The Biden Administration’s Latest Move Will Certainly Increase Tensions With Israel

The Biden administration took an unprecedented step this afternoon: they accused the Israeli military of human rights violations. It’s no secret that Joe Biden doesn’t want Israel to defeat Hamas. It will create a domestic headache for him at home, as the Democratic Party base has become increasingly hostile to Israel. Rafah is the last remaining Hamas bastion in Gaza; Israel is going to take it. The longer this war continues, the more incensed young voters, whom Biden cannot lose, become at Israel and the Biden White House. Also, these incidents within the IDF were all allegedly committed before October 7 (via Fox News):

The U.S. found five units of the Israel Defense Forces responsible “for individual incidents of gross violations of human rights,” the State Department announced on Monday – though whether funding to the American ally could be cut over such abuses under the so-called “Leahy Laws” still hangs in the balance.

At a press briefing, State Department principal deputy spokesman Vedant Patel told reporters that the human rights violations happened all before the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas militants on southern Israel and none happened in Gaza. Four of the units have “effectively remediated,” he said, while the U.S. continues “in consultations and engagements with the government of Israel” on the remaining unit.

“They have submitted additional information as it pertains to that unit. And we’re continuing to have those conversations consistent with the memorandum of understanding that we have with the government of Israel that was entered into in 2021,” he said. “When conclusions are made under actions that fall under the auspices of the Foreign Assistance Act, we are required to consult with officials from the government of Israel, and that is ongoing. We are engaging with them in a process, and we will make an ultimate decision when it comes to that unit when that process is complete.”

(Read more from “The Biden Administration’s Latest Move Will Certainly Increase Tensions With Israel” HERE)

Another Ivy League Says They’re Suspending Pro-Hamas Students

As Townhall has been covering, Columbia University threatened and has now gone through with suspending pro-Hamas student agitators setting up encampments on campus. A statement from Cornell University President Martha E. Pollack on Monday signaled that they too will go through with suspending students, as CNN highlighted as part of their live updates. . .

Local news outlet WENY reported that four students were suspended over the encampment on April 26, including PhD student Momodou Taal who has lamented that pro-Hamas agitators on campus have had their visa status threatened. “They have deliberately targeted students with precarious positions such as visa status,” he whined, even though he notes he was given “a grace period.”

His post also contained telling language about the university, such as how “It is clear that they are more concerned with appeasing their Zionist donors and keeping their hands drenched in blood than over the expressed refusal of their students and workers.”

Cornell has recently made headlines in other ways over such concerning protests. Recall that Cornell Professor Russell Rickford shouted over a megaphone that he found the October 7 attack to be “exhilarating” and “energizing.” This took place days after that attack resulted in 1,200 Israelis killed through unspeakable means, including babies and Holocaust survivors. Victims were also tortured, raped, and taken hostage, with many still in captivity. (Read more from “Another Ivy League Says They’re Suspending Pro-Hamas Students” HERE)

Disney World Appears To Allow Biological Men To Play Female Characters

A family attending an expensive dinner at Disney’s Wilderness Lodge at Walt Disney World Resort had a character experience they were not expecting. According to the father, they complained after the Evil Queen was not what they anticipated.

In 2023, The Walt Disney Company faced criticism from conservatives and some moderates when photos and videos surfaced of a biological male cast member wearing a dress while working as a “Fairy-Godmother-in-training” at the Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boutique princess boutique for little girls at the Magic Kingdom. This biological male had facial hair and makeup but there was never any clarification as to presented gender identity. For many families, the cast member’s stated gender identity would not have mattered much. Video of the mustached biological male in a dress leading small girls into a salon has resurfaced often by families critical of Disney’s reimagining of traditional values. Of course, for others of a different mindset, there was nothing wrong with this at all and the internet reaction was either intolerant or inappropriate.

According to the father who reached out to That Park Place reporters, the Evil Queen, antagonist of the first Walt Disney animated feature, appeared to be played by a biological male at Artist Point in Disney’s Wilderness Lodge Resort. Story Book Dining at Artist Point is listed by the Walt Disney World website as a premium character dining experience with adults expecting to pay $60 per meal.

According to the father:

While we were waiting for the desserts to come out we received our invitation to meet the Evil Queen which we were really looking forward to. Keep in mind we’ve had other meet and greets with other Villains and they are truly the best character experiences that we’ve ever had so we had high hopes for the Evil Queen leading up. So we all walked over towards the Evil Queen area and while my kids and wife were interacting with the character I was doing some video and took a few pictures from about 10 feet away then handed my iPhone over to the cast member to take some pics for me so I could get in the picture. It was kind of loud inside so I couldn’t really hear what the character was saying until I got face to face (typical conversation distance of a few feet) and then it hit me that the Evil Queen without a doubt had a man’s voice.

(Read more from “Disney World Appears To Allow Biological Men To Play Female Characters” HERE)

Dem Rep. ‘Fully’ in Favor of Resettling Gaza Migrants in U.S. (VIDEO)

Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) expressed his full “support” for the United States to “bring in” Palestinian refugees from Gaza.

During an interview with a reporter from Yonkers Voice, Bowman said the U.S. is a “land of immigrants” and “asylum seekers” that has always opened its “doors to immigrants,” saying, “[I] fully support that,” in response to a question regarding the U.S. opening its doors to migrants from Gaza.

“Should the United States bring in people from Gaza?” the reporter asked Bowman.

“We are a land of migrants, and we are a land of asylum seekers — anyone escaping persecution and oppression and violence — the United States has always been an open home to those people,” Bowman answered:

So, whether they’re coming from Palestine, Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, Mexico, [or] Haiti, they’re coming here to contribute to our economy, which 99.9 percent of them are. We’ve always been a place to open our doors to immigrants coming here, so, yeah, [I] fully support that.

(Read more from “Dem Rep. ‘Fully’ in Favor of Resettling Gaza Migrants in U.S. (VIDEO)” HERE)

States Reject Biden’s ‘Illegal’ and ‘Unconstitutional’ Title IX Rewrite

Florida and Oklahoma have instructed their schools to reject implementation of new Title IX rules proposed by the Biden administration that allow males “identifying” as females to invade women’s spaces.

“We are not going to let Joe Biden try to inject men into women’s activities,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said in a Thursday video statement. “We will not comply.”

As my colleague Jordan Boyd previously reported, the new guidelines released by the Education Department last week “effectively erase protections for sex-based spaces by expanding the Title IX prohibition against sex discrimination to include ‘gender identity’ — a term that’s never mentioned in the original law.” This means that men proclaiming to be women will be permitted to use female-only spaces such as locker rooms and sororities and participate in female-only sports leagues.

The rules — which are set to take effect on Aug. 1 — also repeal existing free speech protections, parental rights, and safeguards for individuals accused of sexual assault.

DeSantis’ comments came a day after Florida Commissioner on Education Manny Diaz Jr. penned a letter stating that “no educational institution [in the state] should begin implementing any changes” to Title IX put forward by the Biden administration. Diaz argued that the federal government’s reimagining of the law is an “attempt to gaslight the country into believing that biological sex no longer has any meaning.” (Read more from “States Reject Biden’s ‘Illegal’ and ‘Unconstitutional’ Title IX Rewrite” HERE)

Photo credit: Flickr

NYC Firefighter, 36, Dies of Heart Attack After Being Fired to Pay for Migrants — Leaving His Family With Nothing

An FDNY firefighter has died of a heart attack just months after he was fired as part of the city’s effort to free up funds for its migrant crisis — leaving his grieving widow and kids struggling to keep a roof over their heads.

Derek Floyd, 36, suffered cardiac arrest and passed away April 15, four months after the city gave him the boot as part of a larger effort to pare down staff and pay for housing and services for the tens of thousands of migrants flooding the Big Apple.

Floyd was one of about 10 Fire Department employees who had been on “long term duty” — either injured on the job and given office work or out sick for an extended period — and fired weeks before Christmas, FDNY sources told The Post.

Floyd, a veteran who served three tours in the Middle East with the Marines, had been among those working a desk job — toiling in the Fire Department chaplain’s office — because he had suffered another heart attack in 2019 while he was in the Fire Academy. . .

Floyd had been just shy of vesting additional medical benefits for his family and more than $600,000 worth of death benefits when he was booted, now leaving his family with nothing despite his years of service. (Read more from “NYC Firefighter, 36, Dies of Heart Attack After Being Fired to Pay for Migrants — Leaving His Family With Nothing” HERE)

Photo credit: Flickr

Tech CEO Believes Gen Zers Are Gravitating Towards Blue-Collar Jobs That AI Struggles to Replace

As the costs and controversies surrounding college education continue to rise, as well as the potential threat AI presents to white-collar jobs, many young people have started looking into trade schools and blue-collar jobs that are not easily replaceable by tech, according to a recent report by Fox News Digital.

Lincoln Tech CEO Scott Shaw told Fox Business’ Stuart Varney on Tuesday that “[t]hese [blue-collar] jobs are here to stay,” adding that “[s]ince COVID, people are kind of catching the wave and understanding the need for trades.”

Shaw went on to explain that there is a serious need for essential workers and that the students at his school were essential over the course of the pandemic.

He noted that the essential workers were “in the hospitals,” “keeping transportation, keeping your Amazon deliveries, getting to you.”

The report added that enrollment in vocational community colleges across the country are up 16 percent since 2018, according to a January 2024 National Student Clearinghouse report. (Read more from “Tech CEO Believes Gen Zers Are Gravitating Towards Blue-Collar Jobs That AI Struggles to Replace” HERE)

Mother Demands Answers After Video Shows Son Being Yanked and Dangled Upside Down by Preschool Worker

A disturbing video showing a Los Angeles preschool employee violently pulling and pinning a 4-year-old boy has left the boy’s mother demanding answers.

“I was distraught,” Mother BrieAnn Battle told ABC 7 about seeing the video of her son being roughly handled at the Kinder Kids Christian Preschool in central LA on March 14.

The surveillance video shows the worker grabbing her son by his arms, and then pinning both arms on the ground by his wrists.

The employee is next seen yanking the boy by both ankles and carrying him up upside down, dangling the tot in the air. . .

The concerned mom said another worker at the preschool showed her the video, which prompted her to contact the owner to meet with her and demand answers about the treatment of her young son. (Read more from “Mother Demands Answers After Video Shows Son Being Yanked and Dangled Upside Down by Preschool Worker” HERE)

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One Climber Dies, Another Critically Injured in 1,000-Foot Fall From Alaska Mountain

One mountain climber was killed and another was seriously injured Thursday night after plummeting an estimated 1,000 feet from Mt. Johnson’s 8,400-foot peak in Alaska’s Denali National Park, the National Park Service (NPS) said.

Due to adverse weather conditions, rescue teams were not able to reach the body of Robbi Mecus, 52, until the weather cleared Saturday morning, according to a statement by the NPS. The surviving climber — a 30-year-old California woman — was rescued and transporting by air ambulance to an Anchorage hospital Friday morning, the NPS stated.

The incident occurred on a portion of Mt. Johnson known as “the Escalator.” The two women were roped while climbing up terrain covered in a mix of rock, ice, and snow, the NPS said.

Another group of climbers witnessed the fall, notified park rangers and then climbed down to help the women, according to the NPS. The climbers reportedly confirmed Mecus was killed in the fall and gave first aid to the surviving climber. They tried to keep her warm until morning by digging a snow cave and attending “to the surviving climber’s injuries throughout the night,” the NPS stated.

Denali National Park Superintendent Brooke Merrell said, “We are grateful for the rescue efforts of Denali mountaineering rangers and the two good Samaritans on Mt. Johnson who helped save a fellow climber’s life. We extend our thoughts and condolences to the friends and family of Robbi Mecus.” (Read more from “One Climber Dies, Another Critically Injured in 1,000-Foot Fall From Alaska Mountain” HERE)

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Putin Likely Didn’t Order Death of Russian Dissident Alexei Navalny, U.S. Intel Agencies Say

American intelligence agencies have found that the death of Russian opposition leader and dissident Alexei Navalny was likely not ordered by Russian President Vladimir Putin, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Navalny’s February death in a prison camp in Russia’s Arctic regions prompted the United States and other countries to levy additional sanctions on the Russian economy, and derailed negotiations on prisoner exchanges. However, multiple American intelligence agencies, including the State Department and the Central Intelligence Agency, have assessed that Putin did not directly order the death of Navalny, according to the WSJ.

“The idea of Putin being not informed and not approving killing Navalny is ridiculous,” Navalny ally Leonid Volkov said, according to the WSJ. Navalny survived being poisoned with a Russian nerve agent in August 2020.

“Navalny was a high-value prisoner, politically, and everybody knew that Putin was personally invested in his fate. The chances for this kind of unintended death are low,” Polish Institute of International Affairs director Slawomir Dębski told the WSJ.

However, the American intelligence assessment did not clear Putin of any culpability for the death of the Russian opposition leader who was reportedly to be part of a proposed prisoner swap that could have also included jailed Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and ex-Marine Paul Whelan in exchange for a Russian operative accused of assassinating a Georgian dissident. (Read more from “Putin Likely Didn’t Order Death of Russian Dissident Alexei Navalny, U.S. Intel Agencies Say” HERE)