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Friday, August 16, 2024

JD Vance Accepts Debate Challenge From Tim Walz

National Review: Republican vice presidential nominee, Senator J. D. Vance of Ohio, on Thursday accepted a proposed CBS News debate in October against his Democratic rival, Minnesota governor Tim Walz, and challenged him to another contest on CNN (National Review). JD Vance: The American people deserve as many debates as possible, which is why President Trump has challenged Kamala to three of them already. Not only do I accept the CBS debate on October 1st, I accept the CNN debate on September 18th as well. I look forward to seeing you at both (X)!

Kamala Harris Announces Another Policy: Have Government Regulate Grocery Store Prices

National Review: On policy, Kamala Harris is starting to put some meat on her campaign’s otherwise bare bones. Her earliest attempt at setting policy involved brazenly appropriating Donald Trump’s plan to eliminate taxes on income derived from tips, which enthused neither progressives nor anyone else who understands how broad-based income tax relief actually works. But the vice president’s first real effort to expound on her own economic thinking is no less vacuous. Ahead of what her campaign is promoting as an economic policy speech on Friday, Harris previewed her plan to reduce consumer prices. So far, it seems her plan consists of simply ordering prices to be lower (National Review). Politico: Harris’ proposals show how she would expand Biden’s focus on price gouging and food costs, according to the plans detailed by her campaign. In addition to her push for the first-ever federal ban on price gouging by food corporations, she would also direct the Federal Trade Commission and state attorneys general to investigate and levy penalties on food companies that violate the federal ban, the campaign official said (Politico). Charlie Kirk: Price controls are Communism 101 but they “sound good” to the economic illiterate. Price controls are one of the oldest economic polices ever tried. They have always been a failure (X).

Arizona’s Supreme Court Allows Fetus’ to Be Called, “unborn human being”

Washington Post: As Arizona prepares to give voters the choice of whether to enshrine abortion as a constitutional right in November, the state’s Supreme Court has ruled that informational pamphlets sent out to all voters can use the phrase “unborn human being” to refer to embryos or fetuses. The court said Wednesday that the language “substantially complies” with impartiality requirements, backing the majority-Republican legislative council that drafted the language. Two justices dissented (Washington Post). Associated Press: The ruling comes as abortion foes have long worked to give embryos and fetuses the same legal and constitutional protections on par with those of the women carrying them. The issue was highlighted recently when the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos are legally protected children, forcing lawmakers to scramble to enact protections for in vitro fertilization (Associated Press).

UK to Introduce Law Criminalizing Criticism of Islam

Jihad Watch: Britain’s far-left government, under prime minister Keir Starmer, is preparing to introduce a blasphemy law that will criminalize criticism of Islam, following civil unrest sparked by uncontrolled illegal immigration and the Islamization of the United Kingdom. The National Secular Society (NSS) warned Tuesday that “adopting an ‘Islamophobia’ definition will inflame, rather than dispel, community tensions and division” and “undermine the right of those oppressed by fundamentalist religion to speak out, including women, LGBT people, and those who hold different religion and beliefs” (Jihad Watch). Billboard Chris: Douglas Murray on the absurdity of the West.” “We want everybody to have religious freedom except ourselves.” “We want to praise every tradition apart from our own.” “And we want to promote every belief system apart from the one that got us here” (X).

Tim Walz Has Taken No Accountability for His Stolen Valor Scandal

Charlie Kirk: JD Vance brilliantly summarizes why so many veterans are furious about Tim Walz’s lies about his rank and service: “Tim Walz claimed he carried a weapon in war, he’d never went into war.” “Tim Walz said he didn’t know his unit was about to deploy to Iraq when even his own press release at the time said that he knew exactly that.” “Tim Walz claims to be a Command Sergeant General, even had it printed on his challenge coin & he knew he never achieved that rank.” “This is not about disparaging anybody’s services including Tim Walz. This is about disparaging the dishonesty, and asking Kamala Harris why are you showing such poor judgement by standing by a guy who insulted our veterans and lied about his service” (X). MRCTV: Even though Democrat presidential candidate Kamala Harris has recanted her running mate’s false claim about his military rank on the Harris-Walz campaign website, Gov. Tim Walz still hasn’t retracted the lie on the official government website of the Minnesota governor (MRCTV).

President Trump Holds Press Conference Focusing on Inflation

Fox News: Former President Trump held yet another hours-long press conference Thursday — his second this month — in an effort to draw a stark contrast between his candidacy, policies and campaign versus his opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, who has been dodging the media since becoming the Democratic presidential nominee. Trump held a press conference Thursday at his Bedminster, New Jersey property. The former president and Republican presidential nominee stood at the podium with groceries on display, and delivered remarks focused on the rising costs under the Biden-Harris administration (Fox News). RNC Research: Kamala says tackling inflation will be a “day one priority” for her. Her “day one” was 3.5 years ago (X). Katie Pavlich: Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee for president, has refused to take any questions or interviews since President Joe Biden was forced out of the 2024 race for the White House on Sunday, July 21st. That press blackout has been going on for 25 days and counting (Townhall).

Biden to His Supporters: “Beat the hell out of them”

Axios: President Biden on Thursday took a victory lap on drug pricing in his first joint event with Vice President Kamala Harris since she became the party’s presidential nominee, building a case for their accomplishments. Biden said the “MAGA Republican Project 2025 plan” seeks to “repeal Medicare’s power to negotiate drug prices” and “put Big Pharma back in charge to do whatever they want.” “Let me tell you what our Project 2025 is,” he continued. “Beat the hell out of them” (Axios). Collin Rugg: President Joe Biden calls on his supporters to “beat the hell out of them…” After the crowd started cheering, Biden doubled down: “I mean it” (X).

ESPN Fires Talent in Cost-Saving Measures

Athletic: ESPN has fired “Sunday NFL Countdown” host Samantha Ponder and analyst Robert Griffin III, sources briefed on the moves told The Athletic on Thursday. The decisions were made for financial reasons as ESPN nears the conclusion of its fiscal year at the end of September, per a source briefed on the matter. Both Ponder and Griffin made more than seven figures. Each was informed of ESPN’s decision Thursday morning (Athletic). Kyle Becker: ESPN has FIRED Sam Ponder, who is one of the ONLY women at the network to speak out against biological men playing in women’s sports. Ponder made headlines in May 2023, when she agreed with swimmer Riley Gaines speaking out against Lia Thomas participating in women’s swimming. Ponder quote tweeted Gaines and said that it is not “hateful to demand fairness in sports for girls.” USA Today columnist Nancy Armour attacked Ponder for her views. She claimed that they reflected “bigotry” and were a “sham” (Athletic). Riley Gaines: ESPN is a joke. We stand with Sam Ponder (X).

Facebook Acknowledges Limiting Ads for New “Reagan” Film

RedState: The movie “Reagan,” starring Dennis Quaid as the Gipper, is set to open August 30, so you can pretty much guess Facebook’s first move: to try to dampen enthusiasm and diminish publicity for the film on their platform. Sure enough, that’s exactly what they did, according to Quaid and the movie’s marketers. Of course, Facebook says it might have been a “mistake,” but we all know that these “mistakes” by Big Tech almost exclusively occur when the subject matter has a conservative bent (RedState). Newsmax: Facebook admitted to limiting ads for Dennis Quaid’s new “Reagan” film, telling Newsweek: “While there are no restrictions on this page that would prevent the admins from posting, we did identify a handful of ads from this account that were incorrectly rejected” (Newsmax). Ed Morrissey: Big Tech interference and Protection Racket Media silence on such efforts to block conservative thought from the public square are two main reasons we keep urging readers to help us compete independently in the public square. Quaid warns everyone that Facebook intended to “censor the free flow of ideas,” apparently by building topic-related throttling mechanisms into their code so as to keep fingerprints off of their Big Brother tactics (HotAir).

10.

Disney Attempts to Throw Out Lawsuit of Wrongful Death Because Man Signed Up for Disney Plus

This is just evil. Just the News: Lawyers for Disney on Wednesday argued against a wrongful death lawsuit, claiming that the widower cannot sue them because he took part in a one month trial of Disney Plus years ago. The plaintiff, Jeffrey Piccolo, is suing the park for at least $50,000 in a wrongful death suit after his wife died at a restaurant in Disney Springs in October of 2023 due to an allergic reaction to nuts and dairy, despite repeatedly being assured her food would not contain nuts or dairy. Court documents obtained by CNN showed that Disney is trying to get the lawsuit dismissed because Piccolo signed up for a one-month trial of the company’s streaming service in 2019, which requires users to settle disputes with the company out of court, through arbitration. Lawyers also argued that because Piccolo used the Walt Disney Parks’ website to buy Epcot Center tickets, they cannot be sued by the estate of Piccolo’s deceased wife (Just the News). Washington Post: Piccolo’s attorneys wrote that Disney’s legal argument is “based on the incredible argument that any person who signs up for a Disney Plus account, even free trials that are not extended beyond the trial period, will have forever waived the right to a jury trial” (Washington Post).