-
THREAD: The Twitter Files, Part Six
TWITTER, THE FBI SUBSIDIARY
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1603857534737072128
EU adopts ninth round of anti-Russia sanctions The latest package includes 168 entities to be targeted by sectoral measures
The EU has passed its ninth package of Ukraine-related sanctions against Russia, according to a statement published on the website of the European Council on Friday. The new measures are meant to step up pressure on Russia and its government.
According to the document, the latest restrictions include new export controls and restrictions on dual-use goods and technology, along with goods and technology that could be used in the defense and security sector.
The measures target key chemicals, nerve agents, night-vision and radio-navigation equipment, as well as electronics and IT components.
Moreover, Brussels has expanded the list of entities connected to Russia’s military and industrial complex by an additional 168 enterprises that are now targeted by sectoral sanctions. Some of the entities are located in Crimea or Sevastopol and are included into the list to avoid circumvention.
The EU authorities have also expanded their export ban on goods and technology related to the aviation and space sectors, including aircraft engines and their parts.
This restrictions will target both manned and unmanned aircraft, meaning that the ban will apply to direct sales of drone engines to the sanctions-hit nation and to any third country that could supply drones.
Brussels has also revealed a plan to freeze the assets of two more Russian banks, and to include the Russian Regional Development Bank on the list of Russian state-owned or controlled entities that are subject to a full transaction ban.
Under the latest decision, four more media outlets, including NTV, NTV Mir, Rossiya 1, REN TV and Perviy Channel will be deprived of their broadcasting licenses in the EU.
https://www.rt.com/business/568355-eu-russia-ninth-round-sanctions/
Trump Denounces Fuentes: ‘Nobody’ That Embraces Antisemitism Has a Place in America First Movement or GOP
Former President Donald Trump unequivocally denounced Nick Fuentes and other antisemites in an exclusive interview with Breitbart News here on Friday, saying “nobody” who has “the wrong and ill will about people” has a place in the America First movement or the Republican Party.
Trump, who had just given remarks to the annual Orthodox Jewish gathering of the Torah Umesorah President’s Conference here at his Doral golf resort, sat for an exclusive interview with Breitbart News after the speech.
At the start of the interview, Breitbart News asked him, as the leader of the party and the movement, whether the views of Fuentes have any place in the GOP or the America First movement.
“No, they don’t,” Trump replied plainly.
Trump had come under fire late last month for, in the days before Thanksgiving, dining with Fuentes and rapper Kanye West at his Mar-a-Lago a couple hours north of here in West Palm Beach. West brought the openly white nationalist Holocaust denier Fuentes as well as Milo Yiannopoulos and former Trump aide Karen Giorno to the dinner. Trump later issued a statement making clear he did not know who Fuentes was when West brought him to the dinner, and made it clear he was meeting with West at West’s request because the rapper has run into some serious problems as of late business-wise with major companies dropping deals with him.
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2022/12/16/exclusive-trump-denounces-fuentes-nobody-that-embraces-antisemitism-has-a-place-america-first-movement-gop/
Biden Says He Would Have Waged A ‘Holy War’ On Congress To Get Burn Pit Legislation Passed
“I made it real clear the United States Congress, if they didn’t pass this damn burn pit bill, I was going to go on holy war. Not a joke,” Biden said.
https://dailycaller.com/2022/12/16/biden-holy-war-congress-burn-pit-legislation-beau/
Ohio teacher forced to resign over Christian religious beliefs
A federal lawsuit was filed Monday on behalf of a teacher who refused to violate her religious beliefs and participate in the social transition of two students who identified as transgender and wished to be referred to by new names and pronouns.
"No school official can force a teacher to set her religious beliefs aside in order to keep her job. The school tried to force Vivian to recite as true the school’s viewpoint on issues that go to the foundation of morality and human identity, like what makes us male or female, by ordering her to personally participate in the social transition of her students. The First Amendment prohibits that abuse of power," said ADF Legal Counsel Logan Spena. "Jackson Local School District officials nonetheless forced Vivian to resign because she resisted this unconstitutional command and explained that it was her Christian faith that made her unable to participate in her students’ social transition.”
The saga began for Geraghty when two students adopted gender identities inconsistent with their biological sex, and requested that school staff participate in their social transition. Both students had adopted new names and one requested the use of pronouns that were inconsistent with the student’s biological sex.
The school counselor emailed school staff instructing them to participate in the students’ social transition leading to Geraghty approaching the principal, seeking a solution that would allow her to continue teaching her class without personally affirming as true things that she believes are false and harmful.
Rather than reaching an agreement, however, Geraghty was told that she "would be required to put her beliefs aside as a public servant," and that her unwillingness to affirm the students’ self-declared transgender identities amounted to insubordination, and that continuing to teach in a way consistent with her beliefs would "not work in a district like Jackson." Geraghty was then told if she would not participate in the students’ social transitions, she must resign immediately.
"Jackson Local School District officials require their teachers to immediately and personally validate a child’s gender transition even if doing so violates their religious beliefs, conscience, or sound judgment," said ADF Senior Counsel Tyson Langhofer. "Increasing evidence suggests that this approach may lead adolescents to unnecessarily pursue dangerous medical interventions like puberty-blocking drugs, cross-sex hormones, or life-altering surgeries. Vivian treated every student with equality and respect, and it was unlawful for school officials to terminate her employment simply because she wanted to avoid using her voice to validate ideas that violate her faith and jeopardize her students’ wellbeing."
Elsewhere in the US, legal action is being taken against teachers who facilitated the social transition of their students. In Wisconsin, parents of a girl whose teachers accommodated her change of name and pronouns against their wishes are suing the school district for violation of their parental rights, and parent rights group Parents Defending Education is suing an Iowa public school district for allowing children to socially transition without parental consent or knowledge.
https://thepostmillennial.com/ohio-teacher-forced-to-resign-over-christian-religious-beliefs
NASA SHILL TRIGGERS ME
Department of Education opens anti-Semitism probe at UC Berkley
The investigation follows a complaint from multiple Jewish attorneys who argue that the bylaw violates Title VI of the Civil Rights Act.
The Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights has opened an investigation in UC Berkeley Law School after some student groups adopted an "anti-Zionist" bylaw.
Zionism began as a political movement advocating for the restoration of a Jewish homeland, a goal it achieved with the creation of the modern state of Israel. Supporters of a Palestinian state have long contended that the movement amounts to colonialism.
Student groups at the law school earlier this year adopted a policy forbidding the invitation of speakers who support the Israel and the Zionist movement, according to Cleveland Jewish News.
The OCR agreed this week to investigate "[w]hether the University failed to respond appropriately in the fall 2022 semester to notice from Jewish law students, faculty, and staff that they experienced a hostile environment at the law school based on their shared Jewish ancestry when University-recognized student organizations passed a bylaw against inviting speakers who support 'Zionism, the state of Israel, and the occupation of Palestine.'"
The investigation follows a complaint from multiple Jewish attorneys who argue that the bylaw violates Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, which bars those institutions receiving federal funds from discriminating by race, color, and national origin, Jewish News Syndicate reported at the time of the attorneys' November filing.
https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/education/department-education-opens-anti-semitism-probe-uc-berkley
Pennsylvania county to recount 2020 election results
While the county uses voting machines to tabulate the final results of its elections, officials will tabulate the roughly 60,000 paper ballots submitted in the contest by hand.
Pennsylvania's Lycoming County will conduct a recount of its 2020 presidential election results amid mounting pressure from residents on officials to provide transparency on their handling of the contest.
The county commissioners made the decision following the submission of a 5,000-name petition demanding the recount, according to the Epoch Times. The county has approximately 70,000 registered voters and the petition's size was a motivating factor in securing the recount, officials told the outlet.
"That’s when county commissioners decided, as the board of elections, that if there are 5,000 people who signed this petition and have this belief, then we need to hand count these ballots in order to restore public trust in the outcomes of our elections," Lycoming County Director of Elections Forrest Lehman told the outlet.
"This is not something we want to do after every election, but we need to do it once, at least, in order to prove once and for all that our voting system counts the votes accurately and that there were not thousands of uncounted votes that were hidden by an algorithm or some other nonsense like that," he went on.
While the county uses voting machines to tabulate the final results of its elections, officials will tabulate the roughly 60,000 paper ballots submitted in the contest by hand. They will also recount the results of the state auditor race.
"We chose the auditor general as the second contest for two reasons,” Lehman told the Times. "It is on the front of the ballot along with president, so that’ll eliminate the need to flip every ballot over. The other reason we picked auditor general is because that was a statewide contest that was won by a Republican. Because obviously the presidential contest was won by a Democrat."
The recount is slated to begin Jan. 9. Lehman expressed hope that the recount will help to restore trust in the county's elections and assure voters that the contest was fair.
Pennsylvania, a pivotal battleground state, has been one of the focal points for proponents of former President Donald Trump's claims that mass voter fraud affected the outcome of the 2020 presidential contest.
https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/elections/pennsylvania-county-recount-2020-election-results
Report: Goldman Sachs Will Lay Off Roughly 4,000 Employees
Goldman Sachs is reportedly set to institute layoffs that will affect as many as 4,000 “low performing” employees as a result of recent profitability turmoil, according to a report from Semafor.
Managers have been asked to identify underperforming employees in anticipation of cuts that are expected to impact eight percent of the workforce in total. No final list or plans have been drafted, though the cuts are expected to take place early next year, sources told Semafor.
After a post-pandemic bump, CEO David Solomon is falling short of a profitability goal he set in February. Goldman Sachs had expectations on consumer banking that hasn’t paid off, in addition to “billions of dollars building a tech-forward Main Street bank, called Marcus, that isn’t yet profitable.”
Goldman Sachs has seen its workforce grow by a third since Solomon took over in 2018 to more than 49,000 current employees. The company has hired a number of new tech-based workers in that period, primarily for the Marcus project.
Other financial service providers have announced cuts in recent weeks, though the Goldman Sachs layoffs will be wider in scope if implemented as they are currently reported. Citigroup is letting go of “dozens” of staffers amid economic downturn, while Barclays is laying off roughly 200 employees.
“In a typical year, between 2% and 5% of Goldman’s employees are laid off or receive no bonus — “zeroed out” in industry parlance, a clear sign to start looking for another job,” Semafor reported. Goldman Sachs — like a number of competitors — skipped these layoffs in 2020 due to pandemic-related shutdowns. The brief, post-pandemic spike as the world reopened made them unnecessary in 2021.
“People are very nervous … all just waiting in anticipation,” a Goldman Sachs insider told the New York Post.
According to an additional report from The Financial Times, Goldman may slash bonuses for its investment bankers by 40% this year.
https://nationalfile.com/report-goldman-sachs-will-lay-off-roughly-4000-employees/
Trump Backs McCarthy for Speaker, Tells Opponents to Stand Down: ‘I Think He Deserves the Shot’
Former President Donald Trump told the conservatives currently withholding support from House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy in McCarthy’s speakership bid to stand down in an exclusive interview with Breitbart News here on Friday.
“I like him,” Trump said of McCarthy, before teeing off on those working against him such as Reps. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), Andy Biggs (R-AZ), Matt Rosendale (R-MT), Bob Good (R-VA), and Ralph Norman (R-SC). While Trump did not name those trying to stop McCarthy from taking the Speaker’s gavel on January 3, he in no uncertain terms said he disagrees with their efforts—and warned that there could be serious consequences if McCarthy does not get the gavel and they could make Washington worse for conservatives.
Trump’s interview came Friday morning here at his Doral golf resort in Miami and covered a broad range of topics including the Speakership race and much more.
Trump warned that when conservatives took out now-former House Speaker John Boehner in 2015, they ended with now-former Speaker Paul Ryan—who he said was much worse—in the process.
“I think it’s a very dangerous game that’s being played,” Trump said. “It’s a very dangerous game. Some bad things could happen. Look, we had Boehner and he was a strange person but we ended up with Paul Ryan who was ten times worse. Paul Ryan was an incompetent speaker. I think he goes down as the worst speaker in history. We took [out] Boehner—and a group of people, some of whom are the same, and they’re very good friends of mine. All those people are very good friends of mine.”
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2022/12/16/exclusive-trump-backs-mccarthy-speaker-tells-opponents-stand-down-think-deserves-shot/
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2022/12/16/exclusive-trump-backs-mccarthy-speaker-tells-opponents-stand-down-think-deserves-shot/