The America First Policy Institute (AFPI) issued an update regarding President Trump’s lawsuits against Facebook, Twitter, and Google.
FULL STATEMENT:
“Late last night, Amended Complaints were filed in the Big Tech lawsuits against Facebook, Inc., Mark Zuckerberg, Twitter, Inc., Jack Dorsey, Google LLC, and Sundar Pichai. Since the initial filing on July 7, 2021, nearly 65,000 American people have submitted their stories of censorship through America First Policy Institute’s (AFPI) Constitutional Litigation Partnership (CLP) at TakeOnBigTech.com,” the statement read.
“The Amended Complaints include additional censorship experiences and incorporates additional class representatives, including Dr. Naomi Wolf and Wayne Allyn Root – individuals on opposite ends of the political spectrum who highlight the bipartisan need to protect the thoughts and voices of all Americans, regardless of political affiliation.”
“The Amended Complaints also reflect additional causes of action under the Florida Fair Trade and Deceptive Practices Act and recent statements made by Biden White House officials, confirming the current administration’s collaboration with Big Tech platforms and their efforts to censor the American people,” said AFPI.
President Trump on Big Tech:
"They take the sitting President of the United States off but they leave people from Iran that say, 'Death to Israel, death to America.'"
An Orange County restaurant posted a sign asking diners to prove they haven’t received the Covid-19 vaccine.
QUICK FACTS:
Basilico’s Pasta e Vino in Huntington Beach, California posted a sign calling the act of taking a COVID vaccine “treasonous, anti-American stupidity.”
The Los Angeles Timescriticized the restaurant’s position on vaccines, suggesting it represents “skepticism” and “misinformation.”
The LA Times also confirmed “the eatery is not actually checking patrons’ vaccine status,” but that the restaurant is simply making a point “in defense of American liberty and freedom.”
“Wanted” posters showing Orange County leaders and Dr. Anthony Fauci, the U.S.’ top infectious diseases expert, appear at Basilico’s in Huntington Beach. (Madeleine Hordinski / Los Angeles Times)Huntington Beach restaurant Basilico’s Pasta e Vino put up an anti-mask billboard last year with a nod to the film “The Godfather” along La Cienega Boulevard, blocks away from the Beverly Center shopping mall, in Los Angeles. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)
THE SIGN’S FULL STATEMENT:
“Notice: Proof of being unvaccinated required. We have zero tolerance for treasonous, anti-American stupidity. Thank you for pondering,” the sign read.
Basilico’s owner, Tony Roman, said in an email that he was fighting government policies he says are harmful, according to the LA Times.
“With warning signs of another impending lockdown, and many business owners again emboldening those who I refer to as ‘the lockdown tiny tyrants’—this time by imposing proof-of-vaccination policies—we chose to fire another missile of defiance to further make our point in defense of American liberty and freedom,” he said.
BACKGROUND:
Basilico’s rejection symbolizes “how strongly anti-vaccination culture has taken hold in traditionally conservative enclaves such as Orange County,” notes LA Times.
The restaurant sits between a gym and a beauty salon in a strip mall at Hamilton Avenue and Brookhurst Street.
“Here comes the haters, and with it, the harassing non-stop phone calls, threats and hundreds of one-star reviews. And guess what? We at Basilico’s Pasta E Vino (Orange County, California) wear it all as a badge of honor,” the post said. https://t.co/Y4JUMJXFZf
The Arizona Senate served Maricopa County with a subpoena asking for ballot envelopes, routers, and voter databases relating to the 2020 presidential election forensic audit.
QUICK FACTS:
Board of Supervisors Bill Gates announced Monday on CNN, “Right before I came on here, the board of supervisors received another subpoena from the state Senate ordering us to turn over the routers, in addition to some other information.”
The subpoena was posted to Twitter by ABC15’s Garrett Archer.
Here is what the state senate has subpoenaed: 1. Info on breach of public voter registration data 2. EV envelopes or images. 3. Pass keys for precinctabulators 4. Voter registration database 5. Routers or virtual images of routers 6 Network logs. pic.twitter.com/jjCp8mKxvW
— The AZ – abc15 – Data Guru (@Garrett_Archer) July 27, 2021
BREAKING: Maricopa County receives a new subpoena for election materials from Republican leaders of the Arizona Senate pic.twitter.com/76Ss3JQ8VB
Dr. Peter McCullough, a cardiologist and epidemiologist with nearly 700 peer-reviewed publications, was interviewed by Dr. Jane Ruby on vaccine safety.
The administration of President Joe Biden continues to grapple with a growing tide of migrant families arriving at the US-Mexico border, with Border Patrol apprehending more than 50,000 migrant families in June, up from 40,815 in May, according to US Customs and Border Protection data.
Deportations for some migrant families who cross the US-Mexico border amid what the current administration persistently refuses to acknowledge as a “crisis” will be fast-tracked, according to a statement by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
“Certain family units who are not able to be expelled under Title 42 will be placed in expedited removal proceedings. Expedited removal provides a lawful, more accelerated procedure to remove those family units who do not have a basis under U.S. law to be in the United States,” says the DHS statement.
The procedure, created back in 1996, allows immigration authorities to remove an individual without a hearing before an immigration judge, which is often a lengthy process.
The tool will now apply to families who are not expelled under the pandemic-related public health border policy dating to the administration of former President Donald Trump, known as Title 42.
These expulsions are the US government removing people who have recently been in a country where a “communicable disease was present.” During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Trump Administration resorted to this provision to prevent land entry for many migrants. The administration of the ex-president’s successor is now continuing the programme, despite Democrats earlier repeatedly criticising Trump for his “relentless” migrant policies.
“Attempting to cross into the United States between ports of entry, or circumventing inspection at ports of entry, is the wrong way to come to the United States. These acts are dangerous and can carry long-term immigration consequences for individuals who attempt to do so,” reads the statement issued by the DHS on Monday.
It adds that the Biden-Harris administration is working to “build a safe, orderly, and humane immigration system.”
Arrests of migrant families have surged in recent months in the US. In June, Border Patrol apprehended over 50,000 migrant families, which is a significant increase from the 40,815 detained in May, according to US Customs and Border Protection data.
Brian Hastings, the Border Patrol chief in the Rio Grande Valley, went on Twitter to cite “skyrocketing” apprehensions of more than 20,000 migrants in just a week in the valley.
It's the hottest part of the summer and apprehensions are skyrocketing! #USBP Apprehensions surpassed the 1-million milestone in June.
— Chief Patrol Agent Brian Hastings (@USBPChiefRGV) July 25, 2021
The continuing border crisis was touched upon by Joe Biden during a CNN town hall in Cincinnati, Ohio, six months since he took the oath on January 20.
Biden was questioned about the “don’t come” message Vice President Kamala Harris set out to migrants.
American gymnastics star Simone Biles on Tuesday pulled out of an Olympic competition the United States had been widely favored to win.
As a result, Russia won the women’s team gymnastics event on Tuesday. The United States finished second for the silver medal, while Britain won the bronze medal.
The United States had been seeking its third straight gold in the woman’s team event. Team USA last won a silver medal in the 2008 games, when China took the gold.
“Simone has withdrawn from the team final competition due to a medical issue,” USA Gymnastics said in a statement. “She will be assessed daily to determine medical clearance for future competitions.”
Prior to that announcement, however, NBC’s Monica Alba tweeted that Biles had not been injured and was having what her coach termed “a mental issue.”
Simone Biles back in warmup gear, cheering on her teammates after she told them she pulled out of the team competition final.
“It is not injury related” and apparently her coach said “it’s a mental issue that Simone is having,” per NBC commentators just now. #TokyoOlympicspic.twitter.com/WdBgVBnF5m
To use children and parenting as highways to self-serving pleasure is to make light of social foundations we can’t afford to lose.
Spoilers.
If the first two seasons of Netflix’s “Virgin River” treated relationships as commodities for achieving happiness, season three goes further and gives babies the same treatment.
The third season of the show, which is currently ranked the No. 1 TV show on Netflix, premiered on July 9. It continues the saga of former city-girl and nurse Mel Monroe, her hunky flannel-clad boyfriend (and owner of the local hangout bar) Jack Sheridan, and the rest of the quiet, woodsy mountain town of Virgin River. The small-town setting is still charming (if more of the same), but the message of the show isn’t any better — it’s more of the same, only worse.
Characters Learned Nothing from Seasons One and Two
“Instead of striving after anything more meaningful, the main characters just go around trying to figure out their own happiness, and reassuring each other they deserve it,” I observed after watching the first two seasons. “Unfortunately, it’s all too reflective of how many Americans today view romance: as a disposable means of personal enjoyment and self-gratification. ”
I know stories often portray characters with flaws like this for the purpose of showing an eventual arc of growth and maturity. I was hoping, although not expecting, season three might reveal some growth and recognition of selfishness from main characters like Jack and Mel.
Unfortunately, instead of recognizing that maybe pleasure-seeking self-gratification isn’t the heartiest sustenance for a meaningful relationship, Jack and Mel take their selfish rubric and apply it to having children. As the season’s plot unfolds, Mel decides she wants a baby, but Jack (who has twins on the way with his old girlfriend, Charmaine) doesn’t feel he can support two families. (This should have been his first hint that maybe treating relationships flippantly creates problems.)
Knowing he can’t provide the pregnancy she wants, Jack breaks off his relationship with Mel in an attempt to put her happiness above his own. That is, until another character reminds him that “relationships are built on emotions.” (Forget self-sacrifice or mutual trust, emotions are the surest foundation in the minds of Netflix screenwriters.) Apparently convinced, Jack quickly backtracks and gets back together with Mel.
To “Virgin River’s” credit, it’s refreshing to see Mel want a baby. Motherhood rarely gets the respect it deserves, on or off-screen. To see a character (with a career she loves, nonetheless) desire children as a joyful, wonderful thing is something that shouldn’t be remarkable, but is.
Having a Baby for Personal Gratification Is a Problem
But that’s where the healthy perspective stops. When Mel is sad and feeling sorry for herself after her breakup with Jack, she goes to her sister Joey for advice. “You know, you don’t need Jack to have a baby,” Joey counsels.
When Mel counters that she’s “too exhausted to start over with someone else,” Joey reminds her she has two embryos left from when she tried to have a baby through in vitro fertilization (IVF) with her now-deceased husband Mark.
Unsurprisingly, the show doesn’t address IVF’s common problems. While it’s possible — although even more expensive — to do in a way that uses every embryo, most IVF procedures result in the death, discarding, or perpetual freezing of tiny human beings.
Because Mel and Mark created and froze the embryos to which Joey refers, there’s a strong argument that Mel should choose to have the babies rather than let them sit forever in the fertility lab, even though Mark is no longer living. But that’s not Joey’s reasoning, nor Mel’s either.
Mel’s response is not “What would be best for my baby?” but self-focused questions like “I can’t raise a child on my own” and “What if having Mark’s baby just makes me miss him all over again?”
While the question of whether she’s equipped to raise a baby is an important and valid one, these considerations clearly don’t stop Mel from deciding a baby will make her happy and therefore she must have one. One scene transition later, Mel is calling the fertility clinic to set up an appointment, and two episodes later we find out that she is indeed pregnant.
The GOP speaker of the house in Texas has signed a civil warrant to arrest state Rep. Philip Cortez, a Democrat who returned to Washington, D.C., on Sunday in an effort to block a Republican election reform bill from being approved by state lawmakers, The Texas Tribune is reporting.
However, the news outlet noted it is unlikely that Speaker Dade Phelan’s signed warrant will have any impact since Texas law enforcement lacks any jurisdiction outside of the state.
The Texas Democrats had traveled to Washington to break the state House quorum to avoid losing votes in a special session.
More than 50 Democrat House lawmakers from Texas fled to the nation’s capital in mid-July to temporarily block efforts to pass election reform measures in the state and staying through Aug. 7
The action was taken to keep the Texas House from a two-thirds quorum in order to keep the Legislature from passing a number of bills, particularly Republican-backed election reform measures.
Rep. Ted Budd on Tuesday introduced legislation that would require every member of President Biden‘s staff to take a financial literacy course on inflation before the White House could receive further funding.
Mr. Budd, a North Carolina Republican running for the U.S. Senate, hopes to have the requirement incorporated in the upcoming appropriations bill for the Executive Office of the President (EOP).
The EOP consists of the White House offices and agencies that execute the president’s agenda, including the National Economic Council and the Office of Management and Budget.
Mr. Budd told The Washington Times that he was compelled to offer the legislation because inflation has “grown into a full-blown crisis” since Mr. Biden took office.
“Consumer costs have risen by the highest rate in 13 years, and it’s eating away at the buying power of every single North Carolinian,” Mr. Budd said. “In the end, inflation is a tax that is directly caused by reckless spending under Biden.”
Earlier this month, the Labor Department reported that consumer prices jumped nearly 1 percentage point between May and June of this year alone.
More troubling, prices have skyrocketed roughly 5.4% over the past year — the biggest one-year jump in inflation since August 2008.
A recent survey by the Morning Consult found that more than one-third of adults believe they are now spending more on groceries than they did at the start of the year.
Last week, Sen. Rand Paul and National Institute of Allergy and Infection Diseases Director Anthony Fauci went at it again. This time, the issue was whether or not the nation’s top doctor had allowed funding for gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China.
Paul believes that his sources, including Fauci’s private emails published by Buzzfeed in June, support the idea that Fauci approved the funding. The doctor denies it. The Republican senator reminded Fauci that lying to Congress was a crime. Fauci was unmoved. “If anyone is lying here, senator,” he responded, “it is you.”
I wouldn’t bet on that.
When Paul has challenged Fauci in recent months, it played out as follows: Paul says X. Fauci denies X. Social media and left-leaning pundits excoriate Paul for even bringing up X. Then, eventually, everyone agrees with Paul on X. We have seen this scenario play out at least twice.
In March, Paul told Fauci during a Senate hearing that vaccinated people no longer needed to wear masks, according to his scientific sources. Fauci insisted that masks were still needed, even for those who were vaccinated. Paul called it “theater.” Fauci said it was not theater. By May, however, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced that vaccinated people no longer needed to wear masks. Fauci agreed.
True, things change over time, especially during a pandemic. But for Fauci to behave in March as if Paul was being irresponsible or reckless on mask policy looks foolish in hindsight.
Later in May, Paul asked Fauci if the origins of the global COVID-19 pandemic could be found in the Wuhan Institute of Virology. That is to say, the Chinese lab where U.S. funding for gain-of-function research had occurred. Fauci denied this, and many dismissed Paul as promoting a conspiracy theory.
Today, the lab leak theory is no longer considered conspiratorial. Indeed, it is viewed across the political and media spectrum as a serious possibility.
