March 29, 2024

The Power Hour

Knowledge is Power

Today’s News: July 07, 2022

WORLD NEWS

Boris Johnson Announces Resignation as UK Prime Minister

Boris Johnson has finally announced he is stepping down as prime minister after the resignation of more than 50 government ministers, including a Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak, whose successor Nadhim Zahawi, then called for his boss to “do the right thing and go.”

Johnson, standing at a podium in Downing Street with his wife Carrie and his baby daughter Romy behind him, said, “It’s clearly the will of the Conservative Party that there should be a new leader of the party and a new prime minister.”

He thanked those who voted for the Tories in December 2019 and he said the reason he had held on for so long to the job was because of the mandate he received in that election.

Johnson said it was “painful” to give up the job of prime minister but he said nobody was “indispensible.”

On Wednesday Johnson, 58, had vowed to soldier on, after admitting it was a “mistake” to keep Chris Pincher on as a government whip despite sexual misconduct allegations against him.

After receiving a hostile grilling at Prime Minister’s Question Time, and then before the House of Commons Liaison Committee, he was lobbied by Michael Gove and several other Cabinet ministers who urged him to resign.

But Johnson then sacked Gove as Secretary of State for Levelling Up and appeared determined to carry on, having told MPs earlier he had a “mandate” from the general election victory of December 2019 and would continue to deliver on the Conservative Party’s manifesto promises.

NASA Administrator Accuses China of Planning to Take Over the Moon

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson has warned that China is using its space program to attempt to take over the moon, a claim the Chinese regime denies.

Nelson told German outlet Bild on July 2, “We must be very concerned that China is landing on the moon and saying: It’s ours now and you stay out.”

The purpose of China’s space program, Nelson said, “is a military space program,” and its accomplishments are built on technology theft.

The Chinese regime has denied Nelson’s allegations.

“This is not the first time that the NASA administrator has lashed out at China in disregard of facts,” said Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian.

“China always advocates the peaceful use of outer space, opposes the weaponization of and arms race in outer space,” he added.

However, experts told the Chinese language edition of The Epoch Times that the theft of space technology is common by the Chinese Communist Party, and that the space program itself is part of the Strategic Support Force of the military.

Brittney Griner Pleads Guilty To Drug Charges In Russia

Brittney Griner has pleaded guilty to drug charges in Russia.

The WNBA star was arrested months ago after allegedly being in possession of banned hash oil while at an airport, and she entered a guilty plea Thursday, according to Reuters.

“I’d like to plead guilty, your honour. But there was no intent. I didn’t want to break the law,” Griner told the court during a Thursday appearance, according to the same Reuters report.

Her next court hearing is scheduled for July 14, and she faces up to a decade in a Russian prison.

French Government to Nationalize State-Owned Electric Utility amid Power Crisis

France’s government announced plans on Wednesday to nationalize Electricite de France S.A. (EDF), a French state-owned multinational electric utility company, to help EDF better manage a worsening energy crisis currently plaguing both France and greater Europe, Bloomberg reported.

“Borne didn’t provide specific details of the government’s plans, beyond saying the state will raise its stake in EDF to 100% from 84% currently,” Bloomberg relayed.

“No decision has been made at this stage on the modalities of the operation,” a spokesman for France’s finance ministry told reporters of the nationalization of EDF, which is Europe’s largest producer of nuclear power.

Bloomberg explained some of the circumstances that prompted France’s federal government to pursue a full takeover of EDF this week, writing:

France will acquire the 16% stake [in EDF] not already owned and nationalize the company. This suggests state intervention may increasingly feature elsewhere in the EU [European Union], given the worsening energy crisis, to ensure market continuity, mitigate cost inflation and drive the region’s energy-security plans.

EDF has been grappling in recent years with various issues at its aging fleet of reactors and cost overruns when building new ones. Its problems are being exacerbated by a government-imposed cap on electricity prices and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which is making it more expensive for the company to cover its own electricity-output shortfall.

Russia and neighboring Ukraine have been engaged in a war since February 24 following eight years of Russia illegally occupying Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula. Moscow’s decision to launch its latest invasion of the country caused Western governments, led by Washington, to impose sweeping financial sanctions on Russian companies and entities in an effort to punish the Kremlin for the act. The ongoing sanctions campaign coupled with Europe’s general shunning of Russian business has contributed to the continent’s current energy crisis, which began in late 2021.

The governments of France and Germany largely blame Russia for their lack of sufficient energy supplies, claiming that Moscow’s recent decision to decrease the flow of natural gas to Europe via its Nord Stream pipeline was an act of retaliation for their support of the anti-Russia sanctions campaign.

U.S. NEWS, POLITICS & GOVERNMENT

Frontline Doctors Sue Twitter: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1HUj7N6qzo2aCHdYqNcgy3KASdahTABAk/view?usp=sharing 

George Soros declares war on Supreme Court, GOP

On Independence Day, billionaire activist George Soros effectively declared war on the United States Supreme Court and the Republican Party.

“The American public has been alarmed and aroused by the US Supreme Court’s growing extremism,” Soros wrote in a piece on his site Project Syndicate that was spotlighted by the Gateway Pundit.

“But voters need to recognize the Court’s radical majority for what it is: part of a carefully laid plan to turn the US into a repressive regime.”

Meanwhile, violent crime has risen substantially in major cities with progressive district attorneys whose campaigns were bankrolled by Soros. Among the DAs is Kim Foxx of Cook County, Illinois, which has recorded more murders in this year than any year since 1994.

In his opinion piece, Soros charged that “democracy is now gravely endangered” and asserted “the threat to the US from the domestic enemies of democracy is even greater” than the threat from foreign enemies such as China and Russia.

The “domestic enemies,” he said, include a Supreme Court “dominated by far-right extremists, and Donald Trump’s Republican Party, which placed those extremists on the Court.”

Soros objected in particular to Justice Samuel Alito’s majority opinion in the Mississippi abortion case that overturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision.

“There is only one way to rein in the Supreme Court: throw the Republican Party out of office in a landslide,” Soros wrote.

He acknowledged it won’t be easy to defeat “the radicalized Republicans,” who have “stacked the Supreme Court and many lower courts with extremist judges.”

“In states such as Florida, Georgia, and Texas, they have enacted a raft of laws that make voting very difficult,” he said, referring to election integrity laws such a requiring voter ID.

He claimed the objective is not to make sure that every vote counts, but “disenfranchising African-Americans, other minorities, and young voters generally” in an effort to win elections.

“We must do everything we can,” he wrote, “to prevent” the Republicans from retaking the majority in Congress this November.

Labor Dept. Made $77.2 Billion in Improper Unemployment Insurance Payments in 2021: IG

More than $77 billion of the unemployment insurance (UI) program’s total of $413 billion in payments in 2021 were made improperly, according to a report from the Department of Labor’s Office of Inspector General (IG).

The Labor Department (DOL) “published an improper payment rate of 18.71 percent for the UI program, which resulted in an estimated $77.2 billion in reported gross improper payments,” the IG reported. The improper payment rate for the previous year was 9.17 percent, equal to about $37.8 billion.

“Additionally, DOL published an unknown payment rate of 0.21 percent, which resulted in estimated unknown payments of $865 million. These estimates were based on a statistical estimation approach that met a 95 percent confidence level, plus or minus 3 percent,” the report said.

The IG report was prompted by requirements of the Payment Integrity Information Act of 2019, which requires federal departments and agencies to establish and report to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) improper payment rates in government benefit programs, as well as annual targets for reducing those rates.

The 18.71 percent rate of improper UI payments in 2021 represents a significant increase for the program, which saw a steadily improving trend during the previous four years of President Donald Trump’s administration.

The rate at the end of the first year of Trump’s tenure was 12.11 percent. The rate increased to 12.63 percent the following year, but then plunged to 10.21 percent in 2019, and to 2020’s 9.17 percent, according to data provided by paymentaccuracy.gov.

Rep. Rick Allen (R-Ga.), a member of the House Education and Labor Committee, told The Epoch Times on July 6 that he’s co-sponsoring legislation to address examples of wasteful federal spending like that highlighted by the IG report.

“It’s unacceptable that criminals utilized a global health crisis to defraud the United States government’s unemployment programs. Even worse, the misguided Biden administration policies, which discouraged people from going back to work, incentivized scammers to steal more money from the American taxpayer,” he said.

“Congress must now fulfill its oversight duties and help hold these criminals accountable. I am a proud co-sponsor of [Texas Republican] Rep. Kevin Brady’s Chase COVID Unemployment Fraud Act, which would empower the states to recover the money lost to fraud.”

Brady is the top Republican on the House Ways and Means Committee that oversees unemployment insurance.

Other Republicans on the Ways and Means panel also blasted the improper payments and lauded the measure originally introduced by Brady.

Rep. Jackie Walorski (R-Ind.) told The Epoch Times that “it is painfully obvious that brazen criminals capitalized on pandemic relief programs and stole billions from hardworking American taxpayers,” and she urged Biden and congressional Democrats “to work with us to take this crisis seriously, expose fraud, and hold criminals accountable. We must send a clear signal that fraud will not be tolerated.”

Similarly, Rep. Drew Ferguson (R-Ga.) said, “House Democrats refused to hold a single Ways and Means oversight hearing to address the growing problem of unchecked improper payments,” adding that “it shouldn’t surprise folks that a new, big-government program that incentivizes folks to not return to work—and had zero oversight—is ripe for fraud.”

And Rep. Adrian Smith (R-Neb.) told The Epoch Times that “the Biden administration and Democrats in Congress have shown no interest in holding these fraudulent actors accountable. That is why I am an original co-sponsor of the Chase COVID Unemployment Fraud Act, a bill to protect taxpayers by clawing back funds and recovering these improper payments. This is a priority for me now, and it will certainly remain a priority when Republicans control the House.”

On the other side of Capitol Hill, Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), the Senate’s most visible foe of waste, fraud, and abuse in the government, told The Epoch Times, “It’s no surprise that we are seeing a record level of fraud and abuse of taxpayer dollars being reported in the wake of wasteful and unsupervised government  spending under the guise of COVID,” said Ernst. “The federal government needs to take every step possible to recover fraudulent payment and put safeguards in place to stop future abuses like this from happening again.”

Five Gang Members, Sex Offenders Arrested at Border over July 4 Weekend

Border Patrol agents in the Rio Grande Valley and Del Rio Sectors arrested five criminal gang members and two deported sex offenders over the Independence Day weekend.

In the Rio Grande Valley Sector, McAllen Station agents captured three members of the hyperviolent Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) gang members. During a background investigation, agents found one of the men had a 2010 assault conviction which resulted in a seven-month jail sentence in Maryland. A second gang member received two years in prison for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon in Houston. That criminal alien was deported in 2021.

‘Sheer craziness’: Biden makes deported illegals eligible for citizenship

Under a new Biden administration policy, illegal aliens who are deported from the United States no longer are forced to wait outside the country for up to 10 years before applying for legal status.

The law was meant to deter people from trying to live in the country illegally, the Washington Times reported.

Previously, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services would have denied any application for legal status under the so-called three-year/10-year rule. That meant that anyone without legal status for at least six months but less than a year had to depart and wait three years before applying to come back legally. Anyone in the country illegally for more than a year had to wait 10 years.

Emilio Gonzalez, who headed the USCIS during the George W. Bush administration, said the new Biden protocol is like the Clinton administration policy “don’t ask, don’t tell.” Under the 1990s policy, military applicants were not to be asked about their sexual orientation.

“We won’t ask you where you’ve been during your inadmissible period, and you don’t tell us. It’s sheer craziness,” Gonzalez said.

The new DHS policy states “noncitizen’s location during the statutory 3-year or 10-year period and the noncitizen’s manner of return to the United States during the statutory 3-year or 10-year period are irrelevant for purposes of determining inadmissibility.”

Robert Law, who led the USCIS policy office for the Trump administration, told the Washington Times the policy is “basically an invitation for any deported alien to pay the cartels to smuggle them back into the U.S. while they let the clock run out.”

The Times said the policy will apply retroactively. That means migrants previously denied can file motions to reopen their cases.

San Diego Loses 22% Of Its Police Force Due To Vax Mandates

San Diego is witnessing the largest exodus of police officers from the city since 2009 and the majority of them are quitting because of the city’s continued obsession with covid vaccine mandates.

Perhaps the smartest move the people of Los Angeles County ever made was to elect Sheriff Alex Villanueva, who refused to enforce unconstitutional vax mandates.  The decision probably saved them from losing a quarter or more of their law enforcement officers within the sheriff’s department.

Contrast this with the LAPD, which was not so lucky.  Officers have quit in droves or were fired, with over 2200 employees refusing to comply.  This has been a repeating situation across California, and San Diego is the latest region to suffer considerable losses of LEO’s over vax mandates.

More than 230 San Diego police officers have left city employment in the 2022 fiscal year alone (252 sworn deputies in 2021), totaling around 22% of all deputies in active service.

City officials are scrambling to increase incentives to lure new officers into the ranks, including the approval of a 10% pay raise, but many within the department were well aware that this outcome was looming.  Officials now say replacing deputies as fast as they exit will be impossible.

Jared Wilson, president of the San Diego Police Officers Assn., says that the covid mandates were the breaking point for many deputies.  This is not at all surprising.  The aggressive nature of California’s enforcement of covid vaccines is rather bizarre given that most of the rest of the country has moved on and abandoned mandates altogether.  California’s political inclinations are dominated by Democrats and the left, and it seems that once they decide they want something they aren’t going to stop until they get it, no matter how unnecessary.

This attitude once again shows that such mandates are more about control than about public health or safety, given they are costing major CA cities a large percentage of their police force at a time when homicide rates are rising by 17% and property crime rose by 7% overall, climbing to pre-pandemic levels after lockdowns kept the public indoors in 2020 and most of 2021.

Economic declines within the state are likely to lead to even more criminal activity and city residents are starting to question the anti-police rhetoric of many far-left representatives.  There have already been major political upsets, with a progressive district attorney recalled in San Francisco and a former Republican candidate elected for Mayor in LA.  It would seem that crime, rather than covid, is now at the top of the worry list of the average Californian, but sitting leaders still don’t seem to get it.

Devil’s Monument : Georgia Guidestones Seen Lying In Ruins after Explosion

The Elbert County Georgia Sheriff’s Office is investigating a mysterious event at the Georgia Guidestones after a picture was posted to social media showing what appears to be rubble at the site and residents reported hearing a “boom.”

It is not known at this time if the Georgia Guidestones were attacked by a person using some sort of explosive device or if there could have been a small earthquake that partially collapsed the controversial monument, which calls for a New World Order with a vastly smaller global population living “in harmony” with nature.

All we know right now is this: The sound of what could have been an explosion was reportedly heard in the area around 4 a.m. Wednesday, July 6. A photo was posted to Facebook by local resident Chris Smith about 7:30 a.m. showing what appears to be about half the monument lying in rubble on the ground.

The Georgia Guidestones has been referred to as “the devil’s monument,” and sits on what is now county property in Elbert County. It was erected under very mysterious circumstances in 1980 with words etched in the monument calling for, among other things, the genocide of 90 percent of the world’s population. A population of just 500 million, compared to today’s 7.5 billion, is advocated as the proper “balance” with nature.

A video was posted by a local NBC affiliate about 9 a.m. Wednesday that you can watch here. It shows county emergency response teams along with the Georgia State Patrol on the scene, and toward the end of the video a clear shot of the rubble can be seen.

Police have blocked off access to the site.

WSGC 105.3 Radio reports that “Hartwell Highway is now CLOSED between Thirteen Forks and Maple Springs Roads.  State and local law enforcement and emergency agencies are on the scene at the Georgia Guidestones, which were significantly damaged by an explosion early Wednesday morning. Take caution if traveling on the Hartwell Highway today.”

The guidestones sit on a site 7 miles north of Elberton on Georgia Highway 77 and are often referred to as an American Stonehenge, although some in the Christian community have labeled it the “Devil’s Monument,” or a “monument to Satan” and his minions’ obsession with eugenics, which is seen today in so many of the policies coming out of the World Economic Forum and United Nations.

Please check back as this is a developing story that we will be following all day here at LeoHohmann.com. We are based in Georgia and have reported first-hand accounts about this monument in the past, including our 2017 visit to the site.

Who Bombed the Georgia Guidestones?

Part of a controversial, granite roadside attraction in northeast Georgia is in pieces on the ground, and authorities say it appears to have been caused by a bomb.

The Guidestones, which were erected in 1980, have a 10-part message written on them in eight languages. One part of the message calls for a depopulation of the world to just 500 million or below.

Georgia Bureau of Investigation is on the scene, and have indicated that the explosion was heard at approximately 4 a.m., and the monument was “significantly damaged.” They also noted the monument had been vandalized in the past.

 

Father of Illinois Shooting Suspect Helped Son Obtain Gun Card Despite Past Threats

The father of the 21-year-old man charged in the slayings of seven people during a Fourth of July parade in Illinois sponsored his son’s state firearm identification card about two years ago.

Robert E. Crimo III, the suspect, applied for a state Firearm Owners Identification (FOID) card—which is issued by the Illinois State Police—in December 2019 when he was 19, said the state police in a news release.

“The subject was under 21 and the application was sponsored by the subject’s father,” the news release said. “Therefore, at the time of FOID application review in January of 2020, there was insufficient basis to establish a clear and present danger and deny the FOID application.”

Authorities on Tuesday said in a news conference that Crimo had threatened to kill himself and later, his family in 2019. In one instance in September 2019, police recovered a sword, knives, and other bladed weapons from the suspect after a family member reported that he wanted to “kill everyone,” officials said.

In the September incident, there was no probable cause to arrest and none of the victims signed any criminal complaints against Crimo, Lake County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Christopher Covelli said Tuesday. The Highland Park Police Department notified the Illinois State Police about the matter, although it’s not clear what steps were taken after that.

“In order to purchase a gun legally in Illinois, one has to possess a FOID card. That’s a process that is solely managed through the state police. I’m not able to speak to that process,” Covelli said Tuesday.

The Illinois State Police said that it “received a Clear and Present Danger report on the subject from the Highland Park Police Department,” according to the news release.

“The report was related to threats the subject made against his family,” the release stated. “There were no arrests made in the September 2019 incident and no one, including family, was willing to move forward on a complaint nor did they subsequently provide information on threats or mental health that would have allowed law enforcement to take additional action. Additionally, no Firearms Restraining Order was filed, nor any order of protection.”

Parents Issue First Statement After Son Arrested in Illinois Mass Shooting

The parents of the suspect who police say carried out the mass shooting in Illinois on July 4 have issued a statement for the first time since the attack.

“We are all mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, and this is a terrible tragedy for many families, the victims, the paradegoers, the community, and our own,” the parents of Robert “Bobby” Crimo III said.

“Our hearts, thoughts, and prayers go out to everybody,” they added.

The brief statement was released by Steve Greenberg, a lawyer who said the parents have hired him to represent them.

Robert Crimo, who lost a Highland Park mayoral bid in 2019, and his wife would like people to “respect their privacy as they try to sort thru this tragedy,” Greenberg said. “The parents share everyone’s desire to figure out everything that went wrong so that this doesn’t happen again, to more innocent people, children, and families,” according to Greenberg, who also said the parents are cooperating with law enforcement.

Crimo III is being represented by two other attorneys, Thomas Durkin and Josh Herman, according to Greenberg. Durkin and Herman did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Authorities say Crimo III killed seven people and injured others on Independence Day. He allegedly fired a gun from a commercial building into a parade in Highland Park, which is situated near Chicago.

An image from surveillance video showed Crimo III, believed to have planned the attack for weeks, fleeing the scene dressed as a woman, enabling him to reach his mother’s home before taking her vehicle.

Law enforcement officials say the 21-year-old was spotted by a member of the public and alerted the police, who arrested him a day after the shooting.

Supreme Court to Hear Fraud Appeal Related to Cuomo-Era Scandal

The Supreme Court has agreed to review the wire fraud conviction of Louis Ciminelli, who was involved in the scandal-plagued “Buffalo Billion” development plan in upstate New York when Andrew Cuomo was the governor.

The case grew out of the ambitious Buffalo Billion Investment Development Plan (pdf), which envisioned the construction of a solar panel factory among other projects, and was aimed at attracting more than $8 billion in investments for Buffalo and the rest of western New York, creating nearly 14,000 jobs.

Prosecutors claimed Ciminelli, the CEO of LPCiminelli; Alain Kaloyeros, who is a former head of SUNY Polytechnic Institute; and COR Development executives Steven Aiello and Joseph Gerardi rigged bids for state contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

They were convicted of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and other charges by a federal court in Manhattan in 2018.

The high court decided on June 30 to hear Ciminelli v. United States (,court file 21-1158). As is their custom, the justices did not provide reasons for their decision to accept the case.

The Biden administration had urged the court to reject the appeal.

Ciminelli claims that the right-to-control theory of fraud the government argued and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit upheld in the case, is invalid.

The theory holds that the deprivation of complete and accurate information a person needs to make an economic decision constitutes property fraud.

Section 1343 of Title 18 of the U.S. Code prescribes a sentence of up to 20 years in prison for anyone who devises a scheme to defraud or obtain money or property by fraud and who transmits information by wire, radio, or television in furtherance of the fraud.

In this case the lower court misapplied and overextended the theory, Ciminelli argued in his petition (pdf) filed with the court Feb. 18.

“This court should intervene once again to confirm that the federal fraud statutes are not an all-purpose protection of ethereal interests, permitting conviction even where the government cannot prove an intention to cause economic loss,” the petition stated.

Prosecutors use “this abstract information-deprivation theory when they cannot show a traditional scheme to harm property. But this court’s precedent, common law definitions of property, statutory context, and principles of statutory interpretation all confirm that the right-to-control theory is invalid.”

But Ciminelli contended that even though a scheme that “deprives a person of economic information alone, without threatening economic loss, may violate an intangible interest or a sense of moral uprightness,” it “does not rise to the level of a property fraud.”

Ciminelli’s lawyer, Michael Dreeben, told the Albany-based Times Union he was pleased the high court will take up the appeal.

“Our team is gratified that the Supreme Court has agreed to hear Mr. Ciminelli’s case, which will allow the court to address our challenge to the validity of the right-to-control theory used in the prosecution,” Dreeben said.

“We look forward to presenting our position to the court in full briefing and argument.”

The Supreme Court’s ultimate decision in the case could affect the pending appeals of other individuals convicted in the Buffalo Billion scandal.

Kaloyeros, Aiello, and Gerardi all have petitions pending before the Supreme Court.

MSNBC’s Glaude: ‘Grievance and Hatred’ Peddled by Tucker Carlson the ‘Source’ of Mass Shootings

MSNBC contributor and Princeton professor Eddie Glaude Jr. blamed the subject matter FNC host Tucker Carlson’s uses on his show for the Highland Park, IL shooting on July 4.

On his Monday night’s show discussing mass shooters, Carlson said, “And of course they’re angry. They know that their lives will not be better than their parents’. They’ll be worse, that’s all, but guaranteed. They know that. They’re not that stupid. The authorities in their lives, mostly women, never stop lecturing about their privilege, ‘you’re male, you are privileged.’ Try to imagine an unhealthier life than that. So a lot of young men in America are going nuts. Are you surprised?”

Anchor Nicolle Wallace said, “So, the problem with mass shootings is women. I see.”

Glaude said, “Think about what Tucker Carlson said. It’s absolutely stupid on a certain level.”

He continued, “What is he saying in a certain way? Well, a world in which white men reign supreme is collapsing, and they’re losing their minds so that they now want to murder people. That’s what he’s saying. The culture wars is the context for mass shooting. That’s what he’s saying. The grievance and hatred that he peddles is the source of these young 21-year-old and 22-year-olds going out killing babies and killing old people and killing folks on the Fourth of July. It makes no sense.”

He added, “Something fundamental that the fabric of the country has shredded, it’s breaking. We’re broken. How do we get at that in terms of the news in relation to entertainment and in relation to ideological? I don’t know. The genie is out of the bottle, and how we fix it will be a difficult task.”

Rep. Mayra Flores Rips New York Times for Article Labeling Her ‘Far Right Latina’

Rep. Mayra Flores (R-TX) slammed the New York Times after an article from the publication labeled her and fellow Texas Republican Congressional candidates Monica De La Cruz and Cassy Garcia “far right” Latinas.

Flores won the special election in the 34th Congressional District on June 14, flipping the Democrat seat in the densely Hispanic district by running on a platform of core conservative values, indicating a turning tide among Hispanic voters away from the Democrat party. The victory made her “the first Republican to represent the Rio Grande Valley in roughly 150 years,” Breitbart News previously reported.

In a Wednesday article titled “The Rise of the Far-Right Latina” New York Times politics reporter Jennifer Medina wrote of Flores in addition to De La Cruz and Garcia, who are nominees in the 15th and the 28th Congressional Districts, respectively. The subheading in the piece states that “Flores is one of three Republican Latinas vying to transform South Texas politics by shunning moderates and often embracing the extreme.”

“But what is most striking is that Ms. Flores won by shunning moderates, embracing the far right and wearing her support for Donald J. Trump on her sleeve — more Marjorie Taylor Greene than Kay Bailey Hutchison,” Medina writes later in the piece.

Flores, the first Mexican-born woman to hold a seat in the House of Representatives, fired back at the publication and the left-wing media in general. In a statement to Fox News Digital she said:

I was born in Burgos, Tamaulipas, Mexico, and raised with strong Conservative values to always put God and Family first. I have received only hate from the liberal media and constantly [been] told by the left to [sic] back to Mexico. They don’t support us immigrants, they only use us for political power and don’t care about our well-being. I am here now and I won’t allow them to continue taking advantage of my people. The NYT knows nothing about me or our culture. Somos gente de Dios, Familia y Travajo [We are people of God, Family and Work], Si Señor!

Garcia, who is squaring off against Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX) in the 28th Congressional District, retweeted a picture of the headline and stated that when the “Radical Left” targets her “for [her] faith and supporting school choice,” they are also “attacking millions of Hispanic families and [her] community.”

“I will never stop fighting for our values,” she added.

Both the 34th and 28th Districts neighbor the 15th District and sit on the U.S.-Mexico border in Southern Texas. All three districts have dense Hispanic populations and the National Republican Congressional Committee has dubbed the trio of Flores, De La Cruz, and Garcia “the Triple Threat.”

Flores’ nearly eight-point win over Democrat candidate Dan Sanchez on June 14 indicates Hispanic voters are moving toward conservative candidates. The exodus from the Democrat party is further evidenced by voting patterns in the past two presidential elections in Hildago County, which is part of the 15th Congressional District where De La Cruz is running, as Breitbart News noted:

Before the three South Texas women took the spotlight, Hidalgo provided one of the first warning signs for Democrats that they did not have the grip they had perhaps anticipated on Hispanic voters.

[Former President Donald] Trump lost Hidalgo by 41 points in 2016, but he lost by just 17 in 2020, indicating Republicans had started to make significant inroads there. Then, leaving no question that Democrats had reason for concern, McAllen residents elected a Republican mayor, Javier Villalobos, in 2021.

The shift has become apparent in other areas of the country as well, including southern Florida’s diverse 25th Congressional District, represented by Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-FL), where the vast majority of the population is Hispanic, per the U.S. Census. In the 2020 Presidential Election, Trump thumped President Joe Biden by 23 points in the district, a much more comfortable victory than in 2016 when he won the district by under two percentage points, showing a clear trend in voter patterns changing in favor of the GOP.

Flores’s term will soon expire, but she is running again as the Republican candidate for the 34th District in the general election after advancing from the primary on March 1. She and Rep. Vicente Gonzalez Jr. (D-TX), who currently represents the 15th Congressional District where De La Cruz is running against Democrat Michelle Valejo, will square off for the seat in November.

Lori Lightfoot Worried About ‘Toxicity in Our Public Discourse’ Despite Previously Yelling ‘F**k Clarence Thomas’

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot (D) expressed worry over the “toxicity in our public discourse” despite having publicly yelled “Fuck Clarence Thomas” the previous week.

While speaking at a press conference about public safety on Tuesday, alluding to the weekend violence toward police in Chicago and the Highland Park parade shooting north of the city, the Windy City mayor expressed concern that “people are losing respect for the institutions of our democracy.”

Lightfoot then said, “the toxicity in our public discourse is a thing that we should all be concerned about,” and stated how she would like to see the community come together and “focus on what brings us together and not what tears us apart.”

The mayor also asked citizens — not just public officials — to play a part in “healing the wounds that are plaguing us in our country.”

The Democrat mayor’s comments come after she was filmed at a pride event the previous week shouting obscenities at Justice Clarence Thomas in the wake of the Supreme Court decision to reverse Roe v. Wade.

“Now we know what happened with the Supreme Court yesterday, and if you read Clarence Thomas’ concurrence, he said,” Lightfoot began before pausing to respond to someone in the crowd and then yelled, “Thank you. Fuck Clarence Thomas!” She continued, “He thinks that we are going to stand idly by while they take our rights. Our right to marry, our right to have children.”

The mayor also appeared to show no regret for her comments after the pride event, stating on Twitter, “I said what I said.” She can also be seen seemingly pointing to a man wearing a shirt that reads, “Fuck Clarence Thomas.”

As Breitbart News previously reported, this was not the first time that Lightfoot used seemingly divisive language in public.

“After the Supreme Court leak of the draft Dobbs opinion in May, the Democrat mayor took to Twitter to call the ‘LGBTQ+ community’ to arms,” Breitbart News noted.

“To my friends in the LGBTQ+ community—the Supreme Court is coming for us next. This moment has to be a call to arms,” she stated in a tweet. “We will not surrender our rights without a fight—a fight to victory!”

North Carolina Governor Signs Order to Continue Enabling Abortion Access

Joins a number of other governors doing the same

Roy Cooper, the governor of North Carolina, signed an executive order on July 6 to continue enabling access to abortion in the state and shield people criminally charged with performing the procedure from being extradited to other states.

The Democrat noted that the executive order is “not intended to change and does not change North Carolina law, but rather ensures that North Carolinians are afforded the protections and rights provided under North Carolina law.”

His action comes after the U.S. Supreme Court on June 24 struck down Roe v. Wade in a case involving an abortion law in Mississippi. Roe v. Wade had largely enabled abortions up to 24 weeks of pregnancy across the United States for nearly 50 years. The overturning of Roe returns regulation of the procedure back to the states.

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, a Democrat, also signed an executive order similar to Cooper’s on July 6. Other Democratic governors, including for Maine and Rhode Island, on July 5 made similar moves to shield patients and providers of abortions from penalties. Over in Massachusetts, Gov. Charlie Baker signed a similar executive order on the day Roe v. Wade was overturned.

In North Carolina, abortions are legal until fetal viability, which typically falls between 24 and 28 weeks of pregnancy. An abortion can be still performed after that in the case of a medical emergency, to protect the life or health of the mother. Abortions done for the purpose of sex selection are prohibited.

People who opt to have an abortion must receive information designed to dissuade them from moving forward with the procedure and wait 72 hours before the abortion is provided. They also must undergo an ultrasound before the abortion.

Cooper’s executive order (pdf) states that people who provide or receive “reproductive health care services that are legal” in North Carolina will not be imposed civil or criminal penalties by the Cabinet agencies or people under the governor’s office.

“Reproductive health care services” is defined in the document as including abortions.

ECONOMY & BUSINESS 

ATTOM Webinar Summary: Mid-Year Housing Market Outlook

This webinar, featuring presentations by Rick Sharga, EVP of Market Intelligence for ATTOM and Mike Simonsen, Founder and CEO of Altos Research, offers an in-depth analysis into current housing market conditions, an overview of the state of the economy, and a dive into the latest data on sales prices, inventory, home affordability, the distressed market and more.

During this webinar, Rick presents the U.S. economic update, examining key metrics, including a detailed look at how GDP is trending, employment recovery, labor shortage, wage growth, inflation rate, consumer spending, consumer confidence and recession forecasts.

Also during this webinar, Mike Simonsen provides a look at U.S. housing market data trends, exploring various comparisons, from existing and new home sales, to mortgage rate trends, home affordability, home prices, investor activity and inventory trends.

A few of the key points Mike presents based on the data include:

  • May 2022 shows the 10th straight month of lower existing home sales.
  • New home sales are falling quickly.
  • Increasing interest rates and prices are impacting affordability.
  • Inventory is growing rapidly, while demand may be weakening.

Rick continues the conversation by jumping into foreclosure activity, examining forbearance trends by investor type, borrower exit rationale, mortgage delinquency rates, foreclosure starts and foreclosure completions over time.

A few of the key points Rick presents based on the data include:

  • GDP is showing signs of weakening, as employment has almost fully recovered.
  • Labor shortage pushes wage growth higher, and inflation is at the highest rate in over 40 years.
  • Over 400,000 loans remain in forbearance; however, delinquencies are back to normal levels.
  • Foreclosure activity is still well below normal, and foreclosure starts are even less.

This webinar also provides an overview of ATTOM’s core value proposition and breadth of data solutions. ATTOM is the one-stop shop for premium property data fueling innovation, ATTOM provides analytics-ready data for real-world applications. ATTOM blends property tax, deed, mortgage, foreclosure, environmental risk, natural hazard and neighborhood data for more than 155 million U.S. residential and commercial properties, multi-sourced from more than 3,000 U.S. counties. ATTOM’s property data fuels growth across many industries to help drive decisions while delivering data in a variety of flexible customer solutions, including bulk data licensing, property data APIs and introducing ATTOM Cloud.

ATTOM’s robust property data is leveraged by customers to innovate in a variety of industries, including Real Estate, Insurance, Mortgage, Marketing, Government and Academia. By utilizing ATTOM’s robust property data, ATTOM clients not only create innovation but gain that competitive advantage within their industries. End-users of the data include developers, data scientists, risk managers, investors, policymakers and analysts. Discover ATTOM’s Table of Data Elements.

Altos Research is the premier resource for real-time real estate data, providing weekly market statistics, analysis and reporting for 99% of the zip codes in the U.S., and helping real estate professionals, investors, financial institutions, and their clients make better-informed decisions. Traditional real estate analysis uses highly latent, regional data that can lag several months behind what’s currently happening in the market. Altos uses proprietary technology to analyze how the market is doing right now, neighborhood by neighborhood, so clients can start each week with real-time, actionable intelligence.

Nolte: Joe Biden Ships U.S. Oil Reserves to Foreign Countries

Because he hates Americans, President Joe Biden is shipping much-needed American oil to foreign countries, including… China.

The whole idea of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), which is owned by the U.S. government, specifically the U.S. Department of Energy, is to hold on to about 700 million barrels of oil in the event of an emergency or disruption.

But now, because His Fraudulency Joe Biden has closed pipelines, killed oil and gas leases, refused to allow refining to expand, and has gone to war with affordable energy; the SPR is releasing about a million gallons a day into the U.S. economy.

Instead of doing something permanent and useful; instead of solving the crisis he created (that put a gallon of gas over five dollars), he’s looking to steady gas prices his collapsing poll numbers by squandering our reserves.

That’s bad enough, so bad the SPR is now at its lowest level since 1986.

Well, when it comes to punishing the American people he so obviously loathes, that’s bad enough is never enough for Biden. Nope. He always finds a way to take his contempt for America and Americans a step further—which he has. Get this:

More than 5 million barrels of oil that were part of a historic U.S. emergency reserves release to lower domestic fuel prices were exported to Europe and Asia last month, according to data and sources, even as U.S. gasoline and diesel prices hit record highs.

[…]

The fourth-largest U.S. oil refiner, Phillips 66, shipped about 470,000 barrels of sour crude from the Big Hill SPR storage site in Texas to Trieste, Italy, according to U.S. Customs data. Trieste is home to a pipeline that sends oil to refineries in central Europe.

Atlantic Trading & Marketing (ATMI), an arm of French oil major TotalEnergies, exported 2 cargoes of 560,000 barrels each, the data showed.

Oh, and, “Cargoes of SPR crude were also headed to the Netherlands and to a Reliance refinery in India, an industry source said. A third cargo headed to China, another source said.”

China.

China!

We’re sending our oil to the country that sent us the coronavirus!

Why?

Why would Biden do something like this?

Why would Biden okay this when 1) this oil is about protecting America’s national security, and 2) this oil can help bring down American gas prices?

The asking of the question gives you the answer. The answer is right there in the words “America” and “Americans.”

Joe Biden and the Democrats hate America and Americans. They see us as the problem. You see, we drive cars and live in big houses. So do they, but they see themselves as the elite, as overseers, and our overseers don’t want the rest of us to be comfortable or independent. They want us needy and dependent because that’s where they derive their fascist power from.

Joe Biden and the Democrats will always put foreign countries and foreigners above Americans, especially the millions of illegal aliens they hope to replace us with.

They hate us. They hate everything about us. We’re too self-sufficient, we just want to be left alone, we’re about to vote a buttload of them out of office, and when it comes to their sick, perverted, we-want-to-have-sex-with-your-children trans agenda, we are not buying it.

So, Joe Biden and Democrats are punishing us for the sin of wanting to be left alone and wanting our children to be left alone. They are deliberately increasing gas prices to hurt us, and one way to increase gas prices is to ship our oil to foreign countries. Another way is to flood the country with millions of illegals who consume oil (and housing), creating more scarcity and higher prices.

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY 
Low-Dose Niacinamide Has Striking Antiobesity Effects

Niacinamide is a precursor to nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+), a vital signaling molecule that’s believed to play an important role in longevity

Niacinamide, also known as nicotinamide (NAM), supplementation increased cellular NAD+ level by 30%

Niacinamide decreased fat accumulation in mice with diet-induced obesity by 47% while increasing lean mass by 1.4-fold

It is likely because of financial interests that the best NAD+ precursor — niacinamide — is not recommended more frequently; it costs less than a penny a day

Ideal dosing of niacinamide is from 25 to 50 mg three times a day

Time-restricted eating, physical exercise and sauna bathing are examples of methods that can increase your NAD+ levels naturally


HEALTH

Is a Colonoscopy Worth the Risk?

Based on the evidence, an international team of experts is recommending routine colonoscopies only if you have a 3% potential of developing a growth in the next 15 years. If it is less, then the pitfalls associated with the procedure are not worth the risks

One study found a 17% risk of a missed cancer diagnosis with a colonoscopy. Other risks include perforation of the colon, which is raised when you have anesthesia with the procedure, gut microbial imbalance from preparation for the procedure, equipment contamination from improper sterilization between patients and death from complications

David Lewis, Ph.D., states that up to 80% of hospitals sterilize their endoscopes with glutaraldehyde (Cidex), which exacerbates the issue by preserving human tissue in the endoscope picked up during the procedure. The best method of sterilizing the equipment to date is peracetic acid, which will dissolve protein tissue and clear the endoscope

You may significantly reduce your risk of colorectal cancer by making lifestyle changes, including reducing or eliminating alcohol and smoking, maintaining a normal weight, eating a high fiber diet and exercising consistently

COVID RELATED NEWS

Pfizer Asks Court to Dismiss Whistleblower Lawsuit Because Government Was Aware of Fraud

The lawyer representing whistleblower Brook Jackson said Pfizer is arguing the court should dismiss Jackson’s lawsuit alleging fraud in Pfizer’s COVID-19 clinical trials because the U.S. government knew about the wrongdoings but continued to do business with the vaccine maker.

A lawsuit filed by whistleblower Brook Jackson alleging Pfizer and two of its contractors manipulated data and committed other acts of fraud during Pfizer’s COVID-19 clinical trials is paused following a motion by the defendants to dismiss the case.

In an interview with The Defender, Jackson’s lawyer said Pfizer argued the lawsuit, which was filed under the False Claims Act, should be dismissed because the U.S. government knew of the wrongdoings in the clinical trials but continued to do business with the vaccine maker.

Under the False Claims Act, whistleblowers can be rewarded for confidentially disclosing fraud that results in a financial loss to the federal government.

However, a 2016 U.S. Supreme Court decision that expanded the scope of a legal principle known as “materiality” resulted in a series of federal court decisions in which fraud cases brought under the False Claims Act were dismissed.

As interpreted by the Supreme Court, if the government continued paying a contractor despite the contractor’s fraudulent activity, the fraud was not considered “material” to the contract.

Pfizer is a federal contractor because it signed multiple contracts with the U.S. government to provide COVID-19 vaccines and Paxlovid, a pill used to treat the virus.

“Pfizer claims they can get away with fraud as long as the government would write them a check despite knowing about the fraud,” attorney Robert Barnes said.

The other two defendants in the case are Ventavia Research Group, which conducted vaccine trials on behalf of Pfizer, and ICON PLC, also a Pfizer contractor.

In an attempt to strengthen the False Claims Act’s anti-retaliation provisions and install new safeguards against industry-level blacklisting of whistleblowers seeking employment, Congress in July 2021 introduced the False Claims Amendments Act of 2021.

In December 2021, Pfizer hired a well-connected lobbyist, Hazen Marshall, and the law firm Williams & Jensen to lobby against the bill.

Pfizer previously was heavily fined in connection with the False Claims Act. As part of a 2009 settlement, the company paid $2.3 billion in fines — the largest healthcare fraud settlement in the history of the U.S. Department of Justice — stemming from allegations of illegal marketing of off-label products not approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

“Pfizer, one of the most criminally fined drug companies in the world, wants to weaken the laws that hold them accountable,” Barnes told The Defender.

Congress has taken no action on the False Claims Amendments Act since November 2021, when the bill was added to the Senate’s legislative calendar.

Barnes said the outcome of Jackson’s case against Pfizer is significant not just for his client, but also for the American public.

“This case will determine if Big Pharma can rip off the American people using a dangerous drug that harms millions without any legal remedy because they claim the government was in on the scam.”

Jackson was a regional director for Ventavia for a brief period in 2020 but was fired after she notified the FDA about issues with Pfizer’s vaccine trials.

After she was fired, she gave The BMJ a cache of internal company documents, photos and recordings highlighting the alleged wrongdoing by Ventavia.

The documents she provided contained evidence of falsified data, blind trial failures and awareness on the part of at least one Ventavia executive that members of the company’s staff were “falsifying data.”

Jackson’s documents also provided evidence of administrators who had “no training” or medical certifications, or who provided “very little oversight” during the trials.

Jackson filed her complaint in August 2021, in the U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Texas, Beaumont Division, alleging Pfizer, Ventavia and ICON “deliberately withheld crucial information from the United States that calls the safety and efficacy of their vaccine into question.”

A district court judge in February unsealed Jackson’s complaint, which included 400 pages of exhibits.

According to the complaint, Jackson, who had more than 15 years of experience working with clinical trials, “repeatedly informed her superiors of poor laboratory management, patient safety concerns and data integrity issues” during the approximately two weeks she was employed by Ventavia.

“Brook [Jackson] brought a Qui Tam action and a retaliatory discharge case against Pfizer and others for fraud on the people concerning Pfizer’s false certifications to the U.S. Department of Defense about the safety and efficacy of their COVID-19 vaccine,” Barnes said.

A Qui Tam case refers to a provision under the False Claims Act that allows individuals and entities with evidence of fraud against federal programs or contracts to sue the wrongdoer on behalf of the U.S. government

“She was part of the clinical trials, witnessed extraordinary malfeasance, blew the whistle, and was quickly fired after she blew the whistle.”

Barnes said his legal team will in August file its opposition brief to Pfizer’s motion to dismiss, and the judge may rule on the motion to dismiss by fall 2022.

More Evidence Vitamin D Is Effective in Preventing COVID-19

Recent research assessing the effectiveness of vitamin D supplementation for the prevention of COVID-19 in frontline health care workers found only 6.4% of those taking vitamin D tested positive for COVID, compared to 24.5% of controls

The treatment group received 4,000 international units (IUs) of vitamin D per day for 30 days. The use of fixed dosing is a shortcoming of this study, as the most accurate way to assess vitamin D’s benefits is by comparing the effects of different serum vitamin D levels

Data from GrassrootsHealth’s D*Action studies suggest the optimal level for disease prevention and good health is a vitamin D level between 60 ng/mL and 80 ng/mL. The cutoff for sufficiency appears to be around 40 ng/mL

Sun exposure is exponentially superior to oral supplementation, as it not only triggers vitamin D production but also melatonin production inside your mitochondria

Melatonin has been shown to be an important part of COVID treatment, reducing incidence of thrombosis and sepsis and lowering mortality. Evidence suggests sun exposure may help combat any number of respiratory infections, including COVID, and the production of melatonin in your mitochondria — not merely vitamin D production — appears to be a key part of how and why that works

Disney Employees Suing Company Over Vaccine Exemption Refusals

The Walt Disney Company punished and then fired three longtime employees because they refused the COVID-19 vaccine on religious grounds, according to a new lawsuit against the company.

On July 30, 2021, Disney announced that its employees would have to take one of the several COVID-19 vaccines to continue working with the company.

When Florida’s government forbade “vaccinate or terminate” policies, the company began a relentless push to vaccinate all employees, including those who had requested religious exemptions, the lawsuit states.

According to the plaintiffs, Disney burdened religious vaccine objectors with restrictions that went beyond its original pandemic policy.

“The mask, face shield, and distancing from cast and guest were clearly punitive measures designed to destroy my health, segregate me, harass, discriminate, and intimidate me into taking an experimental vaccine,” said Adam Pajer, one of the suing employees.

Doctor Issues Warning About Giving COVID-19 Vaccines to Babies

‘The first thing you look at is risk-to-benefit ratio, and the risk of the vaccine far outweighs the benefit.

On June 18, Rochelle Walensky, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), “endorsed the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices’ (ACIP) recommendation that all children 6 months through 5 years of age should receive a COVID-19 vaccine.”

However, another doctor is issuing a warning about the risks of vaccinating babies.

According to Dr. Syed Haider—an internal medicine specialist and founder of mygotodoc.com—”the risk of the vaccine far outweighs the benefit.”

As The Epoch Times reported May 26, Haider has focused on the prevention and treatment of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus through his online initiative by providing easy online access to off-label prescriptions such as ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine, budesonide, and protocols for COVID, long-COVID, and vaccine injuries.

Haider began this journey in December 2020, after realizing that the United States had offshored almost all prescription drug manufacturing to unfriendly nations like China.

According to Haider, dissenting voices in the debate over how to manage and treat the CCP virus have been muzzled and censored from the very onset of the pandemic and they are now being threatened with the loss of their medical licenses. Because of this, Haider has had to retain an attorney.

Despite the threats, Haider said he refuses to remain silent when the government issues a recommendation that children as young as 6 months old be vaccinated for a disease that poses little, if any, threat to their lives.

CANCEL CULTURE

Twitter Reinstates Journalist Alex Berenson, Who Immediately Posts About COVID-19 Vaccines

Former New York Times journalist Alex Berenson has been allowed to return to Twitter, which banned him in 2021 for allegedly spreading COVID-19 misinformation.

Berenson and Twitter released similar statements on July 6.

“The parties have come to a mutually acceptable resolution. I have been reinstated. Twitter has acknowledged that my tweets should have not led to my suspension at that time,” Berenson said in a blog post on July 6, which he linked to in his first post on the platform since he was permanently suspended,” Berenson said in a blog post.

“The parties have come to a mutually acceptable resolution. Twitter has reinstated Mr. Berenson’s account. Upon further review, Twitter acknowledges Mr. Berenson’s Tweets should not have led to his account’s suspension at that time,” a Twitter spokesperson told The Epoch Times in an email.

Vaccines

Minutes after Berenson posted for the first time following his reinstatement, he re-posted the words that triggered the ban.

“It doesn’t stop infection. Or transmission. Don’t think of it as a vaccine. Think of it—at best—as a therapeutic with a limited window of efficacy and terrible side effect profile that must be dosed IN ADVANCE OF ILLNESS. And we want to mandate it? Insanity,” he wrote.

Berenson was referring to the COVID-19 vaccines, which have proven increasingly unable to prevent infection from the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus. Also known as the SARS-CoV-2, the virus causes COVID-19.

Though the vaccines have been authorized and approved for prevention of the virus, they’re actually recommended primarily for helping prevent severe disease among those who contract the illness.

Twitter had initially claimed that Berenson’s post was “misleading,” even though the company acknowledged that “studies indicate a reduction in vaccine effectiveness against the Omicron variant” of the virus.

Studies show that the Moderna, Pfizer, and Johnson & Johnson shots—the only three available in the United States—provide little protection against Omicron, and that the protection quickly wanes.

Some studies indicate that the vaccinated are more likely to contract the virus after certain periods of time elapse following vaccination.

U.S. health authorities still recommend vaccination for virtually all Americans.

Journalist Alex Berenson Reaches Settlement With Twitter

Independent journalist Alex Berenson and Twitter have agreed to a settlement over a lawsuit that alleged the big tech company violated Berenson’s constitutional rights when it banned him.

The parties “have reached a settlement in principle,” according to a joint stipulation filed in federal court in California on June 29.

However, additional time is needed to finalize details of the settlement, the parties said.

Lawyers for Berenson and Twitter, in the filing, asked U.S. District Judge William Alsup, a Clinton appointee, to extend deadlines to produce certain documents, known as discovery, in light of the agreement.

Alsup extended the deadlines by 14 days, less than the 28 days requested, and said that he would not allow any further extensions.

“Counsel are fully able to negotiate and litigate at the same time,” he wrote in an order.

The extensions mean Berenson had until June 30 to produce certain documents and Twitter has until mid-July to produce certain materials.

Additionally, Twitter can take a deposition of Berenson by the end of July and Berenson can take depositions of two current or former Twitter employees by mid-August.

Twitter Suspends Zelenko’s Foundation Account One Day After Doctor’s Death

Dr. Vladimir Zelenko, a Nobel prize-nominated physician who famously discovered and distributed an early treatment protocol for COVID, dubbed the “Zelenko Protocol,” passed away from cancer on June 30, 2022.

The next day, some Twitter users started taking note of the suspension of the account of the Zelenko Freedom Foundation, a group dedicated “to provide funding to social entities and social activities surrounding education, leadership development, health literacy, advocacy, public policy, social, health and community development,” according to their website.

​​Dave Rubin Suspended by Twitter for Defending Jordan Peterson’s Free Speech: ‘Absurd and Idiotic’

Twitter faced heavy backlash for suspending the account of conservative commentator Dave Rubin for defending Canadian psychologist and bestselling author Dr. Jordan Peterson, who was suspended from Twitter over a tweet criticizing “pride” while using Hollywood star Ellen Page’s original name, and calling the surgeon who operated on Page a “criminal.”

In response to Twitter’s removal of Peterson over his tweet last week, Rubin Report host and free speech advocate Dave Rubin — who boasts over 1.3 million followers on the platform — criticized the “insanity” that “continues at Twitter.” 

Despite the ban on Peterson, the popular psychologist maintained he was unwilling to capitulate to “woke authoritarian moralists” and would “rather die” than delete his tweet.

However, later, Rubin’s tweet, too, was removed and his account suspended.

In a statement posted to Instagram on Tuesday, Rubin wrote, “I have been suspended by Twitter for posting a screenshot of Jordan Peterson’s tweet which got he himself suspended.”

“While it is unclear how I broke their terms of service,” he continued, “it is clear they are breaking their fiduciary responsibility to their shareholders by letting a bunch of Woke activists run the company.”

In addition, Rubin expressed his hope that billionaire Elon Musk’s Twitter purchase succeeds “so he can blow up their servers and humanity can move past this pervasive, twisted, self-imposed mental institution.”

“In the meantime, you can find me at rubinreport.locals.com, the platform I created to fight big tech censorship…something we need now more than ever.”

In response to Rubin’s suspension, many took to Twitter to blast the social media giant.

“@RubinReport was suspended on twitter for defending @jordanbpeterson right to free speech? Blatant cherry-picking, considering the cesspool of commentary I see on twitter every day,” wrote Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX).

“I am defending the free speech of both Dave Rubin and Jordan Peterson,” he added. “Gonna ban me too now?”

Twitter Censors ‘Ellen Page’ Trend After Leftist Media Complaints

Far-left social media platform Twitter shut down a trending topic over the weekend after BuzzFeed journalists reached out to the tech company.

The trend was “Ellen Page,” the birth name of the transgender actress who now calls herself “Elliot Page” and demands the rest of society do so as well.

Page’s original name trended after the academic and bestselling author Jordan Peterson was locked out of his account for refusing to acknowledge the Juno actress’s new name. Peterson has vowed not to delete his tweet, and will remain locked out of his account until either he or Twitter relents.

After “Ellen Page” trended on the platform, far-left news and entertainment website BuzzFeed reached out to Twitter to ask why they had not censored it. In response, Twitter immediately censored the trending topic.

Via BuzzFeed:

After BuzzFeed News contacted a Twitter spokesperson, Page’s deadname no longer appeared to be trending. Twitter spokesperson Trenton Kennedy confirmed the site had removed it as a trending topic.

In a statement to BuzzFeed News, Kennedy reiterated the site’s policies and said allowing Page’s deadname to trend was a mistake.

“The term you referenced should not have been allowed to appear in Trends, and it has since been removed and prohibited from appearing in Trends,” Kennedy said. “Our teams are constantly evaluating our internal processes for mitigating this from happening.”

“Elliot Page” later appeared as a trending topic, with the tweets largely supporting the actor and defending them from anti-trans harassment.

Despite Twitter removing the trend, and “Elliot Page” later appeared as a trending topic with tweets supporting the actress and her life choices, BuzzFeed framed the story in terms of the platform failing to prevent it from trending in the first place. BuzzFeed’s headline is “Twitter Allowed Elliot Page’s Deadname To Trend In Spite Of Its Hateful Conduct Policy.”

‘Popeye’ Comic Strip Getting Woke Makeover with ‘More Characters Who Aren’t Heterosexual’

After nearly a hundred years in existence, the Popeye comic strip is reportedly getting a woke makeover, with the strip’s latest cartoonist promising more ethnic diversity and “more characters who aren’t heterosexual.”

Cartoonist Randal K. Milholland described the Popeye character as being “gender fluid,” citing old episodes in which the plot required Popeye to dress in drag.

“I [want] to bring in more characters who aren’t heterosexual,” Milholland said in an interview with the San Antonio Express-News. “I don’t live in that purely straight white world, and I don’t think a lot of other people do either.”

In one of the strip’s biggest changes, Olive Oyl’s sister-in-law Cylinda Oyl is now Afro-Latina. Cylinda has traditionally been portrayed as a white woman with dark, bobbed hair.

Milholland took issue with the way Popeye has recently used men dressing as woman for comic relief.

“But that wasn’t always the case,” he told the newspaper. “If you go by today’s definition, Popeye was gender fluid.”

During the strip’s early days, Popeye once met an orphaned girl who didn’t have a mother.

“So Popeye dresses up as a woman and says, ‘I’m your mom now,’” Milholland said. “And it’s not a joke; it’s Popeye being the kind character he originally was. Someone who’d do whatever he could for someone down on their luck, like an orphan.”

The Popeye character was first seen in  1929 in the Thimble Theatre comic strip. The comic is still owned by King Features Syndicate, a division of Hearst Communications.

GOOD NEWS

Teen Prodigy Started His Own Business at Age 7, Penned His Autobiography While Homeschooling Himself

‘Accepting the idea that he was incapable because he was a kid was never an option to him.’

A late Utah teen entrepreneur and environmentalist, who homeschooled himself, penned an autobiography at the tender age of 14 to tell the story of his short but extraordinary journey, and many have since called him a prodigy.

At the age of 6, Kevin Cooper—who chose the pseudonym Cole Summers—was fixing vehicles on his parents’ farm in Beryl, Utah. Both of them are homebound as Cole’s mother is partially sighted, and his father is a U.S. veteran who uses a wheelchair.

Cole started his own business breeding and selling rabbits a year later. By the age of 11, he had already registered a truck in his own name, renovated and sold a house, was paying his own taxes, bought a farmstead eventually spanning 350 acres on which to raise goats and turkeys, and a tractor.

“Early on he was driven by wanting to achieve big things, and prove to himself he was capable,” Cole’s mom, Tina Cooper, told The Epoch Times. “Accepting the idea that he was incapable because he was a kid was never an option to him.”

Before long, Cole was homeschooling himself. He explained in his own words, in an essay for journalist Bari Weiss’s Common Sense, that he had been part of a “side movement” within homeschooling, known as unschooling, since he was 6 years old.

“Unschooling is simple,” he wrote; “the kid chooses what to learn, when to learn it, and at what pace. For some kids like me, it provides a level of freedom that many adults don’t even enjoy. When I took control of my education, my parents only had one rule: I had to do at least some of my learning by reading. Everything else was up to me.”

During his middle school years, Cole studied environmental science, learning about his Utah region’s geologic and geographic features and how the oceans and mountains impact its rainfall, and the future environmental plans that the local government had made to deal with aquifer depletion.

“My lesson about aquifer depletion started the hard way,” he recounted. “My family’s water well went dry, forcing us to haul water from a neighbor’s house for nine months while we struggled to afford a new well.”

An admirer of Warren Buffett, Cole then planned to use his keen business sense to combat water scarcity during his high school years.

Cole had gone so far as to read the official plan to deal with aquifer depletion in his area. He found that, by the time he would get old and raise his own family, average families in the area wouldn’t be able to afford access to water. He realized that the plan had left a legal opening for a more creative and less destructive option, and he then decided to make the less destructive option a reality.

He strongly believed that his peers, despite being told they were “just kids” by some parents and educators, were equally capable of enacting change.

Sadly, Cole never had the chance to realize his goal. Tragically, on June 11, 2022, the 14-year-old boy lost his life while kayaking in Utah’s Newcastle Reservoir with his older brother, who has autism.

Cole was already a sensation before he died. He was active and outspoken on Twitter, wrote prolifically about his education, and penned an autobiography, “Don’t Tell Me I Can’t: An Ambitious Homeschooler’s Journey.” It was released a month before he died.

ICYMI

Bette Midler Slams Transphobic Accusations: ‘I’m Trying to Save Democracy for ALL PEOPLE’

Actress Bette Midler, star of Disney’s upcoming movie Hocus Pocus 2, responded to attacks from the woke mob, insisting that she had “no intention of anything exclusionary” after she was accused of being transphobic for slamming terms like “birthing people” and “menstruators.”

In her tweet that sparked outrage from the woke mob, Midler proclaimed that women are being erased, as they are now being referred to as “birthing people,” “menstruators,” and even “people with vaginas.”

“WOMEN OF THE WORLD! We are being stripped of our rights over our bodies, our lives and even of our name!” Midler wrote. “They don’t call us ‘women’ anymore; they call us ‘birthing people’ or ‘menstruators’, and even ‘people with vaginas’! Don’t let them erase you! Every human on earth owes you!”

The actress’ tweet was quickly met with backlash by social media users who accused her of not being inclusive of people who think they are the opposite sex.

“Bette, this is disappointing to see from you,” one Twitter user wrote. “These are terms we use to include trans men and non-binary people who can get pregnant. It is absurd and dangerous to be lumping attempts at trans inclusivity in with right wing attempts to control our bodies as threats.”

“NO ONE IS SAYING YOU’RE NOT A WOMAN OR THAT YOU CAN’T CALL YOURSELF THAT,” one outraged Twitter user declared, with clapping hands emojis between every word. “YOU ARE BEING ASKED TO ACKNOWLEDGE THAT NOT EVERYONE WITH A VAGINA CALLS THEMSELVES A WOMAN.”

“As a woman without a uterus, I support inclusive language to normalize that trans men need reproductive healthcare too, 100%,” another responded. “It’s not trans people who are taking away my right to bodily [autonomy]. We’re all fighting the same fight.”

“Please don’t do this,” another begged. “Sex and gender have never, ever been binary and enforcing an arbitrary binary harms everyone – especially intersex, trans and nonbinary folk. Patriarchy benefits from a rigid binary, not women.”

Midler responded by explaining that her initial tweet was in reference to a New York Times op-ed, which had been published in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court overruling Roe v. Wade. In the piece, columnist Pamela Paul blasted the use of terms such as “birthing people” and “menstruators.”

“Planned Parenthood, once a stalwart defender of women’s rights, omits the word ‘women’ from its home page,” Paul wrote. “NARAL Pro-Choice America has used ‘birthing people’ in lieu of ‘women.”

Elsewhere in the piece, Paul also noted that “even the word ‘women’ has become verboten.”

“Previously a commonly understood term for half the world’s population, the word had a specific meaning tied to genetics, biology, history, politics and culture. No longer,” she added. “In its place are unwieldy terms like ‘pregnant people,’ ‘menstruators’ and ‘bodies with vaginas.’”

But in today’s irascible society, women who talk that way face the wrath of the woke mob and transgender activists.

One Twitter user reacted by claiming that Midler had become “radicalized” by the New York Times op-ed.

Netflix’s ‘Cheer’ Star, Biden Campaign Surrogate, Jerry Harris Sentenced to 12 Years for Child Pornography

Netflix’s Cheer star and former Joe Biden presidential campaign surrogate Jerry Harris was sentenced to 12 years in federal prison in his child pornography case.

Harris will also be required to register as a sex offender for life, and pay a $55,000 fine, according to a report by WIVB 4, which added that the former Netflix star is facing eight years of supervised release after his prison term.

Harris held an Instagram chat with Joe Biden mere weeks before he became the center of an FBI investigation into sex solicitation.

In 2020, Harris was arrested on production of child pornography charges after he was accused of soliciting sex from minors, and pressuring 14-year-old boys to send him phonographic photos and videos.

An affidavit further stated that one of underage teens reported having “one in-person encounter” with Harris, and that the Netflix star “solicited oral sex” the minor, “in a bathroom at a cheerleading event.”

In February, the former Cheer star pled guilty in a deal to one count of receipt of child pornography and another of traveling with intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct.

At the time, prosecutors said that if the case had gone to trial, their evidence would show that in the summer of 2020, Harris communicated with a minor — whom he knew was under the age of 18 — via Snapchat, where he repeatedly asked for photos of a sexual nature.

As for the second charge, Harris had traveled from Dallas, Texas, to Orlando, Florida, in May 2019 intending to engage in sexual conduct with a 15-year-old, whom he asked to meet in a public bathroom.

Earlier this year, Harris’ defense team told Nexstar’s WGN that the criminal conduct “took place in the context of a competitive Cheer Community where inappropriately sexualizing and sexually abusing children was far too common and too often overlooked.”

“Jerry was himself exploited, manipulated, and sexually abused as a child within the Cheer Community in a way that perversely made him believe that this sexual conduct was somehow normal when it was not,” the defense team added.

Disney Animated Series ‘Baymax!’, for Ages 5 and Up, Features Men Dating

A recent episode of the Disney+ PG-rated animated children’s cartoon Baymax! features a man asking another man out on a date. Previously, the show included a transgender “man” who menstruates and gives advice on which maxi pad to buy.

In the recent episode featuring two men dating, a character named Mbita has a crush on a man named Yukio, who he works up the courage to ask out on a date.

“I think it would be fun if me and you went to a place or perhaps a thing together,” Mbita says nervously, to which Yukio responds, asking, “Are you asking me on a date?”

“Yes,” Mbita replies, to which Yukio says, “Great, sounds fun.”

Baymax!, which began streaming last month on Disney+, follows the adventures of the balloon-like robot from the 2014 movie Big Hero 6, who is on a mission to serve as Good Samaritan to the residents of the fictional city San Fransokyo.

This balloon-like robot is also in the scene in which the two men have a crush on each other, and informs Mbita that his “pulse and heartbeat have quickened,” adding, “Your pituitary gland is secreting hormones into your bloodstream,” which embarrasses the character asking the man out on a date.

In another episode previously reported on by Breitbart News, a transgender “man” who menstruates is seen giving advice on which maxi pad to buy — “the one with wings.”

The series is rated TV-PG, which suggests that some parental guidance is needed. The popular parental advisory site Common Sense Media rates the show for ages 5 years and up.

Disney CEO Bob Chapek has dedicated the company to radical LGBTQ activism in the wake of anti-grooming legislation being implemented in Florida, and has promised to launch as task force to make more LGBTQIA2S+ content for children and families.

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