‘Political Prisoners’: Oath Keepers Founder Sentenced to 18 Years

Luis Cornelio
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‘Political Prisoners’: Oath Keepers Founder Sentenced to 18 Years

(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) The leader and founder of the pro-liberty Oath Keepers has been sentenced to 18 years in federal prison for protesting the certification of the controversy-ridden 2020 election on January 6. The verdict has ignited a wave of criticism from conservatives who view the punishment as harsh and excessive. 

Stewart Rhodes, alongside Oath Keepers member Kelly Meggs, was convicted of seditious conspiracy in November 2022. Meggs was sentenced to 12 years followed by three years of supervised release, according to a DOJ announcement. Rhodes’s punishment marks the longest sentence slapped on a J6 protestor. Right before his sentencing, Rhodes called himself a “political prisoner” and voiced support for former President Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign.

An emotional Meggs, accompanied by his sister, brother and son, delivered a powerful statement, apologizing for the suffering the trials have caused to his family. NBC News reported that Meggs’s wife Connie was not present. Connie also joined the J6 protests and was convicted in a separate case. 

“I want to apologize to those that I’ve disappointed and let down,” Meggs said. “My deepest regret is the pain and suffering I’ve caused my family.” 

Rhodes, who said his only crime has been pushing back against those who are actively “destroying our country,” gained support on Twitter from several conservative personalities. Some believe the sentence was disproportionate to the supposed offense. 

Conservative TV host Mark Levin blasted the DOJ’s hypocrisy in protecting BLM hecklers. “18 years? The same DOJ that fought for no prison time for two Antifa-BLM rioters who threw a Molotov cocktail into a NYPD cruiser?” Levin said on a Thursday tweet. 

Echoing Levin’s comments, senior writer for The American Greatness, Julie Kelly, called the protectors “political prisoners'”. 

The controversial sentencing came after U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta, an Obama appointee, refused to move the trials of the Trump supporters out of Washington, D.C., following the televised Congressional hearings that painted the Oath Keepers as the culprits of J6. 

Metha called Rhodes an “ongoing threat and peril to this country” during the sentencing, also adding, “Your are not a political prisoner, Mr. Rhodes.”  

The conservative news platform Gateway Pundit joined the outcry behind the sentencing by highlighting that Rhodes did not riot inside the Capitol Building and bore no weapons, saying that Rhodes “ordered Oath Keepers to leave their weapons outside of DC, committed no violence, and did not organize a single event that day.”

The two leading Republican candidates for the president, Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis have said they will issue presidential pardons to those who have been politically persecuted for their roles in the January 6 protest.

Kaepernick Claims His Absence Proves NFL Not Woke Enough

Molly Bruns
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Kaepernick Claims His Absence Proves NFL Not Woke Enough

(Molly Bruns, Headline USA) Former NFL washout quarterback and professional race-baiter Colin Kaepernick recently made a statement claiming the NFL has not become woke enough and is exactly the same as it was before he took his six-year leave.

Kaepernick made the claims in an interview on NPR, where he elaborated on the lack of “substantial change” in the address of topical social issues.

According to Breitbart, the NFL shelled out more than $300 million to race-oriented community organizations, anti-police activist groups and other institutions that push Kaepernick’s pet social issues.

Kaepernick also had the gall to imply that the alleged lack of change had to do with his absence from playing in the NFL.

“I think there is a lot of work to do on that front,” he claimed. “Obviously, not playing and being out of the NFL for six years is an indictment on where they are currently at. So I wouldn’t put them at the forefront of goodwill and best of intentions in how they operate.”

The former NFL player left the league in 2017 to pursue a career as a spokesperson and professional activist for brands hoping to signal their virtues, such as Nike.

The interviewer asked Kaepernick if leaving the NFL led to an opportunity to pursue greater goals off the field, but he responded by saying he could have juggled both.

“No. I think there’s this idea out there that those are mutually exclusive, and I don’t subscribe to that,” Kaepernick replied. “So I think people are multifaceted and multitalented. And ultimately, that’s something that – we want to make sure that message is being sent as well. We have the opportunity to move forward and not be pigeonholed into singular elements of ourselves.”

In 2022, Kaepernick released a bio-doc, Colin in Black & White, where he compared the NFL draft to a slave auction.

The former NFL player also accused his adoptive parents of racism.

DHS ‘Pre-Crime’ Program Targets Christians and Conservatives

Ken Silva
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DHS ‘Pre-Crime’ Program Targets Christians and Conservatives

(Ken Silva, Headline USA) The Department of Homeland Security has an initiative that has been aptly described by some researchers as a “pre-crime” program—dispersing millions of dollars in grants to local organizations that attempt to identify potential terrorists based on their “problematic” beliefs.

The Media Research Center exposed more shocking information about the DHS program on Thursday. The program—which has gone by multiple names, including the “Targeted Violence & Terrorism Prevention Grant Program” and the Center for Prevention Programs and Partnerships, or CP3—was initially launched to de-radicalize or de-program potential terrorists, but has now apparently turned to target conservatives and Christians.

“In Ohio, DHS awarded the University of Dayton $352,109 to establish the PREVENTS-OH program, which promised to ‘draw on the expertise of the University of Dayton faculty’ to fight ‘domestic violence extremism and hate movements,’” MRC reported.

MRC revealed that the University of Dayton’s research initiative flags groups such as The Heritage Foundation, Fox News, Christian Broadcasting Network, the National Rifle Association and the Republican National Committee—marking these organizations as potential gateways to Nazism and other odious beliefs.

A PREVENTS-OH seminar used the following graphic to illustrate its point:

DHS-funded graphic
This DHS-graphic shows how mainstream organizations like Fox News are supposedly the gateway to Nazism and other odious ideologies.

MRC also noted that the seminar included a University of Cincinnati Research Fellow Michael Loadenthal, who is “a self-proclaimed member of Antifa whose Twitter feed is rife with posts celebrating acts of left-wing violence—often against police officers.”

Loadenthal has locked his Twitter account—apparently in response to the MRC’s reporting, as Headline USA was unable to access it recently.

The University of Dayton has also removed videos related to the seminar.

According to MRC, the Biden administration spent nearly $40 million in American tax dollars spread across 80 grants to teach “media literacy and online critical thinking initiatives,” among other initiatives, in an effort to weaponize the DHS against conservatives, Christians and the Republican Party.

Luckily, numerous civil-liberties organizations have called to defund this program—including, to their credit, many liberal and left-leaning groups.

Indeed, last month a coalition of 40 pro-privacy groups sent a letter to the U.S. Senate and House appropriations committees, urging them to defund the dystopian initiative.

The groups—which included the ACLU, Electronic Privacy Information Center and Muslims for Liberty—said CP3 is “wasteful, providing no security benefits and actively undermining civil rights, civil liberties, and privacy.”

The groups explained that the DHS’s initiative is relying on the discredited “radicalization” theory—the false idea that there are reliable predictive risk indicators demonstrating that someone is on a path to violence.

“Government-identified behavioral indicators have included communicating that one is in distress, deviating from one’s routine, isolation, economic stress, paying off debts, or being preoccupied with a person, place, belief, or cause. They are often commonplace, innocuous, or otherwise easily explained,” the groups said.

Privacy researcher Ed Hasbrouck, a consultant to the nonprofit Identity Project, is the one who coined it a “pre-crime” program.

“CP3’s attempts to predict future crimes are to be based on behavioral patterns— i.e., profiling—and on encouraging members of the public to inform on their families, friends, and classmates,” he wrote when CP3 was first announced.

“The problem, of course, is that the law does not permit prosecution based solely on patterns of lawful behavior. With good reason: ‘precrime’ prediction is a figment of the imagination of the creators of a dystopian fantasy movie, Minority Report.”

Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/jd_cashless.

Left Wing Extremism Linked to Narcissism and Psychopathy

Molly Bruns
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Left Wing Extremism Linked to Narcissism and Psychopathy

(Molly Bruns, Headline USA) A recent study published in a peer-reviewed journal specializing in psychology revealed that extreme left-wing tendencies are often linked with psychopathy and narcissism.

Current Psychology journal authors Ann Krispenz and Alex Bertrams researched and created a new term to describe the phenomenon: the “dark-ego-vehicle principle,” the New York Post reported.

“According to this principle, individuals with dark personalities—such as high narcissistic and psychopathic traits—are attracted to certain forms of political and social activism which they can use as a vehicle to satisfy their own ego-focused needs instead of actually aiming at social justice and equality,” they said in an interview following the publishing of the study.

The authors explained that particular forms of activism provide an outlet for people with narcissistic or psychopathic tenancies to seek “opportunities for positive self-presentation and displays of moral superiority, to gain social status, to dominate others and to engage in social conflicts and aggression to satisfy their need for thrill seeking.”

This, they said, may explain the demented, reckless riots and the great lengths left-wing activists go to to justify their ultimately self-serving beliefs.

The study also showed that many of the subjects did not personally practice the beliefs they fervently push onto everyone else, falling into left-wing authoritarianism.

“An individual high in LWA might declare anyone to be ‘old fashioned’ who is opposing their own ‘progressive values,’ strive to suppress free speech to regulate the expression of right-wing beliefs in educational institutions, and even endorse the use of violence to reach their own political goals,” the authors said.

Activists from wealthier homes also don the guise of interest in social equality and activism in order to further their own selfish interests and validate their perception of themselves.

“As grandiose narcissists typically desire fame, distinction, elevated social status and high social importance, they can be assumed to strive for influential positions that involve social visibility and outreach as well as access to financial and other resources,” the authors said.

They also made it clear that conservatives sometimes have an authoritarian disposition, but they did not research that because there is “a wide range of literature and research in the field of right-wing authoritarianism.”

“However, research on authoritarianism observed in individuals who are supportive of left-wing political ideologies are still rare,” they concluded.

Disgraced Biden Nuke Official, Nonbinary Sam Brinton Was Part of Anti-Catholic Group

Contributing Author
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Disgraced Biden Nuke Official, Nonbinary Sam Brinton Was Part of Anti-Catholic Group

(Headline USA) The disgraced former Biden energy official charged for stealing women’s luggage was also reportedly a part of an anti-Catholic group at the heart of a Los Angeles Dodgers Pride Night controversy.

Sam Brinton, who claims to be non-binary, was fired from the Biden administration earlier this year after he was charged in two separate cases for stealing luggage worth thousands of dollars. Just last week, he was arrested in Maryland as a “fugitive from justice” in regards to the charges.

But before he joined the Biden Energy Department, Brinton reportedly led the Washington, D.C. chapter of an anti-Catholic group called the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. 

The group, which features flamboyant men wearing gothic nun-attire and performing inappropriate sexual dances, has been in the headlines over the past few weeks after the Los Angeles Dodgers invited them to an upcoming Pride Night. After significant backlash, the Dodgers uninvited the “sisters,” only to reinvite them.

Brinton was the D.C. Sister of Perpetual Indulgence’s principal officer from its founding in 2016 until 2018, according to tax filings. An advertisement from the group shows Brinton posing in the bottom right of the photograph: 

As a member of the organization, Brinton went by the name “Sister Ray Dee O’Active” and regularly hosted group events including “bar ministry” gatherings, drag brunches, White House protests, and a”high heel race.”

The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence have denied that they mock the Catholic tradition and people of faith, claiming they stand for the “promulgation of universal joy and the expiation of stigmatic guilt” and that their ministry is “one of public manifestation and habitual perpetration.”

“When we are asked, ‘Why are you mocking nuns?’ we answer: ‘We are nuns!’ We do all that traditional nuns have done for centuries,” the D.C. Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence website states.

IRS Whistleblower Goes Public over DOJ’s Slow-Walking of Hunter Biden Probe

Contributing Author
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IRS Whistleblower Goes Public over DOJ’s Slow-Walking of Hunter Biden Probe

(Headline USA) An IRS whistleblower came forward this week, accusing the Biden Justice Department of deliberately undermining an investigation into Hunter Biden’s finances.

Gary Shapley, an IRS agent who has been with the agency for 14 years, said he decided to file a complaint against the Biden administration after noticing extraordinary “deviations” in the Hunter Biden investigation. 

“There were multiple steps that were slow-walked — were just completely not done — at the direction of the Department of Justice,” Shapley told CBS News in an interview. “When I took control of this particular investigation, I immediately saw deviations from the normal process. It was way outside the norm of what I’ve experienced in the past.”

Shapley was appointed to the Hunter Biden investigation in January 2020, at which point he immediately noticed that prosecutors on the case seemed to be acting out of bias toward the Bidens.

“Each and every time, it seemed to always benefit the subject,” Shapley said. “It just got to that point where that switch was turned on. And I just couldn’t silence my conscience anymore.”

Shapley also accused the Biden administration of retaliating against him after he raised concerns about bias. After one “charged” meeting in October 2022, he and his team were effectively removed from the investigation, he said.

The whistleblower’s lawyers argued in a series of letters to lawmakers this month that the Biden administration’s retaliatory efforts are still ongoing.

“The IRS must immediately cease and desist intimidating our client for simply exercising his Constitutional right to petition Congress and his statutory right against retaliation for doing so,” they said.

In response, IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel denied that he tried to silence Shapley.

“I want to state unequivocally that I have not intervened – and will not intervene – in any way that would impact the status of any whistleblower,” Werfel said.

Shapley is set to testify before House Republicans on Friday.

Woke Target, Bud Light Still Losing Billions

Dmytro "Henry" Aleksandrov
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Woke Target, Bud Light Still Losing Billions

(Dmytro “Henry” Aleksandrov, Headline USA) Target and Bud Light continued to lose billions of dollars after both companies went on woke, pro-LGBT crusades that have driven away customers and spawned calls for boycotts.

Target’s market value plunged $9 billion in one week after people became angry about the store’s recent desire to push a new “PRIDE” collection, according to the Daily Caller. The grooming collection features clothing for children and babies, a chest-binding swim top and a “tuck-friendly” bathing suit for men who pretend to be women.

After it became known that Target started pushing pro-“transgender” propaganda, social media users and conservative activists began calling to boycott the store. According to MarketWatch data, on May 17, the company was valued at $160.96 per share, at a market value of $74.3 billion, but as of Thursday morning each share was valued at $139.84, the lowest in over a year, at a market value of $64.54 billion.

At first, Target tried to double down on its promotion of sexual deviancy and grooming but reportedly started to remove some of the pro-LGBT items from its stores, hoping to avoid the “Bud Light treatment.” Some stores, it seems, didn’t get the message.

Bud Light’s parent company — Anheuser-Busch InBev — is not doing that great either. According to the Daily Wire, a new report from Investor’s Business Daily estimates that since Apr. 1 — the day when the controversy around Dylan Mulvaney exploded — the company’s market value has plunged a staggering $15.7 billion.

“We believe there is a subset of American consumers who will not drink a Bud Light for the foreseeable future,” Jared Dinges, beverage analyst at JPMorgan Chase, said this Tuesday.

“Shares [of Anheuser-Busch] have underperformed EU Beer peers by 15% since the start of April. We do not expect the lost sales to be recovered in fiscal year 2024.”

Anson Frericks, the former president of sales and distribution for Anheuser-Busch, also recently predicted that the company is in a very bad position right now, adding that the company will face “a long, hot, dry summer.”

“I think that you’re going to see sales continue to be down because… it’s too easy for [customers] to switch to other brands, and they’re seeing the impact of their results,” he said.

REPORT: Oprah Winfrey on Newsom’s Short-List of Potential Feinstein Replacements

Contributing Author
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REPORT: Oprah Winfrey on Newsom’s Short-List of Potential Feinstein Replacements

(Headline USA) Oprah Winfrey is reportedly on California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s short-list of potential appointments should Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., resign before her term is up next year, according to reports.

Newsom is reportedly under pressure from activists to appoint a black woman to Feinstein’s seat if it becomes open, since he did not do so when Vice President Kamala Harris resigned her Senate seat. Winfrey is being “floated in California circles” as an option, as well as Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif.

Winfrey has publicly flirted with running for public office before, even hinting at a presidential run in 2020. But it is not clear whether she has consulted with Newsom’s team on the possible Senate appointment.

The news comes amidst increased pressure for Feinstein to step down following her extended absence from the Senate. She was hospitalized in Feburary for a shingles infection, and only recently returned to Washington, D.C.

But shortly after returning, Feinstein appeared to forget that she had been away at all.

When asked about the reception she received from her colleagues upon her return earlier this month, Feinstein denied that she had been away.

“No, I haven’t been gone,” Feinstein said. “You should follow the — I haven’t been gone. I’ve been working.”

When the reporter asked if Feinstein meant she had still been working remotely, Feinstein insisted that she had been present for all Senate votes.

“No, I’ve been here,” she said. “I’ve been voting. Please. You either know or you don’t know.”

But thus far, Democrat leadership has refrained from publicly calling on Feinstein to resign. The pressure continues to grow, according to Newsom, who said recently that he has been getting nonstop calls from other California politicians with suggestions for who might replace her.

“Emails, calls, texts, people stopping me — I mean, I’m not kidding,” Newsom said. “This is one of the biggest topics here.”

San Fran. Mayor Chased Out of Public Square during Speech on Drugs, Crime

Contributing Author
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San Fran. Mayor Chased Out of Public Square during Speech on Drugs, Crime

(Headline USA) San Francisco Democrat Mayor London Breed and other city officials were booed out of a city square earlier this week after they attempted to hold a press conference on drug overdoses.

Breed and the city’s board of supervisors held a conference in United Nations Plaza, which has become a notorious open-air drug market, to highlight the problems in the area, including surging overdoses.

Breed and Supervisor Aaron Peskin began the conference by saying the city has tolerated “illegal, out-of-control behavior for far too long.”

“Many San Franciscans do not feel safe,” Peskin said. “Brazen drug dealing and deteriorating street conditions have exacerbated a humanitarian crisis on our streets.”

Within minutes, the nearby crowd began booing and hurling insults at the officials. One woman even threw a brick at the officials, almost striking a child. She was arrested and removed in handcuffs.

In the end, Breed’s conference lasted only 10 minutes, at which point she and the other officials had to be escorted away to City Hall, where they continued delivering their remarks.

Like Peskin, Breed suggested that the leftist policies implemented in San Francisco have contributed to the city’s deteriorating condition.

“Compassion is killing people,” Breed said. “We have to change what is happening on the streets. It’s too easy getting drugs, they are dying under our watch, we have to do better.”

Breed, herself a progressive, said she is “putting everything on the line.”

“I am doing this job without fear of losing it. San Francisco claims to be so compassionate and liberal. People are growing up in the midst of this chaos. What about them? We have tried over, and over again, and what we are doing is not working,” she said.

“Are we going to collaborate and work toward solutions? Or are we going to let the same old thing happen over, and over, and over again?” she said.

Sen. Tim Kaine Faces Ethics Problem after Buying Luxury Condo from Energy Exec.

Abdul-Rahman Oladimeji Bello
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Sen. Tim Kaine Faces Ethics Problem after Buying Luxury Condo from Energy Exec.

(Abdul–Rahman Oladimeji Bello, Headline USA) Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., faced major ethical questions following a Fox News report that he had purchased a luxury condominium from a top executive at a multibillion-dollar energy company.

The company, Dominion Energy, is currently developing a massive offshore windfarm in his home state.

Kaine’s most recent financial disclosure reported that he purchased property worth about $1 million in March 2022.

A further review of the senator’s real estate filings revealed that Kaine and his wife paid $895,000 for a luxury multi-unit condo in Richmond, Virginia.

The Democratic senator (and former Hillary Clinton running mate) purchased this property from George Marget, a senior lawyer at Dominion Energy, on March 8, 2022. 

Redfin, an online real estate firm, listed the waterfront property as a “one of a kind” and “one of the largest and finest condos” in Richmond. It reportedly has two master suites, a “gourmet kitchen,” dining room and three parking spaces.

The financial disclosures further revealed that the senator earned about $15,000 leasing the property to its “previous owner.”

However, a spokesperson for Kaine noted that the filing should have stated “previous occupant” as it was leased to a tenant living in the property at the time of the purchase. The spokesperson added that the senator’s financial disclosure form would be corrected to reflect that detail. 

Kaine’s spokesperson further downplayed any conflict of interest by denying that Kaine and his wife had personally interacted with the prior landlord.

“Senator Kaine and Anne Holton bought their condo from the Margets in a transaction negotiated by realtors,” Kaine’s spokesperson said.

“The Margets did not live in this condo and instead had a long-term tenant who rented the condo from them,” the spokesperson continued. “This tenant, who was not a Dominion employee, asked whether he could remain in the condo for a period of time after the sale while he looked for a new place.”

In an email to Fox Digital, Dominion Energy spokesperson Ryan Frazier echoed Kaine’s spokesperson in defending the purchase of the condominium.

“In early 2022, Mr. Marget initiated an open sale process of a residential property he owned in downtown Richmond, with a public listing, open house, and scheduled tours,” Frazier wrote. “The sale was negotiated between real-estate agents representing the buyer and seller, with the buyer and seller at arms’ length.”

Kaine is a very vocal supporter of Dominion’s Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project, currently in development. It would be the state’s first offshore wind farm and the nation’s largest offshore wind farm once fully constructed. 

Kaine has also taken the project quite personally as he has urged federal regulators to fast-track its permit process and has successfully won funds worth millions of dollars for the project. 

Kaine’s conflict of interest is reminiscent of a recent attack that his fellow Democrats used to try to besmirch libertarian Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch, who sold his stake in 40-acre a Colorado property to the head of a major law firm a month after he was appointed to the high court.

Kaine and others have been pushing an ambitious attack on conservative SCOTUS justices as part of an effort to undermine faith in the judicial branch and force reforms that likely would include packing the court with liberals to help enact a radical leftist agenda.

Although Kaine did not appear to have weighed in on the Gorsuch attack, he did lodge potshots at Justice Clarence Thomas over Thomas’s failure to report personal vacations with a family friend, Harlan Crow.

“It is well past time for the Supreme Court to align with the rest of government in a proper code of ethics enforced by independent investigation and reporting,” Kaine and his fellow Democrats claimed in a letter admonishing Chief Justice John Roberts.

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