(WALL STREET JOURNAL) -- Washington Post Chief Executive Officer William Lewis wanted the focus this past week to be on his plans to turn around the publication’s business. Instead, he is trying to quell a newsroom uproar.

Lewis is seeking to mend fences with staffers after a turbulent few days that included the abrupt departure of the publication’s top editor, a contentious town-hall meeting, and press reports suggesting he tried to quash stories that cast him in a negative light.

“I know trust has been lost because of scars from the past and the back-and-forth from this week,” Lewis wrote in a memo to employees Friday evening. “Let’s leave those behind and start presuming the best of intent.”

Read the full story ›

(JNS) -- The Associated Press released a report on Friday undercutting its own reporting of Hamas’s claim that more than two-thirds of the Palestinian casualties in Gaza have been women and children.

According to the AP’s new analysis of Hamas’s figures, the terror group’s “detailed reports” of casualty statistics reveal a much lower number of likely civilian casualties than Hamas claims.

“Among those fully identified, the records show a steady decline in the overall proportion of women and children who have been killed: from 64% in late October, to 62% as of early January, to 57% by the end of March, to 54% by the end of April,” the report says. “Yet throughout the war, the ministry has claimed that roughly two-thirds of the dead were women and children.”

Read the full story ›

Mark Levin

WATCH:

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(STUDY FINDS) -- Every parent knows kids develop at vastly different paces. However, new research shows a child’s birth month may stack the deck against them when it comes to one of the most common neurological diagnoses: attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Researchers in the United Kingdom have found that both teachers and parents may be confusing the immaturity of younger children in the same classrooms as a sign of ADHD.

In any classroom, you’ll find kids that may be noticeably older than their peers. Depending on the school’s cutoff date for certain grades, children in the same class may be several months older than other students. This could even bring them a little closer to adolescence and puberty while their younger friends are still acting more like little kids.

The comprehensive review, published in the journal European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, revealed the youngest kids in their grade are a striking 38% more likely to be diagnosed with ADHD than their oldest classmates. The findings suggest that adults may be incorrectly labeling immaturity as a clinical condition for hundreds of thousands of children around the world.

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(Photo by Joe Kovacs)

(CHRISTIAN POST) -- A former BBC journalist and deselected Liberal Democrat candidate, David Campanale, has filed a lawsuit against his party, alleging discrimination due to his Christian faith, sparking significant controversy within the political sphere in the United Kingdom.

Campanale claims he was prevented from contesting as a member of parliament in Sutton and Cheam, a significant electoral battleground, because of deep-seated hostility from party members toward his religious views. The legal battle and public outcry have raised questions about religious freedom and discrimination within political parties in the U.K.

Campanale’s civil claim includes serious allegations against the current Liberal Democrat candidate, Luke Taylor, accusing him of leading a campaign that marginalized Campanale for his Christian beliefs, the Telegraph reported.

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The five women who excluded Caitlin Clark from the 2024 Olympics (upper left) are Seimone Augustus, Dawn Staley (center), Jennifer Rizzotti (upper right), Delisha Milton-Jones (lower left), and Bethany Donaphin (lower right).

By Jim Hoft
The Gateway Pundit

On Saturday, it was announced that women’s basketball sensation Caitlin Clark would not be included on the US Women’s Basketball team in the 2024 Olympics.

The greatest collegiate player in history, who broke nearly every men’s and women’s basketball scoring and assist records while at the University of Iowa, was excluded from the Olympic team.

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Pot-smoking Brittney Griner, who has only played in one game and scored 11 points this year, made the team.

OUTRAGEOUS: Caitlin Clark Makes More 3s in WNBA in 24′ than Anyone on Olympic Team, Yet Brittney Griner with 11 Points Total YTD Makes Team

41-year-old Diana Taurasi made the team again. She has already participated in FIVE Olympic Games.

NO CURRENT PLAYER selected for this on the Olympic team has scored more 3-pointers this year in the WNBA than Caitlin Clark.

And only one woman on the Olympic team has more assists than Clark this WNBA Season.

Caitlin Clark is also in the top 8 in scoring.

Caitlin Clark is beating most of the selected players in most categories.

And NO ONE can consistently fill arenas like Caitlin Clark at home and away.

Earlier today JoeHoft.com identified the five women behind this insane and outrageous decision!

REVEALED: Here Are the Five Women Who Made the Insane Decision to Keep Caitlin Clark Off of the 2024 Olympic Team – Was This a Racist Decision or Just Jealousy?

Caitlin Clark was asked about the Olympic Committee's decision and she showed nothing but class - as she always does.

This is just heartbreaking.

Clueless Reporter Chloe Peterson: Caitlin, what was your reaction when you saw the USA team yesterday, the roster come out?

Caitlin Clark: I think I'm excited for the girls that are on the team. I know it's the most competitive team in the world, and I know it could have gone either way. Me being on the team, me not being on the team. I'm excited for them. I'm going to be rooting them on to win gold. I was a kid that grew up watching the Olympics. So it'll be fun to watch them.

Chloe Peterson: What was your level of disappointment not hearing your name on the roster.

Caitlin Clark: Honestly, no disappointment. I think it just gives you something to work for. That's a dream. Hopefully, one day I can be there. I think it's just a little more motivation. You remember that. And hopefully in four years, when four years comes back around, I can be there.

Hat Tip Catturd2

When it comes to not making the Olympic team, Caitlin Clark has nothing but praise for the 12 who made it: “it’s the toughest team to make.”

Clip: pic.twitter.com/LX59YA5Bzf

— Chloe Peterson (@chloepeterson67) June 9, 2024

Caitlin didn't deserve this. Americans don't deserve this.

This article originally appeared on The Gateway Pundit.com.

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By Will Kessler
Daily Caller News Foundation

Native-born American workers are taking a beating in the job market from gains by foreign-born workers, according to the data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) on Friday.

The number of foreign-born workers employed in the U.S. rose by 637,000 in the last year to nearly 30.9 million, while the number of employed native-born Americans has declined by 299,000, according to the BLS. As a consequence of foreign-born workers taking up job gains, the number of American-born workers with jobs is still below the number counted in July 2019.

Illegal immigration has surged under President Joe Biden following the administration’s relaxation of enforcement at the southern border, which has recently prompted the president to scramble to stem the flow by signing an executive order that he claims will limit the number of asylum seekers allowed in the country.

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The growth in foreign populations working in the U.S. under Biden, many of whom entered the country as the result of illegal immigration, has helped boost overall growth numbers and make the economy appear in better shape, despite native-born workers not seeing those benefits. The recent action by the Biden administration to stem the flow could depress topline job gains if it is successful.

The foreign-born population in the U.S. has surged 6.6 million since Biden took office in January 2021, with an estimated 58% being due to illegal immigration, according to the Center for Immigration Studies. The BLS does not specify the immigration status of workers it is documenting, but it does include illegal immigrants in its estimates for foreign-born workers.

All of the net job growth over the last year has gone to foreign-born workers, (a category which the Labor Dept. admits includes illegal aliens) while native-born Americans have lost a net 300k jobs: pic.twitter.com/00JM18A8Uf

— E.J. Antoni, Ph.D. (@RealEJAntoni) June 7, 2024

Despite the lack of growth in native-born employment levels, the total number of people employed rose by 2.4 million in May compared to February 2020, right before the COVID-19 pandemic. The number of Americans holding jobs declined by 408,000 from April to May, according to the BLS.

“While today’s jobs report posted another impressive number of jobs created, unfortunately, the Biden administration record is weaker than the numbers would imply,” Michael Faulkender, chief economist at the America First Policy Institute, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “Over the last three years, wages have not kept up with inflation, there’s been significant growth in part-time work, and most of the new job creation has gone to foreign-born workers. The American people deserve an economy that puts them first rather than the government centralizing evermore authority.”

The total number of people employed is in contrast to the 272,000 nonfarm jobs that were added in May, of which people could hold multiple, far higher than economists’ expectations of 190,000. The unemployment rate ticked up to 4.0% in the month, the highest rate since January 2022.

The above-trend job growth was made up largely of part-time positions, with the number of people working jobs for less than 35 hours a week climbing 286,000, while the number of people holding full-time jobs declined 625,000 month-over-month.

The White House did not respond to a request to comment from the DCNF.

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(FOX NEWS) -- Vice President Harris mourned the Palestinians who were killed in a successful Israeli hostage rescue operation this weekend during an address delivered Saturday.

The Israeli operation retrieved four hostages who were taken into Gaza by Hamas on Oct. 7. Harris, speaking before the Michigan Democratic Party, celebrated their retrieval but spent more time lamenting the deaths of Palestinians killed in the operation, many of whom Israel has described as terrorists.

"Before I begin, I just say a few words about the morning which I know weighs heavily on all of our hearts," she said.

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A 7-foot hoodwinker sunfish washed up in Gearhart Beach, Oregon, on Monday, June 3, 2024. (Tiffany Boothe/Seaside Aquarium)

(FOX WEATHER) -- SEASIDE, Oregon – A massive ocean oddity that washed up on a northern Oregon beach this week turned out to be a recently discovered species of sunfish, according to the local aquarium.

According to the Seaside Aquarium, a 7.3-foot sunfish was found on Gearhart Beach, north of Seaside, Oregon, on June 3.

"Initially, this large, strange looking fish was creating quite a stir on social media and though it was stormy, folks were flocking to the beach to see this unusual fish," the aquarium said on Facebook.

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Molly Ringwald, Andrew McCarthy and Jon Cryer in 1986's 'Pretty in Pink'

(FOX NEWS) -- Turns out there wasn't a whole lot of prettiness behind the scenes of one famous movie filmed during the prominent "Brat Pack" era.

Jon Cryer, who starred in the 1986 film "Pretty in Pink," revealed that he and co-star Andrew McCarthy did not get along off-camera. McCarthy has assembled several members of the group, including Cryer, to appear in his upcoming documentary "Brats," which examines the significance of the "Brat Pack."

McCarthy, along with several other budding actors in the '80s, like Cryer, Demi Moore and Rob Lowe, were dubbed the "Brat Pack," a group of young actors that frequently collaborated in films like "The Breakfast Club" and "Sixteen Candles."

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

(JNS) -- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will address a joint session of Congress on July 24, congressional leaders announced on Thursday.

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), Senate Majority leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) extended the invitation late last month, and now the date has been set.

In a statement published by McConnell’s office on Thursday, the four men said the invitation “symbolizes the U.S. and Israel’s enduring relationship and will offer Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu the opportunity to share the Israeli government’s vision for defending their democracy, combatting terror, and establishing just and lasting peace in the region.”

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Benny Gantz

(JNS) -- War Cabinet Minister Benny Gantz on Sunday night announced his National Unity Party’s departure from the government set up in the aftermath of Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre and the ensuing Gaza war.

Speaking at a press conference in Ramat Gan, Gantz said, “It was an easy decision to enter the government, but the decision to leave was very difficult.”

"Don't let our people be torn apart."

Politician Benny Gantz accused Israel's PM Netanyahu of mismanaging the war in Gaza as he quit the war Cabinet and called for new elections. pic.twitter.com/8hOp2W8S7I

— DW News (@dwnews) June 9, 2024

“Unfortunately, Netanyahu is stopping us from reaching a true victory,” continued Gantz. “Therefore, we are now leaving, today, the unity government. With a heavy heart, but wholeheartedly.”

Read the full story ›

Children at the Muslim American Society Islamic Center in Philadelphia at "Ummah Day" event April 17, 2019.

Muslims in America are "on the road" to running the government of the United States. At least, that was the clarion message of Osama Siblani, editor and publisher of the Arab American News, speaking at the Islamic Center of America in Dearborn, Michigan, last month.

Siblani's comments can be seen in a video posted to X by the Middle East Media Research Institute, or MEMRI:

Osama Siblani, Arab Community Leader in Dearborn, Michigan: 40 Years Ago, the Mayor of Dearborn Warned of the City’s “Arab Problem,” Now We Rule the City, and We Are on Our Way to the White House; the Best Is Yet to Come pic.twitter.com/M68r5hL2vL

— MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) May 16, 2024

"We have the best that we can offer to the United States of America," Siblani said. "Not only in Michigan, but across the country. And we offered our best. The best is yet to come. I can be very confident to tell you that we are on the road to the White House, to Congress, to the decision-making everywhere in the United States!"

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Siblani added, triumphantly: "Forty years ago, we had a mayor for this town who talked about 'the Arab problem.' Guess what? The Arabs are [now] ruling Dearborn, Dearborn Heights and Hamtramck! So, brothers and sisters, we are on the road!" he concluded.

WND spoke to one person aspiring to the halls of Congress, but who is the diametric opposite of a Muslim radical, about the prospect of Islamic influence in the U.S. government expanding dramatically. Jerrod Sessler, candidate for the Republican seat in central Washington's 4th congressional district, is a Christian and decorated military veteran endorsed by President Donald Trump, Gen. Michael Flynn and the House Freedom Caucus.

Commenting generally on the world's religions, Sessler told WND, "There’s almost always an underlying tension between good and evil." And as Muslims continue to run for office in America, he said, "the tension here is between Christianity and Islam."

President Donald Trump and Jerrod Sessler

"A violent radicalism is evident within Islam – often referred to as Sharia law – but the population, at the leading of mass media, generally separates them from the average mosque attendee," Sessler explained. Yet, he contends, "Muslims cannot run from the radical faction within their faith, and there is no violent counterpart within Christianity."

Sessler acknowledges that there are non-violent Muslims living in America and around the world. Yet, he tells WND, "they do not have freedom to speak against the radical faction within Islam without drawing the ire of those very radicals."

Referring to his own Christian faith, Sessler shares unapologetically: "The God of the Bible offers grace through His Son Jesus' sacrifice." He adds, "We generally ignore the unhinged parts of Islam, but that only highlights the fact that it is wildly different than the grace afforded by God’s Son Jesus who offers redemption and full forgiveness through His sacrifice." Notes Sessler, starkly: "These two faith options could not be further apart."

Considering the God-given natural rights codified in the Constitution, Sessler suggests that "Americans should see statements about Islamic rule as a threat to freedom."

While he wishes to avoid expressing any negative sentiment towards any particular Muslim, Sessler concedes that their beliefs are essentially incompatible with the Judeo-Christian beliefs and values upon which America was founded. For him, "Islam is the underlying threat to our way of life in America." The idea that an Islamist would seek political office in the U.S. is a peculiar one, he argues, as "[he or she] can't actually fulfill the oath of office to protect and defend the Constitution."

Jerrod Sessler

For this, Sessler notes ironically, "I applaud them because many are doing the impossible." But on the other hand, he tells WND, "The people who elect them are either ignorant or motivated by something that may not be good for Americans."

"Think of how extreme it would be to give the majority of control in Congress to Islamic-leaning people. Would they preserve and protect the Constitution, or would they dismantle it and install something that aligns with the radical faction [and] with their belief system?"

Sessler is not surprised by the push for Islamists in the U.S. government. "They want to see their team win as much as Christians, but if we allow them that opportunity, then we will eventually lose the fundamentals of what it means to be a free American. Just imagine living in a situation where you cannot criticize your elected leaders for their poor or corrupt choices."

According to Sessler, "America is a Christian nation, so we should be able to handle some influx of migration from Islamic folks, but we also hope that they see Christians are actually working to show them a better way of living, believing and existing together."

The GOP congressional candidate ended with this warning: "Weak faith, distractions and social pressure to accept people, even those that threaten us, all contribute to the unsafe America that we find ourselves living in today."

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1st Lt. Amber English of Colorado Springs, Colorado, set an Olympic record in women's skeet shooting to win a gold medal at the Olympics in Tokyo on July 26, 2021. (U.S. Army photo)

By Owen Klinsky
Daily Caller News Foundation

More than three thousand Olympians are expected to bring portable air-conditioning units to the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris this summer, derailing France’s efforts to go green by not providing AC in the Athletes’ Village, the Washington Post reported.

The International Olympic Committee’s decision to substitute air-conditioning for a less reliable but more environmentally friendly geothermal cooling system is central to their strategy to cut the carbon footprint of the Paris Games by half, Reuters reported. However, many visiting nations, concerned lack of AC will result in reduced sleep and poor athletic performance, are opting to import portable AC units, according to the Washington Post.

‘Should We Do That Before or After We Get Rid of Fossil Fuels?’ @SenJohnKennedy Confronts Olympic Skier Over Tweets Calling To ‘Abolish the Police’. pic.twitter.com/0U9jqgpKDQ

— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) March 20, 2024

“We will bring them. And we will take them back to Greece,” Alexandra Palli, president of the Greek Olympic committee for environmental sustainability, told the Washington Post when referencing Greece’s plans to provide portable air conditioning to their athletes. “They need support. Because what they do is very difficult anyway.”

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While the scale of portable-AC-adoption is unclear, a survey from the Washington Post found that all eight nations who replied out of the 20 surveyed planned to use AC in some capacity. Those nations include the majority of the G7, specifically the United States, Great Britain, Canada, Germany, and Italy.

The high cost of portable units could mean they are inaccessible to poorer countries.

“We don’t have deep pockets,” said Uganda Olympic Committee (UOC) president Donald Rukare, before citing a prior international sports competition in which the UOC was unable to provide their athletes with portable units “because we didn’t have the money.”

Ultimately this disparity raises questions over Olympic fairness as air conditioning is seen as crucial to athletic performance, particularly in sports like fencing where an athlete’s equipment can rust or be damaged by humid conditions, The Washington Post reported.

The 2024 Summer Olympics begin July 26 and are expected to attract 15 million tourists to the French capital.

The IOC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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By Will Kessler
Daily Caller News Foundation

The Biden administration has pushed for easier home financing for higher-risk borrowers amid surging housing costs, increasing the risk of a wave of defaults, experts told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

The government-sponsored corporations Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, regulated by the Federal Home Financing Administration (FHFA), have taken a number of steps to increase financing opportunities for higher-risk borrowers under the Biden administration, including subsidizing higher-risk borrowing by hiking rates on lower-risk borrowers. Many of these actions have led to Americans taking on an increasingly large amount of debt while lending facilitated by government entities has grown in size, creating a growing possibility that a wave of foreclosures and defaults could create a shock in the housing system, according to experts who spoke to the DCNF.

“The new Fannie and Freddie mortgage pricing directive raised rates on low-risk borrowers and reduced them on high-risk borrowers,” Jason Sorens, senior research fellow at the American Institute of Economic Research, told the DCNF. “This is not really a free market to begin with, but the risk here is creating something like the subprime crisis, where high-risk borrowers are encouraged to take on debt they can’t repay. Again, this has the potential to hit the bottom line for Fannie and Freddie.”

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The guidance from the FHFA to Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae to essentially subsidize higher-risk borrowers took effect in May 2023, according to the Congressional Research Service. For example, under the new guidance, those with credit scores between 640 and 659 who put down a down payment between 15% and 20% would have a fee rate charged of 2.250% instead of 2.750%, while borrowers with a credit score between 760 and 779 with the same down payment would have their added rate hiked to 0.625% instead of 0.250%.

Rising housing costs have also led the entities to raise how much housing debt Americans can take on through the government entities, with the FHFA announcing near the end of 2023 that it was raising the mortgage limit for single-family homes to nearly $1.15 million in some areas, compared to the standard limit of $766,550, allowing Americans to take out even larger government-facilitated loans.

To fund its rising expenses and facilitate more loans to lower-income and higher-risk borrowers, the FHFA has proposed a new rule that would allow the government entities to purchase second mortgages.

“But the reality is that you have to look at Fannie, Freddie and FHA as one big entity, its government mortgage: it’s all run by the government, and as a single entity, it’s tilting towards higher-risk loans and higher debt ratios.” Edward Pinto, senior fellow and co-director of the American Enterprise Institute’s Housing Center, told the DCNF. “So you may be able to handle that debt ratio for a period of time. It’s when economic stress increases that you find out; as Warren Buffett said, ‘It’s only when the tide goes out that you learn who’s been swimming naked.’ It’s not until the economic stress increases that you find out who’s over their skis in debt.”

Total debt reached an all-time high for Americans in the first quarter of 2024, with consumers holding a collective $17.69 trillion. Around $190 billion of the increase in the first quarter was in mortgage debt.

Following the 2008 financial crisis, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau set standards for private lending so that mortgages could not exceed 43% of a borrower’s income. The FHA, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae often try to meet these standards but are not required to due to their relationship with the government, meaning the entities can give riskier loans.

The Biden administration also issued a rule in 2023 seeking to prevent “racial bias” in home valuations, arguing that societal prejudice was effectively leading minorities’ properties to be valued less than their white counterparts. As a result, the price of some homes owned by minorities might be being boosted, with the left-leaning Brookings Institute findingthat the vast majority of homes in majority-black neighborhoods are already appraised at or above their contract price.

Since 2008, the Federal Reserve has also been buying mortgage-backed securities from government housing finance institutions, totaling over $2.3 trillion as of June 5, providing extra liquidity sponsored by the government to the industry.

Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae were bailed out and placed in a conservatorship under the federal government after the 2008 financial crisis, where they played a key role in funding the housing bubble by buying up risky loans. As the risky loans began to inevitably default, the institutions took huge losses on the valuation of their assets, triggering the collapse of the housing market.

Full-Time Jobs Vanish While Americans Race To Take Up Part-Time Work

great piece from @willkessler12 https://t.co/0D9nn9DfHM via @dailycaller

— Rob (@RobMcGravytrain) June 7, 2024

Pinto argues that while there is less tension in the housing system compared to 2008, an increase in the unemployment rate to around 6% from its current rate of 4% would leave enough Americans without a way to pay their debts that it could trigger a wave of defaults due to the increased number of risky loans. Stress in the system could be building in part due to the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) increasing the time frame in 2023 that mortgage holders can modify their payments, kicking the issue down the road.

“You can only do that so many times before you run out of the ability to do that and you spread that cost over everybody that has a mortgage so that those with good credits are paying for the risk of the poor credits, and what the federal government is doing through FHA, Fannie and Freddie is basically trying to eliminate risk,” Pinto told the DCNF. “You can’t have the housing finance system without foreclosure. Get the federal government through these forbearance programs, which are, in effect, eliminating the ability to foreclose.”

The cost of homes has increased rapidly under Biden amid high inflation, reaching an all-time high in March and rising 6.5% in just the last year. The average 30-year mortgage rate is also currently around 7% as of June 6, rising from under 3% when Biden first took office.

“The most dangerous FHFA proposal is a rule that would enshrine a ‘tenants’ bill of rights’ capping rents as a share of household income, providing free legal representation to tenants, and more, on any property financed by a Fannie or Freddie-backed mortgage,” Sorens told the DCNF. “This rule has not been finalized yet. If it were to go into effect, it would impose nationwide rent control on a large percentage of the multifamily market, which research has overwhelmingly shown will shrink the supply of rental housing and drive up rents for most tenants.”

The Biden administration has so far not announced concrete plans to cap rents, despite reports from the media citing unnamed administration officials in March saying that a plan to prohibit hikes of more than 10% a year on certain government-subsidized units was set to be released. The FHFA was charged at the behest of the Biden administration in January 2023 to examine putting “protections and limits on egregious rent increases for future investments.”

“It will also have the perverse consequence of driving business away from Fannie and Freddie and driving down the value of existing properties with government-insured mortgages,” Sorens told the DCNF. “As a result, the government mortgage guarantors could lose a lot of money. One major New York mortgage lender (NYCB) has already suffered credit downgrades and an investor bailout as a result of the tightening of rent control there.”

The White House did not respond to a request to comment from the DCNF.

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By Rebeka Zeljko
Daily Caller News Foundation

New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez’s decision to run as an independent could set him up as a spoiler candidate for the state’s Democratic nominee, making the race for the Garden State’s senate seat considerably closer than it would otherwise be.

Menendez has held the senate seat as a Democrat since 2006, but recently filed to run as an independent during his ongoing federal corruption trial. Menendez’s candidacy as an independent has complicated matters for Democratic nominee Andy Kim and tightened the race for a seat that has remained blue for over 50 years.

“Absolutely Menendez could act as a spoiler,” Mike Duhaime, former chief strategist for Chris Christie’s gubernatorial campaign, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “He was a trailblazer for Hispanic politicians for decades, and he has a loyal following in his base of Hudson County where Kim would rely on a massive margin. Menendez would cut into that.”

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In a two-way race, Kim leads Republican nominee Curtis Bashaw by nine points, polling at 48% with Bashaw’s at 39%, according to a Fairleigh Dickinson University poll from April. With Menendez included, Kim only leads by five points, polling at 44% compared to 39% for Bashaw. Menendez draws about 6% of the voters “who would otherwise go to Kim.”

Sen. Bob Menendez, I-N.J.

In a three-way race against a hypothetical Republican and Democratic nominee, Menendez polls at only 9% as an independent candidate, according to an Emerson College Polling/PIX11/The Hill poll from March. Across New Jersey voters, 49% would support the Democratic nominee and 42% would support the Republican.

“With Joe Biden’s dismal approval ratings and Democrats in complete disarray, this is the best shot Republicans have to win a New Jersey U.S. Senate seat in a generation,” Jeanette Hoffman, a spokeswoman for Curtis Bashaw’s senate campaign, told the DCNF. “Polls show voters are tired of decades of corruption and machine politics served up by the New Jersey Democrats.”

Kim won the Democratic nomination on Tuesday by a landslide with 75% of the vote. Bashaw won the Republican nomination with 45% of the vote against a Trump-endorsed candidate, Mendham Mayor Christine Serrano Glassner, who got 38%.

Menendez’s approval rating has heavily been impacted by the recent indictments. In April 2022, Menendez polled with 44% favorability and 39% unfavorability across New Jersey voters, according to a Monmouth University poll. Following the indictments in 2023, his approval rating dropped into the negative with a 45% disapproval rate and a 36% approval rate. Among voters, 75% say he is probably guilty, and 63% say he should resign.

The New Jersey Senate seat has been held by Democrats since 1972, but polling indicates it may be within striking distance for the GOP. Past Republican victories in New Jersey have been won by slim margins, sometimes because of a spoiler candidate.

In 2009, former Republican Gov. Chris Christie won the New Jersey gubernatorial race with less than 50% of the vote because of an independent spoiler candidate.

“Republicans have won six gubernatorial races here since 1981, Christie most recently in 2009 and 2013,” Duhaime told DCNF. “In four of those six, republicans won with less than 50%. Christie won in 2009 even though there was an independent Republican in the race. So when independents are serious, Republicans tend to play it a little better and can win with under 50%.”

“We’re keeping a close eye on New Jersey,” Mike Berg, communications director for the National Republican Senatorial Committee, told DCNF.

Rep. Andy Kim and Sen. Bob Menendez’s campaigns did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the DCNF.

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A huge fight has developed over access to the actual audio tapes made by special counsel Robert Hur, who investigated Joe Biden for taking and keeping classified government documents and concluded he likely did it.

But then Hur said he wasn't recommending a criminal charge against Biden because of his "diminished" capacity.

The result gave Republicans new ammunition in their argument that Biden is incompetent to be president, while Democrats raged at the revelation, including White House staff members who tried to get Hur to change his report.

He didn't, explaining he needed to include the reasoning for not recommending a criminal case.

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While printed transcripts of Biden's interview with Hur have been released, the actual audio tapes have not, even though that's been requested. Biden is claiming executive privilege and Department of Justice officials say such a move could discourage others from participating in DOJ interviews.

But government watchdog Judicial Watch has unleashed a bombshell report, that the transcripts are not identical to the spoken word of the tape recordings.

The watchdog group cited the White House's own admission of the differences.

They may be considered insignificant by some, such as "missing 'filler words (such as 'um' or 'uh')' and words that 'may have been repeated when spoken (such as 'I, I' or 'and, and')'…"

The report noted that the DOJ also is claiming that "AI" could be "used to alter Biden's words" so the material should be kept secret.

A court filing by the DOJ claims the transcripts "accurately capture" the spoken words, but even so, they are not identical. The filing claimed the "differences" are not substantive.

Tom Fitton, Judicial Watch chief, pointedly added, "Wow. Judicial Watch’s FOIA lawsuit forced the Biden team to admit what everyone suspected – that the transcript is not accurate and was changed in a way to help Biden.

"There is nothing ordinary about this, and the transcript inaccuracy issues seem to help Biden’s political campaign needs. We today initiated a new FOIA request on this Biden’s Nixonian tape scandal."

The DOJ has been the subject of Freedom of Information Act cases over access to the audio recordings, which it has promised it will keep secret.

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[Editor's note: This story originally was published by Real Clear Wire.]

By James Varney
Real Clear Wire

Like-minded members of Congress have created hundreds of caucuses to help them work on specific issues – including the Arthritis Caucus, the Freedom Caucus, the U.S.-Japan Caucus, the Special Operations Forces, and the Bipartisan Candy Caucus.

But two of them – the Congressional Black Caucus and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus – stand out for the unparalleled fundraising they do through independent but closely aligned nonprofit arms. Filled with current members of Congress and representatives from some of America’s largest corporations, the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute operate outside of normal campaign finance laws to raise millions of dollars each year.

Websites and tax returns for the two nonprofits say they are designed to provide scholarships and opportunities to minority students and promising businesses. But records show they spend a much smaller percentage of their revenue on those programs than they do on salaries, fundraising, and hosting conferences.

“What you have is a very cozy relationship that complies with the law, yet it’s elected officials and corporations working together and there’s lots of money involved,” said Joe Postell, a professor of politics at Hillsdale College. “It claims to be philanthropic but it’s obvious it’s just another avenue for special interest money.”

And it’s a lot of money.

The Congressional Black Caucus Foundation raked in more than $45 million between 2020 and 2022, the last full year for which figures are available, and that includes the down year in which the COVID pandemic shutdowns crippled the U.S. economy. During that stretch, Foundation revenues increased nearly 89%.

But only a fraction of that appears to be spent on the programs it trumpets. For example, in 2022, the foundation brought in $18.4 million, and of that total, it spent more than $16 million, or 86%, on staff salaries and benefits, management fees, fundraising, and conferences, records show. Its fundraising cost in 2022 – $5.4 million – was more than double the $2.5 million it reported spending on scholarships.

In April, the foundation received a $4 million donation that it says is earmarked for college scholarships.

Still, that amount is less than the foundation spends on salaries. In the COVID year of 2020, when fundraising reached $9.8 million, the foundation spent nearly $3 million on compensation and benefits for staff and just $525,000 on scholarships, according to tax returns. In 2022, it spent close to $5 million on salaries, records show.

The Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute also raises large sums. Between 2020 and 2022,  it took in $30.5 million, tax records show, in many cases from the same Fortune 500 players that give to the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation.

Of its $12.5 million raised in 2022, the institute spent $7 million, or 56% of its revenue, paying staffers, holding an annual conference, and for travel, records show. The $4.4 million the institute paid its staff that year was more than it spent on fellowships and interns combined.

The Congressional Black Caucus Foundation and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute aren’t the only nonprofits linked to congressional caucuses, but others, like the Republican Main Street Partnership which raised less than $2 million in 2022, are nowhere near as big financially.

Both groups say their nonprofits are completely separate entities from their namesake caucuses. However, eight House Democrats serve on the board of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation – which is chaired by Rep. Terri Sewell of Alabama. Four House Democrats and one Democratic Senator, Ben Ray Lujan of New Mexico, serve on the board of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute. The advisory council for the institute includes an additional 38 officeholders – including one Republican delegate to the House, Jennifer Gonzalez-Colon of Puerto Rico, and three Democratic senators, Bob Menendez of New Jersey, Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada, and Alex Padilla of California.

RealClearInvestigations reached out to all the lawmakers serving on the boards of the foundation and the institute, but only one of them responded to the request for comment.

Rep. Adriano Espaillat of New York, who is deputy chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and chair of the institute, said the organization has a proud history and that it provides real opportunities for young Hispanics.

"Latinos are 65 million strong in the United States. Our mission at CHCI is to ensure they are empowered and informed," he said. "Our work lays the foundation for academic and educational achievement for our youth through programs like the congressional fellowship that provides young people the opportunity to gain invaluable experience interning in Congress and setting the foundation for careers in public service and beyond."

Those elected leaders serve on boards filled with executives from some of the nation’s biggest companies. The foundation’s board of directors includes executives with Walgreens, Coca-Cola, Microsoft, and Fidelity Investments. Its corporate advisory council has featured executives with Altria, Lyft, Amazon, Bank of America, and the Daschle Group. The foundation’s Vice Chair, Chaka Burgess, is president and C.E.O. of a D.C. lobbying firm, Nation Strategies.

The institute’s board includes figures from Altria, the American Federation of Teachers, TikTok, and Walmart. Its Vice Chair, Leo Muñoz, is the Executive Director of Federal Governmental Affairs for Comcast Corporation.

Many of these companies – most of which have a keen interest in laws and regulations coming out of Washington – also provide substantial funding to the nonprofits. Amazon and Truist Financial Corporation both gave between $1 million and $4 million to the foundation in 2022, according to the nonprofit’s annual report.

The report also says that Meta (Facebook), Johnson & Johnson, and State Farm Insurance each contributed between $300,000 and $500,000 to the foundation in 2022 and Airbnb, Bank of America, and Google, gave between $100,000 and $299,999. Altria, Dell, and Microsoft are among the dozens of companies listed as having given smaller sums.

It’s unclear how much many of those same companies and others donate to the institute because it does not publicize the amounts donors must give to belong to various “circles.” In 2020, however, the minimum donation to join the institute’s “1978 Circle,” the lowest rung, was $50,000.

RCI reached out to more than a dozen companies that contribute millions to the nonprofits. None of them responded to a request for comment.

Almost all elected officials receive money from and meet with representatives of interest groups. But, critics say, the foundation and institute break down the often-shaky wall separating legislators from outside interests by specifically bringing these parties together in a common endeavor.

“Both of these caucuses are heavily skewed toward liberal lawmakers who bemoan corporate greed and ‘dark money’ in politics, but a cursory look shows how closely tied they really are,” said Adam Andrzejewski, the CEO and founder of OpenTheBooks, a group that seeks sunlight on government spending.

“This mutual backscratching is no doubt standard Beltway fare, but it is routinely met with outrage from lawmakers in these caucuses,” he told RCI. “Despite their rhetoric, it’s obvious both caucuses have nonprofit partners that routinely tap wealthy corporations for their own private interests.”

The nonprofits offer other avenues of access to powerful officials. The foundation’s Annual Legislative Conference in September, for instance, draws business executives, entertainment icons, and elected officials to the capital.

For days, Washington D.C.’s convention center is a maze of exhibits, sponsored by not only emerging African American companies but also the biggest names in tech, finance, insurance, and more. Last year, both President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris attended the main dinner, and the opening seminar featured Sean “P Diddy” Combs speaking about black entrepreneurship as well as hip-hop. The keynote speech was delivered by Kristen Clark, the head of the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division.

Beyond its marquee names, organizers of the annual conference boast of the opportunities it provides for face time with elected officials and top appointed figures in Washington’s sprawling and powerful bureaucracy who make legislative and regulatory decisions that impact markets and competition.

“There’s no other opportunity in the country for constituents to have this kind of front-facing, direct contact with elected officials,” CBCF president and CEO Nicole Austin-Hillery boasted to MSNBC last year.

But that’s far from the only event the foundation holds, suggesting there are other opportunities for black lawmakers to mingle with donor companies. Next month, a branch of the foundation will hold a conference in Atlanta and then a scholarship tournament at the Hyatt Regency Chesapeake Bay Golf Resort in Maryland.

Putting on such spectacles isn’t cheap. The foundation spent more than $1.1 million putting on the 2022 annual conference, according to tax records.

The millions flowing to these nonprofits come from the Fortune 500, Big Tech, Big Pharma, emerging Internet businesses, white shoe law firms, unions, and other nonprofits. The foundation and institute were separated from the caucuses in 1976 and 1978 respectively, to comply with campaign finance regulations.

Yet hardly anyone – from the lawmakers and the corporations that bankroll their nonprofits; from the nonprofit groups themselves to the political advocacy groups that complain the loudest about money’s corrupting influence in American politics - wants to talk about it.

RCI also reached out repeatedly to both the foundation and the institute, asking to speak with officials there about the organization’s history, work, and fundraising. They did not respond.

Political advocacy groups, largely on the left, that bang the loudest drums over money’s potentially corrupting influence, also proved unwilling to comment on this nonprofit arrangement by which congress members and corporations are entwined.

People for the American Way, the Campaign Legal Center, and the Brennan Center for Justice did not respond to questions from RCI. The foundation’s current chief executive, Nicole Austin-Hillery, came to the foundation from the Brennan Center.

Not all those groups have always been so reticent to address the issue. When The New York Times looked at the foundation’s extraordinary fundraising among corporations in 2010, the Campaign Legal Center’s then-policy director offered a blistering take.

“The claim that this is a truly philanthropic motive is bogus; it’s beyond credulity,” Meredith McGehee said. “Members of Congress should not be allowed to have these links. They provide another pocket, and a very deep pocket, for special-interest money that is intended to benefit and influence officeholders.”

McGehee is now with Issue One, another group concerned about the influence of money in federal lawmaking and regulation, and Issue One views the setup with a jaundiced eye.

“Special interests look for every available avenue to gain access and influence with members of Congress, including contributions to nonprofits affiliated with lawmakers like the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute, and Asian Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies,” Issue One research director Michael Beckel told RCI. “Giving to these types of nonprofits allows deep-pocketed special interests to curry favor with members of Congress. Such contributions are yet another arrow in the quiver of the influence operations of special interest groups, along with traditional campaign contributions, lobbying expenditures, and bankrolling political ads.”

In some cases, corporations with an interest in specific issues are bankrolling people placed in the nonprofits. The Scotts Miracle-Gro Foundation gave the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation between $300,000 and $500,000 in 2022, tax records show. Scotts, the fertilizer giant, sponsors two foundation fellows who are focused on “marijuana legislation.”

Scotts also did not respond to a request for comment. But the company has made its interest in marijuana legalization clear. While Scotts is currently prohibited from selling cannabis to consumers, it did invest $150 million in RIV Capital, a “leading cannabis consumer packaged goods platform.”

Such close cooperation between the caucus and big business can smack of crony capitalism, according to Postell.

“Even if you don’t have a smoking gun, of course, but you can see the money going into the caucus’ nonprofits and then see favorable legislation coming out,” he said. “Anybody would be concerned about that.”

Companies are much more willing to donate big bucks to black and Hispanic caucuses than they might be to outfits like Republican Main Street, Postell said.

“This also provides a way for Fortune 500 companies to show off their diversity intentions,” he said. “They are trying to promote their own interest, but whereas they don’t gain a lot of PR points giving to some other groups, they do gain points by giving to the identity groups.”

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[Editor's note: This story originally was published by Real Clear Wire.]

By Adeline Von Drehle
Real Clear Wire

Donald Trump’s first TikTok video, in which the former president arrives at a UFC fight to the tune of Kid Rock’s “American Bad Ass,” has now been viewed 78.4 million times in two days. If Trump hadn’t already cemented himself as a political social media influencer, this viral splash is sure to seal the deal.

Trump’s joining the platform is surprising in that it is a 180-degree pivot from his in-office attempt to ban the app via an executive order that was ultimately blocked by the courts. The move is no less coherent, however, than Joe Biden’s decision to join the app despite inking his signature on a law that would ban TikTok unless it is sold by its Chinese owners. The app, reaching an audience of 148 million Americans and 1.56 billion people worldwide, has simply proven too alluring a platform to resist.

Politicians everywhere are tapping into the wealth of TikTok as an advertising and promotional space. The app is the fifth most popular social media platform, and the majority of its users (69.3%) are between the ages of 18 and 34, a demographic difficult to reach by traditional political messaging.

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Social media has played a role in presidential campaigning since at least 2003, when Howard Dean supporters congregated on the platform MeetUp. Since then, hundreds of  big-time politicians have harnessed the power of YouTube videos, Facebook Lives, Instagram posts and Twitter rants for advertising and fundraising purposes. At 8 years old, it seems well past time that TikTok be initiated into this time-honored American tradition.

Worldwide, politicians have been quicker to integrate TikTok into their media salvoes. The far-right Portuguese party Chega has thrust itself into the spotlight as successful users of the app. Chega founder Andre Ventura has nearly 300,000 followers – only 50,000 fewer followers than the Biden campaign account in a country with a population more than 30 times smaller than the United States.

Chega made waves for quadrupling its parliamentary representation to 50 lawmakers in Portugal’s March election, underscoring a pivot toward far-right populism in Europe. The party thrives on polarization: Ventura has come under fire for demonizing the Roma community, denying the existence of racism in Portugal, and making derogatory comments about Turkish people. A former sportscaster, Ventura is now engaging with his audience in fresh and entertaining ways, such as posting a TikTok of himself play-boxing the Social Democratic Party.

In France, too, 28-year-old Jordan Bardella – protégé and successor of Marine Le Pen as president of the far-right National Rally (RN) Party – has amassed more than 1.3 million followers in less than three years on TikTok by being the “cool” politician. Bardella’s feed is filled with videos of himself chugging wine, at a nightclub, and stopping to take selfies with his adoring fans.

As president of the RN, Bardella is France’s most prominent member of European Parliament. He was also the only politician to make a list of the 50 most popular figures in France. Polls suggest Bardella’s popularity on TikTok will translate to the ballot box in the European Parliament election this weekend; the RN is expected to be the top vote-getter in France.

The rawness of the TikTok-video format is perfect for politicians who ooze charisma and spew divisive rhetoric, like Ventura and Bardella and Trump. The app is “giving politicians faces,” said Sanne Kruikemeier, director of the Digital Data and Democracy Lab. “If you see a politician on social media, you see also a little bit more of the person behind the politician. A lot of politics is super abstract, so what these politicians try to do is share a little bit more of themselves.”

This may be why the infotainment platforms of Ventura and Bardella have been more successful than traditional advertisements as political campaign tools – because videos that give the audience a glimpse into the day-to-day life of a politician make them feel more like a friend and less like a figurehead. And the more organically social a parasocial relationship feels to the voter, the better it is for the politician.

“One of the reasons for why advertisements don’t really sway people that much is because it’s hard to get a personal connection with people over an advertisement. People scroll past very quickly,” said Mads Hove, a researcher at the Digital Democracy Centre. “But when you choose to follow someone, and you choose to see his or her videos, it’s because you trust that person. A message conveyed through someone you trust is much stronger than the advertisements that you see when you’re doomscrolling.”

Likes do not always translate directly into votes, of course. Columbia University Professor Ioana Literat notes that “examples of politicians who turned their TikTok success into electoral victories are few and far between.”

Still, there are myriad reasons why a politician would try to master an app that reaches one-fifth of the world’s population. Visibility and likeability can increase in step with one’s follower count, author of “Presidential Campaigning in the Internet Age” Jennifer Stromer-Galley told RCP.

“There’s that kind of brand recognition that comes with virality, and the hope is that that’ll translate into votes,” said Stromer-Galley. “But at the end of the day, if the public doesn’t know the candidate’s name, they’re not voting for them.”

Whether a name has reached the coveted “household” status or is spoken only in niche circles seems not to matter: Politicians far and wide have been pulled in by TikTok’s powerful magnetic field in an attempt to grow their audience. And now that TikTok has been inducted into the game of fame and power, its force will only grow.

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New York Attorney General Letitia James

[Editor's note: This story originally was published by Live Action News.]

By Nancy Flanders
Live Action News

Alliance Defending Freedom has filed a lawsuit against New York Attorney General Letitia James on behalf of two nonprofit pro-life pregnancy centers and one nonprofit network of affiliated centers in response to her decision to target pro-life pregnancy resource centers for their promotion and use of “abortion pill reversal” (APR). The lawsuit asks for James to be prohibited from applying New York business law to target the pro-life groups.

The National Institute of Family and Life Advocates (NIFLA), Gianna’s House, and Options Care Center are suing James, arguing that she is violating the First Amendment through her lawsuit against 11 pro-life pregnancy centers. James is accusing the pro-life organizations of spreading “false and misleading” information regarding APR. In response, the pregnancy centers filed a lawsuit of their own.

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“New York is intentionally denying women the freedom to continue their pregnancies by censoring those who promote it. They are forcing women to follow through with an abortion — even if they don’t want to,” said Thomas Glessner, president and founder of NIFLA. “How does it even remotely make sense to trust women with their medical decisions if you are actively trying to hide scientifically-based information from them? It makes no sense, nor is it legal.”

APR has been shown to decrease the effects of the abortion pill regimen, which is made up of two drugs: mifepristone and misoprostol. Mifepristone is taken first and blocks the naturally occurring pregnancy hormone progesterone, depriving the developing child of oxygen and nutrients. Then misoprostol causes contractions that expel the baby. If a woman takes mifepristone and regrets it, she can contact the APR Hotline to be connected with a doctor who will administer progesterone to her in an attempt to outcompete the progesterone-blocking effects of mifepristone to try to save the baby. Progesterone has been used for decades to help women with a history of miscarriage to carry a baby to term. It is a naturally occurring pregnancy hormone.

Dr. George Delgado, pioneer of the “abortion pill reversal” protocol, produced a study showing that it has an effectiveness rate of up to 68%. To date, over 5,000 children have reportedly been born to mothers who changed their minds after beginning the abortion pill process and were able to access APR.

“Many women regret their abortions, and some seek to stop the effects of chemical abortion drugs before taking the second drug in the abortion drug process. Taking supplemental progesterone at that time can often save their baby’s life,” said Alliance Defending Freedom Legal Counsel Gabriella McIntyre, who is representing the pro-life organizations. “The New York attorney general, however, is doing everything she can to deny women the freedom to make that choice.”

According to the Daily Wire, the lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court for the Western District of New York.

“Despite saying that she supports women’s choice, the Attorney General seeks to deprive women who change their mind and want to continue their pregnancies, or who are coerced or tricked into a chemical abortion, of truthful information about progesterone treatment, a safe option that has been used by obstetrician-gynecologists to help maintain pregnancies for decades,” the lawsuit states.

[Editor's note: This story originally was published by Live Action News.]

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Vladimir Putin depicted in artwork taking a selfie with Barack Obama dozing in the background inside the Oval Office.

[Editor's note: This story originally was published by Real Clear Wire.]

By Patrick Drennan
Real Clear Wire

The European Union has denounced Russia's removal of buoys marking the Russian border with NATO country Estonia on the Narva River. A total of 24 out of 50 buoys placed to mark sailing routes were removed in the early hours, Estonian officials said. A plan to change the maritime borders with Finland and Lithuania was also on a Russian military website before it was taken down.

European authorities were not surprised. Redrawing maps and international borders is something Russia has been doing for decades.

In 1992 Russia forcibly invaded the eastern part of Moldova and created the Russian enclave of Transnistria- a state without internationally recognised borders.

In 2015 South Ossetian troops and their Russian allies had worked through the night, sinking new border-marking poles across fields outside a hamlet called Tamarasheni in the hills of central Georgia. The Russians granted the local farmers 72 hours for an emergency harvest then ordered them to leave—forever. “They took 10 hectares [about 25 acres ] this time,” said farmer Levan Kipshidze, tallying the latest chunk of Georgia swallowed up by Russia.

After Russia seized the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea in 2014 Putin declared  it a "sovereign and independent state". However, after a sham referendum, Putin then stated it was a part of Russia and has been pictured as such on Russian maps. This set the template for the annexation of Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia oblasts of Ukraine and their geographical inclusion into the state of Russia.

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In May 2023, Putin displayed a 400-year-old map that he claims to show that Ukraine isn't a real country, not noticing it has '"Ukraine or land of the Cossaks" written on it.

In March 2024, Former Russian President, Dmitry Medvedev presented a map showing most of Eastern Ukraine belonging to Russia. Also, Medvedev’s map shows changed borders of other countries, including Poland and Romania.

Putin clearly seeks legitimacy for his violent invasions of nearby states. He recently talked about creating a ”buffer zone” in Ukraine. Just another disputed area on a map.

What about the upcoming Swiss Peace conference?

The Ukraine Peace Conference, planned for June 15-16, is to take place in Bürgenstock Switzerland. The conference plans to bring together representatives from up to 80 countries. Ukraine has put forward its 10-point peace plan to counter an earlier 2022 proposal put forward by Russia. In the Russian proposal Luhansk, Donetsk and Crimea were to remain in Russian control and the Ukrainian army was to be size-limited. The two plans are widely divergent.

Putin was at first angry about the Swiss plan, mainly because Russia has not been invited. However, the long-time opportunist now sees a chance to spread misinformation - false information which is deliberately intended to deceive.  So out of nowhere,  anonymous Russian officials declare that Russia is amenable to peace talks.

What are Putin’s goals?

Firstly, it is challenge to Ukraine’s greatest supporter, American President Joe Biden, who cannot be seen to evade the prospect of ending this unpopular war. Ukrainian President Zelensky says Biden must attend, but the U.S. is more likely to send an emissary like Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

Secondly, Russia wants to world to recognize the borders based on the current battlefield lines. Russia wants the Central Asian states, particularly Uzbekistan, and China to back his demands.

China has much more opaque interests, such as keeping Russia a vassal state, dependent on its exports and military equipment. It is unlikely to attend, other than as an observer. China’s 12-point peace plan is conspicuously commerce oriented.

Finally, Russia will agree to consider the outcome. It will delay the process for months - at least until it gets new administrations elected in friendly Western countries. Russia has sponsored far-right political parties in France and Italy, and Hungary continues to rally against the Ukrainian peace plan. Of course Russia would like a new administration elected in the United States.

Putin does not want a documented peace deal with clear border markings. He wants grey zones, which can be disputed, and through which Russia can continue its aggressive land grabs.

Patrick Drennan is a journalist based in New Zealand, with a degree in American history and economics.

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Joe Biden visits small businesses along Main Street in Emmaus, Pennsylvania, Friday, Jan. 12, 2024. (Official White House photo by Cameron Smith)

[Editor's note: This story originally was published by Real Clear Wire.]

By Alfredo Ortiz
Real Clear Wire

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[Editor's note: This story originally was published by Real Clear Wire.]

By Simone Ledeen
Real Clear Wire

When American diplomats in Havana started experiencing strange and debilitating symptoms in 2016, whispers of a covert attack began to circulate. Initially dismissed by some as mass hysteria, the pattern of symptoms suggested something far more sinister. As cases multiplied, it became clear that this was not an isolated incident. Eventually known as "Havana Syndrome," it has since become one of the most puzzling medical mysteries of our time, raising questions about covert adversary attacks with unseen mystery weapons.

In 2018, a U.S. government employee in Guangzhou, China reported similar symptoms, and was medically evacuated. Around the same time, a CIA officer in Moscow experienced severe vertigo and chronic headaches. By mid-2021, over 20 U.S. officials and their family members in Vienna reported Havana-like symptoms, making it one of the largest clusters outside of Cuba. There was even an incident in Washington, D.C., in 2019, when a White House official felt lightheaded on the south lawn. Subsequent medical exams pointed to Havana Syndrome.

There have been some unsatisfying investigations. A 2020 report by the National Academies of Sciences suggested that "directed, pulsed radiofrequency energy" was the most plausible explanation for these symptoms. The exact cause and source, however, remain elusive. This has led to widespread speculation and the unsettling possibility that a foreign power could be deploying a new type of weapon.

Some are speculating openly that Havana Syndrome is caused by Directed Energy Weapons (DEWs), given their potential to cause these symptoms. DEWs can include electromagnetic radiation, microwaves, and other forms of directed energy that can disrupt the human nervous system. Directed energy weapons are a highly sophisticated technology, not widely available but highly devastating and, thus an attractive tool for covert attacks.

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If a nation state like Russia or China is indeed behind Havana Syndrome, this would mark a significant expansion in psychological and technological warfare, with important implications. For example, countries would need to quickly develop sensors, new security protocols and countermeasures. Thorough and transparent investigations into potential hostile foreign activities are still needed. Ignoring reality does not negate it. Failure to address these incidents invites more of them, and suggests negligence or denial of technological threats.

Understanding Havana Syndrome could reshape the international security landscape, a potential reason for people wanting to keep their collective heads in the sand. If proven to be true, the use of directed energy weapons opens a new frontier in non-traditional warfare, including psychological and technological elements and likely would compel nations to develop new security protocols and countermeasures.

That said, and despite both robust evidence and consistent reporting, some skeptics still dismiss Havana Syndrome as a hoax or psychological phenomenon. This does not explain how affected diplomats, intelligence officers and military servicemembers were all found to have persistent, abnormal changes in their brains. These findings point to a physiological basis for the symptoms, directly challenging the argument that Havana Syndrome is purely psychological.

Until we recognize Havana Syndrome as real, some affected individuals are not able to receive necessary support and treatment. Ignoring their symptoms exacerbates victims’ suffering and undermines the credibility of institutions responsible for their care.

In an era where misinformation often overshadows truth, we must ensure that the Havana Syndrome is properly studied and understood in order to address this threat and support its victims.

Simone Ledeen is an accomplished national security professional with expertise spanning defense policy, intelligence, counterterrorism, counter threat finance, and emerging technologies. As Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Middle East Policy, Ms. Ledeen was responsible for US defense policy for Bahrain, Egypt, Israel, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Palestinian Authority, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, United Arab Emirates and Yemen. She strengthened key U.S. defense relationships through close collaboration with foreign counterparts and oversaw the development and implementation of critical policies and initiatives including in counterterrorism, information operations, cybersecurity, and emerging technologies. Ms. Ledeen advises several venture capital and early-stage defense technology firms. Previously, Ms. Ledeen held various leadership roles across the U.S. Government, executing complex operations overseas and spearheading initiatives to counter extremist threats. She received her MBA from Bocconi University and her B.A. from Brandeis University.

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[Editor's note: This story originally was published by Real Clear Wire.]

By Nathan Harden
Real Clear Wire

Parents Defending Education (PDE) is an advocacy organization founded in response to concerns about the increasing influence of activist agendas in K-12 schools, particularly highlighted during the pandemic. Recently, PDE joined a Title IX lawsuit challenging the Biden Administration’s new rules on including transgender athletes in women’s sports. RealClearEducation had a conversation with Nicole Neily, the founder of PDE, about her organization’s objectives in promoting parental engagement and accountability in education, and–more broadly–the organization's efforts to influence the education system.

Can you tell us about the origins of Parents Defending Education (PDE) and what motivated its founding?

At the beginning of the pandemic, I was running a free speech group, Speech First, that focused on colleges and universities – but I became increasingly concerned with what I saw happening in our K-12 schools. In the wake of George Floyd’s murder, districts across the country sent out missives about systemic racism and their commitment to antiracism, which mystified a lot of families. Unsurprisingly, many people were fearful about pushing back on this messaging. I think back to when I was growing up – schools didn’t send out notes about Rodney King’s beating, or the Iraq War, or elections in general!

During the fall of 2020, the Wall Street Journal ran an interview with the superintendent of Evanston Public Schools in Illinois, near where I grew up, in which he said he planned to allow black and brown children to return to in-person education before white children because of “anti-racism.” I remember screaming out loud when I read the article because this plan was not only immoral – it was unconstitutional. I decided to form a new organization made up of parents that would be dedicated to protecting K-12 schools through litigation and other means.

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In retrospect, I was fairly naïve because I assumed that most districts that engaged in such policymaking did so out of ignorance and didn’t realize they were violating the law. My initial plan included a program of sending dozens of letters to districts to notify them that they needed to course-correct. I assumed that they would, in fact, make good-faith efforts to change their policies. Three years later, however, it’s become abundantly clear that many education bureaucrats at all levels of government disagree with the underlying tenets of equality before the law and seek to not only change the law but to fundamentally transform American society. This is why our organization is needed now more than ever.

What are the key goals and objectives of Parents Defending Education in reclaiming schools from what your website refers to as “harmful activist agendas?”

The first objective is to educate people about what’s taking place in schools. I grew up watching GI Joe cartoons in the 80s, and the end of every episode had a “life lesson” that concluded “and knowing is half the battle.” It struck me during the pandemic that the vast majority of American parents don’t know what their families’ civil rights are in an education setting, nor do they understand how the education system works in general. In the spring of 2020, several of my Democrat friends from Chicago called me to ask how to get their schools to reopen – because they really believed that their elected officials cared about their input. But as we’ve seen in the years since, nothing could be farther from the truth. They cared about their money and their power, but certainly not our children’s welfare or academic achievement.

For decades, parents have been accustomed to dropping their children at the schoolhouse gates, assuming that their children would receive a solid education. But during COVID, families got a window into what their children were learning (or not learning) when Zoom school was in their living rooms. Families were not only unhappy; they were petrified that if they said the wrong thing, they would be the neighborhood QAnon crank for the rest of their lives. So they kept their mouths shut.

Parents Defending Education seeks to demystify the education space, translating policy and legal jargon into English, exposing problems, and investigating how some of these issues arose in the first place.

A second objective is engagement. Education used to be a partnership between schools and parents, working together in the best interest of a child. But today, many families aren’t fully aware of what their children are learning and are held at arms’ length. Parental involvement isn’t – or shouldn’t be – a partisan issue. Sadly, many people simply don’t know where to begin; our collective civic engagement muscles have atrophied from lack of use. At Parents Defending Education, we’ve created guides and portals for people to get involved. This includes basic questions to ask school officials, how to file a civil rights complaint, and comment portals for people to weigh in at the state and federal levels on policy reforms.

Every person has a different level of risk tolerance, so while some people might be willing to speak up at a school board meeting, others might be more reticent to do so. But even the hesitant parent might be willing to have a private conversation with an administrator or even to pass on a tip to us anonymously. Every person can do something. It’s been absolutely incredible over the past few years to watch thousands of people get off the sidelines and say, “If not me, then who – if not now, then when,” knowing full well that they’ll receive blowback from their communities for having the temerity to speak out. Courage is contagious, and we have witnessed so many brave mothers and fathers (and grandparents!) use their voices for the first time.

The final objective is accountability. For far too long, education officials have become accustomed to operating behind closed doors – wasting money on pet projects and then passing nine-figure bond initiatives to make up their shortfalls (while the rest of us must stick to a budget), teaching one-sided lessons, and lowering standards to mask that the quality of education in 2024 is less than it was 30 years ago. Through our tip line and an aggressive public records campaign, we’ve been able to expose what’s really going on and how districts and schools are operating with our tax dollars. If every teacher in America needs to think to him or herself, “Is this lesson plan going to end up on the national news tonight,” it forces them to decide whether their political activism is worth it. If every principal must think, “Do I know what’s going on in my building? Because I’m the one who’s going to be called for comment by the local press,” then they’re going to exercise greater oversight. And if every school board member must think “I’m going to lose my seat if we’re not delivering the educational experience that my constituents expect,” then budget and employment decisions will be made accordingly.

Could you describe some of the specific challenges or issues that PDE seeks to address within the education system?

Over the past three years, the issues have evolved, which is what makes this job interesting – no two days are ever the same! In 2021, nearly all the tips that we received were about race: the 1619 Project, BLM at School, and racially segregated “affinity groups” and “healing circles,” which excluded students and staff from programming based solely on skin color. In 2022 and 2023, most of the tips were about “gender identity”: compelled pronouns, lesson plans, bathrooms and locker rooms, overnight field trips, and athletics. Since 10/7, we’ve fielded hundreds of issues related to antisemitism in K-12 schools, which in my opinion is as pervasive as in higher education but has gone underreported. Outside entities influencing schools is another troubling area – be it foreign funding, progressive foundations, or race and gender consultants advising districts and providing “professional development” training for teachers.

Your organization recently joined a lawsuit against the Biden administration’s new Title IX rule changes. Can you explain the basis of this lawsuit and its significance in protecting students' rights?

A bit of background: Passed in 1972, Title IX is a mere 37 words long, and was written to prevent discrimination on the basis of sex in education settings. (“No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.”) In plain English, this means that an individual must be treated differently than another based on sex. Two decades ago, this was viewed largely in the athletics context.

Immediately upon taking office, the Biden Administration signaled its intent to undo Betsy DeVos’ Title IX rules – issuing guidance and beginning the notice and comment process to codify their radical changes. In 2022 and 2023, PDE submitted formal comments in opposition to these rules, and also created comment portals that helped over 62,000 people submit their own comments (approximately 25% of the total comments filed!).

The final rule was released in April 2024 and was every bit as terrible and illegal as anticipated. The most significant aspect of the rewrite is that the Education Department has redefined the word “sex” to include “sexual orientation and gender identity,” changing the meaning of the statute entirely. In 1972, the word “sex” meant what it still means today – the binary concept – and the Department has no authority to redefine the plain text of the law.

The rule is a direct assault on parental rights, including parents’ right to access their child’s information under FERPA and state laws. In response to public comments which raised concerns that the rule might bar a recipient from treating a student according to their biological sex if requested by the parents to do so, notifying a student’s parents of the student’s gender transition or gender identity, or letting parents access their child’s educational records (including information about their child’s gender identity), the Education Department conceded that the rule can require such results, even when state law guarantees these parental rights. PDE maintains a running list of districts that maintain “parental exclusion policies” with regard to students’ gender identities at school; as of May 7, we’ve identified 1,062 districts impacting more than 10.8 million children.

At a minimum, the new rule will force these parents to have difficult discussions about sex and gender identity with their children before the children are ready.

How does the new Title IX regulation affect the core mission of Parents Defending Education, particularly regarding concerns about privacy and due process in schools?

Since the Biden Administration’s rule was released, PDE has fielded more questions and concerns from parents about how this will impact their children and this surge will only worsen as the rule coerces school districts into adopting illegal policies. Before the Biden Administration’s Title IX rulemaking, some schools already had bullying and harassment policies that punished students who “misgendered” their peers, bathrooms and locker rooms were opened up to students based on “gender identity,” and students were housed on overnight field trips accordingly. Thanks to Biden’s rule, these policies will spread to countless more schools.

In what ways does Parents Defending Education collaborate with other organizations or stakeholders to achieve its objectives?

Several of my colleagues and I have worked in and around public policy for many years, which means that we’ve been able to leverage many preexisting relationships with think tanks at the state and national level – as well as federal policymakers, state attorneys general, and reporters.

Our team also works with over 300 parent groups across the country, sharing information and resources and regularly meeting with parent advocates around the country.

How does PDE engage with local communities and parents to raise awareness and advocate for changes in education policies?

Every district is different – so we work with the individuals who send us tips to determine how best to engage. Success means something different to everyone. Some people just want a lesson plan canceled, while others desire different outcomes like leadership changes or policy rescissions. The people who reach out to us know their communities best – so we’ll discuss tactics like which policymakers might be worth approaching (and at what level of government), what to say, whether it might be more constructive to go to the media to exert public pressure, and whether the legal system might be a viable option. We encourage people to start with an open mind by asking questions and to not assume ill will – but also to document their interactions and to elevate their concerns as needed.

Could you share any successful initiatives or outcomes that Parents Defending Education has achieved since its inception?

In 2021, we filed the public records requests that exposed collusion between the National School Board Association and the Biden Administration. Members of Congress and Senators called on both Attorney General Merrick Garland and Education Secretary Miguel Cardona to resign, and 26 state affiliates of the NSBA quit the national organization.

In the wake of the NSBA scandal, the Biden Administration created a “National Parents and Families Engagement Council” to give the impression that they actually wanted parental engagement. But in so doing, it violated the Federal Advisory Committee Act because it was neither transparent nor politically balanced. PDE sued the Education Department in partnership with our friends at America First Legal, and rather than addressing the Council’s deficiencies, the Administration chose to shutter the Council completely – showing that it was little more than a Potemkin village.

PDE successfully sued Wellesley Public Schools in Massachusetts over racially segregated affinity groups and First Amendment issues; the district agreed to revise its policies.

PDE successfully sued Linn-Mar Community Schools in Iowa over its parental exclusion and compelled speech policies; the state of Iowa passed a parental notification bill during our suit, but the Eighth Circuit ruled in our favor on speech grounds.

A California district’s plan to put a Planned Parenthood clinic into a local high school was tabled indefinitely after PDE exposed it.

To date, PDE has filed 37 civil rights complaints with the federal Office for Civil Rights; 9 investigations have been opened, 4 resolved when districts agreed to open the segregated programming to all students, and 2 referred to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).

Dozens of districts have retracted lesson plans after we’ve exposed them, including a Connecticut school walking back a “pizza and consent” lesson, the Los Angeles Unified School District removing posters that said “F*** the Police” and “F*** Amerikkka,” and a Virginia district removing “woke kindergarten” as a recommended resource.

Looking ahead, what are the key priorities or upcoming projects for Parents Defending Education in the coming year?

Thanks to our tip line and our relationships with parent organizations, we’re able to connect disparate stories to larger trends and identify problems on the horizon.

In the wake of last year’s Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard/UNC decision, we’re now watching education officials at all levels develop workarounds for racial preferences, which is absolutely an issue that will require attention in the future. School officials continue to treat students differently on the basis of race through the use of DEI hiring practices, segregated affinity groups and “healing circles,” because some education activists insist that students learn best from teachers with the same skin color.

Gender identity certainly isn’t going away any time soon – the new Title IX rules are going to be extensively litigated, and we believe they will eventually end up at the Supreme Court.

It’s important to remember that the antisemitism we’re seeing at universities didn’t magically occur when students first step onto college campuses; rather, that hatred is taught at far younger ages, through programs like ethnic studies and other curricula that frames human interaction through the lens of oppressor vs. oppressed.

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A farmer in Minnesota who took on the state government over an illegal agenda it embedded in one of its grant programs has won his fight.

And now that illegal sex and race discrimination is gone.

It is the Pacific Legal Foundation that praised farmer Lance Nistler for his dedication to fairness and equality.

"In the wake of a lawsuit brought by farmer Lance Nistler, Gov. Tim Walz signed legislation on May 24 that rolls back an illegal policy that gave priority to 'emerging farmers' based on immutable characteristics such as race and sex," the legal team explained.

"Thanks to the courage of a small farmer, equality before the law has been restored in Minnesota. Because Lance Nistler stood up for his right to equal treatment, the state will no longer disadvantage farmers based on their race and sex," said PLF attorney Andrew Quinio.

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"We are thrilled that Governor Walz and the state legislature responded to Lance’s lawsuit by amending the Down Payment Assistance Grant Program so that it does not unlawfully discriminate against Minnesota’s hardworking small farmers. We encourage other states to follow Minnesota’s about-face and stop violating the Constitution’s guarantee of equality before the law."

Nistler filed a lawsuit in January charging the state with unequal treatment based on race and sex because, while he was picked ninth in a lottery for payment grants, he was put at the back of the list because of the state's claim to prioritize "emerging farmers."

The state defined those as "racial minorities, women, or young, urban, and LGBTQIA+ individuals."

When the case was filed his application for one of the $15,000 grants just had been rejected.

He not only was picked ninth of 176 applicants, but he also met all of the eligibility requirements – except that he wasn't urban, a minority, a woman or LGBT.

Nistler sought the grant to buy 40 acres of farmland in Beltrami County, Minnesota, to grow soybeans, oats and wheat.

Minnesota's lawmakers had allowed $500,000 in 2023 to create the grant program, and required that recipients be Minnesota residents earning less than $250,000 a year in gross agricultural sales, provide the day-to-day labor on their farms for five years and not have previously owned farmland.

And officials insisted on the race and sex preferences, until he filed suit.

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The Institute for Justice has expressed outrage after a judge tried to jail a man for what he said – an insult to a police officer.

"Judges are supposed to uphold and defend the Constitution, not violate and ignore it," charged IJ attorney Tori Clark. "Judge Bull's actions violated basic notions of free speech and due process—and they are far outside the realm of judicial functions."

The controversy erupted when Nicholas Bull, a municipal judge in Ozark, Alabama, tried to jail a citizen for "simply offending a police officer."

It happened when Reginald Burks, an aircraft mechanic, was stopped by an officer for going 28 mph in a zone marked with a 25 mph limit, while taking his kids to school.

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"The officer’s radar gun was broken, so he allegedly used his cruise control to estimate Burks' speed. After issuing a speeding ticket, the police officer stepped in front of Burks' car, blocking him from leaving. Burks asked the officer to move, but he refused. Finally, frustrated by the situation, Burks told the officer to 'Get your a** out of the way so I can take my kids to school,'" IJ reported.

When Burks later appeared before Bull to pay a $211 fine Bull "issued an unusual order."

In addition to fines and court costs, Bull demanded that Burks write an apology to the officer. He threatened Burks with jail time if he did not submit the apology within 30 days.

Bull shortly later rescinded his order, at the request of the city prosecutor, when the circumstances of the case started gaining attention, and Burks never apologized.

But the IJ pointed out Bull's threat "is an outrageous violation of the First Amendment, and his attempt to punish Burks for a crime with which he was not charged flies in the face of due-process protections."

In America's judicial system, however, there mostly is no way to hold rogue judges accountable for their "unconstitutional conduct" as they are protected by "judicial immunity," which is a shield for them while "performing their role as a judge."

There have been cases where that immunity, however, does not protect misbehaving judges. One case involved a West Virginia judge who personally carried out a warrantless search of a man's home, and another who "personally jailed two children" during their parents' divorce proceedings.

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Pro-Palestinian protesters at White House

(THE BLAZE) – Pro-Palestinian activists demanding an end to the war in Gaza staged a massive protest that surrounded the White House, and there were smoke bombs ignited. Progressives vehemently demanded that President Joe Biden be arrested for war crimes for the U.S. involvement in the Israel-Hamas War.

Thousands of demonstrators descended on Washington on Saturday to demand a ceasefire in Gaza. The crowd chanted: "Hey Joe Biden, you’re a sellout! Pack your bags and get the hell out! Biden you're a liar! We demand a ceasefire! How many kids have you killed today!"

Anti-Israel protesters surrounding the White House march chanting “Kill another soldier now. Hezbollah, hezbollah, kill another Zionist now”. pic.twitter.com/Npn2hnUrZj

— WorldNetDaily (@worldnetdaily) June 8, 2024

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WATCH:

Journalist Julio Rosas reported from the ground that the protesters "formed a mob and chased U.S. Park Police and Secret Service out of Lafayette Square after officers apparently tried to arrest someone." He noted that law enforcement was forced out of the park and retreated to "the boundaries of the protest."

Read the full story ›

Feet of premature baby

(LIFENEWS) – For Savanna Buller and her youngest daughter, Margo, the journey home from the hospital was nearly nine months long. Baby Margo was born at 25 weeks last summer and weighed a mere 1 lb., 5 oz. Now, the family of six is together under one roof.

“She was the size of a water bottle,” her mother recalled. “She was very tiny. You look at this little baby and think, ‘How are you supposed to survive?’”

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Savanna and Daniel are high school sweethearts and have a 9-year-old son, 6-year-old daughter, and 3-year-old son. Savanna had no complications with her first three pregnancies, but when Baby Margo was about 20 weeks along, Savanna’s blood pressure spiked and she developed preeclampsia.

Read the full story ›

(THE BLAZE) – Abortion has been a major point of contention here in America, but it’s stayed under the radar as it’s slipped into poorer, non-Western countries. Medical doctor and researcher Dr. Calum Miller calls it “abortion colonialism.”

“It’s the idea that this is a new form of ideological colonialism, the way that Western countries go to non-Western countries, and they say, ‘You have to promote abortion, you have to legalize abortion, you have to put it in your schools,’” Miller tells Allie Beth Stuckey of "Relatable." If they refuse, they’re threatened with the withholding of something — like aid money.

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“They’re basically going into these countries and saying, ‘Your culture, your values, don’t matter. We know better, and you have to change them, or we’re not going to support you,’” Miller explains.

Read the full story ›

[Editor's note: This story originally was published by Live Action News.]

By Bridget Sielicki
Live Action News

Southwest Airlines was in federal court Monday seeking to reverse a court order to pay $800,000 to a flight attendant who was fired due to her pro-life beliefs. The airline was also challenging a judge’s contempt order requiring three of its attorneys to undertake “religious liberty training.”

In 2017, Charlene Carter filed a lawsuit against the airline in which she said she was unfairly fired from her job as a flight attendant due to her pro-life beliefs. She had been critical on social media of her union’s decision to participate in the 2017 Women’s March, due to its association with Planned Parenthood. A court agreed that she was unfairly terminated, and ordered Southwest to rehire her, as well as pay her compensation — an order it is still fighting.

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On Monday, the three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals began hearing the appeal from the airline, which is challenging the order that it pay Carter, as well as the August 2023 religious liberty training mandate. According to ABC News, the airline continues to maintain that it was justified in firing Carter, saying she was fired not for her religious beliefs, but because she violated rules requiring civility in the workplace by sending “hostile and graphic” pro-life messages to the union leader. The airline is also arguing that the mandated religious liberty training violates First Amendment speech rights of the attorneys.

Carter is being represented in her lawsuit by the National Right to Work Foundation.

“Southwest and TWU union officials made Ms. Carter pay an unconscionable price just because she decided to speak out against the political activities of union officials in accordance with her deeply held religious beliefs,” stated National Right to Work Foundation President Mark Mix. “Yet rather than comply with the jury’s decision and the District Court order, Southwest and TWU union bosses have decided to attempt to defend their ‘targeted assassinations’ against a vocal union critic. We are proud to defend Ms. Carter throughout this prolonged legal case to vindicate her rights.”

[Editor's note: This story originally was published by Live Action News.]

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[Editor's note: This story originally was published by Live Action News.]

By Nancy Flanders
Live Action News

A new Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted from May 7-14 asked 3,934 Americans numerous questions, including questions regarding their views about abortion. In its findings, Reuters reported that most respondents believe abortion should be legal in “all or most cases” (57%). But what, exactly, does the open and broad “all or most cases” phrase mean? It seems perhaps even poll respondents don’t know, because follow-up questions stunningly revealed that even when people state that they support abortion in most cases, they actually support limited access to abortion.

“Most cases”?

The poll first asked respondents broad questions regarding abortion before asking them more specifically about their feelings on abortion restrictions by gestational weeks or in certain circumstances. The results showed that seven percent (7%) of respondents believe abortion should be “illegal in all cases,” and 24% believe abortion should be “illegal in most cases.” It also stated that 25% believe abortion should be “legal in all cases” and 32% believe abortion should be “legal in most cases.” Reuters determined that this meant 57% of all respondents believe abortion should be legal in “all or most” cases.

But when more specific questions about gestational age and “cases” (or circumstances) were asked, the results show a much different picture of what Americans think about abortion.

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When respondents were asked more specifically about abortion at certain gestational ages or in cases of rape, incest, or life of the mother, the results show a society that favors restricting the killing of preborn children — far more than many politicians or abortion industry operatives would care to admit.

The distinction is in the details

The poll asked a follow-up question to certain respondents, stating, “You mentioned earlier that you believe abortion should be legal at least some of the time. Would you support or oppose a national law that would allow abortion to happen….?” with four differing limits of “up to six weeks of pregnancy?” “up to 15 weeks of pregnancy?” “up to viability (24-28 weeks)?” and “only in cases to save the life of the mother, rape or incest?”

There had been no previous question asking about abortion being “legal at least some of the time” in this survey, but 32% (one-third) did respond that abortion “should be legal in most cases.” Assuming those are the respondents to whom the follow-up questions were asked, the responses about when abortion should be legal showed that most of that one-third want significant restrictions on abortion.

While Reuters claims 57% of respondents feel abortion should be “legal in all or most cases,” as gestational age increases, more Americans become uncomfortable with legalized killing of preborn human beings.

When asked, “Would you support or oppose a national law that would allow abortion to happen up to six weeks of pregnancy,” 55% (of the presumed original 32%) said “yes, support” while 42% said “no, oppose.” While this seems like it may offer a confusing result, the question that followed may offer us greater understanding.

When then asked whether they would support or oppose “a national law that would allow abortion to happen up to 15 weeks of pregnancy,” 42% of the one-third of respondents said “yes, support” and 55% said “no, oppose.” The answers to these two questions coupled together seem to indicate the possibility that over half of the “in most cases” crowd is fine with allowing abortion up to six weeks, but not up to 15 weeks.

When asked about support or opposition to a national law allowing abortion through “viability,” the poll defined viability as 24-28 weeks despite the fact that babies born as young as 21 weeks have survived. Just 27% of the original third of respondents who said abortion should be “legal in most cases” indicated support for a law allowing abortion up until 24 weeks, while 71% opposed it.

As gestional age increases, opposition to abortion also appears to increase.

Arguably the most interesting response, however, was the one that had to do with actual “cases.” Respondents who said abortion should be legal at least some of the time were asked whether or not they would support a national law allowing abortion “only in cases to save the life of the mother, rape or incest.” An astounding 74% said “yes” they would support a law allowing abortion only to save the life of the mother or in cases of rape or incest, while 24% said no, they wouldn’t support such a law.

This result indicates that for those who said they support abortion in at least some cases, the majority — nearly three-quarters of them — said they would support a law in which abortion was only legal in cases involving a risk to the mother’s life or in cases of rape or incest.

So again, the question remains: What does “most cases” even mean? Do many people mistakenly believe that “most” abortions take place for reasons of rape, incest, or risk to the mother’s life?

Other polling

Though somewhat puzzling, these Reuters poll responses are not outliers; they are in line with other abortion-related polling. A 2023 Knights of Columbus-Marist Poll revealed that though 61% of respondents considered themselves to be “pro-choice,” 69% of all respondents wanted abortion to be significantly restricted. The survey revealed that 79% of Americans did not want abortion on demand through all nine months of pregnancy, as pro-abortion politicians are currently seeking. The poll also found that 69% of those polled wanted abortion restricted — allowing it only in the first three months of pregnancy (25%), only for rape/incest/life of mother (26%) only for life of the mother (10%) or never under any circumstance (8%).

An early 2024 poll released by the Knights of Columbus found that the majority of Americans support at least some level of protections for preborn children from abortion. Of the 1,371 respondents, 58% claimed to be “pro-choice,” yet 58% of respondents also said abortion should only be allowed within the first three months of pregnancy (18%), only in cases of rape/incest/life of mother (22%), only for life of the mother (9%), or never allowed (9%).

[Editor's note: This story originally was published by Live Action News.]

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(NEW YORK POST) – The status of high school valedictorian is an honor that many parents may be thrilled to see their child achieve — but what if all of your kids are successful in clinching the title?

A central Florida family may have made history after all four daughters were named valedictorian in their respective high school classes — a feat that’s reportedly a 1 in an 11 billion chance.

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Tracey Rendina’s four girls — Ryleigh, age 18, Taylor, 20, Alisa, 22, and Makaley, 24 — all graduated from the same high school in different years and each one took home the coveted academic award.

Read the full story ›

Pro-Palestinian protesters

Jason Cohen
Daily Caller News Foundation

A state judge ordered on Friday thousands of striking academic employees at the University of California (UC) to pause their weeks-long effort protesting the Israel-Hamas war.

The strike commenced on May 20 at UC Santa Cruz and expanded to include six UC campuses, according to the university system’s website. Orange County Superior Court Judge Randall J. Sherman granted the restraining order request by UC lawyers who claimed the strike would inflict irreparable damage to students with finals approaching.

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“We are extremely grateful for a pause in this strike so our students can complete their academic studies,” associate vice president for Systemwide Labor Relations Melissa Matella said. “The strike would have caused irreversible setbacks to students’ academic achievements and may have stalled critical research projects in the final quarter.”

UC Santa Cruz Picket enters its 3rd day. #StandUpUC pic.twitter.com/O6hC7j9tKF

— UAW 4811 (@uaw_4811) May 22, 2024

The strike was carried out by the International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America (UAW), which represents over 40,000 employees throughout the UC system, according to its website. The union wants better treatment of its members who it says have been arrested and attacked while protesting “in solidarity with the people of Palestine.”

UC sued UAW and other union defendants on Tuesday, asking for the restraining order and alleging the union breached their contract.

“UAW’s rank and file members have … emphasized that their core objective for voting to strike is UAW’s political and social position,” the filing states. “For example, one member noted on X (Twitter) the international focus of the strike and made clear that the vote was about divestment and Palestine. Another pushed their department to vote for the strike stating ‘[T]he top demand that matters here is disinvestment. This is about Palestine first and our ability to work comfortably at UC second.’”

Universities have been facing pro-Palestinian protests for weeks, including students erecting encampments and taking over buildings in a bid to push schools to divest from Israel.

UAW did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.

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(FOX NEWS) – A teachers union that represents employees in the Portland Public Schools (PPS) released a guide on how to teach anti-Israel views in schools.

Oregon Educators for Palestine, in association with the Portland Association of Teachers (PAT}, released the handbook, titled "Know Your Rights! Teaching & Organizing for Palestine Within Portland Public Schools," allegedly in response to teachers being censored and facing "discrimination and harassment" at "the hands of PPS District leadership." The handbook alleges that teachers were censored for "teaching about Palestine, posting pro-Palestine sentiments in schools, and even those wearing Pro-Palestine messages."

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They list examples of district censorship including of "student work on the topics of Settler Colonialism and Zionism" and staff members "wearing clothing with the phrase 'From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be Free,' claiming the phrase constituted hate speech and threatening to write up staff for insubordination if worn again."

Read the full story ›

A public interest organization, the Goldwater Institute, is taking issue with a "$140,000" college education in which students are told to "live like a bug."

But they are not taught the Constitution, the Civil War, or landmark Supreme Court cases.

It's part of colleges' abandonment of core educational missions in favor of indoctrination into "diversity, equity, and inclusion" discrimination programs.

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"The situation is particularly grim at the University of Arizona, where a real assignment in a course that fulfills the 'Diversity and Equity' (D&E) core curriculum requirement instructs students to 'live like a bug' by 'walking around with tissue paper 'wings'' so they can better understand the experience of 'marginalized' groups," the institute explains.

The organization recently completed a report on the ideological agenda being pushed in schools.

It revealed students are being required to believe "racism is deeply embedded in U.S. history, society, and institutions," and that "white people hold unearned privilege while people of color have not had equal access to the 'American Dream.'"

And, students are told to apologize if they say something and someone else objects.

"Resist the temptation to become defensive. Instead, apologize, self-reflect, learn, and do better next time," they are told.

"A course on the science of bugs that fulfills the D&E requirement requires students to experiment with 'living like a bug'—including by 'walking around with tissue paper 'wings''—in order to understand the experience of immigrants, people of a different social class, and other 'marginalized' groups," the report found.

Goldwater explained, "For years, leftists have plotted to turn colleges into breeding grounds for activists by infusing the poisonous ideas of DEI into every aspect of campus life, from admissions to faculty hiring to classroom indoctrination.

"In recent weeks, the consequences of this scheme became all too clear. College campuses turned into hotbeds for mob violence, unprovoked assaults, and anti-Semitic calls for terrorism and genocide—all while Jewish students were forced to live in fear as their schools refuse to protect their rights. Sadly, it should come as no surprise that the same intolerant campus leftists who can’t stomach conservative speakers have decided Jewish students are 'oppressors' who deserve to be harassed, or worse."

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By Jim Hoft
The Gateway Pundit

Dr. Thomas Binder made headlines after he was forced into a psychiatric hospital after speaking out against the dangerous and unnecessary globalist COVID narrative. Dr. Binder MD studied medicine at the University of Zurich, received his doctorate in immunology and virology, specialized in internal medicine and cardiology, and has 35 years of clinical experience.

In February 2020, Thomas stood up for the return of real science, medicine and humanity. The result of his vocal opposition to the unscientific and irrational COVID policies was to be arrested and referred for compulsory psychiatric treatment.

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Dr. Thomas Binder later told Dr. Drew last year that he was forcibly hospitalized – and required to take psychiatric medications – for speaking out against pandemic panic and the narrative surrounding COVID-19.

Recently, Dr. Binder called for the abolishment of the World Health Organization, after the botched and extremely dangerous actions and statements during the COVID pandemic.

Dr. Thomas Binder: Dear fellow humans, my name is Thomas Binder. I study medicine in Zurich, obtained a doctorate in Immunology and Virology, specialized in internal medicine and cardiology, and have 35 years of experience in diagnosis and therapy of acute respiratory infections in hospitals, in intensive care units, and in my private practice.

While there has never been a pandemic of a killer virus, there was a pandemic of cowards. And do we, doctors, see a pandemic of severe illnesses and of sudden unexpected deaths from heart attack, myocarditis, aortic dissection, stroke and pulmonary embolism, thrombosis and inflammation of other organs, especially with brain and spinal cord, disseminated intravascular coagulation, increased infections, including COVID due to immunosuppression, cancer, autoimmune diseases, infertility, miscarriage, and many more.

This modified RNA genocide is the greatest medical crime in human history, a humanitarian disaster of unprecedented proportions. Currently, the pharmaceutical industry is working on transferring all vaccinations to the modified RNA vaccine platform. It is doing so, though just being able to count and to distinguish for and from self, even having a trace of intelligence complications, is enough to realize that the modified RNA vaccine platform is totally nonsensical and life-threatening. Its two fundamental flaws are the injection of the construction plan for a protein foreign to the body without having any control over which body cells will produce it, in what dose and for how long, and the fact that the cells who are coerced to produce this foreign protein and then present it on the surface will be mistakenly recognized by our immune system as foreign, thus destroyed, much like the rejection of a foreign organ transplanted into you.

The alleged modified RNA vaccination coerces your body to produce a toxin in an unknown dose, and for an unknown period of time, and literally transforms parts of you into an alien. Therefore, the entire modified RNA vaccine platform must be banned immediately.

Your government is currently negotiating a pandemic treaty with the WHO. If it signs it, the WHO will be placed above the constitution of your country, and not only you, but also your government and your parliament will lose all freedom of choice. Who controls the WHO controls the world. The only reasonable, 100% effective and safe prevention of another criminal pandemic is immediate smashing of the WHO into a thousand pieces.

Dear fellow humans, if you have been injected once or even several times, and perhaps even suffer from severe side effects of the modified RNA injections, do not despair. More and more responsible doctors are willing to help you, and more and more responsible scientists are researching for, one day, being able to treat even their most complex side effects. I think with the modified RNA injections, it is like with smoking. It is almost never too late to give it up and to live healthier.

Whether you were injected or not, wake up, give your spine a booster, stand up and tell the manufacturer, your alleged experts, your government, your parliamentarians, your generals, and your authorities who have, from the point of view of the populace, totally failed in the COVID scandal. Enough is enough!

Step back at last and then stand in chorus. Do this, and do this, if not for yourself, then for a future living for your children and grandchildren. Now.

Bravo, Dr. Binder! Enough is Enough!

Swiss cardiologist calls for the abolishment of the WHO.

“Enough is enough pic.twitter.com/pUv6uF6Zng

— “Sudden And Unexpected” (@toobaffled) June 2, 2024

[Editor's note: This article originally appeared on The Gateway Pundit.com]

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[Editor's note: This story originally was published by Real Clear Wire.]

By Martin Hoyt
Real Clear Wire

The treaty codifies worst practices as dictated by unaccountable elites.

One would be hard-pressed to find many Americans today who look back at the pandemic with fondness or admiration for the way in which our government – including our public health officials – responded to the COVID-19 pandemic. The mistakes made were legion, the cost mind-blowing, and the misconduct even worse. Indeed, Anthony Fauci, the very face of the pandemic for most Americans, seems to have embodied a contempt for integrity in government. His record-keeping practices and aversion to congressional and public oversight were the epitome of bureaucratic arrogance.

This sad history makes it even more shocking that many high-ranking U.S. officials in the Biden administration are trying to subject Americans to the same failed protocols in the event another pandemic is declared. Yes, they would impose the policies that have been debunked, protested, and rejected time and again by the mass public – closed schools, endless lockdowns, prohibitions on outside exercise without face masks, one-size-fits-all vaccine mandates, and on and on.

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All these policies could be on the table again if the World Health Organization (WHO) Pandemic Treaty finds its way into U.S. law. As a quick reminder, the WHO was the organization that sent EcoHealth Alliance co-founder Peter Daszak to investigate whether COVID had a natural origin or leaked out of a lab in Wuhan, China. In March 2021, the WHO report concluded that COVID likely did not come from a lab accident, an answer welcomed by  public health officials and media outlets and quickly used to shut down debate over the issue.  Months later it would be revealed that Peter Daszak and EcoHealth had strong financial conflicts and a direct connection to gain-of-function research being conducted at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Several U.S. government agencies have since released top secret reports revealing that early on they believed it was more likely than not that the virus originated in a Chinese lab.  This is hardly a record on which the WHO, or U.S. public health officials, can build trust.

While the latest developments suggest the WHO Pandemic Treaty may not survive in its current form, the public should be very concerned.

The WHO Pandemic Treaty was withdrawn from ratification last week. The decision to withdraw was primarily due to the strong resistance to the treaty in Great Britain and the clear reality that there was insufficient support in the U.S. Senate – a testament to the American public’s intolerance of the globalist agenda. However, the WHO remains intent on finding another pathway. Media outlets have reported that the WHO will seek to insert many of the key structural concepts in the treaty in amendments to the International Health Regulations (IHR) of 2005, currently under consideration. The U.S. is a party to the IHR and legally required to meet certain enumerated obligations.

The treaty provisions under consideration for the IHR raise several federalism, civil liberty, and constitutional concerns. National sovereignty would be infringed upon, as U.S. officials would take direction from an unaccountable body that will advance the terms of the treaty, making it likely that the treaty is a living document and not the final word. Controversial social, labor, and environmental policies appear embedded throughout – perhaps in an effort to entice the Biden administration that its unpopular domestic goals could find safe harbor. Patent protections for companies that helped protect and innovate our way out of the pandemic would be dramatically weakened and subject to the whims of member states who have made clear their intent to take a free ride.

Of course, no document seeking to institutionalize the failed COVID pandemic protocols would be complete without concerted censorship efforts. While a pending case before the United States Supreme Court is set to address the constitutionality of senior government officials’ reliance on policies to “fight mis- and disinformation” during the pandemic, the desire to censor opposing viewpoints continues. It should be anticipated that, left to their own devices, international public health officials will feel no allegiance to such antiquated concepts as freedom of speech or freedom of association protected by the U.S. Constitution.

As many in the media ponder aloud with the government’s top public health officials why public trust in their institutions have plummeted so severely and how they can regain that trust, it may be worth looking no further than ongoing efforts like the WHO Pandemic Treaty. Let us hope reform comes to the public health bureaucracy before the government’s favorite pandemic policies return to “save the day.”

Martin Hoyt is the Director for Public Health Reform Alliance, a nonpartisan organization committed to increasing transparency and oversight on the public health system so it works better for all Americans. 

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(Pixabay)

[Editor's note: This story originally was published by Live Action News.]

By Bridget Sielicki
Live Action News

Lawmakers from both the House and the Senate have sent a letter calling on the Biden administration to study the environmental impact of the abortion pill.

U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), U.S. Representative Josh Brecheen (R-Okla.), and colleagues sent a letter to the Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Michael Regan asking the EPA to look into the impact of the abortion pill drug mifepristone on the country’s water. The senders note that these considerations are vital, given the skyrocketing use of the abortion pill.

“Given the steadily increasing rate of at-home chemical abortions, it is vital that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ensure mifepristone, the drug’s active metabolites in blood and placenta tissue, and the fetal remains of unborn children — all of which are unbelievably being flushed into America’s wastewater system — do not pose a threat to the health and safety of humans and wildlife,” they wrote.

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The abortion pill regimen is a process in which a woman self-administers a chemical abortion using a two-step combination of the drugs mifepristone and misoprostol. The natural result of the process is that she delivers a dead baby – usually at home. In most cases, the baby’s remains are flushed down the toilet. To date, there have been no studies to determine what impact both the fetal tissue and the abortion drugs have on the environment once the child is flushed away. The authors of the letter are calling on the EPA to study these potential impacts.

“Environmental protection efforts are necessary to counter the potential harm that chemical abortion drugs are creating for our people, wildlife, and ecosystems. The American people deserve to know the negative effects caused by chemical abortion drugs,” the lawmakers wrote.

They also note that the environmental impact of the abortion pill “has never been sufficiently studied,” adding that when the drug was first approved in 2000, that approval was based on a 1996 environmental assessment that didn’t consider the impact of fetal remains on the environment.

“Any studies that have been conducted in the past should be repeated and updated to reflect the fact that the drug is far more prevalent today than it was three decades ago,” the lawmakers said. They have called on the EPA to respond as soon as possible.

In addition to Rubio and Breechen, signees include U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) and U.S. Representatives Matt Rosendale (R-Md.), Alex Mooney (R-W.Va.), Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.), Gus Bilirakis (R-Fla.), Barry Moore (R-Ala.), Debbie Lesko (R-Ariz.), Jeff Duncan (R-S.C.), and Jim Banks (R-Ind.).

[Editor's note: This story originally was published by Live Action News.]

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Megan Brock
Daily Caller News Foundation

The Department of Justice (DOJ) recently indicted Texas surgeon Dr. Eithan Haim, who blew the whistle on a children’s hospital performing sex change procedures on minors. Haim told the Daily Caller News Foundation he will not be intimidated or silenced, vowing to fight the allegations in court.

In 2023, Haim discovered Texas Children’s Hospital was performing pediatric sex change procedures despite hospital administrators previously telling the public that their child gender program had been shut down. Haim provided documentation of the procedures to journalist Christopher Rufo, who published a May 2023 story in City Journal and on Substack exposing Texas Children’s Hospital. Shortly after the story was published, the Texas Legislature passed a bill banning pediatric sex change procedures statewide.

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However, in June 2023, federal agents arrived at Haim’s home, notifying him of he may be the subject of a potential criminal investigation related to the published whistleblower documents, according to his fundraising page. The Biden DOJ was investigating Haim for alleged violations of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA), a federal law that protects individually identifiable health information, such as a patient’s name.

Haim has long maintained that the documents he provided Rufo did not include any such information. Rufo, who first reported Haim’s indictment in City Journal, wrote that he “can confirm that nothing in the information provided to me identified any individual; all the documents were, in fact, carefully redacted.”

I blew the whistle on @TexasChildrens secret sex change program and the @TheJusticeDept came after me for exposing the truth. After experiencing DOJ corruption we’ve decided to fight back. If you want to join the fight, donate below. https://t.co/ZMhL9LG3o1

— Eithan Haim MD (@EithanHaim) March 10, 2024

Threats of prosecution materialized this week when U.S. marshals appeared at Haim’s home and summoned him to appear in court Monday. Haim is charged with four felony counts of violating HIPPA, according to City Journal.

Haim told the Daily Caller News Foundation in an interview that he is not intimidated by the indictment.

“The most important thing is that, at this point, its game time,” Haim said. “We’re entering the arena, we have to fight back. I’m not going to be silenced, I’m not going to be intimidated. The most likely chance we have of winning, is to win this in court.”

On January 24, 2024, Haim’s legal team sent a letter to Republican Reps. Jim Jordan of Ohio and Chip Roy of Texas refuting the legitimacy of the claims made against Haim by federal prosecutor Tina Ansari.

The letter asserts the prosecution’s investigation was based on the “easily disproved falsehood” that the documents Haim provided contained children’s names.

“Yet it is obvious from a quick glance that all patient information is redacted,” Haim’s lawyers wrote. “Thus, either someone intentionally misrepresenting this critical fact, or the investigation proceeded without anyone verifying the most basic facts about what happened.”

Haim estimates it will cost at least $500,000 to fight the charges in court.

“What that requires is at least $500,000 to pursue this federal trial with our attorneys,” Haim said.

His fundraising page shows he’s currently raised just over $310,000.

“My client is anxious to get to trial to get his side of the story told,” Haim’s attorney Marcella Burke told National Review. “I am confident this will result in the correct decision being made.”

Haim maintains medical providers should be able to openly talk about procedures happening at their institutions, a sentiment core to his story.

“There’s nothing a doctor should do behind closed doors that they’re unwilling to defend in public,” Haim told the DCNF. “That’s never how medicine should be, especially when it involves children.”

The Department of Justice did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

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(FOX BUSINESS) – Major corporations are leaning on freelancers now more than ever before to help keep fixed costs down and avoid mass layoffs. That's according to Shannon Denton, co-founder of Wripple, a platform that matches companies with vetted freelancers in real time.

Denton's coined this period the "freelancer economy," a trend in which corporate America is embracing independent workers more than before to help with a variety of tasks like designing their website or plan events.

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Wripple partnered with independent research company MDRG to conduct two surveys. In total, it collected 200 surveys from freelancers and another 214 from marketing and human resource leaders at enterprise and mid-market companies who hire freelancers.

Read the full story ›

[Editor's note: This story originally was published by Real Clear Wire.]

By Timothy M. Doyle & Robert G. Eccles
Real Clear Wire

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has several roles and one of them is to regulate certain aspects of the shareholder proposal process. This process occurs when shareholders of a company submit proposals to be included in a company’s proxy materials to be voted on at a company’s shareholder or annual meeting.

A recent dispute between ExxonMobil (Exxon) and Arjuna Capital, a small impact investor, has received national attention. What started out as a simple dispute has morphed into a legal battle after Exxon decided to continue a lawsuit even after the activist investors withdrew their controversial proposal from consideration. This is a risky move for the company in terms of its already challenged reputation. It’s also risky in terms of the implications of the court’s decision on shareholder rights. This extremely aggressive legal strategy was countered by an equally aggressive move by the California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS) and others. CalPERS claims that the lawsuit threatens all shareholders and was behind an effort to remove Exxon’s entire board.

Exxon’s annual meeting was held today. The preliminary voting results are in and range in support from 87% to 98% with an average of 95%. The 87% number is relatively low in a director vote and likely reflects negative investor sentiment. However, the 95% number shows broad support remains for Exxon’s board. In short, the vote simply illustrates the importance of the court’s ruling.

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The court’s ruling from this suit may well change the way shareholders proposals are handled at publicly traded companies throughout the U.S. The real issue here is who determines what type of shareholder proposals end up being voted on.

Historically, the SEC had an internal policy under Rule 14a-8 to handle this type of dispute. Unfortunately, and part of the problem, is that this policy has been reinterpreted with each successive administration and subsequent SEC Chair. This is but one example of tradition and precedent being disregarded because of increasing partisanship. We have written about how the Department of Labor’s ever changing amendments under ERISA are another example of this. Unfortunately, the current SEC is attempting to further the policy agenda of the current administration with a broad reading of its Congressional mandate. Add that to a divided Congress and it’s no wonder that a lawsuit was filed, and a retaliation occurred.

Under SEC Rule 14a-8 companies must include shareholder proposals unless they fall under one of thirteen exceptions. Historically, if a company reasonably believed that a submitted shareholder proposal could be excluded under one of the exceptions it must notify the SEC. Further, to avoid a potential enforcement action and lawsuit, a company typically also petitions the SEC for what is referred to as a “no action” letter or an agreement not to proceed with an enforcement action. Practically speaking, obtaining this letter is the difference between a proposal being included for a vote or not.

Traditionally, one of those exceptions, the “ordinary business exception,” allowed a company to withhold a proposal if it related to the company’s “operations” unless the proposal involved a “transcendent or significant policy” issue but could nonetheless not “micromanage” a company’s day-to-day operations. This ultimately became a case-by-case analysis and while it may not have been a perfect option and is currently the subject of potential Congressional reform and judicial review, at least there was a reasonable opportunity to make the case that an exception applied.

Unfortunately, and applicable to this case, the SEC decided to substantially restrict the ability of companies to make their case under the ordinary business exception. (There are other issues in the Exxon case, but we focused on this particular one given the impact). Back in 2021, in “Staff Legal Bulletin No. 14L (CF)” the SEC decided not to intervene in the shareholder proposal process if the proposal involved an issue that had a “broad societal impact” regardless if there was a “nexus between a policy issue and the company” or it “micromanaged” the day-to-day operations of the company. This eventually led to an historical number of shareholder proposals including the one filed with Exxon. We do not agree with the SEC’s decision to broaden the scope of Rule 14a-8.  A pivotal role of the SEC is to protect investors, not to facilitate those who want to use the shareholder proposal process to pursue policy objectives—even those we agree with like the need to address the challenge of climate change. Furthermore, proposals about broad social impact that are beyond the scope of a company’s business put real costs on the company that are ultimately borne by all of its shareholders.

In July 2023, Congress attempted to reform how the SEC handled these issues. Several 14a-8 reform bills were voted out of Committee. Unfortunately, they were all on party line votes, so no serious bipartisan debate or compromise occurred. These bills are unlikely to make it to the floor for debate in the current 118^th Congress. Given the SEC’s novel approach to the ordinary business exception analysis and reform bills seemingly stuck in Congress, it’s not surprising that a company who receives a disproportionate number of shareholder proposals, many of which are about broad social impact rather than shareholder value creation, would seek a judicial remedy.

While a legal decision would give some finality to the specific issue being litigated, there is real concern that an opinion may have unintended consequences by placing a chilling effect on the important relationship between shareholders and companies. Each plays an important role in ensuring that our robust capital markets remain the envy of the world. While outside the scope of this piece, some of these issues go to the fundamental role of a company in today’s society and the proper role of government oversight.

As for the specific issue at hand, is there a practical solution? The short answer is “Yes” and it’s a two-step one. Given the proclivities of Congress to act slowly, especially in a hyper-partisan political environment, the most prudent first step would be for the SEC to reevaluate how it interprets its role in the shareholder proposal process and clarify the rules used to exclude irrelevant shareholder proposals. This would give companies a reasonable opportunity to explain why they think a given proposal should be excluded, while protecting the rights of shareholders to engage with boards and management, as well as submit proposals when appropriate.

The second step is for Congress to act and at the very least clarify the SEC’s role and add some common-sense sustainable guardrails to ensure certainty in the shareholder proposal process. This would go a long way in preventing this issue from reoccurring every four years. The majority of shareholders and companies yearn for a return to normalcy where issues are resolved outside of lawsuits and vote against an entire boards of directors. These dynamics threaten both shareholder value creation and effectively addressing issues that have broad social impact.

Robert G. Eccles is at the Saïd Business School, University of Oxford. 

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(FOX NEWS) – The Islamic Republic of Iran’s use of artificial intelligence (AI) to crack down on its populace is having a particular impact on the freedoms of Iranian women.

Behnam Ben Taleblu, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told Fox News Digital the Iranian regime "is moving into the AI realm to benefit even more from technology that links together the disparate elements of facial recognition, CCTV, cell phone analysis, traffic geolocation and internet monitoring," which "bolster its cyber crackdown on street protesters or women who don’t wear their hijab correctly."

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Enhanced AI tools will be a key facet of the forthcoming Hijab and Chastity Bill, approved by the Iranian Parliament in September 2023 and awaiting ratification from the regime’s Guardian Council. Taleblu said AI has become "the cherry on the sundae of Iran’s digital repression, whether that starts with very crude tools like CCTV in a shop or whatever repository of purportedly criminal behavior that the regime puts at the feet of these AI sorting tools. Because humans don't have to make the linkages, it frees up more manpower for mischief from the Iranian repressive apparatus."

Read the full story ›

Muslim migrants head out of Slovenia toward Europe. More than 1.3 million made their way to the wealthy welfare state of Germany, welcomed by the government of Chancellor Angela Merkel.

(RMX NEWS) – Aleksandra Fedorska who works for independent radio WNET and news outlet Biznes Alert has reported that migrants are being handed over to Polish border guards by German officers and are then transferred to hostels in bordering areas.

According to her, many of the migrants have told staff that they arrived in Germany from the Netherlands, Austria and other countries, rather than via Poland.

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The Polish journalist asked German federal police for data on illegal migrants on the border with Poland. According to the data produced, Germany has sent back 3,500 migrants out of the 5,600 people who are alleged to have crossed from Poland into Germany illegally.

Read the full story ›

Residential doors in Ireland

(THE BLAZE) – The United States isn’t the only country overwhelmed by an influx of illegal immigrants, as Ireland is suffering a similar fate.

“God be with the days when it was just Polish immigrants,” YouTuber Keith Woods tells Lauren Chen. “People will be nostalgic for that soon. It’s happening in all the anglosphere countries, but like Canada, the U.S., Ireland — they all increased their population by about 3% in just the year after COVID purely through immigration,” Woods continues. “Ireland had a 3.5% increase in a single year in 2023, which is one of the biggest population increases ever in any country for any reason.”

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According to Woods, illegal immigration has exploded in Ireland “because the government has essentially advertised the services that are on offer here for asylum-seekers.”

Read the full story ›

More than $100 million worth of border-wall construction material has been left to rust after President Biden canceled contracts (Fox News via Twitter)

[Editor's note: This story originally was published by Real Clear Wire.]

By Philip Keuhlen
Real Clear Wire

Recent literature and documentaries do not emphasize enough the forethought and intentionality of Democrats’ migration policy and their blocking of consideration of legislation to secure our borders.

Background
In September 2010 President Barack Obama set the nation on a course to abandon U.S. sovereignty and open U.S. borders with Presidential Policy Directive 6, U.S. Global Development Policy (PPD-6). Presented as a complement to his National Security Strategy, PPD-6 declared development essential to national security objectives and elevated Development to a third pillar in U.S. security along with Defense and Diplomacy.

PPD-6 characterized foreign assistance as creating conditions where it is no longer needed. It signaled accountability based on assessment: policies and programs that did not yield results would be phased out. Recipients of assistance would be accountable for achieving results within their borders, underscoring country ownership and responsibility.

Other PPD-6 provisions had dire implications for U.S. Security. It strengthened the roles of multilateral organizations and non-governmental organizations (NGO), prioritizing partnership (some might opine collusion) with private parties and NGOs from policy conception to implementation. It committed to building USAID into the lead development agency, divorcing development policy from strategic national security objectives.

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The Obama administration also ended the national security/law enforcement framework used to screen visa applications for associations with known/suspected terrorist organizations. The State Department Civil Rights Division and the DHS Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties fundamentally restructured U.S. practices for vetting individuals for U.S. entry. They purged intelligence databases used by CBP of data on affiliations with terrorist networks. Shifting to a policy of “engagement and dialog” the agencies responsible for assuring homeland security focused on maximizing entry, intentionally blinded to threats.

The Pump Fake
At the end of the UN 15-year Millennium Challenge the Obama administration entered negotiations to define a new set of goals. Recognized by his Nobel Peace Prize for creating policies in which multilateral diplomacy and international institutions played a central role, Obama’s administration steered development of the successor Agenda 2030. Framing Development policy with respect to advancing national security objectives in his prior term, Obama pivoted radically, negotiating a broader, more ambitious set of international objectives resting upon a new commitment to universality.

President Obama introduced Agenda 2030 in “U.S. Global Development Policy and Agenda 2030” (9/27/15). Stressing continuity, it contained no mention of the seismic shift in policy  from serving U.S. national interests to serving international interests/objectives. Strategic Development Goal (SDG)10, Reduce Inequality, is particularly important, committing the US to “Facilitate orderly, safe, regular and responsible migration and mobility of people, including through the implementation of planned and well managed migration policies.”

Obama had totally jettisoned PPD 6 and transformed U.S. policy from creating local conditions where assistance was not needed, to the mass relocation of populations from less developed nations to more developed nations, with costs borne by the receiving nations.

Consumed by domestic politics, Obama had little opportunity to act on Agenda 2030’s SDG 10. The election of Donald Trump further deferred implementation, as that administration focused on enforcement of U.S. immigration law. But the stage was set for the next Democrat to win the presidency to act on the Obama strategy.

The Full Court Press
Before his inauguration, Biden’s team signaled its intent to reverse immigration policies and dramatically expand mass migration. In November 2020 the Biden team announced Anthony Mayorkas as its Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security nominee. Mayorkas was the Obama administration’s principal architect of its 2012 Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy that allowed 690K-800K individuals unlawfully present, to be deferred from deportation and become eligible for a work permit.

On his first day as President, Biden issued a memorandum to the Attorney General and Director of Homeland Security to stop efforts to contest DACA and institute practices to preserve and strengthen it. Acknowledging that the subjects were in the country illegally, Biden established considerations outside the immigration statutes (e.g., “humanitarian concerns” and “contributions to our economy”) and directed prosecutorial discretion with respect to migration outside of statutory bases.

The same day, Biden’s Executive Order 13993 “Revision of Civil Immigration Enforcement Policies and Priorities” revoked Executive Order 13768 that had directed agencies to enforce immigration laws and prioritize processing individuals who were ineligible for admission on criminal conviction or security grounds, had been charged/convicted of criminal acts in the U.S., made fraudulent official statements, abused receipt of public funds, or were subject to a removal order.  E.O. 13768 strengthened relations between federal, state, and local authorities on immigration and authorized withholding federal funds from Sanctuary Jurisdictions that willfully failed to comply with 8 U.S.C. 1373 concerning exchange of information on the citizenship/immigration status of individuals with the INS.

Biden’s transformation of U.S. policy from managing immigration to opening borders to mass migration continued with the issuance of three Executive Orders in his first month. Executive Order 14010 enhanced pathways for migration and broadened exercise of discretion in the asylum system. Executive Order 14012 encouraged migration, enhanced access to public services  at taxpayer expense, and reduced the numbers refused entry. Executive Order 14013 expanded refugee resettlement programs.

Biden’s Executive Orders revoked Executive Orders 13767, 13815, and 13888, five Presidential Memoranda, and Presidential Proclamation 9880 that:

• • Secured southern border with a border wall.
  • Detained individuals apprehended on suspicion of violating Federal or State law.
  • Removed individuals whose claims to remain in the United States were rejected.
  • Cooperated with state/local law enforcement to enforce immigration law.
  • Resettled refugees only in jurisdictions in that consented.
  • Enforced existing grounds of inadmissibility.
  • Prevented entry of foreign nationals who may commit violent, criminal, or terrorist acts.
  • Ended “Catch and Release” at the border.

Biden’s actions can only be understood as preplanned initiatives to abandon sovereign control of the United States border. Biden aggressively shifted policy to encourage and facilitate mass migration and ended any pretense of controlling unlawful entry.

The “Dream Team”
The Biden administration contains selected Obama retreads groomed for implementing migration policy. Biden succeeded dramatically, exploding mass migration to more than 9 million CBP illegal border encounters in Biden’s 3.5 years. Ellis Island processed only 12M immigrants in 62 years.

Anthony Mayorkas - Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Mayorkas served in the Obama administration as the Director of the Citizenship and Immigration Service and as Deputy Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. Mayorkas is the architect of Obama’s DACA policy,

Blas Nuñez-Neto – Assistant Secretary for Border and Immigration Policy (DHS) Nunez-Neto was a Senate advisor on border security and immigration enforcement and a senior advisor to the CBP Commissioner during the Obama years. He is the CBP Chief Operating Officer, concurrently serving as the Acting Assistant Secretary for Border and Immigration Policy and Vice Chair for the Secretary of Homeland Security’s Southwest Border Taskforce.

Samantha Powers – USAID Administrator Prior to joining the Biden administration Power served on the National Security Council staff as Special Assistant to President Obama and Senior Director for Multilateral Affairs and Human Rights from 2009 to 2013. Subsequently she was the U.S. Representative to the UN, leading the effort on the U.N. Agenda 2030.

Marcela Escobari – USAID Assistant Administrator - Bureau for Latin America and the Caribbean Escobari previously served in the Obama-Biden Administration in this role and helped USAID expand regional programs. She spearheads USAID efforts to expand migration.

 Amy Pope – Director General, International Organization for Migration (IOM) Before joining IOM, Pope was Deputy Homeland Security Advisor to President Obama developing strategies for migration. She was Biden’s Senior Advisor on Migration before appointment to the IOM as Deputy Director General. Promoted to Director General, she has focused on putting the IOM on a new strategic path to facilitate international migration.

Clearly, key Biden appointees responsible for the security of the U.S. border and enforcement of immigration law, with sponsored U.N. officials, were selected for their commitment to expanding mass migration at the cost of billions of taxpayer dollars and circumventing laws intended to limit, control, and regulate immigration and assure U.S. security.

Security Impacts
Under Biden CBP encounters with PRC illegals (~ 145K) are up sharply. Over 86% were unaccompanied adults of military age. That is the size of 9 Army Divisions, approximately one-third the size of our active-duty Army. We don't know where they are since they were released into the interior on their own recognizance. The CBP does not tabulate encounter stats for any Islamic state, but from reports of illegals detained who are on terror watch lists, they occur and are lumped into the “Other” statistical category, which includes over 651K individuals under Biden, with 80% similarly unaccompanied adults caught, released, and not tracked. Russian illegals are tabulated and there were 120K of them since FY 21, with 54% unaccompanied adults.

Further examination shows CBP intercepted about three shipments of explosives, 50 shipments of long guns and other weapons, 1200 shipments of handguns, and 300 shipments of ammunition inbound to the U.S. each year of the Biden administration. No data is published to suggest what the number of similar undetected shipments might be. Explosives loss and theft data published by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms are available only for the first two years of the Biden administration but show approximately 80 incidents of lost explosives and 3-4 incidents of explosives theft per year.

Taken together such data must be a significant portion of the reason why FBI Director Wray made headlines in Bloomberg on March 12, 2024, stating that terrorist threats toward the US have reached a “whole other level.”

This breach of homeland security is the direct, foreseeable result of Biden’s replacement of statutorily managed immigration with facilitated mass migration. As commonly understood in law and the social sciences, ‘treason’ is a significant breach of public trust by an official. Biden’s weaponization of mass migration rises to the level of an impeachable act under the “other high crimes and misdemeanors” clause of Article II, Section 4, if not Article III, Section 3. Three key elements are necessary for such offense to constitute treason:

• an obligation of allegiance to the legal order,
• inten to violate that obligation, and
• action to violate that obligation.

The shoe fits, let them wear it.

Phillip Keuhlen is a retired naval officer and nuclear industry senior manager. He was educated at the U.S. Naval Academy and the Naval Postgraduate School and had the privilege to command USS Sam Houston (SSN-609), a nuclear submarine. He writes on topics related to governance and national security.

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(FOX BUSINESS) – A majority of middle-class Americans are experiencing financial hardship that they expect will continue for the rest of their lives, according to a new poll.

Findings published by the National True Cost of Living Coalition show that 65% of Americans whose incomes are 200% above the national poverty line – which is about $62,300 for a family of four, often considered middle class – said they are struggling financially. Respondents include those with high school diplomas and graduate degrees as well as blue- and white-collar workers who live in both rural and urban America.

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While many of these people said they are able to afford the most basic expenses, they expressed concern about their inability to save for the future. Tellingly, about 40% of Americans said they are unable to plan beyond their next paycheck, while another 46% said they do not have $500 saved for emergencies.

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Cadets toss their hats in the air as the Thunderbirds fly over Falcon Stadium at the U.S. Air Force Academy Commencement ceremony, Thursday, June 1, 2023, in Colorado Springs, Colorado. (Official White House Photo by Cameron Smith)

(BROWNSTONE) – During their final year at the Air Force Academy (AFA), cadets choose the specific jobs they will be assigned while on active duty. This crucial decision, made in the nascence of one’s career, has far-reaching implications with regard to career advancement. The Air Force Specialty Code (AFSC) links available jobs with an alphanumeric designation, and not surprisingly, pilot training represents the most popular AFSC for graduating cadets at the AFA. But the second choice is astonishing for cadets who have received a four-year education worth $416,000 at an institution that is tasked to train career Air Force officers.

The minimum commitment for an AFA education is five years of active duty service, and the AFSCs that obligate cadets for the least amount of payback time represent the second most popular job selections in the aggregate. The act is known among cadets as “dive in five,” and it is borne of disillusionment and the realization that DEI-entrenched military leadership, quota-based promotions, and falling standards are not what they signed up for.

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DEI’s nonsensical, unsupported claims that phenotype and sexual identity are indispensable components of superior military performance and the intimidating effect of DEI political officers embedded within the cadet wing breed cynicism and psychological fatigue. Recent undercover investigative reporting that exposes blatant corruption within Air Force DEI programs and an admission of DEI’s lack of benefit affirms the negative view of DEI held by most cadets. If the real Air Force is at all similar to the academy experience, then why devote a career to an organization with priorities more in line with Cloward-Piven than the Constitution?

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(HEADLINE USA) – Instead of acknowledging, celebrating and honoring an estimated 160,000 soldiers who stormed the beaches of Normandy, the far-left Google decided to celebrate a female writer who became popular only because leftist elites pushed her works, which were about her lesbian relationships.

Google spent the 80th anniversary of D-Day “Celebrating Jeanne Córdova” by inserting a cartoon image of the lesbian author and activist on the main page of the leftist search engine that hides explicitly conservative websites from people’s results, the Gateway Pundit reported.

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Córdova died in 2016 at the age of 67 in Los Angeles, far from German machine-gun fire, according to the Wikipedia page Google pushed as its top result for the writer who became recognized only for her sexuality.

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(THE POST MILLENNIAL) – Three teenagers have been arrested after they allegedly vandalized a Pride flag-painted intersection in Spokane, Washington by leaving skid marks with the Lime scooters they were riding on.

Police received a 911 call about multiple people on scooters "causing damage to the newly painted Pride mural" on June 5 just after 9 pm, according to the Spokane Police Department. Four suspects were reportedly seen damaging the mural, while several witnesses said that one of the subjects yelled obscenities at them before leaving the area.

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Officers said the damage to the mural was "black scuff marks consistent with scooter wheels," and that these marks were left across the mural. The mural had recently been repainted after a May 16 incident in which multiple people dumbed a liquid on the mural and set it on fire, according to KREM.

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Joe Biden and union members building Intel's Ocotillo Campus walk onstage before announcing $20 billion in investments to ramp up production of semiconductor chips under the CHIPS & Science Act, Wednesday, March 20, 2024, in Chandler, Arizona. (Official White House photo by Adam Schultz)

(DAILY CALLER) – Rampant inflation and President Joe Biden’s favoring of left-wing policies are contributing to a lack of progress on his landmark infrastructure law, analysts told the Daily Caller.

Two and a half years after Congress ratified the $1.2 trillion Bipartisan Infrastructure Law in November of 2021, there has been very little concrete progress on new roads or bridges. The trillions of federal dollars the Biden administration has poured into the economy may actually be hindering the completion of the infrastructure that Biden promised to build, analysts told the Caller.

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“Right now, the inputs cost 31 percent more than they did in January 2021,” David Ditch, a senior policy analyst at the Heritage Foundation, told the Daily Caller. “They’ve been flat for, frankly, about two years at this point, but they increased so dramatically right away that even though the amount of available money for highway projects is much higher now than it was in 2021, the value of that spending is lower.”

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(MODERNITY) – On May 30th, Donald Trump was found guilty on 34 counts of… falsifying records of something, no one really quite knows what. A week later on June 6th, Trump announced that he has raised $400 MILLION since the verdict.

Speaking at a Turning Point Action town hall event in Arizona, Trump stated “I just went through a rigged trial in New York with a highly conflicted, and I mean highly conflicted, judge where there was no crime.”

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“They didn’t want to bring the case. They could have brought the case seven years ago. It’s only when you run for office they bring cases,” Trump continued. Trump further noted that he is “beating Biden, by the way, by a lot,” adding that following the conviction, “more campaign funds were given to this campaign than any campaign they think in history, almost $400 million.”

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Joe Biden holds a coaster with the presidential seal while he talks on the phone with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Thursday, Oct. 5, 2023, in the Oval Office. (Official White House photo by Cameron Smith)

Jason Cohen
Daily Caller News Foundation

Comedian Bill Maher said on Friday that President Joe Biden’s newly unveiled immigration executive order is an attempt to boost his reelection chances that is doomed to fail.

Biden unveiled the order Tuesday following months of asserting there was no action he could take to mitigate the crisis, with the executive action halting new asylum requests once the number of migrants crossing into the U.S. reaches a daily average of 2,500 over the span of a week. Maher said on “Real Time with Bill Maher” the immigration issue is a key barrier to Biden’s reelection, but that the executive order will not satisfy anybody.

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“I think if Biden loses this election, it’s gonna be because of two things,” Maher said. “He’s old and he can’t get past that issue and people just hate that about him. And immigration. I mean, just on a political level, I don’t think they could’ve handled it worse. Because now what’s going on … he’s finally, after saying he couldn’t do anything, he’s gonna issue an executive order. By the way, this is the same executive order Trump tried to get through the courts and they didn’t let him do it.”

WATCH:

“But he’s gonna finally try it six months before the election, which says we’ll put a cap of 2,500 now asylum seekers coming in,” the comedian continued. “If it passes 2,500, if it’s 2,501 then we automatically close the border. Fire marshal says, ‘No more.’ He’s gonna come here and close the club. And if you don’t have a stamp on your hand, you can’t get back in.”

There have been at least six million southern border encounters during Biden’s presidency. Biden faced criticism from both sides of the aisle after announcing the executive order.

“But when it goes down to 1,500, then we resume standard asylum procedures. It’s like surge pricing with Uber,” Maher joked. “It’s a bizarre scheme that of course has pleased nobody. It looks like he did nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing. Of course, he did try through Congress and the Republicans purposely spiked that football … but now it looks like this is his last minute before the election Hail Mary pass. And it’s not going to succeed.”

Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

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Robert Schmad
Daily Caller News Foundation

Big names in the cryptocurrency and venture capital worlds, some of whom are former Democratic donors, are throwing their support behind former President Donald Trump.

Venture capitalists David Sacks and Chamath Palihapitiya organized a high-dollar fundraiser for the former president Thursday night in San Francisco, raising $12 million for the Trump 47 Joint Fundraising Committee at a sold-out fundraiser where tickets cost up to $500,000 per couple. Coinbase Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal, prolific tech investor Shervin Pishevar as well as Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, famous for their dispute with Mark Zuckerberg over the founding of Facebook, all attended the event, a source familiar with the fundraiser told the Daily Caller News Foundation

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“In 2016, the number of people from Silicon Valley I knew who supported Trump was a sample of one, which was Peter [Thiel],” Jacob Helberg, a senior adviser to Palantir, told Reuters. “Today I count them in the dozens, if not more than that. Over the course of the past six months, we’ve started to see the dam break,” he continued.

Helberg recently made a $1 million donation to Trump’s 2024 reelection effort after previously supporting Democratic candidates.

“The social cost of supporting Trump isn’t as great as it was,” Helberg said of Silicon Valley society, many members of which see that “Trump was right on a lot of make-or-break issues for America.”

Palihapitiya, previously an executive at Facebook who now operates as a venture capitalist, was also a major supporter of Democrats, pouring $1.3 million into the party between 2011 and 2021 before fundraising for Trump, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

Both former President Barack Obama’s campaigns and Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign benefitted from Pishevar’s giving, with the investor lending cash and allowing his home to be used as a fundraising venue to help get Democrats elected, according to Deadline. Some Democrats, however, have cut ties with Pishevar following allegations of sexual misconduct, despite him having been a major donor to the party, as evidenced by Federal Election Commission (FEC) records. Pishevar also donated to Republican Senate candidates in Georgia in 2020.

“I just donated $300k to Trump,” Sequoia Capital partner and former Hillary Clinton donor Shaun Maguire wrote on X in May.

“I know that I’ll lose friends for this. Some will refuse to do business with me. The media will probably demonize me, as they have so many others before me. But despite this, I still believe it’s the right thing to do,” he continued.

Maguire cited President Joe Biden’s handling of the Afghanistan withdrawal, his insufficient support for Israel and double standards in the media in covering Trump and Biden when explaining his decision to support Trump. Helberg also cited Biden’s approach to Israel in explaining his support for Trump.

Free market capitalism, baby

— Shaun Maguire (@shaunmmaguire) June 7, 2024

Grewal’s partisan allegiances are less well-defined, with FEC records showing the cryptocurrency executive recently donating to both Republican and Democratic campaigns. Other Coinbase executives were also at the fundraiser, according to Reuters.

Support from Coinbase’s leadership and the Winklevoss twins, who run the cryptocurrency exchange platform Gemini, followed Biden’s veto of a congressional attempt to limit how the Securities and Exchange Commission could regulate digital currencies.

“That might have been just the final domino,” San Francisco tech executive Trevor Traina told Reuters, in reference to the veto. Both Sacks and Palihapitiya own significant amounts of cryptocurrency.

The crypto industry has broadly ramped up its efforts to influence policy, with super PACs tied to the crypto industry raising $102 million so far this cycle, according to Reuters. Fairshake, a large crypto-backed super PAC, spent over $10 million opposing Democratic California Rep. Katie Porter in the state’s Senate primary, campaign finance records show.

The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.

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Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas

Harold Hutchison
Daily Caller News Foundation

MSNBC host Joy Reid laughed when a guest unleashed a racially charged rant targeting Supreme Court Associate Justice Clarence Thomas and other black Republicans and conservatives Thursday evening.

Elie Mystal, the justice correspondent for The Nation, claimed that Thomas, Republican Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, Republican Rep. Byron Donalds of Florida and conservative commentator Candace Owens held their views and expressed them for money when Reid mentioned a report from Fix the Court, which claims that Thomas has received over $4 million in gifts during his tenure on the Supreme Court.

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“I think it’s important for people to ask what are these people paying for? What are they getting for their $4 million they have given to Clarence Thomas over the past 20 years? What they’re getting, just to link your last segment together, what they’re getting is what Byron Donalds wants,” Mystal told Reid. “What they’re getting is Jim Crow. What they’re getting is a guy like Clarence Thomas who like Byron Donalds’ entire judicial philosophy is that well, some negroes are magic. No matter what the white man does to us, we can just rise above as long as they don’t shoot us or kill us or rape us or drown us. If you tell people that, if you’re black, if you’re Donalds, if you’re Thomas and you tell white people that, they will give you money.”

WATCH:

Joy Reid Bursts Into Laughter As MSNBC Guest Goes On Racial Tirade Against Clarence Thomas, Black Republicans pic.twitter.com/w53DoKdDYo

— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) June 7, 2024

“That’s what’s happened to Clarence Thomas for 20 years,” Mystal continued. “He’s told white folks exactly what they want to hear, ruled exactly as they would like him to rule. And done it as their black friend, and so the money is just pouring out, and you see it in these reports where, again, Clarence Thomas — in the figures that we saw today, you know, Sam Alito made like $200,000 [in] disclosed gifts over the past 20 years. Antonin Scalia, the hero of their movement, around $200,000. Clarence Thomas, $4 million.”

Donalds, seen as a potential vice presidential pick for former President Donald Trump, clashed with the MSNBC host earlier Thursday over a discussion about marriage rates for black families.

Reid shook her head as Mystal continued his rant.

“It’s wild,” the MSNBC host said.

“That’s why Tim Scott exists, that’s why Byron Donalds exists, that’s why Candace Owens exists, because the grift is good,” Mystal said. “There’s a lot of money in telling white folks what they need to hear.”

Scott and Donalds did not immediately respond to requests for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.

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Hillary Clinton

(MODERNITY) – Two time presidential loser Hillary Clinton used the 80th anniversary of D-Day as a way of attacking Donald Trump and comparing him to Hitler.

Hillary directly compared the fight against Nazi Germany during World War Two to voting against Trump in the upcoming election. Worse still, Clinton equated those who will vote against Trump to soldiers who put their lives on the line in the Normandy landings.

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Hillary disabled the comments on the post because the consensus among pretty much everyone who saw it is that it is disgusting and completely lacking in respect.

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[Editor's note: This story originally was published by Real Clear Wire.]

By Adam Andrzejewski
Real Clear Wire

Topline: The IRS has never been the most popular government agency, but a new audit report says their customer service is so poor it could lead to tax returns being filed incorrectly or not at all.

Key facts: The IRS runs 363 in-person Taxpayer Assistance Centers to help people fill out their taxes or get legal advice.

But the process for changing or cancelling an appointment at one of the centers creates a “burden” for taxpayers because many IRS customer service agents don’t have access to the software that lets them view or change in-person appointments.

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There’s a baffling reason for that: the agency pays for 2,500 software licenses each year so agents can edit appointments, but auditors found 768 licenses not even being used.

Each license costs $56 annually, so that’s $43,000 spent last year on the unused licenses.

When customers call the IRS to edit or cancel an appointment, they are instructed to hang up and call a different “Appointment Telephone Line” number.

Agents were not allowed to transfer calls directly to the Appointment Telephone Line, though managers could not explain to auditors why this policy is in place. It was changed last December.

Even some agents working the Appointment Telephone Line don’t have access to the correct software. They’re forced to transfer calls to yet another IRS agent who can finally provide assistance. There were 144,005 transferred calls in fiscal year 2023, according to the audit report.

Last year 75,000 people did not show up to scheduled in-person appointments at Taxpayer Assistance Centers, which auditors said is likely because they got frustrated with customer service and gave up on canceling their appointment.

Critical quote: Auditors wrote that, “The lack of a streamlined appointment process can result in extended wait times … which can potentially delay taxpayer return filings and reduce the public’s trust in the IRS’s efficiency.”

Background: The IRS “Taxpayer Bill of Rights” says everyone is entitled to “prompt, courteous, and professional assistance” with their taxes.

But the IRS disconnected 6.1 million phone calls in fiscal year 2022 and 1.5 million calls in fiscal year 2023 because they didn’t have enough agents manning customer service lines, according to the audit report.

Meanwhile, the IRS paid six-figure salaries to 11,486 employees last year, according to OpenTheBooks.com. What are all those staffers doing if not assisting taxpayers?

Summary: The $43,000 the IRS spent on its unused software licenses is just a tiny fraction of the agency’s total budget, but it’s representative of much larger issues with tax simplicity and transparency.

The #WasteOfTheDay is brought to you by the forensic auditors at OpenTheBooks.com

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(FOX NEWS) – The discovery of the potential for thousands of tons of lithium to be extracted annually from wastewater generated by fracking in the Marcellus Shale leaves proponents of a green energy future at a crossroads, Republicans said Thursday.

A University of Pittsburgh study suggested processing byproducts from natural gas production in Pennsylvania's Marcellus Shale basin could potentially meet nearly half of U.S. lithium needs. The typical electric vehicle (EV) requires nearly 18 pounds of lithium to power its battery. That figure grows exponentially for Teslas, according to reports.

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Rep. Guy Reschenthaler, R-Pa., who represents much of the Marcellus territory, told Fox News he wants to see those on the left change their tune. "Now nearly 40% of our nation’s domestic need for lithium can be found right here as a byproduct of fracking," he said. "I fully expect every single Democrat to join Republicans in supporting domestic natural gas development."

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Audrey Hale shot and killed six people, including three children, at The Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee, on March 27. (@nypost / Twitter)

Harold Hutchison
Daily Caller News Foundation

Writings of the transgender shooter who attacked a private school in Nashville reportedly included fantasies of an imaginary penis and descriptions of simulated bestiality sessions that would last hours, according to The Tennessee Star.

The Star obtained writings from Audrey Hale, the 28-year-old female shooter who identified as transgender, who killed three children and three adults at Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee, before being engaged and fatally wounded by law enforcement March 27, 2023. The writings were retrieved from Hale’s vehicle, The Tennessee Star reported.

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“My penis exists in my head,” Hale wrote in a three-page essay called “My Imaginary Penis,” according to The Star. “I swear to god I’m a male.”

Hale also described instances in her writings where she would have a male human doll simulate sexual activity with a stuffed animal, getting so involved in the fantasies that she would miss gym, The Star reported.

In other writings, Hale wrote that she was “born wrong” and “my body does not make me a female,” The Star reported.

Hale also wrote about the time “I leave my body behind and the boy in me will be free; in the butterfly transformation” and added, “If God won’t give me a boy body in heaven, then Jesus is a f*****.”

Portions of Hale’s writings were leaked to conservative media figure Steven Crowder in November, prompting an investigation by authorities that led to seven officers being assigned to administrative duties. The Metro Nashville Police Department opposed the release of the writings.

The FBI also opposed release of Hale’s writings in a May 2023 memo also obtained by The Tennessee Star.

“Public access to legacy tokens will also facilitate false narratives and inaccurate information. For personal gain, self-professed ‘experts’ will proffer their perspectives on the motivations behind the attack,” the memo read. “Many of these pontificators will be inexperienced or untrained, and therefore inaccurate in their assessment, further confusing or potentially inflaming the public. This also may lead to unintended consequences for the segment of the population more vulnerable or open to conspiracy theories, which will undoubtedly abound.”

President Joe Biden, Congressional Democrats, media figures and celebrities demanded a ban on so-called “assault weapons” in the wake of the shooting.

The Metro Nashville Police Department declined to comment when contacted by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

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June has been designated by those promoting that LGBT alternative lifestyle choices as "Pride" month.

They have various events, celebrations, festivities and the like.

And according to a new lawsuit, they actually force people to participate in their agenda.

A report from Liberty Counsel explains it is Capt. Jeffery Little, a Christian and lifeguard, who has sued the Los Angeles County Fire Department for its illegal religious discrimination, retaliation and harassment.

Department officials were provoked by Little's decision to decline on religious grounds to raise a "Progress Pride Flag" at his beachside station last year during the designated "Pride" month.

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"Little, a 22-year county employee, alleges the Los Angeles County Fire Department denied his religious accommodation request, belittled his religious beliefs, punished him, and threatened him with 'suspension and/or discharge' from service for not complying with a county mandate to fly the flag during the month of June 2023," the legal team explained.

Liberty Counsel founder Mat Staver said, "Religious beliefs matter. The Los Angeles County Fire Department makes a mockery of both the law and religion by blatantly infringing on Captain Jeffery Little’s sincerely held beliefs. There is no compelling government interest in this case to force someone to raise an ideologically divisive flag. People do not have to choose between their faith or their job."

The case is being handled for Little by the Thomas More Society, with help from Liberty Counsel.

The problem stems from a 2023 resolution from the county's supervisors that demanded county locations fly the "Pride" flag which contains a rainbow of colors.

According to his recently filed complaint, Little follows "traditional Christian beliefs regarding the moral illicitness of same-sex activity, the immutability of sex regardless of gender identity, and the view that all people are children of God regardless of their skin color."

He had requested a religious exemption so he would not have to personally raise the flag, because it represents an ideology in direct conflict with his faith.

The response was a refusal and orders to raise the flag. His division chief told him his beliefs "do not matter."

Then followed retaliation by other fire department officials who confronted him, removed him from some assignments, targeted him with pretextual complaints and talked about his religious objections to third parties.

That led to a death threat being sent to his home, the report said.

For the same mandate this year, his exemption request has been ignored.

The Thomas More Society alleges the fire county’s actions "were done with malice, fraud, oppression, and reckless disregard of Plaintiff Little’s rights." The lawsuit seeks compensatory damages and a permanent injunction against the Los Angeles County Fire Department to uphold Little’s protected rights.

Liberty Counsel is assisting the Thomas More Society to make religious accommodation resources available to several thousand Los Angeles County firefighters.

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(DAILY WIRE) – Far-left commentator Briahna Joy Gray, a former staffer for socialist Senator Bernie Sanders (VT), was fired by The Hill on Thursday, which comes after she generated significant backlash this week for rolling her eyes at a survivor of Hamas’ October 7 terrorist attack.

Gray, now a former co-host of The Hill’s “Rising,” posted a screenshot of the email that she claims she got that informed her she would no longer be employed by the company.

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“It finally happened. The Hill has fired me. There should be no doubt that @RisingTheHill has a clear pattern of suppressing speech,” she claimed.

Read the full story ›

(Pixabay)

[Editor's note: This story originally was published by Real Clear Wire.]

By Susan Crabtree
Real Clear Wire

After an impressive close second-place finish in the women’s 400-meter medley at the World Aquatics Championships in Qatar earlier this year, Israeli swimmer Anastasia Gorbenko acknowledged the emotional weight of representing her country amid global turmoil over the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas and Israel’s counter-offensive in Gaza.

“I’m just so happy to be here and represent my country in this hard time. Being here with the Israeli flag means a lot to me and to my country, so that’s the best I can do,” Gorbenko, whose parents are from Ukraine but was born and raised in Israel, said in an interview that was amplified to the crowd.

Some boos rained down from the crowd when Gorbenko crossed the finish line, but louder heckling began at the swimmer’s first mention of Israel in the interview. Others in the crowd quickly tried to drown out the jeers and boos with applause and cheers. It was the first time Gorbenko has medaled in the World Championships in the 400-meter medley, though she’s been a strong competitor in the past, finishing the 2021 World Championships with a gold in both the 50-meter breaststroke and the 100-meter medley.

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The meet’s organizers provided more security for the medal ceremony and the victory walk, and the crowd wasn’t allowed as close to the ceremony as usual. The award presentation went off without a hitch, but the anti-Israel message was delivered, making international headlines on CNN, the Associated Press, Reuters, and numerous other news outlets.

The incident came as no surprise to parents and supporters of the Israeli Olympic swimming team, who had spent months urging the World Aquatics Federation to relocate the February meet planned for Doha to a more neutral location.

They argued that failing to do so would risk the Israeli team’s security and subject the young athletes to a predictable intimidation campaign that could impact their performances. Nearly all of those who didn’t attend were training on U.S. college campuses, including the University of California at Berkeley, Northwestern University, and Stanford University, where intense antisemitic protests have been roiling campuses for months, with many Jewish students expressing outrage and fear over being targeted for their faith and Jewish and Israeli heritage.

But the federation didn’t budge and moved forward with the World Championship in Doha as planned.

That event typically would have determined who qualifies for the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris. Gorbenko obviously qualified, and several others on the team are well positioned to make the cut. But those supporting the Israeli team argue that the athletes who decided to sit out the Doha meet are no longer operating on a level playing field with their peers in other countries.

Even the three Israeli women’s team members who decided to compete in Doha took precautions by traveling with extra security and covering any logos mentioning Israel on their clothing and gear.

Now, some of the team’s supporters are pressing the International Olympic Committee and the World Aquatics Federation to provide more Olympic qualifying opportunities for the Israel athletes who decided to stay home and not risk competing in Doha.

Those supporting the Israeli swim team are pressing the federation for answers – Why should the athletes who decided not to attend the Doha event out of concern for their safety and ability to compete at their highest performance levels while under duress be punished when there’s such an easy fix?

The IOC and World Aquatics could easily allow make-up qualifying opportunities during the team trials in Netanya, Israel, scheduled this week from June 5-8, or at the European Championships in Belgrade June 10-23, advocates of the accommodation argue. Adding time trials, which are routinely conducted in connection with major meets, wouldn’t require extra costs or logistical issues.

Proponents argue that any qualifying Israeli relay could easily be added to the roster as a 17th team, and the athletes could swim in an unused lane in each of the added preliminary heats during the Olympics.

“I urgently request the IOC allow the Israel team to implement time-trials during their own Olympic trials in Netanya [this week] – where they can try to qualify for three additional relay events,” said Eric Spitz, a Jewish tech and sports businessman whose daughter is a dual citizen of Israel and the United States and an Israeli women’s swim team member. “This would allow Israeli athletes who could not compete safely in Doha a fair chance to chase their Olympic dreams.”

In his letter to the IOC, Spitz also referenced the 1972 Olympics massacre that occurred in Munich’s Olympic Village more than a half-century ago. Attackers affiliated with the Palestine Liberation Organization infiltrated Munich’s Olympic Village and carried out the attack, which would eventually leave 11 Israeli athletes dead, along with a West German policeman and five of the eight assailants.

After the death of his Olympic teammates, legendary swimmer Mark Spitz (no relation to Eric Spitz), who won seven gold medals and set seven world records at the 1972 Munich games, was forced to flee Germany in haste, hidden under a blanket and fearing for his life.

During a 2022 event in Tel Aviv, IOC President Thomas Bach demonstrated a keen awareness of Jewish athletes’ security concerns. During a 2022 event in Tel Aviv, he apologized for waiting 50 years to commemorate the Israeli victims of the Munich Massacre “in a dignified way,” labeling the event one of the “darkest days in Olympic history.”

Earlier this year, Bach also acknowledged the need for “special measures” to be taken to protect Israeli athletes, given the “heinous attack” on the Israeli team in 1972.

“The 1972 Munich Olympics serve as a tragic reminder of what happens when Olympic values are compromised, so let us not repeat those mistakes,” Eric Spitz wrote in his letter, addressed to IOC members.

The IOC declined to comment on whether it would provide more qualifying opportunities for the Israeli swimmers and suggested to RealClearPolitics that World Aquatics would be better suited to respond to questions about the need for more qualifying times for relays. World Aquatics did not provide a response to RCP’s repeated inquiries.

Deciding not to move the World Championship out of Qatar rankled advocates for fair treatment of Jewish and Israeli athletes in all sports. The country has recently tried to burnish its image, hosting the World Cup in 2022 despite an avalanche of criticism from human rights groups, but the comments of its minister of foreign affairs blaming Israel for the Oct. 7 assault drew intense international condemnation.

Other efforts to discriminate against or treat Jewish or Israeli athletes differently this year have sparked international controversy. The International Ice Hockey Federation earlier this year banned Israeli athletes from international competitions as a way to protect their security but then abruptly reversed that decision after a fierce backlash.

The Israeli hockey team won the silver medal last year in its division. After the Oct. 7 attacks, the IIHF decided to move a portion of a competition, originally to be held in Israel, to Bulgaria. But the move to ban Israeli hockey players from all international competition did not sit well with the National Hockey League, which expressed “significant concerns” about the decision.

FIFA, soccer’s global governing body, in mid-May postponed a decision on whether to temporarily suspend Israel over its offensive in Gaza and the West Bank, saying it would seek legal advice before considering a request by the Palestinian Football Association to expel the Israeli team. The motion called for Israel’s suspension over what it characterized as “international law violations committed by the Israeli occupation in Palestine, particularly in Gaza.”

Iran made a similar request in February to bar Israel’s national and club teams from competing in international play. Palestine Football Association Jibril Rajoub formally submitted the request, urging FIFA to “stand on the right side of history.” But Rajoub is hardly an ideal spokesman for the cause, as David May, research manager for Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, points out in a recent article.

Rajoub earned a life sentence from Israel in 1970 for throwing a grenade at an Israeli military truck – though Jerusalem released him 15 years later in a prisoner exchange. Rajoub has continued the open public threats, declaring in 2013 that he would drop a nuclear bomb on Israel if given the opportunity.

“Intimidation and harassment of Israeli athletes, sadly, is nothing new,” May told RealClearPolitics in an interview. “While young Israelis face the greatest competitors in the world, they must also contend with hostile venues.”

“Fortunately for Anastasia, she was wearing earplugs, which helped drown out the jeers as she earned the silver medal, but the hostile, inhospitable environment added for her another layer of adversity,” he argued. “Qatar – and any other prospective host – should ensure that all athletes can compete fairly. Ensuring fair play is the bare minimum for hosting athletic events, which should bring people together, not serve as stages for discrimination and hostility.”

The IOC and World Aquatics is obligated, May said, to provide Israeli swimmers with opportunities to qualify “that don’t require them to travel to one of the main patrons of Hamas, a terrorist group committed to Israel’s destruction.”

Spitz argues it’s only fair to allow the Israeli swimmers, including his daughter, who sat out the Doha meet, a chance to qualify for the summer Olympic games at a location where she and others feel secure and can fully concentrate on their performances.

“[Anastasia] Gorbenko’s unfortunate experience is a testament to the resilience and spirit of Israeli athletes,” Spitz said. “It also serves as vindication for the decision of those athletes who declined to attend.”

“The IOC must step up and show the courage to do what is right,” Spitz implored. “You have the responsibility and the power to make a decision that prioritizes the safety and well-being of all athletes.”

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TerrorMoniter ASA posted this photo on Twitter, claiming it shows ISIS terrorists throwing a 15-year-old boy off a rooftop after they accused him of engaging in homosexual relations with a top ISIS officer (Photo: Twitter/TerrorMonitor)

Ever since the Oct. 7 Hamas terror against Israel, when soldiers from Gaza invaded Israel's territory and butchered some 1,200 people, often in horrific fashion like burning whole families together, there's been a growing movement for "Gays for Palestine."

Those groups have held protests, lobbied Congress and international leaders, staged events and more, all in their pro-Hamas, anti-Israel campaign.

And in support of Palestine. They chant "From the river to the sea," adopting the terrorists' demands that they eradicate Israel and control all of the land from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea.

But the work of that group, and that of "Queers for Palestine" is on shaky footing.

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It's because prominent Palestinian Islamics, both cultural and political figure heads, are joined in one opinion: Homosexuals "should be thrown head first from the rooftop of the tallest building."

According to the Middle East Media Research Institute, it is Jenin Islamic scholar Abd Al-Rahman Al-Zayoud who confirmed that in an Islamic society, "What is the local culture? The Islamic culture. If this call clashes with the local culture, the laws and covenants of the United Nations – which call for homosexuality – must be followed. So what do they want from us? What do they want from this society that follows the Islamic culture, which sees homosexuality and lesbianism as punishable by death? They want us to respect this and strip us of our religion."

Added Islamic scholar Youssef Makharzah on America's campaign of "perversion." "Your cows, your sheep, and even your donkeys, have never stopped to the level of perversion that America designs for you."

In fact, the Joe Biden administration has insisted on promoting the LGBT lifestyle choices, which offend Islamic traditions, around the globe, making such promotions mandatory where U.S. money is involved in projects.

And Makkharzah referenced monkeypox, charging, "This [variation] of smallpox afflicts monkeys, as well as their homosexual lookalikes. Since you behave like animals and beasts, Allah wanted to afflict you with the maladies of animals and beasts. After this disease appeared, they ran some tests and concluded that it is caused by homosexuality."

Samir Zaqout, an official for the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, said, "Most of the organizations of the homosexuals and most of the institutions that bring about economic destruction are to be found in that foundling of a country."

And Mohammed Saleem Ali, an imam at Al-Aqsa mosque, said, "Our Muslim Palestinian people will not accept a single homosexual openly declaring his abomination. Will you allow a single homosexual on the land of Jerusalem and Palestine? Will you allow that? No. Our people will not allow there to be institutions that promote this abomination, on the blessed, and pure land of Palestine."

Sheikh Yousef Abu Islam, a Palestinian Islamic scholar, threatened, "Allah punished male and female adulterers [only] with flogging or stoning, but when He decided to punish homosexuals, He said that they should be thrown head first from the rooftop of the tallest building, and then they should be stoned from the top."

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Harold Hutchison
Daily Caller News Foundation

Israeli military forces rescued four hostages taken during the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks, according to a statement from the Israeli Defense Forces.

Israeli forces freed Noa Argamani, 25, Almog Meir Jan, 21, Andrey Kozlov, 27, and Shlomi Ziv, 40, in raids on two locations in Nuseirat, the IDF said in a Saturday post on X. The four had been kidnapped during the Nova music festival during the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas that killed over 1,200 people.

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“Israeli special forces conducted a complex hostage rescue mission and successfully rescued four of our hostages from Hamas captivity in Gaza,” IDF spokesman RAdm. Daniel Hagari said in a video released Saturday.

WATCH:

Watch IDF Spokesperson RAdm. Daniel Hagari’s statement regarding our operation to bring Noa, Almog, Andrey and Shlomi back home: pic.twitter.com/Tt2wtE9121

— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) June 8, 2024

“They are back home in Israel. They are alive, they are well,” he added.

Noa Argamani (25), Almog Meir Jan (21), Andrey Kozlov (27), and Shlomi Ziv (40) were rescued in a special operation by the IDF, ISA and Israel Police from 2 separate locations in the heart of Nuseirat after being kidnapped by Hamas from the Nova music festival.

They are in good… pic.twitter.com/PnkjL4GRQz

— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) June 8, 2024

The operation took place around 11:00 Saturday morning, Hagari said. It occurred “in daylight, in two separate buildings deep inside Gaza, while under fire.”

The four are in “good medical condition and have been transferred to the ‘Sheba’ Tel-HaShomer Medical Center for further medical examinations,” the IDF wrote, noting that they will “continue to make every effort to bring the hostages home.”

The IDF announced in June four Israeli hostages held by Hamas had died.

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Maine's 'Lobster Lady' Virginia Oliver

(BREITBART) – Maine’s oldest active lobster trapper just turned 104, and she still has no plans of retiring after catching crustaceans for over nine decades.

Virginia Oliver began trapping lobsters off the coast of Rockland with her father at the age of eight, she told a local CBS station. That was before the Great Depression. She’s become quite a staple in her town over the years; her nickname is “the Lobster Lady” and she even stars as the subject of a book by the same name.

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After celebrating her hundred and fourth birthday on Thursday, Oliver is adamant that she’s going lobstering again this summer. “Oh, I’m going to go,” she told the outlet. Regardless of her age, Oliver says “‘I’m still the boss.”

Read the full story ›

(DC NEWS NOW) – Bailey Anne, the newly crowned Miss Maryland USA, joined DC News Now on Wednesday. She is the first trans woman to hold the coveted title, along with being the first Asian-American and military officer’s wife to represent the state.

Anne told morning anchor Cory James her history-making win was her first pageant. She said the moment she learned she won was a “whirlwind because I knew it was bigger than me. I knew that it was going to mean a lot for all the LGBTQ kids out there who might feel like they don’t belong in a box – like me growing up.”

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Anne hopes her win will encourage LGBTQ+ kids to be themselves. When asked if she had to overcome any fears of being the only trans woman in the pageant, Anne said she did not and felt supported by the “sisterhood” of women competing with her on stage.

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Miss Alabama

(MODERNITY) – An obese woman has won Miss Alabama, with the organizers of the contest insisting that the intention of the beauty pageant was to “foster a positive self-image.”

After Sara Milliken learned that she had won the competition and would go on to represent her state at the national level, she hit back at critics who questioned her weight. “Even something that you type over a screen can have a lasting impression on people,” she told WKRG.

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According to a report by the news network, “The purpose of the national American Miss program is to grow confidence and foster a positive self-image.” This despite the fact that the level of obesity displayed by Milliken is linked with all manner of horrible diseases like diabetes, heart disease, strokes, and certain cancers.

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Earth rising

(FOX NEWS) – The victim in a fatal plane crash Friday in Washington state has been identified as Retired Maj. Gen. William Anders, the former Apollo 8 astronaut who took the iconic "Earthrise" photo, his son Greg Anders confirmed to The Associated Press.

Just before noon, rescue crews responded to reports of a plane crash in Washington state between Orcas and Jones Island, the U.S. Coast Guard Pacific Northwest confirmed. "The family is devastated," Greg Anders told the AP. "He was a great pilot, and we will miss him terribly."

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During a telecast on Christmas Eve 1968, the Apollo 8 crew read verses from the first chapter of Genesis and wished viewers, "Good night, good luck, a Merry Christmas and God bless all of you – all of you on the good Earth."

Read the full story ›

A new song and music video is out this week, poised to become the theme song for the legend and greatest of all time known as President Donald J. Trump.

The controversial new song and music video declares President Trump as "the Chosen One."

The song and video were written and produced by platinum-selling country music star Natasha Owens and her songwriting partner, Grammy-nominated Ian Eskelin.

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But here's where it gets interesting:

The song was inspired and co-written by yours truly, Wayne Allyn Root.

The backstory is an "only in America" tale.

In July 2019, I was the prime-time TV host on Newsmax TV and took a live call on the air. The caller said, "Wayne, we love you, and we know you are Jewish ... and we know you are a proud Trump warrior. Would you explain why Jews are so liberal and why they vote against President Trump?"

Off the top of my head, I responded, "You know no one in the entire media fights harder for President Trump than me. He is the GOAT (greatest of all time). Look what he has done for Israel and the Jewish people. Trump is like the King of the Jews and the Chosen One."

The next morning, Trump tweeted out three times his thanks to me and included the video of my remarks in his tweets. Then Trump walked outside the White House and in front of the White House press corps looked toward the heavens and said, "I am the Chosen One."

Well, from that moment on, a media firestorm exploded across the globe attacking and demonizing President Donald J. Trump and Wayne Allyn Root.

Of course, par for the course, no one in the media ever bothered to ask me about the remarks. I would have told them they were made off the top of my head, with no script or teleprompter. They were meant to be colorful, and a little bit funny and sarcastic. They were taken completely out of context and blown up out of proportion.

But no one ever asked. The liberal media attack me in stories all the time and never asks me for my side of the story. Ever. So, stories attacking President Trump and Wayne Allyn Root appeared in newspapers, commentaries, editorials and TV news headlines around the world.

Fast forward to today.

After all Trump has been through, after all the persecution, witch hunts, impeachments, indictments and now the unjust conviction in New York, I am convinced Trump really is "the Chosen One."

He isn't a God; he is human. Although I believe "superhuman" is the best way to describe Trump. But I believe it's clear now that Trump has been chosen by God to be his warrior here on Earth.

God understands that only Trump is uniquely qualified to take on the deep state, D.C. swamp and communist/globalist cabal trying desperately to destroy this great country and enslave the American people.

There are precedents. God has chosen other great men to be his vessels and warriors to lead the battle on Earth, at the perfect time and perfect place.

Jesus Christ was demonized, condemned and found guilty at trial.

Moses was chosen by God to lead the Jewish people out of Egypt and out of bondage. Along the way, Moses was demonized, insulted, challenged and threatened again and again by his own people.

Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for decades before becoming the president of South Africa. Although I despised Mandela's ultra-left politics, Mandela "the man" rose above politics, ended the scourge of apartheid, became a legend and won over the world.

Mandela went from convict to president, just as Trump is about to do.

I believe President Trump has been chosen by God to fight for America, and for personal and religious freedom, and free speech, and opportunity and prosperity for Americans.

Trump has been proven the only man with the skills and battle-tested toughness to save America, make America great again and win the battle against the evil, powerful deep state.

And yes, I believe Trump has also been chosen to protect Israel and the Jewish people. Thank you, President Trump.

Trump really has been literally "chosen" by God because he is the only man in history who could withstand the fire, persecution, impeachments, indictments and even now the New York trial conviction, and could come out stronger.

He is not a God, but he is a God-inspired warrior who will go down in history as the GOAT (the greatest president of all time).

So, I went to Natasha Owens, who has the music industry credentials as well as MAGA credentials (she sang the platinum-selling hit "Trump Won") and the voice of an angel.

I suggested we collaborate on a song and video titled "The Chosen One." Next, Natasha brought in her brilliant Grammy-nominated songwriting partner Ian Eskelin.

The song and video came out this week, after debuting on my nightly Real America's Voice TV show, "The ROOT Reaction." They say timing is everything in life.

What perfect timing to lift the spirits of President Trump and the whole MAGA world.

Natasha and I hope this song and video become the theme song of the Trump campaign and MAGA movement from now to Nov. 5 as we elect President Donald J. Trump as the 47th president of the United States.

We wrote these words to inspire our MAGA mission to save America, American exceptionalism, capitalism, Judeo-Christian values, to secure the border, make America great again and dismantle the evil deep state once and for all.

We hope you enjoy the song and video, "The Chosen One." You can watch here.

And here is the press release explaining this unique collaboration.

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The Green Movement was the largest protest in Iran since the 1979 Islamic revolution. Some 3 million peaceful demonstrators flooded the streets of Tehran and cities across Iran, about 4 percent of Iran's population.

As the election results were rigged, and Ahmadinejad returned to office through cheating, Iranians demanded his removal. For millions of brave Iranians who protested, and many millions more who were afraid to do so but supported the movement, the fraudulent election was the straw that broke the camel's back. After suffering years of violence, harsh death penalties and the execution of juveniles under Ahmadinejad, and decades of criminal immorality, misogyny and ruthless human rights abuses under the Islamic regime, they had had enough.

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The Islamic regime responded by brutally and wantonly shooting hundreds of protesters in the streets. They tortured and killed hundreds more political prisoners and arrested thousands, dozens of whom were also executed.

A video of the fatal shooting of Neda Agha Soltan, a philosophy student who was participating in the protests, went viral domestically and internationally. This motivated wider domestic protests, and harsher government crackdowns. It generated international concern that should have led to Western governments coming to the aid of the protesters against the regime. But the West failed.

In prison, I witnessed firsthand masses of people imprisoned and tortured for protesting the election fraud. Our already overcrowded cells were packed beyond capacity with the newly arrested. There was no space even on the floor for people to sleep. Many were beaten, tortured and raped during their interrogations. Cellmates who had life sentences were forced to work inside the prison and were witness to, among other horrors, an empty pool full of the bodies of young people who were murdered during interrogation. They witnessed removal of the dead bodies from the prison to be dumped outside in secret. Fifteen years later, many Iranians still don't know what happened to their loved ones.

The murders and brutal torture were not just spontaneous acts of overzealous criminals or "morality police," but orders from Ahmadinejad and the "Supreme Leader" Ayatollah Khamenei. One of my cellmates who attended the protest received a five-year sentence with no evidence presented against her. The judge simply declared that he gave her this sentence because he suspected and felt that her thoughts and attitude were against the regime. She laughed with anger when she shared this, shocked that nobody in the world would believe Iranian judges sentence people to prison based on their "suspicions and feelings," much less lack of due process and no evidence. (I shared many firsthand accounts in my books, "A Love Journey with God," and "Captive in Iran" at www.MarzisJourney.com.)

When the Islamic regime turned the peaceful protests into a bloodbath, the Iranian people begged for help from the United States. They were chanting, "Obama are you with us or with them?" "Obama" in Farsi means, "He is with us" [O (he) ba (with) ma (us)]. Despite people's pleas, Obama showed his true face and stood with the criminal Islamic regime. He not only turned his back on the Iranian people who were fighting for their freedom, and the greatest opportunity to end the murderous Islamic regime, but he later made the worst deal in history with Iran (JCPOA), emboldening the regime, setting a path for Iran to acquire nuclear weapons and sending billions of dollars into the coffers of the criminal mullahs. This was used to further suppress the Iranian people, and to fund and expand terrorism across the Middle East.

The Iranian people will never forget Barack Obama's betrayal. Now, 15 years later, Obama's protégé is also guilty of betraying the Iranian people. President Biden has also provided billions of dollars to the regime, abdicated responsibility and the opportunity to bring down the regime after 2022 protests following the murder of Mahsa Amini, and the regime's brutal response, and has brought the world to the brink of an Iranian nuclear weapon.

In 15 years, we have seen failure after failure in appeasing and negotiating with the terrorist regime. Sadly, Western politicians pay lip service to Islamic human rights violations, placing their own interest above moral policies internationally and risking the security of their own citizens by allowing the regime's terrorist agents into their countries to spread their lies and propaganda.

The vast majority of Iranians reject the repressive Islamic Republic, but they have no power to change this system on their own. Iranians long to be free, but they have no hope for the future of their country, until this regime is no longer in power.

I pray that on this 15th anniversary of the biggest revolt against the Islamic regime, and its most violent and bloody murderous response, Western governments will understand that the Islamic regime is evil personified, that its nature is unchangeable and that it not only harms the lives of millions of Iranians but also others around the world, and risks their own countries and citizens as well.

Obama campaigned on "hope" and "change." He offered no hope for Iran, and unless Western policies change, we will all be much worse off.

Now, with "elections" scheduled to replace President Raisi, who mysteriously died in a helicopter accident on May 19, when the "Supreme Leader" selects Raisi's successor via a sham election, will Iranians respond again with protests? Will the regime crack down again? And will the U.S. and the West sit idly by, watching as more innocent Iranians' blood is shed? I hope so, I hope not, and I pray no.

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The battle starts with how food is cooked. We're all familiar with the government's war on gas stoves, one of the most popular methods for cooking food. Knowing full well that outright bans won't work, the Biden administration is rolling out increased "efficiency" standards for new models that are effectively impossible to achieve. The push is to electrify everything, despite the increased strain this agenda places on an already fragile grid.

Now it's being hinted that cooking food itself is bad. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), a quarter of all air pollution comes from cooking food. "If you can smell it, there's a good chance it's impacting air quality," we're told. At fault are "primarily oxygenated VOCs, or volatile organic compounds." It's not farfetched to conclude that if a government agency says something is impacting air quality, then soon it will be under tighter regulation. "[B]ased on the new findings, cooking emissions could be the single largest missing source of urban VOCs in current air quality models, which could have important ramifications for air quality management," notes the article.

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Let's consider the plethora of mysterious disasters impacting food production facilities. The latest is a fire at one of the nation's largest free-range egg facilities that killed millions of chickens. But this is just one of a long, long, long list of similar disasters that are destroying, one by one, the business of feeding humans.

Now, of course, we're dealing with the whole avian flu panic, in which millions upon millions of chickens are being destroyed on the basis of questionable testing methodologies. Right now the news headlines focus on commercial facilities; what's less well-known is that backyard flocks are also being tested. We all know where this will lead. Already in the U.K., all chicken owners will soon be forced to register with the government or face up to six months in prison or a £5,000 fine. The state of Maryland also requires poultry registration. And in Wisconsin, if you own poultry or other livestock, you must register your land.

Of course, the potential for bird flu leaping to cows is putting the dairy industry in the crosshairs at a time when America's dairy cow replacement inventory is at a two-decade low.

Even home-grown food is not exempt. Most people are familiar with Pennsylvania's vicious war against Amish farmer Amos Miller for the crime of selling fresh food to eager customers. Attorney Robert Barnes sums it up succinctly: "Let me explain what the #AmosMiller case is about after a court conference. The @PAAgriculture claims ALL food is 'illegal' – as illegal as illegal drugs – unless it was made by a government-approved facility, and they can destroy it at will."

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But don't think your backyard gardens are immune. A Guardian piece entitled "Carbon footprint of homegrown food five times greater than those grown conventionally" strives to conclude that backyard gardens are bad for the planet, and suggests farming should be left to the professionals.

Additionally, a couple years ago, "experts" at the University Medical Center Mainz in Germany suddenly issued an "urgent" warning that gardening can cause heart disease by exposing people to harmful soil pollutants. According to The Sun, "Gardeners have been warned that their habit could leave them at an increased risk of heart disease. Medics found that pollutants in the soil could have a 'detrimental effect on the cardiovascular system.' The results of the analysis pushed experts to recommend that people wear a face mask, if they are in close contact with the soil. Experts at the University Medical Center Mainz, Germany said pollution of air, water and soil is responsible for at least nine million deaths each year. They highlighted that more than 60 per cent of pollution-related deaths are due to heart issues such as strokes, heart attacks, heart rhythm disorders and chronic ischaemic heart disease."

In fact, Europe has spent the last few years embroiled in violent protests against increased government regulations that were putting farmers out of business. The Netherlands planned to "compulsory purchase" and close up to 3,000 farms to comply with EU environmental rules. Ireland is set on cutting its dairy herds by 10%, meaning about 200,000 cows will be culled for no other reason that cow farts are bad for the environment.

And who can forget the disastrous collapse of Sri Lankan agriculture after the government forcibly scaled back the use of non-organic fertilizer?

To top it off, did you know the United Nations is working with banks to destroy the American farming industry? Their method is to impose ESG (environmental, social, and corporate governance) criteria to score and penalize farmers. The U.N.-organized Net-Zero Banking Alliance is demanding net-zero greenhouse gas emissions in agriculture. Farmers who can't or won't comply are being de-banked by having their accounts shut down without notice or explanation.

And on and on it goes: headline after headline after headline. Agriculture, in which humans have been engaged for thousands of years, is now being deemed dangerous and wrong in the eyes of well-fed bureaucratic idiots who are determined to make food unaffordable and/or unavailable for the huge majority of the global population who aren't wealthy. Oh, and if the U.N. has its way, anyone who criticizes the anti-human agenda will be silenced.

But that's OK. The vast majority of the global population is, in the eyes of the elites, useless eaters anyway. The sooner they are removed from the picture – by whatever means possible – the better they'll like it. If this isn't the epitome of evil, I don't know what is.

Should the majority of useless eaters be phased out of existence, who will serve the elites after the planet is depopulated and returned to some mythical Eden? Who will grow the food, manufacture the goods and clean the toilets for the overlords? When I posed that hypothetical question to my husband, his answer was succinct and accurate: "These are the people who would rather rule in hell than serve in heaven."

Hell on earth may be coming a lot sooner than most people realize, if the global war on food continues. The need for food is something even the elites cannot escape.

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Earlier this year, the Democrat Senate Budget Committee's chairman invited Gus Schumacher, Olympic cross-country skier, to testify as an expert witness on climate change concerning "the impact of global warming on the $1.1 trillion outdoor recreation industry."

Mr. Schumacher stated that carbon dioxide is "a huge part of our atmosphere," but then expressed he was not sure what carbon dioxide (CO₂) is. Sen. John Kennedy explained that "Democrats want to spend $50 TRILLION to become carbon neutral" and that committee testimony is meant to justify spending the money. Continuing, Kennedy explained that carbon dioxide only makes up about 0.04% of the gases of our atmosphere.

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Earth's atmosphere consists of "78.08% nitrogen, 20.95% oxygen, 0.93% argon, 0.04% carbon dioxide and small amounts of other gases." So, methane must be the problem, right? Methane is in that group of "small amounts of other gases" and actually is 0.000191% of the Earth's atmosphere, so it is even less of a problem.

Why, then, would anyone think CO₂ is a problem greenhouse gas? In 1859 Irish physicist John Tyndall conducted an experiment showing that carbon dioxide and water vapor absorbed heat and radiated heat. He was attributed credit for demonstrating "the physical basis of the greenhouse effect."

Since then, ideas have been propagated by groups like National Geographic to express that "greenhouse gases allow the sun's light to shine onto Earth's surface … [and] trap the heat that reflects back from the surface …like the glass walls of a greenhouse."

Not until the 1940s was the first infrared (IR) spectrometer built. In 1957 PerkinElmer developed the first low-cost IR spectrometer. In 1969 Digilab (now Agilent technologies) pioneered the first FTIR (making this type of analysis available to laboratories). Why is this important? FTIR instrumentation shows the energies light molecules absorb.

Using FTIR instrumentation, the energy absorption of CO₂ can be measured. "Carbon dioxide traps heat only within [very] narrow bands of the infrared spectrum," states an article entitled, "Top Study: Carbon Emissions CANNOT Cause 'Global Warming'." Figure 1 shows the IR absorption spectrum for both CO₂ and water. This shows CO₂ only absorbs energy in a very narrow range, meaning that it would never act like "glass walls of a greenhouse" reflecting the sun's energy back to Earth.

Figure 2 shows the total energy of the sun's rays coming to the earth consists of 7.35% UV light, 38.82% visible light and 52.15% IR light. In order to act as a "greenhouse gas" the first thing CO₂ has to do, is absorb the sun's energy. Of the sun's total energy CO₂ absorbs only about 0.13%, meaning 99.87% of the sun's energy passes through the CO₂, hits the Earth and bounces back up without interacting with CO₂ at all. Considering only the IR portion of the sun's energy, CO₂ only absorbs 0.24% of the total IR energy from the sun. Again, that means 99.76% of the sun's energy is not affected by CO₂ in the atmosphere. So, CO₂ is not acting like a glass bubble around the Earth, increasing the Earth's temperature.

Then there's the saturation problem. This is reported in several recent peer-reviewed scientific articles (2024, 2022, 2020). The problem can be basically understood by considering attic insulation. Once insulation is above a certain height (the saturation limit), adding more insulation has no further effect on heating the house, as all the heat is already captured by the insulation already present. So, if CO₂ did act as a greenhouse gas, once the saturation limit is achieved, adding more CO₂ would have no further effect on warming the Earth.

"Current levels of CO₂ in the atmosphere are around 418 parts per million (ppm), but the scientists state that past 400 ppm, 'the CO₂ concentration can no longer cause any increase in temperature.'" Therefore, "it simply isn't possible for increases in carbon dioxide to cause temperatures to rise." Note, "levels of gas have been up to 20 times higher in the past without any sign of runaway 'global warming.'"

"In 2022, German Physics Professor Dieter Schildknecht set the saturation limit of CO₂ at just 300 ppm and concluded that beyond this, further increases cannot affect the Earth's climate."

Emeritus professor William Happer of Princeton believes the CO₂ saturation hypothesis and stated that the current "science" enforcing the "Net Zero" agenda for carbon emissions by 2050 – is a "hoax," but he preferred the word, "scam."

Dr. John Clauser, 2022 Nobel Physics laureate, stated, "I assert there is no connection whatsoever between climate change and CO₂ – it's all a crock of crap, in my opinion."

"Over 1600 scientists from around the world" have signed "a declaration stating that claims of a 'climate emergency' threatening the Earth are a hoax." This declaration is called the World Climate Declaration (WCD). It states, "Carbon dioxide is beneficial to Earth … there is no climate emergency [and] … climate science should be less political, while climate policies should be more scientific." "The coalition points out that Earth's climate has varied as long as it has existed, [and] … they stress that there is 'no statistical evidence' to support [climate alarmist] claims." Thus, "there is no climate emergency [and] … no cause for panic and alarm."

On the other hand, water vapor absorbs visible light and infrared light from the sun in broad bands. Water vapor could act as a greenhouse gas. So, do we need to get rid of all the clouds and stop production of Stanley Steamers automobiles? The only problem with thinking that water vapor is heating the Earth's atmosphere too much is the fact that water vapor only makes up about 1-3% of the atmosphere above the ocean and about 0-0.4% above the land. So, water vapor is not a problem either.

Carbon dioxide is not warming the Earth. To say it is to lie. It's cold in the winter and hot in the summer, and the sun has an 11-year cycle. Currently, we are at the peak of the cycle that will reverse between now and 2025.

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Judge Juan Merchan

Juan Merchan, the judge in President Donald Trump's "business expense" trial in New York, where a leftist Manhattan jury convicted him of 34 counts, has alerted lawyers in the case of possible juror misconduct.

That misconduct, apparently a discussion by a juror with a relative who reported, a day before the conviction, that the jury was going to convict Trump, could result in a mandatory new trial.

BREAKING: Judge Merchan has notified all parties in the New York case of a Facebook post made a day before Trump's conviction by someone who may have known one of the jurors. New York law requires the verdict nullified and NEW TRIAL held

"My cousin is a juror and Trump is… pic.twitter.com/wai4dFKHpL

— George (@BehizyTweets) June 7, 2024

The statement posted online said, "My cousin is a juror and Trump is getting convicted."

A commenter pointed out that that could be from any random person, without any connection to the jury.

"But I doubt it if Merchan is alerting the parties."

The case has been filled with untoward influences. For one, Merchan repeatedly has ruled against the defense on just about every issue. He criticized the defense lawyers for objecting to much, then later stated that some prosecution testimony was questionable and the defense lawyers should have objected.

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Merchan has his own appearance of conflict, as his daughter is a Democrat operative who has been fundraising off of the decisions her own father made in the courtroom against Trump.

But he refused to turn the case over to someone else.

The prosecution was by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg who said misdemeanor business records claims for which the statute of limitations had expired actually were felonies because they were part of another crime – and Merchan gave the jury permission to disagree on what that was – violating the requirement that jury verdicts be unanimous.

Bragg, further, had campaigned for office under the slogan of "get Trump," giving the entire case a political motive.

It is considered by many, including some who don't necessarily support Trump, to be part of a multi-case "lawfare" by Democrats against Trump to try to put him in jail during the 2024 presidential campaign. In fact, the other cases have hit roadblocks also, including one where the FBI admitted it tampered with evidence the prosecutor hoped to use against Trump.

The Gateway Pundit reported, "The jury deliberated for a little over nine hours before deciding on a still-unknown predicate crime assumed to be federal campaign violations. Judge Merchan bizarrely gave instructions to the jurors that they could all agree that a crime was committed, beyond the falsifying charges, but didn’t necessarily have to agree unanimously on which crime was committed."

It warned the new development "could call into question the entire case. The day before the conviction was handed down, a Facebook user by the name 'Michael Anderson' commented that Trump was going to be convicted, sourcing that claim to his cousin, who he claimed was on the jury."

Merchan responded with, "Today, the Court became aware of a comment that was posted on the Unified Court System’s public Facebook page and which I now bring to your attention. In the comment, the user, 'Michael Anderson,' states: 'My cousin is a juror and says Trump is getting convicted. Thank you folks for all your hard work!!!!'"

Another commenter pointed out that "Anderson" just implicated his cousin "in a crime," as "it is against the law for a juror to discuss the case before it is ended.'

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