Tuesday, August 27, 2024

August 27, 2024

Good morning,

Welcome to the news for independent thinkers

Leading the News . . .

Zuckerberg admits Biden admin pressured Facebook to censor COVID content . . . Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg admitted Monday that the Biden administration pressured Facebook to censor COVID-19 content and acknowledged it was wrong to stifle The Post's coverage of Hunter Biden's infamous laptop. In an explosive letter to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), Zuckerberg wrote that "senior Biden administration officials, including the White House, repeatedly pressured" Meta to "censor" content related to the coronavirus pandemic in 2021. The content the Biden administration requested that Meta take down included "humor and satire," according to the Facebook founder, and he said he regrets complying with certain demands. New York Post

Politics

Key senator behind Harris' rise to power withholds his endorsement for president . . . Montana's vulnerable Sen. Jon Tester will not be making an endorsement in the presidential election where Vice President Kamala Harris is running as the Democratic nominee, despite reportedly playing a role in her recruitment to the Senate. Tester previously served as chair of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee from 2015 to 2017, leading the efforts of the campaign arm to elect Democrats to the chamber when Harris first announced her senatorial aspirations. After Harris launched her California Senate bid, the Los Angeles Times reported in January 2015 that, according to an adviser, Tester was one of the players encouraging her to run. Fox News

Is Harris trying to bail out of the Trump debate? . . . Days after accepting her party's nomination at the Democratic convention in Chicago, Kamala Harris is trying to back out of the Sept. 10 presidential debate against Donald Trump. The Harris campaign previously accused Trump of cowardice for suggesting a new debate schedule after President Joe Biden withdrew his candidacy. Now, Harris wants to change the rules at the last minute. Politico reports that Harris has insisted that the microphones at the upcoming debate, hosted by ABC News, remain on at all times. Washington Free Beacon

Trump honors Afghanistan troops as ABC, CBS, NBC morning shows ignore anniversary . . . Donald Trump paid his respects to the 13 U.S. troops who were killed three years ago during President Joe Biden's withdrawal from Afghanistan — while the morning shows on the major networks ignored the anniversary. Trump visited Arlington National Cemetery, laying a wreath alongside Marine Corporal Kelsee Lainhart, who was partially paralyzed by the blast. Breitbart

Biden, Harris never reached out to relatives of troops killed . . . The families of U.S. service members killed at Abbey Gate in Afghanistan said they have never been contacted by President Joe Biden or Vice President Kamala Harris, three years after the administration's rushed withdrawal left 13 Americans dead and hundreds stranded. "There's never even been condolences [from Biden or Harris]. They just want to pretend it didn't happen," said Cheryl Juels, the aunt of fallen 23-year-old Marine Sergeant Nicole M. Gee. "They want to take credit for ending the war, but they don't want to take any responsibility for the way it all went down." Washington Free Beacon

Harris's Former Dem Rival Tulsi Gabbard Endorses Trump

Trump assassination attempt task force chair questions 'frozen' response to shooter . . . Republican Pennsylvania Rep. Mike Kelly, chairman of the House task force on the attempted assassination of Donald Trump, on Monday questioned what appears to have been a "frozen" response from law enforcement when they first spotted gunman Thomas Crooks. "I just want to know, who was quarterbacking it? Who was the one that made the decision? … And when the sniper already had the shooter in his sights and, what we've heard so far, he was waiting to get authorization to take the shot." Fox News

Secret Service bombshell: Mike Pence escape car left its position during Jan. 6 . . . The Secret Service failures at last month's Trump rally were foreshadowed in once-redacted passages from a Jan. 6 after-action report that was shared with agency brass weeks before the Butler, Pa., assassination attempt and exposed harrowing blunders that may have put the lives of Mike Pence and Kamala Harris in jeopardy. The redacted sections from a recently released Homeland Security inspector general report, obtained by Just the News, chronicle how Pence's escape vehicle left its post without explicit permission and left him stranded at an increasingly violent scene at the Capitol. Just the News

More than 200 former Bush, McCain and Romney staffers endorse Harris . . . More than 200 Republicans who worked for President George W. Bush, Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) or the late Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) have endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris, warning in a letter that a second Trump presidency "will hurt real, everyday people and weaken our sacred institutions." The open letter with the endorsement was first published Monday in USA Today, with 238 signatures. The group of former Bush, McCain and Romney staffers issued a similar letter supporting Joe Biden when he ran against Trump in 2020. Washington Post

Biden-Harris equity commission wants to disarm traffic cops . . . Criminals opened fire on at least 134 police officers during routine traffic stops from 2021 through 2023, federal data show. Now, an equity commission convened by the Biden-Harris administration wants to spend $20 million on a pilot program that would deploy unarmed cops to conduct traffic enforcement. The Advisory Committee on Transportation Equity, an Obama-era body revived by Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg last year, said in a report released this month that cops don't need to carry guns or tasers with them when out on the streets enforcing traffic laws. Washington Free Beacon

Culture

Harris coy on child gender transition, but groups that support it have her back . . . Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris has avoided addressing whether she supports transgender surgeries for minors—a far-left position that most Americans do not support. Yet a number of LGBTQ groups that endorse attempted gender transition procedures for children are eagerly backing Harris and her running mate Tim Walz. A few of these top LGBTQ groups are the American Civil Liberties Union, GLAAD, Advocates for Trans Equality, and the Human Rights Campaign. Daily Signal

National Security

Judge halts Biden administration program offering legal status to spouses of US citizens . . . A Texas judge ordered a pause on a Biden administration program that offers legal status to the spouses of U.S. citizens. The ruling was in response to a lawsuit from 16 Republican state attorneys general led by Texas who argued that the policy encouraged illegal immigration. U.S. District Judge J. Campbell Barker found some merit to their case. "The claims are substantial and warrant closer consideration than the court has been able to afford to date," Barker wrote. Washington Examiner

The claim is that Biden is rewriting law in order to legalize illegal aliens if they can just get someone to marry them.

International

French arrest of Telegram founder sparks fear of Western crackdown on free speech . . . The French government's stunning arrest of Telegram CEO Pavel Durov has increased concerns that technology entrepreneurs prioritizing internet freedom of speech will not find haven in Europe. The French government said Monday that the arrest was part of an investigation into the criminal activity of a "person unnamed" on several charges, involving complicity in organized fraud, possessing pornographic images of minors, drug trafficking and more. A former White House National Security Council aide warned X's Elon Musk, who spoke out in support of Mr. Durov online, to be "nervous" as a result. The leader of Rumble, a YouTube rival, quickly left the European continent. Washington Times

Money

Harris would tax the rich and raise taxes by $1T over ten years . . . Harris, the Democratic nominee for president, would increase taxes by about $5 trillion over the next decade and cut other taxes by more than $4 trillion. The federal government's total collections—projected at $63 trillion over 10 years—would be little changed, but the Harris agenda would shift who pays. Under her plan, taxes would go up sharply on some high-income households, and top marginal tax rates would reach their highest point since 1986. The wealthiest investors and company founders would encounter sizable capital-gains tax bills that they don't face under current law. Wall Street Journal

This is an innovative plan. Tax the rich. Who would have thought of that? Never mind that the top 1% of Americans pay nearly 50% of all income taxes. This will spur more people to try to get rich so that they can pay more taxes.

You should also know

Mariah Carey's mother and sister died on the same day . . . Mariah Carey's mother Patricia and sister Alison both died on the same day, the singer said Monday. "My heart is broken that I've lost my mother this past weekend. Sadly, in a tragic turn of events, my sister lost her life on the same day," the Grammy-winning singer said in a statement. Alison, who was largely estranged from Carey, died at 63 from complications with her organ function and that she had been in hospice care. Patricia was a Juilliard-trained opera singer who Carey credits as an inspiration to her from a young age. Associated Press

Lake Tahoe sees first August snow in 20 years

It's because of global warming.

Teachers are burning out . . . The share of teachers who say the stress and disappointment of the job are "worth it" has fallen to 42%, which is 21 points lower than other college-educated workers, according to a poll by Rand, a nonprofit think tank. As recently as 2018, over 70% of teachers said the stress was worth it. In surveys and interviews, teachers are most often pointing to a startling rise in students' mental-health challenges and misbehavior as the biggest drivers of burnout. Student behavior problems, cellphones in class, anemic pay and AI-powered cheating are taking their toll on America's teachers. Many are demoralized or leaving the profession. Wall Street Journal

Guilty Pleasures

Hundreds of bikers ride naked through the streets of Philadelphia . . . Hundreds of people in various states of undress cruised the streets of Philadelphia to cheers from onlookers Saturday evening in the 15th annual Philly Naked Bike Ride. The annual ride, which started in 2009, is billed as promoting cycling as a key form of transportation and fuel-conscious consumption. It is also meant to encourage body positivity. Organizers stress, however, that participants aren't required to ride completely in the buff, telling them to get "as bare as you dare." Associated Press

In other news, Western Civilization collapsed and died Monday as naked bike riders rode over its corpse.

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