MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell is pulling ads from Fox News after they refused to run a commercial, saying that it claimed there was “voter fraud” in the 2020 election. The news means that Fox News will lose one of its biggest advertisers.
The Wall Street Journal was the first to report on the news. Company founder Mike Lindell told The Daily Beast in an interview, “shame on Fox News! Shame on them.”
“When I was told they wouldn’t run the ad, I said to cut off advertising on Fox immediately and indefinitely,” added Lindell, according to Yahoo News.
However, it was reported by Human Events‘ Jack Posobiec that the ad made “NO CLAIMS about the election,” and that instead the ad was a “promo” for an upcoming event.
Just watched the Mike Lindell ad that Fox refused to play. Media is lying. He makes NO CLAIMS about the election in it. It is a promo for his event, and includes a spot for FrankSpeech. That's it. https://t.co/faQ7lHQppL
Fox News issued a statement in response to Lindell’s decision, which reads: “It’s unfortunate Mr. Lindell has chosen to pause his commercial time on FOX News given the level of success he’s experienced in building his brand through advertising on the number one cable news network.” While Fox has rejected the ad, its competitors OAN and Newsmax have both agreed to run the controversial ad. OAN had also previously aired “docu-movies” made by Lindell about election fraud.
The news comes as Lindell had increasing frustration with Fox News.
Lindell’s claims of voter fraud have landed him and his company in hot water, with at least 18 vendors dropping the made in America MyPillow products from their inventories.
Lindell, along with many other pro-Trump voices, was also permanently banned from Twitter after the site determined that he was using his platform to spread “election misinformation.”
Videos and photos circulating on social media show a maskless D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser officiating a large wedding in the District on Saturday despite a newly reinstated indoor mask mandate in the nation’s capital.
Social media posts show many people attending the wedding Saturday at The LINE DC, a 5-star hotel in Adams Morgan.
Bowser officiated the wedding on the hotel’s rooftop before drinks and dancing that later headed inside.
Bowser officiated the event less than 24 hours after being photographed maskless with comedian Dave Chappelle on Friday night at The Anthem, where Chappelle performed a comedy set. That celebration occurred a few days before Bowser’s birthday on Monday.
Bowser reinstated an indoor mask mandate in D.C., regardless of vaccination status, following the alarming surge in new COVID-19 infections driven by the Delta variant.
DC Health’s Dr. LaQuandra Nesbitt says the daily case rate has gone up five-fold since the beginning of July, and The District currently has a “substantial” rate of transmission as the variant spreads across the country.
“Given the trends in cases that we see, we want to get ahead of it, nip it in the bud,” Bowser said Thursday. “We know masks can be very effective in doing that.”
The Washington Examinerfirst reported Mayor Bowser’s presence at the largely unmasked event.
Bowser’s office sent FOX 5 this statement that says in part:
“On Saturday, July 31st, Mayor Bowser officiated an outdoor, rooftop wedding ceremony, followed by an indoor dinner. The Mayor wore a mask indoors in compliance with the mandate, and the organizers and venue staff worked to create a safe environment for the staff and guests. The Friday, July 30th evening event called into question by conservative media was outdoors, on a rooftop.”
“We continue to emphasize everyone should be vaccinated as soon as possible and to wear a mask at indoor public settings to protect yourself, your loved ones and your neighbors,” the statement reads.
The statement did not address a published photo of a maskless Mayor Bowser inside during the wedding dinner, and not eating or drinking.
Sophie Penichet, general manager at The LINE, said in a statement that the hotel does not comment on guests at private events.
“The safety of our team, guests and wider community is our utmost priority. The Line Hotel is adhering to the updated mask mandate and requires all employees and guests to be masked when indoors, or not actively eating or drinking,” Penichet tells FOX 5.
President Donald J. Trump raised more than $56 million online in early 2021, ending June with nearly $102 million in cash on hand.
QUICK FACTS:
Trump raised far more money online than any other Republican in the first half of 2021, according to Reuters.
He “ended June with a war chest of more than $100 million,” according to The New York Times.
The money was raised with WinRed, the party’s main donation-processing website.
With $23 million in transfers to his new political action committees (PACs) from 2020 included, Trump actually raised nearly $82 million in the first six months of 2021.
Trump’s committee will collect 75% of the Trump Make America Great Again Committee’s fundraising, the rest going to the Republican National Committee (RNC).
The committee’s recurring donations program—where most of the money raised by the Make American Great Again Committee came through—collected nearly $3.5 million across Trump’s various PACs, notes the Times.
NEW: Top fundraisers on the GOP's @WinRed platform in the first half of 2021:
$34.36M – Trump MAGA $26.71M – NRCC $23.02M – NRSC $21.27M – Trump Save America (Joint Cmte) $19.09M – RNC $7.79M – Tim Scott $7.79M – Team Scalise pic.twitter.com/nHaN6JPVWQ
Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina boasted the next strongest online fund-raiser among Republican politicians, raising raised $7.8 million.
President Trump’s Save America committee had raised an average of $108,000 in the five days leading up to the launch of the “desk” page, according to the Times.
“His PAC raised roughly $421,000 per day on average in the five days after, including more than $900,000 on one day,” writes Times.
Even with major social media platforms banning President Trump, he is still the dominant political force in the Republican Party.
“[Trump’s] influence over the party’s finances also expanded greatly after he made his first public speech since leaving office at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Feb. 28,” notesForbes, “where he told supporters to donate directly to his political groups.”
“The result was the largest single day of fundraising throughout the entire year, according to the Times, with $3.5 million being given straight to Trump’s PACs.”
“Polling suggests Trump would be the overwhelming favorite to win a third-straight GOP nomination if he decides to run again,” also notes Forbes.
Jon Fleetwood is Managing Editor for American Faith.
Last month,the Chinese Communist Party celebrated its centenary with all the internal fanfare you would expect. The party, which has ruled China since 1949, touted the Twitter congratulations of worldleaders from Russia, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Egypt, Serbia, and elsewhere lauding its record of supposed social, cultural, economic, and environmental progress.
Of course, the Chinese communists’ actual record is quite different — a blunt fact painfully highlighted at last month’s International Religious Freedom Summit in Washington, D.C.
Tursunay Ziyawudun, a Uyghur Muslim woman from East Turkestan (aka, Xinjiang, China) was forced to flee her homeland for the United States. She spoke at the summit, telling through her tears the story of her imprisonment and torture in a Chinese concentration camp.
“Though it is exceedingly difficult for me to speak about my experiences,” she said, “I have come to see it as my duty to be the voice for those people who are in the camps, those who died in front of my own eyes, and those who are being unjustly held in prison.” Ziyawudun went on to detail her arrest and her time in an internment camp, where she was subject to questioning, torture, and forced labor along with thousands of her Uyghur countrymen in the name of Chinese communist-style “assimilation.”
Turkic Uyghurs are mostly Muslim. They have the distinction of being both an ethnic and religious minority in China. As such, they’re subjected to especially brutal suppression. Ziyawudun and her fellow prisoners were forced to watch propaganda films and swear loyalty oaths to the party. The screams of prisoners from across the camp kept her awake at night, but that was not the worst of it. Armed Chinese police officers removed her from her cell and raped her repeatedly.
Today, her memories of prisoners being beaten, bleeding to death, or literally going insane keep her awake at night. “My nightmares make me feel as though I’m living in that fear once again,” Ziyawudun said. “My physical body is free, and so is my voice, but I am suffering deeply. I am only beginning to overcome this suffering by telling my story.”
Sadly, oppression of the Uyghur Muslims is only one piece of the Chinese communists’ real record over the last century. Through civil war, execution, or starvation, the CCP under Mao Zedong alone was responsible for the deaths of roughly 80 million Chinese people in the 20th century. The Chinese communist death toll tops the grim work of Hitler and Stalin.
Sadder still, those numbers exclude the hundreds of millions of Chinese left alive after torture, forced sterilization, or other abuse. And that goes without mentioning the 400 million infants, mostly baby girls, killed by abortion over the past 40 years under the “one-child policy.”
Some anniversary.
Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also spoke at the Washington summit, which was co-hosted by Sam Brownback, the former U.S. ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom, and Katrina Lantos Swett, the former chairwoman of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. All made championing the rights of religious minorities in China (Muslims, Christians, and Tibetan Buddhists, among others) a cornerstone of their tenures.
Pompeo warned against totalitarian regimes that seek to undermine all political liberties by way of restricting religious liberty: “When people lose their capacity to practice their faith, authoritarian regimes will dominate. That basic truth today is being shown in China. Our American Founders understood that, that when nations disregard religious freedom, tyranny … will soon follow.”
The Chinese Communist Party maintains the Xinjiang camps holding over a million Uyghurs are for benign “reeducation.” It denies any and all human rights abuses. But that hasn’t stopped survivors such as Ziyawudun from telling the real story of the ethnic and religious suppression taking place there. They are the voices of the Uyghurs.
Let us hope the world listens to their voices and continues to fight the religious oppression and ethnic genocide taking place in China. Let us hope the Biden administration steps up and names an ambassador for international religious freedom with the leadership stature of a Sam Brownback or Katrina Lantos Swett.
Maureen Ferguson is a senior fellow for the Catholic Association.
Many Americans are expressing their disappointment and anger at athletic shoemaker Converse, which has launched a new line of sneakers in collaboration with fashion designer Rick Owens featuring a satanic pentagram which is the logo of his brand DRKSHDW.
“This is sad, I grew up wearing Converse but seeing that satanic marketing through your shoes, I won’t be buying into this. God help you!” says a comment on the shoemaker’s Instagram account, where it launched the sneakers featuring a pentagram in place of the iconic Chuck Taylor star last week.
Another follower thanked Converse for showing its “real side.” “No more purchase,” they added.
In the launch post on social media, Converse wrote, “The aesthetic is all about disrupting formality—embracing traditional structure and then blowing it up. Rick Owens crafts a Chuck 70 unlike any other. And it’s only the beginning for Converse x DRKSHDW.”
In another post by Converse, Owens wrote, “I’ve been using this pentagram for a long time because obviously, it has adolescent occult associations.”
He added that he likes “geometric diagrams like that because, in a very primal way, they are a culture’s grasp for control. And a way to organize thoughts and systems.”
Owens continued: “And a pentagram, in this day and age with all of its associations… I like the fact that it refers to an alternative system. And that suggests openness and empathy. It suggests the pursuit of pleasure, this pursuit of sensation. But one of the main things that I think it suggests is empathy and a consideration of systems of living that might not be standard. So that leads us to be more accepting and tolerant of other systems, which I think is a good thing.”
Earlier this year, MSCHF, a Brooklyn-based collective, modified Nike Air Max 97s into a “Satan Shoes” line and released it in collaboration with rapper Lil Nas X.
The controversial shoes incorporated drops of blood and ink into an air bubble. They were decorated with a pentagram pendant and a reference to Luke 10:18: “And he said to them, ‘I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.’”
The Satan Shoes release coincided with Lil Nas X’s single, “Montero (Call Me By Your Name),” and its accompanying music video. In the video, Lil Nas X descended a stripper pole and gave Satan a lap dance.
The Satan Shoes line was a follow-up to the release of the collective’s Jesus Shoes, which reportedly contain holy water. The white shoes were marked with the phrase “MT. 14:25,” which references Matthew 14:25.
Both the release of the Satan Shoes and the music video were announced ahead of Palm Sunday weekend.
The 12-year dispute has led to over $14 million in tax breaks for the former president
An Illinois tax agency has ruled that former President Donald Trump is due a $1 million refund on the 2011 tax bill for his downtown Chicago skyscraper, but local officials are trying to block the refund.
The Chicago Sun-Times reports that at issue is the Cook County Board of Review’s estimation of the value of the Trump International Hotel & Tower’s rooms and retail space. In June, the Illinois Property Tax Appeal Board voted 5-0 to reduce the assessment on the building’s commercial property.
The vote means that Trump is owed $1.03 million, money that would come out of the property taxes due the city of Chicago, the Chicago Public Schools and several other government agencies. The Cook County State’s Attorney is disputing the refund and has filed a lawsuit with the Illinois Appellate Court in the hopes of blocking it.
The dispute is the latest chapter in a long-running legal battle over Trump’s tax bills that started more than 12 years ago and has led to more than $14 million in tax breaks for Trump. It also involves not only a former president who is at the middle of a host of legal battles but a Chicago alderman whose own legal troubles had been making headlines in Chicago for months.
Alderman Edward M. Burke, whose former law firm, Klafter & Burke, won the tax breaks for Trump, has been indicted on federal charges that he blocked businesses from getting city permits unless they hired the firm. He has pleaded not guilty and is awaiting trial.
The dispute over the tax bills on the high-rise building has its own long history. Originally, the state agency rejected Trump’s argument that the vacant stores had no value because he could not find any tenants to lease them. A hearing officer for the state agency rejected Trump’s argument that the vacant stores at the building had no value because he couldn’t lease them. But a staff member later wrote a report that Trump was entitled to the refund.
The agency delayed acting on the case until Trump was out of office and in June voted to reduce the assessment on the building’s commercial property.
Nearly 400 children between the ages of 12 and 17 were diagnosed with heart inflammation after receiving the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, according to a study published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on July 30.
The condition, also known as myocarditis, occurred mostly in young boys, the study found. Heart inflammation wasn’t identified as an adverse reaction during the safety trials for the vaccine.
The CDC conducted the study by reviewing reports of adverse reactions to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) between Dec. 14, 2020, and July 16, 2021.
Of the 8.9 million children who received the vaccine as of July 16, VAERS received a total of 9,246 reports of adverse reactions, 90.7 percent of which were made up of “nonserious adverse events.” The 397 reports of heart inflammation made up 4.3 percent of the total.
The CDC’s Advisory Committee conducted a risk-benefit assessment based on the adverse reaction reports and continues to recommend the Pfizer vaccine to children aged 12 and older.
COVID-19 is the disease caused by the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, commonly known as the novel coronavirus.
Fourteen children died after receiving the Pfizer vaccine, according to the study. The cause of death still isn’t available for six of the cases. Of the eight other children, two died of intracranial hemorrhage, two died of pulmonary embolism, two committed suicide, one died of heart failure, and one died of a rare blood condition.
None of the death reports were determined to have been caused by heart inflammation.
“Impressions regarding cause of death did not indicate a pattern suggestive of a causal relationship with vaccination; however, cause of death for some decedents is pending receipt of additional information,” Anne Hause, the CDC’s corresponding author, wrote.
Hause noted that the study is subject to several limitations, including the fact that “VAERS is a passive surveillance system and is subject to underreporting and reporting biases.” Though the system is passive overall, doctors are required to report all serious events following vaccinations. The study also wasn’t designed to capture all cases of heart inflammation and only counted the reports which used the term “myocarditis.”
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued an emergency use authorization for the Pfizer vaccine for children 16 years and older on Dec. 11, 2020. The FDA expanded the authorization to children 12 and over on May 10, 2021.
After reports of heart inflammation began to arrive in June, the CDC’s advisory committee concluded that the risks of high inflammation didn’t outweigh the benefits of the vaccine and decided to continue recommending it to children aged 12 and older.
Representatives for Pfizer and BioNTech didn’t respond to a request for comment by press time.
More than half of Republicans support the potential use of force to preserve traditional American values and nearly half believe a time will come when “patriotic Americans” will have to take the law into their own hands, according to the results of a George Washington University poll released this week.
The GW Politics Poll, which surveyed more than 1,700 registered voters from June 4 to June 23, also found that Republican trust in the integrity of U.S. elections has plummeted since the 2020 election.
“Support for fundamental principles such as free and fair elections, free speech, and peaceful protest are nearly unanimous among both Democrats and Republicans,” GWU wrote. “Their views on other democratic values, however, differ dramatically. Over half of Republicans (55%) supported the possible use of force to preserve the ‘traditional American way of life,’ compared to 15% of Democrats. When asked if a time will come when ‘patriotic Americans have to take the law into their own hands,’ 47% of Republicans agreed, as opposed to just 9% of Democrats.”
“Similar to other polls, the GW Politics Poll found that only 20% of Republicans were confident in the 2020 election results compared to the more than 90% confidence among Democrats,” the results continued.
Republicans also remained much more pessimistic about the integrity of elections heading into 2022 than they did in 2020. While 75% of Democrats have confidence in next year’s elections, only 28% of Republicans are now confident about the process, compared to 46% before the 2020 election.
“The survey showed that 82% of Republicans agreed with the statement, ‘It is hard to trust the results of elections when so many people will vote for anyone who offers a handout.’ Only 15% of Democratic voters agreed,” GWU also noted.
Danny Hayes, professor of political science and co-director of the GW Politics Poll, said in a statement: “Most of the state and local officials who run our elections are long-time public servants whose goal is simply to help our democracy operate smoothly. But if we’ve gotten to a place where voters trust the electoral system only when their side wins, then that undermines the idea of non-partisan election administration, which is essential for democracy.”
The GWU poll comes weeks after a recent survey found that a sizable portion of Americans support dissolving the Union.
Two in three Republicans in the South and almost half of Democrats in Pacific states want to secede from the Union, according to a new poll.
Conducted in June by YouGov in conjunction with BrightLineWatch, the survey asked participants in each region of the United States: “Would you support or oppose [your state] seceding from the United States to join a new union with [list of states in new union]?”
[…]
At 37%, the overall percentage of those who want to dissolve the Union was “arrestingly high,” BrightLineWatch explained. Republicans and independents in the South were most favorable to secession, at 66% and 50% respectively. Of Democrats polled, 47% in the Pacific states said they want to break off. Sizable portions of independents in the Heartland and Mountain states also wanted to form their own country.
VIDEO: DC Mayor Bowser officiates large wedding after new indoor mask mandate
Videos and photos circulating on social media show a maskless D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser officiating a large wedding in the District on Saturday despite a newly reinstated indoor mask mandate in the nation’s capital.
Social media posts show many people attending the wedding Saturday at The LINE DC, a 5-star hotel in Adams Morgan.
Bowser officiated the wedding on the hotel’s rooftop before drinks and dancing that later headed inside.
Bowser officiated the event less than 24 hours after being photographed maskless with comedian Dave Chappelle on Friday night at The Anthem, where Chappelle performed a comedy set. That celebration occurred a few days before Bowser’s birthday on Monday.
Bowser reinstated an indoor mask mandate in D.C., regardless of vaccination status, following the alarming surge in new COVID-19 infections driven by the Delta variant.
DC Health’s Dr. LaQuandra Nesbitt says the daily case rate has gone up five-fold since the beginning of July, and The District currently has a “substantial” rate of transmission as the variant spreads across the country.
“Given the trends in cases that we see, we want to get ahead of it, nip it in the bud,” Bowser said Thursday. “We know masks can be very effective in doing that.”
The Washington Examiner first reported Mayor Bowser’s presence at the largely unmasked event.
Bowser’s office sent FOX 5 this statement that says in part:
“On Saturday, July 31st, Mayor Bowser officiated an outdoor, rooftop wedding ceremony, followed by an indoor dinner. The Mayor wore a mask indoors in compliance with the mandate, and the organizers and venue staff worked to create a safe environment for the staff and guests. The Friday, July 30th evening event called into question by conservative media was outdoors, on a rooftop.”
“We continue to emphasize everyone should be vaccinated as soon as possible and to wear a mask at indoor public settings to protect yourself, your loved ones and your neighbors,” the statement reads.
The statement did not address a published photo of a maskless Mayor Bowser inside during the wedding dinner, and not eating or drinking.
Sophie Penichet, general manager at The LINE, said in a statement that the hotel does not comment on guests at private events.
“The safety of our team, guests and wider community is our utmost priority. The Line Hotel is adhering to the updated mask mandate and requires all employees and guests to be masked when indoors, or not actively eating or drinking,” Penichet tells FOX 5.