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GameStop, other ‘meme’ stocks surge again

The video game retailer’s resurgence comes one month after its frenzied rise shocked the financial world and was cheered on by online investors.

The Washington Post reports:

GameStop shares closed up 19 percent Thursday, after surging as much as 88 percent, as retail investors returned to the shorted stock that set off a trading frenzy last month that shocked Wall Street and sparked federal scrutiny.

GameStop ended the session at $109.15, pushing the video game retailer’s market cap past $7.6 billion, even as the broader market slumped. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 559.85 points, nearly 1.8 percent, to 31,402.01. The S&P 500 shed 96.09 points, or nearly 2.5 percent, to close at 3,829.34, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq tumbled 478.53 points, or 3.5 percent, to end at 13,119.43.

Other shorted stocks that have attracted intense interest, propelled by online investor communities such as the subreddit WallStreetBets, also had big swings. Koss Corp. jumped 17 percent, to $21.53 per share, after soaring as much as 48 percent. AMC Entertainment soared 5 percent before reversing course; it closed at $8.29, down 8.8 percent.

A host of factors could be driving GameStop’s rise — which has been building since Tuesday and includes a more than 100 percent jump on Wednesday — said Ed Moya, a senior market analyst at OANDA. This week, GameStop announced that its chief financial officer, Jim Bell, would resign March 26 after roughly 18 months in the role. Diana Jajeh, the company’s senior vice president and chief accounting officer, will serve as interim CFO.

But Moya doubts the leadership change was enough to buoy GameStop, noting that the company is still being dragged down by its brick-and-mortar store model. He pointed to Friday’s expiration date for GameStop’s options trading, a riskier asset class made more accessible to retail investors through brokerage firms such as Robinhood.

Stock options operate as contracts that give holders the right either to buy or sell part of the asset before the expiration date, which often lands at the end of the month and contributes to more trading volatility. The higher the stock value, the better the result for investors with these types of holdings.

“Obviously, this is the Reddit army. They’re back at it again,” Moya said. “After we saw the GameStop hearings and Roaring Kitty, he really announced that he was doubling his stake. … There’s this belief that people really want to see this stock succeed.” (Roaring Kitty is the online username of the financial trader Keith Gill.)

And Wednesday, GameStop board member and Chewy founder Ryan Cohen — who some credit with inspiring online investors to pivot to the video game retailer after announcing last fall that he held a 12.9 percent stake in the company — tweeted a mysterious photo of a McDonald’s ice cream cone with a frog emoji.

Some analysts and online investors presented theories linking the tweet to the rally, but the actual explanation isn’t clear. Representatives for Cohen did not immediately respond to requests for comment. But the photo is the same as the header image for an October 2020 Business Insider article about a young engineer who created a website to determine whether the local McDonald’s has an ice cream machine that works. Moya said he sees symbolism connected to GameStop trading, “as ludicrous” as it seems.

“It’s kind of a sign to the GameStop traders to show that, ‘Alright, we’re up and running. The ice cream machine is working,’” Moya said. “If you have a good meme, you can probably bank 20 percent alone on that.”

The story of the GameStop trading frenzy is one that can’t be told without explaining the online culture of the meme-circulating, crass-language-using community of r/WallStreetBets. The buildup to the first “meme-stock” rally in late January was marked by a cycle of investors on social media discussing interesting stocks, others jumping in and more investors expanding the discussion on social media.

Omose Ogala, 25, a software engineer in Oakland, Calif., usually avoids options trading, but he decided to give it a try with last month’s GameStop rally after reading on Twitter about its success.

He bought in to GameStop and BlackBerry through his Robinhood account, which he has had for three years because of its variety of ways to invest — but he said he bought in too late with GameStop through the riskier trading approach and lost money.

“I set aside that money I wanted to throw in the pot and then I said, ‘Okay, let’s go for it,’” he said, adding that he thought at the time, “If I lose it, cool. I’ll take that loss. But if I win, cool. I’ll take that win.”

Twitter, YouTube, Reddit and Discord communities are primary sources of financial information for a growing number of retail investors, particularly Millennials and Gen Z. Moya said the latest rally again illustrates a shift away from traditional investing, which uses sources like newspapers and cable shows, toward more grass-roots social media speculation and risky trading that sometimes errs on the side of gambling.

“A lot of people are going to, once again, learn the hard way,” Moya said.

Obama Feared Biden Was ‘Tragicomic Caricature Of An Aging Politician Having His Last Hurrah’: Book

The Daily Wire reports:

In April 2020, when Joe Biden announced he was running for president, former President Barack Obama issued a statement.

“President Obama has long said that selecting Joe Biden as his running mate in 2008 was one of the best decisions he ever made. He relied on the Vice President’s knowledge, insight, and judgment throughout both campaigns and the entire presidency. The two forged a special bond over the last 10 years and remain close today,” the statement said.

Notably absent was his endorsement of Biden, who had served as Obama’s vice president for eight years.

Now a new book gives some insight into their relationship.

The book, “Lucky: How Joe Biden Barely Won the Presidency,’’ by Jonathan Allen, a senior political analyst for NBC News, and Amie Parnes, a senior correspondent with The Hill, says Obama refused to support Biden because he feared he was a “tragicomic caricature of an aging politician having his last hurrah.”

Allen and Parnes write that Obama didn’t endorse his former veep because he “seemed to be enamored with a former Texas congressman, Beto O’Rourke.”

“For many Democrats, Biden simply seemed unsuited for a modern campaign. Obama’s allies sometimes explained the former president’s reluctance to bless Biden’s candidacy as fear that Biden would dishonor himself with a bad campaign,” the write.

But he feared an even worse outcome.

“Obama worried that his former vice president would embarrass himself on the campaign trail and that the people around him would not be able to prevent a belly-flop. He wanted reassurance that Biden’s legacy would be protected.”

The book says Biden did almost everything wrong during his campaign, but because of the COVID-19 pandemic, he was able to “hide his biggest weakness, which is himself.”

Biden spent much of the campaign in his basement in Wilmington, Delaware, holding far fewer events than President Donald Trump. One Biden aide told the authors that the strategy was tantamount to “You put your dumb uncle in the basement.”

And top Biden adviser Anita Dunn said that “Covid was the best thing that happened to him.”

One Trump adviser told the authors that Team Biden “used coronavirus as an excuse to keep him in the basement, and it was smart. Biden was able to hide his biggest weakness, which is himself. And he did it with an excuse that sounded responsible.”

Allen and Parnes write that Biden was able to overcome three early losses in the primaries and win the nomination because he was a safe choice, even though supporters were not enthusiastic about him. Democrats “weren’t willing to take a chance” on a newcomer who might not win against Trump.

“Everything else, he’d gotten wrong. He’d run a lousy campaign, flubbed debates, spent so much money on Iowa and New Hampshire that he teetered on the edge of insolvency, lost three straight states to start the primary, and allowed himself to be defined by his frailties,” they write, noting that he ran on a “bland message and a blank agenda.”

The Daily Wire is one of America’s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a member.

Senate Democrats Cut Deal With Manchin For Lower Unemployment Benefits After 9-Hour Pause

TOPLINE

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) on Friday announced a deal with the Senate’s Democratic leadership on an unemployment insurance amendment to the coronavirus relief package after the Senate ground to a complete halt for nine hours while both parties wooed him to support their competing proposals.

KEY FACTS

Manchin and Senate Democrats agreed to send jobless workers $300 per week, on top of benefits offered by their state unemployment system, until Sept. 6, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) told reporters.

That’s $100 per week less than the unemployment benefit passed by the House.

The deal would also provide a tax break of $10,200 to those on unemployment benefits in households making less than $150,000 a year.

The development comes after Democrats halted the voting process in order to persuade Manchin to back an amendment that would have extended benefits to Oct. 4 and had no cap on the tax break.

A group of Republicans led by Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) tried to sell Manchin on an amendment ending unemployment benefits in July and providing no tax break, with Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) telling reporters Manchin would back that proposal.

Manchin came to the agreement after a lengthy meeting with Senate Majority Chuck Schumer.

CRUCIAL QUOTE

“We have reached a compromise that enables the economy to rebound quickly while also protecting those receiving unemployment benefits from being hit with an unexpected tax bill next year,” Manchin said in a statement.

SURPRISING FACT

Wyden, a progressive who had pushed for far more expansive benefits, told reporters “this has not been my first choice” but blasted Portman’s proposal for its “arbitrary” cutoff date.

TANGENT

The House passed its own version of the relief bill on a tight party-line vote last week. That bill included $400 per week in unemployment benefits instead of $300, and unlike the Senate bill, it included a minimum wage hike to $15 per hour. Some more progressive members of the House could prove skeptical of the Senate’s changes, with Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-N.J.) openly questioning on Friday whether she’ll support the bill in its final form.

KEY BACKGROUND

Congressional Democrats are aiming to pass a massive economic relief package that includes a third round of direct stimulus payments for most U.S. households, extended benefits for jobless workers and aid to state and local governments. Biden must sign the bill by March 14 to avoid a lapse in the jobless benefits passed in the last stimulus package. The effort has been mired in negotiations as Senate Democrats fight to win over their caucus’ more moderate members, all of whom will need to vote in favor of the bill for it to pass. Over the last two weeks, eligibility for $1,400 stimulus payments has narrowed, weekly unemployment benefits have shrunk, and plans to include a minimum wage increase were shuttered after a Senate advisor decided it would need a 60-vote majority to pass under Senate rules.

Pastor James Coates Will Remain in Jail for COVID-19 Violations Until May Trial

A Canadian Pastor pastor has spent the last two weeks in jail for ignoring pandemic-related health orders. Parkland County’s GraceLife Church’s Pastor James Coates turned himself over to the authorities after holding an in-person worship service on February 14, 2021, despite a closure order for violating COVID-19 health orders.

A ruling on Friday from Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Peter Michalyshyn will keep him in jail until his May 3, 2021 trial which is scheduled to run through May 5, 2021.

His lawyer said Pastor Coates’ “obedience is to his Lord, is to his God. And normally, obeying Jesus and obeying the government go right in hand…but the government’s forcing him into a position where he has to choose between disobeying God and obeying government, or obeying God and disobeying government.”

Justice Peter Michalyshyn dismissed Pastor Coates’ appeal and said that the pastor remained unrepentant and plans to continue violating public health orders. “The law that Mr. Coates clearly intends not to be bound by remains valid and enforceable against him.” The justice continued to say, ” Mr. Coates’ strongly held religious beliefs and convictions do not overcome those valid and enforceable laws.”

Justice Michalyshyn said Pastor Coates “drives home even more clearly and personally the depth of his conviction not be bound by the law.” The justice explained that Coates’ clear intent is to not adhere to public health orders because Coates said he could not abide by the conditions of his release if he was granted bail.

Coates’ lawyer John Carplay said, “Pastor Coates is a peaceful Christian minister. He should never have been required to violate his conscience and effectively stop pastoring his church as a condition to be released. Charter freedoms do not disappear because the government declares regular church services to be outlawed while allowing hundreds of people to fill their local Walmarts.”

Although GraceLife Church’s pastor is in jail, the church has continued holding weekend services despite Alberta Health Services’ close watch for violations. It was reported by authorities that the indoor worship services are beyond ordered capacity, yet it is unknown if any further fines have been issued.

People gathered outside of the courthouse on Thursday with banners reading #freejamescoates.

Similar to California’s Grace Community Church’s Pastor John MacArthur, Pastor Coates addressed the area’s COVID-19 restrictions during sermons telling his congregants that “governments exist as instruments of God and there should be unfettered freedom of worship.”

Brian Houston Apologizes for Hillsong NYC’s ‘Failings,’ Promises Whistleblower Policy

(RNS) Brian Houston, the founder of Hillsong, apologized Thursday (March 4) for the leadership crisis at the global evangelical church’s New York outpost resulting from an adulterous affair carried on by its now former pastor, Carl Lentz.

In a document that accompanied his letter of apology, Hillsong promised to institute sexual harassment training and a mechanism for anonymous reporting of misconduct.

“We know that Hillsong East Coast has failed to be the kind of church it should be. On behalf of the Global Board and as Global Senior Pastor, I accept responsibility for these failings and apologize unreservedly,” Houston wrote in an email addressed to “Dear Church.”

It is the first time that Houston, who started Hillsong in Australia in the 1980s with his wife, Bobbie, has apologized for a culture at the New York church that former volunteers have described as starstruck, catering to celebrity attendees — such as Selena Gomez; Justin Bieber and his wife, Hailey Baldwin Bieber; Kevin Durant; Chris Pratt; and the Jenner sisters — who were treated “like royalty.”

Another letter, from the New York law firm Zukerman Gore Brandeis & Crossman that conducted an investigation into what went wrong at Hillsong East Coast, was included in Houston’s email, explaining that “detailed report of Zukerman Gore will not be released to the public to protect the privacy and confidentiality of those involved.”

In February, Houston announced that the investigation had been completed and had found “significant ways” the New York City megachurch “failed to reflect Hillsong global culture.”

In mid-November of last year, Lentz, 42, who had trained at Hillsong’s Sydney headquarters and founded Hillsong East Coast with Houston’s son, Joel, was ousted for “moral failures,” which were later revealed to include an extramarital affair with a Brooklyn jewelry designer.

As the story came out, including an appearance by the woman on “Good Morning America,” Lentz retreated to a rented house in Manhattan Beach, California, with his wife, Laura, and their three children.

Some of Lentz’s more famous congregants, meanwhile, most notably Bieber and Gomez, reportedly cut ties with Hillsong. Bieber recently announced on Instagram that he is now attending Churchome, led by pastor Judah Smith.

Houston had largely kept the focus on Lentz’s affair, keeping mum about broader complaints that lack of oversight and a pastor star system had led not only Hillsong East Coast but the global church’s seven U.S. sites to fall into unhealthy practices.

But last month, in announcing that Hillsong Perth pastor Chrishan and Danielle Jeyaratnam would replace Lentz and his wife at Hillsong East Coast, Houston seemed to say that he and Bobbie Houston would be stepping back from day-to-day management of the church. “Bobbie and I aren’t going anywhere. Don’t worry,” he said, but he called the couple’s shepherding of the global church “not sustainable.”

He added that the investigation into Hillsong East Coast had made him realize they “need to put much more structure in the church globally.”

That structure was outlined in the one-page document emailed Thursday morning under the title of ” Changes.” 

Among the eight changes “to address the lapses that have affected the culture of our East Coast campuses” are a revised code of conduct and a better delineation of “an appropriate scope of responsibilities for each position,” the latter referring apparently to allegations that Lentz made a habit of requiring employees and volunteers to perform tasks they had not signed up for, such as acting as his chauffeur, according to reports in Vanity Fair. 

“Policies will be added to ensure that all positions are compensated fairly and equitably,” the document says elsewhere.

But the most pertinent edicts in the document include “a clear and consistent system for reporting grievances and issues related to inappropriate behaviour,” saying that this will bring Hillsong East Coast in line with “whistle-blower, grievance and complaints policies” already in place in its churches in other countries.

Along with a “stringent sexual misconduct & harassment policy and mandatory training” and financial safeguards, the document promises more training for staff “to increase awareness of the specific types of power dynamics that often arise in a church setting.”

The infrastructure changes are notably aimed only at Hillsong East Coast. “These changes will aim to address the lapses that have affected the culture of our East Coast campuses,” the document reads, “and prevent the strong policies, that we do have in place globally, from being ignored.” 

It makes no mention of the culture of the churches as a whole, which Houston often refers to as “one house with many rooms,” or at other American campuses. In early January of this year, the lead pastors of Hillsong Dallas church, Reed and Jess Bogard, who started the New York City Hillsong church in 2010 alongside Lentz, resigned in a prerecorded video during the church’s worship service with little explanation.

But the changes, belatedly instituting basic best employment practices in large organizations, speak themselves for the lack of appropriate oversight from Hillsong’s founders, and one line from the otherwise dry policy updates could be an admonition for church leaders anywhere: “The responsibility falls to leaders to understand the significance of the position they hold in the lives of others and to use that position as Jesus did, not to be served but to serve.”

Aaron Rodgers takes a swipe at Gov. Newsom over coronavirus lockdown (video)

Rodgers is from Northern California and is helping save businesses there.

Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers appeared to take a swipe at California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) over the pandemic lockdown on Thursday.POLL: What scares you the most?

Rodgers was being interviewed via Instagram video on the Zenith Watches account when he mentioned what he was doing to help businesses damaged by the lockdown.

“I’m recently engaged, so I’ve been enjoying that part of my life. Obviously, that’s the best thing that’s happened to me in the last year. There’s been a lot of good,” said Rodgers.

“Been doing some work actually in my hometown in Northern California as well to try and help some people through a small business fund that we started. You know, we’re just trying to do our part and as we ease back into the training stuff in my professional life, I just want to make sure where I’m from and the area I’ve called home in the past are doing OK,” he continued.

“And California has really been hit hard by COVID and by the rules that the governor has put in place as well,” Rodgers said.

“It’s been nice to be able to help some people out and I think we’re all just waiting for a little bit of hope on the horizon,” he added.

Newsom has been at the forefront of efforts by state officials to use lockdowns to stop the spread of the coronavirus. He was the first governor to announce a full lockdown in March of 2020, an order which was quickly replicated by other states.

Rodgers had previously assailed politicians, including Newsom, for being hypocritical about the lockdown guidelines.

“I mean, they put these rules in place… they’re not even following their own rules,” he said in January. “How many people have gotten caught? Don’t travel, don’t leave the state. Oh, here’s so-and-so on a vacation. Oh, here’s so-and-so at a salon. Don’t eat out at a restaurant unless you’re wearing a mask and separate. Oh, here’s a picture of the governor of California violating those rules. Oh, public schools are closed but I can send my kids to a private school in person. It’s like, I mean, for us to count on the government to help us out is becoming a joke at this point.”

More about Rodgers’ efforts to help save businesses hurt by the pandemic lockdown can be found on his Twitter account.

Here’s when Rodgers criticized Newsom:

COVID Vaccine Injury Reports Grow in Number, But Trends Remain Consistent

Data released today by the CDC confirm several ongoing trends, including that 47% of deaths occurred in people who reported becoming sick within 48 hours of receiving a COVID vaccine, and 20% of vaccine injuries were cardiac-related.

According to data released today by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the number of injuries and deaths reported to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) following COVID vaccines continues to climb.

Between Dec. 14, 2020, and Feb. 26, a total of 25,212 total adverse events were reported to VAERS, including 1,265 deaths and 4,424 serious injuries.

From 2-26-21 Release of VAERS Data

In the U.S., 70.45 million COVID vaccine doses had been administered as of Feb. 26.

VAERS is the primary mechanism for reporting adverse vaccine reactions in the U.S. Reports submitted to VAERS require further investigation before confirmation can be made that the reported adverse event was caused by the vaccine.

According to the latest data, 1,136 of 1,265 reported deaths were in the U.S. Of the total, 31% of the deaths occurred within 48 hours of vaccination, and 47% of deaths occurred in people who became ill within 48 hours of being vaccinated. Twenty percent of deaths were related to cardiac disorder.

Fifty-three percent of those who died were male, 45% were female and the remaining death reports did not include gender of the deceased. The average age of those who died was 77.8 and the youngest death confirmed was a 23-year-old.

As of Feb. 26, 180 pregnant women had reported adverse reactions to COVID vaccines, including 56 reports of miscarriage or premature birth. None of the COVID vaccines approved for Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) have been tested for safety or efficacy in pregnant women. Yet health officials are urging pregnant women to get the vaccine, and many are enthusiastically doing so. As The Defender reported:

“Even without data from Pfizer or Moderna sufficient to inform vaccine-associated risks in pregnancy, expectant doctors, nurses and others appear eager for the shots, perhaps influenced by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, which states that ‘neither a conversation with a clinician nor even a pregnancy test are necessary prerequisites.”

The World Health Organization on Jan. 27 issued guidance advising against pregnant women getting Moderna’s COVID vaccine — only to reverse that guidance two days later, as The New York Times reported. Pfizer announced last month that it was beginning COVID vaccine trials for pregnant women, but they don’t expect the trials to wrap up until January 2023.

This week’s VAERS data also included 1,414 reports of anaphylaxis, with 60% of cases attributed to the Pfizer-Bio-N-Tech vaccine and 40% to Moderna, and 298 reports of Bell’s Palsy.

As of Feb. 26, only the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines had been approved for emergency use in the U.S., but the U.S. Food and Drug Administration this week gave Johnson & Johnson’s COVID vaccine approval for emergency use. The one-shot vaccine started rolling out this week.

On Mar. 3, The New York Times reported that some people are experiencing an “angry-looking skin condition” after their first dose of the COVID vaccine –– with arms turning red, sore, itchy and swollen a week or more after the shot. Doctors said they wanted to share the information to “help prevent the needless use of antibiotics and to ease patients’ worries and reassure them that they can safely get their second vaccine shot.”

Dr. Hooman Noorchashm, an accomplished surgeon and patient safety advocate, wrote a second letter to the FDA urging the agency to require pre-screening for SARS-CoV-2 viral proteins in order to reduce COVID vaccine injuries and deaths. Noorchasm argued that at least a fraction of the millions of already infected Americans — especially the elderly, frail and those with serious cardiovascular comorbidities — are at risk of being harmed by a dangerous exaggerated immune response triggered by the COVID vaccine, reported The Defender on March 3.

On March 1, The Defender also reported that 25% of residents in a German nursing home died after receiving the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. Reiner Fuellmich and Viviane Fischer, attorneys and founding members of the German Corona Investigative Committee, interviewed a caregiver in a Berlin nursing home who described what happened during and after the rollout of Pfizer’s COVID vaccine. According to the FDA, as part of a vaccine’s EUA, it is mandatory that pharmaceutical companies and vaccination providers report “all serious adverse events, cases of Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome and cases of COVID-19 that result in hospitalization or death to VAERS.”

In the UK, where only the Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines are being distributed, injuries related to both vaccines are coming into the government reporting system there.

As The Defender reported this week, between Dec. 9, 2020 (when the first COVID vaccine was administered in the UK) and Feb. 14, 2021, 402 deaths following COVID vaccines were reported to YellowCard, the UK government’s system for reporting side effects to COVID-related medicines, vaccines, devices, and defective or falsified products. More reportes were associated with the AstraZeneca vaccine, not yet approved in the U.S., than with the Pfizer product. In a letter written to but not published by The BMJ, John Stone wrote:

“It is also remarkable how unfavorably the Oxford-AstraZeneca data compare with the Pfizer data. MHRA data show 26,823 reports related to Pfizer vaccines, including 77,207 reactions, and 31,427 reports related to Oxford-AstraZeneca, including 114,625 reactions.

“Thus the Pfizer reports run at ~3.2 per 1,000 while the Oxford-AstraZeneca reports run at ~4.6 per 1,000: which translates to 43% more reports associated with the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine compared with Pfizer.

“However, the Pfizer reports have an average of 2.9 reactions per report compared with 3.6 for the Oxford-AstraZeneca (again Oxford 24% higher) — so the rate of reactions reported is actually 77% higher overall for the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine.”

According to “Electronic Support for Public Health–Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System,” a research project focused on improving the quality of physician adverse vaccine event detection and reporting to the national Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS), fewer than 1% of vaccine adverse events are ever reported.

“Low reporting rates preclude or slow the identification of “problem” drugs and vaccines that endanger public health,” according to researchers.

On March 3, KUTV reported that there was a lack of information on how and where to report vaccine side effects. “Nationally, there have been very few reports on possible side effects and where to report them. Here in Utah, guiding people to the right resources post vaccine has not been a priority,” The news outlet said.

Children’s Health Defense asks anyone who has experienced an adverse reaction, to any vaccine, to file a report following these three steps.

H.R. 1 Kills Voter ID Laws, Sends Ballots to Dead People

Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita told Breitbart News on Friday that H.R. 1, if enacted as law, would prohibit voter ID laws nationwide while automatically sending ballots to all persons on poorly maintained voter rolls.

“[H.R. 1]  basically codifies everything that was irregular or outright wrong or the opportunities for fraud during last year’s election and makes it the law of the land,” Rokita said in an interview on SiriusXM’s Breitbart News Daily with host Alex Marlow. “It takes out the balance between integrity and accountability and access to polling places.”

Rokita explained, “H.R. 1 makes photo ID illegal in the United States. Meanwhile, it mails out live ballots to everyone on the voting list — alive or dead — and it makes it much more difficult for states to take dead people off the voting rolls, to take people who moved away off of voting rolls.”

Rokita noted that H.R. 1, named the For the People Act, would also nationalize legalize ballot harvesting and extend voting deadlines for ten days after an election.

“[H.R. 1] says you can still turn in that mailed-out ballot — or your ballot harvester can, the third party that’s going around collecting them — up to ten days after the election. So if you get a close election, you can still have harvesters out there collecting — possibly, likely — fraudulent ballots and turning them in because you really don’t have to do anything, and you have to accept these ballots.”

Marlow assessed, “There’s no sane Western country that does this, is there?”

Rokita replied, “There’s no same third-world country that does this. Everywhere you go in the world, a photo ID is required [to vote]. Everywhere you go in the world, it’s by vast majority in-person voting because that’s how you really can help maintain one-person-one-vote because the person actually appears before you. We’ve had reasonable exceptions in this country, like if you’re invalid, you can’t get to a polling place, [or] even if you planned to be outside the jurisdiction on the election day, you can attest to that fact and get an absentee ballot.”

“Mail-in balloting is where the most fraud occurs, and now they’ve thrown out those thin guard rails,” Rokita added. He highlighted the Constitution’s decentralized framework for national elections.

“The one thing that you can count on and why our Constitution is so brilliant is that it preserves that one-person-one-vote, at least to the states, the idea of how they’re going to do the time, manner, and place of an election, not some central government,” Rokita remarked.

Rokita concluded, “If the people don’t think and don’t have reasonable confidence backed by facts and observation that they still are in power — that they have the power through the electoral process to put in place who they want — then this country is lost.”

Rokita joined 19 other state attorneys general in a letter to congressional leaders laying out “constitutional vulnerabilities” within H.R. 1.

Breitbart News Daily broadcasts live on SiriusXM Patriot 125 weekdays from 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. Eastern.

Texas Governor Backs Bill Prohibiting Social Media Censorship of Conservative Speech

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Friday said he supports a new bill that aims to combat the censorship of conservative voices by social media companies.

Speaking at a press conference, Abbott warned about a “dangerous movement” across the United States to silence conservative ideas and religious beliefs. He blamed social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube for contributing to that nationwide movement by “choosing which viewpoints are going to be allowed to be presented.”

“Conservative speech will not be canceled in the state of Texas,” the Republican governor said. “We see that the First Amendment is under assault by the social media companies, and that is not going to be tolerated in Texas.”

“They are controlling the flow of information and sometimes denying the flow of information,” Abbott continued. “Texas is taking a stand against big tech political censorship. We’re not going to allow it in the Lone Star State.”

Abbott was joined by Republican state Sen. Bryan Hughes, who introduced Senate Bill 12 (pdf) on Monday, which would declare social media platforms “public central public forums for public debate,” and prohibit social media companies from blocking, banning, demonetizing, or otherwise discriminating against any user based on their viewpoint or geographic location within Texas.

“This bill will give Texans a right to get back online when they’re mistreated in that way,” Hughes said, adding that “a handful of billionaires” in the Silicon Valley shouldn’t get to play as “gatekeeper of free speech.”

“Free speech is that uniquely American right, isn’t it?” he added. “The right to hash things out, to hear views that we may not like, because we want to get to the truth, we want to get to the right place. We’re not afraid of debate.”

The bill was referred to the State Affairs Committee on Wednesday. Once approved by the committee, it will need to clear both houses of the state legislature before heading to the governor to be signed into law.

Texas’s legislative effort to limit the power of Big Tech came weeks after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, announced his support for a bill that aims to give users more control over their data.

The proposed legislation, formally called the Florida Information Protection Act, would require tech companies to explain in detail to users exactly what information is being collected, and ultimately allow the users to decide what kind of information can be collected or sold to advertisers for a profit.

“In Florida, we’re gonna make sure consumers are in the driver’s seat to make that decision, not Silicon Valley or other global companies who are far more focused on their profits than on your privacy,” DeSantis said at a Feb. 15 press conference.

Iranian Militia Group Claims to Have Active Cells in Washington DC: Report

A Telegram channel affiliated with Iran-backed militia groups in Iraq posted in English claiming to have a resistance cell with the capacity to target American troops inside the United States, according to a report.

“The axis of resistance today is stronger than before. Resistance cells are rooted even in America and its capital,” read the alleged social media post, according to the Middle East Media Research Institute, which posted a screenshot of the message.

The post, which included a casket containing American soldiers, was made by the Kawtheryoon Electronic Team, a Telegram network that is said to be used by Iranian militia groups and supporters.

The Epoch Times has reached out to the Department of Defense regarding the post’s claims.

The Telegram channel post also claimed that terror factions associated with Iran are growing ever stronger and gaining more support, while it called on U.S. forces to withdraw from not only Iraq, but the Middle East entirely.

The group also appeared to threaten Israel, referring to it as the “Zionist enemy,” saying “I will summarize for you in words only the horror of the south, which is stronger than before, and we have thousands of men like Imad Mughniyeh.” Mughniyeh is believed to have been the Iran-aligned Hezbollah chief of staff in Lebanon.

“Do not think that you and the Americans, by killing Qassem Soleimani and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, will survive the torment of the resistance,” the post added, referring to the Iranian commander and the Iraqi militia commander who were killed in an airstrike last year. “We lie in wait for you evil (sic) and the next thing is worse.”

Last week, President Joe Biden warned that Iran cannot act with impunity and warned the state to “be careful” when asked what message he was sending the country with the U.S. airstrikes in Syria.

“You can’t act with impunity. Be careful,” Biden told reporters in Texas.

The United States carried out airstrikes authorized by Biden against facilities belonging to Iranian-backed militia in eastern Syria on Thursday, in response to rocket attacks against U.S. targets in Iraq.

Tehran has denied being behind recent attacks, whether those in Iraq, against shipping in the Gulf, or on Saudi installations by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis.

On Wednesday, rockets were again fired at an Iraqi base that holds U.S. troops, according to U.S. and Iraqi officials. The Pentagon stated the missile defense system at the Al Asad airbase “engaged in defense of our forces” before adding: “We extend our deepest condolences to the loved ones of the individual who died.”

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