Proud Boys Charged with Seditious Conspiracy for Attending the January 6th, 2021 Capitol Rally

Foreword by Fred Brownbill. As many of you understand our jails are filling up with political prisoners whose constitutional rights have been summarily removed by a tyrannical and to me illegal Biden administration and a corrupt politicized DOJ and the disgusting and dirty excuse of a law enforcement agency, the Capitol Police. Friends and acquaintances of mine sit in prisons and jails around this country charged with fictitious and unprovable charges in connection with the January 6th protest outside Congress. Nearly 18 months later they are still holding a dog and pony show trying to take our attention off the disastrous job they are doing as the deliberately destroy our constitutional republic, one right or freedom at a time. America. Wake up. This is not Cuba. This is not China or Venezuela. This is the United States of America. Stand up and tell these traitors enough is enough. This November show them by wiping out the democrats in the mid term elections. It is our last chance to attempt to save this constitutional republic. Do not be found to have come up short or I believe there will be bloodshed.


Proud Boys charged with seditious conspiracy in Capitol riot

By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN and ALANNA DURKIN RICHER

The former top leader of the far-right Proud Boys extremist group and other members were charged Monday with seditious conspiracy for what federal prosecutors say was a coordinated attack on the U.S. Capitol to stop Congress from certifying President Joe Biden’s 2020 electoral victory.

The latest indictment against Henry “Enrique” Tarrio, the former Proud Boys chairman, and four others linked to the group comes as the U.S. House committee investigating the Jan. 6 riot prepares to begin public hearings this week to lay out its findings.

The indictment alleges that the Proud Boys conspired to forcibly oppose the lawful transfer of presidential power. Tarrio and the others — Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs, Zachary Rehl and Dominic Pezzola — were previously charged with different conspiracy counts.

They are scheduled to stand trial in August in Washington, D.C.’s federal court.

The seditious conspiracy charges are among the most serious filed so far, but aren’t the first of their kind. Eleven members or associates of the anti-government Oath Keepers militia group, including its founder and leader Stewart Rhodes, were indicted in January on seditious conspiracy charges in a serious escalation in the largest investigation in the Justice Department’s history.

Three Oath Keepers have already pleaded guilty to the rarely used Civil War-era charge that calls for up to 20 years in prison. The indictment alleges that the Oath Keepers and their associates prepared in the weeks leading up to Jan. 6 as if they were going to war, discussing things like weapons and training.

Tarrio, the group’s top leader, wasn’t in Washington, D.C., when the riot erupted on Jan. 6, 2021, but authorities say he helped put into motion the violence that day.

Police arrested Tarrio in Washington two days before the riot and charged him with vandalizing a Black Lives Matter banner at a historic Black church during a protest in December 2020. Tarrio was released from jail on Jan. 14 after serving his five-month sentence for that case.

An attorney for Tarrio said his client “is going to have his day in court.”

“And we intend to vigorously represent him through that process,” said Nayib Hassan.

Defense attorney Carmen Hernendez, who represents Rehl, said her client is “as innocent of these charges as the ones that had already been pending against him.”

“Seditious conspiracy requires the use of force, and he never used any force nor thought about using any force,” Hernandez said.

More than three dozen people charged in the Capitol siege have been identified by federal authorities as leaders, members or associates of the Proud Boys, whose members describe it as a politically incorrect men’s club for “Western chauvinists.”

They have brawled with antifascist activists at rallies and protests. Vice Media co-founder Gavin McInnes, who founded the Proud Boys in 2016, sued the Southern Poverty Law Center for labeling it as a hate group.

The indictment alleges that the Proud Boys held meetings and communicated over encrypted messages to plan for the attack in the days leading up to Jan. 6. On the day of the riot, authorities say Proud Boys dismantled metal barricades set up to protect the Capitol and mobilized, directed and led members of the crowd into the building.

Prosecutors have said the Proud Boys arranged for members to communicate using specific frequencies on Baofeng radios. The Chinese-made devices can be programmed for use on hundreds of frequencies, making it difficult for outsiders to eavesdrop.

Shortly before the riot, authorities say Tarrio posted on social media that the group planned to turn out in “record numbers” on Jan. 6, but would be “incognito” instead of donning their traditional clothing colors of black and yellow.

Around the same time, an unnamed person sent Tarrio a document that laid out plans for occupying a few “crucial buildings” in Washington on Jan. 6, including House and Senate office buildings around the Capitol, the indictment says. The nine-page document was entitled “1776 Returns” and called for having as “many people as possible” to “show our politicians We the People are in charge,” according to the indictment.

Nordean, of Auburn, Washington, was a Proud Boys chapter president and a member of the group’s national “Elders Council.” Biggs, of Ormond Beach, Florida, is a self-described Proud Boys organizer. Rehl was president of the Proud Boys chapter in Philadelphia. Pezzola is a Proud Boy member from Rochester, New York.

A New York man pleaded guilty in December to storming the U.S. Capitol with fellow Proud Boys members. Matthew Greene was the first Proud Boys member to publicly plead guilty to conspiring with other members to stop Congress from certifying the Electoral College vote. Greene agreed to cooperate with authorities investigating the attack.

Another Proud Boy, Charles Donohoe, of Kernersville, North Carolina, pleaded guilty in April to conspiracy and assault charges and also agreed to cooperate in the Justice Department’s cases against other members of the extremist group.

In December, a federal judge refused to dismiss an earlier indictment charging alleged leaders of the Proud Boys with conspiring to block the certification of Biden’s electoral college win. U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly rejected defense attorneys’ arguments that the men were charged with conduct that is protected by the First Amendment right to free speech.

©Fred Brownbill. All rights reserved.

44% of Young Male and 32% of Young Female Democrats Say ‘It’s Acceptable To Assassinate a Politician’

The poll was taken in the wake of the Kavanaugh assassination attempt. Hitler youth …which was always the Democrat goal.

Kavanaugh killer’s contents: He was arrested with a suitcase containing a tactical knife, a Glock 17 pistol with two magazines and ammunition, pepper spray, zip ties, a hammer, screwdriver, nail punch, crow bar, pistol light, duct tape, hiking boots with padding on the outside of the soles. Apparently he intended to take Kavanaugh’s wife and daughters hostage.

A Disturbing Poll in the Aftermath of the Attempted Assassination of Brett Kavanaugh

By Matt Margolis, PJM,  Jun 09, 2022:

The attempted assassination of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh should have universally shocked Americans. It seems that, out of basic human decency, people should have a real problem with resorting to violence and killing over differences in opinion on public policy, regardless of what side of the aisle they’re on.

Americans come together in the aftermath of tragedies such as mass shootings, natural disasters, and other highly publicized events that leave families shattered. Yet, people apparently have different attitudes about political assassinations.

According to a recently released poll, nearly half of male Democrats under the age of 50 (44 %) say it’s acceptable to assassinate a politician “who is harming the country or our democracy,” the highest percentage of any age/gender/party demographic.

The poll, which was conducted by Tulchin Research for the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), also found that nearly a third of younger Democrat women and younger Republican men agreed with the statement, as did 40% of younger Republican women.

Perhaps the most striking aspect of the poll is the generational difference. Older men and women of either party are significantly less likely to approve of the assassination of political opponents than their younger counterparts.

Party identification aside, it is clear that the younger generations are not being taught to respect the lives of others, particularly of their political opponents. This is a perilous path, especially when you consider the way the Democratic Party frequently accuses Republicans of being threats to democracy — while demonstrating that the violent rhetoric of Chuck Schumer was likely more dangerous than we thought.

AUTHOR

 

RELATED ARTICLES:

Democrat Mob Terrorize Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett AT HER HOME AND HER CHURCH

Rep trashes Jan 6 Committee for ignoring negligence of Capitol Police, confronts Pelosi with proof they knew

RELATED TWEET:

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

Democrat Mob Terrorize Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett at Her Home and Church

Pro-choice activists march outside home of Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett

Protests against Supreme Court Justices have ratcheted up in recent weeks

By Bradford Betz , Lisa Bennatan | Fox News June 9, 2022:

Just one day after an alleged assassination attempt on Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, a small group of pro-choice activists descended on the home of Justice Amy Coney Barrett Thursday evening.

Waving banners and holding up signs, the group walked up and down the sidewalk chanting call-and-response slogans like, “Your neighbor says post-Roe, we say hell no!” and “Hey-hey, ho-ho, the handmaiden has got to go!”
Protesters outside the home of Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett.

Protesters outside the home of Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett. (Fox News)

The tiny rally came a day after protesters marched in front of the home of Justice Brett Kavanaugh following the arrest of a California man who had threatened to kill him.

The man, 26-year-old Nicholas John Roske, was carrying a gun, a knife, and zip ties, according to police. Later Wednesday, he was charged with attempted murder of a Supreme Court Justice.

Demonstrations against Supreme Court Justices have ratcheted up in recent weeks in response to a leaked draft opinion suggested that the Supreme Court was on the verge of overturning the landmark 1973 abortion case, Roe v. Wade.
A group of drummers marched outside of Kavanaugh’s house after an alleged assassination attempt.

A group of drummers marched outside of Kavanaugh’s house after an alleged assassination attempt. (Fox News)

Roske told police he was upset about the draft as well the mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas last month, where 21 people – including 19 children were killed. Roske said he believed Kavanaugh would vote to loosen gun control laws, according to a criminal complaint.

A Department of Homeland Security report said the Supreme Court draft opinion has unleashed a wave of threats against officials and others and increased the likelihood of extremist violence.

AUTHOR

 

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POST-KAVANAUGH POLL: Almost Half of Young, Male Democrats Says “It’s Acceptable To ASSASSINATE a Politician”

Biden’s Approval Rating Sinks to below 40% in RCP average

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

FBI Arrests Michigan Republican Gubernatorial Candidate Ryan Kelley Over January 6th Protest Attendance

UPDATE: June 18, 2022 Michigan GOP candidate arrested by FBI sees massive jump to the top of latest poll by Melissa Fine,

It’s an upside-down world when an arrest by the FBI sends a candidate for Governor to the top of the latest popularity poll, but that’s exactly what has happened to Michigan gubernatorial GOP candidate Ryan Kelley, who was hooked up on misdemeanor charges by the Feds on June 9 for his alleged participation in the Jan. 6 events at the Capitol.

Read the full article.


We have lost our country. He wasn’t even in the Capitol building itself (as if that matters). Look out for further indictments of senatorial candidates and elected officials leading up to the election. Not so ironically, this is the insurrection.

FBI arrests GOP Michigan governor candidate Ryan Kelley over Jan. 6 riot

By Callie Patteson, NY post, June 9, 2022:

The FBI arrested Ryan Kelley, a Republican candidate for governor in Michigan, on misdemeanor charges connected to his participation in the deadly Jan. 6 Capitol Riot.

Kelley, 40, was arrested after law enforcement raided his Allendale Township home. He will appear in court later Thursday.

His arrest comes the same day as the first primetime hearing held by the House select committee investigating the riot and approximately two months before he is expected to appear on the primary ballot seeking to unseat Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

The hearing is expected to feature a mix of in-person witnesses testifying about the events and pre-recorded content, including promises of never-before-seen photos and video from Jan. 6.

While Kelley has not been accused of entering the Capitol building itself on the day of the violent demonstration, court documents feature photos of the Republican on the steps wearing sunglasses and a black baseball cap.

AUTHOR

 

RELATED ARTICLES:

POST-KAVANAUGH POLL: Almost Half of Young, Male Democrats Says “It’s Acceptable To ASSASSINATE a Politician”

Democrat Mob Terrorize Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett AT HER HOME AND HER CHURCH

Plea Deal of a US ISIS Terrorist Has Benghazi Links

WATCH Biden Touts Economic Success

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

ISIS Plotter in Hipster Brooklyn Proves Yet Again That Immigration Is a National Security Issue

Dilkhayot Kasimov lived in Brooklyn, one of the nation’s leading hotspots for trendy young hipsters, but he had much more on his mind than checking out the street art scene in Bushwick or the Fort Greene Flea Market. Kasimov, 34, who was sentenced Friday to fifteen years in prison for aiding the Islamic State (ISIS), was involved in plots to strike within the United States, including possibly even killing Barack Obama. Dilkhayot Kasimov is a citizen of Uzbekistan, and so his case once again raises the question that Biden’s handlers steadfastly ignore: why is the U.S. bringing jihad terrorists into the country?

According to U.S. Attorney Richard Donoghue, Kasimov “was part of a conspiracy in which he willingly and eagerly sought to help fund a foreign fighter’s travel and expenses in Syria to wage violent jihad.” When Kasimov was sentenced Friday, Matthew Olsen, Assistant Attorney General for National Security, said: “Kasimov is an ISIS supporter who collected and gave money to another individual to fund his travel to join the terrorist group.” Breon Peace, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, explained: “Kasimov was part of a group of individuals who sought to travel to Syria to join ISIS or to fund others who sought to become foreign fighters for ISIS.” But Kasimov wasn’t interested only in Syria.

When Kasimov was convicted in September 2019, UPI reported that he “was named in an indictment that charged three other men in a plot to assist the Islamic State.” Kasimov’s accomplices, “Akhror Saidakhmetov, Abdurasul Hasanovich Juraboev and Abror Habibov planned to travel to Turkey and then to Syria to assist the IS.” They also had a Plan B: “If their plan was not successful, they allegedly planned terrorist attacks on the United States. The men were each charged with conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization, conspiracy and travel document fraud.” They “came to the attention of law enforcement in August 2014 after they allegedly posted on a Uzbek-language, pro-IS website saying they would kill former President Barack Obama if ordered by the IS. The plans included placing bombs on Coney Island.”

There doesn’t seem to be any published information about the circumstances under which Kasimov was admitted to the country. Nonetheless, his case provides yet more evidence that immigration is a national security issue, and that not only “racists” and “Islamophobes” think otherwise.

There is no word about Kasimov being deported after he completes his prison sentence (or however much of it he ends up having to serve; he isn’t, after all, an “insurrectionist” or a “white supremacist,” so he is unlikely to serve the entire sentence). However, another one of Kasimov’s accomplices, Chicago’s Dilshod Khusanov, 36, according to the DOJ, will be deported after he serves a prison term. And Kisanov and Khusanov aren’t even close to being the only foreign nationals who have become security risks inside the United States. Others include a Somali Muslim migrant who stabbed multiple patrons at a restaurant owned by an Israeli Arab Christian; Ahmad Khan Rahami, an Afghan Muslim migrant who set off bombs in New York City and New Jersey; Arcan Cetin, a Turkish Muslim migrant who murdered five people in a mall in Burlington, Wash.; Dahir Adan, another Somali Muslim migrant, who stabbed mall shoppers in St. Cloud, Minn. while screaming “Allahu akbar”; and Abdul Razak Artan, yet another Somali Muslim migrant, who injured nine people with car and knife attacks at Ohio State University.

Meanwhile, Fox News reported Monday that “A Haitian migrant taking part in what could be the largest ever migrant caravan through Mexico to the U.S. is demanding that President Biden keep his promise to allow them to stay once they reach the border.” The migrant said of Old Joe: “He promised the Haitian community he will help them. He will recall Title 42. He will help us have real asylum.” Fox notes that “the migrant is taking part in a caravan that could become the largest ever to reach the U.S. southern border, with the current number of close to 10,000 migrants, is expected to swell to about 15,000 before it reaches the border.” What could possibly go wrong? Well, could more jihad terrorists such as Dilkhayot Kasimov take advantage of the chaos at the border to enter the United States and begin to plot massacres here? Come on, man! Celebrate diversity!

AUTHOR

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

Is all this acceptable?

We hear that we are expected to celebrate Pride week and/or Pride Month. Regardless of our personal beliefs either moral or religious. We are called bigots and homophobes if we don’t. Five brave players from our Tampa Bay Rays refused to wear the Pride flag patch on a Pride celebratory game and have been hated on ever since.

As tax payers we are expected to have our taxes used for flags, bunting and celebrations for Pride and to celebrate their so called achievements. If we disagree we are called bigots and homophobes.

As apparently non-equal citizens our opinions on if our kids are to be taught disgusting sexually based education from age 5 up seems to be ignored by public officials paid with our taxes.

Equally our opinions on drag queens and transgendered persons being allowed to read perverted books to our young children in public funded libraries also are ignored. We are called … you guessed it Bigots and homophobes plus the normal racist!

Our beliefs, our own thoughts are totally irrelevant to the left and the ever increasing aggressively militant LGBTQUI movement. We are not tolerated, even though we are in the majority, and as I mentioned expected to celebrate their lifestyle despite our solidly held beliefs.

There is but one opinion that matters increasingly to the left and their friendly pocket pets, the MSM, and that is the leftist agenda. Dare to differ and even worse differ publicly and verbally and you are cancelled. You lose work, your job, your reputation as they spread lies and disinformation about you, cancel your social media and generally make your life hell.

We are expected to attend Gay Pride parades and celebrations, despite the immoral talk, clothing and actions of the many participants. I mean, do we really have to see scantily dressed men in black chaps and other leather wear or even worse, dressed as God knows what? Do we need to see females that are increasingly trying to look, sound and act more masculine than men?

I HAVE NEWS FOR THEM ALL.

I do not celebrate Gay Pride hour, day, week, month or year.

I do not agree with the destruction they have caused to my beloved military, reducing standards and our battle readiness.

I hate that every show I used to enjoy on TV has become a Gay Fest, with men kissing men, women kissing women and even same sex sexual acts. I am unable to watch much TV anymore and have to carefully screen the shows, taping them first so I can fast forward adverts but also turn it off or fast forward when those actions are about to occur.

I know Gay people. I do not hate them. I like some of them. (By that I mean I don’t like that many people!). What they do behind their closed doors is between them and God. Believe me, one day they will have to answer to Him. It’s not my business.

I do not accept or believe in Gay marriage. I find it offensive and against everything I believe in. God made two sexes to enable breeding. Regardless to what any of these people think they are on any given day, they have X or Y chromosomes. Male or female regardless to what they remove or add to their bodies.

I do believe my opinion is valid. I am always prepared to talk and debate anyone with differing opinions in a friendly fashion but find the left and most in the LGBTQUI community, cannot discuss but only aggressively attack and name call.

I understand the above is my opinion but hey guys, this is my blog! If it is your opinion too then stand up firmly against this evil indoctrination.

©Fred Brownbill. All rights reserved.

TAKE ACTION: The Many Dangers of Discord for Children

Discord, a popular communication service, has been named to NCOSE’s Dirty Dozen List for the past two years due to its failure to adequately address the sexually exploitative content and activity on its platform. While Discord made some important safety changes following the 2021 Dirty Dozen List, problems persist on the platform and the company can do much more to improve. Discord’s lack of meaningful age verification, insufficient moderation procedures, and inadequate safety settings has caused harm to numerous children who were sexually groomed by predators or exposed to harmful content such as pornography. Following the launch of the Dirty Dozen List, new evidence of children being harmed on Discord has continued to emerge and make headlines.

What is Discord and how does it harm? 

Discord was initially launched in 2015 as a platform for people to connect online while playing video games. Since then, it has expanded well beyond its original gaming niche to become a widely used text, video, and audio chat app for myriad contexts. Now, the company states that approximately 80% of its active users report they either use Discord primarily for non-gaming purposes, or equally for gaming and non-gaming purposes. Discord has grown exponentially since the COVID-19 pandemic channeled the world’s energy into digital spaces, going from just 56 million active monthly users in 2019 to 150 million monthly users in 2021.

The main feature of Discord is its servers, which are chat rooms based around a particular interest or activity. Servers can be open to the public, though they are more commonly set to private by users whereby they require invites and special passwords to join. Moderation within these servers has, historically, been mostly left up to the members themselves with Discord simply relying on user reports and private server owners to catch bad behavior. Discord’s own Safety Center confirms as much by saying: “We do not monitor every server or every conversation.”  This laissez-faire approach to moderation has fostered an environment where sexual abuse and exploitation can flourish unhindered.

Unlike most popular social media platforms where users post photos of themselves and tend to use real names, it is an almost universal practice on Discord to employ arbitrary usernames and profile pictures. While it is still certainly possible to fake identities on the former type of social media platform, it is not even necessary to fake one on Discord, since profiles are not connected to identities. It is considered normal to interact with strangers on Discord without having any sense of who they are, what age they are, what their name is, or any other identifying traits. This online culture makes it very easy for predators to groom children on Discord without arousing suspicion.

Discord is extremely popular with children and teens. While the app is intended for ages 13+, there is no meaningful age verification to enforce this age limit, or to ensure that the few child protection measures Discord offers are actually applied.

Until mid-2020, users were not even asked for their date of birth upon signup. Currently, asking this question remains the only form of “age verification” Discord employs. Children can and do easily enter a false date of birth to bypass the age restriction for the platform, or bypass age restrictions for specific servers and features on the platform. For example, servers and individual channels within servers can be age-gated with a “NSFW” tag, but that protection is easily circumvented due to the lack of meaningful age verification. Such servers often contain pornography, which children are exposed to, and may even include child sexual abuse material (the more apt term for “child pornography”) or image-based sexual abuse (pornographic images that have been created or distributed without the consent of the person in the image).

Elsewhere, entire servers on Discord are dedicated to users finding and sharing image-based sexual abuse of girls and women. Discord made international news in 2020 when one server revealed that over 140,000 images of women and minors had been widely shared and distributed. 

Recent News about Children Being Groomed on Discord

Upon naming Discord to the 2022 Dirty Dozen List, we highlighted extensive evidence of children being sexually groomed on the platform. Since the launch of this campaign in early March 2022, even more evidence has surfaced and made headlines.

CNN recently published a news article titled “The dark side of Discord for teens.” This article covered the stories of numerous parents whose children were sexually groomed on Discord. One mother discovered that a stranger who appeared to be an older man had convinced her 16-year-old daughter to send him nude pictures. As the girl was a minor, these nudes are an example of Discord being used to distribute child sexual abuse material. The man also requested and obtained a picture of the girl’s house, pictures of her friends, and a photo of her bus, which the mother feared he would use to track the girl and physically exploit her.

Another mother discovered that a man had been sending BDSM pornography to her 10-year-old daughter (recall that Discord’s age limit is 13+, but that they have no meaningful age verification to enforce this).  When the mother reported this incident to Discord, she received an automated response requesting the message links. She provided the links more than a year ago, but never received another response from the company.

Yet another mother said Discord failed to help when an older man was sexually grooming her 13-year-old son by asking him to masturbate and talk to him about it afterward. “Discord told me I couldn’t do anything unless I had specific links to the text thread that showed my son verifying his age — such as typing ‘I am 13,’ which was shared through a voice [chat] — and the other person verifying his age before an incident happened,” the mother said. “It was just awful; there was no help at all.” CNN spoke to almost a dozen parents whose children had similar damaging experiences on Discord.

Of note, NCOSE has received more contacts this year from parents whose children have been harmed by predators through Discord than with any other online platform.

The Inadequacy of Discord’s Safety Settings and the Importance of Defaulting to Safety

Many of the parents CNN spoke to reported that they feel Discord is not doing enough to protect children. We at NCOSE are in agreement. Discord currently does not have any parental controls and has made no announcements or moves to develop them. Although Discord does have some available safety settings, explained in their Safety Center, NCOSE researchers found these to be far from adequate for properly protecting the millions of children who use the platform.

Importantly, many of the parents CNN spoke to stated that they had not enabled any of Discord’s safety settings on their child’s account due to not understanding how the platform works. This highlights the need for safety settings to be defaulted, at the very least for minor-aged accounts if not across the entire platform. By not having the safety settings defaulted, only children who have highly involved, tech-savvy parents have a chance at being protected, and the rest are left completely vulnerable. NCOSE has long been advocating for Discord and other platforms frequented by children to “default to safety” in this way.

In Discord’s guidelines for “adult content,” they claim the highest levels of safety are on by default, but we found this not to be true. Discord claims:

“If you do not want to be exposed to adult content on Discord, or if you are under 18 years old, we recommend turning on the explicit media filter in your privacy settings. In your User Settings, under Privacy & Safety, choose ‘Keep me safe.‘ This setting is on by default and will ensure that images and videos in all direct messages are scanned by Discord and explicit content is blocked.”

Yet when NCOSE researchers made a Discord account with a birthday set to 13-years-old, they found these safety settings were not actually on by default and that, instead, they still needed to be tracked down and toggled on within the account’s settings.

In their official “Parent Guide,” Discord fails to include advice on how to circumvent grooming tactics or recognize predatory behavior. The guide acknowledges that explicit content exists on Discord, but fails to recognize or warn against the harms of pornography. Instead, they provide generic platitudes such as: “Have a conversation with your teen about explicit content, what they may or may not be comfortable looking at, and whether they feel pressured to look at this content.”

Discord hires first lobbyists

Another news update which has come to light recently is that Discord has hired its first federal lobbyists, who will reportedly be lobbying on “privacy and content moderation issues for the platform.” While it is too early to say for certain what specific approach these lobbyists will be taking to these issues, the track record of Big Tech’s lobbyists give reason to be wary.

Generally speaking, Big Tech’s primary goal is to protect and bolster its bottom line, and this priority is reflected in their lobbying. For example, Big Tech’s lobbyists have lately been making misleading claims about the intent and impact of the EARN IT Act, a bill which would hold online platforms accountable for knowingly facilitating the distribution of child sexual abuse material. The lobbyists have been incorrectly painting the EARN IT Act as an attack on user privacy which threatens to bring on mass surveillance. We hope that Discord’s lobbying on privacy and content moderation issues will not jump on the bandwagon of this false dichotomy between user privacy and child protection.

Our Requests for Improvements to Discord’s platform

We are calling on Discord to make the following safety changes:

  • Develop and implement parental controls so parents can monitor and streamline their children’s experience on Discord and ensure basic safety standards are being met.
  • Automatically default minor-aged accounts to the highest level of safety and privacy available on the Discord platform. While Discord claims to already do this, NCOSE research revealed this is still not standard across all Discord accounts.
  • Automatically block any and all minor-aged accounts from joining servers that contain NSFW content on both the mobile app and desktop versions of Discord. Discord currently has age-gating for individual channels within a server, but the fake 13-year-old Discord account used by the NCOSE research team was able to join a voice chat on the official Pornhub Discord channel.
  • Develop and implement moderation strategies that proactively detect and remove pornography—especially for servers that are dedicated to trading hardcore and non-consensual material.
  • Provide meaningful education to all users and parents on the potential harms and risks associated with exploitation and abuse on Discord, and prominently feature and highlight reporting processes on all forms of Discord’s interface.

In response to the cases of sexual grooming uncovered by CNN, Discord’s Vice President of Trust and Safety, John Redgrave, said, “this behavior is appalling, unacceptable, and has no place on Discord.” Redgrave further stated, “It’s our highest priority for our communities to have a safe experience on the service.” Discord must put its money where its mouth is and prove these words true with concrete action.


Demand Discord Improve Child Safety Features and Content Moderation

Go to the Bottom of the Page and Send an email to Discord Executives!


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

Judicial Watch Reveals DOJ Memo Declining Prosecution of Babbitt’s Shooter

Shooter U.S. Capitol Police Lt. Michael Byrd Did Not Create a Police Report on Killing, Byrd Had Prior ‘Use of Force’ Issue. 


Judicial Watch uncovered more shocking evidence about the shooting death of Ashli Babbitt even as the Pelosi rump 1/6 operation makes a mockery of the system of government with its kangaroo court “hearings.”

We uncovered 102 pages of records from the Department of Justice related to the shooting of January 6 protestor Ashli Babbitt that include a memo recommending “that the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia declined for criminal prosecution the fatal shooting of Ashli McEntee [Babbitt],” also noting that the shooter, U.S. Capitol Police Lt. Michael Byrd, “did not create a police report or documents” related to the shooting of Babbitt.

The documents also reveal that in the press release announcing the decision not to prosecute Byrd for the killing of Babbitt the DOJ replaced the words “group” and “crowd” with the word “mob” several times.

The unarmed Babbitt was shot and killed as she climbed through a broken interior window in the United States Capitol. She was a 14-year Air Force veteran. The identity of the shooter was kept secret by Congress, the Justice Department, and DC police for eight months until Byrd went public to try to defend his killing of Babbitt.

We filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia after the Executive Office for United States Attorneys, the Civil Rights Division, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (all components of the Justice Department) failed to provide the records responsive to our April 14, 2021, and May 20, 2021, FOIA requests for records related to Babbitt’s death (Judicial Watch v. U.S. Department of Justice (No. 1:21-cv-02462)).

The records contain the prosecution declination memorandum justifying the decision not to prosecute Byrd.

The “Overview and Recommendation” section reads as follows:

This memorandum recommends that the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia decline for criminal prosecution the fatal shooting of Ashli McEntee.

[ *** ]

This declination is based on a review of law enforcement and civilian eyewitness accounts, physical evidence, recorded radio communications, cell phone footage, MPD reports, forensic reports, and the autopsy report for Ms. McEntee. After a thorough review of the facts and circumstances in this case, there is insufficient evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Lieutenant Byrd violated Ms. McEntee’s civil rights by willfully using more force than was reasonably necessary, or was not acting in self-defense or the defense of others.

The memo details:

Once the demonstrators broke the glass, Lieutenant Byrd took up a tactical position to the immediate right of the barricaded entry doors, [Capitol Police Officer Reggie Tyson] took up a tactical position behind Lieutenant Byrd on the right side behind the third pillar and Sergeant McKenna took up a tactical position behind Officer Tyson and behind the fourth pillar on the right side of the Speakers Lobby.

[ *** ]

All three officers had their service pistols drawn, pointed them in the direction of the barricaded entry doors, and repeatedly instructed the ‘mob’ to get back. The ‘mob’ of demonstrators ignored the officers’ commands and continued to break the glass on the doors in their attempt to breach the Speakers Lobby. Suddenly, Ashli McEntee began to crawl through one of the doors where the glass was already broken out. As Ms. McEntee was climbing through the door, Lieutenant Byrd stepped forward from his tactical position towards Ms. McEntee and fired one round from his service pistol striking Ms. McEntee in her left shoulder, just below her clavicle. Ms. McEntee then fell back from the doorway and onto the floor.

Regarding possible closed-circuit television footage, the memo notes: “There are several USCP operated Closed-Circuit Television Video (CCTV) cameras inside of the United States Capitol Building. However, there were no CCTV cameras observed or located in the Speaker’s Lobby area.”

In a section of the memo titled “USCP Lieutenant Michael Byrd,” the memo notes: “He [Byrd] did not create any police reports or documents relating to the incident, and did not provide an official statement regarding use of force” though he did provide a voluntary “debrief” and walk-through of the scene with his lawyer. A footnote details that: “During the debrief of Lieutenant Byrd, he did recall writing a few sentences on an evidence bag the evening of January 6, 2021, at the request of a crime scene officer. To date, the bag has not been located by USCP or MPD.”

The memo reports:

Lieutenant Byrd heard glass breaking and saw some of the items used to barricade the doors being pushed down. Lieutenant Byrd continued to tell the rioters to “get back, get back!” Lieutenant Byrd then saw a rioter with a backpack on start to climb through one of the broken glass doors. Lieutenant Byrd saw the rioter “as a threat,” so he stepped forward from his tactical position and fired one round at the rioter. The rioter fell back out of the opening and Lieutenant Byrd eventually stepped back into the seated area of the Speaker’s Lobby before confirming to other USCP officers that arrived on the scene that he was the one that fired his service weapon.

The memo notes that security staffing on January 6 was less than half the usual amount due to COVID-19:

Lieutenant Byrd did agree to participate with his counsel, Mark Schamel, in a voluntary debrief and walk-through of the scene on January 29, 2021 … Due to COVID-19 and other issues, the normal staffing for a joint session was less than half of what Lieutenant Byrd usually has assigned to the House Chamber. Once he arrived that morning, he was informed that USCP operations had made the decision that the uniform officers needed to pick up riot gear.

In a section titled, “Use of Force History,” it is noted that, “Lieutenant Byrd had one prior use of force matter, that was originally sustained by USCP, but after Lt. Byrd appealed, he was found not guilty by the Disciplinary Review Board.”

In a section titled “Recommendation,” the memo details:

This matter does not constitute a prosecutable violation of the federal criminal civil rights statutes or the District of Columbia homicide statutes. To show a violation of 18 U.S.C. § 242, the applicable federal criminal civil rights statute, the Government must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that an officer willfully used more force than was reasonably necessary under the circumstances. ‘The “reasonableness” of a particular use of force must be judged from the perspective of a reasonable officer on the scene, rather than with the 20/20 vision of hindsight.’ Graham v Connor, 490 U.S. 386, 396 (1989).

[ *** ]

Because Ms. McEntee was an active participant in a ‘mob’ that had just illegally entered the Capitol building, and then broke out the glass doors and removed barricades to forcefully gain entry into the Speaker’s Lobby, there is insufficient evidence to refute Lieutenant Byrd’s fear for his life or the life of others at the time he discharged his weapon. Therefore, there is insufficient evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he willfully deprived Ms. McEntee of a right protected by the Constitution or laws of the United States of America. Accordingly I recommend declination of this matter.

The records include a draft version of the April 14, 2021, Justice Department press release announcing their decision not to prosecute Byrd for the killing of Babbitt, the authors replaced the word “crowd” with the word “mob” five times in describing the January 6 protestors.

The documents also include charts of January 6 investigations and targets. For one of the investigations, it is noted that a New York Times reporter is a “CW” [confidential witness]. Another notation tied to “pipe bombs” notes that a “geo fence” request was made to Google.

Previously, we uncovered records from the DC Metropolitan Police showing that multiple officers claimed they didn’t see a weapon in Babbitt’s hand before Byrd shot her, and that Byrd was visibly distraught afterward. One officer attested that he didn’t recall hearing any verbal commands before Byrd shot Babbitt. The records include internal communications about Byrd’s case and a crime scene examination report. Investigators who wrote the January 6, 2021, Metro PD Death Report for Babbitt (identified as Ashli Elizabeth McEntee-Babbitt Pamatian) note that the possible Manner of Death was “Homicide (Police Involved Shooting).”

These records show that Lt. Byrd was given special treatment by the Biden DOJ and that there was a miscarriage of justice in the half-baked shooting death investigation of Ashli Babbitt. Lt. Byrd, who works for Congress, shot an unarmed woman for no good reason. I suspect that this unjustified shooting isn’t of much interest to the Pelosi rump January 6 committee.

These revelations are the latest in our comprehensive, independent investigation into the January 6 disturbance:

  • February 2022: We filed an opposition to the U.S. Capitol Police’s (USCP) effort to shut down our federal lawsuit for January 6 videos and emails. Through its police department, Congress argues that the videos and emails are not public records, there is no public interest in their release, and that “sovereign immunity” prevents citizens from suing for their release.
  • November 2021: We released multiple audiovisual and photo records from the DC Metropolitan Police Department about Babbitt’s death. The records include a cell phone video of the shooting and an audio of a brief police interview of Byrd.
  • Also in November 2021: we – in its FOIA lawsuit asking for records of communication between the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and several financial institutions about the reported transfer of financial transaction records of people in DC, Maryland and Virginia on January 5 and January 6, 2021 – told a federal court that the FBI may have violated law in its January 6 probes.

Frankly, given all our historic works and finds, perhaps Judicial Watch should be conducting January 6 hearings!

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

Tom Cruise’s ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ makes the case for a wiser, more mature masculinity

Kosinski salutes the human person and human dignity, placing it above technology.


“The engine is the heart of an airplane, but the pilot is its soul.”
Sir Walter Alexander Raleigh

Sitting in your seat, in a darkened theater watching Top Gun: Maverick (2022) will feel as fine as flying in a P-51 Mustang, into a clear sky. Naturally, few of us have ever flown in a P-51, but TGM will make you feel like you’re doing just that. Your cockpit might be yanked open now and then, your engine might choke a bit, but most of the time you’ll soar and dip joyfully, over drowsy waves. And it’ll feel like forever.

TGM isn’t your bacon-and-eggs blockbuster.

Director Joseph Kosinski has filmed in optimism, hoping that those who grew up watching Tony Scott’s seductive Top Gun (1986) have also “grown up” as its protagonist fighter pilot Maverick has, instead of staying adolescent; craving fan-service and cameos every 7.56 minutes of run time. Producers Tom Cruise and Jerry Bruckheimer respect their source material and -therefore – refuse to fall back on it, at every turn.

Asked about the temptation to lazily OD on callbacks, as many 21st century sequels do, Kosinski disclosed in a May 2022 interview to CNET, “There were moments we felt obligated to at least try, but if it didn’t feel right, we just cut it out…You have to do what’s right for this story, and it was balancing how much to look backward and how much to look forward to tell a new story with new characters.”

That’s Kosinski doing the decent thing, exercising restraint.

A different, wiser Maverick

TGM unveils a different, wiser Maverick: incredibly, as skilled, (almost) as risk-driven as his younger self, but less narcissistic, more empathetic, more of a team player and leader than he ever was.

This ode to naval skies is so much more than dogfight drama that it will be a contender for Oscar nominations (cinematography, sound, editing, visual effects). Yet, it is its screenplay and direction that merit highest tribute.

Sure, as a breathtaking audio-visual spectacle amidst a sea of pretenders, it appeals to the senses. Yet its sights are set, firmly, on heart and soul. And it breathes a distinct humanism.

Kosinski, who studied to be an aerospace engineer, humbly salutes the human person and human dignity above technology. For it is the human who creates tech, understands it, masters it. It is the human who wields it, purposefully, occasionally, playfully. And knows the difference.

Kosinski’s humanistic lens

Far from piling on tech, TGM places it in perspective. Maverick repeatedly shows his superiors, his peers, his wards, us (and himself) that men, unlike machines, excel not merely by reshaping their limits, but by infusing them with meaning, emotion, sensitivity. Men excel by drawing on regret – and regret is so much more than machine memory. Men excel by drawing on imagination – and imagination is so much more than an algorithmic projection or forecast. Men excel by drawing on hope, even despair. Often defying diktat. Sometimes falling, failing, but rarely giving up. And typically, collaborating, even when going “solo”.

Kosinski deploys several cameras in each cockpit. He also applies an unmistakably humanistic lens right through.

When Admiral Cain berates Maverick over a misfired mid-air stunt in a new generation aircraft, Cain is precise. Technology is the new pilot, team leader, trainer all rolled into one. Once-revered humans like Maverick are destined to become relics at the altar of fifth-generation machines. AI, robotics, genomics and the like will soon leave little room for human agency.

The pilot as soul

But that’s just Kosinski’s provocative opening; the rest of his movie reverentially recalls the immortal line of Scottish essayist Sir Walter Alexander Raleigh: The engine is the heart of an airplane, but the pilot is its soul. 

Cain perverts that line with all the swagger of the savants of Silicon Valley. Maverick perfects it and seems to say: People matter more than products. Unlike machines, men can be rational, respectful, reasoned enough to change their minds about something or someone, even themselves.

TG tells us that Maverick’s flying buddy Goose dies in training, in a mid-air accident. Maverick escapes, but blames himself and his recklessness for that death. So, Rooster’s appearance in TGM opens old wounds – he’s Goose’s son. He resents Maverick for pulling his papers from the Naval academy, scuppering his chance to honor his father’s legacy.

TGM tells us something else. When Maverick’s girlfriend Penny probes, it turns out that it was Goose’s widow who’d asked Maverick to keep her son out; she didn’t want him suffering his father’s fate.

Incredulous, Penny wonders why Maverick doesn’t simply explain that to Rooster to, at least, win closure. Maverick’s reply shocks, but doubles her respect for him: Rooster already resents me enough, why should he resent his mother as well.

Growing up

TG’s pilots were technically men, but their smirking and strutting suggested that they were boys, hiding behind testosterone-pumped torsos and turbo-rides. Scott showed us, wonderfully, how narcissism struggles to cope with failure, rejection, loss – or the fear of facing all three.

TGM dwells on those themes, then goes wider. For instance, it is less an attack on the newer theme of ageism; more an appreciation of adulting.

A “retired” F-14 Tomcat, may fly you out of one corner, but some young gun (Hangman, as Maverick discovers here) may yet rescue you from another.

Only the mature and humble, embrace saving and being saved.

TG’s Maverick and his buddies acted entitled. In a bar, they were usually hunting for trophies, not girls – anything to brag about in the locker room.

TGM’s Maverick redefines masculinity to be much more than Adamite aerodynamics. He still feels entitled with gunships, less so with girls. Watch how he holds out his hand to Penny so she can get safely off his Kawasaki. In bed, he’s making the first move, but she’s the one who’s left her door open in the first place.

No harm in men oozing charm or sex appeal, even better if they bear it with grace.

Maverick is “older”, but that’s the least of it. He’s learnt to care and – refreshingly – show that he cares. He treats Penny with dignity, not just to daredevilry, even following her lead. When her sailing hand guides his, he’s not smarting, he’s smiling. He’s thoughtful, not just stunned, when her daughter warns that this time, for her mother’s sake, his reaching out to her had better be fidelity, not fling.

Going faster by slowing down

Maverick is no slouch, in the classroom or in the air. He insists that his class fly as low as they need to, soar as speedily as they must, lock on and fire at targets as they should. But he’s the one demanding, first, that they treat themselves – and therefore others – with respect.

Even when Maverick himself falls short, on account of what seems a congenital insubordination reflex, he’s trying hard not to. He patiently builds a team. He reminds Commander Cyclone that his mission isn’t merely to get trainees to strike targets, but to also get them home.  He’s the one breaking up their squabbles, urging restraint. He’s the one implying that risks are ok, as long as they’re calculated and caring. He leads by example, even sacrificing himself for his ward.

When Maverick rebukes Rooster (“What were you thinking!?”) for flying behind enemy lines to rescue him, Rooster reminds him of his own rebuke to paranoid pilots (“Don’t think, just do!”). Young Rooster reveals that Maverick’s mantra, far from being a call to mindless action, seems to be code for “Think all right, but act on your values, what and who you care for”. Like Maverick, he’s learnt to go faster, by slowing down, by seeing people for who they really are, caring for them, especially in a crisis.

Everyone counts

In TG, Slider taunts Maverick before a test flight: “Remember boys, no points for second place”. Maverick later learns that first place wouldn’t reach home, were it not for second placeTGM overwrites that, adding: even third and fourth and fifth place matter. Everyone counts.

TG’s Maverick exuded knowledge and skill; his commanding officer Viper merely hinted then that even combined, they wouldn’t suffice. TGM’s Maverick exudes power (over his trainees) and experience too. Now he teaches that unless all four “stripes” are guided by noble values and traits (selflessness, respect, restraint, empathy), whatever you’re fighting for (reward, honor, admiration) isn’t worth it.

Hype aside, at least a few young men and women probably turned fighter pilots in response to TG’s endearing 20th century call to heroism in the sky. TGM repeats that call to become the best pilots, but with a new 21st century call – to be better people.

Good, old-fashioned escapism – with a lesson

TGM isn’t preoccupied with realism. At no point does it pretend to be anything but good old-fashioned escapism. No real-life fighter pilot would be as feted by top brass as Maverick is. No pilot is treated “rogue” for trashing a high-end aircraft then sent marching, to train rookies. Rarely do blockbusters get away with a faceless, nameless enemy. No pilot simply drops into enemy territory and makes off with an F-14, without so much as a stubbed toe. And stories of even the most tightly-knit corps don’t end with “happily ever after”, no matter how their “once upon a time” begins.

TGM isn’t so much about fighter pilots. It’s even less about Maverick than what he stands for.

At one point TGM trainee Natasha muses with her mates: “Everyone here is the best there is. Who the hell are they going to get to teach us?”

It isn’t a question.

Still, metaphorically, Maverick appears to answer: if you beat your ego as much as you beat the drag on your plane, you’re more than a boy (or girl), you’re a man (or woman) who just happens to also beat g-forces and Mach 1 several times over.

TGM’s abiding, albeit supersonic, lesson? The enemy isn’t so much in the other plane, as in yours, the demons aren’t so much out there as in here – your fear disguised as arrogance, selfishness; beat that and even the sky is no limit.

AUTHOR

Rudolph Lambert Fernandez

Rudolph Lambert Fernandez is an independent writer, writing on pop culture. Some of his writing on Hollywood movies, movie icons, women in film, feminism in film, women directors, Hollywood’s #MeToo has… More by Rudolph Lambert Fernandez

RELATED VIDEO: The REAL Top Gun Maverick – Operation Opera; Israel Bombs Saddam’s Nuclear Reactor, 1981

RELATED ARTICLE: ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ Becomes Highest Box Office Grossing Military Movie of All Time

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

Yes, the Products You’re Buying Are Getting Smaller—Even Though Prices Are Not

The rise in consumer prices has rightly received a great deal of attention, as inflation hovers around 40-year highs. Everyone can see that virtually everything is getting more expensive, but fewer have noticed that many items are also getting smaller.

On Wednesday the Associated Press ran an article under the headline “No, you’re not imagining it — package sizes are shrinking.”

The AP spoke to one shopper, Alex Aspacher, who does a lot of shopping for his family of four in Ohio. He noticed he was still paying $9.99 for Swiss cheese even though the package had shrunk from a pound to 12 ounces.

“I was prepared for it to a degree, but there hasn’t been a limit to it so far,” Aspacher told the AP. “I hope we find that ceiling pretty soon.”

This phenomenon—known as “shrinkflation”—is nothing new, of course. It’s just more pronounced now than in any time in recent memory because inflation is much higher.

But what exactly is shrinkflation? As economist Peter Jacobsen explained last year, it’s simply a different kind of inflation.

“Shrinkflation is a form of inflation because you’d have to spend more money to get the same quantity or quality as you did in a previous year,” he explained. “The prices have remained the same, but the products are worse.”

The only difference is, instead of raising the price of an item or service, businesses are reducing the quantity or quality of it while keeping the price the same.

Edgar Dworsky, a consumer advocate who has tracked shrinkflation for decades, told the AP shrinkflation is rampant at the moment because of the underlying economic conditions.

“It comes in waves,” said Dworsky. “We happen to be in a tidal wave at the moment because of inflation.”

While there are too many examples of shrinkflation to easily track, here is a list of some examples Dworsky highlighted and others that we found.

  1. Kleenex: A box now has 60 tissues instead of the 65 it had a few months ago.
  2. Yogurt: Chobani Flips have shrunk to 4.5 ounces; they had been 5.3 ounces.
  3. Domino’s Pizza, citing the rise of chicken prices, announced earlier this year it was shrinking its 10-piece chicken wing package to eight pieces. The carryout price remains the same: $7.99.
  4. Toothpaste: Tubes of Crest reportedly have shrunk from 4.1 ounces to 3.8 ounces.
  5. Folgers coffee reduced its 51-ounce container to 43.5 ounces. (Oddly, Folgers still says the container will make up to 400 cups of coffee, citing a new technology that yields lighter-weight beans. Or something.)
  6. Fritos: “Party Size” bags used to be 18 ounces, but most retailers are now advertising 15.5 ounce bags.
  7. Gatorade: PepsiCo, who produces Gatorade as well as Fritos, has begun phasing out 32-ounce bottles and replacing them with 28-ounce ones, which are actually more expensive. (PepsiCo said the change was unrelated to the economic climate and the plan had been in the works for years.)
  8. Cereal: Honey Bunches of Oats reduced its standard cereal box to 12 ounces; it had been 14.5 ounces.
  9. Paper Towels: Bounty reduced its 2-ply sheet roll from 165 to 147 sections.
  10. Oatmeal: Quaker reduced the number of pockets in a box from 10 to 8, reports the Daily Mail.
  11. Ziploc bags: Boxes now come with 50 in a package instead of 54.
  12. Soap: Dial reduced its bottle size from 21 ounces to 16 ounces.

BONUS Item: Airline service: As FEE’s Peter Jacobsen notes, airline complaints are through the roof, the result of reduced customer service.

We could go on, of course. But you get the point.

Some people naturally want to blame companies for shrinking the size of their products while charging the same price (or higher ones), but this is the wrong reaction.

As noted above, shrinkflation is simply a form of inflation, and inflation is a monetary phenomenon above all else.

“Inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon,” noted Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman, “in the sense that it is and can be produced only by a more rapid increase in the quantity of money than in output.”

It’s no coincidence that America is experiencing the highest inflation in decades after the Federal Reserve “flooded the system with money,” as Fed Chairman Jerome Powell admitted in a 60 Minutes interview.

This was a perfect recipe for inflation.

“Inflation is caused by too much money chasing after too few goods,” Friedman noted.

You simply can’t drop $5 trillion dollars into an economy without a corresponding expansion of goods and services and not experience inflation. This is why we’re seeing it now, both through higher prices and the reduced quantity and quality of goods and services.

So if you’re upset you’re paying just as much for less cereal, toilet paper, tissue, and countless other products, that’s fine. Just make sure your anger is directed in the proper direction: at the people who “flooded the system with money,” and those who directed them to do so.t be kept.”

This article was adapted from an issue of the FEE Daily email newsletter. Click here to sign up and get free-market news and analysis like this in your inbox every weekday.

AUTHOR

Jon Miltimore

Jonathan Miltimore is the Managing Editor of FEE.org. His writing/reporting has been the subject of articles in TIME magazine, The Wall Street Journal, CNN, Forbes, Fox News, and the Star Tribune. Bylines: Newsweek, The Washington Times, MSN.com, The Washington Examiner, The Daily Caller, The Federalist, the Epoch Times.

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

Biden Administration Veering Off Into Authoritarianism

Government documents obtained from a DHS whistleblower show the agency’s Disinformation Governance Board is focused on U.S. citizens (not foreigners, as claimed), is engaged in operations (not just analysis, as claimed), and had begun work prior to the date DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas provided in Congressional testimony.

The whistleblower documents also show the disinformation board was seeking commitments from social media platforms to censor content it didn’t like.  A board leader held meetings with Twitter executives.

The board is currently ‘paused’ and the woman chosen to run it resigned.  After she left, Nina Jankowicz said anyone who criticized her and the board were “endangering our national security.”  Sieg Heil!   She had earlier said she shudders at the thought of free speech advocates gaining control of social media platforms.  Heaven forbid people should have their say.  You know, she can call it ‘disinformation’ but the fact of the matter is she’s talking about censorship, plain and simple – the silencing of opposition viewpoints.  But it’s worse than that.  She’s also talking about the imposition of government-approved viewpoints in their place.   We do not want the government in the business of deciding what is true and what is false for very good reasons I’ve laid out in previous commentaries.  She has proposed having supposedly “trustworthy” people like herself add ‘context’ to other people’s tweets.  This from a woman who had no trouble pronouncing the Hunter Biden laptop story Russian disinformation when no one any longer contests the laptop is genuine.  She was just plain wrong.  One small example of why we don’t want the government telling us what is true or what to believe.

And now we find our government was lying to us all along about the disinformation board.  They told us it was just a study group that would look at foreign bad actors feeding us bad information.  The fact of the matter is it is an operational group that was on the verge of using social media to censor U.S. citizens.  This is the iron fist of state control and it’s not the only way the Biden administration has been veering off into authoritarianism, lately.

The administration told schools to knuckle under to the transgenderism agenda or they would lose funding for school lunches and other federal programs.  Let biological males destroy your girls sports teams and allow them into girls locker rooms or the federal government will starve school kids until you submit.  South Dakota’s Governor has already vowed to fight this gangsterism in court.

The Biden administration in recent days has issued a secret subpoena to get the phone records of a journalist in a leak investigation and secretly been getting the results of home COVID tests from unsuspecting consumers.  Biden climate advisor Gina McCarthy threatened airlines with destruction unless they follow new sustainable energy rules.  They better go all-in on the rules “or they’re gonna be out of here,” she said.  She bragged in the same speech the administration would issue a hundred new rules on appliances this year alone.  This calls to mind Thomas Jefferson’s famous quote about King George who “erected a multitude of New Offices and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.”

Put all this together with Joe Biden openly talking about jailing political opponents who don’t follow his rules and the January 6th Committee openly persecuting its political enemies and you can see things are headed in the wrong direction.

Let’s get one thing straight:  these politicians and bureaucrats work for us.  We are the Sovereign.  They are not supposed to be censoring us, telling us what to believe, forcing their sexual agendas on us, secretly gathering data on us, or smothering us with swarms of new rules.  They might have the power to do so at the moment, but they are without question jack-booted thugs and you really should stop supporting them before they find a reason to come after you.

Visit The Daily Skirmish and Watch Eagle Headline News – 7:30am ET Weekdays

©Christopher Wright. All rights reserved.

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Stock Market TANKS 800 POINTS At The Open As Inflation Hits 40 Year High

That was once considered a bloodbath. Now it’s just another day under the Biden regime.

U.S. INFLATION HIT A NEW FOUR-DECADE HIGH IN MAY

U.S. consumer inflation reached an 8.6% annual rate in May, its highest level in more than four decades as surging energy and food prices pushed prices higher.

The Labor Department on Friday said that the consumer-price index increased 8.6% in May from the same month a year ago, marking its fastest pace since December 1981. That was also up from April’s CPI reading, which was slightly below the previous 40-year high reached in March. The CPI measures what consumers pay for goods and services.

May’s increase was driven by sharp rises in the prices for energy, which rose 34.6% from a year earlier, and groceries, which jumped 11.9% on the year. Prices for used cars and trucks rose 1.8% in May from April, reversing three months of declines. Shelter costs, an indicator of broad inflation pressures, accelerated on a monthly basis in May and were up 5.5% compared with a year ago.

Prices for energy jumped 34.6% from a year earlier, while the cost of groceries rose 11.9% on the year. Shelter costs, an indicator of broad inflation pressures, also accelerated.

LIVE COVERAGE OF INFLATION DATA

STOCKS FALL AFTER REPORT

AUTHOR

RELATED ARTICLE: Consumer prices reach highest rates in four decades

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

VIDEO: Mortgage Application Index Decreased to Lowest Number in 22 Years

More of what the Democrats ain’t telling you.

Homeownership is the bedrock of individual autonomy, economic security, social stability, personal well-being and wealth creation. It was the attainable American dream. So, too, the Democrats had to destroy it.

Mortgage-Application Index Falls to Lowest Level in 22 Years

A measure of mortgage applications fell to its lowest level in 22 years last week, another sign the U.S. housing market is coming back to Earth after a red-hot, two-year stretch. Applications fell 6.5% in the week ended June 3, the fourth consecutive week of declines, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. Refinance and purchase activity fell 6% and 7%, respectively. Higher interest rates have been weighing on demand for refinances all year, but now there are signs the slowdown has spread to purchase demand as well. Sales of existing homes in April fell to their slowest pace since before the pandemic. But even with sales slowing, home prices continue to rise thanks to a dearth of homes for sale. That means many would-be buyers are struggling with the twin challenges of double-digit jumps in home prices and higher borrowing costs (Wall Street Journal).

AUTHOR

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

THEY LIED: Newly Leaked Memos Expose ‘Disinformation Board’ To Be State Propaganda Machine

The DHS sought to partner with tech firms to censor content – not foreign actors (as they falsely contended) but Americans.

Unconstitutional but more to the point, they bald faced lied to the American people about it in order to extinguish our first amendment rights. All part of the rolling coup ….

Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., discusses leaked memos providing evidence of Biden’s real intentions for the disinformation board on ‘Tucker Carlson Tonight’.

Grassley, Hawley Press DHS on Disinformation Board Amid New Revelations of Efforts to Leverage Social Media Platforms

Docs suggest DHS sought to partner with tech firms to censor content

WASHINGTON, June 8, 2022 – The Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Disinformation Governance Board (DGB) would have served as a central clearinghouse to respond to matters the government unilaterally determines to be mis-, dis- or mal-information (MDM), and planned to coordinate efforts to leverage ties with social media platforms to enable the removal of user content, according to records obtained by Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.). The senators are now calling on DHS to turn over additional materials related to the DGB and DHS efforts to partner with big tech platforms to enforce its agenda.

“The First Amendment of the Constitution was designed precisely so that the government could not censor opposing viewpoints – even if those viewpoints were false. DHS should not in any way seek to enlist the private sector to curb or silence opposing viewpoints. It is therefore imperative for DHS to provide additional clarity regarding its policies and procedures for identifying and addressing ‘MDM,’ as well as its efforts to ‘operationalize’ public-private partnerships and the steps it is taking to ensure that it does not infringe on the constitutional rights of American citizens,” the senators wrote in a letter to DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

The senators’ letter references internal DHS records provided through protected whistleblower disclosures that illustrate how the DGB was designed to exert powerful influence over the government’s efforts to crack down on disinformation in areas where there are “clear, objective facts.” However, it remains unclear how DHS defines “clear, objective facts.” Documents show that DHS was not just focused on foreign disinformation but also issues at the heart of longstanding political debate such as theories about the validity of elections, the origins and effects of COVID-19 vaccines, and the efficacy of wearing masks.

Despite her long and well-documented history of embracing and spreading disinformation aimed at undermining Republican political figures, including President Trump, Nina Jankowicz was tapped to be the DGB’s executive director – a move that whistleblowers allege could have been because of her connections to Twitter executives. Documents confirm that Jankowicz knew Twitter’s head of policy and head of site integrity.

“Given the significant coordinating role the Department envisioned for the DGB, the consequences of installing Nina Jankowicz, a known trafficker of foreign disinformation and liberal conspiracy theories, as the DGB’s first Executive Director, would have been a disaster,” the senators wrote.

Following public scrutiny, Jankowicz resigned from the board, which DHS has reportedly “paused.”

In the letter, the senators raised a number of questions regarding how DHS determines what matters to prioritize. They are also seeking records related to communications regarding DHS’ efforts to enlist the cooperation of social media platforms to advance its policy goals.

The letter and internal records provided to the senators is available HERE.

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FDA Pushes To Authorize Novavax’s Covid-19 Vaccine Despite Serious Cardiovascular Safety Issues

Despite overwhelming evidence of the harm the Covid vaccines do and the FDA’s admission that  the vaccine carried the possible risk of causing heart inflammation, particularly in young males, similar to the Pfizer, Moderna, and AstraZeneca mRNA vaccines, they are pushing to authorize this poison.

The lies and deceit are monumentally criminal …… And the Medical establishment has destroyed the public trust by going along with this horror.

Sudden death is the most catastrophic contraindication of the vaccine but its effects are systemic, The uterus is also a biologically active organ because it’s always preparing a new inner wall monthly then tearing it down and starting again in a menstruating woman so that’s another big target of shitty spike vaccine.

And remember Covid19 vaccine has been linked to prion disease which is an incurable brain disease, a dementia like Creutzfeldt-Jakob.

FDA Pushes To Authorize Novavax’s Covid-19 Vaccine Despite Serious Cardiovascular Safety Issues

The FDA appears to have lost its high standard for drug safety and efficacy, and it is the American public who will suffer.

By: David Gortler, The Federalist, June 9, 2022:

Earlier this week, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had a public advisory committee meeting of the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC) to discuss an emergency-use authorization (EUA) request by Novavax for its vaccine to prevent Covid-19 in individuals 18 years of age and older. The committee voted to approve it.

It is clear that there is a noteworthy adverse event signal, especially cardiovascular-related events, following existing Covid vaccines and boosters. Based on available evidence, there is no reason to think the Novavax vaccine will be any different. Indeed, the FDA review of the Novavax “protein subunit” vaccine acknowledged the vaccine carried the possible risk of causing heart inflammation, particularly in young males, similar to the Pfizer, Moderna, and AstraZeneca mRNA vaccines.

In addition to the medical review, the FDA’s Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) database for Covid-19 vaccines shows a significant number of cardiovascular-related events in young healthy people in particular. To date, there are tens of thousands of reports of heart attack, myocarditis, or pericarditis in the United States alone.

The United States alone has accumulated a list of more than 800,000 reports of adverse events associated with these vaccines, with even more adverse events reported worldwide. Moreover, reported cases are well known to represent only 1–10 percent of the adverse events that occur in actuality. In short, the sheer number of cases — something we’ve never seen before — is cause for alarm to drug safety experts like myself.

Myocarditis and pericarditis used to be considered rare conditions. They are defined as inflammation of the heart muscle or layers of the pericardial sac, respectively. Both conditions cause easily recognizable echocardiogram (ECG) changes and have nonspecific symptoms that include shortness of breath and chest pain.

They can easily be diagnosed clinically with ECGs and treated by pharmacology, but in order for physicians to do that, the FDA label must recommend physicians look for certain symptoms immediately following Covid-19 vaccination. Failing to immediately diagnose myocarditis or pericarditis could have fatal consequences.

These cardiovascular adverse events were warned about in the FDA medical review of the Pfizer application, and the FDA receives new reports on cardiovascular adverse events on a daily basis. The FDA’s medical officer review, which was the basis for approving the Pfizer vaccine, notes that “clinically important serious adverse reactions [were] anaphylaxis and myocarditis/pericarditis.”

Patients Not Warned of Risks

But the problem is patients were — and are still — not being adequately warned or monitored for cardiovascular symptoms on existing Covid-19 vaccines. Pfizer should already have placed a warning on the label.

Pfizer, Moderna, and AstraZeneca should have already volunteered to warn all their patients about potentially deadly cardiovascular adverse events, as well as other adverse events trending upward in VAERS that are associated with Covid vaccine and booster administration. At a minimum, any Novavax vaccine should have a prominent warning informing the public about the risk of potential serious and deadly cardiovascular adverse events, but since Pfizer and Moderna aren’t doing so, neither is Novavax.

Adverse events from drugs were already the fourth leading cause of death prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, according to the FDA. Because Pfizer and Moderna’s cardiovascular and other adverse events were not taken seriously enough by the FDA to warrant more substantial labeling warnings, Covid-19 vaccine adverse events have become a major source of morbidity and mortality, per the FDA’s VAERS reporting system.

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