In The News, Politics, World News, Commentary/Opinion. Keeping you informed.
In The News:
Two men are jailed for kidnapping Minneapolis realtor, torturing her for information about her rapper boyfriend and then shooting her dead
Two men have been sentenced to life in prison without parole for kidnapping a Minneapolis Realtor in 2019, torturing her in the back of a U-Haul truck while trying to find her rapper boyfriend, and then shooting her dead.
Cedric Berry and Berry Davis, both 42, were convicted for their involvement in an elaborate New Years Eve plot in which they lured realtor and mother of two Monique Baugh, 28, to a phony home showing in a Minneapolis suburb.
Momoh, who had been accused of snitching on a former business associate, was later shot multiple times but survived, the Minnesota Star Tribune reported.
Prosecutors said a former record label associate of Mitchell-Momoh’s, Lyndon Wiggins, may have helped organize the killing, believing that Mitchell-Momoh had ‘snitched’ on him for drug dealing.
Moderna launches clinical trial testing whether its COVID-19 vaccine leads to miscarriages or stillbirths in pregnant women or birth defects in newborns
The Cambridge, Massachusetts-based company announced the trial on Monday, and it expected to begin on July 22.
Scientists will observe the potential side effects the vaccine will have on the pregnant women, the infants, and whether the vaccine could cause complications in pregnancy.
Pregnant women remain in a small group of people who the vaccine has not been fully verified to be safe for.
According to the U.S. National Library of Medicine, Moderna has not yet began to recruit for the study.
They plan to enroll 1,000 women aged 18 or older who are currently pregnant.
Inflation hits levels of 2008 financial crisis
Newly released federal data showed a major spike in consumer prices, worrying experts about the continued rise of inflation.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics released consumer price data Tuesday showing the largest one-month increase in consumer prices in over a decade. These prices are a key indicator of inflation.
The increase in prices was disproportionately driven by the cost of vehicles and energy sources such as gas and electricity.
The numbers drew ire from House Republicans, who have used the term “Bidenflation” to lay the blame for the increased prices at Biden’s feet.
“Even former Obama-Biden economic czar Steven Rattner has admitted that wage increases will ‘mean nothing’ for American families if inflation increases,” House Republicans on Ways and Means Committee said in a statement. “Though Democrats will call this inflation ‘transitory,’ cash-strapped Americans at the grocery checkout counter will have to stretch their budgets to deal with these higher prices. It’s time for Democrats’ emergency spending and endless government checks to come to an end.”
LA rapper Indian Red Boy, 21, is shot dead while filming Instagram live-stream in his car in a cold-blooded daylight ‘gang’ killing
The disturbing video, which is being shared widely online, shows the 21-year-old smiling and laughing with his friend as the gunman approached his window.
Rivera could be seen glancing out the window just as the gunshots started to ring out. He could be seen trying to cover his head with his arms as at least 12 shots were fired.
Police responding to reports of the shooting found Rivera ‘slumped in the front seat’.
He had been shot multiple times and was pronounced dead at the scene.
NYC principal allegedly conspired to oust white employees, now being investigated after faculty fought back
A complaint filed against principal Paula Lev claims she told a faculty member at her school that she “was going to get rid of all these white teachers that aren’t doing anything for the kids of our community,” according to the New York Post. Lev allegedly made the remark in Spanish.
The complaint, filed with New York City’s Department of Education Office of Equal Opportunity, alleges Lev asked that faculty member to “conspire with her” to carry out the plan.
“She definitely has something against white people,” the faculty member allegedly said of Lev in the complaint.
Adam Carolla rips US intel community for ‘wokeness’ and says Russia, China ‘must be delighted’
“This is us fighting ourselves, this woke culture, the diversity, the racism cries, the gender, the homophobia, this is us fighting ourselves, the Russians and the Chinese must be delighted that we have a self-induced civil war on our own nation,” Carolla told Carlson.
Carolla offered his comments in an appearance on “Tucker Carlson Tonight” after the U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) used an apparent photoshopped stock image on its annual intelligence community diversity report.
The ODNI coordinates intelligence-gathering efforts among the 18 U.S. military and civilian intelligence agencies.
The criticism of the ODNI’s diversity report comes after the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) released a number of recruitment ads touting the diversity of their employees.
Pro-abortion activists and abortion providers sue to block Texas heartbeat law
The Center for Reproductive Rights, an abortion rights group, partnered with Planned Parenthood Federation of America, the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Texas, and various abortion providers, including Whole Women’s Health, as plaintiffs in the lawsuit, which seeks to block the Texas heartbeat law from taking effect on Sept. 1.
Texas’ heartbeat law requires abortionists to check for a baby’s heartbeat and makes it illegal to kill that baby if a heartbeat can be heard.
The enforcement mechanism of the law is unique — it empowers “any person,” with exceptions for sexual abusers, to sue anyone who “aids or abets” an illegal abortion for up to $10,000 per defendant.
The language of the law means that organizations that provide support to women seeking an abortion, not just direct abortion providers, could be the target of citizen lawsuits by pro-life activists.
YouTube Censors Video of School Board Meeting on Mask Mandates
A Lake Forest High School video of its Monday evening board meeting was removed by YouTube by Tuesday morning for violating the site’s “community guidelines.”
Those who watched the video told the Washington Free Beacon it included requests from parents to make masks optional. Lake Forest chief communications officer Melissa Oakley said the school filed an appeal to YouTube but has not heard back.
Oakley said Lake Forest High records its meeting by livestreaming directly to YouTube, which means it cannot now access the video. She said YouTube had also pulled a previous board meeting.
One apparent attendee at Monday’s meeting posted on Twitter, “The meeting was AWESOME! Concerned and courageous parents spoke up, the BOE heard our message…. Last night we saw transparency, witnessed leadership and FELT UNITY.”
High-school employee allegedly gives beers to teens before deadly car crash
Kelsey Martin, 35, reportedly made friends with Connor Quinn, 19, and his classmates at Owen J. Roberts High School, according to the Inquirer.
Quinn drove with two of his former classmates and Louis Carbajal, 18, a recent graduate from a nearby school, to Martin’s home after midnight in August 2020.
Martin reportedly gave the teens Miller Lites and drank with them on her back porch, all of them 18 and recent graduates at the time, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer. One of the teens said this was the second time he drank with Martin at her home that summer.
Martin was charged with six counts of furnishing alcohol to minors, according to the Inquirer. It is unclear if Martin was still employed by Owen J. Roberts School District when the incident reportedly occurred.
Trump Puts Big Tech on Defense | Bill O’Reilly
Bill O’Reilly breaks down President Trump’s class-action lawsuit against Big Tech.
Plus, he previews his big interview with “45.” “…and he wants punitive damages in addition to being reinstated immediately on all social media.”
Peter Schweizer: Our Copy of Hunter Biden’s Laptop Confirms ‘Joe Biden Was a Direct Beneficiary’ of His Son’s Deals
Schweizer explained how GAI cross-referenced Secret Service travel logs during Joe Biden’s tenure as vice president to corroborate the authenticity of Hunter Biden’s emails.
GAI is in the process of investigating its copy of files found on Hunter Biden’s laptop, Schweizer shared.
He said GAI’s forthcoming reports on the laptop’s contents will expose disastrous dimensions of the Biden family.
“We’re in the middle of the investigation now, but by the end of the year it will be completed, and it will take on a far more sinister tone than it has even now in terms of what it says about the Biden family and the vulnerabilities of the Biden family,” Schweizer stated. “It’s that bad.”
Kyle Bass: Wall Streets Puts Profits From China Over Human Rights | CLIP | American Thought Leaders
Kyle Bass says that despite all of the facts surrounding the atrocities committed by the CCP, including forced organ harvesting of prisoners of conscience and accusations of genocide, Wall Street continues to put profits over human rights.
He also explains how the Chinese economic system means that support of any private company in China is support for the CCP.
Don’t Ask Permission!
If Elon Musk waited for regulators before trying anything, we wouldn’t have Tesla and SpaceX.
OFTEN, ignoring regulators is the only way to make progress. Musk ignored FAA warnings on rocket launches, and SEC restrictions on his tweets (he also goes out of his way to insult that agency on Twitter.)
“Everywhere you look in America today, there are people pushing up against really crazy laws and regulations,” says Adam Thierer, author of “Permissionless Innovation.”
The video above shows what’s at stake.
Tucker: Biden administration deems censorship ‘applicable to private speech’
Commentary/Opinion: (Good one, worth the time!)
‘Tucker Carlson Tonight’ host sounds off on Democrats’ censorship push on private speech, vaccine ‘misinformation’.
Last March, as the first big clusters of coronavirus cases started to appear in this country, media executives in Silicon Valley coordinated with officials in Washington to determine how much the public was allowed to know about the growing epidemic that was killing them.
(Transcript For Video.) Tucker Carlson: Your private conversations will be controlled by the DNC
Politics:
States join coalition to stop California from setting U.S. automotive standards
A coalition of 16 states is urging the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to not reinstate a waiver allowing California to implement its own carbon emissions standards that essentially regulate the automotive industry for the rest of the U.S.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton joined a coalition led by Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, which also includes attorneys general from the states of Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah and West Virginia.
Under the Clean Air Act, the Trump administration created national standards for vehicle carbon emissions for model years 2021 through 2026.
The policy revoked a waiver previously granted to California in order to treat all states as equal sovereigns subject to one federal rule, the attorneys general explain in their 12-page letter.
GOP senators fight to preserve Biden’s war powers amid tensions with Iran
It’s a strange dynamic for members of Congress, who have long seen presidents of both parties expand and sometimes abuse their war powers even after campaigning on ending conflicts in the Middle East.
Nearly 20 years after the horrors of Sept. 11, GOP lawmakers are now in the awkward position of fighting to maintain a Democratic president’s authority to conduct military operations without congressional approval.
It largely stems from Republicans’ desire to project an aggressive posture toward Iran — whose proxies in Iraq and Syria attack Americans on a near-daily basis — and concerns about the rapid destabilization of Afghanistan amid the U.S. withdrawal.
“Presidents should be authorized … to go after terrorists or other armed groups who seek to harm the United States or our personnel deployed anywhere in the world, on an ongoing basis, and to do whatever is necessary to degrade their capability to strike us — and if possible to wipe them out of existence,” said Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), vice chair of the Intelligence Committee and a senior member of the Foreign Relations panel.
Texas House votes to arrest Democrats if they don’t return
‘Outnumbered’ panel reacts to the news of the Texas House voting 76-4 in favor of arresting the Democratic members if they don’t return.
Wokeism’ has come at a price for US military: KT McFarland
Former Trump adviser KT McFarland reacts to a ‘devastating’ report that questions if the U.S. Navy is ready for war.
Australian politicians need to display ‘the same leadership’ as Ron DeSantis
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and stand up to lockdowns. Mr Creighton said Governor DeSantis took on the mainstream media and narrative of “doom and gloom”.
“Quite extraordinary,” he told Sky News host Alan Jones.
Discussing the contrast with Australia’s response to the pandemic, Mr Creighton said one of the premiers or the Prime Minister is going to have to display the same leadership as DeSantis. “I think that is extremely unlikely.”
Democrats Cast First Vote to Scrap Hyde Amendment, Force Americans to Fund Abortions
The U.S. House Appropriations Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies subcommittee approved the 2022 appropriations bill in a voice vote, moving it forward in committee and advancing Democrat leaders’ radical pro-abortion agenda.
However, pro-life Republican lawmakers promised that they will fight to stop it.
“Unless this long-standing compromise protecting human life is restored, this bill should not move forward,” U.S. Rep. Kay Granger, a pro-life Republican from Texas, told committee members. “My colleagues and I are going to have to strongly oppose it because it’s out of step with the views of most Americans. It is just that simple.”
World News:
Taliban fighters execute 22 Afghan commandos
The Special Force members’ ammunition ran out as they fought with terrorist militants, leading them to surrender.
The Taliban told them to take off their bulletproof vests amid the surrender and then shot the 22 troops, including the son of a top Afghan general, the Ministry of Defense said. There is purportedly unverified video of the incident circulating online.
In what appears to have been a separate Tuesday attack against an Afghan convoy, commandos driving in Humvees were trying to extract a wounded police officer captured by the Taliban when they were caught up in gunfire and explosions, Reuters reported.
Italy bans cruise ships from Venice lagoon after Unesco threat
Workers and companies affected by the changes will be compensated, according to a statement from the prime minister Mario Draghi’s office.
“The decree adopted today constitutes an important step for the protection of the Venetian lagoon,” the statement said.
In early June, activists protested after being caught by surprise when a cruise liner sailed into the city despite an announcement from government in April banning the ships.
At the same time, a counter-protest was held by Si Grandi Navi, a movement that supports the thousands of people whose livelihoods depend on the cruise industry and who had been out of work since the pandemic struck in spring last year.
Pictures: South Africa Looting and Rioting Continues, Deaths Climb to 32
Many of the deaths occurred in chaotic stampedes as scores of people looted food, electric appliances, liquor, and clothing from retail centers, KwaZulu-Natal premier Sihle Zikalala told the press on Tuesday morning.
The deployment of 2,500 soldiers to support the South African police has not yet stopped the rampant looting although arrests are being made at some areas in Johannesburg, including Vosloorus in eastern Johannesburg.
Looting continued Tuesday in Johannesburg shopping malls in township areas including Jabulani Mall and Dobsonville Mall in Soweto. There were also reports of continued looting in centers in KwaZulu-Natal.
Motherhood Councillors Forced to Assist Transgenders on Their ‘Chestfeeding Journey’
Whistleblowers have accused the Australian Breastfeeding Association (ABA) of abandoning its central mission to help new mothers in favour of confirming LGBT ideology around gender.
The ABA allegedly suspended seven councillors after other volunteers made complaints of bullying and harassment over the councillors using the term “mother” on the ABA’s Facebook page.
One of the suspended councillors, Sue, told the Daily Mail Australia: “We are only trained to provide peer support for mothers, not gay men, transmen, queer people, agender or asexual people.”
Sue, who has been with the organisation for over 10 years, said that she and many of her colleagues are uncomfortable providing services to biological males or trans women.
Chinese channel threatens Japan with nuclear war; China may be behind Cuba’s internet censorship
Thousands of Cuban citizens take to the streets, speaking out against the country’s communist regime. Many are losing their internet connections amid the protests — and some suspect China is behind it.
Beijing seems to have a new friend knocking on its door: the Taliban. A spokesman says they’re hoping for talks with Beijing, and promise to keep Chinese investments in Afghanistan secure.
Could nuclear war erupt between China and Japan? A prominent Chinese military channel says that’s what the future holds, if Japan defends Taiwan. And the U.S. could be involved, too.
And, Beijing is stepping up its crackdown on China’s version of Uber. Now, 25 apps are set to be removed from the app store. It’s part of a series of control measures reining in China’s internet giants.
Commentary/Opinion:
Mark Levin: Tell THIS to those unconvinced a MARXIST REVOLUTION is happening NOW
BlazeTV host Mark Levin says his new book, ‘American Marxism,’ provides the PROOF that we’re not just facing a coming Marxist revolution…it’s already here.
But so many unengaged Americans remain unconvinced, believing recent moves from the far-left and the Democrat Party are just passing phases.
But this is not a ‘fad,’ Levin says, and we must stand united against America’s current ENEMY: Marxism.
In this clip he describes how he would explain to an everyday American that our individual freedoms are in serious jeopardy…