not pondered four weeks ago are now on the hot plate.
“Even in places like New York. Republicans didn’t think Zeldin had any real shot. But he’s got a shot. Tudor Dixon (in Michigan) was trailing in double digits two months ago. Now, she’s got a real shot.”
Another Republican ad man, Robert Aho, concurs.
Republican ad maker and political consultant Robert Aho of BrabenderCox. (Photo courtesy of Robert Aho.)
“I think we’ll continue to see the spending differential narrow as we close in on the election. … GOP money for advertising typically comes in later compared to Democrat money,” Aho, a Washington strategist whose firm is based in Pittsburgh, told The Epoch Times. “At this point in the races, major money from committees and Super PACs tends to flow where it’s needed—to competitive races.
“I’ve long believed that Democrat donors want to make a point with their donations. Republican donors want a return on investment. A win.”
The parties spend late money in different ways, Neiheisel said. The Democrats favor get-out-the-vote efforts, while Republicans regard that as less consequential for them.
“With a lot of broadcast time locked up this close to the election, they’re limited to what’s available. So they’ll be looking at digital regardless of which side they’re on.”
Aho said late ads could have an effect, and campaign-oriented firms like his can turn them around quickly.
“Firms like mine are built to take what happens in a particular race and turn an ad around, usually within days but sometimes within hours, and get it on the air to drive a particular message and move polling numbers,” he said.
As he spoke, he said he was driving in a rental car from an airport to develop yet another ad in another city.
“Going from one shoot to another shoot. That’s my life right now. I keep a packed suitcase in the trunk of my car. You never know when you’ll need to hop a plane.”
Late ads this year need to begin airing by the Wednesday or Thursday before Election Day to have time to sink in with viewers.
“You can’t put it up on election eve and expect it to saturate. You need time for advertising to burn in. People need to see an ad more than once.”
He acknowledged that early voting had diminished the effect of late-campaign ads.
Neiheisel said politicos have their own secrets and techniques for reaching targeted groups. He’s heard that Cat Fancy, a magazine for cat owners, is “a huge Democratic thing.”
“It’s identifying apartment dwellers, who are more likely to be Democrats. They tend to be transient and younger. If they’re way into cats, it’s a proxy for all things trending Democratic. Including females.”
Goodman suggested a late ad for Georgia Senate candidate Herschel Walker playing to the candidate’s football prowess. This weekend, three days before the election, top-ranked Georgia plays No. 2 Tennessee in one of the biggest games of the year. Goodman proposed a digital ad with Walker, “an absolute undeniable legend,” giving a locker room pep talk to the people of Georgia.
“It would be about how, when the Georgia Bulldogs take the field, not only are they representing the very best in football but the very best in all of us,” Goodman said. “What drives each and every one of us to do everything we can, to put everything on the line for others when it counts. It’s a no-brainer.”
But what if Georgia doesn’t win?
“As insurance, I’d say, ‘It’s not about winning and losing. It’s about whether you’re willing to put everything on the line for others when it counts.’”
Former President Donald Trump on Sunday responded to the alleged attack against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) husband Paul Pelosi by saying it’s a “terrible thing” that happened.
The 45th president tied the attack, which occurred early Friday morning, at Pelosi’s home to Democrat policies around crime.
“These people are crazy. They’re going to release stone-cold killers out of the jails. Nobody knows why. I mean, they need room or something. Yeah, with Paul Pelosi, that’s a terrible thing; with all of them, it’s a terrible thing,” he said in an interview with Americano Media this weekend. “Look at what’s happened to San Francisco, generally, look at what is happening in Chicago. It was far worse than Afghanistan,” Trump said during the interview.
Trump added that “when I had Afghanistan … we went without one soldier being shot and you look at what happens in Chicago in one weekend; last weekend was brutal. It was like a warzone. No, we have to give the police back their dignity, their respect. They can solve the problem.”
“Today if a police officer says something that’s slightly out of line it’s like, you know, the end of his life, the end of his pension, the end of his family,” Trump also said. “We can’t do that. We have to give the police back their authority and their power and their respect because this country is out of control and you look at—and they’re Democrat-run cities almost exclusively.”
Then-President Donald Trump comes out of the Oval Office for his departure from the White House in Washington, on Sept. 16, 2019. (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)
After the attack, top Democrats sought to tie the incident to Republican political rhetoric and the breach of the Capitol on Jan. 6. Police have to establish a motive in the attack, but officials told reporters Friday that the attack appeared to have been premeditated.
President Joe Biden told a fundraiser in Pennsylvania on Friday that the suspect, David DePape, allegedly used the “same chant” as individuals who breached the Capitol.
“You know, it’s reported that the same chant was used by this guy they have in custody that was used on Jan. 6 in the attacks on the U.S. Capitol,” he said. “The chant was ‘Where’s Nancy? Where’s Nancy? Where’s Nancy?’ This is despicable,” the president said.
It’s not clear if the alleged Pelosi attacker uttered those words. Some reports, citing anonymous sources, claimed that the suspect made that statement during the incident.
DePape was arrested at the Pelosi home on early Friday, officials said. San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins told reporters that she expected to file several felony charges such as attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon, burglary, and elder abuse.
San Francisco Police Chief William Scott said the attack was intentional and not random. Authorities said that officers responded to a well-being check at the Pelosi home at 2:27 a.m. on Friday.
Most Supreme Court justices seemed receptive on Oct. 31 to a student group’s argument that racially discriminatory admissions policies at U.S. colleges are unconstitutional and must be struck down.
The Biden administration countered that such policies should be allowed to continue indefinitely because they promote diversity, which it claims benefits the nation.
Although left-wing activists such as advocates of Marxist-derived critical race theory contend that race-conscious policies are essential to dismantle the systemic racism they say pervades the American experience, critics say using race in the college admissions process is both anachronistic and wrong.
The use of race-based criteria by institutions of higher learning in the admissions process isn’t popular. Pew Research Center and Gallup surveys show that nearly 75 percent of Americans of all races “do not believe race or ethnicity should be a factor in college admissions.”
Critics cite then-Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, who believed the policy was a temporarily necessary evil that must eventually end.
“We expect that 25 years from now the use of racial preferences will no longer be necessary to further the interest approved today,” she wrote in Grutter v. Bollinger (2003).
Making race-focused admissions decisions is “dangerous,” O’Connor wrote, calling it a “deviation from the norm of equal treatment.” Such programs must “be limited in time,” she said, adding that “all governmental use of race must have a logical end point.”
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson recused herself from the Harvard case because of her close ties to the school. Justice Elena Kagan didn’t recuse herself from the Harvard case even though she was dean of Harvard Law School from 2003 to 2009.
The two back-to-back hearings that went on for close to five hours dealt with two cases, Students for Fair Admissions Inc. (SFFA) v. President and Fellows of Harvard College, court file 20-1199, and SFFA v. University of North Carolina (UNC), court file 21-707. Harvard and UNC are, respectively, the oldest private college and the oldest public college in the United States.
SFFA counsel Patrick Strawbridge told the justices that “racial classifications are wrong.”
“That principle was enshrined in our law at great cost following the Civil War,” he said. “A century of resistance to race neutrality followed, but this court’s landmark decision in Brown finally and firmly rejected the view that racial classifications have any role to play in providing educational opportunities.”
Strawbridge was referring to Brown v. Board of Education, the landmark 1954 decision in which the court found state laws mandating racial segregation in public schools were unconstitutional.
Since Brown, the court has “broadly enforced” the Constitution’s ban on racial classifications, the lawyer said.
“Whatever factors the government may use in deciding which jurors to sit, who you may marry, or which primary schools our children can attend, skin color is not one of them.”
But the ruling in Grutter, which upheld such classifications in college admissions, is “a glaring exception to this rule” that should be overturned because it is “grievously wrong,” Strawbridge said.
In the name of diversity, it justifies racial classifications that contradict “the Fourteenth Amendment’s guarantee of equal treatment” and relies on “stereotypical assumptions that race is necessarily a proxy for one’s viewpoint.”
Grutter encourages college applicants “to conceal their race” and hurts admitted students because people assume “race played a role in their admission,” Strawbridge said.
Jackson pushed back against Strawbridge, downplaying the role of race in UNC admissions.
“When you give your race, you’re not getting any special points,” she said. “It’s being treated just on par with other factors in the system. No one’s automatically getting in because race is being used.”
Strawbridge replied that some applicants are being hurt because “UNC gives racial preferences to African Americans, to Hispanic Americans, and to American Indians. It does not give … racial preferences to white applicants and to Asian applicants.”
Chief Justice John Roberts said Asian Americans “are the people who are discriminated against.”
Kagan suggested that removing racial criteria would be unfair to “people who have been kicked in the teeth by our society for centuries.”
North Carolina Solicitor General Ryan Park told the justices that UNC’s race-conscious policies seek “to fulfill Brown’s vision by assembling a student body that is diverse … including race, but also social class, geography, military status, intellectual views, and much more.”
“This learning environment helps us seek truth, build bridges across students of different backgrounds, and, critically here, equip students with the tools needed to function effectively as citizens and leaders in our complex and increasingly diverse society,” Park said.
A skeptical Justice Clarence Thomas told Park, “I’ve heard the word ‘diversity’ quite a few times, and I don’t have a clue what it means. It seems to mean everything for everyone.”
Justice Amy Coney Barrett said Grutter held that “racial classifications are so potentially dangerous” that they must have “a logical end point … reasonable durational limits, [and] sunset provisions.”
“When does it end?” she said.
SFFA attorney Cameron T. Norris said Harvard is discriminating against Asian Americans the same way the school discriminated against Jews in the 1920s.
This is “shameful but it’s a predictable result of letting universities use race in highly subjective processes,” Norris said.
“For competitive applicants, checking the right racial box is an anvil on the admissions scale, worth the same as ultra-rare achievements like winning a national championship,” he said.
“This court should admit that it was wrong about Harvard, wrong about Grutter, and wrong about letting the poison of racial classifications seep back into education.”
David G. Hinojosa, a lawyer for students who favor racial admissions criteria, said the court “must stand firm in its commitment to ensuring racial equality and equal opportunity” by affirming existing precedent that will help to build “a true democracy.”
U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar told the justices that “student body diversity is a compelling interest that can justify limited consideration of race in university admissions.”
“When students of all races and backgrounds come to college and live together and learn together, they become better colleagues, better citizens, and better leaders,” she said, adding that the same principle is also “a critical national security imperative.”
“Our armed forces know from hard experience that when we do not have a diverse officer corps that is broadly reflective of a diverse fighting force, our strength and cohesion and military readiness suffer.
“Overruling Grutter would have devastating effects on our nation’s efforts to move ever closer to a more perfect union where our nation’s diversity is a source of its greatest strength. And I think the court should not take the destabilizing step of overruling precedent here.”
Norris said Harvard “is not diverse at all.”
Apart from racial statistics, “9 percent of incoming freshmen at Harvard are conservatives. Harvard is 82 percent wealthy. There’s 23 rich students for every one low-income student on campus.”
The “compelling interest” mentioned in Grutter isn’t what’s actually being pursued on Harvard’s campus,” Norris said.
Justice Neil Gorsuch pushed back against Harvard lawyer Seth Waxman, who defended the school’s policies.
There are many briefs filed with the court that say Asian American applicants report that “there’s an entire industry to help them appear less Asian on their college applications.”
Waxman replied that Asian Americans benefit from “a holistic admissions policy that considers race as one factor among many.”
Waxman said that for some applicants, race “can be the determinative factor, just as being … an oboe player in a year in which the Harvard–Radcliffe orchestra needs an oboe player will be the tip.”
Roberts shot back: “We did not fight a civil war about oboe players. We did fight a civil war to eliminate racial discrimination, and that’s why it’s a matter … of considerable concern.”
Over 150 Chinese-born scientists conducting taxpayer-funded research in the U.S. are now working at Chinese Communist Party-run laboratories, often on technologies with military applications.
The findings are contained in a private intelligence report conducted by the software development firm Strider, which was obtained by NBC News. When questioned by NBC about the report’s concerning findings, the Department of Energy (DOE) emphasized that “international collaboration is critical to its efforts” and declined to answer any specific questions.
The report identifies over 150 Chinese-born scientists who have worked on taxpayer-funded projects at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in the last two decades now conducting “sensitive” research in China. Some of the research presently occurring in China has “military application, [including] hypersonic missiles, deep earth-penetrating warheads, [and] quiet submarines.”
Based in New Mexico, the laboratory is a project of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) that traces its roots to World War II, as it was launched for designing nuclear weapons such as the atomic bomb.
Despite being a key institution for America’s national security, the laboratory appears to have deep ties to the Chinese Communist Party and its military. The relationship is “supercharging China’s threat to American national security,” argues the report.
Zhao Yusheng, for example, was a researcher at Los Alamos for 18 years, collecting over $20 million worth of taxpayer-funded research grants. Zhao also received a top-secret “Q-level” clearance, allowing him to lead a defense project that developed bombs that penetrate underground.
In 2016, however, Zhao joined a talent recruitment program and research center run by the Chinese Communist Party as well as becoming Vice President at China’s Southern University of Science and Technology, which conducts defense research. 15 researchers from Los Alamos are affiliated with the university, including its current president.
Before departing Los Alamos, Zhao hired another Chinese-born assistant researcher who later filed a patent after returning to China with information related to the class of bombs his team was working on in the U.S.
The significant majority, 80 percent, of Chinese-born researchers were recruited via talent programs, which are efforts led by Beijing to lure Chinese-born scientists residing in the West to come home. Oftentimes, the Chinese Communist Party pays researchers nearly $1 million to return to China, using the knowledge and experience they gained at taxpayer expense in the U.S. to boost the regime’s military capabilities.
The revolving door between Los Alamos and Chinese laboratories is not illegal and the DOE maintains that it “works hard to protect critical defense technology.”
The report comes amidst similar concerns about researchers funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) working in collaboration with Chinese-run labs such as the Wuhan Institute of Virology on dangerous, “gain-of-function” research into bat coronaviruses.
COPS ALLEGE DAVID DEPAPE HAD A BAG WITH A ROLL OF TAPE, A JOURNAL, AND A HAMMER.
A sworn affidavit by Stephanie Minor, a Special Agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), claims the intruder into the home of the Speaker of the US House of Representatives had intended to wait for her at her house for several days, then kidnap her and break her kneecaps. He also claimed he was tired from carrying his backpack to the Pelosi home, and wanted to tie Nancy Pelosi up so he could go to sleep.Despite the disturbed and nonsensical ramblings in the affidavit, corporate media talking heads have set upon DePape as some kind of far-right activist, despite his connections with far-left causes. The affidavit can be read, in full, below.
The document alleges DePape – who lived in a Black Lives Matter/LGBT-supporting commune in San Francisco – intended to “seize or kidnap” Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and had “zip ties, tape, rope, and at least one hammer with him that morning.”
“San Francisco Police Department recovered zip ties in Pelosi’s bedroom and in the hallway near the front door of the Pelosi residence. In addition, law enforcement searched DEPAPE’s backpack at the Pelosi residence, and they found, among other things, a roll of tape, white rope, one hammer, one pair of rubber and cloth gloves, and a journal.”
DePape allegedly told Paul Pelosi, Nancy’s husband, that he would “wait” several days when he was told the Speaker of the House was not present:
DEPAPE stated that he was going to hold Nancy hostage and talk to her. If Nancy were to tell DEPAPE the “truth,” he would let her go, and if she “lied,” he was going to break “her kneecaps.” DEPAPE was certain that Nancy would not have told the “truth.” In the course of the interview, DEPAPE articulated he viewed Nancy as the “leader of the pack” of lies told by the Democratic Party. DEPAPE also later explained that by breaking Nancy’s kneecaps, she would then have to be wheeled into Congress, which would show other Members of Congress there were consequences to actions. DEPAPE also explained generally that he wanted to use Nancy to lure another individual to DEPAPE.
Twitter flagged Joe Biden’s claim that “55” big corporations nationwide paid no taxes for 2020, as the platform affirmed that “only 14” of them were eligible to be taxed.
Biden took to Twitter to boast about his Inflation Reduction Act last Friday, using one of his favored data targeting big companies. “Let me give you the facts,” the president wrote in an Oct. 28 post. “In 2020, 55 corporations made $40 billion. And they paid zero in federal taxes. My Inflation Reduction Act puts an end to this,” Biden asserted.
Attached to Biden’s post accompanies a notice from Twitter’s experimental new fact-checking program known as “Birdwatch,” including reader-added context that “people might want to know.”
The note cited a 2021 analysis by the Washington Post, saying “Out of the 55 corporations the tweet references, only 14 had earnings greater than $1 billion and would be eligible under Biden’s law.”
Biden’s inflation law, signed into law this August, institutes a 15 percent minimum tax for corporations making over $1 billion a year in a bid to tamp down national inflation. Yet experts have warned the Democrat-backed law will not reduce inflation as claimed and might end up harming the American economy.
The bill also grants the Internal Revenue Service $80 billion in taxpayer dollars to hire some 87,000 new agents.
It came after the president had repeated this number at least 40 times since last April, either in speeches or interviews, according to Factbase, a website that tracks Biden’s public statements.
The number of “55” firstly comes from a report (pdf) issued last April by Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. The left-leaning think tank alleged those profitable corporations avoided all federal income taxes despite collectively earning almost $40.5 billion in pre-tax 2020 income.
However, the remaining 41 companies—with per income less than $1 billion during the year—would not be subject to the corporate minimum tax even if Biden’s ambitious measure were in place.
Twitter launched Birdwatch ahead of the upcoming midterm elections. The new feature is visible to users in the United States and normally contains additional, rated sources for a deeper dive into a certain subject.
“Context on Tweets—by the people, for the people—is coming to everyone in the US,” said the company in an Oct. 6 post. The crowdsourced “fact-checking” program is an additional layer of “facts” put on contents that the company considers “misinformation,” ranging from science and politics to entertainment and random bits of information.
Birdwatch notes are not written by Twitter Inc., said the company, to ensure that diverse groups of people can help identify misleading information.
Based on survey results by the company, a user is 20–40 percent less likely to agree with a tweet containing potentially misleading information when it features Birdwatch notes. Twitter claims that a user is 15–35 percent less likely to Like or Retweet a tweet with a Birdwatch note.
“The bird is freed,” Twitter’s new owner Elon Musk said via the platform late Thursday night, before posting “let the good times roll” a few hours later.
A White House spokesman didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
The man who allegedly attacked the husband of U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) was charged Oct. 31 with federal and state charges, including assault and elder abuse.
David DePape, 42, was charged with assault and attempted kidnapping by U.S. prosecutors and a slew of felonies by local prosecutors, including elder abuse and assault with a deadly weapon.
DePape allegedly entered the Pelosi residence in San Francisco on Oct. 28 and tried to kill Paul Pelosi, 82, and attempted to kidnap Nancy Pelosi, 82.
He faces up to 50 years in prison if convicted on the federal charges. He faces up to life in state prison if convicted on the state charges.
San Francisco officers responded to a 911 call from Paul Pelosi in the early hours of Friday and witnessed, after the door was opened, DePape and Paul Pelosi each with a hand on the same hammer.
Officers asked what was happening and DePape said that “everything was good,” according to an FBI affidavit supporting the new charges. Officers commanded the men to release the hammer. DePape then pulled the hammer away and swung it at Paul Pelosi’s head. Paul Pelosi fell to the ground and appeared to be unconscious.
Officers located zip ties in a bedroom in the home and inside of a backpack, they found a journal, a roll of tape, a hammer, a pair of gloves, and white rope.
Officers found signs that DePape broke into the home through the rear of the building.
A witness told officers that he saw a person wearing all black and carrying a large black bag walking near the Pelosi residence. Paul Pelosi, meanwhile, said that he was asleep when DePape entered the bedroom and said he wanted to talk to Nancy Pelosi. DePape said that he would wait, even after Paul Pelosi said his wife would not be home for several days.
Paul Pelosi called 911 from the bathroom.
According to dispatch audio, Paul Pelosi said that he was with a man he described as “a friend” and that the man was going to wait for his wife.
The dispatcher sent officers to the home after receiving the call.
DePape told officers hours after being detained that he intended to hold Nancy Pelosi hostage and that he would break her kneecaps if she did not tell the truth.
DePape later explained that breaking Nancy Pelosi’s kneecaps would force her to be wheeled into Congress, “which would show other Members of Congress there were consequences to actions,” according to the affidavit. But DePape also said his goal was to use Nancy Pelosi “to lure another individual” to him.
Interim San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins declined to say who that individual was while speaking to reporters on Monday.
Jenkins did say that the attack appeared to be politically motivated.
“It appears as though this was—based on his statements and comments that were made in that house during his encounter with Mr. Pelosi—that this was politically motivated,” she said. “He was looking for the speaker at the time he entered the home.”
Bernard Kerik stumps for Doug Mastriano in Pennsylvania governor race
MANHEIM, PA.— An enthusiastic Lancaster, Pennsylvania crowd of more than 400 people broke into chants at least 10 times Saturday, during a campaign rally for Republican gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano.
“Doug for Gov! Doug for gov!” they spontaneously shouted throughout the rally. But their whistles and applause turned to rapt attention when Bernard Kerik started his speech with a recollection of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. At the time, Kerik was the New York City Police Commissioner. He was on the grounds of the Twin Towers when the second airplane struck.
Years later, Kerik worked for former President Donald Trump as chief investigator for the legal team looking at the 2020 election. He met Mastriano while preparing for the high-profile Nov. 25, 2020, Pennsylvania Senate Hearing that questioned the election. The hearing was held in Gettysburg and featured testimony from former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, an attorney.
“Politics is a dirty, dirty business,” Kerik said. But he noticed Mastriano had the respect of his peers during preparation for the hearing. “I’ve never been in a room with 20 different legislators, and every single one of them looks at one man and says, that guy is going to be the next governor of the state of Pennsylvania.”
Rebbie and Doug Mastriano Republican candidate for governor, at a campaign rally in Manheim, Pa. on Oct. 29, 2022. (Beth Brelje/The Epoch Times)
He offered his perspective on investigating the 2020 election.
“It’s different for me because it’s personal,” Kerik said. “I witnessed what happened in the election. When the mainstream media says it’s all a big lie, I’m the guy that had to collect the affidavits from the people that witnessed voter and election fraud. I’m the guy that had to help put those hearings together. I’m the guy that talked to a number of different lawyers, that were right here in Pennsylvania, in Pittsburgh. Republican lawyers that were not allowed to watch what was going on at the polls. So people can say all day long, ‘There was no voter and election fraud.’ That’s B.S. and I know it.”
Kerik said it is important for voters to talk to friends and get people out to vote, but it is also important to pay attention on election day.
“Remember this. The only way the Democrats are going to win this time is cheating,” Kerik said. “We need to make sure we have people at the polls. We need to make sure we can get to the courts and get to the courts on time. We need to make sure there are no mistakes like there was in 2020.”
Leadership Required to Curb Crime
Kerik also talked about what it takes to address crime by looking back at the high crime rate in New York when former mayor Rudy Giuliani came into office.
“We were averaging more than 2,000 murders per year. New York City was the murder capital of the United States,” Kerik said. “In eight years, under Rudy Giuliani, we reduced the violent crime by 65 percent. We dropped the murder rate by 70 percent. And we dropped the murder rate in the black community by almost 80 percent.”
He looks at today’s high crime rates in large cities like Chicago Atlanta, Minneapolis, Portland, Seattle, and Philadelphia and sees Democrats leading each one.
“I hear people say crime is out of control. There’s nothing you can do about it,” Kerik said.
With 439 murders in Philadelphia year to date in 2022, Kerik looks to State Attorney General Josh Shapiro, the Democrat candidate for governor, and asks why he hasn’t used his authority to step in and replace soft-on-crime city leaders. He named Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner.
Last week Republican members of the Pennsylvania House announced they were seeking to impeach Krasner for failing to enforce the law.
“So I have one question for Josh Shapiro. Why is Larry Krasner still there? Why is anybody still in place?” Kerik asked. “Don’t tell me it can’t be fixed. Don’t tell me it can’t be done. It can be done with the right leadership.” That leader, he said is Mastriano.
The U.S. Coast Guard looks set to lose some of its most qualified and experienced Coast Guardsmen, including many of its esteemed—and incredibly necessary—rescue swimmers as a result of the Pentagon’s vaccine mandate.
As of Oct. 18, the Coast Guard had received 1,250 religious accommodations requests, according to a media spokesperson. Only 12 had been approved and 1,238 had been denied.
What’s more, the Coast Guard’s rescue swimmers, known as aviation survival technicians, are severely short-staffed at 89 percent capacity, according to a recently retired senior rescue swimmer. Anything below 95 percent is considered critical.
This situation is set to worsen should the Coast Guard discharge the near-20 rescue swimmers currently refusing the shot because of their faith, according to aviation survival technician Anthony Gills. He spoke to The Epoch Times using a pseudonym for fear of reprisals.
Gills has almost 20 years of Coast Guard service, serving as a helicopter rescue swimmer for more than 15 years. Gills is unvaccinated, having objected to the mandate for religious reasons.
“It’s the unknown of what’s going to happen to me from day to day that leaves me with a sense of anxiety, the feeling that I don’t know what I’m going to walk into on any given day,” he said.
“Since the beginning of the pandemic, I’ve stood the watch, responded on numerous SAR [search and rescue] cases, deployed to the Bahamas, and participated in response and recovery efforts for Hurricane Ian.
“I know the job I have to do and I do it to the best of my ability, but it’s the element of the unknown part of my future that keeps me on edge, not knowing what kind of paperwork or message is going to come down that’s going to have an effect on the job I love to do.”
When the military’s vaccine mandate was announced in August 2021, Gills said, service members were informed of their right to file for religious accommodation. But, “after some time, many requests [were] coming back denied.”
Denials were nearly identical, as if the Coast Guard was using a template, he said.
“The only differences were our names and the specific jobs we do, so each of us waiting expected the same thing.”
Inevitably, Gills’s appeal of the Coast Guard’s decision to separate him also came back denied. Having requested to retire at 20 years, he finds himself waiting for approval to do so.
“It’s that unknown that puts an undue amount of stress not only on myself, but my family—my wife and two children,” Gills said. “I could potentially lose my pension and all of my benefits I worked so hard for the last 19-plus years.
“What’s not being said about this entire ordeal is that we have a right to refuse the vaccination that’s protected by the statutes of the law and under the Constitution that we raise our right and took an oath to defend against enemies, foreign and domestic.
“We not only have a choice, but we have an obligation to stand up for what we believe is right by our faith, which gives us the ability to reject the unlawful [mandate].”
Unvaccinated guardsmen are considered non-deployable. Many, however, have been deployed for hurricane relief and border security. As a rescue swimmer, Gills said, “when people are in a dire situation and needing help, whether or not I’m vaccinated is the last thing on their mind.”
“I really don’t think they care, given what we know now from the science and everything that’s come out about this shot—it doesn’t really matter,” he said. “The shot has a growing list of side effects and does not protect [from] or prevent the spread of COVID.”
It’s Gills’s desire to remain at his current duty station until he’s able to retire in July 2023. His attorney, R. Davis Younts, said that “[Gills’s] desire is to serve, and his religious faith should not disqualify him from future service, particularly where the Coast Guard has engaged in a pattern of religious discrimination and hostility towards the Christian faith.”
Gills emphasized that his view don’t reflect those of the Department of Homeland Security or the U.S. Coast Guard.
Hurting Beyond the Jab
Rocky Rogers, a Coast Guard IT chief with more than 20 years of service, submitted his request to retire in August 2020, which allowed him to retire this past August. According to Rogers, the Coast Guard is changing rapidly in more ways than just the vaccine mandate.
“I was one supervisor out of nine that dealt with transgenders in the Coast Guard,” he said. As a Christian, Rogers believes in two sexes: male and female. “There were scenarios where I needed help from my command or from medical staff, but they were unable to give advice or support.
“For example, nobody of rank wanted their name to be associated with any administrative action or any kind of reprimand [of] a person who concluded they couldn’t come to work because they didn’t feel good because of all the [gender-transition] drugs they were on.”
Standing by his faith, he decided in 2018 to leave the Coast Guard and begin the two-year process of retirement.
With the added burden of COVID-19 spreading in 2020 and the subsequent mandate in 2021, Rogers said he knew his retirement was “just meant to be.” Even though he was approved for retirement, he was still pressured to take the vaccine. Instead, he sought religious accommodation, which was initially denied.
Upon receiving the denial, Rogers appealed the decision, largely because of his approved retirement. Coast Guard regulations state that those with an approved retirement were in receipt of an administrative exemption to the mandate. But even with this official notification, Rogers’s command said he had to adhere to the mandate, he said.
“By the definition of accommodation, one would expect to find a common ground,” Rogers said. “However, the Coast Guard made it clear that if you’re unvaccinated then getting you out is the only path forward.”
Although the unvaccinated are considered “not worldwide deployable,” Rogers said, “they are still sent [under] Temporary Duty [TDY] to operational units to assist with the Coast Guard mission.” According to him, many operational cutters (commissioned vessels) are experiencing the brunt of staffing issues and are now using TDY orders to meet the “minimum manning” in order to go on deployment.
Rogers said he’s also aware of Coast Guard reservist members who refused the vaccine and were expected to be processed out on Nov. 1. However, the date has been pushed forward to Dec. 1. According to Rogers, “they want to pull these people into hurricane relief operations and [southern] border security.”
“These members of the Coast Guard are being used for the month, only to be kicked out right before the holidays,” he said. “And that angers me.”
As members of the Coast Guard prepare for separation, Rogers said he keeps in touch with many of them, making his best attempt to “help people stay positive in this time of uncertainty.”
The Coast Guard didn’t return requests for comment from The Epoch Times.
Joe Biden has once again become a center point of discussion after claiming at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania that there are “54 states” in the United States despite the fact that there are only 50.
Biden made the bizarre verbal miscue while speaking at a rally Friday evening in Philadelphia to support his fellow Democrat, U.S. Senate candidate John Fetterman.
While describing how Democrats have worked on improving health care by defending the “Affordable Care Act” (ACA) from being replaced, Biden told people at the event that Democrats campaigned in “54 states” to prevent the federal statute from being dismantled.
“And, of course, they’re going to try for the 499th time, or whatever the number is,” Biden said in reference to Republicans’ long crusade to repeal the ACA, commonly known as Obamacare.
“And, by the way, if they do, that means—not a joke, everybody; that’s why we defeated it in 2018 when they tried to do it. We went to 54 states,” the president said. “The reason is people didn’t realize that the only reason anybody who has a pre-existing condition can get health care is because of that Affordable Care Act.”
At the event, Biden was joined by both Vice President Kamala Harris and Fetterman, whose rocky debate performance against Republican rival Dr. Mehmet Oz last week has fueled concern among Democrats as the two vie for a key Senate seat.
Fetterman in May suffered a severe stroke, which was apparent during the debate as he stumbled over words and relied on closed-captioning posted above the moderator to help him visually process the words being spoken to him, leading to occasional awkward pauses.
(Left) Republican Senate candidate Dr. Mehmet Oz hosts a safer streets community discussion at Galdos Catering and Entertainment in Philadelphia on Oct. 13, 2022. (Mark Makela/Getty Images); (Right) Pennsylvania’s Lieutenant Governor John Fetterman speaks to supporters gathered in Dickinson Square Park in Philadelphia on Oct. 23, 2022. (Kriston Jae Bethel/AFP via Getty Images)
Flubbing Numbers
After clips of Biden’s latest gaffe emerged online, social media influencers blasted the president.
“Joe Biden now says there are 54 states,” Colorado Rep. Lauren Boebert said on Twitter. “I guess if you count the states of denial, confusion, delusion and disaster that his Regime has caused he just might be on to something.”
Actor and comedian Rob Schneider also took a swipe: “Biden says there are 54 states in America. Next speech he will explain the 81 million votes…”
“Inflation is so bad it’s impacting geography under [Joe Biden],” journalist Collin Pruett said on Twitter.
Since Biden took office, videos showing the 79-year-old president making verbal miscues or other gaffes have become commonplace, raising concerns about his age and cognitive ability. In another recent mishap, he incorrectly called out to Rep. Jackie Walorski (R-Ind.), who had died in a car crash weeks before.
Despite those concerns, Biden said in an interview on Oct. 21 that it is his “intention” to run for reelection in 2024, though he noted that no formal decision has been made on the matter.
Biden recently agreed that questions about his age are “totally legitimate” ahead of the 2024 election, saying that he’s “in good health” and “everything physically about me is still functioning well, and mentally, too.”
In just a few weeks, Biden—already the oldest sitting president—will turn 80 years old. If Biden were to win reelection in 2024, he would be 86 at the end of his second term.
(@VishBurra) 
