Daily News Brief for Wednesday, January 31st, 2024
This is Garrison Hardie with your CrossPolitic Daily News Brief for Wednesday, January 31st, 2024.
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https://www.dailywire.com/news/pro-life-demonstrators-found-guilty-face-up-to-11-years-in-federal-prison
Pro-Life Demonstrators Found Guilty, Face Up To 11 Years In Federal Prison
Six pro-lifers were found guilty on Tuesday after the Biden administration charged them over a peaceful protest at a Tennessee abortion facility in 2021. They face up to 11 years in prison.
The pro-life activists were accused by the Department of Justice of violating the FACE Act and civil rights conspiracy for a protest that took place in a hallway outside of a Mount Juliet abortion provider on March 5, 2021. On that day, a group of demonstrators gathered on the second floor of an office building in the hallway outside the Carafem Health Center Clinic. The group prayed, sang hymns, and urged women showing up to the clinic to not get abortions.
Those on trial included Chet Gallagher of Tennessee, Coleman Boyd of Mississippi, Heather Idoni of Michigan, Cal Zastrow of Michigan, Paul Vaughn of Tennessee, and Dennis Green of Virginia.
All six defendants were found guilty of both counts. They are expected to be sentenced in July.
The conspiracy charge can be punished with up to 11 years in prison, three years of supervised release, and fines of up to $350,000 while the FACE Act charge can lead to one year in prison and a $10,000 fine.
The verdict was delivered on the fifth day of the trial, which took place at the Fred D. Thompson courthouse in Nashville. The case was overseen by Judge Aleta Trauger, appointed to the court in 1998 by then-President Bill Clinton.
One of the government’s key witnesses was Caroline Davis, a woman who was arrested with the group at Carafem. During her testimony, Davis claimed that she had a change of heart about attending the protest and that her “rational side” was “in the toilet” at the time of her participation. She said that she changed her mind “over time” and that being indicted by the federal government “terrified” her.
Video of the demonstration showed the group singing songs like “Holy, Holy, Holy,” and “Onward Christian Soldiers,” while others showed members of the group talking to police. Another video showed one participant telling another to speak “in love” to a man with his girlfriend who had shown up at Carafem and that someone’s “baby is a gift from God.”
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/texas-governor-abbott-stark-message-sanctuary-cities-migrant-crisis
Texas Gov. Abbott sends stark message to sanctuary cities as migrant crisis continues
Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott sent a stark message to sanctuary cities on Monday, vowing his state's transportation of migrants to their areas would continue until the federal government takes action on the worsening border crisis.
"Texas has transported over 102,000 migrants to sanctuary cities. Overwhelmed Texas border towns should not bear the brunt of Biden’s open border policies. Our transportation mission will continue until Biden secures the border," Abbott wrote in a post on X.
Abbott's promise comes amid his feud with the Biden administration over enforcement of the border, and whether Texas has the authority to defend itself from the waves of migrants overwhelming law enforcement and immigration officials.
The two sides have been feuding since 2021 when the migrant crisis escalated and Texas launched Operation Lone Star to surge resources to the border.
The administration recently sued over an anti-illegal immigration law that allows state and local law enforcement to arrest illegal immigrants. It has also sued over the state’s setting up of buoys in the Rio Grande. The administration says immigration enforcement is up to the federal government and Texas is interfering.
Last week, the Supreme Court ruled in a 5-4 decision on an emergency appeal to temporarily overturn a lower court’s injunction that banned the federal government from cutting razor fencing Texas had installed along the border near Eagle Pass while litigation continues.
Following the ruling, Abbott declared his constitutional authority to reserve the right of his state to self-defense against an invasion, adding that the executive branch had broken its constitutional pact with the states by failing to enforce federal immigration laws.
Former President Donald Trump on Thursday gave his backing to Abbott amid the latter’s feud with the Biden administration — urging states to send their National Guards to the border and promising to work "hand in hand" with the state to combat the "invasion" if he is inaugurated again in January 2025.
Abbott has also picked up the support of more than two dozen Republican states who have publicly expressed their support for the state. Meanwhile, some Democrats have urged the Biden administration to seize control of the National Guard.
https://www.dailywire.com/news/exclusive-disneyland-posts-woke-wheel-of-privilege-in-employee-kitchen-removes-it-after-daily-wire-inquiry
Disneyland Posts Woke ‘Wheel Of Privilege’ In Employee Kitchen, Removes It After Daily Wire Inquiry
Posters featuring a “wheel of power/privilege” were hung in employee spaces in Disneyland, instructing employees that being white, “cisgender male,” and even speaking English means you have “unearned” privilege that your “marginalized” coworkers do not, according to images obtained by The Daily Wire.
The wheel featured for all employees to see has the word “power” in the middle, and is sectioned like a dart board, with certain traits fanning outward that are labeled “marginalized.” For example, being white, a “cisgender male,” owning property, and speaking English are all considered privileged, while being dark-skinned, transgender, homeless, and not speaking English are considered marginalized. In between the inner and outer circle – which would be considered not completely marginalized but not totally privileged either – are “cisgender women,” gay men, people with a high school education, and who learned English.
Included with the wheel is a definition of “privilege,” stating that it is “unearned access or advantage granted to specific groups of people because of their membership in a social group.”
“Privilege can be based off a variety of different social identities such as race, gender, religion, socioeconomic status, ability status, sexuality, age, education level, and more,” it continues. “Within the US, members of social groups that hold privileges (white, male, wealthy, able-bodied, etc) have historically held dominance and power over targeted groups.”
The poster also asks, “why should we accept that we have privileges?” It provides the following answer: “By accepting that we have privileges, we can see that not everyone sees the world from our perspective and that we have privileges in our life that have hindered our awareness of the world.”
The image was provided by source who works for the Walt Disney Company, who wished to remain anonymous for fear of retribution from the company. The employee said the materials were posted in the production kitchen on Main Street USA in Disneyland in Anaheim, California. This production kitchen services Carnation Cafe, The Tropical Hideaway, Jolly Holiday Bakery and Cafe, and Refreshment Corner sponsored by Coca Cola.
The employee said divisive materials like this are “destroying the magic” of the park.
“So many cast members, myself included, are tired of the division being pushed by companies with a lack of regard for the founder’s vision,” the source told The Daily Wire. “This isn’t what Walt would have wanted for his company. He once said, ‘To ALL who come to this happy place, Welcome.’ Things like this make people feel unwelcome, destroying the magic.”
The Daily Wire reached out to the Walt Disney Company to ask about the poster and why they are posted. Within hours of reaching out, our source said a manager removed the poster, and sent a photo of the now-empty display cabinet, which still features another poster about the lunar new year and 2024 being the year of the dragon. Disney did not ultimately respond to the request for comment.
Disney has come under fire in recent years for its turn toward “wokeness,” with numerous box-office blunders for films deemed to be pushing Leftist political agendas. Top-ranking employees at Disney have also admitted to pushing a “not-at-all-secret gay agenda,” The Daily Wire previously reported. In 2023, the company lost nearly $1 billion on movies like Elemental and The Little Mermaid.
Company CEO Bob Iger admitted last year that Disney lost sight of entertainment as it put more political messaging into its content.
https://www.dailyfetched.com/serbia-to-introduce-a-mandatory-military-draft-amid-ww3-tensions/
Serbia to Introduce a Mandatory Military Draft amid WW3 Tensions
Serbia is reportedly considering reintroducing compulsory military service as tensions in the Balkans and elsewhere in Europe begin increasing amid WW3 fears.
President Aleksandar Vucic said army commanders gave him “a strong argumentation” in favor of mandatory draft.
Compulsory drafts here were suspended in 2011 in a push to professionalize the armed forces.
However, the Serbian president did not specify when the draft would return but said the national parliament would vote on the proposal.
“We are not threatening anyone,” Vucic said.
“Today, if you don’t have (a strong) army, you don’t have a country.”
“We will see if it (military service) will last 90 or 100 days, or maybe 110 days,” Vucic told reporters.
“As well as when it will be introduced and how the financial and logistical assumptions will be fulfilled.”
The Washington Post reported:
“Opposition politicians and other critics of a draft have questioned the logic of a military buildup when Serbia is almost completely surrounded by NATO member countries which have superior firepower in case of a conflict. There are also concerns that the government may struggle to foot the bill for a larger military.
Tensions have been high in the Balkans, which went through the bloody breakup of the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s. Although formally neutral, the Serbian Army has maintained close ties to Russia, from which it purchases most of its arms, including fighter jets and tanks.“
Serbia was one of the few countries to refuse sanctions against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.
Tensions revolved around Serbia’s former province of Kosovo, which declared independence in 2008, which Serbia and allies Russia and China have not recognized.
Over the last few months, Serbia has raised the combat readiness on the border with Kosovo several times.
The country also maintained cordial relations with NATO, whose troops have been stationed in Kosovo since 1999.
Earlier this week, top military officials warned that conscription could happen in the UK if NATO goes to war with Russia.
General Sir Patrick Sanders, the outgoing head of the British Army, said such a conflict would need to be a “whole-of-nation undertaking.”
“Within the next three years, it must be credible to talk of a British Army of 120,000, folding in our reserve and strategic reserve. But this is not enough,” he said.
“We will not be immune and as the pre-war generation we must similarly prepare – and that is a whole-of-nation undertaking,” Sanders added.
“Ukraine brutally illustrates that regular armies start wars; citizen armies win them.
“But we’ve been here before, and workforce alone does not create capability.”
The BBC reports that “other senior NATO military commanders have also recently been calling on the alliance to ready itself for a potential conflict.”
According to the outlet:
In response to Gen Sir Patrick speech the UK prime minister’s spokesman said hypothetical scenarios of a future potential conflict were not helpful and ruled out any move towards a conscription model for the Army.
One senior Conservative MP told the BBC he did not think Rishi Sunak had fully appreciated the threat posed by Russia.
The MP said that might be because the prime minister when growing up had not experienced the existential threat posed by the old Soviet Union during the Cold War era.
Gen Sir Patrick said the nation could not afford to make the same mistakes of 1914, when it failed to perceive the escalations that led to World War One.
And that is your news for today…
Now folks, normally this is the part where I’d ask you to send me a news story to my email, or if you have questions about the upcoming FLF conference shoot me an email, etc. But alas, not this time. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed bringing you the news over the last year and a half or so. I’ve enjoyed giving you a look at what’s happening around the world on your morning commute to work… but I’ve received a job offer out of state - down in Huntsville AL, that I just couldn’t pass up. If you’re down that way, friend me up on Facebook by the way and we’ll meet up!
With that being said, I wanted to tell you, the listener, how thankful I am for you giving my news show a listen. For saying hello at our FLF Conferences when I was out and about, for sending me news stories to my email, for the encouragement, or constructive criticism I’d receive when I couldn’t pronounce something… which believe me, I’m aware of those things… All of that to say. I’m thankful for the FLF community
