It's repeal was a mistake.

A partnership between Skittles and the Gay Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation is evidenced by a new message on candy packages expressing support for the LGBTQ agenda.

Photographs of the new marketing campaign began showing up on social media on Friday.
https://twitter.com/libsoftiktok/status/1690061981729062915?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1690061981729062915%7Ctwgr%5Ed22e558a06f81a453d581d375ea10b6f018ebd60%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theblaze.com%2Fnews%2Fskittles-bud-light-trans-glaad

In one posted by the popular Libs of TikTok account, several figures are skateboarding on a ramp that includes the messages "Black Trans Lives Matter" and "Joy is Resistance."

Critics compared the marketing stunt to the catastrophic campaign that tanked Bud Light sales after Anheuser-Busch partnered with a transgender influencer in defiance of its traditional customer base.

"I wish I hadn't called it that," Biden said of Inflation Reduction Act.

"Because it has less to do with reducing inflation than it does to do with dealing with providing for alternatives that generate economic growth."

The Congressional Budget Office said the bill will do nothing to reduce inflation and, in fact, may have a negative imapct on inflation.

Similar to other Democratic initiatives, the bill Biden signed into law was simply another social spending bill that will worsen inflation and hurt hardworking Americans.
https://twitter.com/JenniferJJacobs/status/1689790565607448576?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1689790565607448576%7Ctwgr%5E662e59b983e7a4247fb1946ba5b00aafa8f81f19%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.americainsider.org%2F2023%2F08%2F11%2Fjoe-biden-just-admitted-he-lied%2F

Over fears of 'election manipulation,' 'bias and discrimination.' Do you think they have the interests of the masses at heart.

A left-wing dark money group is pushing for heavy regulations on the artificial intelligence industry, warning that rapid technology advancements made by "unaccountable Big Tech companies" could worsen "election manipulation" and "bias and discrimination," the Daily Caller News Foundation reported.

Accountable Tech, a nonprofit group dedicated to mitigating "Big Tech's societal harms," recently released a report advocating for AI regulations.'

Accountable Tech previously led a boycott effort against Elon Musk's takeover of Twitter. In a November letter, the group encouraged that platform's "top advertisers" to demand that Musk stop providing "a megaphone to extremists who traffic in disinformation, hate, and harassment."

"Under the guise of 'free speech,' his vision will silence and endanger marginalized communities, and tear at the fraying fabric of democracy," the letter read.

Accountable Tech is a project of North Fund, which describes itself as a nonprofit, "nonpartisan social impact organization" aimed at fostering a "more just, fair, and equitable" world. North Fund is one of several nonprofit groups managed by Arabella Advisors, a for-profit company that "partners with people and groups working to achieve philanthropic goals." Arabella Advisors, which has previously received funding from George Soros' nonprofit system, funnels dark money to various left-leaning nonprofits and individuals.

I took a look at BF and VF. I looked at Politics, Meltdown, and Assbox at BF. Politics was the only sub where I could read threads. I took a look at one thread in Politics and that was enough for me. It was all personal attacks and no discussion of issues. Calling Shen Li a dog eating communist was in a thread about left wing racism. 

As for VF, it is livelier than I have seen it in years. The two reasons appear to be Biggie Smiles participation and Blurt's reappearance. The former is the reason for the latter. But, it is not for the better. The lame, but predictable "your forum is dead", no your forum is dead was present. We all post on the various forums so that it is a pretty stupid thing to say, but it is typical of Kuklinski who crawls out of the woodwork whenever a conservative shows up at VF.

Beyond that, there were accusations of pedophilia, go back to your forum and of course school yard insults. VF is a little different than this forum, SG and BF because they do not have a Politics or Rejected  type sub. So you have Blurt attacking the messenger rather than the message when indisputable facts of the Biden administration are posted. That is when he is not using obscure stats to falsely claim Florida is not a terrific place to live.

White House correspondent for Today News Africa Simon Ateba filed a lawsuit against the Biden administration on Thursday in a fight for press freedom after hundreds of reporters were stripped of their hard-pass press credentials.

The lawsuit, filed by the Center for American Liberty, accused the White House of "effectively banning Ateba and more than 440 other reporters."

In May, the White House press office announced it would implement stricter press badge restrictions, forcing journalists to reapply for hard-pass access by the end of July. Previously, press badges had been automatically renewed.

Ateba previously accused Jean-Pierre of "making a mockery of the First Amendment" and discriminating against reporters at smaller news outlets. According to Ateba, the press secretary had not taken questions from him in months.
https://twitter.com/Liberty_Ctr/status/1689784983479631873?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1689784983479631873%7Ctwgr%5E78ac666969c69d3d239e67e88b874f149f7a6ab1%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theblaze.com%2Fnews%2Freporter-simon-ateba-sues-white-house-in-fight-for-press-freedom-after-440-journalists-stripped-of-hard-pass-credentials

Can they be salvaged. They are some good threads that are ruined.

Leftist Joy Behar — who reportedly earns $7 million annually as a co-host on "The View" — said on Friday's program that "the economy is booming" and "people are having an easier time putting bread on the table" in a passionate defense of President Joe Biden.

NewsBusters noted that Behar "flipped out after hearing about a New York Times/Siena poll that found former President Trump could possibly beat" Biden in 2024.

Here's her stunning take on Biden's performance, specifically in regard to financial matters:

"Let me say something about Joe Biden. According to what I'm observing, the economy is booming, inflation is down, the stock market is doing well, people are having an easier time putting bread on the table, et cetera. He doesn't seem to be getting the credit for that — only 41 percent approval. Is it because they think he's old? Because I don't see anything else they can point to with him particularly."

Everything she said is one hundred percent wrong. Hey Joy, how much is a loaf of bread today and how much was it two years ago?

He says he cannot see all the subs. Normally I would never believe Joe,  But, Raven had a similar issue. Can one of you check his privileges to see if he is telling the truth and then change his permissions so that he can see everything or if he is lying for attention as usual.

Upper-income Canadians already pay a disproportionate share of taxes, and taxing them at ever higher rates could backfire in terms of increasing government revenue, according to a new study by the fiscally conservative Fraser Institute.

"Measuring Progressivity in Canada's Tax System, 2023" by Jake Fuss and Nathaniel Li, says the top 20% of Canadian families with incomes of more than $243,799 annually pay almost two-thirds (61.9%) of federal and provincial personal income taxes and more than half (53.1%) of total taxes.

By contrast, the bottom 20% of income-earning families are estimated to pay 0.7% of all federal and provincial personal income taxes and 2.0% of total taxes.

The study also says only the highest 20% of income earning families pay a larger share of total taxes than their share of total income, compared to other families.

While this is to be expected given that income taxes in Canada are paid on a progressive basis — the more a family earns the more it pays, proportionately, in taxes —  the study says "there is a common misperception ... that top income earners do not pay their (fair) share of taxes and that increasing taxes on this income group is an effective way to generate significant additional government revenue."

The problem, the study says, it that raising taxes on high-income earners ignores the economic consequences of doing so, which ultimately can result in less revenue for the government and harm the overall economy.

"In response to a tax increase, many taxpayers will change their behaviour in ways that reduce their taxable income through tax planning, avoidance, or evasion that results in governments raising less revenue than anticipated.

"Tax increases also reduce Canada's competitiveness with other industrialized countries, particularly the U.S., because increasing taxes on top income earners makes Canada a less attractive place to live and to work for highly skilled people such as doctors, scientists, managers, and software engineers ...

"The notion that top income earners do not pay their share of taxes rests on a shaky foundation" and a lack of  "analysis of how people respond to taxes."
https://torontosun.com/news/national/make-the-rich-pay-they-already-do-study

Many different brackets are ineffective. The flatter and simpler the better. I would like to see a tax code that could be written on a postcard.

In a rare burst of common sense, the new head of the United Nations body that assesses the science related to climate change, warns against over-the-top rhetoric that falsely suggests the world will end if global temperatures rise above the UN's target of 1.5 degrees Celsius.

Jim Skea, chair of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, says fear-mongering about the target is counterproductive.

In weekend interviews with Der Spiegel and the German news agency DPA, he called for a more balanced approach to addressing climate change

"We should not despair and fall into a state of shock" if global temperatures rise above the UN target, said Skea, a leading climate scientist and professor of sustainable energy at London's Imperial College.

"If you constantly communicate the message that we are all doomed to extinction, then that paralyzes people and prevents them from taking the necessary steps to get a grip on climate change ... The world won't end if it warms by more than 1.5 degrees."

Skea also said it's unrealistic to think changes can be imposed on people's lifestyles in terms of how they live and what they eat.

"Individual abstinence is good, but it alone will not bring about the change to the extent ... necessary," Skea said.
https://www.msn.com/en-ca/weather/topstories/editorial-un-climate-chief-cautions-against-hysteria/ar-AA1eBE6y#:~:text=In%20a%20rare%20burst%20of%20common%20sense%2C%20the,above%20the%20UN%E2%80%99s%20target%20of%201.5%20degrees%20Celsius.

Kids in developed countries can't sleep at night because of climate hysteria drilled into their impressionable minds. Calm down people.

He will not debate me. just like Biden will debate RFK Jr. I would love an issues based debate. No memes allowed. State your opinions and support it. 

"Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving."
ALBERT EINSTEIN

Republicans are not alone in their desire for transparency regarding President Joe Biden's alleged involvement in an international influence peddling scheme. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the president's top Democratic rival, similarly wants to get to the truth of the matter.

Fox News' Maria Bartiromo broached the subject of "corruption in government" on "Sunday Morning Futures," alluding to the House Oversight Committee's recent acquisition of additional evidence detailing the Biden family's finances as well as the alleged assertion by a corrupt Burisma executive, detailed in the FBI's unclassified FD-1023 document, that "it costs 5 (million) to pay one Biden, and 5 (million) to another Biden."

Bartiromo further intimated that it is not yet clear what American advantage, policy, or product Biden might have sold abroad in exchange for all the money that ultimately poured into his family's coffers.

While admitting he has previously dammed back criticism concerning Biden in the interest of "bringing people together," Kennedy, sitting around 16 points in the latest Harvard-Harris poll, said that the issues surrounding the Biden family are "now worrying enough that we really need a real investigation of what happened."

"These revelations ... where you have Burisma, which is a notoriously corrupt company that paid out, apparently, $10 million to Hunter and his dad — if that's true, then it is really troubling," said Kennedy. "It needs to be investigated."

"These revelations ... where you have Burisma, which is a notoriously corrupt company that paid out, apparently, $10 million to Hunter and his dad — if that's true, then it is really troubling," said Kennedy. "It needs to be investigated."

 Israeli lawmakers voted Monday to limit the Supreme Court's ability to strike down government actions, delivering a long-sought goal of the country's ascendant right-wing movement. The measure was pushed through despite months of massive civil unrest, international condemnations and pleas from business and security leaders to seek consensus in a bitterly divided society on the verge of chaos.

Lawmakers methodically voted down 140 amendments, just as they had shouldered through more than a thousand objections in a week of preliminary maneuvering and more than six months of nationwide protests. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — just hours after leaving the hospital where he had an emergency pacemaker implanted — sat calmly through the voting as shouts of derision rained around him, occasionally leaving for consultations. He took several phone calls, including from Israeli President Isaac Herzog, who was working feverishly to broker a last-minute compromise.

But in a dramatic and contentious parliamentary session, with shouts of "Shame!" chanted by demonstrators outside the Knesset and opposition members inside, the prime minister's coalition of right-wing, religiously conservative and ultranationalist parties stood steadfast.

Shortly before 4 p.m. local time, after opposition members had left the chamber in protest, government loyalists voted 64-to-0 to change Israel's Basic Law, stripping the Supreme Court of some of its powers of judicial review — a first victory in a more expansive push to rein in the judiciary, which has long been in a thorn in the side of Israel's right wing.

Netanyahu and some of his allies signaled that the vote was necessary to appease his most extreme coalition partners, and that there were no plans to push through other parts of the judicial overhaul. But other coalition partners said they were just getting started.

Across Israeli society on Monday, the fallout was fast and far reaching.

More than 10,000 military reserve pilots, cyber experts and other service members pledged to skip their training duties if the coalition pushed the legislation through. Netanyahu was scheduled to meet after the vote with the Army's chief of staff amid warnings from top generals that Israel's defensive readiness could be impaired if enough reservists follow through on that threat.

In judicial overhaul protests, Israel's soldiers face off against Netanyahu
The country's largest labor federation, which saw its own compromise proposal rejected on Sunday, has said it may call a general strike. Bankers warned that deposits and investments had already begun to flee the country. The shekel and the Tel Aviv stock exchange plummeted.

High-tech leaders warned that Israel's reputation as an open and innovative start-up incubator was at risk. The Israel Business Forum, a federation of 150 of the country's largest companies, shuttered malls, law firms and gas stations.

In the Octagon?

Fox News' viewership has historically leaned right and favored Republican causes. While the company wears a conservative face on air, it appears that behind closed doors, Fox is willing to lean left or in whatever other direction the wind is blowing.



Insiders have revealed to Blaze Media that Fox will subsidize some of the very activist groups that despise and seek the ruin of the network's viewers, evidencing a "complete disregard and hatred" for its core audience.



"Fox Giving" is an app in the company portal that facilitates charitable donations via the Canadian-based donation management platform Benevity. Fox will apparently match donations up to $1,000 to various organizations that satisfy the company's criteria.



While on its face, this appears to be little more than an attempt at corporate beneficence, the company is willing to match donations to the Satanic Temple, the Trevor Project, Planned Parenthood (and local Planned Parenthood branches), and the Southern Poverty Law Center – radical leftist groups antipathetic to conservatives and the values they hold most dear.



The Satanic Temple is an atheistic leftist organization that has distributed satanic literature to children; publicly performed "unbaptisms"; sought to ensure that women can legally have their unborn children killed by way of their "religious abortion ritual"; and erected statues of Baphomet on government property.





The Southern Poverty Law Center is a leftist grievance organization that tends to characterize conservatives, parental rights groups, constitutionalists, and those critical of big government as extremists and bigots. For instance, last month, the SPLC deemed Moms for Liberty an "anti-government extremist group." Fox, which the SPLC previously called a "megaphone" for far-right extremist groups, has even written up some of the SPLC's various scandals in the past, including the 2012 incident when a gunman attacked the Family Research Council, which he noted he had seen on the SPLC's "hate map."



The Trevor Project is an activist group that purportedly seeks to "end suicide among LGBTQ young people," but actively promotes gender ideology and woke propaganda. The group claims that "gender is a social construct" and holds fast to the notion that sex-change mutilations and cross-sex hormone therapies can be meaningful remedies for at-risk teens.



Planned Parenthood is not just in the business of exterminating the unborn, having executed nearly 9 million babies in its abattoirs since 1970, but is among the second-largest provider of cross-sex hormone therapy in the nation. The organization has battled Republicans' pro-life legislation around the country and has long supported Democratic candidates.



At one time or another, Fox News has appeared critical of these groups and/or the agendas they help advance — those that revile Christianity, characterize conservative mothers as extremists, kill the unborn, and promote child sex-change mutilations.



However, according to two current Fox News employees and one former Fox News producer, all three of whom spoke to TheBlaze on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals from the company, these same groups have ostensibly been eligible for a charitable top-up from Fox.



One source provided screenshots confirming the allegations, and two sources provided corroborating testimony.



A Fox employee personally took Rikki Ratliff-Fellman, director of programming at Blaze Media, through the company portal and showed her some of the donation matches seen in the screenshots.



Ratliff-Fellman said, "I watched this source physically log in to their company portal at Myfox.okta.com to confirm the giving app and to see some of the questionable charities and the donation match option for myself to verify nothing was photoshopped."



These insiders detailed how donations to the Satanic Temple, the SPLC, Planned Parenthood, and the Trevor Project would all receive 100% matching donations by Fox (i.e., $1,000 matching $1,000).



Planned Parenthood similarly gets a 100% donation match with funds ostensibly raised, in part, with the help of Fox News cable subscriptions.



One current employee stressed, "Fox pretends to care about Christians, but some of the stuff they push internally suggests otherwise. Glory holes, trans surgeries for kids, and potential donations to Satan are a huge slap in the face to every Christian at the company, and we resent it," adding, "It offends me personally that this company acts like they support Christians and yet they're literally willing to match $1,000 donation to the Satanic Temple."



Fox's internal donation policy states: "FOX will not match or provide volunteering rewards to : -Donations to organizations that discriminate on the basis of a personal characteristic or attribute, including, but not limited to, age, disability, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity characteristics or expression, marital status, ... pregnancy or medical condition either in its selection of recipients of the organization's services, funds, or other support; in delivery of services; or in its employment practices."



While Fox will apparently match donations to the Satanic Temple, the company further states it will not match or provide volunteering rewards to "donations made to organizations that are private and non-operating, or political, religious, or fraternal in nature."



TheBlaze has reached out to Fox News for comment, but had yet to receive a response by the time of publication.



The former Fox producer who spoke to Blaze Media indicated the liberal musculature behind the network's conservative face has been growing stronger in recent months.



"It became clear certain things weren't going to be tolerated on air any more after Tucker was gone. We were told: Lay off Dylan Mulvaney," said the former producer. "Once I realized we couldn't say certain things on air any more, I started to dig more into the reality of the corporate views."



That Fox might simultaneously ape conservative talking points while bankrolling leftist initiatives struck the former producer as an affront to the network's audience.



"It shows complete disregard and hatred for Fox's core audience, which is a huge part of the country. They watch believing Fox is speaking for them, when in reality it's a company participating in certain things that don't match their audience's values. [The disdain] is driven more by executives, lawyers, and HR than people realize, especially post-Dominion," said the former producer, referencing the company's $787.5 million settlement with Dominion Voting Services earlier this year.



Although the second current Fox employee who spoke to Blaze Media doesn't "want to blow up the company" over this revelation, they nevertheless found it "disappointing."



"Goes to show there's definitely a mismatch in values," said the second Fox employee. "Our business model has turned into 'just tell the audience what they want to hear.' It's about appeasing and assuaging the audience even though most people in the C-Suite disagree with their audience's values. It's manipulative."



The insider intimated that this and other capitulations at Fox to the woke left were a means of "signaling to whatever ESG police are out there ... 'don't come for us.'"



Just as Fox executives are allegedly pursuing the path of least resistance, the employee indicated that in the aftermath of the recent spate of firings, people at the company are similarly less interested in the "pursuit of the truth" and more in saving their jobs.



This seems to be a company-wide problem: "After Tucker was fired, I don't think anybody is safe, to be honest."



When asked about whether she reckons this to be mere capitulation to the "ESG police" or an indication that Fox News' conservative face was merely a mask, now lifted, Ratliff-Fellman told TheBlaze, "I never personally witnessed woke corporate policies when I worked at Fox News, and I was proud of my time there. However, this revelation is a sobering reminder for me to remain beholden to the values of our audience and subscribers."

https://www.theblaze.com/news/fox-news-whistleblowers-expose-companys-support-for-far-left-charities?utm_source=theblaze-breaking&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20230721EXCLUSIVE-FoxCharity&utm_term=ACTIVE%20LIST%20-%20TheBlaze%20Breaking%20News">https://www.theblaze.com/news/fox-news- ... ing%20News">https://www.theblaze.com/news/fox-news-whistleblowers-expose-companys-support-for-far-left-charities?utm_source=theblaze-breaking&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20230721EXCLUSIVE-FoxCharity&utm_term=ACTIVE%20LIST%20-%20TheBlaze%20Breaking%20News



While Fox's mainstream middle class viewers are horrified by gender reassignment surgery for kids, they are unknowingly supporting it. They have hosts who denounce ESG, but Fox donates to charities that actively encourage it.

New Zealand shooting – news: Gunman who killed two in Auckland was being monitored for domestic violence



A gunman shot and killed two people and wounded several others in a mass shooting in Auckland, New Zealand.



The gunman also died during the incident, according to police.



Police said at least five people were injured, including a police officer.



The 24-year-old gunman, who hasn't been named yet, was reportedly supposed to be on home confinement for domestic violence charges at the time of the shooting.



The incident comes on the eve of the FIFA Women's World Cup, which is due to kick off on Thursday.

https://www.aol.com/zealand-shooting-news-gunman-kills-224536848.html">https://www.aol.com/zealand-shooting-ne ... 36848.html">https://www.aol.com/zealand-shooting-news-gunman-kills-224536848.html

There are only two ways there will be path to victory for the GOP next year. The first is a strong third party candidate who siphons votes away from Biden. The second way would be for Trump to do the sensible thing and withdraw and then endorse a candidate for the GOP nomination.



Trump is losing the poll that matters most



According to FiveThirtyEight's polling average, Trump's unfavorable numbers are now at the highest that they have been since the aftermath of the Jan. 6 riot in 2021. His unfavorable rating is 56.3%, the highest it's been since Feb. 23, 2021. His net favorability is 16.3 points underwater. It has only been worse in February 2021 after the riot and December 2022 after the GOP underperformed in the midterm elections.



This comes after Trump was indicted in New York City over falsifying business records. On Tuesday, Trump announced that special counsel Jack Smith informed him he is the target of "the January 6th Grand Jury investigation" with four days to report to the grand jury, "which almost always means an Arrest and Indictment." Meanwhile, the Georgia Supreme Court unanimously dismissed his attempt to block Fulton County's district attorney from investigating him for election interference in Georgia in 2020.



Trump is a completely known commodity at this point, but consider this question: If there were to be any movement on his favorability ratings, do you think it is more likely that these indictments will convince people who dislike him to become fans or people who were fine with him to sour on his candidacy? The answer is very clearly the latter.



The focus on primary polls as the end all be all of the race for Republicans at this point is excessive. On July 18, 2019, Joe Biden was 13 points ahead of his nearest competitor in the Democratic presidential primary. He lost his lead to Elizabeth Warren in October, and Bernie Sanders led the polling by a substantial amount for most of the month of February 2020. Biden ultimately did win, but it illustrates just how drastically the landscape can change when the primaries get going. Those numbers can and will change; Trump's favorability won't.



Again, Republicans are one month away from even seeing the candidates in their first debate and six months away from actually casting votes. But we are now over three years away from Trump's four-year term, and he has no game plan to win back voters he lost in 2020 and that Republicans lost in 2018 or 2022. He has not offered an explanation for how he can win a general election after losing his most recent one. If Republicans want to win in 2024, that is the only thing that matters.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/trump-is-losing-the-poll-that-matters-most">https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opin ... tters-most">https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/trump-is-losing-the-poll-that-matters-most