Important Takeaways:
- Georgia’s state Senate on Tuesday passed a bill that would cut off public funding for gender-affirming care for adults, but the future of the legislation remains cloudy in the state House, one illustration of how the Republican-controlled swing state has been slow to join the blizzard of laws targeting transgender people.
- Senators voted 33-19 to pass Senate Bill 39, which would bar state money for gender-affirming care in state employee and university health insurance plans, Medicaid and the prison system.
- The measure was pushed by state Sen. Blake Tillery, a Vidalia Republican, who repeatedly characterized the bill as only affecting gender-affirming surgeries for minors until he acknowledged under questioning from Democrats that it actually covers a broad range of care for adults as well.
- “This bill is saying we’re not going to use state taxpayer dollars to pay for transgender surgeries,” Tillery said.
- If enacted, the bill would put Georgia, which previously partially banned gender-affirming care for minors, at the forefront of restricting funding for gender-affirming care for adults.
- “It doesn’t say if you’re an adult, you can’t have transgender care,” Tillery said. “It says if you’re an adult, you can’t use state taxpayer dollars to have transgender surgeries.”
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Important Takeaways:
- An official “mental health” app backed by the state of California is targeting vulnerable children with controversial propaganda involving the occult, the New Age, homosexuality, transgenderism, fornication, and more. The attack on biblical principles and precepts is clear. But critics are sounding the alarm.
- Under the guise of helping California teens with self-esteem and emotions, the new program, known as “Soluna,” features blatantly pagan and occult themes. From magicians and Tarot cards to channeling “that high priestess” and touting lesbian characters, the controversial topics are ubiquitous.
- One lesson is called “Tarot and Tidings: a holiday spread to protect your peace.” “This season, the cards are stacked in your favor,” reads the text. “This holiday tarot spread holds the secret to boundary-setting magic — meaning less chaos and more clarity.” The Bible refers to such practices as an “abomination.”
- The next card in the Tarot series features a “high priestess” where students are taught to “channel that high priestess” when family members ask “cringey questions” during the holidays. It then calls on students to “embrace the Hermit energy” because it is “where your magic grows.”
- Another lesson in the mental-health app is titled “Coming out to immigrant parents.”
- Yet another lesson teaching children about “physical intimacy” encourages fornication. “Taking that next step with someone special is a big deal! It can be an exciting way to deepen your connection,” the app informs children. “Ready to get spicy and safe? Let’s chat.”
- In short, as long as there is what the app calls “consent” and “protection” from babies and venereal diseases, the state scheme urges its victims to do “whatever you’re comfortable with.” It even encourages children to consider whether they want to be monogamous or polyamorous, having numerous sexual partners at the same time, as if this were normal.
- State authorities in California are using taxpayer money to fund these programs and also to promote them on radio stations, advertisements, schools, and even in movie theaters. The California Department of Health Care Services brags about the platforms as part of its nearly $5 billion “investment” in youth “behavioral health.”
- It is true that children today are in big trouble: CDC data show one in three high-school girls have seriously considered suicide. But the solution is not more of the indoctrination and propaganda that is driving the despair. These programs represent a horrific abuse of children and taxpayers, and the damage being perpetrated is incalculable. It must end.
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Important Takeaways:
- When you think about Hawaii, what comes to mind? Warm beaches, swaying palm trees and pineapples? Probably not a blizzard. But this week, meteorologists say hurricane-force winds and 2 feet of snow will grace the peaks of Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa in the island state.
- Winds of 120 mph were clocked at the Maui County comms station on the summit of Haleakala Thursday night, the National Weather Service reported. Over a foot of rain had fallen on the island of Maui in the last day, with 13.18″ reported at Red Hill. A number of roads were closed due to fallen trees and flooding.
- “A potent storm passing north of the islands is sending a cold front across the islands, bringing rain, thunderstorms, wind and even snow through Friday night,” AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Courtney Travis says.
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Important Takeaways:
- California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) cut $100 million from the state’s fire prevention budget in 2024 before residents in the Los Angeles area were hit by wildfires, Newsweek reported.
- Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass (D) slashed almost $20 million from her city’s budget for fire services for the current fiscal year, Breitbart News reported on Wednesday.
- Newsweek’s article, published on Friday, continued:
- The 2024-25 California state budget, which Governor Gavin Newsom signed into law in June 2024, slashed funding for wildfire and forest resilience by $101 million as part of a series of cutbacks according to an analysis by the state’s Legislative Analyst’s Office.
- However overall, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE)’s wildfire protection budget has increased sharply from $1.1 billion in 2014 to $3 billion in 2023, much of which took place after Newsom became governor in 2019.
- Speaking to Newsweek, a spokesperson for Newsom said that under the governor’s “leadership” the CAL FIRE budget had doubled from $2 billion in 2018-19 to $3.8 billion in 2024-25, whilst the department’s personnel went from 5,829 to 10,741 over the same period.
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Important Takeaways:
- ‘Tall and slim is the trend’, say retailers, because minimalist festive foliage does not block TV screens
- Christmas trees are getting skinnier as modern homes are getting smaller, growers have said.
- The “trendy” variation of the traditional festive centerpiece has been stripped back to stop sprawling branches blocking television screens and taking up too much floor space.
- The new-look trees, which have been dubbed “Treezempic” on social media, in reference to a drug used for weight loss, are proving to be a minimalist and budget-friendly option that saves people from having to rearrange their furniture.
- Oliver Combe, who has worked at York Christmas Trees for 40 years, told The Telegraph he had noticed a surge in demand for slimmer trees.
- “Tall and slim seems to be the trend this year,” he said, adding: “You only have to think how much bigger TV screens are than 15 years ago – trees are being edged out by screens.”
- Earlier this month, John Lewis reported that shoppers were shunning large Christmas trees in favor of smaller models, with sales of both 6ft and 7ft trees dropping 13 and 6 per cent respectively.
- It found that demand for smaller trees that measuring only 4ft 6in had surged, however, with sales up 55 per cent
- The retailer put the shift down to the shrinking size of the average living room in new-builds, saying homes are “just smaller now than they were a generation ago”.
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Important Takeaways:
- President Joe Biden and other elements of his administration have managed to evade the legal consequences meted out to Americans of other political stripes. Biden apparently figures his son should be afforded the same luxury.
- After repeatedly vowing he would not do so, and just months after declaring without qualification, “No one is above the law,” Biden issued a “full and unconditional” pardon for son Hunter Biden.
- The pardon gives Hunter Biden a pass on any crimes committed between Jan. 1, 2014, and Dec. 1, 2024. This 10-year window of clemency not only lets him off the hook for his felony conviction on gun charges and for his felony tax offenses, but also conveniently overlaps with the Bidens’ scandalous dealings with the Ukrainian company Burisma, where Hunter was appointed director in 2014, as well as with the communist state-linked organization CEFC China Energy and other questionable foreign entities.
- The brazenness and breadth of the pardon has stunned critics and fellow travelers alike, prompting even CNN and Politico to admit its “extraordinary” and “unprecedented” nature.
- “I am satisfied that I’m not going to do anything,” Biden told reporters in June, following Hunter’s conviction on federal gun charges. “I said I’d abide by the jury decision. I will do that. And I will not pardon him.”
- The pardon clears Hunter Biden for all offenses against the U.S. that he has committed or may have committed, “including but not limited to all offenses charged or prosecuted (including any that have resulted in convictions),” in the 10-year period.
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Important Takeaways:
- Facebook appears to have banned the accounts of multiple journalists just a few weeks ahead of Election Day.
- These are just the latest in a recent streak of prominent account bans, particularly of conservatives and conservative-leaning organizations, that have taken place on Facebook just before the 2024 election, an incredibly tight race.
- IJR Managing Editor Madison Summers was locked out of her account roughly three weeks ago without explanation or warning.
- Summers has tried everything — contacting Facebook support, changing her password, etc. — to get her Facebook account back, but nothing has worked.
- Eventually, she attempted to make a new account with the same email and received the following notification from the social media site:
- “Your account was disabled … If you think your account was disabled by mistake you can submit more information via the Help Center for up to 30 days after your account was disabled. After that, your account will be permanently disabled and you will no longer be able to request a review.”
- That is the very same message The Western Journal owner Patrick Brown and retired U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn received when their accounts were also disabled without warning in recent days (though Brown’s account was later restored the same day).
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Important Takeaways:
- Among the snow-capped volcanoes of the Pacific Northwest, Mount Adams gets relatively little love.
- There are more glamorous volcanoes to climb (Mount Rainier) or to ski (Mount Hood) or that have exploded in epically dramatic fashion in living memory (Mount St. Helens).
- Seismically, Mount Adams, located in southern Washington state, is relatively calm. The U.S. Geological Survey considers it a “high threat” volcano, but that’s a step below its “very high threat” neighbors, including all of those above.
- Earthquakes are normally detected around Mount Adams once every couple of years, while Mount Rainier could have some 10 to 20 earthquakes per month, said Jon Major, scientist-in-charge at the Cascades Volcano Observatory.
- So the alert earlier this month by the USGS that there has been a flurry of earthquakes around Adams got some attention from volcano watchers. There have been 10 earthquakes recorded there so far this year, including six in September and one this month, Major said, something he described as “a little out of character for this volcano.”
- Does this mean it’s going to blow?
- “Right now, there’s no cause for concern,” Major said in an interview.
- The recent earthquakes have been small — ranging from magnitudes of 0.9 to 2.0 — but the federal government has only one seismometer in the vicinity of Mount Adams, the second-tallest volcano in Washington state, so it is difficult to get precise information about their locations and depths. The agency is using the recent rumblings as an opportunity to learn more about this sometimes-overlooked volcano.
- USGS personnel have installed three new temporary seismic stations on Mount Adams, Major said.
- “If they start to pick up more earthquakes, or if earthquakes start to get larger — if they start to be shallow and more frequent — then we would probably start to take a closer look,” he said.
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Important Takeaways:
- ISIS calls for ‘lone wolves’ to carry out Ramadan massacre of Christians and Jews across Europe, US and Israel
- A top ISIS spokesman has called on ‘lone wolves’ worldwide to slaughter Christians and Jews en-masse in a chilling new declaration of terror.
- In a 41-minute-long recording to mark the 10-year anniversary of ISIS declaration of a caliphate in Iraq and Syria, Abu Hudhayfah al-Ansari declared Ramadan as the ‘month of jihad’ and urged extremists to launch attacks in the United States, Europe and Israel.
- He went on to urge Muslims to leave their homes and migrate to join up with jihadists and strengthen their ranks.
- Al-Ansari’s deplorable message comes after he launched a campaign in January entitled ‘Kill Them Wherever You Find Them’, in which he called for renewed focus on terror attacks and reminded Muslims that the Israel-Palestine conflict is a war on Jews, not just Israel.
- ‘It is a religious ideological war that will continue until we kill their antichrist under the banner of the Prophet of Allah… tighten the plans and diversify operations: Blow them up with explosives, burn them with incendiary bombs, shoot them with bullets, slaughter their necks with knives, and run them over with buses,’ he said.
- In the days after his announcement on January 4, ISIS affiliates claimed a flurry of fresh terror attacks, including the bombing of Kerman in Iran which killed over 100 people.
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Important Takeaways:
- Religious-themed designs banned from White House Easter egg art contest
- Children of the National Guard are prohibited from submitting religious Easter egg designs for the 2024 “Celebrating National Guard Families” art event at the White House.
- The art contest is part of the White House’s Easter traditions, which include the annual Easter Egg Roll. The flyer for the contest states that an Easter egg design submission “must not include any questionable content, religious symbols, overtly religious themes, or partisan political statements.”
- “As part of the White House Easter traditions, America’s Egg Farmers – for nearly 50 years – have proudly presented an intricately decorated Commemorative Easter Egg to the First Lady of the United States. In 2021, the White House expanded on this longstanding tradition by displaying youth-designed Easter eggs in the White House East Colonnade,” the flyer explains.
- An estimated 40,000 people are expected to take part in Monday’s annual event.
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