MTG'S LATEST CONSPIRACY THEORY

By Howie Katz

 

Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene is a passionate supporter of former President Donald Trump. She is also a follower of QAnon, the far-right conspiracy theory movement. And she has made appearances on the Alex Jones conspiracy theory show Info Wars.

MTG's latest conspiracy theory is a doozy. 

On Monday, during an interview with Jones on Info Wars, MTG claimed that the Democrats are planning to have Trump murdered in prison. That's why, according to MTG, the Democrats are now trying to deprive Trump of his Secret Service protection if he is convicted of any of the crimes he has been charged with.

Give MTG credit. This is one of the best conspiracy theories that's ever floated around, almost as good as the Alex Jones claim that the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting was a hoax.

TERRORISTS? ... THAT'S A GOOD DESCRIPTION OF THE ANTI-ISRAEL PROTESTERS ON COLLEGE CAMPUSES

Don't negotiate with terrorists! MAUREEN CALLAHAN demands: Defund the Ivy League NOW... before this vile campus infection of violent Islamism and anti-Semitism leads to Jewish bloodshed

It should not be this hard for a sitting U.S. president to stand up for what is so clearly right, but Biden, in more ways than one, is feeble.

By Maureen Callahan 

Daily Mail

Apr 23, 2024

 

On Monday, Columbia's president Minouche Shafik issued a morally reprehensible open letter that paid tribute to the 'many views across our diverse university.'

 

Defund the Ivy League.

In a disgusting, shameful, cowardly appeasement of 'pro-Palestinian' students who are pledging fidelity to Hamas and bullying, threatening, and attacking Jews on campus, university presidents — led by Columbia's Minouche Shafik — are doing nothing.

On Sunday, the day before Passover began, Columbia Rabbi Elie Buechler warned Jewish students to stay home.

'The events of the last few days… have made it clear that Columbia University's Public Safety and the NYPD cannot guarantee Jewish students' safety in the face of extreme antisemitism and anarchy,' he wrote in a WhatsApp message.

'It is not our job as Jews to ensure our own safety on campus,' he continued. 'No one should have to endure this level of hatred, let alone at school.'

Columbia's president clearly begs to differ, issuing a morally reprehensible open letter on Monday that paid tribute to the 'many views across our diverse university'.

 

In a disgusting, shameful, cowardly appeasement of 'pro-Palestinian' students who are pledging fidelity to Hamas and bullying, threatening, and attacking Jews on campus, university presidents are doing nothing.

 

In giving equal weight to antisemites and her own persecuted Jewish students and faculty — in refusing to corral, punish and expel these pro-Hamas hatemongers — Shafik sends one very clear message: She doesn't care about Jews on her campus.

She doesn't care that, as student David Jonah Lederer told CNN on Tuesday morning, he and his brother had been attacked by these 'pro-Palestinian' protesters, one throwing a rock at his brother's head, no security anywhere.

Shafik should be fired immediately. She should hang her head in shame.

Columbia has a $13.64 billion endowment and around 300 Jewish students. Shafik can clearly afford to provide one-on-one security for any Jewish student or faculty member who wants one.

Billionaire donors should follow alumni Robert Kraft's lead and divest from Columbia. Board members should resign en masse. Jewish students should withdraw and demand that their tuition be refunded in full. A class action lawsuit surely awaits.

Still standing are what CNN politely calls 'Gaza solidarity camps' on the Columbia quad, where students screaming for the elimination of Israel and the birth of another Holocaust are also, per a cheerful dispatch from New York Times, 'in a rather upbeat mood, noshing on donated pizza and snacks' — organic snacks at that.

Of course. One must not skimp on proper nutrition while persecuting Jews.

'An impromptu dance party had even broken out,' the Times reported.

How wonderful! Are these protestors also fully committing to the misogyny, rape, torture, and honor killings so central to Hamas?

There's nothing like seeing privileged students of the Ivy League, young women especially, wearing keffiyehs in solidarity with a terrorist group that would throw them and their most beloved gay, non-binary, trans, agnostic, atheist friends — anyone not identifying as a fundamentalist Muslim dedicated to the death of the West — off the roof of the nearest building.

Allying themselves with a terrorist group that kills women who have been raped for bringing 'dishonor' to their families. That sells off girls as young as 6 into marriage for $2,000. That tortures, rapes and murders women who do not cover their heads.

A group that embeds itself in schools and hospitals, and uses civilians as human shields.

Yet at Columbia, 'Trans People 4 Palestine' have joined the pro-Gaza encampment, as have 'Lesbians 4 Liberation'.

How about they spend their summer vacation with their pals in Hamas? Take a little trip, see what it's really like.

 

In giving equal weight to antisemites and her own persecuted Jewish students and faculty - in refusing to corral, punish and expel these pro-Hamas hatemongers - Shafik sends one very clear message: She doesn't care about Jews on her campus.

 

At best, the 'pro-Palestinian' protestors are useful idiots of Islamism — doubtless recruited through TikTok, which recently gave birth to the Gen Z 'awakening' that Osama bin Laden had some really good points.

One would think the presidents of top universities would be despondent and outraged — if not by violent antisemitism, then by such gross, jaw-dropping stupidity, by such a deficit of critical thinking among America's ostensible best and brightest.

Then again, Columbia countenanced over 100 of its professors signing an open letter of support for students who backed Hamas' 'military action' against Israel, arguing that they merely sought to 'recontextualize the events of October 7'.

The university also did nothing in February as fliers depicting Jews as skunks — echoing Nazi propaganda during World War II — went up all over campus.

'If any other group was depicted as animals,' assistant Columbia professor Shai Davidai wrote on X, 'the school would have already called the FBI to investigate.'

Davidai, who is Israeli-born and an outspoken pro-Israel voice on campus, said Monday that his Columbia ID had been deactivated — with university officials telling him that it was for his own safety. Meanwhile, the pro-Hamas protesters on campus had no problem gaining entry and expanding their tent city.

If this were any other marginalized group being targeted — black or gay people, trans, non-binary, differently-abled — such hatred and intimidation at America's top universities would have been snuffed out in its cradle.

Coordinated, systemic attacks on any other cohort would be the top story of outrage in every left-leaning outlet. Full-throated condemnations would be heard from such liberal icons as the Obamas and the Clintons.

Instead, we get crickets. Instead, we get wall-to-wall coverage of the Trump trial as the true threat to American democracy and freedom.

Here is a sampling of the cheers and chants at Columbia:

'We are all Hamas, pig!'

To Jewish students: 'Go back to Poland! Get the hell out of here!'

'[Hamas] make us proud. Take another soldier out. Burn Tel Aviv to the ground'.

And this, claimed by the left to have 'multiple interpretations' — but, as they well know, is nothing but a call for the elimination of Israel: 'From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!'

Imagine if students set up a white supremacist camp, donning white robes and hoods and yelling, 'We are all the KKK!' and telling black students to 'go back to Africa!'

It's impossible to imagine, because it would never be tolerated. Ever, ever, ever.

So far, John Fetterman is the only Democrat, in the House or the Senate, to demand that Shafik resign.

'These 'protests' are antisemitic, unconscionable and dangerous', Fetterman said.

How has this become an outlying position on the left?

 

The university also did nothing in February as fliers depicting Jews as skunks - echoing Nazi propaganda during World War II - went up all over campus.

 

To wit: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, that bottom-feeding Democratic socialist from New York, praised these pro-Hamas protestors Monday.

'It is especially important that we remember the power of young people shaping this country today, of all days,' she said — again, on the first day of Passover — 'as we once again witness the leadership of those peaceful student-led protests on campuses like Columbia, Yale, Berkeley and many others.'

Tell that to the Columbia students who held Israeli flags while a protester – oh-so bravely masked, as most of them are – stood in front of them, holding a sign that read, '[Hamas'] Next Targets'.

This rabid, unchecked antisemitism has spread to at least 13 U.S. college campuses, including Yale, M.I.T. (whose Jewish president Sally Kornbluth remains standing, despite testifying before Congress last year that 'calls for the genocide of Jews' really depend on 'context'), Berkeley, Harvard, and NYU, where police arrested more than 150 protestors Monday night.

On Tuesday, Columbia announced that all classes would go remote for the remaining school year.

Have none of these university leaders learned that you don't negotiate with terrorists?

On this crisis, New York City's mayor Eric Adams is a lone voice of sanity and decency.

'I am horrified and disgusted with the antisemitism being spewed at and around the Columbia University campus,' he said in a statement. 'Supporting a terrorist organization that aims to kill Jews is sickening and despicable.'

New York has more Jews than any city outside of Israel. If such antisemitism is allowed — encouraged, really — to flourish here, America is in for a summer of hate.

It will be a replay of 2020's BLM mayhem, looting and rioting and violence in the name of social justice, cities on fire while a liberal media tells us all is well.

Campus protesters have already announced their next target: the Democratic National Convention.

Of course, this has come as a surprise to Camp Biden, an administration that, just three weeks after October 7, announced the 'first-ever National Strategy to Counter Islamophobia in the United States.'

To those who ask what the federal government can actually do right now — well, a lot. In 1957, amid segregationist protests, President Eisenhower sent the army to protect black female high school students in Arkansas.

In 1965, President Johnson federalized the Alabama National Guard to protect Civil Rights marchers led by Martin Luther King.

Yet Biden remains cowed by his own party, overtaken as it is by anti-Israel and antisemitic sentiment. It should not be this hard for a sitting U.S. president to stand up for what is so clearly right, but Biden, in more ways than one, is feeble.

 

This rabid, unchecked antisemitism has spread to at least 13 U.S. college campuses, including Yale, M.I.T., Berkeley, Harvard, and NYU, where police arrested more than 150 protestors Monday night (pictured).

 

We are now witnessing the only rational outcome for the woke left, eaten by the monster its own orthodoxy has created. Generations of college students indoctrinated by 'right think' and political correctness, a kind of mono-intellectualism that considers morality relative, white people the devil, and America a scourge.

This is nothing short of a complete, system-wide failure of academia.

And make no mistake: The longer these universities tacitly endorse antisemitism, they are fomenting violence.

It's only a matter of time before something truly tragic and wholly preventable happens — riots, grave injuries, the death of Jews on American soil.

And the powers that be, Shafik among them, will have blood on their hands — if not their conscience.

RUSSIA AND IRAN MOVE EVER CLOSER

Concern and disappointment in Israel over the strengthening Russia-Iran ties

Moscow failed to condemn Iran’s unprecedented aerial assault on Israel, thus abandoning its stated commitment to Israel’s security.

 

By Yossi Aloni 

 

Israel Today

Apr 22, 2024

 

Russian President Vladimir Putin (left) shakes hands with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi during their meeting in the Kremlin on December 7, 2023, in Moscow.

 

In his speech to the Security Council last week, Russia’s ambassador to the United Nations, Vasily Nebenzya, called for sanctions to be imposed on Israel for not complying with the Security Council’s resolution demanding a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip during Ramadan.

Nebenzya’s call is a new and disturbing phase in the ever-increasing tensions between Israel and Russia, which since the outbreak of the Gaza war and even before that has distanced itself from Jerusalem and downplayed, if not abandoned its long-standing commitment to the Jewish state’s security and right to self-defense.

The strengthening of relations between Russia and Iran on the security, military and political level is a source of great concern in Jerusalem. The lack of clear condemnation of the unprecedented Iranian attack against Israel (350 drones, cruise missiles and ballistic missiles) has caused severe disappointment in Israel. Little by little, Russia is simply ignoring its long-standing traditional position of commitment to Israel’s security on the one hand, while failing to take into account the fact that over a million Russians live in Israel and support Israel’s right to self-defense.

The impression one gets in Israel is that Moscow does not understand the Israeli public and the increasingly negative image it creates for itself here.

In Jerusalem, the statements coming out of Moscow since October 7 are being followed with real concern. Russia showed zero empathy toward Israel, avoided condemning Hamas and even hosted the Hamas leadership in Moscow twice already. But still what shocked officials in Israel most was Russia’s response to the Iranian attack. The Russians were simply not shy to say out loud: We are on ‘Team Iran.’

It is instructive to listen carefully to what Putin’s mouthpieces say. Dmitri Rogozin, a senator who held very senior security positions, said that in the event of a major war between Iran and Israel, Iran will defeat Israel. He also said that there are no good soldiers in the Israeli army except for new immigrants from Russia who today serve in special units in the IDF. “I think Iran will manage on its own, but relations between Iran and Russia are very important. Iran has learned many lessons from what is happening in Ukraine. Iran benefits a lot from economic and energy cooperation with Russia,” said Rogozin, adding that “Iran has every right to choose any method of self-defense if it needs to.”

Voices from Russia applied at least as much pressure as the West for Israel to avoid a major military response to Iran’s attack. For example, Sergey Mardan, a senior commentator for the newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda was interviewed on the popular program of Vladimir Solovyov (one of Putin’s main mouthpieces) and said that Russia supports Iran in its conflict with Israel. According to him, Iran is Moscow’s ally, one of the few countries supporting Russia’s war in Ukraine. “That’s why it’s clear who we want to win,” noted Mardan. “Of course we want Iran to win. Israel has about 200 nuclear bombs. Who said these idiots have enough sense not to use them?” Marden also said in relation to the interception of 99 percent of the Iranian missiles, that it was a shame they didn’t shoot down some American planes.

To this should be added the fact that Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov refused to answer the question of whether Tehran informed Moscow in advance of the planned attacks on Israel. “I can’t tell you anything here,” he answered when pressed by journalists.

Peskov noted that the Russian Federation maintains constructive working relations with both Iran and Israel. “You know that Russia continues to have close contacts. We have very constructive relations with Tehran and also with Israel. We conduct a dialogue, we talk about the need to de-escalate and we call on all countries in the region to exercise reasonable restraint in this situation,” he emphasized.

Last week, Maria Zakharova, spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, lashed out at Israel’s ambassador to Russia, Simona Halperin, following Halperin’s call for Russia to condemn the Iranian attack. “Simone, remind me, when did Israel condemn even one attack by the Ukrainian regime in Russia? I don’t remember, and you? But I remember the constant support for Zelensky’s actions from Israeli officials,” wrote Zakharova on her Telegram channel.

The Iranian news agency Tasnim reported that when President Vladimir Putin and Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi spoke following the attack on Israel, Raisi praised the principled and constructive position of the Russian government in backing the Islamic Republic’s rig to defends itself against the aggression of the “Zionist regime” following the strike on the Iranian consulate facility in Syria. Raisi insisted the strike, which killed a top Iranian general responsible for Revolutionary Guard forces in Syria and Lebanon, was a “clear violation of international law and the Vienna Convention.”

According to the Iranian report, Putin also condemned the “act of terrorism” by the “Zionist regime” against the consulate of the Islamic Republic of Iran, calling it an action contrary to all international standards and norms: “What happened on the part of the Islamic Republic of Iran in response to this criminal act and in the shadow of the inaction of the Security Council was the best way to punish the aggressor and an expression of the wisdom and rationality of Iran’s leaders.”

The Russian president also sharply criticized the behavior of the United States and some Western countries in connection with tensions in the region. “We are sure that the Islamic Republic of Iran is one of the main pillars of stability and security in the region,” said Putin.

The Kremlin reported that in the conversation with Raisi, Putin expressed the hope that all parties would show reasonable restraint and not allow a new round of confrontation, fraught with disastrous consequences for the entire region.

Last week, National Security Advisor Nikolai Petrushev called his Israeli counterpart, National Security Advisor Tzachi Hanegbi, and urged restraint regarding Iran and the situation in the Middle East. “In the context of the worsening of the situation in the Middle East, Petrushev noted the need for all parties to show restraint in order to prevent further escalation of the conflict. It was emphasized that Russia insists on resolving disputes exclusively through political and diplomatic means,” read the Russian statement. Hanegbi made it clear to Petrushev the seriousness of Iranian aggression and the duty of the whole world to condemn it.

The last problematic statement was last Thursday night in the debate on accepting “Palestine” as a full member of the United Nations with the support of Russia.

Russia’s ambassador to the United Nations called for the imposition of sanctions on Israel because of its disregard for the Security Council’s resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza over Ramadan. Nebenzya completely ignored the fact that Hamas itself had rejected the holiday ceasefire proposal, and said: “Unfortunately, Israel openly ignores Resolution 2728, and the US encourages it. If the decision is not implemented, the Security Council has the right to impose sanctions on those who violate and sabotage its decisions. We repeat and emphasize that non-compliance with binding decisions of the Security Council should lead to sanctions against the violators. We believe that the council should consider this issue without delay.”

RESUGNATION FOR COLOSSAL INTELLIGENCE FAILURE

IDF intel chief resigns over Oct. 7 failure

"The Intelligence Directorate under my command did not live up to the task it was entrusted with," said Maj. Gen. Aharon Haliva. 

 

JNS

Apr 22, 2024

 

 

IDF Military Intelligence Directorate head Maj. Gen. Aharon Haliva on Monday announced his resignation

 

Israel Defense Forces Military Intelligence Directorate head Maj. Gen. Aharon Haliva on Monday announced his resignation over his failure to prevent Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre.

Haliva decided to retire months ago following the intelligence failures that contributed to the massacre of some 1,200 people and the kidnapping of more than 253 hostages to Gaza, but asked IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi to postpone the announcement.

Haliva’s announcement comes after the IDF withdrew almost all ground troops from the Strip, leaving only one brigade remaining in the enclave.

“On Saturday, October 7, 2023, Hamas carried out a murderous surprise attack against the State of Israel, the consequences of which are difficult and painful. The Intelligence Directorate under my command did not live up to the task it was entrusted with,” Haliva wrote to Halevi.

Haliva, who served in the army for almost four decades, asked Halevi to relieve him of his duties following the conclusion of an internal investigation and after an “orderly learning and transition process.”

Earlier this year, Halevi announced an internal probe into the military’s failures leading up to Oct. 7, calling the investigation a “duty and not a privilege.”

In January, Israel’s Walla news site cited military sources as claiming that while the IDF was aware of Hamas’s repeated attempts to blow up the security fence on the Gaza border in preparation for the Oct. 7 attacks, it opted to dismiss the rehearsals as a “provocation.”

Hours before Hamas’s attack, IDF intelligence learned that hundreds of terrorists in Gaza activated Israeli SIM cards in their phones, the Military Censor cleared for publication in February.

The activations were detected around midnight on the night of Oct. 6, some six and a half hours before thousands of Palestinian terrorists breached the fence.

In October, The New York Times reported that Unit 8200, the IDF’s signals intelligence unit, stopped listening to Hamas’s handheld radios a year before the attacks, deciding it was a “waste of effort.

UNDER BLINKEN'S LEADERSHIP, THE STATE DEPARTMENT PAINTS ISRAEL A TERRORIST STATE

US State Department report accuses Israel of causing ‘severe’ human rights crisis in Gaza

Per Foggy Bottom, there are “credible reports” that the Jewish state engaged in “arbitrary or unlawful killings,” “torture” and “violence or threats against journalists.” 

 

JNS

Apr 22, 2024 

 

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken (R) at an event he co-chaired with Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Muhammad Ali Tamim (L) at the State Department on April 15, 2024  

 

The Jewish state responded to Hamas’s Oct. 7 terror attack with “a sustained, wide-scale military operation in Gaza, which had killed more than 21,000 Palestinians and injured more than 56,000 by the end of the year,” according to the 2023 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, which the U.S. State Department released on Monday.

Israel’s response to the Oct. 7 attack also “displaced the vast majority of Palestinians in Gaza and resulted in a severe humanitarian crisis,” according to the State Department report, whose section on Israel runs about 23,000 words. “The continuing conflict had a significant negative impact on the human rights situation in the country.”

Among dozens of “significant human rights issues,” which the report said Israel is accused of based on “credible reports,” are “arbitrary or unlawful killings, including extrajudicial killings,” “enforced disappearance” and “torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment by government officials.”

Israel also is guilty of “harsh and life-threatening prison conditions,” “punishment of family members for alleged offenses by a relative” and “serious restrictions on freedom of expression and media freedom, including violence or threats against journalists, unjustified arrests or prosecution of journalists and censorship,” per the State Department.

“The government took some credible steps to identify and punish officials who may have committed human rights abuses,” it stated.

Among the sources that Foggy Bottom cites in its criticism of Israel are the harsh Israel critics Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, International Committee of the Red Cross, Public Committee Against Torture in Israel, B’Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights Israel.

“Arab criminal organizations were involved in many intracommunity killings, with 244 Arab/Palestinian citizens of Israel who were victims of crime and violence within Arab communities, an increase of 134% over the previous year,” per the State Department, citing the nonprofit Abraham Initiatives, “making it the deadliest year ever for crime and violence within the society of Arab/Palestinian citizens of Israel.”

In a section on the “West Bank and Gaza,” which runs about 33,000 words, the State Department accuses Israel of “a sustained, wide-scale military operation in Gaza, which had killed more than 21,000 Palestinians (about 1% of Gaza’s population) and injured more than 56,000 (more than 2% of Gaza’s population) by the end of the year, displaced the vast majority of Palestinians in Gaza and resulted in a severe humanitarian crisis with estimates of 50%-70% of buildings destroyed or damaged.”

“The continuing conflict had a significant negative impact on the human rights situation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip,” the State Department added. “In the West Bank, the trend of violent attacks by Israeli settlers against Palestinians, as well as attacks by Palestinian militants against Israelis, had already increased in the first nine months of the year to record levels, and spiked sharply after Oct. 7.”

In the “West Bank,” the report alleged that under the Palestinian Authority there are “serious problems with the independence of the judiciary,” “violence or threats of violence against journalists, unjustified arrests or prosecutions of journalists and censorship,” “serious restrictions on internet freedom,” “extensive gender-based violence,” “violence or threats of violence motivated by antisemitism,” “crimes involving violence or threats of violence targeting lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or intersex persons” and “existence of the worst forms of child labor.”

In Gaza, the report accuses Hamas of crimes that include “severe physical abuses and cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment or punishment,” “serious problems with the independence of the judiciary,” “conflict-related sexual violence or punishment,” “unlawful recruitment or use of children in armed conflict,”violence or threats of violence against journalists, unjustified detentions of journalists and censorship,” “serious restrictions on internet freedom,” “inability of citizens to change governance peacefully through free and fair elections,” “crimes involving violence or threats of violence motivated by antisemitism,” “crimes involving violence or threats of violence targeting lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or intersex persons” and “existence of the worst forms of child labor.”

“Palestinian Authority authorities took some steps to identify and punish officials accused of committing human rights abuses, but human rights groups criticized Palestinian Authority officials for not taking sufficient action or implementing measures against officials implicated in human rights abuses,” per the State Department. “This lack of response raised concerns about accountability.”

“There were no legal or independent institutions capable of holding Hamas in Gaza accountable for acts of terror, and impunity was widespread,” it added. “Several militant groups with access to heavy weaponry, including Palestinian Islamic Jihad, also operated with impunity in and from Gaza.”

TEXAS' CROOKED AG CALLS THIS HANDOUT AN 'ILLEGAL AND ILLEGITIMATE GOVERNMENT OVERREACH'

Texas Supreme Court blocks program that gives some families $500 monthly after Judge Hidalgo says it will move forward

An appeals court denied an emergency order filed by the state of Texas to block the county's Uplift Harris guaranteed income program from going into effect.

 

 

By Victor Jacobo, Chloe Alexander, Jaime E. Galvan and Lea Wilson

 

KHOU

Apr 23, 2024

 

 

Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo 

 

HARRIS COUNTY, Texas — The Texas Supreme Court pressed pause Tuesday afternoon on Harris County's controversial guaranteed income plan shortly after Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo said the program would move forward. The first checks were supposed to go out Wednesday.

The income program, Uplift Harris, is designed to give families living in poverty $500 a month for 18 months. 

All the changes come after an appeals court denied Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s attempt to halt the program Monday.

At Monday’s Commissioner's Court meeting, Hidalgo said the county will be "staying the course" with the program. She said the first payment is “out the door” and of the more than 1,900 people in the program, about 1,600 will receive the checks because they have been verified. About 300 people still need to send the county more documentation to receive their checks.

Paxton sued earlier this month, calling the county's plan to provide monthly payments with no restrictions to hundreds of families “unconstitutional" and an abuse of public funds. He said taxpayer money cannot be "redistributed with no accountability or reasonable expectation of a general benefit."

"Allowing $20 million in federal funds to be given away with minimal restrictions or proper auditing is bad policy," said Harris County Precinct 3 Commissioner Tom Ramsey. "There are better ways to help more people in Harris County than giving 2,000 people $500 a month for 18 months with no accountability for the expenditures."

Supporters argued that the program provides social and economic benefits to participating families and the broader community.

One of the recipients expecting the money is Robert Holley.

"It's going to help me tremendously with housing, groceries, bills," Holley said.

Holley sat in the courtroom Monday when the judge blocked the temporary injunction. He hoped everything would play out the way it was designed. 

The state had filed a notice of appeal for this ruling to the First or 14th Court of Appeals in Houston. That has county commissioners skeptical about starting the program. They said they are worried about sending out payments only for the state to ask for the money back if the Supreme Court blocks the program.

COOKED? ... THEY SHOULD ADD SOME CHOLULA HOT SAUCE

Texas inmates are being ‘cooked to death’ in extreme heat, complaint alleges

With the threat of another hot summer ahead, advocates asked a federal judge to declare 100-degree-plus conditions in uncooled Texas facilities unconstitutional.

 

By Pooja Salhotra and William Melhado

 

The Texas Tribune

April 22, 2024

 

 

Prisoners walk down a hot hallway in the Darrington Unit

 

April signals the beginning of blistering heat for much of Texas. And while the summer heat is uncomfortable for many, it can be deadly for the people incarcerated in Texas’ prison system where temperatures regularly reach triple digits.

With another sweltering summer likely ahead, prison rights advocates on Monday filed a complaint against Texas Department of Criminal Justice executive director Bryan Collier, arguing that the lack of air conditioning in the majority of Texas prisons amounts to cruel and unusual punishment.

The filing came from four nonprofit organizations who are joining a lawsuit originally filed last August by Bernie Tiede, an inmate who suffered a medical crisis after being housed in a Huntsville cell that reached temperatures exceeding 110 degrees. Tiede, a well-known offender whose 1996 murder of a wealthy widow inspired the film “Bernie,” was moved to an air-conditioned cell following a court order but he’s not guaranteed to stay there this year.

Monday’s filing expands the plaintiffs to include every inmate incarcerated in uncooled Texas prisons, which have led to the deaths of dozens of Texas inmates and cost the state millions of dollars as it fights wrongful death and civil rights lawsuits.

The plaintiffs ask that an Austin federal judge declare the state’s prison policy unconstitutional and require that prisons be kept under 85 degrees Fahrenheit. Texas jails are already required to keep facilities cooler than 85 degrees, and federal prisons in Texas have a 76 degree maximum.

Between June and August last year, the average temperature was 85.3 degrees — the second hottest on record behind 2011. And this year does not look to be much cooler. The most recent winter season ranked warmest on record for the contiguous U.S., according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Scientists have found that climate change has resulted in more severe and longer lasting heat waves. In the last decade, Texas has experienced over 1,000 days of record-breaking heat, compared to a normal decade.

In the hot summer months, those concrete and metal cells can reach over 130 degrees, formerly incarcerated Texans said during a Monday press conference. Legal representatives hope to prove those conditions are unconstitutional.

“What is truly infuriating is the failure to acknowledge that everyone in the system —all 130,000 prisoners— are at direct risk of being impacted by something that has a simple solution that has been around since the 1930s, and that is air conditioning,” attorney Jeff Edwards told reporters. Edwards was the lead attorney in a 2014 prison rights case that cited the nearly two dozen Texas prison inmates who died from heat stroke over the previous two decades. That case culminated in a settlement, where TDCJ agreed to install air conditioning at the Wallace Pack Unit near College Station.

About two thirds of the inmates housed across TDCJ’s facilities live in areas without air conditioning. Advocates and inmates’ families have long fought to cool prisons in a state where summer temperatures routinely exceed triple digits and pose dangerous conditions to inmates and correctional officers.

Although the state has not reported a heat-related death since 2012, researchers and inmates’ families dispute those statistics. A 2022 study found that 14 prison deaths per year were associated with heat. Last year, a Texas Tribune analysis found that at least 41 people had died in uncooled prisons during the state’s record-breaking heat wave.

Health problems that have been linked to excessive heat include renal diseases, cardiovascular mortality, respiratory illnesses and suicides, Julie Skarha, a epidemiology researcher at Brown University who authored the 2022 study, told reporters on Monday.

Skarha said while death certificates may not list heat strokes — a condition when the body can no longer control its temperature— as the official cause of death, her research indicates that many prisoners have died from heat-related causes.

“Heat deaths haven’t magically stopped,” the lawsuit states. “TDCJ has simply stopped reporting or admitting them after the multiple wrongful death lawsuits and national news coverage.”

TDCJ spokesperson Amanda Hernandez declined to comment on the lawsuit, saying the agency does not comment on pending litigation. But she emphasized that the department has been adding more air conditioning units since 2018.

“Each year we’ve been working to add cool beds, and we’ll continue to do so,” she said.

She also pointed to the departments’ “enhanced heating protocols” which are activated from April to October and include providing ice water to inmates and allowing them to purchase fans and cooling towels from the commissary.

Lawyers argue that these mitigation tactics are insufficient to combat the state’s sweltering temperatures. To survive the heat, incarcerated people report having to flood their toilets or sinks and lie down in the water on the cell floor to try to cool their bodies, the lawsuit states.

“This isn’t an unpredictable event,” said attorney Erica Grossman, who is one of the lawyers representing the plaintiffs. “It gets hot every summer, and much like every other building in Texas —including buildings that have animals — we cool the building.”

TDCJ staff who work in the facilities are similarly impacted by the heat, said Michele Deitch, a senior lecturer at the University of Texas at Austin's School of Law and LBJ School. The excessive heat invades all aspects of life in prisons: Staff must do physical work in heavy uniforms in the heat; the heat results in more violence among those incarcerated; and it leads to more use of force against prisoners, she said.

The TDCJ states on their heat mitigation protocols that staff are “encouraged to increase their water intake” during the hot summer month and are allowed to wear cooling towels and dri-fit compression shirts.

New research Skarha has conducted found that the number of assaults that occur in prisons without air conditioning increased as much as five times during summer months compared to that number in climate-controlled facilities.

Prison rights advocates say the state could easily fund air conditioning units across its prisons but has simply been unwilling to do so. During the last legislative session —when the state recorded a record surplus— the House proposed spending $545 million to install air-conditioning in most of the prison facilities lacking it. But the final budget did not include any money dedicated to air conditioning.

The House also passed a bill requiring prisons to be kept between 65 and 85 degrees, which is required already in jails and most federal facilities. But the bill failed in the more conservative Senate.

“We have the resources. We just seem to not have the compassion to do it,” Rep. Carl Sherman, D-DeSoto, said during the press conference. Sherman was one of the authors of the bill that would have regulated prison temperatures.

The Legislature did allocate approximately $85 million for “additional deferred maintenance projects,” in Texas prisons, and TDCJ is using that money to pay for air conditioning units. Hernandez estimated that those dollars will provide air conditioning for an estimated 10,000 inmates.

THE LEFT DOES NOT LIKE THIS, BUT GOOD FOR GOV. ABBOTT

Texas Governor Greg Abbott Wants to "End" Trans People Being Allowed to Teach in Texas

Abbott was speaking at a convention for the Young Conservatives of Texas when he made the statement, audio of which was later shared on X.

 

By Mathew Rodriguez

 

them

Apr 22, 2024

 

The right continues to make the classroom a battleground for trans rights.

While speaking to a group of young conservatives on Friday, Texas Governor Greg Abbott told attendees that he would like to limit the expression of transgender teachers in the classroom, according to audio shared online by Texas Observer reporter Steven Monacelli. To make his point, Abbott told attendees at the Young Conservatives of Texas convention a story about a teacher in Lewisville, Texas, who Abbott described as a “man who would go to school dressed as a woman in a dress, high heels, and makeup.”

Abbott appears to be referring to Rachmad Tjachyadi, who was a beloved teacher at Hebron High School in Lewisville, but resigned in March after being targeted online by Libs of TikTok for wearing a dress to a school spirit event. An investigation by the Lewisville Independent School District determined that Tjachyadi had not violated any district policies. But the science teacher resigned anyway, citing as a reason the “hateful comments” he received after the Libs of TikTok post and its subsequent backlash.

In his remarks, which misconstrued the situation surrounding Tjachyadi, Abbott continued, “What do you think is going through the mind of the students that’s in that classroom?,” he pondered out loud. “Are they focusing on the subject that this person is trying to teach?” After posing this hypothetical, Abbott said, “I don’t know.”

He then added, “What I do know are these two things: One is this person, a man, dressing as a woman, in a public high school in the state of Texas, he’s trying to normalize the concept that this type of behavior is OK. This type of behavior is not OK, and this is the type of behavior that we want to make sure we end in the state of Texas.”

On X, Monacelli pointed out that several Texas lawmakers supported Abbott’s anti-LGBTQ+ position.

Texas GOP Chair Matt Rinaldi said Abbott was “exactly right,” while Republican state rep. Briscoe Cain responded to the audio by saying that “perverts should not be teachers.” Fellow state Republican Brent Money said “This is absolutely correct” in response to a tweet of the audio, while State Republican Executive Committee member Ronaldo Garcia supported Abbott, as well.

Abbott has been making anti-LGBTQ+ policy decisions a priority in his administration. In February 2022, he directed the state’s Department of Family and Protective Services to investigate the families of trans children for child abuse for helping them access gender-affirming care. Texas lawmakers passed a ban on gender-affirming care for minors in the state in May 2023, which Abbott signed in June. A month later, Abbott signed a law expanding the state’s ban on trans athletes playing on sports teams that match their gender identity from the K-12 level, which was banned in a 2021 bill, to public colleges, as well.

Despite Abbott suggesting he might want to limit teachers’ gender expression in classrooms, LGBTQ+ employees are protected under federal law against workplace discrimination. Earlier this month, a federal judge ruled against Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” law and issued a trans teacher a temporary injunction against the law, NBC News reported. The Florida law barred the teacher from using pronouns that didn’t align with her birth sex, which Chief U.S. District Judge Mark Walker said violated the teacher’s First Amendment rights.

“Once again, the State of Florida has a First Amendment problem,” Walker wrote. “Of late, it has happened so frequently, some might say you can set your clock by it.”

“The question before this Court,” Walker continued, “is whether the First Amendment permits the State to dictate, without limitation, how public-school teachers refer to themselves when communicating to students. The answer is a thunderous ‘no.’”

EDITOR'S NOTE: 'them' is a LGBTQ+ publication.

BOO FUCKING HOO

By Bob Walsh

Isra Hirsi, the daughter of radical anti-Semite congresswoman Ilhan Omar, is now whining that she is "homeless and hungry" because Barnard College - Columbia University threw her happy ass out for being an asshole.  She lost her dorm room and cafeteria privileges and is pissing and moaning to Teen Vogue about it.

Boo Fucking Hoo.  I will feel bad about that for 15 or 20 seconds.  Or probably not. 

THE HIGH COST OF LETTING IT SLIDE

By Bob Walsh

 

The victims of Dr. Larry Nasser, mostly young women on the U. S. Olympic Gymnastic Team or persons trying out, are getting a total of $139 million in large part because the powers that be did not take a serious, prompt look at him when the complaints first started coming in.  Good.   

STATE SENATOR ARRESTED FOR BURGLARY

By Bob Walsh

 

 

Nicole Mitchell, 49, is a Democrat state senator in Michigan.  She was arrested today and charged with 1st degree burglary for breaking in to her stepmother's house and removing some of her late father's property.  

 

She was found in the basement, dressed totally in black, by the cops. After she was snagged she said to the cops, "Clearly I'm not good at this."

 

One of the items that Senator Mitchell apparently attempted to take was a laptop belonging to her stepmother.  

 

The charge is a felony and could result in anywhere from 6 months to 20 years as a guest of the people.  Her bail is set at $40,000.  She has also been served with a restraining order to stay away from her stepmother's residence.

HOW MORALLY BANKRUPT IS THIS ?

Bt Bob Walsh

 

Assuming the broadcast news got it right (highly questionable) NYU today locked out most of its Jewish staff, allegedly for their own protection.  Their access cards were locked out of the system.

ITS NICE WHEN THE FAMILY HELPS A KID OUT AT SCHOOL

By Bob Walsh

 

 

The Genesee County Jail  

 

A grandmother in Mt. Morris Township, Michigan, is currently a guest of the county for being a tad too helpful in helping her granddaughter out at school.

The granddaughter was having a beef with another girl in elementary school.  Grandmother bummed a ride to McMonagle Elementary School with the girl and managed to talk their way in, asserting they have a behavioral issue meeting scheduled.  

What they did is located the opposition and both followed the other girl into the restroom.  Grandmother held onto the girl while the granddaughter beat her up.  

Granny is in the Genesee County jail awaiting arraignment.  

FIRST IT WAS COLUMBIA, NOW NYPD COPS STORM NYU

Anti-Israel protesters armed with flares march toward NYPD headquarters after cops in riot gear stormed NYU to shutdown 'Gaza Solidarity' camp - arresting dozens of students and faculty

Riot gear-clad NYPD officers used zip ties to arrest numerous NYU student and faculty protesters, leading them to police buses after warning them to disperse

 

By James Gordon  

 

Daily Mail

Apr 22, 22024

 

Police intervene and arrested more than 100 students at New York University on Monday night

  

(BGB EDITOR'S COMMENT: Back in my time, we wouldn't have put up with this crap. A few cracked heads from police batons would have quickly ended the protest. It's a dirty rotten shame that the NYU and Columbia students and faculty who were arrested were not jailed, as they were only issued a summons and released after arriving at the police station. A few days on Rikers Island would have done both the protesters and society a world of good.)

 

Anti-Israel protestors armed with flares marched toward NYPD headquarters just hours after riot-gear-wearing officers stormed an NYU protest 'Gaza Solidarity' encampment protest on Monday night, arresting dozens of faculty and staff members. 

The streets were lit up in orange as marchers waved Palestinians flags while holding flares in the air and banging a drum walking through Chinatown to reach One Police Plaza in New York City.

Earlier on the NYU campus in Greenwich Village, police officers in riot gear were forced to use zip ties to detain protesters, marching them onto police buses after warnings to leave the area were ignored. 

The protest, involving hundreds, began at 6am with a group setting up tents at NYU's Gould Plaza demanding the university divest from any Israel-related holdings. It was done in solidarity with similar protests at other campuses, including Columbia University.

The number of participants at the NYU protest grew throughout the day on Monday with hundreds of anti-Israel activists gathered by nightfall - all ignoring pleas by university staff and security to leave.

 

Anti-Israel protestors armed with flares marched toward NYPD headquarters just hours after riot-gear-wearing officers stormed an NYU protest

The streets were lit up in orange as marchers waved Palestinians flags while holding flares in the air and banging a drum walking through Chinatown

The marchers made their way to reach One Police Plaza in New York City 

Palestinian flags could also be seen being waved in the air alongside flags 

Police finally made their move on the pro-Palestinian protestors at NYU after hours of warnings telling people to disperse from the Gaza Solidarity' encampment

Officers clad in riot gear used zip ties to detain protesters, marching them onto police buses after warnings to leave the area were ignored

NYPD in riot gear set about moving student from NYU's Gould Plaza 

In a statement on Instagram on Monday, New York University officials warned protesters to clear the plaza by 4pm or face consequences. Mass arrests began around 8:30pm

 

It culminated in clashes with law enforcement - after the university requested officers break up the protest. Videos captured the shocking moment cops flooded the protest, tipping tents and making arrests as protestors carried Palestine flags and chanted.

Students could be seen gathering at the steps outside of NYU's Stern School of Business earlier and appeared to be joined by some faculty members. 

Some protesters could be heard chanting, 'from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free' - a slogan that many regard as a call to genocide. 

Others could be seen stepping on Israel's flag. 

NYU's head of security said that administrators 'witnessed disorderly, disruptive and antagonizing behavior that has interfered with the safety and security of our community.'

The NYPD could be heard using a megaphone telling students: 'You have been warned by New York University to leave the area.' 

Those who did not leave soon, would be arrested for trespassing, NYPD said.

In a statement on Instagram on Monday, New York University officials warned protesters to clear the plaza by 4pm or face consequences. Mass arrests began around 8:30pm. 

NYU's Global Campus Safety posted on Instagram that protesters had breached the barriers set up at Gould Plaza, Fountain Walker.

'The one safety requirement we made was that no additional protestors could enter Gould Plaza. With the breach of the barricades early this afternoon, that requirement was violated, and we witnessed disorderly, disruptive, and antagonizing behavior that has interfered with the safety and security of our community,' the university said in a statement.

'We cannot tolerate people getting hurt. You will need to clear the plaza by 4pm. If you leave now, no one will face any consequences for today's actions—no discipline, no police.'

As the arrests happened, NYPD officials released a letter from NYU officials asking them to come to the campus. 

'We have repeatedly asked all the individuals to leave Gould Plaza,' the letter read. 'They have ignored our requests.'

'At this point we consider all the protestors occupying Gould Plaza to be trespassers and we would like the NYPD to clear the area and to take action to remove the protestors. In the event they refuse to leave, we request the NYPD take enforcement action accordingly up to and including arrest.' 

After the police raid, protestors armed with flares were seen walking through Chinatown armed with Palestinian flags, heading toward 1 Police Plaza. 

 

The NYPD wasted no time in arresting protestors after waiting for hours 

Police moved in and began tearing up the signs that had been left by the protestors 

A woman can be seen being dragged away by police after failing to ignore pleas to leave

At NYU, some protesters could be heard chanting, 'from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free' – a slogan that many regard as a call to genocide

Tents remained on the plaza after police managed to move the protestors on 

Chairs and tables are seen piled up in the wake of the chaos seen on Monday night

NYPD buses were brought in to move the protestors away from the area 

A pro-Palestinian supporter, wearing a mask to hide his identity, can be seen being arrested

Many protestors could be seen wearing Palestinian headscarves while police moved in

Police turned out in force wearing body armor, helmets and riot gear for protection

A Palestinian flag is seen as protestors are finally arrested after hours of protest

One protestor is forced to the ground as police finally move in 

Police are seen in the streets around NYU on Monday night as they prepare to make a move 

Those arrested were placed on NYPD buses and whisked away for processing 

Protestors could be seen on the buses with their hands behind their backs after being cuffed

It's believed some faculty members were also involved in the protest 

The protestors carried with them large signs in order to make their points 

Police formed a line in order to move the protestors along 

Protestors in turn linked arms in an effort to stand their ground against the NYPD

NYU Global Head of Campus Security warned students to dismantle or face 'suspension'

Protestors were seen on campus carrying signs and chanting antisemitic slogans

Police appeared ready to take on the protestors as they lined up on campus

Several signs that had been created for the protests emerged 

 Pro Palestinian students and faculty members of NYU occupy a plaza on campus and declare it a Gaza solidarity encampment on Monday

The Palestinian flag could be seen flying in the wind alongside those of NYU

Those protesting included both students an members of the the faculty

Some Jewish students at the prestigious New York institution have reported feeling intimidated

A large group of demonstrators have established a 'Gaza Solidarity Encampment' at NYU

 

The protests have pitted students against one another, with pro-Palestinian students demanding that their schools condemn Israel's assault on Gaza and divest from companies that sell weapons to Israel. 

Some Jewish students, meanwhile, say much of the criticism of Israel has veered into antisemitism and made them feel unsafe, and they point out that Hamas is still holding hostages taken during the group's October 7 invasion.

President Joe Biden on Monday said he condemned 'the anti-Semitic protests.'

'I also condemn those who don't understand what's going on with the Palestinians,' he told reporters, without further details

New York Mayor Eric Adams vowed that police would arrest anyone breaking the law.

'At no time should we call for the destruction of anyone, should we call for violence towards anyone -- that is not what protesting is about,' he told CNN on Monday.

 

The protestors called for New York University to divest from Israel

The protest began as early as 6am but by nightfall there were hundreds involved

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators began their protest early on Monday morning

The protestors are calling for the university to divest from companies that have ties to Israel

The protestors wore masks in order to hide their identities 

The protest looked to have been well planned with hundreds of signs handed out

The protestors were told to leave the area by 4:30pm but few paid attention to the request

 Pro-Palestinian students and faculty of New York University, inspired by Columbia University, occupy a plaza on campus and declare it a Gaza solidarity encampment

Students at New York University (NYU) continue their demonstration on campus in solidarity with the students at Columbia University to oppose Israel's attacks on Gaza

Pro-Palestinian protesters have launched a wave of protests on campus condemning Israel's offensive on the Gaza Strip

 

Uptown, Columbia University canceled in-person classes. Elsewhere, dozens of protesters were arrested at Yale, while the gates to Harvard Yard were closed to the public on Monday.

The various actions followed the arrest last week of more than 100 pro-Palestinian demonstrators who had camped out on Columbia's lawn, as schools struggle with where to draw the line between allowing free expression while maintaining a safe and inclusive campus.

In addition to the demonstrations at the Ivy League schools, pro-Palestinian encampments have sprouted up on other campuses, including at the University of Michigan, New York University, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

U.S. Rep. Kathy Manning, a Democrat from North Carolina who was visiting Columbia with three other Jewish members of Congress, told reporters after meeting with students from the Jewish Law Students Association that there was 'an enormous encampment of people' who had taken up about a third of the green.

 

The flags of Palestine and Lebanon are seen outside the Stern School of Business

Various signs were held aloft by those protesting on the NYU campus

Pro-Palestinian protesters have launched a wave of protests on campuses across the US

More than a dozen tents were pitched and tables were stocked with supplies of clothes and food

The protestors called for New York University to divest from Israel

The crowd began to grow throughout Monday until NYPD finally moved in to make arrests

Some of the protestors wrote messages on the walls of the campus

 

'We saw signs indicating that Israel should be destroyed,' she said after leaving the Morningside Heights campus.

A woman inside the campus gates led about two dozen protesters on the street outside in a chant of, 'From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!' - a charged phrase that can mean vastly different things to different groups. Meanwhile, a small group of pro-Israel counter demonstrators protested nearby.

University President Minouche Shafik said in a message to the school community Monday that she was 'deeply saddened' by what was happening on campus.

'To deescalate the rancor and give us all a chance to consider next steps, I am announcing that all classes will be held virtually on Monday,' Shafik wrote, noting that students who don't live on campus should stay away.

Protests have roiled many college campuses since Hamas' deadly attack on southern Israel, when militants killed about 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and took roughly 250 hostages. 

 

A large group of demonstrators has established a 'Gaza Solidarity Encampment' on a central lawn at Columbia University

Days of pro-Palestinian protests have roiled New York's prestigious Columbia University

Universities have become the focus of intense cultural debate in the United States since the October 7 Hamas attack and Israel's overwhelming military response to it

 

On Sunday, Elie Buechler, a rabbi for the Orthodox Union´s Jewish Learning Initiative at Columbia, sent a WhatsApp message to nearly 300 Jewish students recommending they go home until it's safer for them on campus.

The latest developments came ahead of the Monday evening start of the Jewish holiday of Passover.

Nicholas Baum, a 19-year-old Jewish freshman who lives in a Jewish theological seminary building two blocks from Columbia's campus, said protesters over the weekend were 'calling for Hamas to blow away Tel Aviv and Israel.' He said some of the protesters shouting antisemitic slurs were not students.

'Jews are scared at Columbia. It's as simple as that. There's been so much vilification of Zionism, and it has spilled over into the vilification of Judaism,' he said.

 

 For the fifth day, pro-Palestinian students occupy a central lawn on the Columbia University campus

Police officers stand in front of the entrance of Columbia University which is occupied by pro-Palestine protesters in New York on Monday

Pro-Palestinian protesters at Columbia University spent their fifth day demanding the school sever financial ties with key US ally Israel

Officers could be seen with zip ties ready to be used during the arrest of students 

 

In her statement Monday, Shafik said the Middle East conflict is terrible and that she understands that many are experiencing deep moral distress.

'But we cannot have one group dictate terms and attempt to disrupt important milestones like graduation to advance their point of view,' Shafik wrote.

Over the coming days, a working group of deans, school administrators and faculty will try to find a resolution to the university crisis, noted Shafik, who didn't say when in-person classes would resume.

On Monday night it was decided that all classes will remain hybrid until the end of the semester. 

The last day of classes is April 29 with commencement set for May 15.