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YouTube, the famous video-sharing platform, was shockingly co-opted by the Biden White House to become the gold standard of censorship.

On May 1, the House Judiciary Committee’s Select Weaponization of Government Subcommittee released a voluminous report exposing lengthy correspondence between the White House and Facebook, YouTube and Amazon.

YouTube’s team was particularly receptive to the demands of the administration and was touted by Biden officials as an exemplar to prod other companies, specifically Facebook.

New York Post.

“For my friends, everything; for my enemies, the law.”

This philosophy, announced by Brazilian President Getulio Vargas in the 1940s, is no longer just the favored approach of Latin American strongmen. It has become the openly practiced strategy of today’s Democratic machine.

Laws that hamper Democrats are ignored. Laws that might be used to hurt Republicans are enforced to — and often well past — the limits of the law.

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A group of leading China critics in Congress is urging the State Department to step up its efforts to curb Beijing’s gruesome $1 billion forced organ harvesting trade, which targets ethnic and religious minorities, including Uyghurs, Tibetans, Muslims, Christians, and Falun Gong practitioners. Six members of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, or CECC, sent a letter last week to Secretary of State Antony Blinken asking him to utilize existing agency reward programs to provide monetary incentives for information that will “deter and disrupt the market for illegally procured.

The Economist.

Financial crime is as old as money. Hucksters were dreaming up Ponzi schemes centuries before Charles Ponzi gave his name to the ruse. Where there has been tax, there has been evasion. The looting of national coffers is as time-honoured as politics itself. But the late 20th and early 21st centuries saw an explosion in the scale, scope and level of sophistication of financial shenanigans, as globalisation fuelled the growth of offshore finance, and particularly the use of anonymous shell companies and trusts to shroud nefarious activity. This, in turn, has sparked a crackdown, albeit a fitful one, by governments—as well as leaks like the Panama Papers. However, as recent scandals from 1mdb to Wirecard attest, the battle to end financial secrecy and the dodginess it engenders is far from won. Here are five books to help you understand why.

Steve Sailer.

Over the last year, I was doing a lot of driving and thus a lot of listening to the radio. My impression of the three songs most often played on English language Los Angeles radio in 2023-24 are The Eagles’ “Hotel California,” Boston’s “More Than A Feeling,” and Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams,” all of which came out when I was a freshman in college in 1976-77.

These days’ radio stations seem to play each band’s most popular song vastly more often than even it’s second most popular song. I must have heard “Hotel California” ten times as often as “Take It Easy.” (Granted, “Take It Easy” is probably played more often in Winslow, Arizona than on Sunset Boulevard.) In the old days, disk jockeys would get bored and play other songs, but I’m sure now MBAs have moneyballed playlists.

Also, there seems to be a sharp dividing line determining which oldies are too old, at least during drive time, set at about 52 years ago. I’m guessing that radio stations figure people first imprint on new music at age 13 and retire from daily commuting at age 65. The first month I was driving, the oldest song I could remember hearing on a commercial radio station was Elton John’s “Tiny Dancer.” I heard very little Beatles or Stones. “Take It Easy” came out in 1972 so it’s right about the point the point at which commuters are retiring to take it easy, so it’s not played that much anymore.

When I was in college, the idea that popular music stations would play music from fifty years ago would have been laughed to scorn.

Read it.

The peer-reviewed systemic review, published in the Frontiers in Psychiatry journal on April 12, examined cases of new-onset psychosis among people who took the vaccines. Psychosis refers to symptoms that occur when an individual has difficulty differentiating between reality and fantasy, with hallucinations and delusions being two key types. The review looked at 21 articles describing 24 cases of psychosis symptoms following vaccination. The researchers concluded that “data suggest a potential link between young age, mRNA, and viral vector vaccines with new-onset psychosis within 7 days post-vaccination.”

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The most recent survey shows an absolute majority of 52 percent rather agree with the statement that “Germany should generally no longer accept refugees from Islamic countries”. Only 34 percent say “disagree” or “tend to disagree” with this statement.

There is even greater agreement with the statement that “in certain areas of my town or village, I have the feeling that I am no longer in Germany.” According to the poll, 57 percent agree with the statement, while 36 percent do not share this feeling.

The poll further shows that 54 percent of respondents said they were “afraid that Germans will become a minority in Germany.” On the other hand, 37 percent said they were not concerned.

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The corporate media, quick to characterize conservative reaction to the news of the day as “pouncing” and seizing”, are currently doing just that all over Gov. Kristi Noem’s latest book and the revelations therein. Which is their right. But in the interest of walking and chewing gum at the same time, there should be an equal focus on statements just made by New York Governor Kathy Hochul.

Watch as Gov. Hochul demonstrates the left’s casual bigotry of low expectations, saying to WashPost editor and MSNBC/PBS host Jonathan Capehart’s face that there are “black kids growing up in The Bronx who don’t even know what the word ‘computer’ is”.

Nevertheless, they get preference in being admitted to Ivy League schools. Equity, you know.

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The lawsuit, filed on behalf of the county by the gun-control legal advocacy group Giffords Law Center, alleges the “Coast Runner” CNC machine, marketed by Coast Runner Industries, Inc., is simply a rebrand of the “Ghost Gunner” CNC machine previously developed and marketed by Defense Distributed and Ghost Gunner Inc.

Gun rights activist and technologist Cody Wilson has been working for years against gun control efforts by expanding access to the tools necessary to produce firearms at home. He has used his non-profit, Defense Distributed, as a platform to pioneer technological advancements in the manufacture of firearms using both 3D-printing and CNC technology.

Individuals are not prohibited under federal rules and regulations from producing firearms for their personal use, but gun control proponents in several states have sought to prevent the proliferation of unserialized privately-made firearms, which they’ve referred to as “ghost guns.”

Obviously, they don’t love Big Brother.

As with tobacco products, proglodytes think they ought to be able to sue to stop perfectly legal activities that they disapprove of.

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Merced County is just east of San José.

Sheriff Vern Warnke, who has worked in the county’s office for 45 years, is officially declaring a public safety crisis, according to a new report from Yahoo and the LA Times. Why? Because he’s often finding himself the only person available to respond to calls.

…

Warnke has recently expressed deep concern over the rising number of deputy vacancies. In a recent video message, he lamented the staffing shortage, fearing it could jeopardize public safety, urging residents to recognize the severity of the situation.

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The liberal media isn’t waiting for Donald Trump to announce his running mate before going on the attack. MSNBC has aired a pre-emptive strike on all the potential VP candidates. And not only did it contain a vitriolic denunciation of them, but it also included a not-so-veiled threat of the most ominous sort.

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If you look at the paws of a cat, a dog or even a kangaroo, you’ll notice they have something in common with our hands. Even if some might be shrunken or differently positioned, all of these mammals have five digits, or fingers. Why do we share this pattern with our furry friends, even though we evolved under different conditions?

Just lucky, I guess.

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Theft and complaints are taking a toll on self-checkout. Now, Walmart wants you to pay $98 a year for Walmart+ for the self-checkout privilege at some stores.

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A leftist-anarchist organisation has been encouraging students to escalate their anti-Israel protests on U.S. campuses. Media reports suggest that the pro-Hamas demonstrations are less than innocent, and have been infiltrated by professional radical protesters.

A leftist-anarchist organisation has been encouraging students to escalate their anti-Israel protests on U.S. campuses and to use more violent methods, like arming themselves, intimidating the police, and hijacking university buildings. Media reports suggest that the pro-Hamas demonstrations are less than innocent, and have been infiltrated by professional radical protesters who are hiding behind students.

The protests have been staged in response to Israel’s offensive in Gaza, which it launched after Palestinian terror group Hamas attacked Israel on October 7th, brutally killing 1,200 civilians. Protesters have been calling for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, an end to U.S. military assistance for Israel, university divestment from arms suppliers and other companies profiting from the war, and amnesty for students and faculty members who have been disciplined or fired for protesting.

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The Biden administration has agreed to shut down a national security experts’ group as part of settling a lawsuit accusing the group of being politically biased in favor of Democrats.

On Sept. 19, 2023, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) launched the Homeland Intelligence Experts Group to provide advice on intelligence and national security efforts. In November, America First Legal (AFL) and former Acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell sued the DHS, the group, and Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas, arguing that the experts group violated provisions of the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA).

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In a world that is fracturing into a multipolar state, with risks of world war erupting in either Eastern Europe or the Middle East, continued threats of conflict in the Pacific, and the migrant invasion across Western countries, the company behind the iconic half-century-old fold-up tool, the Swiss Army Knife, will soon debut a blade-less version because of regulations.

Victorinox Chief Executive Officer Carl Eisner told Swiss paper Blick on Monday that its Swiss Army Knife will soon be available without a blade due to mounting regulations in European and Asian countries amid a surge in violence.

Read it.

Thirteen federal judges have written to Columbia University to announce that, absent major changes, they won’t hire any Columbia graduates—from the law school or the undergraduate college.

Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.

Read it.

While perusing the news this morning I happened upon a story from Sweden wherein a 39-year-old father and his 12-year-old son were fishing together when a roving gang of illegal immigrants converged on them and began harassing them. When the father stood his ground and told the gang to stop harassing him and his boy, these paragons of diversity responded by shooting him in the head, killing him instantly. It fell to the son to call the police himself, and then call his grandmother to tell what happened.

In assessing the incident, a Swedish gentleman allowed as how politicians are confessing their own naivete. “No, you haven’t been naive,” he responds, adding, “instead of listening, you attacked the guys who were telling you these uncomfortable truths.”

Read it.

Every four years we hear Alec Baldwin, Babs Streisand, Michael Moore and other flaky leftists say they will leave the country if a Republican wins the presidency, and one of these days they may actually mean it, though I doubt it. I recall my mentor Stan Evans joking that “I voted for George W. Bush because Alec Baldwin said he’d leave the country. Which just goes to show that pragmatism doesn’t work.”

There is a YouTube channel that will help: Nomad Capitalist

ZMan is not afraid to ask the hard questions.

There is a famous line from Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov in which one of the characters asserts that if God does not exist, then everything is permitted. This has been resaid many ways and attributed to many people, but the original is from Dostoevsky, the great Russian novelist. For most of human history, the answer to the question, “Who says?” has been God, maybe the gods or perhaps a holy man who everyone agrees has some connection to the gods.

When someone said you should not do something, that question, “Who says?” was baked into the statement, along with its answer. You should not speak ill of the gids because the gods will exact revenge on you or maybe the authorities, fearing the wrath of the gods, will punish you. The answer to the question of who says you should or should not do something was always the same. it was some concept of the supernatural or its manifestation in the natural world.

In modern times, we do not appeal to the gods. You should not drive your car recklessly in a school zone because the government says you should not do that, and they have men with guns to arrest you if you do it. The answer to the question, “Who says I cannot speed in a school zone?” is the government. Every prohibition in our lives comes with an assumed answer to the question, “Who says?” That answer is almost always the government or its agents.

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Maddison Bergmann, a 24-year-old Wisconsin elementary school teacher, was arrested recently after allegedly making out with one of her 5th grade students. Screenshots from numerous text message conversations between the victim and Bergmann suggest that the sexual abuse took place during lunch or after school, CBS News reported.

Apparently, the victim’s mother overheard a phone call between Bergmann and her son which prompted the mother to go through her 11-year-old’s cellphone. The victim then told investigators that he spoke with Bergmann “almost daily.”

When the child’s father found out about the alleged relationship, he marched to River Crest Elementary with the printed conversations from his son’s phone, leading to police being called “regarding inappropriate conduct between a current teacher and a 5th grade student.”

More female grade school teachers engage in inappropriate relationships with their students than there are school shooters. Yet nobody is talking about it.

Read it.

Le Monde reports Belgium’s ports drowning under glut of Chinese electric cars: ‘Some are parked here for a year, sometimes more’.

Read it.

New details have emerged in a congressional investigation into the Biden administration censorship enterprise that has curtailed free speech on a level unprecedented in American history.

A new House Judiciary Committee report uncovered more of the Biden administration’s collusion with Facebook, YouTube and Amazon to silence constitutionally protected speech. The administration in some cases threatened these companies, pushing them to censor content or change their moderation guidelines, specifically with regards to fighting “vaccine hesitancy” during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“By the end of 2021, Facebook, YouTube, and Amazon changed their content moderation policies in ways that were directly responsive to criticism from the Biden Administration,” wrote the House Judiciary Committee and its Select Weaponization Committee in a May 1 press release. “While the Biden White House’s pressure campaign largely succeeded, its effects were devastating. By suppressing free speech and intentionally distorting public debate in the modern town square, ideas and policies were no longer fairly tested and debated on their merits.”

The Muslim invasion of Europe, after a brief hiatus from 1683, has resumed.

Read it.

The depths of the river Thames in London hold many unexpected stories, gleaned from the recovery of prehistoric tools, Roman pottery, medieval jewelry, and much more besides. Yet the tale of the lost (and since recovered) Doves typeface is surely one of the most peculiar.

A little over a century ago, the printer T.J. Cobden-Sanderson took it upon himself to surreptitiously dump every piece of this carefully honed metal letterpress type into the river. It was an act of retribution against his business partner, Emery Walker, whom he believed was attempting to swindle him.

The pair had conceived this idiosyncratic Arts and Crafts typeface when they founded the Doves Press in the London’s Hammersmith neighborhood, in 1900. They worked with draftsman Percy Tiffin and master punch-cutter Edward Prince to faithfully recall the Renaissance clarity of 15th-century Venetian fonts, designed by the revolutionary master typographer Nicolas Jensen.

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The Islamo-realism that dare not speak its name.

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Continued fighting in Ukraine and Middle East, plus the worldwide persistence of Islamic terrorism and urban violence, has revived interest in William Fairbairn, the developer of close combat methods used by police and the military, especially special operations or commando type troops.

Fairbairn died in 1960, having developed close combat fighting methods and taught them to soldiers and police personnel starting in the 1920s, continuing through World War II and for over a decade after the war. Fairbairn specialized in what he called gutter fighting, a ruthless, no holds barred form of combat referred to as The Fairbairn Method, which were developed in Shanghai, China, during the 1930’s when Fairbairn was an officer of its Chinese police force.

Fairbairn also developed various forms of hand-to-hand combat as well as innovations like the Kill House and bullet-proof transparent shields for police, the commando knife, and pop-up targets. Fairbairn trained allied commandos during World War II and these special operations were so feared by the Germans that Hitler ordered that any who were captured were to be immediately executed. The Germans believed, with some justification, that these commandos could be dangerous even when handcuffed or otherwise restrained. Authors of espionage and special operations publications found, and still find Fairbairn’s books excellent sources of material and details of close combat.

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This year’s recipients were the usual mixed bag, but I want to focus specifically on Gore. This is what Gore’s citation says:

Al Gore is a former Vice President, United States Senator, and member of the House of Representatives. After winning the popular vote, he accepted the outcome of a disputed presidential election for the sake of our unity. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize jointly with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change for his bold action on climate change.

Let’s dissect that: “After winning the popular vote…” This is completely irrelevant. The “popular vote” does not elect the president. The point is to emphasize what follows: “…he accepted the outcome of a disputed presidential election for the sake of our unity.” That is what Richard Nixon did, but not Al Gore. Gore went to court to challenge George W. Bush’s victory in Florida. After Gore lost in the trial court–correctly–four partisan Florida Supreme Court justices tried to steal the election for their man by purporting to award him Florida’s electoral votes. That triggered a further appeal. Gore fought for the presidency until the last dog was hung in the U.S. Supreme Court. And even thereafter, he claimed that he was the rightful winner, as have many Democrats ever since 2000.

Read it.

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Clinical trials of the world’s first “tooth regrowth medicine” are set to commence in September at Kyoto University Hospital, researchers announced here on May 2.

Once the medicine’s safety is confirmed, it will be given to patients congenitally lacking a full set of teeth to confirm its effectiveness. The researchers hope to commence sale of the medicine in 2030.

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It’s very puzzling that the purple-haired communist revolutionaries sitting in tents across woke colleges and universities nationwide would advocate for Palestinians to break free from the support of freedom-loving Israel only to adopt the authoritarian control of Sharia law by Hamas. But perhaps, as we’ve explained before, the uprisings at colleges have very little to do with helping poor Palestinians and everything to do with abolishing capitalism and the socialist reconstruction of America.

…

To answer that question, the Wall Street Journal, published a new report that reveals the social unrest at colleges and universities was the result of a multi-month “training and planning” campaign by “activists and left-wing groups.”

At Columbia University, student organizers consulted heavily with radical leftwing groups, such as National Students for Justice in Palestine, veterans of campus protests, and former Black Panthers, many months before the protests.

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The clear message from the people and the Court is that admission should be based upon merit. But those running the University of California (UC) maintain their obsession with race and “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI). They are undeterred in their mission to enforce equity via affirmative action. Rather than complying with the law and the will of the people, they search for loopholes to achieve the racial balancing they deem ideal for the shaping of society.

The most recent example comes from its San Diego campus (UCSD) which implemented a rule that discriminates against students whose parents make more than a certain amount of money or who went to college. It just so happens that this rule greatly advantages black and Latino students. In a nice side benefit for the administrators, it hurts Asians, who are already overrepresented at the UCs (as well as most universities, as addressed in the Supreme Court case, Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, which specifically addressed discrimination against Asian students.)

Beginning next year, certain “selective” majors (such as biology and most engineering degrees, including computer science) will have a special selection criteria at UCSD. “The selection?criteria for entry to the major will?consider academic achievement in the specified screening courses and will also be aligned with UC San Diego’s priorities of serving California residents, first-generation college students, and students from low-income families.” Thus, UCSD, without any direction from its constituents, has decided that it should prioritize students based on the status of their parents.

Time to leave.

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Dora Moutot is a committed feminist. She was deputy editor-in-chief of Konbini, a website aimed at young people. She has a degree in arts and fashion.

“The hard thing to do and the right thing to do are almost always the same thing.” — James Sexton

Watch his interview with Chris Williamson

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DEI statements are affirmations made when you’re applying for college admission, university jobs, or even science-society grants, recounting to the authorities your philosophy of “diversity, equity, and inclusion,” your history of DEI activities, and how you will implement DEI initiatives if you get the admission/job/grant. I have posted quite a bit about them (see collection here), and object to them because they are not only compelled speech and are often completely irrelevant to what you’re applying for, but also ignore the fact that there are many ways to make contributions to society beyond enacting DEI. (For example, what about a college applicant who has taught illiterate adults to read?) And I think many institutions are eliminating them. For one thing, some of them may violate the recent Supreme Court decision on race-based admission. Now MIT has joined the statement-eliminators.

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The surge of pro-Hamas “protesters” on American campuses has some pundits puzzled. On the other hand, past events help explain the dynamics in play. On August 3, 1981, some 13,000 members of the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization (PATCO), walked off their jobs. “They are in violation of the law,” said President Ronald Reagan, “and if they do not report for work within 48 hours, they have forfeited their jobs and will be terminated.” Two days later, President Reagan fired and replaced the strikers. As one wag put it, the PATCO strikers must have thought Reagan was a college president and would cave to their demands. That’s what’s going on now.

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Theodore Postol, Professor of Science, Technology and National Security Policy at MIT, has provided a forensic analysis of the videos and evidence emerging from Iran’s 13th April swarm drone and missile ‘demonstration’ attack into Israel: A ‘message’, rather than an ‘assault’.

The leading Israeli daily, Yediot Ahoronot, has estimated the cost of attempting to down this Iranian flotilla at between $2-3 billion dollars. The implications of this single number are substantial.

Read it.

California lawmakers are considering a bill that would give preference to African American applicants seeking occupational licenses, for such professions as teaching, nursing, counseling, electrical work and others, especially those who are descendants of slaves.

California never had slavery, but that’s where the Democrats are, so that’s where racial preferences and ‘reparations’ are being pushed.

Time to leave.

Read it.

A Texas high school yearbook has sparked outrage among the community, particularly its Jewish members, for including a “Times of Palestine” page that notably glosses over the ramifications of a Hamas terror assault on Israel, which claimed the lives of over 1,200 individuals, the N.Y. Post reports.

Houston’s Bellaire High School, which has a large population of Jewish students, features a section labeled “Times of Palestine” in its 2024 yearbook that omits crucial details regarding the Oct. 7 attack. The account provides a perspective of the Israel-Gaza conflict by an Arab student.

The page emerges amid tensions surrounding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and includes the page ostensibly as an Arab student’s narrative “of the Israel-Gaza conflict.”

Major urban areas are dominated by Democrats, even in red states like Texas. Austin is the poster child for this situation, but Houston, Dallas-Fort Worth, and San Antonio are just as bad.

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State Farm, California’s largest insurance provider, announced it would not renew insurance policies for approximately 72,000 homes and apartments in the state beginning this summer.

In March, State Farm stated that it would discontinue coverage for around 30,000 homes and 42,000 apartments, citing surging costs, increasing risks of disasters such as wildfires, and outdated insurance rules as reasons for terminating the policies, per the Associated Press.

Play Democrat games, win Democrat prizes.

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What was the “intent to commit another crime or aid and conceal the commission thereof” that prosecutors used to raise falsification of business records from a misdemeanor to a felony? In nearly every case of alleged falsification of records that has been charged as a felony in New York, the defendant was charged with another crime — that is, prosecutors made it clear what the other crime was. In Trump’s case, the indictment did not specify any other crime. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said the law did not require him to specify the other crime.

So Trump faced felony charges without knowing what he was accused of doing. And the really amazing thing is that the trial is now underway and Bragg has still not specified what the other crime is. It is a key element of the case. Without it, the charges against Trump could never have been brought because they were misdemeanors long past the statute of limitations. It is the other crime that makes this whole prosecution possible. But the prosecutor has not specified what it is.

If that sounds vaguely unconstitutional to you, you’re right. As former federal prosecutor Andrew McCarthy points out, the Fifth Amendment “requires a felony charge to be spelled out in an indictment whose criminal elements have been established by probable cause to the satisfaction of a grand jury.” The problem, McCarthy continues, is that the election-stealing conspiracy Bragg’s prosecutors are accusing Trump of engaging in is “not charged in the indictment” and, further, “there is no such conspiracy crime in New York penal law.” McCarthy also argues that the charges violate the New York Constitution.

It’s a political witch-hunt, pure and simple.

House of Eratosthenes.

Internet phenomena are rather like campfire fuel: Some are like wet logs, you can sit there until your butt gets tired trying magnifying glasses, matches, Bic lighters, whatever have you, putting unlimited effort into it — and some people do! Nothing happens. They end up embarrassing themselves and tiring out their butts. Other things are like gasoline, the white variety, burning so fast that there’s no time for the flame to take to the wood and the accelerant can’t do anything but forcefully explode.

Most are in between the two extremes. This dumb bear thing is more like the latter. Match, toss, kaboom. I think it can be truthfully said, in all my Internet years, I’ve never seen anything quite like it.

I wish that every female who would rather meet a bear than a man in the woods would to ahead and do that. Think of it as evolution in action.

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Despite the fact that the world is teetering on the edge of global conflict, US college campuses being trashed by radical occupiers, and criminal illegals are still overwhelming the border, Joe Biden spent Friday afternoon awarding other Democrats medals.

Biden, who was incapable of saying ‘Presidential Medal of Freedom,’ awarded one each to Nancy Pelosi, John Kerry, Al Gore, Michael Bloomberg, and Rep. Jim Clyburn.

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A health crisis has emerged for Democrat officials in Long Beach, California, following a tuberculosis outbreak linked to a hotel housing ‘homeless’ people, according to Fox News.

On Thursday, health officials declared a public health emergency after an alarming tuberculosis outbreak was reported at an unnamed hotel housing.

The city has so far confirmed 14 cases of tuberculosis in people “associated with a single room occupancy hotel.” Nine of them were hospitalized with one fatal case. Another 170 people were “likely exposed” to the deadly bacteria.

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A member of the House Democrats’ progressive “Squad” is under fire for hosting fundraiser with extremist Muslim leader who praised Oct. 7 terrorist attacks on Israel.

My, what a surprise. Aren’t you surprised? I’m sure surprised.