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Universal Orlando “evaluating” Dr. Seuss area of theme park

Universal’s Islands of Adventure in Orlando, Florida, is reportedly evaluating its Dr. Seuss-themed display in the park after a recent licensing and publishing cancellation of some Dr. Seuss books.

Dr. Seuss Enterprises announced on Tuesday that it would be suspending the printing of six of Dr. Seuss books, saying that the books “portray people in ways that are hurtful and wrong.”

Seuss Landing, the area of Universal’s park themed after the children’s books, includes a play area and a gift store based on two of the canceled books.

A spokesperson for Universal said that company will be reviewing the area.

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Texas judge and three others arrested on 150 counts of voter fraud

Medina County Justice of the Peace Tomas Ramirez was arrested on Feb. 11 and is charged on one count of organized election fraud, one count of “assisting voter voting ballot by mail,” and 17 counts of unlawful possession of a ballot or ballot envelope, KABB reports.

He was arrested with Leonor Rivas Garza, Eva Ann Martinez, and Mary Balderrama. All four were indicted by a Bandera Grand Jury on Feb. 9.

Garza, Martinez, and Balderrama were each charged with organized election fraud. They also face multiple charges of illegal voting, unlawful possession of a ballot or ballot envelope, election fraud, fraudulent use of an absentee ballot by mail, tampering with a government record, and purportedly acting as an agent.

According to the Texas attorney general’s office, the case against Ramirez and the others involves allegations of vote harvesting at assisted living centers in Medina County in the 2018 Medina County Primary Election. Ramirez was elected as a justice of the peace in 2018 and was suspended from his position after his arrest.

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China declares homosexuality a mental illness? Where’s LeBron? Where’s Disney?

This puts China’s defenders, nearly all leftists, in an increasingly untenable position.

Where’s LeBron James, whose claim to fame beyond basketball is defending China?  He’s got business interests there, and he’s said nothing.

Where’s Disney, whose family fare these days is more than a little gay-friendly?  They too have got business interests in China, and worse still, they made a movie on a Chinese theme complete with Xinjiang’s laogai forced labor camps accidentally appearing in the background.  They may be indifferent to the laogai, but let’s hear their reaction to this news from China.

Hollywood in general is co-opted by China; China has bought up major shares in nearly every major studio.  And Hollywood is also quick to jump for causes that can be called gay.  Weren’t West Hollywood’s denizens responsible for blacklisting people who opposed a gay “marriage” initiative?  Didn’t this bunch boycott the Beverly Wilshire over the Sultan of Brunei’s purchase of a share of it, the Sultan instituting anti-gay policies back in his satrapy?  Suddenly, we don’t hear much from Hollywood about this classification of gayness as a mental illness.

There’s also the Chamber of Commerce, the charmers who engaged in the “conspiracy” to “save the 2020 election,” as Time magazine reported.  They’re big China-boosters. 

And where’s Michael Bloomberg?  Bloomberg has famously refused to call China’s leader a “dictator,” giving a Clintonian dodge of “it’s a question of what is a dictator” to a town hall audience during his ill fated 2020 presidential run.  More disgusting still, he’s tried to ruin people who’ve spoken out about the hellhole.  Remember this, from The Intercept?

I AM ONE of the many women Mike Bloomberg’s company tried to silence through nondisclosure agreements. The funny thing is, I never even worked for Bloomberg.

But my story shows the lengths that the Bloomberg machine will go to in order to avoid offending Beijing. Bloomberg’s company, Bloomberg LP, is so dependent on the vast China market for its business that its lawyers threatened to devastate my family financially if I didn’t sign an NDA silencing me about how Bloomberg News killed a story critical of Chinese Communist Party leaders. It was only when I hired Edward Snowden’s lawyers in Hong Kong that Bloomberg LP eventually called off their hounds after many attempts to intimidate me.

What about Nike, which touts every disrespect-America cause under the sun, which scotched its Betsy Ross flag shoe, but which continues to stand by China, even as it finds itself in court over its alleged use of slave labor?  Thus far, crickets.  Don’t hear a thing.

What about Apple, whose CEO is gay, and which just donated $1 million in iPads and other products to LGBT youths?  Apple just registered a blowout quarter in China, with 20% of its sales coming from the communist dictatorship.  Kind of odd to be making big bucks from a regime that now declares homosexuality a mental illness.  We won’t hold our breath waiting for their condemnation.

Where’s Tom Friedman?  The man who wished America could be just like China?  Thus far, no word.

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Family’s Farm Raided, Animals Killed — For Rehabilitating Them Without A Permit

A Michigan farm owner’s desire to help animals in need has landed her in jail and the animals she was helping, killed. Kei Ju Farm and Rescue owner Julie Hall did not pay the government for the proper permit before helping animals so officials arrested her and then killed her animals.

Because there is no animal rescue in Petoskey, for years Hall has been rescuing both wild and domestic animals and nursing them back to health. She has years of experience in the field and has a farm where she carries out the rehabilitation. She was well known in the community for providing this service.

“We have no more rehab centers up here. So this ole farm gal helps everyone,” Hall said.

Folks in her community say that Hall has saved countless animals over the years and has provided a much needed service in the absence of a Michigan Licensed Rehabilitation facility. However, a warrant was issued for her arrest last week because the government forces people like Hall to pay them first before rescuing animals.

Hall explained she has done this for years and she was known for providing her service. However, she says when an employee was caught stealing from her farm, that person became upset and lodged a false complaint with the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) in Petoskey.

After the complaint was lodged, Kei Ju Farm was raided by DNR agents who served her with an arrest warrant. The charge was for holding wild animals in captivity without permit.

“That Thursday, the DNR rolled in with four trucks. They knew exactly where all the animals were,” Hall said.

Unfortunately, the arrest warrant wasn’t the only thing these DNR agents brought. They also brought their guns and began killing all the animals Hall had been rehabilitating.

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Police Claimed Man Died in Crash But Video Shows They Beat Him to Death

The family of Ronald Greene as well as the public at large were all told a story about this 49-year-old Louisiana man’s last moments alive. According to officials, Greene died after his car crashed into a “tree/shrub” just outside Monroe on May 10, 2019. However, they have since learned everything they were told was a lie after body camera video surfaced and painted an entirely different picture. Greene’s death was not a result of the crash and the department engaged in a coverup.

According to police, Greene was targeted for a traffic stop for a unknown violation on that night. Before he could pull over, Greene wrecked his car. When we look at the photos of the car which were released by the family last year, it looks like a minor fender bender. Nevertheless, the Louisiana State Troopers claimed that Greene died in the wreck.

Troopers made no mention of the use of force — or even arresting Greene — in the State Police crash report obtained by the AP but they did state in their notes that he was not wearing a seat belt in the crash.

“We were told that he died in a high-speed chase of head injuries after crashing into a tree,” Greene’s mother, Mona Hardin, told the AP. “There was no major damage to the car.”

But this was not true. Greene was alive and well after the crash and records released this week by the Associated Press tell the truth of what happened that night.

According to the AP, the records are the first public acknowledgement by State Police that Greene was mistreated, and they confirm details provided last year by an attorney for Greene’s family who viewed graphic body camera footage of the May 2019 arrest and likened it the police killing of George Floyd. The video shows troopers choking and beating the man, repeatedly jolting him with stun guns and dragging him face-down across the pavement, the attorney told AP.

Though this is the first public record released, as noted above, the family and their attorneys were able to watch the body camera video in October. What they witnessed was utterly shocking and horrifying.

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NYPD Cop’s Deathbed Confession Implicates FBI and NYPD in the Assassination of Malcom X

Last month marked the 56th anniversary of the assassination of Malcom X. Since that fateful day back in 1965, controversy has swarmed the case with conspiracy theories abounding. The official story happens to be one of the most flawed versions.

According to the official story, Malcolm X, born Malcolm Little in 1925, was assassinated by rival Black Muslims on February 21, 1965 while addressing his Organization of Afro-American Unity at the Audubon Ballroom in Washington Heights.

Three members of the Nation of Islam (NOI) — Talmadge Hayer or Thomas Hagan (a.k.a Mujahid Abdul Halim), Norman Butler (a.k.a Muhammad Abdul Aziz) and Thomas Johnson (a.k.a Khalil Islam) — were convicted of his murder in 1966 — despite glaring inconsistencies in the case.

Officials at the time of his murder claimed Malcolm’s assassination was the result of an ongoing dispute between him and the NOI. Though Malcolm had left the group in 1964 on bad terms, Butler (Aziz) and Johnson (Islam) have consistently professed their innocence, and scholars who have studied the case have raised doubts about the killing’s circumstances.

What’s more, there was no evidence linking Butler or Johnson to the crime. Butler even had an alibi for the time of the murder: He was at home resting after injuring his leg. This was backed up by a doctor who had treated him and who took the stand during the trial. Nonetheless, all three men were found guilty in 1966 and sentenced to life in prison. Case closed.

Following the release of a Netflix documentary series last year, that delved into these doubts, Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance announced that his office was going to review the case. Little has come from this investigation and it looked like more lip service from officials.

Then, last week, a letter was released, reportedly written by Ray Wood who was an undercover police officer at the time. Wood’s attorney and family claim Wood wrote the letter on his deathbed confessing the NYPD and the FBI conspired to kill Malcolm X.

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Biden’s Protection of Murderous Saudi Despots Shows the Hidden Reality of U.S. Foreign Policy

A staple of mainstream U.S. discourse is that the United States opposes tyranny and despotism and supports freedom and democracy around the world. Embracing murderous despots is something only Donald Trump did, but not normal, upstanding American Presidents. This belief about the U.S. role in the world permeates virtually every mainstream foreign policy discussion.

When the U.S. wants to start a new war — with Iraq, with Libya, with Syria, etc. — it accomplishes this by claiming that it is, at least in part, motivated by horror over the tyranny of the country’s leaders. When it wants to engineer regime change or support anti-democratic coups — in Venezuela, in Iran, in Bolivia, in Honduras — it uses the same justification. When the U.S. Government and its media partners want to increase the hostility and fear that Americans harbor for adversarial countries — for Russia, for China, for Cuba, For North Korea — it hauls out the same script: we are deeply disturbed by the human rights violations of that country’s government.

Yet it is hard to conjure a claim that is more obviously and laughably false than this one. The U.S. does not dislike autocratic and repressive governments. It loves them, and it has for decades. Installing and propping up despotic regimes has been the foundation of U.S. foreign policy since at least the end of World War II, and that approach continues to this day to be its primary instrument for advancing what it regards as its interests around the world. The U.S. for decades has counted among its closest allies and partners the world’s most barbaric autocrats, and that is still true.

Indeed, all other things being equal, when it comes to countries with important resources or geo-strategic value, the U.S. prefers autocracy to democracy because democracy is unpredictable and even dangerous, particularly in the many places around the world where anti-American sentiment among the population is high (often because of sustained U.S. interference in those countries, including propping up their dictators). There is no way for a rational person to acquire even the most minimal knowledge of U.S. history and current foreign policy and still believe the claim that the U.S. acts against other countries because it is angry or offended at human rights abuses perpetrated by those other governments.

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Blackout: White House curbs press, public access as Biden struggles with public demands of job

Throughout his presidential campaign and continuing since taking the White House, Joe Biden has promised a transparent approach to press and public relations. Yet in recent weeks, his administration has closed off — at least for now — several key avenues via which the press and public have for years gained a modicum of transparency, accessibility and accountability from the White House. 

These moves to curb press and public access come as President Joe Biden himself has at times appeared to be struggling with the public demands of his job. 

Notably, the White House has said that while it will divulge records of individuals who physically visit the White House, it will not be sharing virtual visitor logs. The Biden administration has relied heavily on virtual meetings out of concerns that COVID-19 might spread in face-to-face gatherings. 

An unnamed White House official told Politico this week that the administration’s refusal to release virtual meeting logs was in line with “the same way that previous administrations didn’t release phone logs.”

Meanwhile, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki this week acerbically dismissed a reporter’s query into the administration’s lack of transparency on the issue. 

“[Biden is] meeting with members of the Senate virtually today,” she said. “There, I’ve released it for you. What else would you like to know?”

The White House has also shut down its comment line by which American citizens can call in to leave comments for the executive branch. A recording claims that the comment office is “temporarily closed” and urges callers to visit the White House’s contact page instead.

The Biden administration has also removed the popular “We the People” petitioning platform originally started by President Barack Obama and continued through the Trump administration. As late as Jan. 18 of this year, the program was still active, yet now any attempt to reach the older URL simply reroutes users to the White House’s main page. 

Gone, also, are White House tours, which the administration claims have been “suspended until further notice.” As late as mid-December, the Trump administration was still encouraging Americans to schedule tours through their congressional representatives. 

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