by AM | Nov 18, 2023 | Aggregate
Far-left Judge Arthur Engoron denied Trump’s bid for a mistrial in the NYC fraud case.
President Trump’s lawyers went on offense on Wednesday and asked a judge to grant a mistrial in the civil fraud case brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James.
Trump’s lawyers argued that the fraud case was tainted by bias.
Radical Marxist New York Attorney General Letitia James is seeking $250 million in ‘damages’ when there is no victim in this fraud case and she is also seeking to ban Trump and his sons from operating any businesses in New York.
Judge Engoron has displayed bizarre behavior in court by smiling for the cameras. He has also shown clear bias against Trump and recently expanded his gag order to Trump’s attorneys.
Engoron denied Trump’s bid for a mistrial on Friday.
The Associated Press reported:
The judge in Donald Trump ‘s civil fraud case denied his bid for a mistrial Friday, rejecting claims from the former president’s lawyers that the proceedings are poisoned by political bias.
Trump’s lawyers had argued that Judge Arthur Engoron irreparably harmed Trump’s right to a fair trial through “astonishing departures from ordinary standards of impartiality.”
They cited his rulings against Trump, the prominent role that the judge’s chief law clerk plays in court, the clerk’s political donations and what the defense called Engoron’s “appearance of impropriety” in sharing articles about the case in his high school alumni newsletter.
Engoron declared Friday that the complaints were meritless.
A New York Appeals judge on Thursday temporarily lifted NY Judge Arthur Engoron’s gag order on Trump.
Appellate judge David Friedman stayed Engoron’s gag order citing Trump’s First Amendment rights.
In late October Judge Engoron put Trump on the witness stand after he blasted the former president and accused him of violating the gag order with his remarks to the press. He also fined Trump $10,000.
The post Far-Left Judge Engoron Denies Trump’s Bid for Mistrial in NYC Fraud Case appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.
by AM | Nov 18, 2023 | Aggregate
A move is afoot to form an alternative after venerable children’s book company Scholastic reversed itself and announced it would force schools to accept child grooming and transgender books in its sponsored book fairs in America’s grade schools.
The controversy started in October when Scholastic — a promoter of kids books for decades — announced it would allow schools to opt out of including controversial, sexually explicit gay sex books in its book fairs for young kids. These book fairs are usually held in more than 120,000 schools to give kids opportunities to buy books aimed at them at reasonable prices.
The company, which has been deleting parts of old book series because of supposed “racism,” decided to offer the opt out for the more controversial books because so many states have passed laws limiting certain sexually explicit books from being stocked in school libraries.
“There is now enacted or pending legislation in more than 30 U.S. states prohibiting certain kinds of books from being in schools — mostly LGBTQIA+ titles and books that engage with the presence of racism in our country,” Scholastic said in an October statement.
“Because Scholastic Book Fairs are invited into schools, where books can be purchased by kids on their own, these laws create an almost impossible dilemma: back away from these titles or risk making teachers, librarians and volunteers vulnerable to being fired, sued or prosecuted,” the company added.
From there, the company added a new selection of 64 books that are more controversial than the average kiddie book. The company labeled these books the “Share Every Story, Celebrate Every Voice” collection. Their plan was that schools would be allowed to opt in to have this collection added to a book fair.
But leftists were outraged at this opt-in feature and absurdly accused Scholastic of “censoring books.”
Naturally, it wasn’t long before Scholastic caved to the left-wing outrage machine, dumped the opt-in collection, and announced that going forward every school would be forced to accept the books aimed at grooming small children for sexual contact with adults.
In an Oct. 25 statement, Scholastic president Ellie Berger groveled before the left, saying that the opt-in collection was a mistake.
“Even if the decision was made with good intention, we understand now that it was a mistake to segregate diverse books in an elective case,” she said. “We recognize and acknowledge the pain caused, and that we have broken the trust of some of our publishing community, customers, friends, trusted partners and staff, and we also recognize that we will now need to regain that trust.”
Now that Scholastic seems to be signaling that schools will have to take the controversial grooming books, this is leaving many looking for an alternative to the left-wing agenda being forced on children. And actor and Christian activist Kirk Cameron is about to step up to fill that need.
Cameron has announced the formation of SkyTree books which, he says, will offer “healthy, wholesome” books for kids, according to Fox News.
The nonprofit says that it is “leading the way with book fairs that promote literacy while protecting childhood innocence.”
The former “Growing Pains” star says that his new company is a direct response to the decision by Scholastic Book Fairs to push controversial and inappropriate content on kids.
“It’s obvious that Scholastic is committed to indoctrinating our youth with harmful messages,” Cameron told Fox News.
“They are not just the 1,000-pound gorilla in this space. They are the space. They are the ones publishing this material. We want to knock them out of the race,” the actor added.
“A lot of this stuff is pornography by any definition,” he said of many of the books Scholastic is celebrating.
SkyTree is headed by Riley Lee, a former middle-school teacher who said she was working for Brave Books on Cameron’s library tour when “my eyes were opened to the impact that books have on families across the country.” https://t.co/wkQpxDsaQb
— The Washington Times (@WashTimes) November 18, 2023
SkyTree plans to roll out its new program to more than 600 schools that have already expressed an interest in what it has to offer.
“SkyTree Book Fairs offers a positive alternative to Scholastic,” Cameron said. “We want to do a better job of providing wholesome books to kids. We want a better alternative that puts good age-appropriate books in the hands of our children.”
Sadly, this is what we are going to have to do all up and down the line and in every field of manufacturing and product sales. Since these giant corporations insist on peddling sexually explicit materials and products to our children, or are otherwise supporting efforts to target children for sexual conquest by adults and an adult agenda, we are simply going to have to offer our own services and products for sale in a parallel economy that promotes healthy children and pro-American ideals.
If you are a parent, go to your school and demand a SkyTree book fair instead of one controlled by the groomers at Scholastic.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
The post Christian Actor Kirk Cameron Takes on Woke Book Giant to Fight Harmful, Sexualized Books in Schools appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.
by AM | Nov 18, 2023 | Aggregate
Joe Biden and Xi Jinping in San Francisco at APEC Summit.
This article by Susan Crabtree was originally published by RealClearPolitics and made available via RealClearWire.
The United States sent Chinese President Xi Jinping a dissonant message on human rights this week when the Biden administration and California officials rolled out the red carpet for the brutal dictator.
Xi’s 10 years as president are marked by a genocide against China’s Muslim minority, attempts to wipe out Tibetan culture, and persecution of Christians and followers of Falun Gong – not to mention a crackdown on democracy, religious freedom, and civil rights in Hong Kong.
Yet, during official and unofficial meetings this week, there was no mention of the long list of atrocities. Instead, Xi received an unusually warm reception.
On Wednesday night in the confines of San Francisco’s Hyatt Regency ballroom, America’s corporate chieftains gathered to fete Xi as a “guest of honor” at a banquet drawing nearly 400 attendees. The gala took place on the sidelines of the Asian Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, a gathering of 21 member countries to support free trade and business ties.
The executives were so excited to share the room with the Chinese president that they gave him two standing ovations before Xi uttered a word. American titans of business, including Apple’s Tim Cook and Blackstone’s Steve Schwarzman, Black Rock’s Larry Fink, Boeing’s Stanley Deal, and Pfizer’s Albert Bourla, joined Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo to rub shoulders with Xi and a cohort of Chinese officials.
Tickets for the banquet started at $2,000 each, with several companies shelling out $40,000 to buy eight seats at a table in the ballroom and one at Xi’s table. After Xi’s remarks, attendees provided yet another standing ovation, according to Reuters.
Some executives made no attempt to hide their gushing. On the way into the Hyatt, Bridgewater Associates hedge fund founder Ray Dalio told the Financial Times that he was “excited to have this relationship [with Xi].”
If Dalio entered the hotel from the main lobby, he couldn’t have avoided the polar opposite scene and messaging. A Tibetan student activist named Tsela had strapped herself to a flagpole and was waving the Tibetan flag when Xi and his entourage arrived. Other activists from Students for a Free Tibet chanted “Murderer” at the Chinese leader, “Down with the CCP,” and “Human Rights in Tibet.”
At one point, a pro-Chinese protester carrying an American and Chinese flag in one hand and a bullhorn in the other drowned out the Tibetan activists’ voices.
An activist promoting democracy in Hong Kong displayed a bleeding wound in one tweet, along with a photo of menacing-looking men in surgical masks carrying long metal pipes. The activist complained that pro-Beijing forces were attacking her group outside the Hyatt Regency.
“Harassment and assault happening at the protest zone,” tweeted Anna Kwok, the executive director of the Hong Kong Democracy Council, Wednesday night.
Kwok has a HK$1 million bounty on her head from the Hong Kong government for helping organize the 2019 pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong. While her Twitter accounts did not provide footage of the alleged attacks, she shared several messages threatening her life from pro-China social media accounts. One from an account that goes by @Chinaloverguy threatened to kidnap her, tie her up, and send her back to China.
“I do want the million dollar reward as i will first to tie you up with ropes then send you to a black market or simply send you back to HK myself,” the account warned.
Late Thursday afternoon, Kwok shared photos of her and several other Chinese pro-democracy activists meeting with Mark Lambert, the State Department’s China coordinator and deputy assistant secretary in the Bureau of East Asia and Pacific Affairs. The meeting took place “just blocks” from the APEC summit.
“We’ll keep speaking up for our people and pushing for concrete action despite the transnational repression,” she tweeted.
Earlier Wednesday, Students for a Free Tibet complained on Twitter that it was “attacked” by 20 pro-Chinese counter-protesters in medical masks, whom the activists described as paid Chinese operatives. The alleged assaults occurred after the activists displayed an anti-Xi banner with the words, “Dictator Xi Jinping, Your Time is Up!” through openings in a garage structure. The activists said the group of pro-Chinese men in surgical masks grabbed the flag through openings on a lower level, pulling the banner and stealing it while nearly dragging the student activists over the ledge where they were holding onto and displaying the banner. Students for a Free Tibet also tweeted footage of a confrontation and scuffle when both groups converged in an elevator trying to leave the scene.
“This is the CCP. This is China. This is who APEC nations and the world are doing business with,” the group stated in the tweet.
In another episode of pro-China intimidation, several demonstrators in blue surgical masks carrying Chinese flags harassed a Uyghur woman toting a light-blue Turkmenistan flag now outlawed in China. Members of the pro-China contingent followed her closely, eventually enveloping her flag in a sea of larger Chinese flags.
Tibetan activist accounts identified the woman as Tursunay Ziyawudun, a Uyghur refugee now living in the United States who testified to Congress in 2022 that she had been raped and tortured by Chinese police in a “re-education” concentration camp. In her testimony, she detailed what she described as just one horrific episode in the CCP’s systematic targeting of young women for sexual abuse.
“Even in America, this is the reality of the CCP,” Students for a Free Tibet said in its tweet, referring to attempts by pro-Chinese counter-protesters to intimidate Ziyawudun.
Inside the summit’s lecture halls and ballrooms, there was a complete disconnect with the multiple anti-China protests taking place outside – and, at times, with reality. There was no mention of genocide or human rights abuses during Xi’s and Biden’s public remarks. Instead, Xi told the crowd he is ready to partner with America, and the world needs the two superpowers to work together.
“Whatever stage of development it may reach, China will never pursue hegemony or expansion and will never impose its will on others,” Xi said in remarks at the Wednesday night dinner. “China does not seek spheres of influence and will not fight a cold war or a hot war with anyone.”
At a press conference in San Francisco on Wednesday, Biden made waves by saying that he still considers Xi a dictator despite progress in reducing tensions in their relationship. On Thursday, however, Biden focused mainly on the positive, pledging not to “decouple” from China, explaining that the U.S. is instead “de-risking and diversifying our economic relations” with Beijing.
“Stable relations between the world’s two largest economies is not merely good for the two economies, it’s good for the world – a stable relationship is good for everyone,” Biden said, without acknowledging that his own State Department has officially deemed Xi’s persecution of the Uyghurs as genocide and has repeatedly placed China on official human rights and religious freedom blacklists.
Business and trade analysts argue that Xi’s speech is unlikely to dramatically shift his approach to bilateral business and trade relations. As the economic and geopolitical rivalry has intensified over the last few years, China has grown more suspicious of U.S. companies, cracking down on American consultancy firms and damaging investor confidence.
The Biden administration’s decision not to use the opportunity to send a firm human rights message, along with Xi’s open embrace from top American business executives, has dimmed hopes among human rights groups that Xi will curb his brutal persecutions and arbitrary arrests.
Rep. Mike Gallagher, the Republican chairman of the House Select Committee on China, railed against Xi’s dinner with U.S. business executives.
Gallagher sent a letter on Monday to the dinner’s hosts, the U.S. China Business Council and the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations, demanding a complete list of companies who paid to attend the gala.
“The U.S. business community needs to remove its golden blindfolds and realize that doing business with the CCP risks the safety of their employees, their shareholders, and the savings of millions of Americans,” Gallagher told Fox News Wednesday. “$40,000 may buy you a meal with Xi, but it can’t buy you a conscience.”
Other human rights leaders on Capitol Hill were also disappointed with the absence of any reference to China’s egregious human rights record during the summit’s official proceedings. Several members of Congress and advocacy organizations had pressed Biden to demand the release of three American citizens who have been held hostage in China for years before the two leaders met. At the very least, they wanted Biden to present to Xi a list of individuals the CCP has arbitrarily detained on false charges.
The timing of Biden’s meeting with Xi also coincided with several threats in Hong Kong against a group of U.S. lawmakers. Rep. John Curtis, a Utah Republican, was one of four members of Congress included in a Monday petition to Hong Kong’s High Court that would enable the territory’s law enforcement to arrest them if they travel to and are found in the city.
The others are Sen. Dan Sullivan, an Alaska Republican, and Sen. Jeff Merkley, an Oregon Democrat, as well as Reps. Young Kim, a California Republican, and James McGovern, a Massachusetts Democrat.
Curtis has introduced several Hong Kong-focused bills, including one that would implement sanctions on several top Hong Kong officials if international commissions determine they have violated international human rights laws.
The Utah congressman, who spent three years in Taiwan in the late 1970s, said he’s particularly distressed that San Francisco city officials didn’t provide greater free-speech protections for human rights protesters outside APEC.
“It’s an obvious attempt to intimidate, not just their own residents, but those of us who enjoy the freedoms we do here in the United States,” he told RealClearPolitics Thursday.
While Curtis agrees with Biden’s efforts to help thaw relations with China, he bristled at reports that American business executives gave Xi a standing ovation.
“I thought, they don’t know this man – they don’t know what he’s doing and all the atrocities that are happening in China.”
This article was originally published by RealClearPolitics and made available via RealClearWire.
The post Outside APEC, Complaints of Intimidation, Assaults appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.
by AM | Nov 18, 2023 | Aggregate
More than three quarters of Arab “Palestinians“ approve of the barbaric Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks, according to the first poll on the subject. 98% said it makes them feel “prouder of their identity as Palestinians,” JNS reported.
48.2% of respondents in the areas Israel gave up in 1995 for a never-fulfilled promise of „land for peace“ saw Hamas’s role as “very positive,” while 27.8% view Hamas as “somewhat positive.” Almost 80% regard the role of Hamas’s Al-Qassam Brigades “military” wing as positive, JNS reported.
59.3% of the Arabs who call themselves “Filistin” (after the biblical Philistines) said they supported the attacks “extremely”and 15.7% said they “somewhat” supported the bloody killing spree.
Only 12.7% expressed disapproval, with 10.9% saying they neither supported nor opposed the attack, JNS reported.
Three-quarters are so delusional they expect the Israel-Hamas war to end in a Palestinian victory.
After the end of the war, 72% want a government that includes Hamas with Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah. Which ain’t happening.
98% of Palestinians surveyed held negative views of the United States.
The Ramallah-based Arab World for Research and Development (AWRAD) institute polled 668 Palestinian adults in the southern Gaza Strip, Judea and Samaria between Oct. 31 and Nov. 7. (The margin of error is 4 percentage points, AWRAD said.)
While the Biden Regime still clings to the dangerous fantasy of a „two-state solution“ (meaning Israel and one big Palestinian terror state), Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told NPR on Friday Israel must maintain “overall military responsibility” in Gaza “for the foreseeable future.”
“Once we defeat Hamas, we have to make sure that there’s no new Hamas, no resurgence of terrorism, and right now the only force that is able to secure that is Israel,” Netanyahu said. He added “there has to be a civilian government there,” but did not say which of the 98% USA-hating, Hamas-loving Arabs it would be.
The post 75% of “Innocent Palestinians” Approve of Hamas Oct. 7 Bloodbath, 98% Hate the USA appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.
by AM | Nov 18, 2023 | Aggregate
Maricopa County Chairman Bill Gates claims, “This election was run extremely well.”
Maricopa County filed a response brief Friday to Kari Lake’s Petition for Transfer, which was filed in the Arizona Supreme Court on Tuesday.
In the filing below, Maricopa County attempts to refute claims by Lake’s attorneys that because of illegal settings and secret testing of the voting systems before election day, “at least 8,000 misconfigured ‘fit-to-page’ ballots occurred at 127 vote centers on Election Day.” Lake’s attorneys also argue that “vote center tabulators logged over 7,000 rejections every 30 minutes from 6:30 am through 8:00 pm.”
This testing and reconfiguration occurred with no documentation or logging of tamper-evident seals, without providing the legally required public notice, and without political party observers, violating multiple provisions in the Elections Procedures Manual. It also occurred after the statutory October 11 logic and accuracy test, where they were required to test “any electronic voting equipment” that would be used in the election.
The Gateway Pundit reported on Lake’s Petition for Transfer, highlighting this new evidence of intentional wrongdoings that caused tabulators at 60% of voting locations to fail on election day when Republicans turned out 3:1 to vote for Kari Lake and Republican candidates.
JUST IN: Kari Lake’s Attorneys File New Brief & Petition to Transfer Election Case to AZ Supreme Court After Maricopa County BUSTED Falsely Certifying Voting Machines Past L&A Testing – 260/446 FAILED On AND BEFORE Election Day
This caused massive lines and wait times for mostly Republican voters. Tens of thousands of voters, some of whom waited in line for hours, placed their ballots in the mysterious “door #3” to be allegedly counted off-site later. It is unclear how many Kari Lake voters decided to just not vote.
Still, Maricopa County, in their response, ignores the long lines and, citing a Judge’s opinion, claims that the testimony of cybersecurity expert Clay Parikh “established that the Election Day issues ‘did not actually affect the results of the election.’”
The County also continues their comical argument that the tabulator failures were not failures but instead evidence that “the tabulators were correctly reading these ballots as errors.” How convenient that printer issues caused correctly filled ballots to produce the same error message as overvotes, blank ballots, and accessible voting ballots!
.@MaricopaCounty maintains that the massive tabulator failures during their fake testing actually show the machines did their job?
Yeah, the machines 100% did work as intended if the intention was to rig the election https://t.co/TJmpNiKjUJ
— Jordan Conradson🇺🇸 (@ConradsonJordan) November 18, 2023
In a series of tweets, citizen watchdog group We The People AZ Alliance pointed out the lies and bogus arguments by Maricopa County:
Maricopa County Responds to Lake brief. MC admits they did NOT do ANY L&A testing! “Testing” before October 11 was not by statute which states notice MUST be given and conducted under observation of the political parties.
🚨 Breaking 🚨 Maricopa County Responds to Lake brief. MC admits they did NOT do ANY L&A testing! “Testing” before October 11 was not by statute which states notice MUST be given and conducted under observation of the political parties. Read Here Now:https://t.co/2bGtnhbpvj pic.twitter.com/8ubZ4YqfDq
— We the People AZ Alliance (@WethePeopleAZA1) November 18, 2023
County also admits that they changed the programs AFTER the fake L&A testing…
They also state the claim that the tests failed is wrong. Tabulators read the errors just the way they should. What?!
They also state the claim that the tests failed is wrong. Tabulators read the errors just the way they should. What?!
🤣
— We the People AZ Alliance (@WethePeopleAZA1) November 18, 2023
Another notable portion of Maricopa County’s brief reads,
Lake’s attorneys also falsely assert that Maricopa County did not conduct the logic and accuracy testing required by A.R.S. § 16-449 on all of its tabulators, citing Parikh’s Declaration, which claims that no tabulator was tested. [Pet. at 1, 5; see Lake’s Appx 0071, ¶ 8(a).] First, that statute, which concerns the Secretary of State’s logic and accuracy testing, doesn’t specify that “all” tabulators must be tested, and the 2019 Elections Procedures Manual, which has the force of law under A.R.S. § 16-452, specifies that the Secretary’s logic and accuracy testing must be conducted on “selected equipment,” not all of it. 2019 EPM at 87. Second, the record reveals that the Secretary’s logic and accuracy testing of Maricopa County’s tabulators occurred on October 11, 2022, as required. [Ex. 1 to Parikh’s Decl., Secretary of State’s Logic & Accuracy Equipment Certificate (Lake-APPX 0094).]
Lake’s attorneys also assert that Maricopa County never tested all of its tabulators that would be used on election day. [Pet. at 7.] But that is false. Lake’s Appendix contains Scott Jarrett’s Declaration, in which he testified that the County tested all of its tabulators on October 4 through 10, 2022, and installed the final Election Program, which successfully passed the Secretary’s logic and accuracy testing, on October 14 through 18. [Lake-APPX 0328–0332, ¶¶ 4–17.]
Here, the County admits that they did not test all tabulators with the reprogrammed software that was installed and used after logic and accuracy testing. Instead, Maricopa claims that the “final Election Program” passing the Secretary of State’s logic and accuracy testing was enough to install it on tabulators without testing to certify that they were accurately reading and counting votes!
They also cite the law and requirements for the Secretary of State’s portion of logic and accuracy testing, which does not apply to Maricopa County. The Elections Procedures Manual clearly states that logic and accuracy testing must be conducted by counties on “all voting equipment prior to each election.”
The Gateway Pundit will continue to provide updates on the Arizona Supreme Court’s rulings in Kari Lake’s lawsuit. Stay tuned!
Read the full response brief below:
MC Response to Petition to Transfer FINAL by Jordan Conradson on Scribd
The post BREAKING: Maricopa County Files Response to Kari Lake – Claims Tabulators Were Working as Intended When 60% FAILED on Election Day appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.
