No Word Yet from Pennsylvania State University on FIRE’s Freedom Concerns

The Pennsylvania State University has reportedly yet to answer a Philadelphia-based free-speech nonprofit’s request that the school confirms adherence to freedom of association.

The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) asked Penn State to do so after a brief disagreement this spring between administrators and the College Independents. This student group hosts political discussions featuring “a wide variety of viewpoints.” 

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Southern Poverty Law Center Holds Over Half a Billion Dollars in Assets, Including $121M Overseas

The Southern Poverty Law Center will not run short on cash in its work to attack conservatives, one newspaper reports. The SPLC has amassed more than half a billion dollars in assets, including $121 million in overseas accounts, The Washington Free Beacon reported. According to audited statements and tax forms filed in 2018 with the State of California that were obtained by the paper, the group’s assets totaled a $518 million from November 2017 to Oct. 31, 2018. That represents an increase of $41 million from $477 million in total assets a year ago. The SPLC has $91 million in U.S. public equity funds and $60 million in private equity funds, plus $24 million in real asset funds. And, the SPLC last year formed an Action Fund as a 501(c)(4) nonprofit, to fight legislative battles. According to their consolidated financial statements ending Oct. 31, 2018, the SPLC and Action Fund have cash and cash equivalents of $9.3 million. Other significant incomes include contributions and receivables of $8.2 million and investments of gift annuity program at just over $10 million. It pays to work for the SPLC. The Organization has a 401(k) Retirement Plan for its employees. For the year ended…

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Gavin McInnes Sues SPLC for Defamation Over Hate Group Label

Gavin McInnes

by Grace Carr   Political commentator and writer Gavin McInnes filed a Monday lawsuit against a group dedicated to combating intolerance, alleging that its actions have contributed to his loss of employment and slandering on social media. McInnes sued the U.S. Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) for its label of the Proud Boys as a hate group. The Proud Boys is made up of “western chauvinists who refuse to apologize for creating the modern world,” according to its website. SPLC lists the Proud Boys’ ideology as “general hate,” describing the group as a white nationalist organization known for anti-Muslim and misogynistic rhetoric. McInnes equates the description with defamation. He is a Vice Media co-founder and founded the Proud Boys in 2016. The Proud Boys allows and has members from multiple races. SPLC “combats hate, intolerance, and discrimination through education and litigation,” according to its Twitter handle. It was founded in 1971. McInnes filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama, Reuters reported. “They [SPLC] have harassed me, my family, and my friends to a level of tortious interference that goes well into sabotage,” McInnes said in a statement, according to Reuters. “I am doing…

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Antifa Vandalize a Proud Boys Gathering. When Fights Broke Out Later, Cuomo Blamed Trump

by Grace Carr   Antifa members vandalized the Metropolitan Republican Club in New York ahead of Gavin McInnes’s Friday appearance at the club, prompting an outbreak of violence that Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo blamed on President Donald Trump. Cuomo failed to condemn Antifa’s violence and blamed the president after the vandals attacked a group of Proud Boys exiting the club after McInnes spoke about “Deep State Socialists” and “Western Values” Friday evening. Cuomo did not immediately condemn the attack, but later asked the FBI to investigate the violence and assigned a state police hate crimes unit to assist in the investigation. “Once you unleash hate and division and you demonize differences, you lose control of it. You can’t target it,” Cuomo said in reaction to the violence, The New York Times reported Sunday. “It’s lighting a match in a field of dry grass. The wind takes it and it just takes off,” Cuomo added, “plac[ing] responsibility on the president,” according to The Times. The governor also criticized the Metropolitan club for inviting McInnes to speak. The Proud Boys activist group was founded by McInnes, a Vice Media co-founder and political commentator, in 2016. “The governor does not condemn it, the governor does not say anything,” chairman of the state…

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Twitter Suspends Libertarian Commentator Gavin McInnes And His Activist Group, ‘Proud Boys’

Gavin McInnes

by Rob Shimshock   Twitter suspended libertarian commentator Gavin McInnes and his fraternal organization, the Proud Boys, Friday evening. The social media giant claimed that McInnes, who hosts “Get Off My Lawn” and “CRTV Tonight” on CRTV, as well as the activist group he founded, violated its “violent extremist groups” policy, reported BuzzFeed News. “We can confirm that these accounts have been suspended from Twitter and Periscope for violating our policy prohibiting violent extremist groups,” Twitter spokeswoman Raki Wane told The Daily Caller News Foundation. “Nothing more to share at this time.” The company struck not only McInnes and the national Proud Boys account from its platform, but also regional Proud Boys chapters like @ProudBoysCA and ProudBoysOhio. It is unknown whether Twitter suspended the accounts temporarily or permanently. “Gavin McInnes has repeatedly and clearly denounced racism, the alt-right, and neo-Nazis,” CRTV president Gaston Mooney said. “Twitter’s censorship of such a strong voice for freedom for people of all races and creeds is an assault on American values.” “It goes without saying #ProudBoys have NOTHING to do with this and won’t go near it,” the CRTV host before he was suspended Friday, referring to the Unite the Right 2 rally planned for Washington, D.C. on Sunday.…

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