Swedish health officials have announced the first infection of a new potent strain of Monkeypox (mpox) in the country, which marks the first official case outside of Africa.

Gov. Tim Walz drove drunk at the age of 31 years in 1995. It wasn’t just the drunk driving; it was the constant lying about it. A story by Andrew Kaczynski at CNN describes his history of lying about the story. In 2006, it was to help his political campaign. As court records show, Walz […] The post Weird Tim Walz Repeatedly Lied About His DWI appeared first on www.independentsentinel.com.

Der Spiegel and RND reported that the German Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) may soon be allowed to enter and search homes secretly. The plan is still in draft form. According to the draft, police could also install spyware on suspects’ computers or smartphones and conduct covert searches of their homes. These powers would supposedly only […] The post German Police May Soon Enter & Search Homes Secretly appeared first on www.independentsentinel.com.

In the polling today, in the 2024 presidential race between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, Harris now has the advantage in most of the polls. But the bottom line is that this remains a very, very close election. In the state level polling, most of the major swing states are within a margin of error in the Real Clear Politics polling average. That’s bad news for Harris because she has had the best three and a half weeks of any candidate in American history — an amazing three weeks. She took her boss and dumped his body on the side of the road, then took his spot. There have been 26 consecutive days — virtually a whole month — of no questions from journalists after the most controversial political move in the history of modern American politics, ousting the sitting nominee, who had gotten every single primary vote while she received zero. Everyone went their merry way while she proceeded to spell out zero serious policy proposals. And yet… And yet, she is not soaring to a 10-point lead. This raises the question, will there be a Trump bounce-back? Will this sugar-high for Harris wear off, or will the media be able to pump life into this inflatable doll of a candidate all the way up into the election? Politico has a rundown on some of the numbers, and they show a few reasons for serious concern for the Harris campaign.  The first reason for concern: On June 27, before she had finished dumping her boss, her favorability rating was 39%. Today, according to the Real Clear Politics polling average, she’s at 45% — not at 60%, not at 70%. But 45%. And she has not been grazed. She has not been tarnished in any way. Not a single one of her policies has come under serious scrutiny, even when she’s stealing policies from the Trump campaign. Nobody has even dinged her yet. WATCH: The Ben Shapiro Show But here is the big stat for Kamala Harris: On June 27, only 25% of Americans thought America was moving in the right direction. Today, 25% of Americans still think America is moving in the right direction. That is the number that should be dispositive for the election. If you think the country is moving in the wrong direction, presumably you don’t like the leadership class, which means that Harris has to maintain the lie that she is a change in direction. She cannot say don’t change horses in the middle of the stream because everybody wants to change horses in the middle of this particular stream. She must distance herself from Joe Biden because only a quarter of Americans like the direction America is going. If she is stapled to Biden, then she’s not the one who is a change in direction. So, her strategic moves right now are to hide and distance herself from Biden as fast as humanly possible. The Democratic Party has made it clear they have no plans to allow this woman to talk unscripted at any point. They are not going to allow her to do it. The debate is going to be the height of it, and she is going to be protected by her Praetorian Guard at ABC News. It’s the reason why she won’t commit to three debates. But why should she only get one debate? She’s a brand-new candidate. It’s not as though we’ve seen her debate Trump before. She’s a completely different person and candidate from the first time she ran in 2019 and 2020. So shouldn’t we get three debates? Why one?  The answer is: because she’s a coward. She’s running and screaming from anything that looks like a question. Tickets for “Am I Racist?” are on sale NOW! Buy here for a theater near you. The bad news for Harris is that this bubble can’t last forever. She has to come back to earth. The reality is it is still only August 15. That means we still have three months until this election. She has not been dinged. She has not been scuffed. She’s not been bruised by questions. And she’s still not trashing Trump in the polls, which is not good news for her. Harris campaign spokesman Michael Tyler was asked on CNN whether Harris would commit to a press conference before the end of the month. He actually laughed, then replied, “We will commit to directly engage with the voters that are actually going to decide this election. … We are running a campaign that is built to communicate with the voters that are actually going to decide the pathway to 270 electoral votes. We are confident in the plan that we have in place, and we’re going to execute on that plan.” What he means by “we are confident in the plan” is that she is not going to answer any questions. None. She will not be out in public answering questions. Hide her. Stow her. Make sure she never says anything. Because here’s the truth: Kamala Harris is not smart. The truth is, the minute you get her off the teleprompter, she is a mess of a human being. She’s like every other actor in Hollywood, great when the camera is on and the lines are being provided, but the minute it’s improv time, they are in serious, serious trouble. There are two problems coming for her at the convention: Joe Biden, and the fact that a huge part of her base loves Hamas. Biden is a problem because he’s still lingering around the edges. He’s still hanging around whining about the fact that he was forced to drop out of the race by his own insiders, that he was stabbed in the back by Brutus and company. Biden’s policies are very unpopular, which means Harris has to disassociate from him. But if you’re Biden, you don’t want Harris disassociating from you. Rather, you want Harris to win off your back. You want Harris to win, but you want to be seen as the reason she won, not the reason she lost. You want to be seen as the person who stepped aside and handed her the keys to the kingdom, as though it was your generosity and the magic of your successful policies that allowed for the first black woman president. So this thing is just going to percolate and sit in the middle of the room at the Democratic National Convention — and it’s going to be awkward. Thus, the media are trying to help Harris out by actively shooting holes in Biden. After years of not reporting on Hunter Biden, they’re going to report on Hunter Biden because now it’s time. Since Biden’s not the candidate and they need to get him and the stink of defeat away from Harris as fast as possible, they’re perfectly willing to open up their guns on Hunter Biden. They need Joe Biden shuttled off to the side. They need something that implicates Joe but does not implicate Kamala. So it can’t be the Biden-Harris policies. It can’t be the failures of the administration. So over the next few weeks, there will be stories about Biden, corruption in the Biden family, more reasons why Biden couldn’t be the presidential nominee, and why Harris is so wildly different from Biden. Second, major non-governmental organizations which hate Israel and hate Jews are going to be sponsoring massive marches on the DNC throughout the convention. Many of those groups have connections with terrorism. There are incipient problems for Harris. Don’t buy the hype. * * * WATCH THE TRAILER FOR ‘AM I RACIST?’ — A MATT WALSH COMEDY ON DEI

'This stuff never works'

Columbia University President Minouche Shafik, in office for just over a year, announced Wednesday that she would resign her position amid continuing backlash over anti-Israel demonstrations on campus. Shafik had been a holdout who remained at the helm of a university after she and other school presidents appeared in a series of House hearings this spring on antisemitism on college campuses.  “I write with sadness to tell you that I am stepping down as president of Columbia University effective August 14, 2024,” Shafik wrote in her resignation letter. “I have had the honor and privilege to lead this incredible institution, and I believe that—working together—we have made progress in a number of important areas.”  The presidents of Harvard and UPenn resigned shortly after their much-criticized hearing appearances. The last president standing now is MIT President Sally Kornbluth. Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., sharply criticized Shafik when she appeared before the House Education and the Workforce Committee. Stefanik pointed out that a Columbia professor had called Hamas’ Oct. 7 terrorist attack on Israel “awesome.” Shafik said that the issue had been dealt with, but the radical professor’s name remained on Columbia’s website. Israel went to war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip, which the terrorist organization governs, when Hamas slaughtered 1,200 and kidnapped about 250 in a rampage of rape, torture, and murder Oct. 7 in southern Israel. The Israel-Hamas war’s toll on Palestinian civilians in Gaza sparked sometimes antisemitic protests on university campuses and elsewhere.  A professor’s scolding was hardly the end of the saga for Columbia University. Anti-Israel protests continued at the school, with participants denouncing Israel, the New York Police Department, and the United States. The protests, which involved both students and outsiders, culminated with a violent takeover of Hamilton Hall, a building on campus. The NYPD was called in to break up the protest.  Soon after, Shafik and the school’s administration canceled Columbia’s commencement ceremonies. “Holding a large commencement ceremony on our campus presented security concerns that unfortunately proved insurmountable,” a Columbia spokesman said in a written statement. “Like our students, we are deeply disappointed with this outcome.” Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg—a Democrat who conducted the recent prosecution of former President Donald Trump—dropped nearly all charges against the protesters who broke into Hamilton Hall. Shafik’s resignation may mark the end of her time running Columbia University, but it hardly fixes the problems on her campus and others. Campus protests have quieted down for now, but schools largely have been out of session for the summer. It’s clear that those who protested the campuses are no less angry or fanatical than they were months ago, and they plan to continue with their disruptions. An organization called Columbia University Apartheid Divest recently called for the “total eradication” of Western civilization. “We are Westerners fighting for the total eradication of Western civilization,” the group said in an Instagram post, according to The National Desk.  The organization made the statement in support of protesters in Bengal. “We stand in full solidarity with every movement for liberation in the Global South,” the group said. “Our intifada is an internationalist one—we are fighting for nothing less than the liberation of all people.” A Columbia student who called for the murder of Zionists has deleted his later apology, The Daily Wire’s Kassy Akiva reported Monday. According to Campus Reform, students at Columbia and other universities plan to return to their anti-Israel protests when classes resume in the fall. The post Columbia University President Resigns, but School’s Troubles With Leftist Protesters Far From Over appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Turns out defending women’s sports is a no-go if you want a long career at ESPN. Samantha Ponder, host of “Sunday NFL Countdown,” has been fired, according to The Athletic. Supposedly Ponder, who was reportedly in a three year, $3 million-plus contract, was axed “for financial reasons, as ESPN nears the conclusion of its fiscal year at the end of September,” the sports publication, owned by The New York Times reported. Yeah, right. Just this January, ESPN put out a glowing press release about how “Sunday NFL Countdown” was thriving. The show “earned its most-watched regular season since 2019 and its second-best since 2016 … . The viewership marks a significant 8% jump from the 2022 season and was up 15% from the 2021 season,” the sports network boasted, noting additionally that “Sunday NFL Countdown” had increased its audience among women and young adults. Maybe the spike in viewers for the 2023 season was because Ponder was expressing popular views. Ponder made waves in May of 2023 when she retweeted former collegiate swimming champion Riley Gaines, who competed against Lia Thomas, a biological male, and has since become an outspoken advocate of banning men from women’s sports. I barely said anything publicly abt this issue & I’ve had so many ppl msg me, stop me in the street to say thank you+ tell me stories abt girls who are afraid to speak up for fear of lost employment/being called hateful. It is not hateful to demand fairness in sports for girls https://t.co/teNoMDWNW4— Samantha Steele Ponder (@samponder) May 25, 2023 “It is not hateful to demand fairness in sports for girls,” Ponder wrote on X. When a user accused of her being a “transphobe,” Ponder responded, “call me whatever names you want, but it doesn’t change the fact that it is inherently unfair for biological males to compete in female sports. It’s literally the reason they were separate in the first place + the reason we needed Title IX[.]” But that wasn’t the end of the controversy. USA Today sports columnist Nancy Armour warned, “Don’t be fooled by the people who screech about ‘fairness’ to cloak their bigotry toward transgender girls and women … . This is, and always was, about hate, fear, and ignorance.” It’s likely Ponder also received backlash from ESPN honchos for her posts. Her former colleague, Sage Steele, told Gaines her own social media posts about Thomas earned her a scolding. “I was asked to stop tweeting about it. I was asked to stop doing anything, saying anything about it on social media because I was offending others at the company,” Steele said in December, according to The New York Post. Meanwhile, it’s not like ESPN was banning all talk about transgender participation in women’s sports. In March of 2023, the network honored Lia Thomas during a special on … Women’s History Month. But it’s Ponder, Steele, and Gaines—not ESPN or Nancy Armour—who are expressing the view held by most Americans. A 2023 Gallup poll found that 69% of Americans believe that athletes should only be able to play “on teams that match birth gender.” In January, a poll by NORC at the University of Chicago found that 66% of Americans thought transgender girls should never or rarely be allowed to play on girls’ teams. More recently, Ponder praised Italian boxer Angela Carini, who forfeited her Paris Olympics boxing match on Aug. 1 against Algerian Imane Khelif, who seems likely to have XY chromosomes, not XX chromosomes. “Proud of this woman,” wrote Ponder of Carini. (Khelif, meanwhile, went on to win the gold medal for women’s boxing in Paris.) Earlier this year, Ponder also defended Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker, who came under fire from the Left for advocating, in a commencement speech at a Catholic college, traditional values and suggesting women would find fulfillment as wives and mothers. pic.twitter.com/ETbhk8OBsZ— Samantha Steele Ponder (@samponder) May 17, 2024 In an Instagram story, Ponder decried a petition to fire Butker as “unamerican.” “Personally, I agreed with a few things he said … especially that most women are more excited/proud of their families than their day jobs,” she wrote, although Ponder also noted some areas she disagreed with Butker on. If the bosses at ESPN were wise, they’d realize that Ponder’s views are the same as those of many of their audience members. Firing Ponder, who has been with the network since 2011, sends a clear message that genuinely feminist sports fans aren’t welcome. Sure, the network might point to football analyst Kirk Herbstreit, who recently shared his own views about transgender athletes. Responding to the question “Do men belong in women’s sports?” Herbstreit wrote, “Of course not.” Of course not. Ridiculous question https://t.co/SpwZ07zewv— Kirk Herbstreit (@KirkHerbstreit) August 6, 2024 But while Herbstreit hasn’t been fired (yet), he’s also a man. Ponder, as ESPN executives probably realize all too well, is more compelling on this issue. “Ponder had emerged as the only female voice inside Disney since Sage Steele’s departure to speak out against ‘trans women’ (as in men) competing in women’s sports,” writes OutKick’s Bobby Burack. So, Ponder had to go. If ESPN was about making money, it’s unlikely the popular Ponder would be fired. But like too many companies these days, ESPN seems to be about forcing its values on all Americans, not making money. No doubt, Ponder will land at another outlet. But Americans shouldn’t forget that ESPN has effectively sided with the men who want to be in women’s locker rooms and stealing records and wins from hardworking female athletes, not the women who just want a fair shot to compete. The post Coincidence? ESPN Fires Anchor Known for Defending Women’s Sports appeared first on The Daily Signal.