Looking. Friday Funnies: Rough Justice. Just to break up the day but still being political. You got some cartoons or Giffs, feel free to post them.
Category: Uncategorized
Harvard professor emeritus Alan Dershowitz told Newsmax on Thursday that the 65 Project, a primarily left-leaning group of lawyers that is trying to intimidate lawyers representing former President Donald Trump in post-2020 election litigation or challenging those election results, “the most un-American group of people I have encountered in all my years of practicing law.”
David Brock, founder of Media Matters for America and a senior adviser to the group, told Axios in March 2022 the group’s method of intimidation is to “not only bring the grievances in the bar complaints, but shame them and make them toxic in their communities and in their firms.”
Such a move could violate the Sixth Amendment, which guarantees a right to “assistance of counsel for his defense.” There is a presumption the amendment provides defendants the right to retain counsel of their choice, although it is not absolute. Such intimidation by the 65 Project could thwart that right, according to Dershowitz.
“These are lawyers who ought to be themselves subject to bar association discipline,” Dershowitz, who was part of Trump’s legal team for his first impeachment, told “Carl Higbie FRONTLINE.”
Dershowitz said after he pledged to defend any lawyer pro bono who was targeted by the 65 Project for defending Trump or anyone in his circle, the group filed a complaint with the bar association in Massachusetts, where he lives. He said so far, nothing has come of it.
“I’ve now spoken to three lawyers who were asked to defend either Donald Trump or his co-defendants, and they all are reluctant to do it largely because of Project 65,” Dershowitz said. “This is McCarthyism, the worst form of McCarthyism. It violates the code of professional responsibility. And in numerous ways, it puts the profession in a bad light.”
Dershowitz said every American is at risk when there is a group of “distinguished lawyers, members of the bar, elite members of the bar, members of law firms, people who have held high office in bar associations, essentially threatening lawyers, threatening their careers, threatening their friendships if they continue to represent people this group doesn’t like.”
“It is the worst abuse of the legal profession I’ve seen in 60 years of practicing law, and this is one lawyer who’s fighting back,” he said.
Said Eddie Vale, communications director for the 65 Project, in an email to Newsmax: “Talk is cheap and if Mr. Dershowitz actually believes it he is more than welcome to file a complaint that we would be glad to litigate in addition to ours against him.”
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Looking. Clean your own house ProPublica before you go after the Supreme Court Justices. Recently Pro Publica has gone after several Supreme Justices. Claimed they weren’t revealing trips and gifts. But Pro Publica has dirty laundry of their own.
The organization, a self-described “independent, nonprofit newsroom that produces investigative journalism with moral force,” is bankrolled by charitable contributions. And while the group is transparent about the source of some of that money, it won’t say where millions of dollars of its funding comes from, according to the New York Post.
In the years 2020 and 2021, ProPublica accepted $6.3 million from anonymous donors, and a quarter of the group’s revenues in 2022 came from two unnamed donors.
Pro Publica is not an independent news organization. They are a far left media outlet that favors leftist groups.
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Obama Appointed Judge Rules ‘THERE ARE ONLY TWO GENDERS’ T-Shirt is Not “Protected Speech”
The First Amendment only applies when speech is sanctioned by the state.
A Federal Judge has ruled the First Amendment does not protect 12-year-old Liam Morrison’s right to express his opinion on a t-shirt while attending public school in Massachusetts.
In a June 16th ruling, Judge Indira Talwani said, “School administrators were well within their discretion to conclude that the statement ‘THERE ARE ONLY TWO GENDERS’ may communicate that only two gender identities—male and female—are valid, and any others are invalid or nonexistent.”
The Obama appointee went on to support the Middleborough, Massachusetts school’s assertion that the message on Morrison’s t-shirt — a statement of biological fact — constituted an attack on the identities of other students.
As previously reported by Gateway Pundit and elsewhere, the 12-year-old boy “went off on school board members after his school sent him home because he refused to change his T-shirt.”
On May 5, 2023, Morrison attempted an end-around to the rule by wearing the same t-shirt — this time, with the words “ONLY TWO” covered by a piece of tape with the word “CENSORED.” Once again, the school concluded he was bullying a “protected class.”
After failing to find an appropriate administrative remedy, Morrison’s father and stepmother assisted their son, Liam, in filing suit against the school district, Superintendent Carolyn Lyons, and Nichols Middle School Principal Heather Tucker.
The lawsuit alleged “violations of his First and Fourteenth Amendment rights,” and pointed out that Nichols Middle School commonly “observes events like ‘Pride Month,’ and ‘Pride Day’ in support of the ‘LGBTQ+ community.’”
Judge Talwani ruled that “the original message of the Shirt was not protected speech” and went on to explain how “the Taped Shirt did not merely protest censorship but conveyed the ‘censored’ message and thus invaded the rights of the other students.”
Even though multiple students began wearing the same shirt in an apparent act of solidarity with Morrison, Judge Talwani ruled that injunctive relief “is not in the public interest.”
“By contrast,” Talwani explained, “Defendants point to statutes passed by the Massachusetts Legislature prohibiting discrimination, bullying, or harassment in schools based on gender identity or expression, as well as directives from the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education requiring that schools provide a safe environment to progress academically and developmentally regardless of gender identity.”
It remains to be seen if any further legal action will be taken by Liam Morrison and his family, but the message from Judge Talwani is clear: The First Amendment only applies when speech is sanctioned by the state.
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Looking. Episode 4 the Tucker article. Well Tucker is out with another great Twitter article. He doesn’t mess around and gives it to old Joe.
Producer fired for this.
Short snip it of what Tucker had to say.
“On Tuesday afternoon, the Biden administration had Donald Trump arrested. It was a pretty big news story. You may have seen it just before 09:00 p.m. That night. As part of its coverage, Fox News ran two live video feeds next to one another. On the right, Donald Trump addressed his supporters in New Jersey. On the left, Joe Biden spoke at an event for the Secretary General of NATO in Washington. Beneath those videos, at the bottom of the screen, Fox’s banner read this way quote wannabe dictator speaks at the White House after having his political rival arrested. Those words were up for less than 30 seconds, but the effect was immediate,” Tucker said.
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Looking. GOP Congressman Stuns Woke Chief. I want to thank GP for this great article.
There is no more useless position in American society than the diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) positions ubiquitous throughout corporate America and government. One GOP Congressman expertly exposed this truism this week.
Rep Brian Mast (R-FL) on Tuesday queried Gina Abercrombie-Winstanley, the Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer at the Joe Biden’s State Department, regarding how these worthless diversity initiatives are put into practice when hiring.
The congressman first asked Abercrombie-Winstanley if being bald made someone a more qualified diplomat. The woke DEI officer chuckled and responded: “Not that I know of.”
Mast then asked if being 5’8″ (Mast’s height) or 6″3 made someone a better diplomat Abercrombie-Winstanley answered: “no, I don’t believe so.”
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Biden admin is preparing to target Americans’ gas furnaces amid stove crackdown
Biden’s green energy agenda targeting appliances, household items
Power the Future Executive Director Daniel Turner joined ‘Fox & Friends’ to discuss how the policies are ‘taking a toll’ on Americans and the broader concerns surrounding the push.
The Biden administration is expected to soon finalize regulations restricting which home gas-powered furnaces consumers are able to purchase in the future.
According to experts, the regulations — proposed in June 2022 by the Department of Energy (DOE) — would restrict consumer choice, drive prices higher and likely have a low impact on greenhouse gas emissions. The agency could finalize the rules targeting residential gas furnaces, which more than 50% of American households rely on for space heating, at any point over the upcoming weeks.
“This is a classic example of one size not fitting all,” Ben Lieberman, a senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, told Fox News Digital in an interview. “Every home is different, every homeowner is different and people are best off having a wide range of choices. They can work with their contractor to make the best decision for their home and their circumstances.”
“The efficiency standard would effectively outlaw non-condensing furnaces and condensing alternatives would be the only ones available,” Lieberman said. “Those are more efficient, but they cost more. And installation costs could be a big problem for some houses that are not compatible with condensing furnaces.”
“These efficiency measures not only reduce carbon and methane emissions, but also provide huge material benefits to American households in the form of cleaner air, modernized technology, and cheaper energy,” Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said after proposing the furnace standards last year. (Aaron M. Sprecher/Bloomberg)
Under the proposed regulations, DOE would require furnaces to achieve an annual fuel utilization efficiency (AFUE) of 95% by 2029, meaning manufacturers would only be allowed to sell furnaces that convert at least 95% of fuel into heat within six years. The current market standard AFUE for a residential furnace is 80%.
Because of the stringent AFUE requirements, the regulations would largely take non-condensing gas furnaces — which are generally less efficient, but cheaper — off the market. But consumers who replace their non-condensing furnace with a condensing furnace after the rule is implemented, face hefty installation costs.
BIDEN ADMIN CRACKS DOWN ON AIR CONDITIONERS AS WAR ON APPLIANCES CONTINUES
“There are some really technical reasons why this is such a concerning rule,” Richard Meyer, the vice president of energy markets, analysis and standards at the American Gas Association (AGA), told Fox News Digital in an interview. “It has to do with the ability for consumers to be in compliance with this new efficiency standard.”
“They’re going to have to, in many cases, install new equipment to exhaust gas out of their home. These higher efficiency units, or so-called condensing units — a lot of consumers have them in their home, but a lot of consumers don’t. So, this rule would require additional retrofits for a lot of consumers. And those retrofits can be extremely cost prohibitive.”
The AGA, whose members provide natural gas to more than 74 million customers nationwide, filed comments in opposition of the furnace rules with the DOE last year. The industry group has argued consumers would be better served if the agency allowed the free market to naturally increase product efficiency.
Overall, between 40-60% of the current residential furnaces on the market currently would be prohibited under the proposed regulation.
A new natural gas furnace is pictured at a residential home in Spanish Fork, Utah, on Oct. 19, 2021. (George Frey/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“What we’re seeing across the U.S. federal government and reflected, of course, in many states right now is an active policy push intended to address climate change,” said Meyer. “But the outcome is to restrict the options and availability of the direct use of natural gas for consumers.”
“AGA’s primary concern is, one, removing that option, that choice, from consumers,” he continued. “Two, in many cases, natural gas remains the lowest cost and even lowest-emissions resource for many consumers. A lot of the policies we’re seeing that are designed to restrict natural gas may end up having a counterproductive result and could increase costs to consumers and could increase the emissions associated with the energy use by those consumers.”
BIDEN ADMIN MOVING FORWARD WITH LIGHT BULB BANS IN COMING WEEKS
In its announcement last year, the DOE claimed the efficiency standards would save the average family about $100 a year and reduce carbon emissions by 373 million metric tons and methane emissions by 5.1 million tons.
Francis Dietz, a spokesperson for the Air-Conditioning, Heating, and Refrigeration Institute which represents heating equipment manufacturers, said his organization’s members are in favor of regulations that aren’t “overly stringent.”
“Our main goal in this is to have a rule that is reasonable enough so that there are still higher efficiency choices for consumers,” he told Fox News Digital. “So, you know, you would have one at a level low enough where it would be more affordable for consumers and others who felt they needed even more efficiency would still have some choices there. That’s really our main goal.”
Over the last several months the Biden administration has taken aims at several household appliances including gas stoves as part of its climate agenda.
The expected rule, meanwhile, comes amid a blitz of DOE rulemaking targeting appliance efficiency standards. Over the last several months, the DOE has unveiled new standards for various appliances including gas stoves, ovens, clothes washers, refrigerators, air conditioners and dishwashers.
And in December, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm touted that the administration had taken 110 actions on energy efficiency standards in 2022 alone. The energy secretary added that the regulations strengthened U.S. leadership in “the race towards a clean energy future.”
According to the current federal Unified Agenda, a government-wide, semiannual list that highlights regulations agencies plan to propose or finalize within the next 12 months, the Biden administration is moving forward with rules impacting dozens more appliances, including pool pumps, battery chargers, ceiling fans and dehumidifiers.
Under the DOE’s mission statement, the Unified Agenda highlights advancing “energy efficiency and conservation” as one of five central pillars. Broadly, Democrats and environmentalists have argued that electrification, banning natural gas hookups and implementing strict energy efficiency standards could help accelerate emissions reductions.
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Why Trump shouldn’t be charged. And if he is, he walks. Pence who didn’t have the power to declassify wasn’t charged. Biden will not be charged, so Trump who had the power (and did) declassify should not be charged. And that phony obstruction charge? If Trump declassified the documents, he was correct in saying he had no classified documents.
“The minute the president speaks about it to someone, he has the ability to declassify anything at any time without any process.” As long as it’s before the fact and several people were witness to the President doing just that.
Parlatore said that even if the report is true that there is a tape where Trump acknowledges the existence of a classified document in his possession connected to Iran and that it reveals the former president knew the material was classified and that he was not permitted to share it, prosecuting Trump might not be the best decision “because there are all of these other problems. Classification is not binding on the jury. You have to actually take these documents, show them to the jury, and then prove to them that it constitutes national defense information.” Former Trump attorney said.
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One of the snitches from the Obama days snitched on Joe. It’s being reported that one of the informants who’s been used during the Obama days is the one who spilled the beans on Joe.
The individual behind the information that then-Vice President Joe Biden was involved in a criminal bribery scheme with a foreign national is a “highly credible” FBI confidential human source who has been used by the bureau in multiple investigative matters dating back to the Obama administration, Fox News Digital has learned.
The information in the FD-1023 form, according to the whistleblower, reveals “a precise description of how the alleged criminal scheme was employed as well as its purpose” and details an arrangement involving an exchange of money for policy decisions.
But the far left extremists are claiming this was intel provided by Rudy and the Ukrainians. And even AG Barr dismissed it.
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Article was first published here.
The Dutch have a particular horror of fascism. They bravely resisted the Nazis during the Second World War, as the German occupation of the Netherlands cut off food and fuel shipments. During the “Hunger Winter,” which lasted from 1944 until the Allied liberation in 1945, at least 22,000 Dutch people died from malnutrition.
That experience branded the national character with a strongly libertarian streak. It also explains why, post-war, the Netherlands created the most successful agricultural economy on the planet out of the ruins.
Though smaller than the state of West Virginia, they became the world’s second-biggest exporter of food after the United States. And despite the temperate climate, farmers have developed a thriving fruit and vegetable industry, including growing bananas in greenhouses. Not even their damp lands have held them back; Dutch engineering has allowed productive farming to flourish below sea level. There’s a floating dairy farm in Rotterdam Harbor that provides the city with milk, butter, and yogurt while shoring up flood resistance. As a dairy farmer myself, in Scotland, I’m inspired by what my fellow farmers have pulled off.
The Netherlands’ particular history also explains why, at least initially, the Dutch were enthusiastic early members of what became the European Union; they were driven by a determination that a war on the continent should never happen again. But now Dutch farmers are turning against the EU—and their own prime minister—in a bid to fight for their most basic liberties.
That’s because EU climate laws have led the Dutch government to commit to reducing nitrogen emissions by 50 percent by 2030. To achieve this, the government has threatened to withdraw farmers’ licenses to farm because of their high nitrogen emissions, mainly stemming from cow dung and fertilizers. Without their licenses, farmers won’t be able to borrow money, putting many in financial peril. Farmers feel they are being scapegoated even though they farm efficiently. Nitrogen emissions in the Netherlands have fallen 50 percent since 1990—while airlines and other emitters show little restraint in the face of climate change.
Why, the farmers ask, are they being singled out?..
