Perspectives; Thoughts; Comments; Opinions; Discussions

Archive for May, 2024

Victor Davis Hanson Op-ed: Try a Little Honesty About Israel


By: Victor Davis Hanson @VDHanson / May 10, 2024

Read more at https://www.dailysignal.com/2024/05/10/try-a-little-honesty-about-israel/

Anti-Israel protesters routinely spout untruths about Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre and its aftermath. Here are 10 of the most common. Pictured: An Israeli soldier prays Tuesday next to an army vehicle near Israel’s border with the southern Gaza Strip, where Israel Defense Forces seek to root out Hamas terrorists. (Photo: Amir Levy/Getty Images)

COMMENTARY BY Victor Davis Hanson@VDHanson

Victor Davis Hanson is a classicist and historian at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, and author of the book “The Second World Wars: How the First Global Conflict Was Fought and Won.” You can reach him by e-mailing authorvdh@gmail.com.

Scan news accounts of anti-Israel campus and street protesters. Read their demands and manifestos. Collate the confusion from the Biden administration after Hamas’ Oct. 7 terrorism in Israel.

Here are 10 of their most common untruths about Oct. 7 and the Israel-Hamas war that followed.

‘Progressive Hamas’

Gay and transgender student protesters in America would be in mortal danger in Gaza under a fascistic Hamas, a terrorist organization that has banned homosexual acts and lifestyles. Anyone protesting publicly against Hamas or its allies would be arrested and severely punished.

Women are segregated in most Hamas-run educational institutions. Under the Hamas charter, women are valued mostly as child-bearers. By design, there are almost no women in high positions in business or in government under Hamas.

‘Colonists and settlers’

Students scream that Israelis are “settlers” and “colonists” and sometimes yell at Jewish students to “go back to Poland.”

But the Jewish presence in present-day Israel is deeply rooted in ancient tradition. Dating back at least three millennia, the concept of “Israel” as a distinct Jewish state, situated roughly in its current location, is ingrained in history.

By contrast, the much later Arab invasions of the Byzantine-controlled Levant and their arrival in Palestine occurred about 1,800 years after the establishment of a Jewish Israel.

‘Two-state solution’

When student protesters scream “From the river to the sea,” that is not advocacy for a two-state solution.

It is a call to eliminate the state of Israel—lying between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea—and its 10 million Jewish and Arab citizens. The Hamas charter is a one-state/no-Israel agenda, which we saw attempted on Oct. 7.

‘Occupied Gaza’

The Gaza Strip, adjacent Israel, was autonomous. The Israeli border is closed, but so is the Egyptian border. There have not been any Jews in Gaza for nearly two decades.

So on Oct. 7, Gaza was not occupied by Israel. It was under the control of Hamas, designated by the U.S. government as a terrorist organization.

After being elected to power in 2006, Hamas canceled all subsequent elections and ruled as a dictatorship. Gaza forbids Jews from entering Gaza and has driven out most Christians.

Israel hosts 2 million Arabs, both as Israeli citizens and residents.

‘Netanyahu is the problem’

The U.S. and Europe claim that the conservative government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is alone behind Israel’s tough response in Gaza to the Oct. 7 attacks. Thus, both the E.U. and the U.S. are doing their best to undermine or even overthrow the elected Netanyahu administration.

Yet, most Israelis support Netanyahu’s coalition government’s agenda of destroying Hamas in Gaza.

There is no evidence that any other alternative Israeli government would do anything differently from the present policies toward Hamas.

‘Targeting civilians’

After murdering nearly 1,200 Israelis on Oct. 7, Hamas scurried back to Gaza and hid in tunnels and bases beneath hospitals, schools, and mosques.

Its preplanned strategy was to survive by ensuring Gaza civilians would be killed. Hamas has indiscriminately launched more than 7,000 rockets at Israel, all designed to kill Jewish civilians.

Outside assessors have concluded that Israel has not inadvertently killed a greater ratio of civilians to terrorists compared to most other urban fighting conflicts elsewhere, and perhaps even fewer than American engagements in Mosul and Fallujah.

‘Protesters are pro-Palestine’

Increasingly, protesters make no distinction between supporting “Palestine” and Hamas.

Their chants often echo the original Hamas eliminationist charter and recent genocidal ravings of its leadership.

Some protesters wear Hamas logos and wave the terrorist organization’s flag. Many cheered the Hamas massacre of Oct. 7.

‘Anti-Israel is not antisemitic’

When protesters scream to Jewish students to “go back to Poland” or call for the “Final Solution,” or assault them or bar them from campus facilities, they do not ask the Jewish students whether they are pro-Israel.

For protesters, anyone identifiable as Jewish becomes a target of their antisemitic invective and violence.

‘Genocide’

Israel has not tried to wipe out the Palestinian people in the fashion of Hamas’ one-state solution plan for Jews.

Before Oct. 7, some 20,000 Gazans a day requested to work in Israel—on the correct expectation of much higher wages and humane treatment.

If Hamas had come out of its tunnels, separated from its impressed civilian shields, released its surviving Israeli hostages, and either openly fought the Israel Defense Forces or surrendered the organizers of the Oct. 7 massacre, no Gaza civilians would have died.

According to Hamas’ questionable “genocide” figures, roughly 4% of the Gazan population died during the Israeli military response to Oct. 7. At least a third to almost half of those deaths, according to various international observers, were Hamas terrorists.

‘Disproportionate response’

Iran tried to send 320 missiles and rockets into Israel. Israel replied with three.

Hamas launched 7,000 rockets into Israel and slaughtered 1,200 Israelis before the Israel Defense Forces responded in Gaza, often dropping leaflets and sending texts to forewarn citizens.

Israel has been disproportionate only in the effectiveness of its response. Hamas and its Iranian benefactor intended disproportionately to hurt Israel, but utterly failed.

So, Israel proved to be competent and Hamas incompetent in their similar efforts to use disproportionate force.

(C) 2024 Tribune Content Agency LLC

“I Gave Up Shame Years Ago”: Clinton Denounces Trump for Doing What She Did in 2016


By: Jonathan Turley | May 10, 2024

Read more at https://jonathanturley.org/category/bizarre/

I gave up shame years ago.” Those words from actor John Lithgow appear to have been taken to heart by Hillary Clinton who has severed any sense of self-awareness or shame in her public comments. Lithgow, who played Bill Clinton in Broadway production of Hillary and Clinton, appears to have inspired the subject of his play. In a recent interview, Hillary Clinton heralded the prosecution of former president Donald Trump in Manhattan as “election interference” by keeping “relevant information” from voters before an election. For those of us who criticized Clinton for the funding of the infamous Steele dossier, it was a perfectly otherworldly moment.

In the interview, Clinton went after the Supreme Court for delaying a trial of Trump despite the push by Special Counsel Jack Smith for a verdict before the election. She then left many in disbelief with the following statement:

“And the one going on now currently in New York is really about election interference. It is about trying to prevent the people of our country from having relevant information that may have influenced how they could have voted in 2016 or whether they would have voted.”

In the same election, it was Hillary Clinton’s campaign that lied about funding the Steele dossier and then hiding the funding as a legal expense through then Clinton General Counsel Marc Elias.

The Clinton campaign staff has never been known for transparency. Buried in the detailed account is a  footnote stating that Elias “declined to be voluntarily interviewed by the Office.” Likewise, John Durham noted that “no one at Fusion GPS … would agree to voluntarily speak with the Office” while both the DNC and Clinton campaign invoked privileges to refuse to answer certain questions.

Elias, his former partner Michael Sussmann, and the campaign were later found involved in not just spreading the false claims from the Steele dossier but other false stories like the Alfa Bank conspiracy claim.

It was Elias who managed the legal budget for the campaign. We now know that the campaign hid the funding of the Steele dossier as a legal expense.

New York Times reporter Ken Vogel said that Elias denied involvement in the anti-Trump dossier. When Vogel tried to report the story, he said, Elias “pushed back vigorously, saying ‘You (or your sources) are wrong.’” Times reporter Maggie Haberman declared, “Folks involved in funding this lied about it, and with sanctimony, for a year.”

Elias was also seated next to John Podesta, Clinton’s campaign chairman, when he was asked about the role of the campaign, he denied categorically any contractual agreement with Fusion GPS. Even assuming that Podesta was kept in the dark, the Durham Report clearly shows that Elias knew and played an active role in pushing this effort.

Elias is now ironically advising Democratic campaigns on election ethics and running a group to “defend democracy.” He is still counsel to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) headed by Rep. Suzan Kay DelBene, D-Wash. Elias was later severed by the Democratic National Committee from further representation and has been previously sanctioned in federal court in other litigation.

Notably, the Federal Election Commission sanctioned the Clinton campaign for hiding the funding as a legal expense. The Clinton campaign litigated the issue and insisted that the term is broadly used to cover a wide array of payments through counsel. That is precisely what the Trump team is arguing in the Manhattan case.

Lying to the media and hiding the funding was a conscious effort to hide “relevant information that may have influenced” voters. With the help of the media, these false stories were spread throughout the country and later were used to start the Russian collusion investigation.

Famous philosopher and mathematician Blaise Pascal once declared that “the only shame is to have none.” Hillary has finally achieved that ignoble status. She appears now to have lost even the capacity for shame.

LifeNews.com Pro-Life News Report


Tuesday, May 8, 2024

Top Stories
Robert Kennedy Jr Confirms He Supports Abortions Up to Birth: “Even if It’s Full Term”
Missouri Governor Signs Bill to Defund Planned Parenthood Abortion Biz
Pro-Life Group: Don’t Vote for Robert F. Kennedy Jr., “He’s No Different From Joe Biden”
Hey Kamala Harris, if You’re Really Pro-Choice Quit Pushing Abortion

More Pro-Life News
Pro-Life Group Praises Missouri Governor Mike Parson for Signing Bill Defunding Planned Parenthood
Rabidly Pro-Abortion Nun Will Give Commencement Speech at This Catholic University
Florida Expands Safe Haven Law to Stop Infanticide
Pro-Abortion Slogans Like “My Body, My Choice” Ignore How Abortion Kills Babies
Scroll Down for Several More Pro-Life News Stories

Robert Kennedy Jr Confirms He Supports Abortions Up to Birth: “Even if It’s Full Term”

Missouri Governor Signs Bill to Defund Planned Parenthood Abortion Biz

Pro-Life Group: Don’t Vote for Robert F. Kennedy Jr., “He’s No Different From Joe Biden”

Hey Kamala Harris, if You’re Really Pro-Choice Quit Pushing Abortion

Pro-Life Group Praises Missouri Governor Mike Parson for Signing Bill Defunding Planned Parenthood

Rabidly Pro-Abortion Nun Will Give Commencement Speech at This Catholic University

Florida Expands Safe Haven Law to Stop Infanticide

Pro-Abortion Slogans Like “My Body, My Choice” Ignore How Abortion Kills Babies

MORE PRO-LIFE NEWS FROM TODAY

Liberal Media Calls Having Babies a “Far Right Conspiracy,” But We Know Children are a Gift From God

America Has Some of the Most Radically Pro-Abortion laws in the World

They Know Abortion is Murder, But They Still Support It Anyway

Democrats Want to Force Americans to Fund Killing People in Assisted Suicides

Looking for an inspiring and motivating speaker for your pro-life event? Don’t have much to spend on a high-priced speaker costing several thousand dollars? Contact news@lifenews.com about having LifeNews Editor Steven Ertelt speak at your event.

Catholic Bishops Oppose Montana Amendment Allowing Abortions Up to Birth

We Must Vote for Donald Trump Over Radical Abortion Activist Joe Biden

Joe Biden Continues Pushing Radical Pro-Abortion Agenda on America, Here’s How

Planned Parenthood Closes Abortion Center That Kills Over 800 Babies a Year

Comments or questions? Email us at news@lifenews.com.
Copyright 2003-2024 LifeNews.com. All rights reserved.
For information on advertising or reprinting news from LifeNews.com, email us.

CNN Flips Out Over GOP Rep. Scott Perry Highlighting Democrats’ KKK History


BY: TRISTAN JUSTICE | MAY 09, 2024

Read more at https://thefederalist.com/2024/05/09/cnn-flips-out-over-gop-rep-scott-perry-highlighting-democrats-kkk-history/

Scott Perry

Author Tristan Justice profile

TRISTAN JUSTICE

VISIT ON TWITTER@JUSTICETRISTAN

MORE ARTICLES

This week CNN published information from what it says is a secret recording to frame Pennsylvania Republican Rep. Scott Perry as — what else? — a racist conspiracy theorist. On Wednesday, the network published quotes from what it says was an audio recording of a closed-door meeting on antisemitism wherein Perry notes the Ku Klux Klan was “the military wing of the Democratic Party.”

“The KKK in modern times, a lot of young people think somehow it’s a right-wing organization when it is the military wing of the Democratic Party. Decidedly, unabashedly, racist and antisemitic,” Perry said.

“The KKK is not affiliated in any way with the modern Democratic Party,” CNN added in its “news” article. Perhaps CNN was so eager to absolve the Democrat Party of any relationship to the KKK, which was founded by Democrats, that the network refused to even consider the legitimacy of Perry’s comments.

The hit, based on a supposedly off-the-record meeting between staff and lawmakers, generated hostile coverage against the Republican lawmaker from the New Republic, the Daily Beast, and the Philadelphia Inquirer.

If the racist agitators from the 2017 Charlottesville protests had set up antisemitic encampments on college campuses across the country after months of preparations paid for by dark money groups on the far right, the corporate press would be publishing an avalanche of screeds indicting the Republican Party as an infiltrated vehicle of the KKK. While the media will often point to former Klan leader David Duke’s support for Donald Trump as evidence of supposed GOP racism, Richard Spencer, who organized the Charlottesville race riots, endorsed President Joe Biden in 2020.

The Democratic Party includes an increasing number of supporters of antisemitism, which the Klan also promoted more than 150 years ago. The antisemitic protests that broke out after the Oct. 7 Israeli massacre by Palestinian terrorists have featured swastika symbols, which the KKK also embraced. The pro-Palestinian demonstrators are acting like the KKK while using some of the same symbols to terrorize Jewish students and shut down college campuses.

In 2020, USA Today (an official Facebook fact-checker), sought to absolve the Democratic Party of its long history with the KKK in an article titled, “Fact check: Democratic Party did not found the KKK, did not start the Civil War.”

“The KKK was founded by Democrats, but not the party,” USA Today concluded. “We rate the claim that the Democratic Party started the Civil War to preserve slavery and founded the KKK as FALSE because it is not supported by our research.”

Jarrett Stepman, author of “The War on History: The Conspiracy to Rewrite America’s Past,” found the fact-check amusing.

“They came up with all these various caveats – ‘Well, you know, it wasn’t all Democrats; it was only most Democrats in the South,’” Stepman told The Federalist. “I’m thinking, if this was literally any other institution, if this was the name of a street, or if this was a statue, it would have been immediately canceled. It might have even been ripe for being torn down by a mob.”

The House Oversight hearing about Washington D.C.’s response to the current antisemitic demonstrations was canceled Wednesday morning after police cleared a protester encampment at George Washington University. More than 30 people were arrested, according to the Associated Press. More than 2,800 demonstrators have been arrested on college campuses nationwide.


Tristan Justice is the western correspondent for The Federalist and the author of Social Justice Redux, a conservative newsletter on culture, health, and wellness. He has also written for The Washington Examiner and The Daily Signal. His work has also been featured in Real Clear Politics and Fox News. Tristan graduated from George Washington University where he majored in political science and minored in journalism. Follow him on Twitter at @JusticeTristan or contact him at Tristan@thefederalist.com. Sign up for Tristan’s email newsletter here.

McConnell Warns Biden: Refusing Israeli Aid Will Prove ‘Grave’


By Sandy Fitzgerald    |   Thursday, 09 May 2024 03:32 PM EDT

Read more at https://www.newsmax.com/politics/mitch-mcconnell-biden-israel/2024/05/09/id/1164123/

The “consequences will be grave” if President Joe Biden can’t find the “political courage to stand up to radicals on his left flank” and support Israel, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell warned in a speech on the Senate floor Thursday. 

“Other allies who rely on ‘ironclad’ guarantees from America will question our commitment,” the Kentucky Republican said while speaking out against Biden’s warnings that U.S. weapons will not be used in an Israeli attack on Rafah out of concerns for civilian casualties.

McConnell said that Biden’s refusal to back an ally at war will backfire. 

“Nations on the fence, in the middle of a major power competition for influence, will look elsewhere for their own security, and our enemies will be emboldened,” the senator said.

McConnell acknowledged that “war is hell” and “innocent noncombatants suffer,” but still, “civilized nations hold themselves to the highest standards and take deliberate care to minimize harm to civilians.”

Israel, he added, goes to “great lengths” to avoid civilian casualties, including accepting “great risk” to its soldiers to avoid endangering innocent civilians.

“But the forces sworn to erase Israel from the earth follow a different code,” he said. “[To] Hamas, civilian casualties are not tragedies; they’re tools of the trade.”

“To these savages, kidnapping, torture, rape, and murder aren’t crimes; they’re tactics,” McConnell said. “For terrorists around the world, human suffering is the weapon of choice. And Hamas seeks to magnify it.”

He added that Israel tried to avoid the war, including negotiating a cease-fire, but Hamas “used this cease-fire to plan and prepare for war” and launched its attacks on Oct. 7. 

Hamas also chose to put fighting positions in hospitals, schools, and the United Nations, while directly attacking humanitarian aid crossings to exploit human suffering “because it works.”

“They know the media will cover it — ‘if it bleeds, it leads’ — because they know it creates an international rush to blame Israel,” said McConnell. 

This has led to “leftist fifth columns and useful idiots on university campuses” to express solidarity with the terrorists and forcing Biden to choose between a “supposedly ‘ironclad’ commitment to an ally under attack and the will of his leftist political base.”

And, McConnell said, “Hamas bet correctly.”

McConnell further warned that Biden is old enough to remember the 1968 protests at the Democratic National Convention, but he doesn’t choose to heed what happened. 

“Caving to the college radicals will only whet their appetite to spend the summer demanding further anti-Israel concessions at his party’s convention,” said McConnell. 

Sandy Fitzgerald 

Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics. 

Armstrong Williams Op-ed: The Most Dangerous People in America: College Professors


By: Armstrong Williams @Arightside / May 09, 2024

Read more at https://www.dailysignal.com/2024/05/09/the-most-dangerous-people-in-america-college-professors/

Columbia University professors demonstrate outside the university campus demanding the release of students in New York City on May 1, 2024. Hundreds of people were arrested at pro-Palestinian protests on U.S. campuses as police on May 1 extended a crackdown that included clearing out demonstrators occupying a building at Columbia University. (Photo: Charly Triballeau/AFP/Getty Images)

COMMENTARY BY Armstrong Williams@Arightside

Armstrong Williams is a columnist for The Daily Signal and host of “The Armstrong Williams Show,” a nationally syndicated TV program.

American college campuses are permeated with corrupted professors who themselves corrupt students. Without a doubt, college professors are the most dangerous people in America.

They’re not dangerous because they challenge the status quo or encourage their students to think critically. On the contrary, they are dangerous because they encourage impressionable young college students to adhere to the doctrines of the professors they choose without giving them the chance to meaningfully challenge those doctrines.

During the recent pro-Palestinian and pro-Hamas protests on elite college campuses, thousands of students put up tents on private property, commandeered university-owned buildings, defaced private property, and chanted disturbing, antisemitic rhetoric. But while we constantly talk about the actions of the students, we fail to recognize that these students aren’t alone but instead are educated and cheered on by their college professors.

At Columbia University, many of the university’s professors joined the protests, donning orange reflective vests and standing alongside students in protest of Israel and—apparently—in support of the students’ right to free speech. Of course, these professors, like their students, are not constitutional scholars, yet they teach their students that what they’re doing is protected.

The First Amendment does not protect the right to vandalize or trespass on private property, which is what these students were doing, or even make terroristic threats or aid a terrorist organization, which arguably many of these students did. The very idea that there were professors aiding the students in their illegal takeover of the university should sound alarm bells.

Even in the face of the professors’ statements and actions, which were to the effect of “we support our students’ right to protest,” no rights were being violated. But you can be absolutely sure the impressionable college students seeing their actions and reading their statements feel more emboldened than ever and as though they were the ones wronged, not the scores of Jewish students who were barred from campus nor the many impoverished students unable to access the now-closed dining halls.

There can be no doubt left now that students who witnessed their professors, people of great authority and respect to them, supporting a protest that resulted in the unprovoked stabbing of a Jewish woman in the eye with a Palestinian flag, chants of “death to America” and “globalize the intifada” (a violent uprising in which more than a thousand Israelis were murdered in the early 2000s), students claiming “we are Hamas,” and a significant number of students donning Hamas militant headbands will think any violence or violent rhetoric on their part is somehow justified.

Look no further than the case of Russell Rickford, an associate history professor at Cornell University, who took a leave of absence after openly stating that the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attacks were “exhilarating” and “energizing.” He was seen back on campus, protesting in solidarity with the students and speaking in support of the students and Palestine.

Why should a student feel afraid of being suspended—or even expelled—when a professor of the institution who met a similar fate is back on campus voicing his support of Palestine?

One thing any college student—particularly one who challenges authority—will learn is that when that authority (the professor, the administration, or even the student body) is overwhelmingly liberal, questioning dogma is a recipe for failure and being labeled an outcast.

For a college student, a bad grade can make or break their college career, which, to college students, is the most immediately important thing in their life. Giving a college professor the ability to judge a student more harshly because they disagree or even simply question the professors’ beliefs is the perfect recipe for indoctrination.

Let’s be clear, college professors should not be feared; they should be respected when they earn that respect, same as anyone else. The only power they wield is the title they were given by their institution—a title that can be quickly stripped away from them. To college students, these professors are the most academically accomplished people they know, so they follow them mindlessly; that’s why they are dangerous.

Well-educated people are often the least intelligent. They are so confident in their ability to think critically that they have successfully convinced themselves that they can do no wrong. It is only when students have an honest professor who understands their fallibility that they can truly learn.

COPYRIGHT 2024 CREATORS.COM

The Daily Signal publishes a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Heritage Foundation.

They Spent $29,284 per Pupil, but Only 28% of Eighth Graders Rated Proficient in Math


By: Terence Jeffrey @TerryJeffrey / May 09, 2024

Read more at https://www.dailysignal.com/2024/05/09/they-spent-29284-per-pupil-but-only-28-of-eighth-graders-rated-proficient-in-math/

Despite high per-pupil spending, New York, New Jersey, Vermont, and other states see low test scores in math and reading, as does D.C. Catholic schools, however, outperform. (Photo illustration: Comstock Images/Getty Images)

COMMENTARY BY

Terence Jeffrey@TerryJeffrey

Terence P. Jeffrey is investigative editor for the Daily Caller News Foundation.

The public schools in the state of New York doled out $29,284 per pupil in “current expenditures” in fiscal year 2022, according to a report published this week by the Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics.

“Current expenditures comprise expenditures for the day-to-day operation of schools and school districts for public elementary and secondary education, including expenditures for staff salaries and benefits, supplies, and purchased services,” the National Center for Education Statistics says.

“General administration expenditures and school administration expenditures are also included in current expenditures,” it says.

The $29,284 that New York spent per pupil on these items was more than any other state. So, what did taxpayers get in return for this investment?

Not much.

In the mathematics test of the 2022 National Assessment of Educational Progress, only 28% of eighth graders in New York state public schools scored proficient or better. Only 32% scored proficient or better in reading.

In our capital city of Washington, D.C., which the NCES lists with the states, the public schools had $28,128 in “current expenditures” per pupil. That was more than any state except New York. So, how did the students do in D.C. public schools? Only 16% of eight graders in the D.C. school system scored proficient or better in math. Only 22% scored proficient or better in reading.

New Jersey had the next-highest level of per-pupil spending in its public schools in fiscal year 2022. In that state, it was $25,550. The students there scored a little better in reading and math than those in New York or the District of Columbia. But they did not do great. Only 33% of New Jersey eighth graders were proficient or better in math, while 42% were proficient or better in reading.

Vermont, the state represented by Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent, finished slightly behind New Jersey in per-pupil spending in its public schools. It spent $25,073. Vermont also finished behind New Jersey in its NAEP test scores. Only 27% of eighth graders in Vermont public schools scored proficient or better in math, and only 34% scored proficient or better in reading.

Connecticut, another New England state, came in fifth—behind New York, the District of Columbia, New Jersey, and Vermont—in per-pupil sending. It spent $23,868 per student. Only 30% of its eighth graders scored proficient or better in math, and only 35% scored proficient in reading.

Connecticut was followed by three other New England states when the 50 states are ranked by per-pupil spending. Massachusetts spent $22,778; Rhode Island spent $20,498; and New Hampshire spent $20,424.

Yet only 35% of eighth graders in Massachusetts public schools scored proficient or better in math; only 40% scored proficient or better in reading. In Rhode Island, only 24% of eighth graders scored proficient or better in math; only 31% scored proficient or better in reading. In New Hampshire, only 29% scored proficient or better in math; only 33% scored proficient or better in reading.

Did the results significantly improve if a state spent less money per pupil in its public schools? No.

Utah spent $9,496 per pupil in its public schools in fiscal year 2022. That was less than any other state. Only 35% of eighth graders scored proficient or better in math, and only 36% scored proficient or better in reading.

Similarly, Idaho finished next to last in per-pupil spending in its public schools, putting up $9,662. Only 32% of eighth graders scored proficient or better in math, and 32% scored proficient or better in reading.

As this column has noted before, students at Catholic schools score better on these NAEP tests than students at public schools. In 2022, eighth graders in Catholic schools had an average score of 288 on the math test, while eighth graders in public schools had an average score of 273. Similarly, eighth graders in Catholic schools had an average score of 279 on the reading test, while public-school eighth graders had an average score of 259. The average tuition at Catholic elementary schools in 2023, according to U.S. News and World Report, was $4,840. The average tuition at Catholic high schools was $11,240.

In the upcoming school year, DeMatha Catholic High School—in Hyattsville, Maryland, just outside Washington, D.C.—will have a tuition of $22,700, according to its website. That is $5,428 less than the $28,128 that D.C. public schools spent per pupil in 2022.

Parents in the District of Columbia and every other community in this country should not be forced to send their children to government-run schools. All parents should be given a voucher equal to the per-pupil expenditures in the local public schools and they should be free to redeem that voucher at any school—public or private, religious or secular—that they choose.

COPYRIGHT 2024 CREATORS.COM 

The Daily Signal publishes a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Heritage Foundation.

Michael Cohen Goes on TikTok with New Trump Taunt … and Announces Campaign for Congress?


By: Jonathan Turley | May 9, 2024

Red more at https://jonathanturley.org/2024/05/09/michael-cohen-goes-on-tiktok-with-new-trump-taunt-and-announced-campaign-for-congress/

Fox is reporting that Michael Cohen was back on TikTok last night using the Trump trial to troll for dollars. Cohen reportedly appeared in a teeshirt showing Trump in an orange jumpsuit and asked for more followers. He also reportedly announced his candidacy for Congress, which would allow him to take one of the seemingly few oaths that the serial perjurer has not violated.

Who would have thought that District Attorney Alvin Bragg calling a porn star to the stand would be the moral high ground for key witnesses?  Next could be a disbarred, convicted perjurer who is still seeking to make money off the case.

Cohen previously pledged not to discuss the trial after many of us objected to Judge Juan Merchan’s gag order as unconstitutional, particularly as to Cohen who has continued to attack Trump on the air while defending the gag order for his own protection.

Cohen’s prior promise lasted a record of a couple days before he broke it on TikTok. Now he is appearing with a tee-shirt mocking Trump and using the moment to pursue a congressional seat.

For Judge Merchan, this is precisely what he was warned about. He has stubbornly enforced his poorly written and excessively broad order. After admitting that this was a “case of first impression” on the extension of gag orders to such things as repostings on social media, Merchan clarified his meaning not with a new order but by imposing sanctions on Trump.

Trump is now appealing the gag order and Cohen is doing his best to undermine not just his residual credibility but that of the court. Between the lurid testimony of Daniels and the continued antics of Cohen, Merchan looks completely feckless, if not farcical, in his own courtroom.

For Merchan and the prosecutors, none of this can come as a surprise.

There is an old fable of a scorpion who wants to cross a river and convinced a hesitant frog to carry him on its back. After all, if he stung the frog in the river, they both would die. That seemed logical so the frog agreed to do so only to have the scorpion deliver a lethal sting halfway across. When the frog asked why the scorpion would doom them both, the scorpion replies: “I am sorry, but I couldn’t resist the urge. It’s in my nature.”

Cohen has always been open as a grifter.

The problem is not Cohen. He continues to act to his nature. The problem is a political and legal system that enables him as a serial liar. It is a system that continues to call Cohen to the stand and ask him to swear to God to offer the “truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth” without a signature joke drum roll before his punchline.

Yet, Cohen now wants to take an oath of office in the legislative branch.  He seems to collect oaths the way some collect animal heads for a trophy wall. The question is whether other members could suppress laughter when he swears that he is taking the oath of office “without… purpose of evasion.”

Democrats Attack Judge for Delaying Trump Florida Trial


By: Jonathan Turley | May 9, 2024

Read more at https://jonathanturley.org/2024/05/09/democrats-attack-judge-for-delaying-trump-florida-trial/

While pundits, politicians and the press have long expressed outrage over attacks on judges by former President Donald Trump, many are now attacking any judge who delays any trial of Trump before the election. Democrats have accused Judge Aileen Cannon of being politically compromised, if not conspiratorial, in her delay of the Florida trial over the mishandling of classified documents. Yet, there is ample reason for the delay that many of us anticipated in this type of case when it was filed.

For months, many of us have said that we doubt that this type of trial could be held on the rapid schedule demanded by Special Counsel Jake Smith. Smith has repeatedly sought to curtail trial review and even appellate rights of Trump to advance his schedule.

His office has made convicting Trump before the election the overriding objective of its motion — a sharp departure from past Justice Department efforts to avoid trials to influence elections.

As a criminal defense counsel, I have handled classified material cases, and they are notoriously slow. Smith could have prosecuted this case in the shorter time frame if he simply charged obstruction. That would have also eliminated the glaring contrast with the handling of the Biden investigation into the current president’s retention and mishandling of classified material.

Smith decided to charge an array of document charges related to classified material. The defense must have access, review, and can appeal issues related to the classified procedures. Yet, Smith wanted both the array of document charges and a fast track to trial. The Supreme Court has agreed with Cannon that Smith’s desire to secure a conviction before the election is not the overriding consideration.

Judge Cannon is faced with recent admissions that the government mixed up files in the boxes and staged the famous photos of documents strewn over a floor with classified jackets. Most importantly, disputes over the relevant documents continues as expected in the case. Nevertheless, leading democrats are denouncing Cannon as a partisan hack.

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s subcommittee on federal courts and oversight, accused Cannon of “deliberately slow-walking the case.” Ignoring the fact that similar cases have taken much longer to go to trial, Whitehouse simply declared “it is hard for me not to reach the conclusion that this [judge] is deliberately slow-walking the case to put it into a position where should [Trump] be elected, he can order that the investigation and prosecution be terminated.”

His colleague Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) insisted that Cannon was “managing this case in a way that is making it highly unlikely that it will be resolved in a timely fashion.”

Coons added “Justice deferred is often justice denied.” It is a bizarre statement. Classified documents cases routinely take longer to go to trial. The alternative is to cut off the ability of the defense to fully review the documents and review objections for resolution before trial. Yet, because the defendant is Trump and these Democrats want the trial to influence the election, such defense protections are now evidence of judicial bias. They, of course, ignore that Cannon has ruled repeatedly against major Trump motions in the case.

Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vt.), a member of the Judiciary Committee, said Cannon’s “at it again, doing everything she can to delay.”

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), offered the most telling line. He said, “I question whether this judge understands the magnitude or the legal import of this trial.”

Indeed, it is the timing as much as the charges that makes this so important to the Justice Department and the Democrats. Smith has crafted this case to impact the election and the failure of the court to support that effort is apparently grounds for recusal.

Blumenthal called for such a motion before the window is lost before the election: “It’s a classic dilemma for justice that a particular judicial officer may be conducting a trial that could be better done by somebody else.”

Despite the statement of his colleague Coons, this is a case where justice delayed is justice.

Today’s Politically INCORRECT Cartoon by A.F. Branco


A.F. Branco Cartoon – The Vanishing Woman

A.F. BRANCO | on May 9, 2024 | https://comicallyincorrect.com/a-f-branco-cartoon-the-vanishing-woman/

Title 9
A Political Cartoon by A.F. Branco 2024

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Flipboard

A.F. Branco Cartoon – Biden’s Title IX (9) is destroying women’s sports. Many women are at risk of bodily injury and loss of scholarships across the nation due to biological males pretending to be women invading their sports.

Oklahoma Challenges Joe Biden’s Title IX Revisions: “One of the Most Radical and Illegal Moves We’ve Ever Seen from the Federal Government”

By Jim Hoft – April 27, 2024

Oklahoma State Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters condemned President Joe Biden’s recent rewrite of Title IX, labeling it as “radical and illegal” and a direct assault on the rights of states, families, and specifically young women and girls.
The Biden regime proudly announced that women will be forced to allow men in their locker rooms and bathrooms with a new 1577-page Title IX ruling.
Women will be forced to compete against men and women will be forced to accept men on their sports teams.

And, as May Mailman, Director of Independent Women’s Law Center, notes, Title IX is not a college law.  This will impact girls as young as those in the Headstart program, geared to children from three to five-years old, those in daycare, and those in Kindergarten through 12th grade. READ MORE…

DONATE to A.F. Branco Cartoons – Tips accepted and appreciated – $1.00 – $5.00 – $25.00 – $50.00 – it all helps to fund this website and keep the cartoons coming. Also Venmo @AFBranco – THANK YOU!

A.F. Branco has taken his two greatest passions (art and politics) and translated them into cartoons that have been popular all over the country in various news outlets, including NewsMax, Fox News, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, and “The Washington Post.” He has been recognized by such personalities as Rep. Devin Nunes, Dinesh D’Souza, James Woods, Chris Salcedo, Sarah Palin, Larry Elder, Lars Larson, Rush Limbaugh, and President Trump.

LifeNews.com Pro-Life News Report


Tuesday, May 8, 2024

Top Stories
We Must Vote for Donald Trump Over Radical Abortion Activist Joe Biden
Joe Biden Continues Pushing Radical Pro-Abortion Agenda on America, Here’s How
Planned Parenthood Closes Abortion Center That Kills Over 800 Babies a Year
Catholic College Will Honor Abortion Advocate, Allow Him to Give Commencement Speech

More Pro-Life News
Large Families With Save the Planet From Terribly Low Birth Rates
Man Kills His Pregnant Girlfriend Because She Refused to Get Abortion
Insurance Company Backtracks, Will Cover Cost of Lifesaving Care for Newborn Twins
Voters Must Reject Ballot Amendments Creating Right to Kill Babies in Abortions
Scroll Down for Several More Pro-Life News Stories

We Must Vote for Donald Trump Over Radical Abortion Activist Joe Biden

Joe Biden Continues Pushing Radical Pro-Abortion Agenda on America, Here’s How

Planned Parenthood Closes Abortion Center That Kills Over 800 Babies a Year

Catholic College Will Honor Abortion Advocate, Allow Him to Give Commencement Speech

Large Families With Save the Planet From Terribly Low Birth Rates

Man Kills His Pregnant Girlfriend Because She Refused to Get Abortion

Insurance Company Backtracks, Will Cover Cost of Lifesaving Care for Newborn Twins

Voters Must Reject Ballot Amendments Creating Right to Kill Babies in Abortions

MORE PRO-LIFE NEWS FROM TODAY

Pastor of Church Vandalized With Pro-Abortion Slogans Prays for Vandal to Accept Jesus

Supreme Court Should Stop Biden From Forcing pro-Life States to Allow Abortions

The First Time I Saw My Baby Smile Was in the Womb

Abortion Activists Firebombed This Pregnancy Center, Now Letitia James Wants to Stop It From Saving Babies

Looking for an inspiring and motivating speaker for your pro-life event? Don’t have much to spend on a high-priced speaker costing several thousand dollars? Contact news@lifenews.com about having LifeNews Editor Steven Ertelt speak at your event.

Two-Thirds of Michigan Voters Support Reasonable Limits on Abortion

Planned Parenthood Pushes Taxpayer-Funded Sex-Ed Despite Past Failures

Pro-Life Group Will Target Arizona Republicans Who Voted to Repeal Pro-Life Law

Catholic Bishops Oppose Minnesota Measure Allowing Abortions Up to Birth

Comments or questions? Email us at news@lifenews.com.
Copyright 2003-2024 LifeNews.com. All rights reserved.
For information on advertising or reprinting news from LifeNews.com, email us.

Speaker Johnson: Bill Ensures Only US Citizens Vote


By Sandy Fitzgerald    |   Wednesday, 08 May 2024 02:58 PM EDT

Read more at https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/mike-johnson-voting-legislation/2024/05/08/id/1163961/

House Speaker Mike Johnson, accompanied by Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, and Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, on Wednesday introduced legislation that they said will ensure that only U.S. citizens are voting in U.S. elections by requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote.

“Some have noted that it’s already a crime for noncitizens to vote in a federal election, and that is true,” Johnson said during an event at the Capitol announcing the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act. However, he said, there is “no mechanism to ensure” that only citizens are registering or voting.”

“It is true that [President Joe] Biden has welcomed millions and millions of illegal aliens, including sophisticated criminal syndicates and agents of adversarial governments, into our borders and even on humanitarian parole,” Johnson, R-La., said. “It is true that a growing number of localities are blurring the lines for noncitizens by allowing them to vote in municipal elections [and] it is true that Democrats have expressed a desire to turn non-citizens into voters.”

Johnson said that in his travels to cities nationwide, the first or second question he’s asked in every forum is about election security. 

“Americans are deeply concerned about this and it doesn’t matter where you live or whether you’re in a blue state or a red state,” Johnson said. “Due to the wide-open border that the Biden administration has refused to close — in fact that they engineered to open — we now have so many noncitizens in the country that if only one out of 100 of those voted, they would cast hundreds of thousands of votes.”

Johnson called that a “dangerously high number” that could change the outcome of the nation’s elections. 

Johnson added that nearly 16 million immigrants have entered the country since Biden entered office, including on humanitarian parole, “and that means the millions that had been paroled can simply go to their local welfare office or the DMV and register to vote there.”

The speaker also pointed out that there has been a growing number of people in the United States on student visas who have staged protests at the nation’s colleges, threatening law-abiding students. 

“If they’re willing to take over buildings and physically terrorize their fellow students, why would they not be willing to lie on a voter registration form?” Johnson said. 

The speaker was accompanied by several advocates for the legislation, including Cleta Mitchell (FAIR Elections Fund and Election Integrity Network), Jenny Beth Martin (Tea Party Patriots Action), Stephen Miller (America First Legal), Ken Cuccinelli (Election Transparency Initiative), Rosemary Jenks (Immigration Accountability Project), Andy Roth (State Freedom Caucus  Network), and Hogan Gidley (America First Policy Institute).

Sandy Fitzgerald 

Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics. 

Dennis Prager Op-ed: Sick Jews


Dennis Prager @DennisPrager / May 08, 2024

Read more at https://www.dailysignal.com/2024/05/08/sick-jews/

Members of Jewish Voice for Peace and others gather at Rockefeller Center to protest a visit by President Joe Biden on Feb. 26, 2024, in New York City. (Photo: David Delgado/Getty Images)
Information about the author.

I doubt that there is any national or religious group that produces the percentage of people who aid those who wish to hurt, let alone kill, that group as do Jews. empty alt attribute

When one observes Jews who defend those whose raison d’etre is the annihilation of the one Jewish country on Earth, you have to ask: Why are there no others like them? Were there blacks who defended slavery? Were there Armenians who defended the Turkish mass murder of fellow Armenians during World War I?

It is true that every nation has produced people who work against their nation—particularly during time of war. Vidkun Quisling, the Norwegian leader who collaborated with the Nazi occupiers of Norway, is perhaps the best known: The very name “Quisling” is widely used as a synonym for traitor. But even Quisling identified more with fellow Norwegians than Israel-hating Jews identify with fellow Jews.

It turns out that the Jews who side with those who wish to eradicate the one Jewish state and slaughter as many Jews as possible are truly unique.

It is this uniqueness that makes these Jews difficult to explain. Nevertheless, it is important to at least attempt to do so.

Here are two explanations.

1. Psychological Explanations

As a result of the Holocaust, virtually every Jew—whether or not they had family members who were murdered by the Nazis and their non-German collaborators—suffers from a form of PTSD. Few non-Jews know this, and even fewer can identify with this condition. So, let me explain.

Between 1941 and 1945, one of the most civilized nations in the world—the nation that gave the world the greatest music ever written; the greatest single national source of great scientists; the nation that produced Protestant Christianity, the mother of modern liberal democracies, the primary source (along with the Hebrew Bible) of the American experiment in freedom and of the anti-slavery movement—murdered two out of every three Jews in Europe.

Jewish women, babies, and elderly Jews were slated for death just as much as were young men. Jews were not merely persecuted or enslaved; they were targeted for death in the largest and most systematic genocide in recorded history.

And with very few exceptions, the world’s nations did nothing to help the Jews of Europe. Even those who managed to flee were, in too many cases, denied safe harbor in other countries, a fact that continues to underlie the need for one Jewish state in the world.

Inevitably, this has had a profound impact on the Jewish psyche. Virtually every Jew since 1945 has, consciously or subconsciously, feared another Holocaust. In fact, long before the Holocaust, at the Passover Seder Jews recited (and still do): “In every generation they arise to annihilate us.” Note that the words are not “to persecute us” or “to enslave us” but “to annihilate us.” Jew-hatred has always been unique in that it is an annihilationist hatred.

Given this reality, some Jews have always sought to assimilate wherever and whenever possible. Some changed their names, some baptized their children (as Karl Marx’s Jewish parents did), and some simply chose not to raise their children as Jews.

Today, there are Jews who choose to identify with the Jews’ enemies. More than a few young Jews on college campuses, for example, undoubtedly believe—consciously or not—that they will be more secure if they align themselves with the Jews’ enemies.

To those who seek to annihilate Israel and its Jews, there is no one as valuable as a Jew who sides with them—and many young Jews know, or at least sense, this. By aligning themselves with today’s Nazis—and lest you think that is too strong a term, vis-a-vis the Jews there is no difference between the Nazis and the Iranian regime, Hezbollah, and Hamas—they go from being hated by Israel-haters to being loved by them (for now).

2. Ideological Explanations

Not all Jews side with the would-be exterminators of the Jewish people for psychological reasons. Many Jews who are in the pro-Palestinian, Israel-hating camp are there for ideological reasons: They are leftists (not liberals, who generally remain what they have always been: pro-Israel). And leftism is one of the two primary sources of Israel-hatred and Jew-hatred today. The other is fundamentalist Islam.

This is true around the world. The most anti-Israel leaders outside of the Muslim world are leftists.
The president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, described by The New York Times as “Colombia’s first leftist president,” has severed his country’s relations with Israel and not only used the “genocide” libel against Israel but accused Israel of engaging in “the extermination of an entire people.”

(As I have noted for decades, truth is a liberal and conservative value; but it is not, and has never been, a left-wing value.)

The leftist president of Bolivia, Luis Arce, severed his country’s relations with Israel less than three weeks after Oct. 7. Bolivia perfectly illustrates the universal left-wing hatred of Israel: Bolivia’s previous left-wing president, Evo Morales, severed Bolivia’s relations with Israel in 2009; and Morales’ conservative successor, Jeanine Anez, restored relations with Israel in 2020.

Meanwhile, the most pro-Israel leader in the world today is the conservative president of Argentina, Javier Milei.

Most American Jews are liberal, but many are leftist, and they embrace the anti-Israel/pro-Palestinian/pro-Hamas line. (At this time, “pro-Palestinian” means “pro-Hamas” just as, during World War II, “pro-German” meant “pro-Nazi.”)

For many Jews who abandon belief in the Torah, leftism fills the religious hole created by that abandonment. This is equally true for many non-Jews, but there is a major difference: Christians who abandon Christian faith do not still call themselves Christian, nor does anyone else; but Jews who abandon Jewish faith often continue to call themselves Jews (especially when attacking Israel), and so do others.

Psychopathology and left-wing ideology are the two primary explanations for why Jews such as those in groups like “Jewish Voice for Peace” and “IfNotNow” willingly serve as useful idiots for those who wish to exterminate the Jewish state and the Jewish people. Including them.

COPYRIGHT 2024 CREATORS

The Daily Signal publishes a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Heritage Foundation.

This is Antifa: Journalist and Others Attacked at UW Event


By: Jonathan Turley | May 8, 2024

Read more at https://jonathanturley.org/2024/05/08/this-is-antifa-journalist-and-others-attacked-at-uw-event/

The University of Washington became the latest scene of Antifa violence this week with an attack on a conservative reporter and several other people. Antifa often attacks reporters who are critical of their actions and the videotape shows at least one person bleeding after the attack on reporter, Jonathan Choe, and his team. The attack came before an event Tuesday at the University of Washington featuring Charlie Kirk, founder of Turning Point USA, which released the video.

The University of Washington issued a statement that campus police “are busy keeping the Turning Point USA event and other areas of campus as safe as possible. We take any assault seriously, and UWPD will be investigating these incidents, gathering statements and video footage that may be available.”

Despite the denial of its existence by figures like Rep. Jerry Nadler (D., N.Y.), I have long written and spoken about the threat of Antifa to free speech on our campuses and in our communities. This includes testimony before Congress on Antifa’s central role in the anti-free speech movement nationally.

As I have written, it has long been the “Keyser Söze” of the anti-free speech movement, a loosely aligned group that employs measures to avoid easy detection or association.  Yet, FBI Director Chris Wray has repeatedly pushed back on the denials of Antifa’s work or violence. In one hearing, Wray stated “And we have quite a number” — and “Antifa is a real thing. It’s not a fiction.”

We have continued to follow the attacks and arrests of Antifa followers across the country.

Some Democrats have played a dangerous game in supporting or excusing the work of Antifa. Former Democratic National Committee deputy chair Keith Ellison, now the Minnesota attorney general, once said Antifa would “strike fear in the heart” of Trump. This was after Antifa had been involved in numerous acts of violence and its website was banned in Germany. His own son, Minneapolis City Council member Jeremiah Ellison, declared his allegiance to Antifa in the heat of the protests this summer. During a prior hearing, Democratic senators refused to clearly denounce Antifa and falsely suggested that the far right was the primary cause of recent violence. Likewise, Joe Biden has dismissed objections to Antifa as just “an idea.”

It is at its base a movement at war with free speech, defining the right itself as a tool of oppression. That purpose is evident in what is called the “bible” of the Antifa movement: Rutgers Professor Mark Bray’s Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook.

Bray emphasizes the struggle of the movement against free speech: “At the heart of the anti-fascist outlook is a rejection of the classical liberal phrase that says, ‘I disapprove of what you say but I will defend to the death your right to say it.’”

Bray admits that “most Americans in Antifa have been anarchists or antiauthoritarian communists…  From that standpoint, ‘free speech’ as such is merely a bourgeois fantasy unworthy of consideration.” It is an illusion designed to promote what Antifa is resisting “white supremacy, hetero-patriarchy, ultra-nationalism, authoritarianism, and genocide.” Thus, all of these opposing figures are deemed fascistic and thus unworthy of being heard.

Bray quotes one Antifa member as summing up their approach to free speech as a “nonargument . . . you have the right to speak but you also have the right to be shut up.”

We previously discussed the case involving another Antifa member who was convicted after taking an ax to the door of Sen. John Hoeven’s office in Fargo. He was given no jail time, and the FBI even returned his ax. He later mocked the government by posting on social media “Look what the FBI were kind enough to give back to me!

For those who have sought to deny the existence of Antifa, this is Antifa.

Stormy Daniels Day: Alvin Bragg Lights Dumpster Fire in Manhattan


By: Jonathan Turley | May 8, 2024

Read more at https://jonathanturley.org/2024/05/08/stormy-daniels-day-alvin-bragg-lights-dumpster-fire-in-manhattan-courtroom/

Below is my New York Post column on the unseemly scene in the courtroom of Judge Juan Merchan as prosecutors used porn star Stormy Daniels to present lurid details on her alleged tryst with former president Donald Trump. It was a dumpster fire that Judge Merchan watched burn for a full day and then said the jury may have to disregard much of what they saw and heard.

Here is the column:

Before the start of the Manhattan prosecution of former president Donald Trump, I characterized the case of District Attorney Alvin Bragg as based on a type of obscenity standard.

In a 1984 pornography case, Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart wrote “I shall not today attempt further to define [obscenity]. . . . But I know it when I see it.”

Bragg has refused to clearly define the crime that Trump was seeking to conceal when payments for a non-disclosure agreement were listed as a legal expense. We would just know it when we saw it at trial. We are still waiting, but this week, Bragg seems to be prosecuting an actual obscenity case.

The prosecution fought with Trump’s defense counsel to not only call porn star Stormy Daniels to the stand, but to ask her for lurid details on her alleged tryst with Trump. The only assurance that they would make to Judge Juan Merchan was that they would “not go into details of genitalia.” For Merchan, who has largely ruled against Trump on such motions, that was enough. He allowed the prosecutors to get into the details of the affair despite the immateriality of the evidence to any criminal theory.

Neither the NDA nor the payment to Daniels is being contested. It is also uncontested that Trump wanted to pay to get the story (and other stories, including untrue allegations) from being published.

The value of the testimony was entirely sensational and gratuitous, yet Merchan was fine with humiliating Trump. Daniels’ testimony was a dumpster fire in the courtroom.

The most maddening moment for the defense came at the lunch break when Merchan stated, “I agree that it would have been better if some of these things had been left unsaid.” He then denied a motion for a mistrial based on the testimony and blamed the defense for not objecting more. That, of course, ignores the standing objection of the defense to Daniels even appearing, and specific objections to the broad scope allowed by the court.

This is precisely what the defense said would happen when the prosecutors only agreed to avoid “genitalia.” There was no reason for Daniels to appear at all in the trial. Even if he was adamant in allowing her, Merchan could have imposed a much more limited scope for her testimony. He could also have enforced the limits that he did place on the testimony when it was being ignored by both the prosecutors and the witness.

Merchan said that he is considering a limiting instruction for the jury to ignore aspects of the testimony. But that is little comfort for the defendant.

The court was told that this would happen, it happened, and now the court wants to ask the jury to pretend that it did not happen. Merchan knows that there is no way for the jury to unhear the testimony. More importantly, the prosecution knew that from the outset.

Daniels appeared eager to share the stories for the same reason that she was eager to sell her story. While she said that she “hates” Trump and wants him “held accountable,” Daniels is no victim. She had an alleged tryst with Trump and then sought to cash in on the story.

It is a standard form of extortion of celebrities. She later sought to cash in on the notoriety by appearing in strip clubs as part of a “Make America Horny Again” tour. She is in her element in Merchan’s courtroom.

In New York, the relevance or credibility of witnesses like Daniels is largely immaterial.

This is a district that voted against Trump, 84.5% to 14.5%, in the 2020 presidential election.

New Yorkers elected a state attorney general, Letitia James, who ran on the pledge to bag Trump on something — without specifying any crime.

Bragg then indicted Trump without clearly defining any crime — a debate that continues among legal experts after two weeks of testimony.

This is entertainment for many in New York — as is the thrill of the possibility of his going to jail under Merchan’s poorly written and arguably unconstitutional gag order.

When it comes to a thrill kill trial, who better to call than Daniels?

After all, she has been treated as a heroine by many, even being given the key to the city of West Hollywood, California, on “Stormy Daniels Day.”

Well, it was Stormy Daniels Day in Judge Merchan’s courtroom this week, and it is a bit late for the court to express shock over her testimony.

It is not the witness, but the case that seems increasingly obscene.

  • You have a judge who should have recused himself given his daughter’s major role as a Democratic activist and fundraiser.
  • You have a gag order that is allowing a New York Supreme Court justice to regulate what the leading candidate for the presidency may say in an election on the weaponization of the legal system.
  • You have a case based on two dead misdemeanors shocked back into life by a still mysterious theory of an undefined crime.

In comparison, Daniels may be the only authentic part of the entire case in New York v. Trump.

Jonathan Turley is an attorney and professor at George Washington University Law School.

Today’s Politically INCORRECT Cartoon by A.F. Branco


A.F. Branco Cartoon – Top Dog

A.F. BRANCO | on May 8, 2024 | https://comicallyincorrect.com/a-f-branco-cartoon-top-dog/

Speaker Johnson or Jeffries
A Political Cartoon by A.F. Branco 2024

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Flipboard

A.F. Branco Cartoon—Speaker Johnson has turned out to be weaker than expected, unwilling to fight for the values the conservative base elected him to promote. Many say he has become the lapdog of Rep. Jeffries and the Democrats and, out of weakness or naivete, has yielded to the Deep State, such as the warrantless FISA bill.

BREAKING | Rep. MTG Announces Motion To Vacate For Speaker Johnson Next Week: “Americans Are “Unable To Trust Mike Johnson” (VIDEO)

By Jim Hoft – May 1, 2024
Rep. Marjorie Taylor-Greene (R-GA) joined Steve Bannon on The War Room on Wednesday to discuss her plan to call for a motion to vacate the speakership next week.

Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA), the Uniparty, RINOs and Democrats passed another massive spending bill last week to fund the war in Ukraine, fund Israel, fund Taiwan, and nothing for secure America’s southern border.
This is national suicide. READ MORE…

DONATE to A.F. Branco Cartoons – Tips accepted and appreciated – $1.00 – $5.00 – $25.00 – $50.00 – it all helps to fund this website and keep the cartoons coming. Also Venmo @AFBranco – THANK YOU!

A.F. Branco has taken his two greatest passions (art and politics) and translated them into cartoons that have been popular all over the country in various news outlets, including NewsMax, Fox News, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, and “The Washington Post.” He has been recognized by such personalities as Rep. Devin Nunes, Dinesh D’Souza, James Woods, Chris Salcedo, Sarah Palin, Larry Elder, Lars Larson, Rush Limbaugh, and President Trump.

LifeNews.com Pro-Life News Report


Tuesday, May 7, 2024

Top Stories
Donald Trump is Winning the Catholic Vote Over Nominally “Catholic” Joe Biden
Kamala Harris Challenged to Visit Pro-Life Pregnancy Center After She Tours Abortion Biz
Joe Biden Wants You to Vote for Him if You Want More Abortions
Judge Rules New York Measure for Abortions Up to Birth Won’t Appear on November Ballot

More Pro-Life News
Thousands of Pro-Life People in Colombia March for Life to Protest Abortion
Paramedics Save 26 Week Premature Baby Still in His Amniotic Sac
Planned Parenthood is Pushing More Women Into DIY Abortions With Dangerous Abortion Drugs
They Talk About “Reproductive Health” Instead of Abortion Because They Can’t Defend Killing Babies
Scroll Down for Several More Pro-Life News Stories

Donald Trump is Winning the Catholic Vote Over Nominally “Catholic” Joe Biden

Kamala Harris Challenged to Visit Pro-Life Pregnancy Center After She Tours Abortion Biz

Joe Biden Wants You to Vote for Him if You Want More Abortions

Judge Rules New York Measure for Abortions Up to Birth Won’t Appear on November Ballot

Thousands of Pro-Life People in Colombia March for Life to Protest Abortion

Paramedics Save 26 Week Premature Baby Still in His Amniotic Sac

Planned Parenthood is Pushing More Women Into DIY Abortions With Dangerous Abortion Drugs

They Talk About “Reproductive Health” Instead of Abortion Because They Can’t Defend Killing Babies

MORE PRO-LIFE NEWS FROM TODAY

39,000 British Women Have Been Injured by Abortion Pills in Just Five Years

Here’s 5 Reasons Why I’m Pro-Life on Abortion

They Call Abortion Pills “Medication” Abortion, But Real Medicine Isn’t Designed to Kill People

Letitia James is Wrong, Abortion Pill Reversal is Saving Babies From Abortions

Looking for an inspiring and motivating speaker for your pro-life event? Don’t have much to spend on a high-priced speaker costing several thousand dollars? Contact news@lifenews.com about having LifeNews Editor Steven Ertelt speak at your event.

Canada is Euthanizing Its Poor and Disabled People

Joe Biden Gives National Award to Nancy Pelosi, Who Refused to Stop Infanticide 80 Times

Biden Officials Block Pro-Life Advocate on House Arrest From Attending Church

90% of Americans Disagree With Joe Biden’s Position Supporting Abortions Up to Birth

Comments or questions? Email us at news@lifenews.com.
Copyright 2003-2024 LifeNews.com. All rights reserved.
For information on advertising or reprinting news from LifeNews.com, email us.

South Carolina Agency: The Feds Force Us to Give Voter Registration to Foreign Nationals


BY: M.D. KITTLE | MAY 07, 2024

Read more at https://thefederalist.com/2024/05/07/south-carolina-agency-the-feds-force-us-to-give-voter-registration-to-foreign-nationals/

South Carolina state welcome sign.

Author M.D. Kittle profile

M.D. KITTLE

MORE ARTICLES

As South Carolina law enforcement investigates allegations a state agency is handing out voter registration forms to foreign nationals, an agency official tells The Federalist that federal law has tied the state’s hands. 

Jeff Leieritz, a spokesman for the state’s Department of Health and Human Services, says the department, as the state’s Medicaid agency, is mandated to provide voter registration information under Section 7 of the National Voter Registration Act Of 1993. The information apparently goes out to everyone applying for the benefits, including foreign nationals.

Section 7 requires each state to designate voter registration agencies, including all state offices providing public assistance, unemployment compensation, or disability services; state or local government offices; federal and nongovernmental offices; and armed forces recruitment offices. 

“SCDHHS does not believe the state Medicaid agency should have a role in voter registration. However, absent the legal authority to make this change, SCDHHS remains required by federal law to provide voter registration application forms with each Medicaid application,” Leieritz said in a statement Monday to The Federalist.

‘That’s Insane’

South Carolina state Rep. Adam Morgan has been pushing for answers after a refugee reported receiving a packet of information, including voter registration forms, at the Health and Human Services office. Morgan did not return The Federalist’s requests for comment, but he did speak about the issue last week on FrankSpeech. 

“The refugee was actually confused. They were like, ‘Am I supposed to fill this out?’ They asked a relative, and the relative is a citizen who said, ‘No, you can’t fill this out. You’re not a citizen.’ [The refugee] said, ‘Why are they giving this out to noncitizens?’ And we were, like, “Exactly! That’s insane,” Morgan told The Absolute Truth with Emerald Robinson. 

Morgan said the refugee mailed the forms back to the Medicaid office advising that the government agency shouldn’t be giving voter registration information to people who are not eligible to vote. The office sent the refugee even more information in response, Morgan claims. 

“It’s just infuriating that the government is actually sending these forms out and literally confusing people who may not be trying to do wrong, or opening the door wide open for somebody to do wrong and get people who are not citizens to vote in the election,” said the president of the South Carolina Freedom Caucus and a Republican candidate for a U.S. House seat. 

On, Wednesday, the Freedom Caucus sent Gov. Henry McMaster letter expressing its “grave concern with this breach of election integrity.” They asked that the state inspector general’s office launch an immediate investigation and that the governor order state agencies to “cease and desist distributing voter registration and voter declination forms to non-citizens.”

McMaster, a Republican, quickly responded, saying he has asked the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division to immediately contact Morgan to “provide SLED with any and all evidence, documents and information that you possess in order to evaluate the authenticity of your allegation of illegalities.”  

“SLED has received the Governor’s letter to Representative Adam Morgan and will review the allegations provided,” the Law Enforcement Division told The Federalist in an email Monday. 

‘Overreaching Federal Requirements’

Leieritz, the spokesman for the state health department, said the agency is aware of reports circulating on social media about the refugee receiving voter registration forms. He said the department does not process or submit voter registration forms for Medicaid applicants or members. That is the domain of the South Carolina Election Commission.

“SCDHHS is investigating what has been reported on social media,” the spokesman said, adding that the agency believes the 30-year-old National Voter Registration Act needs to be amended “to repeal these overreaching federal requirements.”

“South Carolina’s citizens would be better served by a state Medicaid agency that is able to focus singularly on efficiently operating the state’s Healthy Connections Medicaid program,” Leieritz said. 

Morgan and the Freedom Caucus are proposing adding a provision in the state budget prohibiting state money from funding the distribution of voter registration information to foreign nationals at South Carolina agencies. 

“But isn’t it insane that we have to do that,” the lawmaker told Robinson.  “It’s crazy to me that we are at a place in America where we have government employees and government agencies who are willing to actively give out voter registration forms to noncitizens. And if it’s happening in South Carolina, you’d better believe it’s happening all over especially the swing states.”

It is, via federal executive fiat. 

‘Bidenbucks’

Beyond the NVRA, President Joe Biden’s Executive Order 14019 commands federal agencies to do what some legal experts say the executive branch does not have the legal authority to do: expand voter registration and turnout — using White House “approved” third-party organizations connected to Democrats. The sweeping initiative has been billed “Bidenbucks,” since it uses federal dollars. Think of Executive Order 14019 as Zuckbucks on steroids, using your money.

“This is clearly weaponization of the government for a partisan purpose,” Dave Craig, a senior legal fellow at the Foundation for Government Accountability, told me in February

On the swing state front, the Michigan Department of State earlier this year signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the U.S. Small Business Administration “to promote civic engagement and voter registration in Michigan.” The agreement, according to Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson and SBA Administrator Isabel Casillas Guzman, is a “first-of-its-kind collaboration” for the federal agency. It is expected to run through Jan. 1, 2036. Such constitutionally suspect “agreements” between the Biden administration and left-led state executive branches are part of Biden’s unprecedented executive order. 

‘Non-issues’ Becoming ‘Major Issues’

The South Carolina State Election Commission (SEC) last week said it had received several questions and concerns about foreign nationals registering to vote in defiance of basic election integrity protections. 

“The SEC is actively auditing voter data through the Department of Homeland Security’s Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) Program database to ensure that only U.S. citizens are included on the active list of registered voters. Regardless of the method of registration, no voter may be registered in South Carolina without signing an oath swearing that they are a citizen of the United States,” the agency states on its website. “The auditing process ensures that any bad actors are removed from voter rolls and held accountable through state and federal election law statutes.” 

The elections regulator said it has not received any “specific information that non-U.S. citizens are fraudulently being registered to vote” in South Carolina.  

“The SEC will not allow fraudulent voter registration to happen on our watch,” said Howie Knapp, executive director of the SEC. “Should we receive or discover information that non-U.S. citizens are being registered to vote in our state, we will immediately report to our law enforcement partners for investigation and prosecution to the fullest extent of the law.”

South Carolina is looking to join a growing list of states passing resolutions for constitutional amendments barring foreign nationals, including illegal immigrants, from voting in local elections. 

“Many said this was a non-issue. Then we discovered state agencies sending voter registration forms to non-citizens. These ‘non-issues’ keep turning out to be major issues,” Morgan recently tweeted on his X account. 


Matt Kittle is a senior elections correspondent for The Federalist. An award-winning investigative reporter and 30-year veteran of print, broadcast, and online journalism, Kittle previously served as the executive director of Empower Wisconsin.

Biden’s Student Loan Bailout Sends Taxpayer Funds to On-Campus Mobs


BY: CHRISTOPHER JACOBS | MAY 07, 2024

Read more at https://thefederalist.com/2024/05/07/bidens-loan-forgiveness-plan-makes-taxpayers-fund-on-campus-mobs/

protests on campus

Author Christopher Jacobs profile

CHRISTOPHER JACOBS

VISIT ON TWITTER@CHRISJACOBSHC

MORE ARTICLES

In remarks regarding the growing unrest on college campuses nationwide last Thursday, President Biden denounced the violent acts associated with many of the demonstrations and the growing wave of antisemitism on college campuses.

But, as the saying goes, talk is cheap. There’s one simple way to give his position teeth: Congress should enact legislation prohibiting the Department of Education from making taxpayers assume or otherwise modifying student loans for any student found responsible by his university or a court of law for acts of antisemitism, trespassing, property damage, intimidation, or violence.

Loan Giveaways Encourage Campus Chaos

Biden might be loath to admit it, but in many ways the campaign for mass student loan forgiveness has helped cause the current campus debacle. This year’s seniors entered college during the 2020 election campaign, meaning that most students currently on campus spent their college career hearing promises that much if not all of their debt would be forgiven.

This leftist movement to make American taxpayers pay off other people’s college debt has further weakened the already-tenuous link between a degree and its earning potential. If they believe the government will ultimately forgive the cost of their education, students have no reason not to major in Grievance Studies, or some similar Marxist-adjacent course of study. Assuming their loan debts will get nationalized also makes students less concerned about potential employers refusing to hire them due to their participation in on-campus riots.

With less incentive for students to choose practical degrees, and officials prioritizing woke nostrums over intellectual rigor, colleges have given up all pretense of ideological balance. As a result, some institutions have become less like universities and more like madrassas, places that inculcate and radicalize youths rather than educate them.

The way Biden has continued to pursue loan forgiveness, despite a rebuke of his unconstitutional plan by the Supreme Court, set an example that demonstrators have replicated. The president may now deprecate the mob’s actions, and call for respect for the rule of law, but when he publicly brags that the nation’s highest court “didn’t stop me” from pursuing his objectives, can anyone blame the would-be jihadis on campus for thinking themselves entitled to take the law into their own hands?

Restore Sanity to Campuses

Congress can and should take a stand, by cutting off the financial spigot for participants in the bedlam. If Biden opposes the chaos on campus so strongly, he should be willing to take a break from buying votes via taxpayer loan payoffs to cut off access for those creating mayhem. And if Democrats on the left like Rep. Ilhan Omar wish to exclude from loan payoffs any participants in Islamophobic or other offensive acts, few Republicans — who oppose Biden’s forgiveness proposals outright — will object.

Some might fear this proposal would encourage already-timid university administrators to take a weaker line against the demonstrators because individuals held responsible could face significant financial repercussions. But in some cases, civil authorities may be able to act irrespective of whether the higher education institutions in question do. More importantly, this measure should deter students as much as university officials, if not more so.

Another potential concern, that Congress prohibiting loan bailouts for a narrow sliver of the population might be viewed as lawmakers permitting Biden’s power grab for other students, doesn’t appear to pass muster, either. The House passed a bill last spring disapproving Biden’s original student loan payoff plan, but the fact that the measure didn’t get enacted into law didn’t stop the Supreme Court from striking the plan down as an unconstitutional power grab.

Finally, this proposal focuses solely on actions, not speech. Like all other Americans, students can and should have the right to protest, and to express their views, however offensive others may find them. But when speech crosses into intimidation, or encampments that create safety and health concerns, let alone breaking into buildings, those actions should bring consequences — in this case, financial ones.

A Practical Solution

Prohibiting student loan payoffs is less expensive and more practical than the other alternative: giving demonstrators a one-way ticket to the Gaza Strip. It would also send a message in clear and uncertain terms about what the American people, through their elected representatives, think of the mayhem that has unfolded in recent weeks.

In the longer term, the recent campus chaos should prompt Congress to consider repealing the student loan program entirely, a reform that would incentivize students and universities to prioritize college affordability, while saving taxpayers at least $300 billion over the coming decade. But at minimum, lawmakers should act now to ensure that hard-working taxpayers are not subsidizing participants in violent demonstrations on campuses nationwide.


Chris Jacobs is founder and CEO of Juniper Research Group, and author of the book “The Case Against Single Payer.” He is on Twitter: @chrisjacobsHC.

Hugh Hewitt Op-ed: Morning Glory: Which nation leads ‘the West?’


Hugh Hewitt  By Hugh Hewitt Fox News | Published May 7, 2024 5:00am EDT | Updated May 7, 2024 5:05am EDT

Read more at https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/morning-glory-which-nation-leads-west

Which nation is the leader of “The West?”

To answer that question, you must first define what “The West” is

There are a hundred different definitions, and indeed an entire PBS series devoted to that question. “Civilization: The West and the Rest with Niall Feruguson” debuted in 2012, and the accomplished historian issued a companion book at the same time and with the same title. 

“In ‘Civilization: The West and the Rest,’” the summary of the book relays, “bestselling author Niall Ferguson argues that, beginning in the fifteenth century, the West developed six powerful new concepts that the Rest lacked: competition, science, the rule of law, consumerism, modern medicine, and the work ethic.”

Those characteristics are fine and easily applied to exclude from “The West” tyrannies such as the People’s Republic of China, Russia and Iran and all of their puppet states or proxies. But it does not include the essential ingredient: freedom. “The West” is defined by this essential, must-have feature: Some significant measure of individual liberty. That liberty must include the rule of law and not the rule of despots or oligarchs. There is no rule of law where the law can be easily manipulated or avoided. There cannot be in any member nation of “The West” a secret police that operates without restraint and oversight but solely on the direction of unaccountable despot(s).

The members of “The West” have free elections at regular intervals and guarantee freedom of conscience, speech and almost always movement within their boundaries to their citizens. Constitutions of member states may be written as in the United States, or unwritten as in the United Kingdom. 

CLICK HERE FOR MORE FOX NEWS OPINION

Video

Nations in “The West” may be large or small, rich or poor, and since the end of World War Two at least, can be found on every continent. Countries can be part of “The West” and then lose that status as has happened to Venezuela, or it can aspire and eventually join or re-join “The West” as has happened with many former members of the now defunct “Warsaw Pact.” Poland is one such country, as are many others surrounding Ukraine. Ukraine aspires to be part of “The West” and is fighting and its people suffering and many thousands dying to keep that dream alive. Japan was a tyranny and an empire but, defeated by the Allies in 1945, it is now among the West’s leaders. 

Even as the definition becomes clearer, the first question becomes more and more difficult to answer: “Which nation leads the West?” 

Until December 7, 1941, the leader of “The West” was the United Kingdom, standing alone after the defeat of France by Hitler’s Germany in 1940. After Pearl Harbor, the United States was thrust into that role and has remained there without question until this decade. Until very recently in fact. 

ANTISEMITISM HAS PROLIFERATED WORLDWIDE, NEW REPORT RELEASED ON HOLOCAUST REMEMBRANCE DAY SAYS

Now, there are reasons to doubt that leadership, for the United States has failed to fulfill that role since 10/7, slipping again and again into a catastrophic ambiguity about the nature of the alliance of “The West,” and at times throwing into considerable doubt whether we can be relied upon as an ally and as an enemy of tyrants and maniacs. A similar palsy overtook us in the aftermath of our loss of the Vietnam War, during the presidency of Jimmy Carter.  President Ronald Reagan cured and restored us. That palsy that marked the late 1970s in the United States has returned. 

The U.S. remains by far the wealthiest and strongest nation in the world, but it is at present divided at home and deeply confused about good and evil, friend and enemy. President Biden, already infirm and increasingly incoherent, seems to be headed towards incapacity, but he is, by operation of the Constitution, the commander-in-chief of our supremely strong military. We cannot know what he is like in private and many Americans suspect he is not in full control of the Executive Branch. Certainly, many suspect that some among our allies are concerned about his “leadership.”

Video

President Biden’s infirmity and growing incoherence has indeed caused the whole world to wonder if anyone at all is in charge of the country. Of course, few will say this out loud. America’s power to punish is still robust even if its president isn’t. So, our allies pretend that all is fine, while our enemies plot and plan. But since the collapse in Afghanistan signaled to the world that the United States was run by a band of weak bumblers headed in title if not in fact by a very old man of limited ability, it is hard to argue that the United States is “leading” ’anything at all these days.

If “The West” as understood as the family of nations committed to everything laid out above has any leader at all right now, it seems like Israel is the only candidate qualified to step up into the vacuum left by the U.S. paralyzed by the weakness of its leadership. But Israel is also under siege on the world stage and at war with ruthless enemies, and the United States is of a divided mind about Israel, with the left wing of the Democratic Party apparently afraid that Israel might actually win and destroy the military capabilities of Hamas and perhaps after that Hezbollah. 

If the United States cannot proudly stand with Israel on the side of victory by Israel over an evil terrorist puppet of an evil theocracy, then we have to, at least for a season, given up title to leadership of “The West.” Israel is the unlikeliest of all nations to become the most courageous defender of the West’s highest and best traditions, but there it is: Alone and besieged, with weak-kneed allies and an absurd world media elite that has lost any idea of why a free press matters, this nation reborn in 1948 is still very young, but it is very much a nation of warriors and however rancorous its internal politics, it has not lost sight of its purpose. 

Israeli and American flag MIT
An American and Israeli flag wave in the breeze on either side of signs that discuss IDF soldiers and people kidnapped by Hamas.  (Nikolas Lanum/Fox News Digital)

In his introduction to a book of essays, “The City and Man,” the most significant political theorist of the last century, Leo Strauss, wrote this:

“However much the power of the West may have declined, however great the dangers to the West may be, that decline, that danger, nay, the defeat, even the destruction of the West would not necessarily prove that the West is in a crisis: the West could go down in honor, certain of its purpose. The crisis of the West consists in the West’s having become uncertain of its purpose.”

Israel is not uncertain of its purpose. America or at least its present Executive Branch quite obviously is. If there are any other nominees for the job of leading The West, by all means nominate them, or work to restore America to its former position. Until that happens, every citizen of the West looking for a nation committed to the freedom of its citizens and willing to defend that freedom at the cost of extraordinary losses of life and treasure, will need to study the example of Israel, and be willing to develop the weapons it will need to deter the enemies of freedom who have quite openly organized against “The West.”

Hugh Hewitt is host of “The Hugh Hewitt show,” heard weekday mornings 6am to 9am ET on the Salem Radio Network and simulcast on Salem News Channel. Hugh wakes up America on over 400 affiliates nationwide, and on all the streaming platforms where SNC can be seen. He is a frequent guest on the Fox News Channel’s news roundtable hosted by Brett Baier weekdays at 6pm ET. A son of Ohio and a graduate of Harvard College and the University of Michigan Law School, Hewitt has been a Professor of Law at Chapman University’s Fowler School of Law since 1996 where he teaches Constitutional Law. Hewitt launched his eponymous radio show from Los Angeles in 1990.  Hewitt has frequently appeared on every major national news television network, hosted television shows for PBS and MSNBC, written for every major American paper, has authored a dozen books and moderated a score of Republican candidate debates, most recently the November 2023 Republican presidential debate in Miami and four Republican presidential debates in the 2015-16 cycle. Hewitt focuses his radio show and his column on the Constitution, national security, American politics and the Cleveland Browns and Guardians. Hewitt has interviewed tens of thousands of guests from Democrats Hillary Clinton and John Kerry to Republican Presidents George W. Bush and Donald Trump over his 40 years in broadcasting, and this column previews the lead story that will drive his radio/TV show today.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM HUGH HEWITT

Sen. Josh Hawley Demands DOJ Probe Anti-Israel ‘Dark Money’


By Nicole Wells    |   Tuesday, 07 May 2024 02:13 PM EDT

Read more at https://www.newsmax.com/us/josh-hawley-merrick-garland-israel/2024/05/07/id/1163801/

Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., called on the Department of Justice to investigate the third-party funding behind the antisemitic protests that have taken college campuses by storm in recent weeks. The Missouri Republican sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland on Tuesday, demanding he open a probe into the funding. Alleging the demonstrations are “not just spontaneous student unrest,” Hawley reminded Garland that he sent a similar letter seeking information on “how many pro-terrorist student organizations … received significant funding from third-party groups” in October.

“Now, we have answers — just not from your Department,” Hawley wrote. “Earlier this week, Politico detailed the vast amounts of dark money subsidizing this mayhem. Their report found that key groups backing the campus protests — like Jewish Voice for Peace and IfNotNow — received financial support from George Soros’ Tides Foundation, David Rockefeller’s Rockefeller Brothers Fund, and Democrat megadonors Susan and Nick Pritzker were also cited in the report.”

Hawley said the “pattern is disturbing” and “almost certainly illegal,” given that IRS Revenue Ruling 75-384 established that “no organization may retain its tax exemption if it backs protests at which members are urged to commit acts of civil disobedience.”

He said the IRS “explained at length that illegal acts are ‘inconsistent with charitable ends'” and “stressed that ‘illegal activities … are contrary to the common good and the general welfare’ and are therefore not approved methods of ‘promoting the social welfare.'”

“In short, by supporting illegal acts while enjoying tax-exempt status, dark-money groups and foundations are defrauding the American people and putting Jewish students and faculty at risk,” Hawley said.

In the letter, the GOP senator told the attorney general he must “immediately provide answers” as to how many anti-Israel protests are currently receiving funds from third-party groups and which groups are providing such support.

Hawley also wanted to know what steps the Justice Department will take to “immediately enforce” IRS Revenue Ruling 75-384 against the groups that are sponsoring or funding the ongoing violent protests at universities nationwide.

Nicole Wells 

Nicole Wells, a Newsmax general assignment reporter covers news, politics, and culture. She is a National Newspaper Association award-winning journalist.

Columbia Caves: Commencement is Canceled Due to Pro-Palestinian Protests


By: Jonathan Turley | May 7, 2024

Read more at https://jonathanturley.org/2024/05/07/columbia-caves-commencement-is-canceled-due-to-pro-palestinian-protests/

Woody Allen once said that “80 percent of success is showing up.” Yesterday, Columbia University established its academic corollary: 80 percent of defeat is not showing up. In a disgraceful decision that deprived students of one of the most memorable moments of their lives, the university yielded to protesters who have occupied parts of the campus and buildings. Instead, graduates will be allowed to go to small-scale graduations. It is a profile of cowardice that will stain the record of Columbia for years to come.

Notably, the graduation is ordinarily held on the space where students set up an encampment, but that space was finally cleared by police last week. It did not matter. Columbia stated that “holding a large commencement ceremony on our campus presented security concerns that unfortunately proved insurmountable…Like our students, we are deeply disappointed with this outcome.”

“Insurmountable?” It is your campus. These are your students. Hold the damn commencement.

Columbia said the security advisers identified “too many variables” for holding the commencement and that adding security would only trigger the protesters. So, the solution, once again, is to do precisely what the protesters wanted.

Schools like University of Southern California said late last month that it was canceling its main commencement ceremony, citing similar security concerns. Protesters disrupted the commencement at University of Michigan this weekend. However, Michigan did not yield. They handled the disruption and held their ground. They held their commencement.

The decision by Columbia is consistent with how administrators have approached disruptive protests for years. While some of us have called upon schools to suspend or to expel students preventing others from speaking on campus, universities have yielded over and over again. Indeed, citing security concerns became an easy way for schools to cancel conservative speakers while professing neutrality on the content of their views. Faculty have not only encouraged but participated in such cancel campaigns.

Even classes have been stopped by protesters at places like Northwestern without any repercussions for the students. Northwestern (my alma mater) is the ultimate example of administrators picking the path of least resistance in the face of radicalized students. Recently, seven out of 11 members of the “President’s Advisory Committee on Preventing Antisemitism and Hate” resigned in protest.

Under the controversial agreement, the school will admit five Palestinian students each year, support two Palestinian faculty members annually, create special housing for Muslim students, and add students to Committees to review purchases from Israeli businesses.

Columbia has been consistently ranked at the very bottom of schools for free speech due to its intolerance for opposing viewpoints and failure to protect a diversity of opinions on campus. Even the dean of its leading journalism school has warned against the “weaponization of free speech.” One of Columbia’s centers publicly complained when Justice Brett Kavanaugh was allowed to speak on campus.

When Columbia finally drew the line at protesters damaging and taking over buildings, the response from many students and faculty was outrage.

After Hamilton Hall was cleared by police, the editors of Columbia Law Review asked for the cancelation of exams because they were emotionally compromised. The editors wrote that the clearing of the unauthorized encampment constituted traumatic “violence” that left them “irrevocably shaken” and “unable to focus.” They were joined by editors of five other law journals, including the Columbia Human Rights Law Review & A Jailhouse Lawyer’s Manual.

They portrayed the trauma as the appearance of counter protesters and police on campus, accusing a “white supremacist, neo-fascist hate group” of “storming” campus. The Columbia students told the university that “many are unwell at this time and cannot study or concentrate while their peers are being hauled to jail.”

Columbia then faced threats of protests at the commencement, so it solved the problem by doing what the protesters were demanding. Of course, it did not solve the problem. Columbia is the problem. It is an example of how administrators have yielded control over their campuses to the loudest and most aggressive elements in their community.

Higher education is not supposed to be an academic version of the Hunger Games where the last person standing wins in a contest of attrition.

It is perhaps only appropriate that Columbia’s final lesson for graduates should be a continuation of years of yielding to the demands of those who dictate what can be said or done on campus.

Many of these students were denied commencement ceremonies four years ago. They worked to get into Columbia and many of their families had to make huge sacrifices to allow them to study at the university. As protests ramped up, they found themselves barred from campus and told again to take remote classes.  A Jewish professor’s access card was deactivated because his presence on campus was viewed as too inflammatory for the protesters.

When they are finally ready to celebrate that moment, they have been told, again, that commencement is cancelled. However, this is not due to a pandemic but protesters. They will have to go to smaller graduations that are less objectionable to the radical elements of the student body.

Henry David Thoreau once said, “The path of least resistance leads to crooked rivers and crooked men.” It has the same effect on higher education. There was a clear path open to Columbia. Hold the commencement and hold any disrupters accountable. In choosing to yield, President Nemat “Minouche” Shafik has abandoned not just these graduates but the integrity of Columbia.

Today’s Politically INCORRECT Cartoon by A.F. Branco


A.F. Branco Cartoon – Kristallnacht-ing at the Door

A.F. BRANCO | on May 7, 2024 | https://comicallyincorrect.com/branco-cartoon-kristallnacht-ing-at-the-door/

Jewish Hate, Then and Now
A Political Cartoon by A.F. Branco 2024

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Flipboard

A.F. Branco Cartoon – It’s beginning to look a lot like Kristallnaught from the 1930s Germany with the protest and violence erupting in and around our universities across the nation.

“Let 10 Million Cop Cars Burn!” – Radical Pro-Hamas Terror Group ‘Rachel Corrie’s Ghost Brigade’ Admits to Torching 15 Portland Police Cars in ‘Preemptive Attack’

By Jim Hoft – May 6th, 2024

Fifteen police vehicles were torched at the Police training facility near the Portland Airport last week.

The case was being investigated as arson. READ MORE…

DONATE to A.F. Branco Cartoons – Tips accepted and appreciated – $1.00 – $5.00 – $25.00 – $50.00 – it all helps to fund this website and keep the cartoons coming. Also Venmo @AFBranco – THANK YOU!

A.F. Branco has taken his two greatest passions (art and politics) and translated them into cartoons that have been popular all over the country in various news outlets, including NewsMax, Fox News, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, and “The Washington Post.” He has been recognized by such personalities as Rep. Devin Nunes, Dinesh D’Souza, James Woods, Chris Salcedo, Sarah Palin, Larry Elder, Lars Larson, Rush Limbaugh, and President Trump.

LifeNews.com Pro-Life News Report


Monday, May 6, 2024

Top Stories
Joe Biden Gives National Award to Nancy Pelosi, Who Refused to Stop Infanticide 80 Times
Biden Officials Block Pro-Life Advocate on House Arrest From Attending Church
90% of Americans Disagree With Joe Biden’s Position Supporting Abortions Up to Birth
Thousands of People Join Ireland March for Life to Protest Abortion

More Pro-Life News
Senator Tim Scott Says Donald Trump Will Announce His VP Running Mate in 60 days
Doctors Told Mom to Kill a Disabled Twin in an Abortion, She Refused and Her Daughter is Improving After Surgery
Letitia James Launches “Political Witch Hunt” to Shut Down Pro-Life Pregnancy Centers
They Want to Overturn Every Pro-Life Law in America and Institute Abortions Up to Birth
Scroll Down for Several More Pro-Life News Stories

Joe Biden Gives National Award to Nancy Pelosi, Who Refused to Stop Infanticide 80 Times

Biden Officials Block Pro-Life Advocate on House Arrest From Attending Church

90% of Americans Disagree With Joe Biden’s Position Supporting Abortions Up to Birth

Thousands of People Join Ireland March for Life to Protest Abortion


 

Senator Tim Scott Says Donald Trump Will Announce His VP Running Mate in 60 days

Image

Doctors Told Mom to Kill a Disabled Twin in an Abortion, She Refused and Her Daughter is Improving After Surgery

Letitia James Launches “Political Witch Hunt” to Shut Down Pro-Life Pregnancy Centers

They Want to Overturn Every Pro-Life Law in America and Institute Abortions Up to Birth

MORE PRO-LIFE NEWS FROM TODAY

Pro-Life Leaders Tell Kristen Clarke to Resign After She Lied to Congress

Pro-Life Group Refuses to Comply With New Biden Rule Forcing It to Promote Abortions

Court Cases Will Determine Whether Moms and Babies Can be Protected From Dangerous Abortion Pills

NPR Praises Catholic Nun Who is Pushing Abortions Up to Birth

Looking for an inspiring and motivating speaker for your pro-life event? Don’t have much to spend on a high-priced speaker costing several thousand dollars? Contact news@lifenews.com about having LifeNews Editor Steven Ertelt speak at your event.

Arizona Catholic Bishops Oppose Ballot Measure for Abortions Up to Birth: Protect the Right to Life

Minnesota Measure Would Allow Killing Babies in Abortions Up to Birth

Pro-Life Advocates Protest CVS for Selling Abortion Pills That Kill Babies

Joe Biden is the Most Radical Pro-Abortion President Ever, We Must Defeat Him

Comments or questions? Email us at news@lifenews.com.
Copyright 2003-2024 LifeNews.com. All rights reserved.
For information on advertising or reprinting news from LifeNews.com, email us.

Most Powerful Anti-Biden Video to Date


By: Kevin Jackson | May 4, 2024

 Read more at https://theblacksphere.net/2024/05/most-powerful-anti-biden-video-to-date/

Biden, Kevin Jackson

Joe Biden is becoming universally hated. And you can bet that Democrats are scared to death at what happened recently at a protest.

Two opposing groups managed to find common ground in their disdain for Joe Biden. Watch here, as University of Alabama protesters who differ dramatically on issues managed to chant the same thing:

Perhaps Joe Biden is the uniter he’s always claimed to be? Because he managed to get pro-Trump and LGBTQ+ groups to agree to one common theme: “F Joe Biden!”

No wonder Biden desperately woos young students by (unconstitutionally) erasing their tuition debt.

The game with this move is to have Trump rescind the free money, thus transferring blame to Republicans for undoing an illegal act. Clever when you think about it. Except, people aren’t falling for it anymore, as most people resent paying for other people’s debt. Particularly indoctrination debt.

Obviously, the Biden ploy isn’t gaining him any sway with the youth vote, as protests all over America continue against Biden’s policies. Polls with youth continue to provide bad news for Biden. So his policies are seen as a pander, more than real initiatives to help students and ultimately the country.

Whether the students are right or wrong in their protest is immaterial to me in the discussion. The fact that they see Biden as wrong benefits America.

Trump supports Israel.

Why haven’t Democrats even attempted to play this card? Trump has been vocal in his support of Israel. And let’s face it, he kept terrorism at bay for the most part during his tenure.

Biden’s problem? It’s difficult on the Biden administration who purports to support Israel while funding terrorists. And oh, the irony that Biden can’t take credit for his support of Hamas and Iran, less he admits to suborning the enemy.

Biden funded Iran who funds Hamas and other terrorist organizations. Iran is the George Soros of funding terror; except they have a deep pockets partner in Joe Biden.

As for the college students, admittedly they are morons. But they represent the enemy of my enemy as it relates to Biden. So, I’m actually happy they targeted him, regardless of their warped reasons.

The by-product of the student (terrorist) protests is the attack on academia, as well.

Colleges and universities birthed these idiot ingrates and raised them to be void of critical-thinking skills. I enjoy seeing Leftists feed off each other, as academia as we know it today begins its death spiral.

I’m tired of funding ignorance and indoctrination. We pay a fortune to train students on how to give up on real dreams and instead get indoctrinated.

Perhaps we finally are getting our money’s worth? Because it appears that Leftist chickens have come home to roost. And they are serving up crow.

Filings: Jack Smith Tampered with Evidence In Get-Trump Classified Documents Case


BY: TRISTAN JUSTICE | MAY 06, 2024

Read more at https://thefederalist.com/2024/05/06/filings-jack-smith-tampered-with-evidence-in-get-trump-classified-documents-case/

Mar-a-Lago

Author Tristan Justice profile

TRISTAN JUSTICE

VISIT ON TWITTER@JUSTICETRISTAN

MORE ARTICLES

Special Counsel Jack Smith admitted federal prosecutors tampered with evidence in his criminal case alleging former President Donald Trump mishandled classified documents.

According to a Friday court filing, prosecutors said documents the FBI seized from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence are no longer in the same order in which they found them, and some are mislabeled and may even be misplaced. A government “filter team” that dealt with the boxes once the FBI took them “was not focused on maintaining the sequence of documents within each box,” the special counsel’s office wrote in the filing.

Later the filing says, of early inventories and scanned records of the seized document boxes, “Because these inventories and scans were created close in time to the seizure of the documents, they are the best evidence available of the order the documents were in when seized. That said, there are some boxes where the order of items within that box is not the same as in the associated scans.” A footnote on this last sentence says: “The Government acknowledges that this is inconsistent with what Government counsel previously understood and represented to the Court.”

The filing also suggests the Department of Justice and FBI may have lost and mislabeled some of the documents. When the agencies first took the documents at Mar-a-Lago, government employees used many blank sheets of paper as substitutes and cover papers for what they decided might be classified documents.

After the FBI brought the document boxes to Washington DC, federal employees and contractors began replacing these “handwritten sheets” with proper classified document covers. At that point, the filing says, “In many but not all instances, the FBI was able to determine which document with classification markings corresponded to a particular placeholder sheet.” This indicates the special counsel’s office disclosed it isn’t sure whether some it lost or mislabeled some of the allegedly classified documents it seized in the Trump raid.

In response, Trump’s defense team filed a motion to dismiss the case over prosecutorial misconduct.

Smith charged Trump last June with 37 criminal counts related to the former president’s handling of classified documents. In July, Smith added three more counts against Trump as Democrats strategize to retain the presidency by imprisoning their chief political opponent in an unprecedented lawfare campaign. New evidence shows the Democrat White House worked closely with the DOJ and National Archives and Records Administration in crafting the documents case against Trump.

The classified documents case is Trump’s largest election-year court battle, as nearly half of the 88 total charges against him currently are related to the records. Federal prosecutors confiscated 33 boxes of documents from the hostile raid on Trump’s home in August 2022, according to Fox News. The Department of Justice has spent more than $23 million in taxpayer dollars for Smith to investigate Trump.

In April, Federalist Elections Correspondent Brianna Lyman outlined three major revelations to emerge from the classified documents case to date, including deep state pressure to move forward with Trump’s prosecution and White House involvement.

“President Biden also retained classified documents after leaving the vice presidency,” Lyman reported. “Yet he was not charged because prosecutors say they believed he would ‘present himself to the jury, as he did during our interview with him, as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.’”

The Department of Energy allegedly revoked the former president’s security clearance retroactively once Trump was indicted.

In February, journalists Michael Shellenberger, Matt Taibbi, and Alex Gutentag reported the FBI raid may have been orchestrated to cover up the intelligence state’s role in the Russia hoax. The article posted on Shellenberger’s news website, Public, outlined how intelligence officials fretted over the presence of a classified “binder” in Trump’s possession that former CIA Director Gina Haspel was careful to protect for years.

“Transgressions [the feds might have wanted to cover up] range from Justice Department surveillance of domestic political targets without probable cause to the improper unmasking of a pre-election conversation between a Trump official and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to WMD-style manipulation of intelligence for public reports on alleged Russian ‘influence activities,’” Public reported.

The binder was “Trump’s insurance policy,” according to an unnamed source cited as “knowledgeable about the case.”


Tristan Justice is the western correspondent for The Federalist and the author of Social Justice Redux, a conservative newsletter on culture, health, and wellness. He has also written for The Washington Examiner and The Daily Signal. His work has also been featured in Real Clear Politics and Fox News. Tristan graduated from George Washington University where he majored in political science and minored in journalism. Follow him on Twitter at @JusticeTristan or contact him at Tristan@thefederalist.com. Sign up for Tristan’s email newsletter here.

The Real Threat to the U.S. Economy Isn’t Election Integrity, It’s Joe Biden


BY: M.D. KITTLE | MAY 06, 2024

Read more at https://thefederalist.com/2024/05/06/the-real-threat-to-the-u-s-economy-isnt-election-integrity-its-joe-biden/

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yell addressing the press in India.

Author M.D. Kittle profile

M.D. KITTLE

MORE ARTICLES

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen last week warned that “threats to democracy” will imperil U.S. economic growth. Yellen’s admonishment is a less-than-veiled finger wag at former President Donald Trump and anyone who would dare question the official lie that the 2020 election was “one of the most secure elections in history.” 

The real threat to the economy is Joe Biden, his buffoonish treasury secretary, and the rest of the capitalism-crushing useful idiots in this dangerous administration.

As Democrat Party public-relations firm the Associated Press reported, Yellen used “economic data” in her address Friday in Arizona to “paint a picture of how disregard for America’s democratic processes and institutions can cause economic stagnation for decades.”

“Yellen, taking a rare step toward to [sic] the political arena, never mentioned Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, by name in her speech for the McCain Institute’s Sedona Forum, but she hinted at the former president’s potential impact if he regains the White House,” the AP’s Fatima Hussein and Josh Boak propagandized in a shared byline. 

The former Federal Reserve chairwoman, who has routinely injected herself into the “political arena,” used the speech to “serve as a sort of warning for business leaders who may overlook Trump’s disregard for modern democratic norms because they prefer the former president’s vision of achieving growth by slashing taxes and stripping away regulations.”

Yellen’s comments, and the AP article marketing them, are as nakedly political as they are hilariously absurd. Trump’s assertions that the 2020 election was rigged — by shattered election laws in swing states, unprecedented infusions of leftist third-party cash in election administration and election interference by the same rotten-to-the-core corporate media peddling Yellen’s assault on democracy diatribe — are more dangerous than Bidenomics? Americans and economic data disagree. 

‘Transitory’ Regret

Yellen’s comments preceded Gallup’s latest Economy and Personal Finance poll showing Americans’ trust in Biden’s leadership at an all-time low.  The poll, conducted April 1-22, finds just 38 percent of respondents say they have a “great deal” or a “fair amount” of confidence that Biden would do or recommend the right course for the economy. Former President Donald Trump, the Republican opponent Democrats and their pals in the Deep State are trying to throw in jail, is polling at 46 percent on the economic question. 

Understandably, Americans are downright cranky about the shaky state of their personal economy, compliments of the Biden administration’s prosperity-crippling policies.

“With Americans less optimistic about the state of the U.S. economy than they have been in recent months and concern about inflation persisting, their confidence in President Joe Biden to recommend or do the right thing for the economy is among the lowest Gallup has measured for any president since 2001,” Gallup reported Monday. 

Over the past three years, Americans learned to be confident that Biden would do the wrong thing. And his bungling treasury secretary has provided plenty of political cover. What is stunning is that a majority of Americans (57 percent) until 2022 had confidence in the Dementarian’s management of the economy. Only President George W. Bush had a lower rating, with a meager 34 percent confidence number at the end of his second term amid the real estate bubble-burst recession. 

As inflation began to climb in 2021, economics genius Yellen described the soaring cost of things as a “transitory” problem. She doubled and tripled down as inflation ballooned to levels not seen since the real Great Recession of the 1980s, caused in large part by the policies of a lousy president Biden is often compared to: Jimmy Carter. 

Yellen earlier this year offered her “regret” for saying what was patently false. It didn’t take a PhD from Yale and a University of California, Berkeley professor to know that higher prices were — and remain — here to stay under Bidenomics

“I regret saying it was transitory. It has come down. But I think transitory means a few weeks or months to most people,” Yellen said during an interview with Fox Business in March.

No Sale

Inflation has come up since Yellen expressed her regret. Soaring mortgage rates have priced Americans, particularly young families, out of home ownership. The housing crisis could be the “death knell for America’s middle class,” Newsweek warned in December.

American workers have seen any income growth devoured by rising costs for everything from gas to Happy Meals. Yes, Democrats’ massive expansion of government regulations on business — especially small business, climate change cultism, foreign policy debacles, and unsustainable spending — has everything to do with why middle-income earners are feeling the pain and increasingly frustrated.

Just as frustrating, you have the accomplice media covering for the bungler-in-chief, telling Americans what they’re experiencing is simply not real. The New York Times’ gag-worthy piece last month claiming Biden has a positive story to tell on the economy is political propaganda of the most ludicrous order. No one should be surprised about such absurd water-carrying by a Biden-backing corporate media that has pushed Democrats’ perfect election narrative despite Democrats’ many, many imperfections. 

Now the tone-deaf treasury secretary wants to tell American businesses that tax-cutting, “election denier” Trump is more of a threat to the U.S. economy than the economic menace that is Joe Biden. America isn’t buying what Yellen is selling. They can’t afford to. 


Matt Kittle is a senior elections correspondent for The Federalist. An award-winning investigative reporter and 30-year veteran of print, broadcast, and online journalism, Kittle previously served as the executive director of Empower Wisconsin.

IDF Striking Hamas Positions in Rafah After Cease-Fire Talks Appear to Falter Anew


By Newsmax Wires    |   Monday, 06 May 2024 03:26 PM EDT

Read more at https://www.newsmax.com/world/globaltalk/hamas-terrorists-israel/2024/05/06/id/1163647/

Israeli Defvense Forces reported on Monday that they’ve begun attacks against Hamas targets in Rafah, Gaza Strip, after the latest round of talks on a proposed cease-fire took a turn unsatisfactory to Israeli leadership. The news came after Hamas announced it had accepted an Egyptian-Qatari proposal for a cease-fire to halt the seven-month-long war with Israel in Gaza, hours after Israel ordered about 100,000 Palestinians to begin evacuating from the southern city of Rafah, signaling that a long-promised ground invasion there could be imminent.

Israel’s military spokesperson said Monday that all proposals regarding negotiations to free hostages in Gaza are examined seriously, and that in parallel it continues to operate in the Hamas-ruled territory.

“We examine every answer and response in the most seriously manner and are exhausting every possibility regarding negotiations and returning the hostages,” Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said when asked during a media briefing whether Hamas saying it accepted a cease-fire proposal would impact a planned offensive in the Gaza city of Rafah.

“In parallel, we are still operating in the Gaza Strip and will continue to do so.”

An Israeli official says Hamas approved a “softened” Egyptian proposal that was not acceptable and not approved by Israel, which apparently keeping up airstrikes on the Rafah hideouts of Hamas terrorists, as covered live by Newsmax.

Newsmax’s John Huddy is on the ground in Israel as the sound of strikes rang in the air, reportedly from nearby Rafah.

“This would appear to be a ruse intended to make Israel look like the side refusing a deal,” said the Israeli official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Israel’s Channel 12 quotes Israeli officials saying Israel’s negotiating team has just received Hamas’ response from the mediators. The report says Israel is now carefully evaluating the Hamas response and will issue orderly comments later this evening.

It says the Israeli officials are already saying “this is not the same proposal” for a deal that Israel and Egypt agreed upon 10 days ago, and that served as the basis for the indirect negotiations since then.

“All kinds of clauses” have been inserted, according to the TV report.

These new clauses, among other issues, relate to the cardinal questions of if, how and when the war would end, and what kind of guarantees are being offered to that effect.

Hamas, the report noted, had been toughening its demands in recent days, and demanding  the war end during the first, 40-day phase of the deal, rather than in the second or third phases.

Israel, for its part, has repeatedly rejected ending the war as part of a hostage deal at all, instead insisting it will resume fighting once the deal is implemented, in accordance with its twin war goals: returning the hostages and destroying Hamas’s military and governance capacities.

Earlier, Hamas said in a brief statement that its chief, Ismail Haniyeh, had informed Qatari and Egyptian mediators that the group accepted their cease-fire proposal. The statement gave no details of the accord.

There has been no successful agreement on a cease-fire in Gaza since a week-long pause in the fighting in November. The Hamas announcement of an agreement came hours after Israel ordered the evacuation of parts of Rafah, the city on Gaza’s southern edge that has served as the last sanctuary for around half of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents.

In recent days, Egyptian and Hamas officials have said the cease-fire would take place in a series of stages during which Hamas would release hostages it is holding in exchange for Israeli troop pullbacks from Gaza.

It is not clear whether the deal will meet Hamas’ key demand of bringing about an end to the war and complete Israeli withdrawal.

Hamas said in a statement Haniyeh had delivered the news in a phone call with Qatar’s prime minister and Egypt’s intelligence minister. After the release of the statement, Palestinians erupted in cheers in the sprawling tent camps around Rafah, hoping the deal meant an Israeli attack had been averted.

Israel’s closest allies, including the United States, have repeatedly said Israel should not attack Rafah. The looming operation has raised global alarm over the fate of around 1.4 million Palestinians sheltering there.

Aid agencies have warned that an offensive will worsen Gaza’s humanitarian catastrophe and bring a surge of more civilian deaths in an Israeli campaign that in nearly seven months has killed 34,000 people and devastated the territory.

President Joe Biden spoke Monday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and reiterated U.S. concerns about an invasion of Rafah. Biden said that a cease-fire with Hamas is the best way to protect the lives of Israeli hostages held in Gaza, a National Security Council spokesperson said on condition of anonymity to discuss the call before an official White House statement was released.

Hamas and key mediator Qatar said that invading Rafah will derail efforts by international mediators to broker a cease-fire. Days earlier, Hamas had been discussing a U.S.-backed proposal that reportedly raised the possibility of an end to the war and a pullout of Israeli troops in return for the release of all hostages held by the group. Israeli officials have rejected that trade-off, vowing to continue their campaign until Hamas is destroyed.

Netanyahu said Monday that seizing Rafah, which Israel says is the last significant Hamas stronghold in Gaza, was vital to ensuring the terrorists can’t rebuild their military capabilities and repeat the Oct. 7 attack on Israel that triggered the war.

Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani, an army spokesman, said about 100,000 people were being ordered to move from parts of Rafah to a nearby Israel-declared humanitarian zone called Muwasi, a makeshift camp on the coast. He said that Israel has expanded the size of the zone and that it included tents, food, water and field hospitals.

It wasn’t immediately clear, however, if that material was already in place to accommodate the new arrivals.

Around 450,000 displaced Palestinians already are sheltering in Muwasi. The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, known as UNRWA, said it has been providing them with aid. But conditions are squalid, with few bathrooms or sanitation facilities in the largely rural area, forcing families to dig private latrines.

After the evacuation order announcement Monday, Palestinians in Rafah wrestled with having to uproot their extended families once again for an unknown fate, exhausted after months living in sprawling tent camps or crammed into schools or other shelters in and around the city. Few who spoke to The Associated Press wanted to risk staying.

Mohammed Jindiyah said that at the beginning of the war, he had tried to hold out in his home in northern Gaza after Israel ordered an evacuation there in October. He ended up suffering through heavy bombardment before fleeing to Rafah. He is complying with the order this time but was unsure now whether to move to Muwasi or another town in central Gaza.

“We are 12 families, and we don’t know where to go. There is no safe area in Gaza,” he said.

Sahar Abu Nahel, who fled to Rafah with 20 family members including her children and grandchildren, wiped tears from her cheeks, despairing at a new move.

“I have no money or anything. I am seriously tired, as are the children,” she said. “Maybe it’s more honorable for us to die. We are being humiliated.”

Israeli military leaflets were dropped with maps detailing a number of eastern neighborhoods of Rafah to evacuate, warning that an attack was imminent and anyone who stays “puts themselves and their family members in danger.” Text messages and radio broadcasts repeated the message.

UNRWA won’t evacuate from Rafah so it can continue to provide aid to those who stay behind, said Scott Anderson, the agency’s director in Gaza.

“We will provide aid to people wherever they choose to be,” he told the AP.

The U.N. says an attack on Rafah could disrupt the distribution of aid keeping Palestinians alive across Gaza. The Rafah crossing into Egypt, a main entry point for aid to Gaza, lies in the evacuation zone. The crossing remained open Monday after the Israeli order.

Jan Egeland, secretary-general of the Norwegian Refugee Council, condemned the “forced, unlawful” evacuation order and the idea that people should go to Muwasi.

“The area is already overstretched and devoid of vital services,” Egeland said. He said that an Israeli assault could lead to “the deadliest phase of this war.”

Israel’s bombardment and ground offensives in Gaza have killed more than 34,700 Palestinians, around two-thirds of them children and women, according to pro-Hamas Gaza health officials. The tally doesn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants. More than 80% of the population of 2.3 million have been driven from their homes, and hundreds of thousands in the north are on the brink of famine, according to the U.N.

Tensions escalated Sunday when Hamas fired rockets at Israeli troops positioned on the border with Gaza near Israel’s main crossing for delivering humanitarian aid, killing four soldiers. Israel shuttered the crossing — but Shoshani said it wouldn’t affect how much aid enters Gaza as others are working.

Meanwhile, Israeli airstrikes on Rafah killed 22 people, including children and two infants, according to a hospital.

The war was sparked by the unprecedented Oct. 7 raid into southern Israel in which Hamas and other terrorists killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted around 250 hostages. After exchanges during a November cease-fire, Hamas is believed to still hold about 100 Israelis captive as well the bodies of around 30 others.

The mediators over the cease-fire — the United States, Egypt and Qatar — had appeared to scramble to salvage a cease-fire deal they had been trying to push through the past week. Egypt said it was in touch with all sides Monday to “prevent the situation from … getting out of control.”

CIA Director William Burns, who had been in Cairo for talks on the deal, headed to meet the prime minister of Qatar, an official familiar with the matter said. It wasn’t clear whether a subsequent trip to Israel that had been planned would happen. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the closed-door negotiations.

In a fiery speech Sunday evening marking Israel’s Holocaust memorial day, Netanyahu rejected international pressure to halt the war, saying that “if Israel is forced to stand alone, Israel will stand alone.”

On Monday, Netanyahu accused Hamas of “torpedoing” a deal by not budging from its demand for an end to the war and a complete Israeli troop withdrawal in return for the hostages’ release, which he called “extreme.”

Information from The Associated Press, Reuters, and Newsmax’s Eric Mack contributed to this report.

© 2024 Newsmax. All rights reserved.

The Dystopian Future Is Here


By: Katrina Trinko @KatrinaTrinko / May 05, 2024

Read more at https://www.dailysignal.com/2024/05/05/why-do-we-let-depressed-young-women-choose-euthanasia/

 In 2023, 138 Dutch people chose to end their lives because of psychiatric suffering. (Photo: ArtistGNDphotography/Getty Images)

Once, we told stories of rescuing women in distress. Now, we hand them a prescription for assisted suicide.

Two young women in the Netherlands, Jolanda Fun and Zoraya ter Beek, have recently done media interviews explaining their respective decisions to pursue euthanasia, despite being physically healthy.

Fun, who planned to end her life on her 34th birthday late last month, has struggled with depression for years. “Most of the time I just feel really sh—-,” she told The Times, a British newspaper, in an interview published April 14. “Sad, down, gloomy. People don’t see it, because that’s the mask I put on, and that’s what you learn to do in life.”

In the Netherlands, euthanasia has been legal since 2002. (The legislation passed in 2001, and went into effect the next year.) Fun started exploring the possibility two years ago, when a counselor mentioned it. For Fun, who has parents and a brother and a boyfriend, death still seemed like a better reality than staying alive.

“My father is sick, my mother is sick, my parents are fighting to stay alive, and I want to step out of life,” she told The Times. “That’s a bit strange. But even when I was seven, I asked my mother whether, if I jumped from a viaduct, I would be dead. I’ve been struggling with this my whole life.”

Meanwhile, ter Beek, 28, told The Free Press she plans to die by assisted suicide this month. Ter Beek, who is autistic and suffers from depression, has a boyfriend she loves and with whom she shares a home and cats. Her psychiatrist told her, “There’s nothing more we can do for you. It’s never [going to] get any better,” ter Beek told The Free Press, saying those words triggered her decision to end her life.

Ter Beek and Fun are not alone in their decisions. (So far, no media outlets have confirmed that either one has died.) In 2023, 138 Dutch people chose to end their lives because of psychiatric suffering, according to Spanish newspaper El Pais, which reported that represented a 20% increase from 2022. The trend is undeniably upward: The Netherlands had a mere two assisted suicide deaths for mental health reasons in 2010 and 68 in 2019, according to the Times. 

In general, euthanasia has grown in popularity in the Netherlands over the past two decades. More than 9,000 Dutch people chose euthanasia in 2023, reports El Pais, noting that euthanasia deaths made up more than 5% of all deaths in the Netherlands last year.

Canada—which initially legalized assisted suicide in 2016 for those with terminal illnesses and later for those with a “grievous and irremediable medical condition”—is similarly experiencing an upward trend. Over 13,000 Canadians died by assisted suicide in 2022, a 31% jump from the 2021 numbers. In 2017, the first full year assisted suicide was legal in Canada, 2,838 people chose to die that way.

Canada was slated to further follow in the Netherlands’ path and allow assisted suicide for mental health reasons this year, but due to concerns over straining the medical system, it has postponed that to March 17, 2027.

If you value life, you should be worried.

Already in the United States, 10 states and the District of Columbia allow assisted suicide under certain circumstances. If mental health continues to deteriorate in the U.S., as unfortunately seems likely, we could well face advocacy for allowing suicide for the mentally ill.

Of course, mental illness is a “real” illness, and its suffering can be acute.

But there is a reason we fight so hard against suicide, try to help and encourage and to provide medical assistance to Americans who struggle with depression and anxiety and other mental illnesses.

Not only do we love them, and want them to remain in our lives, but we also know that as long as someone is alive, there is hope—hope that he or she might heal, fully or partially, from mental illness and be able to live life more joyfully, less burdened by rapacious negative emotions. That belief is hard to hold when you are struggling with depression, making it all the more critical that the non-depressed in society vociferously advocate for the value of life.

Furthermore, plenty of those who have suffered from depression or other mental illnesses have, as their health has improved, become grateful they did not die by suicide. “I am extremely thankful that I did not take my life,” Olympian medalist Michael Phelps said in 2018 when discussing his history of depression.

In a 2023 Washington Post essay, Billy Lezra described a planned suicide attempt.

“I’d been drinking whiskey mixed with flat Coke all afternoon to work up the nerve to jump in front of the train, and I was drunk enough that my plan felt within reach. I was 23,” Lezra wrote.

“Two months earlier, my mother had tried to take her life, and I had interrupted her attempt. This experience, compounded by years of depression and addiction, made me long to stop feeling. It’s not that I wanted to die, exactly, it’s that I didn’t want to live.”

But then “a wiry woman with pink hair and a titanium lip ring” asked Lezra to take a photo. By the time the photo was taken, the train was gone—and now, seven years later, Lezra remains alive.

Lezra cannot recall the face of the pink-haired woman, but “what has stayed with me is a feeling of sharp, profound gratitude.”

Statistics back up Lezra’s experience. About 90% of suicide survivors will not ultimately die by suicide, according to the T.H. Chan School of Public Health at Harvard University. That suggests that many depressed people do, in fact, get better, at least to some extent.

And what does it say about us as a culture that we allow people to end their lives, that we publicly support it?

As Western civilization further becomes divorced from its Christian roots, it’s perhaps not surprising that there is renewed interest in suicide. The belief that God gives life and that it is not ours to take is less widely held. In modern thinking, where the individual becomes a free agent encouraged to pursue his own truth and happiness, obedience to the timing of a Creator is about as unfashionable a virtue as it gets, especially when such obedience includes chronic suffering.

“In the absence of Christianity, suicide and euthanasia become, perhaps, the ultimate and extreme (if mistaken) vindication of human choice and human dignity: My life is mine, and I can end it when I want to. In this way, individual liberty is reduced to a kind of death cult,” wrote John Daniel Davidson in “Pagan America.”

How bleak.

In addition to embracing individualism in our time, we constantly talk of kindness—but it is often a limp kindness, never deployed in tough times. Sometimes, the truest kindness is to fight for someone when she can no longer fight for herself.

Laws often more shape, than reflect, cultures. If the Netherlands had not legalized assisted suicide, perhaps both Fun and ter Beek would be trying new doctors, new treatments, and other ways to ease their very real suffering.

Instead, their government’s laws are telling them their lives may well not be worth living.

“Guillotine! Guillotine! Guillotine!”: GW Protesters Call for the Heads of President and Others to be Cut Off


By: Jonathan Turley | May 6, 2024

Read more at https://jonathanturley.org/2024/05/06/guillotine-guillotine-guillotine-gw-protesters-call-for-the-heads-of-president-and-others-to-be-cut-off/

For years, I have written about the analogy of what is happening on our campuses to the French Revolution, including faculty enablers becoming the targets of radical groups. Many faculty were silent as conservatives and libertarians were purged from faculties. Some even supported cancel campaigns against professors and speakers with opposing views. Now the analogy has become even more poignant on my campus of George Washington University after protesters held mock tribunals and called for the heads of the President, Provost, and Board of Trustees to be cut off by guillotine. A video has emerged over the weekend from the enactment outside of my office with students gleefully cheering for the beheading of faculty, administrators, and board members. They specifically “convicted” President Ellen Granberg, Provost Christopher Bracey, the Board of Trustees, @GWPolice, and others according to the poster of the video.

I discussed earlier how the D.C. police refused to clear the street outside of the law school and next to the quad. In D.C., it often matters what you are protesting in determining whether action will be taken.

As for the guillotine video, the Post Millennial reported on the scene:

In the mock tribunal, the woman asks, “How do the people find you?”

The crowd shouts, “Guilty!” then “Guillotine! Guillotine! Guillotine!”

“Bracey, Bracey, we see you! You assault students too. Off to the motherf*cking gallows with you,” the woman chants, along with the gleeful activists.

Moving on to the Board of Trustees, she states “On the charges of having a vested interest in the genocide of Palestinian people as they profit off Zionist weapons and purchases that you refuse to divest the apartheid as they line their pockets. The people find you.”

“Guilty!” The crowd screams with a mix of mob rage and joy.

“To the Guillotine!” the girl yells. “Board of Trustees, we charge you with genocide. I hope all that money is gonna save you when you’re rotting in jail.”

The crowd calls out President Grandberg, as well. “On the charges of using our tuition dollars to fund genocide, and selling out students to Zionist interest, the people find you?”

“Guilty!” The crowd yells.

“As you already know where I am sending her,” she adds, referring to the guillotine. “Her and her f*ck *ss bob.”

Fortunately, we got rid of shop in many schools years ago so the actual construction of a gallows may prove challenging. Amazon can deliver a guillotine but it is only five inches tall so it might be a bit of a Spinal Tap moment for the new Jacobins.

Few of us expect tumbrils to roll in Foggy Bottom. These students clearly thought that this was funny and no one believes that they are turning into little Robespierres. However, the rhetoric of these protests have displayed violent and unhinged elements – fueled by radical activists from Antifa and other organizations.

The protesters have already succeeded in forcing concessions from universities like Brown, Northwestern, and Rutgers. The growing protests have also clearly spooked the White House, particularly with the chant “Genocide Joe” catching on across the country. At GW, that image was projected over the large flag hung by the school.

The protesters are likely to take solace in the fact that the Biden Administration just reportedly put a hold on an ammunition transfer to Israel. It is not clear if this will be a mere symbolic hold that will be lifted or something more significant. Israel is preparing the long-announced offensive in Rafah in southern Gaza where the remaining Hamas fighters are located.

Jonathan Turley Op-ed: A Disbarred, Serial Perjurer Walks into a Court and Asks to Take an Oath…Seriously, No Joke


By: Jonathan Turley | May 6, 2024

Read more at https://jonathanturley.org/2024/05/06/a-disbarred-serial-perjurer-walks-into-a-courtroom-and-asks-to-take-an-oath-seriously-no-joke/

C-Span/YouTube Screenshot

Below is my column in The Hill on the expected appearance of Michael Cohen in the Manhattan trial of former president Donald Trump. It will be a scene that is both mesmerizing and repellent for many, particularly in the bar.

Here is the column:

A disbarred, serial perjurer walks into a courtroom and asks to take an oath . . . No, seriously, this is not a joke. Michael Cohen will soon appear in a Manhattan courtroom in what is sure to be one of the most bizarre moments in legal history.

Cohen nearly comprises the prosecution’s entire case against former President Donald Trump under a criminal theory that still has many of us baffled. It is not clear what crime Trump was supposedly trying to conceal by making “hush-money” payments to former porn actress Stormy Daniels. What is clear is that none of the witnesses called in recent weeks has had any direct involvement with Trump on the payments. The witnesses had a lot to say about Cohen, and most of it was not good. They described an unprofessional, self-proclaimed “fix-it man” who created a shell corporation to buy out Daniels with his own money. The money was later paid back by Trump after the election, with other legal expenses.

So, Cohen will now make the pitch to the jury that they should put his former client in jail for following his own legal advice. This would be difficult even for a competent and ethical lawyer. For Cohen, it is utter insanity. But Bragg is betting on a New York jury looking no further than the identity of the defendant to convict.

Cohen has an impressive history of lies and exaggerations that may be unparalleled. Just weeks ago, another judge denounced him as a serial perjurer who was still gaming the system. This is not the defendant, mind you, but Alvin Bragg’s star witness.

I have been an outspoken critic of Cohen going back to when he was still representing Trump. His unethical acts were matched only by his unprofessional demeanor. In 2015, after students on the Harvard Lampoon played a harmless prank on Trump, Cohen was quoted by a student on the Lampoon staff as threatening them with expulsion.

When a journalist pursued a story Cohen did not like, he told the reporter that he should “tread very f—ing lightly because what I’m going to do to you is going to be f—ing disgusting. Do you understand me?”

It is not hard to “understand” Cohen. He has long marketed his curious skill of voluntarily saying whatever the highest bidder wants him to say. He is a convicted perjurer who seems to lie even when the truth would do. Each time he is caught lying, he claims to be the sinner who has finally seen the light, seeking redemption.

When he was called before the House to testify against Trump soon after his plea agreement with the Justice Department (for lying), Cohen was again accused of perjury. House Oversight Chairman Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), warned Cohen repeatedly that he had better tell the truth this time. Cohen then testified that Trump wanted him to work in his administration and offered him multiple jobs, which he turned down. He also claimed, “I have never asked for, nor would I accept, a pardon from President Trump.” Multiple sources have said that Cohen’s lawyer pressed the White House for a pardon, and that Cohen unsuccessfully sought a presidential pardon after FBI raids on his office and residences last year.

Even after being stripped of his law license and sentenced to three years in prison, Cohen continued the pattern. In 2019, Cohen failed to appear to testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee, citing an inability to travel due to surgery. He was then seen partying before the hearing date with five friends.

Even while in jail, Cohen was accused of lying to a court, in violation of an order for early release due to medical problems. He was ordered back into custody after being spotted at a high-end restaurant.

But the most impressive moment came when Cohen was put back on the stand under oath and matter-of-factly claimed that he had lied in his prior hearing, when he pleaded guilty to lying.

In his 2018 guilty plea before U.S. District Judge William Henry Pauley III, Cohen admitted to this conduct under oath.

Then, when Cohen was asked by Trump’s counsel, “Did you lie to Judge Pauley when you said that you were guilty of the counts that you said under oath that you were guilty of? Did you lie to Judge Pauley?”

Cohen responded, “Yes.”  He was then again asked “So you lied when you said that you evaded taxes to a judge under oath; is that correct?” He again responded, “Yes.”

Most of us expected the Justice Department to bring new perjury charges at that point. It is rare that a defendant will actually take the stand and confess to perjury. However, Cohen was now useful again. This time, he was willing to deliver Trump. The Justice Department and Manhattan prosecutors were clearly willing to tolerate a little perjury for that prize.

Cohen’s conduct has already loomed large in the Manhattan proceedings. When Keith Davidson took the stand — the attorney who represented both Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal — he recounted how Cohen was furious about not being offered a job in the White House. That directly contradicts Cohen’s congressional testimony. Davidson said that Cohen believed he might be named attorney general.

The account, if true, shows that Cohen is not only unethical, but also delusional. Cohen was found incapable of being an attorney, let alone an attorney general.

As prosecutors set the table for the grand arrival of their star witness, the testimony only got worse. David Pecker, the former owner of the National Enquirer, said charitably that Cohen was “prone to exaggeration.”

Davidson described Cohen’s profane and unprofessional conduct, stating that “the moral of the story is nobody wanted to talk to Cohen.” That may be the first time the word “moral” was used in the same line with Cohen.

Former Trump associate Hope Hicks mocked Cohen on the stand. She said that he constantly tried to insinuate himself into the campaign, without success, and that he “used to like to call himself Mister Fix It, but it was only because he first broke it.” Mind you, these were his fellow prosecution witnesses, not the defense.

These witnesses also contradicted the basis for the prosecution. Pecker said that he killed stories for various celebrities for years, and that he did so for Trump for over a decade before he ran for office. Davidson testified that he did not consider the deal to be “hush money” but simply “consideration” to kill bad press.

Hicks testified that she believed Trump wanted to kill the stories in significant part to protect his family from embarrassment.

Cohen could not even maintain a consistent position during the trial. Many of us have denounced the gag order on Trump that prevents him from responding to Cohen’s unrelenting attacks in the media. Cohen then promised to stop any further comments. That promise may have set a record for Cohen. He kept it for roughly three days before being accused of trolling for dollars on social media by attacking Trump.

District Attorney Bragg will now call this disbarred, serial perjurer to make the case against a former president. Under New York law, the oath administered by the court is supposed “to awaken the conscience and impress the mind of the witness in accordance with that witness’s religious or ethical beliefs.”

Before the bailiff administers the oath to Cohen, Judge Juan Merchan may have to warn spectators in the courtroom not to laugh. For anyone familiar with Cohen, it will sound like the ultimate punchline to a bad joke.

Jonathan Turley is the J.B. and Maurice C. Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at the George Washington University Law School.

Today’s TWO Politically INCORRECT Cartoons by A.F. Branco


A.F. Branco Cartoon – Lawn Lawfare

A.F. BRANCO | on May 5, 2024 | https://comicallyincorrect.com/a-f-branco-cartoon-lawn-lawfare/

01Mower Ban AN 1080
A Political Cartoon by A.F. Branco 2024

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Flipboard

A.F. Branco Cartoon – Hennepin County Board candidate and current Minnesota Rep. Heather Edelson is co-sponsoring legislation that would ban the sale of gas-powered lawn and gardening tools in Minnesota.

Hennepin County candidate is co-author of bill banning sale of gas-powered lawn mowers

By Luke Sprinkel

Hennepin County Board candidate and current Minnesota Rep. Heather Edelson is co-sponsoring legislation that would ban the sale of gas-powered lawn and gardening tools in Minnesota.

Currently running in a special election for the District 6 seat on the Hennepin County Board, Edelson faces conservative newcomer Marisa Simonetti.
Serving in her third-term as a member of the Minnesota House of Representatives, Edelson signed on as a co-author of HF 1715 in the early days of Minnesota’s 93rd Legislative Session. Under that proposed law, the sale of new gas-powered lawn mowers, leaf blowers, hedge clippers, chainsaws, and other “law and garden equipment” would be banned in Minnesota on and after Jan. 1, 2025. READ MORE…

A.F. Branco Cartoon – Recipe for Disaster

A.F. BRANCO | on May 6, 2024 | https://comicallyincorrect.com/a-f-branco-cartoon-recipe-for-disaster/

University Disaster
A Political Cartoon by A.F. Branco 2024

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Flipboard

A.F. Branco Cartoon – Universities across the nation are facing a meltdown due to the Marxist rot they are injecting into young students’ minds to the point kids are now advocating for Hamas’ terrorism against Jews in the form of violent protests and occupation of campuses. This seems to be having a negative effect on the democrat party and Biden’s poll numbers.

Watch: Dr. Phil Rips ‘Liberal Woke’ Universities for Fostering Anti-Semitism, ‘Intellectual Rot’

By Ken Kew – The Western Journal

Dr. Phil has launched a full frontal attack on America’s “liberal woke” universities.

The popular television host, whose full name is Phil McGraw, said in a video message this week that he was appalled by the “sickening smugness” displayed by leaders of elite universities they were testifying on Capitol Hill about the issue of campus anti-Semitism.
McGraw declared that these prestigious institutions have become “liberal woke hotbeds fostering intellectual rot rather than critical thinking.” READ MORE…

DONATE to A.F. Branco Cartoons – Tips accepted and appreciated – $1.00 – $5.00 – $25.00 – $50.00 – it all helps to fund this website and keep the cartoons coming. Also Venmo @AFBranco – THANK YOU!

A.F. Branco has taken his two greatest passions (art and politics) and translated them into cartoons that have been popular all over the country in various news outlets, including NewsMax, Fox News, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, and “The Washington Post.” He has been recognized by such personalities as Rep. Devin Nunes, Dinesh D’Souza, James Woods, Chris Salcedo, Sarah Palin, Larry Elder, Lars Larson, Rush Limbaugh, and President Trump.

LifeNews.com Pro-Life News Report


Friday, May 3, 2024

Top Stories
Joe Biden is the Most Radical Pro-Abortion President Ever, We Must Defeat Him
Trump: Vote for Me to Stop Biden From Pushing Abortions Up to Birth
Ben Carson Condemns Abortion: “We Must Guarantee the Right to Life For Those in the Womb”
Maternal Deaths Fall From Pre-Dobbs High as Almost 20 States Ban Abortions

More Pro-Life News
They Don’t Just Want Roe v. Wade, They Want Abortions Up to Birth Nationwide
Pro-Life Doctor Shares How He Saved Babies From Death in the Middle of the Abortion
Planned Parenthood is Using Your Tax Dollars to Push Its Abortion Agenda Worldwide
Florida’s Heartbeat Law Now Protects Babies, But We Must Stop Amendment 4 and Abortions Up to Birth
Scroll Down for Several More Pro-Life News Stories

Joe Biden is the Most Radical Pro-Abortion President Ever, We Must Defeat Him

Trump: Vote for Me to Stop Biden From Pushing Abortions Up to Birth

Ben Carson Condemns Abortion: “We Must Guarantee the Right to Life For Those in the Womb”

Maternal Deaths Fall From Pre-Dobbs High as Almost 20 States Ban Abortions

They Don’t Just Want Roe v. Wade, They Want Abortions Up to Birth Nationwide

Pro-Life Doctor Shares How He Saved Babies From Death in the Middle of the Abortion

Planned Parenthood is Using Your Tax Dollars to Push Its Abortion Agenda Worldwide

Florida’s Heartbeat Law Now Protects Babies, But We Must Stop Amendment 4 and Abortions Up to Birth

MORE PRO-LIFE NEWS FROM TODAY

Missouri Pro-Life Group Will Fight Amendment to Legalize Abortions Up to Birth

Florida Heartbeat Law Doesn’t Limit Medical Care for Pregnant Women in Any Way

Babies Like This Won’t be Killed in Abortions in Florida Because of the New Heartbeat Law

CNN Covers for Biden Staffer Kristen Clarke, Radical Abortion Activist Who Lied Under Oath

Looking for an inspiring and motivating speaker for your pro-life event? Don’t have much to spend on a high-priced speaker costing several thousand dollars? Contact news@lifenews.com about having LifeNews Editor Steven Ertelt speak at your event.

South Dakota Voters Should Oppose Radical Abortion Amendment to Make Killing Babies a “Right”

Katie Hobbs Signs Bill to Repeal Arizona Abortion Ban, Celebrates Killing Babies

Joe Biden Slams Donald Trump for Letting Florida Protect Babies From Abortions

Kamala Harris Celebrates Abortion: Killing Babies is “Freedom” for Women

Comments or questions? Email us at news@lifenews.com.
Copyright 2003-2024 LifeNews.com. All rights reserved.
For information on advertising or reprinting news from LifeNews.com, email us.

10 Lies Democrats Tell About Our Elections (And How to Refute Them)


BY: SHAWN FLEETWOOD | MAY 03, 2024

Read more at https://thefederalist.com/2024/05/03/10-lies-democrats-tell-about-our-elections-and-how-to-refute-them/

Voting stickers on voting day sign

Author Shawn Fleetwood profile

SHAWN FLEETWOOD

VISIT ON TWITTER@SHAWNFLEETWOOD

MORE ARTICLES

There is almost no subject the left won’t lie about. Whether it’s denying basic biology or fabricating “bloodbath” hoaxes about their top Republican rival, no topic is off limits for the Democrat “disinformation” police — and that includes elections.

Since the 2020 election, Democrats and their media allies have worked overtime to smear Americans concerned about the integrity of U.S. elections. No matter how legitimate these concerns may be, the left slanders anyone who challenges controversial elections won by Democrats as so-called “election deniers.”

Putting aside the fact that Democrats have questioned elections they don’t win (see the Trump-Russia collusion hoax), it’s important to highlight that the left regularly lies about America’s elections to further their party’s goal of acquiring and maintaining government power. In service of this goal, no falsehood is too great.

Here are the 10 biggest lies Democrats tell about U.S. elections so you can identify and combat these mistruths.

1. Election Integrity Laws ‘Suppress’ Voters

Under the guise of Covid, many states expanded the use of unsupervised mail-in voting, permanently changing the electoral landscape and how modern elections are conducted. With Covid-era lockdowns now in the rearview mirror, many Republican-controlled states have spent the past several years returning their election systems to pre-Covid practices and moving away from unsupervised methods.

With their election machine that thrives off the insecure mail-in system threatened, Democrats have taken to dishonestly attacking GOP-backed election integrity laws. The most common of these smears is the debunked claim that voter ID laws suppress voters, especially those who aren’t white. Of course, there’s no evidence to support such assertions, as multiple court rulings have found.

One of the more egregious examples of these attacks came from President Joe Biden, who grossly labeled a benign 2021 Georgia election law as “Jim Crow on steroids.” Contrary to Democrats’ smears, Georgia experienced record early voter turnout during the state’s 2022 midterms. A poll conducted after the election also revealed that zero percent of black Georgia voters said they had a “poor” experience voting.

2. The 2020 Election Was the ‘Most Secure in American History’

This claim from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) — the “nerve center” of the federal government’s censorship operations — is just as inaccurate today as the day it was issued nearly four years ago.

From illegal election rule changes in Michigan and Pennsylvania to the unauthorized use of ballot drop boxes in Wisconsin, the 2020 election was fraught with mischief and irregularities. In unprecedented fashion, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg poured hundreds of millions of dollars into left-wing nonprofits, which funneled most of these “Zuckbucks” into election offices in Democrat-majority localities to push Democrat-backed voting policies and get-out-the-vote efforts.

There was also heavy involvement from U.S. intel agencies and officials to help Joe Biden leading up to the election.

Weeks ahead of the 2020 contest, the New York Post dropped a bombshell story documenting the Biden family’s foreign business dealings. Despite having authenticated the laptop as early as November 2019, the FBI spent months leading up to the election pressuring Big Tech companies such as Facebook and Twitter (now X) to be on the lookout for so-called “Russian propaganda” and “hack and leak operations.” Zuckerberg all but admitted during a 2022 interview with podcaster Joe Rogan that the company’s decision to suppress the Post story was based on the FBI’s warning.

The CIA — while allegedly coordinating with the Biden campaign — purportedly solicited signatures for a letter issued by 51 former intel officials claiming Hunter’s laptop was part of a Russian disinformation campaign. Meanwhile, Delaware U.S. Attorney David Weiss reportedly delayed his investigation into Hunter’s alleged tax law violations to avoid negatively affecting Joe’s electoral prospects.

[READ: Docs: CISA Knew Risks Of Mail-In Voting In 2020, But Got Posts About Them Censored Anyway]

3. Voter Fraud Doesn’t Exist

When it comes to defending the chaotic and irregular 2020 election, legacy media have adopted the strategy of pretending that voter fraud never happens. But recent cases of such illegalities show that isn’t true.

In December, the Louisiana Supreme Court let stand a lower court decision that the existence of voter fraud in a local sheriff’s race warranted a new election. While initial results in Caddo Parish’s November sheriff’s race indicated that Democrat Henry Whitehorn defeated Republican John Nickelson by one vote, a lawsuit filed by Nickelson and subsequent legal proceedings revealed there were enough illegal votes to call into question the election outcome.

The judge overseeing the case ultimately determined there were 11 unlawful votes cast in the race, and as such, ordered that a new election be held.

Another recent incident of voter fraud occurred in Bridgeport, Connecticut’s Democrat mayoral primary. Surveillance footage released after the September election showed what appeared to be a city employee affiliated with the incumbent mayor’s campaign “stuffing ballot boxes.” The matter prompted a superior court judge to order a new election.

4. Election Workers Are Under Siege

As America edges closer to the 2024 election, Democrats are ramping up their attacks on election oversight. On an almost weekly basis, regime-approved media outlets run article after article lamenting an alleged wave of “threats” against election workers that they blame on Trump’s 2020 election criticisms.

Of course, these same doomsday predictions didn’t materialize during the 2022 midterms. But that hasn’t stopped the press from continuing to repeat the narrative they have little evidence to support.

As I previously wrote in these pages, Democrat claims that election workers have experienced a spike in threats since the 2020 election are primarily based on “surveys” issued by leftist organizations and unsubstantiated statements from Democrat election officials. Moreover, data produced by the Biden Department of Justice indicates the issue is minimal.

5. Ranked-Choice Voting Is ‘Fair’

Often referred to as “rigged-choice voting” by its critics, ranked-choice voting (RCV) is a system whereby voters rank candidates in order of preference. If no candidate receives more than 50 percent of first-choice votes in the first round of voting, the last-place finisher is eliminated, and his votes are reallocated to the voter’s second-choice candidate. This process continues until one candidate receives a majority of votes.

RCV’s (mostly Democrat) proponents have deceptively attempted to garner support for the system by claiming it brings “fairness” to the voting process. But a quick look into RCV’s history reveals anything but a fair system.

RCV has produced election results that contradict the desires of voters, especially Republican ones. Since adopting the system, Alaska and Maine have produced elections in which the Democrat candidate was the declared winner despite the Republican candidate winning more votes in the first round of voting.

Jurisdictions employing RCV have also experienced inaccurate election results and high rates of discarded ballots.

6. Contingent Electors Are ‘Fake’ and Unlawful

After Arizona Democrat Attorney General Kris Mayes released an indictment alleging 18 Republicans illegally participated in a so-called “fake elector scheme,” media hacks are once again using this dishonest terminology to characterize Trump’s challenging of the 2020 election results as unlawful and unprecedented.

But there’s no such thing as a “fake elector,” and the naming of contingent Republican electors during the 2020 election was neither unprecedented nor unlawful. The process undertaken in states such as Georgia closely mirrored efforts taken during the 1960 presidential contest between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon.

[READ: The Left’s 2020 ‘Fake Electors’ Narrative Is Fake News]

Had courts ruled in Trump’s favor in lawsuits disputing the election results in battleground states, the alternate electors would have been in place to ensure the will of the people was exercised.

7. ERIC Is ‘Nonpartisan’

The Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC) has become a favorite tool of the Democrat election machine — so naturally, the media have rushed to smear its opponents as unhinged crazies.

Deceptively marketed to states as a means to keep their voter rolls updated, ERIC is a widely used voter-roll “management” system founded by far-left activist David Becker that places a higher priority on registering new voters than on cleaning up existing voter rolls. The program inflates voter rolls by requiring member states to contact “eligible but unregistered” residents and encourage them to register to vote.

Concerns about ERIC’s ties to Becker and its refusal to change its bylaws prompted numerous GOP-led states to depart the organization. To salvage ERIC’s reputation, the media launched a seemingly coordinated campaign to position the group as “nonpartisan” and cast its opponents as “conspiracy theorists.” Of course, this coverage fails to disclose ERIC’s relationship with the Center for Election Innovation and Research (CEIR), another Becker-founded nonprofit most notable for its “Zuckbucks” interference in the 2020 election to help Biden and other Democrats.

As The Federalist previously reported, ERIC sends the voter-roll data it receives from states to CEIR. Upon receiving the data, CEIR “then develops targeted mailing lists and sends them back to the states to use for voter registration outreach.” In other words, CEIR — a highly partisan nonprofit with a history of left-wing activism — is creating lists of potential (and likely Democrat) voters for states to register in the lead-up to major elections.

8. Mail-In Voting Is Secure and Reliable

Much like the issue of voter fraud, Democrats have gone to great lengths to convince the American public that mail-in voting has zero problems and is 100 percent secure. But according to left-wing media’s own reporting, that narrative isn’t true.

In recent months, outlets such as NBC News and CBS News have published stories highlighting insecurities within the U.S. postal system. While NBC addressed the effect postal delivery delays could have on mail-in voting during the 2024 election, CBS explored the increasing problem of mail theft.

NBC even cited remarks from Rep. Sylvia Garcia, D-Texas, who expressed concern that mail delivery delays could present “difficulties” and “barriers” to voters during the November election.

9. Democrats Are the Party of ‘Democracy’

Biden and Democrats love to contend that “democracy is on the ballot” this November. The insinuation, of course, is that the republic as we know it will collapse if Trump and Republicans emerge victorious at the ballot box. Yet, for all their professed concerns about “democracy,” Democrats are doing everything in their power to destroy it.

In unprecedented fashion, the left is abusing the legal system in an attempt to imprison and bankrupt their chief political rival ahead of a major election. Spanning dozens of counts, a roughly half-a-billion-dollar fine, and five judicial venues, the Biden Department of Justice and leftist prosecutors are waging lawfare against Donald Trump to hinder his reelection prospects.

10. Biden’s Federal Election Takeover Is Just a ‘Nonpartisan’ Outreach Effort

The seriousness of Executive Order 14019 cannot be overstated. Signed by Biden in March 2021, the directive ordered hundreds of federal agencies to interfere in state and local election administration by using taxpayer dollars to engage in voter registration and get-out-the-vote activities — a policy Congress never authorized.

Under the edict, each department was instructed to draft “a strategic plan” explaining how it intended to fulfill Biden’s order, and to collaborate with so-called “nonpartisan third-party organizations” that have been “approved” by the administration to supply “voter registration services on agency premises.” While Biden and his lackies claim these outside groups are “nonpartisan,” the facts tell a different story.

Good government groups and conservative media have discovered that many of the organizations collaborating with the administration are extremely left-wing, indicating an effort to identify and register likely-Democrat voters. Among those identified are the ACLU and Demos, both of which contributed to a “progress report” tracking agencies’ compliance with the “Bidenbucks” order.


Shawn Fleetwood is a staff writer for The Federalist and a graduate of the University of Mary Washington. He previously served as a state content writer for Convention of States Action and his work has been featured in numerous outlets, including RealClearPolitics, RealClearHealth, and Conservative Review. Follow him on Twitter @ShawnFleetwood

NEWS UPDATE: New ruling reveals fate of middle school girls banned for protesting trans competitor


Jamie Joseph By Jamie Joseph Fox News | Published May 3, 2024 3:36pm EDT

Read more at https://www.foxnews.com/politics/new-ruling-reveals-fate-middle-school-girls-banned-protesting-trans-competitor

Five West Virginia middle school girls banned from participating in track and field meets after they protested against a trans athlete last week are allowed to compete again, a judge ruled Thursday night. Judge Thomas A. Bedell issued a preliminary injunction that prevents the Harrison Board of Education and its schools from penalizing student-athletes for their speech. (https://wordpress.com/post/whatdidyousay.org/90958)

The school board denied allegations of retaliation against the students, and instead asserted the students were allowed to protest without hindrance and with full awareness and permission from coaches and the principal.

Read the rest of the story at https://www.foxnews.com/politics/new-ruling-reveals-fate-middle-school-girls-banned-protesting-trans-competitor

Gregg Jarrett Op-ed: NY vs. Trump: DA Bragg’s web of deceit starts to unravel


Gregg Jarrett  By Gregg Jarrett Fox News | Published May 3, 2024 5:00am EDT

Read more at https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/ny-vs-trump-da-braggs-web-deceit-unravel

Liars don’t win trials. The truth does. That’s how it’s supposed to work, anyway.

Fulfilling that maxim is the challenge for the defense in the Manhattan trial of Donald Trump. Lawyers for the former President are tasked with exposing the legal deceit of District Attorney Alvin Bragg and the chronic dishonesty of his star witness, Michael Cohen. Compounding the challenge is a presiding judge, Juan Merchan, whose anti-Trump bias is conspicuous and disgraceful.

Back on the stand Thursday was the Beverly Hills attorney who negotiated payments for two women who demanded exorbitant cash from Trump in exchange for their silence about purported affairs. But the witness, Keith Davidson, admitted he had no contact whatsoever with the defendant and never met him. He dealt exclusively with Trump’s ex-lawyer, Cohen, who appeared to be acting entirely on his own.  Nothing in his testimony involved crimes allegedly committed by Trump.  

NY VS. TRUMP: A TRIAL IN SEARCH OF AN IMAGINARY CRIME

Davidson’s description of Cohen was both accurate and scathing —profane, offensive, unceasingly angry, and often threatening. Importantly, he depicted Cohen as a liar who turned bitter toward Trump when the newly elected president refused to take him to Washington, D.C. Jurors learned that Cohen had delusions of grandeur, envisioning himself as White House chief of staff or even attorney general of the United States.  

Video

When his bubble burst, Cohen detonated like a nuclear device with seething hatred for his former boss that became a maniacal obsession. He raged to Davidson, “Jesus Christ, can you f***ing believe I’m not going to Washington after everything I’ve done for that guy?”  Cohen seemed suicidal.  This helps shape the defense theory that Cohen’s real objective in testifying against Trump is vengeance, not truth.   

It’s hard to imagine that any sentient or ethical prosecutor would ever rest his case on the slumped shoulders of an unhinged and inveterate liar like Cohen. After confessing in 2018 to a string of shameful fabrications under oath, he was dispatched to prison for perjury and fraud. He is exactly what a federal judge called him recently, “a serial perjurer.” He’s the Talented Mr. Ripley…without the talent.  

MICHAEL COHEN TIKTOK VIDEOS, FUNDRAISING STUN LEGAL OBSERVERS: MAY HAVE ‘TORPEDOED CASE AGAINST TRUMP’

After appearing incessantly on television shows trashing Trump and calling him a criminal, Cohen has taken to TikTok during the trial to comment on the testimony and escalate his Trump tirades.  His social media rants reap financial profits, which means that now, more than ever, he has an economic motive to lie.  Indeed, his livelihood depends on it. Prosecutors’ heads must have exploded when they discovered what he was doing.  What little credibility Cohen might have brought to the courtroom has vanished.   

Michael Cohen
FILE – Michael Cohen, former personal lawyer to former President Donald Trump is seen outside federal court in New York City on Thursday, Dec. 14, 2023.  (Yuki Iwamura/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

The mere mention of Cohen’s name in a court of law should equal “reasonable doubt.” He’s the definition of untrustworthy. Without him there is no legitimate case to be prosecuted. But instead of throwing in the towel by admitting that their central witness has gone rogue and self-destructed, Bragg persists in his contemptible pursuit of Trump. The D.A. is like an attack dog who won’t let go.        

If there is a sleaze factor to the trial, it has rubbed off on Bragg’s witnesses more than Trump. Increasingly, the defendant resembles a victim of blackmail, which the law defines as a demand for money under threat. 

If Bragg thought that Davidson would be a stellar witness for the prosecution, it may have backfired. He refused to call the Stormy Daniels payment “hush money or a payoff” while insisting that its proper definition is “consideration.” That is a fancy legal term in contract law that simply means an exchange of benefits.  Here, it was compensation in return for a non-disclosure agreement. Booking it as a legal expense would, therefore, be manifestly proper.  

Video

MORNING GLORY: THE SHOW TRIAL OF DONALD TRUMP

This key testimony blows a gaping hole in all of Bragg’s 34 charges against Trump that he falsified private business records.  What was false?  The Daniels deal was a legal settlement negotiated by two lawyers that culminated in the execution of a legal document.  Of course, it was a legal expense.  What else would it be?

On cross-examination, Davidson melted like a Joe Biden ice cream cone when confronted with evidence that he was once investigated by law enforcement for criminal extortion, although never charged.  He admitted that much of his practice involved “extracting” money (he preferred to label them “settlements”) from celebrities.  He also “brokered sex tapes.”  For the defense, it fits a pattern of squeezing prominent people for cash during times of vulnerability.  People such as Donald Trump.

Video

If there is a sleaze factor to the trial, it has rubbed off on Bragg’s witnesses more than Trump. Increasingly, the defendant resembles a victim of blackmail, which the law defines as a demand for money under threat.  In 2016, as the presidential election neared, the cash ultimatums intensified and, in the case of Daniels, Trump reluctantly capitulated.  

CLICK HERE FOR MORE FOX NEWS OPINION

However, that does not mean that Trump himself committed any crimes. His personal reimbursements to Cohen did not constitute a violation of election laws, as Bragg contends.  The two government departments that have exclusive authority over such matters —the Federal Election Commission and the Justice Department— correctly concluded that the payments to Daniels did not constitute an unlawful contribution.  

In other words, there’s no there there. But Alvin Bragg could care less. He deliberately commandeered a state statute that has no application to a federal election and twisted it into a pretzel to bring a preposterous charge against Trump that is utterly unsupported by the facts and the law.

Video

The consternation for the defense is the jurors who may be predisposed to convict in a politically charged case involving a presidential candidate they might dislike.  Are they capable of setting aside their personal beliefs to see through the prosecution’s charade? Or will they be snookered into believing that there is an election crime here, even though there is none?

When an unscrupulous prosecutor contorts statutes and deploys nefarious or lying witnesses to fool a jury into convicting an innocent defendant, it is an assault on the rule of law and an abuse of our justice system. In Manhattan, the crooked cards are stacked against Trump.  

We’ll see whether liars win trials…or the truth.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM GREGG JARRETT

Gregg Jarrett is a Fox News legal analyst and commentator, and formerly worked as a defense attorney and adjunct law professor. His recent book, “The Trial of the Century,” about the famous “Scopes Monkey Trial” is available in bookstores nationwide or can be ordered online at the Simon & Schuster website.  Jarrett’s latest book, “The Constitution of the United States and Other Patriotic Documents,” was published by Broadside Books, a division of HarperCollins on November 14, 2023.  Gregg is the author of the No. 1 New York Times best-selling book “The Russia Hoax: The Illicit Scheme to Clear Hillary Clinton and Frame Donald Trump.” His follow-up book was also a New York Times bestseller, “Witch Hunt: The Story of the Greatest Mass Delusion in American Political History.” 

“Irrevocably Shaken”: Columbia Law Review Editors Ask for Cancellation of Exams Due to Protests


By: Jonathan Turley | May 3, 2024

Read more at https://jonathanturley.org/2024/05/03/irrevocably-shaken-columbia-law-review-editors-ask-for-cancellation-of-exams-due-to-protests/

In recent years, there has been much discussion of the claims of “trauma” by students caused by court rulings and other events. These developments are often cited as a basis for the cancellation of exam or classes. Conservative speakers, case decisions, and protests have all been cited in the past for such demands as well as the creation of therapy tents and trauma counseling. Now, editors of the Columbia Law Review (and editors of other journals) have called for the outright cancellation of exams due to the trauma of watching recent protests on campus.  This is indeed a learning moment. Law students need to be able to face such moments without shutting down due to the stress. Our profession is filled with stress and trauma. It is the environment in which we operate. In those moments, we do not have the option of being a no-show. We make our appearance and speak for others.

Such claims have been commonplace. Black Harvard and Georgetown law students demanded exam cancellation after the death of Michael Brown in 2014. Administrators and faculty foster these claims by calling free speech “harmful” and “triggering” for students.

Students have also complained of the trauma of taking classes by faculty who do not recognize “white privilege” or classes that touch on certain crimes. After Trump was elected in 2016, universities set up “safe areas” and trauma tents for students.

The editors of the Columbia Law Review are virtually guaranteed their picks of top jobs after graduation. Yet, they told the law school that the clearing of the unauthorized encampment constituted traumatic “violence” that left them “irrevocably shaken” and “unable to focus.” They were joined by editors of five other law journals, including the Columbia Human Rights Law Review & A Jailhouse Lawyer’s Manual.

They portrayed the trauma as the appearance of counter protesters and police on campus, accusing a “white supremacist, neo-fascist hate group” of “storming” campus.

The Columbia students told the university that “many are unwell at this time and cannot study or concentrate while their peers are being hauled to jail.”

The law school has postponed exams due to the protests but has not cancelled the exams.

The students offered an alternative but not preferred option of allowing them to take exams pass/fail. However, they emphasized that “instituting an optional Pass/Fail policy is not really optional when employers will see that some students have grades and others do not… [T]his leaves room for the introduction of extreme bias into the hiring process.”

It is true that law firms are likely to look for students who can handle high-stress situations. This letter suggests the opposite of students at the very top of the Columbia law class.

More importantly, the question is how such law students are emotionally prepared for the pressures of practice when such protests shut them down and leave them “unable to focus.” However, they have been educated in systems that have fostered the sense of victimization or trauma from opposing views.

While often called the “trophy generation,” it sometimes seems like this is becoming the trauma generation. I do not blame these students. Teachers and administrators have reinforced this view. That was evident in the controversial cancelling of a federal judge at Stanford Law School last year.

The Stanford Federalist Society invited Judge Stuart Kyle Duncan of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit to speak on campus. It is a great opportunity to hear the views of one of the highest ranked judicial officers in the country.  However, liberal students decided that allowing a conservative judge to speak on campus is intolerable and set about to “deplatform” him by shouting him down. It was reminiscent of an equally disgraceful event at Yale Law School when another conservative speaker was similarly canceled — the law students then objected to the fact that campus police were present.

In this event, Duncan was planning to speak on the topic: “The Fifth Circuit in Conversation with the Supreme Court: Covid, Guns, and Twitter.” A video shows that the students prevented Duncan from speaking and the judge asked for an administrator to be called in to allow the event to proceed.

Dean Tirien Steinback then took the stage and, instead of simply demanding that the students allow for the event to proceed, Steinback launched into a babbling attack on the judge for seeking to be heard despite such objections.

Steinbach explained “I had to write something down because I am so uncomfortable up here. And I don’t say that for sympathy, I just say that I am deeply, deeply uncomfortable.”

Steinbach declared “It’s uncomfortable to say that for many people here, you’re work has caused harm.” After a perfunctory nod to free speech, Steinbach proceeded to eviscerate it to the delight of the law students. She continued “again I still ask, is the juice worth the squeeze?” “Is it worth the pain that this causes, the division that this causes? Do you have something so incredibly important to say about Twitter and guns and Covid that that is worth this impact on the division of these people.”

These students have spent years with such faculty telling them that they are fragile, vulnerable victims. However, our clients are often victims with traumatic injuries that must be addressed. Securing an equally vulnerable and triggered lawyer is not going to help them much.

Outside of the Columbia Law Review offices is a thing called life. It is neither predictable nor comfortable. We enter the lives of our clients when they are often failing apart. We have to bring our skills and support at those moments without the assistance of a trauma tent or emotional coach.  We also cannot ask judges for postponements to allow us to process the stress of the moment.

This is not meant to be another “buck up buttercup” dismissal. I understand that the campus faced disruption and that many feel deeply about the underlying issues. That passion is needed. Young lawyers should be motivated to right wrongs in this world. I also understand that many of these law students likely had friends who were arrested or involved in the protests. However, our clients look to us for strength not fragility in such moments.

The response from Columbia Law School should be simple: see you at the exams.

Trump’s 12th Amendment Problem: The VP Short List Has a Residency Dilemma


By: Jonathan Turley | May 3, 2024

Read more at https://jonathanturley.org/2024/05/03/trumps-12th-amendment-problem-the-vp-short-list-has-a-residency-dilemma/

The Trump short list for vice presidential candidates is reportedly down to Ohio Senator, J.D. Vance, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum. Rubio is a favorite for many due to his record in the Senate and his appeal to hispanic voters (where the GOP is hoping to make gains in the coming election). The problem is not Rubio or his record, but his residence.

The Twelfth Amendment contains a habitation or “favorite sons” provision: “The Electors shall meet in their respective states and vote by ballot for President and Vice-President, one of whom, at least, shall not be an inhabitant of the same state with themselves.”

The risk is that Florida’s electoral votes could be challenged in any election since both Trump and Rubio reside in the state. That is a chunk of 30 votes in a close election. In addition other states which sought to block Trump from the ballot like Colorado could try this new tack to derail his campaign.

The most obvious option is for either Trump or Rubio to move. The easiest would be for Trump to move since Rubio represents Florida. That could include either New York or New Jersey (where his Bedminster property is located).

That option would be costly for Trump in terms of taxes. Moreover, Trump is desperately trying to get out of New York where he is effectively shackled to the defense table as his opponent, President Joe Biden, campaigns around the country.

The funny thing is that Trump has been campaigning in New York and drawing some large crowds. It would be the height of irony if Trump ends up making New York competitive with a mix of the time forced to be in the state and a change of residency.

Alternatively, Rubio could resign from the Senate and focus on running with a residence in a different state. He could also attempt a more creative approach and just change residency for the election.

Under Article I, Section 3, Clause 3:

No Person shall be a Senator who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty Years and been nine Years a Citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an Inhabitant of that State for which he shall be chosen.

Rubio can argue that he was “an Inhabitant” of Florida “when elected.” Given the recent controversy over the appointment of Democratic Senator  Laphonza Butler, it could be hard for some Democrats to object.

Yet, there will be some who will no doubt try. In 2000, Dick Cheney was challenged by three Texas residents when he moved back to Wyoming. They failed.

Ultimately, it could also be challenged in Congress under the Electoral Count Reform Act.

Despite declaring the challenge to the Biden election was an attack on democracy, Democratic members previously challenged Republican presidents in Congress, including Jan. 6th committee head Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) and Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.)

In other words, it could be done but it would likely draw challenges. Then again, why should this part of the election be any different from every other part?

‘Death to Israeli real estate,’ ‘Death to America’ signs found on NYU property, NYPD says


By Timothy H.J. Nerozzi Fox News | Published May 3, 2024 10:48am EDT | Updated May 3, 2024 1:39pm EDT

Read more at https://www.foxnews.com/us/death-israeli-real-estate-death-america-signs-found-nyu-property-nypd

Police officers involved in clearing out protesters at a New York City college campus are sharing signs recovered from the scene bearing terrorist slogans.

New York Police Department officers broke up an “illegal encampment” at New York University on Friday, with cleaning crews called in to remove tents and sweep away the belongings of the protesters. NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Operations Kaz Daughtry shared various photos of “inflammatory literature and signage” found at the protest.

BLACK STUDENT ERUPTS ON ANTI-ISRAEL ‘WHITE LIBS’ FOR BLOCKING PATH ON CAMPUS: ‘COSPLAYING AS THE OPPRESSED’

NYU posters
A piece of protest literature recovered from the anti-Israel encampment at New York University. (New York Police Department)

“The NYPD proudly protects everyone’s right to free speech and peaceful protest,” Daughtry said in the post, before sharing the signage.

One piece of literature found on the site explicitly calls for “Death to America” and “Death to Israeli real-estate.”

NYPD Chief John Chell spoke to reporters on Friday and confirmed the NYPD had two operations “at the request of school presidents,” including at New York University and The New School in New York.

OVER 2,000 ANTI-ISRAEL AGITATORS HAVE BEEN ARRESTED DURING ANTISEMITIC PROTESTS ON US COLLEGE CAMPUSES

nyu protest in park
Hundreds of students rally in Washington Square Park along with faculty in response to the mass arrests at NYU. (Fox News)

He confirmed that officers arrested 56 people, with no incidents. The police chief noted that “99%” of those arrested were students.

“You will not find a truce from us,” one sign recovered from the protest area said.

“Enough with De-Escalation Trainings: Where are the Escalation Trainings!” added another.

NYU posters
A photo shows a poster put up on the New York University campus during anti-Israel protests. (New York Police Department)

On April 22, police went to NYU and arrested more than 100 students who held a demonstration in solidarity with the students at Columbia University and to oppose Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza.

On Wednesday, Fox News correspondent Alexis McAdams reported from the campus that the anti-Israel agitators had re-established the encampment.

Editor’s note: This headline has been updated for accuracy.

Fox News Digital’s Lawrence Richard contributed to this report.

Timothy Nerozzi is a writer for Fox News Digital. You can follow him on Twitter @timothynerozzi and can email him at timothy.nerozzi@fox.com

Today’s Politically INCORRECT Cartoon by A.F. Branco


A.F. Branco Cartoon – WarRoom vs Fake News

A.F. BRANCO | on May 3, 2024 | https://comicallyincorrect.com/a-f-branco-cartoon-warroom-vs-fakenews/

Steve Bannon Warroom Cartoon
A Political Cartoon by A.F. Branco 2024

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Flipboard

A.F. Branco Cartoon – Steve Bannon is continuously under attack by the Fake News legacy media CNN, MSNBC, etc. accusing him of being racist and a Nazi when in reality, he is exposing them, Biden, and his deep-state apparatus for their corruption.

It’s Obama… The New York Times Admits Obama is Running the Deal — Steve Bannon Weighs In on What We Already Knew (VIDEO)

By Jim Hoft | Mar. 27, 2024

The fake news New York Times said the quiet part out loud today.

Steve Bannon has made bold claims regarding Barack Obama’s involvement in efforts to undermine former President Donald Trump.

According to Bannon, a recent New York Times article by Katie Rogers provides groundbreaking insight into Obama’s behind-the-scenes activities, suggesting a direct link between Biden and current actions against Trump. READ MORE…

DONATE to A.F. Branco Cartoons – Tips accepted and appreciated – $1.00 – $5.00 – $25.00 – $50.00 – it all helps to fund this website and keep the cartoons coming. Also Venmo @AFBranco – THANK YOU!

A.F. Branco has taken his two greatest passions (art and politics) and translated them into cartoons that have been popular all over the country in various news outlets, including NewsMax, Fox News, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, and “The Washington Post.” He has been recognized by such personalities as Rep. Devin Nunes, Dinesh D’Souza, James Woods, Chris Salcedo, Sarah Palin, Larry Elder, Lars Larson, Rush Limbaugh, and President Trump.

LifeNews.com Pro-Life News Report


Thursday, May 2, 2024

Top Stories
Katie Hobbs Signs Bill to Repeal Arizona Abortion Ban, Celebrates Killing Babies
Joe Biden Slams Donald Trump for Letting Florida Protect Babies From Abortions
Kamala Harris Celebrates Abortion: Killing Babies is “Freedom” for Women
Pro-Life Advocate Suffers Stroke After She’s Placed in Solitary Confinement for 22 Days

More Pro-Life News
Joe Biden is Pressuring Pro-Life Guatemala to Stop Protecting Babies From Abortions
America is 1 of Just 8 Countries Worldwide That Allows Abortions Up to Birth
Florida Health Department Confirms Pregnant Women Still Receive Health Care Under New Heartbeat Law
Joe Biden’s Polling Numbers Sink to Lowest Ever, Americans Want Him Gone
Scroll Down for Several More Pro-Life News Stories

Katie Hobbs Signs Bill to Repeal Arizona Abortion Ban, Celebrates Killing Babies

Joe Biden Slams Donald Trump for Letting Florida Protect Babies From Abortions

Kamala Harris Celebrates Abortion: Killing Babies is “Freedom” for Women

Pro-Life Advocate Suffers Stroke After She’s Placed in Solitary Confinement for 22 Days


 

Joe Biden is Pressuring Pro-Life Guatemala to Stop Protecting Babies From Abortions

 

America is 1 of Just 8 Countries Worldwide That Allows Abortions Up to Birth

Florida Health Department Confirms Pregnant Women Still Receive Health Care Under New Heartbeat Law

Joe Biden’s Polling Numbers Sink to Lowest Ever, Americans Want Him Gone

MORE PRO-LIFE NEWS FROM TODAY

New York AG Letitia James Declares Total War on Pro-Life Pregnancy Centers

New Pro-Life Laws are Teaching Students About Fetal Development

On National Day of Prayer, Pray to End Abortion

We Need a Law to Protect Babies From Abortion in Every State

Looking for an inspiring and motivating speaker for your pro-life event? Don’t have much to spend on a high-priced speaker costing several thousand dollars? Contact news@lifenews.com about having LifeNews Editor Steven Ertelt speak at your event.

British Parliament Will Vote on Measure to Save Babies From Abortions

South Dakota Amendment Would Make Killing Babies in Abortions a “Right” Up to Birth

Pro-Life Members of Congress Say Human Beings Killed in IVF Need Protected Too

Pro-Life Group Files Complaint Against Indiana Health Dept. Over Concealing Abortion Records

Comments or questions? Email us at news@lifenews.com.
Copyright 2003-2024 LifeNews.com. All rights reserved.
For information on advertising or reprinting news from LifeNews.com, email us.

Did You Ever Think You Would See This Day?


May2, 2024

NY v. Trump: Witness says Cohen dreamed of White House job despite denying ambitions in House Testimony


By Emma Colton Fox News | Published May 2, 2024 1:52pm EDT

Read more at https://www.foxnews.com/politics/ny-v-trump-witness-says-cohen-dreamed-white-house-job-despite-denying-ambitions-house-testimony

A witness in the NY v. Trump case in Manhattan testified that former Trump attorney Michael Cohen wanted a job in the 45th president’s administration, despite previously denying wanting a White House role during congressional testimony. 

Keith Davidson, an attorney who represented former pornographic actress Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal, continued his testimony before the court Thursday, when he said that Cohen had been hopeful that he would land a position as White House chief of staff or attorney general in the lead-up to Trump’s inauguration. 

Davidson also recounted that Cohen had been upset he was “not going to Washington” following Trump’s win in 2016. 

“Can you f—ing believe I’m not going to Washington after everything I’ve done for that guy? I can’t believe I’m not going to Washington… I’ve saved his a–…,” Davidson recounted of a conversation he had had with a “despondent and saddened Michael Cohen” in December following the 2016 election. 

Michael Cohen
Michael Cohen, former personal lawyer to President Donald Trump, appears outside federal court in New York on Dec. 14, 2023. (Yuki Iwamura/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Davidson testified that Cohen had called him while shopping in a California store memorably decorated with an “Alice in Wonderland”-type theme. 

The NY v. Trump case focuses on Cohen paying Daniels $130,000 to allegedly quiet her claims of an alleged extramarital affair she had with Trump in 2006. Trump has denied having an affair with Daniels.

TOP REPUBLICANS DOUBLE DOWN ON CALL FOR DOJ PROBE INTO BRAGG’S ‘STAR WITNESS’ MICHAEL COHEN

Cohen lamented to Davidson in the December call that he had not yet been reimbursed for the sum he had paid Daniels, according to Davidson’s testimony. 

Donald Trump sits in the courtroom for the first day of opening arguments in his Manhattan criminal trial.
Former President Donald Trump awaits the start of proceedings at Manhattan Criminal Court in New York on April 22. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura, Pool)

Prosecutors allege that the Trump Organization reimbursed Cohen and fraudulently logged the payments as legal expenses. Prosecutors are working to prove that Trump falsified records with the intent to commit or conceal a second crime, which is a felony, in violation of a New York law called “conspiracy to promote or prevent election.”

Trump has pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. 

Davidson’s testimony that Cohen sought a White House job stands in stark contrast to what the former Trump attorney told Congress back in 2019. 

TOP REPUBLICANS DOUBLE DOWN ON CALL FOR DOJ PROBE INTO BRAGG’S ‘STAR WITNESS’ MICHAEL COHEN

“Sir, I was extremely proud to be personal attorney to the President of the United States of America. I did not want to go to the White House. I was offered jobs,” Cohen told Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, in 2019 during a House Oversight Committee hearing. 

Michael Cohen and Donald Trump split image
Michael Cohen, who is supposed to be a star witness in NY v. Trump, might have “torpedoed” the case before taking the stand by ranting about it on TikTok, according to legal observers. (Getty Images)

“I can tell you a story of Mr. Trump reaming out Reince Priebus because I had not taken a job where Mr. Trump wanted me to, which is working with Don McGahn at the White House general counsel’s office, he continued. “What I said at the time — and I brought a lawyer in who produced a memo as to why I should not go in, because there would be no attorney/client privilege. And in order to handle some of the matters that I talked about in my opening, that it would be best suited for me not to go in and that every president had a personal attorney.”

NY V. TRUMP: HOUSE JUDICIARY INVESTIGATES BRAGG PROSECUTOR WHO HELD SENIOR ROLE IN BIDEN DOJ

“I did not want to go to the White House,” Cohen added later in his testimony to Congress. “I retained, I brought an attorney in, and I sat with Mr. Trump, with him for well over an hour, explaining the importance of having a personal attorney, that every president has had one in order to handle matters like the matters I was dealing with.”

Cohen’s comments came after he pleaded guilty to five counts of willful tax evasion, one count of making false statements to a bank, one count of causing an unlawful campaign contribution and one count of making an excessive campaign contribution in 2018. He again pleaded guilty in November of that same year to lying to Congress about testimony regarding the work he had done on a project to build a Trump Tower in Moscow. 

A court sketch depicts former President Donald Trump’s appearance in Manhattan Criminal Court
A court sketch depicts former President Donald Trump’s appearance in Manhattan Criminal Court in New York on April 19. (Christine Cornell)

Cohen was sentenced to three years in prison and has since been released.

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Turner, R-Ohio, and House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., are currently demanding the Justice Department investigate Cohen. They allege that he committed perjury and “knowingly” made false statements while testifying before Congress in 2019.

MICHAEL COHEN TIKTOK VIDEOS, FUNDRAISING STUN LEGAL OBSERVERS: MAY HAVE ‘TORPEDOED CASE AGAINST TRUMP’

Turner and Stefanik argue that Cohen is being used as the prosecution’s “star witness” in the NY v. Trump case, despite his previous conviction. 

Trump, meanwhile, has slammed the trial as a “scam” and “hoax” promoted by the Biden administration and led by a “conflicted judge.” 

Former US president and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump leaves Trump Tower
Former President Donald Trump leaves Trump Tower to attend his trial for allegedly covering up hush money payments linked to extramarital affairs in New York on April 22. (Charly Triballeau/AFP via Getty Images)

“This is a hoax. This is a judge who is conflicted — badly, badly, badly conflicted. I’ve never seen a judge so conflicted and giving us virtually no rulings,” Trump said outside the courtroom on Tuesday morning. 

“I’m going to sit in the freezing cold icebox for eight hours, nine hours or so. They took me off the campaign trail. But the good news is my poll numbers are the highest it’s ever been. So, at least we’re getting the word out. And everybody knows this trial is a scam. It’s a scam. The judge should be recused; that he should recuse himself today, he should recuse himself today. And maybe he will,” Trump said.

Fox News Digital’s Brooke Singman contributed to this report. 

Documents Reveal Biden WH Worked With Archives on Trump Case


By Sandy Fitzgerald    |   Thursday, 02 May 2024 02:21 PM EDT

Read more at https://www.newsmax.com/politics/trump-documents-nationalarchives/2024/05/02/id/1163276/

A trove of unsealed documents connected with the investigation into allegations that former President Donald Trump mishandled classified materials has revealed that several top Biden administration officials were working with the National Archives to help bring Special Counsel Jack Smith’s case against him.

Lawyers representing Trump in the Florida case compiled court exhibits consisting of more than 300 pages of unredacted items, including emails and other correspondence showing that Deputy White House Counsel Jonathan Su had been regularly communicating with National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) National Archive officials, as had the Department of Justice, reports Real Clear Investigations’ Julie Kelly. The correspondence also indicates that the Department of Justice had been communicating with NARA throughout most of 2021, even though it had claimed it became involved only after the Archives had sent in a criminal referral on Feb. 9, 2022. The referral was based on the Archives reporting that records with “classified markings” were included among the 15 boxes of materials Trump had turned in.

President Joe Biden, who denied involvement in the investigation, was not specifically named in the exhibits, which Trump’s attorneys filed in January.

The items were at first heavily redacted, but the team asked U.S. District Court judge Aileen Cannon, the judge presiding over the case to remove many of the redactions.

Meanwhile, Smith claimed that releasing the materials would jeopardize his investigation, reveal potential witnesses, and potentially subject them to risks of harassment and intimidation.

Cannon, however, posted the mostly unredacted archives on April 22, and a comparison of the redacted and the unredacted materials showed the coordination between NARA and the DOJ, the White House, and the intelligence community.

The documents revealed that shortly after Trump left office in 2021, Biden’s Office of Records Management and the National Archives started making demands to the former president’s transition team and Mark Meadows, his chief of staff. Archives general counsel Gary Stern emailed Trump’s team in May 2021, the unredacted documents show, and asked the attorneys to account for almost 2 dozen original presidential records that were not transferred.

He did not specify any particular records except for “original correspondence between President Trump and North Korean Leader Kim Jung-un” and “the letter that President Obama left for President Trump on his first day in office.”

One of the unsealed FBI reports indicated the Archives also wanted to get hold of a map that Trump had drawn on with a Sharpie during a 2018 briefing on the track of Hurricane Dorian.

David Ferriero, a national archivist appointed by Barack Obama in 2009, warned the Trump transition team in June 2021 that he was “running out of patience, and on Aug. 30 told Trump’s team that he assumed the boxes were destroyed and he would have to report the loss to lawmakers, the DOJ, and the White House.

Other documents showed evidence that White House lawyers were advising the archives, including a draft letter accompanying a Sept. 1, 2021 email where Stern said he had advised White House counsel about the documents.

The letter, from Ferriero to Attorney General Merrick Garland, said that presidential records “may have been unlawfully removed from U.S. government custody or possibly destroyed.”

Sandy Fitzgerald 

Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics. 

Biden Botched Financial Aid Rollout. And it’s Parents and Students Who Are Paying the Price.


By: Kevin Roberts @KevinRobertsTX / Lindsey Burke @lindseymburke / May 02, 2024

Read more at https://www.dailysignal.com/2024/05/02/biden-botched-financial-aid-rollout-and-its-parents-and-students-who-are-paying-the-price/

Completed FAFSA applications were down nearly 30% as of April 19. (Photo Illustration: Richard Stephen/Getty Images)

In a normal year, May 1 is known as National College Decision Day, the deadline for students to commit to enrolling at a college, guided in part by their financial aid awards. But the Biden administration’s disastrous rollout of a new financial aid application has left tens of thousands of families in the dark about their students’ future and prompted several universities to push back their enrollment deadlines.

As of April 19, completed FAFSA applications were down nearly 30%. At best, it means many students and parents don’t know how much it will cost to attend college in the fall. Even worse, it may lead frustrated young people to skip college altogether.

The Free Application for Federal Student Aid is a notoriously cumbersome form that all prospective college students must fill out if they want federal loans or grants. Previously more than 100 questions long, FAFSA’s current crisis can be traced to 2020, when the FAFSA Simplification Act dropped the number of questions on the form to about 40.

Ironically, because of the Biden administration’s incompetence, the simplification has led to massive complications and confusion for families this year as they apply for college. Focused on other priorities, the Biden administration failed to update the FAFSA website before October, when most students start applying.

In fact, the “improved” FAFSA website didn’t go live until the end of December, and even then, only in 30-minute increments. This was presumably so that the department could meet the statutory deadline for release, as Inside Higher Ed reported. When the website finally became available in a more final form in January, the Department of Education still wasn’t processing applications or relaying students’ financial information to colleges. It said it’d be able to do that by mid-March.

President Biden’s FAFSA Chief Steps Down

With the May 1 deadline now here, the Biden administration is still running behind, prompting the bureaucrat in charge of the new form to resign last week. But it’s students and their families who are paying the real price of this debacle.

Couple that reality with what families are now seeing at America’s universities—protests featuring ugly displays of antisemitism—and it appears that higher education is experiencing the same “Zoom moment” that K-12 schools experienced during COVID-19. Parents now see up close what schools are teaching and the values they relay. All of this is the perfect recipe for a significant decline in college enrollment this year.

That might not be such a bad thing. Far too many students feel that pursuing higher education is their only option for success, and if this FAFSA debacle ushers in a much-needed course correction, that would be a welcome silver lining.

But for those students still pursuing traditional higher education, this academic limbo is maddening.

Colleges Push Back Enrollment Deadlines

Colleges are trying to adjust, and many have extended their decision deadlines, some as far out as July. Department of Education officials had to explain the disastrous rollout in congressional hearings, more of which should come soon.

All of this is yet another reminder of the pitfalls of the federal government’s involvement in higher education. Today, the federal government originates and services most student loans. But the Department of Education wasn’t designed as a bank, nor Uncle Sam as a lender. And it’s clear the agency isn’t up to the task.

The FAFSA debacle conjures up memories of the disastrous rollout of the Obamacare portal a decade ago.

As dual trainwrecks of the FAFSA rollout and antisemitic university protests play out simultaneously, there’s no better time for Congress to cut off the open spigot of federal funds to universities and protect future American students.

Originally published by USA Today

Poll: Majority of Americans Distrust in the Media


By: Jonathan Turley | May 2, 2024

Read more at https://jonathanturley.org/2024/05/02/poll-majority-of-americans-distrust-in-the-media/

A poll from  the American Press Institute and The Associated Press-NORC Center has found that a majority of Americans are extremely worried or very concerned about bias in the media and the reporting of false or misleading information. Only 48% of Republicans and 34% of independents still receive their news from national news outlets and expressed the greatest trust of the media.

The poll shows that 47% of Americans have serious concern that news outlets would report information that has not been confirmed or verified, and 44% worry that accurate information will be presented in a way that favors one side or another.

For years, the journalists have sawed on the branch upon which they are sitting. Even National Public Radio, which receives federal funding, is unrepentant in the face of criticism over its overt political bias.

Former New York Times writer (and now Howard University journalism professor) Nikole Hannah-Jones declared recently that “all journalism is activism.” Advocacy journalism is all the rage in journalism schools and on major media platforms. A recent series of interviews with over 75 media leaders by Leonard Downie Jr., former Washington Post executive editor, and Andrew Heyward, former CBS News president, reaffirmed this shift. As Emilio Garcia-Ruiz, editor-in-chief at the San Francisco Chronicle, stated: “Objectivity has got to go.” But that objective seems to depend heavily upon what ideology you are advocating.

The result is that the mainstream media is increasingly speaking to itself and a dwindling number of viewers and readers. NPR is again a good example. NPR’s audience has been declining. Indeed, that trend has been most pronounced since 2017. The company has also reported falling advertising revenue and, like many outlets, has made deep staff cuts to deal with budget shortfalls.

Yet, while tacking aggressively to the left and openly supporting narratives (including some false stories) from Democratic sources, NPR and its allies still expect citizens to subsidize its work. That includes roughly half of the country with viewpoints now effectively banished from its airwaves.

The result is that about half of Americans rely on social media for their primary source of news. That is why it is not surprising that the censorship of social media has been a priority among many liberal groups. The effort is to eliminate sources of information and regulate what citizens see and read.

Despite this effort, the trend is likely to continue. Recently at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, the host Colin Jost remarked how he could not believe the race was tied despite all of the bad coverage of Trump. At events like the dinner, there is disbelief that citizens are not just following their narrative and shaping of the news. The fact is that many are no longer listening or watching. The MSM is “playing to the house,” not to the public at large.

So, we are left with the variation of a common Zen-like question: if the media reports and no one is listening, does it still make a noise?

Come for the Education, Stay for the Amputation: Iran Offers Free Scholarships to U.S. Students


By: Jonathan Turley | May 2, 2024

Read more at https://jonathanturley.org/2024/05/02/come-for-the-education-stay-for-the-amputation-iran-offers-free-scholarships-to-u-s-students/

Now this could truly be educational. Students protesting on our campuses have been offered free scholarships at Shiraz University in Fars. So, while Northwestern has reached a settlement with protesters to give scholarships to Palestinian students and positions to Palestinian faculty, U.S. protesters can now go to Iran for their education.

Mohammad Moazzeni, head of Shiraz University told media that “students and even professors who have been expelled or threatened with expulsion can continue their studies at Shiraz University and I think that other universities in Shiraz as well as Fars Province are also prepared [to provide the conditions].”

This could be the single most transformative educational experience of their lives. Of course, Iran is better known for floggings than free speech. Iran is particularly prone to such contradictions like executing homosexuals while denying that there are any homosexuals in Iran or objecting to the treatment of protesters in the West while jailing, beating and killing protesters.

Warning: vegan meals are not available at Iranian protests. Instead, it has ordered the arrest and killing of writers and artists while holding such fun events as a cartoon competition on the Holocaust.

While expungements are not a common feature of the criminal justice system, it does have unique elements like judicially ordered blindings. Likewise, where else can you go where a criminal defendant was ordered to be executed by being tied into a burlap bag and thrown down a cliff with sharp rocks?

Some universities clearly have space after students were arrested for protesting the death sentence given a rapper. That includes Shiraz University where the Iranian regime’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) arrested students for protests.

The good thing is that U.S. students are already covering up their faces. Iranian women have faced arrest for being photographed without hijabs.

Students like Khymani James, the Columbia organizer declaring that “Zionists don’t deserve to live” have the right viewpoint but may find that the Iranian officials are less supportive in other respects.

Just a year studying abroad in Iran is worth a lifetime of education.

So Iranian universities are making the ultimate pitch to come for the free education and stay for the free amputations.

Today’s Politically INCORRECT Cartoon by A.F. Branco


A.F. Branco Cartoon – Dog Lives Matter

A.F. BRANCO | on May 2, 2024 | https://comicallyincorrect.com/a-f-branco-cartoon-dog-lives-matter/

Kristy Neom  Puppy Cartoon
A Political Cartoon by A.F. Branco 2024

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Flipboard

A.F. Branco Cartoon – The Democrats and the legacy media flipped out over Gov. Kristi Noem putting down her puppy 20 years ago, but they have no problem with putting down millions of babies every year by way of abortion.

South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem Stirs Controversy With Tale of Killing Her ‘Untrainable’, ‘Dangerous’ 14-Month-Old Hunting Dog and a Goat

By Kristinn Taylor – April 27, 2024

South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem (R), who has been mentioned as a possible Trump vice presidential pick, wrote in her new book that she shot and killed her “untrainable” and “dangerous” 14-month-old wirehair pointer hunting dog named Cricket after it killed a neighbor’s chickens and attacked Noem, as well as a killing a goat the same afternoon.

DONATE to A.F. Branco Cartoons – Tips accepted and appreciated – $1.00 – $5.00 – $25.00 – $50.00 – it all helps to fund this website and keep the cartoons coming. Also Venmo @AFBranco – THANK YOU!

A.F. Branco has taken his two greatest passions (art and politics) and translated them into cartoons that have been popular all over the country in various news outlets, including NewsMax, Fox News, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, and “The Washington Post.” He has been recognized by such personalities as Rep. Devin Nunes, Dinesh D’Souza, James Woods, Chris Salcedo, Sarah Palin, Larry Elder, Lars Larson, Rush Limbaugh, and President Trump.

LifeNews.com Pro-Life News Report


Wednesday, May 1, 2024

Top Stories
Florida Heartbeat Law Now in Effect, Will Save Thousands of Babies From Abortion
Arizona Senate Votes to Repeal Abortion Ban, Two Republicans Join Democrats to Allow Killing Babies
Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders Signs Pro-Life Bill to Support Pregnant Women
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Defends Abortions Up to Birth: Killing an 8 Month Old Baby is Morally “Nuanced and Complex”

More Pro-Life News
Florida Law Could Save 50,000 Babies From Abortions Every Year
OBGYN Professor: Abortion “Harms Women,” It’s Not Necessary for Their Health
Pro-Life Pregnancy Centers Sue New York Attorney General Letitia James for Trying to Stop Their Work
Doctor Confirms Florida’s New Heartbeat Law Will Save Babies, Help Women
Scroll Down for Several More Pro-Life News Stories

Florida Heartbeat Law Now in Effect, Will Save Thousands of Babies From Abortion

Arizona Senate Votes to Repeal Abortion Ban, Two Republicans Join Democrats to Allow Killing Babies

Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders Signs Pro-Life Bill to Support Pregnant Women

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Defends Abortions Up to Birth: Killing an 8 Month Old Baby is Morally “Nuanced and Complex”


 

New Florida Law Could Save 50,000 Babies From Abortions Every Year

 

OBGYN Professor: Abortion “Harms Women,” It’s Not Necessary for Their Health

Pro-Life Pregnancy Centers Sue New York Attorney General Letitia James for Trying to Stop Their Work

Doctor Confirms Florida’s New Heartbeat Law Will Save Babies, Help Women

MORE PRO-LIFE NEWS FROM TODAY

Congress Must Stop Biden’s Weaponization of Government Against Pro-Life Americans

Pro-Life Doctor Who Has Saved Countless Babies From Abortions Wins Award

Scotland Votes for Radical Bill That Criminalizes Silent Prayer Outside Abortion Centers

Kristen Clarke, Who Targets Pro-Life Americans, Lied Under Oath During Her Confirmation Hearing

Looking for an inspiring and motivating speaker for your pro-life event? Don’t have much to spend on a high-priced speaker costing several thousand dollars? Contact news@lifenews.com about having LifeNews Editor Steven Ertelt speak at your event.

Leftists Want to Open Beverly Hills Abortion Clinic That Would Kill Babies for Hollywood’s Elite

Pregnancy Centers are Helping Women Choose Life in a Climate of Easy Abortion Pill Access

Indiana Judge Blocks Law to Stop Trafficking Teens to Other States for Secret Abortions

Nancy Pelosi: If Democrats Win, We Will Kill the Filibuster and Legalize Abortions Up to Birth Nationwide

Comments or questions? Email us at news@lifenews.com.
Copyright 2003-2024 LifeNews.com. All rights reserved.
For information on advertising or reprinting news from LifeNews.com, email us.

School board ‘punished’ middle school girls who protested biological male competing against them at track meet: Complaint


By: DAVE URBANSKI | APRIL 30, 2024

Read more at https://www.conservativereview.com/school-board-punished-middle-school-girls-who-protested-biological-male-competing-against-them-at-track-meet-complaint-2668105934.html/

A West Virginia school board “punished” a group of middle school girls who protested a biological male competing against them at a track meet earlier this month, according to a legal complaint.

Cellphone video showed girls from Lincoln Middle School staging a protest in the shot-put ring at the Harrison County Middle School Championships on April 18; one by one, they stepped into the ring and then quickly stepped out without making attempts.

While the video in the post from female athlete advocate Riley Gaines appears to show six separate protests by Lincoln girls in the shot put ring, AthleticNet indicated that five Lincoln girls posted “ND” (no distance) in the finals. Gaines also wrote that five girls refused to participate.

Blaze News reported that the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals just days prior to the meet ruled in a 2-1 decision that a West Virginia law requiring every student athlete to participate in accordance with their biological sex violates the Title IX rights of Becky Pepper-Jackson — the student against whom the girls protested.

Pepper-Jackson — a biological male — has been living as a female and taking puberty blockers for years. AthleticNet said Pepper-Jackson of Bridgeport won the shot put final at the meet with a toss of 32 feet, 9 inches, easily besting the second-place finisher by more than three feet.

What happened next?

Parents of four of the five protesting girls filed the legal complaint against the Harrison County Board of Education. The complaint states the girls attended an April 24 press conference addressing their protest. Attendees included Gaines and state Attorney General Patrick Morrisey and Auditor J.B. McCuskey, along with several Republicans from the state Senate and House of Delegates, the complaint states.

The complaint also states that the next day — Thursday — the father of one of the girls “spoke with Lincoln Middle School principal Lori Scott,” who told him that the girls who protested “would not be permitted to compete in a scheduled track and field meet on April 27, 2024.”

The complaint also states that a father of another girl spoke with coach Dawn Riestenberg, who “informed him that his daughter would not be allowed to participate in the scheduled track and field meet on April 27.” The complaint adds that Riestenberg told the dad that the girls were barred from the meet because it was her job “to score points for the track team,” which the complaint says correlates to “the minor student athletes’ protest and subsequent appearance at a press conference to the decision to ban them from competition.”

The complaint states that the protesting girls “are being punished” by the school board “for exercising their rights to freedom of speech and expression under the Constitution of West Virginia.”

The complaint was filed Friday — the day before the April 27 meet from which the girls allegedly were barred — and seeks no monetary damages, only “injunctive relief.” State Attorney General Morrisey filed an amicus brief Friday in support of the parents’ complaint.

“The only thing this decision does is teach these children to keep their mouths shut and not disagree with what they saw as unfairness,” Morrisey said in a news release, according to WBOY-TV. “That is outrageous and it tramples these students’ rights to freedom of speech and expression.”

Apparently, the complaint and even support from the state attorney general were not enough.

AthleticNet records show that none of the Lincoln Middle School girls listed in the complaint took part in the shot put competition at the Mid Mountain 10 Championships on April 27.

In addition, while it’s been reported that the protesting girls were barred from competition for a longer period of time, all the girls in the complaint are listed on the shot put stat sheet from a Monday invitational meet.

The school board on Tuesday didn’t immediately reply to Blaze News’ request for comment on the complaint.

Tag Cloud