Crossroads
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis Signs Election Integrity Bill into Law
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) signed an election integrity bill, SB 90, on Thursday, which implements a number of safeguards to protect elections in the Sunshine State, including limits on ballot box drop boxes, enhancements on voter ID requirements, and additional restrictions on voting by mail and ballot harvesting.
The bill itself prohibits the mass mailing of ballots — a point of national contention in the 2020 presidential election — while banning ballot harvesting, strengthening voter identification, and preventing “private money from administering elections in our state,” per a summary from the governor’s office:
While Florida already requires identification to vote, Senate Bill 90 will require additional identification information when changing any voter registration information, or requesting a vote by mail ballot, preventing fraud and securing the voter rolls.
The proposal strikes a reasonable balance for families and those in elder care facilities while simultaneously banning ballot harvesting by political operatives. Under this law, a person may not handle more than two ballots other than those of immediate family members. There is an exemption for ballots collected during supervised voting at assisted living facilities and nursing homes to make sure no undue burden is caused for Florida’s most vulnerable.
The proposal bans the mass mailing of ballots, ensuring that vote-by-mail ballots are only sent to the individuals that requested them, and only if requested for each election cycle they intend to vote by mail. The bill also increases election transparency, allowing each political party and candidate guaranteed access to observe signature matching reviews by the canvassing board, and allows for appointed watchers on their behalf.
May 6, 2021 | Nightly News Rebroadcast | Video: 52 Minutes 10 Seconds
Florida enacts a new election law, a congressman calls on the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to resign after uncovered emails show a union influenced certain reopening guidelines, and over 180 illegal immigrants are rescued from three stash houses in Texas.
Creepy Bill Gates Told Wife He Would Marry Her if She Allowed Him to Take 1 Beach Vacation a Year with Ex-Girlfriend
Bill Gates and former girlfriend Ann Winblad
Computer nerd Bill Gates made an arrangement with his wife before their marriage that he would spend a long weekend each year with his former girfriend Ann Winblad in North Carolina.
That’s a bit strange.
The New York Post reported:
After marrying his wife, Bill Gates would spend a long weekend every year at a cozy beach cottage in North Carolina — with his old girlfriend.
The billionaire Microsoft founder made sure the bizarre arrangement was part of the deal when he married Melinda French in 1994, he told Time magazine in a 1997 profile.
“We can play putt-putt while discussing biotechnology,” Gates said of his private getaways with fellow nerd techie and ex Ann Winblad — who is now happily married to actor Kevin Kline’s detective brother, Alex Kline, a source told The Post on Tuesday.
Gates even sought Winblad’s approval before proposing to his wife.
“When I was off on my own thinking about marrying Melinda, I called Ann and asked for her approval,” he said, adding that Winblad gave the other woman the thumb’s up.
The post Creepy Bill Gates Told Wife He Would Marry Her if She Allowed Him to Take 1 Beach Vacation a Year with Ex-Girlfriend appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.
The Fact-Checkers’ Prevarication: In Study Biden Shown to Lie Just as Effectively as Trump
Joe Biden’s presidency has created a challenge for journalists. An industry conditioned with 24-hour grievance content suddenly was at a loss; how do they function when they only want to coddle the current occupant of the Resolute Desk, and how do they come up with ways to enrage their audience with their dependable target both muzzled and apathetic these days? For the self-described arbiters of the truth it has been especially hard, as they had to downshift from the perpetual nitrous-fed 5th gear full throttle coverage of Donald Trump to coasting in neutral and steering with their knees.
Between the unwillingness to cover real stories, such as the border crisis, or the already mounting inflationary realities, and the charisma-vacuum that is the real Joe Biden we see them struggle, offering up desperate bits which suggest that Biden’s boring demeanor is actually a cagey strategy. As the media in general show signs of embarking on a four year sabbatical, one sector has already seen its members submitting Travelocity expense reports — the fact-checkers.
At the Washington Post their resident expert-FC Glen Kessler made the early declaration that, unlike President Trump, his paper would be using the 100 days in office to mark the end of their fact-check database on the president.
Showing an equal amount of reticence towards his assigned duty was CNN’s Daniel Dale. He began this Joe-voidance during the election, when following a debate he gave Biden high marks for verite despite there being about a dozen major crimes against the facts. He recently established his own standard for laying off of the president due to his volume of truthfulness.
So here are two of the more prominent names in the fact check realm essentially declaring that Biden is not in need of their assigned duties. This has been something of a fable being sold to us since he took office; Joe is just so darned honest that holding him accountable is not needed. But this is a claim that itself needs fact-checking.
Over at NewsBusters they performed a study of sorts on another of the noted outlets from this media realm — PolitiFact. Some of the numbers they came up with are interesting, and echo those hands-off tendencies from Kessler and Dale. During Donald Trump’s first 100 days, PolitiFact checked on his veracity 52 times; Joe Biden was corrected only 13. At the outlet, however, they were far more energetic with running defense and fact checking comments concerning Biden; they looked into lies told about the president over 100 times.
Court Hears CHD’s Arguments Against Facebook, Zuckerberg and ‘Fact Checkers’
Judge Susan Illston of the Northern District of California Wednesday heard arguments for and against the defendants’ motion to dismiss in the Children’s Health Defense (CHD) lawsuit, which claims that Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg and three fact-checking operations censor truthful public health posts and engage in racketeering activities against CHD.
According to CHD’s complaint, Facebook has insidious conflicts with the pharmaceutical industry and its captive health agencies, and has economic stakes in vaccines, telecom and 5G.
Facebook currently censors CHD’s page, targeting factual information about vaccines, 5G and public health agencies. Facebook-owned Instagram deplatformed CHD Chariman Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. on Feb. 10 without notice or explanation.
This is an important First Amendment case that tests the boundaries of government authority to openly censor unwanted critique of its narrative, attorneys Roger Teich and Jed Rubenfeld argued before the court. Attorneys Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and Mary Holland, CHD president, also are lawyers on the legal briefs.
CHD is a nonprofit watchdog group that roots out corruption in federal agencies, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), and exposes wrongdoings in the pharmaceutical and telecom industries.
CHD has been a frequent critic of WiFi and 5G Network safety and of certain vaccine policies that place profits ahead of public health. CHD has fiercely criticized agency corruption at the WHO, CDC and FCC.
Facebook has publicly stated it is assisting efforts of the White House, the CDC and the WHO to censor unwanted speech about vaccines. While earlier court decisions have upheld Facebook’s right to censor user pages, CHD argues that the social media giant’s open collaboration with government makes it a proxy for government censorship, violating the First Amendment.
The government’s role in Facebook’s censorship goes deeper than its close coordination with the CDC and WHO — it began at the suggestion of powerful Democratic Congressman and Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, who in March 2019, asked Facebook to suppress and purge internet content critical of government vaccine policies.
Facebook, Schiff and many other government officials use the term “misinformation” as a euphemism for any statement, whether truthful or not, that contradicts official government pronouncements.
The WHO issued a press release commending Facebook for coordinating its ongoing censorship campaign with public health officials. That same day, Facebook published a “warning label” on CHD’s page, implying that CHD’s content is inaccurate and directing CHD followers to turn to the CDC for “reliable, up-to-date information.”
CHD’s lawsuit also challenges Facebook use of so-called “independent fact-checkers,” which, in truth, are neither independent nor fact-based, to create oppositional content on CHD’s page, superimposed over CHD’s original content, about matters of heated scientific controversy.
To further silence CHD’s dissent against government policies and the pharmaceutical industry, Facebook deactivated CHD’s donate button and uses a variety of deceptive technologies, including shadow banning, to minimize CHD’s reach and visibility.
In short, the lawsuit contends Facebook and the government collude to silence CHD and its followers. Such tactics violate the First Amendment, which guarantees the American public the free flow of information in the marketplace of ideas.
The First Amendment forbids the government from censoring private speech — particularly speech that criticizes government policies or officials. As Justice Holmes famously said, “The best test of truth is the power of the thought to get itself accepted in the competition of the market.”
The ongoing COVID crisis makes the need for open and fierce public debate on health issues in our democracy more critical than ever.
Mark Zuckerberg publicly claims social media platforms shouldn’t be “the arbiters of truth.” Yet his acts to suppress critique of government officials and policies belie those pronouncements.
The court will decide whether Facebook’s new government-directed business model of false and misleading “warning labels,” deceptive “fact-checks” and disabling a nonprofit’s donate button passes muster under the First and Fifth Amendments, the Lanham Act and the federal racketeering statute. Those statutes protect CHD against online wire fraud and knowingly false statements disparaging to the organization, while the Constitution protects CHD against government censorship — even through third parties — and from uncompensated taking of its property interests.
“Mainstream media and social media giants are imposing a totalitarian censorship to prevent public health advocates, like myself, from voicing concerns and from engaging in civil informed debate in the public square,” said Kennedy.
Kennedy added:
“They are punishing, shaming, vilifying, gaslighting and abolishing individuals who report their own vaccine injuries. Anyone can see that this is a formula for catastrophe and a coup d’état against the First Amendment, the foundation stone of American democracy.”
CHD awaits Judge Illston’s ruling on the defendants’ motion to dismiss.
The post Court Hears CHD’s Arguments Against Facebook, Zuckerberg and ‘Fact Checkers’ appeared first on Children’s Health Defense.
Bannon’s War Room | Morning Edition Hour 1 | Recorded May 6, 2021 | Video: 48 Minutes 23 Seconds
Episode 926 – The Spirit of Saratoga … (w/ Elise Stefanik, Boris Epshteyn). “We still do not have an answer as to the origins of the covid-19 virus,” she said. “Every American deserves an answer from China.” Guests are: Elise Stefanik, Boris Epshteyn.
Josh Duggar Hearing: Homeland Security Agent Details Timeline of Child Porn Case
The agent said images allegedly found on Josh Duggar’s computer were “in the top five of the worst of the worst that I’ve ever had to examine”.
Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent Gerald Faulkner, testifying for the prosecution, alleged Duggar downloaded computer files depicting child sex abuse on May 14, 15 and 16 of 2019.
The files were initially flagged by a police detective in Little Rock, Ark., and then allegedly traced to Duggar’s IP address on a computer at his workplace at the time, the Wholesale Motorcars dealership.
One file, according to Faulkner, depicted child sex abuse involving children ranging from 18 months to 12 years of age. Faulkner described the images as “in the top five of the worst of the worst that I’ve ever had to examine.”
According to Faulkner, when homeland security officials raided Duggar’s car dealership and asked to speak with him, without informing him they were investigating child pornography, Duggar “spontaneously” responded, “What is this about? Has someone been downloading child pornography?”
Bannon’s War Room | Morning Edition Hour 2 | Recorded May 6, 2021 | Video: 48 Minutes 10 Seconds
Episode 927 – The Woke Praetorian Guard … Biden’s Secret Police and the MAGA Purge from the Military. “This guy is a critical race theory zealot, a huge proponent of the notorious 1619 project, huge proponent of the Black Lives Matter movement, proponent of all kinds of riots that have been going on,” Beattie said. Guests are: Boris Epshteyn, Darren Beattie, Rudy Giuliani.
Bannon’s War Room | Evening Edition | Recorded May 6, 2021 | Video: 48 Minutes 58 Seconds
Episode 928 – The Most Dangerous Place on Earth … America’s Brexit and China’s Threat to Taiwan. “We’re trying to hold them accountable they have violated multiple rules over and over again,” Stutts said. “And the people have had enough.” Guests are: Cpt. Maureen Bannon, Boris Epshteyn, Nigel Farage, Pressly Stutts, Frank Gaffney.
Lamar Co., Texas Democrats retain their party chairman despite racist comment
The head of the Lamar County, Texas Democratic Party, Gary O’Connor, offered his resignation after he made a racist comment about South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott.
O’Connor, who is white, called Scott, who is black, “an Oreo with no principles.”
After a furor over his remarks, O’Connor offered up his resignation.
However, the party reportedly turned down the resignation offer and is allowing O’Connor to retain his position.