Will the Utility Industry Protect the Public Interest or Their Special Interests? thumbnail

Will the Utility Industry Protect the Public Interest or Their Special Interests?

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By Center For Security Policy

Americans often take for granted just how much modern life relies upon is electricity. But without power, life can go from civilized to dangerous in a matter of hours. Unfortunately, this is a reality which America’s enemies –both foreign and domestic—are constantly seeking to take advantage of.

More than 40,000 residents of Moore County NC found this out the hard way last December when unknown attackers opened fire on transformers in two substations within the local electric grid resulting in a no-notice blackout.  Fortunately for North Carolina residents, power was restored relatively quickly.

The event caused the media to begin paying closer attention to the vulnerability of the grid to physical attacks – a matter which traditionally had been ignored.

The media attention spurred the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to order the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) to conduct a study surrounding the adequacy of the current physical security standards that are supposed to protect the grid from these types of attacks. NERC is the self-regulating non-profit “Electric Reliability Organization” designated by FERC to both develop and enforce compliance with mandated reliability standards.

When NERC released the required report in April, they declared there was no reason to expand the current physical security standard.

Cold comfort for the people of Moore County, NC.

This vignette helps to underscore three factors illustrating why the nation’s electric grid remains so vulnerable to physical attack.

The first factor is jurisdiction. FERC only regulates the “bulk power system.” The bulk power system is made up of the “transmission” part of the grid that moves electricity over large distances (often crossing state borders) and portions of the “generation” grid that produce that electricity. Left out of FERC’s oversight is the “distribution” part of the grid that brings power to homes and businesses.

The Moore County NC substation, and the power transformers shot up in the Pacific Northwest last year, were distribution transformers and therefore not addressed by the physical security standard, just because they weren’t part of “the bulk power system.”

The second factor is a physical security standard fraught with loopholes, even for the limited section of the system covered under FERC rules. The “protection standard” consists of little more than a written security plan that must be reviewed by a third party, without any requirement that this third party has expertise in physical security. And even then, the plan is applied to only those assets deemed “critical.”

The former Director of Central Intelligence Ambassador R. James Woolsey wrote a letter to FERC in May 2020 warning about these loopholes. The former Chief Information Officer of NSA described the industry’s “Critical Infrastructure Protection Standards” as a “House of Cards.” “They have served only to narrowly protect a utility’s “House” and not its “Operations,” he wrote to FERC in June 2020.

Expert power system engineers have similarly argued that the current physical protection standard enables the utilities and NERC “plausible deniability” and therefore “the nation will be facing a less reliable electric grid and more large-scale outages more frequently.”   They point out how the industry uses limiting criteria of “voltage levels” and transmission line “weighted averages” that enable them to exclude many facilities from the protection standard – even if those facilities are vital to grid reliability because of their location in the highly interconnected system.

All of this points to the third factor putting the grid at risk: The fact that NERC is the organization drafting the protection standards. Because of the way NERC is organized it has  essentially “stacked the deck” to ensure that the special interests of the utilities dwarfs the broader public interest when it comes to decision-making.

Frustrated with government and industry lack of focus on improving physical security, the Center for Security Policy’s Secure the Grid Coalition filed a “Petition for Rulemaking” with FERC, forcing the federal government to open a legal docket on the matter. We argued that FERC should order an “Enhanced Applicability Criteria” to the existing system of reliability standards for the Bulk Power System.

We argued that the government should require regional authorities operating the grid to use their actual operating models to designate which assets are critical and thus applicable to the standard. Industry uses these utility system engineering models every day for planning and for the reliable operation of the electric grid – to sell, buy and move electricity. Those models, we argue, are the best criteria for understanding what is “critical” and therefore what should fall under the protection standard – even if those assets are outside the “bulk power system.”

Our petition was protested by both NERC and power industry Trade Associations on procedural grounds – essentially arguing that our Coalition should have first approached NERC with a request to initiate a new Reliability Standard.

NERC argued that our petition “Fails to Demonstrate a Sufficient Change in Circumstances to Merit a Rulemaking.” “Because the Petition does not satisfy these complaint requirements, it should be dismissed,” wrote the Trade Associations.

Before FERC closed its docket on our petition, we weighed in with our own intervention, pointing out the following:

  1. the massive increase in physical attacks on the grid (1039 from January 2010 to March 2023 – a rate of nearly 1.5 per week – according to Department of Energy data),
  2. a significant increase in attack sophistication,
  3. that the attackers span both the economic and political landscapes,
  4. that our insecure southern border increases the risk of potential attacks on the grid,
  5. that Communist China presents the most worrisome near-term foreign threat, and
  6. that lead times for transformers (2-4 years) urgently underscores the need for increased protection.

Both NERC and the Trade Associations pointed to an upcoming “Joint Physical Security Technical Conference” as evidence that they are working to improve the standards.

When that conference takes place on August 10th in Atlanta, volunteer members of our Secure the Grid Coalition will be there to represent the public interest.

AUTHOR

Tommy Waller

President & CEO.

EDITORS NOTE: This Center for Security Policy column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

GOP Lawmakers Introduce Bill That Would Bar Biden From Invoking A National Climate Emergency thumbnail

GOP Lawmakers Introduce Bill That Would Bar Biden From Invoking A National Climate Emergency

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By The Daily Caller

Republican Texas Rep. August Pfluger and West Virginia Sen. Shelley Moore Capito introduced legislation Monday morning aiming to preempt any possible attempt by President Joe Biden to use emergency powers to circumvent congressional checks on his administration’s sweeping climate agenda.

“The Real Emergencies Act” would clarify that the president is unable to invoke emergency powers permitted by the National Emergencies Act, the Disaster Relief and Emergencies Act and the Public Health Service Act on the basis of a perceived climate change crisis. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and other left-wing congressional lawmakers have called for Biden to declare a national climate emergency to further his administration’s aggressive climate agenda.

“I am proud to join Senator Capito in introducing the Real Emergencies Act, which will prevent the White House from distracting from real emergencies – like skyrocketing inflation and record-high energy costs – by declaring climate change a national emergency,” Pfluger told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “Our legislation ensures that President Biden does not abuse the power of his office to pursue his anti-American energy agenda against the will of the American people.”

The Real Emergencies Act by Daily Caller News Foundation

Schumer said in January 2021 that a declaration of climate emergency would enable Biden to “do many, many things under the emergency powers of the President that wouldn’t have to go through – that he could do without legislation.” Schumer’s comments came as the Inflation Reduction Act had stalled in congress amid Democratic West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin’s initial refusal to support many of the bill’s provisions in an evenly-divided Senate.

The Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC) similarly urged Biden to invoke emergency powers on the basis of a perceived climate emergency to “invoke authorities under the Defense Production Act and Trade Expansion Act, mobilizing domestic industry to manufacture affordable renewable energy technologies.” The CPC also demanded in the same March 2022 document that Biden unilaterally ban fossil fuel leasing on federal lands and halt all crude oil exports, some four months before Manchin eventually reached a July 2022 deal with Schumer to support the Inflation Reduction Act in the Senate.

With Manchin’s support secured, Biden was able to sign the Inflation Reduction Act into law in August 2022, about three months before Republicans regained control of the House in the 2022 midterms. As a candidate for the presidency in 2019, Biden delivered a personal “guarantee” that his administration would “end fossil fuels.”

Under the auspices of Biden’s COVID-19 emergency powers, the Biden administration imposed an indefinite pause on student loan payments as well as a federal eviction moratorium. Biden only ended the declared COVID-19 national emergency in April 2023, more than six months after admitting in September 2022 that the pandemic was “over.”

“The Biden administration has repeatedly governed by executive overreach when it comes to energy and environmental regulations, ignoring the law and doing so without congressional approval,” Capito told the DCNF. “The Real Emergencies Act would ensure the president cannot go further by declaring a national emergency, which would grant him more executive authority and grow the size of government all in the name of climate change.”

AUTHOR

NICK POPE

Contributor.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

U.S. Rep. Greg Steube Introduces Legislation to Repeal the USA PATRIOT Act thumbnail

U.S. Rep. Greg Steube Introduces Legislation to Repeal the USA PATRIOT Act

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By Dr. Rich Swier

WASHINGTON —  U.S. Representative Greg Steube (R-Fla.) today introduced The Protect Our Civil Liberties Act to repeal the USA PATRIOT Act and the FISA Amendments Act of 2008 in an effort to restore Americans’ civil liberties, guaranteed by our Constitution.

“For decades now, the misnamed Patriot Act and the 2008 FISA Amendments have allowed the federal government to trample on the rights of law-abiding American citizens. As the federal government has become increasingly weaponized against its own people, it is imperative we rein in this overreach,” said Rep. Greg Steube. “We can have a secure nation and retain our civil liberties at the same time.”

The USA PATRIOT Act was a hurried re-write of our nation’s surveillance laws in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks. The result was expanded government overreach and increased capabilities for the U.S. government to spy, conduct warrantless searches, and obtain private records –  even those records held by third parties. Reports have shown the FBI has seriously abused sections of the USA PATRIOT Act. The FISA Amendments Act has wrongfully permitted the government to collect mass amounts of Americans’ personal data and communications, including email traffic, phone calls, and text messages in the name of national security.

Congressman Greg Steube is a member of the Select Subcommittee of the Weaponization of the Federal Government. The select subcommittee was established in the 118th Congress to investigate surveillance abuses from the Executive Branch on American citizens and the undermining of Americans’ civil liberties.

Read the bill text here.

To receive frequent updates about the work I’m doing in Congress, I encourage you to visit my website, like my Facebook page, follow me on Rumble, follow me on Gettr, follow me on Truth Social, follow me on Instagram, and follow me on Twitter.

©2023. Rep. Greg Steube (R-FL District 17). All rights reserved.

California To Blame For Water Scarcity Not Climate thumbnail

California To Blame For Water Scarcity Not Climate

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By Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow

You may have heard about California’s perennial woes with drought and flooding. Governor Newsom, like a parrot with limited vocabulary, dutifully squawks out “climate change” as being the culprit.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

CFACT’s Gabriella Hoffman investigates the situation and documents her findings in a brand new, just released CFACT Conservation Nation video.

Watch it and learn more about the real problems Californians are facing with water scarcity.

This is not a climate issue, but one of simple water mismanagement. Between October 2022 and January 2023, over 6.4 million acre-feet of water were diverted from agricultural and municipal uses and foolishly flushed into the Pacific Ocean.

“We are in a perpetual drought because we don’t manage water,” said Johnny Amaral, chief operating officer of Friant Water Authority. “I’m here to say that hydrology in California really hasn’t changed a whole lot in the last 125 years. There’s ups and there’s downs, which is why all these projects were built to begin with, recognizing that hydrology ebbs and flows. There are periods of wet years, followed by periods of dry, so all this elaborate system of dams and canals and pump stations was built deliberately to deal with that.”

As Gabriella shows, this is not a problem without a solution. Residents of Northern California and Central Valley have answers to the problem and voted for more water management reforms. But powerful environmental special interests and corrupt politicians in Sacramento are obstacles to this progress. They must be exposed and stopped from wrecking further havoc.

We must blunt the false climate assertions blathered about by Governor Newsom and spread the word about the need for proper water management and construction of critical infrastructure projects like reservoirs and dams.

For nature and people too.

AUTHOR

Craig Rucker

President and co-founder of Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow.

RELATED ARTICLE: Supreme Court’s WOTUS ruling will shake things up across the board

EDITORS NOTE: This CFACT column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

DISASTROUS Declines on Nation’s Report Card (NAEP): 13-Year-Olds WORST in Test’s History thumbnail

DISASTROUS Declines on Nation’s Report Card (NAEP): 13-Year-Olds WORST in Test’s History

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By The Geller Report

The declines on the Nation’s Report Card (NAEP) for 13-year-olds are some of the WORST in the test’s history.

This is exactly what the Democrats wanted and needed. Dumb and dumber. How else could they get away with their catastrophic destruction?

The new “Nation’s Report Card” is out and the results are grim. Test scores are at their lowest level in decades, with steep declines in both reading and math proficiency in nearly every state. It’s the first comprehensive look at the pandemic’s impact on America’s students.

Math and reading scores among America’s 13-year-olds fell to their lowest levels in decades, with math scores plunging by the largest margin ever recorded, according to the results of a test known as the nation’s report card.

‘Nation’s Report Card’ shows math skills reset to the level of the 1990s, while struggling readers are scoring lower than they did in 1971

By Kevin Mahnken, NAEP, June 21, 2023:

COVID-19’s cataclysmic impact on K–12 education, coming on the heels of a decade of stagnation in schools, has yielded a lost generation of growth for adolescents, new federal data reveal.

More grim NAEP results, this time for 13YOs:

“‘Nation’s Report Card’ shows math skills reset to the level of the 1990s, while struggling readers are scoring lower than they did in 1971”

Drops are, as usual. largest for the least privileged students.
https://t.co/ZEO9HUoNUa

— Karen Vaites (@karenvaites) June 21, 2023

Wednesday’s publication of scores from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) — America’s most prominent benchmark of learning, typically referred to as the Nation’s Report Card — shows the average 13-year-old’s understanding of math plummeting back to levels last seen in the 1990s; struggling readers scored lower than they did in 1971, when the test was first administered. Gaps in performance between children of different backgrounds, already huge during the Bush and Obama presidencies, have stretched to still-greater magnitudes.

The bad tidings are, in a sense, predictable: Beginning in 2022, successive updates from NAEP have laid bare the consequences of prolonged school closures and spottily delivered virtual instruction. Only last month, disappointing results on the exam’s history and civics component led to a fresh round of headlines about the pandemic’s ugly hangover.

But the latest release, highlighting “long-term trends” that extend back to the 1970s, widens the aperture on the nation’s profound academic slump. In doing so, it serves as a complement to the 2020 iteration of the same test, which showed that the math and English skills of 13-year-olds had noticeably eroded even before the emergence of COVID-19.

Long-Term NAEP Scores for 13-Year-Olds Drop for First Time since 1970s

Those disturbing findings, since aggravated by the greatest disruption in the history of American schools, look all the worse today. Reading scores fell by four points between 2020 and 2023, mirroring similar declines in other NAEP releases since last fall, while math scores math scores tumbled by nine points. But an even greater reversal — seven points in reading, and 13 points in math — can be measured going back to 2012, when long-term scores began to slip.

The results set off yet another chorus of alarm bells among federal officials. Peggy Carr, commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics, which administers NAEP, told reporters that they “should remind us that this is a huge scale of challenge that faces the nation today.”

“Certainly the pandemic has made things worse and made things more challenging for us,” Carr said in a media briefing. “But these troubling trends that we’re seeing date back a decade, particularly for our lower-performing students.”

Read more.

AUTHOR

Pamela Geller

RELATED TWEET:

Gaps in reading and math scores btwn white & Black students – totalling 23 and 29 points in 2012 – grew to 27 and 42 points in 2023.

Worrisome indicators in behavioral screening:

⬆️ absenteeism

⬇️ reading for pleasure pic.twitter.com/EcumL2nf3z

— Karen Vaites (@karenvaites) June 21, 2023

EDITORS NOTE: This Geller Report is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Army’s Top Enlisted Leader Engaged In Hours-Long Twitter Battle Over Pride Post thumbnail

Army’s Top Enlisted Leader Engaged In Hours-Long Twitter Battle Over Pride Post

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By The Daily Caller

  • The Army’s highest-ranking enlisted soldier fought back with Twitter users who criticized a unit’s pro-Pride post on Friday and Saturday, hinting that those users committed “discriminatory harassment.”
  • The 82nd Airborne’s tweet recommended Army families check out a “survival guide” for “questioning” teens and another describing how parents can learn to “support” their LGBGQ+ child, from the on-base library.
  • “The comment section isn’t your [Area of Operations], and voicing disagreement is not harassment,” one Twitter user said.

The Army’s top enlisted leader shot back at criticisms of a post from the 82nd Airborne celebrating LGBTQ+ members in a two-day Twitter battle, tweets show.

Twitter users, many of whom described themselves as veterans in their account bios, mocked the 82nd Airborne’s Friday morning post kick-starting the unit’s observance of Pride Month as a “disgrace” and distracting from the Army’s mission, the comments show. Sgt. Maj. Michael Grinston, the Army’s top enlisted leader responsible for morale and discipline issues in the service, condemned the criticism as harassment and shot back at tweets through Saturday morning as senior military leaders have not shied away from weighing in on American cultural controversies.

As we wrap up the observance celebration of #Juneteenth we switch gears in honoring all those who partake in #PrideMonth. Join us later this month as we come all together for the Respect, Service and Dignity as the Division MEO team hosts the Pride Month Observance Event.#AATW pic.twitter.com/6hdRoWAgWy

— All American Division (@82ndABNDiv) June 16, 2023

“The comment section is a good time to refresh ourselves with discriminatory harassment: A form of harassment that is unwelcome conduct based on race, color, religion, sex (including gender identity), national origin, or sexual orientation,” Grinston wrote.

The 82nd Airborne’s tweet recommended Army families check out a book called a “Survival Guide for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Questioning Teens,” as well as another that describes how parents can learn to “support” their LGBGQ+ child, from the on-base library. The titles are “intended for ages 13 and up,” the photo stated.

Some users praised Grinston for standing up on behalf of lesbian, gay and transgender people who serve in the Army against “bigots,” while others disputed whether their words counted as harassment, tweets show.

“The comment section isn’t your [Area of Operations], and voicing disagreement is not harassment,” one Twitter user responded at 7:59 p.m. “Many veterans including this one are disgusted by the continued degeneracy of our armed forces, so prepare to copy notes you can refer to later during your retention-crisis strategy meetings.”

In response, Grinston tweeted a screenshot of an Army Times headline: “Army hits retention goal four months early, says top enlisted soldier,” referring to Grinston’s own June 10 announcement that the service succeeded in getting the desired number of soldiers and officers to stay on for 2023.

Grinston said the Army set a goal of retaining 55,000 soldiers, higher than the year prior, amid a planned decrease of about 12,000 to the number of total Army personnel, according to Army Times. The deficit is a function of recruiting woes; once soldiers enlist or become officers, they want to stay, Grinston explained.

AUTHOR

MICAELA BURROW

Investigative reporter and Pentagon correspondent.

RELATED ARTICLES:

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The ‘Woke Bubble’ Is About To Burst

EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Here’s Why Europe’s Energy Giants Are Pivoting Back To Oil thumbnail

Here’s Why Europe’s Energy Giants Are Pivoting Back To Oil

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By The Daily Caller

Two of Europe’s largest energy firms are pivoting from green energy back to their core oil and gas businesses, a move that industry experts tell the Daily Caller News Foundation signals a willingness to take political hits as oil and gas continue to be major sources of revenue.

Both Shell and fellow U.K. energy firm BP opted against further cuts to oil production recently, in a bid to restore investor confidence as their renewable ventures struggled, according to Bloomberg. While the moves were met with criticism from climate-focused investors — activist investors and protestors attempted to storm the stage at Shell’s annual shareholder meeting in late May — the companies are likely to stay the course despite criticism, thanks to the reliability of oil and gas to drive profits despite the emergence of green energy, Dan Kish, senior research fellow at the Institute for Energy Research, told the DCNF.

“Smart energy executives looking at the long term recognize that politics are fleeting,” Kish said. “Politicians may be flighty and distracted by today’s shiny objects, but real business sense combined with a knowledge of engineering and physics shows that real energy makes good business because it is what people need and want.”

Shell CEO Wael Sawan described his company’s shift as a “fundamental culture change” during a Wednesday presentation intended to draw investors, especially American ones, to support the company, The Wall Street Journal reported. Shell performed poorly in 2022 compared to U.S. titans Exxon Mobil and Chevron in 2022, and Sawan has made playing catch up a priority.

BP made a similar decision, opting to increase investments in oil and gas while slowing its advancement toward green alternatives.

“At the end of the day, we’re responding to what society wants,” BP Chief Executive Bernard Looney said.

Ryan Yonk, senior research faculty at the American Institute for Economic Research, described many green investments and climate commitments as a sort of “green-washing” that companies are more likely to view as a “cost of doing business” as opposed to a genuine driver of profits, in a statement to the DCNF. BP saw shares surge more than 15% in the days following its February announcement that it would cut just 25% of its hydrocarbon output by 2030, as opposed to its original target of 40%, according to Reuters.

“The profitability of these types of endeavors is generally much lower than market-driven innovation and growth because they are defensive in nature and driven not by consumer demand but by either actual regulatory action or the expectation that it will occur,” Yonk said. “Fossil fuels are currently, and the evidence suggests they will be for the foreseeable future a significant and important part of energy production in the US and across the world.”

While political pressure may have pushed companies towards green projects in the past, the current political landscape is much more amenable to oil and gas, Myron Ebell, director of the Center for Energy and Environment at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, told the DCNF. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine set off an energy crisis in both the U.S. and Europe, giving companies a “strong incentive” to pump more oil while providing them the political cover to be “more candid” about the necessity of such investments, Ebell said.

“The EU’s oil majors have an even harder time than America’s trying to remain politically correct while continuing to produce the energy the world needs and make sufficient profits to satisfy shareholders and invest in new production,” Ebell told the DCNF. “They are faced with the reality that renewables produce little energy at a high cost.”

While Shell re-committed to its target of net-zero emissions by 2050 in a Wednesday press release, it also said in a footnote that such a change was dependent on societal factors. There would be “significant risk that Shell may not meet this target” if society at large had not made a shift to net zero by then, the company said.

Shell and BP did not immediately respond to a DCNF request for comment.

AUTHOR

JOHN HUGH DEMASTRI

Contributor.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

Top Reasons to Dump the ‘Fag Flag’ and Restore ‘Old Glory’ from the school house to the White House thumbnail

Top Reasons to Dump the ‘Fag Flag’ and Restore ‘Old Glory’ from the school house to the White House

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By Dr. Rich Swier

I remember that each and every single day that I was in elementary, middle and high school holding my hand over my heart with my teacher and classmates reciting the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic, for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

I grew up loving my country. Each and every day I grew to love her more and more. Until the inauguration of Joseph Robinett Biden Jr.

Today young people seem to have forgotten America’s history, the basics of biology, and the science of DNA. It seems they feel comfortable, even devoted, to embracing myths like: America is racist, whites are supremacist, mankind can control the weather if we the people just submit to big government mandates, laws and regulations that take away our freedom of choices bit by bit and a male can identify as a female.

This has led to Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. flying the “Fag Flag” in front of the White House along with the American flag honoring pride month. BTW, remember that pride is one of the seven deadly sins.

Title 4, United States Code, Chapter 1, Paragraph 7 reads (c),

No other flag or pennant should be placed above or, if on the same level, to the right of the flag of the United States of America, except during church services conducted by naval chaplains at sea, when the church pennant may be flown above the flag during church services for the personnel of the Navy. No person shall display the flag of the United Nations or any other national or international flag equal, above, or in a position of superior prominence or honor to, or in place of, the flag of the United States at any place within the United States or any Territory or possession thereof: Provided, That nothing in this section shall make unlawful the continuance of the practice heretofore followed of displaying the flag of the United Nations in a position of superior prominence or honor, and other national flags in positions of equal prominence or honor, with that of the flag of the United States at the headquarters of the United Nations.

Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. has violated U.S. Code by flying the Fag Flag on the same level as the American Flag at the White House.

Reasons to Dump the Fag Flag

There are many reasons to dump the Fag Flag, including but not limited to:

  1. Remove the Fag Flag from the White House in accordance with Title 4, United States Code, Chapter 1, Paragraph 7 (c).
  2. In a video recently unearthed from 2019, Chasten Buttigieg, “husband” of Department of Transportation diversity hire Pete Buttigieg, is seen leading children in a pledge of allegiance to the Gay Pride flag. Buttigieg had the young children recite: “I pledge my heart to the rainbow of the not so typical gay camp, to the gay agenda for which it stands. One camp, full of pride, indivisible, with affirmation and equal rights for all.” Doing this harms children and grooms them for pedophiles and pederasts.
  3. The U.S. Air Force Twitter account posted a tweet celebrating pride month with an image of a soldier saluting the alphabet rainbow flag. Read some of the comments WOKE Air Force received on this official tweet they sent out. So bad that the U.S. Air Force shut off  all comments. This harms the health, welfare and morale of our men and women in the armed services. It is an existential threat to our national security.
  4. A Colorado school district encouraged its physical education (P.E.) teachers to don LGBT pride gear and use preferred pronouns in an effort to display their support for the LGBTQ community, according to documents obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation through a public records request. On March 8, a group of Jeffco Public Schools high school teachers were trained on how to make the district’s P.E. programs “even more inclusive,” where all students feel welcome regardless of their “race, ethnicity or sexual orientation,” according to a presentation obtained by the DCNF through a public records request. Teachers were trained to engage in “public visibility” by sporting some sort of rainbow pride gear such as a pin or t-shirt, plan or participate in pride events and practice using preferred pronouns. Having any teacher forced to don Fag Wear is both demeaning and a threat to the emotional health and well being of students.
  5. Bosch Fawstin wrote, “It might be news to some, especially to the left’s useful idiots on the left and the right, but the “LGBT Pride movement” is a communist movement. Same with the “Black Lives Matter movement,” the “Feminist movement,” etc. Because a naked communist movement might wake up too many Americans, and leftists know that, they hide behind race, sex and sexuality to push communism…In sum, the LGBT movement is a gay communist movement that now expresses a triumphalist attitude about their position in 2023, where they moan about how “marginalized” they are, while shoving their lifestyle in our children’s faces. As one of these gay supremacists put it the other day, ‘Straight sex is just not natural. Those are biological facts.’ I would tell this gay supremacist that without natural straight sex, he and billions of people wouldn’t exist.” Communism is anti-American.
  6. Jim Hoft, on September 24, 2022 reported, “Earlier this week investigative journalist Christopher Rufo reported on the teacher’s union promoting how-to guides on ‘anal sex’ and ‘fisting’ to children. This is shocking news to most Americans that the nation’s largest teachers’ union is promoting such material to America’s children. “It All Started with Obama: Barack Obama’s “Safe Schools Czar” Pushed Books that Encouraged Children to Meet Adults at Gay Bars for Sex”>But this trend of perversion did not start during the Joe Biden regime. Back in January 2010, The Gateway Pundit reported on Obama’s “Safe Schools Czar” Kevin Jennings. “Safe Schools Czar” Kevin Jennings and his organization GLSEN was encouraging children to meet adults in gay bars for sex. From our 2010 report: This story just gets freakier and weirder and the fact that the mainstream media completely ignores this dangerous man working in the Office of Safe and Drug-free Schools makes the story even more scandalous. You’d think the AP could peel away a few of its reporters from Going Rogue to investigate this radical czar. This avoidance by the democratic-media complex won’t keep us from reporting the truth. Our goal of protecting children is greater than our desire to protect a political party. Kevin Jennings’ was the founder, and for many years, Executive Director of the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) until he left his post in 2008. GLSEN maintains a recommended reading list of books for children that the radical organization believes all kids should be reading. The books on the list promote all kinds of radical ideas from child rape, to first graders having sex to the joys of prostitution. Recently it was discovered that these books were not only on GLSEN’s reading list but that Kevin Jennings personally promoted several of these books during his career. One of the books he promoted encouraged children to go to gay bars for sex with adults to see if they like it.
  7. One of the queerest myths is the use of the Fag Flag by the LGBTQ+ community to symbolize pride and equality. The truth is that the Fag Flag rainbow was created by God after the great flood and first seen by Noah and his family. The rainbow in the clouds was a symbol of hope that civilization would begin anew in His Image. Genesis 9: 15-17 read, “[A]nd I will remember my covenant with you and with all living creatures. Never again will the floodwaters destroy all life. When I see the rainbow in the clouds, I will remember the eternal covenant between God and every living creature on earth.” Then God said to Noah, “Yes, this rainbow is the sign of the covenant I am confirming with all the creatures on earth.”
  8. A Professor from Bethlehem College & Seminary named Dieudonné Tamfu wrote in a July 18th, 2015 article titled What Does the Rainbow Mean for Gays?, What do you think of when you see the rainbow flag? Most likely, you think of homosexuality or the wider LGBT movement. Gilbert Baker, the man credited with pioneering the celebratory rainbow flag flying over the gay movement, recently lauded his craft, noting that it’s something beautiful. He answers those who think it’s not, saying, “The rainbow’s in the Bible. It’s a covenant between God and all living creatures.” According to Baker, the God of the Bible knows the struggle of gays and lesbians, and that is where he finds hope. God does indeed know the internal and social battles of gays and lesbians, but the question is, Does he approve of their practice? Would God approve of their use of the rainbow to symbolize this movement? The Supreme Court’s decision on gay “marriage” has made the rainbow symbol ubiquitous. Those who celebrate so-called same-sex marriage are painting social media with rainbow colors. Even the White House was lit up the with red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple. God designed the rainbow to symbolize something far greater and far more glorious than homosexuality, and if those in the homosexual community truly understood and embraced the symbol they are waving in their hands, they would experience true freedom and peace. [Emphasis added] Read more. The Fag Flag is anti-Muslim, Christian and Jew.

But there are rays of hope.

The Bottom Line

ChurchMilitant.com reported,

The U.S. ambassador to Poland has become embroiled in the battle between militant homosexual campaigners and traditionalist Catholics after tweeting her support for the gay lobby on Thursday, as anti-Catholic blasphemy by LGBT activists continues to escalate before the fall general elections.

Over 30 town councils in Poland declared themselves “free from LGBT ideology” after anti-Catholic LGBT parades blasphemed the Blessed Sacrament and the icon of the Black Madonna and Warsaw’s mayor signed a pro-LGBT declaration in February calling for gay sex education in schools.

[ … ]

Swidnik councillor Radoslaw Brzozka said his town issued its anti-LGBT statement in response to Warsaw’s declaration, which was “against good moral values.”

“Let children have a father and a mother, not such deviations. Otherwise there will be fewer and fewer children, and Poland will shrink,” 83-year-old Teresa Drzewiecka, who witnessed Nazis and Communists battling for control of her town Swidnik, told Reuters.

Tom Perkins, from the Guardian on June 17, 2023 reported,

In 2015, many liberal residents in Hamtramck, Michigan, celebrated as their city attracted international attention for becoming the first in the United States to elect a Muslim-majority city council.

They viewed the power shift and diversity as a symbolic but meaningful rebuke of the Islamophobic rhetoric that was a central theme of then Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s campaign.

This week many of those same residents watched in dismay as a now fully Muslim and socially conservative city council passed legislation banning Pride flags from being flown on city property that had – like many others being flown around the country – been intended to celebrate the LGBTQ+ community.

Muslim residents packing city hall erupted in cheers after the council’s unanimous vote, and on Hamtramck’s social media pages, the taunting has been relentless: “Fagless City”, read one post, emphasized with emojis of a bicep flexing.

The Washington Stand’s Ben Johnson on June 20, 2023 reported,

In the latest sign the LGBT agenda is losing support, the number of people who view same-sex relationships as “morally acceptable” tumbled last year — a sign “people are beginning to connect the dots” between legalizing same-sex marriage and indoctrinating schoolchildren in the LGBT agenda, a prominent pro-family leader says.

Overall, support for homosexual relationships fell this year by 7%, the largest decrease of any of the moral issued posed by Gallup pollsters in their annual Values and Beliefs poll, conducted each May. In 2023, 63% of Americans say they see nothing wrong with “gay or lesbian relations.” Fewer Republicans and Democrats said they found homosexual relations morally neutral this year.

“People are beginning to connect the dots between these agendas,” said Family Research Council President Tony Perkins on “Washington Watch” Monday. “We were told all this is just about live and let live, just being able to marry the one you love.” Disengaged voters “didn’t realize that it was going to involve the indoctrination of their children, the infiltration of every media outlet in America,” or that “different professions will be forced to affirm these same-sex unions” or go out of business.

It’s time for America like Hamtramck, Michigan to become a “Fagless” nation.

The first step on the road to reality would be taking down every Fag Flag in every classroom, board room, and from the school house to the White House.

Then purge media centers and school curriculum K-24 of all references to Fags and their Communist ideology.

As for corporate CEOs across America warning, go Fagless or your company goes broke. Hey, Bud Light did you get the message to go Fagless?

©2023. Dr. Rich Swier. All rights reserved.

RELATED ARTICLES:

‘Really Bad Science’: Biden Admin Admits LGBT Lifestyle Produces Worse Mental Health and Addiction

Glenn Youngkin Slams School Board For Promoting Gender Ideology In ‘Pride Month’ Resolution

Conservatives React To NPR Father’s Day Article About ‘Pregnant Dad’

RELATED TWEET:

Trump says “I will sign a law prohibiting child sexual mutilation in all 50 States.”
Do You support this? YES or NO pic.twitter.com/zTwMdURUab

— (Modi & Trump Lover)🇮🇳🇺🇸 (@SUBRATA30016572) June 20, 2023

Arsonist Charged with Setting Massive Yosemite Park Fire That Democrats Blamed on Climate Change thumbnail

Arsonist Charged with Setting Massive Yosemite Park Fire That Democrats Blamed on Climate Change

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By The Geller Report

One might begin to suspect that Democrats set these fires in order to blame their climate change myth. Eco-terrorism.

The fire destroyed over 127 houses and burned 19,244 acres of vegetation, 66 outbuildings and threatened ancient Sequoias.

No media mea culpa and another one of their enormous, fantastic lies.

Man, 71, charged with setting massive Yosemite park fire initially blamed on climate change

By Isabel Keane, NY Post, June 18, 2023:
A 71-year-old man has been arrested for allegedly starting a devastating massive forest fire in Yosemite National Park that was previously thought to have been caused by climate change.

Edward Fredrick Wackerman of Mariposa, Calif., was busted Friday on suspicion of arson for allegedly igniting the Oak Fire, which destroyed 127 homes, caused thousands of people to evacuate and ravaged nearly 20,000 acres of vegetation in July 2022.

The suspect is facing charges of suspicion of aggravated arson, arson that causes great bodily injury and arson causing damage or destruction of inhabited structures, the California Department of Forestry said.

It isn’t clear how Wackerman may have started the blaze or what finally led to his arrest. Mariposa County District Attorney Walter Wall said a Tuesday press conference on the case is planned.

“Ed Wackerman is facing several felony charges, including aggravated arson. These charges carry serious legal consequences and the District Attorney is committed to ensuring a fair trial and upholding justice,” Wall said in a statement posted online.

Read more.

AUTHOR

Pamela Geller

EDITORS NOTE: This Geller Report is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Here’s How ESG Affects You, The Average American thumbnail

Here’s How ESG Affects You, The Average American

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By The Daily Caller

The trend of Environmental, Social and, Governance (ESG) investing has recently come under the microscope. When retirees and pensioners see lower returns on investments, they are not keen on prioritizing woke politics over sound financial returns — assuming they ever had a meaningful chance to weigh in. Much of the discussion involving this type of investing focuses on the investor class, but the consequences of ESG are far-reaching.

It’s hard to connect these dots. ESG is designed to confuse and disorient the average American, preventing them from understanding how it works, its impacts, and who is actually calling the shots. This proves convenient for the woke elitists at the top — and even the willing ones in the middle — that such a system helps avoid any direct accountability. But increasingly, public interest groups alongside the Republican majority in Congress are shining some much-needed light.

Bill-payers, mostly women, are at the frontlines of ESG’s high-cost impacts. The E prong — or environmental standards — coerce compliance with “net-zero” policies that aim to phase out fossil energy like coal, oil, and natural gas by 2050. These energy resources currently provide 80% of the energy we need to fuel our economy and maintain our modern way of life. As a result, ESG is a contributing factor to the high gas and electricity prices that hit low-income households the most — forcing many to choose between food or electricity.

More broadly, one in six American families is currently behind on electricity bills. The cost for an average household has risen approximately $10,000 over the past two years. In addition to inflation, these costs are squeezing regular folks and making it virtually impossible for low-income Americans to ever cross the middle-class threshold. ESG is undoubtedly becoming a barrier to upward mobility.

The American entrepreneur is also impacted. ESG makes realization of the American Dream contingent on acquiescing to the demands of the woke Left. And it doesn’t just target oil and gas. ESG is used by progressive activists to defund and constrain the growth of politically disfavored companies deemed “bad” by ESG standards — a rubric that is constantly changing. To date, this includes firearms manufacturers, animal agriculture, Tesla, and even chocolatiers that aren’t woke enough. These misguided efforts create a range of perverse outcomes beyond lost jobs and economic growth for companies.

ESG is also a tool to advance the Left’s broader cultural agenda. The S prong, or social standards, force acceptance of policies with which many Americans disagree — including the average parent. Running into Target with your children means being bombarded with bizarre and wildly inappropriate “pride” celebrations. As a mother of two young children who are naturally drawn to rainbow or glitter anything, it became necessary to explain why Target attempting to cultivate this niche — a market for troubled youth being groomed by disturbed adults into hating their God-given, sex-defining organs to the point they will hide them, tuck them, and increasingly chop them off — is so upsetting. Given this, my family and I will shop elsewhere.

S-policies also include mandating non-gendered bathrooms at work, meeting race-specific hiring quotas, teaching critical race theory (CRT), and forcing support for a range of liberal campaigns like defunding the police and drag queen story hour. While these ideas are trendy among some progressive corporate leaders, polling reveals the majority of Americans oppose them and would prefer they be kept out of the workplace and marketplace.

A solid 51% of Americans believe bathroom use should match one’s biological sex. 43% of Americans believe CRT will worsen race relations compared to 23% who don’t. Latinos and Asians oppose critical race theory by a two-to-one margin. A whopping 73% of Americans oppose racial quotas in hiring, and 58% of Americans oppose defunding police.

There are also the numerous workers negatively impacted by ESG. Some analyses have found G, or governance, policies that prioritize checking superficial boxes, results in decreased viewpoint diversity. It also has the effect of suppressing speech for workers who may disagree with G policies but would prefer to avoid the wrath of the woke. Also concerning: some companies prioritize the marketing of diversity language while making a mockery of actual progress.

As awareness of ESG increases, so too does the opposition. This is why its most ardent defenders are pulling out all the stops to distort the truth about ESG and discredit those willing to point out the numerous, negative impacts. Whether it’s the bill-payer, the entrepreneur, the parent, or the worker, ESG is making life more difficult with policies that cause much more harm than any version of good.

AUTHOR

MANDY GUNASEKARA

Mandy Gunasekara is the director of IWF’s Center for Energy and Conservation. She is also the former chief of staff at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller.

EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

The Climate Lobby Is Openly Plotting To Steal Our Freedom thumbnail

The Climate Lobby Is Openly Plotting To Steal Our Freedom

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By The Daily Caller

During her May 15 speech to The Beyond Growth Conference held by the European Parliament, European Commission President Ursula Von Der Leyen, citing a 1970s de-growth plan published by the Club of Rome, made reference to the European Union’s “social market economy” five times in a span of less than 150 words.

A “social market economy,” of course, is a reference to the sort of central economic planning engaged in by authoritarian socialist governments throughout history. “And this is exactly why we put forward our European Green Deal,” Von Der Leyen told the conference. “Building a 21st century clean-energy circular economy is one of the most significant economic challenges of our times.”

The agenda of the Beyond Growth Conference focused on devising plans to manage the destruction of economic growth that is a centerpiece of the real agenda of the energy transition. Limitations on energy minerals and other resources required by wind, solar and electric vehicles, and on the ability to continue printing trillions of debt-funded dollars and Euros in a vain attempt to subsidize them to the scale required to displace fossil fuels inevitably means the forcing of common citizens in the Western world to scale down their standards of living and limit their mobility to meet the net-zero by 2050 goals being dictated at the global level. Thus, the need for the EU to move “beyond growth” and back to a more primitive mode of living.

Rising recognition and acceptance of these limitations, along with the success by Western governments in enforcing authoritarian edicts on their populations during the COVID-19 pandemic, is now leading to a rapid evolution in the overarching narrative and talking points related to the energy transition. The former energy transition narrative of “we will scale up renewables and EVs and you won’t even notice the difference in your daily lives” has been transformed to “we will scale everything down and you will just have to live with it” with stunning speed during 2023.

A report titled “The Urban Mobility Scorecard Tool: Benchmarking the Transition to Sustainable Urban Mobility” issued by the World Economic Forum in May is another great example. Based largely upon a 2017 UC Davis report titled “3 Revolutions in Urban Transportation,” the WEF report advocates for authoritarian governments to force the reduction of the numbers of vehicles on the road from the current global estimate of 1.45 billion to just 500 million. The UC Davis report went largely unnoticed in 2017 because the climate alarmist lobby had not been sufficiently emboldened at that time to publicly discuss its real goals. But that mask is now coming off.

The authors of the WEF report claim citizens who can no longer own cars would still be allowed to move away from their planned cities of the future, but only via “shared transport,” i.e. electric buses and a new network of thousands of miles of high-speed rail. But California has clearly shown that thoughts of building a huge network of tens of thousands of miles of new high-speed rail in the western world in the next 27 years is a complete fantasy. California’s own high-speed rail boondoggle, originally proposed 27 years ago in 1996, has seen its budget blossom from $8 billion to over $130 billion, and still hasn’t managed to lay a single mile of rail.

The real world simply does not conform itself to fantasies like this plan, and everyone at the WEF is fully aware of that reality. Thus, what this plan really amounts to is a scheme to enable the speeding-up of implementation of socialist/authoritarian governments in the West to enforce the new restrictions on the lives of common citizens, an effort that began to accelerate during the COVID pandemic. Authoritarian governments always endeavor to restrict the free flow of information outside of approved propaganda, and restricting mobility is a key means of achieving that goal.

As we see the EU and the WEF now freely admitting, economic de-growth and forcing citizens of Western nations to live smaller, less prosperous lives are the real end goals of this energy transition. The narrative has officially shifted, and we would do well to take them at their word.

The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.

AUTHOR

DAVID BLACKMON

David Blackmon is an energy writer and consultant based in Texas. He spent 40 years in the oil and gas business, where he specialized in public policy and communications.

RELATED ARTICLES:

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VIJAY JAYARAJ: The World Is Running Away From Unreliable Green Energy

DAVID BLACKMON: Dems Roar Right Past Gas Stove Ban For Even Bigger Goals

EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

12 Days Till the End of the World…or is it? thumbnail

12 Days Till the End of the World…or is it?

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By Karen Schoen

“The object of terrorism is terrorism. The object of oppression is oppression. The object of torture is torture. The object of murder is murder. The object of power is power.” The object of fear is FEAR.  Now do you begin to understand me?”  — George Orwell

Because the North Eastern USA is now engulfed in smoke due to Canadian wildfires and people are having a hard time breathing, it is the fault of humans not sacrificing on the alter of Climate Change. No one mentions that since the Environmentalists took over management of the forests in the 1970’s and wrote new policies forbidding logging and clearing wildfires we are now living the results. Canada is ablaze just as California was last year. Not to worry. The end of the world is coming in 12 days.

How many remember on June 21, 2018, Greta Thunberg told the world “Top Climate Scientist said: Humans Will Go Extinct if We Don’t Fix Climate Change by 2023.” We have 5 years.

Well folks we are here. June 21, 2023 the day humans will go extinct. Or will it? Once again we are berated until we accept what the Globalists say as true. Due to the faulty science education people are taught that if we don’t stop using cheap fossil fuel for energy to continue our current life style, humans will no longer exist.   No more gas cars, gas stoves, furnaces, fertilizer, meat.

How much longer will we the people accept this phony theory without proof? Do the climate change pushers think we are that stupid? YES they do.

“It doesn’t matter what is true, it only matters what people believe is true.” Paul Watson, co-founder of Greenpeace.

“The only way to get our society to truly change is to frighten people with the possibility of a catastrophe.” – emeritus professor Daniel Botkin

When we awake on June 22 and we are still here on this earth it is time to call out these liars for who they are. Time to stop these policies designed to destroy humanity and bring the planet under the control of a few elitists. The SCOTUS is beginning to realize that the EPA has extreme overreach. EPA hinders all growth unless they can control it. Right now they do not control the fossil fuel industry in America and that is their target.

Climate changes constantly. It is the job of the government to teach people how to be safe when a climate event is on the way.  Instead they believe: “The only hope for the world is to make sure there is not another United States. We can’t let other countries have the same number of cars, the amount of industrialization, we have in the US. We have to stop these Third World countries right where they are. ” – Michael Oppenheimer, Environmental Defense Fund

They intend t accomplish this by de-developing the United States.

“Isn’t the only hope for the planet that the industrialized civilizations collapse? Isn’t it our responsibility to bring that about?” – Maurice Strong, founder of the UN Environment Programme

Their real goal: “Global Sustainability requires the deliberate quest of poverty ,reduced resource consumption and set levels of mortality control.”- Professor Maurice King

They will accomplish their goal because we let them.  We have allowed them to frighten us into submission. We have given them control of our money, our energy, our healthcare and we have ignored them as they erase history.

We are part of the take over of America by the Globalists and the CCP. Our system has been criminalized. We will hear the lies and must call the lies out.

Here are some ways they intend to control or destroy humans especially white supremacist domestic terrorist. This crowd is power hungry and will stop a nothing to. :..

Climate Lockdowns Begin: France bans short-haul flights ‘to cut carbon emissions’. You will be confined to your 15 minute radius for travel.

Maybe we can destroy our food supply. No humans, no problems.

We could fund the Wuhan Lab so they can dream up more ways to create diseases and kill us.

Can we outlaw or sanction volcanoes for spewing more CO2 than humans?

Of course let us not leave out their addiction to drugs and children – so the elite open the borders, and use the internet to order children through pornography and sex trafficking.

HUGE GOOD NEWS for land owners facing horrid overreaching EPA regulations.

Join Bill Federer and I as we discuss the history of Money, plus important battles and events that saved America and helped us get where we are today. Time to understand the sacrifices made by the men and women who saved our country once from the communist threat.  Understand the pressure they were under to perform and thus they did. Time to come together and stop this climate stupidity who’s only purpose is to control or kill off humanity

Guest: William Federer, historian, journalist, author

Website:  https://americanminute.com/blogs/todays-american-minute

Remember: Everything is connected. Nothing is random, Everyone follows the same plan. ALL PLANS ARE BASED ON LIES. Globalists must control opposition. Globalists must take away our voice.

©2023. Karen Schoen. All rights reserved.

RELATED ARTICLE: Republicans, Snatching Defeat From the Arms of Victory

WHO to proceed with EU Covid passport to usher in Global ‘Digital Health’ System thumbnail

WHO to proceed with EU Covid passport to usher in Global ‘Digital Health’ System

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By Jihad Watch

Globalists are not finished using COVID to destroy individual freedoms. Note also how open-door migration policies and the millions flooding into Western countries illegally were not subject to the COVID vaccine mandates that were imposed upon the general population. This exception was made despite the fact that some illegals bring along other contagious diseases. These facts should give anyone pause, as diseases do not discriminate between the politically desirable and the truly marginalized. The fact that illegals were not obligated to be vaccinated should have caused an outcry, but it did not. Had COVID been been a disease like Ebola, there would have been greater expectations placed upon illegals.

Meanwhile, the Left immediately slammed and shunned other options to stop COVID, including ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine.

Note also how Canadian pastor Arthur Pawlowski was treated and made an example of by police and the justice system. Churches were also shuttered. Yet there was mostly radio silence in the mainstream media everywhere when it came to mosque gatherings, unless, of course, they were in full compliance with COVID rules, which wasn’t the case. The Islamic call to prayer, however, was permitted during COVID. That call declares “Allahu akbar” (Allah is greater) six times; “I testify that there is no god but Allah” (three times); and “I testify that Muhammad is Allah’s prophet” (two times).

The EU’s Commissioner for Internal Market, Thierry Breton, claims in the article below that “the EU certificate has not only been an important tool in our fight against the pandemic but has also facilitated international travel and tourism.” Yet coerced and forced vaccinations on the populace did not facilitate tourism, but damaged it. Here we see the willful ignorance of those in power regarding the people who opted not to receive the mRNA vax. Those people refused the vaccination on the grounds that it was an experimental vaccine that was forced upon societies, and many doctors paid a heavy price to their reputations for valid warnings about it; people still got COVID despite the vaccinations; and studies found serious reasons for concern about vaccine side effects.

It is worthwhile to remember that in every historical era when atrocities were committed, there were people who issued warnings amid the the voices that were shouting them down by proclaiming their warnings to be “conspiracy theories.” Authorities answered few, if any, questions; they just demanded compliance. COVID mandates did not match historic atrocities in magnitude. It is necessary, however, to ask questions in the face of the inconsistency and heavy-handedness of government officials. As Dennis Prager said, societies were subjected to “’experts’-induced, destructive, irrational, police-state lockdowns.”

It is critical to support the freedom of thought, the freedom of expression, and the freedom of religious assembly. They gave way, however, to fear. Fear is a powerful and effective tool, particularly when government authorities and an activist media wield it. If globalists have their way, there will be another wave. Brace yourself.

W.H.O. to Adopt EU Covid Passport for Global ‘Digital Health’ System

by Kurt Zindulka, Breitbart, June 6, 2023:

The World Health Organization will adopt the EU’s digital COVID-19 certification in order to usher in a global digital health system for “ongoing and future health threats”.

On Monday, the European Commission and the World Health Organization (W.H.O.) announced the launch of what they described as a “landmark digital health partnership” in which the digital vaccine passport-style system developed by Brussels during the Chinese coronavirus crisis will be extended throughout the world.

The partnership, which will begin this month, will see the EU’s digital COVID-19 certification system be adopted as the “first building block” of the W.H.O.’s Global Digital Health Certification Network (GDHCN), which is set to introduce a “wide range of digital products” to supposedly protect against future pandemics…..

The EU’s Commissioner for Internal Market, Thierry Breton, who has been a leading force behind the online censorship movement in Europe, said: “With almost 80 countries and territories connected to the EU Digital COVID Certificate, the EU has set a global standard. The EU certificate has not only been an important tool in our fight against the pandemic but has also facilitated international travel and tourism.

Read more.

AUTHOR

CHRISTINE DOUGLASS-WILLIAMS

EDITORS NOTE: This Jihad Watch column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

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Florida’s conscientious objection bill is not discriminatory

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By Dr. Rich Swier

Critics are relying on a tired caricature of doctors who refuse to perform certain procedures.

Florida’s Republican-controlled legislature is not shy of controversy. The state regularly makes international headlines for its hard-line immigration policy and its ongoing “war on woke”.

Lawmakers have recently set their sights on reforming the state’s health law. Last month, the Florida legislature passed two major health bills, one of which established a sweeping right to conscientious objection for doctors, medical students, and healthcare institutions.

The new conscientious objection law permits physicians, health providers and medical students in Florida to opt out of providing any medical procedure to which they have a religious, moral or ethical objection.

It is not limited to a narrow set of procedures like abortion or euthanasia (unlike other conscientious objection legislation). Nor does it impose referral requirements on objecting physicians. The bill simply requires that physicians give a patient notice of their objection before an appointment is scheduled.

Unsurprisingly, ethicists have expressed concern about the effect of the law on access to healthcare for vulnerable patient groups, particularly LGBTQ+ patients. Bioethicist Craig Klugman recently said that the “entire purpose of the law is to permit discrimination” and called for a national campaign against the “legislators who pass and governors who sign these bills”.

Physicians are, however, prohibited in the law from denying healthcare to a patient “because of that patient’s or potential patient’s race, colour, religion, sex, or national origin”. That is to say, objections must be to particular procedures, not to classes of patients. A doctor, then, could object to providing abortions because of a moral belief in the sanctity of human life, but she could not object to providing medical care to women, say, or to Latino patients. One media outlet erroneously stated that “the law makes no mention of protections against gender or race-based discrimination”. This is incorrect.

While the bill does not explicitly include “sexuality” in its list of protected patient categories, it does state that “the exercise of the right of medical conscience is limited to conscience-based objections to a specific healthcare service”. As such, the new law does not provide an explicit legal pretext for discrimination against LGBTQI+ patients.

But commentators are perhaps concerned with the collateral effects of this bill rather than its explicit content. The concern seems to be that health law in Ron DeSantis’s Florida is implicitly marginalising minorities – women and queer patients in particular. Commentators are worried that the law could exacerbate health inequalities in a state that already ranks poorly for healthcare access among US states. Only days ago, DeSantis signed a bill banning gender affirming care for minors. Florida has a six-week ban on abortion with limited exceptions.

Kenneth W. Goodman, PhD, professor and director of the University of Miami’s Institute for Bioethics and Health Policy, went as far as to say that the law sanctions negligent medical practice:

“To deny care based on unspecified and unarticulated ‘moral, ethical, or religious reasons’ opens the door to neglect, abandonment, and suspicion…It undermines two millennia of a cornerstone of medical ethics: take care of your patients — no matter who they are.”

This is a common argument in the bioethical literature on conscientious objection, namely, that conscience laws pit physician liberties against the welfare and rights of patients, and that patients will ultimately end up second best in jurisdictions where conscientious objection is broadly permitted. The principal duty of a doctor is the welfare of his or her patient, but so-called conscience clauses give inordinate priority to the idiosyncratic views of clinicians and, indeed, open the door to “a pandora’s box” of “value-driven medicine”.

But as I argue in my recent book, Why Conscience Matters: A Defence of Conscientious Objection in Healthcare, conscience laws are not to the detriment of patient welfare and, in fact, critics rely on a prejudicial caricature of conscientious objection when they argue against these laws.

The average conscientious objector is a diligent medical practitioner who is just as concerned about patient welfare as any other doctor but who respectfully disagrees with the morality of particular socially contentious medical procedures. Their convictions are deserving of respect and legal protection.

The burden of proof lies with critics of conscientious objection to show that this is really a problem rather than a poorly evidenced, ideologically motivated campaign against religious healthcare practitioners.

Is it likely that this bill will be replicated in other states? Florida has been described as an “ideas laboratory” for the Republican Party and it is not implausible to suggest that we will see similar legislation in other states in the future.

Would this spell “danger” for health access for minorities? When it comes to heart transplants or routine antibiotics, certainly not. The real concern is precisely the kinds of socially controversial procedures that are at the centre of debates about conscientious objection – abortion, emergency contraception, gender affirming care, and euthanasia. To call this a dangerous development would be to gratuitously assume that these procedures are part of basic medical care rather than being at odds with the proper goals of medicine.

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States Protect America From Foreign Adversaries

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By Center For Security Policy

A relatively new national security issue has emerged in the past 6 months; one largely being addressed at the state level. State legislatures have moved to tackle the issue of America’s foreign adversaries acquiring land in the United States. While much of the media focus has been on the acquisition of agricultural land, the national security implications are far more multi-faceted.

In discussing foreign land ownership, it’s worth noting that the designation “foreign adversary” is defined in federal regulations as, “foreign governments or foreign non-government persons who have engaged in a long-term pattern or serious instances of conduct significantly adverse to the national security of the United States or security and safety of United States persons.”

The ongoing campaign is not some broadly protectionist or xenophobic movement. Canadian, German, and Italian firms all own millions of acres of U.S. farmland as part of our productive agricultural industry. Instead there is a recognition that land ownership by nations like Communist China, the Islamic Republic of Iran, Russia, and North Korea carry fundamentally different risks and challenges from commercial relations with friendly or allied nations.

The case of Chinese efforts to acquire U.S. land are perhaps most instructive on this point.

Communist China has been waging a highly unconventional conflict against the U.S. in the form of what People’s Liberation Army (PLA) doctrine terms “Unrestricted Warfare.” This has included:

  • A massive military build-up aimed at the U.S.,
  • Aggressive, dangerous, unprofessional maneuvers by PLA Air Force and Navy units,
  • Bellicose threats directed at the US and our allies,
  • State-sponsored, serial intellectual property theft,
  • Rampant espionage against both government and corporate targets,
  • Currency manipulation and unfair trade practices,
  • Violations of American airspace

Part of the “Unrestricted Warfare” doctrine includes strategic acquisitions by state-backed Chinese companies and Chinese Communist Party (CCP) members of US companies, real estate, and especially agriculture land.

China has been particularly active in attempting to acquire land in the US. From 2010 to 2020 Chinese ownership of US farmland increased from $81 million to $1.8 billion, including properties in North Dakota, Texas, North Carolina, Missouri, Florida, Utah, Virginia, Colorado and Oklahoma.

Every Chinese company—without exception—is majority owned or controlled by the Chinese Communist Party or the People’s Liberation Army. In other words, there is no distinction in China’s hybrid communist political and crony capitalist economic system. And while many Americans, especially business leaders, remain locked into an old paradigm that presupposes China’s willingness to reform its economic and political systems, the reality is that the Chinese regime in recent years has reasserted the importance of Maoism in its philosophy and policies, even to the point of declaring a Maoist renaissance.

Not coincidentally, Mao Zedong, was the biggest mass murderer of the 20th century, responsible for more deaths than Hitler, Stalin and Pol Pot combined, and was well known for strategic use of famine against his opponents.

There have also been instances of Chinese nationals buying US land who are later discovered to be high-ranking members of the Chinese Communist Party. That is exactly what happened in Texas where a former officer in the Chinese People’s Liberation Army and official in the Chinese Communist Party named Sun Guangxin acquired 140,000 acres of land in the same county as Laughlin Air Force Base, a major pilot training installation. That prompted the Texas legislature to block Sun’s project and in 2021 Governor Abbott of Texas to sign the Lonestar Infrastructure Protection Act into law to prevent such projects.

One might presume that the federal government is adequately managing such national security concerns. Unfortunately, the federal government’s response to this has been inconsistent at best.  When a Chinese entity sought to acquire a corn mill near Grand Forks Air Force Base in North Dakota the Committee for Foreign Investment in the U.S. (CFIUS), which has a responsibility to examine and rule on potential national security implications of foreign investment, declined to weigh in. Fortunately, sanity prevailed when the US Air Force finally issued an official statement that stated that Chinese ownership of land in the immediate vicinity of the base was a threat to national security.

The language of many of these bills recognizes that when a foreign adversary like China makes a move to acquire land, it’s not the Chinese government signing contracts and agreements. It is done through holding companies, foreign cut outs and fronts.

Good legislation must be structured in such a way as to effectively police these activities and entities. Just as importantly, good legislation should hold harmless realtors, land title attorneys and landowners in such transactions and expressly not hold such private individuals and entities accountable to be the enforcement arm of government. That is a job appropriate for state attorney generals.

It has been speculated that it would be impossible to know if a foreign adversary moves to acquire land, but that is not necessarily so. Under existing law, foreign purchases of agriculture land, as an example, must be reported to the US Department of Agriculture, in recognition of the fact that foreign control of land and our food security is a major concern.

Critics have falsely claimed that these bills impact every foreign national or even every foreign national of a foreign adversary, or that they are racially discriminatory against Asian Americans. The ACLU has even sued the state of Florida over their version of the bill, alleging it discriminates against Asian immigrants. Yet most opponents either have not read the bills or else ignore that these bills, for the most part, do not apply to legal permanent residents in the United States. Furthermore, in several states Chinese dissidents have testified in support of bills restricting foreign adversary ownership of U.S. land, urging that more be done to confront the Chinese Communist Party and its horrendous human rights record. These brave dissidents recognize that it is because of China’s communist regime, and its behavior as a rogue state which makes it essential they not control any portion of our food security and not occupy or control land near US military installations.

Despite all of the attention focused on this issue recently due to China’s aforementioned actions, this is NOT an entirely new issue. According to the National Agriculture Law Center, 21 states already have restrictions or prohibitions against foreign land ownership. Others require permission for such purchases.

Among those states are: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming.

America needs government willing to prevent our potential adversaries from buying our arable land and to prevent those adversaries from controlling even a portion of our domestic food supply. We also need to prevent foreign adversaries from owning and occupying land near military installations. Unfortunately, we cannot depend upon Washington to protect us, which is why responsible state legislatures are acting.

Food security is national security. If Americans don’t act, China will.

AUTHOR

Christopher Holton

Senior Analyst and Director of State Outreach.

RELATED ARTICLE: Securing America – Is the Biden administration undermining U.S. sovereignty?

EDITORS NOTE: This Center for Security Policy column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Housing Finance Watch: Purchase Rate Lock Volume Was Down 42% From 2019 While Rates Were Stable thumbnail

Housing Finance Watch: Purchase Rate Lock Volume Was Down 42% From 2019 While Rates Were Stable

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By Edward Pinto

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Housing Finance Watch(Week 22, 2023)

By Edward J. Pinto | Tobias Peter | Sissi Li

Key takeaways:

  • Median rates stayed at 6 5/8% while daily 30-year rates retreated from their recent peak of 7.14% to 6.89% on June 5th, according to MND.
  • Purchase volume was 42% below 2019’s level.
  • Y-o-y HPA is projected to be around 1% in May, June, and first half of July 2023.
  • Metros with less affordability continue to have slower y-o-y HPA. The Western metros of San Jose, San Francisco, Seattle, and Sacramento are already having y-o-y HPA declines.
  • Over time, if the unemployment rate increases to around 5.5%, price declines will spread to the low end of some FHA markets and to metros with stagnating or declining job growth.

PDF to full report

EDITORS NOTE: This AEI column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

0 0 Edward Pinto 2023-06-06 11:56:13Housing Finance Watch: Purchase Rate Lock Volume Was Down 42% From 2019 While Rates Were Stable

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RNC Election Law Update

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By Dr. Rich Swier

Please see the document linked at the bottom of this column for important pending litigation, including cases in which the RNC is involved. Below is a high-level summary of state legislation highlights and important news. Please feel free to reply with any requests to follow any particular election law bills, rulemakings, or lawsuits. If there is anyone else you would like to receive this update, please send us their contact information.

Colorado 
On December 5, 2022, a liberal group represented by Perkins Coie filed a lawsuit alleging signature matching disproportionately disenfranchises young people, people with disabilities, and people of color. On December 22, 2022 and February 6, 2023, plaintiffs filed a first and second amended complaint .  On February 28, 2023, the Secretary of State filed a motion to dismiss which the court denied on April 17, 2023. On April 28, individuals supported by RITE moved to intervene in the litigation.

Florida 
On April 27, 2023, the 11th Circuit ruled in favor of the state of Florida, RNC, and NRSC, in the challenge to SB90, Florida’s 2021 election integrity legislation. The law was upheld in its entirety, except for one minor component of the line warming ban. The court also remanded back to the trial court the question of whether the drop-box and registration delivery provisions violate the First and Fourteenth Amendments. The district court had previously permanently enjoined multiple provisions of SB90 including the required registration disclaimers for third party voter registration organizations (§ 97.0575(3)(a)), registration delivery provisions for third party voter registration organizations (id.), drop box regulations (§§ 101.69(2)-(3)), and line warming provisions (§§ 102.031(4)(a)-(b)). On May 18, 2023, the plaintiffs filed a petition for rehearing in front of the full 11th Circuit.
 
On March 16, the Elias Law Group filed a lawsuit in federal court alleging that Florida’s wet signature requirement for voter registration applications violates the materiality clause of the Civil Rights Act. On April 5, 2023, the RNC and Republican Party of Pasco moved to intervenein the litigation. On May 26, 2023, the RNC’s intervention was granted.

On April 26, 2023, the LWV and FL NAACP sued Florida’s Secretary of State alleging that the state’s voter registration application violates the NVRA, specifically by not specifying the eligibility requirements for voter registration.

Florida has been hit with three separate suits this week following Gov. DeSantis signing SB 7050 into law:

  • On May 25, 2023, the Hispanic Federation, Poder Latinx, and Florida residents sued Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody and Secretary of State Cord Byrd over Senate Bill 7050 over its restrictions on third party registration organizations.
  • On May 24, 2023 the League of Women Voters of Florida and League of Women Voters of Florida Education Fund sued Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody and Secretary of State Cord Byrd over Senate Bill 7050 alleging the restrictions on third-party voter registration groups violates the First and Fourteenth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution. The law prohibits noncitizens and people with felony convictions from handling voter registration application, requires receipts to voters registering, and reduces the number of days for the third-parties to return the applications.
  • On May 24, 2023, the Florida State Conference of Branches and Youth Units of the NAACP, Equal Ground Education Fund, Voters of Tomorrow, Disability Rights Florida, Alianza for Progress, Alianza Center, UnidosUS and Florida Alliance for Retired Americans sued Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody and Secretary of State Cord Byrd over Senate Bill 7050. The plaintiffs challenge the imposition of fines, barring noncitizens and felons from registering voters, and retention of voter information for other activities.

Georgia 
In July 2021, the RNC, NRSC, NRCC, and GA GOP were granted intervention in 8 lawsuits, including the DOJ’s lawsuit against the state, challenging provisions of SB202. Thanks to the RNC efforts, these safeguards were in place for the 2022 election and the state saw record turnout. The cases have mostly been consolidated and the various plaintiff groups are filing a series of preliminary injunction motions on different provisions of SB202:

  • The DOJ, joined by four other plaintiff groups, filed a preliminary injunction motionin the SB 202 cases. They move to enjoin Georgia from enforcing (1) the reduction in the number of dropboxes and limitations on the use of dropboxes outdoors and during non-early voting hours; (2) the line-warming prohibition; (3) the absentee ballot deadline; (4) the out-of-precinct provisional ballot deadline; and (5) the ID requirement for absentee ballot applications. They claim these provisions violate the Voting Rights Act and the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments.
  • The AME plaintiffs moved to enjoin enforcement of (1) the felony provision for the handling of absentee ballots and (2) the requirements that dropboxes be located at an election office and accessible only during business hours.
  • The NGP plaintiffs moved to enjoin enforcement of the line-warming restrictions.
  • The CGG Plaintiffs moved to enjoin enforcement of the birthdate requirement for absentee ballots.
  • The State filed a motion for judgment on the pleadings, requesting that the court dismiss DOJ’s complaint. The State argues that the Eleventh Circuit’s decision in League of Women Voters clarified that proof of discriminatory impact is necessary to establish a VRA violation, which DOJ does not allege.

In CGG v. Raffensperger, one of the unconsolidated cases, plaintiffs filed a proposed amended complaint that drops the challenge to the voter ID law for absentee ballots and the narrowing of the absentee ballot deadline and adds a claim banning the early release of absentee vote totals.  Motions for summary judgment are due in July.

In another non-consolidated SB202 suit, one of the plaintiffs who challenged SB202 provisions banning the pre-filling of absentee ballot applications and required disclosures by third-party groups voluntarily dismissed its claims against Secretary of State Raffensperger. After litigating the case for well over a year, the plaintiff concluded its practices did not violate SB 202.

On May 2, 2022, a group of liberal organizations sued Georgia’s Election Board challenging a state law that requires handwritten signatures on absentee ballot applications. The groups seek declaratory and injunctive relief, requesting the court find that the so-called Pen and Ink rule violates the Civil Rights Act and to enjoin its enforcement. The RNC and GAGOP have intervened in the litigation. On March 9, 2023, the court denied defendants’ motion to dismiss.

Iowa
The RNC, Iowa GOP, NRCC, and NRSC were granted intervention to defend against a lawsuit challenging provisions of SF413 and SF568. The trial set for March 21, 2022, was pushed back in light of discovery disputes between the Iowa legislature and plaintiffs. On March 16, 2022, the Iowa Supreme Court granted certiorari to resolve these discovery disputes.  After a hearing over the ongoing discovery disputes on July 15, 2022, the court issued an order compelling discovery on August 18, 2022.
 
Kansas
On March 17, the Kansas Court of Appeals ruled that challenges to voting laws under the state constitution be evaluated under strict scrutiny instead of the more flexible Anderson-Burdick standard utilized in federal claims and in many states. On April 5, 2023, the state filed its petition for review with the Kansas Supreme Court. There will likely be opportunities for groups to file amicus briefs in support of the state’s appeal of the ruling.

On May 4, 2023, a Kansas federal district court ruled that the state’s restrictions on out-of-state organizations providing pre-filled absentee applications violated federal law.
      
Louisiana
On May 1, 2023, multiple Democrat groups sued Louisiana Secretary of State Kyle Ardoin under the NVRA and 14th Amendment regarding the state’s requirements for people with previous felony convictions to re-register to vote.

Maine
On March 28, 2023, the U.S. District Court in Maine ruled in favor of the Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF), finding that the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) preempts Maine state law imposing fines and use restrictions on voter roll data because the state law creates obstacles to the transparency Congress intended under the NVRA. Maine’s Secretary of State had denied a request for voter rolls that PILF made in 2019. Maine passed a law that would restrict use and impose fines for unauthorized use of voter rolls produced to a requester.

Montana
RITE filed an amicus brief with the state Supreme Court in support of the state in Montana Democratic Party v. Jacobsen, involving challenges to several commonsense voting integrity reforms.

Michigan     
On September 30, 2022, the RNC and MI GOP sued Secretary of State Benson after she issued last-minute guidance on election challengers. Plaintiffs allege the guidance is inconsistent with state law and previous guidance and request the court to reinstate the 2020 challenger procedures. On November 3, 2022, the MI Supreme Court stayed the lower court’s decision. The case remains open at the MI Court of Appeals where the state has appealed the trial court’s preliminary injunction order. The state filed their opening brief on February 24, 2023. On May 26, 2023, the RNC and MIGOP filed their reply brief.
 
On March 13, 2023, the RNC and MIGOP filed its appellate brief in a suit challenging Flint’s refusal to hire an equal number of Republican and Democrat election inspectors. The lower court had ruled the parties did not have standing to bring the claim. The state filed its opening brief on May 15, 2023. The RNC’s reply brief is due on June 5, 2023.

New Hampshire 
In June 2022, Democrats filed two cases challenging SB 418 in NH which would require voters registering on Election Day to mail in proof of their identity within 7 days if they did not have documentation at the polling place. On September 1, 2022, the NH Republican State Committee motioned to intervene which was denied on December 21, 2022 and the NHRSC appealed to the New Hampshire Supreme Court, which granted cert. Since then the parties have agreed to a stipulation to permit the NHGOP to intervene in the litigation.
 
New York     
In January 2022, the RNC and NYGOP, leading a broad bipartisan coalition of officeholders and concerned citizens, including Congresswoman Malliotakis and naturalized citizen voters, sued Mayor Eric Adams, the New York City Council, and the New York City Board of Elections in state court over the “Non-Citizen Voting Law,” which illegally allows non-citizens to vote in city elections.  On June 27, 2022, Judge Porzio struck down the Non-Citizen Voting Law, explaining in his opinion that it violates the New York Constitution, New York election law, and the Municipal Home Rule Law. Appellees filed their appellate brief on October 10, 2022. On December 11, 2022, RNC filed its opening brief. The city and intervenors filed reply briefs on January 9, 2023.

In February 2023, four voters brought a lawsuit  in New York Supreme Court in Erie County against the Erie County Board of Elections. The lawsuit seeks an order of the court directing the commissioners of elections to count, canvass, and tally the write-in primary votes of candidates regardless of their party affiliation in primary elections. On March 28, 2023, the court ruled for the Petitioners and found that Chapter 480 of the Laws of 2021 was facially unconstitutional. The NY Attorney General appealed and on May 9, 2023, the court ruled in her favor.

North Carolina
On March 20, 2023, the federal district court for the Western District of North Carolina denied a motion to dismiss by the state in an NVRA challenge brought by two citizens in the state. The court also declined to adopt the Magistrate Judge’s recommendation to dismiss the suit for lack of sufficient pre-suit notice. The court also denied the motion to intervene by the League of Women Voters of North Carolina and the North Carolina A. Philip Randolph Institute. The suit alleges that North Carolina is failing to maintain accurate voter rolls and that the state is allowing ineligible voters to vote in the state’s elections. This is an important ruling to review for those interested in voter registration list maintenance issues.

On April 28, 2023, the North Carolina Supreme Court issued three opinions related to elections. It ruled 5-2 in Harper v. Hall, a redistricting case challenging state congressional and legislative maps. The North Carolina Supreme Court also reversed the trial court in Holmes v. Moore and reinstated photo ID. In Cmty. Success Initiative v. Moore , the court ruled in favor of the General Assembly that passed legislation related to felons voting rights and reversed the trial court’s grant of summary judgment. In Moore v. Harper, the U.S. Supreme Court subsequently askedfor briefing from both sides on the effect of the state Supreme Court ruling on the pending appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court.

Ohio
On January 6th, 2023, Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless, Ohio Federation of Teachers, Ohio Alliance for Retired Americans, and Union Veterans Council represented by Elias Group sued the Ohio Secretary of State challenging Ohio’s new election integrity bill: H.B. 458. The lawsuit challenges the in-person voter ID requirements, deadlines for ballot curing, and provisions regarding applications for and returning mail ballots. Plaintiffs filed an amended complaint on January 27, 2023. Ohio Republican Party and two citizen poll workers supported by RITE moved to intervene in the litigation. On April 18, 2023, Ohio Republican Party and the two citizen poll workers intervention was granted.  

Pennsylvania      
On September 1, 2022, the RNC, NRSC, NRCC, Pennsylvania GOP, and 12 individual voterssued Pennsylvania and all 67 counties for unlawful ballot curing in violation of state law and the U.S. Constitution. On October 21, 2022, the PA Supreme Court ruled 3-3 on the legality of the practice thus upholding the PA Commonwealth Court’s ruling denying the RNC’s and other plaintiffs’ preliminary injunction motion.  On March 23, 2023, the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court dismissed the case on subject matter jurisdiction grounds and ignored the merits of curing.
 
Following the RNC’s win in the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling that ballots must be signed and dated as required by state law, the NAACP and John Fetterman filed two separate lawsuits in federal court. The RNC, NRCC, and PA GOP were granted intervention in the case and filed a motion to dismiss both cases. The NAACP amended its complaint with an Equal Protection claim comparing the requirements under the state statute and federal UOCAVA requirements. On January 17, 2023, the RNC filed a motion to dismiss in NAACP. On February 17, 2023, the RNC filed a motion to dismiss the amended complaint in Eakin. The RNC filed motions in support of summary judgment in both NAACP and Eakin. Both RITE and Lawyers Democracy Fund filed amicus briefs in support of summary judgment against the plaintiffs.

On March 28, 2023, two voters supported by Lawyers Democracy Fund brought a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania alleging a violation of the First and Fourteenth Amendment right to vote and due process in Luzerne County. The claims arise from the 2022 midterm election when Luzerne County failed to supply enough ballot paper on Election Day.

Texas 
The DOJ sued the State of Texas and the Secretary of State, challenging provisions of SB1, Texas’ 2021 voting integrity legislation. The DOJ claims SB1 violates Section 208 of the Voting Rights Act and Section 101 of the Civil Rights Act. The RNC, NRCC, NRSC, and Dallas and Harris County Republican Parties initial moved to intervene in the suits was denied. The party committees appealed and the 5th Circuit reversed and ruled that the Republican committees were entitled to intervention as of right. On May 24, the court denied plaintiff’s motion to dismiss. On May 31, 2022, the court granted the parties’ unopposed motion to stay pending appeal. On July 12, 2022, the court granted in part and denied in part defendant’s motion to dismiss, allowing only the claims brought by LULAC Texas, Voto Latino, the Texas Alliance for Retired Americans, and Texas AFT against the Secretary of State and Attorney General to proceed. On August 2, 2022, the court granted in part and denied in part defendants’ motion to dismiss, further limiting the claims allowed to proceed. Two interlocutory appeals as to the court’s August 2 judgment were filed in the 5th Circuit. The 5th Circuit has ordered the case bifurcated to separate out claims that involve the Legislature’s Intent. On May 26, 2023 summary judgment motions were filed including one from the RNC and other party committees.
 
Vermont     
On March 9, 2023, the RNC, the Vermont Republican Party, and two concerned citizens supported by RITE brought a complaint for declaratory and injunctive relief applying an earlier Vermont Supreme Court ruling to challenge Winooski’s charter that allows noncitizens to vote in school board elections and on school budget questions. Winooski filed a motion to dismiss. Update: On June 2, 2023, the RNC and RITE plaintiffs filed a response to Winooski’s motion to dismiss. Since the results of these elections have statewide budget and policy impacts outside of the municipality, the Vermont constitution limits voting on those issues to United States citizens. The RNC and VTGOP previously sued cities of Montpelier and Winooski over their town charters in a facial challenge, but the VT Supreme Court held and left the door open for this as-applied challenge.

Washington
On November 11, 2022, a liberal group filed a lawsuit alleging signature matching disproportionately disenfranchises young people, people with disabilities, and people of color. On December 16, 2022, the plaintiffs filed an amended complaint. On January 12, 2023, the RNC and WA GOP filed a motion to intervene in the case. Plaintiffs oppose the intervention and the state has taken no position. On February 7, 2023, the court denied the motion to intervene filed by RNC and WA GOP. On March 20, 2023, the RNC and WAGOP appealed the denial with the Washington Court of Appeals and filed a reply brief on April 4, 2023. Oral argument on the appeal is scheduled for June 30, 2023.
 
Wisconsin
On March 22, 2023, a complaint was filed with the Wisconsin Elections Commission (WEC) against Tech for Campaigns for violations of Wisconsin election law. The complaint alleges the organization is providing improper assistance in completing a ballot and engaging in ballot harvesting. Presumably in response to the complaint, Tech for Campaigns modified the language on its website.

On September 23, 2022, an individual voter supported by the RNC and RITE sued WEC over its guidance that allowed absentee voters to change their votes after they are cast. RISE and the DNC filed motions to intervene. On October 5, the court sided with the plaintiff and granted a temporary restraining order, giving WEC until 4pm, October 7 to withdraw the unlawful guidance. On October 7, the DNC appealed the temporary injunction order and requested a stay of a temporary injunction with the WI Court of Appeals. On October 10, the appeals court granted the temporary stay pending a decision and requested a briefing on whether to grant the petition for an interlocutory appeal. Also on October 10, plaintiffs requested their case be transferred to a different court of appeals pursuant to state law. On October 12, the WI Supreme Court upheld the temporary stay, ordered briefing on the petition to file an interlocutory appeal, and asked the WI Court of Appeals to step aside until the high court issued a ruling on the venue issue. Update: On June 2, 2023, the RNC and RITE plaintiffs filed a motion for summary judgment.

A left-wing group, Rise, represented by Marc Elias, sued WEC on September 27 in a collateral attack on the White ruling argues that election officials should be allowed to accept absentee ballots with partial witness addresses if the official can discern the correct information. On October 3, the Wisconsin state legislature and Michael and Eva White filed motions to intervene. On October 6, the court granted the Wisconsin state legislature’s motion to intervene and declined the Whites’ motion to intervene. At a hearing on October 7, the court denied plaintiff’s motion for a temporary injunction, thus reinforcing that an address is complete if it contains “a street number, street name and name of municipality.” On December 22, 2022, the Whites filed an appeal of the ruling denying their intervention. On February 28, the Whites, as proposed-intervenors, filed their reply brief. There is also a pending League of Women Voters suit on the issue.

Wyoming
In 2021, an action was brought against the state over HB 0075, which required voters to present photo ID to vote.  In February 2023 the state district court dismissed the lawsuit, upholding the state’s ID requirement.

Legislation Highlights

Connecticut
The Connecticut Senate passed Senate Bill 1226 on a 29-7 vote. The bill recognizes the late Representative John Lewis and is aimed at protecting historically marginalized communities. In essence, the bill codifies several provisions in the Voting Rights Act of 1965 following the Supreme Court’s decision in Shelby County v. Holder.

On May 30, 2023, the Connecticut Senate passed HB 5004 that allows an early voting period of up to fourteen days. The bill allows for early voting to begin fifteen days before election day and conclude on the second day prior to election day. The bill now heads to Governor Lamont’s desk where he is expected to sign it.

The State Senate has approved a constitutional amendment for no-excuse absentee voting.

Louisiana
The Louisiana House of Representatives passed and the Senate committee reported favorably HB 311 which proposes a Constitutional Amendment to prohibit the use of monies from a foreign government or nongovernmental source to fund elections, such as Zuckerbucks. The bill now heads to the full Senate where a two thirds majority is needed in order to pass.

Nebraska
On May 30, 2023, the Nebraska Senate advanced LB514 by invoking cloture. LB514, introduced by Senator Tom Brewer, lays out requirements for valid forms of identification to vote. This bill comes in wake of Nebraskan voters voting to approve voter ID in a ballot initiative last year. The bill now advances to the floor for a final reading by voice vote.

Nevada
On May 30, 2023, Governor Joe Lombardo signed Senate Bill 406 that makes threats of intimidation and harassment or violence against election workers a felony. This bill comes after election officials across Nevada reported several instances of intimidation surrounding the 2022 general election. “It’s important we’re protecting the integrity of our elections and our employees across the board,” said Governor Lombardo.

Pennsylvania
On May 31, 2023, Pennsylvania Senators Coleman and Dush co-sponsored a memorandumstating that they will soon introduce legislation that will restore the primacy of in-person votes. The bill will allow voters who have submitted their absentee ballot the opportunity to appear at the polls, void their absentee ballot, and vote in person.

Texas
On May 28, 2023, the Texas legislature passed HB 1243 which will raise the penalty for illegal voting from a misdemeanor to a second-degree felony. The bill now heads to the Governor’s desk for his approval.

Virginia
Virginia has adopted HB 1948 which removes the witness requirement for absentee ballots and replaces it with the requirement that the voter provide the last four digits of their social security number and their date of birth.

Other News

  • National: “GOP-led states plan new voter data systems to replace one they rejected. Good luck with that.”
  • AL: U.S. Supreme Court could decide soon whether Alabama’s congressional map violates the Voting Rights Act
  • AZ: Arizona Gov. Hobbs vetoes more election bills from GOP-controlled legislature
  • AZ: Finchem, attorney ordered to pay $48K in sanctions in ‘groundless’ election challenge
  • CA: Secretary of State finalizing voting regulations aimed at Shasta County
  • CO: Denver has one of the few jails that gives inmates the chance to vote in person
  • FL: Hillsborough County voter system breach exposes 58,000 people’s information
  • FL: North Miami Beach mayor arrested on charges related to ‘voting irregularities’
  • FL: 3 civil rights groups file federal lawsuits over new Florida election laws championed by Gov. DeSantis
  • FL: New Broward elections office will prioritize security after past protests
  • IL: How did hundreds of noncitizens end up on Chicago’s voter rolls?
  • KY: KY SOS eyes possible exit from ERIC.
  • MD: Rockville, Maryland debates on whether noncitizens should vote
  • MT: Whitefish man charged with voter fraud in 2020 election
  • NC: Majority of NC voters support voter ID, new poll says
  • NC: NC lawmakers expected to roll out major election law changes, with input from former Trump lawyer
  • NC: State Republicans reintroduce election integrity Legislation
  • NY: New York lawmakers want early voting through mail
  • VT: Phil Scott vetoes noncitizen voting in Burlington and voting for 16- and 17-year-olds in Brattleboro
  • WV: Fayette County Man Pleads Guilty to Illegal Voting in 2020 General Elections

Voting Litigation Overview

©2023. Republican National Committee (RNC), 310 1st St SE Washington, D.C., 20003-1885, U.S.

South Dakota Farmers Face Land Theft By Climate Hoaxers thumbnail

South Dakota Farmers Face Land Theft By Climate Hoaxers

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By The Geller Report

Appalling and terrifying. When John Kerry said US farm confiscations were not off the table, he meant it.

Read through this thread.

South Dakota Farmers Face Carbon-capture Land Theft

By: Rebecca Terrell June 1, 2023

Farmers in South Dakota are facing egregious intimidation tactics by a private company that wants to use eminent domain to confiscate valuable farmland for carbon-capture pipelines.

Summit Carbon Solutions requested a restraining order against Brown County farmer Jerad Bossly.

The company claims he threatened the lives of its representatives who showed up unannounced to survey his property, a farm that has been in his family for four generations.

He told The New American that when they arrived, he was about 12 miles away, working in a field. His wife was home, recovering from gallbladder surgery, and was taking a shower when the Summit surveyors knocked at her door. They entered the house, but finding no one there, they proceeded to an outbuilding where one of them walked in. In the tweet below you can see footage from one of Bossly’s security cameras, which captured all of this movement.

Next, the Summit staff walked out onto the Bossly’s property and started setting up a tripod. By that time, Mrs. Bossly, with Jerad on the phone, confronted them and asked them to leave. Jerad said that the sheriff should be present if the company wanted access to his land. So the surveyors left.

His wife called Jerad back later that day to say a detective had just left the farm. Summit had reported Bossly for threatening to kill the surveyors. They also charged him with contempt of court for interfering with their survey activities.

Keep reading.

It’s crazy to me because sinking CO2 into the ground is the opposite of basic science.

CO2 + Trees + Sun = Wood

How does anyone not know this?

— Phantom Shadow (@Fuknutz) May 31, 2023

AUTHOR

Pamela Geller

RELATED ARTICLE: DAVID BLACKMON: Is Texas Turning Its Back On Renewable Energy?

EDITORS NOTE: This Geller Report is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

By Sheer Coincidence, Biden’s DOJ Goes After Likely Senate Candidate thumbnail

By Sheer Coincidence, Biden’s DOJ Goes After Likely Senate Candidate

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By Jihad Watch

If you thought election interference was bad in 2016 and 2020, just wait.

In free societies, you just read the newspaper. In unfree ones, you understand that the meaning of one story can only be found by cross-cutting it with a seemingly unrelated story.

Let’s play.

Justice tops Manchin by 22 points in new poll on Senate race – The Hill – 5/31/2023

DOJ sues Jim Justice’s coal empire over unpaid fines for mining violations – Politico – 5/31/2023

Sheer coincidence. And if you think it’s not, you’re a conspiracy theorist, election denier, DOJ denier and a spreader of disinformation who also needs to be investigated by the DOJ.

While the Biden admin and the Dems have mixed feelings about Manchin, they really don’t want to lose the WV Senate seat especially since, unlike Georgia, they’re not just going to be able to get it back by focusing on demographics and minority voter turnout. And that seat would prove to be quite crucial in holding on to the Senate.

What will the Biden administration and the hand inside the puppets do to hang on to it? You’re getting a taste of it.

If you thought election interference was bad in 2016 and 2020, hang on to your horses, this is going to be the big one. If the Dems can stay in power, they will transform the country. If they lose power, no one in the DOJ will actually go to jail, but some of those folks start to take the “lock ’em up” rhetoric seriously in no small part because they may not say “lock ’em up”, but they do mean it. So expect lots of investigations and the sheer operational power of their machine unleashing not just ballot harvesters but FBI agents and everyone willing to do their dirty deeds for them in exchange for a government job.

Nice life you have here, would be a real shame if something were to happen to it.

AUTHOR

RELATED VIDEO: This Week In Jihad with David Wood and Robert Spencer

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Federal Agencies Celebrate Pride Month with ‘Progress Pride’ Flag

Pride Month feels different as threats, fear of violence grows

RELATED TWEET:

#Antifa and supporters of children’s pride events retreated following a fight outside Saticoy Elementary in Los Angeles. Mostly Armenian-American families gathered to protest the school’s pride celebrations. pic.twitter.com/bUTSYgpRLB

— Andy Ngô 🏳️‍🌈 (@MrAndyNgo) June 2, 2023

EDITORS NOTE: This Jihad Watch column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Fighting ESG all the way to the CEOs thumbnail

Fighting ESG all the way to the CEOs

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By Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow


ESG, or “environmental, social, governance” investing has become a pernicious threat to our free market.

Large financial institutions such as banks and fund managers are using the gigantic sums of other people’s money they control to push ideological agendas that have nothing to do with investing.  Substituting a woke agenda for sound business practice constitutes fundamental breach of the fiduciary duty between investors and those they entrust to manage their funds.

This is institutional leftism at its worst.

Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall writes at the WSJ that, “America’s self-proclaimed ‘socially responsible’ financial institutions, which should be competing in the free market, are instead joining forces with one another and their global counterparts to decide which companies—and, in some cases, which industries—should be permitted to continue their market participation unimpeded… America’s self-proclaimed ‘socially responsible’ financial institutions, which should be competing in the free market, are instead joining forces with one another and their global counterparts to decide which companies—and, in some cases, which industries—should be permitted to continue their market participation unimpeded.”

The ability of banks and investment houses to cut off businesses from the capital they need to operate is an abuse of power.

CFACT is tacking the ESG threat head on.  One tactic CFACT pursies is playing an active role in company shareholder meetings.

Adam Houser reports at CFACT.org on this recent question I put to Blackrock CEO Larry Fink:

“Numerous states like Texas, South Carolina, Florida, and Louisiana are pushing back against ESG criteria and taking action to divest from BlackRock. Why doesn’t BlackRock change course and repudiate the divisive nature of ESG criteria, admit it erred in ever getting involved with it, and move on?’”

This question, lumped together with similar ones at the meeting, forced Fink to dodge and filibuster.  It’s clear he’s not used to being put on the spot by a conservative voices.

A few weeks before that I also got a chance to ask Bank of America CEO Bryan Moynihan this question:  “The large number of shareholder proposals regarding climate change clearly indicates that Bank of America’s strategy of trying to appease the activists is not working. Why doesn’t Bank of America simply focus on maximizing value for shareholders and just ignore these people?”

Again, the CEO’s answer was evasive, but it was also defensive.  This is a good thing.  This kind of aggressive questioning and awareness raising is having an impact.

Governors and legislators are taking a stand against ESG investing.  Shareholders are pushing back hard.

A series of left-wing energy and environmental proposals before the shareholders in recent Exxon and JP Morgan meetings CFACT took part in were shot down in flames.

The free market is the most efficient way to allocate financial resources known to man.

Companies must be allowed to innovate and compete in the free marketplace unimpeded by left-wing virtue-signaling by banks and fund managers.

For nature and people too.

STAY INFORMED

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