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Tucker Carlson: Biden brings equality to girls’ sports, and who knows what’s next?

You may have missed it, but Joe Biden devoted part of his very first day in office to addressing one of this nation’s most pressing problems: Girls’ sports.

The main problem with girls’ sports, obviously, is that they lack diversity: Only girls get to play. That’s wrong, and Joe Biden plans to fix it; to break the turf ceiling, if you will.

Now, for the first time in history, men will be allowed to compete in, for example, girls’ field hockey, and then change in the girls’ locker room afterward. Joe Biden has signed an executive order requiring it. Even Barack Obama didn’t do that.

This makes Joe Biden a #civilrightshero. There’s been a lot of talk recently about women’s empowerment, but it takes a real leader, a once-in-a-generation moral visionary, to go further than that and use federal power to humiliate and endanger women on behalf of biological men. That is next-level feminism. That is real empowerment.

BIDEN EXECUTIVE ORDER SAYS SCHOOLS SHOULD INCLUDE TRANSGENDER ATHLETES IN GIRLS’ SPORTS

That’s the Joe Biden program, and he’s been planning it for years. This is what he said last February.

BIDEN: Well, no, the animating promise of this country, that all men and women are created equal, has never been fulfilled.

By “equal,” Joe Biden means “identical”. There are no differences between men and women, that’s the position. Those gender categories we’ve heard about since the dawn of recorded history are fake. So there’s no reason to protect women from men under any circumstances, because the whole idea of men and women isn’t real.

Not everyone believes this, of course. Science isn’t always popular (or the peasants don’t understand it). There are still troglodytes out there in the year 2021 who are trying to keep men out of women’s sports. Yes, Donald Trump is gone. But that doesn’t mean hate has taken a holiday.

But Joe Biden is not intimidated by that. He doesn’t care that pretty much no one in America agrees with him or even understands what he’s talking about. When Joe Biden watches girls’ gymnastics, as he frequently does, and doesn’t see a single biological man walking the balance beam or swinging from the uneven bars, he doesn’t just sit back and accept the status quo. He acts with force and certainty.

Now, activism like that may seem modern, but it’s not new for Joe Biden. For 60 years, he has been fighting transphobia. Way back in the summer of 1962, decades before it was fashionable, Joe Biden confronted a vicious transphobe called Corn Pop, who wanted to keep men out of the girls’ changing room at a public pool in Wilmington. It was a different time back then, but Joe Biden wouldn’t have it. He threatened to beat Corn Pop with a six-foot chain, and that was just the beginning.

Decades later, Joe Biden flew all the way to South Africa to free Nelson Mandela from prison. Most of us assumed he was risking his life to fight the racist policies of the South African government. What we didn’t know was that Joe Biden was actually fighting a more insidious foe, gender apartheid. Robben Island was men-only, segregated by sex, if you can imagine.

But the fight isn’t over yet. Joe Biden’s holy war of liberation continues. Even now, in this supposedly liberated time, groups of women still saunter to the ladies room together in restaurants across America with not a single man joining them in the stall. That happens, believe it or not. It happens right now. There are still sexually segregated public showers in this nation, not to mention dressing rooms in retail stores, that men aren’t allowed to enter. And what about your house? How many boys slept over at your seventh grade daughter’s most recent slumber party?

BIDEN PICKS TRANSGENDER WOMAN AS ASSISTANT HEALTH SECRETARY NOMINEE

We need to start asking ourselves questions like these. It’s time to look within, America. Until we can all agree that eight-year-old boys can be strong, independent, sassy women, we’re all part of the problem. Joe Biden understands that.

BIDEN: The idea that an eight-year-old child or a 10-year-old child decides, ‘You know, I decided I want to be transgender. That’s what I think I’d like to be. It’ll make my life a lot easier. There should be zero discrimination.

Joe Biden has a solution. Sixty years ago, he fought Corn Pop with a chain to protect the right of biological men to be present when girls change into their bathing suits, and he’ll bring that same moral clarity to your daughter’s lacrosse team.

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Leadership like that will change this country. In time, you won’t hear people claiming to be the first female this or first female that because honestly, in a truly liberated society, who can say what’s female? Why shouldn’t Mike Pence announce that actually, he was the first woman to serve as vice president? Who could call him wrong?

Not us. We don’t do hate speech here.

This article is adapted from Tucker Carlson’s opening commentary on the Jan. 22, 2021 edition of “Tucker Carlson Tonight.”

South Dakota unemployment rate drops below pre-pandemic levels, Gov. Noem announces

South Dakota Republican Gov. Kristi Noem touted her state’s low unemployment rate in a Friday afternoon tweet, noting it’s pre-pandemic standing as she refused to close businesses despite spiking coronavirus cases.

“South Dakota’s unemployment rate dropped to 3.0% in December,” the Republican governor wrote. “That’s lower than it was BEFORE the pandemic.”

Noem, an avid Trump supporter, made headlines last spring when she refused to enforce stay-at-home orders in the Mount Rushmore State, telling reporters during an April press briefing that “South Dakota is not New York City.”

Though South Dakota, the fifth least populist state in the U.S., has had far fewer cases than New York – which has had one and a half times as many cases of coronavirus than the entire population of South Dakota – they have also carried one of the worst infection rates in the country.

South Dakota currently has a total infection rate of over 12,000 cases per every 100,000 people, according to data collected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Neom’s state saw one of the largest outbreaks of work-place transmitted coronavirus cases when nearly 1,300 employees at the Smithfield meatpacking facility in Sioux Falls tested positive for COVID-19 last year.

CALIFORNIA CORONAVIRUS VACCINE ROLLOUT LAGGING BEHIND MOST STATES

But Noem has rejected the negative attention brought on by her state’s infection rate, calling the conclusions “demonstrably false,” in a December briefing.

“Many in the media criticized this approach, labeling me ill-informed, a ‘denier’, and reckless,” Noem told reporters. “Some have even asserted that South Dakota is ‘as bad as it gets anywhere in the world’ when it comes to COVID-19, a demonstrably false statement.”

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, South Dakota has the third-best unemployment rate in the country, behind Nebraska and Vermont.

Vermont, which came second in the country’s lowest unemployment rate, did enforce strict coronavirus measures and has also seen the lowest infection rate in the country, with less than 1,700 cases of coronavirus per every 100,000 people.

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Vermont enforced stay-at-home orders, mask mandates, and chose to reopen the state slowly. The state’s ability to maintain a low infection rate has also meant they could keep their stay running.

Fox News could not immediately reach the South Dakota governor’s office for comment.

Woman kills 5 children before setting house on fire & turning gun on herself

A West Virginia woman killed five young children before setting her home on fire and fatally shooting herself in December, authorities announced Thursday.

Fire crews in Williamsburg responded to a house fire just before 4 p.m on Dec. 8, Greenbrier County Sheriff Bruce Sloan said during a news conference. The body of Oreanna Myers, 25, was found next to a picnic table near the home.

A gun was recovered beside her and she had a gunshot wound to the head, authorities said. In the driveway of the home was a vehicle with three handwritten letters inside a ziplock bag.

One of the letters was titled: “My Confession.”

“I had shot all boys in the head. I had set house on fire. I had shot myself in the head,” the letter read, according to Sloan. “I’m sorry mental health is serious. I hope one day someone will help others like me. Mental health is not to joke about or to take lightly. When someone begs, pleads, cries out for help, please help them. You just might save a life or more lives. Thank you, O.A.M.”

Greenbrier County Sheriff Bruce Sloan holds a press conference Thursday to give an update on a deadly shooting and fire that killed five children and one adult in December. A woman killed the children and set her home on fire before killing herself.
(Greenbrier County Sheriff Department)

Authorities said Myers was the biological mother of three of the children — ages four, three and one — and stepmother to a seven and six-year-old.

In the days before the murders, she had sent the children’s father several text messages exhibiting frustration that he was not staying in the family home during the week, Sloan said.

The remains of the two of the children were discovered hours after first responders arrived at the house fire. At one point, investigators found another ziplock bag inside another vehicle with a letter to the children’s’ father.

“I was not strong enough for you or this family,” the letter read. “I’m sorry for my evil crime. I was not strong enough to fight these demons.”

Myers diary, a cell phone and glass jar with a cloth with a spiral symbol on it were also found inside of the vehicle. The remains of the third and fourth child were discovered a short time later in the early morning hours of Dec. 9.

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The remains of the fifth child were found that afternoon, Sloan said. The family didn’t have a history with Child Protective Services, he said.

The West Virginia State Medical Examiner’s Office ruled the manner of the children’s’ deaths as a homicide.

Jennifer Lopez didn’t feel she was ‘loving myself’ while in her ‘late 30s’

Jennifer Lopez is looking back on her life.

The “Hustlers” actress recently sat down for an interview with Coach and discussed her past relationships and how she felt about herself while in them.

“I remember when I was going through therapy at the beginning, you know, kind of in my late 30s and there was a lot of talk about loving yourself and I was like, ‘I love myself,'” Lopez said.

But, she later came to realize there was a deeper meaning to loving yourself.

Jennifer Lopez recently discussed her past relationships and how she felt about herself while in them.
(Photo by Albert L. Ortega/Getty Images)

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“But obviously I was doing all these things in like my personal relationships that didn’t seem like I was loving myself, but I didn’t even understand the concept of it,” she admitted. “It took time and it’s a journey and it’s still a journey for me.”

It’s unclear which “past relationships” she was referring to, but Lopez was 34 when she married singer Marc Anthony in 2004. The pair — they share 12-year-old twins Max and Emme — split in 2011 and finalized their divorce three years later.

JENNIFER LOPEZ’S INAUGURATION PERFORMANCE RECEIVES HIGH PRAISE FOR HER RENDITION OF ‘THIS LAND IS YOUR LAND’

The star is now engaged to former baseball pro Alex Rodriguez. They were set to marry in 2020 but delayed their nuptials in response to the coronavirus pandemic.

Lopez previously spoke to W Magazine about her split from Anthony and said it was one of the times in her life that she stopped and thought “this is too hard.”

Jennifer Lopez was married to Marc Anthony from 2004-2014. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

“When my marriage ended, it was not easy to find forgiveness. It wasn’t the dream that I had hoped for, and it would have been easier to fan the flames of resentment, disappointment and anger,” she said, per E! News back in 2016. “But Marc is the father of my children, and that’s never going away. So, I have to work to make things right. And that is, by far, the hardest work I do.”

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Furthermore, Lopez admitted that though she was married for many years, she knew her marriage to Anthony, now 52, wouldn’t last.

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“I hung in there for seven years,” she said. “I knew very quickly that it wasn’t the right thing.”

A $50,000 reward offered in search of 12-year-old swept away by rogue wave in California

A 12-year-old was swept into the ocean by a rogue wave in the San Francisco bay area Monday, and his family is now offering a $50,000 reward for locating him.

Nearly $200,000 has been raised to assist in the search for Arunay Pruthi, who was last seen by his father and his 8-year-old brother about 100 yards offshore near Cowell Ranch State Beach in Half Moon Bay.

The family and a large team of volunteers are using all resources at their disposal to try to find Pruthi.

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“In the search front, we are leveraging multiple options on land, water and sky,” Samya Dassarma, a family friend, told Fox News Friday.

“We have hundreds of volunteer beachcombers covering beaches from half moon bay down to Santa Cruz, boats covering the waterfront, drones covering the areas that are hard to access from land, choppers and fixed-wing planes covering from sky. We also have access to some satellite images, and a large number of volunteers poring over drone footage and chopper footage.”

Arunay Pruthi was swept away by a rogue way on a beach in the San Francisco bay area Monday and his family is now offering a $50,000 reward to anyone who can locate him.

More than 64,000 people have signed a petition for the Coast Guard to restart its search.

Given the good weather forecast for Saturday, the search team may use divers to search the area where he was last seen.

A team of volunteers on land will also be in the Half Moon Bay area Saturday moving south.

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In a Facebook post, Pruthi’s parents have stressed the need for volunteers to “please think of their safety first, and not step on the beach or into the water or in air if the weather (rain, wind etc) or sea conditions (surf, tides, waves, etc.) makes it risky.”

“We are very thankful to all of you who are following our efforts, and offering us words of hope & encouragement,” Dassarma wrote in the latest update. “This is an incredibly hard period for many of us close to the family, and the outpouring of love & hope is keeping us going.”

NYC mayoral candidate Andrew Yang faces social media backlash for comparing BDS movement to fascism

New York City mayoral candidate Andrew Yang faced a social media backlash Friday after he wrote a column in which he likened the pro-Palestine BDS movement to Nazi boycotts of Jewish businesses.

In the column, entitled “My vision for New York City’s Jewish community,” Yang said he would be a “reliable partner” by cracking down on hate crimes and instances of anti-Semitism. The former Democratic presidential candidate pledged to “push back against the BDS movement,” which he argued “singles out Israel for unfair economic punishment.”

“Not only is BDS rooted in anti-Semitic thought and history, hearkening back to fascist boycotts of Jewish businesses, it’s also a direct shot at New York City’s economy,” Yang wrote in his column for Forward. “Strong ties with Israel are essential for a global city such as ours, which boasts the highest Jewish population in the world outside of Israel. Our economy is struggling, and we should be looking for ways to bring back small businesses, not stop commerce.”

BDS, or “Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions,” is a nonprofit founded in 2005 by pro-Palestine groups seeking to pressure Israel over its presence in the West Bank. The organization calls for opposition to Israel through nonviolent means, such as boycotts, to protest alleged abuses against Palestinians in the region.

Social media critics ripped Yang over his remarks, arguing the former entrepreneur went too far by likening the BDS movement to fascism.

“At a time when actual Nazis are murdering Jews in synagogues and leading insurrections at the Capitol, it is just baffling that Andrew Yang would compare BDS to violent fascists (while playing into dangerous dual loyalty tropes),” said Amy Spitalnick, executive director of nonprofit Integrity First for America.

“Absolutely grotesque, ahistorical Nazi comparison by Andrew Yang on BDS, that is even to the right of anti-BDS organizations. @AndrewYang you need to apologize and rescind this statement now,” another Twitter user wrote.

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Yang announced his intent to run for the mayor’s office earlier this month. The businessman previously drew criticism on social media after he said he had left New York City during the coronavirus pandemic because his two-bedroom apartment was too cramped.

Some progressive Democrats, including Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, have publicly called for a boycott of Israeli businesses. In July 2019, the House overwhelmingly passed a resolution condemning the boycott movement.

Attorney once on People’s ‘most eligible bachelor’ list charged with rape

A Boston defense attorney once named as one of People magazine’s most eligible bachelors has been charged with raping two women, prosecutors said.

Gary Zerola, 49, who appeared in the magazine’s 2001 list of “America’s Top 50 Bachelors” alongside the likes of actors Ben Affleck, Matt Damon and Benicio del Toro, was arraigned on Jan. 15 on charges of rape and breaking and entering with felony intent, Suffolk County District Attorney Rachael Rollins said.

Prosecutors said Zerola, who was already out on bail on previous rape allegations, met a woman at a gathering on Jan. 11 and later accompanied her and a mutual acquaintance to her Boston apartment.

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Zerola then allegedly returned to the woman’s apartment, where she awoke to the attorney sexually assaulting her early on Jan. 12, prosecutors said.

Gary Zerola

Gary Zerola, 49, who is facing rape and breaking and entering charges, has been ordered held without bail.Boston Police Department

He was ordered to remain in custody during a dangerousness hearing Thursday, the Boston Globe reported.

Rollins said the accusations against Zerola — who previously worked as an assistant district attorney in Essex County for one year and Suffolk County for two months in 2000 — were “deeply troubling” and noted the incident allegedly took place as he faced previous rape allegations.

DANNY MASTERSON PLEADS NOT GUILTY TO RAPE CHARGES

Zerola had been free on $10,000 bail for allegedly raping another woman in 2016. He has pleaded not guilty in the Suffolk County Superior Court case, the Globe reported.

Prosecutors said two additional women have since claimed Zerola also raped them in the 1990s and he’s been acquitted in separate rape and attempted rape cases in Massachusetts. A prior sex assault case against him was also dropped in Florida, the Globe reported.

“The court agreed with our position that Mr. Zerola is a danger to the community,” Rollins said in a statement. “He has a history of rape allegations dating back to 1996.”

A not guilty plea was entered on Zerola’s behalf during his arraignment last week. His attorney declined to comment Thursday, the Globe reported.

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In 2001, Zerola, then 29, was featured in People magazine as a lawyer and foster care advocate who set up his own law practice following nearly two years as a Massachusetts prosecutor. He noted his challenging childhood in an interview, saying he lived in more than 12 foster homes from age 3 through 15.

“Statistically speaking, I should be in debt or in jail because of the upbringing I had,” Zerola told People.

Biden admin freezes Trump HHS rule meant to lower insulin prices

President Biden has been reversing or pausing some rules put in place under former President Donald Trump this week, including one designed to bring down the price of insulin.

The Department of Health and Human Services on Thursday announced that the directive would be put on hold among a number of other measures that were passed under Trump, but are not yet in effect.

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The measure, signed off on in December, aimed to require some community health centers to deliver savings to low-income patients for insulin and epinephrine in a bid to bring down unaffordable prices.

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The rule was scheduled to go into effect on Friday but has since been delayed until March 22.

On Wednesday, White House chief of staff Ron Klain directed agencies to pause orders signed towards the end of Trump’s term so they could be reviewed.

The order directs the administration to immediately withdraw rules that have been sent to the Office of Financial Research but not yet published in the Federal Register. For those that have been published, but are not yet effective, members are directed to “consider postponing the rules’ effective dates for 60 days.”

UK chief scientist says new virus variant may be more deadly

LONDON (AP) — There is some evidence that a new coronavirus variant first identified in southeast England carries a higher risk of death than the original strain, the British government’s chief scientific adviser said Friday — though he stressed that the data is uncertain

Patrick Vallance told a news conference that “there is evidence that there is an increased risk for those who have the new variant.”

He said that for a man in his 60s with the original version of the virus, “the average risk is that for 1,000 people who got infected, roughly 10 would be expected to unfortunately die.”

“With the new variant, for 1,000 people infected, roughly 13 or 14 people might be expected to die,” he said.

But Vallance stressed that “the evidence is not yet strong” and more research is needed.

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In contrast to that uncertainty, he said, there is growing confidence that the variant is more easily passed on than the original coronavirus strain. He said it appears to be between 30% and 70% more transmissible.

Maria Van Kerkhove, the World Health Organization’s technical lead on COVID-19, said studies were underway to look at the transmission and severity of new virus variants.

She said so far “they haven’t seen an increase in severity” but that more transmission could lead to “an overburdened health care system” and thus more deaths.

The evidence for the new variant being more deadly is in a paper prepared by a group of scientists that advises the government on new respiratory viruses, based on several studies.

The British scientists said that although initial analyses suggested that the strain, first identified in September, did not cause more severe disease, several more recent ones suggest it might. However, the numbers of deaths are relatively small, and case fatality rates are affected by many things including the care patients get and their age and health beyond having COVID-19.

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The British scientists stress that the information so far has major limitations, and that they do not know how representative the cases included in the analyses are of what’s happening throughout the country or elsewhere.

One analysis did not find an increased risk of death among people admitted to a hospital with the new strain. In another, the odds of being admitted to a hospital with the new strain compared to the previously dominant one were no different.

There is a lag in reporting hospitalizations after infection, and a further lag from infection to death, so officials expect to learn more in several weeks.

Paul Hunter, Professor in Medicine at the University of East Anglia, said “there is quite a bit of difference in the estimated increased risk of death between the different analyses, though most, but not all, show increased risk of death,” he said.

Ian Jones, professor of Virology at the University of Reading, said “the data is limited and the conclusions preliminary. However, an increased case fatality rate is certainly possible with a virus that has upped its game in transmission.”

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British officials say they are confident that the vaccines that have been authorized for use against COVID-19 will be effective against the new strain identified in the country.

But Vallance said scientists are concerned that variants identified in Brazil and South Africa could be more resistant to vaccines, adding that more research needs to be done.

Concerns about newly identified variants have triggered a spate of new travel restrictions around the world. Many countries have closed their borders to travelers from Britain, and the U.K. has halted flights from Brazil and South Africa.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said there could be further restrictions.

“We may need to go further to protect our borders,” he said.

Britain has recorded 95,981 deaths among people who tested positive for the coronavirus, the highest confirmed total in Europe.

The U.K. is currently in a lockdown in an attempt to slow the latest surge of the coronavirus outbreak. Pubs, restaurants, entertainment venues and many shops are closed, and people are required to stay largely at home.

The number of new infections has begun to fall, but deaths remain agonizingly high, averaging more than 1,000 a day, and the number of hospitalized patients is 80% higher than at the first peak of the pandemic in the spring.

Johnson, who has often been accused of giving overly optimistic predictions about relaxing coronavirus restrictions, sounded gloomy.

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“We will have to live with coronavirus in one way or another for a long while to come,” he said, adding that “it’s an open question” when measures could be eased.

“At this stage you’ve got to be very, very cautious indeed,” he said.

Vallance agreed.

“I don’t think this virus is going anywhere,” he said. “It’s going to be around, probably, forever.”

House Republican introduces bill to hold Supreme Court at nine justices

West Virginia Republican Sen. Shelley Moore Capito reintroduced a bill Friday that would limit the number of justices permitted in the Supreme Court.

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“A nine Justice court has worked for our country for more than 150 years,” Capito said in a statement Friday. “Increasing that number in a partisan effort to achieve a desired policy result is a never-ending proposition.”

Following the death of the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on Sept. 18, 2020, Republicans in the Senate rushed to push through a new Supreme Court justice – securing a third Republican-appointed justice under President Trump.

Democrats furiously pointed to the hypocritical nature of the confirmation, reminding their fellow GOP lawmakers of their refusal to review President Obama’s Supreme Court nominee, Merrick Garland, in March 2015, at which time they cited concerns over appointing a justice during an election year.

Justice Amy Coney Barrett was appointed to the high court on Oct. 27, 2020, just one week prior to the general election – causing a furious backlash from Democratic lawmakers, some vowing to “pack the courts” if Biden were elected.

The ability for Democrats to add more justices to the high court became a reality after the party won not only the White House, but majority control in the Senate.

“Once this door is opened, respect for the Supreme Court as an independent arbiter of cases and controversies would fall away as it became another partisan branch of government,” the West Virginia Republican said Friday. “We should preserve our independent judiciary by closing the door to court-packing.”

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Though Supreme Court justices are intended to remain non-partisan in their judicial role, each justice tends to interpret the constitution in a manner that aligns with the White House’s political affiliation during their time of appointment.

There are currently six justices in the Supreme Court that were confirmed under conservative presidents, while only three were appointed under Democratic presidents – a division that some lawmakers have said does not accurately reflect the political standing of the nation.

Nine justices have sat on the Supreme Court for the last 150 years, but there is no language in the Constitution that sets or limits the number of justices permitted in the high court.

The legislation originally put forward by Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., in March 2019, calls for an amendment to the U.S. Constitution that would limit only nine justices permitted in the court at a time.

In October, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi said that given the growth in population since 1876, when nine justices starting arbitrating from the high court, the U.S. may need to reevaluate the number of justices who regularly sit on the bench.

In order for Democrats to “pack the court,” they would have to add four justices under Biden in order to gain an edge over the number of conservatively appointed justices – a move Biden has said he does not support.

In the lead up to the election, Biden acknowledged Democrat’s frustration at what they believe is a disproportionate number of conservative versus liberal justices and said he would talk with “Constitutional scholars” to try and find a solution.

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“If elected, what I will do is I’ll put together a national commission, a bipartisan commission of scholars, constitutional scholars, Democrats, Republicans, liberals, conservatives,” Biden said during a campaign event in October. “I will ask them to, over 180 days, come back to me with recommendations as to how to reform the court system because it’s getting out of whack.”

Fox News could not confirm with the White House whether or not the president has yet to establish a commission to review the Supreme Court.

Senate Democratic leadership could not be reached by Fox News for this report.

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