Judge Dismisses Sarah Palin’s Defamation Suit Against New York Times

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On Monday, a federal judge stated that although the jury is still deliberating, he plans to dismiss the defamation lawsuit former GOP vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin filed against The New York Times after it falsely suggested in a 2017 editorial that an ad circulated by Palin’s political-action committee triggered a mass shooting near Tucson, Arizona, in 2011 that left six people dead and 13 wounded.

Judge Jed S. Rakoff asserted that Palin’s legal team had not proven The Times acted with actual malice in its June 14, 2017 editorial, which was corrected the morning after it was published. On the day of the editorial, a gunman had opened fire at a baseball field where GOP congressmen were practicing; Congressman Steve Scalise was seriously wounded and others were injured.

The Times recalled on Monday, “The headline was ‘America’s Lethal Politics,’ and the editorial asked whether the Virginia shooting was evidence of how vicious American politics had become.”

“The paper’s editorial cited a ‘targets’ website created by Ms. Palin for the 2010 midterm elections that featured crosshairs over Democratic House districts, including Ms. Gifford’s. ‘The link to political incitement was clear,’ states a later-deleted line from the piece,” The Wall Street Journal noted when the lawsuit was filed in 2017.

Rakoff stated on Monday, “This is an example of very unfortunate editorializing on the part of The Times,” but added, “my job is to apply the law. … The law sets a very high standard for actual malice, and in this case the court finds that that standard has not been met,” The Washington Post reported. He noted he would continue to let the jury deliberate to a conclusion, though it would be dismissed and opined that Palin would likely appeal his decision, adding that an appeals court “would greatly benefit from knowing how the jury would decide” the case. (Read more from “Judge Dismisses Sarah Palin’s Defamation Suit Against New York Times” HERE)

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There Will Be No Invasion, Yet: Ukraine Officials Say President Was Being ‘Ironic’

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. . .US troops have been deployed to the region, and we’ve been warning Russia that an invasion would be met with severe consequences. They haven’t specified what that means. With Biden at the helm, it would most likely mean a lot of tough talk, or supposed tough talk, followed by nothing. It’s the Obama playbook post-annexation of Crimea. To make things even more insane, Ukrainian officials now say that Zelensky was being ironic about an invasion by Wednesday (via NBC News):

Hours after issuing a global statement saying he heard Russia would attack his country on Feb. 16, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy walked back the prediction on Monday, clarifying that he was referring only to media reports.

The first statement spooked the markets and led to widespread headlines and media reports.

“We are told that February 16 will be the day of the attack,” Zelenskyy said in a video statement posted on Facebook.

However, after his comments were taken by many at face value, his spokesman, Sergii Nykyforov, said that the president, who is a former comedian, was only saying what has been reported elsewhere.

(Read more from “There Will Be No Invasion, Yet: Ukraine Officials Say President Was Being ‘Ironic’” HERE)

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Durham Reveals Spying on Trump Was Worse Than Watergate

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Federalist Editor-in-Chief Mollie Hemingway validated former President Donald Trump’s weekend claim that the latest revelations to emerge from the Durham probe expose the Russia hoax scandal as worse than Watergate.

On Friday, the latest filing from John Durham’s special counsel investigation alleged that the Hillary Clinton campaign paid tech workers to “infiltrate” servers at Trump Tower and the White House.

“It’s not just the president’s view that this is worse than Watergate,” Hemingway said on Fox News’ “MediaBuzz.” “If you want to remember what happened in Watergate, that was a relatively low-level break-in to a Democratic Party office and then a cover-up from the White House. … The spying operation against Donald Trump wasn’t just during the campaign, they were also spying on White House servers [and] Trump Tower while he was president.” (Read more from “Durham Reveals Spying on Trump Was Worse Than Watergate” HERE)

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Biden-Putin Call Yields ‘No Fundamental Change’ In Russia-Ukraine Situation

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President Joe Biden’s 62-minute long phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin Saturday morning appeared to yield no major breakthroughs, with officials remaining concerned of an invasion into Ukraine.

The White House announced the weekend call Friday evening after a tense briefing with White House press secretary Jen Psaki and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan. The administration said Russia asked to speak Monday, but their counter-proposal for Saturday was “accepted” by Putin.

The call, which coincides with Sullivan warning of the “very distinct possibility” of a Russian invasion, was described by a senior administration official as “professional and substantive.” Still, the official noted that there’s been “no fundamental change in the dynamic that has been unfolding now for several weeks.”

“We believe that we have put ideas on the table that would be in our and our allies interest to pursue that would enhance European security,” the official said while warning that it “remains unclear” whether Russia is interested in pursuing a diplomatic path. (Read more from “Biden-Putin Call Yields ‘No Fundamental Change’ In Russia-Ukraine Situation” HERE)

Photo credit: Gage Skidmore via Flickr

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Netflix ‘Cheer’ Star Pleads Down to 2 Charges in Child Sex Abuse Case

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Jerry Harris, one of the stars of the 2020 Netflix series Cheer and a former Joe Biden campaign surrogate, pleaded guilty to only two federal charges relating to child sex abuse last week, according to reports.

The 22-year-old former cheerleader pleaded guilty in a federal court in Chicago to one count each of receiving child sexual abuse images and soliciting sex from minors, according to the Guardian.

The actor pleaded guilty to two of seven felony counts against him. The guilty pleas came for one count of convincing a child under 17 of sending explicit images via cell phone and a second count for the trip Harris took to Florida to meet the child for the purpose of “engaging in illicit sexual conduct.” Prosecutors dropped the remaining counts after Harris agreed to a plea deal.

Harris could be sentenced to 20 years for the child abuse images and 30 years for the act of illicit sexual conduct with a minor under 17 years old. He is scheduled to be sentenced in June.

Harris was arrested in Sept. of 2020 after the parents of one of the children the actor targeted had discovered the disturbing photos and videos that the actor had sent the boy on his cell phone. (Read more from “Netflix ‘Cheer’ Star Pleads Guilty to Charges in Child Sex Abuse Case” HERE)

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Trump Says Clinton Operative Spying Allegations ‘Would Have Been Punishable by Death’

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Former President Donald Trump has accused operatives tied to Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign of spying on him during his run for the presidency and while in the White House[.]

In a statement released on Twitter through his spokesperson on Saturday, Mr Trump said: “The latest pleading from Special Counsel Robert Durham provides indisputable evidence that my campaign and presidency were spied on by operatives paid by the Hillary Clinton Campaign in an effort to develop a completely fabricated connection to Russia.”

He continues: “This is a scandal far greater in scope and magnitude than Watergate and those who were involved in and knew about this spying operation should be subject to criminal prosecution. In a stronger period of time in our country, this crime would have been punishable by death. In addition, reparations should be paid to those in our country who have been damaged by this.”

Mr Trump said in a later statement on Twitter: “What Hillary Clinton and the Radical Left Democrats did with respect to spying on a President of the United States, even while in office, is a far bigger crime than Watergate. It will be interesting to see how it was covered by the media and what Mitch McConnell and the RINOs will be doing about it. This is an insult to the Republican Party, but a far greater insult to our Nation. Covered very powerfully this morning by Fox and Friends and, of course, Maria Bartiromo.” (Read more from “Trump Says Clinton Operative Spying Allegations ‘Would Have Been Punishable by Death’” HERE)

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Team USA Olympian Blasted as ‘Traitor’ on Chinese Social Media

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After leading Team USA to a silver medal in the team figure skating competition and winning his first Olympic gold in the men’s individual event, Nathan Chen has been slammed on Weibo — the Chinese equivalent of Twitter.

The 22-year-old Chinese-American was labeled a “traitor” on the social media platform for choosing to represent the United States, and was even told to “get out of China.” After his victory Thursday, some on Weibo complained that Chen was “too white” and Americanized, citing a long list of examples where they thought Chen was “insulting China” with his actions.

Chen has previously refused to speak Chinese interviews, claiming that his Mandarin “isn’t very good.”

The Yale student put his support behind American ice dancer Evan Bates’ condemnation of China’s human rights abuses in an October interview. At the time, Bates came down hard on China’s “awful” treatment of the Uyghur people. The US did not send any diplomats to the Winter Olympics in Beijing because of the “egregious human rights abuses and atrocities.”

According to Reuters, Bates said, “We’re human beings, too, and when we read and hear about the things that are happening there, we absolutely hate that. We hate what’s going on there,” during a US Olympic and Paralympic Committee event. (Read more from “Team USA Olympian Blasted as ‘Traitor’ on Chinese Social Media” HERE)

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Hil to Die On: Most Democrats Want Clinton Investigated for Any Role in Russiagate Scandal

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A surprisingly large share of Democrats wants to see Hillary Clinton investigated over her possible role in manufacturing dirt to try to tie Donald Trump to the Kremlin, a new poll shows.

The survey, conducted by TechnoMetrica Institute of Policy and Politics in New Jersey last month, polled 1,308 Americans about the mushrooming investigation by Special Counsel John Durham into the FBI’s probe of Trump’s alleged links to Russia during the 2016 presidential campaign.

Nearly three out of four of those polled who are following the story said they think it’s important prosecutors investigate Clinton for her role in the Russiagate scandal along with her top campaign advisers.

That includes two-thirds — or 66 percent — of the Democrats polled who said they have been keeping up with the case.

That’s up 20 points from this past October, when TIPP asked the same question of a national panel, and indicates the Durham probe may be turning Democratic opinion regarding Clinton and the controversy. (Read more from “Hil to Die On: Most Democrats Want Clinton Investigated for Any Role in Russiagate Scandal” HERE)

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Whistleblower Gives Evidence the Pentagon Holds Female Soldiers to Lower Standards

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According to an anonymous whistleblower letter posted by Air Force Times, Pentagon policy makers are promoting “diversity and inclusion” at the expense of high, uncompromised standards in an elite Special Operations Forces command. The letter focuses an unnamed female captain who began training with the Special Tactics Training Squadron (STTS) in 2018, hoping to become the first woman to join a combat controller team (CCT).

The female captain dropped out of physically demanding combat controller course exercises several times, but unlike male trainees with similar difficulties, Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC) officials kept extending special concessions to keep her in the program.

The detailed anonymous letter reported 11 examples of unusual concessions that AFSOC extended to retain the female captain, even though she had not met longstanding standards and repeatedly dropped out of essential training events, such as rigorous diving exercises and solo land navigation. Air Force Times, which confirmed details with a second source, obtained performance forms and score charts that appeared to support the whistleblower’s letter, and submitted them for comment to AFSOC Commander Lt. Gen. Jim Slife.

Slife did not refute specific allegations, citing privacy considerations, but he vehemently denied that AFSOC standards had changed: “While the standards remain the same, the norms have not.” This is an equivocation, based on a half-truth.

“Norms” did change last year when U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM) Commander General Richard Clarke released his Diversity & Inclusion Strategic Plan. The Center for Military Readiness analyzed the SOCOM diversity mandate, noting that 12 times on 20 pages, the document asserted without evidence that “Diversity and inclusion are operational imperatives.” These vacuous, unsupported words have triggered turbulence in one of the nation’s most elite fighting forces, and probably more we don’t know about. (Read more from “Whistleblower Gives Evidence the Pentagon Holds Female Soldiers to Lower Standards” HERE)

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Professor Sues University After Being Punished for Saying Music Theory Isn’t Racist

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A professor at the University of North Texas is suing the school for punishing him after he pushed back against the idea that music theory is a function of White supremacy.

The lawsuit, first reported by Campus Reform, claims that the First and Fourteenth Amendment rights of professor Timothy Jackson were violated by the school when they removed him from the academic journal he co-founded after he published several articles that students and faculty deemed “racist.”

The university took action against Jackson after he held a symposium that promoted differing opinions on a speech by Hunter College of the City University of New York professor Philip Ewell entitled “Music Theory’s White Racial Frame.”

In the speech, and in a paper Ewell published after the speech, Ewell complained that music theory is “White” and argued that as a Black man he feels uncomfortable that the vast majority of music theory professors are White.

Ewell also criticized the late Jewish music theorist, composer, and teacher Heinrich Schenker as “an ardent racist and German nationalist” and alleged that “our white racial frame seeks to shield Schenker from unwanted criticism.” (Read more from “Professor Sues University After Being Punished for Saying Music Theory Isn’t Racist” HERE)

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