Posts on Friday, April 28, 2023
House Democrats are pushing a new bill that would make it illegal for prosecutors to use violent lyrics by rap artists against them in court if they commit crimes, citing First Amendment protections.
On Thursday, Reps. Hank Johnson, D-Ga., and Jamaal Bowman, D-N.Y., announced they would reintroduce the Restoring Artistic Protection Act, or RAP Act. The bill would protect artists from the use of their lyrics against them in criminal and civil proceedings, a practice that's more common in cases involving hip-hop artists. (snip) House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., backed the measure in a press conference Friday.
A troubling societal issue called "transableism" is attracting attention these days.
Transableism is a newer term for BIID, or "Body Integrity Identity Disorder," in which a person actually "identifies" as handicapped.
BIID has been relabeled to transableism to align with today's trans community, according to some. The point of "changing the identifier" from a psychiatric condition (BIID) to an advocacy term (transableism) is to "harness the stunning cultural power of gender ideology" to the cause of allowing doctors to "treat" BIID patients by "amputating healthy limbs, snipping spinal cords or destroying eyesight," according to Evolution News and Science Today
Phoenix Mercury player Brittney Griner spoke to the media as the WNBA prepares to kick off its 2023 season, and at one point in the discussion insisted that it is a “crime” to prevent biological men who claim to be transgender women from playing against natural-born women.
Griner, who is more famous for having been arrested and imprisoned in Russia on drug charges than playing basketball, was asked about the various states that have begun moving to outlaw men playing sports as women.
ABC News edited anti-vax comments made by Democratic presidential hopeful Robert F. Kennedy Jr. out of an interview that aired Thursday night.
Kennedy officially launched his longshot presidential bid last week from Boston, taking on Democratic President Joe Biden.
The son of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and nephew of President John F. Kennedy is an environmental lawyer but for more than a decade has also become one of the country's most prominent anti-vaxxers - falsely linking jabs to autism.
Gov. Kathy Hochul (D-NY) and state lawmakers reached an agreement to phase out natural gas hookups in new buildings beginning in 2025, a first-of-its-kind state law designed to reduce reliance on fossil fuels and transition to cleaner sources of energy.
Hochul said Thursday she reached a handshake deal with lawmakers on the agreement, which was included in New York’s fiscal 2024 budget. Though the budget stops short of an explicit ban on natural gas appliances, it will ban natural gas hookups in most new residential and commercial buildings under seven stories beginning in 2026.
By 2029, that will extend to larger industrial and commercial properties as well.
Elon Musk took to Twitter Thursday to express his opposition to “gender transition” for minors, adding that he considers the term “cisgender” to be a “slur.”
Citing a Swedish study observing “gender affirming care,” which showed that cosmetic “transition” does not reduce propensity to suicide, Musk claimed his position on the controversial procedure on minors is that “we should wait until an individual is mature enough to make their own decisions before other adults make permanent, serious physical changes to them.”
Buses carrying about 300 Americans left the war-torn capital of Sudan late Friday, after Washington came under intense pressure to explain why other countries had rescued their nationals but thousands of U.S. citizens remained without help.
It came as Khartoum continued to rock with the sound of explosions despite a tentative ceasefire, and foreign leaders tried to broker a fresh truce.
The U.S. convoy reportedly set off late Friday on a lengthy journey to a safe location.
Biden’s handlers trotted old Joe out for 12 minutes on Friday to present the Commander-in-Chief’s trophy to the Air Force Falcons.
Joe Biden spent nearly one hour mingling with children on Thursday. He was salivating over the children and called little girls “baby.” But he can’t even be bothered with Air Force athletes. Biden shuffled away after spending 12 minutes with the Air Force Falcons.
This is the same guy who just announced he is running for reelection in 2024 to “finish the job.”
Federal regulators are preparing to seize control of San Francisco-based First Republic Bank, according to multiple reports, as the institution appears on track for a possible collapse in one of the biggest banking busts in American history.
Reuters first reported Friday afternoon that the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation is expected to swiftly take the bank under receivership, following a stock crash.
The share price for First Republic’s stock declined some 43% on Friday alone to close at $3.51 following deep selloffs earlier this week—the stock is down around 98% from its 52-week high.
On Thursday’s broadcast of CBS’s “Red & Blue,” Senior Adviser to President Joe Biden Gene Sperling defended President Biden’s refusal to negotiate with Republicans over the debt limit by stating that no one has “the right to say that we want to have a discussion where it’s either my way or we will put the United States in default for the first time in our history.”
Sperling said that House Speaker Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) passing a bill to raise the debt limit “does not give him or really anyone the right to say that we want to have a discussion where it’s either my way or we will
Protesters smeared black and red paint on the case and pedestal of Edgar Degas’s “Little Dancer Aged Fourteen” sculpture at the National Gallery of Art in D.C. on Thursday to bring attention to the climate crisis and demand that President Biden declare a climate emergency. The protesters — a man and a woman, dressed in black suits — slathered their hands, then crouched down to paint the pedestal on which the ballerina sculpture is displayed. They then stood up and smeared their hands across the clear case protecting the artwork. Police removed the two people in handcuffs and ushered out
As the Democrats' narrative around the made-to-seem authoritative letter declaring Hunter Biden's laptop to be Russian disinformation falls apart, there are many questions begging answers from the Biden campaign to the highest levels of the Biden administration as well as the 51 former intelligence and national security officials who signed it. But now Fox News Contributor Dan Hoffman, a former CIA station chief who revealed in an op-ed this week for the first time that he had received the letter and was asked to sign it, is explaining why he didn't add his name
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) is calling on the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to launch a “full-scale” investigation into the whereabouts of 85,000 migrant children who have been released into the United States under President Joe Biden but whom the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has lost all contact with.
(snip) released to adult sponsors after arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border. At the same time, Biden officials have reportedly ignored warnings that many UACs are ending up in a widespread labor trafficking pipeline as well as sex trafficking.
(snip)Hawley wrote a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray, urging him to launch an investigation into missing UACs as well as
Breaking: James Comer Says Biden Legal
Team Is Intimidating Witnesses; “They
Fear For Their Lives” replies
Team Is Intimidating Witnesses; “They
Fear For Their Lives” replies
Republican Rep. James Comer has accused Joe Biden’s legal team of threatening witnesses who were set to testify in an ongoing investigation into Hunter Biden’s business dealings.
During an interview, Comer spoke about the pressure that has been placed on witnesses in his district, saying, “We’ve got witnesses that are scared to death to come forward. They fear for their lives.” He also mentioned that banks that had worked with his investigation were being squeezed by high-ranking officials in the Democrat Party for complying with subpoenas.
The Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) released their first quarter estimate of economic growth [DATA HERE] and the result of 1.1% growth shows how the U.S. economy has become dependent on government spending money we don’t have. The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) calculation is a valuation of all goods and services created within the U.S. economy, minus the value of goods and services imported.
Keep in mind that all calculations are in dollar terms. Personal consumption expenditure (PCE) prices increased 4.2% in the first quarter after increasing 3.7% in the fourth quarter. Excluding food and energy, the PCE “core” price index increased 4.9% after increasing 4.4%.
Comrade rebels, a remarkable bit of independent journalism by Lee Fang, who interviews a high-ranking Ukraine intelligence official named Ilia Vitiuk.
Within the interview the head of the Ukraine Cyber Information Security Service admits to how they use the FBI to pressure Facebook into removing content the Ukraine government doesn’t like.
[…] “Once we have a trace or evidence of disinformation campaigns via Facebook or other resources that are from the U.S., we pass this information to the FBI, along with writing directly to Facebook,” said llia Vitiuk, head of the Department of Cyber Information Security in the Security Service of Ukraine.
Joe Biden's ex-chief of staff has blamed Kamala Harris's poor approval ratings on 'racism and sexism'.
Ron Klain, who stepped down as the president's top aide in January, said her critics were guilty of prejudice towards the 58-year-old former senator from California.
The long-time Democratic political consultant said in an interview on Thursday that Harris 'takes a lot of grief unjustifiably.' 'I do think sexism and racism are part of the problem, no question about it,' Klain said.
So-called “transgenderism” was once a weird sexual-fetish activity that existed at the periphery of American society. It’s now moved front and center, something that is inordinately dangerous. Americans are beginning to understand the danger to our children from a movement that is compulsively and pathologically drawn to children, both for sexual excitement and recruitment, but people need to recognize that the so-called “transgender” crowd is also encouraging itself to be violently dangerous to all Americans.
Mark Tapson, one of the most insightful writers about cultural issues, has written a powerful essay about the nexus between gender ideology, violence, and, inevitably, full-blown terrorism.
Presidentish Joe Biden’s age has limited his public schedule to a grand total of six hours a day, according to White House officials who admitted to Axios this week that “his age has diminished his energy, significantly limiting his schedule.” Please note that Biden is merely available for “public or private events” during those hours and doesn’t necessarily have anything scheduled.“It’s difficult,” Axios reported, to do anything with Biden “in the morning, in the evening, or on weekends.” “The vast majority of Biden’s public events happen on weekdays, between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m.”
Justice Alito Has ‘Good Idea’ Of Who
Leaked Dobbs Opinion; Suggests Motive
Was Assassination replies
Leaked Dobbs Opinion; Suggests Motive
Was Assassination replies
Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito said that he has a “pretty good” idea who was behind the leak of the court’s decision on overturning Roe v. Wade — and that the leak made them targets for possible assassination.
Alito, who authored the landmark Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision that ruled there is no constitutional right to abortion, made the comments in an interview with The Wall Street Journal.
Breaking: DeSantis Prepares To Sign Bill
Allowing Him Run For President While Remaining Governor replies
Allowing Him Run For President While Remaining Governor replies
The Florida House passed a bill on Friday with a 76-34 vote that would permit the state leader to run for the presidency without stepping down from their current position.
The bill’s approval comes only a few days after it was passed in the state Senate by a vote of 28 to 12. The bill is now on its way to Governor Ron DeSantis’ desk for approval.The timing of the bill’s approval and Governor DeSantis’ potential presidential announcement adds to the uniqueness of the situation.
“We in this body are doing the governor’s bidding,” Democrat Rep. Angela Nixon, said. “He needs to resign to run if he wants to
RALEIGH, N.C. — In massive victories for Republicans, the newly GOP-controlled North Carolina Supreme Court on Friday threw out a previous ruling against gerrymandered voting maps and upheld a photo voter identification law that colleagues had struck down as racially biased.
The rulings should make it significantly easier for the Republican-dominated legislature to help the GOP gain seats in the narrowly divided U.S. House when state lawmakers redraw congressional boundaries for the 2024 elections. Under the current map, Democrats won seven of the state’s 14 congressional seats last November.
The court, which became a Republican majority this year following the election of two GOP justices, ruled
More than one million secret searches of Americans conducted by the FBI were made erroneously, a watchdog testified to Congress on April 27.
Around 30 percent of the approximately 3.4 million searches were done in error, Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz testified.
“It’s obviously very concerning that there’s that volume of searches,” Horowitz told a U.S. House of Representatives subcommittee, adding that he was particularly concerned with the high error rate.
The searches in question were conducted by FBI personnel with authority under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). The bill enables U.S. authorities to gather information on U.S. citizens suspected of being involved with possible spies or terrorists.
Office of Inspector General Michael Horowitz testified yesterday that more than 3.4 million search queries into the NSA database took place between Dec. 1st, 2020 and Nov. 30th, 2021, by government officials and/or contractors working on behalf of the federal government. These search queries were based on authorizations related to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).
[OIG Testimony HERE]Approximately 30% of those 3.4 million search queries were outside the rules and regulations that govern warrantless searches, what the politically correct government calls “non-compliant searches.”
Additionally, IG Horowitz also admitted that somewhere north of 10,000 federal employees have access to conduct these searches of the NSA database;
The whole world is commenting on and speculating about the abrupt departure of former Fox commentator Tucker Carlson from that network.
Addressing the current moment is not my intent. (Snip) What I want to do now is note, for the record, almost elegiacally, how important Mr Carlson’s voice has been, in the evaluation of at least this dyed-in-the-wool old-school capital “L” Liberal.
Mr Carlson and I spent most of our careers not in alignment on anything; for decades, our places were adversarial on the public chess board. He had assumed that I was the caricature of a shrieking, irrational left-wing feminist
Fox News is trying to sideline former Tucker Carlson Tonight host Tucker Carlson through the 2024 election, multiple sources familiar with the matter told Breitbart News.
Carlson’s current contract runs through December 2024, and as of now three sources familiar with the matter told Breitbart News that executives at the network are trying to keep Carlson on contract and not release him until after the 2024 election. The shocking decision to cancel Carlson’s top-rated weeknight program came just days after the network shut down its top-rated weekend program with host Dan Bongino. What follows here is an insider account from people actually in the know
Report: Joe Biden’s Close Advisers Worry
About His Age, ‘Diminished’ Energy
for Campaign Trail replies
About His Age, ‘Diminished’ Energy
for Campaign Trail replies
President Joe Biden’s close advisers are worried about his age and “diminished” energy as the president seeks reelection and faces the grind of a 2024 presidential campaign, a report detailed Friday.
Recent polling shows that 67 percent of voters believe Biden is too old to be president and 56 percent have doubts about his mental fitness.
(snip)
“Many White House officials say they’re amazed at Biden’s stamina — often adding the caveat: ‘for his age,'” the report said before revealing that Biden does not like to hold public or private events outside the hours of 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
GOP-controlled legislatures in South Carolina and Nebraska failed on Thursday to pass anti-abortion legislation.
The "Heartbeat Act" in Nebraska would have banned most abortions after six weeks with exceptions including rape, incest and the life of the mother. The measured stalled in the state legislature and a vote to overcome a filibuster of the bill failed by a vote of 32-15. Two senators abstained from voting.
GOP state Sen. Merv Riepe called for the bill to be reconsidered and proposed an amendment to move the ban to 12 weeks instead of six weeks. The amendment did not receive a vote.
If you are deep in the political research weeds about the weaponization of government, there is a letter from lawyers representing President Trump to the chair of the House Intel Committee that is very interesting [pdf available here].
The letter is written to HPSCI Chair Mike Turner and copied to the other seven members of the gang-of-eight in the Senate and House. The letter outlines the details of the documents that became the contested issue between the DOJ-National Security Division (‘NSD’, important distinction), specifically a DOJ-NSD official named Jay Bratt, and the attorney for President Trump, Mr. Evan Corcoran.
Conservative commentator Candace Owens put Florida Governor Ron DeSantis on blast over his latest international trip, calling it "inappropriate" for him to be traveling around the world while still serving in state office.
"I cannot fathom how there are people defending Ron De[S]antis' world tour," Owens tweeted on Wednesday. "He and his wife are acting like they're JFK and Jackie O. If [California Governor] Gavin Newsom was doing this we would all agree it was inappropriate. Because it is."
(snip) has been seen as an opportunity for the governor to promote his foreign policy credentials ahead of a highly anticipated bid for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.
The ‘Su Tax’: California Businesses
Are Still Paying for Biden Nominee Julie
Su’s $31B Mistake replies
Are Still Paying for Biden Nominee Julie
Su’s $31B Mistake replies
Julie Su is on Capitol Hill auditioning to be President Joe Biden’s next labor secretary, but back in her home state of California, businesses are paying what some call the "Su Tax"—a hike in payroll taxes to make up for the massive fraud that took place on her watch during the COVID-19 pandemic. (Snip)"It’s an incompetence tax: a price private citizens are being forced to pay for their government’s failures," Kiley told the Washington Free Beacon. "The predicament that small businesses in California now find themselves in—facing double taxation to make up for the government’s negligence—is another example of why Julie Su’s
The term “social entrepreneur” has entered the language of American institutions, from business schools and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to Investopedia. Like “diversity and equity,” this phrase can seem to unsuspecting observers like an unobjectionable buzzword connoting the virtuous intent to address some social ill. Indeed, groups ranging from the Left to the nominal Right employ the term “social entrepreneur” in roughly that way.
But much like diversity, equity, inclusion, and social justice, social entrepreneurship eludes clear definition—leaving it open to use by actors whose intentions are less than wholly virtuous or straightforward, and whose aims would not command widespread assent were they spelled out in plain terms.
This should be embarrassing, even for a seriously self-centered politician so filled with hubris and visions of grandeur that he cannot see anything except his own magnanimity. Alas, for the Narcissus Top Gov and the branding organization behind him, no scale of hubris exclaimed is excessive enough.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis was in Israel Thursday, doing the obligatory indulgency tour all Republican presidential candidates must undertake before they officially announce. During his pre-planned events, DeSantis took credit for moving the U.S-Israel embassy to Jerusalem.
[…] DeSantis presented the Trump administration’s decision to move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem as his own achievement, saying he worked to “cajole” the former president
A video message posted on Twitter by former Fox News host Tucker Carlson after his departure has netted some 19 million views and 60 million impressions, highlighting Carlson’s influence and popularity.
He posted the clip at 8 p.m. Eastern time on Wednesday, the same time as his former Fox News show, and did not address any speculation around his departure. He also did not explain why he left the company.
For comparison, “Fox News Tonight” with temporary host Brian Kilmeade drew about 1.7 million viewers on Tuesday night. (snip)Carlson himself had a nightly audience of about 3 million viewers in recent years, although at times, that figure was much higher.
A new report is shedding more light on one of Biden’s biggest liabilities as he heads into his coronation as the 2024 Democratic Party presidential nominee.
According to Axios, the president’s age and subsequent laziness have become a campaign issue for voters, and it’s something the White House is having a tough time covering up. That’s exacerbated by the fact that their attempts to hide Biden only highlight the issue further. (Snip) The White House rarely puts Biden in improvisational settings — or in front of hostile questions from reporters. So it’s tough for anyone outside his tight bubble to truly appraise the reality of Biden being the oldest
Rishi Sunak is dodging a meeting with Republican presidential hopeful Ron DeSantis as he visits London today.
The Florida governor has been on a tour of key US allies as he tries to bolster his foreign policy credentials ahead of a potential run for the White House.
But while Mr DeSantis met the PMs of Japan, South Korea and Israel earlier in his trip, in the UK he is only seeing Foreign Secretary James Cleverly and Trade Secretary Kemi Badenoch.
The Times Says Senility Is A-OK
replies
Democrats have mostly given up on denying that Joe Biden is suffering from an advanced stage of dementia. Their strategy, as exemplified by their mouthpiece the New York Times, has shifted to a defense of senility. Do we need a mentally competent president? Nah.
This morning’s Times email, which is curated by David Leonhardt, the Times’s “senior writer” who writes for “The Times’s flagship daily newsletter,” said this morning:
"Strange as it may sound, the American government can function without a healthy president."
Hey, Edith Wilson did a great job!
The issue that makes many Democrats even more anxious than Biden’s second-term capabilities is whether his age will prevent him from winning a second
In a video announcement that he is running for reelection President Biden is portrayed as a champion of freedom. In reality, no president has done more to impinge on the freedoms of Americans.
First, Biden says he is standing up for fundamental freedoms and then he says he is about standing up for personal freedoms. This is doublespeak. Doublespeak is when words seem to be about something they are not. It is another way of lying. Conservatives need to call it out as that.
In truth, Democrats are about control. The only way they are about freedom
Early in my professional career, an experienced colleague shared with me a bit of advice.
“If you sell people what they want to buy,” he said, “you’ll have a very successful career. If you sell people what you think they want to buy, you might still be successful. But if you sell people what you want to sell them, you’ll fail miserably.” (snip) Yet this lesson apparently isn’t taught at The Wharton School of Finance, where Bud Light marketing VP Alissa Heinerscheid earned a Master of Business Administration degree, and where tuition and supplies alone will run you $250K for its two-year MBA program.
Some People Never Learn: Indiana Bar Goes
Down With the U.S.S. Bud Light, Begs for
New Regulars replies
Down With the U.S.S. Bud Light, Begs for
New Regulars replies
As any bartender will tell you, a bar only exists because of its regulars.
Too bad no one told the wokesters running the Fairfax Bar and Grill in Bloomington, Indiana.
FACT-O-RAMA! “Dipsomania” is an old-timey word for alcoholism.
We all know Bud Light committed Hari-kari by joining forces with an attention-starved dudette in a dress whose name I shall not use lest he Google himself and see I’ve mentioned him (I PROMISE he is doing just that).
Bud Light light sales have plummeted 17% after what has to be the worst marketing decision since naming a diet-loss candy “Ayds.”
The Fairfax Bar and Grill — located in a small Indiana college town —
Happy Friday, dear Kruiser Morning Briefing friends. (Snip) Even the most pleasant among us would have to admit that things in the world aren’t the greatest these days, especially here in Joe Biden’s America. One can find any number of legitimate causes for deep consternation immediately upon arising each day. There is certainly no reason to make things up to worry about.
That is what the climate change cultists do every day, however.
When this incarnation of the climate scam began, it was all about Al Gore and his ilk ginning up hysteria for a money grab. The hysteria thing worked so well that an entire impressionable young generation is convinced
Immigration, trade, war, and crime. Being right on these four issues propelled Donald Trump to the presidency in 2016 against all odds. The intervening seven years have changed nothing. The only way a candidate from the Right can possibly win the presidency in 2024 is by campaigning on limiting immigration (build the wall), increasing tariffs, getting out of Ukraine, and restoring law and order (especially in regards to elections and the opioid crisis).
These are the core issues for the center-Right coalition needed to win national elections. No supposedly conservative politician with aspiration for higher office should ever make any public statement without hammering at least one of these points.
Americans expecting a better economy to emerge three years after the COVID shutdowns will no doubt be disappointed by the first quarter’s GDP gain of just 1.1% with higher inflation. And it’s even worse than it looks.
Of course, President Joe Biden denied the worsening news, saying, “Today, we learned that the American economy remains strong, as it transitions to steady and stable growth.”
“Strong”? Really? No one believes that. As recently as late March, economists were looking for a first-quarter GDP growth number exceeding 3%. Instead, they got 1.1%, down from 2.6% in the fourth quarter and 3.2% in last year’s third quarter.
See the trend?
Democrats want to do all they can to make abortion an issue that they think helps them in the upcoming election by fearmongering about the positions of Republicans, but what they don’t want to do is be honest about the facts or their radical positions when it comes to being for abortion up to the moment of birth.
They know that most Americans are not supportive of abortion to the moment of birth and that’s why they don’t want to be straight when they are confronted on that question because they are indeed the radicals on this issue.
But during a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee related to the Dobbs decision,
Dylan Mulvaney has already cost Bud Light what is assumed to be millions of dollars (17 percent drop in sales), but he’s not done causing chaos yet.
The transgender “influencer” entered into the broader public eye after Joe Biden invited him to the White House back in 2022. Think about that. A president who hasn’t done a challenging interview since he took office found time to receive softballs from a grown man who pretends to be a prepubescent girl.
But I digress. Mulvaney has been propped up by corporate America despite only claiming to be a “girl” for a little over a year.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates -- Iran's navy seized a Marshall Islands-flagged oil tanker in the Gulf of Oman on Thursday heading to the U.S. amid wider tensions over Tehran's nuclear program, the latest-such capture in a waterway crucial for global energy supplies.
The U.S. Navy's Mideast-based 5th Fleet identified the vessel as the Advantage Sweet. Satellite tracking data for the vessel from MarineTraffic.com showed it in the Gulf of Oman, just north of Oman's capital, Muscat, on Thursday afternoon. It had just come from Kuwait and listed its destination as Houston. The Advantage Sweet issued a distress call at 1:15 p.m. while in international waters as Iran seized