Former Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has spent the past several weeks attempting to have his name removed from several state ballots in the wake of throwing his full support behind former President Donald Trump.
According to the Daily Caller, Kennedy successfully had his name removed from the Wyoming ballot.
The outlet noted that the Wyoming secretary of state granted the request just a day after he filed to have it removed, making it one of the easier ballot removal requests he faced.
Kennedy, who switched from Democrat to independent earlier this year, essentially dropped out of the race in August before endorsing Trump.
Wyoming Secretary of State Chuck Gray announced the removal of Kennedy from the state's ballot in a statement that was posted to his office's official X account.
"Following his notice of withdrawal, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will not appear on the ballot as a presidential candidate in Wyoming," Gray wrote. "Our office is dedicated to providing continued, transparent service to the people of Wyoming."
On September 4th, RFK, Jr. notified the Wyoming Secretary of State that he intended to withdraw his name from the 2024 General Election ballot in Wyoming. RFK Jr. has officially withdrawn from the 2024 General Election in Wyoming and will NOT appear on the ballot in Wyoming. pic.twitter.com/vnf5qaDbEi
— Wyoming Secretary of State's Office (@WyomingSOS) September 5, 2024
As far as states that matter, Kennedy's name has already been removed from Arizona, Georgia, Nevada and Pennsylvania.
Kennedy and his team battled to have his name removed from ballots in Michigan and Wisconsin, but both states' respective courts denied the request.
North Carolina also denied Kennedy's request to have his name removed, but the former candidate's lawyer noted that they're appealing that particular decision.
Hilariously, there was a time when Democrats didn't want Kennedy's name on any ballot. Now, they want him to stay on in as many as possible.
That's because, generally speaking, Kennedy's name on the ticket, at this point, would take more votes away from Trump than it would Vice President Kamala Harris.
While Wyoming was a lock for Trump, regardless of Kennedy's appearance on the ballot, it's one less state that his campaign has to worry about.
Hopefully, Kennedy and his lawyers have luck removing him from the rest of the important swing states before November.
Republicans have called on the Biden administration to end the government's support of data brokers following a massive hack that exposed the personal information of some 2.9 billion people, including "potentially all Americans."
National Public Data, a data broker that performs background checks, was targeted in a massive hack in April. The group USDoD claimed responsibility for the hack, which exposed Social Security numbers, full names, personal addresses, and other sensitive info.
In a letter to Biden, nine House Republicans said the breach highlights a deeper problem with the government's "subsidization" of mass data collection.
"These payments to data brokers amount to the government’s ongoing subsidization of the data broker industry. Americans should not have to fear bad actors will abuse their hacked data or that their own government will purchase their data, wittingly or not, in circumvention of their civil liberties."
The Republicans urged the administration to end what privacy advocates call the "data broker loophole," which enables the government to purchase Americans' data without a warrant.
Biden "strongly opposed" a bill sponsored by Warren Davidson (R-Oh.), the Fourth Amendment Is Not For Sale Act, that would have closed the loophole.
"As recently as this year, your administration has instead forcefully opposed overwhelmingly popular and bipartisan privacy protections like the Fourth Amendment Is Not For Sale Act. This bill would bar the unconscionable practice of funneling taxpayers’ money to data brokers," the Republicans said.
The letter was signed by Reps. Davidson, Andy Biggs (R-AZ), Jeff Duncan (R-SC), Randy Weber (R-TX), Ralph Norman (R-SC), Andy Ogles (R-TN), Paul Gosar (R-AZ), Barry Moore (R-AL), and Ben Cline (R-VA).
They asked Biden to address the data breach and commit to ending the government's subsidizing of "data broker surveillance."
"We are especially concerned that this data could enable malicious actors to build a sophisticated dossier on every American that can cross-reference and validate other sensitive personal data obtained from the largely unregulated data broker industry, as well as other past and future data breaches."
"We ask for a swift and comprehensive response from your administration, including acknowledgement of the severe consequences of this breach for our national security — and for the executive branch to finally join us, hundreds of our colleagues, and hundreds of millions of Americans in demanding an end to the federal government’s subsidizing and warrantless exploitation of data broker surveillance,” the lawmakers concluded.
Former Democrat Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will campaign with Donald Trump in the battleground states, as they unite to "drain the swamp" and keep Vice President Kamala Harris away from the White House.
Trump and Kennedy have found a common enemy in the modern Democratic party, which embraces censorship, endless wars, and election interference in the name of "democracy."
“We haven’t worked out the entire schedule, but certainly I’ll probably do rallies with him and with other surrogates where President Trump. We’re hoping, we’re co-planning these rallies that make America healthy again, rallies and … drain the swamp,” Kennedy told The Hill.
To help Trump, Kennedy has sought to have his name removed from the ballot in swing states like Michigan and North Carolina.
If Kennedy can't get his name off the ballot, he's going to join Trump in the swing states to get their anti-establishment message out.
“We’re planning a Make America Healthy Again tour where we’re going to visit almost all of those states,” he said.
“So I will be doing rallies in each of those states over the next 61 days,” he continued. “We want to, if we’re going to accomplish the mission that I set out to accomplish when I got into this campaign — end the censorship, end surveillance, get out of Ukraine war and unravel the war machine and the chronic disease epidemic.”
“The only way to do that is to get President Trump in the White House and me into Washington. So we’re going to pull out all the stops to make sure that happens.”
Kennedy's efforts to get off the ballot in swing states have faced opposition from Democrats, who previously fought to keep Kennedy from running.
He had cited the Democratic party's ruthless "legal warfare" when he dropped out and endorsed Trump, sparking condemnation from his family of famous Democrats.
Kennedy said he found common ground with Trump on free speech, foreign policy, and the rise in chronic diseases among Americans.
Trump has embraced Kennedy's messaging around public health, pledging to get to the bottom of declining children's health outcomes if elected.
A North Carolina judge rejected Kennedy's request Thursday to take his name off the ballot after the state's Democrat-run elections board argued it was too late for him to withdraw.
Lawyers for Donald Trump filed a salvo of legal arguments challenging the verdict in his "business fraud" case, as Letitia James fights to collect on the staggering half-billion-dollar judgment.
The aggressively political attorney general was blocked in a different case recently when a judge stopped her from targeting crisis pregnancy centers.
An oral argument is scheduled September 26 to consider Trump's appeal, as James defends a $464 million judgment in a case involving no victims.
New York judge Arthur Engoron found Trump liable for business fraud before the lengthy trial began, later slapping Trump with a $464 million judgment and a three-year ban on doing business in his home state.
AG James threatened to seize Trump's property if he did not pay, but he was able to post a reduced $175 million bond after the New York Appellate Court stepped in.
While the legal battle has faded from the headlines, Trump is still fighting to overturn Engoron's verdict, the severity of which shocked many in the business world who likened it to a "corporate death penalty."
In August, James quietly filed a brief before the Appellate Court insisting there was "overwhelming" evidence of Trump's guilt.
Trump's lawyers noted in their response last Friday that there were no victims of the supposed fraud, mentioning Trump's clients were "paid back in full."
“This case involves no victims, no complaints, no misstatements, no causation, and no injuries or losses," Trump lawyers Alina Habba and Clifford Robert wrote.
They slammed judge Engoron for undervaluing Mar-A-Lago "at $18 million to $27.6 million, disregarding unrebutted expert testimony that it is worth over $1.2 billion.”
The court told the New York Sun that a decision could take up to eight weeks, so an outcome is unlikely before the 2024 presidential election.
Trump has long ripped James' case as a political witch hunt, noting she campaigned for her office on going after him.
The far-left attorney general was rebuked by a Trump-appointed federal judge in a separate case recently for illegally targeting the free speech rights of crisis pregnancy centers.
James threatened to take action against the pregnancy centers for sharing "misleading" information about reversing the effects of the abortion pill. U.S. District Judge John Sinatra Jr. reminded James that even false speech is protected by the First Amendment.
“Plaintiffs are irreparably harmed each day that their First Amendment freedoms are infringed,” Sinatra wrote.
James Darren, the 1960s teen heartthrob known for his role in the surfer movie Gidget, has died. He was 88.
Unfortunately, doctors couldn't save the actor, who was considered too weak for an aortic valve replacement. The news was confirmed by his son Jim Moret, a journalist for Inside Edition.
“I always thought he would pull through,” Moret said, “because he was so cool. He was always cool.”
Darren first found fame as Moondoggie, the handsome surfer and love interest of Gidget in the 1959 movie of the sane name starring Sandra Dee.
Darren appeared in two sequels, 1961’s Gidget Goes Hawaiian and 1963’s Gidget Goes to Rome. Like many actors of the decade, Darren was a sometime singer, scoring a top hit with 1961's "Goodbye Cruel World."
He described the moment he realized he was famous decades later to Los Angeles Magazine.
“The defining moment was when I was at a studio in San Francisco and word got out that I was there,” Darren said in 2015.
“Thousands of girls were screaming out front. When I had to leave the building, they tackled me to the ground and pulled pieces of my hair out. The police had to rescue me and took me to the roof until things settled down. It was total pandemonium.”
Over the course of a varied career, Darren also appeared in TV shows like the 1960s sci-fi series The Time Tunnel and the 1980s police drama TJ Hooker, starring William Shatner.
Darren stayed busy into the 1990s with a role in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, where he played a holographic lounge singer.
Nancy Sinatra, daughter of legendary crooner Frank Sinatra, issued a statement calling Darren "one of my dearest, closest friends."
One of my dearest, closest friends in all the world, of all my life has passed away. Godfather to my daughter, AJ. Wishing him a fast & beautiful journey through the Universe & beyond. Godspeed, sweet Jimmy. My heart is torn but full of love for Evy, Christian, Anthony & Jimmy Jr pic.twitter.com/n3WxuLzlK8
— Nancy Sinatra (@NancySinatra) September 2, 2024
Beyond acting, Darren also directed on shows like Beverly Hills, 90210 and Melrose Place.
He is survived by wife Evy; sons Jim Moret, Christian Darren and Tony Darren; and five grandchildren.
Television actor Obi Ndefo, known for roles in popular shows like Dawson's Creek, has died. He was 51.
The cause of death was orthorexia, an eating disorder that causes malnutrition, his family confirmed.
"Heartbroken at the loss of my younger brother and knowing he’s finally at peace," his sister, Nkem Ndefo, wrote on Facebook.
His sister shared an update on X explaining that his eating disorder caused heart complications.
"Obi Ndefo passed away early Wednesday morning in a Los Angeles area hospital. Tragically, Obi’s heart gave out in his longstanding battle against the eating disorder orthorexia," she wrote.
"He started as a raw vegan which in hindsight was the beginning of the orthorexia as it was more about controlling food than health. The severity only worsened," she added.
The actor's most famous part was Bodie Wells in Dawson's Creek from 1998 to 2002. He appeared in other well-known shows such as The Jamie Foxx Show, Angel, Columbo, Crossing Jordan, NYPD Blue, The West Wing, and Stargate SG-1.
In 2019, Ndefo lost both of his legs in a horrific hit-and-run accident. The actor was loading groceries in his car when an SUV slammed into him.
The actor's right leg was severed instantly, and he had to have his left leg amputated. Ndefo made peace with the tragedy, saying he had no option but to accept his situation.
“I couldn’t live in this world without becoming sort of like an Olympic athlete of certain things, you know — of kindness and of health — because there is no other choice for me. So there’s a sort of rigor to me, and I think, ‘OK my legs are severed. I don’t know how to do this, but I know how to do this,’" he told the Los Angeles Times.
Actress Katie Holmes, who played Ndefo's on-screen sister-in-law, Joey Potter, in Dawson's Creek, paid tribute to her former co-star.
Holmes said Ndefo "was wonderful to work with and such a kind man. I send prayers and grace to his family. Rest in peace.”
Mary-Margaret Humes, who played Dawson's mom on the show, also shared her reaction.
“I will cherish all of our messages of love and support to each other over the past few years,” the actress said. “Rest in peace sweet warrior.”
Former President Donald Trump has scored a number of legal victories this year, many outcomes had profound effects on his campaign, as he won't have to worry about trials until well after the November election.
However, Trump and his legal team are attempting to crush one upcoming legal obstacle that could hamstring his campaign.
According to NBC New York, Trump and his lawyers are now moving to postpone the upcoming sentencing hearing in the New York "hush money" case brought against him by DA Alvin Bragg.
Trump was found guilty as a result of the trial and has already had his first sentencing date delayed until September.
The former president's lawyers penned a letter to the judge overseeing the case in an attempt to delay the upcoming Sept. 16 sentencing hearing while his lawyers also work to have the case overturned in federal court.
"There is no good reason to sentence President Trump prior to November 5, 2024, if there is to be a sentencing at all, or to drive the post-trial proceedings forward on a needlessly accelerated timeline," Trump's lawyers Todd Blanche and Emil Bove wrote in the letter to Juan M. Merchan.
The fight to overturn the conviction comes in the wake of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that offered Trump a high level of immunity for certain acts.
The outlet noted:
Trump's lawyers filed paperwork late Thursday asking the U.S. District Court in Manhattan to seize the case from the state court where it was tried. The federal court kicked back that request on Friday on technical grounds, but Trump's lawyers will have a chance to resubmit it.
As his lawyers fight to have a federal court intervene and overturn or throw out the conviction, they said postponing the sentencing hearing is the "only appropriate course."
Reportedly, the judge has not responded, nor did DA Bragg's office.
The former president's legal team argued that prosecutors in the case rushed the case to trial before waiting on the final ruling in the immunity question that went to the U.S. Supreme Court for a decision.
NBC New York noted:
Trump’s lawyers have argued that prosecutors rushed to trial instead of waiting for the Supreme Court’s presidential immunity decision, and that prosecutors erred by showing jurors evidence that should not have been allowed under the ruling, such as former White House staffers describing how he reacted to news coverage of the hush money deal and tweets he sent while president in 2018.
Obviously, a sentencing hearing before the election could be bad for the former president, especially if he's given jail time.
On the other hand, such situations have historically given Trump a bump in polling, so who knows what will happen at this stage.
Vice President Kamala Harris' running mate, Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, has already proven to be quite the liability for Harris's campaign for a number of recent controversies surrounding his past.
According to the Washington Examiner, Walz's numerous stories about his private and political past have been picked apart by his opponents, who often find glaring inconsistencies that typically forces the Harris campaign to deploy damage control measures.
His latest inaccuracy regarding his past stems from his own political origin story.
It's a story he's told on many occasions, and most of his followers just believed him for his word. The Examiner noted that it's packed full of inaccurate information, to be kind.
When speaking about his political origin story, Walz spins quite a tale about how he took two of his students to a political rally for former President George W. Bush in 2004, where he claims they were denied entry because one of the students was sporting a John Kerry sticker.
The lies are thick. First of all, Walz was admitted into the rally.
Secondly, the two so-called "students" with him -- Matt Klaber and Nick Burkhart -- were not students.
Thirdly, the two young men were initially denied entry because of a confrontation earlier in the week that was so bad that it made local news.
In other words, nearly the entire story is nothing more than a straight-up lie. Walz has told the story so much that he presumably believes it.
This is the same vice presidential candidate who has made many disgustingly disrespectful false claims regarding his military service, causing a perpetual headache for the Harris campaign.
The Examiner added:
And while Walz framed the squabble as the “moment that I decided to run for office” since he had “never been overly involved in political campaigns,” evidence suggests that Walz was already politically active by that point: He participated days earlier in an anti-Bush protest before the 2004 Bush rally in Mankota, Minnesota, on Aug. 4, an image confirms.
One of the major problems with Walz's silly, made-up and exaggerated story is that nobody in the press, until now, bothered to call him out on it, and because he's told it as truth so many times, the media continues to parrot it.
It's truly frightening to see how far in the tank most of the media is for Harris and Walz.
Many believe his past will be too radioactive for Harris' campaign. Only time will tell.
A top Supreme Court judge in Brazil labeled an "evil dictator" by Elon Musk has ordered the suspension of Musk's social media website X in a battle over free speech.
The dramatic crackdown from Justice Alexandre de Moraes comes after Musk refused the judge's demands to censor Brazilian accounts spreading alleged "disinformation."
De Moraes had previously threatened to jail X's legal representative for refusing to comply with his demands.
The judge's threats escalated Wednesday when he ordered X to appoint a new legal representative within 24 hours or face nationwide suspension.
“Alexandre de Moraes is an evil dictator cosplaying as a judge,” Musk wrote in response.
De Moraes made good on his threats Friday, giving internet service providers and app stores five days to block X. Users who try to avoid the ban using virtual private networks face fines of up to $8,900 a day.
"Elon Musk showed his total disrespect for Brazilian sovereignty and, in particular, for the judiciary, setting himself up as a true supranational entity and immune to the laws of each country,” de Moraes wrote.
The shutdown could impact 40 million regular X users in Brazil, according to AP. The company had said it expected to be shut down "soon" for refusing to comply with de Moraes's "illegal" demands.
"We are absolutely not insisting that other countries have the same free speech laws as the United States. The fundamental issue at stake here is that Judge de Moraes demands we break Brazil’s own laws. We simply won’t do that," the company added.
Separately, de Moraes suspended bank accounts used by another one of Musk's companies, the satellite internet provider StarLink, a subsidiary of SpaceX. Musk denounced the crackdown as an illegal act of retribution.
"SpaceX and X are two completely different companies with different shareholders. I own about 40% of SpaceX, so this absolutely illegal action by the dictator [de Moraes] improperly punishes other shareholders and the people of Brazil," Musk wrote.
Many of the X accounts de Moraes wants censored are tied to Brazil's political right and its former president Jair Bolsonaro, who is facing prosecution by the current leftist government headed by his rival, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
Lula - whom Musk labeled the "lapdog" of "dictator" de Moraes - defended the actions taken against Musk.
"Just because a guy has a lot of money doesn't mean he can disrespect (the law)," Lula said.
While Kamala Harris tries to downplay her radical political beliefs, there's an unfortunate fact she wants hidden - her Marxist father lives just one mile from the White House.
Tragically, Donald J. Harris has never actually visited his daughter's workplace, the Daily Mail reported.
It's a sad testament to the strained personal relationship between Harris and her only living parent, who once blasted Harris as a "travesty" but has otherwise remained silent about her political career.
Born in Jamaica, Donald J. Harris moved to the United States to pursue his doctorate at University of California, Berkeley, where he met Harris' Indian mother, Shyamala Gopalan Harris. They married and gave birth to Harris and her younger sister, Maya.
The marriage didn't last, and Harris would be raised mostly by her mother. Kamala's mother died in 2009 from colon cancer.
Over the years, Donald J. Harris has had little to say about his daughter's rise up the political ladder. He broke his silence in 2019, during his daughter's first run for president, to criticize her for embracing stereotypes of Jamaicans as fond of marijuana.
"My dear departed grandmothers, as well as my deceased parents must be turning in their grave right now. Speaking for myself and my immediate Jamaican family, we wish to categorically dissociate ourselves from this travesty," he said.
Since then, Donald Harris has been quiet, even as his daughter accepts the Democratic party's nomination for president.
Kamala Harris spoke briefly about her father in her acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention, where she credited him with teaching her to be "fearless."
But she once said of her father, "My father is a good guy, but we are not close."
Indeed, the official White House logs do not show any record of Donald J. Harris visiting the White House since his daughter became vice president.
In a heartbreaking 2018 essay, Donald J. Harris said he loves his daughters very much, blaming a biased court system for the way things ended up.
"After a hard-fought custody battle in the family court […] the context of the relationship was placed within arbitrary limits imposed by a court-ordered divorce settlement based on the false assumption by the State of California that fathers cannot handle parenting."
"'Nevertheless, I persisted, never giving up on my love for my children or reneging on my responsibilities as their father."
Despite the unfortunate gulf between father and daughter, Donald's background as a Marxist economist could become a problem for his daughter's campaign.
Her Republican opponent, Donald J. Trump, has blasted Harris as a radical socialist in disguise, as Harris comes under scrutiny for retracting formerly left-wing positions without explanation.