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‘Target’ Woke Companies and Huge Investment Firms Behind Them

By
Paul Crespo
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3
Marcha del orgullo en Paraná, Entre Ríos, Argentina. Noviembre de 2021 via Wikimedia commons

ANALYSIS – ‘Go woke – Go Broke’ – The saga of Budweiser and Target’s disastrous forays into transgender politics is great for conservatives, and all Americans. 

It shows how national grassroots pressure can force giant woke companies to lose billions of dollars in a matter of weeks.

But more importantly, it shows us other ways to fight back. To truly force change we have to effectively leverage these boycotts and go way beyond them. 

We need to go after the behemoth investment firms that push and incentivize these corporations to go even more woke.

Elon Musk just hinted at the next battleground – courtrooms. 

Referring to Target’s decision to sell LGBT-themed items and clothing aimed at families and kids (including ‘onesies’ for toddlers and books instructing kids on using transgender pronouns), and the ensuing financial backlash, Musk said Friday that it’s just a matter of time before Target faces lawsuits for “destruction of shareholder value.”

“Won’t be long before there are class-action lawsuits by shareholders against the company and board of directors for the destruction of shareholder value,” he tweeted.

Musk made the remarks in response to a tweet by conservative activist Charlie Kirk, who posted about JPMorgan downgrading Target’s stock after suffering its longest consecutive drop in decades.

Kirk replied by saying that shareholders should organize to get politics out of the “hyperpolitical” corporations of today.

And that is exactly what should be done. 

Conservatives should also consider buying just one share of each offending company to give them legal rights as shareholders. And then take the companies to court.

These lawsuits won’t just put the offending companies on notice, but their huge investment firm backers too.

A big factor encouraging brands to promote transgender ideologies is an attempt to score points on lefty environmental, social, and governance (ESG) standards that are being foisted on organizations all over the country. 

And this is a product of leftist political pressures and aggressively activist investment firms.

During an appearance on Fox News, Anson Frericks, an ex-top Anheuser-Busch executive, said that quiet pressure from huge investment firms like New York-based BlackRock and Pennsylvania-based Vanguard is behind many of the controversial decisions by the woke companies they are heavily invested in.

He noted that BlackRock, Vanguard, and another firm, State Street, manage about $20 trillion in capital and use their power to promote leftist political agendas.

However, it’s also not necessarily coming from the investment firms organically, since they too are being pressured by progressive lawmakers overseeing giant government pension funds that the investment firms profit from.

These hyper-politicized monster government pension funds are the ones really calling the shots.

One of the huge investment firms mentioned earlier, manages California’s massive pension fund — the country’s biggest — and California’s leftist politicians have a big say in the corporate governance and politics of the firms the fund invests in, Frericks noted.

“In California, for example, they recently have mandated those large pension funds [sic] that they divest from things like fossil fuels and oil and gas…”

“But they also tell BlackRock, State Street, and Vanguard if they’re going to manage their money, they have to commit to things like ESG — diversity, equity, inclusion — and adopt firm-wide commitments that they therefore then force onto all the major companies in corporate America,” he added.

So, we need to find ways to limit the power and influence of these monstrous and highly politicized government pension funds that use taxpayer funds to push radical agendas.

We should also note that this isn’t just a conservative issue. Erin Elmore at Turning Point USA, reported The Epoch Times, argued that calls to boycott Target are “not necessarily conservative.”

Instead, she said, “it’s common sense. Most parents don’t support satanists or little boys wearing girls’ bathing suits,” she tweeted on May 28.

This isn’t a conservative-liberal thing. It’s an American thing.

Opinions expressed by contributors do not necessarily reflect the views of Great America News Desk.

Report: Trump Classified Documents Grand Jury to Reconvene This Week

By
Madeleine Jackson
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8
Donald Trump via Gage Skidmore Flickr

The grand jury in the federal investigation into former President Donald Trump’s alleged mishandling of classified documents is reportedly scheduled to meet this week in Washington, D.C. potentially signaling that prosecutors are nearing a charging decision.

On Monday, Trump attorneys John Rowley, James Trusty, and Lindsey Halligan were first spotted at the D.C. federal courthouse on Monday morning by CBS News.

The former president’s legal team late last month had requested a meeting with prosecutors.

“We request a meeting at your earliest convenience to discuss the ongoing injustice that is being perpetrated by your Special Counsel and his prosecutors,” Rowley and Trusty wrote in a letter on May 23.

NBC News reported that not much is known at this point about whether special counsel Jack Smith will seek an indictment. Recent reports say the National Archives informed Smith that it has 16 records that allegedly show that Trump and his top advisers had knowledge of the process that Trump would have to go through to declassify information while he was president and audio recordings that prosecutors have obtained that allegedly feature Trump discussing a classified document he kept after leaving office.

The investigation into the former President focuses on whether he retained classified information after leaving office and if he tried to obstruct investigators or destroyed evidence. The National Archives first alerted Trump in May of 2021 that it was seeking approximately two dozen boxes of records to be returned. Trump was warned in late 2021 that they could escalate the issue to prosecutors or Congress if the former president continued to refuse to hand over the documents.

In January 2022, about 15 of the boxes were returned at which time officials discovered there were more than 700 pages of classified materials in the boxes. 

On August 8, the FBI executed a search warrant on Trump’s Mar-A-Lago property and recovered additional sets of classified material.

Trump has defended his actions, saying last week that “everything I did was right” and suggesting the case is a “witch hunt.”

Since the raid on Trump, classified documents were discovered in a Biden think tank in Washington, D.C. as well as former Vice President Mike Pence’s Indiana home.

Last week, the Justice Department announced it would not be charging Pence in the investigation into the documents.

Amanda Head: Suppressed Jan. 6 Footage To Be Released!

    By
    Amanda Head
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    4

    This is big. Previously suppressed footage from the Jan. 6th Capitol riot is finally being shared with multiple news outlets.

    Watch Amanda explain the situation below:

    Opinions expressed by contributors do not necessarily reflect the views of Great America News Desk.

    85,000 Migrant Kids Go Missing at US Border Under Biden as Questions About Trafficking Explode

    By
    Donny Ferguson
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    6
    CBP Photography, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

    The Biden administration is unable to locate 85,000 child migrants initially processed at the U.S. border, and now members of Congress are demanding an explanation amid reports the children are being trafficked.

    Seventy-six House Republican reveal in a letter that Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas are “knowingly and recklessly discharging unaccompanied children to adults across the country and doing nothing to find the tens of thousands they had lost touch with,” the Washington Examiner reports.

    The letter was issued after the New York Times reported the Biden administration cannot locate 85,000 children initially processed as migrants seeking asylum, and many are being forced into child labor.

    Lawmakers “referenced reports by the New York Times that concluded children were extorted by smugglers to pay off the thousands they owed through forced labor, including sex trafficking. Other children were trafficked against their will and are effectively slaves within the U.S.,” the Examiner reports

    “The border crisis is not a stand-alone crisis. It has created a new catastrophe in every direction,” said Congressman Morgan Luttrell (R-TX) 

    “Unaccompanied migrant children are crossing our border, and Joe Biden’s failed policies aren’t leading them to the American Dream. Instead, these children are released with no follow-up and are facing forced labor, sex trafficking, and abuse,” said Luttrell.

    “The policies of the Biden Administration are failing everyone. Secretary Mayorkas and President Biden not only need to address the ongoing exploitation and lack of contact with minors, but also secure our southern border and ensure people seeking to come to our great country are going through the proper, legal channels,” Luttrell added.

    Even worse, it appears many of the children tried to contact U.S. officials to seek help.

    “We are particularly heartbroken to read reports of children contacting HHS after their release to their sponsors in hopes of the agency intervening, with no follow up,” the letter reveals. 

    “The policies of this administration are enriching the cartels and transnational criminal organizations, who are profiting from the pain, abuse, and exploitation of these children as they smuggle them into the country,” the lawmakers conclude.

    Opinions expressed by contributors do not necessarily reflect the views of Great America News Desk.

    ‘Wow’ – Reporter Calls Out White House Official on Biden Being ‘Corrupt’

    By
    Paul Crespo
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    White House Principal Deputy Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre holds a press briefing on Friday, July 30, 2021, in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House. (Official White House Photo by Erin Scott)

    ANALYSIS – It wasn’t a good moment for National Security Communications Director John Kirby. The former Navy admiral and prior Pentagon spokesman was left dumbfounded when a New York Post reporter challenged him on the numerous scandals and investigations swirling around Joe Biden.

    Citing a Harvard/Harris poll in May that found 53% of Americans believe Biden was involved in “an illegal influence peddling scheme” with his son, Hunter Biden, the reporter, Steven Nelson, was direct with Kirby.

    He asked: “So what do you say to the majority of Americans who believe that the president is himself corrupt?”

    “Wow,” was Kirby’s initial response as press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre tried to stop Kirby from answering it. “No, we got to wrap this up,” Jean-Pierre interjected after being heard muttering “Jesus” under her breath.

    The exchange took place during the daily White House press briefing as Kirby was taking questions on foreign policy-related issues.

    But Nelson had a lot more to say to Kirby in the lead up to the question.

    “There is one committee trying to get an FBI file alleging that President Biden took bribes. There’s another IRS whistleblower who’s alleging there’s a cover-up in the investigation,” he explained. “There’s, of course, evidence that the president interacted with his relative’s associates from China, Mexico, Kazakhstan, Russia, and Ukraine.”

    There is, of course, also plenty more implicating Joe Biden and the entire Biden family in widespread corruption dating to Joe Biden’s time as Barack Obama’s VP.

    While Biden’s White House minions flail about to avoid touching the toxic topic, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer has said the FBI has confirmed the existence of a document alleging that Biden was involved in a $5 million “criminal bribery scheme” as vice president.

    As I wrote about earlier, the committee subpoenaed the Bureau for the document based on a confidential human source (CHS), but FBI Director Christopher Wray refused to provide the report by the Wednesday deadline.

    According to a whistleblower who approached Comer and Sen. Chuck Grassley, (R-Iowa), the document in the FBI and the Department of Justice (DOJ) possession would reveal “a precise description of how the alleged criminal scheme was employed as well as its purpose,” reported CBS News.

    Comer has stated he will be pursuing ‘contempt of congress’ charges against Wray for refusing to provide the document.

    Meanwhile, despite Jean-Pierre’s attempt to shut Kirby up about the allegations, he did eventually say:

    The president has spoken to this and there’s nothing to these claims. And as for the whistleblower issue that you talked about and in the document — I believe the FBI has spoken to that, and you’re going to have to go to them on that. 

    A panicked Jean-Pierre rushed to close the briefing and end any more questions, saying: “All right, let’s go…Let’s go. Let’s go.”

    Running away from the issue, and curt official denials without anything concrete to back them up, are starting to wear thin with the American people. 

    And this recent poll is likely just the tip of the iceberg headed for the Biden ship of state.

    Opinions expressed by contributors do not necessarily reflect the views of Great America News Desk.

    DeSantis Shares Ideas for Military, Student Loans During Iowa Campaign Stops

      By
      Madeleine Jackson
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      1

      Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is shedding more light on his policy ideas as he makes campaign stops in Iowa.

      On Wednesday, the White House hopeful announced his plans to address the country’s massive student debt- which currently stands at a whopping $1.6 trillion according to CNN and his plan to boost military morale.

      While speaking in Salix, Iowa, DeSantis declared that universities should have to pick up the tab if a former student can’t pay back their loans.

      “If somebody defaults, the university should pick it up,” he said. “If they were on the hook for it, they would make sure the curriculum was designed to produce people that can be very productive. You’d have a heck of a lot less gender studies going on.”

      DeSantis added that “we do believe in universities, but they got to be done in a good way,” meaning “rooted in the traditional mission of the university classical education.”

      During another stop in Council Bluffs, the Florida Governor said that if elected he would offer back pay to veterans who reenlist after leaving the military due to Covid-19 vaccine requirements.

      Later in the day, while touting his time in the US Navy as a JAG officer, DeSantis argued the US military is “indulging woke ideology” that negatively impacts recruitment.

      “They’ve driven off some of our greatest warriors not just through that culture, but also through dumb policies like forcing m-RNA Covid shots on our service members,” DeSantis said.

      “Why would you want to drive them off by doing things like forcing them to take a shot that they don’t want and sure enough, many people left,” DeSantis said at the second of four stops across Iowa. “As president, we will restore everybody back who wants to come back and we will give them back pay as a result.”

      In January, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin rescinded the military’s Covid-19 vaccination mandate for troops after the shot was made mandatory in 2021.

      Report: Ex-GOP Candidate Indicted in Shootings at Lawmakers’ Homes

      By
      Madeleine Jackson
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      Police image via Pixabay free images

      A former Republican candidate for the state House in New Mexico has been indicted on numerous federal charges over his alleged involvement in a series of drive-by shootings.

      The 11-count indictment in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico accuses Solomon Peña of organizing a series of four shootings that happened at four Democratic officials’ homes between December and January. 

      gov.uscourts.nmd_.488531.33.0Download

      “SOLOMON PENA ran for the New Mexico House of Representatives and lost by nearly 50 percentage points in November 2022. Refusing to accept his electoral defeat, PENA organized a shooting spree that targeted the homes of four elected officials and their families,” the indictment reads. 

      The shootings happened at the homes of two Bernalillo County commissioners, one state senator and the Speaker of the state House. 

      Peña was originally arrested in January, with Albuquerque Police Chief Harold Medina saying at the time he “masterminded” all the attacks. 

      The charges Peña is facing include conspiracy, interference with federally protected activities and using and carrying a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence, and possessing a firearm in furtherance of the crime. 

      Peña lost his race to incumbent Democrat Miguel Garcia in the state’s 14th District in November. 

      The indictment charges Peña and two of his alleged accomplices. No one was injured in the attacks, but bullets passed through the bedroom of the state senator’s 10-year-old daughter. 

      This is a breaking news story. Click refresh for the latest updates.

      Woke Banks Under Fire from Congress for Helping FBI Illicitly Spy on Gun Owners

      By
      Donny Ferguson
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      3
      Image via Pixabay images

      Amid reports that Wall Street banks have been illicitly spying on customers and reporting gun buyers to the FBI, despite no probable cause or court-issued warrants.

      In response, Congressman Rep. Alex X. Mooney (R-WV) has introduced H.R. 3021, The Protecting the Second Amendment in Financial Services Act to “expressly prohibit financial institutions and credit card companies from using a merchant category code that separately categorizes gun and ammunition transactions.”

      The revelation and legislation come as the FBI finds itself under fire for widespread civil rights abuses and its role in making false claims about President Donald Trump in an apparent attempt to remove a legally-elected president.

      Under the latest-revealed scheme, purchases made at gun dealers were flagged with a secret code and referred to the FBI for recording and possible investigation, despite the fact the purchases were legal and no criminal activity suspected.

      Some believe the scheme was an effort to get around federal laws prohibiting the federal government from assembling its own national registry of gun owners by having banks record the data – after audits of the Justice Department revealed officials had been illicitly retaining records of gun sales reported to the federal government’s National Instant Check System.

      “Leftist activists have been clear that they intend to use merchant category codes to further surveil the constitutional firearm purchases of law-abiding citizens,” said Mooney. 

      “The only rationale to implement a new merchant category code is to appease anti-Second Amendment activists. I am unwavering in my support of the Second Amendment, and I am proud to introduce this common-sense legislation to protect it,” said Mooney.

      “Merchant category codes (MCCs) are four-digit codes that enable payment processors and banks to categorize, monitor, and collect data on various types of transactions,” a statement from Mooney explains.

      “On September 9, 2022, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) approved a Merchant Category Code (MCC) for firearm retailers. Amalgamated Bank, a left-wing U.S. bank, led the charge in pressuring the ISO to adopt the new MCC. The ISO rejected Amalgamated Bank’s initial July 2021 application for the new MCC but approved it on the second application for reasons that remain unclear,” the statement reads.

      “Amalgamated Bank and progressive Members of Congress have been open that they intend to use this new MCC to track and report lawful firearm transactions to law enforcement under the guise of ‘suspicious activity’. In other words, this MCC is the Left’s attempt to create a backdoor gun registry to further curtail the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding Americans.

      While American Express, Mastercard, Visa, and Discover have announced a temporary pause in the implementation of this new MCC, there has been no formal request to withdraw the MCC. Legislation is needed to ensure this is never implemented,” the statement concludes.

      This legislation is endorsed by the National Rifle Association and Gun Owners of America.

      “GOA thanks Rep. Mooney for leading the fight to protect American gun owners from the anti-gun actions of the International Standards Organization. The U.S. government cannot sit idly by while a foreign entity pressures banks, payment card networks, and other American corporations to infringe on the Constitutional rights of the American people. This legislation empowers U.S. financial institutions to stand up to this foreign influence by categorically rejecting this anti-gun ‘merchant code,’” said Aidan Johnston, GOA’s Director of Federal Affairs

      Opinions expressed by contributors do not necessarily reflect the views of Great America News Desk.

      FBI Director’s ‘Contempt of Congress’ is Part of Bigger Problem

      By
      Paul Crespo
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      9

      ANALYSIS – FBI Director Christopher Wray has steadfastly refused to provide the House Oversight and Accountability Committee an internal Bureau document that alleges Joe Biden took a $5 million bribe from Chinese sources. 

      The committee issued a subpoena for it a while ago. Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) has said he learned about the allegations from a whistleblower whom he declined to identify but has described as “very credible.”

      With the committee’s deadline passing yesterday, Comer has said he will seek to hold Wray in contempt of Congress, rejecting Wray’s offer to allow lawmakers to view the FD-1023 form in a secure location instead of handing over the document.

      A contempt vote would be the most significant confrontation between House Republicans and federal law enforcement since the GOP took control of Congress in January.

      Wray insists that the FD-1023 form contains unverified claims from a single confidential human source (CHS), and that turning it over is irresponsible. Sources need to know their identities will be protected. 

      And allegations shouldn’t be publicized without being corroborated.

      Wray is right. 

      In the past, neither party would push much on an issue like this because they understood that need. But they also trusted the Bureau to be nonpartisan.

      As the National Review notes:

      …the mere fact that a CHS may have alleged that Biden took part in a bribery scheme doesn’t mean it happened. It can’t be dismissed out of hand — there’s too much indication of Biden’s sleazy self-dealing and outright lying for that. But people in positions of authority get falsely accused of wrongdoing all the time. The FBI rightly keeps such allegations under wraps because those people are presumed innocent and the bureau can’t investigate without being discrete. Congress has traditionally given the FBI a wide berth because lawmakers know secrecy is a necessity for competent investigations — and it has assumed that the FBI is competent and non-partisan.

      Unfortunately, those days are gone, and the FBI director can’t decide what part of a Congressional subpoena to honor or reject. Wray has no legal basis to keep it hidden.

      And due to the recent history of partisanship and politicization at the Bureau, most egregiously the Trump-Russiagate hoax, this is only part of a much bigger problem.

      The Bureau can no longer be trusted to be fair and apolitical. As the National Review explains:

      [The FBI] is a contented cog of the progressive administrative state. In the Obama years, it was put in the service of the Democratic Party. It marched to President Obama’s beat, whitewashed and abetted Hillary Clinton’s malevolence, undertook to destroy Donald Trump’s presidency, spent years covering its tracks, and insulated his 2020 opponent from scrutiny. It has spent the Biden years helping Democrats craft a political narrative of a nation besieged by white-supremacist domestic terrorism — all the while slow-walking the investigation of the Biden family’s influence-peddling business.

      National Review continues:

      [FBI] abuses have proceeded under Wray’s stewardship — the FBI’s (a) illegal surveillance under FISA; (b) general participation in the suppression of political speech on social media; (c) specific complicity in the Democrats’ and the intelligence community’s suppression of the Biden influence-peddling scandal; (d) collaboration in the Democrats’ crafting of a political narrative that the country is overrun by white-supremacist domestic terrorists; and (e) retaliation against whistleblower agents who’ve reported to Congress about some of these issues (at least according to three of those agents, who testified under oath at a recent House hearing).

      So, while normally, I would be understanding of the director’s arguments and attempts to limit dissemination of a form that could expose investigative sources and methods, in this case, the FBI simply can’t be trusted.

      It needs to turn over the document to the committee, with minimal redactions, or Wray should be held in contempt. This is about a much bigger problem.

      Opinions expressed by contributors do not necessarily reflect the views of Great America News Desk.

      Woke Disney Executives Back Out of Meeting with Victims of Communist Chinese Genocide

      By
      Donny Ferguson
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      5
      Jrobertiko, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons

      Executives from the liberal Disney corporation are now under fire from Congress for backing out of a meeting with victims of Communist China’s brutal dictatorship, with whom Disney has partnered and is increasingly changing corporate policies to please.

      Disney had initially agreed to meet with and listen to members of the ethnic and religious Uyghur community, who are targets of a brutal campaign of genocide by Beijing leaders.  The meeting came after Disney was loudly criticized for ignoring and glossing over Chinese human rights abuses while promoting the film “Mulan,”

      U.S. House Select Committee on China Member Jim Banks (R-IN) is now hammering Disney CEO Bob Iger after Disney representatives for cut-off communications with Uyghur advocates and genocide victims and backed out of a promised on-the-record meeting.

      “Disney executives pulled out of an off-the-record meeting with Uyghur genocide victims. It couldn’t have been to protect Disney’s public image or bottom line, so maybe the executives were just worried about a good night’s sleep,” said Banks.

      “Whatever the reason, Disney publicly praised Chinese Communist Party agencies committing genocide and then privately scorned their victims. It’s time for Disney to own up to its mistakes and make amends,” said Banks.

      “In September 2020, U.S. lawmakers and human rights groups from around the world condemned Disney for its decision to film a live-action remake of Mulan in the Xinjiang Uyghur

      Autonomous Region (XUAR), the center of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) ongoing

      genocide against Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslim groups,” a letter from Banks to Iger begins.

      “While filming, Disney cooperated with Chinese security and propaganda authorities active in the XUAR, including ones complicit in Beijing’s human rights atrocities,” Banks reveals.

      “(I)n Mulan’s credits, your company thanked several Chinese government agencies

      participating in the genocide, including the Public Security Bureau of Turpan, which then President Trump placed on the Commerce Department’s Entity List in 2019 for ‘human rights

      violations and abuses’ against Uyghurs and other ethnic groups,” Banks continues.

      “Disney’s credits also expressed gratitude to the ‘Publicity Department of CPC Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region Committee,’ the CCP propaganda arm charged with covering up the abuses,” Banks writes.

      “Disney never apologized for partnering with and praising Chinese Communist Party agencies

      actively engaged in genocide,” Banks adds. 

      In response to the initial 2020 criticism, Disney agreed to meet with advocates for Uyghur victims.

      Communist China opposes such a meeting, and Disney has now backed out.

      “We are writing to request a meeting between you, other Disney executives, and a representative from the Uyghur American Association and the Uyghur Human Rights Project,” Banks writes.

      “We have no doubt that such a meeting would prove educational for your company and would be

      a simple first step in clarifying to millions of Americans that Disney does, in fact, care about the

      Chinese Communist Party’s systematic extermination of minority ethnic groups,” Banks concludes.

      Representatives Mike Gallagher, John Moolenaar, Neal Dunn, and Ashley Hinson cosigned Rep. Banks’ letter.

      Opinions expressed by contributors do not necessarily reflect the views of Great America News Desk.

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