Chinese Immigrant Sues University for Sanctioning Tiananmen Post

Fordham threatened student for posing with legal rifle

A Fordham University student kicked off campus for posing with his legally owned firearm filed a lawsuit on July 23 alleging the school violated its commitment to free expression.

Rising senior Austin Tong, a Chinese immigrant who posted the picture in honor of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, filed a lawsuit against Fordham, the school's president, and the dean of students. The suit alleges the university violated its free expression covenant with students by disciplining Tong for "lawful, constitutionally protected, and non-threatening social media posts on Instagram."

"Fordham's policies and rules, as well as basic First Amendment jurisprudence, make it abundantly clear that uncomfortable or unpleasant impact on a speaker's audience is not a proper ground to restrain the speech in question," the lawsuit reads.

The suit calls on the school to annul all disciplinary sanctions, admit that Tong's social media posts are a permitted exercise of free speech under Fordham's speech code, and award relief for the breach of contract between Fordham and Tong.

In its mission statement, Fordham guarantees the freedom of inquiry among other freedoms, but the explicit promise of free speech can be found in the school's demonstration policy.

"Each member of the University has a right to freely express his or her positions and to work for their acceptance whether they assent to or dissent from existing situations in the University or society," the policy reads.

Tong was told in a disciplinary letter from the university that he cannot return to campus and must complete his degree online while his peers return to campus. Tong cannot hold a leadership position on campus, must write an apology note to the school, and must complete a bias training or face suspension or possible expulsion.

The lawsuit alleges the sanctions against Tong are "damaging and humiliating" for the student as well as "draconian." The disciplinary actions force Tong to choose between his beliefs and a degree from his university of choice.

"These sanctions have placed Tong in an untenable position," the lawsuit reads. "He must either (1) abandon his principled beliefs, forfeit his right to lawful expression, and submit to Fordham's unconscionable discipline, or (2) face suspension or expulsion from Fordham, which would severely damage his future academic and employment prospects."

Tong told the Washington Free Beacon he believed he had a good relationship with dean of students Keith Eldredge before posting his Instagram photos. "Not even a Chinese university would do this to their students," he said.

The university did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

https://freebeacon.com/campus/chinese-immigrant-sues-university-for-sanctioning-tiananmen-post/

States Have Spent Little of $150 Billion COVID Relief Fund

Inspector general report complicates states' claim they need billions more

State and local governments have spent less than a quarter of the relief funds earmarked to help them fight the coronavirus, a recently released report from the Treasury Department indicates.

Funds from the $150 billion Coronavirus Relief Fund, created by Congress as part of the two-trillion-dollar CARES Act and meant to help defray public health costs, appear largely unused according to the Treasury Department's inspector general. Some states have used less than 5 percent of the funds earmarked for them, including states like New Jersey and Connecticut, which bore the brunt of early coronavirus cases.

The surprising revelation complicates states' claims that they need a hundred-billion-dollar federal bailout to ensure their solvency in the coming months. The question of what money, if any, states should receive in the next round of coronavirus stimulus is likely to be a subject of hot debate in coming weeks, and the inspector general's report challenges Democrats' contention that more money is needed, particularly compared with Republicans' proposal to free up preexisting and evidently unused funds.

The data indicate that the coronavirus relief fund is heavily undersubscribed throughout the country. Just three states—California, New York, and Colorado—have used more than half of the funds allocated to their state and local governments. By contrast, 23 states have used less than 10 percent of their funding, while 11 have used less than half. Of the nearly $2 billion earmarked for South Carolina, the state reports using just $763,000.

Money available through the coronavirus relief fund was disbursed based on population, with a floor allocation of $1.25 billion per state. Some locales that were heavily hit by the coronavirus appear to have used funds extensively—New York City, for example, has used 99.4 percent of its money—but others, like New Jersey and Connecticut, have not.

The funds are earmarked exclusively for use on public health issues—a subject of contention, as many states see the impending fiscal meltdown instigated by the current recession as an even bigger challenge than the coronavirus itself. The National Governors Association has asked for $500 billion in the next round of coronavirus stimulus.

Democrats want to give it to them—Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi's (D., Calif.) proposal for the latest round of relief includes $540 billion for a state-and-local bailout. But Republicans are more wary, fearing that federal bailout dollars will be used to shore up flagging state pensions already almost bankrupted by years of malinvestment.

The GOP's solution to this problem, unveiled Monday evening, is to remove the requirement that the Coronavirus Relief Fund only be used for public health issues—thereby freeing up an apparently undersubscribed source of funding without committing to more spending on top of what already appeared in the CARES Act.

Whether or not to provide the states with general funding, and how much of it, is likely to be a major subject of dispute in this week's congressional negotiations over another round of coronavirus stimulus. That will add to disagreements over unemployment insurance and the rapidly increasing size of the federal deficit. The result is likely to be the most acrimonious round of negotiation yet.

https://freebeacon.com/coronavirus/states-have-spent-little-of-150-billion-covid-relief-fund/

With Huge Financial Backing from Hostile Foreign Entities Brookings Institute Is Working to Help Democrats Win in 2020

The Brookings Institute was heavily involved in the Democrat and Deep State Russia collusion hoax and Ukraine impeachment fraud. These actions against President Trump were criminal.

This institute is influenced from foreign donations from entities who don’t have an America first agenda.

Julie Kelly at American Greatness released a report where she addresses the connections between the Brookings Institute, Democrats and foreign entities. She summarizes her report:

Accepting millions from a state sponsor of terrorism, foisting one of the biggest frauds in history on the American people, and acting as a laundering agent of sorts for Democratic political contributions disguised as policy grants isn’t a good look for such an esteemed institution.

One would be hard-pressed to name a more influential think tank than the Brookings Institution. The Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit routinely ranks at the top of the list of the best think tanks in the world; Brookings scholars produce a steady flow of reports, symposiums, and news releases that sway the conversation on any number of issues ranging from domestic and economic policy to foreign affairs.

Brookings is home to lots of Beltway power players: Ben Bernanke and Janet Yellen, former chairmen of the Federal Reserve, are Brookings fellows. Top officials from both Republican and Democrat presidential administrations lend political heft to the organization.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/07/huge-financial-backing-hostile-foreign-entities-brookings-institute-working-help-democrats-win-2020/

Explosion erupts at natural gas facility in Mont Belvieu

explosion

Explosion erupts at natural gas facility in Mont Belvieu

Updated 2 hours ago

Ad Duration00:12 -

Current time00:02

Seek

% buffered

00:00

Duration00:42

Volume

EMBED <>More Videos

<iframe width="476" height="267" src="https://abc13.com/video/embed/?pid=6341259" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

WATCH WHAT HAPPENED: Mont Belvieu FD and emergency response teams from the area are all working together to clear the scene and maintain the fire. Hit play for what we know so far.

MONT BELVIEU, Texas (KTRK) – Firefighters have contained a fire from an explosion at Energy Transfer facility in Mont Belvieu, east of Houston.

According to the city's police department, the apparent "industrial incident" happened Wednesday at the Lone Star NGL facility on West Winfree.

It's not immediately known what set off the blast, and there's no known injuries at the time.

The police department added State Highway 146 has been shut down from FM-1942 to FM-565 while crews respond to the fire.

Mont Belvieu is located just north of Interstate 10 just east of Baytown and the greater Houston area.

The area is rich with natural gas facilities like Lone Star NGL.

https://abc13.com/explosion-erupts-at-natural-gas-facility-in-mont-belvieu/6341278/

Zuckerberg admits Facebook suppresses ‘hate speech’ BEFORE it’s seen by anyone

Facebook censors almost 90 percent of ‘hate speech’ before it’s allowed to circulate, CEO Mark Zuckerberg told Congress at Wednesday’s Big Tech hearing, responding to pressure from Democrats to submit to the advertiser boycott.

“We’re able to proactively identify 89 percent of the hate speech that we take down before, I think, it’s even seen by other people,” Zuckerberg told the Antitrust Subcommittee of the US House of Representatives on Wednesday.

The statement was in response to Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Maryland) pressuring Facebook to “join the civil rights movement” by submitting to the demands of the Stop Hate For Profit campaign, an advertising boycott accusing Facebook of tolerating “widespread hate” on the platform.

Facebook has been under growing pressure since the 2016 election, with Democrats blaming it for Hillary Clinton’s loss to Donald Trump. Raskin repeated those accusations at the hearing.

Zuckerberg argued that Facebook has built “defenses” since 2016 that now amount to “some of the most advanced that any company or government has in the world.”

We routinely collaborate with law enforcement and intelligence agencies, and are able to sometimes identify threats coming from other countries before governments are even able to.

Having tens of thousands of employees has a downside, though – as Zuckerberg admitted to Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Florida), who grilled him over Project Veritas video evidence from two whistleblowers talking about a “culture” inside Facebook that discriminated against conservatives.

“People make mistakes” and have their own goals, Zuckerberg replied.

In addition to Zuckerberg, Wednesday’s unprecedented virtual hearing in the House has featured the CEOs of three other major US tech companies: Apple’s Tim Cook, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, and Google’s Sundar Pichai.

https://www.rt.com/usa/496581-zuckerberg-facebook-suppresses-hate-speech/

Chinese banks urged to switch from SWIFT to domestic financial network amid looming US sanctions over Hong Kong

The Bank of China says the country should prepare for potential US sanctions by increasing use of its own financial messaging network for cross-border transactions on the mainland, Hong Kong and Macau.

According to the report, greater use of the Cross-Border Interbank Payment System (CIPS) instead of the Belgium-based SWIFT system would also reduce exposure of China’s global payments data to the United States. Chinese state lenders have reportedly been bracing for potential US sanctions for serving officials who implement the new national security for Hong Kong.

The report looked at potential measures Washington could take against Chinese banks, including cutting off their access to the global SWIFT financial messaging service.

“A good punch to the enemy will save yourself from hundreds of punches from your enemies,” the report said. “We need to get prepared in advance, mentally and practically.”

Beijing launched the CIPS clearing and settlement services system five years ago to help internationalize use of the national currency yuan. In 2019, CIPS processed 135.7 billion yuan ($19.4 billion) a day, with participation from 96 countries and regions.

The Bank of China said that if the US were to take the extreme action of cutting off some Chinese banks’ access to dollar settlements, China should also consider stopping using the greenback as the anchor currency for its foreign exchange controls. It has also recommended that Beijing develops legislation similar to the European Union’s Blocking Statute, which allowed the EU to sustain trade and economic relations with Iran despite US sanctions.

https://www.rt.com/business/496513-china-banks-us-sanctions/

>>10120199

MSM trotted out the experts to state HCQ is dangerous and doesn't stop the rona

Tucker grills Jim Jordan on why he took campaign donations from Google

DisNOTABLE

UK abortionists caught agreeing to kill baby so undercover caller could keep her ‘beach body’

'We just wanted to really focus on this holiday and have a good time,' the undercover caller said.

UNITED KINGDOM, July 29, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) — New video footage released yesterday shows the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS), the U.K.’s largest abortion provider, agreeing to send abortion pills to an undercover “mystery client” who informed them that she wanted an abortion to avoid looking pregnant on the beach while on holiday.

During the call, the undercover “mystery client” is asked by BPAS staff why she wants an abortion.

“I’d be more than happy to have children in the future and stuff like that,” she replies.

“And we’ve discussed that and we want children, but just not at this particular point in time because we’ve just literally, like, booked a holiday and we were just quite confined during the lockdown,” she continues.

“I mean, we’re both all right, but it’s just been a bit emotionally draining, all these restrictions and everything. And we were just so looking forward to this holiday and I just want to… We just wanted to really focus on this holiday and have a good time and not – I just didn’t want to worry about looking pregnant on the beach and all that. I just – it’s just so bad, the timing right now.”

The BPAS staff member replied, saying that it sounded as though the caller was emotionally unprepared for pregnancy.

“It sounds to me that the individual reasons you’re giving come down to you just not being emotionally ready for a pregnancy right now,” the staff member said.

“Any reason that you ever give is always going to be valid for you. So whether it’s physically with regards to however you look or feel, with regards to nausea, again all your travel plans, it sounds maybe like a physical, emotional time that you’re not ready for pregnancy right now,” she continued.

“I don’t want to put words in your mouth. What I have to do is attach what you tell me to a legal reason…Any reason other than the sex of the baby is a valid reason to us, but to attach it to a legal reason, it sounds like emotionally it’s not the right time. Because it doesn’t necessarily sound like it’s financial, possibly slightly physical, it doesn’t sound maybe mentally, like you’re not ready.”

The mystery client agreed and the lobby group Christian Concern reported that the undercover caller received the abortion pills shortly after the call.

Earlier this month Christian Concern released evidence from an undercover investigation which showed U.K. abortionists sending out abortion pills via mail without completing basic checks about the people ordering them.

The new footage was released by Christian Concern on the eve of their judicial review hearing against the government’s new regulations which authorize women in England to kill their preborn children at home by using both pills for a chemical early abortion.

https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/uk-abortionists-caught-agreeing-to-kill-baby-so-undercover-caller-could-keep-her-beach-body?utm_source=featured&utm_campaign=standard