WORLD NEWS
Israel strikes the Gazan city of Rafah after an evacuation order of displaced residents!
Israel’s military carried out airstrikes in Rafah on Monday, residents said, hours after Israel told Palestinians to evacuate parts of the southern Gaza city where more than a million people uprooted by the war have been sheltering.
Fears are growing of a full-blown assault in Rafah, long threatened by Israel, against holdouts of the Palestinian militant group Hamas as ceasefire talks in Cairo stall.
There was no immediate comment from Israel, which Hamas-affiliated Al-Aqsa TV said had targeted areas in eastern Rafah near neighborhoods given evacuation orders.
Instructed by Arabic text messages, phone calls, and flyers to move to what the Israeli military called an “expanded humanitarian zone” 20 km (7 miles) away, some Palestinian families began trundling away under chilly spring rain.
Aid agencies have warned that the evacuation order will lead to an even worse humanitarian disaster in the crowded coastal enclave of 2.3 million people reeling from seven months of war.
“Forcing over a million displaced Palestinians from Rafah to evacuate without a safe destination is not only unlawful but would lead to catastrophic consequences,” British charity ActionAid said.
Israel’s military said it had urged residents of Rafah to evacuate in a “limited scope” operation. It gave no specific reasons nor did it say if offensive action might follow.
Nick Maynard, a British surgeon trying to leave Gaza on Monday, said in a voice message from the Gaza side of the Rafah crossing into Egypt: “Two huge bombs have just gone off immediately outside the crossing. There’s a lot of gunfire as well about 100 meters from us. We are very unclear whether we will get out.”
Israel’s cabinet orders local Al Jazeera offices closed; seizes equipment!
Israel ordered the local offices of Qatar’s Al Jazeera satellite news network to close Sunday, escalating a long-running feud between the broadcaster and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s hard-line government as Doha-mediated cease-fire negotiations with Hamas hang in the balance.
The extraordinary order, which includes confiscating broadcast equipment, preventing the broadcast of the channel’s reports and blocking its websites, is believed to be the first time Israel has ever shuttered a foreign news outlet operating in the country.
Al Jazeera went off Israel’s main cable and satellite providers in the hours after the order. However, its website and multiple online streaming links still operated Sunday.
The network has reported the Israeli-Hamas war nonstop since the militants’ initial cross-border attack Oct. 7 and has maintained 24-hour coverage in the Gaza Strip amid Israel’s grinding ground offensive that has killed and wounded members of its staff. While including on-the-ground reporting of the war’s casualties, its Arabic arm often publishes verbatim video statements from Hamas and other regional militant groups.
Russia announces its army will conduct drills involving tactical nukes; blames the West!
The Russian Military district responsible for occupying eastern Ukraine is to respond to “inflammatory statements… by some Western officials” by drilling with tactical nuclear weapons, Moscow has said.
Russia claims Western provocations while launching a nuclear provocation of its own, saying it will drill its nuclear missile troops, air force, and ships to “practice employing non-strategic nuclear-weapons”. Also known as tactical weapons, the lower-yield atomic bombs are intended for battlefield use to destroy opposing armies and fortifications, rather than whole cities or industries, as with long-range strategic missiles.
A statement by the Russian ministry of defence expressed the intentions of the exercise, while blaming Western states for it happening at all. Russian state media quoted the Kremlin as having said:
The exercise aims to maintain the preparedness of troops and equipment for the combat employment of non-strategic nuclear weapons to react and unconditionally ensure the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the Russian state in response to provocative statements and threats by some Western officials against the Russian Federation…
Kremlin media paraphrased this as the exercise being intended to be a retaliation against what it called “inflammatory statements and threats by some Western officials”
Russia’s nuclear forces exercising isn’t exactly unheard of, the Associated Press notes, but this is the first time such a thing has been announced in advance, making clear the apparent intent to intimidate.
Long-time Putin ally and Kremlin attack dog Dmitry Peskov made clear in a statement today exactly what Western statements he blamed for this nuclear provocation, blaming “…members of US Congress, French and British administration, and some madmen from the Baltic States and Poland”.
Fact Check: Canada isn’t mandating psychiatric treatment for the unvaccinated!
The Associated Press is attempting to debunk the claim that Canada is mandating psychiatric medication for those who refuse COVID-19 vaccines.
The AP says that’s false. Canada has issued no guidance related to psychiatric medication and COVID-19 vaccines, according to the country’s public health agency. The claim misrepresents a section of a COVID-19
FAQ published by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario, which states prescription medications and referrals to psychotherapy may be options for patients who have serious anxiety linked to vaccination. An example was later added to the page to specify cases such as “extreme fear of needles.”
AP claims that social media users this week are distorting an FAQ page for Canadian physicians to falsely claim that Ontario’s regulatory agency for doctors is advising that unvaccinated people be diagnosed with mental health conditions and medicated.
Some users took the false claim even further, saying the entire country was going to mandate such actions.
“Canada is going to mandate psychiatric medication for those that refuse mRNA injections or any kind of vaccination,” wrote one Twitter user over the weekend, gaining more than 14,000 shares and nearly 20,000 likes.
The tweet shared a clip from an event hosted last week by a former Canadian TV personality in which she interviews Dr. William Makis, a doctor who has shared COVID-19 misinformation in the past.
Makis states that CPSO “sent out a letter or a memo to all the doctors in Ontario” suggesting that they should consider “any of their unvaccinated patients” as having a “mental problem” and that they should be put on “psychiatric medication.”
Makis does not say that such guidance amounts to a mandate, even though others online did.
But CPSO did not mail or email out any specific guidance, or pass a mandate on the topic. And Health Canada, the country’s public health agency, also confirmed in a statement to The Associated Press that it has not issued guidance on COVID-19 vaccines and psychiatric medications.
U.S. NEWS, POLITICS & GOVERNMENT
GOP Senators demand Biden cancel plans to accept Gazan refugees into the U.S.!
GOP senators have demanded that the Biden administration stop its plans to accept Gazan refugees into the United States over concerns of possible terrorist ties.
In a letter to Biden, Iowa Senator Joni Ernst and 34 other GOP senators raised national security concerns if the White House allows these refugees from “this high-risk population for terrorist ties and sympathies.”
“We demand that your administration cease planning for accepting Gazan refugees until you adequately answer our concerns and focus your attention instead on securing the release of U.S. hostages held by Hamas,” the senators wrote.
In the letter, the senators also questioned the effectiveness of the Biden administration’s border policy that they said added to their concerns for the federal government’s ability to effectively vet refugees in Gaza, which is far away from the United States.
According to Customs and Border Protection (CBP) statistics, border patrol officials arrested 169 people on the federal terrorist watch list in the 2023 fiscal year. This marks the highest annual number since Border Patrol was established in 1924.
Pro-Hamas protests are being funded by Biden’s own political donors!
The pro-Palestinian, antisemitic protests on university campuses across the nation are funded by President Joe Biden’s own political donors — which could explain why he hesitates to condemn them and won’t investigate them.
Biden equivocated last month when asked to react to the protests, saying that he condemned the antisemitism but also condemned those “who don’t understand what’s going on with the Palestinians,” which puzzled observers.
Research by NGO Monitor and others into the donors behind the protests has turned up familiar names from the Democratic Party bankroll — including George Soros’ Open Society Foundations and other liberal philanthropies.
Biden’s Department of Justice has notably refused to investigate the civil rights abuses being committed by the “encampments” — against Jews, journalists, and others — and has also refused to consider RICO conspiracy charges.
The reason may be that he does not want to subject his own political donors to investigation or embarrassment.
The fact that Democratic Party mega-donors are behind the antisemitic protests may also spur Jewish voters — roughly 70% of whom vote Democratic — to consider changing their votes in 2024.
As Caroline Glick notes at the Jewish News Syndicate, Biden has been obsessing over losing Arab and Muslim-American votes in Michigan — but there may be more Jewish votes to lose in key swing states like Pennsylvania, Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, and others.
Due to Biden’s cognitive decline, his campaign says they will shorten his speeches!
The Biden campaign team has admitted that they are seeking to shorten his speeches, claiming that they are seeking “quality over quantity,” but leading many to presume it is because he can barely talk.
The announcement led many to ask, how much shorter can his speeches get?
At the moment he can barely manage three minutes without slurring and losing a battle with the teleprompter.
The campaign likes to air pre-recorded speeches that have scores of edits and cuts in them, blatantly because he struggles to speak more than one sentence at a time.
And when Biden goes off script, he does something idiotic like calling Japan a Xenophobic country. They are already hiding him from the press after failing to disguise that he can barely walk. Probably because when he does encounter the press, he freezes and looks like he’s crapping himself. Is it any wonder he is less popular than any other president in modern history?
Would jailing Trump do any good or would it make him a martyr?
NY trial judge threatens Trump with jail if he violates the judge’s gag order again!
The New York judge presiding over Donald Trump’s historic criminal trial again found the former US
president in contempt of a gag order Monday and threatened to jail him if there are further violations.
Trump, 77, is charged with falsifying business records to reimburse his lawyer, Michael Cohen, for a $130,000 payment to porn star Stormy Daniels just days ahead of the 2016 election against Hillary Clinton.
Judge Juan Merchan held Trump in contempt of court and fined him $1,000 for a violation of the gag order prohibiting him from publicly attacking witnesses, jurors or court staff and their relatives.
But Merchan said the fines — Trump was also fined a total of $9,000 last week — were not serving as a “deterrent” and he would have to consider jail time for further violations.
“As much as I do not want to impose a jail sanction…, I want you to understand I will,” Merchan told Trump, adding that he understood the “magnitude of such a decision.”
“At the end of the day I have a job to do and part of that job is to maintain the dignity of the justice system,” the judge said, calling Trump’s defiance a “direct attack on the rule of law.”
Merchan’s ruling came at the start of the third week of testimony in the trial of the Republican presidential candidate for covering up hush money payments to Daniels in a scheme to avoid potentially disastrous publicity just before election day.
Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, and Cohen, Trump’s ex-lawyer who has become a bitter foe of his former boss, are both expected to testify at some point during the trial.
Hope Hicks, a former close advisor to Trump, testified on Friday about the “crisis” that engulfed his 2016 presidential campaign after a tape emerged of him bragging about groping women.
Hicks said she was a “little stunned” by the now infamous Access Hollywood tape in which Trump was heard boasting about grabbing women’s genitalia.
“There was consensus among us all that the tape was damaging, this was a crisis,” she added.
Hicks was a key player in the final stages of Trump’s successful 2016 presidential campaign when the hush money payments to Daniels were allegedly made.
According to prosecutors, panic over the tape triggered a Trump campaign effort to silence Daniels over her claim of a 2006 sexual encounter with the married Trump. Trump denies ever having sex with Daniels.
The trial has gripped the legal and political establishment as Trump seeks to re-take the White House from President Joe Biden in November’s election.
Gov. Sarah Sanders issues executive order defying Biden administration’s Title IX rule!
Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders issued an executive order on Thursday directing state schools to defy the Biden administration’s expansion of Title IX protections to include students identifying as transgender.
The Republican governor’s order, signed on Thursday, asserts the state’s commitment to preserving the traditional understanding of sex as an “immutable characteristic of the human body” firmly “rooted in biology and the created order.”
“The government should celebrate, not erase, sex differences by providing proper protections for them,” the order reads. It also states that the Biden administration “has rejected reality and chosen to appease their left-wing base over students’ safety and best interests.”
The order comes in response to the Biden administration’s recent redefinition of “sex” under Title IX to include “gender identity,” a move viewed by Ms. Sanders as a departure from the law’s original intent.
“The Biden administration is attempting to unilaterally rewrite federal law to advance its radical gender ideology against women and girls,” reads the order by Ms. Sanders, who once served as press secretary during the Trump administration.
Ms. Sanders said in her order that the new rule’s expanded definition of sex to include sexual orientation and gender identity was “plainly ridiculous.” She said it would “lead to males unfairly competing in women’s sports; receiving access to women’s and girls’ locker rooms, bathrooms, and private spaces; and competing for women’s scholarships.”
The reinterpretation of Title IX by the Biden administration, outlined in a document spanning nearly 460,000 words, has also drawn criticism from a slate of GOP attorneys general, who have filed lawsuits challenging it.
Ms. Sanders notes in her order that, compared to the lengthy re-write, the original Title IX “contained a succinct 37 words” when it was signed into law in 1972.
Title IX is a landmark 1972 civil rights law that aims to eliminate discrimination based on sex in federally funded educational programs and to provide equal opportunities for women. The new rule, which redefines “sex” to include gender identity, was announced on April 19. Schools and colleges that fail to comply with this new rule may lose federal funding.
Arkansas lawmakers have passed several laws in the past few years to protect sex-designated restrooms, ensure that students don’t share sleeping quarters with members of the opposite sex, ensure fairness in women’s sports by barring the inclusion of males, and prevent the use of preferred pronouns at public schools and state-supported education institutions.
Under the executive order, Arkansas state schools and colleges are mandated to uphold these state laws.
15 States AGs file Title IX lawsuits against the Department of Education’s new rules!
A flurry of lawsuits filed last week claim the Department of Education overstepped its authority when it finalized a Title IX rule including LGBTQ+ protections.
Attorneys general from six Republican-leaning states — Kentucky, Tennessee, Indiana, Ohio, Virginia and West Virginia — filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Education over its Title IX rule released last month. The nearly 800-page lawsuit follows three others already filed, totaling at least 15 states to have taken the administration to court so far over the new policy.
The latest filing echoes much in those that came before it. It claims the Education Department was “arbitrary and capricious” in finalizing the Title IX rule and that the agency acted outside of its power under the Constitution.
The attorneys general behind the lawsuits take issue with the final rule’s inclusion of LGBTQ+ students as protected from sex discrimination under the landmark Title IX civil rights law. The rule, released April 19, provides protections for LGBTQ+ students who are misgendered or otherwise bullied, for example.
However, opponents of the rule say it infringes on women’s rights and protections by including transgender students.
“The Biden Administration’s new rule would rip away 50 years of Title IX’s protections for women and put entire generations of young girls at risk,” said Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman in a statement announcing the latest lawsuit.
Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti called it an “unconstitutional power grab.”
“The U.S. Department of Education has no authority to let boys into girls’ locker rooms,” said Skrmetti in a statement. “Under this radical and illegal attempt to rewrite the statute, if a man enters a woman’s locker room and a woman complains that makes her uncomfortable, the woman will be subject to investigation and penalties for violating the man’s civil rights.”
The legal actions by Skrmetti and other attorneys general follow through on warnings from conservative states prior to the release of the rule’s draft in 2022 to halt its regulatory revision or face legal action.
Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill also filed a lawsuit against the final rule, adding to two additional lawsuits filed in Texas and Alabama on the same day. All the lawsuits so far have similarly claimed that the Education Department stepped outside its authority with this rulemaking.
The U.S. Department of Education does not comment on pending litigation and has warned that schools that don’t comply with the rule, which goes into effect on Aug. 1, could risk losing federal funding.
Iowa defiant as DOJ threatens lawsuit to block illegal immigrant law; will not back down!
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds has vowed to enforce a law criminalizing illegal immigrants who have been denied entry into the United States after the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) threatened a lawsuit to block it.
Setting the stage for a potential legal battle, Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird separately stated that the Hawkeye State would not “back down” in the face of what she deemed a threat.
Under the new law, authorities will have the power to arrest any individual in the state if the
person has outstanding deportation orders, was previously removed from the United States, or was previously denied admission to Iowa.
The Republican governor, who signed the new state law on April 10, said the state would enforce it come July.
“The only reason we had to pass this law is because the Biden Administration refuses to enforce the laws already on the books,” the Governor said.
Special counsel Jack Smith admits prosecutors misled judge in Trump case!
Last Friday, Special counsel Jack Smith’s team acknowledged they misled U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon regarding the handling of evidence in one of the criminal cases against former President Donald Trump.
Prosecutors in a court filing said that in some of the boxes FBI agents seized from President Trump’s Florida resort, the order of papers has been changed from shortly after the seizure.
Prosecutors compared scans of the boxes done in 2022 under orders from Judge Cannon to the present state of the boxes and noticed that the order is not the same.
“There are some boxes where the order of items within that box is not the same as in the associated scans,” Mr. Smith’s team said.
In a footnote, prosecutors acknowledged that the update contrasts with what they told the judge less than one month ago, during a hearing in the case.
When Judge Cannon during the hearing asked whether the boxes were “in their original, intact form as seized,” a prosecutor on the team said, “they are, with one exception; and that is that the classified documents have been removed and placeholders have been put in the documents.”
Prosecutors were unable to confirm why the order of papers was changed but offered a theory.
“The boxes contain items smaller than standard paper such as index cards, books, and stationary, which shift easily when the boxes are carried, especially because many of the boxes are not full,” they said.
The disclosure was made in a filing responding to a request from Walt Nauta, one of President Trump’s co-defendants, for an extension of a deadline to file papers under the Classified Information Procedure Act (CIPA).
Whistleblower: Military leaders plotted to disobey Trump’s orders as C-in-C on J-6!
Then-President Donald Trump’s authority was “curtailed” by military leaders as it relates to events on Jan. 6 according to Colonel Earl Matthews who spoke to The Daily Mail.
“I think a very plausible argument can be made that through no fault of his own, President Trump’s command authority over both the D.C. National Guard and the U.S. Army itself had been surreptitiously curtailed by the senior leadership of the Army on January 6, 2021,” Col. Matthews, told the publication in an exclusive May 3rd interview.
“Army leadership had unreasonably anticipated an ‘unlawful order’ from the President, an order that the President had no plans to issue, and were preemptively seeking to curtail his discretion to issue such an order,” he alleged.
The remarks by Col. Matthews dovetail with the contents of a book written in mid-2021 titled “I Alone Can Fix It” that claims then- Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Mark Milley, and other military leaders informally planned for different ways to disobey potential orders issued by President Trump that they disagreed with.
The DOD did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Col. Matthews’s claims.
On Jan. 6, 2021, Col. Matthews was serving as the top attorney to Maj. Gen. William Walker, who at the time was the commanding general of the D.C. National Guard.
Maj. Gen. Walker conveyed a request for assistance at around 1:50 p.m. on Jan. 6 but the Guard was not deployed to the Capitol until about 5:10 p.m., according to a timeline from the D.C. National Guard.
The Pentagon Inspector General’s report and a report from the Jan. 6 committee that investigated the events of that day concluded that no Pentagon officials deliberately delayed the deployment.
However, Col. Matthews has challenged the Pentagon’s narrative about the events of Jan. 6. He was also among four whistleblowers who testified before Congress on April 17 about the delay in the deployment of the Guard on that day. Lawmakers were convening on Capitol Hill to certify the electoral votes and make the results of the 2020 election official.
In his 36-page memo, Col. Matthews makes two major accusations. The first is that two Army generals—Gen. Charles Flynn, who served as deputy chief of staff for operations on Jan. 6, 2021, and Lt. Gen. Walter Piatt, the director of Army staff—lied to Congress about their response to calls for quick deployment of the D.C. Guard that day as the unrest was unfolding.
The second key allegation is that the Pentagon’s narrative of the events of Jan. 6, as outlined in the Department of Defense (DOD) Inspector General’s report, was full of factual inaccuracies.
“Every leader in the D.C. Guard wanted to respond and knew they could respond to the riot at the seat of government” before they were given approval to do so on Jan. 6, Col. Matthews wrote in his memo. But instead, D.C. Guard officials sat “stunned watching in the Armory,” he wrote.
In his memo, Col. Matthews accused Gen. Flynn and Lt. Gen. Piatt of lying to Congress when they denied ever saying that the Guard should not be deployed to the Capitol.
Col. Matthews elaborated on his interview with The Daily Mail, claiming that Gen. Flynn and Lt. Gen. Piatt were both “obsessively focused” on the bad optics of deploying military personnel to the Capitol while Congress was certifying the electoral votes.
RNC, Trump campaign challenge Nevada mail-in ballot rules!
The most powerful voices in Republican politics are seeking to prevent Nevada from accepting mail-in ballots received up to four business days after Election Day.
On May 3, the Republican National Committee, Donald J. Trump For President 2024 Inc., and Donald Szymanski filed a three-count complaint in the U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada against Nevada Secretary of State Francisco Aguilar, and other parties, seeking declaratory and injunctive relief.
The complaint identifies Mr. Szymanski as a registered Nevada voter and a resident of Clark County, Nevada.
The RNC, President Trump’s principal campaign committee, and Mr. Szymanski are seeking a judgment declaring Nevada’s mail- in voting law violates the 14th Amendment, injunctions
prohibiting the state from counting ballots received after Election Day or, alternatively, postmarked after Election Day, and recovery of legal fees related to the case.
The complaint alleges Nevada contravenes federal law by counting ballots up to four business days after Election Day. Furthermore it incorrectly, according to the complaint, presumes ballots received up to three days after the election are postmarked on or before the day of the election.
“[The state] effectively extends Nevada’s federal election past the Election Day established by Congress,” the complaint says. “Timely, valid ballots are diluted by untimely, invalid ballots, which violates the rights of candidates, campaigns, and voters.”
US Congressman Henry Cuellar and his wife were charged with bribery and unlawful influence!
An indictment was unsealed last Friday in the Southern District of Texas charging U.S. Congressman Enrique Roberto “Henry” Cuellar, 68, and his wife, Imelda Cuellar, 67, both of Laredo, Texas, with participating in two schemes involving bribery, unlawful foreign influence, and money laundering. Congressman Cuellar and Imelda Cuellar made their initial court appearance today before U.S. Magistrate Judge Dena Palermo in Houston.
According to court documents, beginning in at least December 2014 and continuing through at least November 2021, Congressman Cuellar and Imelda Cuellar allegedly accepted approximately $600,000 in bribes from two foreign entities: an oil and gas company wholly owned and controlled by the Government of Azerbaijan, and a bank headquartered in Mexico City. The bribe payments were allegedly laundered, pursuant to sham consulting contracts, through a series of front companies and middlemen into shell companies owned by Imelda Cuellar, who performed little to no legitimate work under the contracts. In exchange for the bribes paid by the Azerbaijani oil and gas company, Congressman Cuellar allegedly agreed to use his office to influence U.S. foreign policy in favor of Azerbaijan. In exchange for the bribes paid by the Mexican bank, Congressman Cuellar allegedly agreed to influence legislative activity and to advise and pressure high-ranking U.S. Executive Branch officials regarding measures beneficial to the bank.
Congressman Cuellar and Imelda Cuellar are each charged with the following offenses and if convicted, face maximum penalties as indicated: two counts of conspiracy to commit bribery of a federal official and to have a public official act as an agent of a foreign principal, five years in prison on each count; two counts of bribery of a federal official, 15 years in prison on each count; two counts of conspiracy to commit honest services wire fraud, 20 years in prison on each count; two counts of violating the ban on public officials acting as agents of a foreign principal, two years in prison on each count; one count of conspiracy to commit concealment money laundering, 20 years in prison; and five counts of money laundering, 20 years in prison on each count.
Great News! RNC RINO lawyer Charlie Spies unexpectedly resigns citing conflict of interest!
Establishment lawyer Charlie Spies, who handled the election integrity portfolio at the Republican National Committee (RNC), suddenly resigned over the weekend, citing an alleged conflict of interest.
The resignation comes in the wake of mounting pressure behind the scenes for his ouster. Trump surrogates are already considering a few candidates, sources familiar with the resignation told Breitbart News.
Spies resigned as the committee’s chief election integrity lawyer after former President Donald Trump privately expressed anger over Spies’ hiring, sources said.
“Great news for the Republican Party. RINO lawyer Charlie Spies is out as Chief Counsel of the RNC. I wish him well!” Trump posted on Truth Social Sunday.
The RNC hired Spies in March after Trump’s top lieutenants took over the committee, as presidential candidates typically do in election years.
Some America First conservatives did not trust Spies to protect the sanctity of American elections from the onslaught of aggressive Democrats, such as Marc Elias and Eric Holder, sources said, describing Spies as a “wolf in sheep’s clothing.”
Spies is beloved by the Republican establishment in Washington, DC. He previously directly or indirectly worked for establishment Republicans, such as former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT). He also worked with Gov. Ron DeSantis (R).
“Charlie approached RNC Chief of Staff, Chris LaCivita, about potential time commitment conflicts and it was agreed that, while we appreciate and value Charlie’s expertise and professionalism, he cannot do this role full time and still maintain the obligations to his law firm that he has spent years successfully building.” RNC spokeswoman Danielle Alvarez told Breitbart News.
The RNC “wasn’t the right fit” due to his private practice, Spies told the Hill, adding that he will, nonetheless, “remain focused on getting President Trump and Republicans at all levels elected in November.”
ECONOMY & BUSINESS
Warren Buffet, the Oracle of Omaha, tells shareholders and taxpayers bad news: tax hikes!
Warren Buffett has said he expects the US government to increase taxes rather than reduce spending as the country struggles with its mounting national debt.
The declaration, delivered last Saturday at the Berkshire Hathaway shareholders meeting, comes as the US is hard-pressed to address widening fiscal deficits, and as the national debt recently topped $34 trillion – an amount nearly as big as the entire US economy.
More concerning is the fact the Fed and other money-minded officials have no plan in sight, paving the way for the Berkshire Hathaway boss’s unsettling prediction.
The ‘Oracle of Omaha’ aired his prediction at his hallowed hedge fund’s annual shareholder meeting attended by some of the top CEOs in the country.
There, the conglomerate reported its collection of businesses generated some $11.2 billion of operating earnings, up 39 percent from the year before.
Despite those results being a sign of a relatively robust economy, the 93-year-old who is valued at more than $131billion said he believes a federal tax hike is on the horizon.
‘I think higher taxes are likely,’ he said, pointing to how the Congressional Budget Office has estimated in its latest long-term budget projections federal deficits will rise to 8.5 percent of GDP in fiscal 2054 from the 5.5 percent seen today.
IRS warns low to middle income taxpayers could make up the bulk of tax audits!
A failure to properly fund the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) could result in lower and middle- income taxpayers facing a higher share of tax audits, warned the agency in a recent report.
Last week, the IRS released an update of its Strategic Operating Plan which outlines the dozens of improvements the agency made for taxpayers with the $80 billion funding secured from the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). According to the report, the IRS is using the funding to boost enforcement personnel like accountants, engineers, economists, data scientists, attorneys, and tax experts with specialized skills.
The new staff is expected to allow the IRS to “double audit rates on the wealthiest taxpayers, reversing the sharp decline in audit rates over the 2010s.”
However, the IRS seeks more funds to accommodate its growing personnel over the coming years. Without additional funds, “the IRS will be forced to reduce its Enforcement staff by more than 50 percent in fiscal year 2030, severely hampering our ability to perform complex audits.” A lack of funding could end up increasing the scrutiny on low-income filers, the IRS stated.
“Since lower-income taxpayers are more likely to have simple tax returns, this lack of funding will likely translate into a higher share of audits falling on low- and middle-income taxpayers, while examination coverage rates for high-income and large corporate taxpayers will severely decline.”
Sam Ash shutting down stores after 100 years in the business; offering clearance discounts!
Musical instrument retailer Sam Ash is closing all stores beginning this month, with the company offering “great deals” as part of winding down the business.
“It is with a heavy heart that we announce that effective May 2nd 2024, all Sam Ash Music Store locations will begin store closing sales,” the company said in a statement. “This unfortunate news also presents a fantastic opportunity for great deals across our premium selection of musical instruments & pro sound equipment. We will also be offering specials on samash.com during this time. Thank you for allowing us to serve musicians like you for 100 years.”
On the website, Sam Ash announced that “everything must be sold,” promising buyers that they can get their dream gear for cheap prices.
According to data firm ScrapeHero, there were 44 Sam Ash stores in the United States in March, spread over 42 cities in 16 states and territories.
Florida had the most number of stores at nine, followed by California with seven, and New York with six. Ohio, New Jersey, and Texas had three stores each. North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Illinois had two stores each with one in Nevada.
In March, the music store had begun closing several of its shops. As news of Sam Ash’s shutdown became viral, patrons expressed dismay at the closure, reminiscing about their purchases from the iconic store.
Sam Ash was founded in 1924 and became the largest family-owned musical instrument store chain in the United States. In addition to musical instruments, the company also sold DJ, lighting, recording, and professional sound equipment.
The business was established by a young couple—Sam Ash and his wife Rose Dinn, both immigrants. Mr. Ash came to the United States from Austria when he was 10 years old. Ms. Dinn came from Russia at the age of three.
Hims/Hers Health stock plunges after CEO says will hire mindless woke anti-Israel mob!
Publicly traded telehealth company Hims & Hers Health, Inc. tumbled into a correction at the end of last week when the CEO said he and other executives were “eager” to hire anti-Israel student protesters.
“Moral courage > College degree,” Palestinian-American CEO Andrew Dudum wrote on X.
Dudum said, “If you’re currently protesting against the genocide of the Palestinian people & for your university’s divestment from Israel, keep going. It’s working.”
“There are plenty of companies & CEOs eager to hire you, regardless of university discipline,” he noted.
Substack author Jordan Schachtel responded to Dudum’s post on X by indicating his activism is a “violation of fiduciary duty…”
“What does this have to do with your business? Why does this belong at a public company? Marshall Wace isn’t paying you to play politics,” Martin Shkreli wrote.
Following the CEO’s activism post, shares of Hims & Hers tumbled into a correction.
Other X users said they were “selling” the stock, while others said they were “shorting” it.
Meanwhile, Palantir CEO Alex Karp said anti-Israel protesters causing chaos across colleges and universities should be shipped off to North Korea as part of an “exchange program” to give them perspective.
The problem with some of these college protests is their artificial nature, funded by the Soros group and other non- governmental organizations, with the goal of sparking chaos in a Marxist takeover of America.
Georgia taxpayers could become victims of electric vehicle payouts!
Taxpayers could be on the hook if electric vehicle (EV) manufacturer Rivian fails to resume progress on its multi-billion dollar Georgia plant.
Rivian announced on March 7 that it would be pausing construction on its $5 billion manufacturing plant that is supposed to be built just east of Atlanta, Georgia, worrying lawmakers and taxpayers in the state that the plant may never be built. However, local authorities had given the company up to $1.5 billion in subsidies and tax incentives with the expectation that Rivian would bring in jobs and tax revenue.
Despite the pause, Rivian has assured Georgia officials that it is not abandoning the project and that it remains committed to complying with both environmental regulations and the contractual agreements that were previously agreed to. Since the announcement of the pause, Georgia officials have questioned Rivian about how it will solve current issues at the vacant site, including security, stabilizing graded land with vegetation and stormwater drainage on the lot, according to AJC News.
The state claims that no taxpayer dollars have gone to Rivian directly, but instead, taxpayer funds have gone to developing the site of the project, which is still owned by the state but leased to Rivian, a Georgia spokesperson told the DCNF.
Rivian lost over $2 billion in 2023 and more than $3.1 billion in 2022, according to the company’s fourth quarter results. Rivian has had to lay off large portions of its staff in recent months, cutting around 10% of its workforce in February and another 1% in April.
The growth in the EV sector has slowed in recent months, declining to just 2.7% in the first quarter, down from 47% in the whole of 2023. Total vehicle market share for EVs declined in the first quarter as well, due to a greater increase in the production of traditional vehicles.
Guns and ammo sales shoot up in a California border town due to illegal immigration!
Unease over rampant illegal immigration and crime are contributing to a spike in local guns and ammunition sales in border towns, according to a gun store owner in Southern California and a national firearms industry spokesman.
Cory Gautereaux, owner of Firearms Unlimited California in El Cajon—about 15 miles northwest of San Diego and 25 miles from the U.S.-Mexico border—told The Epoch Times many of his new customers are citing the border crisis as the reason they’re buying guns for self-defense.
A longtime resident of southeastern San Diego County, Mr. Gautereaux said most rural residents are already armed and are stocking up on ammunition while those who live in the city and border towns are buying guns for the first time.
“They’re worried,” he said. “It’s the street drop-offs that are right down the street from my store here. They’re dropping people off with buses all day long, especially in El Cajon.”
Nearly 10 million illegal immigrants have entered the country during the Biden administration, according to the latest data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
The massive influx has put an added strain on law enforcement agencies already spread thin due to low recruitment and funding, according to Mr. Gautereaux.
“It’s the people in the city who’ve relied on the government, and law enforcement their entire lives, and now they’re going, ‘Oh crap! My neighbor called the cops the other day for something, and they didn’t show up,’” he said.
When the buses drop off illegal immigrants, the hands of local police are tied under sanctuary policies that prohibit law enforcement agencies from handing them over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) even if they are charged with a crime, jailed, and released.
“Don’t get me wrong. I love the El Cajon PD. It’s probably one of the best departments in the nation … but the state has made it so the local police can’t even talk to ICE or Border Patrol,” he said.
Gun owners who would normally purchase 500 rounds are now buying 5,000 at a time.
“People have been buying ammo in bulk, I’d say, for about the last three months,” Mr. Gautereaux said. “They’re buying as much ammo as they can right now.”
Military tension and wars overseas have also added to a sense of unease, he said.
“When they start talking about it online or on TV, people freak out and then come in and buy stuff,” he said. “There is always a worry—and this happened during COVID. … People are preparing because they’ve seen it happen many times now.”
People are also worried about economic collapse and home burglaries, he said.
“We’re already seeing it,” he said, citing an overall rise in retail thefts, smash-and-grab robberies, home break-ins, and more sophisticated burglaries by illegal immigrant gangs, including Chilean nationals, in Rancho Santa Fe, an affluent area of San Diego County.
But allowing millions of illegal immigrants “who technically can’t get jobs here,” he said, isn’t helping to ease homelessness and crime. While most will find work—legally or illegally—some won’t, and for them the only choices left are welfare or crime.
“What other option is there to survive?” Mr. Gautereaux said.
Crime is already a problem and will likely get worse with underfunded and understaffed police departments, he predicted.
As more people prepare for bad times ahead, the word “prepper”—once used to describe the paranoid few—has almost become cliché because so many people are preparing for worst-case scenarios, he said.
“It’s a weird term now because if you’re not a prepper, you’re kind of stupid. We saw what happened during COVID. People weren’t ready. Everybody bought toilet paper,” he said.
HEALTH
Vitamin B3 Boosts Muscle Mass, Improves Glucose Control
Vitamin B3 comes in two primary forms: niacin, nicotinic acid, and niacineinamide (NAM), which is sometimes referred to as nicotinamide. Both forms of vitamin B3 play important roles in cellular metabolism. Vitamin B3 can help maintain muscle mass, decrease fat and improve glucose homeostasis as you age.
Power Mall Product of Interest: Vitamin B Complex plus Vitamin C Re-Natured®
RECALL WARNING: Contaminated walnuts trigger multistate e-Coli outbreak, says CDC
Twelve people in two states have developed hemolytic uremic syndrome, a rare but serious disease affecting the kidneys and blood clotting functions, and seven others have been hospitalized after consuming organic walnuts infected with E. coli.
The outbreak, originating from California-based Gibson’s Farm, Inc., is affecting organic bulk walnuts distributed to more than 300 stores across 19 states. A voluntary recall was first initiated on April 27 after state and local officials traced the E. coli outbreak back to Gibson Farms, Inc.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is working with Gibson’s Farm and its distributors to determine if there are additional store locations, products, or states affected.
Nearly all people who have reported illnesses purchased organic walnuts from bulk bins in food co-ops or natural food stores in Washington state or California, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Retailers and distributors in the affected states have been notified about the contaminated product. They have been instructed not to sell the bulk organic walnuts with expiration dates between May 21, 2025, and June 7, 2025, according to the FDA.
Consumers who have purchased organic walnut halves and pieces from bulk bins at listed stores should check their pantries, refrigerators, and freezers and dispose of any such products.
The FDA urges consumers not to eat any organic walnut halves or pieces and to thoroughly clean and sanitize any surfaces or containers that may have come into contact with the walnuts.
Although illnesses have been reported only in California and Washington so far, the walnuts have also been distributed to retail stores in Alaska, Arkansas, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Kansas, Louisiana, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, Nevada, Oregon, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming. However, distribution could extend beyond these states.
Long Beach, California health officials declare public health emergency from TB outbreak!
A deadly outbreak of tuberculosis inside a California hotel acting as a homeless shelter has led to at least one death. Health officials in Long Beach have consequently declared a public health emergency, according to Fox News Digital.
The sudden outbreak at an unnamed hotel has reportedly infected 14 people, resulting in nine people having to be hospitalized. The Department of Health and Human Services for Long Beach made the announcement on Thursday. The identity of the individual who died has not been revealed.
City officials announced that [t]he outbreak is currently isolated to a distinct population and the risk to the general public is low.”
“The population at risk in this outbreak has significant barriers to care including homelessness and housing insecurity, mental illness, substance use and serious medical comorbidities.”
Officials stated that the reason they declared a health emergency was to strengthen the city’s ability to respond to the outbreak, per the report.
Despite the low number of people who have been hospitalized, the report noted that around 170 people have likely been exposed to tuberculosis. The Health Department is currently in the process of screening contacts for the illness by way of blood or skin tests, chest X-rays, and symptom review.
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
Sun Releases 2 Powerful Solar Storms, Earth In Firing Line
The newly emerged sunspot has seen a number of flares erupting on the surface of the Sun. At the time of both eruptions, the sunspot was facing Earth and a coronal mass ejection (CME) could have accompanied at least one of these solar flares.
The Sun is approaching the peak of its activity in the current solar cycle, an 11-year period in which its magnetic field goes through a cycle. This means that the Sun’s north and south poles switch places. Then it takes about another 11 years for the Sun’s north and south poles to flip back again. During this period, the Sun releases many flares that have the capability of affecting the normal life on Earth. Just days ago, two colossal solar flares have emerged from sunspot region AR3663 and Earth is in the firing line.
The first eruption occurred on May 2 and it was an X-class flare, the most powerful category of solar flares, according to space.com. It cause shortwave radio blackouts across Australia, Japan and much of China.
“X FLARE! Sunspot region AR3663 just produced an X1.7 flare, the 11th largest flare so far this cycle. It was an impulsive flare lasting a total of about 25 minutes and peaking at 02:22 U.T,” solar physicist Keith Strong wrote on X.
Boeing’s Starliner to join exclusive spacecraft club with 1st astronaut launch today
The launch will mark just the sixth time ever that NASA astronauts have broken in a brand-new spacecraft.
Boeing’s Starliner capsule will join a very exclusive club today (May 6), if all goes according to plan.
A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket is set to launch Starliner and its two passengers, NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station today at 10:34 p.m. EDT (0234 GMT on May 7). You can watch the action live at Space.com, courtesy of NASA.
The liftoff will kick off Crew Flight Test (CFT), a roughly 10-day shakeout cruise to the International Space Station (ISS) that will be Starliner’s first-ever astronaut mission. Such crewed debuts to Earth orbit have happened just five times in American history, as NASA chief Bill Nelson noted during a press briefing on Friday (May 3).
SURVEILLANCE STATE
Big Brother at the airport! (from the Cato Institute)
Very soon the summer travel season will be upon us and, with it, ever longer lines at Transportation Security Agency passenger identification and screening checkpoints.
Most people understand why physically and mechanically screening passengers and baggage is necessary, given that last year TSA uncovered nearly 7,000 guns on persons or in the checked baggage, with more than 90% of the weapons loaded. But with only one gun found per 8 million screened passengers, it’s clear the bigger reason for TSA’s long lines is identification checks. Of course the government would want to know the identity of someone who just attempted to bring a loaded gun onboard an aircraft. But what business is it of TSA or anybody else who I am or why I’m flying from Washington, D.C., to St. Louis?
Unless a passenger is wanted for a federal crime, it’s not the government’s business, but TSA has made it its business despite the fact the law authorizing it to screen your person and baggage does not give it authority to demand you show your driver’s license.
Instead, TSA has relied on nonpublic “Security Directives” that can only be challenged under procedures outlined in federal law. And, in theory, starting next year under the so‐called REAL ID law, you will not be able to fly domestically unless you have either a state‐issued ID that meets REAL ID criteria, a valid U.S. passport, or military identification card.
And just for good measure, TSA is eager to mandate that you submit to facial recognition scanning as well.
Scanning people and bags for dangerous items is a legitimate safety and security measure. But using the law to force you to produce an ID and submit to facial recognition scanning is a form of mass surveillance and population control, the hallmarks of odious regimes such as Communist China and the Russian Federation. They are a clear‐cut assault on the Bill of Rights and have no place in a functioning constitutional republic such as ours.
ENERGY & ENVIRONMENT
Biden’s energy department finalizes rules on electric water heaters!
The Biden administration has mandated energy standards that effectively force electric water heater manufacturers to switch to heat pump technology, raising concerns about the high upfront cost of such heaters and viability in colder climates.
On Tuesday, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) finalized energy efficiency standards for electric water heaters, requiring manufacturers to use heat pump technology in the appliances. Manufacturers have to comply with the new standards beginning in 2029, which will make over 50 percent of newly manufactured electric storage water heaters use heat pump technology compared to just three percent at present. The new standards will “accelerate” the adoption of heat pump water heaters across the country, the agency stated.
Traditional electric water heaters work by using certain electric heating components. In contrast, water heaters with heat pumps work by pulling up heat from the surrounding air and transferring it at a higher temperature to heat water in a storage tank. Heat pumps basically function like an air conditioner but in reverse.
According to the DOE, heat pump electric heaters can be two to three times more energy efficient than traditional appliances. The new rule aims to shift people to use electric heaters based on heat pumps, which the DOE claims would “save American households approximately $7.6 billion per year on their energy and water bills.”
“Replacing common-sized traditional electric resistance storage water heaters with electric heat pump water heaters meeting the new standards would save consumers approximately $1,800 on their utility bills, on average, over the life of the appliance.”
The DOE is also deliberating amended standards for gas-fired instantaneous water heaters, which the new standards do not address.
The DOE admitted that heat pump water heaters have “higher initial costs” compared to conventional storage water heaters.
“Should We Tweak The Atmosphere”? That is the question from New Scientist magazine. From Technology Times: “Study Raises Concerns About Solar Geoengineering’s Unpredictability”, which is a gross understatement. Are climate engineering operations already a planetary catastrophe that is growing worse with each passing day? Is the saga of the human race entering the final chapter? A boom / bust cycle that may take the entire web of life down with us?
Morganton, NC residents protest covert plans for EV battery plant in their town!
A group of residents in western North Carolina are protesting their county board’s lack of transparency over furtive moves to welcome an electric vehicle (EV) battery manufacturing the residents believe would pollute their waters and ruin their scenic countryside.
In October 2023, the North Carolina state legislature allocated $35.8 million to Burke Development Inc. for the purchase of a 1,400-acre property on which to build an industrial megasite in Burke and McDowell counties.
Though the all-Republican board of Burke County Commissioners has made no official decision on approving an EV battery plant to be built within the megasite, Alan Wood, the CEO of Burke Development, alluded to the site’s potential for such a project, according to a local media report.
Mr. Wood listed several EV manufacturing plants sprouting up in the Southeast because of their proximity to a lithium mine in Kings Mountain, North Carolina, which a Charlotte-based chemical manufacturing Albemarle Corporation is set to reopen by 2026 with the help of a $90 million grant from the U.S. Department of Defence.
Since reports surfaced of the development, an organization called the Stop Burke-Lake James Megasite (Stop BLJM) was formed.
A petition with 2,859 signatures is circulating while Stop BLJM members speak out in county commissioner meetings.
Having an EV battery plant on the watershed that could drain chemicals into a water supply for 26 counties downstream is just too risky, Stop BLJM members said.
GARDENING, FARMING & HOMESTEADING
7 Effective Ways to Keep Ticks Out of Your Yard
These parasites can carry diseases such as Lyme disease, making them a significant health threat to families and pets.
Fortunately, there are effective ways to manage and reduce the tick population in your yard. Here’s how to create a tick-resistant outdoor space.
Related Article: Dangers of DEET and Chemical Insect Repellents:
The days are getting longer, the land is brighter, and the weather is inviting us to stay outside. There is no doubt summer is just around the corner. There is just one downside to the camping, BBQ’s, and ball games that fill our summer nights, and that is the mosquito bite.
Not only are mosquito bites sometimes unbearable, they often carry vicious disease and viruses that can be deadly. Nothing puts a damper in summer like malaria and dengue.
However, what if the more serious danger is not the disease the mosquito brings, but rather the products we use to keep them away?
Most insect repellents on the market are loaded with toxic chemicals, including DEET, which is so poisonous that even the Environmental Protection Agency says you should wash it off your skin when you return indoors, avoid breathing it in and not spray it directly on your face.
Make sure to pick up natural insect repellent from North American Herb & Spice!
For people: Bug-X: Peppermint
Whether you’re walking in the woods, hiking in rugged terrain, on a golf course, or playing with family in the backyard, protect yourself and your children with Bug-X, the Tick & Mosquito Repellent that’s safe for daily use.
For the pets: Houdi’s Herbal Flea & Tick Pet Spray: Peppermint
Replaces flea and tick drops, pills, and collars. Safe for daily use when used as directed for dogs and cats of all ages. Also safe around children.
2ND AMENDMENT
Missouri AG joins other states, calling on the Court to halt new ATF firearms sales rules!
The Missouri Attorney General has now moved to file a suit against the ATF for a new rule meant to prevent unlicensed private sales of firearms.
Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey announced on Thursday, May 2, that he joined a coalition of 20 other states to file a suit against the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives over a new rule. He believes the rule attacks the ability of gun owners and private sellers.
“When out-of-touch D.C. elites target Missourians’ Second Amendment rights, I will always take action to protect those liberties,” AG Bailey said. “The Framers enshrined the right to keep and bear arms into the Constitution with the promise that those rights shall not be infringed. As a gun owner myself, I will use every legal tool at my disposal to fight government overreach.”
The new rule requires those who own a firearm and want to sell it for a profit must first apply for a federal firearms dealer license. The ATF indicated that “profit” means any cash, trades or services acquired for the firearm.
Also Read: Missouri AG set to defend senators who called Olathe man an “illegal immigrant”
Previously, those who repetitively purchased and sold firearms as a business were only required to get the license.
“This rule would put innocent firearm sales between law-abiding friends and family members within reach of federal regulation. Such innocent sales between friends and family would constitute a felony if the seller did not in fact obtain a federal firearms license and perform a background check,” the attorneys general assert in the lawsuit.
Bailey argues that the rule is unconstitutional as it violates the Second Amendment and avoids congressional authority. Other states joining include Kansas, Arkansas, Iowa, Montana, Alabama, Alaska, Georgia and more. The states have asked the Court to postpone the rule and declare it a violation of the Constitution.
COVID RELATED NEWS
New Study: People who get more COVID jabs are more likely to contract COVID!
People who received more than one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine were
more likely to contract COVID-19, according to a new study.
An analysis of data from Cleveland Clinic employees found that people who received two or more doses were at higher risk of COVID-19, Dr. Nabin Shrestha and his co-authors reported.
The risk of contracting COVID-19 was 1.5 times higher for those who received two doses, 1.95 times higher for those who received three doses, and 2.5 times higher for those who received more than three doses, the researchers found. The higher risk was compared to people who received zero or one dose of a vaccine.
Even after adjusting for variables, the elevated risk remained. Federal and global guidelines consider vaccines ineffective if they provide under 50 percent shielding.
The number of severe illnesses among the study population was too small to estimate effectiveness against severe illness, the researchers said.
Listed limitations included the inability to separate symptomatic and asymptomatic infections. No conflicts of interest were reported and authors said they received no funding.
Former CNN host Chris Cuomo reveals he too has a COVID jab injury!
Former CNN host Chris Cuomo said in a recent news segment that he is suffering from a health condition after he received a COVID-19 vaccine.
Mr. Cuomo made the revelation during his NewsNation program when he was interviewing a nurse practitioner, Sean Barcavage, who was featured in a recent New York Times article about vaccine injuries.
Other than Mr. Cuomo, relatively few celebrities have spoken about vaccine-related injuries they may have suffered. However, one of the world’s richest people, Elon Musk, said that he was almost hospitalized after taking the shot.
“It’s not like I don’t believe in vaccines—I do. However, the cure cannot be potentially worse than the disease,” he said. “Public debate over efficacy should not be shut down,” Mr. Musk continued.
CANCEL CULTURE
A constitutional rights litigation firm, American First Legal, has obtained internal emails revealing the Biden administration’s efforts to find ways around state bans on gender transition medical procedures and in turn, filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for its alleged refusal to comply with the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) in handing over communications regarding HHS Assistant Secretary Rachel Levine and transgender clinics, according to the AFL’s press release.
In March 2023, the AFL began its investigation into the HHS by filing a FOIA request after Mr. Levine publicly stated that the federal government—including President Joe Biden—supports medical transitioning of children.
The litigation eventually brought forth emails revealing that “the Biden Administration is trying to radically change governmental data and statistics on sex in the name of ‘gender identity,’” the AFL said.
In one email, Mr. Levine told former Region 10 HHS Regional Director Ingrid Ulrey that his “heart goes out to our LGBTQ brothers and sisters” after legislation passed prohibiting the medical transitioning of children.
“We are continuing to push this issue nationally and will keep you up to date with our plans,” Mr. Levine wrote.
Attached to the emails was a readout of questions and definitions the director sent to HHS on “gender-affirming care” (GAC).
According to the AFL, the emails show how far HHS officials under the Biden administration are willing to go to “promote their gender lunacy, despite state legislation to protect children from these dangerous medical experiments.”
Nine dead, 80 hospitalized in mass drug overdose cases in Austin, TX last week!
Austin law enforcement says that a mass overdose incident is to blame for nine deaths and nearly 80 suspected overdoses over the last week in downtown Austin.
The Austin Police Department said that officers and the Austin-Travis County EMS began to respond to numerous reports of overdoses on Monday. The wave subsided after several days but ended up taking the lives of nine people and leading to dozens overdosing.
Law enforcement officials and non-profit organizations tried to battle the mass overdose incident by distributing Narcan and informing at-risk residents of the bad batch of drugs.
Emergency responders said they attended to 36 suspected overdoses on Monday and 27 on Tuesday, with 7 more on Wednesday.
Christa Stedman, the public information officer for Austin-Travis County EMS, said in a media briefing that the distribution of Narcan had unquestionably saved lives.
Lily Hughs of the Texas Harm Reduction Alliance said that her team of volunteers had been out in the community trying to get the word out about the bad batch of drugs so that users could avoid the threat.
Hughes said they also offered training for drug users who wanted to learn how to use Narcan.
EMS said they had handed out about 400 doses of Narcan while the THRA said they had handed out about 100 doses.
Austin police later said that they had detained two persons of interest related to the overdoses. One of those suspects was identified as 55-year-old Johnny Lee Wright, who was charged with unlawful possession of a firearm by a felon.
A second person who was unidentified was arrested on a charge of possession of a controlled substance.
Investigators said they identified Wright and another person through the use of high resolution cameras that recorded Wright allegedly handing off narcotics to users after having received them from the unidentified suspect.
Police said that Wright and the second person were “known by officers who regularly worked the downtown area as narcotics dealers.”
PET NEWS
High levels of drug-resistant bacteria found in raw dog food, researchers say!
High levels of potentially deadly and drug-resistant bacteria were found in uncooked meats for human consumption and raw dog food sold in stores, said researchers in the United Kingdom.
Researchers from the University of Bristol analyzed 58 samples of raw chicken, beef, pork, and lamb sold for human consumption at grocery stores in Bristol and 15 samples of chicken-based raw dog food from specialty pet stores. They found the presence of drug-resistant E. coli, and the samples were tested for resistance to a number of antibiotics such as amoxicillin, cefotaxime, ciprofloxacin, streptomycin, and spectinomycin, according to their pre-print study.
They found that 81 percent of the meat samples that were meant for human consumption tested positive for E. coli, while 87 percent of chicken-based raw dog food also tested positive for the bacteria.
The release said that there is a “strong association between feeding dogs a diet of uncooked meat (raw dog food) and an increased risk of excreting E. coli resistant to critically important antibiotics in their feces,” adding that that “pet animals eating raw meat increases the risk of spreading resistant pathogens to their human owners in the household.”
Most consumers aren’t aware of the risk of the antibiotic-resistant bacteria present in such products, the authors said in their release.
“If ingested, these bacteria can enter the gut, and may cause resistant opportunistic infections (e.g. urinary tract infections) in the future,” the authors of the paper said. “It is therefore very important that people cook meat thoroughly before eating, and use appropriate hygiene practices during meat preparation. Our findings that raw dog food is similarly contaminated with resistant bacteria provides an explanation for why dogs fed raw meat are more likely to excrete these bacteria. Appropriate hygiene practices after handling raw dog food, and dogs that are fed such raw meat, are strongly advised.”
The University of Bristol-backed study was posted on a pre-print server. It has not yet been peer-reviewed.
GOOD NEWS
Former teacher’s aid spills the beans on the real purpose of public “fool” education!
The students were goofing off in class, apparently because of the nonsensical task their public school teacher had handed them, so the former teacher’s assistant says.
It was one of those packets for bureaucratic purposes they were working on.
Three days of classes were slotted for that, says the teacher’s assistant —who is now a proponent of homeschooling after becoming disillusioned with the public system and quitting.
He was sitting in the classroom with everyone else and agonizing that he would rather be spending the time with his newborn daughter.
Tim Lieber, the assistant in question, knew “if you just be quiet and do the packet, it would take 10 to 15 minutes,” he told The Epoch Times. “Some of these kids did that, and then they sat there for the rest of the day—the first day.”
Those three days were the straw that broke the camel’s back for Mr. Lieber, now 31, who currently teaches at a homeschool co-op started by like-minded parents in Kalamazoo, Michigan. He just needed one final push to send him over the fence to greener pastures.
There are no regulations for homeschooling in Michigan (not yet, he says). So abandoning his teacher’s license just weeks from completion, he would still be allowed to teach the children of Christian—or any— parents willing to pay him, if they were happy with how and what he taught.
Disillusionment first began to eat away at Mr. Lieber, to his surprise, right from when he reentered college in Grandville in 2019 to teach social studies—undoubtedly because of his former band teacher who had inspired him to be “the best version” of himself; everything he would see in the public school system would be held up next to her example and fall pitifully short, in his estimation. She was his reason for wanting to teach and the kind of teacher he wanted to be.
Mrs. Blanche was right-leaning, a Christian, and passionate about helping students get somewhere in life.
“When you’re a musician, and when you’re going through the band program, you have to be accountable,” Mr. Lieber said, speaking of the life lessons Mrs. Blanche imparted. “Not just to yourself, but to everybody else as well.
“Because if you don’t know your part, then when you go to do your performance, it is going to be a mess.”
That kind of accountability was a far cry from what he saw being promulgated in college.
“The original purpose of the public school system was to create factory workers,” he said, calling his social studies college classes “reductionist,” “very one-sided,” and filled with “liberal biases.”
“The education classes, especially as of late, are specifically structured for indoctrination purposes,” he said.
Attending college to teach social studies, there were moments when he spoke up in class, questioning a viewpoint, he said, but soon an email from a professor told him “You’re not going to do well” if your writing is not “agreeing with me.” He would have a target painted on his back.
ICYMI
“I will laugh at you when you’re sad.” Jittery groom mixes up his vows at the wedding!
A nervous groom mixed up his words at the altar and told his bride he would “laugh at you when you’re sad.”
The groom in question, Robert Thomson, 36, inadvertently brought the house down after confusing the phrase “comfort you when you’re sad.”
Bride Amy Aldon, 33, and her fiancé had their big day on April 13, 2023, at the Reid Rooms in Essex, UK. The couple, from Hadleigh, said the gaffe was a “moment to remember.”
When the lovebirds took the altar to recite their vows, the jittery groom got emotional and started to flub his words—though he started off on the right foot.
“I call upon these persons here present to witness that I, Robert James Thompson, do take thee, Amy Susan Sheila Jacqueline Aldon, to be my lawful wedded wife,” he said, following his cue. “As I take you to be my wife, I promise to love you, to honor and respect you.”
Then, getting a little choked up, Mr. Thompson delivered a passage that went off the nuptial script.
“I will stand by you and be true to your will,” the groom said. “I will care for you, laugh at you when you’re happy, laugh at you when you’re sad.”
As all the guests and the couple erupted in laughter, the officiant gave a correction, and Mr. Thomson got back on track by using the correct words, “comfort you when you’re sad.”
Afterward, the newlywed couple shared about the embarrassing, but funny and endearing, moment.
“It was such a lovely day. I was full of nerves, hence me stumbling on my vows,” Mr. Thomson, a construction worker, said.
“I was waiting for Amy for nearly 45 minutes as she was running late —which made me even more nervous!
“I did see the funny side of it. It’s a moment no one can forget or live down—and our family and friends definitely saw the funny side of it too!”
Amy, a learning support assistant, said: “It was like a ‘Carry On’ film! I don’t think he realized until the reaction. We’ll never forget it.”
Mystik Dan won the first leg of horse racing’s Triple Crown on Saturday!
The 2024 Kentucky Derby was one for the history books as the 150th Run for the Roses came down to a photo finish at Churchill Downs on Saturday.
Mystik Dan, edged Sierra Leone by less than a nose at the finish line. Sierra Leone, along with Fierceness, was one of the field’s favorites among the 20-horse field.
The most exciting two minutes in sports wound up taking several more after officials had to gather to determine who crossed first between Mystik Dan and Sierra Leone, with third-place finisher Forever Young just another step behind. Forever Young came excruciatingly close to giving Japan its first Kentucky Derby win.
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