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Thursday, October 28, 2021

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AG Garland Grilled Before Senate Judiciary Committee Over Using FBI to Go After Parents

From the story: In the Senate hearing, Garland denied he would resolve the FBI’s investigation into parents, even though the probe was predicated on faulty information from the NSBA (Breitbart). From RNC Research: Senator @TomCottonAR calls Attorney General Merrick Garland’s response to the National School Boards Association letter targeting concerned parents “shameful” (Twitter). From Danny De Urbina: Sen. @TedCruz just broke AG Garland (Twitter). From the Wall Street Journal: It took a few weeks, but the National School Boards Association has apologized for sending a letter to President Biden suggesting that “threats and acts of violence” at school board meetings might be “domestic terrorism.” The NSBA now admits there was “no justification for some of the language included in the letter,” which could have parents investigated under the Patriot Act for trying to influence what their children are taught (WSJ). From Josh Hawley: Merrick Garland’s Justice Department has catalogued 13 federal crimes for which parents could be prosecuted for speaking out at school board meetings – but Garland says he doesn’t have time to review his Department’s own plans (Twitter).

Biden to Break $400K Tax Hike Promise

From the story: President Biden is about to break his oft-repeated promise to never raise taxes on anyone making less than $400,000 per year by doubling the taxes on cigarettes and hiking taxes steeply on all other tobacco products.

National Review

United States Amends Their Passports to Include an ‘X’ as a Gender

From the story: The Biden State Department announced new changes to U.S. passports Wednesday morning and will allow passport holders to list their gender as “X” on the international travel document (Townhall). From Ted Cruz: Joe Biden and his administration can’t give a clear answer on how many Americans they left stranded in Afghanistan but they had the time and attention to start issuing passports with the “X gender marker” (Twitter). From another story: Advocates, who praised the work of Zzyym, said the United States’ decision to join over a dozen countries that allow a third-gender option would allow people to travel as their authentic selves and possibly keep them safer doing it (AP).

Florida is Tied with Hawaii Among U.S. States with Lowest COVID Cases Per Capita

Press Release from Governor DeSantis: As a result of Governor Ron DeSantis’ leadership and our data-driven approach free of mandates, the State of Florida has one of the lowest COVID-19 daily average case rates in the last 7 days per 100,000 residents in the United States (flgov). From Breitbart: Notoriously blue states, even those which still have mask mandates in place, are reporting a higher volume of cases per capita. Illinois, for example, which still has a statewide mask mandate in place per Democrat Gov. J.B. Pritzker, is reporting 17 cases per 100,000. Washington, DC, which also has a mask mandate in place, is reporting 12 cases per capita. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s (D) Michigan is reporting 38 cases per 100,000, Gov. Tom Wolf’s (D) Pennsylvania is reporting 30 per capita, and Gov. Kathy Hochul’s (D) New York is reporting 19 per capita — three states which implemented severe restrictions throughout the pandemic last year and revived some of those mandates this year as well (Breitbart). From Zaid Jilani: When Florida has a lot of COVID cases, it’s all over the news, and there’s a link that’s drawn between DeSantis’s policy and COVID caseloads. When Florida drops to the lowest in the country, there’s dead silence (Twitter).

Man Wins $10 Million in Reverse Discrimination Lawsuit

From the story: Duvall claimed in a 2019 lawsuit that he was let go from his job in July 2018 because of the health system’s diversity efforts, and that he ended up being replaced by one Black woman and one White woman… The jury sided with Duvall, and said Novant Health failed to prove that it would have terminated him regardless of his race.

Fox News

Claim: ISIS-K Will Soon be Able to Attack the U.S.

From the story: U.S. intelligence shows that ISIS-K, the Islamic State group’s Afghanistan affiliate, could potentially have the ability to strike American targets in as little as six months, while al Qaeda can also increase its capabilities, a top Pentagon official said. Colin Kahl, undersecretary of Defense for policy, told the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday that neither terror group poses an imminent threat, but that they still must be taken seriously as that could change in a fairly short amount of time (Fox News). From another story: ISIS-K was behind the Aug. 26 suicide bombing outside Kabul’s international airport, which killed 13 US service members and 169 Afghans during the botched American military evacuation of that war-torn country. Earlier this month, officials revealed that the suicide bomber who carried out the airport attack had been released from an Afghan prison by the Taliban during their August offensive that toppled the Western-backed Kabul government (New York Post). From RNC Research: “We are fairly certain they have the intention” to attack (Twitter).

Elon Musk Calls Proposal by Democrats to Tax Billionaires Dangerous

From the story: Tesla CEO Elon Musk slammed the Biden administration’s proposed tax on unrealized capital gains Monday, warning Americans that the policy would set an extremely dangerous precedent (The Blaze). From Elon Musk: Eventually, they run out of other people’s money and then they come for you (Twitter). From Fox News: The proposal, if approved, would tax the unrealized capital gains of the country’s ultra-wealthy, including billionaires and those who make $100 million or more in income for three consecutive years. There are about 700 billionaires in the U.S., equating to about 0.0002% of the country’s population. The plan has already been endorsed by some Democrats, like Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, who has for years called on raising taxes on the wealthy (Fox News).

Texas Governor Signs Law Protecting Women’s Sports

Which ESPN called “Restricting transgender student participation” in their overtly biased headline.

ESPN

Roller Derby Team Sues Cleveland (formerly) Indians Over Name Change

The Cleveland Guardians, the roller derby team, is suing the MLB team in federal court in an effort to block the name change.

NY Times

10.

Need for Liver Transplants Soared During Pandemic

From the story: The results published in JAMA Network Open showed a positive correlation between the increase in the number of people on the waiting list for a liver due to alcoholic hepatitis and the increase in retail sales of alcohol during the pandemic.

CNN