Fox Makes Its Official Announcement About the Future of Roger Ailes

Roger Ailes, who built Fox News from the ground up to be a powerful force in cable TV news, has stepped down as CEO of Fox News amid allegations of sexual harassment.

Late Thursday afternoon, Fox issued a statement saying Ailes would be departing “immediately.”

The statement did not discuss the allegations against him, which were first made public by former Fox host Gretchen Carlson in a sexual harassment lawsuit she filed against Ailes and the network. Although Ailes was defended by many top-name staffers, several others complained anonymously that Carlson was right in her claims. After 21st Century Fox, the parent of Fox News, investigated the charges, Fox host Megyn Kelly reportedly disclosed that she also had been harassed once by Ailes.

The statement by Fox announcing Ailes’ departure said that Rupert Murdoch, executive chairman of 21st Century Fox, will serve as chairman and acting CEO of Fox News Channel and Fox Business Network. In the statement, Murdoch lavished praise on Ailes.

“Roger Ailes has made a remarkable contribution to our company and our country. Roger shared my vision of a great and independent television organization and executed it brilliantly over 20 great years,” Murdoch said.

“His grasp of policy and his ability to make profoundly important issues accessible to a broader audience stand in stark contrast to the self-serving elitism that characterizes far too much of the media,” Murdoch also said.

“I am personally committed to ensuring that Fox News remains a distinctive, powerful voice. Our nation needs a robust Fox News to resonate from every corner of the country,” he added in the statement.

The only reference to the charges wafting about Ailes came in comments attributed to Lachlan Murdoch and James Murdoch, 21st Century Fox’s executive chairman and CEO respectively. They said, “… we continue our commitment to maintaining a work environment based on trust and respect. We take seriously our responsibility to uphold these traditional, long-standing values of our company.”

A letter from Ailes to Murdoch has also been made public, which reads, in part, “Having spent 20 years building this historic business, I will not allow my presence to become a distraction from the work that must be done every day to ensure that Fox News and Fox Business continue to lead our industry. I am confident that everyone at Fox News and Fox Business will continue as the standard setters that they are, and that the businesses are well positioned for even greater success in the future.” (For more from the author of “Fox Makes Its Official Announcement About the Future of Roger Ailes” please click HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

FBI Fails at Prioritizing Cyber Threats, Report Finds

Subjectivity and sluggishness plague the FBI’s cybersecurity threat prioritization process, leaving room for bad actors to exploit national security weaknesses, according to a new Department of Justice (DOJ) Office of Inspector General (IG) report.

The FBI’s Cyber Division only conducts its Threat Review Prioritization (TRP) review once a year. Unnamed FBI officials in the report described using review techniques as a “gut check” that’s based more on the “loudest person in the room” than objective criteria.

“We found the criteria used in the TRP process are subjective and open to interpretation,” the IG said. “As a result, the FBI’s TRP process does not prioritize cyber threats using an algorithmic, objective, data-driven, reproducible, and auditable manner.”

“In addition, we found that TRP may not be agile enough to identify emerging cyber threats,” the IG added. “We believe that as cyber threats continue to increase in size and complexity, lack of objective, data-driven prioritization can hinder the FBI’s ability to effectively prioritize the most serious threats.”

The FBI claims protecting the U.S. against cyber attacks is its third priority, behind conducting counterterrorism and counterintelligence operations.

The FBI tried to address TRP’s subjectivity in 2012 by adding a second layer of cybersecurity threat analysis, a system called the Threat Examination and Scoping (TExAS) tool. TExAS has the potential to make the FBI Cyber Division’s approach to threats more objective, but the FBI hasn’t developed policies and procedures dictating who enters data into that second system, or how, the IG said.

“Since its implementation, the TExAS tool has been managed without documented policies and procedures detailing the roles and responsibilities for entering data about each threat,” the IG stated.

The IG also found the Cyber Division can’t determine how it’s allocating its resources to any given cyber threat.

“Without the ability to track the time agents spend by threat, the FBI cannot be sure that it is appropriately aligning its cyber resources to its highest priority threats, a vital capability for a threat-driven organization in the current cyber climate,” the IG said.

The IG said the FBI should use an algorithmic, data-driven, objective methodology to analyze and prioritize cyber threats, and use documented policies and procedures dictating who enters data and how. The FBI should also analyze its cybersecurity priorities at least every 30 days, instead of annually, the IG said. (For more from the author of “FBI Fails at Prioritizing Cyber Threats, Report Finds” please click HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

CRUZ AND TRUMP: Standing up to a Bully

To paraphrase Kurt Schlichter, “I am not an official passenger on the Trump train. To the extent I am riding along it’s as a hobo.”

I’m not #NeverTrump, I’m #NeverHillary.

With that said, the great Stuart Schneiderman has an excellent bit today at his blog regarding the Cruz RNC kerfuffle. The key graphs:

160721-standing-up-to-a-bully

Put yourself in Cruz’s shoes (cue the beat box, ’cause that rhymes). Your rival slams you repeatedly as a serial liar, insults your wife over and over again, and claims your father killed Kennedy. All on national TV.

Oh, but I’m sure you’d overlook all of that and genuflect to the bully.

Cruz said to vote your conscience. My conscience tells me to vote for Trump. And I suspect most right-thinking Americans will as well. (For more from the author of “CRUZ AND TRUMP: Standing up to a Bully” please click HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

The Difference Between Privacy Rights in Abortion and Same-Sex Locker Rooms Cases

When most Americans consider the right to privacy they think about the privacy they enjoy in their homes and person. They don’t think about killing unborn children in the womb.

But that is not true of liberal activists. To them, the right to privacy is all about abortion because seemingly everything is about abortion on demand: a non-negotiable doctrine of the secular-political faith.

So it comes as no surprise that ThinkProgress’ Ian Millhiser sees Alliance Defending Freedom’s simultaneous defense of young boys’ and girls’ right to privacy in school showers and locker rooms and strong and unwavering opposition to abortion as hypocritical.

But he misses the mark completely.

The right to privacy that protects young boys and girls from being forced to shower and change in front of members of the opposite sex is not based on the left’s tortured view of “privacy” that was created out of whole cloth by the Supreme Court in Roe v. Wade. Even Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg acknowledged that the “right” invented in Roe to kill children in the womb was “heavy handed judicial activism.” Roe is a legal disgrace that ADF has and will tirelessly fight to overturn.

The privacy claim ADF asserts—the right to privacy in one’s unclothed or partially unclothed body—is deeply rooted in our nation’s history and traditions. Courts have said that this is the right test for protection under the 14th Amendment’s Due Process Clause. Roe obviously fails that test because, at the time of the court’s decision, there was not even a whiff of historical evidence that killing unborn children was an accepted, deeply rooted practice in the United States. Any look at history shows the opposite was true.

In stark contrast, the privacy right ADF defends easily meets the “deeply rooted” test under the Supreme Court’s current jurisprudence. It is indisputable that citizens have a right to privacy that protects them not just in their homes, but also from government-compelled exposure of their unclothed bodies to persons of the opposite sex.

As ADF explains in its Illinois lawsuit challenging the federal government’s gender identity mandates (read paragraphs 359-387), this right is a basic and essential aspect of personal liberty that has historically been protected in American law and society.

As Ginsburg has said, Roe was an act of political will—outcome-based jurisprudence, pure and simple. And its notion of “privacy” involves one person exterminating another person for convenience. How does that have anything to do with “privacy,” again?

But ADF’s locker room privacy argument truly protects the person—barring the exposure of one’s unclothed body against one’s will—a right grounded in basic aspects of human liberty and dignity that any government ought to protect.

So the answer to Millhiser’s “hypocrite” charge? Easy: Vindicating the long-established, much-cherished, historically-based privacy right of boys and girls, who would be scared, scarred, humiliated, and degraded by government policies that force them to change clothes in the presence of the opposite sex on a daily basis at school, lends not one whit of support to the “right” to abortion concocted in Roe. Simply put, the privacy claims in abortion and locker room cases are apples and oranges.

In reality, it is the left that is struggling with consistency problems here. Its (mistaken) position that locker room privacy arguments are based on the same privacy right invented in Roe raises an obvious question: How can Roe protect the horrific practice of killing unborn children but not protect something as basic, elementary, and historically as grounded as shielding one’s unclothed body from the view of opposite-sex strangers?

And what of the left’s newest invented “right,” the right to be free from governmental policies that harm one’s “dignity” (see Obergefell v. Hodges). How can government policies that force young girls and boys to expose their partially or fully unclothed bodies to opposite sex peers not violate this newly discovered right?

If I’ve learned one thing over the years, it’s that when the left cries “hypocrite,” it’s only to deflect attention away from the fact that it has nothing meaningful to say. And in this instance it serves one further purpose: to avoid answering for its own hypocrisy. (For more from the author of “The Difference Between Privacy Rights in Abortion and Same-Sex Locker Rooms Cases” please click HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Lawsuit Challenges Part of Congressional Debt Relief Plan for Puerto Rico

A court case challenging the congressional plan to deal with the Puerto Rico debt crisis has been launched to ensure the territory pays its bills.

Creditors filed suit against the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico in San Juan’s United States District Court on Wednesday. This type of lawsuit is exactly what Congress had hoped to prevent by adding a stay on litigation to PROMESA, its act addressing Puerto Rico’s debt crisis.

The creditors are challenging the legality of the stay itself, echoing concerns that The Heritage Foundation raised during the bill’s consideration. At the time, we wrote that:

Enacting such a “stay” of litigation without supervision by the Oversight Board created in PROMESA would give Puerto Rico’s unpopular government an opportunity to shuffle money around, potentially without consequences, for months … As drafted, the bill creates an incentive for Obama to drag his feet and allow his allies to govern the island free of legal challenges and oversight.

In the lawsuit, which bond researcher Cate Long shared online, the creditors hope to win relief under a provision of PROMESA that was added in response to our and others’ concerns about the stay:

Recognizing that there would be some period of time after the stay took effect but before appointment of the Oversight Board and its chair, PROMESA severely restricts Puerto Rico’s ability to take certain action that would impair its creditors … This section addresses Congress’s concern that Puerto Rico might seek to exploit bondholders’ inability to sue for payment before the Oversight Board is operational to siphon money away from (among others) bondholders protected by the Puerto Rico Constitution.

The creditors make their case that they deserve payment under both PROMESA’s own provisions and the Puerto Rican constitution. Other groups of creditors are likely hoping that this group loses its case—they are all chasing the same shrinking purse.

For Congress, this will be a test of how its unwise rearrangement of legal claims works in practice. Regardless of how Judge Francisco Besosa rules, the lawsuit shows that PROMESA did not prevent the “rush to the courthouse” that its proponents claimed it would avert. Instead, competing claimants are right where they belong—in front of an appropriate court—but playing under slightly different rules than they originally agreed to. (For more from the author of “Lawsuit Challenges Part of Congressional Debt Relief Plan for Puerto Rico” please click HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Psychiatrist: ‘There Is No Gay Gene’

Dr. Paul R. McHugh, the Distinguished Service Professor of Psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University and former psychiatrist–in-chief for Johns Hopkins Hospital, who has studied sexuality for 40 years, said it is a scientific fact that “there is no gay gene.”

“Environment,” however, “is very important,” said Dr. McHugh, author of The Mind Has Mountains: Reflections on Society and Psychiatry. He also explained that the permissive sexual culture in the United States today has confused “desire” with “love,” and that homosexuality is a false or “erroneous desire.”

In an interview with Virtue Online: The Voice for Global Orthodox Anglicanism, reporter Lydia Evans asked Dr. McHugh, “How do you view the popular assumption that science has somehow proven that sexual orientation is determined early in childhood, if not before birth?”

Dr. McHugh, who ended the sexual reassignment surgery program at Johns Hopkins because it was not helping the patients, answered, “Well, as I have said, there is no gay gene. And there are factors more influential than biology.”

“The best data, of course, [comes from the Framingham Study],” said Dr. McHugh. “If you are a man and you grow up in a rural environment, you are four times less likely to have homosexual relationships than if you grow up in a metropolitan area. That’s not left-handedness.” (Read more from “Psychiatrist: ‘There Is No Gay Gene'” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Seattle TSA Worker Arrested on Voyeurism Charge

A Transportation Security Administration agent in Seattle was arrested after allegedly being spotted using a phone to take video up a woman’s skirt at the city’s airport, according to authorities.

Nicholas Fernandez, 29, was arrested on a charge of voyeurism Tuesday, Seattle police said in an arrest report. The incident occurred on an escalator, and not in a security line . . .

“When such conduct is alleged, TSA investigates it thoroughly. When appropriate, TSA requests that it be investigated by a law enforcement authority. When an investigation finds that misconduct has occurred, the appropriate action is taken.”

Fernandez has been removed from screening duties and he has been suspended without pay, the agency said.

According to an arrest report, the TSA was investigating information it received that Fernandez, who works at Seattle Tacoma International Airport, might have taken inappropriate photos of women. (Read more from “Seattle TSA Worker Arrested on Voyeurism Charge” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Ted Cruz Withholds Endorsement, Booed, Upstaged by Trump

Ted Cruz sensationally withheld an endorsement of Donald Trump at the Republican National Convention on Wednesday, earning a chorus of boos from the floor before he was upstaged by a power play by the GOP nominee himself.

In a dramatic development, as Cruz wrapped up his speech, Trump suddenly appeared in the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, walking to join his family in a VIP area, in a gesture that transmitted clear anger at the Texas senator’s behavior. . .

But as it was clear Cruz was wrapping up his speech without endorsing Trump, delegates began to boo and some chanted “We want Trump!”

. . .As delegates began to protest, Sen. Cruz’s wife, Heidi Cruz, was heckled by Trump supporters shouting “Goldman Sachs!” and escorted out by security. Heidi Cruz, who is an employee of Goldman Sachs, declined to answer questions from reporters, saying “I don’t talk to the media, thanks.”

Jonathan Barnett, a Republican national committeeman from Arkansas, walked off the floor after Cruz’s speech. “He’s self-centered. It’s all about Ted Cruz. All he did is ruin his political career,” Barnett said. “I think he’s finished.” (Read more from story, “Ted Cruz Withholds Endorsement,” HERE)

Rabbis: Unmistakable Signs of Messiah Coming

A conversation between two of the most distinguished rabbis in Israel indicates scholars of the Torah see unmistakable signs of the coming of the Messiah. What’s more, in the Messianic era, Christians will become a source of Torah learning, as believers in Jesus Christ rediscover the source of their beliefs in both Judaism and the Torah.

The conversation took place between Rabbi Moshe Sternbuch and Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky, both of whom are regarded as leading experts in the Torah.

During the conversation, Rabbi Kanievsky reportedly predicted the imminent coming of the Messiah, before the end of the year after the Shemitah. The Shemitah is a seven-year cycle which seems to correlate with dramatic events in history, as explained by messianic Rabbi Jonathan Cahn in “The Mystery of the Shemitah.”

Rabbi Sternbuch contested the timing, and said before the Messiah will come, the Christians and the Arabs will “come to Israel.” Rabbi Kanievsky added “all the non-fruit bearing trees in Israel will bear fruit,” meaning Christians will be learning Torah. Thus, the breach between Christians and Jews will be healed, as both communities turn to the study of God’s Word.

Christians obviously believe the Messiah has already come in the form of Jesus Christ and what is being discussed is not His “arrival,” but His return. Nonetheless, several Christian leaders who have been prominent in the growing movement to reconnect Christianity with its Judaic roots welcomed the comments by these prominent Torah scholars. (Read more from “Rabbis: Unmistakable Signs of Messiah Coming” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

College Football Star Says He Raped Woman as Payback for ‘400 Years of Slavery’

I will give you all the money in my pockets right now if this isn’t one of the most racist things you’ve ever read, also the most disgusting, vile, and evil things. A football player violently raped a woman (heinous enough as it is) and justified it thusly: “that’s for 400 years of slavery.”

If your eyes just popped out of your head and rolled across the floor, go pick them up. Dust them off. Put them back in your head. Because no, you didn’t read that wrong. This football player actually used that “justification” for his terrible act.

“Mr. Batey continued to abuse and degrade me, urinating on my face while uttering horrific racial hate speech that suggested I deserved what he was doing to me because of the color of my skin. He didn’t even know who I was” . . .

On Friday, multiple sources confirmed to The Tennessean the statement Batey made. “That’s for 400 years of slavery you b—-,” Batey said, according to the sources.

Thankfully, Corey Batey was sentenced to 15 years of prison in what the judge called “one of the saddest cases that I have ever encountered.” Unfortunately, it’s not under the prison where he belongs. We could spend days describing the place where this monster belongs. Days. I’ll give you a hint as to what I’m thinking: this place involves fire. Lots of fire. (Read more from “College Football Star Says He Raped Woman as Payback for ‘400 Years of Slavery'” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.