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Simone Biles, Other Athletes Call For Full Probe Into FBI, USA Gymnastics Over Allowing Sex Abuse

Larry Nassar, who had been a doctor for US Olympic gymnasts, was sentenced in 2017 to 60 years in prison for possessing child sex abuse material, and receiving the following year additional sentences of 175 years and up to 125 years for molesting female gymnasts that he had overseen.

Olympic gymnast Simone Biles has blasted the FBI and USA Gymnastics for allowing the sexual abuse of athletes to happen, referring to the actions of Larry Nassar against her and hundreds others.

“We have been failed and we deserve answers,” Biles told the Senate Judiciary Committee, where she testified alongside with Aly Raisman, McKayla Maroney and Maggie Nichols. “It really feels like the FBI turned a blind eye to us.”

In her emotional speech, Biles said that she doesn’t “want another young gymnast, or Olympic athlete, or any individual to experience the horror that I and hundreds of others have endured before, during and continuing to this day in the wake of the Larry Nassar abuse.

“The gymnast insisted that, even though Nassar has been put behind bars, “those who enabled him deserve to be held accountable.”

Aly Raisman, in her turn, also called for a complete and full investigation of USA Gymnastics over “doing nothing” to restrict the access of Nassar to the athletes while allegedly being aware of the sex abuse.

“It was like serving innocent children up to a pedophile on a silver platter,” she said during her testimony.

Maggie Nichols echoed the remarks made by her fellow athletes, stressing that “the survivors of Larry Nassar have a right to know why their well-being was placed in jeopardy by these individuals who chose not to do their jobs.”

McKayla Maroney also insisted on the importance of the investigation, accusing the FBI of attempting to silence her and falsify her report on the sex abuse she allegedly faced.

“US Gymnastics Association, in concert with the US Olympics Committee and the FBI, were working together to conceal that Larry Nassar was a serial sexual predator,” she said.

FBI Director Christopher Wray also testified, revealing that he was “heartsick and furious” after learning about the failures of the bureau to investigate the allegations properly.

“These individuals betrayed the core duty that they have of protecting people. They failed to protect young women and girls from abuse”, Wray said.

Nassar, a former Olympic team doctor, was charged with possessing child sex abuse material and sentenced to 60 years in prison in 2017. The following year, the court also sentenced him to 175 years and up to 125 years for molesting young gymnasts that he was supposed to have been taking care of.

Initially, the investigation into him began in 2015, when USA Gymnastics President and CEO Stephen Penny reported the allegations to the FBI and referred them to three victims who were willing to be interviewed in regard to the matter.

However, the Indianapolis FBI office, at the time led by Special Agent in Charge W. Jay Abbott, failed to open an investigation into the allegations, also never sharing them with state or local law enforcement agencies. Abbott was not prosecuted over the matter.

Roger Stone: Saturday’s Capitol Rally an ‘Agitprop, Setup’

Roger Stone is warning the Saturday “Justice for J6” rally at the U.S. Capitol planned by Look Ahead America is merely an “agitprop” and a “setup” to make supporters of former President Donald Trump look dangerous.

“This is called agitprop,” Stone said in an appearance on “Russia Today,” a Russian state-run media outlet, which will air in its entirely on “Eat the Press” on Friday night. “I don’t know a single person in the MAGA movement who’s going. It’s a setup.”

Stone is urging MAGA supporters to stay away.

“No, patriots, stay away from Washington,” Stone pleaded. “This is what is called a setup.”

Stone added for Trump supporters to definitely not bring guns, warning “the danger is obvious.”

“Here’s my suggestion: The people who will be there will all be working for the government,” Stone warned. “Nice try.

“If there’s a single armed protester there, he’ll be working for the federal government,” he continued. “This is so obvious. Who would go there armed?

“Folks, I’m appealing to you: Stay away. Stay safe. Stay in your homes, and by all means, never bring a firearm to the District of Columbia.”

Stone admitted there remains “so many unanswered questions about Jan. 6,” but Saturday’s rally will not lead to any answers.

Instead, it is an anti-Trump attempt “to recreate it,” according to Stone.

“It’s a sympathy ploy,” he added. “Let’s face it: Jan. 6 gave the government the single greatest opportunity they’ve ever had to abridge our constitutional rights, particularly our First Amendment rights.”

Look Ahead America founder Matt Braynard tweeted a plea to rally attendees to not wear MAGA or political gear:

“We request that anybody attending our events not wear any clothing or have signs supportive of either President Trump or Biden. Anyone not honoring this request will be assumed to be an infiltrator and we will take your picture, find out who you are, and make you famous.”

Braynard stressed in an ensuing tweet the rally is about those unfairly incarcerated from the Jan. 6 Stop the Steal rally:

“This event is 100% about #JusticeforJ6 and not the election or any candidate.”

Pope Francis: Abortion Is ‘Homicide,’ Catholic Church’s Position Will Not Change To ‘Accept Daily Murder’

Pope Francis spoke on the topic of abortion and Catholic politicians who publicly support the barbaric practice during a flight back to Rome from Slovakia, telling reporters that the Catholic Church has no plans to change its teachings on abortion, but that Catholic leaders should seek to counsel abortion-supporting politicians privately before taking the extreme step of excommunicating them from the Church.

“Answering questions aboard the papal plane from Bratislava, Slovakia, to Rome on Sept. 15, the pope emphatically said that abortion ends a human life and that human life must be respected,” EWTN News reported.

“Abortion is more than an issue. Abortion is homicide,” Pope Francis said, definitively. “It’s a homicide. No middle terms. Whomever does an abortion, kills.”

The Church, Pope Francis added, will remain strict on the issue, despite Catholic politicians like President Joe Biden and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) who claim that their conscience leads them to support “reproductive rights” and publicly support not just the right to obtain an abortion, but take affirmative action to protect abortion as a practice.

“Scientifically it’s a human life. The textbooks teach us that. But is it right to take it out to solve a problem? And this is why the Church is so strict on this issue because it is kind of like accepting this is accepting daily murder,” Pope Francis noted.

The theology of the issue, he added, is “simple.”

As for whether to deny a pro-abortion politician the ability to participate in communion, the Pope was less decisive, suggesting that bishops and priests should seek to be pastoral and counsel those who seem confused about Church teachings because a pastor’s responsibility does not end when an individual has been excommunicated or has excommunicated themselves by disagreeing publicly with core dogma.

“The problem is pastoral, how do we, as bishops, manage this principle,” Pope Francis said. “If we look at the history of the Church, we will see that every time the bishops acted not as pastors in a problem, they became politicians.”

“And what should the pastor do? He shouldn’t go around condemning. And he must also be a pastor with those who are excommunicated and be so with God’s style, which is closeness, compassion and tenderness,” Pope Francis said. “Those people who are not in the community cannot take communion, because they are out of the community. It is not a punishment: Communion is linked to the community.”

Pope Francis was responding to a question specifically about the U.S. Catholic bishops’ plan to issue pastoral guidance on the subject of denying communion to pro-abortion politicians. Although the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops determined, weeks ago, to compile the guidance, the issue has arisen more forcefully in recent weeks, with both Biden and Pelosi expressing support for efforts to overturn a Texas “heartbeat” bill that effectively outlaws abortion after around six weeks of pregnancy, when fetal cardiac activity can be detected.

Both Biden and Pelosi claim to be Catholic, but both openly support abortion, with Biden recently confirming that his thoughts on the subject have evolved from when he claimed, in 2012 to be personally against the practice.

Both Biden’s and Pelosi’s local archbishops, who would ultimately authorize a decision to deny them communion, have opined on the subject. Biden’s, Washington, D.C., Archbishop Cardinal Wilton Gregory, told reporters last week that the president “is not demonstrating Catholic teaching.” Pelosi’s, San Francisco’s Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone, wrote in the Washington Post that “[y]ou cannot be a good Catholic and support expanding a government-approved right to kill innocent human beings,” and suggested that excommunication could be on the table for Pelosi and other abortion-supporting Catholics.

Chinese State-Run Media Chief Predicts Another ‘Deadly Attack’ On America

China’s state media appears to be threatening the United States.

The editor-in-chief of the Chinese state-run media outlet Global Times appeared to predict another “deadly” terrorist attack on the United States.

Hu Xijin – who heads the state-run newspaper – made the prediction in a tweet on the 20th anniversary of September 11th.

“The September 11 attacks was suicide attacks by 19 terrorists, but it was not the “suicide attack” of the terrorism. Terrorism will accumulate power to launch the next deadly attack. Time will prove that it is a mistake for the US to regard China as its biggest adversary,” he wrote.

In an op-ed for Global Times, Hu encouraged Americans to “wake up” and accept the Chinese Communist Party’s rise:

The lessons the US elites are taking from 9/11 are also misplaced — that the war on terror consumed US resources and attention and presented an opportunity for China’s rise. To this day, they still do not fully understand. They arrogantly believe that the rise of China was unleashed by their absentmindedness. They stubbornly believe that the power of the US is strong enough to determine the fate of one of the oldest civilizations with a population four times that of the US, and that they could have kept the Chinese people in the cage of poverty forever.

Wake up.

The comments came in the same week it emerged that General Mark Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, colluded with Chinese Communist counterparts in order to usurp the civilian control of the United States government.

China, Russia Could Already Be Reverse-Engineering American Apache Helicopters Acquired By Taliban, Trump Says

Former President Donald Trump once again criticized the Biden administration for failing to clean up the military mess left behind in Afghanistan following the conclusion of the U.S. troops withdrawal on August 31. The 75-year-old former Commander-in-Chief is convinced that the Taliban-seized U.S. weapons will find their way to China, Russia, and other American adversaries to be reverse-engineered.

In an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital, former President Trump expressed his disapproval over the Biden administration’s military withdrawal, calling it “the greatest embarrassment in the history of our country.” Not the Bee agrees, writing that “Biden’s Afghanistan withdrawal is one of the worst presidential mistakes of our lifetimes.”

The former Republican leader said that it appeared as if America “surrendered” and “ran” despite having “F-35 fighter jets – the greatest in the world,” while the Taliban “had knives.” The U.S. forces had destroyed or disabled about 100 combat vehicles and dozens of aircraft before withdrawing from Kabul in August, but the Taliban took over a range of military equipment such as U.S.-supplied assault weapons, night-vision goggles, and other U.S. military technology, including functional Humvees, MRAPs, and UH-60 Blackhawk helicopters.

“They didn’t disable any equipment,” former President Trump accused the Biden administration. “The equipment is perfect – and if it is not absolutely perfect, it will be fixed, very, very quickly, probably by China or Russia.”

The 45th POTUS added that the U.S. military capabilities are “the best in the world,” making it highly coveted by the Taliban militant group. He said, “The goggles are the best in the world, they now have thousands of goggles. They are going to do night fighting, which they would have never done before.”

Trump also took the opportunity to boast about his administration’s accomplishments in “[rebuilding] the military with brand new, beautiful equipment.” He then accused the Biden administration of “[giving] a lot of it to the Taliban.”

“And the Taliban doesn’t need all of it, so they are sending a lot of the most sophisticated stuff to China and Iran and they’re sending it to Russia – to re-engineer,” the former Republican president said. According to the New York Post, Trump was also concerned over American Apache helicopters, which he believed are already in the hands of U.S.’ enemies.

“I guarantee that China and Russia already have our Apache helicopters and they’re taking them apart to find out exactly how they’re made,” Trump declared during a conversation with “Full Measure” on Sunday. “They’re the best in the world by far. And they’re taking them apart so they can make the exact same equipment.”

Trump, who lamented the loss of “$85 billion worth of brand new, beautiful equipment,” is not wrong in his reasoning, as his deputy assistant secretary of defense for East Asia, former U.S. Army Col. Heino Klinck said that the possibility of U.S. adversaries getting their hands on American military tools and reverse-engineering it is “highly probable.”

‘Natural Immunity Is 27 Times More Protective’: Prof Tells White House Not to Ignore ‘Clear’ Science

Since President Joe Biden announced his controversial new vaccine mandates targeting private businesses, critics have been arguing the move is divisive and unconstitutional.

George Mason University (GMU) Law Professor Todd Zywicki – who was granted a medical exemption by the university – is one of those critics, telling CBN News’ Faith Nation the mandates actually undermine the vaccine message and insult the intelligence of Americans at the same time. 

Zywicki’s own case against GMU earned him an exemption to the vaccination requirement there because he argued he had “natural immunity” after getting COVID. 

The Virginia-based university had a mandate requiring all attending students to be inoculated by Aug. 1. Faculty and staff had a deadline of Aug.15 to be vaccinated. Those who did not comply with the mandate had to show a reason for a medical or religious exemption. 

The law professor explained that forcing people to get vaccinated is not the way to address those who are unwilling. In fact, it’s causing more tension among Americans.

“Mandates are certainly not the way to overcome hesitancy which is that compelling somebody to do something is not going to make them more willing to do it. And what I think we’re seeing already is a revolution coming about especially among those like me who have natural immunity,” Zywicki said.

“There’s reports now that nurses who have natural immunity are quitting. There was a report that they’re trying to reschedule births. I heard about cardiac units being shut down. People who have natural immunity need to be respected here because of the risks that they’re putting on us,” he added. “This draconian, just crushing people is not going to overcome vaccine hesitancy. You might force some people to get vaccines but that’s not going to improve this country’s commitment to come together and fight this pandemic.”

Zywicki said exemptions should apply to the broad vaccine mandates announced by the White House Friday, despite the administration’s “misdirected” way of dealing with the issue.

“We are a year and a half into this pandemic by now. What we should be focusing on is people’s level of immunity however acquired, whether it’s by vaccine or natural immunity … that’s the way out of this,” he noted. “It’s not by vaccinating people who don’t need to be vaccinated like me, forcing people who have health risks, leaving it in the hands of individual employers to determine whether someone has a legitimate medical exemption … it’s just crazy and it violates the Constitution.” 

“Your right to bodily autonomy and bodily integrity is not a matter of majority vote, and it’s not a matter that we put up to suburban voters to determine whether somebody has a right to be free from an involuntary medical activity. We should be focusing on immunity and that’s our glide path to get out of this in the long run. Immunity however acquired.”

He pointed out that the scientific evidence supporting natural immunity is apparent. 

“The science on this is clear at this point unless you have some superstitious attachment to the vaccines, natural immunity is robust, durable, broad, it protects against variants and we all know the Israel study finds that natural immunity is 27 times more protective than vaccines against symptomatic infections and eight times more protective against hospitalization,” he said. 

“It’s really no contest at this point and the idea that we’re going to continue down this one path of vaccination and ignore natural immunity – my students, my colleagues at least are too smart for that and I wish somebody at the White House would wake up to that fact as well.”

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez starts to sound desperate about her Met Gala extravaganza

After showing in a custom evening gown at the Met Gala extravaganza, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is starting to sound nervous.

After all, her appearance in the pricey one-of-a-kind evening gown at the celebrity-studded event didn’t go over as she’d planned.  Her gown had spray-painted on it the words “Tax the Rich” on its backside.  It reeled in the charges of hypocrisy.  I wrote about that here yesterday, and the fallout is continuing.

So now we get this, justification after justification after justification, for her soirée eating the rarified food and dancing the dance, and drinking the stuff, and doing the air kisses with all the celebrity beautiful people.

And this from super-sycophant InStyle:

“I and my body have been so heavily and relentlessly policed from all corners politically.”

So you see, all that party enjoyment was really about presenting her ideas about taxing the rich to rich people who have heard this for years and already know how to get around it with loopholes.  Somehow, they’ll consent to be taxed extra — and actually paying this time — all because she showed up. 

She also throws in a lot of blather about “women’s bodies” as if she were the only woman out there.  Blech. 

It all sounds like after-the-fact justification, because the reality is, she enjoyed herself at that party, and she had a lot of fun crashing the ruling class ranks as one of them. 

That’s what she wanted. But to keep the little guy happy, she wore on her custom gown “tax the rich,” which didn’t go over so well, as most people saw through it, and her problems are piling up.

First, there’s the question of who paid for her ticket.  It turns out she wasn’t there as a politician, doing hard duty going to a celebrity gala and bringing home the swag.

The New York Post has uncovered this:

A conservative group is asking the Office of Congressional Ethics to launch an investigation of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for accepting free tickets to Monday’s Met Gala, where she wore a custom gown that said “Tax the Rich.”

The self-declared socialist congresswoman drew broad social media scorn for partying at the elite, $35,000-per-ticket event while presenting herself as their rabble-rousing foe.

Thomas Jones, founder of the American Accountability Foundation, wrote in an ethics complaint that he believes Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), who represents parts of the Bronx and Queens, broke House rules by accepting “an impermissible gift” of free tickets to attend the annual gala, which also was attended by fellow New York Democratic Rep. Carolyn Maloney.

Although House rules allow members to accept free tickets to charity events directly from event organizers, Jones argues that the Met Gala doesn’t count because the guest list is curated by a private company, media giant Condé Nast.

Who the heck paid for her ticket?  And if it was an impermissible gift, how is it not bribery?  Whom is she repaying politically for this celebrity-cavalcade favor?  She ought to be answering those question now instead of blathering on about “women’s bodies.”

Here’s another hypocrisy: why has Sandy, who still owes $2,000 or so to the State of New York based on her previous failed business venture, still not paid her own taxes?  She’s calling for taxing of the rich in order the expand the government.  But as for herself, she’s skipping that detail about paying her own.  Tax the Rich?  How about pay your own taxes, Sandy?  At a $173,000-a-year congressional salary, we know she has the cash.

Here’s another problem:

She claimed to be there representing the working class, but the photos showed that the real working class was actually there beside her.  They were the dark-skinned ones in the back and on the sidelines, forced to wear masks as they “served.”  The hundreds of attendees preening for the cameras wore no masks at all.  Pandemics, see, have their privileges. 

As long as we are on the class issue, how does she explain that Black Lives Matter held a protest outside the event?  Those guys, whatever the merits of their arguments, put their money where their mouths were.  Ocasio-Cortez was inside, enjoying the canapés.

In other words, this Met caper with the fig-leaf dress is shaping up to be a political catastrophe for her.  We all know she wanted to go and have fun and join the billionaire rich.  Now she’s droning on about women’s bodies as if it had all been some feminist conference.  In reality, she’s been exposed, not just as a sybarite, but as a sorry hypocrite.

Correction: AOC’s tax debt was misattribited to the IRS

Canva raises $200 million at $40 billion valuation

Canva, an Australian design software company, raised $200 million at a $40 billion valuation led by T. Rowe Price. 

Why it matters: This makes Canva the world’s fifth most valuable private startup, behind Klarna and ahead of Instacart. It also stands apart by being profitable, led by a woman CEO and based in Sydney.

  • Other investors include Franklin Templeton, Sequoia Capital Global Equities, Bessemer Venture Partners, Greenoaks Capital, Dragoneer Investments, Blackbird, Felicis and AirTree Ventures.

The bottom line: “Originally known as a tool for amateur designers or small businesses, Canva’s freemium software is used by more than 60 million monthly users. But more than 500,000 paying teams now use Canva, too, including companies like American Airlines, CBRE, Intel, Kimberly-Clark and Zoom, for everything from social media assets to sales and human resources presentations, or, in the case of Live Nation, assets for upcoming rock concerts,” Forbes writes.

Israel Facing New Record Corona Spike Despite Vaccine Passport Rollout

And over 61 per cent of population having been vaccinated.

Despite over 61 per cent of its population being fully vaccinated and having implemented a vaccine passport system, the Israeli Health Ministry has expressed concern about the fact that a recent downtrend in COVID-19 infections is reversing, potentially surpassing any levels previously seen.

The country had hoped that a recent surge in COVID cases was in decline, but Health Ministry Director-General Nachman Ash now fears “that the current wave of coronavirus infections is surpassing anything seen in previous outbreaks,” reports the Times of Israel.

After figures were released yesterday showing 10,556 new cases diagnosed, Ash said, “That is a record that did not exist in the previous waves.”

The spike is occurring despite Israel having been one of the first countries in the world to fully roll out a vaccine passport system that prevented the unvaccinated from accessing venues where crowds gather.

Back in June, infections had been reduced to just a dozen a day, but a fourth wave of cases flared up to put the country in a worse situation than it was back in January.

“A week ago we were in a clear downward trend; in recent days we’ve been seeing that decline stop, and the virus reproduction number is [again] above 1,” Ash said.

The number of patients on ventilators has also climbed in recent days, as has the number of those in critical care.

Cases continue to rise despite the fact that all schoolchildren in Israel are mandated to wear masks in class.

As we highlighted on Monday, Israeli health minister Nitzan Horowitz was caught on a hot mic admitting that vaccine passports were primarily about coercing skeptical people to get the vaccine and not for medical reasons.

Gavin Newsom Will Remain Governor in Golden State as Californians Opt for Decline

California Governor Gavin Newsom will remain in office following the recall election.

When the Associated Press called the election for Newsom, the noes were leading with 67 percent of the vote.

Though just 62 percent of ballots had been counted, Newsom addressed his supporters at the State Capitol in Sacramento.

“I am humbled and grateful to the millions, and millions of Californians who exercised their fundamental right to vote, and express themselves so overwhelmingly by rejecting the division,” Newsom said.

“An overwhelmingly no vote tonight here in the state of California. That was expressed tonight. I want to focus on what we said yes to as a state,” Newsom said while giving remarks at the state’s capitol.

“We said yes to science. We said yes to vaccines. We said yes to ending this pandemic. We said yes to people’s right to vote without fear of fake fraud or voter suppression. We said yes to women’s fundamental constitutional right to decide for herself what she does with her body and her fate and future,” Newsom continued. “We said yes to diversity. We said yes to inclusion. We said yes to pluralism. We said yes to all those things that he we hold dear as Californians and I would argue as Americans. Economic justice, social justice, racial justice, environmental justice. Our values, where California’s made so much progress. All of those things were on the ballot this evening.”

The media was all in on this election, painting the black challenger of Newsom, Larry Elder, as a “white supremacist” for being a Republican. The ridiculous line was parroted repeatedly on CNN, in the Los Angeles Times, and countless other publications.

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