Analysis: June Unemployment 352,000 Under Biden-Harris, 1.47 Million Unemployed Since 2023

The U.S. unemployment rate once again ticked up in the month of June to 4.3 percent as another 352,000 Americans said they were unemployed, according to the latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Markets are crashing in response.

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VP Harris’ Tie-Breaking Vote Approved Appointment of Federal Judge Tied to Earlier Trump-Carroll Defamation Lawsuit

Vice President Kamala Harris’s tie-breaking vote confirmed Judge Loren AliKhan to the federal bench for life after AliKhan helped along a defamation lawsuit against former President Donald Trump. Ironically, according to Politico, Harris has expressed support for President Biden’s plans to impose term limits on Supreme Court justices who at the moment, like AliKahn, enjoy lifetime tenure.

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Apple Files to Dismiss DOJ Antitrust Case Against Its Smartphone Business

Person holding an iPhone

Apple has filed a motion to dismiss a case from the United States Department of Justice claiming that it monopolizes the smartphone market using anticompetitive practices making it harder to switch to another phone. Antitrust experts say this case, if won by the DOJ, could set dangerous precedent by granting the government power to more easily define companies as monopolies and practices as monopolistic, and determine what companies must do or cannot do to avoid the label. 

The United States Department of Justice and 16 Attorneys General — including California and the District of Columbia — filed a lawsuit in March alleging Apple illegally monopolizes the smartphone market, such as green boxes with “social stigma” for non-Apple text messages and Apple smartwatch incompatibility with other operating systems. 

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LGBT Nonprofit Director Reportedly Used Donor Money to Fund Lavish Lifestyle

Sarah Kate Ellis

The executive director of a large LGBT nonprofit allegedly spent the organization’s money on a lavish personal lifestyle, The New York Times reported on Thursday.

Sarah Kate Ellis, chief executive of GLAAD, an LGBT advocacy group, spent large sums of donor’s money on expenses such as remodeling her home office with a chandelier, renting a Cape Cod property, first class flights and luxury hotels, according to the NYT’s review of expense reports from January 2022 to June 2023. The expenses may be in violation of both the organization’s guidelines and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) rules, legal experts told the NYT.

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Federal Judge Rules That New Jersey’s AR-15 Ban Is Unconstitutional

AR-15

On Tuesday, a federal judge ruled that the state of New Jersey’s ban on AR-15 rifles is unconstitutional.

ABC News reports that U.S. District Judge Peter Sheridan’s ruling was directly influenced by the precedent set by the Supreme Court in its landmark ruling in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. v. Bruen in 2022. In that case, the Supreme Court determined that Americans do not have to show “proper cause” when seeking to obtain a concealed-carry permit, overturning a 100-year-old state law in New York.

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Biden Admin Title IX Rule Blocked in Four More States, Bringing Total to 26

A federal appeals court has ruled that the Biden administration can’t implement its Title IX rules in an additional four states, bringing the total number of statewide injunctions to 26.

With a recent block awarded in Oklahoma on Wednesday and then an emergency appeal granted by the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, over half of the United States will be exempt from the Thursday deadline.

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Shoplifting Rose Twenty-Four Percent This Year, No End in Sight

Macy's department store entrance

Shoplifting has soared in the U.S. in 2024, forcing many stores to leave cities and continuing a trend in recent years.

Shoplifting has risen 24 percent in the first half of 2024 alone, according to newly released data from the Council on Criminal Justice.

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House Judiciary Requests Evidence from over 40 Advertisers Accused of ‘Collusive’ Activities

Jim Jordan leading House Judiciary Committee GARM hearing

The House Judiciary Committee has sent letters to over 40 American and foreign companies asking for documents related to what it claims are “collusive” activities as part of the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM). 

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Half of Americans View Large-Scale Migration to Be a ‘Critical Threat,’ Majority Want More Wall: Poll

Border Wall

Half of Americans believe a large number of migrants entering the country poses a “critical threat” to the interests of the United States, and a majority favor expanding the U.S.-Mexico border wall, a Chicago Council survey found.

Fifty percent of Americans view large numbers of migrants and refugees entering the U.S. to be a “critical threat” to the nation, a survey released Friday by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs found. The poll additionally found wide support for a border wall and the use of U.S. troops to stem illegal immigration.

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Commentary: Kamala Harris and the Masque of Magical Thinking

Kamala Harris

Although the last few weeks have had their alarming aspects — chief among which was the attempted assassination of Donald Trump on July 13, the odds-on favorite candidate for president — they have also had their amusing moments.

In the latter category, I place the sudden queen-for-a-day-like coronation of Kamala Harris.

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Pennsylvania Gov. Shapiro on Defensive After College Paper Skeptical of Mid East Peace Resurfaces

Josh Shapiro

Pennsylvania Gov. and Democratic vice president short-lister Josh Shapiro is defending his record on the Israel-Palestine conflict after an op-ed he wrote in college resurfaced. Shapiro says the op-ed no longer represents his beliefs.

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Trump Campaign Raked in Nearly $140 Million in July

Donald Trump Rally

Former President Donald Trump announced Thursday his campaign has raised nearly $140 million for July.

Within an fundraising update for the month of July, Trump’s campaign stated they’ve pulled in a total of $138.7 million, thus providing a cash on hand total of $327 million. The new numbers come after Trump was confirmed as the GOP’s presidential nominee at the Republican National Committee in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and notably after the failed assassination attempt against him in Butler, Pennsylvania.

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University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Suspends Groups After Saying Israel Supporters ‘Not Welcome’ and to ‘Stay Tuned’

Pro-Palestinian protesters at UWM

Five pro-Palestinian groups at the University of Milwaukee are currently suspended and under investigation following an Instagram story.

The chancellor’s office wrote it was “alerted to an Instagram story on the uwm4palicoalition account that included intimidating language aimed at Jewish community members and organizations on campus that support Israel.”

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Biden EPA Cuts Big Check for Pro-Defund the Police Activists to Pursue ‘Climate Justice’ for Convicts

Climate Protest

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is sending up to $3 million to an activist group that advocates for slashing police budgets and prison closures to pursue “climate justice” for convicts and “reentry communities.”

The Ella Baker Center for Human Rights (Baker Center) and the Insight Garden Program were selected for receipt of between $1 million and $3 million to pursue “Environmental and Climate Justice in Prison and Reentry Communities.” The Baker Center has previously endorsed or advocated for left-wing activist positions like defunding the police, effectively decriminalizing shoplifting, closing prisons and more.

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Commentary: Let’s Leave the Marxism on the Capitol Steps

Elizabeth Warren

The United States has become the largest market in the world, and at the same time it delivers the highest standard of living to its citizens compared to the world’s other major economies. Contrast this success with other large economies such as China, where despite being the world’s second-largest economy, its citizens have a standard of living that has more in common with the developing world than a global powerhouse. Now China is facing demographic challenges that raise the prospect that as a nation, it may get old before it gets rich. Layer its long-standing repression and authoritarianism on to its economic challenges, and one is hard-pressed to see a domestic policy regime worthy of emulation.

Likewise looking to America’s south, and one is struck by the generations of squandered opportunities for prosperity in South America. As a region, South America has been buffeted by financial collapses, runaway inflation, and geopolitical instability. For nations digging out from a legacy of ruinous fiscal and economic policies, there is no easy route forward, only difficult tradeoffs. Argentina has certainly charted a new course and there is hope that near-term pain may pave a path forward to stability and long-term growth. But the present pain is very real.

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Commentary: America’s Eroding Deterrent in the Face of China Aggression

U.S. Navy Seventh Fleet

In March 2015, the former Commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, Admiral Harry Harris, while giving a speech in Australia, dismissed the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) building of seven artificial islands in the South China Sea (SCS) as nothing more than a “Great Wall of Sand” that would not alter the U.S. Navy’s freedom of navigation operations or American deterrence capabilities in the region.

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