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Category: News
March 14, 2024
News

The View: Trump Was Bribed to Flip Flop on TikTok Ban.

Joy Behar has suggested that former President Donald Trump was bribed to take a different position on TikTok.

On Wednesday’s episode of “The View,” Behar voiced skepticism over Trump’s unexpected shift in his stance and suggested his reversal might be the result of a bribe.

“The one thing that interests me about this topic, and it’s very boring to me. I have to say….I’m interested that Donald Trump was against TikTok because he was against China. And they wanted to appear tough on China. Right? But now he’s against [banning] TikTok. So my question is, who’s paying him?” Behar mused.

During his presidency, Trump pursued a ban against the popular video-sharing app TikTok, as its Chinese parent company ByteDance has direct ties to the Chinese Communist Party. This week, however, Trump appeared to voice opposition to a new bipartisan bill passed by the House of Representatives that requires ByteDance to sell its interest in TikTok in the next six months or risk the app’s ban in the U.S. The bill is designed to curtail Chinese influence in American tech and the security risks it entails.

Trump’s apparent pivot away from his previous stance is due to the potential for the new legislation to strengthen Facebook’s grip on social media. The former President clarified his position on Thursday, suggesting he was not opposed to a TikTok ban but that Facebook and its parent company Meta — both U.S.-based — also need to be regulated for their blatant interference in U.S. elections.

Since last week, Trump has moderated his calls to not ban TikTok, suggesting the U.S. can tackle both Facebook and the Chinese Communist Party app.

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Joy Behar has suggested that former President Donald Trump was bribed to take a different position on TikTok. show more
Johnson Ukraine Funding
March 14, 2024
William Upton
Politics
War

Mike Johnson Said WHAT About Ukraine Funding!?

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) is finalizing plans for a new bill that aims to increase U.S. funding for Ukraine’s defense measures, deviating from the recently approved $95 billion foreign aid package sent by the Senate. “I think it is a stand-alone, and I suspect it will need to be on suspension,” Johnson told POLITICO in an interview late on Thursday. He also indicated that separating funding for Ukraine and Israel was “under consideration.”

The new proposal could take the form of a potential loan or lend-lease program, an option also pitched by former President Donald Trump last month. The notion borrows a leaf from the playbook of former President Franklin Roosevelt’s early strategy during World War II.

Johnson is also considering a similar model to the REPO Act. Rep. Michael McCaul’s (R-TX) legislation would allow Biden government-seized Russian sovereign assets to be liquidated. The resulting funds would be channeled toward a Ukrainian support fund.

Despite these plans, Johnson indicated that Ukraine funding would be secondary in priority to domestic federal government funding for the remainder of the fiscal year. When asked if he would consider attaching Ukraine funding to the next round of government funding bills due by March 22, he said: “I don’t think leaders of either side of the aisle think that’s a viable option.”

The Republican House Speaker said he remains aligned with the more conservative members of his caucus — though many of those members continue to oppose additional funding for Ukraine. “Philosophically, I’ve always been aligned. It is the tactics that we disagree upon,” Johnson told POLITICO. He added: “I am a lifelong movement conservative, so there’s very little daylight between their core principles and mine. It’s the tactics that we have disagreements upon, but it’s never personal to me.”

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House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) is finalizing plans for a new bill that aims to increase U.S. funding for Ukraine’s defense measures, deviating from the recently approved $95 billion foreign aid package sent by the Senate. “I think it is a stand-alone, and I suspect it will need to be on suspension,” Johnson told POLITICO in an interview late on Thursday. He also indicated that separating funding for Ukraine and Israel was “under consideration.” show more
March 14, 2024
News
TECH

NYT: Electric Cars, Solar Panels Driving Energy Spike, Climate Change.

The New York Times has claimed that a renewed spike in energy usage in the United States is being driven by solar panes and electric vehicles, now claiming that such usage “could also jeopardize the country’s plans to fight climate change.”

“The numbers we’re seeing are pretty crazy,” Daniel Brooks of the Electric Power Research Institute told the Times for its Thursday report. The paper calls the situation “an ironic twist,” and says that more fossil fuels may be needed to fulfill demand.

“…[D]ata centers and factories need power 24 hours a day, something wind and solar can’t do alone,” the report states, adding that the, “growth of remote work, video streaming and online shopping has led to a frenzied expansion of data centers across the nation.”

“The rise of artificial intelligence is poised to accelerate that trend: By 2030, electricity demand at U.S. data centers could triple, using as much power as 40 million homes, according to Boston Consulting Group.”

“Millions of Americans are also buying plug-in vehicles and electric heat pumps for their homes, spurred by recent federal incentives. In California, one-fifth of new cars sold are electric, and officials estimate that E.V.s could account for 10 percent of power use during peak hours by 2035.”

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The New York Times has claimed that a renewed spike in energy usage in the United States is being driven by solar panes and electric vehicles, now claiming that such usage "could also jeopardize the country’s plans to fight climate change." show more
March 14, 2024
Election 2024
News
Politics
TECH

Midjourney AI Puts ‘Foot Down’ on ‘Political Speech,’ Banning Images of Biden, Trump.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) image-generator Midjourney has blocked users from creating images featuring Donald Trump or Joe Biden, in case they are used to generate “misinformation.”

Without providing precise details, Midjourney CEO David Holz said during a digital office event that the new approach is a temporary measure against abuse.

“I don’t really care about political speech,” Holz said. “That’s not the purpose of Midjourney. It’s not that interesting to me. That said, I also don’t want to spend all of my time trying to police political speech. So we’re going to have put our foot down on it a bit.”

The Associated Press (AP) found efforts to use the AI tool to generate an image of “Trump and Biden shaking hands at the beach” resulted in a “Banned Prompt Detected” warning, with a repeat attempt resulting in an “abuse alert.”

The so-called Center for Countering Digital Hate lobbied for the change, complaining “Midjourney seemed to have the fewest controls of any AI image-generator when it came to generating images of well-known political figures like Joe Biden and Donald Trump.”

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Artificial Intelligence (AI) image-generator Midjourney has blocked users from creating images featuring Donald Trump or Joe Biden, in case they are used to generate "misinformation." show more
March 14, 2024
Culture
Data
News
Politics

LGBTQ+ Adults Double Over 12 Years.

The American adult population identifying as LGBTQ+ has more than doubled in the past decade, according to a recent Gallup poll, with more than 20 percent of Generation Z adults — aged 18 to 23 during the survey — identifying as LGBTQ+.

The results show an increase from 3.5 percent in 2012 to 7.6 percent in 2023. Additionally, it was noted that each new generation of adults is twice as likely to identify as LGBTQ+ when compared to the previous generation.

“Increases in LGBTQ+ identification in recent years have occurred as members of Generation Z and the millennial generation have entered adulthood,” the study noted. “Adults in these younger generations are far more likely than those in older generations to identify as LGBTQ+.”

Gallup’s 2023 data, collected through telephone surveys involving over 12,000 American adults, showed that 85.6 percent of respondents identified as straight, while 7.6 percent aligned themselves with the LGBTQ+ community. Just under seven percent of those surveyed chose not to respond.

In the LGBTQ+ community, bisexual adults constituted the largest segment, accounting for 4.4 percent of U.S. adults. Furthermore, the poll found that women were twice as likely as men to identify as LGBTQ+. However, these statistics do not account for identification within ‘nonbinary’ individuals.

Figures from combined data over the past two years suggest that approximately 80% of nonbinary adults identify as LGBTQ+, evenly split between identifying as bisexual or transgender at one-third each. However, the data points out that transgender individuals make up less than 1 percent of the total American adult population, equating to one in eight LGBTQ+ adults.

These results reflect the trend of an increasing number of American adults aligning themselves with the LGBTQ+ community each year since Gallup began collecting such data.

The staggeringly high percentage of zoomers and millennials identifying as LGBTQ+ follow concerted efforts by activists to promote sexually degenerate behavior among young people.

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The American adult population identifying as LGBTQ+ has more than doubled in the past decade, according to a recent Gallup poll, with more than 20 percent of Generation Z adults — aged 18 to 23 during the survey — identifying as LGBTQ+. show more
March 14, 2024
Ed Kozak
Culture
News

Musk, Murdoch to Receive Ruth Bader Ginsburg Award in DC!?

Elon Musk and Rupert Murdoch are set to receive the Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Leadership Award this year, along with Sylvester Stallone, Martha Stewart, and philanthropist Michael Milken.

The RBG Awards were established in 2020 to honor women in various fields. This year, however, the awards were expanded to include both men and women.

“Justice Ginsburg fought not only for women but for everyone,” said Julie Opperman, chair of the Dwight D. Opperman Foundation, presenters of the award. “Going forward, to embrace the fullness of Justice Ginsburg’s legacy, we honor both women and men who have changed the world,” she insisted.

The selections of Musk, in the ‘Entrepreneurship’ category, and Murdoch, in the ‘Media Mogul’ category, are sure to raise eyebrows. In addition to his endeavors in electric cars and space travel, Musk is a well-known free speech advocate who has made waves on social media for his support of right-leaning content, and Murdoch is the founder of NewsCorp. — parent company of Fox News. Ginsburg is a far-left “feminist” icon and was one of the Supreme Court’s most “progressive” justices.

It appears that both Murdoch and Musk saw the humor in their receiving the awards, with each responding with a statement that subtly acknowledged their significant political differences with the deceased Ginsburg.

“I am deeply honored to receive the Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Leadership Award,” Murdoch told the foundation in response to the award. “This recognition not only reflects my journey in the media and publishing industry but also represents the relentless defense of civil liberties and a commitment to civil discourse that Justice Ginsburg embodied. Her unique ability to maintain friendships and professional relationships across the political spectrum was one of her greatest attributes,” he continued.

“Free speech is the foundation of democracy,” Musk told the foundation.

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Elon Musk and Rupert Murdoch are set to receive the Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Leadership Award this year, along with Sylvester Stallone, Martha Stewart, and philanthropist Michael Milken. show more
March 14, 2024
William Upton
Culture
Media

WATCH: Jimmy Kimmel Plays Out Weird Gay Jail Sex Fantasies About Donald Trump.

Late-night television host Jimmy Kimmel aired a confusing bit directed at former President Donald Trump on his show “Jimmy Kimmel Live” on Tuesday evening. The segment featured an attempted tongue-in-cheek examination of what life might be like for the former President were he to spend time behind bars.

Kimmel engaged a panel of ex-inmates for a discussion on what life is like in prison — discussing aspects of incarceration, like food, social media, and potential ‘romantic’ relationships. One ex-inmate suggested a “big Black man” may take Trump under his wing, with Kimmel responding: “So you’re saying racists can get along in certain situations, be they sexual.” The bizarre bit continued with the late-night host and panel of ex-inmates using action figures to enact a hypothetical scene of Trump’s life in jail.

The late-night host focused heavily on racial dynamics in prison as comedic material. Kimmel mused about which race-based gang Trump might join, asking the ex-inmates: “What group would he be in? Is there an orange?”

An incredibly revolting moment centered on how the former President might gain access to a phone to post on social media. One of the ex-inmates lewdly suggested how Melania Trump might smuggle in a phone and power charger, telling Kimmel: “And there’s only one place to put it up, right?”

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Late-night television host Jimmy Kimmel aired a confusing bit directed at former President Donald Trump on his show “Jimmy Kimmel Live” on Tuesday evening. The segment featured an attempted tongue-in-cheek examination of what life might be like for the former President were he to spend time behind bars. show more
March 14, 2024
News
World

Christian Monks Stabbed to Death in Gruesome Monastery Attack.

Three Egyptian monks from the Coptic Orthodox Church have been stabbed to death in a monastery in South Africa.

The suspect in the attack at the Saint Mark the Apostle and Saint Samuel the Confessor Monastery, located in Cullinan, east of Pretoria, has been detained but identified only as a man aged 35.

No motive for the attack has been disclosed, with the authorities saying only that they do not believe it was theft, as nothing was stolen.

The Coptic Orthodox Church has identified the monks as Takla el-Samuely, Yostos ava Markos, and Mina ava Markos and recognized them as “martyrs.”

Headquartered in Egypt, the Church mainly serves the Coptic people, who predate the Arab-Islamic conquest and colonization of the country and still comprise five-to-ten percent of the population.

The Copts have their own pontiff in Alexandria, Pope Tawadros II, who traces his seat to St. Mark in the same way the Roman Catholic pontiff traces his seat to St. Peter. They are frequently targeted by radical Islamic terrorists, with dozens being killed during twin suicide bombings at church services on Palm Sunday in 2017, for example.

The Church is part of the Oriental Orthodox Church, which also includes the likes of the Armenian Apostolic Church and the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church. It is separate from the Eastern Orthodox Church, which includes the likes of the Greek Orthodox Church and the Russian Orthodox Church.

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Three Egyptian monks from the Coptic Orthodox Church have been stabbed to death in a monastery in South Africa. show more
March 14, 2024
News

Border Officer Admits to Migrant Smuggling, Taking Bribes.

Emanuel Isac Celedon, a former Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officer, pleaded guilty to smuggling migrants into the U.S. and accepting bribes for drug trafficking, authorities confirmed on Monday.

Celedon, stationed at the Lincoln Juarez Port of Entry in Texas, was found guilty of assisting smugglers by providing information about his work schedule and allowing them to pass through his lane without any inspection or documentation of passengers. According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas, from September to November 2023, he did this at least nine times.

Celedon was also accused of altering information in a CBP database to avoid further inspection for certain drivers. Investigators revealed that Celedon actively advertised his role in the smuggling operation to Mexican counterparts to attract more business.

In addition to human smuggling, Celedon accepted bribes for facilitating the trafficking of what he believed to be cocaine but was actually part of a sting operation to catch him. Prosecutors state that Celedon was paid $6,000 after allowing vehicles loaded with imitation cocaine to cross the port of entry. Celedon also had $1,980 on him at the time of his arrest, which he admitted was payment for human smuggling.

Facing a maximum sentence of 80 years on four counts of smuggling illegal aliens, bribery, and drug charges, his illegal activities serve as a stark reminder of the challenges faced in maintaining law enforcement integrity at the border.

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Emanuel Isac Celedon, a former Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officer, pleaded guilty to smuggling migrants into the U.S. and accepting bribes for drug trafficking, authorities confirmed on Monday. show more
March 14, 2024
William Upton
Education
Politics

Biden Dept Sued Over Federal Election Law Breaches.

Nonpartisan government watchdog Protect the Public’s Trust initiated legal action against the U.S. Department of Education on Wednesday, alleging the department knowingly failed to respond to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. The group had requested documents related to a Biden government decision allowing the use of federal work-study program funds for election-related activities.

In the initial FOIA request made about one and a half years ago, the watchdog group questioned the Biden Education Department’s decision allowing the federal work-study funds for activities such as “broad-based get-out-the-vote, voter registration, providing voter assistance at a polling place or through a voter hotline, or serving as a poll worker.” Critics allege the Biden government’s policy change regarding work-study funds could potentially breach federal law.

“Not only has [the Education Department] performed a 180 on guidance designed to prevent the use of federal funds for partisan purposes, but the agency also is also trying to avoid its obligations under the law to provide records about this program,” said Protect the Public’s Trust director Michael Chamberlain in a statement. He added: “After a year and a half, we still don’t know when or even whether Education will produce the documents. Trust in government is at an all-time low. If it’s going to be restored, citizens must be certain that the bureaucracy works for them, and not for political purposes.”

Jason Snead, the Executive Director of the Honest Elections Project, went further, accusing the Biden government of exploiting federal resources for their re-election. “The Biden administration is weaponizing the federal government to aid its own re-election efforts. Using tax dollars to pay overwhelmingly liberal college students to register and turn out voters is only the latest scandal,” he said.

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Nonpartisan government watchdog Protect the Public’s Trust initiated legal action against the U.S. Department of Education on Wednesday, alleging the department knowingly failed to respond to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. The group had requested documents related to a Biden government decision allowing the use of federal work-study program funds for election-related activities. show more