McDonald’s Revenue Takes Hit After Russia Exit

/0 Comments/in , /by

McDonald’s exit from Russia in April sparked a revenue drop at the fast-food giant despite US sales that were goosed by higher prices amid surging inflation.

The company’s overall revenue dipped 3% to $5.8 billion in the second quarter largely because McDonald’s closed its company-owned eateries in Russia and Ukraine after the war broke out. Profits fell by nearly half due to a $1.2 billion charge related to the sale of the Russian business, the company said Tuesday.

Russia was one of the company’s largest international markets, with McDonald’s reporting that it owned 84% of its 847 restaurants in the country.

At the same time, menu price increases fueled a 9.7% increase in global comparable sales including a 3.7% increase in the US but excluding stores that were exited in Russia. (Read more from “McDonald’s Revenue Takes Hit After Russia Exit” HERE)

Delete Facebook, Delete Twitter, Follow Restoring Liberty and Joe Miller at gab HERE.

Whistleblowers Accuse FBI of ‘Padding’ Domestic Terrorism Stats to Play Up Threat: Report

/0 Comments/in , /by

FBI officials are allegedly pressuring agents to reclassify cases as “domestic violent extremism,” despite weak evidence that the cases belong in such a category.

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, said in a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray on Wednesday that whistleblowers at the FBI say the bureau is “padding domestic terrorism data” to make the threat seem larger than it is. The bureau is misclassifying cases as due to Domestic Violent Extremists (DVEs) to support an administration “narrative” about the threat presented by DVEs, Jordan said.

“From recent protected disclosures, we have learned that FBI officials are pressuring agents to reclassify cases as ‘domestic violent extremism’ even if the cases do not meet the criteria for such a classification. Given the narrative pushed by the Biden administration that domestic violent extremism is the ‘greatest threat’ facing our country, revelation that the FBI may be artificially padding domestic terrorism data is scandalous,” Jordan wrote.

“We have received accusations that FBI agents are bolstering the number of cases of DVEs to satisfy their superiors. For example, one whistleblower explained that because agents are not finding enough DVE cases, they are encouraged and incentivized to reclassify cases as DVE cases even though there is minimal, circumstantial evidence to support the reclassification,” he continued.

Jordan reported that the bureau has created a system of rewards for agents who classify cases under the DVE label. (Read more from “Whistleblowers Accuse FBI of ‘Padding’ Domestic Terrorism Stats to Play Up Threat: Report” HERE)

Delete Facebook, Delete Twitter, Follow Restoring Liberty and Joe Miller at gab HERE.

Mom Forbidden to See Teen Daughter After Refusing to Pretend She’s the Opposite Sex

/0 Comments/in , /by

Jeanette Cooper, a mom in Chicago, has missed her daughter’s 13th, 14th, and 15th birthdays. She doesn’t get to be there as her daughter is learning to drive. In fact, she has only seen Sophia for eight and a half hours in the last three years. That’s because Cooper lost custody of her daughter after refusing to go along with Sophia’s belief that she is transgender.

When Sophia was 12, Cooper went to pick her up from a custodial visit at her father’s house, but her daughter refused to come home. Cooper learned that Sophia, whom the mother said had always come across as more feminine than Cooper, now identified as transgender and felt “unsafe” around her mom.

In a video interview with Kelsey Bolar for the Independent Women’s Forum, Cooper said the court did a seven-month investigation. “When they temporarily kept her with her dad for a period, I was fine with that. I thought that’s what they should do. That’s the responsibility of the court to investigate if a child is saying that they feel unsafe,” Cooper said.

But Cooper wouldn’t lie and say her daughter was not a girl. “They want me to have a certain understanding that there is such a thing as a child who is born transgender, and this is who they are,” Cooper said, as noted in an article Bolar wrote telling her story. “I do not believe that to be true. I will not lie to the court. I will not state otherwise. I believe too strongly in my oath to tell the truth. My child is a girl, and I won’t lie to her or anyone else. I think that’s good parenting.”

According to the article, Cooper signed a new parenting agreement in which she gave up time with Sophia. “I suppose I agreed to it,” Cooper said. “I’m not sure I had any choice.” According to Bolar’s article, “In return for giving up her ability to spend time with her daughter, Jeannette negotiated for a legal commitment that Sophia will not medically transition without a court order or Jeannette’s written permission. She also retained the ability to contact Sophia by postal mail.” (Read more from “Mom Forbidden to See Teen Daughter After Refusing to Pretend She’s the Opposite Sex” HERE)

Delete Facebook, Delete Twitter, Follow Restoring Liberty and Joe Miller at gab HERE.

U.S. Army Reboots, Reorients to Confront China, Back Allies in Region

/0 Comments/in , /by

The U.S. Army is building up forces and international ties throughout the Indo-Pacific region to counter growing Chinese aggression and strengthen nervous regional allies, the commander of the U.S. Army Pacific said in an interview.

Gen. Charles A. Flynn, in charge of more than 100,000 Army soldiers stationed from India to Alaska, said the vast region is not a theater that can be patrolled and defended solely by American air and naval forces.

“A lot of people say it’s an air and maritime environment. No, it’s not. It’s a joint environment and requires joint solutions,” Gen. Flynn said in an exclusive talk with The Washington Times.

A combat officer who fought in Afghanistan and Iraq, Gen. Flynn has spent nearly a decade in Asia building close ties with fellow army leaders in the region, many of whom are now senior commanders, defense chiefs or civilian government leaders.

Gen. Flynn is now the senior leader of a “theater army” spread throughout the Pacific and Indian oceans. He said the force plays a crucial role in keeping the peace with an increasingly confrontational China. (Read more from “U.S. Army Reboots, Reorients to Confront China, Back Allies in Region” HERE)

Delete Facebook, Delete Twitter, Follow Restoring Liberty and Joe Miller at gab HERE.

Shocker: ‘Conservative’ John Roberts Tried to Flip Justices to Preserve Roe v. Wade

/0 Comments/in , , /by

Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts reportedly tried to persuade his conservative colleagues to preserve Roe v. Wade — but the shocking leak of Justice Samuel Alito’s draft majority opinion abruptly ended his campaign, according to one report. . .

CNN legal analyst Joan Biskupic revealed in a new story — which is filled with biased language that promotes the pro-abortion agenda — that Roberts lobbied the court’s conservative-leaning justices for months before the leak.

His reported goal? Preserve the scaffolding of abortion rights.

After hearing oral arguments for the case in December, the justices took an initial vote, which succeeded in overturning Roe. That is when Roberts’ campaign began, CNN reported.

Over the course of the next several months, Roberts discussed his concerns about overturning Roe, targeting Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett. Roberts reportedly wanted to uphold Mississippi’s 15-week ban on abortion, but at the same time preserve the framework of Roe. (Read more from “Shocker: ‘Conservative’ John Roberts Tried to Flip Justices to Preserve Roe v. Wade” HERE)

Delete Facebook, Delete Twitter, Follow Restoring Liberty and Joe Miller at gab HERE.

Monkeypox’s Inconvenient Truth

/0 Comments/in , , /by

As the Biden administration considers declaring monkeypox a public health emergency, an epidemiologist says the easiest way to combat its spread is to discourage the practices of “aggressively hypersexualized gay men.”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that the U.S. has 2,890 diagnosed cases of the virus, which causes sores and open lesions on the skin, on Monday. Public health authorities acknowledge monkeypox is largely confined to men who have sex with men.

“Transmission was suspected to have occurred through sexual activity in 95% of the persons with infection,” according to a monkeypox study published late last week in The New England Journal of Medicine. “Overall, 98% of the persons with infection were gay or bisexual men.”

One in three people who tested positive for monkeypox had visited “sex-on-site venues” within the past month, the study found, and one in five “attended large gatherings (>30 persons), such as Pride events.”

“This particular outbreak has been fueled, suffice it to say, by gay bacchanalia,” Dr. Andrew G. Bostom, an epidemiologist and research physician at Brown University, said on Monday’s “Washington Watch with Tony Perkins.” He highlighted the study’s finding that those who contracted the virus had a median number of five sex partners in the past three months, and 20% engaged in “chemsex” (sex under the influence of drugs). (Read more from “Monkeypox’s Inconvenient Truth” HERE)

Delete Facebook, Delete Twitter, Follow Restoring Liberty and Joe Miller at gab HERE.

Children’s Gender Clinic Founder Was a Consultant for Puberty Blocker Manufacturers

/0 Comments/in , /by

The co-founder and director of a clinic that aids in children’s sex change attempts, Dr. Stephen Rosenthal, has received money as a consultant from two pharmaceutical companies that are both under investigation for advertising puberty blockers.

Rosenthal is the cofounder and medical director of the University of California San Francisco Benioff Children’s Hospital’s Child and Adolescent Gender Center.

He received $38,704 from pharmaceutical companies between the years of 2015 and 2021, more than 98% of United States endocrinologists did, according to a report from Care Dash, a site that uses public records to track the money that doctors have received as compensation from pharmaceutical companies.

Of that sum, $16,765 came from Endo Pharmaceuticals and AbbVie; payments were linked directly to their products Supprelin LA and Lupron, which are both used off-label as puberty blockers for children who are attempting to change their sex. Public records reveal that Rosenthal has accepted consulting fees from both AbbVie and Endo Pharmaceuticals.

In 2018, Rosenthal received the third highest amount of any doctor in America in compensation related to Supprelin LA, ProPublica reported. (Read more from “Children’s Gender Clinic Founder Was a Consultant for Puberty Blocker Manufacturers” HERE)

Delete Facebook, Delete Twitter, Follow Restoring Liberty and Joe Miller at gab HERE.

UMich Coach to Players: Don’t Have Abortions, ‘I Will Take That Baby’ if You Can’t Raise Them

/0 Comments/in , /by

Michigan football coach Jim Harbaugh, a Catholic, is not backing down from his public pro-life stance, saying over the weekend that he and his wife Sarah would help raise a child if anyone in his personal circle, including his players, were thinking about abortion.

Harbaugh recently made headlines for speaking at the Plymouth Right to Life event in Michigan, where he emphatically stated, “I believe in having the courage to let the unborn be born.”

“Let’s discuss it,” Harbaugh expanded on his pro-life views to ESPN’s Gene Wojciechowski. “I’ve told [them] the same thing I tell my kids, boys, the girls, same thing I tell our players, our staff members. I encourage them if they have a pregnancy that wasn’t planned, to go through with it, go through with it. Let that unborn child be born, and if at that time, you don’t feel like you can care for it, you don’t have the means or the wherewithal, then Sarah and I will take that baby.”

At the pro-life charity event, Harbaugh said each human — born and unborn — has value.

“In God’s plan, each unborn human truly has a future filled with potential, talent, dreams and love,” the football coach said, The Daily Wire reported. “I have living proof in my family, my children, and the many thousands that I’ve coached that the unborn are amazing gifts from God to make this world a better place.” (Read more from “UMich Coach to Players: Don’t Have Abortions, ‘I Will Take That Baby’ if You Can’t Raise Them” HERE)

Delete Facebook, Delete Twitter, Follow Restoring Liberty and Joe Miller at gab HERE.

At Odds: Pence Says He and Trump ‘Differ on Focus,’ Not Issues

/0 Comments/in , /by

Former Vice President Mike Pence admitted that he and ex-President Donald Trump “may differ” on their focus for the future of the Republican Party, but he would not go so far as to say the movement was “divided” as the two potential 2024 presidential candidates were scheduled to hold back-to-back events in Washington, DC, on Tuesday. . .

“President Trump and yourself are both speaking this week in DC. And there seems to be a divide between the two of you on your outlook on what the future of the conservative movement might be,” Andrew Rashard, a student at Gettysburg College, asked the former vice president.

“So do you think that this divide extends to the rest of the conservative movement like the general public, and what do you think we can do to alleviate it? . . .

“So I don’t know that our movement is that divided,” he said. “I don’t — I don’t know that the president and I differ on issues.

“But we may differ on focus,” Pence admitted. (Read more from “At Odds: Pence Says He and Trump ‘Differ on Focus,’ Not Issues” HERE)

Delete Facebook, Delete Twitter, Follow Restoring Liberty and Joe Miller at gab HERE.

Study Reveals Disturbing New Symptoms of Long COVID

/0 Comments/in , , /by

. . .Well-known symptoms of long COVID include fatigue, fogginess and for some, the long-term loss of smell and taste.

However, a new study has found that there is a broader range of symptoms, including hair loss, loss of libido, incontinence and erectile dysfunction in men — and some people are more susceptible than others.

Researchers from the University of Birmingham analyzed the health records of around 2.4 million people in the UK, finding that those who had been infected with COVID-19 reported 63 symptoms more frequently 12 weeks after they were infected compared to those who hadn’t been infected.

Researchers of the study — published in Nature Medicine — broke the most common symptoms into three categories: respiratory symptoms, mental health and cognitive problems. Other common symptoms include loss of smell, shortness of breath, chest pain and fever, nausea and vomiting, fever, bowel incontinence, erectile dysfunction, anhedonia (lack of enjoyment) and limb swelling.

The study suggests that particular groups of people are more likely to develop long COVID, namely females, younger people and those belonging to a black, mixed or another ethnic group. (Read more from “Study Reveals Disturbing New Symptoms of Long COVID” HERE)

Delete Facebook, Delete Twitter, Follow Restoring Liberty and Joe Miller at gab HERE.