Nicki Minaj, Cornel West blast Newsom for trying to relate to black people by sharing low SAT score

 Rapper Nicki Minaj, who has emerged as an outspoken supporter of President Donald Trump in recent months, is slamming California’s Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom for attempting to relate to black people by pointing to his low SAT score. Critics on both sides of the political aisle have panned his attempt to relate to the important political demographic ahead of the 2028 presidential election. 

Video footage of California’s Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, a 2028 presidential hopeful, speaking to black leaders in Georgia over the weekend has drawn intense backlash from conservatives, including Minaj. In his remarks, Newsom told the crowd, “I’m not trying to impress you. I’m just trying to impress upon you [that] I’m like you. I’m no better than you. I’m a 960 SAT guy.”

Newsom insisted that he was “not trying to act all there” and significantly smarter than the crowd, suggesting that many of them may have had SAT scores of 940. He also boasted that “You’ve never seen me read a speech because I cannot read a speech.” 

Minaj took issue with multiple aspects of Newsom’s comments in an X post Monday. “His way of bonding with black ppl is to tell them how stupid he is & that he can’t read,” she wrote. “This means my first read on him was correct. He’s been handed so many things & put in high positions he never earned or deserved.” 

“Do you wanna know the craziest part of this footage that will haunt him forever?” she asked. “He’s literally slowing down his speech & talking in a sporadic cadence.” 

Minaj added: “He’s not just TELLING them that they’re all probably stupid & probably can’t read, he’s LITERALLY SLOW-ING-DOWN-HIS-SPEECH to make them understand the words that are coming out of his mouth!!!! As if they’re children!!!! That means he REALLY BELIEVES they’re slow. He’s not just saying it–he didn’t misspeak!!!! He BELIEVES it!!!!”

“Do ya love it?!?!! Do ya just love it, black ppl?!????” she concluded. 

Nicki Minaj, Cornel West blast Newsom comments to black audience | Politics

Transgender propaganda continues to damage our children

 Transgender propaganda continues to damage our children - American Thinker

read the link

First-grade teacher threatened with termination for refusing to read LGBT-themed book: attorneys

 A first-grade teacher in Nashville, Tennessee, claims that he was threatened with termination and reassigned to a new position after requesting religious accommodations to avoid reading books to children that promote same-sex marriage, which would have conflicted with his beliefs about marriage and sexuality. 

Eric Rivera is a devout Christian who taught first-grade students at KIPP Antioch College Prep Elementary School, according to a Wednesday statement from the First Liberty Institute, a nonprofit public interest law firm.  KIPP is a public charter school that operates under the Tennessee Public Charter School Commission.

According to a letter First Liberty Institute sent to school officials on Rivera’s behalf on Tuesday, the conflict began in January, when Rivera noticed that the selected Language Arts curriculum for his class included a book featuring a same-sex couple and their child. 

“Requiring a teacher violate their religious beliefs in order to keep their job is blatant discrimination that violates the Civil Rights Act,” Cliff Martin, senior counsel at First Liberty Institute, said in a statement provided to The Christian Post.

“Our client cares deeply about his students and simply has a religious objection to teaching certain lessons and asked for a simple religious accommodation,” Martin continued. “The school has sent the message that anyone who has a traditional view of marriage is unfit to teach first grade.”

KIPP Antioch College Prep Elementary did not immediately respond to The Christian Post’s request for comment.

The legal group’s letter stated that it would “pursue available remedies accordingly” if it did not receive a response from the school by Friday.

One of the books Rivera was asked to read to his students was Stella Brings the Family, as WZTV reports. The book tells the story of a girl with two dads who is worried about how to celebrate Mother’s Day without a mom. 

Rivera felt the material in the book conflicted with his religious beliefs and that he could not, in “good conscience,” read it to his students and lead a discussion about it. The teacher requested that a colleague read the book to the students on Jan. 6 instead, while he remained in the classroom to observe. 

The following day, the first-grade teacher received a summons to the principal’s office, where he says that he was issued a “Final Warning” letter and threatened with termination.

“The letter accused Mr. Rivera of failing to meet the ‘expectation’ of teaching the curriculum ‘with fidelity,’ and stated that as a result of his conduct, students will ‘miss content aligned with the scope of the unit,’” First Liberty Institute recounts in its letter to school officials. 

“Not only was the curriculum still taught to his first-grade class via substitute, but KIPP’s position sends the message that anyone who holds the same religious beliefs and values as Mr. Rivera is incapable of teaching at their school while maintaining ‘fidelity’ to their chosen curriculum,” First Liberty Institute’s letter reads. “Mr. Rivera was further directed to ‘maintain fidelity to the curriculum, teaching all lessons in the KIPP Nashville Scope and Sequence.’”

In addition to threatening further disciplinary action such as termination, the “Final Warning” letter also stated, “A copy of this unsatisfactory notice is being placed in your personnel file.”

Rivera claims that he had not received any prior warnings from the school before they issued the “Final Warning” letter, nor had he been subject to any disciplinary actions. The Christian teacher says that he later accepted a teaching technology position before switching to a kindergarten position. 

“Mr. Rivera stated he believed he should be able to teach first grade consistent with his convictions by having another teacher read the two books in the curriculum that he objected to,” First Liberty Institute’s letter states. 

“However, the principal indicated that the belief in same-sex marriage is so fundamental to the language arts unit that Mr. Rivera could not possibly be permitted to teach any portion of the unit, and therefore had to be removed from the first grade classroom,” the document reads. 

In the letter, the attorneys contend that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 makes it "unlawful for an employer to discriminate against any individual with respect to religion and also requires employers to accommodate employees’ religious practices unless doing so would impose an 'undue hardship' on the conduct of the employer’s business.” 

Teacher's job threatened for refusing to read LGBT book: lawsuit | Education

Real Life: Nelson Labour MP Rachel Boyack’s brush with ‘cult-like’ religious sect

 Nelson MP Rachel Boyack says she “nearly ended up in a cult” as a teenager, but escaped after just a few weeks after growing suspicious with the group’s “dodgy” behaviour.

The Labour politician was briefly a member of the International Church of Christ, a religious sect known for its aggressive proselytising, while attending the University of Auckland in 1998.

In an interview with Newstalk ZB’s Real Life with John Cowan on Sunday night, Boyack said the experience was “very strange”, but ultimately taught her about the importance of religious freedom.

“I was approached by a woman on the street who invited me to go to her church, and I thought ‘This must be God speaking to me to go to this church’,” she recalls.

Boyack was showered with friendship from fellow members over the ensuing weeks – a technique known as “love bombing” – but soon realised “they were quite dodgy”.

“They were absolutely acting like a cult. They had come from America and had an objective of trying to find young people at university and take their money,” she said.

“They wanted me to leave my university hostel and move into one of their flats,” she says. “They wanted me to pay 10 per cent of my income to them. They wanted me to stop talking to my parents and not go home for the holidays. And so I left.”

Real Life Nelson Labour MP Rachel Boyacks brush with cult like religious sect

The Sad Life of Jesse Jackson

 When I think of the late Jesse Jackson, I recall my brother Andy’s encounter with him back in the 1984 presidential election.  No one could beat Reagan, and Jackson’s run was just a vanity project for one of the country’s great publicity hounds.

Jackson wanted to book thirty rooms at a suburban Sheraton hotel my brother was managing in Louisville before the Kentucky primary.  That was the year of the million-dollar presidential primary boondoggles.  John Glenn’s campaign to this day owes record amounts of money to creditors across the country.  Naturally, the hotel’s owner and the Sheraton company were not eager to extend the struggling Jackson campaign credit.

In the end, though, they did, and Jackson’s people were there a week; ordered room service without hesitation; and then skipped town, never paying any bills.  Small price — what the hotel feared was Jackson’s talent for shaking down corporate America for money and favors by screaming “racism” at the drop of a hat...which he would have done if anyone had complained.

The Sad Life of Jesse Jackson - American Thinker

Steve Bannon: Friend of Jeffrey Epstein and Enemy of Trump World

 In the second term of Donald Trump’s presidency, few homegrown political controversies have been as tedious or corrosive as the prolonged Jeffrey Epstein scandal.

Among right-wing media figures, precious few bear more responsibility for fanning the Epstein flames than Steve Bannon. This was not because Trump’s administration was part of some cover-up. I purely believe it was because Bannon chose provocation over truth, spectacle over resolution, and self-preservation over honesty.

By early 2026, the factual record was no longer ambiguous.

On Jan. 30, the Department of Justice released more than three million additional pages of Epstein-related material, along with over 2,000 videos and roughly 180,000 images. This fulfilled the legal requirements of the Epstein Files Transparency Act signed by President Trump in November 2025. Combined with earlier disclosures, the total reached approximately 3.5 million pages. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche made clear that this was the culmination of an exhaustive review process designed to comply with the law and ensure transparency.

Two days later, Blanche addressed the central question driving public anger.

In a nationally televised CNN interview, he explained that a comprehensive review conducted the previous summer found no evidentiary basis for new prosecutions. He acknowledged the disturbing nature of the materials but stressed that prosecutorial standards require more than implication or revulsion. The public, he noted, could now examine the same records and decide whether the Department had erred.

That should have been the moment for closure. Instead, Steve Bannon escalated.

Months earlier, long before the final release, Bannon had begun publicly pressuring the Trump administration on his War Room program. In July, he warned that failure to resolve the Epstein issue would cost Republicans 40 U.S. House seats in the midterms and, potentially, the presidency itself. Days later, he demanded that Epstein evidence be handed to a special prosecutor immediately, openly criticizing Attorney General Pam Bondi and implying institutional bad faith.

Steve Bannon: Friend of Jeffrey Epstein and Enemy of Trump World - American Thinker

Churches in India take challenge to anti-conversion laws to Supreme Court

 India’s Supreme Court has set the stage for a landmark constitutional review of anti-conversion laws across 12 states, as Christian bodies mount parallel legal challenges to legislation they say has been systematically weaponized against religious minorities.

A bench headed by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi on Feb. 2 issued notices to the central government and 12 state governments on a petition filed by the National Council of Churches (NCCI) in India, marking the latest and most sweeping development in a legal battle that has been building since 2020.

The NCCI, representing approximately 14 million Christians through its network of 32 member churches, 17 regional councils, 18 national organizations and seven allied agencies, argues that these laws have been systematically weaponized to target religious minorities through false complaints, arbitrary arrests and vigilante violence.

The court directed the central and state governments to file a common counter affidavit within four weeks and ordered that the matter be placed before a three-judge bench, recognizing the constitutional importance of the issues at stake. The NCCI petition targets specific provisions and amendments in laws across Himachal Pradesh, Odisha, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Haryana, Arunachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Jharkhand and Rajasthan states.

Laws rooted in ‘malice’

Senior attorney Meenakshi Arora, appearing for the NCCI, told the court that the state laws incentivize vigilante groups through reward systems.

“The Acts which are in challenge, they are structured in such a manner that it incentivizes certain vigilante groups to take action, because there are rewards out there,” she argued. “So even if there is really no case at all, someone will make a case, somebody will be arrested, etc., because there is a reward for those on the vigilante side.”

The petitioner has sought an immediate stay on the operation of these laws, citing rampant abuse and harassment of minorities through complaints filed by unrelated third parties without procedural safeguards.

The Rev. Asir Ebenezer, general secretary of the NCCI, said the petition was driven by widespread atrocities against vulnerable Christian communities across India and by what he described as a persistent false narrative that everything Christians do is motivated by an ulterior intent to convert. He told Christian Daily International the laws run contrary to fundamental human rights and constitutional guarantees, and that the NCCI had a clear duty to protect the interests of Christian communities in the country.

John Dayal, spokesperson for the All India Catholic Union and a veteran journalist and human rights activist, was more direct.

“These laws were never about preventing coercion or fraud, which are crimes in national law,” Dayal told Christian Daily International. “From the very first law to the most recent one, they are rooted in malice and an intent to entrap the church and criminalize evangelization.”

Churches in India take anti-conversion laws to Supreme Court | World