Costco Doubles Down on ‘Wokeness’ While Ignoring Bud Light Backlash

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Costco’s board of directors is urging shareholders to vote against a proposal that would eliminate the wholesale retailer’s diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) program.

“Our success at Costco Wholesale has been built on service to our critical stakeholders: employees, members, and suppliers. Our efforts around diversity, equity and inclusion follow our code of ethics: For our employees, these efforts are built around inclusion – having all of our employees feel valued and respected,” the board of directors wrote in a message to investors previously reported by The Hill. “Our efforts at diversity, equity and inclusion remind and reinforce with everyone at our Company the importance of creating opportunities for all. We believe that these efforts enhance our capacity to attract and retain employees who will help our business succeed. This capacity is critical because we owe our success to our now over 300,000 employees around the globe.”

The message was sent ahead of Costco’s annual meeting of shareholders scheduled for Jan. 23, 2025.

Shareholders will vote on a proposal brought by the National Center for Public Policy Research challenging the legality of Costco’s DEI program after the Supreme Court’s ruling in SFFA v. Harvard that discriminating on the basis of race in college admissions violates the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment.

The proposal cites how attorneys general of 13 states have warned Fortune 100 companies that the ruling implicated corporate DEI programs, and a number of lawsuits have been filed. (Read more from “Costco Doubles Down on ‘Wokeness’ While Ignoring Bud Light Backlash” HERE)

Young Adults Believe Health Insurance Companies, Suspected Killer Share Equal Blame In Healthcare CEO’s Murder: Poll

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Most young adults believe discontent with the nation’s health insurance system and the killer of UnitedHealthcare CEO, Brian Thompson, share equal responsibility in the executive’s murder, according to a new poll.

Nearly 70% of U.S. adults between the ages of 18 and 29 said “a great deal” or “moderate amount” of responsibility for the Thompson’s murder can be attributed to “denials for health care coverage by health insurance companies,” “profits made by health insurance companies” and “the individual who committed the killing,” according to a survey from NORC at the University of Chicago conducted between Dec. 12-16 with 1,001 adults participating.

(Read more from “Young Adults Believe Health Insurance Companies, Suspected Killer Share Equal Blame In Healthcare CEO’s Murder: Poll” HERE)

Trump Asks SCOTUS to Pause TikTok Ban ‘To Pursue a Negotiated Resolution’

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President-elect Donald Trump urged the Supreme Court on Friday to pause an impending ban on the Chinese-owned social media platform TikTok.

Trump’s legal team filed a friend-of-the-court brief requesting the justices pause TikTok’s ban, due to go into effect on January 19, to give the president-elect time to negotiate a deal to keep the platform operating in the United States. The effort to ban TikTok gained bipartisan support earlier this year as critics accused the platform of threatening U.S. national security by collecting data on Americans.

In April, Congress passed and President Joe Biden signed legislation that included a ban on TikTok unless the social media platform can meet the terms outlined in the legislation, namely being sold off from its parent company, ByteDance. The legislation gave the social media platform 270 days to comply with the chance of an additional 90 days if the Biden administration assesses that ByteDance has made meaningful progress toward a sale.

TikTok sued the government over the ban, claiming that it violates the First Amendment.

“President Trump takes no position on the merits of the dispute,” Trump’s team wrote in its brief. “Instead, he urges the Court to stay the statute’s effective date to allow his incoming Administration to pursue a negotiated resolution that could prevent a nationwide shutdown of TikTok, thus preserving the First Amendment rights of tens of millions of Americans, while also addressing the government’s national security concerns.” (Read more from “Trump Asks SCOTUS to Pause TikTok Ban ‘To Pursue a Negotiated Resolution’” HERE)

Florida Man Shoots at Two Migrants in Alleged Home Invasion, One Died

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A Florida homeowner shot at two migrants who allegedly broke into his home Thursday night. One of the migrants, a Mexican national, died from multiple gunshot wounds.

Manatee County Sheriff Rick Wells told reporters his deputies responded to a call about a shooting connected to an alleged home invasion burglary. The homeowner said his home surveillance camera alerted him to the two masked men who were about to break into his home, Fox 13 reported.

“He [the homeowner] knew something bad was about to happen, and he didn’t stall. He grabbed his firearm, told his wife to get into a safe spot,” the sheriff said. “This is the state of Florida. If you want to break into someone’s home, you should expect to be shot.”

The homeowner reportedly told his wife to find a safe place in the house as he grabbed his firearm to defend his home and family. Florida is a Castle Doctrine state that allows a homeowner to use deadly force to defend himself or others.

The homeowner entered a room where a Mexican national was standing, later identified as Nestevan Flores-Toledo, 27. aka Anibal Miller-Valencia. The homeowner fired at least three shots, striking the intruder multiple times. (Read more from “Florida Man Shoots at Two Migrants in Alleged Home Invasion, One Died” HERE)

J.K. Rowling: There Is No Such Thing as a Transgender Kid

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Harry Potter creator and women’s rights activist J.K. Rowling has told her fans on social media that there is no such thing as a transgender kid and that no child is born in the “wrong body.”

Rowling engaged series of messages on X on Saturday but after being accused of perpetrating a “hateful focus on trans kids,” the children’s books author seemed to insist that there is no such thing as a trans kid in the first place.

“There are no trans kids. No child is ‘born in the wrong body,’” she wrote. “There are only adults like you, prepared to sacrifice the health of minors to bolster your belief in an ideology that will end up wreaking more harm than lobotomies and false memory syndrome combined.”

In another post, Rowling blamed some of society’s problems on a type of cultural contamination where social media convinces children that they are transgender.

When one X user said that parents are to blame for transgendering of kids, Rowling responded, saying, “Kids are watching TikTok videos of surgeons selling the idea that bodies can be modified like Lego. Schools affirm kids’ trans identities behind parents’ backs. A certain kids’ charity in the UK sent out breast binders to pubescent girls without parental consent.”

(Read more from “J.K. Rowling: There Is No Such Thing as a Transgender Kid” HERE)

Russia Signals Possibility of Ukraine Peace Talks — With One Big Condition for U.S.

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By Fox News. Russia is willing to work with President-elect Trump to help improve relations with Ukraine so long as the U.S. makes the first move, Kremlin officials said this week, adding fresh momentum for the possibility of peace talks as its war in Ukraine threatens to stretch into a third year.

Speaking to reporters Thursday in Moscow, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov reiterated that Russia could be ready to come to the negotiating table regarding its “special military operation” in Ukraine — echoing the phrasing used by the Kremlin to describe its war in Ukraine — so long as the U.S. acted first.

“If the signals that are coming from the new team in Washington to restore the dialogue that Washington interrupted after the start of a special military operation [the war in Ukraine] are serious, of course, we will respond to them,” Lavrov said in Moscow.

But he stressed that the U.S. should move first, telling reporters that “the Americans broke the dialogue, so they should make the first move.”

His remarks come after Trump’s pick for Ukraine envoy, retired Lieutenant-General Keith Kellogg, told Fox News in an interview this month that both Russia and Ukraine appear to be willing to negotiate an end to the war — citing heavy casualties, damage to critical infrastructure, and a general sense of exhaustion that has permeated both countries as the war drags well past the thousand-day mark. (Read more from “Russia Signals Possibility of Ukraine Peace Talks — With One Big Condition for U.S.” HERE)

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Russia Warns Trump: Do Not Test Nuclear Weapon

By The Telegraph. Moscow has warned Donald Trump against resuming the testing of nuclear weapons when he takes office, saying it would “not rule anything out” in response to US aggression.

Sergei Ryabkov, Russia’s deputy foreign minister who oversees arms control, noted that Mr Trump refused to ratify the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty during his first term.

Referencing this refusal, Mr Ryabkov said: “American policy in its various aspects is extremely hostile to us today.”

“So the options for us to act in the interests of ensuring security and the potential measures and actions we have to do this – and to send politically appropriate signals… we do not rule anything out,” he added.

The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty banning nuclear test explosions was adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1996, but has not come into force as some signatory nations have not ratified it. (Read more from “Russia Warns Trump: Do Not Test Nuclear Weapon” HERE)

Homeowner Fatally Guns Down Masked Intruder, Sheriff Says Criminals ‘Should Expect’ It

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A Florida sheriff said intruders should “expect to be shot” after releasing information about a homeowner who opened fire at two masked men trying to break into his house, killing one.

The deceased suspect was identified as 23-year-old Jorge Nestevan Flores-Toledo, from Mexico, according to the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office.

The second suspect, Michel Soto-Mella, 39, an illegal immigrant from Chile, is charged with armed burglary, with additional charges pending, according to the sheriff’s office.

Just after 9 p.m. Thursday, the Manatee County homeowner saw the two men entering the back of his house on his video surveillance system, according to authorities.

“He knew something bad was about to happen and he didn’t stall,” MCSO Sheriff Rick Wells said during a press conference Friday. “He grabbed his firearm [and] told his wife to get into a safe spot.” (Read more from “Homeowner Fatally Guns Down Masked Intruder, Sheriff Says Criminals ‘Should Expect’ It” HERE)

Photo credit: Flickr

J6 ‘Political Prisoners’ Preparing $50 Billion Class Action Lawsuit to File Against Feds

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While tens of thousands of fans of President Donald Trump rallied in Washington in January 2021 to support his doubts about the integrity of the 2020 presidential election, an election evidence now confirms was skewed by a various of undue influences including the FBI’s interference, a few hundred rioted at the Capitol.

There was trespassing, and vandalism, and members of Congress said they were scared for the lives, although the only fatality in the violence that day was a protester shot at point-blank range by a police officer. Further, Democrats in Washington had rejected Trump’s offer in advance to have National Guard troops to secure the building. . .

That political agenda now is reaping the whirlwind: A $50 billion lawsuit that is being prepared against the government over its agenda.

It is the Gateway Pundit that revealed more than 100 January 6 “political prisoners” have come together for the action against the Department of Justice.

His organization, “Federal Watchdog,” is being joined by a team of lawyers with the aim of exposing the injustices inflicted on the prisoners. (Read more from “J6 ‘Political Prisoners’ Preparing $50 Billion Class Action Lawsuit to File Against Feds” HERE)

Fani Willis Suffers Another Court Loss in Her Scheme to Prosecute Trump

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Fulton County, Georgia, District Attorney Fani Willis has suffered another loss in her legal campaign to prosecute President-elect Donald Trump on her “organized crime” charges.

This after a court already has ruled that she’s off the case because of the impropriety she exhibited by hiring her paramour to work on her case against Trump.

Now a judge has said the Georgia state Senate can issue a subpoena to her as part of its investigation into whether she engaged in misconduct during her lawfare case against Trump. . .

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Shukura Ingram filed the order that instructs Willis she has until Jan. 13 to submit arguments over whether the subpoenas seek legally shielded or confidential information.

A state Senate committee had ordered her earlier to answer questions and produce documents about her campaign against Trump. (Read more from “Fani Willis Suffers Another Court Loss in Her Scheme to Prosecute Trump” HERE)

Study Finds 12-Fold Higher Suicide Risk for People Who Had Gender Surgery

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A study published earlier this year shows that those who underwent gender surgery had a suicide risk 12 times higher than those who did not, adding more data showing the dangers of the life-altering procedures.

The study utilized patient data from 56 health care organizations in the U.S. and over 90 million patients. Four different groups of patients were looked at in the study, including 1,501 people aged 18-60 who had “gender-affirming surgery” and an emergency visit (cohort A) and 15,608,363 adults who visited the emergency room but had no “gender-affirming surgery” (cohort B). The third group (cohort C) included 142,093 “adults with emergency visits, tubal ligation or vasectomy, but no gender-affirming surgery,” while a fourth group of patients with pharyngitis (cohort D) was studied “to validate the results from cohort C.”

“Data from February 4, 2003, to February 4, 2023, were analyzed to examine suicide attempts, death, self-harm, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) within five years of the index event,” the study said, adding that its results found that “Individuals who underwent gender-affirming surgery had a 12.12-fold higher suicide attempt risk than those who did not.”

The study concluded, “Gender-affirming surgery is significantly associated with elevated suicide attempt risks, underlining the necessity for comprehensive post-procedure psychiatric support.” (Read more from “Study Finds 12-Fold Higher Suicide Risk for People Who Had Gender Surgery” HERE)