The Ford Motor Company is remonstrating against people highlighting their ‘Very Gay Raptor’ campaign, with the firm insisting “[t]he video is a year old,” as some kind of excuse for what customers see as another “woke” incursion into corporate America.
“[The video] was created and used by the Ford team in Europe for a specific purpose – to make something positive out of a negative online comment that a color of our new Ranger Raptor pickup was ‘very gay,’” the spokesman told Reuters, which felt the need to dedicate a “fact-check” to the subject.
The video, in fact, just turned 11 months old, and the vehicle was featured in at least seven videos.
The attorney representing special counsel Jack Smith before the United States Supreme Court‘s hearing over former President DonaldTrump‘s presidential immunity claim was also a ringleader behind the Russiacollusionhoax. Michael Dreeben, a federal attorney with the Department of Justice (DOJ), was revealed in 2018 as the primary legal mind behind special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into allegations that Trump colluded with Russia during the 2016 election.
Dreeben has a long track record of partisan lawfare. Prior to his tenure at the DOJ, he served as a staffer to Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY). It was Dreeben who, despite the Mueller team knowing that the Russian collusion accusations were false, engineered the legal strategy of pursuing Trump over “obstruction of justice” for opposing the Democrats‘ witch hunt.
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In addition to his stint on the Mueller team, Dreeben advised former Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance on his “get Trump” operation. Interestingly, Mark Pomerantz was also working with Cyrus Vance at the time and would have likely interacted with Dreeben. Pomerantz likely pushed current Manhattan District Attorney AlvinBragg into pursuing the hush money charges against Trump, which are currently being heard at trial.
The DOJ attorney has argued over 100 cases before the Supreme Court while working in the U.S. Solicitor General’s office. Late last year, conservative commentator Molly Hemmingway — regarding Dreeeben — noted, “That the elite attorney is helping Democrats with their 2024 campaign strategy of lawfare is significant and showcases how much coordination between key Democrat operatives is behind this Soviet-style attempt to imprison President Joe Biden’s political opponents.”
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The attorney representing special counsel Jack Smith before the United States Supreme Court's hearing over former President DonaldTrump's presidential immunity claim was also a ringleader behind the Russiacollusionhoax. Michael Dreeben, a federal attorney with the Department of Justice (DOJ), was revealed in 2018 as the primary legal mind behind special counsel Robert Mueller's probe into allegations that Trump colluded with Russia during the 2016 election.
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TikTok’s Chinese-owned parent company, ByteDance, would prefer the United States government ban the social media app rather than sell it to a non-Chinese buyer. According to Reuters, citing four anonymous sources, ByteDance does not wish to part with control over the app’s algorithm, which it views as critical to the success of its network of technology ventures.
ByteDance has signaled it intends to pursue legal action against the Biden government to halt the newly signed law, forcing it to divest from TikTok or face the app’s ban. While TikTok only accounts for a relatively small share of ByteDance’s overall revenue, its algorithm, which determines what content is promoted to users and encourages continued engagement on the app, is far more valuable. As Americans only account for a small portion of the app’s overall user base, ByteDance prefers shuttering its U.S. presence instead of losing control of TikTok’s algorithm.
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The Chinese company denied earlier reports on Thursday it was exploring avenues to sell the TikTok social media app. On Wednesday, TikTok’s CEO Shou Zi Chew said he expects the company to win its legal challenge against the divestment law. However, the National Pulse previously reported that House Republicans worked with officials at the Department of Justice to ensure the language of the law would make it difficult to overturn in court.
As it stands, ByteDance has until January 19, 2025, to find a buyer for the TikTok app. The U.S. government, however, could extend the deadline an additional three months if it believes ByteDance is close to making a sale. If ByteDance chooses not to sell or cannot reach an agreement with a purchaser, the U.S. ban on TikTok will take effect.
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TikTok's Chinese-owned parent company, ByteDance, would prefer the United States government ban the social media app rather than sell it to a non-Chinese buyer. According to Reuters, citing four anonymous sources, ByteDance does not wish to part with control over the app's algorithm, which it views as critical to the success of its network of technology ventures.
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Artificial Intelligence (AI) can successfully predict a person’s political orientation based on images of a blank facial expression, a development that researchers say shows that facial recognition technology is “more threatening than previously thought” and poses “serious challenges to privacy.” It also supports the idea that physiognomy, often discredited as ‘pseudoscience,’ may, in fact, be a valid practice.
A recent study published in the journal American Psychologist revealed that an algorithm’s ability to accurately guess a person’s political views is “on par with how well job interviews predict job success, or alcohol drives aggressiveness.” According to lead author Michal Kosinski, the 591 participants filled out a political orientation questionnaire. AI then captured what Kosinski described as a numerical “fingerprint” of participants’ faces and compared them to a database to predict political views.
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“Participants wore a black T-shirt adjusted using binder clips to cover their clothes. They removed all jewelry and – if necessary – shaved facial hair. Face wipes were used to remove cosmetics until no residues were detected on a fresh wipe. Their hair was pulled back using hair ties, hair pins, and a headband while taking care to avoid flyaway hairs,” the study’s authors wrote.
A facial recognition algorithm — VGGFace2 — then examined the images to determine “face descriptors, or a numerical vector that is both unique to that individual and consistent across their different images.”
‘MORE THREATENING THAT PREVIOUSLY THOUGHT.’
“Descriptors extracted from a given image are compared to those stored in a database. If they are similar enough, the faces are considered a match. Here, we use a linear regression to map face descriptors on a political orientation scale and then use this mapping to predict political orientation for a previously unseen face,” the study said.
The study’s authors observed that an “analysis of facial features associated with political orientation revealed that conservatives tended to have larger lower faces.”
“Perhaps most crucially, our findings suggest that widespread biometric surveillance technologies are more threatening than previously thought,” the study warns. “Our results, suggesting that stable facial features convey a substantial amount of the signal, imply that individuals have less control over their privacy.”
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Artificial Intelligence (AI) can successfully predict a person's political orientation based on images of a blank facial expression, a development that researchers say shows that facial recognition technology is "more threatening than previously thought" and poses "serious challenges to privacy." It also supports the idea that physiognomy, often discredited as 'pseudoscience,' may, in fact, be a valid practice.
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Supplying President Volodymyr Zelensk’s forces in Ukraine with Western arms and ammunition has badly depleted Britain’s military stocks, the Minister of State for Defence Procurement has revealed. James Cartlidge of the Conservative Party says the war has left Britain short of tanks, missiles, and munitions.
“[T]here’s been huge support for the way that the UK has stood by Ukraine providing huge numbers of munitions, Storm Shadow [missiles], tanks and so on,” Cartlidge said — exaggerating Britain’s contributions, considering only 14 main battle tanks could be spared from the country’s tiny fleet.
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“I think the public wants to know that in doing that, we are replenishing our own stocks and munitions,” he added, confirming the government would have to spend “£10 billion ($12.48 billion) more for munitions.”
It has previously been reported that the British Army would run out of munitions in just ten days of full-scale warfare, speaking to the parlous state of the many European NATO members militaries.
The U.S., which has carried NATO for many years, is also running short on munitions. Biden was forced to consider sending arms to Ukraine without replenishing U.S. stocks. He has already been forced to begin sending Ukraine cluster bombs, outlawed by many NATO members due to their tendency to kill and maim civilians years after their initial use, due to a shortage of conventional munitions.
Russia is believed to be outpacing the West in artillery shell production by three-to-one. Artillery has been vital to the fighting in Ukraine, with Zelensky estimating his forces need a minimum of four million shells. However, the U.S. can only produce 360,000 a year, causing war skeptics such as Senator J.D. Vance to question the wisdom of prolonging the war at U.S. taxpayer expense.
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Supplying President Volodymyr Zelensk's forces in Ukraine with Western arms and ammunition has badly depleted Britain's military stocks, the Minister of State for Defence Procurement has revealed. James Cartlidge of the Conservative Party says the war has left Britain short of tanks, missiles, and munitions.
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The House Judiciary Committee and House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government have uncovered evidence the federal government pressured at least 13 banks into handing over American conservatives’ information without a warrant. The U.S. Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) told financial institutions, including Bank of America, Chase, Citi Bank, and Wells Fargo, to sift customers’ transactions for so-called “extremism” indicators, such as searches including the term “Trump.”
Searches including the term “MAGA” were also included as an “extremism” indicator, along with purchases of the Bible. Following January 6, FinCEN suggested banks sift through transactions at hunting, fishing, and camping stores like Bass Pro Shops and Dick’s Sporting Goods.
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At least 211 Americans had their personal information transferred to FinCEN and the FBI by Bank of America on January 17, 2021. The bank was asked for more details on “weapons-related transactions” among the group, leading to “criminal background queries” into four bank customers. Federal agents established multiple leads on additional persons after this, but they had to be pulled because there were no “allegations of federal criminal conduct.”
WARRANTLESS SURVEILLANCE.
“This kind of warrantless financial surveillance raises serious concerns about the federal government’s respect for Americans’ privacy and fundamental civil liberties,” Jordan wrote Janet Yellen, Joe Biden’s Treasury Secretary.
“Given this coordination, the Committee and Select Subcommittee are concerned that the federal government, through the FBI and FinCEN, sent similar or identical [requests] to other financial institutions… to elicit the information and transaction history of individuals without any allegation of federal criminal conduct,” he said.
The authorities have stepped up their persecution of January 6 defendants ahead of the presidential elections in November, with up to 445 new cases coming before the courts — more than the total for 2022 and 2023.
Earlier this month, Rebecca Lavrenz, a 71-year-old great-grandmother who briefly prayed inside the U.S. Capitol on January 6, was convicted. National Pulse editor-in-chief Raheem Kassam called the case “disgusting.”
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The House Judiciary Committee and House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government have uncovered evidence the federal government pressured at least 13 banks into handing over American conservatives' information without a warrant. The U.S. Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) told financial institutions, including Bank of America, Chase, Citi Bank, and Wells Fargo, to sift customers' transactions for so-called "extremism" indicators, such as searches including the term "Trump."
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The Biden government on Thursday unveiled one of its most extreme environmental regulations yet, requiring coal-fired power plants to almost entirely eliminate their emissions or else face being shutdown. Under the new Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulation, these power plants must decrease their pollutants by an ambitious 90 percent by 2039 — one year earlier than the originally proposed 2040. Representatives from the coal power industry have called the emissions benchmarks set by the EPA unrealistic.
In addition to the new emissions standards, the EPA is imposing more stringent controls on mercury emissions — a neurotoxin associated with developmental harm to children — from specific plants that use lignite coal, an inferior grade of coal. Other regulations will require more rigorous management of toxic ash seepage from coal stations into the surrounding water table and promote stricter surveillance of coal plant wastewater discharge.
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The EPA’s regulatory announcements could amount to the potential end of the coal industry in the United States. Environmental activists, however, hail the possibility as they contend that coal combustion is responsible for the highest level of carbon dioxide emissions globally.
These new regulations follow actions undertaken by the Biden government to severely restrict emissions from American cars and trucks. The new automobile emission standards aim in part to fast-track the adoption of electric vehicles among American consumers. Officials in the Biden government have reiterated their intent to reduce U.S. carbon emissions by roughly 50 percent by 2030 and achieve complete decarbonization of the power industry by 2035.
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The Biden government on Thursday unveiled one of its most extreme environmental regulations yet, requiring coal-fired power plants to almost entirely eliminate their emissions or else face being shutdown. Under the new Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulation, these power plants must decrease their pollutants by an ambitious 90 percent by 2039 — one year earlier than the originally proposed 2040. Representatives from the coal power industry have called the emissions benchmarks set by the EPA unrealistic.
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Defense lawyer Vinoo Varghese has revealed that the New Yorkjudge overseeing the prosecution of hobbyist gunsmith Dexter Taylor told him he could not use the Second Amendment to defend his client, insisting it “doesn’t exist” in the Empire State.
“She told us, ‘Do not bring the Second Amendment into this courtroom. It doesn’t exist here. So you can’t argue Second Amendment. This is New York,'” said Varghese.
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Judge Abena Darkeh, blasted as a “DEI hire” by online commentators, is also Vice President of the Association of Ghanaian Lawyers of America. She is alleged to have acted as “the most aggressive prosecutor in the room.” The Bill de Blasio appointee is accused of limiting the scope of Taylor’s defense and indirectly instructing jurors they “must vote guilty.”
Taylor, a black conservative who has discussed his hobby on YouTube under the pseudonym Carbon Mike, faces ten to 18 years in prison at sentencing on May 18. While prosecutors describe Taylor as having “acquired a massive arsenal of homemade ghost guns,” the 52-year-old insists he was merely machining legal parts together as a hobby. He says he is also a hobbyist carpenter, radio operator, and technician with a “squeaky-clean criminal record.”
Taylor’s defenders argue that, federally, manufacturing one’s own firearms is lawful, with the Gun Control Act of 1968 allowing unlicensed civilians to make firearms for personal use only. Taylor’s lawyers argue he did not even fire his guns, still less distribute or sell them.
E. Jean Carroll, the 80-year-old advice columnist who claims Donald Trump raped her in a busy department store in the 1990s, previously boasted about owning an unlicensed firearm. Police confiscated it earlier this month, but there is no evidence she was arrested or charged with a crime.
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Defense lawyer Vinoo Varghese has revealed that the New York judge overseeing the prosecution of hobbyist gunsmith Dexter Taylor told him he could not use the Second Amendment to defend his client, insisting it "doesn't exist" in the Empire State.
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The U.S. is demanding “answers” from Israel following the discovery of mass graves near two hospitals in Gaza. Palestinian authorities discovered nearly 400 bodies in mass graves outside the Nasser and al-Shifa hospitals. The remains include those of women and the elderly. Some of the bodies were found naked with their hands tied behind their backs.
“Among the deceased were allegedly older people, women and wounded, while others were found tied with their hands and stripped of their clothes,” said a spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. “This of course indicates serious violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law, and these need to be subjected to further investigations.”
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White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan called the reports “deeply disturbing.”
“We want answers,” Sullivan told reporters. “We want to see this thoroughly and transparently investigated.”
The Israeli army has denied responsibility, calling any suggestions to the contrary “baseless” and “unfounded.” It claims the graves were “dug by Gazans” months ago.
‘LOSING THE PR WAR.’
The discovery of the graves coincides with an impending Israeli assault against Rafah. The Israeli military has mobilized two reservist brigades, with footage suggesting preparations for refugee relocation in Khan Younis, near Rafah. Israel’s government, led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has indicated the impending initiation of a ground operation.
Despite warnings of an imminent humanitarian crisis, Israel plans on evacuating Palestinian civilians from Rafah. The Israeli Defence Ministry acquired 40,000 tents to accommodate Palestinians evacuated from Rafah in anticipation of assault.
Should allegations of Israeli responsibility for the mass graves prove true, it will be a significant blow to the Jewish State’s reputation and ability to continue its war against Hamas. The Israeli military response and civilian death toll in Gaza has increased global sympathy for the Palestinians. Politicians in countries that are key Israeli allies, including the U.S. and UK, have called to cease arms shipments to Israel. Former President Donald Trump has repeatedly warned that Israel is losing a vital PR war and must finish up its military action in Gaza quickly.
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The U.S. is demanding "answers" from Israel following the discovery of mass graves near two hospitals in Gaza. Palestinian authorities discovered nearly 400 bodies in mass graves outside the Nasser and al-Shifa hospitals. The remains include those of women and the elderly. Some of the bodies were found naked with their hands tied behind their backs.
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A small group of Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill were able to keep quiet — for over a year — a renewed effort to take on TikTok and secure the speedy adoption of legislation that will force its Chinese owner, ByteDance, to either divest from or sell the social media app in the next nine months. Republican aides dubbed the effort: “The Thunder Run.”
The plan to take on TikTok and its Chinese parent company was born out of efforts by former President DonaldTrump to confront the national security threat posed by ByteDance. In the final months of the Trump administration, the former Republican President used executive action that gave ByteDance the choice to either divest or face a ban on the TikTok app in the U.S. Unfortunately, though, federal courts hamstrung the effort.
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RENEWING TRUMP’S TIKTOK EFFORTS.
House Republicans renewed efforts to take on the Chinese-owned social media app just over a year ago. Representative Steve Scalise (R-LA), the House Majority Leader, began approaching his Republican colleagues regarding a legislative measure requiring divestment or a resulting ban on TikTok. The group comprised about 15 House lawmakers, national security officials, and the deputy attorney general. Scalise and Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) began crafting the divestment bill in secret, hoping not to tip off TikTok’s army of lobbyists and passionate user base to the effort.
After months of meetings, Scalise and McMorris Rodgers were ready to go public with their legislation. Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI) and Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL) sponsored the bill and ushered it through McMorris-Rodgers’s House Energy and Commerce Committee. It sailed through, gaining 50 co-sponsors in the process.
TIKTOK’S LOBBYING BACKFIRES.
Now aware of the threat, TikTok launched a full-scale lobbying operation to defeat the bill. However, the Chinese-owned social media company made a fatal error when it also pushed its users to lobby Capitol Hill. The messages left for lawmakers by TikTok users, some of whom appeared to be legal minors, devolved into threats. Senator Thom Tillis received a phone call from one individual threatening: “I’ll find you and shoot you and cut you into pieces.”
“It transformed a lot of lean yeses into hell yeses at that point,” Rep. Krishnamoorthi said of the flood of threatening phone calls from TikTok users.
DIVEST OR FACE A BAN.
Despite the full court press by TikTok, the divestment bill was adopted by the full House of Representatives in mid-March. It stalled out in the Senate, however.
The delay in the Senate–over timing concerns raised by Sens. Mark Warner (D-VA) and Maria Cantwell (D-WA) — gave TikTok time to recover. This prompted Speaker Mike Johnson to add a near-mirror version of the House-passed bill to a package of foreign aid funding supplemental. The only change to the legislation was an extension of the time ByteDance has to divest. Speaker Johnson’s foreign aid legislation, including the TikTok provision, passed by both the House and Senate and was signed into law by Joe Biden earlier this week.
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A small group of Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill were able to keep quiet — for over a year — a renewed effort to take on TikTok and secure the speedy adoption of legislation that will force its Chinese owner, ByteDance, to either divest from or sell the social media app in the next nine months. Republican aides dubbed the effort: "The Thunder Run."
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A cabal of lawyers, legal analysts for the corporate media, and former Deep State officials is colluding on private Zoom calls every Friday to decide how to cover the various lawfare cases against Donald Trump. The existence of the off-the-record meetings was revealed by POLITICO, which described the participants as “united by their dislike of Trump.”
Norman Eisen, a CNN analyst who served as a special counsel and ambassador under Barack Obama, hosts the group. Eisen recently argued Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s “hush money” prosecution of Trump is an “election interference” case.
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Only some of his cabal’s regular participants were named:
Bill Kristol, a pro-war neoconservative who has pushed Chris Christie to endorse Joe Biden for President;
George Conway, a Never Trumper who persuaded E. Jean Carroll to sue the former president. He also co-founded the Lincoln Project alongside John Weaver, alleged to have groomed and harassed multiple young men, including at least one minor;
Andrew Weissmann, an MSNBC analyst who assisted Robert Mueller’s bogus Trump-Russia investigation as a federal prosecutor;
Mary McCord, a former Justice Department official who hosts an MSNBC podcast alongside Weissmann;
Jeffrey Toobin, a cable news legal analyst previously suspended by The New Yorker for exposing his genitals to a colleague on a Zoom call;
Harry Litman, a Los Angeles Times columnist who served as a U.S. Attorney under Barack Obama;
Barbara McQuade, an MSNBC contractor who also served as a U.S. Attorney under Barack Obama;
Joyce White Vance, another MSNBC contractor who served as a U.S. Attorney under Barack Obama;
The cabal has occasionally invited special guests to speak with them, including lawyers involved in lawfare efforts against Trump.
One was Roberta Kaplan, who spoke to the group for approximately 30 minutes about her efforts to sue Trump on behalf of E. Jean Carroll. The elderly advice columnist claims the former president raped her in the changing rooms of a busy department store in the 1990s.
The group also hosted J. Michael Luttig, who helped lead the failed campaign to bar Trump from running for the presidency again under the 14th Amendment. POLITICO notes the interaction with Luttig “spread dubious analysis,” with call participants arguing the 14th Amendment efforts had merit despite the fact they “never really had a chance.”
POLITICO notes the group also has strong misgivings about DA Bragg’s highly novel case against Trump in Manhattan. They discuss “whether it should have been brought in the first place” regularly.
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A cabal of lawyers, legal analysts for the corporate media, and former Deep State officials is colluding on private Zoom calls every Friday to decide how to cover the various lawfare cases against Donald Trump. The existence of the off-the-record meetings was revealed by POLITICO, which described the participants as "united by their dislike of Trump."
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