Good News Friday: 02/01/24 .....
February 01, 2024
Dear Patriots,
We add some fun videos in the mix of good news from the past week.
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1- It is all too rare for anyone acting like this to be held accountable.
Ex-IRS contractor who leaked Trump's tax records sentenced to 5 years in prison
QUOTE: Former Internal Revenue Service contractor Charles Littlejohn was sentenced Monday to 5 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to leaking former President Donald Trump's tax records, as well as those of some of the nation's wealthiest people.
After serving his sentence, Littlejohn, 38, will have 3 years of supervised release. He will also have to pay a $5,000 fine, according to CBS News.
Littlejohn was charged in September and pleaded guilty the following month to one charge of unauthorized disclosure of tax returns and information about the returns. He received the maximum sentence of 5 years on Monday.
"He targeted the sitting president of the United States of America, and that is exceptional by any measure," federal Judge Ana Reyes said at his sentencing. "It cannot be open season on our elected officials."
In a brief statement before the court, Littlejohn said, "I alone am responsible for this crime" and that he leaked the records out of a desire for transparency.
"I made my decision with full knowledge that I would likely end up in a courtroom to answer for my serious crime," he also said. "I used my skills to systematically violate the privacy of thousands of people."
2- More accountability is a good thing but we will wait to see how this shakes out. The Biden Regime going after one of their own is rare.
DOJ Conducting Criminal Probe Into Rep. Cori Bush
QUOTE: The Department of Justice (DOJ) is reportedly conducting a criminal probe of Democratic Missouri Rep. Cori Bush, who has repeatedly pushed to defund the police, after spending taxpayer money on private security for herself.
According to Punchbowl News, the Justice Department has subpoenaed the House Sergeant at Arms for records relating to the misspending of federal security money. The Daily Caller first reported in April that Bush and members of the far-left Democratic Party group in Congress called "the Squad" spent thousands of campaign funds on private security.
According to the Statement of Disbursements of the House records, Bush also spent taxpayer funds on a day of private security for herself between Jan. 1 to March 31.
Bush, a freshman Democrat who has vocally pushed to defund the police, spent over $30,000 on her own security, according to her April Quarterly 2021 financial report.
3- While much of the theatrics that happen at Congressional hearings are all for show and afterwards nothing improves, it is nonetheless interesting to watch the founder of Facebook get slapped around. Senator Hawley made him stand up, turn around and apologize to victims of his problematic product.
Josh Hawley receives an ovation after going off on Zuckerberg.
Twitter/X
4- In another undercover sting by James O'Keefe, he reveals what government employees who work in the White House Executive Office really think. Ironically, this cybersecurity official does not recognize O'Keefe, who was thinly disguised.
Top White House Cyber Official tells O'Keefe in disguise "they can't say it publicly" the White House wants to replace Kamala Harris and Confirms President JoeBiden mental decline: "Biden is definitely slowing down."
5- More good news on the battle against DEI.
Texas university to cancel cultural graduations in light of new law
QUOTE: University of Texas at Austin (UT) announced that they are canceling cultural graduations due to the Lone Star State's recent law banning diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) offices.
UT sent an email last week saying that they will cease funding cultural graduation ceremonies, according to the Daily Texan.
Senate Bill 17, which went into effect this month, affects DEI offices and programs at public colleges and universities across the state.
Their decision came after the university's Multicultural Engagement Center (MEC) was closed in compliance with the state's law shutting down DEI offices. The closure of the Multicultural Engagement Center impacted their Black Graduation, Latinx Graduation, and GraduAsian ceremonies."The MEC's closure will also impact welcome programs including the CultivAsian, Bloq Party, New Black Student Weekend, Adelante, Four Directions, and Leadership Institutes," The Daily Texan reported.
The Daily Texan reported further that the "MEC is 'working diligently to find an alternative home' for the graduations."
More efforts to crackdown on DEI in Texas are underway.
6- It is refreshing to read an opinion by a judge that actually makes sense.
The Most Litigious Place on Earth: Disney Loses Major Challenge to Florida
QUOTE: Last year, I criticized the lawsuit of Disney against Florida after losing its special status in the former Reedy Creek Improvement District. U.S. District Judge Allen Winsor in Tallahassee appears to view the matter as dimly as I did. He just dismissed the action in a major loss for the House of Mouse.
Disney decided to go public with a campaign against the popular parent rights legislation for Florida schools. Florida responded by removing the special status long enjoyed by the company. There is another lawsuit pending in state court.
Judge Winsor found that Disney lacked standing to sue DeSantis, the secretary of the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity and the new governing district. The separate lawsuit is still pending in state court in Orlando.
The court found that the law was constitutional on its face. As a result, it found no standing to challenge the law under the First Amendment. As I noted earlier, Disney was effectively saying that a state legislature could not remove special status and create greater uniformity with all companies under this law. Even if there were retaliatory purposes, there was clearly a public policy reason for seeking such uniformity. If the courts were to block it, it would invite a major intrusion of the courts into decisions on the priorities of legislatures. As the court noted, Disney is "not the district's only landowner, and other landowners within the district are affected by the same laws."
Disney seems to be doubling down and said it would "press forward with our case." It insisted that "this is an important case with serious implications for the rule of law, and it will not end here." So once again, what does the company hope to achieve? Is a court truly going to order Florida to maintain special status ad infinitum?
Disney's lawyers seem to be pushing a legal claim with the same logic of many of the company's new movies: waiting for the audience to change its mind rather than changing its strategy.
7- It is good news when these kind of groups fall apart.
Stacey Abrams' Nonprofit Implodes After Shelling Out Millions In Failed Election Fights
QUOTE: Failed Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams' nonprofit, Fair Fight, is laying off the majority of its staff, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Fair Fight, a group Abrams founded to combat alleged voter suppression in Georgia, will be laying off 75% of its staff and significantly narrowing its scope of operations, the AJC reported. The organization holds $2.5 million in debt but only has $1.9 million in cash, according to the AJC.
Fair Fight raised more than $100 million during its first three years of operations, according to AJC. Fair Fight Action, Fair Fight's political arm, even aired an advertisement during the 2019 Super Bowl promoting Abrams.
Things appear to have begun going downhill for Abrams' nonprofit after the 2020 election cycle.
Fair Fight Action had more than $21 million in net assets at the end of 2020, according to tax filings. That figure dropped to about $3.4 million in 2021 and again to just over $1.5 million in 2022, tax documents show.
Much of the cash raised by Fair Fight directly benefited Stacey Abrams and those close to her.
An ethics watchdog had previously filed an IRS complaint alleging that Fair Fight Action violated federal law by focusing on promoting Abrams' political career instead of its stated mission of protecting voting rights.
8- This story is from Australia but it starts to build precedence for these cases worldwide.
Landmark Covid vaccine injury win
QUOTE: The Department of Child Protection (DCP) must pay compensation and medical expenses to a youth worker who developed pericarditis after getting a Covid booster under a workplace vaccination directive, the South Australian Employment Tribunal has ruled.
In a decision handed down on 15 January 2024, the Tribunal determined that Daniel Shepherd's employment was "a significant contributing cause" to his injury, which has since rendered him incapable of performing his role at work.
Shepherd got a Covid booster in February 2022 as a requirement for his ongoing employment with the DCP. The DCP admitted that Shepherd's pericarditis had been caused by the booster, but denied responsibility for the injury, arguing that it did not arise from Shepherd's employment, but from a lawful State Government Public Health Order (PHO), issued under theEmergency Management Act 2004 (EMA).
However, the Tribunal rejected the DCP's argument, deciding that because the injury arose as a result of both the state-directed vaccination mandate and his employment, Mr Shepherd was entitled to workers compensation.
"This is a good decision" says human rights lawyer Peter Fam, of Sydney law firm Maat's Method, noting that it sets an important precedent for holding employers accountable for injuries incurred as a result of vaccination directives enforced in the workplace.
"The most significant aspect of this case, in my opinion, is that even though there was a Public Health Order in place, the Tribunal found the employer responsible anyway," says Fam.
Many Australian employers have sought to deflect responsibility for injuries incurred under workplace Covid vaccine directives on the basis that they were simply following state government orders.
However, under workers compensation law, the workplace is liable if employment is "a significant contributing cause of the injury," regardless of whether other factors also contributed, explains Fam.
9- It is always fun when scientists find out they don't know everything.
Scientists spot previously unknown colonies of emperor penguins in Antarctica
QUOTE: Previously unknown colonies of emperor penguins have been spotted in new satellite imagery.
Emperor penguins, considered "near threatened" with extinction, are the world's largest penguins.
"Emperor penguins have taken it upon themselves to try to find more stable sea ice," he said.
The four newly found colonies likely existed for many years, but scientists hadn't previously spotted them, said Fretwell. They are mostly small colonies, with less than 1,000 breeding pairs each, he said. Scientists currently know of 66 emperor penguin colonies.
PRAY for divine intervention. PRAY for the country. PRAY for all children. SHARE the truth.
Hold Fast,
Defending The Republic
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