Feds Target School Dress Codes

Dmytro "Henry" Aleksandrov
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Feds Target School Dress Codes

(Dmytro “Henry” Aleksandrov, Headline USA) Leftists are now after the dress codes used in some schools, arguing that they are sexist, racist and classist, foster a culture of “inequity” and can interfere with some kids’ access to education.

When schools returned to in-person learning after the tyrannical closures due to COVID-19, people started to protest the dress codes all around the country, including in places like Cobb County, Ga., Longview, Wa. and Sharon Hill, Pa., according to USA Today.

Last year, the Government Accountability Office found that about 93% of U.S. schools have some kind of dress code policy, about half of all schools enforce a strict dress code and about 1 in 5 schools require uniforms. Most districts ban spaghetti strap shirts, short skirts, leggings, muscle shirts, sagging pants or certain clothing colors or logos in one way or another.

The GAO report is among the first federal callouts for intervention, even though far-left groups like the American Civil Liberties Union always argued against school uniform policies.

According to the GAO’s analysis, school uniform policies make some students feel unsafe and discriminate against students of “certain” cultures and religions. The report also says that disciplining children because they violated school uniform rules in one way or another is a bad idea because it takes learning time away from kids.

The agency conducted an analysis looking at informal removals for dress code violations, responding to a request from Reps. Bobby Scott and the late Donald McEachin — unsurprisingly, both Virginia Democrats.

GAO also asked the Education Department to tell school leaders about the so-called “negative effects” that dress codes have on the so-called “equity” and “safety” of their students.

The agency also suggested that black and brown students are more likely to attend schools that have dress code rules rather than white students and that these dress code policies create “inequitable enforcement of discipline.”

“While school districts often cite safety as the reason for having a dress code, many dress codes include elements that may make the school environment less equitable and safe for students.”

Can Chat GPT3 Make Pennsylvania a Red State?

Wire Editor
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Can Chat GPT3 Make Pennsylvania a Red State?

(Athan Koutsiouroumbas, RealClear Wire) First, a team of researchers demonstrated that Open AI’s Chat GPT3 can pass the stringent United States Medical Licensing Exam. Days later, Chat GPT 3 passed a bar exam. Finally, Chat GPT3 passed the prestigious Wharton Business School’s rigorous core examination.

The Wharton researcher writes, “OpenAI’s Chat GPT3 has shown a remarkable ability to automate some of the skills of highly compensated knowledge workers in general and specifically the knowledge workers in the jobs held by MBA graduates including analysts, managers, and consultants.”

Lawyers, doctors, administrators, managers and consultants are some of the most highly compensated professionals in the United States. Generative artificial intelligence is banishing them to obsolescence.

With only 375 employees, the unprofitable Chat GPT3 was acquired by behemoth Microsoft at a valuation reportedly northward of $30 billion. For perspective, with over 42,000 highly educated healthcare employees, AmerisourceBergen is the largest company by revenue headquartered in Pennsylvania. Its valuation is $33.25 billion. So, with 99% fewer employees, the unprofitable Chat GPT3 is already worth nearly the same as the largest company in the Commonwealth.

Microsoft has already pledged $10 billion to optimize Chat GPT3 toward profitability. Tens of billions more dollars are coming.

The last time policymakers were presented with displacement on this scale was the globalization that decimated the American working class. The solution for Pennsylvania policymakers was to pivot the state’s economy to “Eds and Meds,” which now constitute 44% of total employment.

Those industries were chosen because spending is generated predominantly by the government, which is historically stable. To quote Ronald Reagan, “Government programs, once launched, never disappear.” Pennsylvania policymakers knew that they were making safe bets as those markets would almost always exist.

The pivot worked, with Pennsylvania stabilizing its population decline. Communities able to make the pivot, particularly in the suburbs, saw prosperity.

Once reliably Republican, the suburban voters employed by “Eds and Meds” now constitute the Democratic Party’s base. The rise of conservative populism, which pointed the finger at college-educated elites for the decline of the working class, accelerated the trend.

The reticence of suburban elites to choose Republican candidates is understandable, considering some in the GOP’s working-class base label them the enemy. For many in the working class, the contempt is personal, as they perceive the college-educated as having enriched themselves at their expense, via globalization.

But generative artificial intelligence is poised to inflict the same level of economic devastation on suburban elites as suffered by the working class through globalization. Some elites will undoubtedly find sure footing in the pending economy created by generative artificial intelligence. But many others will not.

The Rust Belt’s decline took decades to manifest. Its slow pace helped shield policymakers from criticism because gradual change enabled some Americans to find solutions on their own.

In contrast to globalization’s slow deindustrialization, however, technological adoption moves at lightning speed and is only getting faster. “Eds and Meds” suburbanites are unlikely to gain a reprieve through gradual transition. Profitable generative artificial intelligence business models may surface within a year. Suburban prosperity could be severely undermined before the next Winter Olympics. Policymakers need immediate solutions.

Political polarization rises during economic decline. A 20-point gap persists between the political affiliations of college-educated and non-college-educated Americans. It is one of the most pronounced cleavages in American politics.

The displacement potentially caused by generative artificial intelligence could put college-educated voters back into electoral play for Republicans, presuming the GOP can deliver something for them.

The path to help these Pennsylvanians, one that would be exclusive to Republicans, is rapid reindustrialization. The prerequisites for rapid reindustrialization are affordable, abundant energy and school choice. Both are fundamental tenets of the GOP platform.

Pennsylvania is blessed with abundant natural resources and is a net exporter of energy. It has educational entrepreneurs pleading for the opportunity to create the most industrially skilled workforce on the planet. Products made in Pennsylvania can reach most of the continental United States or international waters within 24 hours. Among the 50 states, this “iron triangle” of energy-workforce-logistics may be unique to Pennsylvania.

Rapid reindustrialization is the path that unites all educational backgrounds to produce real, sustainable wealth. Instead of pitting the educational classes against one another, it makes them partners in success.

Pennsylvania Republican policymakers have the opportunity before them to accomplish what Ron DeSantis has achieved in Florida: a generational political realignment of a state.

Meanwhile, Pennsylvania’s Republican Party leaders have proposed spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on a 2022 midterm post-mortem. That’s fine. But the lesson of the 2022 midterm is that voters do not reward looking backwards.

A crisis has begun. The GOP will respond either by providing tomorrow’s leaders or being condemned by history for failing to rise to the challenge.

Joe Manchin’s Wife’s Commission Received $200M from Omnibus Bill

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Joe Manchin’s Wife’s Commission Received $200M from Omnibus Bill

(Adam Andrzejewski, RealClear Wire) Included in the $1.7 trillion omnibus package supported by Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va, was a provision to give $200 million to the Appalachian Regional Commission, an agency headed by Manchin’s wife, Gayle.

The Appalachian Regional Commission operates as an economic development partnership between the federal government and 13 Appalachian states, distributing infrastructure grants in those states.

Its head, Gayle Manchin, makes $160,000 in her role as its federal co-chair, according to a Fox News report. She was confirmed by the Senate in 2021.

The $200 million in funding is a $5 million increase from last year.

“The West Virginia senator previously helped craft earlier legislation, following his wife’s 2021 appointment, that allocated $1 billion in funding over five years for the ARC,” Fox reported. Sen. Manchin was a key Democratic negotiator of the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which doubled the commission’s funding level.

Gayle Manchin defended the spending increase in 2021, claiming this funding is necessary to, “more adequately meet the overwhelming needs of communities impacted by job losses resulting from the decline in the coal industry. These grants will be instrumental to the long-term diversification and economic growth in Appalachia.”

This isn’t the only instance of federal money being sent to a family member in the omnibus bill. Rep. Jim Cooper sent $2.7 million to Metro Nashville, where his brother John Cooper is mayor. Sen. Ben Ray Lujan secured $152 million for his home state of New Mexico, where Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham is a distant relative.

Funneling money to an agency headed by a spouse isn’t illegal, but it does present a clear conflict of interest that erodes trust between people and their governments.

Watchdogs Say Some Pandemic Fraud Was Preventable

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Watchdogs Say Some Pandemic Fraud Was Preventable

(Brett Rowland, The Center Square) – Watchdogs told a U.S. House committee that government agencies failed in some cases to take steps to prevent fraud before sending out trillions of dollars in pandemic relief aid.

Testimony before the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability outlined how billions of dollars of taxpayer money was lost to waste, fraud and abuse.

Congress in some cases put provisions into legislation that made programs more susceptible to fraud, such as allowing for self-certification or not using tax transcripts, said Comptroller General of the United States Gene Dodaro. He also said federal agencies knew they had improper payment problems long before the pandemic.

The three biggest pandemic relief programs – the Paycheck Protection Program, the Economic Injury Disaster Loan and the unemployment insurance program – “have shown to be highly susceptible to fraud,” said Michael Horowitz, chairman of the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee. Those three programs account for just under $2 trillion of pandemic spending.

The federal government administered both the Paycheck Protection Program and Economic Injury Disaster Loan. Horowitz said both were hampered by a rush to get the money out quickly. With the unemployment insurance, which is administered by the 50 states, the problem was a lack of coordination among them and the Department of Labor, Horowitz said.

U.S. Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-North Carolina, asked how such large-scale fraud was possible. She cited the Feeding Our Future case in Minnesota. Federal prosecutors indicted 47 people in what federal prosecutors said was the largest COVID-19 fraud scheme in the nation.

Horowitz said some fraud could have been stopped by simply checking if the applicant was a legal entity that existed.

“Was it from an IP address coming from overseas?” he said. “Did names, dates of birth and social security numbers match? That’s an easy check. Were they on the Do-Not-Pay list? There were multiple steps that could have been taken in many of these instances that could have at a minimum hit the pause button and take a second look to make sure they were eligible.”

In the Feeding our Future case, prosecutors charged 47 people for allegedly perpetrating a $250 million fraud scheme that exploited a federally-funded child nutrition program during the pandemic. The defendants were charged with conspiracy, wire fraud, money laundering and bribery for allegedly misappropriating and laundering millions of dollars in program funds that were intended as reimbursements for the cost of serving meals to children, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. Feeding Our Future, a nonprofit, went from distributing about $3.4 million in federal funds in 2019 to nearly $200 million in 2021. Prosecutors allege it did so by submitting false documents to the Minnesota Department of Education, which administers the Federal Child Nutrition Program.

“The defendants also submitted fake attendance rosters purporting to list the names and ages of the children receiving meals at the sites each day. These rosters were fabricated and created using fake names. For example, one roster was created using names from a website called ‘www.listofrandomnames.com,’ according to prosecutors.

Lawmakers passed six COVID-19 relief laws that provided about $4.6 trillion for pandemic response and recovery. Of that, about $4.1 trillion had been spent as of Nov. 30, according to the U.S. Department of the Treasury.

Biden Takes Out $250K Line of Credit on Delaware Home Amidst DOJ Investigations

Contributing Author
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Biden Takes Out $250K Line of Credit on Delaware Home Amidst DOJ Investigations

(Headline USA) President Joe Biden took out a $250,000 line of credit against his Delaware beach home around the same time the Justice Department launched an investigation into his mishandling of classified documents.

Biden took out the home equity variable rate line of credit from M&T Bank on Dec. 5, 2022, Sussex County filings show, reported Fox News. It is unclear why Biden took out the line of credit, which allows him to borrow up to a quarter of a million dollars against his home’s equity.

The financial move comes as Biden faces a DOJ investigation after multiple classified documents from his vice presidency and Senate career were found in his possession. Just this week, the FBI searched his Rehoboth Beach, Delaware home, but said in a statement that they didn’t find new classified documents.

Biden’s son, Hunter, is also under federal investigation for alleged tax fraud. The investigation is also related to Hunter’s shady foreign business deals with “China and other foreign nations,” according to sources familiar with the investigation.

The dual investigation marks a dubious milestone for the Bidens, Fox News noted, making “presidential history for being the first father-son duo to be simultaneously – but separately – under federal investigation.

Hunter Biden attempted to flip the script on his critics this week, calling for a criminal probe into Rudy Giuliani and others who exposed the contents of his abandoned laptop. The letter, sent to the DOJ’s National Security Division, asks for an investigation into “individuals for whom there is considerable reason to believe violated various federal laws in accessing, copying, manipulating, and/or disseminating Mr. Biden’s personal computer data.”

Thus far, Hunter Biden has refused to confirm whether the abandoned laptop was, in fact, his — even though it has been authenticated by the FBI and DOJ. This complaint to the DOJ is the first admission from the first son that the laptop was legitimate.

Sarah Huckabee Sanders Set to Ban Drag Shows in Arkansas

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Sarah Huckabee Sanders Set to Ban Drag Shows in Arkansas

(Headline USA) Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders announced this week that she will ban drag shows from public property in the state, arguing that “adult-oriented performances” are inappropriate and part of the “radical Left’s woke dystopia.”

A bill banning drag shows passed a state House panel on Wednesday and is set to continue through the legislature with the support of Sanders. 

“I think we have to do everything — I’ve been very clear and talked about this pretty extensively — to protect children. I think that’s what this bill does,” Sanders said last month.

Sanders’s spokeswoman Alexa Henning said in a statement that the bill is not aimed at “banning anything.” It’s about “protecting kids” from being exposed to “sexually explicit drag shows,” she said.

“Only in the radical left’s woke dystopia is it not appropriate to protect kids,” she added.

The bill defines a drag show as someone dancing, singing and lip-syncing to an audience of two or more while wearing “clothing, makeup, or other accessories that are traditionally worn by members of and are meant to exaggerate the gender identity of the performer’s opposite sex.”

Within her first few months in office, Sanders has already come out swinging against leftists in her state. She issued executive orders prohibiting critical race theory in public schools and banning the use of the term “Latinx” in state documents.

“The government has a responsibility to respect its citizens and use ethnically appropriate language, particularly when referring to ethnic minorities,” the executive order banning “Latinx” states.

“One can no more easily remove gender from Spanish and other romance languages than one can remove vowels and verbs from English,” the executive order continues.  “It is the policy of the Governor’s administration to prohibit the use of culturally insensitive words for official state government business.”

Miami Mocked For Africa-Themed Police Cruiser

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Miami Mocked For Africa-Themed Police Cruiser

(Headline USA) The city of Miami was mocked this week after unveiling an Africa-themed police cruiser for Black History Month.

The cruiser is decorated in red, yellow and green colors and has several depictions of the continent of Africa all over it. On the side of the vehicle, the words “Black History Month” are written in bold letters.

“This is a beautiful collaboration to commemorate Black history and Black History Month and the history of African Americans and our police department and our city,” Miami Mayor Francis Suarez said at the unveiling on Thursday. “This is Black history.”

Miami Police Chief Manuel Morales was also in attendance for the unveiling.

Even leftists agreed the car’s design was tone deaf.

“THIS CANNOT BE,” said former president of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund Sherrilyn Ifill.

MSNBC legal analyst Charles Coleman tweeted, “1. Because Florida 2. Tell me you don’t have a D&I person without telling me you don’t have a D&I person. 3. No, you don’t get credit for just trying. This type of tone deaf performative action is what provokes a ‘war on wokeness’ when we are made to accept the unacceptable.”

Washington Post columnist Karen Attiah said, “I AM WHEEZING.”

Outspoken leftist Elie Mystal tweeted, “… … Wut Is This? ???????”

Leftist Kamau Franklin wrote, “You can’t make this stuff up. For Black History month, the mayor of Miami unveiled a Black History month cruiser with images of Africa done in red, black, and green. This country kills us and ridicules us all the time.”

Suarez’s office tried to distance itself from the cruiser’s design in a follow-up statement, saying the mayor didn’t pick the car’s design and that the police union had “full approval” before it was unveiled. However, he still insisted that the cruiser “celebrates our African ancestry,” according to a local report.

FBI’s Planned New HQ Is at Least Twice the Size of Pentagon

Molly Bruns
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FBI’s Planned New HQ Is at Least Twice the Size of Pentagon

(Molly Bruns, Headline USA) Recently released plans to build a new headquarters for the Federal Bureau of Investigation show that the new facility will be twice the size of the Pentagon building.

Construction on the facility was approved under a massive omnibus bill in December, with Republicans including new House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., reaching across the aisle to back Democrats on the $1.7 trillion package.

The current FBI headquarters, the J. Edgar Hoover Building, is an architectural monstrosity resting between the White House and the Capitol.

But the measure comes at a time when many have lost trust in the intelligence community following a series of scandals that suggest it has been corrupted and politicized.

In the aftermath of a controversial raid on former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort last November, some lawmakers called for the agency to be scaled down significantly, decentralized or even eradicated altogether.

Instead, it seems, the FBI has a long-range plan to consolidate its various outposts and extend its stranglehold over the Swamp even further.

The new facility promises to be a sprawling campus on one of three sites offering 58, 61 or 80 acres in either Virginia or Maryland, according to American Greatness.

For comparison, the Pentagon occupies 29 acres of space, not including the 5-acre courtyard—making any of the FBI options at least twice the size.

The General Services Administration laid out the options for the three sites. The 58-acre property is “federally owned land under the jurisdiction, custody and control of GSA.”

In addition to its size, the new facility will help the FBI to incorporate key components of the woke agenda into its workplace. Among the criteria for deciding which property to select are “sustainability” and “equity.”

The GSA released a statement outlining the design and structure of the new HQ, saying it plan to “advance racial equity and support for underserved communities through the Federal Government,” perhaps by prioritizing locales near low-income, minority communities.

The new campus also will be an environmentally “sustainable” location to “strengthen the vitality and livability of the [surrounding] communities,” it said.

Moreover, according to President Joe Biden’s Executive Order 14057, it must “create and sustain… well-paying union jobs,” and “advance environmental justice.”

The executive order defines “equity” as “the consistent and systematic fair, just, and impartial treatment of all individuals, including individuals who belong to underserved communities that have been denied such treatment, such as Black, 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,” and so on.

AOC Caught Funneling Campaign Cash to China-Linked Newspaper

Ezekiel Loseke
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AOC Caught Funneling Campaign Cash to China-Linked Newspaper

(Ezekiel Loseke, Headline USA) Newly released campaign-finance records from the Federal Election Commission showed that Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., was among a handful of lawmakers who funneled money to a China-linked newspaper in return for coverage.

Three House Democrats and one Republican gave thousands of dollars to Hong Kong-based Sing Tao U.S., a subsidiary of the Sing Tao News Corporation, the Washington Post reported.

Ocasio-Cortez gave the Chinese asset almost $1,500 for advertisements, according to FEC records.

The other lawmakers—Reps. Kevin Mullin, D-Calif.; Grace Meng, D-N.Y.; and Nicole Malliotakis, R-N.Y.—each spent somewhere in the range of $1,000 to $7,000 to have campaign messages featured in the paper, which circulates in New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles.

In August 2021, Sing Tao U.S. was forced to register as a Chinese agent under the Foreign Agent Registration Act, according to Justice Department filings.

However, Ocasio–Cortez has a history of working with this particular Chinese asset, according to the Post Millennial.

In 2020, she wrote a Facebook post  thanking the outlet for covering a roundtable discussion on foreign language media in which she had participated

“谢谢 [Thanks] Sing Tao Newspapers for covering our foreign-language media roundtable!” she wrote.

One Facebook user was less than pleased with the post. “How close is she to a Democratic Wuhan Connection???????” he asked.

The bombshell disclosure about Ocasio–Cortez’s ties to China came, ironically, on the same day that fellow “Squad” member Ilhan Omar, D-Calif., was voted off the House Foreign Relations Committee due to concerns that her anti-Semitic comments (and possible ties to foreign governments) posed a national security threat.

In a grandstanding speech, characterized by some critics as a “temper tantrum,” AOC denounced the move as racist.

But despite their indignation, she and 99 other House Democrats refused to support a House resolution condemning socialism.

All Republicans and 126 Democrats supported the resolution, according to Breitbart News.

Some Democrats attempted to explain their no vote on the bill.

US Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., said the resolution was part of Republican “fearmongering.”

“This resolution is … as divisive as it is insulting to the American public,” she said.

As AOC and other Democrats are funding assets of the communist Chinese government, they are using their political power to shield socialism from condemnation at home.

US Rep. Patric McHenry, R-N.C., summarized the resistance to the bill and Democrat’s funding of socialist spies well.

“If this resolution would just simply draw out my Democrat colleagues to just say, yes, they are in favor of socialism, maybe this is a worthwhile endeavor.”

Increasingly Unpopular War Escalating in Ukraine as Pentagon Expresses Doubts

Ken Silva
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Increasingly Unpopular War Escalating in Ukraine as Pentagon Expresses Doubts

(Ken Silva, Headline USA) The Pentagon reportedly doubts Ukrainian fighting capabilities, public support for U.S. military aid is plummeting, and Russian President Vladimir Putin has threatened nuclear retaliation as he readies more troops for combat—yet the Biden administration continues its role in the war.

The latest developments in the war in Ukraine come this week on the heels of the U.S. authorizing transfers of Abrams tanks and long-range missiles to the Ukrainian government. Those weapons officials were ostensibly part of an effort to drive Russia entirely out of Ukraine—including Crimea, which has been Russian territory since Putin invaded it in 2014.

However, Pentagon officials reportedly said in a classified briefing last Thursday that Ukrainian forces are “unlikely” to be able to recapture Crimea. The latest Pentagon assessment follows comments from Joint Chiefs chair Gen. Mark Milley, who said on Jan. 20 that it would be “very, very difficult” to entirely expel Russia from Ukraine.

While American tanks may not have increased Ukraine’s prospects for victory, they have drawn the ire of Putin. The Russian leader reportedly threatened nuclear retaliation in a Thursday speech commemorating the 80th anniversary of the Red Army’s victory over Nazi Germany in Stalingrad.

“We aren’t sending tanks to their borders, but we have something to respond with, and it won’t be just about using armored vehicles. Everyone should understand this,” he reportedly said. “A modern war with Russia will be completely different.”

Putin’s warning was made the same day as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned that Russia is amassing troops for a major offensive.

The increasingly dangerous and dismal outlook for the war has public souring on its support for U.S. military aid, which has now topped $100 billion.

A Thursday article for antiwar.com noted that in March 2022, 49% of Republican voters believed the US was not giving enough aid to Ukraine and only 9% responded that Washington was sending too much support, according to Pew. Those numbers have now nearly reversed with 40% saying there is too much support for Kiev, while only 17% said the Biden administration is not doing enough.

Despite this, the Biden administration has given no public indication that it’s pursuing diplomacy with Russia. On Tuesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov reportedly said that he received a message from Secretary of State Antony Blinken “that Russia should quit, and then everything will be fine.”

Lavrov reportedly responded to Blinken’s message by saying that he’s ready to listen to any “serious” proposal aimed at resolving the conflict.

The one major U.S. political figure calling for diplomacy is former President Donald Trump, who said Wednesday that if he were still commander-in-chief, he would “negotiate an end to this horrible and rapidly escalating war in 24 hours.”

“It’s far past the time for all parties involved to pursue a peaceful end to the war in Ukraine before this horrific catastrophe spirals out of control and leads to World War III,” he said.

“We must end this ridiculous war and demand peace in Ukraine now before it gets worse.”

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

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