Australia has raised their terror threat level from “possible” to “probable.”

Elon Musk announced that he would be moving his social media company X, formerly known as Twitter, out of San Francisco, California, and into the state of Texas amidst differences in political leanings and financial incentives.

So far, the Dow has regained about 580 points today, as of 2:30 ET. The markets might be overreacting, but there are clear warning signs. Biden-Harris policies are a disaster. The unemployment rate isn’t 4.3%. The U6 is 7.8%. They only reported the U6 up until 1994, until they realized they’d look better if they […] The post Must-See Video of the State of the Economy appeared first on www.independentsentinel.com.

Legendary director David Lynch recently discussed his thoughts on retirement after announcing he’d been diagnosed with emphysema. The 78-year-old Hollywood mainstay caused a stir in the community after an interview was published in the September 2024 issue of “Sight and Sound” magazine. In it, Lynch said he was struggling with his health and couldn’t leave the house. “I’ve gotten emphysema from smoking for so long, and so I’m homebound whether I like it or not,” he told the outlet. “I can only walk a short distance before I’m out of oxygen.” He added, “Because of Covid, it would be very bad for me to get sick, even with a cold. So I would probably be directing from my home … I wouldn’t like that so much. I like to be amongst the thing and get ideas there. But I would try to do [a film] remotely, if it comes to it.” Fans quickly started speculating about what this admission meant for his career, assuming he would step back — but then Lynch clarified his statements on social media. Ladies and Gentlemen, Yes, I have emphysema from my many years of smoking. I have to say that I enjoyed smoking very much, and I do love tobacco – the smell of it, lighting cigarettes on fire, smoking them – but there is a price to pay for this enjoyment, and the price for me is… — David Lynch (@DAVID_LYNCH) August 5, 2024 The filmmaker wrote on X Monday night, “Yes, I have emphysema from my many years of smoking. I have to say that I enjoyed smoking very much, and I do love tobacco – the smell of it, lighting cigarettes on fire, smoking them – but there is a price to pay for this enjoyment, and the price for me is emphysema.” He added, “I have now quit smoking for over two years. Recently I had many tests and the good news is that I am in excellent shape except for emphysema. I am filled with happiness, and I will never retire. I want you all to know that I really appreciate your concern.” WATCH THE TRAILER FOR ‘AM I RACIST?’ — A MATT WALSH COMEDY ON DEI Lynch has dabbled in a variety of mediums including art, music, furniture design, and more. He began his Hollywood career with his first full-length film, “Eraserhead,” in 1977. The award-winning director followed up that effort with popular titles including “The Elephant Man” (1980), “Dune” (1984), “Blue Velvet” (1986), “The Lost Highway” (1997), and “Mulholland Drive” (2001). Lynch also created the popular ABC series “Twin Peaks” (1990–1991) with Mark Frost and was involved with both sequels, “Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me” and “Twin Peaks: The Return.”

The special prosecutor who charged actor Alec Baldwin with involuntary manslaughter said the judge in the case “improperly” dismissed the charges. Kari Morrissey argued in a July 31 filing made public on Monday that Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer used flawed reasoning in order to get the charges dismissed against Baldwin, Deadline reported. The charges stem from an incident on the set of Baldwin’s film “Rust,” on October 21, 2021, when Baldwin began filming a scene and the gun he was holding fired a live round that killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and injured the film’s director, Joel Souza. The armorer in charge of weapons on set, Hannah Gutierrez Reed, was previously sentenced to 18 months in prison for her role in Hutchins’ death. Gutierrez Reed filed an expedited motion last month asking for a new trial after Baldwin’s case was dismissed due to prosecutors withholding evidence from the defense. Special prosecutor Morrissey also argued in his filing that Guetierrez Reed should not get a new trial. “Based on the Court’s off-record statement, it was apparent that the Court was intending to dismiss the case,” Morrissey wrote. “Although the Court’s final order has not yet been filed, undersigned counsel contends that the Court misunderstood the testimony on July 12, 2024, and improperly dismissed the case against Mr. Baldwin.” “If the Court were to decide that the dismissal of the case against Mr. Baldwin was proper there is one HUGE difference – in the Gutierrez case the State was not in possession of the Teske ammunition prior to trial (although arguably Mr. Bowles was), in the Baldwin case the State was in possession of the Teske ammunition,” the prosecution filing stated, referring to the Colt .45 rounds that suddenly appeared thanks to ex-Arizona cop Troy Teske, who was a friend of Gutierrez Reed’s father, himself a Hollywood gun coach. “[Guttierez Reed’s attorney Jason] Bowles is comparing apples and oranges and trying to make a square peg fit in a round hole.” WATCH THE TRAILER FOR ‘AM I RACIST?’ — A MATT WALSH COMEDY ON DEI Sommer had ruled that the prosecution was “highly culpable for its failure to provide discovery to the defendant,” thus warranting the case to be dismissed with prejudice, meaning prosecutors can’t regroup and try Baldwin again. “The late discovery of this evidence has impacted the fundamental fairness of the proceedings,” Sommer ruled. “There is no way for the court to right this wrong. The sanction of dismissal is the only warranted remedy.” Baldwin was an executive producer on the film, which is why he was charged with involuntary manslaughter. He faced up to 18 months in prison if he had been convicted. “Rust” was canceled after the incident, and it is unclear when or if Baldwin will return to movies or television.

In an astonishing moment, Protestants and Catholics in Belfast stood shoulder to shoulder in an anti-immigration protest after three children were knifed to death in England by a suspect whose parents came from Rwanda. “Union flags and Irish tricolours were waved side-by-side,” the BBC reported. “We will stand together for our children! For our children!” one protester yelled. Belfast? “Our Country’s have had enough, this is an uprising, WE WILL STAND TOGETHER FOR OUR CHILDREN!” Catholic & Protestant communities shoulder shoulder, stand together in Belfast. pic.twitter.com/SZ6EL49rZa — RM.tv?? (@RealMessageEire) August 3, 2024 Meanwhile, in England, members of the Muslim community turned out in Birmingham. “In Birmingham, a pub and cars were also damaged after hundreds gathered in the Bordesley Green area following false reports that a far-right mob was planning to march through the area,” the Independent reported. When the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Safeguarding and Violence Against Women and Girls, a member of the leftist Labour Party, defended the Birmingham demonstrators, saying, “These people came to this location because it has been spread that racists were coming to attack them. This misinformation was spread entirely to create this content,” former British Prime Minister Liz Truss fired back, “Astonishing a Home Office Minister is excusing masked thugs. She must retract this statement and the Prime Minister must urgently commit to protect the safety and freedom of everyone in our country.” Astonishing a Home Office Minister is excusing masked thugs. She must retract this statement and the Prime Minister must urgently commit to protect the safety and freedom of everyone in our country. https://t.co/3bCUXSXWwd — Liz Truss (@trussliz) August 5, 2024 Shadow Home Secretary James Cleverly echoed, “Home Office ministers should not be making excuses for masked men shouting, abusing, and intimidating members of the media. Ministers are not commentators or casual observers, they are decision-makers and need to think about the consequences of their words and actions.” WATCH THE TRAILER FOR ‘AM I RACIST?’ — A MATT WALSH COMEDY ON DEI On July 29, Bebe King, 6, Elsie Dot Stancombe, 7, and Alice Dasilva Aguiar, 9, were knifed to death at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class by a suspect who also stabbed eight other children and two adults. Leanne Lucas, 35, the yoga teacher leading the class, was stabbed and left in critical condition. Between 1968 and 1998, an era called “The Troubles” existed in Northern Ireland; it featured violent conflict between Protestants who wished to remain part of the United Kingdom and Catholics who wanted the area to join with the Republic of Ireland. Three thousand six hundred people were killed, and more than 30,000 were wounded. Schools in Northern Ireland are largely segregated; by 2017, a reported 93% of them were segregated by creed.

Social media companies X and Rumble sued an advertising trade group and its members on Tuesday, alleging that the coalition engaged in anti-competitive activity to facilitate boycotts and force tech platforms to censor content. X is suing the World Federation of Advertisers, the group behind the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM), in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas. GARM allegedly forced its members — a roster that includes most major ad buyers — to enforce “safety” standards that required not running ads alongside “misinformation.” The alliance facilitated a boycott of X following Elon Musk’s acquisition of the company, a boycott which, X’s lawsuit claims, was only made possible by collusion. “No small group of people should be able to monopolize what gets monetized,” X CEO Linda Yaccarino said. “GARM celebrated—and took responsibility for—the massive economic harm imposed on Twitter by the boycott, boasting within just a few months of the start of the boycott that ‘they [Twitter] are 80% below revenue forecasts,’” the X lawsuit reads. The House Judiciary Committee obtained documents, used in the lawsuit, which suggested that GARM and its members targeted conservative news outlets and used rules about “misinformation” as a pretext to financially harm platforms whose ideology they did not like. The Rumble suit, filed by the same lawyers in the same court as the X lawsuit, named the World Federation of Advertisers as well as advertising mega-firm WPP and its subsidiary GroupM. “In a competitive market, advertising agencies would compete with one another on their ability to place their customers’ ads according to their customers’ individual preferences and marketing plans,” it said. Instead, “GARM uses the market power of its members and their clients to force platforms to submit to GARM’s demands.” In a statement, Rumble called GARM an “advertising cartel.” Emails reveal that Joe Barone, GroupM’s Managing Partner Brand Safety Americas, admitted the group had “Daily Wire on our Global High Risk exclusion list, categorized as Conspiracy Theories.” In an email to Rakowitz, GroupM Executive Vice President of Global Brand Safety John Montgomery admitted that the group did not find that The Daily Wire published misinformation. GroupM CEO Christian Juhl testified opposite Daily Wire co-founder Ben Shapiro in a House hearing on the topic, and struggled to explain the emails. He was replaced as CEO soon after. The advertising industry is quite concentrated, and GARM served to eliminate whatever remained of competition, the suit says. Six multinational firms, known as the “Big Six,” are the parent companies of almost every major company that purchases ads, working as middlemen on behalf of the companies that have products to promote. GARM counted those firms and others among its members, and allowed them to speak with one voice. That served to effectively threaten platforms: unless they censored content as vigorously as GARM demanded, they might lose almost all their advertisers. GARM is led by Rob Rakowitz, a former executive with Mars Corp., the Virginia-based candy-maker. Mars is one of four companies that comprise GARM’s “steer team,” along with Orsted, CVS Health, and Unilever. All four are named in the X lawsuit. Emails suggest that GARM’s members were at times reluctant to withhold their advertising dollars, and sought assurances from GARM that other companies were doing the same. In some cases, individual companies used GARM as a mouthpiece for their own pet issues. In November 2022, Orsted wrote to GARM, “I’m reaching out to you to ask you if it’s possible to arrange a meeting and hear more about your perspectives about the Twitter situation and a possible boycott from many companies…we are about to make a recommendation to management about actions and when we need to consider whether we should continue promotion on the platform or find alternatives.” Orsted ultimately removed all advertising from X “due to brand safety concerns.” At least 18 GARM members did the same, and others removed almost all their advertising, the suit said. In March 2023, Orsted wrote to GARM, “some time has passed, and I am curious to know what you would advise us to do. And what are other global advertisers doing – have they come back to the platform, or are they still off?” The Daily Wire and The Federalist are suing the State Department, also in federal court in Texas, for allegedly backing private firms such as Newsguard and the Global Disinformation Index, which also sought to financially harm conservative news outlets.

Former President Donald Trump announced on Truth Social on Tuesday that he will have a “major interview” with Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk on Monday. “ON MONDAY NIGHT I’LL BE DOING A MAJOR INTERVIEW WITH ELON MUSK — Details to follow!” Trump wrote. Musk, who supported Democrats Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden in 2016 and 2020, endorsed Trump’s 2024 bid for the White House shortly after Trump was shot in an assassination attempt on July 13. The billionaire entrepreneur has grown increasingly disillusioned by the Democratic Party and what he refers to as the “woke mind virus.” Late last month, Trump discussed Musk’s endorsement of him and said he has “a very good relationship” with Musk. The SpaceX founder has also started a political action committee (PAC) that supports “meritocracy & individual freedom.” A Wall Street Journal report claimed that Musk was planning on donating $45 million a month to help elect Trump, but Musk denied that report during a live DailyWire+ interview with psychologist Dr. Jordan B. Peterson. “What’s been reported in the media is simply not true. I’m not donating $45 million a month to Trump,” Musk said. “What I have done is created a PAC [political action committee] or Super PAC … the America PAC.” Musk added in a post on X, “I am making some donations to America PAC, but at a much lower level and the key values of the PAC are supporting a meritocracy & individual freedom. Republicans are mostly, but not entirely, on the side of merit & freedom.” WATCH THE TRAILER FOR ‘AM I RACIST?’ — A MATT WALSH COMEDY ON DEI During his interview with Peterson, Musk also distanced himself from Trump’s campaign slogan, “Make America Great Again,” saying “the intent” of his America PAC “is to promote the principles that made America great in the first place.” “So I wouldn’t say that I’m … MAGA, ‘Make America Great Again,’ I think America is great,” Musk added. “I’m more MAG – ‘Make America Greater.’” Trump and Musk have a complicated history. After Trump was sworn in as president in 2017, Musk served on a White House business advisory group, but resigned from the group after Trump pulled the U.S. out of the Paris Climate Accord. “Am departing presidential councils. Climate change is real. Leaving Paris is not good for America or the world,” Musk tweeted at the time. Over the past few years, however, Musk has appeared to warm to Trump’s policies and has slammed the Biden administration’s push for social media censorship during the COVID pandemic and vaccine rollout.