A year ago, The Babylon Bee wanted to help the US military promote its new recruitment efforts with a stunning and brave commercial advocating for more diversity and inclusion in combat. 

Now, it appears that the US Navy among other branches is taking parody and turning it into reality. 

Surely the Navy’s latest drag queen digital representatives will be enough to secure the number of volunteers needed to shore up the military’s waning numbers. 

They just needed the Bee to show them how it’s done…

Authored by Ana Paula Pereira via CoinTelegraph,

Crypto exchange Binance closed Bitcoin withdrawals on May 7 due to an alleged overflow of transactions on the Bitcoin network. 

Bitcoin mempool was clogged with over 400,000 transactions waiting to be processed at the time of writing. The mempool is known as the “waiting area” for incoming transactions before they are verified independently by each node on the network.

Bitcoin mempool at 16:42 UTC on May 7. Source: mempool.space

Binance tweeted that BTC withdrawals had resumed after nearly an hour of halting. Outflows on the crypto exchange peaked on Sunday, rising to $187 million, according to data from CryptoQuant.

Behind the congestion is believed to be a surge in BRC-20 transactions in the last few days due to memecoins like Pepe (PEPE). The memecoin trading hype drove Bitcoin transaction fees to their highest point in two years. On May 3, the total amount of fees paid on the Bitcoin blockchain reached $3.5 million, jumping nearly 400% from late April, Cointelegraph reported.

Bitcoin outflow on Binance over the past seven days. Source: CryptoQuant. 

Developed after Ethereum’s ERC-20 token standard, BRC-20 is an experimental token standard recently introduced that allows users to create and transfer fungible tokens on the Bitcoin blockchain. It is currently becoming a hot spot for meme tokens. 

CoinMarketCap’s data shows that PEPE’s price has climbed over 263% in the last week. As of writing, however, the memecoin is down over 7% following a 30% drop on May 6 as whales profited from Binance’s recent listing. Crypto exchanges MEXC Global, Bitget, Gate.io, and Huobi listed PEPE trading pairs two weeks ago, kicking off the token hype.

Since the introduction of Dogecoin in 2013, memecoins have become a major part of the cryptocurrency world, making and ruining fortunes alike. Investopedia defines a memecoin as a cryptocurrency represented “with comical or animated memes, that are supported by enthusiastic online traders and followers.”

California’s recent decision not to pay back some $20 billion borrowed from the federal government to cover unemployment benefits during the pandemic will fall on the shoulders of employers, according to experts.

“The state should have taken care of the loans with the COVID money it received from the government in 2021,” said Marc Joffe, policy analyst at the Cato Institute—a public policy think tank headquartered in Washington, D.C., in a statement to the Epoch Times.

In the state’s proposed 2023-2024 budget, $750 million was allocated to start paying down the loans, until Governor Gavin Newsom nixed the provision in early January, leaving businesses in the state responsible for the loans, as mandated by federal regulations – so that the federal unemployment tax rate of .6 percent will increase by .3% per year starting in 2023 until the loan is extinguished.

“California is just not really an employer-friendly state,” said Joffe. “This one thing will not be a difference between a business remaining open or closing, but it’s just another burden on top of the many burdens the state puts on employers.“

In total, 22 states borrowed money for unemployment insurance from the federal government. All but four, California, Colorado, Connecticut, and New York, have paid back their debts – with California owing the most by far at $18.6 billion as of May 2, followed by New York at $8 billion, Connecticut at $187 million and Colorado at $77 million, according to data from the US Treasury.

More via the Epoch Times,

Initially, the state borrowed from its reserves to pay the benefits, but after exhausting its coffers borrowed to cover expenses, analysts said.

Exacerbating the situation were unprecedented levels of fraud occurring across the state, due to limited oversight and antiquated computer systems, according to Lee Ohanian, professor of economics at the University of California–Los Angeles.

Analytics firm LexisNexis estimated the total cost of the fraud at $32.6 billion.

Investigations have since uncovered that illegitimate unemployment benefits payments were paid to convicted felons, with one address receiving 60 separate fraudulent payments.

Fraud is a persistent issue historically with the program, and a $2 million federal grant in 2013 sought to address the issue with new computer software systems.

The upgrade successfully stopped instances of fraud, but further improvements stopped with the end of the grant in 2016, reportedly due to the agency’s reluctance to take on the annual expense for the third-party service.

“They were penny wise and pound foolish,” Ohanian told The Epoch Times.

At a cost of $2 million annual investment, the program would have cost $14 million to operate since it was terminated.

“Sadly, this is just a trifecta of bad decisions,” Ohanian said. “The [Employment Development Department] made a bad decision to not renew its lease for the fraud detection software, the state government took out a loan and chose to welch on the debt—which is outrageous—and now businesses are repaying more in taxes for the incredibly unwise decisions and mistakes of the state government.”

Reports that the state is seeking forgiveness from the federal government were met with resistance by policy experts, including Ohanian.

“We’ve made a lot of bad decisions and we expect the rest of the country to pay for it,” he said. “It also raises questions about the future: If the state is going to default on the $20 billion federal loans, how safe are municipal bonds from California?”

Authored by Luke Huigsloot via Cointelegraph.com,

Cryptocurrency miners based in the United States could soon face a tax equal to 30% of the cost of electricity they use if President Joe Biden’s proposed budget for the fiscal year 2024 is approved by Congress, but the proposal has sparked debate about whether it would actually decrease global emissions and energy prices.

Cryptocurrency mining is a resource-intensive process that attempts to solve increasingly complex equations in order to create new blocks which can then be validated and added to the blockchain.

This process consumes a significant amount of energy, with some estimates placing the global energy consumption of Bitcoin mining alone at around 0.59% of the world’s energy usage, which is roughly equivalent to the energy usage of Malaysia, according to Worldometer.

Biden’s  Council of Economic Advisors (CEA), argues that the tax — dubbed the Digital Asset Mining Energy (DAME) excise tax — “encourages firms to start taking better account of the harms they impose on society,” adding:

“Estimated to raise $3.5 billion in revenue over 10 years, the primary goal of the DAME tax is to start having cryptominers pay their fair share of the costs imposed on local communities and the environment.”

By imposing a tax on electricity usage crypto miners will have a financial incentive to reduce their energy consumption, and with electricity generation making up such a large proportion of carbon emissions, this should theoretically reduce emissions in the U.S.

This idea is similar to the thinking behind carbon taxes, which are intended to disincentivize emitters by forcing them to pay the full social cost of their emissions after attempting to factor in costs associated with polluting.

Leakage

However, opponents of the tax argue that it will simply drive miners offshore to countries with lower tax rates and less stringent environmental regulations, where they will continue to emit large amounts of carbon dioxide. This situation is known as “carbon leakage,” whereby emissions are simply shifted from one location to another, rather than reduced overall.

As Coin Metrics co-founder Nic Carter points out, these countries may also have a much lower proportion of energy supplied by renewable sources, so emissions may even increase as crypto miners move offshore.

Hey @hboushey46 /CEA/White House – when you try to ban Bitcoin mining here in the U.S., this is who you directly empower. Unplug them here, plug them into the much dirtier Kazakh grid. Great policy proposal, you’ve really thought this one through 👍 https://t.co/M4uSSHSxqa

— nic 🌠 carter (@nic__carter) May 3, 2023

Carter was scathing in his critique of the policy, arguing that it would decrease tax revenue contrary to what the Biden administration suggests, increase carbon emissions, and empower “geopolitical enemies.”

Ever sat down and thought: how can I direct more money to my geopolitical enemies, lose tax revenue domestically, AND pump more CO2 into the atmosphere?

Well the DAME tax does that

— nic 🌠 carter (@nic__carter) May 3, 2023

In its blog post, the CEA noted that “the potential for cryptomining to relocate abroad — such as to areas with dirtier energy production — is a concern” but suggested that other countries are also moving to restrict crypto mining, and cited nine countries that already had banned the activity.

Speaking to Cointelegraph, environmental group Greenpeace USA’s Bitcoin project lead Joshua Archer warned that regulations or taxes deterring crypto mining will likely be created wherever crypto miners move to, and argued that Bitcoin should eliminate its proof-of-work consensus mechanism.

The climate activism group has been calling for Bitcoin to transition to a proof-of-stake mechanism as part of its ongoing “change the code, not the climate” campaign which began early last year. 

One of the countries referred to by the CEA, China, banned crypto mining in 2021 after citing concerns about its electricity consumption and environmental impact. However, studies on the effect of the ban suggest that activity had simply moved to countries that use far less renewable energy, and actually increased global emissions.

The CEA also argued that crypto miner’s electricity usage drives up costs for other consumers, and increases overall reliance on “dirtier sources of electricity.”

Cryptominers’ intense and volatile power consumption can also push up electricity prices and make local electrical grids riskier as a result of increased strain on equipment, service interruptions and safety hazards. 6/ https://t.co/dN4vtqjHch

— Council of Economic Advisers (@WhiteHouseCEA) May 2, 2023

While this makes sense according to economic theory, as an increase in demand within a market leads to higher prices, it may overlook some important nuances of the crypto-mining industry and its effect on the electricity market in the U.S.

‘Beauty of Bitcoin’

Bitcoin miner Marathon Digital Holdings’s CEO Fred Thiel told Cointelegraph that “The beauty of Bitcoin mining is that it naturally incentivizes renewable energy generation.”

Thiel elaborated that “In many cases, green energy sources — such as solar and wind farms — are only feasible if there is consistent demand for that energy when it is produced,” adding:

“While most consumers’ energy needs fluctuate, miners act as consistent base load energy consumers. They help stabilize the grid, making new green energy projects financially feasible.”

According to Thiel, while Bitcoin mining incentivizes the production of renewable energy generation, Bitcoin miners in the U.S. are also drawn to renewable energy sources, as the excess energy they produce which is unable to be returned to the grid is some of the cheapest energy available in the U.S.

Thiel added that if this excess energy was not used by Bitcoin mining firms, it would not be able to be used by consumers and would otherwise be wasted.

Thiel noted that this mutually beneficial relationship between renewable energy producers and Bitcoin miners is contributing to an already ongoing shift towards more sustainable sources of electricity, pointing to the most recent survey by the Bitcoin Mining Council (BMC).

Based on the results of the survey, the BMC estimated that 58.9% of the electricity used in Bitcoin mining throughout the last quarter of 2022 was generated by renewable energy sources, a number that is increasing over time.

Thiel was also very scathing of the DAME tax, arguing that “it is a shot at a specific industry, not at a specific practice or fuel source,” adding:

“If the Biden Administration really wanted to reduce global emissions, it would target the ways electricity is generated – not arbitrarily target select industries that use it.”

He said that the proposal “is intended to run Bitcoin miners out of business” and “will both raise energy prices for consumers and reduce the feasibility of renewable energy development in the U.S.,” concluding:

“Either the administration is utterly misguided, or this proposed tax is nothing more than a move to hamper this industry for political reasons, because it is not in the interest of the people, the energy grid, or the environment.”

The proposal comes amid calls that a lack of regulatory clarity and access to banking services in the U.S. is killing its crypto industry, and if the DAME tax is approved by Congress it may just be one more nail in the coffin.

As yet another battle looms between Republicans and Democrats over the debt ceiling, a new piece of potential leverage has been floated – using the 14th Amendment as a last-ditch effort to avoid default.

The amendment, aimed primarily at extending the Bill of Rights liberties to former slaves, includes a section which states that “the validity of the public debt of the United States … shall not be questioned,” with the implication that it would allow President Biden to unilaterally raise the debt ceiling.

When asked on Friday during an MSNBC interview whether this option is on the table, Biden didn’t say no – just that we’ve “not gotten there yet.”

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, however, said that relying on the 14th Amendment would create a “constitutional crisis.”

“There is no way to protect our financial system in our economy, other than Congress doing its job and raising the debt ceiling and enabling us to pay our bills and we should not get to the point where we need to consider whether the President can go on issuing debt. This would be a constitutional crisis,” she told ABC‘s “This Week.”

That said, she also didn’t rule it out.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen refuses three times to rule out Biden unilaterally “invoking the 14th Amendment” on the debt limit pic.twitter.com/rwP5shMWba

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) May 7, 2023

Yellen warned that if Congress doesn’t act to solve the issue, “we will have an economic and financial catastrophe that will be of our own making, and there is no action that President Biden and the U.S. Treasury can take to prevent that catastrophe.”

White House aides have reportedly looked into the use of the Amendment in order to avoid default, The Hill reports.

Lawmakers, on the other hand, say that default can only be avoided if a deal is reached between Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA). The pair are scheduled to meet on Tuesday for the first time since February in order to negotiate.

California is grappling with many crises, including soaring crime, a growing homeless population, out-of-control drug overdoses, a giant budget shortfall, a population and business exodus, and a power grid teetering on the edge of failure. But instead of progressive lawmakers addressing these problems and making life better for the tens of millions of Americans who currently live in the state, they are focused on reparations. 

On Saturday, California’s nine-member Reparations Task Force approved recommendations for how state officials should compensate and apologize to Black residents for past injustices. The task force has spent the last two years deliberating on payment recommendations that will now be sent for final approval in Sacramento before a July 1 deadline. 

“Reparations are not only morally justifiable, but they have the potential to address long-standing racial disparities and inequalities,” Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) said during the meeting last night in Oakland. 

California task force’s recommendations would mean a 71-year-old Black resident, living in the Golden State for their entire life, could receive a $1.2 million compensation check if the recommendations are passed into law. 

Several economists working with the task force have developed these reparation estimates:

One such estimate laid out in the report determined that to address the harms from redlining by banks, which disqualified people in Black neighborhoods from taking out mortgages and owning homes, eligible Black Californians should receive up to $148,099. That estimate is based on a figure of $3,366 for each year they lived in California from the early 1930s to the late 1970s, when federal redlining was most prevalent.

To address the impact of over-policing and mass incarceration, the report estimates, each eligible person would receive $115,260, or about $2,352 for each year of residency in California from 1971 to 2020, during the decades-long war on drugs. –The New York Times 

The task force’s recommendations didn’t include the total costs of reparations which could be more than $500 billion, based on estimates from economists. 

“The initial down payment is the beginning of a process of addressing historical injustices,” the recommendations reads, “not the end of it.”

Residents at the meeting demanded $200 million in direct cash payments for each Black resident. 

New reparations proposal at the California Assembly Task Force:

$200 million to every black person pic.twitter.com/nGKPr6GO4h

— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) May 7, 2023

AmericanThinker’s Chris Talgo pointed out that reparation payments and other government handouts won’t close the wealth gap, “it arguably will make it worse.”

Talgo explained:

Consider. Since the start of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s “war on poverty,” the federal government has spent $22 trillion on various wealth redistribution programs. Yet, over that span, the rate of poverty remains unchanged.

Perhaps this is because giving some people other people’s money is an incentive for the former to remain indolent. In other words, government checks breed dependence on government.

On the other hand, if California lawmakers were actually interested in addressing the plight of many of the Black residents who live in the Golden State, they ought to take a forward-looking approach that would include an increased police presence, a tough on crime approach, lower taxes, fewer regulations, and commonsense policies that would make energy affordable and abundant.

And, if these same lawmakers were really audacious and genuinely wanted to throw a wrench into the cycle of poverty that has entrapped so many Black Californians, they would do everything in their power to ensure that universal school choice was the norm in the Golden State. It also would help if these so-called leaders addressed the elephant in the room: the breakdown of the Black family, which is arguably the biggest driver of poverty and so many other societal problems.

He continued:

However, these are difficult conversations for leftist lawmakers, who always view more government wealth redistribution as the answer to everything. It is much easier for politicians to propose a superficial solution, like reparation payments, even though time has shown that giving people money doesn’t solve deep-seated, complex problems. 

What’s troubling is that a California lawmaker has already declared a comprehensive reparations plan “will be a blueprint for America.” 

Authored by Mimi Nguyen Ly via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

As the end of Title 42 nears, the Biden administration is encouraging immigrants to take up more legal pathways to enter the country, or face new and expedited deportation processes.

Such deportation processes are set to come with the implementation of a new rule the administration is set to finalize soon. The rule would deny asylum to many immigrants who are caught crossing the southern border illegally.

The new regulation “provides that individuals who do not access our lawful pathways will be presumed ineligible for asylum and will have a higher burden of proof, to overcome that assumption of ineligibility,” Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said at a press conference on Friday.

The move is part of the Biden administration’s plan to curb an anticipated rise in illegal immigrants at the U.S.-Mexico border starting May 11, when Title 42 will be lifted. The date also marks the end of the U.S. COVID-19 public health emergency.

Title 42, part of the Public Health Service Act of 1944, was implemented under the Trump administration in March 2020. It allows for blocking asylum claims and swift expulsion of most unauthorized border crossers under the grounds of keeping contagious diseases out of the United States.

Under Title 42, border agents were able to rapidly send back many illegal immigrants to Mexico, which helped stem the spread of COVID-19 in crowded detention settings.

When Title 42 is lifted, all illegal immigrants will be processed under the Title 8 immigration law.

From Title 42 to Title 8

“In a post-Title 42 environment, we will be using our expedited removal authorities under Title 8 of the United States Code. That allows us to remove individuals very quickly,” Mayorkas said on Friday.

The U.S. State Department and U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said in a fact sheet last week the country will double or triple the number of deportation flights to some countries and aim to process migrants crossing the border illegally “in a matter of days.”

Title 8 is a federal law that allows expulsions if illegal immigrants don’t qualify for asylum. The process to remove an illegal immigrant under Title 8 currently takes longer compared to Title 42.

Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas), a Democrat, recently told The Epoch Times that under Title 42, illegal immigrants “can come right back” to the United States, because “there are no repercussions” after they are expelled.

But “Under Title 8, there are some teeth, which means if someone is deported, there will be a five-year, 10-year, 15-year, 20-year ban or more, which means they cannot come back into the country,” he said.

Separately, the Mexican government will step up border security in southern Mexico as part of an agreement reached this week, Mayorkas said. Mexico’s Defense Ministry said it did not have information on the matter.

Also ahead of Title 42’s end, the Biden administration is expanding access to CBP One, an app that allows migrants to schedule an appointment to approach a border port of entry. Beginning May 12, roughly 1,000 appointments will be available each day, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

Read more here…

The Oakland Police Department is investigating a violent and chaotic “sideshow” that ended up with a mob torching a car and someone plowing another vehicle into it. 

A video posted on Twitter shows the scary scene unfolding late Friday night near the intersection of Oak Street and 10th near the Oakland Museum of California. 

Wild Video from Oakland California sideshow street Takeover last night

(@ppv_tahoe) Video footage was filmed on the 100 block of 10th street overnight.#oakland #sideshow #california
📸 _okpatrick pic.twitter.com/Nc6laXxTEB

— PPV-TAHOE – News Journalist (@ppv_tahoe) May 6, 2023

In a series of tweets, journalist Michael Shellenberger said the proliferation of dangerous sideshows results from “a progressive D.A. who has stopped enforcing many laws.” 

Oakland voters felt law enforcement was too strict and so last fall elected a progressive D.A. who has stopped enforcing many laws. The result is lawlessness, “sideshows,” and assaults carried out with impunity. pic.twitter.com/xf6xWc6EPD

— Michael Shellenberger (@shellenberger) May 6, 2023

Shellenberger said police are powerless to stop “criminal sideshows because @MayorShengThao & DA Pamela Price refuse to prosecute “nonviolent crimes””. 

In this video you can see Oakland police casually filming the mayhem, which went on for hours. They aren’t to blame. Police are helpless to stop the criminal sideshows because @MayorShengThao & DA Pamela Price refuse to prosecute “nonviolent crimes”pic.twitter.com/iPu9zhD0IY

— Michael Shellenberger (@shellenberger) May 6, 2023

He pointed out District Attorney Pamela Price is Soros-backed. 

“So far, the Soros PAC has spent more than $559,000 to help [Oakland DA] Price” who “said she was drawn into the race by what she sees as the ‘absolutely outrageous’ over-prosecution of young blacks” pic.twitter.com/FmvuxkMPFw

— Michael Shellenberger (@shellenberger) May 6, 2023

Another sideshow was down the street from Mark Zuckerberg’s mansion in San Fransico. 

This sideshow occurred a few blocks from where Mark Zuckerberg lives in SFpic.twitter.com/Z68xazMGjg

— Michael Shellenberger (@shellenberger) May 6, 2023

Lawlessness is spreading like cancer throughout the progressive-run Bay Area. 

Here’s another one, also from last night, in a different Oakland neighborhood @MayorShengThao pic.twitter.com/xc8l1Lkfd3

— Michael Shellenberger (@shellenberger) May 6, 2023

These shocking scenes stem from progressive city leadership’s inability to maintain law and order. Similar occurrences have recently been observed in cities like Baltimore and Chicago, where groups of young people wreak havoc on city streets. As they say… stay out of the cities.

Authored by Mike Shedlock via MishTalk.com,

Retailers abandon downtown San Francisco in droves. Nordstrom is the latest, signaling  the death of the area…

That image from the Tweet below is from April 29. Since then, there have been more closures…

Some of the biggest merchants in the world and beloved small businesses alike have shuttered in downtown San Francisco. This map details the economic devastation that has left the city with widespread empty storefronts. https://t.co/rF4ZaKTeYy

— San Francisco Chronicle (@sfchronicle) April 29, 2023

Nordstrom closes two stores and Saks Off 5th says goodbye as well.

Nordstrom will close two downtown locations, while Saks Off 5th is closing on Market Street, the latest retailers to shutter stores in San Francisco. https://t.co/YiS616e4Ke

— San Francisco Chronicle (@sfchronicle) May 3, 2023

Walgreens and Whole Foods Leave

Walgreens announces another store closure in San Francisco.
Walgreens has closed 22 locations in the area. Walgreens attributed the latest closing to “multiple factors, including retail theft.” Mayor Breed attributes the closings to the fact that Walgreens’ stores are not… pic.twitter.com/tk8Nlo3WHR

— Greg Gallagher (@obrienroad) May 2, 2023

San Francisco’s Dying Downtown

The San Francisco Standard says Nordstrom’s Exit From San Francisco Calls Downtown Mall’s Future Into Question

The Nordstrom at Westfield will close at the end of August, the company confirmed on Tuesday. The retailer’s exit will leave a gaping vacancy that could be very difficult to fill: the store sprawls across 312,000 square feet and five floors. A Nordstrom Rack across the street is also slated to close in July. 

Less than a month ago, a nearby Whole Foods abruptly shuttered, citing employee safety concerns. The Whole Foods had made regular emergency calls since it opened in March 2022 for a mix of medical crises, assaults and other incidents; in September of last year, a man fatally overdosed in a bathroom at the grocery store. 

Last week, a Walgreens store next to Westfield mall was the scene of a fatal shooting after a private security guard allegedly shot a shoplifter.

So far this year, police have responded to 74 reports of petty thefts, 54 fights and 30 grand thefts in the area.

Call Out the Guard

Zerohedge comments Gov. Newsom Activates National Guard And Highway Patrol To Combat San Francisco’s Drug Crisis

Gov. Gavin Newsom has called up the California Highway Patrol and the California National Guard to combat San Francisco’s out-of-control open-air drug market as parts of the progressive-run city descend into chaos.

According to ABC7 News, CHP officers will be deployed across Tenderloin and South of Market neighborhoods, while guardsmen will run intelligence analysis operations behind the scenes. The governor brought the two agencies together as the drug-related deaths in the city jumped 41% in the first quarter. 

San Francisco Ghost Town

It’s been completely surreal watching a major city like San Francisco become a ghost town in real time. Tons of restaurant and business closures. Way less commuters. Empty buildings everywhere. All the tech companies bounced and people got priced out. Just a hollow city now. https://t.co/au71WnD45U

— Brian Altano 🍕 (@agentbizzle) May 3, 2023

“It’s been completely surreal watching a major city like San Francisco become a ghost town in real time. Tons of restaurant and business closures. Way less commuters. Empty buildings everywhere. All the tech companies bounced and people got priced out. Just a hollow city now.”

Q&A on the Exodus

and why don’t people want to live there?

A. Crime
B. Poop
C. Homelessness
D. Cost
E. Woke policies including lack of police
F. All of the above and more

— Mike “Mish” Shedlock (@MishGEA) May 4, 2023

Other than A through F downtown San Francisco is a great place to be.

*  *  *

Like these reports? I hope so, and if you do, please Subscribe to MishTalk Email Alerts.

Fox Corporation, parent company of Fox News, has sent a cease-and-desist letter to Media Matters over a series of leaked tapes featuring former Fox anchor Tucker Carlson.

“That unaired footage is Fox’s confidential intellectual property; Fox did not consent to its distribution or publication; and Fox does not consent to its further distribution or publication,” wrote Fox’s law firm, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, in a May 5 letter to MMFA. “This proprietary material was given to you without Fox’s authorization. Fox demands that Media Matters cease and desist from distribution, publication, and misuse of Fox’s misappropriated proprietary footage, which you are now on notice was unlawfully obtained. We reserve all rights and remedies.”

In one clip, Carlson made a sex joke with Piers Morgan (gasp!).

“If we’re going to talk about sex, I’d love to hit some of the fine points of technique, but, you know, but it’s your show. It’s totally up to you,” says Carlson, to which Morgan replies without skipping a beat: “We can certainly talk about your sexual technique, especially after your tanning testicles last week,” referring to a joke Carlson made about a reported decline in testosterone levels.

“Not mine,” Carlson replies, adding “We’ll speak in more general terms, but I’ve got something to add.”

1. Prepping for an interview with Piers Morgan, Carlson tells the host, “If we’re going to talk about sex, I’d love to hit some of the fine points of technique”

Morgan replies, “We can certainly talk about your sexual technique, especially after your tanning testicles last week” pic.twitter.com/q41FGWujn8

— Matthew Gertz (@MattGertz) May 2, 2023

In another, Carlson calls a Dominion Voting Systems lawyer a “slimy motherfucker.”

We’ve got a new FoxLeak.

In this behind-the-scenes video, Tucker Carlson talks about how he was “triggered” by Dominion’s lawyer, who he calls a “slimy motherfucker,” during his deposition. https://t.co/B8hZtOkfBX pic.twitter.com/tPIzgGzFAw

— Matthew Gertz (@MattGertz) May 3, 2023

And in yet another clip (which Fox may have hated the most), Carlson slams Fox Nation – saying “Nobody watches Fox Nation because the site sucks. So I’d really just like to dump the whole thing on YouTube.”

FOXLEAKS: Tucker Carlson slammed Fox Nation in behind-the-scenes video https://t.co/XhQlKQVHJ1 pic.twitter.com/mKqJBuWzCw

— Matthew Gertz (@MattGertz) May 1, 2023

MMFA CEO Angelo Carusone told the Epoch Times in response: “Reporting on newsworthy leaked material is a cornerstone of journalism. For Fox to argue otherwise is absurd and further dispels any pretense that they’re a news operation.”

“Perhaps if I tell them that the footage came from a combination of WikiLeaks and Hunter Biden’s laptop, it will alleviate their concerns.”

More via the Epoch Times,

Journalist Megyn Kelly, a former primetime Fox News anchor, blamed her previous employer for leaking the footage, specifically.

“Ask yourself about my theory that this is Fox News doing it to him, that it’s Irina Briganti, who sat there calling through his commercial downtime to look for anything,” said Kelly, referring to Fox News’ senior executive vice president of corporate communications.

“If this is all you got, you lost your fastball. I can’t wait for the tape that absolutely sinks him because this is absurd,” she continued. “So far you made Fox Nation look bad. You’ve made Tucker look good on his ripping on Media Matters for America. And you’ve made Tucker look good because he’s obviously a funny guy who mocks his enemies and makes [it] clear that he understands you might be taping him!”

Bill O’Reilly, who preceded Carlson in Fox News’ 8 p.m. ET weeknight slot, said on NewsNation on May 3 that the leaking was most likely by someone at Fox News in order to make Carlson look like “a racist villain.”

Fox has refuted allegations of its involvement in the leaks. “This is completely false and an outright lie,” a spokesman said on Wednesday.