BLM chapter leader says anyone flying American flag is ‘racist,’ not safe to be around . . . Utah’s Black Lives Matter chapter has labeled everyone who flies an American flag “a racist” in a Facebook screed posted over the Independence Day holiday, reports noted on Thursday. “When we Black Americans see this flag we know the person flying it is not safe to be around,” says the post. “When we see this flag we know the person flying it is a racist. “When we see this flag we know that the person flying it lives in a different America than we do. When we see this flag, we question your intelligence. We know to avoid you. It is a symbol of hatred,” the post continued. Business & Politics Review

 

Obama Ethics Chief Calls Biden Out For Helping Shield Buyers Of Hunter’s ‘Art’ . . . Ethics experts and art critics are raising concerns about Hunter Biden’s upcoming art show, in which his paintings are expected to sell for prices from $75,000 to as high as $500,000. The White House helped broker a deal under which the buyers of Biden’s art will be kept entirely anonymous even to Hunter himself. The owner of the New York gallery where Biden’s show will take place, Georges Bergès, is also planning to set the prices for the art and withhold all sales records. “The whole thing is a really bad idea,” Richard Painter, chief ethics lawyer to President George W. Bush from 2005-2007 told the Post. “The initial reaction a lot of people are going to have is that he’s capitalizing on being the son of a president and wants people to give him a lot of money. I mean, those are awfully high prices.” Daily Caller

 

 

 

Russia Quickly Crossed Biden’s Red Line . . . Joe Biden certainly talked a big game when he warned Russian President Vladimir Putin last month in Geneva that “certain infrastructure should be off-limits to attack, period — by cyber or any other means.” Recall that a few weeks prior, Colonial Pipeline had experienced a ransomware attack that forced a days-long shutdown of some 5,000 miles of pipeline in the Southeast, creating fuel shortages and gas price hikes.  In drawing his red line, Biden gave Putin a list of 16 do-not-touch areas, promising, “If, in fact, they violate these basic norms, we will respond with cyber. He knows.” Biden further elaborated, “We agreed to task experts in both our countries to work on specific understandings about what’s off-limits [for hacking] and to follow up on specific cases that originate in … either of our countries.” Heaven help the American entities that didn’t make Biden’s list and are thus, apparently, fair game. Patriot Post

 

Ransomware demands are digital extortion: don’t pay . . . There remains one specific, and controversial, policy that could help tackle the scourge of ransomware: pass legislation outlawing all ransom payments. One of those arguing the case is Ciaran Martin, the former chief executive of Britain’s National Cyber Security Centre. His argument is one of both principle and pragmatism. “We should start from the presumption that large scale transfers of wealth to Russian hackers should not be allowed,” he says. He adds that paying ransoms rarely acts as a “magic switch” to restore blocked services anyway. Cybercriminals may leave malware in the system and come back again. As in cases of terrorist hostage-taking, a policy of banning ransom payments is easy to accept in principle, far harder to follow when your own child is at risk. That makes it all the more vital that we devise a considered and collective response in anticipation of attacks rather than leaving it to panicking hacking victims to respond in a crisis. Financial Times

 

 

POLITICO-Harvard poll: Most Americans believe Covid leaked from lab . . . Most Americans now believe that the coronavirus leaked from a laboratory in China, according to a new POLITICO-Harvard poll that found a dramatic shift in public perception of Covid-19’s origins over the last year. U.S. adults were almost twice as likely to say the virus was the result of a lab leak in China than human contact with an infected animal, which many scientists believe is the most likely scenario. The poll's findings show what was once a fringe belief held mainly among some on the political right has become accepted by most Republicans, as well as most Democrats, amid heightened scrutiny of the lab leak theory. Politico

 

 

 

NY Times blasted for defending 'pornography literacy' for first graders . . . Concerned parents and media critics swatted the New York Times on Thursday after the newspaper heralded Justine Ang Fonte, a New York teacher who recently became infamous for her sexual education curriculum for children and young adults. For seven years, Fonte was the director of health and wellness at the Dalton School on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. In May, she taught two Zoom lessons on "pornography literacy and consent" to juniors and seniors at the Columbia Grammar and Preparatory School on the Upper West Side. Those lessons reportedly included some "masturbation" images, outraging parents and eventually leading to her resignation. But the Times had a different viewpoint on the controversy and appeared to provide Fonte some backup. "Pornography literacy classes are supposed to teach students how to critically assess what they see on the screen," the Times tweeted. Fox News

 

 

‘We’re Coming For Your Children’: Gay Men’s Choir Deletes ‘Tongue-In-Cheek’ Music Video . . . The San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus removed a music video from their public YouTube channel titled “A Message From the Gay Community,” in which the group sings “we’re coming for your children.” The chorus released a statement July 1, claiming that the intent was “tongue-in-cheek humor,” also alleging that the chorus has reached out to law enforcement about hate messages and “threats of harm.” “Gen Z’s gayer than Grindr…We’re coming for them. We’re coming for your children… The gay agenda is here,” the chorus group sang, appearing to make fun of parents who are concerned for their children with the push of LGBTQ agenda by the media, according to the initial report by Not the Bee July 7. While the video is no longer available on their official YouTube channel, it can be found on Rumble. Daily Caller

 

 

12-year-old boy shoots and kills man who broke into home, threatened mother . . . The home invasion happened June 30 near Clinton, news outlets reported. Brad LeBlanc, 32, was armed with a pistol when he encountered the unidentified woman outside her house that morning, according to East Feliciana Parish Sheriff Jeffery Travis. LeBlanc forced the woman inside, and a struggle broke out between them. Her son, who authorities haven’t named, feared for his mother’s life and shot LeBlanc with a hunting rifle, Travis said. The Vidalia man was pronounced dead at a hospital. Travis said his office doesn’t have evidence at this time that would incriminate the boy and there aren’t plans to bring charges against him. Fox News

 

The ‘Minneapolis Effect’ Caused Last Year’s Spike in Violent Crime . . . The spike in violent crime last year was a serious departure from recent crime patterns over the last several decades. In fact, 2020 was likely the deadliest year for gun-related homicides since 1999. This spike was particularly acute in major cities across the country. For example, Minneapolis saw a 95% year-over-year increase in homicides between May and Aug. 1. In Chicago, homicides more than doubled in July 2020, compared to 2019. And New York experienced a 50% increase in homicides and a 112% increase in shootings. Sadly, that is only the tip of the iceberg of cities that experienced this surge. What caused that sudden spike? Paul Cassell, a law professor at the University of Utah and a former federal judge, persuasively answers that question in a recent law review article. A good theory, he says, should be able to explain the following key facts. The inordinate increase in homicides and other shooting crimes. The fact that other “street” or “blue collar” crimes remained relatively the same while shootings spiked. The timing of the violent surge, which began the last week of May, just days after the death of George Floyd. The fact that the violent crime spike was largely confined to major cities. Daily Signal

 

Aides Getting Nervous As Biden's Life Alert Button And Nuclear Launch Button Look Remarkably Similar . . . White House staff are becoming increasingly concerned about a potentially dangerous situation. As always, the president has sole authority to launch nuclear weapons. President Biden requested that he be given a button that he wears at all times for that. The problem is that the White House also has several Life Alert buttons to alert people when Biden's fallen or had another old person-type calamity, and those buttons look exactly the same. “I just have this feeling in the pit of my stomach that we are headed toward a bad situation here,” said a White House aide who asked to remain anonymous. "There have been a few close calls already."

Biden's Life Alert button is big and red and says "HELP" on it, and the nuclear launch button is big and red and says "NUKE" on it, a design decision the Biden administration is now regretting. He also has a personal Life Alert button he wears around his neck, but for convenience's sake, he has a nuclear launch button around his neck as well, and it says "Launch Alert" on it, which officials are now admitting was a bad naming choice. And since Biden is constantly getting lost wandering around the White House looking for ice cream, falling down, and calling for help, many are wondering how this could possibly end well. Babylon Bee