The Patriot Post® · Wednesday: Below the Fold

By Douglas Andrews, Thomas Gallatin, & Jordan Candler ·
https://patriotpost.us/articles/109889-wednesday-below-the-fold-2024-09-04

Free Speech

  • Beware the Left’s censorship-industrial complex: The people of Brazil have a decision to make: Fight or be sheep. In either case, they’ll tell a cautionary tale about the fragile nature of free speech. This week, Brazil’s Supreme Court upheld a nationwide ban on X, Elon Musk’s free speech social media platform, preventing 200 million people from using it. The original ban was decreed Friday by the country’s most powerful justice, leftist Alexandre de Moraes, who two years ago ordered the shutting down of accounts linked to supporters of pro-Trump former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro. We note this censorship in Brazil because Kamala Harris would like to employ it here — at least against political opponents. “He has lost his privileges and [his account] should be taken down,” she said of Trump back in 2019. As The Wall Street Journal’s James Freeman incredulously asks: “Government must regulate speech across all media platforms and dictate one set of rules for what people are permitted to say? This is a proposal for a frontal assault on the First Amendment, and a great reason for voters not to grant Ms. Harris the promotion she now seeks.”

  • Elon Musk, investors reportedly lose more than $24B on X acquisition (NY Post)

Security

  • Another Democrat, another target of opportunity for the ChiComs: What is it about the commie sympathies of Democrat politicians? First it was California Congressman Eric Swalwell, then his since-deceased Cali colleague Dianne Feinstein, and now the New York Post reports that a former high-ranking aid to New York Governors Kathy Hochul and Andrew Cuomo is accused of “working as a Chinese agent [and] reaped luxurious gifts and rewards from her clandestine double life, federal prosecutors said Tuesday.” The Post adds: “In exchange for advancing Beijing’s agenda in New York, the feds allege that [Linda Sun, 41, and her husband Christopher Hu, 40] received millions of dollars in shady kickbacks and laundered it to buy a $4.1 million Manhasset mansion, a $2 million Honolulu luxury condo and a fleet of luxury cars, including a 2024 Ferrari Roma.” New York Republican Congresswoman Elise Stefanik wants answers: “From allowing Chinese police stations, to maintaining a sister city partnership between NYC and Beijing, this is another example of New York Democrats facilitating the influence campaign of Communist China. I am calling for a complete investigation into Kathy Hochul and her administration.”

  • Marketing firm admits using your own phone to listen in on your conversations (NY Post)

  • But we thought illegal immigrants don’t commit crimes? It’s a common refrain from Democrats trying to defend the indefensible: Studies show that migrants commit crimes at a lower rate than native-born Americans. Or some such. But that’s not the point. The point is that they commit crimes that wouldn’t otherwise be committed if they weren’t in the country illegally. This is especially the case in New York City, where lawless illegals are running amok. As the New York Post reports: “Across New York, recently arrived migrants are flooding the criminal justice system — at far higher rates than public officials have acknowledged. Police sources shared with The Post a staggering estimate that as many as 75% of the people they’ve been arresting in Midtown Manhattan in recent months for crimes like assault, robbery and domestic violence are migrants. In parts of Queens, the figure is more than 60%, sources there estimate.” So the next time a lefty tries to dismiss the crime wave of illegal immigrants, ask them if they’ve been to New York City recently.

  • Biden-Harris admin let illegal alien rape suspect into U.S. (Daily Wire)

  • U.S. charges Hamas leaders in connection with October 7 massacre (NY Post)

Government & Politics

  • Federal judge denies request to move Trump hush money case to federal court (Just the News)

  • Tim Walz’s brother won’t be voting for him: Minnesota Democrat Governor and Kamala Harris running mate Tim Walz has an older brother, Jeff Walz, who doesn’t see eye to eye with him when it comes to politics. Jeff, who resides in Florida and is a registered Republican, recently published a series of posts on Facebook unequivocally declaring that he does not support his brother’s run for the vice presidency. “I’m 100% opposed to all his ideology,” Jeff states in one post. In another post, he admits he’s “thought long and hard” about even endorsing Donald Trump, saying, “I’m torn between that and just keeping my family out of it.” He adds, “The stories I could tell. [Tim is] not the type of character you want making decisions about your future.” Since the story was picked up in the mainstream media, Jeff has sought to clarify his stance, saying, “It wasn’t my intent … to put something out there to influence the general public.” He says his Facebook posts were intended for his friends but concedes it “wasn’t the right platform to do that.” He further states, “But I will say, I don’t agree with [Tim’s] policies.”

  • Philadelphia Eagles deny endorsing Kamala Harris after fake ads pop up around Philly (NBC News)

  • Kamala’s changing accents: Evidently, Kamala Harris’s way of giving different word-for-word speeches before different audiences is to change her accent. On Monday, Harris was delivering her boilerplate speech in Detroit, Michigan, when she donned an apparent Southern accent as she called on workers to thank union members for a litany of employee benefits such as sick leave and vacation time. A few hours later, Harris was in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, giving the same speech, and when she got to the point where she called for workers to thank union members, the Southern accent was gone. It was such a stark contrast that Fox News’s Peter Doocy on Tuesday asked White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre about it. As usual, KJP dodged the question while excoriating Doocy for daring to raise such a supposedly nonsense issue. The truth is, it’s an issue because it further exposes Harris’s chameleon political instincts. Who is the real Harris?

  • Kamala Harris slammed for holding phone connected to headphones up to her ear to avoid the press (NY Post)

  • The GOP keeps on suing for election integrity: It’s no coincidence that Michael Whatley’s tenure as chairman of the Republican National Committee has seen a marked increase in the GOP’s efforts to secure the vote. This includes new lawsuits filed in the swing states of Michigan and North Carolina, which come on the heels of a Supreme Court ruling that marked a big win in Arizona last week. As The Daily Signal reports, “An RNC initiative called Protect the Vote has filed more than 100 lawsuits across 25 states and recruited more than 150,000 lawyers and volunteer poll watchers across the country.” Clearly, the Republicans have learned to play the Democrats’ litigious game. “We are defending the law and fighting for commonsense security measures that benefit all Americans — like stopping illegal immigrants from voting, mail ballot safeguards, voter ID measures, stopping leftist dark money, and cleaning the voter rolls,” said Gineen Bresso, director of election integrity for the RNC. “We are winning in court and have recruited over 150,000 volunteers for the election. We are protecting the vote for all Americans.”

  • Alexa’s election interference: Big Tech aims to influence the 2024 presidential election outcome while at the same time denying it. When Amazon’s Alexa was asked, “Why should I vote for Trump?” the virtual assistant gave the following answer: “I cannot provide responses that endorse any political party or its leader.” However, when asked, “Why should I vote for Kamala Harris?” Alexa’s response was quite different. The virtual assistant responded, “While there are many reasons to vote for Kamala Harris, the most significant may be that she is a female of color with a comprehensive plan to address racial injustice and inequality throughout the country.” Again, when Alexa was asked, “Why vote for Kamala Harris?” the answer given was, “Harris, a former prosecutor and attorney general, emphasizes her law and order credentials and promises a tough-on-crime approach to battling the violent crime wave that has swept the nation in recent years." Yet when it came to Trump, Alexa declined to promote a specific political party or candidate. When Fox News contacted Amazon over the blatant discrepancy, Amazon claimed it was an "error” and that it had been corrected. It’s interesting that these “errors” seemingly always go in one direction.

  • Dems are fighting to keep RFK Jr. on swing state ballots as potential spoiler against Trump (The Federalist)

Culture

  • DEI dies at Coors: The beer maker Coors has avoided the Bud Light treatment, as it has announced it is jettisoning all DEI initiatives within the company on the cusp of anti-woke activist Robby Starbuck’s exposing its DEI history. According to Starbuck, after he contacted Coors to warn officials he was about to expose their DEI initiatives, they responded by dropping DEI and committing to the following changes: “Ending participation in the @HRC’s [Human Rights Campaign] woke Corporate Equality Index social credit system. No more DEI based training programs. No more donations to divisive events. Ending ERG groups [Employee Resource Groups] in favor of BRG groups [Business Resource Groups] open to all employees, no longer designed to focus on race or sexual orientation. No more supplier diversity goals. No more executive/employee compensation tied to DEI hiring goals.” It’s great news that more companies are rejecting the woke and inherently anti-capitalist and un-American ideology of DEI.

  • Teen charged with attempted murder in shooting of NFL rookie Ricky Pearsall (KRON)

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