Image Source: Tucker Carlson Twitter video screenshot
Tucker Carlson released another scathing episode of his Twitter show and took aim straight at Hunter Biden after he agreed to a plea deal and got a slap on the wrist.
The president’s son reportedly agreed to plead guilty to two misdemeanor tax charges and will receive probation and have to pay the taxes he owes. He will also enter into a diversion program over charges related to lying on a federal form when applying for a gun license.
“As in most of the developing world, it’s safer to be the president’s son than his opponent,” wrote Carlson in the description of his latest Twitter episode.
“This morning Hunter Biden pleaded guilty to pretty much nothing. Biden pled to two misdemeanor tax evasion charges then entered a diversion on a federal gun charge. That’s it. As far as Merrick Garland’s Justice Department is concerned Hunter Biden is done,” said Carlson on the show.
“There was no pre-dawn raid carried out live simultaneously on CNN, there was no perp walk, no handcuffs, no press conference. Above all there was no felony. Hunter Biden who broke federal gun laws can still carry a gun. It’s like it all never happened,” he added.
“In fact the Justice Department just baptized Hunter Biden. A lifetime of sins washed away in an instant,” Carlson said. “It was a secular miracle!”
He went on to emphasize that Hunter Biden got special treatment because he’s a son of President Joe Biden and mocked the White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.
Carlson left Fox News in April and began publishing his own version of his very popular show on Twitter. He received tens of millions of views while Fox News has struggled to fill his time slot and has suffered in ratings without him.
He later accused Fox News of fraud and breach of contract over the circumstances surrounding his exit from the cable news network.
Hunter Biden is expected in federal court in the next few days over the plea deal.
Here’s the video from Tucker Carlson:
Ep. 5 As in most of the developing world, it's safer to be the president's son than his opponent. pic.twitter.com/AtRRaxYSjs
U.S. District Judge Jay Moodyย struck downย a law passed in Arkansas to ban transgender surgeries and other treatments for minors. The law wasย passedย by the Arkansas legislature in April 2021 after the state Senate overturned a veto by then-Governor Asa Hutchinson, a Republican. It was the first of such laws passed in several states. Moody said that the law was contrary to the due process clause and equal protection rights of transgender people. He also ruled that a provision in the law forbidding medical professionals from referring patients for treatment elsewhere was in violation of free speech rights.
“Rather than protecting children or safeguarding medical ethics, the evidence showed that the prohibited medical care improves the mental health and well-being of patients and that, by prohibiting it, the State undermined the interests it claims to be advancing,” wrote Moody in the ruling.
The law would have banned puberty blockers and surgery for children.
Transgender activists were closely watching the legal battle over the law in Arkansas as a bellwether for other efforts to ban child transgender treatments in conservative leaning states. Republican Attorney General Tim Griffin said the state would be appealing the ruling to the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals.
“I am disappointed in the decision that prevents our state from protecting our children against dangerous medical experimentation under the moniker of โgender transition,โ” said Griffin in a statement.
“Unfortunately, Judge Moody misses what is widely understood across the United States and in the United Kingdom and European countries: There is no scientific evidence that any child will benefit from these procedures, while the consequences are harmful and often permanent,” he added. “I will continue fighting as long as it takes to stop providers from sterilizing children.”
Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders also criticized the ruling.
“Only in the far-Leftโs woke vision of America is it not appropriate to protect children,” she tweeted. “We will fight this and the Attorney General plans to appeal Judge Moodyโs decision to the Eighth Circuit.”
The issue is likely to grow in prominence as the 2024 election approaches. President Joe Biden, a Democrat, has issued statements unapologetically in support of transgender rights while most Republicans support legal restrictions on transgender operations and treatments for children.
Here’s more about the judgement against the law:
Arkansas judge overturns ban on gender-affirming care for transgender minors www.youtube.com
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A damning new report indicates Peter Daszak’s EcoHealth Alliance, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases under Anthony Fauci, and the Chinese military-co-opted Wuhan Institute of Virology all have their fingerprints on research that may have ultimately resulted in the deaths of over 1.1 million Americans and well over 6.9 million worldwide.
Federal documents recently obtained as the result of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit reveal the NIAID and United States Agency for International Development funded an EcoHealth Alliance subcontractor’s work on coronaviruses to the tune of $41 million. That subcontractor, listed as an investigator on the grants, was Ben Hu, whom TheBlazeย previously notedย was the WIV’s lead on gain-of-function research on SARS-like coronaviruses and among the “patients zero” โ having been one of the three lab researchers first infected with COVID-19 in November 2019.
Alina Chan, molecular biologist at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, said, “Ben Hu is essentially the next Shi Zhengli. … He was her star pupil. He had been making chimeric SARS-like viruses and testing these in humanized mice. If I had to guess who would be doing this risky virus research and most at risk of getting accidentally infected, it would be him.”
Theย White Coat Waste Project hasย obtained federal accounting recordsย through a 2021 FOIA lawsuit against the National Institutes of Health that confirm Ben Hu had his name on American taxpayer-funded grants awarded by the then-Fauci led NIAID and the USAID. According to the grant form, an EcoHealth-administered grant of $3,586,760 from the NIAID was marked “pending” for a project titled “understanding the risk of bat coronavirus emergence” for work to be undertaken from June 2019 through May 2024. The same project had previously received $3,086,735 in American taxpayer money from NIAID between June 2014 and May 2019. The grant form further indicated that USAID had poured $38 million into an EcoHealth alliance project titled “PREDICT-2” between October 2014 and September 2019, again with Hu’s name on it.
A USAID spokesman told the Wall Street Journal that the funding for research at the Wuhan lab ended in 2019 and “was part of the agencyโs mission to identify and contain pandemic threats. The project provided about $815,000 to the Wuhan Institute of Virology and $39,000 to Wuhan University.”
The White Coat Waste Project noted that “Huโs animal experiments were being bankrolled with U.S. taxpayer funds from NIAID and USAID grants that received over $41 million,” but that the total amount injected into Hu’s lab has not yet been disclosed by the U.S. government.
“Agency stonewalling and reporting loopholes made it incredibly challenging to follow the money from government agencies to the Wuhan lab, but the documents make it clear that U.S. taxpayer money funded some of Huโs experiments,” Anthony Bellotti, president of WCW, told the Journal.
The Wall Street Journalย reportedย that much of Hu’s research “focused on modifying coronaviruses so they could bind to human cells. The stated purpose of the research was to identify viruses that could lead to a pandemic and facilitate the development of a vaccine.”
The WCW summarized its findings thusly: “U.S. taxpayer-funded Wuhan white coats collect wild coronaviruses from bats in remote caves in China without adequate protective gear, transport the viruses to a lab in a major metropolitan area, do gain-of-function animal experiments to make the viruses more contagious and deadly to humans, and then fall ill with COVID-like symptoms and their identities and medical histories are covered up.”
2. @WhiteCoatWaste got the NIAID grant with Ben Hu's name on it. This is the NIH institute that Tony Fauci ran. Ya' know, the guy who said he didn't fund this research?
Document shows Ben Hu is a subcontractor to Peter Daszak's EcoHealth Alliance.
Investigative reporter Paul Thacker noted that Fauci denied ever funding this research. Fauciย toldย Congress in May 2021 that the NIH “has not ever and does not now fund gain-of-function research in the Wuhan Institute of Virology” and made similar denialsย on multiple other occasions.
Then-Principal Deputy Director of the NIH Lawrence A. Tabak appeared to undercut Fauci’s denial,ย writingย to Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) on Oct. 20, 2021, that EcoHealthโs “limited experiment” in Wuhan tested whether “spike proteins from naturally occurring bat coronaviruses circulating in China were capable of binding to the human ACE2 receptor in a mouse model.” These mice “became sicker,” according to Tabak, who added, “EcoHealth failed to report this finding right away, as was required by the terms of the grant.”
According to aย January report from the HHS Office of Inspector General, the NIH also knew about potential risks associated with the research being performed in China that had been executed using federal grant money funneled to and through EcoHealth Alliance. Despite this knowledge, it reportedly “did not effectively monitor or take timely action to address EcoHealth’s compliance with some requirements.”
British zoologist Peter Daszak, the head of EcoHealth Alliance, previously called NIH requests that U.S. federal officials inspect the WIV “heinous” and derided suggestions that the virus might have leaked from the WIV as “conspiracy theories.”
Hu did not respond to requests for comment from the Wall Street Journal, as Daszak and the NIH similarly declined to provide comment to Thacker.
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The corporate media has added a new face to their exhaustive list of โthreats to Democracy.โ โRobert F. Kennedy Jr. is a threat to your health โ and our democracy,โ reads theย headlineย of a recent Los Angeles Times column. According toย disgracedย L.A. Times journalist Michael Hiltzik, there are many โdangersโ posed by RFK Jr. conducting a lawful andย democraticย campaign for president.ย
Hiltzik writes that Kennedyโs candidacy โwill increase the political credibility of anti-vax claptrap,โ and โcould cut into the vote in 2024 for a responsible Democrat,โ allowing โTrump or a Trump cloneโ to take office and deploy โthuggish attacks on diversity, inclusion and voting rights that have become the alpha and omega of GOP politics.โ
Ah yes, curbing racist, culturally Marxist โdiversity and inclusionโ policies and enacting measures to protect the integrity of American elections is a serious threat to America. Do not be fooled. The media attacks on RFK Jr. have nothing to do with vaccine acceptance.
As I wrote Tuesday, asking questions, whether they be about vaccines or literally anything else, is a defining feature of a free society. RFK Jr. has every right to discuss vaccines, particularly when the medical establishment thinks they are above debate.
However, Hiltzik and his colleagues in the propaganda press arenโt really afraid of vaccine โmisinformation.โ The corporate media is primarily drumming up hysteria around RFK Jr.โs appearance on the Joe Rogan podcast because, as Hiltzik wrote, they perceive him as a threat to Bidenโs 2024 presidential bid.ย In other words, RFK Jr.โs legitimate presidential campaign is a โthreat to democracyโ because it could help the opposition party win the upcoming presidential election and, ironically, throttle Democratsโ plan to erode the liberties prescribed in the Constitution.ย
The Media Is the Real Threat
Using the phrase โthreat to democracyโ as a way of protecting Democrats ahead of a presidential election is a media tradition at this point. Recall how the press promulgated the FBI-contrived Russia-collusion hoax, claiming former President Donald Trump was a โthreat to democracyโ in order to interfere in the 2016 election and discredit the Trump presidency after he was elected.ย Today, the media isย stillย trying to thwart a Trump presidency by praising Biden for prosecuting his most probable 2024 opponent in, of course, the name of โdemocracy.โ
Ahead of the 2020 election, the media again interfered in a presidential election when they claimed Hunter Bidenโs laptop was โRussian disinformationโ and a โthreat to democracyโ The laptop contained damning evidence that Hunter was engaging in sketchy foreign business dealings and that his father, presumably referred to as โthe big guy,โ was part of it.ย
Fast forward to today, congressional Republicans have uncovered significant evidence that then-Vice President Joe Biden and Hunter received multimillion-dollar payouts from a Ukrainian Burisma executive in exchange for influence over American foreign policy. If the allegations are true, they mean the sitting president of the United States sold out America and may still be compromised by foreign nationals.
Yet the institutionย soย preoccupied with preserving democracy has done nothing to cover the Biden bribery scandal. Instead, the media has been obsessing over theย deeply flawedย Trump indictment and parroting White House talking points that Hunter was โheld accountableโ this week after he was charged with tax and firearm offenses.
Hunter was not โheld accountable.โ He received an excessively lenient plea deal for crimes many Americans are thrown behind bars for committing. More importantly, none of the charges have anything to do with the bribery scandal โ rather, they appear to be a transparent ploy by the Department of Justice to cosplay as fair actors and distract the American people from the real Biden crimes.
The media could have done their job in 2020 and reported โ or at the very least not lied about โ the Hunter Biden laptop. Then maybe we wouldnโt have a president who appears to be compromised by foreign nationals and American adversaries. But the media didnโt want to report on it because they didnโt want Biden to lose in 2020.
For the propaganda press, โdemocracyโ no longer means a form of government. It means the suppression of anything that threatens the leftโs agenda or their candidates. Just a few examples of what the media considered a โthreat to democracyโ include Trump, half of the U.S. population, Ron DeSantis, Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson, lawfully conducted elections, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, poll watchers, Elon Musk, parents at school board meetings, pro-lifers, our bicameral legislature, free speech, and democracy itself.
Supposed โthreat to democracyโ are used by the left to actively call for the censorship of those who are willingย to speak the truth. The legacy pressย encouragedย Big Tech to censor the New York Post when the Hunter Biden laptop scandal broke, and theyย encouragedย Big Tech toย censorย Joe Roganโs RFK Jr. podcast.
The media feel justified in launching full-on assaults against the First Amendment because theyโre entitled, believing they should be the sole arbiters of truth. In order to maintain a monopoly on information, they call for the annihilation of smaller media outlets or even random social media users who dare challenge their carefully curated narratives โ all in the name of protecting โdemocracy.โ
Evita Duffy-Alfonso is a staff writer to The Federalist and the co-founder of the Chicago Thinker. She loves the Midwest, lumberjack sports, writing, and her family. Follow her on Twitter at @evitaduffy_1 or contact her at evita@thefederalist.com.
Former college championship swimmer Riley Gaines challenged Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Dick Durbin, D-Ill., on Wednesday after he accused Republicans of promoting “hateful rhetoric” by questioning the rights of transgender youth.
Gaines was on Capitol Hill as a witness for the Senate’s hearing on LGBTQ civil rights, where Durbin said lawmakers need to be careful when talking about this issue.
“At this point, I’d like to remind our colleagues, our children are listening, and they are in danger,” Durbin said. “In fact, today, transgender youth are among the most at risk of homelessness, depression and death by suicide. So, when these young people who are already struggling hear politicians amplify hateful rhetoric that denies their very existence, what message does it send?”
Riley Gaines challenged Senate Judiciary Chair Dick Durbin during a hearing on Wednesday.ย (CSPAN)
Later in the hearing, Gaines pushed back and told Durbin he needs to think about biological women and girls who she said are at a disadvantage competing against trans people.
“Sen. Durbin, in your opening statement, you had mentioned this rhetoric,” she said. “You had mentioned that, what message does it send to trans individuals? And my comeback to that is, what message does this send to women, to young girls, who are denied of these opportunities?”
“So easily, their rights to privacy and safety thrown out of the window to protect a small population, protect one group as long as they’re happy,” she said. “What about us? That is the overall general consensus of how we all felt in that locker room.”
Rather than answering directly, Durbin argued that there was “no evidence” transgender women perform better than those born that way.
Lia Thomas, left, and Riley Gaines look on from the podium after finishing tied for fifth in the 200 freestyle at the NCAA Division I Women’s Swimming & Diving Championship at the McAuley Aquatic Center, March 18, 2022, in Atlanta.ย (Mike Comer/NCAA Photos via Getty Images)
“Since reference was made to my earlier statement, I would just like to add something for the record: There is no evidence that transgender athletes are an issue in certain levels of sports. No transgender female athlete has ever won an Olympic medal in women’s sports, though the International Olympic Committee has allowed transgender athletes to compete since 2004,” Durbin said.
“But one non-binary athlete who was assigned female at birth won a medal in women’s soccer in 2021,” he added.
Protesters supporting trans-identifying minors during a rally in Minnesota.ย (Getty)
Gaines was on Capitol Hill as a witness for the Senate’s hearing on LGBTQ civil rights, where she pushed back on allowing transgender students to participate in the school sport of their chosen gender. Gaines has become an activist on behalf of biological female athletes after graduating from the University of Kentucky, where she competed against trans swimmer Lia Thomas in championship-level events.
Elizabeth Elkind is a politics reporter for Fox News Digital.
Former Special Counsel John Durham shut down a line of questioning from Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., that sought to assert Donald Trump Jr. had committed a crime during a meeting in Trump Tower. The exchange came during Durham’s testimony before the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday.ย Schiff referencedย a Trump Tower meeting between Trump Jr. and Russian individuals prior to the 2016 election that the lawmaker claimed constituted a crime.
“Are you aware, Mr. Durham, that [Robert] Mueller’s and Congressional investigations also revealed that Don Jr. was informed that a Russian official was offering the Trump campaign ‘very high-level and sensitive information” that would be incriminating of Hillary Clintonโฆ?” Schiff asked.
“Sure, people get phone calls all the time from individuals who claim to have information like that,” Durham responded.
Former Special Counsel John Durham shut down a line of questioning from Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., that sought to assert Donald Trump Jr. had committed a crime during a meeting in Trump Tower.ย (Screenshot/HouseJudiciaryCommittee)
“Really? The son of a presidential candidate gets calls all the time from a foreign government offering dirt on their opponent. Is that what you’re saying?” Schiff replied.
“I don’t think this is unique in your experience,” Durham responded.
“So you have other instances of the Russian government offering dirt on a presidential candidate to the presidential candidate’s son. Is that what you’re saying?” Schiff continued.
Durham then asked Schiff to repeat the question, and subsequently responded, “I’m saying that people can make phone calls making claims all the time. Of that, you may have experience.”
“Are you really trying to diminish the significance of what happened here, and the secret meeting that the president’s son set up in Trump Tower receiving that incriminating information?”ย Schiff pressed.
“I’m not trying to diminish it at all, but I think the more complete story is that they met, it was a ruse, and they didn’t talk about Mrs. Clinton,” Durham stated. “I don’t think that was a well-advised thing to do.”
“Oh, not well advised. That’s the understatement of the year. So, you think it’s perfectly appropriate, or maybe just ill-advised, for a presidential campaign to secretly meet with a Russian delegation to get dirt on their opponent?” Schiff asked.
Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., failed to pin down former Special Counsel John Durham during his questioning before the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday.
“If you’re asking would I do it, I hope I wouldn’t do it. But it’s not illegal. It was stupid, foolish, ill-advised,” Durham replied.
“Well, it is illegal to conspire to get incriminating opposition research from a hostile government that is of financial value to a campaign. Wouldn’t that violate campaign laws?” Schiff asked.
“I don’t know all those facts to be true,” Durham concluded.
So, if we go with shifty Schiff’s definitions, THE HILLARY Campaign was the one who sought a dossier from a foreign contact, and foreign governments.
Democrats argued that the Durham investigation was an effort to cover up the wrongdoings of former President Donald Trump.ย (Scott Olson/Getty Images)
The Wednesday exchange came just hours before the House was expected to move forward with the process of censuring Schiff for his actions during the Trump-Russia investigation. Republicans argue he made “false accusations” against former President Donald Trump throughout the investigation.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is expected to lead the final vote on Schiff’s censure Friday. The move requires only a simple majority.
Anders Hagstrom is a reporter with Fox News Digital covering national politics and major breaking news events. Send tips to Anders.Hagstrom@Fox.com, or on Twitter: @Hagstrom_Anders.
That lofty ideal chiseled on the pediment of the U.S. Supreme Court was blown to shreds with the indefensible plea deal for Hunter Biden that allows him to skate on severe criminal charges that would have landed anyone else in America behind bars. The preferential treatment for the presidentโs son makes a mockery of the law.ย We knew it was coming. The governmentโs investigation had stretched for more than five long years. By itself, that was absurd. The evidence against Hunter was clear and convincing. ย
He evaded taxes on millions of dollars that he pocketed from overseas sources โ part of his elaborate influence-peddling schemes that leveraged access to his powerful father. He obviously lied on a gun form and broke the law when he purchased a firearm.
Hunter Biden and his father President Joe Biden. Hunter’s new plea agreement still won’t protect him from investigation by the House of Representatives.ย (Photo by Paul Morigi/Getty Images for World Food Program USA)
But President Joe Biden and his consigliere at the Justice Department, Attorney General Merrick Garland, have rewritten the criminal codes with a special exemption. A Biden can defy the law with impunity. Everyone else must abide.
There is no justifying this demolition of justice. Unequal application of the statutes is now the law of the land. Our legal system is as corrupt as the Bidens. They made it so.
The privileged plea also calls into question the integrity of David Weiss, the U.S. attorney in Delaware, who negotiated a slap on the wrist instead of pursuing other, more serious, felony charges. ย In a public statement he insisted that his investigation into further acts of potential wrongdoing continues. There is reason to be skeptical. His announcement of an ongoing probe smacks of a charade designed to prevent him from answering uncomfortable questions by a congressional committee that is digging deep into Biden family corruption.ย
Whistleblowers warned that Garlandโs DOJ, the FBI, and the IRS were running a protection racket for the Bidens by exerting undue influence and political favoritism to cover up brazen criminality. Tuesdayโs plea fortifies their credibility. ย Hunter Bidenโs laptop aloneย is a treasure trove of incriminating evidence that implicates his father as complicit in secret deals to profit from his public office. The sheer magnitude of the schemes is staggering. Who knew that selling out your country could be so lucrative? ย
The House Oversight Committee may be the last refuge for anything resembling justice. It cannot prosecute, but it can expose. ย In the last five months committee members have combed through many of the 170 Suspicious Activity Reports, wire transfers and banking transactions showing that nine members of the Biden family received an astonishing amount of money from Americaโs adversaries. ย
Hunter Biden exits at the Independence County Courthouse in Batesville, Arkansas on Monday, May 1, 2023. Biden, who is with attorney Abbe Lowell, was ordered to appear in court regarding the paternity case of his unacknowledged 4-year-old-daughter.ย (Mega for Fox News Digital)
The payments were disguised through a complex web of shell companies and limited liability corporations that appear to have no legitimate business purpose other than to serve as receptacles for hiding cash, according to Chairman James Comer, R-KY. ย In Washington, where influence-peddling and graft are endemic, the Bidens have taken them to dizzying heights. It is no coincidence that the money sources came from the very countries over which Joe Biden exerted control in foreign policy decisions as vice president. ย
What was being bought? More to the point, what were the Bidens selling? In the process, did they sacrifice Americaโs national security to get rich? Did they conspire with malign foreign actors to betray our nation for self-enrichment?
One answer may be found in the mining of an unclassified FBI document that allegedly depicts a “criminal scheme” involving the Bidens and a top executive at Burisma, the Ukrainian energy company that was paying millions of dollars to Hunter to sit on its board.
A trusted and “highly credible” confidential human source (CHS) for the FBI reported that the elder Biden accepted $5 million in exchange for “policy decisions” benefiting the company, while Hunter banked another $5 million. The money, according to the CHS, was secreted in a multitude of hidden accounts. ย This seems to be the same suspected “pay-to-play” scheme reflected in Joe Bidenโs famous on-camera brag that he threatened to withhold $1 billion in U.S. taxpayer aid to Ukraine unless the prosecutor investigating Burisma was fired. Within hours, Viktor Shokin was canned, and his investigation vanished overnight. Mission accomplished.ย
The Ukraine caper is similar to other Biden grifts in roughly a dozen foreign countries where Hunter negotiated “deals” that were dependent on his father, even setting up meetings between the vice president and overseas clients that are documented in his laptop and other records. ย The younger Biden never registered under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) as the law demands, which makes his transactions illegal. Others who have failed to do so have been criminally prosecuted, but not the presidentโs son. ย Hunterโs laptop alone is a treasure trove of incriminating evidence that implicates his father as complicit in secret deals to profit from his public office. The sheer magnitude of the schemes is staggering. Who knew that selling out your country could be so lucrative? ย
Nor have any charges been leveled under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. It is a crime for a public officeholder to confer a benefit to a foreign actor in exchange for personal financial gain. But given the partisan interference by our government institutions for the benefit of the Bidens, donโt expect that charges will ever be brought. The fix is in.
Where the Department of Justice refuses to act, Congress must. It has the backing of the American people who recognize corruption when they see it. A recent Harvard Harris poll found that 63% of voters believe that Hunter Biden engaged in illegal influence peddling, and a majority think Joe Biden was involved.
In an upcoming election where the incumbent presidentโs DOJ is prosecuting his likely opponent on dubious charges while simultaneously protecting Biden, it is imperative that any evidence of criminality be exposed for all to see. The money trail uncovered so far is a damning indictment of corruption at the highest level of government โ the current occupant of the White House.
Gregg Jarrett is a Fox News legal analyst and commentator, and formerly worked as a defense attorney and adjunct law professor. His upcoming book, “The Trial of the Century,” about the famous “Scopes Monkey Trial” will be released on May 30, 2023. It is available now for pre-order online at the Simon & Schuster website. Gregg is the author of the No. 1 New York Times best-selling book “The Russia Hoax: The Illicit Scheme to Clear Hillary Clinton and Frame Donald Trump.” His follow-up book was also a New York Times bestseller, “Witch Hunt: The Story of the Greatest Mass Delusion in American Political History.” Jarrettโs book, “The Constitution of the United States and Other Patriotic Documents,” will be published by Broadside Books, a division of HarperCollins on September 19, 2023.
Special Counsel John Durham, testifying before members of the House Judiciary Committee, described his findings in a report concerning the origins of the FBI’s investigation into claims of Russian collusion in former President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign, called his findings “sobering.”
“Many of the most significant issues documented in the report that we have written, including those relating to a lack of investigative discipline, failure to take logistical, logical investigative steps, and bias are relevant to important national security interests that this committee and the American people are concerned about,” said Durham in his opening remarks.
Such issues, left unaddressed, “could result in significant national security risks and further erode the public’s faith and confidence in our justice system,” said Durham. “As we said in the report, our findings were sobering, and I tell you, having spent 40 years-plus as a federal prosecutor, they were particularly sobering to me and a number of my colleagues who present decades in the FBI themselves.”
However, he said that the problems identified in the report are not easily fixed “overnight” and “cannot be addressed solely by enhancing training or additional policy requirements,” but “what is required is accountability, both in terms of the standards to which our law enforcement personnel hold themselves and in the consequences they face for violation of laws and policies of relevance.”
He also insisted that he and his colleagues carried out their work in good faith “with integrity and in the spirit of following the facts, wherever they led, without fear or favor.”
Durham also denied that he and his investigators acted in a partisan way, and to suggest otherwise is “simply untrue and offensive.”
Further, he said the findings in the report are “serious and deserve attention” from the American public and its representatives.
“We found troubling violations of law and policy in the conduct of highly consequential investigations directed at members of the presidential campaign, and ultimately a presidential administration,” said Durham. “It matters, not whether it was a Republican campaign or Democrat campaign; it was the presidential campaign.”
And the facts “should be of concern to any American who cares about our civil liberties,” he said. “Our report details the FBI was too willing to accept and use politically funded and uncorroborated opposition research such as the Steele dossier. The FBI relied on the dossier in FISA applications, knowing there was likely material originating from a political campaign, a political opponent.”
Durham also stressed that even though the investigation exposed deep concerns about the conduct of the investigators, it should not be read to suggest that Russian election interference wasn’t a significant threat or that the investigative authorities no longer serve an important law enforcement function or to benefit national security interests.
A.F. Branco has taken his two greatest passions, (art and politics) and translated them into cartoons that have been popular all over the country, in various news outlets including NewsMax, Fox News, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, and โThe Washington Post.โ He has been recognized by such personalities as Rep. Devin Nunes, Dinesh DโSouza, James Woods, Chris Salcedo, Sarah Palin, Larry Elder, Lars Larson, Rush Limbaugh, and President Trump
In our increasingly secular society, Christianity gets a bad rap. Religion in general is less and less welcome in the town square. But as Iโve argued elsewhere, you canโt ever truly vacuum religion out of society. We were made to worship, and worship we will. Laws enforce a moral vision, and so they will enforce someoneโs moral vision, good or bad.
Historically, itโs been understood that America had what was called a โcivil religion.โ This is a term used to refer to the implicit religious values of a nation, as often expressed in national ceremonies and civil customs. And, historically, Americaโs civil religion has been built on Christianity. These days, it seems like more and more itโs built on โLGBTQ-anity.โ
What I want to consider, however, is whether or not our historic American civil religion is compatible with Christianity. Are they friends or foes?
My argument here is that American civil religion is not necessarily at odds with Christianity, emphasis, mind you, on “necessarily.”
At its best, civil religion can serve as a transcendent, unifying element of a nationโs culture and civic life. As theologian and historian Dr. John Wilsey has defined it, civil religion is โA set of practices, symbols, and beliefs โ distinct from traditional religion โ that provide a transcendent paradigm around which the citizenry can unite.โ
According to Enlightenment thinker Jean-Jacques Rousseau, civil religion was a part of the social contract, a part of the general will. Civil religion was a key piece for embodying the people as a national organism, for forming the majority, and those within it (as well as the โoutlawsโ). Alexis de Tocqueville also saw civil religion as necessary for liberty. And in America, he saw conditions for a vibrant civil religion, made up of symbols, sources, traditions, and even sacred scriptures.
In America, those โsacred scripturesโ of our civil religion trace back to the foundation of the country, including the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution (and preamble), and particularly the Bill of Rights. These are aspirational as well as procedural documents. The corpus of civil religion has been built out over time, arguably including other items such as George Washingtonโs farewell address, the Monroe Doctrine, the Gettysburg Address, Lincolnโs Second Inaugural, the Emancipation Proclamation, and so forth.
In the American civil religion, our symbols include the flag, the Capitol, our monuments, and even our land, especially the National Parks. And, largely, the ideas from our American civil religion draw from virtuous wells, including historic Protestant Christianity. Again, all of these elements, and the celebration of what they are and how they contribute to our nation, are not necessarily at odds with Christianity.
However, Wilsey also provides a five-fold test for the practice of civil religion (or American exceptionalism) to ensure that it doesnโt ever rise to the level of replacing Christianity or threatening the Gospel. He writes:
โExceptionalism does not necessarily come into conflict with the Christian gospel. But when expressed and understood in strongly providential terms, it involves at least five theological themes imported from Protestant Christian theology and applied to America: 1. chosen nation, 2. divine commission, 3. innocence, 4. sacred land, and 5. glory.
When exceptionalism relies on these themes, then the idea is in conflict with the Christian Gospel. This kind of exceptionalism should be rejected because it potentially makes America an object of worship, bestowing a transcendent status upon it. And it sets America up as a necessary player in redemption history. From a Biblical standpoint, this soteriological form of American exceptionalism paves the way toward heterodoxy at best, heresy and idolatry at worst.โ
Where might we see these wrong views of civil religion in practice? Consider the first one: Claiming that America is a particularly chosen nation or that we are under a special election of God.
Historian Conrad Cherry argues that โthe history of the American civil religion is a history of the conviction that the American people are Godโs New Israel, his newly chosen people โฆ elected by God for a special destinyโ and that this belief has been evident in โthe focus of American sacred ceremonies, the inaugural addresses of our presidents, the sacred scriptures of our civil religion.โ
This is going too far; America is not the โnew Israelโ โ the Church is.
One good example of making civil religion sound almost salvific is President John F. Kennedyโs inaugural address. He references God in such a way as to not contradict Christian notions of God, weaving the transcendent nature of a โGod blessing Americaโ into his address in such a way as to appeal to Jews and Protestants along with Catholics. If you try to find a passage that is โanti-Biblicalโ in his address it will be hard to do, but he never clearly explains the Gospel or calls the American people to the greatest religious good โ repenting of their sins and believing in Jesus Christ.
Therefore, from a theological perspective, in order for American civil religion to operate in peaceable cooperation withโ and not at odds with โ Christianity, two standards must be met.
First, the content and practice of the civil religion โ that which it honors, reveres, and holds out as unifying and praiseworthy, and then the manner in which it calls citizens to participate โ must fall within the bounds of Christian ethics and values.
Put differently, it must meet the Philippians 4:8 test: โFinally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable โ if anything is excellent or praiseworthy โ think about such things.โ
For example, if โgay prideโ becomes a core value of American civil religion (as it seems to have become already), and the nation is called to celebrate homosexuality with perverse displays, then it sets itself at odds with Christianity.
The second standard for the Christian, along with the content and the manner of celebration, is that at no point does participation in American civil religion rise to an idolatrous level. For example, our civil religion encourages us to sing the National Anthem (a good thing) in a respectful manner (also appropriate). But if we are told that by singing the National Anthem, we are pledging our loyalty to the nation above all else, even God, then the civil religion has become idolatrous.
In Exodus 20:2-3, God gives His people the first commandment, telling them, โI am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me.โ And in Deuteronomy 6:4, God reminds the Israelites to โHear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.โ
In conclusion, I stand in the same place in which I started: No, American civil religion and Christianity are not necessarily at odds with each other. However, like patriotism or nationalism, civil religion for the Christian must take its rightful, assigned place on the list of our priorities, beneath our allegiance to God, the practice of our one true religion, Christianity, and the exercise of our Christian duties to God and man.
William Wolfe is a visiting fellow with the Center for Renewing America. He served as a senior official in the Trump administration, both as a deputy assistant secretary of defense at the Pentagon and a director of legislative affairs at the State Department. Prior to his service in the administration, Wolfe worked for Heritage Action for America, and as a congressional staffer for three different members of Congress, including the former Rep. Dave Brat. He has a B.A. in history from Covenant College, and is finishing his Masters of Divinity at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Follow William on Twitter at @William_E_Wolfe
Hundreds of members of the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) march to the Manhattan headquarters of BlackRock, the largest shareholder in the mining company Warrior Met Coal on November 04, 2021 in New York City. The miners and their supporters held a rally outside of BlackRock in support of over 1,100 UMWA members have been on strike for seven months at Warrior Met Coal over demands for better pay and benefits. | Getty Images/Spencer Platt
I do not for a moment downplay the danger of the radical, rightwing ideologies of White supremacists in America. Nor do I deny the existence of a dominionist, takeover mentality in some Christian circles, the most extreme of which were put on display in the days leading up to January 6, 2021. But the real danger, the ever-present danger, the more pressing danger, is that of a radical dominionist takeover from the left. The evidence is all around us.
Consider for a moment what is currently happening in America today (as opposed to predicting what is to come). Which group is currently asserting its power over others in an intimidating, even life-threatening way?
The Daily Wire reported on June 13 that, โMultiple Target stores across the U.S. received bomb threats over the weekend for allegedly โbetraying the LGBTQ+ communityโ by tamping down on some of the Pride Month products sold in its stores due to massive backlash the company has faced.โ
Yes, โThe FBI is now investigating the bomb threats that have been made in stores located in Oklahoma, New York, New Hampshire, Vermont, Louisiana, Ohio, Utah, and Pennsylvania.โ
More ominously, a June 11 headline in Daily Mailย announced, โThe new face of extremism unmasked: The UN and Republicans are watching โTrantifa‘ โ the hard-left transgender activists who flirt with violence to promote their radical agenda.โ
Trantifa! Enough said. Even the UN is on the alert.
On the economic side, a 2017 video has emerged of Larry Fink, CEO of the investment firm BlackRock, which directs tens of billions of dollars to different businesses and organizations. Without apology โ to the contrary, with a clear sense of moral imperative โ Finkย said, โBehaviors are gonna have to change and this is one thing we’re asking companies. You have to force behaviors, and at BlackRock we are forcing behaviors.โ
He continued, โItโs just, you have to force behaviors and if you donโt force behaviors, whether itโs gender or race or just any way you want to say the composition of your team, youโre gonna be impacted and thatโs not just not recruiting it is development.โ
Does this help to explain the increasingly illogical, pro-trans, business decisions made by companies like Target and Anheuser Busch?
So, it goes from Trantifa terrorism to an economic superpower โforcing behaviors.โ Are you getting the picture? (According to Fox Business, BlackRock โowns shares in everyday companies such as Amazon, Apple, MasterCard, Johnson & Johnson, Walmart and Walt Disney Co.โ)
Not only so, but Breitbartย reportedย on June 11 that, โBillionaire left-wing Democrat donor George Soros is handing control of his $25 billion financial empire to his younger son Alex who has vowed to pursue even more ultra-liberal causes.’
โThe newly crowned 37-year-old heir told the Wall Street Journal he will broaden his fatherโs famously woke interests to include issues like voting and abortion rights as well as โgender equality.โโ
Looks like a few more arms are about to be twisted (or even bribed or coerced) through money.
In California, legislation is advancing that would remove children from parental care if the parents refused to affirm their childโs perceived gender identity.Talk about an Orwellian nightmare.
Deeply alarmed after the Senate Judiciary Committee voted 8-1 to advance the legislation (Assembly Bill 957), Republican Senator Scott Wilkย said, โIn the past, when weโve had these discussions, and Iโve seen parental rights atrophy, Iโve encouraged people to keep fighting. Iโve changed my mind on that โ if you love your children, you need to flee California. You need to flee.โ
Flee! This is how extreme the radical left is becoming. This is the dominionist takeover that should be feared. For those who would argue that the right is doing this very thing by passing legislation outlawing the chemical castration and genital mutilation of trans-identified children, the comparison breaks down immediately. California would remove children from parental care if the parents refuse to affirm the non-verifiable, often quite malleable, totally subjective, feelings of a child. (In point of fact, upwards of 80% of such children will outgrow those feelings after puberty.)
The laws being passed in conservative states outlaw performing lifelong, irreversible treatments on vulnerable children, tests which have not been fully tested regarding the long-term negative effects (in particular, the long-term, negative effects of puberty-blocking hormones and the like; we already know about the long-term effects of genital mutilation; that is self-evident).
The California law would punish parents for being good parents; the other laws would prohibit doctors from being bad doctors.
In that same spirit of dominionist takeover, President Biden, in the context of trans-identified children, recentlyย reaffirmedย a comment he had previously made in April,ย saying, โThereโs no such thing as someone elseโs child. No such thing as someone elseโs child. Our nationโs children are all our children.โ
Itโs one thing to say, โWe want to work together as a country to care for all our children.โ Itโs another thing to say, โYour children are also our children.โ But that is what leftist dominionism looks like in action. Your kids belong to us!
As for dissenting speech, that too must be punished swiftly.
As reported on MSN.com on June 13, โNot even video games are safe from the all-encompassing and increasingly unhinged culture war over LGBT issues. Recently, a streamer and gaming personality known as โNickmercsโ faced widespread backlash online and even had his merchandise deleted from โCall of Dutyโ in response to some seemingly innocuous comments about LGBT-related issues.โ
Just how innocuous were the comments?
In short, โviolence erupted between activists on opposing sides of a controversy over a Glendale, California, school board and its decision to embrace Pride Month celebrations. Another prominent gaming personality, โPuckett,โ commented on this news on Twitter and said, โAmericans are in a sad place right now. Let people love who they love and live your own life.โโ
To this Nickmercs replied, โThey should leave little children alone. Thatโs the real issue.โ
And that was it. Away with you! Banned! Canceled! Deleted!
Thatโs because, for more than two decades now, radical LGBTQ+ activists who came out of the closet have been determined to put those who oppose their agenda into the closet. You shall not dissent!
In that same spirit, Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Anthony Bass was dropped by his organization, in part because of an Instagram post โthat called for anti-LGBTQ boycotts of Target and Bud Light over their support for the LGBTQ community and referred to the support as โevilโ and โdemonic.โโ
Although he deleted the post and apologized for any hurt he had caused, he did say he stood by his personal beliefs. That, of course, was unacceptable. Conform or be gone is often the rule, as the legendary pitcher Curt Schilling can tell you (he wasย firedย by ESPN in 2016 for his โtransphobicโ posts).
And, once more, in that same dominionist spirit, Lamda Legal tweeted on June 11 (quite boldly and clearly), โPRONOUNS ARENโT PREFERRED. THEYโRE REQUIRED.โ
Did I say already itโs a matter of โconform or be goneโ?
Thatโs why, as reported by the ADF, 12-year-old Liam, a student at Nichols Middle School in Middleborough, Massachusetts, โwas punished by the school for wearing a T-shirt that says, โThere are only two genders.โโ
How dare he!
Of course, other students can wear all kinds of โPrideโ affirming clothes. But the moment someone pushes back with simple biological reality, a forbidden line is crossed. Little children, who belong to the state, you shall not dissent!
All this, of course, is the tiniest tip of a massive, decades-old, ever-growing iceberg, in response to which more and more Americans are saying, โEnough is enough.โ
But let the truth be told clearly: we donโt have to wonder about an alleged, dominionist takeover coming from the radical right. Itโs already here, in force. And itโs coming from the radical left.
A school in southeastern England is under fire from parents and critics alike after one of its teachers chastised a student over her refusal to accept a classmate as a cat.
Grade eight students atย Rye Collegeย in East Sussex were subjected to a class on “life education” on Friday, during which they were told they can “be who you want to be, and how you identify is up to you,”ย reportedย the Telegraph.
Seizing upon the invitation to become who she wants to be, one student turned zoologist asked a classmate, “How can you identify as a cat when you’re a girl?”
For questioning a classmate’s attempt to self-dehumanize, the 13-year-old was subjected to a verbal thrashing by her teacher. The teacher ultimately told the student she was “despicable” and informed her that if she didn’t agree with the gender ideology being foisted upon her, she needs “to go to a different school.”
Audio of the exchange has since surfaced, wherein the teacher can be heard confronting the student: “How dare you? You just really upset someone, saying things like [you] should be in an asylum.”
“I didn’t say that,” responded the student. “I just said if they want to identify as a cat or something, then they are genuinely unwell. … They’re crazy.”
“You were questioning their identity,” said the teacher. “Where did you get this idea from? That there’s only two genders?”
The student noted, “There’s only a boy and a girl. There’s no other private parts,” adding, “I just said my opinion. If I respect their opinion, can’t they respect mine?”
The teacher suggested that the recognition of two genders is “not an opinion”; that gender is “not linked to the parts that you were born with. Gender is about how you identify. … There are lots of genders. There is transgender. There is agender.”
Before the teacher could rattle off the various other “genders” she had committed to memory, the 13-year-old interjected, saying, “Yeah, but you can’t have that. … It’s not a law but it’s our opinion โ we just don’t agree with it.”
In the audio, the student and her friend appear to reinforce one another, with one stating, “If you have a vagina, you’re a girl. If you have a penis, you’re a boy.”
“But cisgender is not necessarily the way to be,” said the audibly vexed teacher. “You are talking about the fact that cisgender is the norm, that you identify with the sexual organ you were born with or you’re weird, thatโs basically what youโre saying, which is really despicable.”
The teacher suggested that the girl’s thinking and that allegedly shared by her mother helped to account for why there is so much “homophobia” in the world. The 13-year-old corrected her teacher, noting that “that’s not homophobia, that’s transgender. I’m fine with lesbians and gay people. I’ve got nothing against them,” underscoring there is no meaningful link between gender ideology and homosexuality.
Unable to dominate the debate, the teacher signaled a desire to oust the debater, telling the student that she is in need of a “proper educational conversation about equality, diversity, and inclusion” and no longer belongs at the school.
— Turning Point UK ๐ฌ๐ง (@TPointUK) June 17, 2023
A parent of one of the 13-year-old’s classmates told the Telegraph, “I understand the point the teacher was attempting to make; what bothers me is the shutting down of debate in such a threatening and aggressive manner, which I donโt believe is appropriate in an educational setting.”
“Regardless of the subject, education should serve to build awareness of differing points of view to widen the understanding of a subject. It shouldnโt be a case of indoctrination,” added the parent.
Andrew Williams, leader of Christian Concern, told the Daily Mail, “These lesson plans targeting the innocence of children, and even babies, have no place in U.K. schools. The fact that they are being kept secret from parents tells us everything we need to know. Since RSE [relationships and sex education] was introduced, schools have become places of confusion rather than clarity. Lesson plans are becoming more and more extreme, and increasingly parents are being cut off and marginalized from what is being taught to their children.”
A spokesman for the the school said, “We are committed to offering our pupils an inclusive education. Teachers endeavour to ensure that pupilsโ views are listened to, and encourage them to ask questions and engage in discussion. Teachers also aim to answer questions sensitively and honestly,” adding, “We will be reviewing our processes and working with the relevant individuals to ensure such events do not take place in the future.”
The girls will reportedly face no punishment, as the school considers the matter closed.
The Daily Mailย reportedย earlier this year that the Church of England’sย Aquinas trust, which manages nine primary and two secondary schools including Rye College, instructed teachers earlier this year to “re-educate” students who use politically incorrect language, such as “stop acting like a girl.”
Staff were allegedly urged to “challenge negative language and actions, re-educating and using sanctions where appropriate.”
The so-called “Equality Lead” for the Aquinas trust,ย Barry Blakelock, also happens to be be executive head teacher at Rye College and Rye Community Primary School. Blakelock has been responsible for leading the trust’s “Equalities Strategy,” which advances an Orwellian “Inclusive Language Guide” that seeks to eliminate language that does not advantage gender ideology, including the terms “mother and father.”
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A documentary on the risks of transgender medical procedures reportedly was pulled from theaters after a pro-trans group complained about the planned screenings. According toย Gay City News, the documentary โ โNo Way Back: The Reality of Gender-Affirming Care” โ was to run June 21 at about 40 AMC Theatres until the Queer Trans Project raised objections to the content.
The QTP issued a public statement Saturday celebrating the cancellation of “No Way Back,” the outlet noted.
โThe Queer Trans Project is thrilled to announce a resounding victory in our collective efforts to challenge hate and misinformation,โ the statement noted, according to Gay City News. โIn less than 24 hours, we received over 1,500 petition signatures and reached over 14,000 individuals on social media through community mobilization and unwavering advocacy. This remarkable achievement demonstrates the power of our united voices and the urgency of defending the rights and dignity of the transgender community.โ
The Daily Wire said it reached out to AMC Theatres about the cancellation but did not receive a response.
A press release issued last week announced the screenings and said the documentary was โproduced by lifelong California Democrats and LGBT activists” and “takes a non-religious, non-political, and non-ideological look on the subject of gender-affirmative medical practices, the risks and side effects of cross-sex hormones, surgeries, and the long-term health implications of gender medicalization,” the Gay City News said.
A message at the top of the documentary’s website reads, “We’ve been canceled! Intolerant, illiberal, histrionic IGNORANT loudmouths who have not even seen the film have pressured AMC theaters to make the hard decision to cancel our dates! DO NOT LET THEM WIN!”
The site adds that “we will have the film available for streaming and on DVD as soon as possible. SIGN UP FOR UPDATES!”
A link on the documentary’s website leads to a statement about the film as well as a message from Deplorable Films, which headed up the project.
The statement about the film reads:
In response to recent histrionic and intolerant calls for screenings of this important film to be canceled, we will simply respond to the careless assertions made by those behind it.
They call the film โright-wingโ; this is absurd to the point of being libelous. The filmmakers (some of whom are gay and/or have gay children) are dedicated, life-long, Liberal Democrats. We request any of the detractors to offer actual evidence of them โor this filmโbeing โright wing.’
The film is not anti-trans people, nor is it even anti sex change surgery; there are trans people in the film speaking against the sudden rush to powerful drugs and major surgeries that are have increased exponentially in the past decade, and which have statistically caused far more pain and suffering than theyโve prevented.
The โQT Projectโsโ inference of detransitioning as โconversion therapyโ is a weak, underhanded attempt to conflate detransitioning with that despicable and sometimes devastating practice of the past. Nice try, kids. It might be worth noting here that thereโs an infamously repressive theocracy on the other side of the globe where โgender-affirmingโ surgery is the only option given to gay men and women, who may otherwise be executed under law.
Has this โQTโ group distanced itself from gay people? Perhaps looking to harm them? The film is very pro-gay. It also makes the point very clearly, that some of the worst harm that โgender-affirming careโ is causing is to kids who would otherwise grow up to be happy, well-adjusted gay men and women. Perhaps this is what frightens โThe QT Project,” not dissimilar from the theocracy mentioned above.
Or perhaps it is something else; perhaps they are on the payroll of those who profit from this โso much of what they are doing is resulting in the creation of life-long surgical and pharmaceutical patients are doing so to great benefit of certain surgical clinics and pharmaceutical companies.
It is quite evident that those undertaking this crusade against this film have not had the courtesy of seeing it before taking such extreme actions to silence it.
We stand by our filmmakers.
The Daily Wire said one person who appeared in the documentary โ a 26-year-old named Abel โ told the outlet about his transition to female as a teenager and then his de-transition.
โI would tell anyone who wants to transition, especially the young boys who think life would be easier because they are the perfect image of a masculine male, that the transition will not save them,โ Abel told the outlet.
โIt would actually destroy their lives. Actually, take a step back and think about this for a while,โ Abel added to the Daily Wire. โAnd even if that is what they think they wantโthe actual negative side effects, nobody will tell you.โ
A woman named Laura also appears in the documentary and told the outlet that she took a high dose of testosterone and got a double mastectomy before de-transitioning at age 22.
โIโm a very vocal advocate of complete bans for transition procedures for minors, both medical and social, because children are not developed,โ Laura said, according to the outlet. “They do not have the brains or bodies to be able to make long-term decisions about their reproductive and sexual health, and they just are not able to consent to these long-term procedures.โ
Here’s the trailer:
NO WAY BACK: The Reality of Gender-Affirming Care (formerly Affirmation Generation) 2 minute trailer youtu.be
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YouTube has removed Dr. Jordan Peterson’s recent interview with Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. from its platform, claiming the conversation was in violation of its “general vaccine misinformation policy.”
The duo โ whose dialogue the Google-owned platform determined should not be heard by prospective voters โ have been joined by countlessย criticsย in denouncing the move. In theย 95-minute interviewย published on June 5, entitled “Rekindling the Spirit of the Classic Democrat,” Peterson, a clinical psychologist, broached various topics with the presidential candidate, including Kennedy’s candidacy, COVID-19 vaccines, the collapse of the mainstream media, woke ideological capture, the environment, and the possibility of salvaging the Democratic Party.
— The Jordan B. Peterson Podcast (@JBPpod) June 5, 2023
Some in the liberal media have taken issue in particular with Kennedy’s suggestion that the “soup of toxic chemicals,” including “endocrine disruptors,” that children are allegedly being exposed to may be linked to “a lot of the sexual dysphoria that we’re seeing.”
The Independent highlighted Kennedy’s suggestion that “Thereโs atrazine throughout our water supply. … Atrazine, by the way, if you in a lab put atrazine in a tank full of frogs, it will chemically castrate and forcefully feminize every frog in there. And 10% of the frogs, the male frogs will turn into fully viable females able to produce viable eggs. If itโs doing that to frogs, it could, thereโs a lot of other evidence that itโs doing to human beings as well.”
YouTubeย saidย in a statement Monday, “We removed a video from the Jordan Peterson channel for violating YouTubeโs general vaccine misinformation policy, which prohibits content that alleges that vaccines cause chronic side effects, outside of rare side effects that are recognized by health authorities.”
The platform’sย vaccine misinformation policyย states, “Don’t post content on YouTube if it includes harmful misinformation about currently approved and administered vaccines.” Discussions of vaccine safety, particularly “content alleging that vaccines cause chronic side effects, outside of rare side effects that are recognized by health authorities,” along with remarks about the efficacy and ingredients of vaccines are verboten.
For instance, YouTube forbids the suggestion that vaccines can cause cancer or diabetes; do not reduce the risk of contracting illness; “contain substances that are not on the vaccine ingredient list, such as biological matter from fetuses”; and that vaccines can cause chronic side effects such as infertility.
Kennedy, the 69-year-old son of assassinated former U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy and nephew of assassinated former President John F. Kennedy, stressed that this censorship amounts to “blatant interference in the electoral process” and further evidence that YouTube is a “propaganda outlet.” He also thanked Elon Musk, noting that Twitter continues to host the video.
In a Sunday Twitter thread, the Democratic presidential candidate wrote, “Maybe you can help me figure out what ‘misinformation’ was in this interview. … Do you really need Big Tech censors to decide what you would hear? Or would you prefer to be treated as a competent adult who can listen to various viewpoints and come to his or her own conclusions?”
Peterson denounced the “commissars” at YouTube for what he similarly regarded as election interference, adding, “If there were any real journalists left among the legacy media they’d be up in arms about this.”
Extra to chastising the mainstream media for its apparent indifference to the silencing of a presidential candidate by a corporate behemoth, Peterson called out Democrats, stating, “The slippery slope is now headed your way and you richly deserve it.”
Bakari Sellers, a CNN commentator and former Democratic state representative in South Carolina, recently told The Hill that Kennedy “is probably the best example of an apple falling from the tree and rolling into a whole other orchard โ parroting Putin talking points and so on. He is not John, he is not Robert, and he is more associated with the likes of [podcaster] Joe Rogan and Elon Musk than he is with James Clyburn or Hakeem Jeffries.”
“You canโt let cancers metastasize,” added Sellers.
YouTube’s excision of Kennedy’s interview from its platform is not the first time Silicon Valley has attempted to squelch the speech of Biden’s rival. In February 2021, Instagramย shut downย his account, claiming Kennedy repeatedly shared “debunked claims about the coronavirus or vaccines.” That ban was reversed after Kennedy announced his presidential bid in April.
Last summer, Instagram and its parent company Facebook removed the accounts for Kennedy’s nonprofit, Children’s Health Defense, from their platforms, again claiming they had advanced “misinformation” during the COVID-19 pandemic, reported the New York Times.
Kennedy has invited the American public to “make a video and post it to @YouTube telling them what you think” as it pertains to the platform’s apparent decision to remain a “propaganda outlet” rather than “a modern-day public square.”
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Not too long ago, radical environmentalists in Congress attempted to pass an extreme climate change agreement they dubbed the “Green New Deal.” Though this legislation did not pass and is widely unpopular with the American populace, that has not stopped Democrats from trying to implement portions of the legislation at the state and local levels.
The hyper-fixation by Democrats, or as I like to call them, Spendorcrats, on alternative energy is a dangerous precedent by leadership in this country. Earlier this month, our country was on the brink of default because Joe Biden and Democrats in Congress neglected to negotiate a budget until the last minute, despite ongoing attempts by Republicans for nearly half a year.
Instead of focusing on these long-term ideas, leaders in Washington need to focus on the issues impacting Americans now; kitchen table issues. As a financial adviser, when clients ask whether investing in energy-efficient windows or appliances is a good idea, I first make sure they’re prepared to meet their current obligations if something goes wrong. In other words, our team ensures they have enough savings to pay their bills if they lose their job.
People hold signs calling for President Joe Biden to support a Green New Deal and end his support of pipelines and the fossil fuel industry. St. Paul, Minnesota, Jan. 29, 2021.ย (Tim Evans/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
I ask these questions because, like the federal government, we make sure our clients focus on long-term issues, not short-term desires. Before our government starts to regulate energy production and alternative energy resources, we must ensure our finances are in order to pay our bills. As we saw earlier this month, that is easier said than done.
Last month, I graduated from Harvard with my masterโs. There, I spent much of my research on the impacts of alternative energy and progressive environmental policies.ย From banning livestock farming to gas stoves, progressive lawmakers are trying to implement the Green New Deal one step at a time because they cannot pass it all at once. It is sort of like what my wife and I did with our children to get them to eat vegetables. Each night at dinner, we would get them to eat the healthy foods they hated little by little, knowing theyโd begin to eat them on their own without protesting over time.
Among Democratsโ proposals, the biggest losers are lower- and middle-class Americans who cannot afford the proposed alternatives. For example, a consumption tax on animal-based proteins will effectively force farmers and agricultural companies out of business, and lower- and middle-class Americans will not be able to purchase plant-based alternatives retailing for significantly higher prices.
Equally as important, even if prices do come down due to economies of scale, it doesn’t negate the fact that study after study shows most consumers do not enjoy the product. Like many things in life, merely saying something is what it isn’t doesn’t change reality. Fake meat is, well… fake.
Aside from chasing a progressive fairy tale to outlaw animal-based farming in the name of climate justice, these policies will bankrupt one of our countryโs most significant economic sectors. If thereโs anything we must be self-sufficient in, it is meeting agricultural demands to fully feed our country.
Through malicious agricultural policies, progressives are funneling resources and handing land to the Chinese Communist Party to build EV battery plants on American soil, using American labor.
Just an hour north of where my family and I live in western Michigan, the Chinese Communist Party is building an EV battery plant stretching over 523 acres, consuming some of Michigan’s most precious resources: land and water. The issue with the Gotion plant is not necessarily that they are building EV batteries; it is that the federal government, and Michiganโs state government, are handing over tax breaks and billions of dollars in government subsidies to a Chinese company that requires their employees to pledge allegiance to the Chinese Communist Party; it is in their handbook!
The United States has always been regarded as a global innovator that values intellectual property. On the other hand, China has always been regarded as a replicator that steals from its adversaries and manipulates products for its own profit.
The Green New Deal and progressive environmental policies are detrimental to the fabric of our republic. Not only will they force everyday Americans to undergo unnecessary financial burdens, but they are also putting our national security at risk. We need leaders in Washington who will stand up and disrupt the status quo. We cannot let our leaders simply sell our trade secrets and land to the highest bidder, the bidder who happens to be our greatest geopolitical adversary.
Our country must focus on the issues driving historic inflation and worsening economic conditions before we can even consider addressing alternative energy and new environmental policies. The American people cannot afford these policies, and from what the federal government has shown us, neither can they.
Michael Markey, a financial adviser, is a Republican candidate for Congress in Michigan’s 3rd Congressional District.
Sen. Ron Johnson to Newsmax: Hunter Plea Deal Attempt to Keep Truth From Public
By Brian Freeman | Tuesday, 20 June 2023 02:46 PM EDT
The Hunter Biden plea deal for failing to pay federal income tax and illegally possessing a weapon is highly suspicious and appears to be an attempt to keep the truth from the American public, Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., told Newsmax on Tuesday.
“The timing is more than interesting โ just as we find out about a credible source claiming a $5 million to $10 million bribery scheme and [Hunter’s business associate] Devon Archer poised to testify before the House committee,” Johnson told “National Report.”
“Is this the Justice Department’s attempt to try and seal this all up and keep the truth from the American public? This is what I fear.”……………..
To hear President Joe Bidenโs supporters tell it, Hunter Biden was finally held accountable Tuesday, and the long national nightmare of him facing any scrutiny at all can finally end.
This accountability for the presidentโs son, however, was little more than a chiding for offenses that have virtually nothing to do with the serious allegations the Department of Justice should actually be pursuing โ like giving a speeding ticket to โthe getaway driver after a bank robbery,โ George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley remarked.
Over the past two weeks alone, congressional Republicans have revealed a paid, โhighly credibleโ FBI informantโs report that $10 million was paid in bribes to Hunter and his father, then-Vice President Joe Biden, by Ukrainian oligarch and Burisma founder Mykola Zlochevsky.
Zlochevsky called the then-vice president โthe big guy,โ a nickname also used in the Biden familyโs allegedly corrupt China dealings. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, revealed the existence of two audio recordings Zlochevsky reportedly made of Joe Biden (and another 15 he made of Hunter) discussing their dealings, which Zlochevsky reportedly kept as a sort of โinsurance policyโ that heโd get what he was paying for.
What was he paying for? Emails from the chairman of Burisma (revealed three years ago) show โthe ultimate purposeโ of โthe deliverablesโ was โto close down for any cases/pursuits against [Burismaโs president] in Ukraine.โ That case was indeed closed down, when Vice President Biden pressured Ukraine to fire the prosecutor pursuing Burisma.
Congressional investigators also revealed that Hunter helped Burisma executives open an account for their transactions at Satabank,……….
President Joe Bidenโs corrupt Department of Justice is so desperate to distract from Republicansโ exposรฉ of the Biden family bribery scandal that it finally brought a handful of weak charges against Hunter Biden for his tax and gun crimes.
Under the guise of serving equal justice, the DOJ announced on Tuesday that it would charge the presidentโs youngest son with two federal misdemeanor counts for failing to pay his taxes and one federal felony charge for possessing a gun while being an illegal drug user and addict.
Hunterโs lawyers are scrambling to declare โthe five-year investigationโ into their client as โresolved.โ Corporate media like NBC News, similarly, claimed the DOJโs โresolution suggests that prosecutors did not find cause to file charges related to Hunter Bidenโs dealings with foreign entities or other wrongdoing.โ
Nothing could be further from the truth. Just like when it strategically timed its political arrest of a Republican congressman to coincide with a GOP press conference detailing evidence of Biden corruption, the DOJ is working overtime to ensure that Hunter serves as a distraction from the bigger Biden problem.
Since at least 2021 when Politico exposed records and receipts, the public has known that Hunter, who has an extensive and public history of illicit drug use, appeared to lie about this drug use on the Firearms Transaction Record he filled out during a revolver purchase in 2018.
Government officials such as local police, the Secret Service, FBI, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, likely knew about the lie earlier than 2021 since the .38 revolver soon became the center of a missing gun investigation, in which the Secret Service reportedly tried to interfere on behalf of the Biden family.
Similarly, most of the preliminary federal investigation into Hunterโs 2017 and 2018 financial wrongdoings was completed by 2020.
Yet, U.S. Attorney David Weiss delayed bringing charges against Hunter because, as Politico described, โthe investigation would become a months-long campaign issueโ that would hurt Bidenโs presidential chances. It wasnโt until Republicansโ increasingly evidenced probe into the Biden bribery scheme, which the Biden administration continues to hamper, that Weiss finally decided to target the presidentโs son.
What a breathtaking and damaging act of misdirection. After five years of investigation into a host of criminal acts by Hunter Biden, the Department of Justice (DOJ) finally brought charges against the presidentโs wayward son. But while the DOJ hopes the public focuses on words like โchargesโ and โguiltyโ to form an image of accountability for all, itโs letting Hunter walk away with the kind of slap on the wrist most defendants can only dream about from inside a prison cell.
In the same breath in which DOJ announced it was filing charges against Hunter Biden, it also stated that the case had already been resolved. Hunter will plead guilty to and serve probation for two tax fraud misdemeanors while a felony firearm possession charge will disappear after he completes pretrial diversion. Itโs a resolution that if the defendantโs last name werenโt Biden would sound almost too good to be true.
The feds are notoriously tough on firearms. Nationally, for example, 94.2 percent of federal firearms convictions in 2022 involved some prison time, and the median sentence was 39 months.
Of course, Hunter wonโt even have to end up with a conviction. This is an even rarer event. In 2021, fewer than 1 percent of cases filed by U.S. attorneys in federal court resulted in the kind of pretrial diversion offered to Hunter.
Itโs that disparity between Hunterโs case and everybody elseโs thatโs the true problem, not necessarily the sentence itself. After all, the law in question, which prohibits individuals suffering from an illegal drug addiction from possessing a firearm, likely violates the Second Amendment. Plus, diversion programs across the country have improved public safety at lower cost to taxpayers than prison alternatives.
But thatโs clearly not how things are shaking out in practice at DOJ, and President Biden has expressed an ongoing willingness to harshly punish firearms offenses. His DOJ is defending this law in court, and he signed a law in 2021 to increase maximum penalties from 10 years to 15 years in prison. Apparently, President Biden does not believe offenders should be treated with kid gloves โ at least when itโs not his kid.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said Tuesday that investigations into alleged influence-peddling schemes by President Joe Biden and his family will not be deterred after Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, reached a plea deal with the Department of Justice on tax-related charges to avoid jail time on a gun offense.
“This does nothing to our investigation,” McCarthy told reporters Tuesday, according to The Hill. “It actually should enhance our investigation because the DOJ should not be able to withhold any information now saying that there’s a pending investigation. They should be able to provide [House Oversight Committee] Chairman [James] Comer with any information that he requires.”
As part of the agreement, Hunter Biden, 53, will plead guilty to misdemeanor tax offenses and admit to illegally possessing a weapon after his 2018 purchase of a handgun. As part of that admission, he would enter a diversion program, and if he meets the conditions of the program, the gun charge would be removed from his record.
Christopher Clark, Hunter Biden’s attorney, said he considers the case against his client to be resolved, The Hill reported. But the Delaware office of U.S. Attorney David Weiss, who was appointed by former President Donald Trump, said the investigation is still ongoing.
McCarthy said he hopes that is not a ploy by the DOJ to withhold information and avoid complying with House Republicans.
“How can Hunter Biden plead guilty, no jail time, and the DOJ say there’s still an investigation, try to withhold information to the House?” McCarthy said. “That’s unacceptable and will not stand.”
A.F. Branco has taken his two greatest passions, (art and politics) and translated them into cartoons that have been popular all over the country, in various news outlets including NewsMax, Fox News, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, and โThe Washington Post.โ He has been recognized by such personalities as Rep. Devin Nunes, Dinesh DโSouza, James Woods, Chris Salcedo, Sarah Palin, Larry Elder, Lars Larson, Rush Limbaugh, and President Trump.
Image source: Instagram video screenshot via @the_typical_liberal
A Huntington Beach, California, city council member and some parents took time during a local school board meeting earlier this week to blast aย Pride video recently shown to students. A clip that’s been circulating on social media shows students purportedly in an Edison High School math class watching the Pride video and reacting with jeers and boos.
The teacher gives an initial warning for unruly students to “stop!” But when the negative reactions continue, the teacher adds, “Hey, I’m warning you guys now, if you’re gonna be inappropriate, I will have supervision down and give all of you a Saturday school for next year. So knock it off.”
โAt no time was the teacher concerned with the studentโs visceral reactions as they watched the video clips of couples in intimate positions and poses,” Councilwoman Gracey Van Der Mark said during Tuesday’s Huntington Beach Union High School District board meeting, according to Voice of OC. “In my opinion, it was not the students who were being inappropriate in that video.”
Van Der Mark added that she’s received emails demanding that she apologize for calling on parents to speak out against the teacher and the video shown in the class, the outlet noted.
โI will never apologize for encouraging parents to express their concerns any time they are worried about their childโs safety or well-being. Never,โ she said, according to Voice of OC.
The outlet said some parents spoke out, too.
The Daily Pilot reported that one parent described the Pride video as โindoctrination,โ which drew cheers from some in the crowd. The parent also accused โactivist teachersโ of trying to push their values on his children, the Pilot added.
While many have reacted harshly toward the teacher in question as if airing the clip was her idea, conservative commentator Robby Starbuck โ who posted the clip on Twitter โ noted in a subsequent tweet that “some 10th grade students came forward to tell me that this video was played in ALL classes that day, not just math class. Theyโre upset about it and want the school to refrain from playing videos like this.”
Another Twitter user โ @inminivanhell โ made a similar claim on Twitter, saying the clip was shown in all classes and actually is from the student news channel. The Daily Pilot added that it was from an episode of a student-produced show called “Bolt TV.”
That Twitter user added, “In an effort to control the class, the teacher can be heard warning the students if they canโt behave they will receive Saturday school. This teacher is now dealing with her picture & name being posted all over the Internet โ because she asked them to behave in class.”
That same Twitter user also noted the following: “Further context: the student news video was 10 mins long, it shared graduation information, interviews with students, sports recap, and videos reflecting on their school year. This video clip about Pride was a 1-min segment during the episode.”
Another Twitter account posted what it claimed is the Pride clip shown at Edison High School:
Here is the video that was shown at Edison High. Itโs a simple explanation of #Pride month and does not show two women kissing, just their heads together. The message of this video is to love and accept everyone on campus. That is all. #BoltTV@EdisonChargerspic.twitter.com/EcWN5YofM9
— Exposing_Huntington_Beach (@exposing_hb) June 12, 2023
The Huntington Beach Union High School District on Monday didn’t immediately respond to TheBlaze’s request for comment on the initial story.
The Daily Pilot also reported that residents about a mile away from Edison High School found anti-LGBTQ, anti-Jewish flyers the morning after the school board meeting.
Councilwoman Natalie Moser told Voice of OC that a resident sent her a photo of the flyer.
The flyers feature a pentagram, star of David, and the words โThe LGBTQ+ movement is Jewishโ in a rainbow-colored font, the Daily Pilot said, adding that Mayor Tony Strickland said their distribution was limited to a small, โisolatedโ area.
Van Der Mark told the Voice of OC that the flyers don’t have anything to do with the Pride video, and she also issued a statement against the flyers.
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Reddit, a link-aggregating website that claims to be the โfront page of the internet,โ has turned into a hotbed for radicalization. Redditโs fundamental reliance on upvotes over an algorithm produces an unstable equilibrium in the hands of bad-faith moderators. This creates an incredible echo chamber made up of subreddits, which create groups of individuals who will gladly throw away their empathy as long as they view themselves as a โbastion of goodโ fighting those who are ontologically evil. In some rare cases, these individuals reach beyond the keyboard and manifest this radicalization into action.
This article is meant to shed some light onto the unseen world of Reddit, where left-wing users are routinely goaded into increasingly concerning rhetoric and, sometimes, even violence.
How Reddit Works
To understand why Reddit is uniquely suited for this type of radicalization, you will need a basic understanding of how Reddit operates. Unlike most social media platforms that utilize complex faceless algorithms to curate content for individuals, Reddit is far simpler. Users are given the ability to โupvoteโ and โdownvoteโ content, which directly affects what other users see. Theoretically, this system produces a true marketplace of ideas, but thereโs a catch.
Reddit relies heavily on more than 40,000 volunteer moderators to act as guide rails for subreddits, allowing good faith and positive discourse to flourish. However, Redditโs moderators wield remarkable power and go largely unchecked, likely because the value these unpaid moderators bring to the platform makes them indispensable, no matter how Orwellian and drunk on power these moderators become. The free reign that moderators have over the site gives them inordinate power over the system. Often moderators are not selected based on their ability to moderate but rather on their desire to moderate. Since these mods are volunteers, one of the biggest rewards for becoming a Reddit moderator is the power the mods wield.
The problem Reddit faces today is that many Reddit moderators are no longer interested in moderating speech. Instead, these activist moderators use their power to suppress the speech of dissenters, tumbling subreddits into radicalizing echo chambers. They achieve this by censoring and banning anyone who goes against the narrative. Want proof of the assertion Donald Trump hates black people?ย Youโre banned. You refute the claim โgenital Surgery is not performed on minors in the statesโ?ย Youโre banned. Post a link to an Associated Press story about how โSouth Africa begins seizing white-owned farmsโ?ย Youโre bannedย from ever posting in that subreddit again.
Who Uses Reddit?
In terms of user demographics, 74 percent of Redditors are men, and nearly 64 percent are between the ages of 18 and 29. Research has demonstrated that this demographic is uniquely vulnerable to radicalization, and the radicalization of these individuals is becoming increasingly common due, in large part, to the internet and social media. Most headline news stories about the dangers of social media spotlight right-wing radicalization, but this often belies the fact that left-wing radicalization is similarly common on sites like Reddit. Left or right, Reddit is an especially unique social media site that can foster political radicalization among its users.
Discourse on Reddit often quickly devolves into the kind of language that can encourage radicalization. Redditors can often be found using extreme language to attack and belittle their opponents. However, the most vile rhetoric often manifests itself in โsafe-spaceโ subreddits where their opponents are either unable or unwilling to retort. The pattern of comments often becomes detrimentally self-reinforcing, where Redditors are praised for doubling down and repeating increasingly radical ideas.
The lack of disagreement radicalized individuals on Reddit encounter means they often come to believe they are a bastion of virtue fighting against the predations of an ontologically evil opponent. This manifests itself in the wholesale hatred of entire groups such as the GOP, where accusations like โAll Republicans are Fascistsโ are repeated dozens if not hundreds of times per day. These baseless accusations often receive hundreds or thousands of approving upvotes, boosting the message to the top of comment threads.
Another common result of residing in radicalizing echo chambers is that Redditors consistently perceive threats that are not actually there. For instance, claims of a โtrans genocideโ never hold up to academic scrutiny or official definitions of โgenocide.โ And Redditors are constantly concerned that Republicans, due to their religious nature, are โfundamentally theocraticโ or worse, they are โChristofascists.โ To say that Redditors frequently demonstrate fundamental misunderstandings of Republicans and conservatives would beย a monumental understatement. And in an environment where extremism is unchallenged, misinformation is the bread and butter of the so-called โfree-thinking, high IQโ individuals on Reddit. Redditors will frequently misconstrue the truth in order to conflate individuals and ideologies that are not actually linked. It then becomes a game of tenuously tying those two ideologies together via mental gymnastics and repeated lies.
Along these lines, another common tactic is amplifying the actions of a small portion of a group to demonize the entire group. For example, when one individual does something heinous, such as one lawmaker in Florida making a ridiculous bill โoutlawing Democratsโ โ technically, the bill outlawed any party that had formerly supported slavery โ many Redditors condemned Ron DeSantis for it, despite DeSantis publicly disavowing it.
A License to Hate
Redditors are, just like most social media users, highly motivated to oppose things they see as evil. This motivation, coupled with moderators permitting ontological hatred of an entire group of people, is what gives Redditors an excuse to go on the offensive without pesky restrictions such as โempathyโ and โrespect.โ Once this โlicense to hateโ takes hold of a subreddit, it will begin to spiral into ever-increasing hateful discourse.
This process is initiated when moderators, rather than moderating the speech of a subreddit, decide that hateful rhetoric against certain โout groupsโ is acceptable and even praiseworthy. This suggestion of ontological evil is often the core foundation of radicalization on Reddit. The manifestation of this can be seen in subreddits such as r/WhitePeopleTwitter, r/196, r/MurderedByWords, and many other โnon-politicalโ subreddits that have become highly politicized as their moderators have decided that speech against โfascismโ (which is merely speech against any conservative) is wholly justified.
Users of these subreddits will often get showered with upvotes for making absurd claims like โThe GOP are all fascist traitorsโ that quickly devolve into people advocating for violence against any and all individuals on the political right. In that situation, moderators are often the only thing capable of preventing a politicized subreddit from spiraling into insanity.
Unfortunately, moderators willing to hold the line on civil discourse are few and far between on Reddit. When moderators release restrictions on speech based on the aforementioned ontological evils projected onto enemies (e.g., โkill all fascistsโ), the community begins its descent into chaotic vitriol:
This often comes along with crackdowns against dissenting opinions. Often mods will put their foot down and make broad sweeping statements about โnot tolerating nazisโ and then ban individuals who, for instance, have any activity in r/Conservative because โAll Conservatives are Nazis.โ
This intolerance of opposing views, driven by the agenda of moderators, is resulting in the death of subreddits and a cooling of speech on the platform. One such example of this is the subreddit r/JusticeServed. Activist mods of the subreddit used an automated tool to systematically ban users who had any participation in subreddits like r/Conservative. The result of these ban waves was the rapid stagnation of a multimillion-subscriber subreddit.
Whatโs more, the administrators of Reddit apparently support this insane automatic banning process. Recently, when a few confused members of r/Conservative posted the messages they received showing they had been banned from participating in r/JusticeServed, the moderators of r/Conservative got a stern warning from Reddit administrators warning them against โban showboating.โ Needless to say, left-wing subreddits have not been given the same warnings.
Mods that use mass-banning systems are creating giant rifts in user overlap that both hurt communities on Reddit and damage the siteโs retention of users and reputation as a whole.
Herman Cain Award
Redditors are champing at the proverbial bit to have a justification to become engulfed in hatred. One of the most prominent examples of how enticing this โlicense to hateโ is for Redditors can most clearly be seen in the meteoric rise of the hate subreddit r/HermanCainAward.
Herman Cain was a 2012 presidential candidate. During the beginning of the pandemic, he publicly denied the severity of Covid-19, which would ultimately take his life in July. In August 2020, a month after his death, his Twitter account posted this: โIt looks like the virus is not as deadly as the mainstream media first made it out to be.โ
This quickly entrenched Herman Cain as the poster child for individuals who denied the severity of Covid or refused the vaccine and eventually succumbed to the disease.
The subreddit r/HermanCainAward was launched just three weeks later, but it would rise in popularity in the fall and winter of 2021. What resulted was one of the most grotesque displays of widespread hatred for humanity ever orchestrated on Reddit.
The format of the subreddit was simple. Find an individual (usually from Facebook) who had succumbed to the virus and then find posts from that same person downplaying the danger of the pandemic or refusing a vaccine. You then post a timeline of their death to Reddit and, like roaches to a sewer, the worst of Reddit crawled into the comments to jeer and laugh at the demise of these individuals.
r/HermanCainAward is a subreddit dedicated to celebrating the deaths of people who are unvaccinated. Recently, this "reminder" reached the front page in an attempt to justify their behavior.
Comments on various threads show the true meaning of the subreddit: Rejoicing in death. pic.twitter.com/YtKUhr94Kl
While reveling in the death of people is egregious in itself, some users would regularly take this one step further. In the early days of the subreddit, before it was a requirement to censor names and faces, Redditors would often track down the Facebook account itself and harass the grieving family members.
The #HermanCainAward subreddit is a community dedicated to mocking the dead. Recently they tightened their rules on doxxable content despite many redditors claiming "HCA doesn't #doxx anyone."
More than 500,000 Redditors would eventually subscribe to the subreddit that gave them a license to hate. The subreddit was so bad that even liberal corporate media outlets felt they had to condemn it.
Fomenting Violence and Terror Recruitment
When these Reddit echo chambers encourage extremism and allow misinformation to flourish, the threats perceived by the individual members of these Reddit communities are portrayed as imminent and dire. This means these threats demand quick, decisive action. After steeping themselves in rhetoric like this, there is only one conclusion that can logically be drawn by many of the Reddit radicals โ violence is justified. Indeed, if you truly believed there was an active genocide going on against trans people perpetrated by โLiteral Nazis,โ wouldnโt you do anything you could to stop it?
Nothing special, just a Redditor on r/196 sharing the home addresses of Supreme Court Justices and Molotov Cocktail recipes. pic.twitter.com/ex0CPhF3DB
In one notable case, a Redditor was contacted by the Department of Homeland Security for threats he or she had made on Reddit toward SCOTUS. And Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaughโs would-be assassin, a man by the name of Nicholas Roske, was actively looking for affirmation as he suggested assassinating the justice on a subreddit known as r/TwoXChromosomes. He laid out his initial intention on Reddit before he was arrested near Kavanaughโs house with a Glock, zip ties, a tactical knife, pepper spray, a hammer, a screwdriver, a nail punch, a crowbar, and duct tape.
"There is a way he could be removed" -Nicholas Roske's Reddit account before attempting to assassinate Justice Kavanaugh. pic.twitter.com/Gl6LztoS0c
Naturally, Antifa has found Reddit instrumental in rallying radicalized individuals to its cause. Reddit has thoroughly spread Antifaโs violent ideology, which, again, effectively states that there is no middle ground: Everyone that disagrees with Antifa is a fascist who doesnโt deserve rights or basic protections such as free speech, and any violence committed against these literal Nazis is self-defense, even if youโre the aggressor.
After a user has been successfully steeped in such rhetoric, Reddit provides a gateway for Redditors to turn their anger into violent activism. Subreddits like r/AntifascistsOfReddit give users explicit guides for how users can cover their tracks and hide from scrutiny. (This is often referred to as OPSEC, or โoperational security.โ)
Antifaโs OPSEC and non-hierarchical organizing structure often make it hard to directly connect violence to the influence of the organization. It should come as no surprise then that Redditors are being arrested for violence connected to Antifa causes. Samuel Fowlkes, one of the Antifa members arrested in April for attacking protesters at a drag show in Texas, had an extensive history on Reddit. His posts and comments demonstrate just how instrumental Reddit was in his radicalization. Kyle Tornow, a man who threatened to blow up a Portland police station during the civil unrest in 2020, also had a history on Reddit.
And while perhaps he wasnโt as far-left as Antifa, itโs worth noting the account of the man behind the recent mass shooting in Louisville, Kentucky, was also found on Reddit. His account regularly espoused left-wing views.
The Louisville Kentucky shooter used the Instagram handle CSturg41.
A Reddit user with the same name (u/csturg41) hated Trump, posted to r/ChapoTrapHouse (a banned far-left subreddit), and was generally a shut-in. pic.twitter.com/gaBBJTwHiC
For the most part, Redditors donโt expand their hate beyond the reach of their keyboards. However, it should also come as no surprise that some Redditors decide to take the logical conclusions of the narratives theyโre spoon-fed into real life. By now, Reddit has a well-established history of being used by these violent activists to attempt to get advice, suggestions, or praise for carrying out violent acts against other individuals.
That history is as extensive or more extensive than many other social media sites that have been relentlessly called out for violence and disinformation. And yet, the media and the rapidly increasing number of โdisinformationโ groups have given Reddit radicalization hardly any attention. It appears they only regard violent rhetoric as a problem when it can be connected to right-leaning politics. If concern about violent rhetoric were applied fairly, there would be a deafening chorus from the media and Big Disinformation demanding accountability at Reddit.
Reddit has taken action in the past. Just a few weeks after the Jan. 6 riot, Reddit banned the โThe Donaldโ subreddit for harassment and targeting at the same time it also banned the raucous left-wing โChapoTrapHouseโ subreddit for similar reasons. However, Jan. 6 produced a censorious hysteria among media companies and Big Tech and given the rhetoric and out-of-control subreddits that have flourished on the site since then, thereโs little evidence Reddit management still cares about these issues.
Fixing Reddit would mean some pretty fundamental changes to how the site operates, particularly holding moderators accountable. Moderators are the only individuals who really have the power to break this cycle of escalating rhetoric and violence. Redditors as a group have demonstrated theyโre incapable of self-moderation. Activist moderators need to be scrutinized and potentially have their privileges revoked. There should be increased moderator transparency.
Moderators, not the siteโs owners and administrators, are who ultimately control the platform, and Reddit is going to pay for it dearly. Reddit is subject to the whims of unpaid moderators who have extreme control over the speech on the platform. Until thatโs fixed, Reddit will remain a hotbed of radicalization and is likely to be associated with more violence in the future.
The author runs the popular Twitter account @reddit_lies.
Secretary of Stateย Antony Blinken reiterated U.S. support of the “One China” policy on Monday, saying that the U.S. does not support Taiwanese independence following a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
“We do not support Taiwan independence,” Blinken said in a press conference on Monday. “We remain opposed to any unilateral changes to the status quo by either side. We continue to expect the peaceful resolution of cross strait differences. We remain committed to continuing our responsibilities under the Taiwan Relations Act including making sure Taiwan has the ability to defend itself.”
“At the same time, we and many others have deep concerns about some of the provocative actions that China has taken in recent years going back to 2016,” Blinken added. “And the reason that this is a concern for so many countries, not just the United States, is that were there to be a crisis over Taiwan,ย the likelihood is that could produce an economic crisis that could affect quite literally the entire world.”
“Fifty percent of commercial container traffic goes through the Taiwan Strait every day. Seventy percent of semiconductors are manufactured in Taiwan. If as a result of a crisis that was taken offline, it would have dramatic consequences for virtually every country around the world,” he added.
Chinese President Xi Jinping, right, and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken pose for photographers in Beijing Monday June 19, 2023.ย (AP)
Blinkenโs comment comes amid increased tensions between China and the United States related to Taiwan. Last week, Taiwan’s air force scrambled fighter jets after a group of 10 Chinese aircraft crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait for the second time in a matter of days.
This month, the U.S. military released video of a close encounter between a Chinese navy ship and an American destroyer in the Taiwan Strait, and there have been several close calls between Chinese and U.S. military aircraft recently, including an air intercept by a Chinese fighter jet over the South China Sea in late May.
China considers self-ruling Taiwan its own territory and has raised the prospect of annexing it by force. The U.S. maintains informal relations and defense ties with Taiwan even as it recognizes Beijing as the government of China.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks during a news conference with Singapore’s Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan at the State Department, Friday, June 16, 2023, in Washington.ย (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
“We have no illusions about the challenges of this relationship. There are many issues on which we profoundly and even vehemently disagree,” Blinken added. “The United States has a long history of successfully managing complicated relationships through diplomacy.”
Blinken told reporters that the relationship between China and the U.S. took a “positive step” during his trip over the last two days and said his counterpart, Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang, agreed to visit Washington D.C., in the future at a “suitable time.”
Blinken acknowledged that China did not agree to set up a crisis military-to-military communications channel which had been one of the goals of the U.S. heading into the meeting.
Chinese President Xi Jinping discussing the country’s economic and social development at a political gathering in Beijing.ย (Lintao Zhang/Getty Images)
Over the last year, the U.S. and China saw more than $700 billion in trade which according to Blinken constituted the highest level between the two countries on record. He reiterated U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen’s testimony before Congress last week that it would be “disastrous” for the U.S. to decouple and stop all trade and investment with China.
“We are for de-risking and diversifying. That means investing in our own capacities and in secure, resilient supply chains, pushing for level playing fields for our workers in our companies. Defending against harmful trade practices and protecting our critical technologies so that they aren’t used against us. I made clear that we’ll continue to take targeted actions that are necessary to protect U.S. national security,” Blinken said.
Fox News’ Danielle Wallace contributed to this report
Andrew Mark Miller is a writer at Fox News. Find him on Twitter @andymarkmiller and email tips to AndrewMark.Miller@Fox.com.
FIRST ON FOX โ Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is facing two lawsuits for his failure to comply with state Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) requests for information about his office’s possible communication with the Justice Department, White House and Democrat lawmakers with regard to Braggโs prosecution of former President Donald Trump.
In March, Bragg indicted Trump on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in the first degree after a months-long investigation into the former president related to hush-money payments made during his 2016 presidential campaign. Bragg is alleging that Trump falsifiedย New York business recordsย to “conceal damaging information and unlawful activity from American voters before and after the 2016 election.”
The Heritage Foundation, a Washington, D.C.-based conservative think tank, has sued Bragg under suspicions that he and his office coordinated or communicated with the Justice Department, the White House and Rep. Daniel Goldman, D-N.Y., about the prosecution. In its lawsuit, Heritage claims that such actions eventually led to investigations by several U.S. House committees into Bragg’s conduct.
“Regrettably, these questions have not been met with answers. These reports have raised concerns in many circles based in large part upon the longstanding history of President Trumpโs political opponents coordinating their activities to systematically weaponize the criminal justice system against him and thereby pervert the course of Justice,” a filing for the first lawsuit reads.
New York City District Attorney Alvin Bragg, right, is facing two lawsuits for his failure to comply with state Freedom of Information Law requests for information about his office’s possible communication with the Justice Department, White House and Democrat lawmakers in relation to Braggโs prosecution of former President Donald Trump, left.ย (Shane Bevel/NCAA Photos via Getty Images | Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
A separate lawsuit filed by Heritage alleges that Bragg and his team retained pro bono assistance from major law firms that specialize in white-collar litigation. They are now asking the court to declare requested documents as “subject to release under the New York Freedom of Information Law,” declare that Bragg and his team provide said documents, and bar his team from “seeking costs and fees for the request at issue in this case.”
According to Heritage, Bragg and his team have largely stonewalled the groupโs requests for communications between the suspected parties, which the group says they have a right to see under New Yorkโs FOIL laws.
A separate lawsuit filed by the group alleges that Bragg and his team retained pro bono assistance from major law firms that specialize in white-collar litigation.ย (Lev Radin/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images)
Mike Howell, director of Heritageโs Oversight Project, which serves as the groupโs government watchdog arm, said they believe Bragg was “coordinating, or otherwise communicating” with Trumpโs political opposition and that “there’s reason to believe Bragg was a “prolific communicator” via cellphone.
“The fact we have to file a lawsuit against Bragg who says he can’t produce these records and says he doesn’t have the systems to do so, is proof-positive of another dual standard of justice at play in this country,” Howell said in an interview with Fox News Digital.
“You have a weaponized actor who’s going after the former president on a loony theory about his document retention, whereas the DA can’t even keep his own documents, and it’s in violation of the information laws he is bound by,” Mike Howell, director of Heritageโs Oversight Project, told Fox News Digital.ย (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
“You have a weaponized actor who’s going after the former president on a loony theory about his document retention, whereas the DA can’t even keep his own documents, and it’s in violation of the information laws he is bound by,” he continued.
“He’s a hypocrite. He’s wasting an exorbitant amount of New York’s taxpayer’s dollars to defend this now and delay it and obstruct it when he couldโve just turned it over,” he said.
Bragg’s office did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
Brianna Herlihy is a politics writer for Fox News Digital.
House Republican leaders return to Capitol Hill this week, struggling to control anger within the party that might derail their legislative agenda over the summer, The Hill reported on Monday.
Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., the former head of the Freedom Caucus, said talks with Speaker Kevin McCarthy were initiated by the anger of his handling of the debt ceiling negotiations, that “I haven’t been overly pleased or participatory โฆ but I’ll just say that I don’t think we’re moving in the right direction as far as solving this massive growth in national debt.”
Biggs continued that “my biggest concern is, What’s the coalition that the speaker has built? We want to know who his coalition partners are. Is it the Democrats, or is it going to be the conservative voices and the other Republicans in the conference?”
When Biggs was asked if the conservatives would resort to their successful strategy of blocking floor action, the representative immediately responded, “Oh, I think it’s always on the table. I’m an ‘all-tools’ guy.”
Threats such as this illustrate the delicate balancing act McCarthy and other Republican leaders face as try to cut deals with President Joe Biden in order to enact must-pass bills like raising the debt ceiling and funding the government without angering the conservative wing of the GOP that view deficits as a greater threat than a default or a shutdown.
Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., voiced the concern of the conservative wing, saying: “I’m not worried about a shutdown. The country’s going to be permanently shut down if we don’t get our spending under control. And I’m tired of hearing, ‘We’ll do it tomorrow.’ “
After conservative rebels backed off of their revolt last Monday, announcing they would let legislative business resume, at least for the time being, McCarthy has sought the aid of top deputy, Rep. Garret Graves, R-La., to help in the attempt to further mitigate the concerns of the conservatives, according to those familiar with the talks.
But Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., last week suggested that if there’s no progress by the time the House is ready to vote on another rule โ which could happen as soon as Wednesday โ conservatives might block floor activity once again.
However, Rep. Bob Good, R-Va., another one of the Republican rebels, was more optimistic about the direction of talks with McCarthy, saying “there have continued to be constructive, healthy conversations on how we’re gonna work together this entire conference to cut spending.”
A.F. Branco has taken his two greatest passions, (art and politics) and translated them into cartoons that have been popular all over the country, in various news outlets including NewsMax, Fox News, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, and โThe Washington Post.โ He has been recognized by such personalities as Rep. Devin Nunes, Dinesh DโSouza, James Woods, Chris Salcedo, Sarah Palin, Larry Elder, Lars Larson, Rush Limbaugh, and President Trump
Oh, look, itโs another one of those books that Democrats absolutely demand be made available to children. All it does is push little kids to โdefyโ the โridiculous rulesโ of gender normsโ because they cause โdepressionโ!
A friend of mine took her two young children โ a boy, 6, and a girl, 4 โ to the Indianapolis Public Library, Glendale branch, this week and let them pick out some books from the kidsโ section. It wasnโt until she got home that among the ones chosen by her daughter, who hasnโt yet learned to read, was Tabitha and Magoo Dress Up Too, a colorful picture book by Michelle Tea, the creator of โdrag queen story hour.โ
Tabitha and Magoo Dress Up Too promotes transgenderism to children. IMAGE CREDITUSED WITH PERMISSION
The story involves two young kids who like to play dress up, but when theyโre told to take the costumes off before leaving the house, a garish drag queen named Morgana arrives and tells them all about the splendor of being a transvestite.
โLike Mama Ru said, we all are born nude,โ the book says. โAll our clothing is dragโevery dress, tie, and snood. Now, I know that some people make ridiculous rules, but youโll learn to defy them, and Iโll give you some tools!โ
โI know that some people make ridiculous rules, but youโll learn to defy them,โ the book says. IMAGE CREDITUSED WITH PERMISSION
Mama Ru is a nickname for RuPaul, the famous drag queen. He and depictions of several other drag performers are featured on another page. This is a book listed on Amazon for children ages 4 to 8. Isnโtย yourย 6-year-old a โDrag Raceโ fan?! The pages are filled with illustrations of little boys wearing dresses, girls wearing male sports attire, other boys in wigs, wearing heels and make-up and on and on. Also jarring are drawings of swords, snakes, and one creature with the head of a cat but the body of a cow. (All thatโs missing are seven heads, 10 horns, and 10 crowns.)
My friend noted the passage on one page in particular that she said concerned her the most: โYou see, my dear children, when gender expression / is hampered with rules, it just leads to depression!โ
The book continues: โwhen gender expression is hampered with rules, it just leads to depression!โ IMAGE CREDITUSED WITH PERMISSION
โYou see, my dear children, when gender expression / is hampered with rules, it just leads to depression!โ
Just what every parent wants โย to explain the concept of depression to their 4-year-old daughter.
โIโm a moderate who previously thought the book bans were outrageous,โ my friend told me, referring to the attempt by some local governments to restrict sex-themed kidsโ books in public libraries and schools. โI support the gays and the queens but not the idea of teaching a child they should be depressed over the gender they were born into.โ
Itโs worth repeating that she had no idea her child had chosen this book until after she and her family had gotten home. She had assumed that when her daughter came back to her with a vibrant picture book plucked from the kidsโ section that it was harmless literature for children. But as weโve seen, the kids are no longer off limits. The militant transgender activist lobby is out to get them and this is how theyโre doing it.
Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley and House Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. James Comer of Kentucky dropped a bombshell subpoena last month demanding the FBI hand over a document alleging a bribery scheme between President Joe Biden and a โforeign national.โ
On May 3, the pair of GOP lawmakers requested congressional access to an unclassified FD-1023 form, a document used by the bureau to catalog information from a confidential human source. The FBI record suggests President Biden took a foreign bribe during his time in the Obama administration.
After more than a month-long back-and-forth between agency leadership and Capitol Hill wherein House Republicans even prepared contempt proceedings for FBI Director Christopher Wray, members of Congress were finally able to review the document Thursday. Hereโs everything we know about the record in question.
Confidential Human Source Is โHighly Credibleโ
The confidential human source (CHS) behind the FD-1023 is reportedly a โhighly credibleโ informant with an agency tenure stretching back more than a decade. According to Fox News, the whistleblower informant has collaborated โin multiple investigative mattersโ with the FBI since the Obama administration, with consistent reviews for credibility.
โThe confidential human source who provided information about then Vice President Biden being involved in a criminal bribery scheme is a trusted, highly credible informant who has been used by the FBI for over 10 years and has been paid over six figures,โ Chairman Comer told reporters last week.
Contrary to MSNBCโs claim that โAll roads lead to [Rudy] Giulianiโ in the sourcing for the document, individuals familiar with the investigation told The Federalist the FD-1023 document came independent of information provided by the former New York City mayor.
Allegations Date Back to 2017
In addition to researching the cache of incriminating intelligence on the Biden family Giuliani sent to the FBI, agents searched the FBIโs databases and discovered a related FD-1023 from 2017. That prompted agents to re-interview the CHS and uncover details about the Burisma bribery scandal, resulting in the FD-1023 dated June 30, 2020.
Bidens Allegedly Took $10 Million From Burisma Executive
Grassley spoke in a Monday floor speech about the โforeign nationalโ who allegedly bribed the Biden family, and who has since been identified by people familiar with the matter as Mykola Zlochevsky, the founder of Burisma. The Ukrainian energy firm showered Hunter Biden in excess compensation on its corporate board while his father served as the โpublic faceโ of White House policy towards Ukraine.
The CHS summarized earlier meetings with Zlochevsky in the FD-1023, claiming the Bidens โcoercedโ the foreign businessman to pay the multimillion-dollar bribes. Zlochevsky had been trying to shut down government investigations into his Ukrainian energy firm. The energy tycoon allegedly paid $5 million to then-Vice President Joe Biden, referred to as the โBig Guyโ by Zlochevsky in the FD-1023, and $5 million to Hunter.
According to a report from Grassley and Wisconsin Republican Sen. Ron Johnson in September 2020, Zlochevsky had separately paid a $7 million bribe to the Ukrainian prosecutor generalโs office to shut down another probe.
In 2018, Biden bragged about his lead role in the termination of Ukraineโs top prosecutor who was investigating Burisma.
Grassley: There Are Tapes
While the DOJ appeared to try to drown out coverage of the Biden bribery scheme with the unprecedented indictment of former President Donald Trump, Grassley reinjected the White House scandal into the news by disclosing the existence of audio recordings on Monday.
โAccording to the 1023, the foreign national possesses 15 audio recordings of phone calls between him and Hunter Biden,โ Grassley said. Another two recordings are reportedly calls between Zlochevsky and then-Vice President Biden, for 17 recordings in โtotal.โ
Grassley said Zlochevsky kept the tapes โas a sort of insurance policy,โ and noted that the form also suggested โthen-Vice President Joe Biden may have been involved in Burisma employing Hunter Biden.โ
House Republicans who reviewed the document also say Hunter Biden pressed Burisma to purchase an American oil company. In 2016, the Ukrainian firm ultimately took over a Canadian firmโs shares to buy into a joint venture with the American company Cub Energy.
AG Barr Referred Investigation To Delaware
Shortly after FBI Director Wray allowed members of the House Oversight Committee access to the FD-1023, Democrat Ranking Member Jamie Raskin sought to dismiss Republican allegations of corruption with a statement. An investigation into Biden bribery, Raskin said, had previously been shut down under Attorney General Bill Barr during the Trump administration.
โIn August 2020, Attorney General Barr and his hand-picked U.S. Attorney signed off on closing the assessment,โ Raskin said.
In an exclusive interview with The Federalist, however, the former attorney general debunked Raskinโs assertion.
โOn the contrary,โ Barr said, โit was sent to Delaware for further investigation.โ
Tristan Justice is the western correspondent for The Federalist and the author of Social Justice Redux, a conservative newsletter on culture, health, and wellness. He has also written for The Washington Examiner and The Daily Signal. His work has also been featured in Real Clear Politics and Fox News. Tristan graduated from George Washington University where he majored in political science and minored in journalism. Follow him on Twitter at @JusticeTristan or contact him at Tristan@thefederalist.com. Sign up for Tristan’s email newsletter here.
High school volleyball player Payton McNabb called out the hypocrisy of the Biden administrationโs position on transgender students participating in girlsโ sports. McNabb accused White House press secretaryย Karine Jean-Pierre of changing the narrativeย in order to play the victim.
The Murphy, North Carolina, student began speaking out against biological males competing in womenโs sports after sheย suffered a concussionย and a neck injury in September when a transgender player spiked the ball and it hit her in the face.ย She has since urged lawmakers to take action, saying in an April speech at the Independent Womenโs Forum that “allowing biological males to compete against biological females is dangerous.”
“That is a dangerous thing to say that essentially transgender kids, weโre talking about, are dangerous,” Jean-Pierre responded.ย
On “Americaโs Newsroom” on Friday, McNabb called Jean-Pierreโs comment hypocritical but said sheโd expect nothing else from the administration.
Watch the clip of Payton McNabb getting spiked in the face by a male competing with the women. Then watch her testimony she gave today for the first time publicly. I was honored to stand alongside her in NC to continue the fight to protect women's sports. pic.twitter.com/mvJmwprkaX
“She’s taken what others have said about how this is dangerous for us, and she’s essentially switched it around and played the victim from the situation, which I expect nothing less from that whole administration,” McNabb said.
McNabb said her own experience being injured by a transgender athlete was traumatizing and her recovery has been difficult and slow.
She told co-hosts Bill Hemmer and Dana Perino that her team was aware of the opposing teamโs transgender player before the game.
Payton McNabb speaks on “America’s Newsroom” with Dana Perino and Bill Hemmer.ย (Fox News)
“But we couldn’t just refuse the game since it was a conference game. So we had to continue to play them, even though none of us wanted to,” she said.
“I just remember seeing the fear in especially our younger players on the team who’ve never played against them before. So just seeing how scared they were, it was really heartbreaking.”
The North Carolina state legislature has taken up the issue, and a bill banning transgender girls from competing in womenโs sports needs to pass one final Senate committee before being sent to the floor for a vote.
Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper is expected to oppose the bill.
But McNabb said the issue is important to prevent other female athletes from experiencing what she went through.
“The thought of it happening to my younger sister, who’s going into high school, or my other family members, my teammates, if that happened to any of them, it would just infuriate me,” she said.
“I just don’t think this is something that we should even have to be talking about.”
Circa 1996, U.S. lawmakers wanted to make sure scrappy startups, like AOL and Amazon, had a fighting chance against incumbents. Our government had a straightforward approach: rubberstamp mergers and free tech from any regulatory oversight. These policy approaches were intended to level the playing field for the nascent tech industry and export our values abroad.ย And it worked! But only in part.ย Our tech policies of yoreย have turned those startups into the worldโs first set of trillion-dollar companies. But Big Tech failed to export our values โ and has even been counterproductive on that end.ย
Big Tech has set aside American values to profit off China. Appleโs manufacturing arrangements in China, for example, have contributed to the ongoing enslavement of Uyghurs โ a religious minority โ In the country.
Big Tech has been kowtowing to Chinese interests not American values.ย ย (JOSEP LAGO/AFP via Getty Images)
And Big Tech has helped the Chinese government firm up its own anti-American sentiments.ย Appleย has a multi-billion-dollar dealย that givesย the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) a back channel to all Apple devices located on the mainland.ย ย Appleโs deal with Chinaย requires it to take down apps that promote anti-CCP narratives, including those celebrating the Tiananmen Square demonstration and calling for independence for Tibet and Taiwan.ย
Big Tech has even exported CCP values into the United States. Googleย demonetizes YouTube videosย in the U.S. that offend the CCP.ย Amazonย partneredย with Chinaโs propaganda arm “to create a selling portal on the companyโs U.S. site,ย Amazon.comย โ a project that came to be known as China Books.” ย Apple still lists TikTok as an “essential app” for its users even with the Treasury Department investigating the app on national security grounds, the Department of Justice investigating the company for spying on American journalists, and theย director of the FBIย and President Joe Bidenโsย Director of National Intelligenceย raising issues with the appโs relationship with the CCP.
Back in America, our laissez-faire approach has encouraged Big Tech companies to take centralized control over our information, personal data and our markets. These companies are so dominant that they can buy out any competitor that drives away revenue from them, with the federal government green lighting nearly every acquisition Big Tech wants. Since 2000, Google, Amazon, Meta, and Apple collectively acquired over 800 companies.
What may be worse, Big Tech uses centralized control to kill new startups, force acquisitions, or just flat-out steal their competitorsโ functions through their app stores. And to “connect and promote a vast network of accounts openly devoted to the commission and purchase of underage-sex content.”
The firms also totally control digital ad markets to arbitrarily inflate the cost of digital ads. In short, they get richer while you pay more for products online.
Last Congress, a bipartisan chorus of Senators and Representatives proposed bills to curb the effects of Big Techโs centralized control by reforming our antitrust laws, protecting our children and creating a national privacy regime.
TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew testified before a congressional panel on Thursday regarding security concerns surrounding the Chinese-owned app.ย (Fox News)
Not one significant reform passed. Why not?ย One theory is that Big Tech simply outspends their oppositionโs lobbying effort. But that doesnโt tell the whole story.ย ย The reason is far more entrenched โ our tech policies have evolved from nurturing startups to institutionalizing Big Tech incumbents as ourย national champions. ย
Sadly, our government still thinks these companies will help us fight against China, even though they kowtow to the CCP at almost every chance and consistently invoke policies that suppress our core values domestically, like freedom of speech, religion or association.ย ย And Big Tech has helped the Chinese government firm up its own anti-American sentiments.ย Appleย has a multi-billion-dollar dealย that givesย the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) a back channel to all Apple devices located on the mainland.ย ย
Frankly, these facts should call into question whether Big Tech even shares American values at all.
It is even more imperative to get this right as our nation decides how to deal with artificial intelligence.ย Itโs no secret that the Chinese government wants toย militarize its ownย AIย capabilities;ย we are shaping up to be on the losing end of that digital arms race if we donโt get serious. ย As it stands now, the AI market is concentrated among a few companies, dominated by Big Tech. Worse, almost all have significant ties to China and its government.ย ย Our national security and individual liberty demand that Congress tackle AI with a clear sight of who these companies are and the values they hold โ based not only on their words but their actions.ย
The reality is that Big Tech firms are not our champions, and our policies should stop treating them as such. Instead, we should treat them like the multinational corporations that they are. Letโs start by passing meaningful, bipartisan reforms to protect our consumers, our children, and โ letโs face it โ our national security.
Joel Thayer is president of the Digital Progress Institute and an attorney who focuses his law practice on telecommunications, regulatory and transactional matters, as well as privacy and cybersecurity issues.
The financial toll of the Pride backlash by conservatives against Anheuser-Busch, Kohl’s, and Target has resulted in a collective $28.7 billion loss in market value since the beginning of April, according toย Axios. Reactions to “woke” policies and sales pitches mean companies could find themselves targeted at any time with the fallout being unpredictable, the news outlet said.
Anheuser-Busch, fighting to recover from the backlash over a social media Bud Light promotion with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney, told its customers, “We hear you.” In aย statementย posted on the company website, Brendan Whitworth, Anheuser-Busch’s CEO, offered no apology for the controversy. According to Axios, the controversy resulted in a loss of billions of dollars off its market capitalization and shaved a 20% loss in its stock, which has since recovered, but is below its 52-week high.
Axios said Target has faced its own controversy for selling LGBTQ-themed clothing. Target opted to remove some of its Pride Month collection after the retailer’s promotion resulted in threats to the safety of its employees. It had also been revealed that the retailer had lost $10.15 billion inย market capitalizationย due to the public backlash over its LGBTQ line of kids clothing, as well as one-piece swimsuits with “tuck-friendly construction” and “extra crotch coverage.”
The outcry over merchandising aimed at Pride Month and Bank of America downgrades, were responsible for a $15 billion loss from Target’s market cap, Axios noted. It has now recovered and stands at about $63 billion โ down from about $74 billion in May.
“Many companies celebrate Pride by changing their logos, sponsoring celebrations, and offering themed products. While these corporate statements have been broadly accepted for years, the intensifying culture war may make companies more vulnerable to backlash,” Eurasia Group analysts Kylie Milliken and Noah Daponte-Smith wrote in a client note last month.
Axios said Kohl’s shares are underperforming. However, the stock, which had seen a drop of over 20% amid the controversy, has since rebounded. The retailer had experienced public backlash and calls for a boycott. This, after Kohl’s released its latest Pride Month merchandise, including a “Baby Sonoma Community Pride Bodysuit set” for 3-month, 6-month, and 9-month-old kids. The onesie, sports an illustration of what appears to be a lesbian couple with a dog and three children, including a young boy in a wheelchair. One adult in the illustration is carrying a multicolored flag. Other Kohl’s Pride merchandise under scrutiny included a “Love Is Love” banner, towels, bibs, candles, shorts, and pillows, as well as shirts that say “Be Proud” and “Ask Me My Pronouns.”
Is it just me, or is anyone else just tired of all this LGBTQHSGSYUASKJSUHP(YO{A(*^)+}AKKMN being shoved down our throats? I wish some polling outfit would run that poll. I think there are a lot of people who really don’t care about someone’s life choices. They aren’t mine, I love them just as they are, while not approving of those choices. Isn’t that being civil, and loving my neighbor?
Scientists at the University of Cambridge and the California Institute of Technology appear to have successfully accomplished what abortionists and libertines have only managed in a piecemeal fashion over recent decades: They have severed reproduction from fertilization.
Researchers have produced synthetic human embryos using stem cells, bypassing the need for sperm or eggs altogether, reported the Guardian.
According to Quanta Magazine, Cambridge professor Magdalena ลปernicka-Goetz and Jacob Hanna at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, have worked in recent years to craft mouse embryo models from stem cells, then grow them in nutrient-filled bottles, which served as “a kind of crude artificial uterus.”
Their monster creations soon developed the basis of what would “become a spinal column, along with the bulbous blob of the nascent head and even a primitive beating heart.”
While they were meddling with mice, a multi-institutional team of researchers, led by Chinese reproductive engineer Zhen Lu at the State Key Laboratory of Neuroscience in Shanghai, reportedly generated synthetic embryos using monkey embryonic stem cells, then successfully initiated pregnancies in monkeys via a process resembling in vitro fertilization.
Rather than abandon rodents to retread Lu’s monkey business, ลปernicka-Goetz and Hanna endeavored to tinker with the world’s top primate.
ลปernicka-Goetz detailed her latest work in a plenary address Wednesday before the International Society for Stem Cell Research in Boston, noting, “We can create human embryo-like models by the reprogramming of [embryonic stem] cells.”
ลปernicka-Goetz described cultivating human embryos beyond the equivalent of 14 days of development for a natural embryo, when the synthetic embryo “reached the beginning of a developmental milestone known as gastrulation, when the embryo transforms from being a continuous sheet of cells to forming distinct cell lines and setting up the basic axes of the body. At this stage, the embryo does not yet have a beating heart, gut or beginnings of a brain, but the model showed the presence of primordial cells that are the precursor cells of egg and sperm,” noted the Guardian.
ลปernicka-Goetz called the dehumanized process and its monstrous result “beautiful,” adding, “Our human model is the first three-lineage human embryo model that specifies amnion and germ cells, precursor cells of egg and sperm.”
Janet Rossant, a developmental biologist and International Society for Stem Cell Research steering committee member, told the MIT Technology Review that such synthetic embryos, if equipped with all the right cell types, could possibly survive to become viable humans.
ลปernicka-Goetz stressed to CNN that “they are not human embryos. … They are embryo models, but they are very exciting because they are very looking similar to human embryos and very important path towards discovery of why so many pregnancies fail, as the majority of the pregnancies fail around the time of the development at which we build these embryo-like structures.”
ลปernicka-Goetz’s previous synthetic mouse embryos were virtually indistinguishable from the real thing after eight days, according to Quanta magazine.
The difference between an embryo model and the real thing, according to Christine Mummery, developmental biologist in the anatomy and embryology department at Leiden University Medical Center, is that they have “not been derived by fertilization.”
While it is illegal to implant these embryos in a woman’s womb, the novelty of the stem cell-derived embryos presently affords scientists leeway they would not otherwise have if dealing with embryos resultant of sperm-and-egg fertilization.
“Unlike human embryos arising from in vitro fertilization (IVF), where there is an established legal framework, there are currently no clear regulations governing stem cell derived models of human embryos. There is an urgent need for regulations to provide a framework for the creation and use of stem cell derived models of human embryos,” said James Briscoe, associate research director at the Francis Crick Institute.
Robin Lovell-Badge, the head of stem cell biology and developmental genetics at the Francis Crick Institute, told the Guardian, “If the whole intention is that these models are very much like normal embryos, then in a way they should be treated the same. … Currently in legislation theyโre not. People are worried about this.”
IVF-sourced embryos are presently subject to the ethics-informed “14-day rule.”
Professor Martin Pera with the Jackson Laboratory noted in the journal Development that the 14-day rule, whereby the in vitro culture of the human embryo is not allowed to proceed beyond day 14 of embryonic development in various jurisdictions, was the result of bioethical discussions that took place in the early days of the IVF field in the 1970s, especially after the first successful birth of a British child conceived by IVF.
While the prevailing wisdom appeared to be that it was ethically questionable to conduct experiments on human beings during their embryonic stage of development, according to Pera, the four key arguments advanced in support of a 14-day limit on embryo culture were as follows:
“14 days is the last stage in development at which twinning can occur and therefore represents the point of individuation”;
“not even the founding cells of the nervous system have been specified prior to this stage”;
“there is substantial embryo loss from the time of fertilisation up to this point”; and
“until the process of implantation is complete, the embryo has no potential for further development.”
While regulatory bodies at American universities and other research institutions in the U.S. allegedly adhere to the “14-day rule,” the International Society for Stem Cell Research issued a recommendation in its 2021 guidance that the possibility of increasing the permitted culture time be considered by “national academies of science, academic societies, funders, and regulators.”
NPR reported that the creation of so-called embryiods, living entities made from human stem cells that are increasingly complex and comparable to human embryos, has “added pressure to extend the rule so scientists could compare these new entities with naturally conceived embryos.”
Dr. Ildem Akerman, from the University of Birmingham, told the BBC, “These findings suggest that we would soon develop the technology to grow these cells beyond the 14-day limit, with potentially more insights to gain into human development. … Nevertheless, the ability to do something does not justify doing it.”
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Here is an utterly un-American quote from President Joe Biden:
These are our kids. These are our neighbors, not someone elseโs kids; theyโre all our kids. And our children are the kite strings that hold our national ambitions aloft. It matters a great deal how we treat everyone in this country. LGBTQI+ Americans, especially children: You are loved. You are heard. And this administration has your back.
Now, perhaps the phrase โtheyโre all our kidsโ sounds like an innocuous platitude to some woke White House speechwriter, but to me it sounds like a totalitarian notion.
Years ago, P.J. OโRourke correctlyย describedย the purpose of Hillary Clintonโs detestable book on the same subject: โIt takes a village to raise a child. The village is Washington. You are the child.โ Itโs no accident the head of the nationโs largest and most powerful teachers unionย praisesย op-eds withย headlinesย like, โParents claim they have the right to shape their kidsโ school curriculum. They donโt.โ Thatโs also the position of the institutional left, including the president, whoย arguesย that American values are at risk if parents dare demand kidsโ libraries exclude books describing incestual rape, celebrating gender dysphoria, and depicting 10-year-old boys having oral sex.
Marx also saw the traditional family as an antiquated unit. The first Soviet welfare ministersย complainedย about the โnarrow and pettyโ idea of the nuclear family in which reactionary bourgeois parents, selfishly wrapped up in their trivial anxieties, were โnot capable of educating the โnew person.โโ
Donโt get me wrong, I donโt believe Joe Biden is going to ship parents to Siberia. Nor am I suggesting that the presidentโs handlers are sitting around thinking about the Frankfurt School. (They arrived at a similar philosophical destination organically, I suspect.) What Iโm saying is that the White House is teeming with wannabe authoritarians who believe the state would do a better job raising kids by filling their impressionable heads with corrosive, immoral ideas. And that the institutions to achieve that goal already exist.
Public schools, some of them excellent and many of them disastrous, are not voluntary, communal places. In most municipalities, parents have little choice, and their kids are in a captive audience. State-run schools, conceived to educateย andย forge patriotic, civic cohesion, have often become places of left-wing indoctrination โ from โuniversal pre-kโ until they go off to college, where credentialed halfwits and leftist ideologues who detest the โnational ambitionsโ of a constitutional republic run the place. You pay for all of it. But you also get to shut up.
Itโs important to remember that totalitarian states do not stop citizens from participating in political life, they demand it. Everything one does in these societies is drenched in ideology. Sports. Movies. Academia. Books. Commerce. Morality. Family. Sex. Schools. Which very much sounds like the goal of contemporary leftism.
Itโs none of our business who you sleep with or what sex you cosplay as, but it is our business that government-run elementary school kids are running around waving flags celebrating sexual identification and gender dysphoria like little soldiers in historyโs dumbest Cultural Revolution.
Why wouldnโt they? Elizabeth Warrenย saysย things like, โBlack trans and cis women, gender-nonconforming, and nonbinary people are the backbone of our democracyโฆโ At the White House the other day, the self-anointedย pontifex maximusย of true Americanismย raisedย the pride flag to the same level of reverence as the Stars and Stripes, a flag that exists to represent all of us. Though, to be fair, most contemporary leftists seem a lot more comfortable standing under a rainbow flag than an American one.
Letโs start by pointing out that there is absolutely nothing uplifting or patriotic about allowing doctors, operating under the patina of (pseudo)science, to forever mutilate confused kids. The stateโs duty to your children is to protect them from violence and abuse. Those who allow that cruelty, even celebrate it, do not, in fact, have โyour back.โ
Yet, the White House hangs a flag that implicitly endorses this barbarity, and then demands you do too. Indeed, reactionary parents, believers, traditionalists, normies, contrarians โ culture warriors โ unwilling to salute an ideology that grates against their religious, moral, and/or scientific beliefs are smeared as โcruelโ enemies of โdemocracyโ and โdiversity.โ As the great Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn (what a name) argued decades ago, despite all its rhetoric about inclusivity, the left is the โenemy of diversity and the fantastical promoter of identity. Uniformity is stressed in all leftist utopias, paradises in which everybody is the same, envy is dead, and the enemy is either dead, lives outside the gates, or is utterly humiliated.โ
Of course, even if pride flags were completely unobjectionable, your kids are not โkite strings that hold our national ambitions aloft.โ They are human beings with rights, parents, and unique ambitions, not platitude-spouting automatons who should be categorized by skin color or gender โidentification.โ In a truly diverse and free nation, we have an array of aspirations and very different ideas about what constitutes โnational ambition.โ Thatโs why politics exists. Thatโs why neutral principles of governance and inherent rights (are supposed to) exist.
The Bidens allegedly โcoercedโ a foreign national to pay them $10 million in bribes, according to individuals familiar with the investigation into the FBIโs handling of the FD-1023 confidential human source report. What, if anything, agents did to investigate these explosive claims remains unknown, however, with sources telling The Federalist the FBI continues to stonewall.
On Monday, Sen. Chuck Grassley revealed a foreign national โ identified by individuals with knowledge of the matter as Burisma founder Mykola Zlochevsky โ allegedly possessed 17 recordings implicating the Bidens in a pay-to-play scandal. While 15 of the audio recordings consisted of phone calls between Zlochevsky and Hunter Biden, two were of calls the Ukrainian had with then-Vice President Joe Biden, according to the FD-1023.
The Federalist has now learned the FD-1023 reported the CHS saying the Bidens โcoercedโ Zlochevsky to pay the bribes. Sources familiar with the investigation also explained the context of Zlochevskyโs statements, and that context further bolsters the CHSโs reporting.
In the FD-1023 from June 30, 2020, the confidential human source summarized earlier meetings he had with Zlochevsky. According to the CHS, in the 2015-2016 timeframe, the CHS, who was providing advice to Zlochevsky, told the Burisma owner to stay away from the Bidens. Then, after Trump defeated Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential contest, the CHS asked Zlochevsky if he was upset Trump won.
Zlochevsky allegedly told the CHS he was dismayed by Trumpโs victory, fearing an investigation would reveal his payments to the Biden family, which included a $5 million payment to Hunter Biden and a $5 million payment to Joe Biden. According to the CHS, the Burisma executive bemoaned the situation, claiming the Bidens had โcoercedโ him into paying the bribes.
The CHS responded that he hoped Zlochevsky had taken precautions to protect himself. Zlochevsky then allegedly detailed the steps he had taken to avoid detection, stressing he had never paid the โBig Guyโ directly and that it would take some 10 years to unravel the various money trails. It was only then that Zlochevsky mentioned the audio recordings he had made of the conversations he had with Hunter and Joe Biden, according to the CHS.
The broader context of this conversation adds to the plausibility of Zlochevskyโs claims that he possessed recordings implicating the Bidens. And we already know from Grassley and House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer that the FBI considered the CHS, who relayed Zlochevskyโs claims to the FBI, a โhighly credibleโ source.
Further, according to individuals familiar with the investigation, the FBI admitted the CHSโs intel was unrelated to the information Rudy Giuliani had provided the Western District of Pennsylvaniaโs U.S. attorneyโs office โ the office then-Attorney General William Barr had tasked with reviewing any new information related to Ukraine.
Sources told The Federalist that investigators out of the Pittsburgh office, in addition to reviewing Giulianiโs information, searched internal FBI databases and came across an earlier FD-1023 related to the CHS. That earlier FD-1023 then led to agents questioning the CHS on June 30, 2020, uncovering the details concerning Burismaโs alleged bribery of the Bidens.
What the FBI did to investigate the allegations is unknown, with sources telling The Federalist the bureau refused to either confirm or deny that the DOJ under Barr sent the FD-1023 to Delaware for further investigation. On the contrary, the FBI allowed Rep. Jamie Raskin, ranking member on the House Oversight Committee, to falsely represent to Americans that Barr and Pittsburgh U.S. Attorney Scott Brady had closed the investigation. Raskinโs deceit, tolerated by the FBI, forced Barr to publicly correct the record.
The FBI is also refusing to provide any information on what, if any, steps it took to investigate the detailed claims contained in the FD-1023. But sources familiar with investigative procedures maintain there was insufficient time between the June 30, 2020, interview of the CHS and the FBI headquartersโ closing of an assessment related to the FD-1023 in August 2020 to properly probe the matter. โThey couldnโt have done much,โ one source said.
There is also no independent confirmation from Delaware indicating any investigative steps were taken regarding the FD-1023. Agents in Delaware โcould have sat on it,โ according to one individual familiar with the investigation.
While the FBIโs efforts to unwind the pay-to-play scheme seem to have been nonexistent, banking records released in May by the House Oversight Committee show congressional investigators are unraveling the complex web behind the Biden family business. Those records provide concrete evidence of a pattern of public corruption involving foreign nationals, with Joe Biden at the helm. There are still more banking records to review, along with the many details recently discovered when the whistleblower came forward with the FD-1023.
Apparently, Zlochevsky wasnโt far from the mark when he said it would take 10 years to unravel the complex payment path that led to Joe Biden.
Margot Cleveland is The Federalist’s senior legal correspondent. She is also a contributor to National Review Online, the Washington Examiner, Aleteia, and Townhall.com, and has been published in the Wall Street Journal and USA Today. Cleveland is a lawyer and a graduate of the Notre Dame Law School, where she earned the Hoynes Prizeโthe law schoolโs highest honor. She later served for nearly 25 years as a permanent law clerk for a federal appellate judge on the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. Cleveland is a former full-time university faculty member and now teaches as an adjunct from time to time. As a stay-at-home homeschooling mom of a young son with cystic fibrosis, Cleveland frequently writes on cultural issues related to parenting and special-needs children. Cleveland is on Twitter at @ProfMJCleveland. The views expressed here are those of Cleveland in her private capacity.
The House voted Thursday to overturn a 1984 Supreme Court ruling that Republicans say gave the executive branch too muchย power to impose regulationsย that cost Americans trillions of dollars each year. Lawmakers approved the Separation of Powers Restoration Act, or SOPRA, in a mostly party-line 220-211 vote.
Republicans have argued for the last several years that theย Supreme Court precedentย set in the Chevron U.S.A., Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc. case effectively told courts that they should defer to federal agencies when they interpret laws passed by Congress as they write regulations. Republicans say that since that ruling, courts have failed to do their due diligence in assessing whether those regulations can be fairly justified under the law.
The lawmaker who sponsored SOPRA, Rep. Scott Fitzgerald (R-Wis.), argued on the House floor Thursday that the Supreme Court ruling has given the executive branch vast authority to regulate as it pleases, and often in ways that contradict the intent of Congress.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and other House Republicans voted Thursday to overturn a Supreme Court precedent that the GOP says makes it too easy to impose costly regulations on Americans.ย (Getty)
“Since 1984, when the Supreme Court ruled that courts must defer to an agencyโs interpretation of an ambiguous statute rather than what Congress intended, the executive branch has begun usurping the legislative branch to issue regulations with the force of law,” Fitzgerald said. “It is certainly not what our founders intended.”
He added that the cost of these regulations have piled up on Americans over the last several decades.
“The total annual cost of regulation is almost $2 trillion, or about 8% of the U.S. GDP,” he said. “If it were a country, for comparison, U.S. regulation would be the worldโs eighth largest economy.”
A bill introduced by Rep. Scott Fitzgerald to overturn a Supreme Court precedent was passed in the House on Thursday. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
Another Republican, Rep. Thomas McClintock of California, said the Supreme Court ruling goes against the intent of the Constitution, which sets out that Congress writes the laws while the executive branch carries them out.
“One brother makes law but cannot enforce it, the other brother enforces law but cannot make it,” he said.
Democrats said overturning the Supreme Court decision would force the courts to take on considerable work as they try to interpret federal law.ย Rep. Jerry Nadler, of New York, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, said the bill would “completely upend the administrative process by eliminating judicial deference to agencies and require federal courts to review all agency rulemakings and interpretations of statute on a de novo basis.”
Nadler also said Congress defers to agencies to do the work of deciding specific regulatory policies because it does not have the expertise to do that job.
Rep. Jerry Nadler argued against the bill and voted against it with most other Democrats.ย (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
“While Congress sets broad policies, we delegate authorities to executive agencies because we do not have the expertise to craft the technical regulations ourselves, and we rely on these agencies to carry out the policies we enact,” he said.
The bill is unlikely to move in the Democrat-controlled Senate and the White House has said President Biden would veto it. But the issue could be decided by the Supreme Court itself. In the fall, the Supreme Court is expected to hear a dispute between fishermen in New Jersey and the federal government over whether federal rules on fishermen are vastly exceeding what was allowed by Congress.
In that case, lower courts have leaned on the 1984 Chevron precedent to say they are giving deference to federal regulators. But the case is now at the Supreme Court, which could decide to overturn the precedent.
Pete Kasperowicz is a politics editor at Fox News Digital.
Former President Donald Trump was unwilling to negotiate with Justice Department investigators last fall, firm in his belief his documents were protected under the Presidential Records Act (PRA), according toย The Washington Post. Christopher Kise, one of Trump’s new attorneys, reportedly sought to approach the investigators before special counsel Jack Smith was appointed byย Attorney General Merrick Garland, seeking to “take the temperature down” and make a deal that would avoid a federal indictment. But Trump reportedly rejected that route, preferring to take a legal stance that was ruled on in the “Clinton socks case” against Judicial Watch’s Tom Fitton.
Trump has been taking advice from Fittonย โ at times against the advice of his own hired legal counselย โ about the Clinton socks case, the PRA precedent, and his legal right to retain items he did not want to surrender to the National Archives, according to the Post. Kise, a former Florida solicitor general, declined to comment to The Washington Post.
“President Trump has consistently been in full compliance with the Presidential Records Act, which is the only law that applies to Presidents and their records,” a Trump spokesman wrote in a statement to Newsmax.
“In the course of negotiations over the return of the documents, President Trump told the lead DOJ official, ‘anything you need from us, just let us know.’ Sadly, the weaponized DOJ rejected this offer of cooperation and conducted an unnecessary and unconstitutional raid on the Presidentโs home in order to inflict maximum political damage on the leading presidential candidate.
“The Biden regime’s despicable efforts are failing. President Trump maintains a commanding lead in the polls and is poised to reclaim the White House for the American people and make our country great again.”
The National Archives has long rejected Trump’s claims.
“The PRA requires that all records created by presidents (and vice presidents) be turned over to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) at the end of their administrations,” it wrote inย a June 9 statementย as Smith unsealed the 37-count indictment against Trump.
“The PRA treats the records of the president and those of the vice president in almost the same manner such that, in most cases below, president and vice president can be used interchangeably.”
Instead of using the PRA as the basis for the indictment, Smith’s charges reference the Espionage Act of 1917.
Fitton has made the case that the charges against Trump allege no crime and “won’t survive scrutiny.”
“I testified before the grand jury for four hours, and there were a few questions, I guess, they needed to check off in terms of potential criminal activity related to classified information and such, but most of the time was spent arguing with obviously partisan lawyers about policy debates,” Fitton said on Newsmax’s “Eric Bolling The Balance” on Monday before Trump’s arrest and arraignment. “And after four hours, I thought, ‘Why am I being questioned on this First Amendment activity?’
“I saw firsthand that this was a politicized process.
“They set it up so they could concoct and manufacture obstruction when, in fact, there was no obstruction. They left out the fact that [Trump] cooperated and told the senior Justice Department official in his home, ‘You can have whatever you want.’ And he directed his attorneys, right in front of him, ‘Give them anything they want.’ That didn’t make it into the indictment. This indictment is evidence of corruption by the Justice Department.”
Fitton told the Post that he dined with Trump on Monday, telling the paper he was giving Trump advice but declined to elaborate.
“I think what is lacking is the lawyers saying, ‘I took this to be obstruction,'” Fitton told the Post. “Where is the conspiracy? I don’t understand any of it. I think this is a trap. They had no business asking for the records โฆ and they’ve manufactured an obstruction charge out of that. There are core constitutional issues that the indictment avoids, and the obstruction charge seems weak to me.”
Smith’s grand jury heard from a number of witnesses who were asked about Fitton’s role in advising Trump, according to the Post. Fitton has been publicly active in seeking to getย Biden’s Senate records made public, which could include documents related to Tara Reade’s allegations of sexual misconduct when Biden was a senator.
Reade, fearing for her life,ย fled to Russia seeking asylum. Reade, who worked as a staff assistant in 1992-1993 for then-Sen. Biden, D-Del., hasย alleged Biden sexually assaulted herย and had filed a Senate personnel complaint, which alleged Biden actively withheld from being released from the University of Delaware.
The Clinton socks case Trump has repeatedly mentioned as precedent for the retention of records was originally related to Fitton’s Judicial Watch in 2012, which former President Barack Obama-appointed Judge Amy Berman Jackson ruled NARA could not force former President Bill Clinton to turn over audio tapes he kept in his sock drawer. Jackson has been frequently usedย by the Justice Department against Trump-related officials, lending credence to House Republican arguments there is a weaponization of justice and the government against Trump and conservatives.
Fitton told the Post he remains convinced Trump lawyers “should have been more aggressive in fighting the subpoenas and fighting for Trump.”
A white woman who formerly worked as a regional manager for Starbucks has won a civil rights lawsuit in which she claimed that she was fired because of her race.
On Monday, a federal jury awarded Shannon Phillips a whopping $25 million in punitive damages and an additional $600,000 in compensatory damages after members unanimously agreed that Starbucks had fired her on racial grounds. “I was terminated because I am white,” Phillips said in court documents filed in 2019. “If I was black, I would not have been terminated. I was terminated because I complained of and objected to race discrimination.”
The circumstances surrounding Phillips’ termination began five years ago, when two black men, Rashon Nelson and Donte Robinson, were infamously arrested at a Starbucks store in Philadelphia after employees told them they could not use the store restrooms unless they first made a purchase. The men refused to leave or purchase anything, insisting that they were still waiting on a third party. Because of their intransigence that day, an employee eventually called the cops, and the two were arrested, though they were never charged with any crime.
Starbucks executives appeared to panic in the immediate fallout over the men’s arrest, which made national news. Kevin Johnson, who was CEO at the time, rushed to Philadelphia to apologize to the men. He also ordered 8,000 Starbucks stores toย closeย for an afternoon so that nearly 175,000 company employees could undergo racial sensitivity training.
Phillips, who worked for Starbucks for 13 years, was not the manager on duty when the arrest took place, nor was she involved in the decision to call police on Nelson and Robinson. In fact, she was a regional director responsible for overseeing 100 stores spanning parts of Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania and had little input in the day-to-day operations of those establishments.
Yet she alleged in the lawsuit that she and other white employees became scapegoats, suspended or let go from their jobs “to convince the community that [Starbucks] had properly responded to the incident.” Soon after it happened, Phillips claimed she was ordered to place a white manager, who had been with the company for 15 years, on administrative leave for supposed racial discrimination, even though Phillips did not believe the man had done anything wrong.
Senior officials had received a complaint that non-white employees working at the man’s store were paid less than white employees, but Phillips countered that, even if the accusation were true, the manager could not be held responsible since local managers have no say in employee compensation, per company policy. After Phillips refused to suspend the man, she was fired with the explanation that “the situation is not recoverable,” the complaint said.
Phillips also noted in court documents that the district manager of the store where the arrests occurred is black but that he had not been reprimanded or otherwise penalized for his connection with the incident.
After she was fired, Phillips said she was replaced with “substantially less qualified employees who had not complained of race discrimination.” Starbucks denied the accusations at the time and claimed that Phillips had been terminated for demonstrating poor leadership during the incident, which the company characterized as a “crisis.”
After the jury rendered its verdict on Monday, Starbucks spokesperson Jaci Anderson expressed disappointment and told CNN that the company would soon be evaluating its next steps.
By contrast, Phillips is celebrating the decision, claiming she is “very pleased” with the outcome. However, she also indicated that she is still going to seek back pay from Starbucks. According to the Daily Mail, Phillips may have earned up to $200,000 a year during her time with the company.
The following is a news report from three years ago, shortly after the lawsuit was filed:
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Marriage, once the most child-friendly institution in the world, has now been redefined in the name of equality. It was argued same-sex couples just wanted to visit one another in the hospital, have access to the same inheritance laws, and get the same tax breaks as heterosexuals. We were told ad nauseam that marriage had nothing to do with children.
Eight years post-Obergefellย and it is clear we were lied to. As we have seen inย every countryย that has redefinedย marriage, the redefinition ofย parenthoodย follows quickly on its heels. Court decisions mandating theย state-sanctioned falsificationย that children have โtwo momsโ at birth; deeming the term โmotherโ and โfatherโย unconstitutional; Andrew Cuomo supportingย commercial surrogacyย in the name of โfairness and equalityโ for โLGBTQ+ New Yorkersโ โ in all of this, it is clear that children are the permanent victims of gay marriage.
Californiaโsย Senate Bill 729ย offers one of the clearest connections between adult โequalityโ and child victimization. Take it from the child-violating billโs co-authorย Sen. Caroline Menjivarย who notes that this legislation โis critical to achieving full-lived equality for LGBTQ+ people.โ The bill has passed in the Senate and advanced to the Assembly. As of June 1, itโs beenย referred to the Committee on Healthย and is awaiting a hearing date. But how does this bill provide full-lived โequalityโ for LGBT couples?
First, SB 729 redefines infertility. For the purpose of insurance coverage, infertility is typically defined as 12 months of unprotected heterosexual sex without pregnancy or birth. But what about gay couples? Twelve months โ or 12 years โ of unprotected homosexual sex will never produce a baby. Thus, Californiaโs more โequitableโ definition of infertility will include โa personโs inability to reproduce either as an individual or with their partner without medical intervention.โ
Never mind that every adult operating under this expanded infertility definition will be creating a child who isย intentionally motherless or fatherlessย โ a child who will experience the inevitableย mother-hungerย orย father-hungerย as they are deprived of theirย natural rightย to both. True โequalityโ seems toย requireย that children lose a parent (or two).ย
Next, because same-sex couples cannot create children organically, synthetic baby-making is required. SB 729 will force insurance companies to cover in-vitro fertilization (IVF) for the medicallyย andย relationally infertile. Never mind that children created in-vitro (in glass) experience higher rates ofย physical and developmentalย struggles. โEqualityโ demands that a childโs conception be directed by a technician rather than in the loving embrace of his or her own mother and father.ย
Third, while two female bodies have double the eggs, and two male bodies have double the sperm, bigoted biology requires one sperm and one egg for every new life to begin. Therefore, SB 729 will require insurance companies to fund the participation of reproductive third parties โ someone elseโs, sperm, egg, womb, and/orย embryoย โ to make sureย single men,ย lesbians, orย gay couplesย are not disadvantaged. Never mind that this will subject children to theย identity strugglesย often experienced byย children createdย via sperm or egg donation. Never mind thatย womb-rental infantsย suffer intentional severing of the maternal bond โ largely regarded as a foundation for life-long trust and attachment. (And no, surrogacy isย not just like adoption.) โEqualityโ must be achieved, even at the expense of denying children a relationship with aย biological parentย and/or their birth mother.ย
Finally, biology puts no limit on a heterosexual coupleโs pregnancy attempts, while single and same-sex couples are limited by the high cost of IVF. Thatโs why SB 729 will grant everyone unlimited embryo transfers. Once youโve selected your childโs genetic parent from that sperm or egg catalog, created your dozens of embryos, discarded or donated the undesirables, sex-selected to your preference, and frozen the majority for later โ or possibly for never โ then the skyโs the limit! You can implant however many tiny humans you want in your womb, or that of a hired stranger.
Never mind that only 7 percent of lab-created babies will be born alive due to the high-risk nature of IVF pregnancies, eugenic screenings, and the abortionselective reduction to which theyโre subjected. We already have 1 million babies on ice in this country, many of whom have been functionally abandoned โ but at least the 93 percent of lab-created babies who die in California will do so at the hands of a truly diverse population.
Californiaโs proposed bill is not unlike other recent attempts in Minnesota, Washington, and nationally to treat children as items to be cut and pasted into any and every adult relationship. But this is the inevitable result of equating two things that can never be equal: opposite-sex and same-sex relationships. There is only one kind of marital relationship capable of producing children and thus only one coupling that deserves to be incentivized and institutionalized.
In the marriage and family world, the pursuit of โEqualityโ based on adult emotions and preferences will always result in true inequality for children. And unfortunately for Americaโs children, our highest court insists that there is no distinction between these two types of parental pairings, even though one leads to wholeness for children, and the other to lifelong loss.
The shameless corporate media are so desperate for a narrative about LGBT victimhood, theyโre pretending threats of violenceย fromย angry pro-โprideโ perpetrators are instead threatsย againstย them. The latestย examplesย areย pure propagandaย from The Hill and The Washington Post on Monday, which led with scaremongering โ โbomb threats over Pride itemsโ โ while completely burying the lede: The bomb threats against culturally embroiled retail giant Target came from pro-LGBT activists.
โTarget stores in at least five states receive bomb threats over Pride items,โ read The Hillโs headline โ the only part most people see.
The few readers who actually bothered to click the link were met with this deceptive framing in the first paragraph: โTarget stores in at least five U.S. states had to be evacuated over the weekend after receiving bomb threats, the latest example of backlash the U.S.-based retail chain has received for its Pride month merchandise.โ
Not until paragraph six, however, did the author reveal that these bomb threats that were emailed to news outlets in multiple states โaccused the retail chain of betraying the LGBTQ+ community.โ
The Washington Post ran an almost identical headline, burying the real news a full eight paragraphs down and leading instead with: โTarget stores in at least five states were evacuated this weekend after receiving bomb threats. Though no explosives were discovered, the incidents tie into the backlash over the retail chainโs Pride Month merchandise.โ
This media horsepucky is the latest attempt to push a fake narrative about conservative extremists assaulting the pro-trans department store. Thatโs why the outlets used words like โlatest example,โ โbacklash,โ and โfor its Pride month merchandise.โ As far as we know, the bomb threats had nothing to do with rainbow merchandise, nor were they related to any other โexamplesโ of โbacklash,โ such as peaceful conservative boycotts. Instead, they appear to be a direct result of LGBT lunatics not getting their way. The framing is intentional.
This lede-burying exercise from The Hill is just the next page from the same โpride monthโ playbook the left has been running since May. Before the calendar even flipped to June, Target unveiled its aggressive rainbow merchandise, complete with pro-trans items for children and โtuck-friendlyโ swimwear. In no time, the company had moved many of its rainbow displays to the back of the store, citing nonspecific โthreats.โ When Target failed to produce any evidence for these allegations, its plummeting stock suggested the real โthreatโ was to its bottom line.
That didnโt stop media propagandists from parroting Targetโs unsubstantiated claims. PBS, for instance,ย declaredย without evidence that Target had endured โintense backlash from some customers including violent confrontations with its workers.โ NPRย editorializedย that the outrage resulted in โthreats against employeesโ โ a claim Target didnโt even make in its vagueย statement.
โBomb threatsโ are a new low. But pro-transgender activists, especially those occupying Americaโs newsrooms, habitually spin their own victimization as victimhood.
For example, when radical LGBT ideologues manipulate impressionable children, activist โjournalistsโ frame concerned parents as โtransphobicโ and dangerous. When lawmakers take compassionate steps to protect these minors from the clutches of predatory adults or seek to eradicate porn from taxpayer-funded schools, corporate media frame their noble efforts as attacks on โtrans rightsโ and โbook bans.โ When conservatives plead for dysphoric girls to get mental health help instead of mastectomies, the propaganda press employs emotional blackmail by claiming these girls will commitย suicideย if theyโre prevented from amputating their healthy body parts. When a deranged transgender shooter murders six Christians in cold blood, media activistsย frameย the shooter as the victim.
Public opinion about transgender radicalism is rapidly changing. Based on a Gallup poll out just this week, a majority of Americans (55 percent) believe itโs โmorally wrong to change oneโs gender.โ Thatโs up four points from 2021, despite poll results also showing more Americans now know a transgender-identifying person. Furthermore, nearly 70 percent of respondents said athletes should only be allowed to play on teams that match their sex, up a full seven points from 2021.
As the cultural tide turns, โprideโ activists, with the help of their media allies, have shown theyโll do whatever it takes to maintain their clutch on the narrative โ including spinning their own bomb threats against themselves.
Kylee Griswold is the editorial director of The Federalist. She previously worked as the copy editor for the Washington Examiner magazine and as an editor and producer at National Geographic. She holds a B.S. in Communication Arts/Speech and an A.S. in Criminal Justice and writes on topics including feminism and gender issues, religion, and the media. Follow her on Twitter @kyleezempel.
A radical bill being hotly debated in the Golden State threatens to label parents as child abusers if they decline to “affirm” their son or daughterโs sexual confusion.
AB 957, which has already passed Californiaโs State Assembly, would require judges who are overseeing custody disputes with transgender children involved to favor the mother or father who supports the childโs so-called new gender identity. Parents who choose to affirm their son or daughterโs biological sex are considered out of bounds and out of luck.
At theย root of this dangerous legislationย is a foundational belief that the constructive and compassionate thing to do when it comes to gender confusion is to go along with whatever the child is feeling at the moment. This premise is not only destructive but also shortsighted and foolish, and on several levels. Cases of gender dysphoria or gender identity disorders have skyrocketed in recent years. Why is this happening? Sociologists report that much like teen suicide, gender-confused children run in clusters. In essence, if one child begins to question or act out, others soon follow. In some cases itโs become trendy and exotic to experiment with drugs and surgeries.
In reality, itโs terribly sad, and also a direct affront to Godโs beautiful design for humanity. My heart breaks for children struggling and for those parents struggling alongside them. The organization I lead, Focus on the Family, exists to help moms and dads guide and provide the critical help needed when children are in this type of crisis.
Culture, though, is leading and encouraging children down a dangerous pathway by affirming their sexual confusion. In fact, some medical practitioners and activists have even coined the deceptive term “gender-affirming care” to describe the dark deed of irreversibly mutilating and altering childrenโs bodies.
What makes this even more tragic is that sociologists tell us that a significant majority (upwards of 80 percent) of children who experience this confusion will eventually psychologically revert back to their biological gender. In other words, they grow out of it.
Mark Yarhouse, professor psychology at Wheaton College, suggests, “Most children who meet criteria for gender dysphoria do not continue to meet criteria as they grow up and enter adolescence.” Yet, for some who take drugs and have surgery, the act of fully “de-transitioning” is impossible.
Despite the explosion of this confusion and abuse here in the United States, traditionally more progressive countries in Europe appear to be waking up to reality. The Norwegian Healthcare Investigation Board recently recommended that so-called sex-change operations and puberty blockers be used in research settings but not on children. Theyโre finally acknowledging that thereโs no science to justify these abusive acts.
“The knowledge base, especially research-based knowledge for gender-affirming treatment (hormonal and surgical), is deficient and the long-term effects are little known,” the UKOM, an independent government watchdog over Norwayโs healthcare system, stated. “This is particularly true for the teenage population where the stability of their gender incongruence is also not known.”
Norwayโs not alone. Officials in the United Kingdom, Sweden, Finland, and France have made similar decisions. The controversial Tavistock Gender Clinic in the U.K. was shut down last year and just this past Friday, the United Kingdomโs National Health Service announced they were banning puberty blockers for children.
Whether in business or family life, leadership is knowing reality and suggesting solutions to problems. Affirming confusion and out right falsehoods does children no favors and, in fact, enslaves them to a lifetime of regret. We owe our children both truth and compassion, as well as situational clarity. California legislators are serving up only lies and confusion.
Jim Daly is president of Focus on the Family and author of โThe Good Dad: Becoming the Father You Were Meant to Be.โ
Republican support for formerย President Trump, who was arraigned in a Florida federal court Tuesday, remains steady, according to a new poll. Aย Quinnipiac University pollย Wednesday showed Trump’s favorability rating at 37% among registered voters, largely unchanged from the group’s previous polls. The poll was conducted June 8-12, while Trump’s charges and scheduled court hearing dominated the news. The indictment against Trump was unsealed June 9.
Trump pleaded not guilty to federal criminal charges that he illegally retained national security records at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, following the end of his term in office, and that he obstructed federal efforts to recover the documents. In total, Trump faces 37 felony charges.
“A federal indictment. A court date on a litany of charges. A blizzard of critical media coverage. The negative impact on the former president’s standing with voters? Not much at all,” said Quinnipiac University polling analyst Tim Malloy.
Biden, according to the Quinnipiac University poll, holds a slight lead over Trump, 48% to 44%, among all registered voters in a hypothetical general election matchup.ย (Rachel Jessen/Bloomberg, Bing Guan/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Given a list of 10 candidates seeking the GOP nomination for president, 53% of Republican and Republican-leaning voters said they support Trump, and 23% support Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis for the nomination. Other Republicans running to represent the GOP in 2024 โ former Vice President Mike Pence, former U.N. Ambassador and South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie โ each received 4% support. Vivek Ramaswamy received 3% support, and former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson received 1% support.
Thirty-three percent of all registered voters who responded to the survey said they hold a favorable view of DeSantis, while 48% said the opposite. However, 18% said they haven’t heard enough about DeSantis, compared to 3% who said the same for Trump.
Among the Republicans who hold low ratings from registered voters, 40% of voters said they haven’t heard enough about Haley, 55% said they haven’t heard enough about Scott, 27% said they haven’t heard enough about Christie, 70% said they haven’t heard enough about Larry Elder, 75% haven’t heard enough about Ramaswamy and 72% haven’t heard enough about Hutchinson.
A handful of 2024 Republican presidential hopefuls, from left to right: South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, radio host Larry Elder and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy.ย (Getty Images/Reuters Photos)
As for Biden, 42% of the survey respondents said they hold a favorable view of the president, and 54% said the opposite. Thirty-eight percent said they approve of Biden’s handling of the economy, compared to 57% who said they do not approve. On foreign policy, 39% said they approve of Biden’s handling and 53% disapprove.
Despite the low favorability rating, Biden, according to the poll, holds a slight lead over Trump, 48% to 44%, among all registered voters in a hypothetical general election matchup. A previous national poll from Quinnipiac University in May showed Biden with 48% support from all registered voters while Trump garnered 46%.
Among Democrats challenging Biden for the party’s nomination for president, attorney Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. received 17% support from Democratic and Democrat-leaning voters who were surveyed, and self-help author Marianne Williamson received 8% support. Thirty-one percent of registered voters said they hold a favorable view of Kennedy compared to 7% who said the same for Williamson.
Democratic presidential contenders Marianne Williamson, President Biden and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.ย (Scott Olson/Ting Shen/Joseph Prezioso)
Asked about the most important issue for the upcoming presidential election, 30% of respondents marked the economy, followed by 27% who said preserving democracy in the U.S. was paramount. Other issues โ like abortion, gun violence, immigration, health care, racial inequality and climate change โ failed to reach 10% support from respondents who weighed the most important issues ahead of the 2024 election.
Among independents, 35% said the economy was the most important issue, followed by 27% who said the same for preserving democracy in the United States.
“A rare show of unanimity in a country rattled by discord. There is a substantial amount of concern among Republicans, Democrats and independents over the preservation of the nation’s very bedrock: democracy. The older the respondent, the deeper the concern,” Malloy said.
The Quinnipiac University poll surveyed 1,929 U.S. adults nationwide and has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.2 percentage points.
Bestselling author David Horowitz told Newsmax on Wednesday that the federal indictment against former President Donald Trump is an example of how “unprincipled” and gangster-like the Democrats have become.
“The Democrats are a totalitarian party,” Horowitz said on Newsmax’s“National Report.” “Their mentality is that of gangsters. Just for example, the idea of taking out your chief political opponent, who is leading the field of Republicans by 30 points and leading [President] Joe Biden by almost 10, that is so un-American.
“That is such a travesty, attack on our system, election interference, partisanship run wild. It’s a very sad day for America, but I think Trump will benefit from this, the way he has every time.”
Horowitz said sales of his book, “Final Battle: The Next Election Could be the Last,” spike along with Trump’s poll numbers when the former president gets indicted.
“I can tell from my book: every time Trump gets indicted, my book sales go up,” Horowitz said. “And every time he gets indicted, his poll numbers go up.”
Horowitz argues in his book that Democrats are wielding wokeism, racism, the FBI, and white supremacy as weapons to accomplish their goals of establishing a one-party political state controlled by the far left.
“This has been played out in front of the American people,” he said. “It’s not a mystery anymore. To see how unprincipled the Democrats are, they have the mentality of gangsters. They have no respect for the Constitution or the traditions of this country.”
Horowitz then pointed to the restraint Trump exercised as president when it came to his Democrat rival, Hillary Clinton.
“When Trump was president, even though his crowds were chanting, ‘Lock her up!’ about Hillary, he didn’t do it,” Horowitz said. “He could have done it and he didn’t do it out of respect for the American tradition, which is you can’t have a democracy unless you have some respect for your opposition.
“And the Democrats have nothing but contempt for the 74 million people who voted for Trump in the last election.”
In February, Trump praisedHorowitz’s “Final Battle,” calling it “great” and urged his followers to pick up a copy.
“My great friend and author of ‘Dark Agenda,’ David Horowitz, is out with a new book, ‘Final Battle: The Next Election Could Be the Last,'” Trump said. “It is great! Get your copy!”
Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., in a letter sent Tuesday to Attorney General Merrick Garland, requested the Department of Justice preserve and produce all records pertaining to the office of special counsel Jack Smith, calling Smith’s investigation of former President Donald Trump’s handling of classified information “highly irregular and of extraordinary public concern.”
“This information is not only of public interest in the abstract but is highly critical to the ongoing oversight work of the federal Congress,” Gaetz wrote. “While there are innumerable valid legislative purposes for this request, it should be obvious that doing due diligence in vetting an office that has apparently done no vetting of its own personnel, or worse, might affirmatively be seeking to staff with sanctioned lawyers and partisan hatchet-men (and women), is an entirely appropriate purpose and one small reason I am requesting this information.”
Trump was indicted last week on 37 felony charges of willfully retaining classified documents and obstructing justice. Smith framed the indictment as an important step for protecting democracy.
“We have one set of laws in this country, and they apply to everyone,” Smith said Friday. “Adhering to and applying the laws is what determines the outcome of an investigation. Nothing more, nothing less.”
Gaetz in the letter claimed that Karen Gilbert, one of the prosecutors on Smith’s team, resigned in 2009 as head of the narcotics section of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida after misconduct “which DOJ stated it ‘deeply regrets’ and which cost the American taxpayer over $600,000 in a settlement.”
Gaetz added: “This misconduct was both referred to the DOJ Office of Professional Responsibility and the Florida Bar. Furthermore, Federal Election Commission records indicate that Ms. Gilbert has made thousands of dollars in donations to ‘Biden for President,’ ‘Obama for America,’ the ‘DNC Victory Fund,’ ‘Obama Victory Fund 2012,’ and associated partisan organizations.”
Gaetz also said the request should be met considering “at least 27 devices used in the Mueller probe were unlawfully wiped clean of records.”
A.F. Branco has taken his two greatest passions, (art and politics) and translated them into cartoons that have been popular all over the country, in various news outlets including NewsMax, Fox News, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, and โThe Washington Post.โ He has been recognized by such personalities as Rep. Devin Nunes, Dinesh DโSouza, James Woods, Chris Salcedo, Sarah Palin, Larry Elder, Lars Larson, Rush Limbaugh, and President Trump
This article includes graphic quotes from books that are being marketed to children.
On Thursday, Joe Biden will host a pride month event for families with LGBT kids on the White House South Lawn. Itโs during this event that heโllย appointย a โbanned-bookโ czar, whose job it will be to try to compel local communities to stock their libraries with race-obsessed pseudo-histories and books depicting oral sex, rape, violence, and gender dysphoria.
Now, if that sounds like an unfair description, thereโs an easy way for the president to debunk his critics: He can read selected outtakes from some of these innocuous books to the prepubescent kids who show up to the event. Even better, he can do it on TV. After all, โ[b]ook banning erodes our democracy,โ says White House Domestic Policy Adviser Neera Tanden, and โremoves vital resources for student learning, and can contribute to stigma and isolation.โ
Hey! That’s a GREAT idea. Have President Biden, with Jill beside him, gather all his children, and grandchildren, all the children of the people who work in his cabinet and White House, along with all the children, and grandchildren of every democrat Congress Person, and Senators. Make sure the Mainstream Media cameras are broadcasting LIVE. Then have President Biden and his wife Jill, alternate books as they read them out loud to their guests, and the nation. EVERY WORD!
You’re right. The networks could not like that content be broadcasted live over the airwaves. So, why is it okay for impressionable children to read such smut?
As Bidenย says: โThere is no such thing as someone elseโs child. No such thing as someone elseโs child. Our nationโs children are all our children.โ So, perhaps the White House could set up a themed reading circle on the South Lawn where the president can recite selections fromย Lawn Boy, which describes 10-year-old boys performing oral sex on each other. It is, after all,ย onย PEN Americaโs Index of School Book Bans.
The School Library Journalย praisesย Lawn Boyย as an exploration of โrace, sexual identity, and the crushing weight of American capitalism.โ (Incidentally, do you know how many books celebrating traditional families or the Second Amendment or Western civilization or the wonders of capitalism are stocked in school libraries? Speaking from experience, Iโd say maybe a handful โ and thatโs probably an exaggeration. They arenโt โbanned,โ schools just refuse to carry them.)
Or, better yet, First Lady Jill Biden โ who, you may not have heard, earned a doctorate in education โ should recite these words for the kids: โโWhat if I told you I touched another guyโs d-ck?โ I said. โฆ โI was ten years old, but itโs true. I put Doug Gobleโs d-ck in my mouthโฆโโ and so on.ย This is aย vitalย resource for kids, says the administration.
Though it doesnโt have to beย Lawn Boy. It could be the graphic โnovelโย Gender Queer, banned by the Cherry Creek School District in Colorado, according to PEN. Dr. Jill โ mom, educator โ owes it toย democracyย to read theย words, โI got off once while driving just by rubbing the front of my jeans and imagining getting a blow job.โ
Some โbanned books,โ likeย It Feels So Good To Be Yourself, are meant to normalize trendy pseudoscientific jargon and ideas among kindergarteners and first graders,ย fillingย their heads with words like โnon-binary,โ โgender fluid,โ and โgender expansive.โ If reactionary parents wonโt teach kids these ideas, someoneโs got to. And thatโs bad enough. But maybe Biden can explain why middle schoolers need to have access to the vulgar, graphic sexual scenes of incest and child rape featured in Sapphireโs โbannedโ novelย Push.
Iโm certainly not arguing that every book removed from libraries is porn or badly written or useless. Perhaps Push tells the story of an abused girl using appropriately realistic and horrifying words. Even so, the topic of brutal sexual violence isnโt morally or educationally tantamount to a math lesson. Itโs up to parents, not teachers nor Joe Biden, to decide when, how, or if their kids read about it.
PEN Americaโs Index of School Book Bans claims there are nearly 1,500 โinstances of book banning in schools, affecting 874 different titles in the first half of this school year.โ The preponderance of the books on the list feature sexually explicit scenes โ and many have minority and gay characters, because regrettably, so-called progressives have decided to teach kids that their immutable physical characteristics or sexuality or โgender expressionโ define them, rather than their achievements and deeds.
One of the ideas behind public schools was that they would break down ethnic and class barriers and build shared patriotic virtues and civic understanding. Instead, they are often used to trap kids and then indoctrinate them with leftist culture attitudes. Thatโs what Biden means when he says your kids are also his kids.
And if parents get involved, theyโre accused of standing against โdemocracy.โ Because in contemporary left-wing vernacular, โdemocracyโ has been stripped of any useful meaning. Sometimes democracy means majoritarianism denying individuals their rights for the common good, sometimes โdemocracyโ means courts unilaterally dictating policy, and sometimes it means parents having zero say in what their children read or learn.
Of course, we shouldnโt forget that โbanned booksโ are a partisan myth. These days, a โbook banโ is a euphemism for curating a library in a way that upsets left-wing activists. Not one book on PENโs list is even difficult to obtain, much less banned. Parents donโt even need to leave their homes to buy any of these books. They can order any of the titles in mere minutes and have them delivered to their front door in days. There are no โbanned books.โ There are just cultural imperialists, ideologues, and cowardly politicians trying to force their ideas on all children.
The White House condemned trans activist Rose Montoya for going topless at a President Biden’s Pride Month event on Saturday, after video went viral on social media. Montoya and others featured in theย video posted by the trans modelย will not be invited to future events, a White House spokesperson said in a statement.
“This behavior is inappropriate and disrespectful for any event at the White House. It is not reflective of the event we hosted to celebrate LGBTQI+ families or the other hundreds of guests who were in attendance. Individuals in the video will not be invited to future events,” the statement read.
Montoya, a TikTok influencer and biological male who is transgender, originally posted the video from Saturday’s event. It shows Montoya and another unnamed transgender activist, a biological female, baring their breasts on the South Lawn with the White House in view behind them.
NSFW: Trans activists post video of themselves topless at White House Pride event
Montoya also captured an interaction with Biden himself in the video. The influencer smiles next to the President and says, “It’s an honor, Mr. President. Trans rights are human rights.”
Biden is then seen holding the camera in an attempt to take a selfie with Montoya and other attendees, but the camera was set to video mode. The video caused widespread outcry on social media, with many users saying Montoya and the group had disgraced the White House.
President Biden’s massive Pride Month celebration at the White House ended in controversy after a pair of trans activists flaunted their breasts on the South Lawn.
The White House has not released specific names of those who are barred from future events, but there were at least two individuals who were filmed removing their clothing on the South Lawn.
Montoya doubled down on the display of nudity in a follow-up video on TikTok, arguing that going topless is “legal” in Washington, D.C.
“I fully support the movement and freeing the nipple,” Montoya said. “My trans masculine friends were showing off their top surgery scars and living in joy, and I wanted to join them. And because it is perfectly within the law of Washington, D.C. I decided to join them and cover my nipples just to play it safe.”
American flags and a pride flag hang from the White House before a Pride Month celebration on the South Lawn, Saturday, June 10, 2023, in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
“I had zero intention of trying to be vulgar or be profane in any way. I was simply living my joy, and my truth, and existing in my body” Montoya said.
This is a developing story. Check back soon for updates.
Anders Hagstrom is a reporter with Fox News Digital covering national politics and major breaking news events. Send tips to Anders.Hagstrom@Fox.com, or on Twitter: @Hagstrom_Anders.
Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, made a stunning claim Monday that a Burisma executive who allegedly paid $5 million in a Biden bribery scheme maintained audio recordings of calls with the family as an “insurance policy.” On “Fox & Friends First” Tuesday, former acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker discussed the “explosive” developments days after the FBI turned over a document to Congress that allegedly detailed a criminal scheme involving then-Vice President Biden.
MATT WHITAKER:This is explosive. There’s so many issues surrounding this, but remember what my home state senator, Chuck Grassley, said. This was redacted from the document they looked at, the 1023 that Chris Wray finally provided to the House and the Senate. This information, that there were recordings of the president of United States talking to a foreign national about bribes, was redacted from that 1023. That’s extraordinary in and of itself. Now, the contents, if true, I mean, obviously this is a cataclysmic event because you just don’t have these types of recordings usually available. And… it will prove essentially what Joe Biden knew and what his scheme was to abuse his power as vice president.
Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IO).ย ย (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said Monday thatย the Burisma executiveย who allegedly paid Joe Biden and Hunter Biden kept 17 audio recordings of his conversations with them, citing the FBI FD-1023 form that the bureau briefed congressional lawmakers on.ย
Grassley revealed from the Senate floor Monday what was said to be a redacted reference in the FBI-generated FD-1023 form alleging a criminal bribery scheme between then-Vice President Biden and a foreign national that involved influence over U.S. policy decisions.
Fox News Digital exclusively reported on the contents of the form last week. The FD-1023 form, dated June 30, 2020, is the FBI’s interview with a “highly credible” confidential source who detailed multiple meetings and conversations he or she had with a top Burisma executive over the course of several years, starting in 2015. Fox News Digital has not seen the form, which is redacted, but it was described by several sources who are aware of its contents.
Fox News’ Brooke Singman contributed to this report.
PROGRAMMING ALERT:ย Watch House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer discuss this topic and more on “The Ingraham Angle” on Tuesday, June 13 at 10 pm ET.
For the past year, the House Oversight Committee, where I serve as chairman, has been investigating the Biden familyโs influence peddling schemes that generated millions of dollars for the Biden family. We are following the facts. We need to know whether these deals threaten national security and if President Joe Biden is compromised.
The Oversight Committee has already obtained thousands of pages of financial records related to the Biden family and has traced millions of dollars from China and Romania to the Biden family and their associates. Americans are asking: What is the Biden family business? They donโt sell anything, they donโt have lucrative assets generating income, yet they receive millions from around the globe. What are they selling? Influence and access.
President Biden has repeatedly lied to the American people about his familyโs business dealings. Now, Americans are left wondering if Joe Biden was involved with them.
A highly credible whistleblower provided disclosures to Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, that the FBI has an unclassified, FBI-generated record known as an FD-1023 form. The document memorializes a confidential human sourceโs conversations with a foreign national who claimed to have bribed then-Vice President Biden in exchange for certain actions.
Last month, Sen. Grassley and I demanded the FBI produce this unclassified record and I issued a subpoena to obtain it. We need to know what, if anything, the FBI did to verify the serious allegations contained within this record. The American people need to know if President Biden sold out the United States to make money for himself.
President Joe Biden departs the White House on Jan. 19, 2023.ย (Win McNamee/Getty Images)
Unfortunately, the premier agency that is supposed to investigate crimes appears to have run defense for the Bidens. FBI Director Christopher Wray refused for weeks to acknowledge the existence of the FD-1023 form and failed to produce it.
Once Director Wray finally confirmed the recordโs existence, the FBI still failed to comply with a congressional subpoena.
We made it clear: If the FBI didnโt hand over this form, the House Oversight Committee would begin contempt of Congress proceedings. The FBI was finally forced to cooperate and is allowing all members of the House Oversight Committee to review the record in person and producing additional documents.
Allowing all Oversight Committee members to review this record is a big victory and an important step toward conducting oversight of the FBI and holding it accountable to the American people.
The FBI confirmed multiple times during our briefing that the information contained within the record is currently being used in an ongoing investigation.
The confidential human source who provided information about then-Vice President Biden being involved in a criminal bribery scheme is a trusted, highly credible informant who has been used by the FBI for years and paid six figures.
The allegations contained within the record track closely with the thousands of pages of financial records obtained by the Oversight Committee. The Bidens have a pattern of using their network of over 20 limited liability companies and complicated financial transactions to hide the sources of the money and evade detection.
Disinformation from the left reinforces the need for the FBI to produce this unclassified FD-1023 record to the House Oversight Committee.
Despite growing evidence, the White House and Democrats are lying to the American people about the allegations contained within this record and what was done with it. Let me set the record straight:
First, Democrats are peddling conspiracy theories and alleging the FD-1023 record is based on secondhand hearsay. The FD-1023 record was generated by a trusted confidential source who was working with the FBI for over ten years.
Second, Democrats claim that the record is part of the documents Rudy Giuliani provided the FBI in January 2020. Thatโs not true. The FD-1023 document stands on its own and contains information from the FBIโs confidential human source dating back to another FD-1023 generated in 2017.
Third, the FD-1023 was generated by the FBI in June 2020 based on other FBI records dating back to 2017. The Department of Justice conducted an assessment on separate material provided to the Department in January 2020, and this assessment was closed in August 2020. Democrats are claiming the DOJ investigated the FD-1023 and then took no action, but the FBI has refused to answer what information was part of their assessment. How could the DOJ have conducted a credible, thorough investigation in four weeks? Itโs not possible.
And last, letโs be very clear: The allegations in the record are not closed. FBI officials and former Attorney General William Barr have refuted Democratsโ lies that the Biden bribery investigation was closed. “On the contrary, it was sent to Delaware for further investigation,” former Attorney General Barr said this week on the record.
Republicans are going to follow the facts and ensure accountability for the American people.
Americans have lost trust in the FBIโs ability to enforce the law impartially and demand answers, transparency, and accountability.
The Oversight Committee will continue to follow the facts and ensure accountability for the American people. Democratsโ lies and deterrents will not distract us from this goal.
Republican James Comer represents Kentucky’s 1st congressional district in the United States House of Representatives where he is chairman of the Committee on Oversight and Reform.
Republican senators had heated exchanges with FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate at a Judiciary Committee hearing on Tuesday over the existence of an FBI document with allegations that President Joe Biden and his family took $5 million in bribes during his time as vice president,ย The Columbia Bugleย reported. When Texas Sen. Ted Cruz asked if it is true that the FBI has a report making those allegations, Abbate responded that “I’m not going to comment on that, Senator.”
When pressed further on the matter about why he won’t answer the question, Abbate insisted that “this is an area that I’m not going to get into with you.”
Cruz responded by stating that “I understand you don’t want to, and that’s why people are mad at the FBI. Because you are stonewalling and covering up serious allegations of evidence of corruption from the president.”
The frustrated senator said, “You’re not going to say whether you did your job” when Abbate refused to answer if the FBI investigated in any way the allegations against the Bidens.
After the FBI deputy director replied that “we do our job to the very best of our ability,” Cruz answered, “Well not here! You’re not answering a single question to the American people. And you may think this is esoteric, I promise you millions of Americans are concerned.’
“You know who isn’t concerned? Not a single Senate Democrat. We’re going to go through this whole hearing, not one Democrat will ask a question about this. You know who else isn’t concerned? The corporate media who is joining with the Democrats in covering up the evidence.”
When Tennessee Sen. Marsha Blackburnย grilledย Abbate over reported recordings of Joe and Hunter Biden with a Ukrainian executive who allegedly paid $5 million in bribes, the FBI deputy director said thatย “we often redact documents to protect sources and methods โฆ the document was redacted.”
Blackburn said that “there is only one conclusion that any serious person could draw: There is a two-tiered system of justice under this administration. The American people know that, if they aren’t loyal to Washington’s liberal political elite or if their last name doesn’t happen to be Biden or Clinton, they are at risk of being targeted.”
Former President Donald Trump was arrested, processed, and plead “not guilty” on 37 charges related to retaining national-defense information under the Espionage Act of 1917.
“We most certainly enter a plea of not guilty,” Trump’s attorney Todd Blanche told the U.S. Magistrate Judge Jonathan Goodman in a federal court Tuesday in Miami.
The hearing was closed to cameras and live broadcasts. Trump’s former aide Walt Nauta, also charged in the case, appeared in court but was not arraigned because he does not have local counsel.
“Defiant,” Trump legal spokeswoman Alina Habba told Newsmax outside the courthouse, when asked how Trump was feeling.
“We are at a turning point in our nation’s history,” she said, reading prepared remarks outside the courthouse. “The targeted, political prosecution of a leading political opponent is the type of thing you see in dictatorships like Cuba and Venezuela.
“It is commonplace there for rival candidates to be prosecuted, persecuted, and put into jail. What is being done to President Trump should terrify all citizens of this country. These are not the ideals that our democracy is founded upon.
“This is not our America.”
CNN reported Trump was allowed to leave court without conditions or travel restrictions and no cash bond was required. Goodman ruled Trump was not allowed to communicate with potential witnesses in the case, the network said.
The indictment is the first in U.S. history of a former president and sets up a legal battle likely to play out over coming months as he campaigns to win back the presidency in a November 2024 election. Experts say it could be a year or more before a trial takes place.
Trump was to be digitally fingerprinted and have his birthdate and Social Security number taken as part of the booking process, a spokesman for the U.S. Marshals Service told The Associated Press. Trump is appearing in court to answer special counsel Jack Smith’s indictment, which alleges violation of the Espionage Age and other process crimes.
The spokesman said the former president will forgo a mugshot because enough photos of him already exist in the system โ confirming what a person familiar with negotiations around the proceedings said earlier. The spokesman said that booking could take place before Trump appears in court or afterward, depending on when he arrives. He said authorities did not plan to immediately alert the media once Trump had arrived. Trump reportedly did not get a mug shot taken during his processing for his Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s indictment earlier this spring.
Security was tight outside the Wilkie D. Ferguson federal courthouse Tuesday ahead of the former president’s court appearance. Trump supporters were gathering hours before the appearance โ far outnumbered by the hundreds of journalists from the U.S. and around the world who have converged on downtown Miami.
The case against him is historic but does not prohibit Trump from continuing his 2024 presidential campaign.
After the court appearance, where he could be arraigned and file his not guilty plea, Trump planned to fly to his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, to give an address and host a Trump campaign fundraiser.
The Trump campaign has set a $2 million goal for the fundraiser, which intends to line up big-dollar bundlers for his presidential run, Axios reported Monday. Trump’s campaign has intensified his fundraising efforts in the meantime, including an email Tuesday morning with the subject line: “My last email before my arraignment.”
Information from the AP was used as background for this report.
American Family Association
American Family Association (AFA), a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in 1977 by Donald E. Wildmon, who was the pastor of First United Methodist Church in Southaven, Mississippi, at the time. Since 1977, AFA has been on the frontlines of Ame
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American Family Association
American Family Association (AFA), a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in 1977 by Donald E. Wildmon, who was the pastor of First United Methodist Church in Southaven, Mississippi, at the time. Since 1977, AFA has been on the frontlines of Ame
American Family Association
American Family Association (AFA), a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in 1977 by Donald E. Wildmon, who was the pastor of First United Methodist Church in Southaven, Mississippi, at the time. Since 1977, AFA has been on the frontlines of Ame
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American Family Association
American Family Association (AFA), a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in 1977 by Donald E. Wildmon, who was the pastor of First United Methodist Church in Southaven, Mississippi, at the time. Since 1977, AFA has been on the frontlines of Ame
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American Family Association
American Family Association (AFA), a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in 1977 by Donald E. Wildmon, who was the pastor of First United Methodist Church in Southaven, Mississippi, at the time. Since 1977, AFA has been on the frontlines of Ame
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