'It’s the fact that she is qualified'

Menendez's legal team plans to appeal the verdict

A team of scientists from Northwestern Medicine and Brigham and Women’s Hospital have identified the cause of lupus, a devastating autoimmune disease that affects 1.5 million Americans. In doing so they also believe they’ve found a cure, or at least a more sophisticated treatment, and are currently working on developing a pharmacologic method of delivering […] The post Primary Cause of Lupus Discovered–and A Possible Way to Reverse It appeared first on Good News Network.

News the Penguin The Penguin Is Only the Beginning of a Batman Epic Crime Saga Universe The film is said to be the bridge between The Batman and its upcoming sequel. By Vanessa Armstrong | Published on July 23, 2024 Credit: HBO Comment 0 Share New Share Credit: HBO When Matt Reeves was writing The Batman, he realized that his Robert Pattinson-starring feature was just the beginning of what he and his producing partner Dylan Clark wanted to do in what they’ve dubbed the “Batman Epic Crime Saga” universe. In a conversation with Entertainment Weekly, Reeves first set his eyes on a show about the Gotham Police Department and then one about Arkham Asylum. The execs at Warner Bros. Discovery, however, nixed those projects and told him to “lean harder into the marquee characters.” From that note, The Penguin was born. The series stars Colin Farrell as Oz “the Penguin” Perkins and is, according showrunner Lauren LeFranc, “a Scarface story.” “We’re in Oz’s world,” LeFranc told EW. “We’re living in the underbelly of the city. Oz is a mover and a shaker. He can’t always be trusted. He’s very smart and very methodical, but he’s also extremely impulsive. You can’t predict what he’s going to do.” The show is also apparently a bridge between 2022’s The Batman and that film’s sequel, which is currently slated to come out on October 2, 2026. According to LeFranc, The Penguin starts a week after the events of The Batman, where the Riddler (Paul Dano) destroyed the sea wall and flooded Gotham, and goes “almost directly” into the sequel feature. Clark also teased in the EW article that we’ll see more shows set in the Batman Epic Crime Saga universe. “There’s another television exploration we’re going to do,” he said. “We’re looking at this entire world as it relates to who Batman is—the antagonists around them, all the crime that has to be navigated in the city—and trying to figure out where are the areas that are best to explore.” The Penguin is set to premiere on HBO and Max sometime this September. [end-mark] The post The Penguin Is Only the Beginning of a Batman Epic Crime Saga Universe appeared first on Reactor.

Excerpts Young Adult Read an Excerpt From Jill Baguchinsky’s So Witches We Became A queer, feminist spin on Stephen King’s The Mist. By Jill Baguchinsky | Published on July 23, 2024 Comment 0 Share New Share We’re thrilled to share an excerpt from So Witches We Became, a young adult horror novel by Jill Baguchinsky—available now from Little, Brown Books for Young Readers. For high school senior Nell and her friends, a vacation house on a private Florida island sounds like the makings of a dream spring break. But Nell brings secrets with her—secrets that fuse with the island’s tragic history, trapping them all with a curse that surrounds the island in a toxic, vengeful mist and the surrounding waters with an unseen, devouring beast.   Getting out alive means risking her friendships, her sanity, and even her own life. In order to save herself and her friends, Nell will have to face memories she’d rather leave behind, reveal the horrific truth behind the encounter that changed her life one year ago, and face the shadow that’s haunted her since childhood.  Easier said than done. But when Nell’s friends reveal that they each brought secrets of their own, a solution even more dangerous than the curse begins to take shape. Reading like a YA feminist spin on Stephen King’s The Mist, So Witches We Became is a diverse, queer horror about female friendship, the emotional aftermath of surviving assault, and how to find power in the shadows of your past.  From the author: High school seniors Nell, Harper and Dia are best friends on the spring break trip of a lifetime; even the presence of Harper’s overprotective older brother Harry can’t dampen the excitement of a week on a private Florida island. When Harper’s boyfriend Gavin and his friend Christopher show up, however, all hell breaks loose and the group finds itself at the mercy of the island’s old magic—a magic that holds a mysterious connection to Nell’s most closely guarded secret. In this exclusive excerpt, Nell and the others get their first look at the danger they’re in, and a hint of the dark fate they’ll face if they can’t find a way to escape. The island is awake—and it’s hungry. Chapter 11 “What the hell, Harper?” “Jesus, Harry, calm down.” Harper shoves her fishing rod into Tris’s hands and squares her shoulders, prepping for Round Two in the Spring Break Battle of the Siblings: Brawl by the Bay. Harry pushes a hand through his hair. “Everyone back to shore!” he yells, nostrils flaring. “Now!” I’ve never seen Harry so angry. Dia stares up from the floating dock, eyes wide, looking like she doesn’t know whether to pee her pants or fling herself into his arms. Even Harper hesitates; her mouth opens as a screaming fit builds, but then she ducks her head and stomps down the long dock. We all follow, meekly filing into the house and gathering in an uncertain flock near the front door. Harry stops long enough to grab the empty beer cans from the back porch and grunt, “Really?” Inside, he points at Gavin and Christopher. “You two. Leave.” Gavin’s jaw tightens. He inhales. He’s not as tall as Harry, but he swims and runs track, which builds more strength than Harry’s history books. The muscles in Gavin’s arms tense, and I worry that punches are about to be thrown, but then he exhales in a sharp, aggravated huff and drops his eyes. He snatches the blue-and-orange flask from the coffee table and pockets it, and he and Christopher take their beer cooler and head out the front door. Harry turns to Harper. “Got anything to say before I call Mom and Charlie?” “He was just visiting!” Harper’s stare hardens, her eyes dark under scrunched brows. “You knew the rules.” Now that Harry has cleared out the intruders, his tone creeps closer to normal. “No boys. No drinking.” “I didn’t know he was going to bring the beer!” “Uh‑huh. And I’m sure you didn’t have any, right?” Harper goes quiet. Buy the Book So Witches We Became Jill Baguchinsky Buy Book So Witches We Became Jill Baguchinsky Buy this book from: AmazonBarnes and NobleiBooksIndieBoundTarget Beside me, I sense Tris shifting her weight from one foot to the other. Her fingers graze my forearm. I wish I had the courage to reach down and catch her hand in mine. I want to apologize for causing her to be here for this mess. “I trusted you,” Harry says. “Mom and Charlie did, too. You couldn’t live up to that trust for even a couple of hours.” “I don’t fucking care about Charlie’s trust,” Harper mutters. Harry huffs out an exasperated sigh and heads to the porch to make the call. Before he can close the door or dial, he says, “Oh, now what?” We follow him outside and see Gavin’s BMW returning to the house. “Maybe the gate isn’t working,” Harper says quietly. “I can go down with them and—” Harry shakes his head and jogs down the front steps as Gavin gets out of the BMW. “What part of ‘leave’ don’t you understand?” Gavin stands still. “We tried. There’s something in front of the gate.” He looks a little pale. I squint, looking harder, thinking the sunlight must be playing tricks. “What?” Harry asks. “I don’t know,” Gavin says. His words carry a hesitant tremble. Gavin isn’t usually the sort to tremble. “It’s just… there.” “It’s some kind of cloud,” Christopher adds, getting out of the passenger seat. “It’s blocking the way.” This time, I do grab Tris’s hand. Her fingers twine through mine, squeezing. “That shimmer,” she murmurs, her words matching my thoughts. “I just drove through the gate fifteen minutes ago,” Harry says. “It was kind of hazy down there earlier,” I say. Harry frowns, rubbing his fingers along his jaw. “That was just a heat mirage,” he says, but his voice carries a new undercurrent of uncertainty. He saw it, too. He saw it and he dismissed it as something normal, something born of rational circumstances. But it isn’t normal, is it? I think back to the bus, the phantom ice cream truck, and my lost uke. Nothing about this place is normal. Finally Harry sighs. “Let’s go see.” We get into his SUV and follow Gavin’s BMW back down the dirt road. Whatever waits for us, it’s no mirage. What was once a light shimmer in the air has congealed by the gate. The haze has turned soupy and rust colored, hanging like a thick bank of fog between us and our only path off the island. It’s not quite solid, but it’s close—the gate beyond is a nebulous form ghosting behind the brown murk. It looks wrong, uncannily so. “What is that?” Dia looks at Tris. “Are there factories around here? Or a power plant? Maybe there was some kind of meltdown.” Tris frowns. “There’s a chemical plant inland.” “What kind of chemicals?” Harry asks. “No clue. The place almost got shut down over a spill when I was a kid. But if this stuff is from there… The plant is at least ten miles inland. And wouldn’t you expect the wind off the ocean to carry it away from the shore, not toward it?” “I don’t know what to expect at the moment,” Harry says grimly, pulling out his phone as our miniature convoy continues creeping toward the island’s only exit point. “There haven’t been any emergency alerts, at least not that I’ve gotten.” “I’ll see if I can find anything,” Tris says, but the search app on her phone stalls without loading properly. “Coverage out here usually isn’t this bad,” she mutters. Harry stares at the haze. “I’d really like to get us out of here, but we have no way of knowing if that stuff’s safe to breathe.” “Doesn’t look too safe to me,” Dia says softly. I nod, too unsettled to voice my agreement out loud. The chemical plant is a rational source to blame, but if the haze is from some kind of meltdown or spill, it would have to be catastrophic to spread this far. I almost say so, but something about opening my mouth right now feels unwise. I’m reminded of how I felt when I was little, keeping my jaw clamped shut as the shadow reached toward me. Somehow this feels too much like that. My shadow. I didn’t do my ritual last night. I have no reason to believe the haze is somehow related to that, but the coincidence tucks itself into my mind and stays there like a whispered recording on an endless loop. But what if? What if? We’re still about a hundred feet away from the gate when the BMW stops ahead of us and Gavin rolls down his window. “What’s he doing now?” Harry mutters. He gets out of the SUV, and we follow. The air here is heavy and still, with a bitter, metallic tang. We’re so near the ocean—the Atlantic is a short jog to the left—but there’s no salted breeze here to carry the haze away. I take a few steps toward the cloud, going beyond the BMW, and the air weighs on me, pressing on my shoulders like I’m hefting an invisible sandbag. My lungs burn with each inhalation, my throat contracting until I cough, still trying my hardest to keep my jaw shut. With a hand over my mouth, I retreat, walking backward because turning my back on the cloud seems like a very bad idea. Tris’s hand finds mine again, and she pulls me the last few feet to the SUV and holds tight. “We’ll have to drive through it,” Harry says, his voice hushed as if he’s afraid the haze will overhear. Gavin shakes his head. “I’m not driving through that.” “How else are we supposed to get off the island?” Harry asks, bending slightly to address Gavin through the window. “We need to get out of here.” “That shit stinks, man. And we don’t know how much of it there is!” “Can it get inside the cars?” Dia asks. Harry straightens and presses a hand to his forehead. “Look, whatever it is… It’s a chemical, a gas. I just did a whole presentation on the chemical weapons they used in the First World War. There were things the soldiers did to protect themselves. We can do the same.” “What? Are you going to dig up some gas masks or something?” Gavin scoffs. “Not actual gas masks, obviously, but…” Harry frowns. “Before they had those, they used cloth masks. They’d soak them in water, or a baking soda solution. Some of them even used urine.” “Jesus, Harry,” Harper says shrilly. “I’m not suggesting we do that, exactly,” he says quickly. “But if we tear up a couple of shirts, that’ll be enough fabric for everyone to have a few layers.” He looks at Tris. “Is there any baking soda in the house?” “There might be some in the pantry,” she says, although her tone is doubtful. “People leave staples like that behind sometimes.” “Okay, so maybe we can make a solution and soak the masks. We just need to wear them long enough to drive through that stuff. That way, if it can get inside the cars…” “There might be a couple of leftover painter’s masks in the garage, too,” Tris says, falling in line with his train of thought. “Great!” Harry says, now on a roll. “We should protect our eyes, too. Some kinds of gas can blind you. Sunglasses won’t do much. Are there any goggles for the pool? Swim masks? And we should cover up in case that stuff is caustic. Mustard gas used to cause horrible blisters; this might be like that. Jeans and long sleeves—” “Are you fucking kidding me?” Gavin snaps. He opens his door with enough force to shove Harry back a step and gets out of the BMW. “Wet masks and long sleeves? That’s what you’ve got?” Harry glares at him. “I don’t hear you coming up with anything better.” “Gav,” Christopher says from the passenger seat, his voice reedy. “Just drive through it. Come on.” “That might be our best option,” Harry says. “Get through it as fast as possible and hope for fresh air on the other side. It’s what Canadian troops did during poison gas attacks—charge in and get through. The French troops would retreat instead, but that didn’t—” “Shut up about wars,” Gavin yells. “This isn’t a war!” “We don’t know what this is,” Tris says. “Fine. We’ll drive. Right now.” Gavin points at Harry. “You first, though. You open the gate, and we’ll follow.” “The road’s not wide enough for us to drive around you,” Harry says. “Just go. Just…” He glances at Tris, an apology in his eyes. “Just drive through the gate. It’ll give.” “I’m not wrecking my car on that—” “Gavin, please.” Harper’s voice wobbles. “I’m scared.” “It’ll be fine, babe.” He drapes an arm around her and walks her a few steps away from the group. “I always take care of you, right?” “Can I ride with you?” she asks. “You know it’s a two-seater.” “But maybe Christopher could—” “Harper,” Harry barks. “Come on back. You’re coming with us.” “Go on.” Gavin gives her a soft push. “We’ll be right behind you.” Looking wounded, she comes back and puts her arms around her brother, their earlier argument forgotten. “I’m scared,” she says again. I think of the time she and I secretly streamed a slasher movie when we were eight and she had to run to her brother for protection after the killer chased a screaming woman through a night-draped forest. Harry exhales sharply in Gavin’s direction. “Just drive through the goddamn gate, man.” The air grows hotter, heavier. Gavin starts to argue again, insisting that the SUV go first, but Christopher interrupts him. “Just go, Gav. Come on.” Christopher stares through the windshield at the haze, his face pale. “We have to get out of here. Just go.” Gavin narrows his eyes, but he nods and gets back into his car. “Okay, okay. Stay close,” he says to Harry before rolling up his window. We pile back into the SUV, and Harry pulls up close to the BMW’s bumper. Beside me, Dia is shaking. I link my arm through hers; my other hand is still safe in Tris’s strong grip. “What if this is a war?” Dia says quietly. “You know, an attack. Some kind of chemical weapon.” “Then we’ll get through it and come out on the other side,” Tris says. “Whatever this is, there’s a rational explanation for it.” I still haven’t opened my mouth. I can’t shake the ghost of that long-ago terror, the fear that made me clench my jaw shut against the shadow. The haze is a mystery, but this feeling is too familiar, and I’m beginning to suspect our situation has nothing to do with a toxic spill or a chemical weapon. There’s nothing rational about this moment. I can’t explain that, though, not in any sane way, so I stay quiet and hope I’m wrong. Harry turns on his brights. Ahead of us, Gavin does the same. We can see the gate more clearly now, although it’s still like staring through etched glass. “What the hell is that?” Harper whispers. The gate is covered in… something. It looks like greasy black tar, shiny and wet. It’s on the ground, too, and on the plants and trees nearby, and on the low, flat bridge. It drips off the Straight Shot sign in thick, moldering glops like mucus coughed up and spat from a smoker’s lungs. “Come on,” Harry mutters when the BMW stops just before the bridge, its front bumper nearly vanishing into the haze. “Just fucking ram the gate already.” The BMW’s engine revs with a jarring metallic squeal as if Gavin is standing on the gas pedal, but the car stays put. After a few seconds, the sound dies off and the taillights go dark. “Why aren’t they going?” Dia says, her voice shrilling into a squeak. “Harper, call him.” Harry taps the horn. “Tell him to keep going.” Harper already has her phone to her ear. “The connection’s all staticky. I can barely hear him, but I think he said the car is dead.” “Damn it!” Harry smacks the steering wheel. The SUV’s engine shudders. “It’s the haze,” Tris says. “But we’re not even in it!” Dia yelps. “Doesn’t matter,” Tris says. “We’re close enough. That stuff is doing something to the cars. It might be interfering with the phone signal down here, too.” “That can’t be possible—” Harry starts, but he’s interrupted by another shudder, this one more violent. “That’s it. We need to get back to the house.” He puts the SUV in reverse but keeps his foot on the brake. Harper flails her hands toward the BMW. “We can’t just leave them!” “Tell them to get back here. Now.” Harper relays the message, and the doors of the BMW fling open. Gavin and Christopher leap out, the collars of their shirts pulled over their noses and mouths. They sprint toward the SUV. Gavin stumbles, his head whipping around to glance behind him. The movement causes his shirt collar to fall, exposing his face. He appears to gasp, open-mouthed, and he doubles over, coughing violently, retching like something’s stuck in his throat. “Gavin!” Christopher screams from next to the SUV. He freezes, caught between retreating and going back to help his friend. Gagging, Gavin glances up. He looks hunted, with the saucerlike gaze of a prey animal, but then he straightens and forces his feet to move. “Hurry!” Harry says as Gavin and Christopher scramble into the SUV, bringing that metallic smell with them. They slam the doors and Harry floors the accelerator, hurtling us backward while the engine shakes and sputters. With no time to fasten seat belts, Christopher and Gavin lurch out of their seats. Gavin’s chest crushes against the seat back in front of him, setting off another vicious coughing fit. I close my eyes and press my face against Tris’s shoulder, hoping Harry won’t fling us off the road and toward the ocean. A scream rises in my throat, forcing my jaw to unclench. The SUV makes it halfway back to the house and dies. “Run!” Harry yells, and we run. Excerpted from So Witches We Became, copyright © 2024 by Jill Baguchinsky. The post Read an Excerpt From Jill Baguchinsky’s <i>So Witches We Became</i> appeared first on Reactor.

House Republicans are raising concerns about the potential for more political violence, in this case against Supreme Court justices, following the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, and Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., point to the “recent incendiary rhetoric directed towards other federal officials, including in particular the men and women serving on our nation’s highest court.” Far-left activist groups and lawmakers have repeatedly threatened to restructure the court if the justices do not rule the way that these groups desire. And Justice Samuel Alito himself has said that the May 2022 leak of the draft opinion indicating Roe v. Wade would soon thereafter be overturned made the conservative justices “targets for assassination.” SCOTUSDownload “In light of the heightened rhetoric and the recent assassination attempt on President Trump, we remain concerned about the security and safety of all judicial branch officers—including and especially the safety of Supreme Court justices,” the Republicans wrote in a letter sent to Attorney General Merrick Garland on Tuesday. “As such, we request a staff-level briefing regarding the Department’s efforts and the steps taken to ensure and bolster the safety of Supreme Court justices,” they continued. “Please arrange for this briefing to occur as soon as possible, but no later than August 6, 2024.” Neither the Supreme Court nor the DOJ immediately responded to requests for comment for this report. From left, Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, then-President Donald Trump, and retired Justice Anthony Kennedy walk to the East Room of the White House for Kavanaugh’s ceremonial swearing-in on Oct. 8, 2018. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) The move follows the attempted assassination of Trump, in which a gunman fired multiple shots at the former president during a July 13 campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, about 33 miles north of Pittsburgh. A former fire chief, Corey Comperatore, 50, died shielding his family from the gunfire, and two other rally attendees were injured.  The Republicans contend that there is a preponderance of politically charged rhetoric that could spur more such attacks, and specifically point to threatening words from Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., in March 2020: “I want to tell you Gorsuch. I want to tell you Kavanaugh. You have released the whirlwind and you will pay the price.” Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh are two justices on the high court. At the time, Schumer was speaking at a rally in front of the U.S. Supreme Court, where justices heard arguments in June Medical Services v. Russo, involving an abortion provider challenging Louisiana’s 2014 state law requiring abortionists to have admitting privileges in hospitals within 30 miles of their facilities. “You won’t know what hit you if you go forward with these awful decisions,” he told the justices. A reminder that the upcoming #SCOTUS abortion decision comes after Schumer warned justices that they would “pay” for a wrong decision: “I want to tell you Gorsuch. I want to tell you Kavanaugh. You have released the whirlwind and you will pay the price."pic.twitter.com/KnhpYZQgSO— Mary Margaret Olohan (@MaryMargOlohan) June 18, 2020 About a month after the May 2022 Supreme Court leak to Politico, Kavanaugh’s family discovered that in the middle of the night, authorities had arrested a man just steps from their home—26-year-old Nicholas John Roske, who had traveled from California to Maryland with the express intent of killing Kavanaugh and two other justices. Roske told authorities that his assassination ambitions were spurred after he saw the justices’ home addresses posted online. Shortly after the leak, the radical pro-abortion group Ruth Sent Us posted the justices’ addresses and began urging protesters to go to the homes of the “six extremist justices” who likely voted for the opinion overturning Roe v. Wade—Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Amy Coney Barrett, Samuel Alito, and Clarence Thomas, along with Gorsuch and Kavanaugh. Far-left protesters from Our Rights DC and Rise Up 4 Abortion Rights joined these groups in targeting the justices’ homes, even though 18 U.S. Code Section 1507 forbids picketing or parading “in or near a building or residence occupied or used by such judge, juror, witness, or court officer” with the intent of intimidating or influencing that person. Garland has acknowledged that it is a federal crime to protest outside a judge’s home with the intent of influencing that judge, but he has not enforced that law, though both Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin and then Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan requested that he do so. Then-President Donald Trump shakes hands with then-U.S. Appeals Court Judge Neil Gorsuch after nominating him to the Supreme Court on Jan. 31, 2017. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) The Republican letter also noted that “last year, during a Senate Appropriations Hearing, Senator Katie Britt revealed that she had obtained a slide deck used to prepare U.S. Marshals for their protective details outside of Supreme Court Justices’ homes. Those slides downplayed the authority of the Marshals to arrest protesters and went as far as explicitly encouraging the Marshals to not make arrests.” “In particular, the training slides instructed Marshals ‘to avoid, unless absolutely necessary, anycriminal enforcement,’ stated that ‘making arrests and initiating prosecutions is not the goal,’”and noted that arrests of protesters should be a “last resort” and would be “counterproductive,’” the letter noted. “In light of the incendiary rhetoric directed toward Supreme Court justices, such a limitation onthe authority of U.S. Marshals is dangerous and misguided,” the lawmakers added. “Indeed, we have seen how U.S. Marshals can act decisively and professionally to prevent crime, as happened outside the home of Justice Sonia Sotomayor earlier this month.” A member of Sotomayor’s security detail shot an armed man during an attempted carjacking near her home in the early morning hours of July 5 in Washington, according to court documents, the Associated Press reported at the time. Though it has now been more than two years since the Dobbs leak, authorities have apparently been unable to identify the leaker. In January, the Supreme Court announced in an investigative report that authorities investigating the leak have, to date, “been unable to identify a person responsible by a preponderance of the evidence.” The post Safety of Supreme Court Justices Gets Renewed Scrutiny After Trump Assassination Attempt appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Editor’s note: This is a lightly edited transcript of the accompanying video from professor Peter St. Onge. President Joe Biden is out of the presidential race, dismissed by the donors who run the modern Democrat Party. As for the millions of primary voters who chose Biden, the deep state guardians of democracy, those acolytes of that fabled rules-based order … broke all the rules. For those following along at home, Joe Biden’s been demented—er, he’s had dementia—for years now. This was a conspiracy theory until roughly two and a half days ago, when mainstream media declared it true in the face of polling saying that Joe would lose the election to former President Donald Trump. At the moment, it looks like Joe’s replacement is his insurance policy VP, though there are murmurs that donors might replace Kamala Harris with somebody who is less annoying to voters, cackles and all. The first question is what this does to the election. My go-to is the betting sites, which are consistently more reliable than the so-called experts, and certainly more credible than the media’s gaslight polls. And, crucially, they take cheating into account. In short, betting markets say Trump had 63% odds of winning against Biden, and now he has 62% against Harris. So, she’s a stronger candidate than a screaming dementia patient who sniffs kids, but just barely. Still, for now, it’s Kamala for the Democrats’ nomination—betting markets say it’s 84%. Vice President Kamala Harris attends a White House celebration Monday for NCAA championship teams. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images) So, what would Kamala do to the economy? We don’t have much from Kamala on either the economy or the Federal Reserve, but what we do have says she’d be substantially to the left of Biden. On the Fed, Kamala was one of just 13 senators (including Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts) to vote against Jerome Powell’s nomination as chairman because he’s not inflationary enough. As vice president, she mostly just pushed the Fed to focus on diversity. On the broader economy, Harris mostly toed Biden’s line as vice president, so we have to go pre-Biden. As senator, Kamala was rated by the nonpartisan GovTrack as the most liberal U.S. senator—to the left of Warren or self-declared socialist Bernie Sanders. Kamala scored a 7% from the National Rifle Association and a 4% from Club for Growth, meaning she’s a gun-grabbing tax hiker. The New York Times described her as a “pragmatic moderate,” which means she’s a raging communist. In the Senate, Kamala pushed left-wing causes from affirmative action to sanctuary cities to a $10 trillion climate change plan. She voted against Trump’s tax cuts. And she voted against the Trump administration’s United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, a rewrite of the North American Free Trade Agreement, because it didn’t “confront climate change.” The one thing she has liked is the forever wars. We’re in the biggest presidential succession crisis since at least 1968. We don’t even know if Biden is of sound mind. So maybe Kamala will be president tomorrow. Or maybe donors will dismiss her out of the race altogether. What we can say is that everybody currently on the radar on the Dems’ side would be as bad or worse than Biden. There are still centrists in the Democrat orbit, such as Joe Manchin, John Fetterman, or Robert F. Kennedy Jr. But with left-wing donors in charge, though, none of them are in the running. As for the economy and government spending: If it felt like a runaway train with nobody in charge, now we know it’s a runaway train with nobody in charge. We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal. The post Kamala’s Economics Left of Bernie appeared first on The Daily Signal.

If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. The current White House appears to have elevated the protection of the concept of “social credit score” – a method of controlling citizens’ behavior championed by China – to a US national security issue. Namely – a letter originating from the Treasury states that a US state law that aims to prevent the introduction of a social credit score system represents a national security threat. The local press in Florida revealed the letter, sent by Treasury Department’s Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian E. Nelson to California Congressman Brad Sherman, a Democrat, referring to Florida’s House Bill 989, which became law this year. The Florida law, among its other provisions, aims to give recourse to customers of financial institutions who believe they are unfairly targeted by those institutions. Nelson’s letter notes that the law considers a financial institution deciding which customer to serve on any factor other than those that are quantitative and standard – an unsafe practice. And, banks are not allowed to discriminate against clients based on their affiliations or business sector, the US government official notes. As far as Nelson is concerned, this means Florida is restricting banks – and that this may be taken as “undermin(ing) efforts to promote national security.” Of course, Nelson would not say that the banks are essentially prevented from engaging in the “woke de-banking” phenomena, as a form of pressure and punishment of political opponents. Instead, the letter asserts that the law, and some other of the state’s legislative efforts, could be making “anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) and sanctions compliance programs” less effective. Florida Governor DeSantis’ office wants to make sure he understands the big picture correctly. “So let me get this straight: Duly enacted legislation to curtail the ESG agenda is a ‘national security threat’, but the current US Secret Service leadership is not?,” a spokeswoman for DeSantis said, the reference to the Secret Service having to do with the recent assassination attempt on Donald Trump. The mention of ESG, meanwhile, has more to do with the Treasury official’s letter and trying to frame the Florida law as a “national security” issue. The ESG initials stand for “environmental and social impact and governance” – and provide “performance metrics” that assess how an organization is doing when it comes to meeting “sustainability goals.” That’s a lot of words to describe the essence of one of the mechanisms behind what’s known as a “social credit score” system. If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. The post Treasury Department Attacks Florida’s Law Against Social Credit and Debanking appeared first on Reclaim The Net.

Want Up to the Minute on Assassination Attempt? Listen to Bongino

A recent Department of Justice lawsuit accused a prominent nongovernmental organization of subjecting unaccompanied children to “repeated” sexual abuse and harassment. The nonprofit responded to the allegations, claiming that the DOJ's complaint "does not present the accurate picture of the care and commitment our employees provide to the youth and children."Southwest Key Programs, a Texas-based nonprofit, partners with the Department of Health and Human Services to provide housing to minors who unlawfully cross into the United States without a parent or guardian. According to its website, the organization is “an integral partner in the U.S. response to the immigration crisis at our southern border.” 'The child’s accounts were partially corroborated by video footage.'The DOJ’s lawsuit claimed, “From at least 2015 through at least 2023, multiple Southwest Key employees have subjected unaccompanied children in their care to repeated and unwelcome sexual abuse, harassment, and misconduct and a hostile housing environment, including severe sexual abuse and rape, solicitation of sex acts, solicitation of nude photos, entreaties for sexually inappropriate relationships, sexual comments and gestures, leering, and inappropriate touching.”The suit alleged that some of the children were “threatened” by the employees to “maintain their silence” about the abuse. The organization was accused of “fail[ing] to take appropriate action to protect the children in its care.”According to the DOJ, the children impacted by the alleged abuse were as young as 5 years old. After unaccompanied minors are apprehended by Border Patrol at the southern border, they are placed with the HHS’ Office of Refugee Resettlement, which is responsible for providing humanitarian care and housing. The agency partners with several NGOs to provide these services, including Southwest Key.As part of its partnership with the federal government, the HHS provides NGOs with grants funded by American taxpayers.The DOJ’s complaint noted that Southwest Key is “the largest private care provider of housing for unaccompanied children in the United States.” The NGO operated 29 shelters, accommodating roughly 6,350 children.“Between fiscal years 2015 and 2023, Southwest Key received over three billion dollars in funding from HHS,” it added.During that period of time, the organization received complaints of sexual abuse and harassment “at the majority” of its facilities, the DOJ claimed.In one instance in 2022, an 8-year-old girl reported that a Southwest Key youth care worker “repeatedly” entered her bedroom at night to abuse her. The worker was also accused of inappropriately touching a 5-year-old girl and an 11-year-old girl. He allegedly “threatened to kill their families if they disclosed the abuse.”In 2019, a teenage girl passed a note to her teacher stating that a shift leader had “repeatedly raped, abused, and threatened” her.“She reported she believed that Southwest Key employees were covering to protect the Shift Leader because, among other things, he would regularly switch assignments with other staff so that he could be alone with her,” the DOJ’s lawsuit read. “The child’s accounts were partially corroborated by video footage of the Shift Leader entering her bedroom and her journal documenting abuse. In addition, employees observed the Shift Leader’s failure to follow bedroom check policy and routinely entering the child’s bedroom (as well as entering other children’s bedrooms) for periods of time without other employees present.”The DOJ’s complaint listed numerous other incidents of sexual abuse and harassment allegedly committed by the NGO’s employees. It is unclear how many children were allegedly subjected to the abuse.HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra stated, “HHS has a zero-tolerance policy for all forms of sexual abuse, sexual harassment, inappropriate sexual behavior, and discrimination.”“The U.S. Department of Justice’s complaint against Southwest Key raises serious pattern or practice concerns. HHS will continue to work with the Justice Department and oversight agencies to hold its care-giving programs like Southwest Key accountable. And we will continue to closely evaluate our assignment of children into care-giving programs to ensure the safety and well-being of every child in HHS custody,” Becerra added.The HHS’ Administration for Children and Families declined the Daily Caller New Foundation’s request for comment, deferring to the DOJ, which also declined to comment. Blaze News reported on the allegations against Southwest Key last week, but at that time, the NGO had not publicly commented on the lawsuit. A spokesperson for Southwest Key has since told the DCNF that it still partners with the HHS’ Office of Refugee Resettlement.“Southwest Key Programs’ primary focus is the safety, health, and well-being of each one of the children and youth we care for,” the spokesperson told the DCNF. “We continue to review the complaint, and it does not present the accurate picture of the care and commitment our employees provide to the youth and children.”Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!