This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

At least 51 companies in America have gone "woke" and are, in effect, targeting conservatives, according to a Fox News columnist.

And he's added some advice on how to battle their leftist social ideologies.

Justin Haskins, director of the Socialism Research Center at The Heartland Institute and a New York Times bestselling author, said, "It is not a secret that over the past decade, hundreds of large U.S. corporations have adopted woke policies, regularly injecting left-wing ideals into their products, services and employment practices. But some of these businesses have recently gone much further than merely promoting social justice causes; they have chosen to target conservative customers and employees, coercing or forcing Americans to abandon their deeply held beliefs in order to receive important goods or services or to stay employed."

He cited a new Spotlight Report from the 1792 Exchange that assesses the actions, policies and practices of many companies. Especially whether they will "cancel a contract or client, or boycott, divest, or deny services based on views or beliefs.'

"According to the group's website, 'High Risk' companies have generally canceled or denied business relationships based on viewpoint disagreements or pose a high risk of canceling people and businesses who do not share their views. Out of the more than 1,000 companies evaluated, 147 are currently classified as 'High Risk,' which means they are much more likely than other businesses to engage in direct discrimination."

Haskins said he went further, picked out the 51 companies that are the "most impactful."

Among banks, he identified Ally Financial, Amalgamated Bank, Bank of America, Berkshire Bank, BMO Harris, Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, Eastern Bank, Fifth Third Bank, First Republic Bank, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, PNC, Royal Bank of Canada, Scotiabank, TD Bank, Bancorp, Trillium Asset Management, Truist, US Bank, and Wells Fargo.

They, he said, often have "weaponized their operations to promote social and ideological views favored by the left."

Among transportation companies those identified include Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, Southwest Airlines, United Airlines and XPO Logistics."

He charged, "They have engaged in left-wing activism and even promoted partisan legislation."

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

U.S. Rep. Ronny Jackson, a Republican from Texas, formerly was the White House physician both for Barack Obama and President Trump.

So he's uniquely qualified to express concern about a president's abilities, and he's publicly raised concerns about Joe Biden's mental capabilities before, recommending several times for the now 80-year-old with obvious age- or dementia-related issues to take a cognitive test.

Just to show he's capable of leading the biggest power in the free world.

Biden has refused, of course, repeatedly insisting all things are fine, and that he doesn't need a test.

But now Jackson is going further.

He's warned that Biden's "dementia" is going to lead America into war and people are going to get killed.

"It's TERRIFYING for our country that Biden is our commander-in-chief. He doesn't know where he's at half the time, and every day he brings us closer to an all-out war with Russia & China," he said on social media.

"His cognitive decline is going to get people KILLED!!" he said.

Biden is famous for his multitude of verbal gaffes and blunders over his many decades as part of the Washington establishment. He once told a supporter to stand up and let the crowd see him – even though the supporter was confined to a wheelchair. Many times he's called Kamala Harris the "president." And worse.

Sometimes his words just dribble off into silence.

The Gateway Pundit reported, "Biden has been throwing billions at the corrupt nation of Ukraine in their battle against Russia in the last year. The president is pushing for more war with nuclear power despite the obvious danger of global nuclear armageddon."

The report said, "Earlier this month Dr. Jackson called on the White House to come clean on Biden’s obvious dementia and end their cover-up on Biden’s failing health. The mainstream media continues to ignore the obvious mental decline of this corrupt president."

WND reported a year ago that more than 50 Republican members of Congress wrote to Biden asking him to take a cognitive test "immediately" over lapses that were appearing routinely in his behavior.

That one was the third such letter that has been dispatched to Biden in just the two years of his term. He refused to respond to the charge, "We are worried about your mental abilities."

That letter explained that all presidents, "regardless of gender, age, or political party," should follow the example set by President Donald Trump and "document and demonstrate sound mental abilities."

Trump took such a test and was determined to have passed with flying colors.

That third letter said Biden had refused to respond to earlier letters, and "Since then, the American people have continued to lose faith in your ability to effectively and competently handle your duties as president of the United States."

The document pointed out 66% of voters think he should take the test, 56% of voters are "not confident" that Biden is fit for the office, and 64% of voters "believe you have shown signs that you are too old to execute the duties…"

Even leftists are agreeing, the letter noted.

"The left-leaning New York Times recently published an article outlining all of this in great detail. According to the New York Times, the increased scrutiny surrounding your cognitive state has been fueled by your recent public appearances, during which you shuffle your feet when you walk, often slur your words, lose your train of thought, have trouble summoning names, and appear momentarily confused."

It was during his recent trip to the Middle East where Biden, again confused, insisted we must "keep alive the truth and honor of the Holocaust."

The letter explained, "These recent gaffes are not isolated incidents, as they are part of a larger history of your actions which exemplify cognitive decline. The Alzheimer’s Association lists 'changes in mood and personality,' including being more 'easily upset' as one of ten signs of mental decline. You displayed this type of mood change during a cabinet meeting on January 24, 2022, when you apparently did not know your microphone was on after finishing your opening remarks, and you used profanity to refer to a member of the White House press corps in response to a question asked on inflation.

"Further, in a December 16, 2021 press conference with the White House Covid-19 response team, you appeared to be unable to read the numbers in front of you. When attempting to announce the total number of the population who had received a booster shot, you said, '57... excuse me... 570... I don’t want to read it, I’m not sure I got the right number...' before being corrected by Dr. Anthony Fauci with the right statistic of 57 million."

Signers of that letter included Reps. Ronny Jackson, Jim Banks, Elise Stefanik, Mike Johnson, Doug Lamborn, Jody Hice, Jodey Arrington, Louis Gohmert, and dozens more, including several doctors.

DJHJMedia reported, "When President Trump was in office, Democrats insisted that he needed to take a cognitive test which he did, not only passing it but acing it. Now, over 50 Republicans want Biden to do the same, but the Democrats are balking. Don’t they have faith in feeble Joe?"

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

The COVID-19 lab-leak theory apparently no longer is a "conspiracy."

That's after the Department of Energy, which runs a network of scientific labs across the U.S., said the pandemic that killed millions around the world likely came from that source.

Just the News confirmed the DOE reportedly concluded COVID-19 likely originated in the Wuhan, China, lab where such viruses were being developed and enhanced.

The report, citing the Wall Street Journal, explained, "The agency was undecided about how the virus emerged but informed the White House and key members of Congress in a classified intelligence report about new evidence leading to the updated theory."

The WSJ said the DOE found COVID "most likely arose from a laboratory leak."

The federal department previously had said it was undecided on how the virus emerged.

The Energy Department statement brings it into alignment with the FBI, which concluded the pandemic likely resulted from a lab leak, which the FBI said it determined with "moderate confidence" in 2021. The DOE"s decision was made with "low confidence."

Just the News reported, "The Central Intelligence Agency remains undecided about whether COVID was leaked from a lab or was naturally transmitted."

China has denied everything that suggests any links, even though the virus originated in Wuhan in late 2019, weeks before it blew up with a worldwide disaster.

Jonathan Turley, a constitutional scholar and commentator on legal issues who has testified before Congress, said, "The Department of Energy has concluded that Covid-19 likely originated from a Chinese lab. According to the report, American intelligence has found evidence to support the long-dismissed 'lab theory.' This has led to another media 'my bad' moment where news outlets are shrugging that the theory may not be a conspiracy or racist theory after all. As usual, there is little attention to the experts who were shredded for raising the theory or the reporters who insisted that this was a debunked conspiracy theory."

He said, "For my part, the most alarming aspect was the censorship, not the science."

He noted, "For years, the media and government allied to treat anyone raising a lab theory as one of three possibilities: conspiracy theorist or racists or racist conspiracy theorists. Academics joined this chorus in marginalizing anyone raising the theory. One study cited the theory as an example of 'anti-Chinese racism' and 'toxic white masculinity.'"

He pointed out, "No reference to the lab theory was to be tolerated. When Sen. Tom Cotton (R., Ark.) merely mentioned the possibility in 2020, he was set upon by the usual flash media mob. The Washington Post ridiculed him of repeating a 'debunked' coronavirus 'conspiracy theory.'"

Further, "President Joe Biden accused Trump of fanning racism in his criticism of the Chinese government over the pandemic, and his administration reportedly shut down the State Department investigation into the possible lab origins of the virus."

Turley said it was just the latest "media narrative" to be proven false, following the Russian collusion scandal, the Hunter Biden "Russian Disinformation," the "Lafayette Park "Photo Op" conspiracy, the Nick Sandmann controversy, the Jussie Smollett and "Migrant Whipping."

He said the censorship scandal remains.

"Recently, the Twitter Files revealed an extensive and secret FBI effort to censor citizens on social media. This included undisclosed efforts by members like Rep. Adam Schiff (D., Cal.) to get Twitter to ban a columnist and target critics. In a House hearing, democratic leaders like Rep. Jamie Raskin (D., Md). called for more censorship and opposed investigations into the censorship efforts," Turley wrote. "President Biden previously called for more censorship and accused Big Tech of 'killing people' by not censoring more views deemed 'COVID misinformation.' The opposite is true. By suppressing alternative scientific and policy views, the public was denied a full debate over mask efficacy, vaccine side effects, COVID origins, and other important issues. Many of those questions are only being recognized as legitimate and worthy of debate."

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

One of the apparent recruiting tools to bring children into the LGBT lifestyle is drag shows – those events with costumed men and women cavorting onstage in skimpy attire.

The men often dress up as women.

The whole scenario has left parents across the nation feeling violated, irritated and enraged, on the whole.

Now one state is proposing to do something about that.

According to a report at Breitbart, Tennessee lawmakers have adopted a plan to prevent drag shows from taking place "on public property or in front of children."

It does this by classifying "male and female impersonators" as adult cabaret performers, and banning "adult-oriented performances that are harmful to minors."

The plan has been approved by the legislature, and now heads to the desk of Gov. Bill Lee, a Republican.

A sponsor, State Rep. Chris Todd, R-Madison County, explained, "this is a common sense child-safety bill."

It makes it against the law to have an "adult cabaret performance" where children are present. They also are banned on any public property.

The law describes cabaret performers to include "topless dancers, go-go dancers, exotic dancers, strippers, [and] male or female impersonators who provide entertainment that appeals to a prurient interest."

Penalties are misdemeanors carrying fines of up to $2,500 and a year in jail.

Repeat offenders could be charged with felonies.

Sen. Jack Johnson said it targets "sexually explicit" entertainment.

"We’re protecting kids and families and parents who want to be able to take their kids to public places," he said.

 

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

For those who repeatedly have claimed there's no election fraud, or only extremely small and very rare cases, the result of a lawsuit in Los Angeles County should be a lesson.

The action, brought by government watchdog Judicial Watch, is forcing the removal of 1.2 million names from the voter registration rolls.

It's because they all are ineligible to vote.

Judicial Watch said the county removed actually 1,207,613 names under the terms of a lawsuit settlement agreement.

Judicial Watch had sued on its own behalf as well as four lawfully registered voters in the county.

"Under the terms of the settlement agreement, Los Angeles County sent almost 1.6 million address confirmation notices in 2019 to voters listed as 'inactive' on its voter rolls," Judicial Watch said. "Under the federal National Voter Registration Act (NVRA), voters who do not respond to the notices and who do not vote in the following two federal elections must be removed from the voter rolls. The settlement also required an update to the state’s online NVRA manual to make it clear that ineligible names must be removed and to notify each California county that they are obliged to do this."

"This long overdue voter roll clean-up of 1.2 million registrations in Los Angeles County is a historic victory and means California elections are less at risk for fraud," said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. "Building on this success, Judicial Watch will continue its lawsuits and activism to clean up voter rolls and to promote and protect cleaner elections."

Judicial Watch has brought cases aimed at cleaning up voter rolls or eliminating other problems in multiple states, including Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, California, and Hawaii.

The report from Judicial Watch said it actually discovered the county had allowed more than 20% of its registered voters to become inactive without removing them from the voter list.

Judicial Watch said it "recently settled federal election integrity lawsuit against New York City after the city removed 441,083 ineligible names from the voter rolls and promised to take reasonable steps going forward to clean its voter registration lists."

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

The "Ministry of Truth" appeared in "1984," a creation of author George Orwell, and it was assigned to deal with the dissemination of lies.

Since then, Joe Biden has been accused several times of trying to create that very entity, through his now-defunct "Disinformation Governance Board" and more.

Now there's a specific plan being offered in Washington State that is, in fact, nothing more than a "state-level 'Ministry of Truth.'"

That's according to Live Finne, of the Washington Policy Center, who charged the new legislative proposal "would criminalize certain forms of expression based on what members of a state commission consider to be their definition of 'domestic extremism.' Creating a state-level 'Ministry of Truth' would not only undermine democratic norms, but it would have a chilling effect on public debate, freedom of speech, and civic participation in Washington state."

Finne explained the bill would let government officials "decide whose words and whose speech would be subject to criminal prosecution" and that the state attorney general "would increase surveillance of citizens for perceived violations of words and speech prohibitions."

"Citizens would be encouraged to report friends and neighbors to the state for officially-banned phrases, thoughts, and expressions," Finne said.

The Post Millennial explained in a report the pending plan already was approved by a state House committee.

Its effect would be to create a 13-member commission to address incidents of "domestic violent extremism."

Attorney General Bob Ferguson has described that as including "noncriminal activities and speech," the report said.

He said in a 2022 report that his goal was to find ways to address the "challenges" that end up being "precursors to – acts of terrorism."

The panel as proposed also would have the power to issue rules regarding public health.

The report said, "Critics have slammed the legislation citing in 2021 when the National School Boards Association, sent a memo to the Biden administration asking that parents protesting during public comment at local school board meetings be treated as a form of domestic terrorism.'"

Promoters of the plan have cited their opposition to expressions of opinion regarding "election fraud narratives," "anti-mask and anti-vaccine narratives," "anti-critical race theory narratives" and "anti-LGBTQ 'grooming' narratives,'" among others.

The bill doesn't mention the violent and destructive BLM and Antifa riots that swept across America, causing billions of dollars in damages.

The commission to address "domestic violent extremism" would include lawmakers, and representatives of groups protected by Washington State's hate crime law, and others.

The report explained, "Part of the commission’s work would be developing ways to track data incidents of DVE, 'including how data is collected, what triggers data collection, and how to ensure data is not disproportionately used against black, indigenous, and people of color communities or other communities.'"

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

Already, the publishers who own the "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" stories and the Dr. Suess rhymes have decided they are too politically incorrect to be acceptable any longer.

In the case of Roald Dahl, the publisher decided to edit the "Charlie" books, but then because of public backlash, decided there would be two versions on the market, one original and one edited.

For the Dr. Suess books, the owners simply decided to make some of the stories no longer available.

Now, according to a report from the Daily Wire, Ian Fleming's James Bond books are getting a makeover.

It's so that they are politically acceptable.

The Daily Wire noted confirmation from the Sunday Telegraph that "new editions of Fleming’s original novels will feature rewritten and deleted passages. Ian Fleming Publications reportedly worked with 'sensitivity readers' to identify and rewrite language that could be construed as racist or otherwise problematic."

The Daily Wire explained, "The organization said Fleming himself was in favor of rewrites and even approved edits to the book 'Live and Let Die' (1954) before his death in 1964. Those changes included removing negative slang terms for black people, such as the n-word, and replacing them with simply 'black man' or 'black person.'"

Said one unidentified official at Ian Fleming Publications, "We at Ian Fleming Publications reviewed the text of the original Bond books and decided our best course of action was to follow Ian’s lead. We have made changes to ‘Live and Let Die’ that he himself authorized."

The report said the official confirmed the instances involved "racial terms."

The Daily Wire noted, "The new versions of Bond novels will include a disclaimer: 'This book was written at a time when terms and attitudes which might be considered offensive by modern readers were commonplace. A number of updates have been made in this edition, while keeping as close as possible to the original text and the period in which it is set.'"

 

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

Although one would never guess it based on the increasingly vicious and open attacks on Christians by this nation’s ruling elites, America was for many generations the most Christian nation on earth – the true secret of its greatness.

In fact, Christianity has unquestionably been the most powerful, consequential, and benevolent force in all of world history. Nothing else even comes close.

Yet today, in the United States of America, a new religion has somehow become the country’s de facto official church.

Mind you, this new faith is not like a religion; it’s not cult-like. It’s a complete and total life religion, influencing every aspect of the true believer’s existence. And right now, it is being forcibly imposed on the entire American populace by virtually every major societal institution, from government, media, and big tech; to academia (preschool through grad school); to entertainment and sports; and perhaps most surprisingly of all, by most of this nation’s biggest and wealthiest businesses.

This new state religion overtaking the United States of America – and increasingly, much of the Western (and formerly Christian) world – is Wokeism.

To most outsiders, the expression “being woke,” or “going woke,” conjures up notions of a person or entity claiming to be acutely sensitive (“awake”) to “systemic social and political injustice” in every form. The “injustice” being condemned by Wokeism is not simply alleged widespread bigotry against black people, but also – as noted in Joe Biden’s Jan. 20, 2021, White House Executive Order – “Latino and Indigenous and Native American persons, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders and other persons of color; members of religious minorities; lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) persons; persons with disabilities; persons who live in rural areas; and persons otherwise adversely affected by persistent poverty or inequality.” Of course, the “persons who live in rural areas” bit was thrown in as a cynical pretense of caring about blue-collar, working-class, mostly Trump-supporting Americans, when the elites couldn’t care less about them, as their deplorable non-response to the toxic disaster in rural East Palestine, Ohio, demonstrates.) On the other hand, rest assured that the expansive “LGBTQ+” population includes every child-grooming “trans” school teacher, purple-haired, heavily pierced, “nonbinary” TikTok recruiter, and mentally ill cross-dresser seducing your toddler in “drag queen story hour” events.

That is the universal and transcendent power of the religion of Wokeism. And yet, all this is merely the outer face of America’s new state religion.

To understand what’s really at the heart of the new faith rapidly transforming the nation, and to grasp how and why it exerts such a strong hold on so many people – despite being obviously immoral, destructive, and deranged – it’s necessary to consider what constitutes true God-ordained religion. Specifically, the Christian faith, since the religion of Wokeism so closely mimics Christianity in many ways. If Wokeism is a counterfeit, let’s take a brief look at the real thing.

First, recognize that pretty much all religions (with the obvious exception of Satanism) hold that human beings come into this world in an incomplete or “fallen” condition, in some way separated from God, and in need of redemption, completion, or union with Him, and an embrace of a moral and righteous personal life. And indeed, all people, as they grow up, have to contend with an inherited sinful nature, within both themselves and others, and the consequent strong tendency to transgress God’s moral laws. In fact, unredeemed human beings – if one looks past whatever veneer of competence, happiness, attractiveness, or achievement they labor to project outward in life – are usually conflicted, guilt-ridden, and insecure deep down.

Why would that be?

Fox News reports that Anthony Ciccone, the older brother of Madonna, has died. He was 66. 

The news of Ciccone's passing was announced by Joe Henry, Ciccone's brother-in-law, via Henry's Instagram account.

It has widely been reported that Ciccone was disconnected from the rest of his family for many years. In 2011, for example, Ciccone, speaking about his family, said, "I’m a zero in their eyes — a non-person. I’m an embarrassment. If I froze to death, my family probably wouldn’t know or care about it for six months."

It has also been reported that Ciccone, in particular, didn't get along with his sister Madonna. He spoke about this in his book, Life With My Sister Madonna.

There were reports that Ciccone reconnected with his family in 2017. The relationship between him and his family at the time of his death, though, is unclear. Madonna, at the time of this writing, had not released a statement on his passing.

According to the Daily Caller, there is a "massive loophole" in President Joe Biden's immigration parole program.

Per the outlet:

[T]he Biden administration’s latest program to admit certain migrants into the U.S.  has a massive loophole that allows for applicants to be in another safe country before when they apply, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) confirmed to the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Background

Back in January, after facing much criticism for his administration's mishandling of the southern border, Biden released a plan to supposedly address the massive influx of illegal immigration at the southern border.

The plan has several aspects to it. But, one part of the plan is the expansion of a parole program.

Under this expanded version of the program, 30,000 individuals person month, from the countries of Venezuela, Haiti, Cuba, and Nicaragua, will be paroled into the U.S. for a two-year period so long as they meet certain requirements, such as having a financial sponsor.

The Biden administration claimed that the expansion of this program will help to cut back on illegal immigration. And, critics, in a sense, agree that the Biden administration will use the program to artificially reduce illegal immigration numbers.

A "shell game"

The loophole, as stated at the outset, is that the program allows migrants to apply for the program from, essentially, anywhere.

Immigration attorney Maria Herrara Mellado provided a first-hand account of the situation to the Daily Caller.

She revealed:

Our clients, some of them, they just arrived to a third country. Let’s say they buy a plane ticket. It happened. They just happen to be in the Dominican Republic or [on a] short vacation. At the end of the day, a lot of people who are coming here are not the ones who are in great need to come here. They happened to be in another country and they have a wealthy immediate relative.

The Biden administration does claim that a parole applicant would be disqualified if he or she is a resident, dual national, or refugee of another country. But, there are exceptions to the rule.

Former acting CBP Commissioner Mark Morgan argues that the Biden administration, here, is just "using as a shell game to claim victory that they’re addressing the crisis."

The numbers

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has indicated that, in the first three months of the 2023 fiscal year, the CPB has witnessed 717,660 illegal alien encounters. This includes a record 251,487 encounters in December.

The numbers did drop off in January to 130,000.

Whether it is a legitimate dropoff or whether the drop-off is the result of the "shell game" referred to by Morgan is unclear.