Category: National

Department of Transportation Estimates Cost of $1.7 Billion to Rebuild Baltimore Bridge

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Francis Scott Key Bridge

Following the long-awaited reopening of the federal channel in the Port of Baltimore after the infamous shipping accident in March, the Biden Administration’s Department of Transportation (DOT) estimates that it will cost between $1.7 billion and $1.9 billion to rebuild the Francis Scott Key Bridge.

As ABC News reports, the work to remove debris from the collapsed bridge and the damaged vessel culminated in the reopening of the McHenry Federal Channel to a passage of about 700 feet wide and 500 feet deep, allowing traffic to flow through the harbor once again. Workers will continue removing debris within an established safety zone, and deep draft vessels are required to have a single-escort tug until the cleanup work is completed.

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Commentary: Fossil Fuels Are the Best-Kept Secret in Our World Today

RealClearWire
Oil Platform

Apparently, you can litigate anything these days, and it’s gotten far more insidious than suing McDonald’s over hot coffee being, you know, hot. A new climate activist group called Our Children’s Trust is suing state and federal government agencies on behalf of individual children, claiming that fossil fuel regulators are negligently ruining their future.

That children should feel entitled to come of age under a specific set of favorable environmental and political circumstances — and to demand punishment for individuals they disagree with — isn’t just a testament to the egocentrism dominating the 21st Century. It also exposes our culture’s deeply warped understanding of climate science, which, surprisingly to many of us, actually shows global warming has no meaningful negative effects on our lives or our environment.

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Saudi Arabia and U.S. Mum as 50-Year Petro-Dollar Agreement Expires

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Joe Biden and MBS Petro Dollar

On Sunday, with no official statement from either side, Saudi Arabia apparently allowed a deal with the U.S. to expire that could have dire financial ramifications.

The Kingdom reportedly did not renew its 50-year petro-dollar agreement with the United States when it expired on June 9, meaning Saudi Arabia can now sell its oil in other currencies, including the Chinese renminbi (RMB), Euros, Yen, and Yuan, instead of exclusively in U.S. dollars. According to reports, the use of digital currencies like Bitcoin is also being considered.

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Study Suggests Big Tech Can Influence Flocks of Undecided Voters ‘Without People’s Awareness’

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Google Search

A study has found that tech companies can influence the decisions of large numbers of undecided voters with search suggestions on search engines.

The study, conducted by Dr. Robert Epstein and several other affiliates of the American Institute for Behavioral Research and Technology (AIBRT), sought to determine whether the suggestions that pop into the search bar when using engines like Google can influence the voting behavior of undecideds. Its findings suggest that the “search suggestion effect” (SSE) is real and powerful, so much so that search engine operators controlling search suggestions could have “the power to shift a large number of votes without people’s awareness,” Epstein told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

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Commentary: Border Security Popular as Most Americans Support Deportation and Curbing Asylum Seeking at Border

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Illegal Immigrants

Americans have had enough with the Open Borders agenda, and polls show a vast spoke in the share of Americans supporting the deportation of illegals and a reduction in asylum processing along the border. In other words, Americans now favor significantly stricter immigration policy than just a few years ago – including a majority of independents, Hispanics, and college-educated Americans.   

The latest YouGov survey shows Americans would favor a deportation program to deport all illegal immigrants by a broad 24-point margin, or 62 percent to 38 percent. This represents a vast spike in the share of Americans favoring a deportation effort compared to just two months ago.

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House Passes $883 Billion Defense Spending Bill with Abortion, LGBT Provisions

Just the News
US Military

The House on Friday approved an $883.7 billion defense spending bill that includes provisions addressing a number of provisions addressing social issues such as abortion, LGBT matters, and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) practices.

The inclusion of such provisions in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) is sure to set up a standoff with Senate Democrats, which have not yet released the upper chamber’s version of the plan, according to The Hill.

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Commentary: A COVID Vaccine Injury Story

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Vaccine Shot

Craig Norkus thought there was no reason to question the safety of the COVID vaccines. He’d received two shots already with no ill effects, and he, along with the rest of the public, was continuously assured that the vaccines were safe and effective. So on November 3, 2022, he received his third booster, and his saga of suffering began.

Craig grew up in Rochester, NY, moving to the Twin Cities in 2001. He’s the father of two adult children, an avid Vikings fan, and a dedicated fitness enthusiast. Prior to his vaccine injury, Craig worked out seven days per week and enjoyed golf and hiking.

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Ford Drops Certain Equipment Requirements for EVs as Sales Continue to Struggle

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Electric Mustang

Ford Motor Company told dealers on Thursday that it was dropping certain equipment requirements to boost the sales of its struggling electric vehicle (EV) line, according to Bloomberg.

Dealers had previously needed to invest up to $1.2 million in certain equipment like chargers in order to be eligible to sell Ford’s EV line, with the change allowing all 2,800 dealerships with contracts to the company to sell EVs, according to Bloomberg. The changes to the program are intended to boost struggling sales of Ford’s EV models, which has contributed to the automaker taking a $1.3 billion loss on its EV production in just the first quarter of 2024 after selling only 10,000 vehicles.

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Teachers Union Issues List of Climate Demands as Students Struggle to Read at Grade Level

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Chicago Teachers Union

The Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) is making climate-related demands in contract negotiations as the city’s students continue to struggle mightily in the classroom, according to E&E News.

The CTU will push the city to include initiatives like electric school buses, green jobs training programs for students and reducing emissions from buildings with solar panels and other retrofits, among other initiatives, according to E&E News. Those demands are being made while 2023 testing data shows that about 75% of Chicago’s public school students were unable to read at grade level and 83% of students were behind grade level proficiency in math, according to the Illinois Policy Institute.

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Supreme Court Strikes Down Bump Stock Ban for Firearms in Major Win for Second Amendment Advocates

Just the News
Supreme Court

The Supreme Court on Friday struck down a federal rule put in place during former President Donald Trump’s administration that prohibited bump stocks for guns, handing a major victory to Second Amendment advocates.

In a 6-3, ruling, the court ruled the devices added to semiautomatic weapons to make them fire faster does not convert weapons into prohibited machine guns.

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Energy, Business Groups Sue Biden Admin over ‘EV Mandate’ Rule

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API Senior Vice President Ryan Meyers

Three coalitions of business interests are suing the Biden administration over its recently-finalized emissions standards for light- and medium-duty vehicles.

The coalitions — which include the American Petroleum Institute (API), the American Farm Bureau, the American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers (AFPM), numerous car dealers and more — filed suit in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit on Thursday morning to try to block the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) rules, which critics have characterized as an electric vehicle (EV) “mandate.” The regulations will require manufacturers to ensure that up to 56 percent of all new light-duty vehicle sales are EVs by model year 2032, according to the EPA.

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House Chairman Bryan Steil Subpoenas Fifteen Biden Administration Officials over ‘Bidenbucks’ Documents

Just the News
President Biden and Rep. Bryan Steil (composite image)

“Elections are partisan, but our election administration should never be partisan,” Rep. Bryan Steil said.

House Administration Committee Chairman Bryan Steil on Thursday subpoenaed 15 Biden cabinet officials for documents related to “Bidenbucks,” President Biden’s executive order to turn as many federal agencies as possible into get-out-the-vote centers across all states.

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Trump-Appointed Judge Halts Biden ATF Rule Changing Definition of ‘Firearms Dealer’

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Gun Show

A Texas judge granted an injunction Tuesday against a new Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) rule that changes the definition of a “firearms dealer.”

The ATF rule broadens the definition of “engaged in business” to extend beyond merely a “gunsmith or pawnbroker.” Trump-appointed federal Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk ruled that the plaintiffs had met the legal standards to be granted an injunction until the lawsuit is resolved.

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Commentary: Searching for the Truth About the Raid at Mar-a-Lago

RealClearWire
Mar-A-Lago

Top officials at the Department of Justice are downplaying recently disclosed documents showing FBI agents were authorized to use deadly force during their 2022 raid of Donald Trump’s Florida estate, Mar-a-Lago.

Responding to Trump’s claim that “Joe Biden was locked & loaded ready to take me out & put my family in danger,” FBI Director Christopher Wray said the bureau was following “standard operating procedure” as it executed a search warrant on Aug. 8, 2022, regarding classified material that the former president was holding at Mar-a-Lago.

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Hunter Biden’s Court-Verified Laptop Files Will Be at the Center of His Upcoming Tax Trial

Just the News
Hunter Biden

With the authenticity of Hunter Biden’s laptop having been verified again – this time in court – data extracted from it about the first son’s long-history of tax problems will likely be key to federal prosecutors in Biden’s upcoming tax evasion trial.

The contents of the hard drive, obtained and authenticated by the FBI as early as December 2019 will show the first son’s tax delinquency and unsuccessful efforts to settle his massive debts with the IRS while continuing to spend beyond his means, according to emails obtained from the laptop by Just the News.

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Commentary: Americans Must Criticize Our Corrupt Courts

RealClearWire

In the wake of his conviction in a New York court, President Trump has complained that the process was rigged against him, that the whole proceeding was a corrupt effort to persecute him with a view to influencing the 2024 presidential election. In response, many of his opponents have criticized him for undermining public confidence in our system of criminal justice and thus harming our democracy—a criticism that has been magnified by many in the media.

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Music Spotlight: Jordan St. Cyr

Bethany Bowman

Jordan St. Cyr is from a small town of around 1,200 people located outside Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. As a child, he remembers his dad showing him a few chords on a guitar, and then he took it from there. He attended a youth group at his church, and they asked if anyone was interested in singing and playing guitar. He was soon enlisted to lead worship.

St. Cyr recalled, “My competitive nature took over and I’d spend three, four hours a night just learning these songs and singing. It’s really what helped me learn my craft.”

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Supreme Court Tosses Doctors’ Challenge to Abortion Pill

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Mifepristone boxes

The Supreme Court sided unanimously Thursday against several doctors and pro-life medical associations who brought a challenge to the abortion pill.

In FDA v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, the Supreme Court held that the doctors do not have standing to challenge the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) decision to roll back safety regulations for the abortion pill. While recognizing the plaintiffs have “sincere legal, moral, ideological, and policy objections to elective abortion and to FDA’s relaxed regulation of mifepristone,” Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote in the majority rulings that those kind of objections are not enough to show the doctors would be injured by the FDA’s actions, noting the federal courts are “the wrong forum” for addressing their concerns.

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House Democrats Create Task Force to Attack Conservative Plan to Defang Deep State

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A group of House Democrats are launching a task force intended to stop a project by conservative leaders to restructure the federal bureaucracy under a future conservative president.

The “Stop Project 2025 Task Force,” announced by Rep. Jared Huffman, D-Calif., targets The Heritage Foundation’s 2025 Presidential Transition Project, also known as Project 2025.

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Criminals Throw Wrench into Biden’s Electric Vehicle Agenda

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Electric Vehicle plugged into charging station

Criminals are increasingly stealing cables from electric vehicle (EV) charging stations around the country, according to The Associated Press.

In a growing trend, thieves are targeting EV chargers to cut off their cables and take the valuable copper contained inside the wiring, often rendering the vandalized chargers useless until repairs can be made, according to the AP. Especially if they accelerate, the thefts could be another hurdle for the Biden administration’s major EV push, which has struggled to beat back consumers’ concerns about EV range and charger availability.

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Hunter Biden Still Has Legal Troubles Ahead as House Republicans Call for More Accountability

Just the News
Hunter Biden in courtroom (composite image)

Though Hunter Biden was found guilty Tuesday on federal gun charges – on crimes dating back to 2018 – the first son’s legal troubles are far from over, and House Republicans leading impeachment inquiry into his father, President Joe Biden, say this should be only the beginning of the accountability.

Hunter Biden’s attorney Abbe Lowell said in a statement following the conviction that his client’s legal team “will continue to vigorously pursue all the legal challenges available to Hunter.”

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Commentary: Hunter in Jaws of Same Justice System President Biden Defended

RealClearWire

President Biden stepped off Marine One, walked across the tarmac of the Delaware Air National Guard base, and embraced his son Hunter, a convicted felon.

Tuesday marks the first time in American history that a child of a sitting president was convicted of a crime. The news complicates life for Biden ahead of an election and sent the first family into a hasty and literal retreat. The president had been slated to remain at the White House. After the conviction, he traveled instead to his Wilmington estate.

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Feds Bet on Wrong COVID Horse Again as Pfizer’s Own Research Casts Doubt on Pricey Paxlovid

Just the News
Pfizer Research and Development lab La Jolla, CA

There may be a reason Pfizer chose that curious tagline in the drugmaker’s once-inescapable commercials for its COVID-19 oral antiviral – the subject of a “Saturday Night Live” parody – which cost U.S. taxpayers at least $12 billion before the feds tightened the spigot last fall and Pfizer jacked the price to $1,390 for a five-day course.

The nirmatrelvir-ritonavir combination marketed as Paxlovid does no better against so-called long COVID than a placebo taken with ritonavir, according to a new “original investigation” quietly released Friday in JAMA Internal Medicine, published by the Journal of the American Medical Association.

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Texas, Montana Sue Biden over Rule Requiring States to Pay for ‘Gender Transition’

The Center Square
Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen with Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (composite image)

Texas and Montana have sued the Biden administration over another federal rule change it implemented, this time over one that requires states to pay for “gender transition” procedures through their Medicaid programs.

It also requires health-care providers to perform such procedures in states where the practice has been banned, including in Montana and Texas. Their state legislatures passed bills their governors signed into law prohibiting “gender transition” procedures from being performed on minors in their states, among other restrictions.

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Commentary: J6 Vampiress Swoops Down to Salvage Decomposing Carcass of Insurrection Narrative

Julie Kelly
Nancy Pelosi

For more than three years, Democrats, the news media, and a fair share of Republicans have insisted Donald Trump was solely responsible for security failures at the Capitol on January 6, 2021.

Never mind he already had warned of potential violence—not at the hands of his supporters but by BLM and antifa thugs who tried to burn down the nation’s capital for weeks after George Floyd overdosed in May 2020 then attacked pro-Trump demonstrators on the streets of D.C. during “Stop the Steal” events in November and December 2020—and urged deployment of the National Guard for that day.

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Crom Carmichael: The Left is Attempting to Turn the Supreme Court into a ‘Rubber Stamp’ for Its Agenda

Kaitlin Housler
Supreme Court Protest

Crom Carmichael and Michael Patrick Leahy, editor-in-chief and CEO of The Tennessee Star, said lawmakers and entities on the Left are attempting to discredit the U.S. Supreme Court as the nation’s highest court hands down decisions in cases that the Left strongly disagrees with.

“There’s a lot of effort now by the left to try to discredit certain Supreme Court justices individually and then to also discredit the Supreme Court as an institution. The left will elevate the Supreme Court institutionally back when the Supreme Court rubber stamps what the left wants. Right now, they’re not getting what they want so now they are attacking individual Supreme Court justices for tiny things,” Carmichael explained on Wednesday’s edition of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show.

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UAW President Shawn Fain Under Investigation by Federal Court-Appointed Monitor

Just the News
Auto Workers President Shawn Fain

United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain is currently under investigation by a federal court-appointed watchdog, according to a court filing released on Monday.

Neil Barofsky is leading the investigation into whether Fain abused his power as head of the union in violation of a 2020 consent decree between the UAW and the U.S. Department of Justice that prevented a full federal takeover of the union.

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Bragg, Colangelo to Testify in House One Day After Trump’s July 11 Sentencing Hearing

Just the News
Alvin Bragg and Matthew Colangelo (composite image)

The jury found Trump guilty on all 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree for his reimbursement of a $130,000 payment his then-lawyer Michael Cohen made to porn star Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 presidential election.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and prosecutor Matthew Colangelo agreed to testify publicly before the House Judiciary Committee on July 12, which is one day after former President Trump’s sentencing hearing in the hush money case where he was found guilty

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Biden Admin Looks to Move Proposed Wind Farm Away from WW2 Memorial After Local Backlash

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Minidoka National Historic Site

The Biden administration is looking to shrink and move a proposed onshore wind project in Idaho after receiving considerable pushback from local residents, according to The Associated Press.

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) recently published its final environmental review for Idaho’s Lava Ridge wind project, specifying its preference to see the project scaled down by nearly 50 percent and moved several more miles away from a World War II memorial dedicated to interned Japanese-Americans in the area, according to the AP. The project has drawn intense opposition from locals, in large part because of concern that its presence would undermine the experience for those visiting the memorial site, known as the Minidoka National Historic Site.

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Biden’s Ambitious EV Charging ‘Fantasy’ May Be on a Collision Course with Reality

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President Biden observing EV charing station demonstration

President Joe Biden has pledged to install 500,000 public electric vehicle (EV) chargers around the U.S. by 2030, but logistical hurdles may be too much to overcome.

The Biden administration landed $7.5 billion to build out a network of public EV charging stations around the country in the bipartisan infrastructure package of 2021, but those funds have only led to a handful of operational charging stations to date. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg reaffirmed the administration’s goal to build 500,000 chargers with the money by 2030 during a May television appearance on CBS News, but challenges like adding transmission lines, navigating the permitting process and coordinating with utility companies figure to make the goal improbable.

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Canada Lawmakers Helped Foreign Powers Influence Elections, Report Alleges

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Canadian Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc

The Canadian Parliament’s National Security Committee implicated multiple parliament members of “semi-witting or witting” cooperation with foreign powers to influence elections, according to a recent report.

The National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians (NSICOP) supported their findings with 4,000 documents totaling 33,000 pages. Their findings allege “pervasive and sophisticated foreign interference” in Canadian politics, including allegations that multiple unnamed parliament members worked with foreign actors to influence elections and campaigns in 2019 and 2021.

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Commentary: Biden’s Problems Are the Real Threats

RealClearWire
Joe Biden

Democratic analysts don’t seem to understand why the all-out legal assault on President Donald Trump isn’t working. It’s because they keep talking among themselves and not with the American people.

The American people don’t live and work in the New York-Washington political-media-government bubble. If reporters and analysts listened to Americans, as we do at America’s New Majority Project, they would learn how decisive the choice between President Joe Biden or President Trump is. They would also see how difficult, if not impossible, it will be for President Biden to get easily re-elected.

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Legendary Musician Peter Frampton Honored with Les Paul Spirit Award

Bethany Bowman
Peter Frampton Award

The Les Paul Foundation partnered with Gibson Gives to award Peter Frampton last week with the annual Les Paul Spirit Award. Bob Weir, Nile Rodgers, and U2’s The Edge are previous recipients of this award. Frampton continues to write and perform despite being diagnosed with inclusion body myositis in 2019.

Les Paul was a trailblazer with recording technology, sound effects, and the solid body guitar. He championed music trailblazers, paving the way for rock and roll, metal, punk, country, pop, and all forms of modern music. The Les Paul Foundation inspires innovative and creative thinking by sharing Paul’s legacy through the support of music education, recording, innovation, exhibits about Paul, and medical research related to hearing.

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Hollywood Teams Up with Biden Advisers to Launch Super PAC

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Joe Biden in front of the Hollywood sign (composite image)

With less than five months to go before the November election, a new super PAC has been launched as a joint effort between Hollywood employees and Democratic political strategists.

As reported by Politico, the new group is called Won’t PAC Down; its goal is to increase outreach to younger voters who are increasingly disillusioned with Biden over a number of issues, ranging from the war in Israel and the environment to the student loan crisis and inflation.

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Commentary: The Left Brands Conservatives ‘Haters’ for Daring to Question Woke Cultural Supremacy

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LGBTQ

Wokeness is impossible to escape. Everywhere you turn, you see rainbow flags, Black Lives Matter signs, or calls for “diversity and inclusion.” Companies force DEI trainings on staff. FBI agents march in Pride parades. Teachers tell kids in school that they are oppressors or oppressed based on their skin color. Target stores sell transgender swimsuits and Bud Light teams up with a grown man who acts like a little girl. Even Buzz Lightyear and “Star Wars” have gone woke.

Meanwhile, the Biden administration is falling all over itself to push transgender pronouns, to promote drag queens, and to celebrate Pride—even on Easter Sunday!

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House Panel Chairman Floats Official Repudiation of Democrats’ J6 Report, Claiming ‘Political Hack Job’

Just the News
Nancy Pelosi

A pair of Republican lawmakers on Monday slammed the January 6 committee’s report on the Capitol riot, after footage of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi taking the blame for the security failure revealed errors in the committee’s findings.

Pelosi said in the video that she “takes responsibility” for not preparing better for the riot, where thousands of supporters of former President Donald Trump interrupted the certification of the electoral college votes after the 2020 presidential election.

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In Shocking Litmus Test, Memos Show FBI Security Inquiry Tried to Unmask Employee’s Trump Support

Just the News
Tristan Levitt and Michael Horowitz

FBI officials conducting a top-secret security clearance review for a longtime employee asked witnesses whether that employee was known to support former President Donald Trump, if he had expressed concerns about the COVID-19 vaccine or had attended a Second Amendment rally, according to internal memos that prompted a complaint to the Justice Department’s internal watchdog alleging political bias inside the bureau.

The employee’s security clearance was revoked months after the interviews, which confirmed his support for Trump and gun rights and his concerns about the COVID vaccine, according to the documents obtained by Just the News.

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Garland Says Attacks on DOJ ‘Dangerous for Our Democracy’ as House Prepares to Hold Him in Contempt

Just the News
Merrick Garland

Attorney General Merrick Garland says the Justice Department and agency employees have now become the target of “dangerous” and “unfound attacks,” as the GOP-led House attempt to hold him in contempt of Congress.

“Continued unfounded attacks against the Justice Department’s employees are dangerous for people’s safety. They are dangerous for our democracy. This must stop,” Garland wrote in a Washington Post op-ed.

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