“This Lamborghini is swimming bro,” said influencer Crypto Bitlord, as his sports car battled against heavy rain in Dubai on Tuesday. He was among hundreds of crypto traders and enthusiasts who descended upon the United Arab Emirates city this week for two cryptocurrency conferences: Blockchain Life and Token2049.
Attendees had probably expected the dry, arid conditions synonymous with the Gulf desert. Instead they were met by some of the heaviest rain in Emirati history. Along the border with Oman, 254mm of rain was recorded in less than 24 hours earlier this week – the most since records began in 1949.
Many traders and influencers were left unimpressed by the ordeal. “Dubai is the worst city I’ve ever been to and I’m never willingly coming here again,” wrote one trader.
In a lengthy post, crypto influencer ‘doitbigchicago’ said the emergency door on his plane into Dubai was “shaking”, as the aircraft landed in “3 feet of water”. He said his suitcase was “floating down the runway”.
He added that he attempted to live-stream the conditions in Dubai, until eight police officers were “trying to arrest me for live-streaming in public”. Middle East Eye couldn’t independently verify the claims.
Another crypto investor and podcaster wrote: “This is the most dogshit thing I’ve ever seen… 0 police, 0 firefighters, 0 taxis – just yoloing the sea with a rental car after flight getting delayed by six hours.”
Some conference attendees who couldn’t get a ride to and from the airport were ready to go to extreme financial lengths. “Willing to pay $500-1000 USD for a ride from DXB to Palm Jumeirah,” wrote Bitcoin trader “Faded”.
Another investor, known as “the Watch King”, also offered $1,000 to anyone who could take him to the airport.
There were significant delays and disruptions at Dubai International Airport – the world’s busiest for international traffic. Clips online showed planes taxiing across a flooded runway. There appeared to be little online sympathy for the crypto aficionados caught up in the chaos.
Some likened the event to Fyre Festival, a fraudulent luxury music event in April 2017. “Looks like all the crypto bros are getting liquidated in Dubai. Quite literally,” joked one bitcoin analyst.
“The collective karma of all of these sh*tfluencers is so bad that when they all congregate in the middle of the desert, it ACTUALLY floods,” said another user.
Some thought the floods were a punishment from a higher power. “You cannot tell me God isn’t real when a bunch of Crypto twitters finest go to Dubai only to be met with a biblical flood,” wrote one X user.
It wasn’t the first time crypto and bitcoin investors had been caught up in adverse weather conditions: Korean Blockchain Week was hit by heavy rains in 2022, while an NFT event in New York City coincided with an earthquake earlier this month.
Cloud seeding & ‘climate change’
Though initially disrupted, both Dubai crypto conferences went ahead and many attendees made it to the event.
Earlier this week, analysts told MEE that climate change, infrastructure, the region’s geography, and cloud seeding could exacerbate flooding in the Gulf region. Mohammed Mahmoud, director of the climate and water program at the Middle East Institute, said climate change “is an absolute driver of extreme weather”.
He told MEE: “Though we mostly associate climate change with hotter temperatures, warming in coastal areas promotes severe rainfall and storms. “Such is the case for the Gulf, where those surrounding warmer waters (close to the equator) help to generate storms that produce intense rainfall that cause these devastating flooding events.”
Justin Dargin, a researcher at Oxford University specialising in climate and the Middle East, said infrastructural and geographic limitations also contributed. “The region’s arid climate, featuring sudden downpours combined with mountainous areas and desert valleys, creates conditions conducive to flash floods,” he said, adding that limited drainage systems also worsened the impact.
To deal with water security issues, the UAE has since 2002 carried out cloud seeding: a weather modification procedure that involves implanting chemicals into the atmosphere to induce rainfall.
“Cloud seeding likely contributed to the severity,” said Dargin. “However, the UAE’s recent history of devastating flash floods, like those in 2020 and 2022, shows that recent bouts of heavy rainfall are the baseline of the increasing frequency of extreme rainfall events driven by climate change.”
He said that cloud seeding could exacerbate such weather patterns and lead to even more severe flooding in the future “if not undertaken judiciously”. The UAE government’s National Center of Meteorology taskforce denied that cloud seeding had taken place in the run-up to this week’s storms.
Under a blazing Kenyan sun, elderly women toil on their hands and knees in the reddish-brown clay, separating the choking weeds from the small, green shoots of a finger millet crop. The women are barehanded and barefoot, and they work from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. or 6 p.m. at night. Clearing a small field takes three days.
“A combine harvester could replace 1,000 people,” Jusper Machogu, an agricultural engineer and farmer in Kenya, told The Epoch Times. “It makes me sad whenever I see my mom wading through millet. We have women kneeling down and uprooting weeds throughout the farm all day, and it’s sunny. Those machines would change our lives.”
But farmers like Mr. Machogu can’t get a combine harvester. Even if they could afford one from the meager salaries they make selling crops, Western nations’ climate policies prevent Africans from achieving what the West already has—modernization and prosperity.
In November 2023, to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel use, the President of the Republic of Kenya, William Ruto, cut subsidies for fertilizer, fuel, and electricity for the 2023/2024 financial year. He did so at the behest of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), a financial agency of the United Nations (U.N.).
“I come from a community where people use cow dung to fertilize their farms,” Mr. Machogu said. “And the reason for that is because last year, the government of Kenya decided that they were going to listen to what the IMF was telling them. It was telling them to end fertilizer subsidies.
“You can imagine how that’s going to impact farmers. The fertilizer prices went up by almost two times. We have very poor people around here. So, if I was [purchasing] 20 kilos for my farm, I’m forced to get 10 kilos now.
“Most people have gone back to using cow dung, which is not a good nitrogenous fertilizer for their crop. You can’t compare urea, with a 46 percent nitrogenous content, to cow dung, with only four percent. It doesn’t make sense.”
Mr. Machogu said the IMF and the Western nations that embrace climate policies for Africa are engaging in neocolonialism, or “climate colonialism.”
And it’s no different than past colonialism, the likes of which liberal elites, such as former President Barack Obama, have condemned.
“Colonialism skewed Africa’s economy and robbed people of their capacity to shape their own destiny,” President Obama said while in Ethiopia in 2015. “Eventually, liberation movements grew. And 50 years ago, in a great burst of self-determination, Africans rejoiced as foreign flags came down and your national flags went up.”
Two years earlier, in 2013, while in South Africa, President Obama warned a group of young African leaders about the consequences of Africa achieving Western parity.
“If everybody’s raising living standards to the point where everybody’s got a car, and everybody’s got air conditioning, everybody’s got a big house, well, the planet will boil over,” he said, “unless we find new ways of producing energy.”
The new climate colonialism is being driven by global entities such as the U.N., which says Africa should have energy, but due to climate change concerns, it should focus on wind and solar.
Calvin Beisner, founder and president of the Christian-based Cornwall Alliance, said currently “the most harmful policy” is that the IMF, World Bank, and agencies such as the U.S. Agency for International Development “refuse to do loans or other funding for coal, natural gas, or oil-based electric generating stations in sub-Saharan Africa and parts of Asia and Latin America.”
It’s particularly damaging in Africa, he said.
Vijay Jayaraj, a research associate for the CO2 Coalition, said he grew up in India and witnessed the growth of India’s industrialization—courtesy of fossil fuels.
“In terms of economic development, energy is the foundational keystone,” he said.
“If you’re going to disrupt how people get energy—where and what quality of energy they receive—it will have an impact. Not just generally, in terms of the economy and the GDP, but also the household and individual level,” Mr. Jayaraj told The Epoch Times.
Climate Colonialism
Mr. Machogu criticized the U.N.’s 2023 Sustainable Development Goals for Africa, which he said were developed after U.N. employees went to Africa to study the issues facing the continent. From that expedition, U.N. employees came up with 17 “solutions.”
“They said that one of the problems is climate change,” Mr. Machogu said. “It doesn’t make sense to me because I come from Africa. We have far bigger problems—people sleeping hungry, very poor people around me. I’m more worried about that than I’ll ever be worried about climate change.
“Every solution to [Africa’s] problems is centered around climate change. [The UN says to Africa] ‘If you’re going to end poverty, let’s end it in a way that we don’t impact our climate. If you’re going to have clean water, let’s do it in a way that will not be too bad for the climate.”
He said modern civilization has “four pillars of civilization”—steel, cement, plastic, and fertilizer.
“Without fossil fuels, we can’t produce these four pillars of civilization. Without fossil fuels, we don’t have energy. We must have fossil fuels. It’s how the West beat poverty.”
The U.N. Environment Programme’s (UNEP) current official position regarding Africa is to help it achieve modernization but to do so under strict environmental guidelines.
Notably, that includes increasing access to and reliance on wind and solar energy, encouraging countries within the continent to come together and talk about what’s worked and what hasn’t, “prioritizing emissions reductions from land degradation,” and developing a comprehensive framework for “Low Emissions Development.”
Mr. Machogu said that, in layman’s terms, the U.N.’s policy boils down to “no fossil fuels for Africa,” which necessarily means no economic progress. Conversely, unrestricted access to fossil fuels could help pull Africa out of poverty.
“Let me speak for Africa because 60 percent of Africans rely on agriculture for their livelihood,” Mr. Machogu said. “We need fossil fuels for farm machinery. Despite the fact that the UN, the IMF, the World Bank, and all of these environmental organizations say solar and wind for Africa, we can’t electrify agriculture—if we did electrify, it would be a tiny percent.
“Right now, our access to farm machinery is very low. I think about four or five percent [of Africans have access], which is very low compared to places like China’s 75 percent, India’s 45 percent, and the U.S.’s 95 percent. Almost everything in U.S. agriculture is done by machines. So having access to farm machinery really would change our lives because it would amplify and expand our capabilities.”
In addition to needing fossil fuels for machines and access to loans to purchase them, Mr. Machogu said expanded irrigation, courtesy of fossil fuels, would benefit Africa.
“Africa is not all green,” he said. “We have other places that are very dry. So, one of the easiest ways we can end that is by irrigating our land, and we will irrigate our lands using pipes from fossil fuels.”
Holding up a yellow plastic bucket and panning to his surrounding crops, Mr. Machogu said most Africans get water for crops by lugging it from wells. The further your crop is from the well, the more backbreaking and time-consuming the labor.
Finally, Mr. Machogu explained that urea use, a fertilizer made from ammonia and liquid carbon dioxide, is significantly lower in Africa, thanks, in part, to external pressure from entities like the IMF.
“Personally, we use the 40 kilos of nitrogenous fertilizer for one hectare of our land,” he said about his farm. “We have other people using 20 kilos. In other places, like Ethiopia, people use 16 kilos per hectare.
“Go to a place like the U.S., the West—which says Africa should not have access to fossil fuels—and it’s using 120 kilos [of nitrogenous fertilizer] per hectare. Europe uses 160–170 kilos per hectare, India uses 250 kilos per hectare, and China uses 360 kilos per hectare.
Biden To Withdraw Troops From Niger As Region Increasingly Turns To Russia
In what is simultaneously a humiliating setback for the Deep State and a welcome victory for noninterventionist American taxpayers, the White House on Friday announced that US military forces will be withdrawn from Niger over the coming months. The move comes after Niger’s mid-March declaration that was ending its military cooperation with the United States.
Following Niger’s announcement, US military officials scrambled in vain to salvage the relationship. At stake: The $110 million Air Base 201, which the New York Times characterized as the Pentagon’s “most strategic military asset in sub-Saharan Africa.” Said to be a key base for counterterrorism, it was a major hub for drone operations in the region.
US-Niger relations took a major downturn with a July 2023 coup that toppled President Mohamed Bazoum in favor of a military junta. The new government was increasingly keen on Russia, something that triggered bitter complaints from US officials. Things deteriorated further when WesternintelligenceaccusedNigerofengaging in secret talks to give Iran access to its uranium.
In a March statement, junta spokesman Col. Maj. Amadou Abdramane said, “Niger regrets the intention of the American delegation to deny the sovereign Nigerien people the right to choose their partners and types of partnerships capable of truly helping them fight against terrorism.”
Niger is kicking US troops out of the country and thousands protested to show their support.
Chanting “Down with American imperialism,” these protests follow the expulsion of French troops last year. pic.twitter.com/BQHYd1zTrA
The Russians may well take the keys to Air Base 201. Bringing an air-defense system with them, more than 100 Russian instructors arrived in the country last week.
According to Russia’s state-owned news outlet Ria Novosti, the Russian personnel are part of Africa Corps,the new paramilitary structure intended to take the place of the Wagner group, the military company whose mercenaries and operations spread in Africa under the leadership of Yevgeny V. Prigozhin, who was killed in a plane crash last year. –New York Times
At public demonstrations, Nigeriens have been seen waving Russian flags and shouting slogans denouncing US imperialism. Russian flags have even become a trendy item to display in everyday life, emblematic of a major geopolitical transition. “The Russian flag has become a symbol of resistance in West Africa, affiliated with anti-West and anti-French attitudes,” Kyle Walter, research head at Logically, told the New York Times.
Indeed, Niger isn’t the only country in the Sahel region that’s warming up to Russia. Burkina Faso and Mali have also sought President Putin’s help in battling ISIS and Al Qaeda insurgents. As Andrew Korybko explained at Substack, the Pentagon is likely to pivot to Ivory Coast — aka Cote D’Ivoire — where its drones will be welcome at French bases. “Acomplementary presence in Senegal can’t be ruled out either but nothing will be decided until after its delayed presidentialelectionsare held later this month,” he added.
There are approximately 1,100 US service members in Niger. In 2017, members of Congress were surprised to learn that soldiers and airmen had been deployed there. They found out in the worst possible way: After four US Army Special Forces soldiers were killed there after being ambushed by ISIS militants.
Even uberhawk and South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham had no idea. “I didn’t know there was 1,000 troops in Niger,” he said on MeetthePress. “They are going to brief us next week as to why they were there and what they were doing.”
Last October, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul introduced a bill that would force Biden to withdraw American forces from the country. “If we’re going to send someone’s son or daughter to a foreign country, if they are going to risk their life, Congress should vote on them being there,” Paul told Defense News. “They’re ruled by a military junta led by a guy that we trained in democracy training over here.” His bill was defeated by an 86-11 margin.
The Chartered Society of Physiotherapy (CSP), which is the “professional body” and trade union which represents member physiotherapists in the UK, has launched its first “definitive position statement on transphobia” with the publication of its “position statement on transphobia.” The publication has sent a chill through the profession, as anonymous whistleblowers express concerns about censorship.
The “transphobia” statement describes the aim of “eradicating [transphobia] from our profession” by instructing members that they “must raise concerns about colleagues” if they think that the colleague’s “personal values, biases and beliefs” have led them to “discriminate” against others, with discrimination including “denying” someone’s “gender identity or refusing to accept it.”
The publication was accompanied by an announcement by the CSP declaring that the “Transphobia statement is a milestone for the profession.”
In unpublished internal memos provided to Reduxx by an anonymous member, the CSP vows to prevent its “channels being used to spread transphobia” and urges members to report colleagues and comments to the Corporate Comms Team.
The published definitions were created following a consultation process announced by the “LGBTQIA+ voice and network of the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy, Definitions of Transphobia Working Group,” with a “Statement of Intent” in January of 2023.
After a year of deliberations, the CSP announced on X that it had adopted its first “definitive position statement on transphobia.”
Following dialogue involving our LGBTQIA+ Network and Equity, Diversity and Belonging committee, the CSP has adopted our first definitive position statement on transphobia https://t.co/jGqJ8Ry0It
— Chartered Society of Physiotherapy (@thecsp) April 11, 2024
Stephanie Land, chair of the CSP LGBTQIA+ network, thanked staff and members for their “efforts and emotional labour” invested in creating the “pivotal piece of work.”
The position statement attempts to define “transphobia” for the “safety of transgender members and transgender patients” and describes it as “complex” and stating: “There is no definitive list of transphobic behaviours, but it includes, for example, the questioning of a transgender person’s gender identity.”
Citing a definition by “TransActual” the statement goes on to say:
“The consequence of transphobia is that trans people struggle to live openly and comfortably in society. An ultimate outcome may be the erasure of trans people as a viable class of people.Transphobia includes, but is not limited to:
Attempting to remove trans people’s rights.
Misrepresenting trans people.
Abuse.
Systematically excluding trans people from discussions about issues that directly affect them.
Other forms of discrimination.
(Source: TransActual)”
Sarine Baz, chair of the CSP Equity, Diversity and Belonging committee, stated in the announcement that “transphobia,” as defined by the CSP, is “never acceptable” and that “’expressing negative attitudes or feelings towards transgender individuals, or other transphobic actions, can’t be tolerated.”
The position statement lists CSP commitments with No.6 in the list describing the commitment for members to “show allyship by challenging transphobia outside the profession.” It also instructs member physiotherapists to take political stances, “including opposing so called “conversion therapy,” which has been under consultation in the UK for proposed new laws to enforce bans on “conversion therapy” which, according to the BBC, “include practices aimed at transgender people.”
The CSP statement goes on to say that: “But in doing so we note the advice of the Equity, Diversity and Belonging Committee not to hold or take positions on the following issues: trans athletes, single sex services outside healthcare or gender recognition legislation.”
The Equity, Diversity and Belonging committee has members who specialize in sports and sex-specific sporting injuries and members who focus on the specific experiences of black and ethnic minority people.
The Position Statement also declares that it will censor comments from members and the public on forums where members discuss issues, stating “We will not allow transphobic comments to be published on the CSP website, on iCSP, in our e-bulletins or in Frontline.”
While aiming to encourage “the development of safe spaces for education around transgender issues. Discussing discrimination can be challenging and people should feel safe to discuss how we address all forms of oppression … centred on the experience of those who are oppressed.”
The Position Statement includes reference to the new Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) standards of conduct which come into force in September 2024. The HCPC regulates registered physiotherapists who are members of the CSP. The provisions quoted include that members must “take action to ensure that your personal values, biases and beliefs do not lead you to discriminate against service users, carers or colleagues.”
Reduxx has obtained unpublished internal CSP documents circulated to members, warning that “[the CSP] are seeking to prevent negative and transphobic voices pre-empting this statement” and that they alerted LGBTQIA+ Network members “via WhatsApp” so that members can “emotionally prepare” for the launch.
The briefing paper states that the CSP is “taking a position on trans rights” because it stands for “human rights and against all forms of discrimination and hatred” and states that “transphobia in the workplace and within healthcare is damaging and destructive for transgender and non-binary people… it is a barrier to the culture of safety needed to progress physiotherapy into an equitable, diverse and inclusive way.”
The paper also notes that there is “no legal or consensus definition of transphobia,” leading the CSP to have to develop one on their own.
Describing what action the CSP will take against the undefined transphobia, it states it will “challenge transphobia outside the profession” and the Equity, Diversity and Belonging Committee “will actively monitor progress.”
In a question on whether “transphobic members” would be penalized, the CSP says it is not the arbiter of professional complaints, and that the HCPC will instead decide on complaints. However, the updated CSP voluntary code will “inform that work” of the HCPC in making their judgement on complaints.
Members are told that the CSP commits to “preventing our channels being used to spread transphobia. We do not monitor posts in real time but will remove or edit comments which do not conform to the position statement as soon as we can. If you have concerns about anything you see on our channels please let the Corporate Comms Team (if you are staff) or [EMAIL] (if you are a member) as soon as possible.”
Members were instructed that following the statement “on 11 April supportive commentary on the statement, wider commentary showing allyship on trans issues, will be acceptable.”
When hypothetically asked how the CSP members should manage social media commentary they are advised that “there is a risk that people outside the profession may choose to get involved online… this may include very challenging behaviour which could be distressing.” They are told “do not get into protracted exchanges with those who don’t agree with us. Instead put our positive messages, without reference to the negatives, in order to counter them.”
After that, they are told to report hateful comments to the website administrators, social media companies and the police.
CSP’s position statement garnered much attention on social media from those concerned with gender ideology’s impact on women’s rights. Notably, Maya Forstater, who won an Employment Appeal Tribunal that found that her “gender critical beliefs” were protected under UK equality law, highlighted her concerns with the new CSP Policy.
“Have you consulted a lawyer before producing this? Ask them about Meade v WCC & Social Work England,” Forstater asked, pointing to a recent case judgment in 2024 which found that a social worker named Rachel Meade was unlawfully harassed and discriminated against in the workplace by her employer on the basis of her “gender critical beliefs.”
The CSP statement on transphobia was published one day after the much-anticipated Cass Review which “demolished” the NHS’s “entire gender treatment model” and highlighted ideological guidelines on the discussion of “transgender” issues having detrimentally impacted health care professional’s behaviors and practices.
Reduxx is your source of pro-woman, pro-child safeguarding news and commentary. We’re 100% independent! Support our mission by joining our Patreon, or consider making a one-time donation.
Bryndís Blackadder is a contributing journalist at Reduxx with a focus on free speech and the law. She lives in Scotland, where she enjoys creating documentaries, multimedia art, and advocating for human rights.
Israel Fostered The Rise Of Hamas To Preclude A Two-State Solution
In Wednesday’s ZeroHedge debate on Israel, Iran and Palestine, Dave Smith emphasized a little-known fact about the Gaza conflict — that Israel “cynically, intentionally funded and propped up” Hamas “so they wouldn’t face external pressure to give the Palestinians their freedom.” Via Brian McGlinchey at Stark Realities, here’s a deeper look at the history Smith wasreferring to.
In the aftermath of the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by the Palestinian group Hamas, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared, “The forces of civilization must support Israel in defeating Hamas…In fighting Hamas, Israel is not only fighting for its own people, it is fighting for every country that stands against barbarism.”
Those sentiments are quite different from ones Netanyahu privately shared in 2019.
“Anyone who wants to thwart the establishment of a Palestinian state has to support bolstering Hamas and transferring money to Hamas,” Netanyahu told Likud Party legislators, according to Haaretz, Israel’s longest-running newspaper. Doing so would help prevent the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority (PA) from ruling Gaza and giving Palestinians a relatively moderate, unified voice at the negotiating table. “This is part of our strategy — to isolate the Palestinians in Gaza from the Palestinians in the West Bank.”
Israel’s reckless exploitation of Hamas is as old as the group itself. Indeed, decades before Netanyahu’s closed-door candor, the Israeli government pushed Hamas into its initial prominence, with direct and indirect financial support.
Throughout the 1970s, Israel’s nemesis was the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). In stark contrast to Hamas — which emerged from the Muslim Brotherhood — the PLO was a secular, leftist organization, led by Yasser Arafat, who headed the PLO’s Fatah faction.
As a former senior CIA official told UPI’s Richard Sale in 2001, Israel’s initial boosting of Hamas “was a direct attempt to divide and dilute support for a strong, secular PLO by using a competing religious alternative.”
Islamist groups began rising in prominence in Gaza in the wake of the 1967 War, as they undertook educational, cultural, social and infrastructure initiatives to make life better for Palestinian refugees there.
When it first registered with Israeli authorities in 1978, Hamas was led by Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, a half-blind, wheelchair-bound Muslim cleric who launched schools and clinics throughout Gaza.Israel backed his efforts, and also approved the founding of the Islamic University of Gaza…which would become an extremist hub deemed worthy of Israeli bombs.
Israeli Brigadier General Yitzhak Segev, who was governor of Gaza and in frequent touch with Yassin, told the Wall Street Journal that he fully grasped Yassin’s ultimate aims — to replace Israel with an Islamic state — and the dangers of the Hamas ideology. However, at the time, Israel prioritized undermining the PLO-leading Fatah.
In the wake of Iran’s 1979 revolution that saw a secular, US-backed regime replaced with an Islamic republic, Hamas and other Islamists grew more popular, ambitious — and violent. Regardless, Israel’s financial backing continued, a US intelligence source told UPIin 2001, saying the support now had an additional rationale — to gain intelligence and identify the most dangerous of Hamas members.
However, another US government official highlighted a far more sinister Israeli aim: to obliterate the chance for progress in resolving the Israel-Palestinian conflict. “The thinking on the part of some of the right-wing Israeli establishment was that Hamas and the other groups, if they gained control, would refuse to have anything to do with the peace process and would torpedo any agreements put in place,” the official said.
That would enable Israel to continue paying lip service to a two-state solution while disingenuously bemoaning its lack of a “partner for peace” on the Palestinian side. In the mean time, Israel would continue changing “facts on the ground” by demolishing Palestinian homes, authorizing more West Bank Israeli settlements and precluding the creation of a contiguous Palestinian state in the Israeli-occupied territory.
In 2015, Bazalel Smotrich, leader of the Religious Zionist Party and now Israel’s finance minister said, “On the international playing field, in this game of the delegitimization…the PA is a liability and Hamas is an asset. It’s a terrorist organization. Nobody will recognize it, nobody will give it status at the [International Criminal Court] and nobody will let them push resolutions at the UN.”
“In the eyes of the Israeli right, the real threat to Israel is not Hamas’ violence and terrorism — the danger is a peace agreement…and the establishment of a Palestinian state,” wrote Meron Rapoport at Tel Aviv-based +972 Magazine.
Note that Hamas isn’t the only extremist group the Israeli right has shown a soft spot for. Under an earlier Netanyahu government, Israel gave medical assistance to wounded al-Qaeda members and sent them back to fight the secular, Iran-aligned government in Syria…where their group would abduct, torture and murder civilians too. Former Mossad chief Efraim Halevy said Israel’s aid was acceptable because “Al Qaeda, to the best of my recollection, has not attacked Israel.”
Before Oct. 7, referring to Hamas and Lebanon-based Hezbollah during a deposition for one of the corruption cases against him, Netanyahu said something that showcased the Israeli right’s overconfidence in its ability to manage extremists on its borders:
“We have neighbors who are bitter enemies…It’s impossible to reach an agreement with them…Everyone knows this, butwe control the height of the flames.”
Stark Realities undermines official narratives, demolishes conventional wisdom and exposes fundamental myths across the political spectrum. Read more and subscribe at starkrealities.substack.com
* * *
Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of ZeroHedge.
Prosecutors are accusing three men of bilking Oklahoma out of millions of dollars in public school funds through a charter school plan that one of the defendants told a state district court prioritized income.
Lawyers from the Oklahoma Attorney General’s office began outlining their case during preliminary hearings March 25–March 29 in the District Court of Oklahoma County, in Oklahoma City.
Their case is based on an investigation by the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation (OSBI) and an investigative audit report released by the State Auditor and Inspector’s office on Oct. 1, 2020.
However, a lawyer for one of the defendants says his client is a legitimate businessman who has become the victim of incompetent state officials running a politically motivated investigation.
David Lee Chaney and Benjamin Scott Harris each face prison time and possibly millions in restitution if convicted of 15 criminal charges for their alleged scheme to defraud the state through Epic Charter Schools.
Joshua Brock, former chief financial officer, has agreed to plead guilty and testify for the state in exchange for 15 years of probation with restitution to be determined.
Slouched in the witness stand of Special Judge Jason Glidewell’s courtroom in the Oklahoma County District Court in Oklahoma City, Mr. Brock testified in a low monotone. He wore the tired, disinterested expression of a man who wants his case to end.
The Cushing native was friends with Mr. Harris and had a background in accounting and business finance. He said that around 2009, Mr. Harris began talking with him about charter schools. Mr. Brock also liked the idea of a public school run like a private school.
“I believe in the concept,” Mr. Brock testified.
In Oklahoma, charter schools are publicly funded and open to any student. A board oversees them and may not charge tuition. Charter schools must comply with open records and open meeting laws.
However, they are exempt from such requirements as collective bargaining and credentialing. Students can be taught online, in brick-and-mortar locations, or a combination of both. Parents and teachers have broad latitude in curriculum, hours, and other aspects of a child’s education.
The Oklahoma Department of Education website states that charter schools receive, “Flexibility in exchange for accountability.”
During a 2011 meeting in an Oklahoma City restaurant, Mr. Brock agreed to be the CFO for EYS and Indoor Air Quality Services (IAQS), a business Messrs. Harris and Chaney operated.
In those early days, IAQS paid Mr. Brock. Later, EYS would contract with Mr. Brock’s company, JAB Consulting.
According to a special investigative audit report released by Oklahoma State Auditor and Inspector Cindy Byrd in October 2020, the trio raked in at least $125 million of the $458 million in government funds disbursed to the school from 2015 to 2020.
Of that, $45.9 million was paid to Epic Youth Services, a for-profit management company the men set up to handle school affairs.
According to the report, EYS had no employees and was controlled entirely by Messrs. Harris, Chaney, and Brock.
EYS, and therefore the three men, controlled a “Student Learning Fund,” through which $79.3 million in public funds flowed, the report stated.
Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation (OSBI) Special Agent Mark Drummond testified that there may be even more. He said his investigation had found more than 100 accounts that might contain Epic Charter School money.
During preliminary hearings the week of March 25–March 29, 2024, Mr. Brock said EYS had few if any employees and one main objective.
Ms. Byrd confirmed that some law enforcement agencies are still investigating Epic Charter Schools, though she wouldn’t specify which ones.
She said she is holding on to a second audit report so as not to interfere.
“The second report is pending in the event that it may be needed,” she told The Epoch Times.
According to court records, Mr. Harris founded the non-profit Community Strategies Inc. (CSI) in 2005.
He and Mr. Chaney reportedly set up the for-profit Epic Youth Services (EYS) as the management company for the non-profit Epic Charter Schools. CSI, doing business as Epic Charter Schools, began operating in December 2010.
According to the audit report, funding from the State Department of Education and the federal government went to Epic’s sponsors, who kept 3 percent of sponsorship fees. The remaining 97 percent went to the charter schools through CSI.
The report states that the schools sent 10 percent of the total revenue, including the fees kept by the sponsors, to EYS and money to the Student Learning Fund, which EYS controlled.
Epic Charter’s first sponsor was Graham Public School in Ofuskee County, Oklahoma. Mr. Brock said the small K–12 school was struggling financially and was glad for the cash infusion.
In 2018, Epic split into Epic One-on-One, the online school, and Epic Blended.
Epic Blended is a virtual school that also provides work centers where students can use computers with internet access and receive other types of classroom support.
Rose State College now sponsors Epic Blended, and the Oklahoma Statewide Virtual Charter School Board sponsors Epic One-on-One, an online charter school.
On paper, EYS’s purpose was to handle Epic Charter School’s administrative work and manage its finances. Mr. Brock said that, in reality, EYS had a single purpose.
“The object was to minimize costs, maximize profit,” Mr. Brock testified on March 28.
Mr. Brock said it was the practice to ensure that all invoices added up to the total 10 percent management fee outlined in EYS’s contract. Early on, that was not difficult, as the invoices listed the fee amount.
However, in 2019, HB1395 became the law in Oklahoma. The new law mandated the Oklahoma Cost Accounting System (OCAS), which requires invoices to be itemized using OCAS codes.
Mr. Brock said that rather than lose money by accurately itemizing, he wrote computer code that automatically divided the fee among the same 14 OCAS codes each month.
So, regardless of how much funding Epic received or what EYS’s actual expenses were, the system would produce invoices totaling 10 percent of the revenue received every month.
Jeanice Wynn said she noticed the questionable invoices soon after she started work at Epic.
She was hired as Deputy Superintendent of Finance in 2021, shortly after the audit report was released. She testified that she took the job with some trepidation.
Epic had already been in the news due to a conflict with the Oklahoma Department of Education.
Disputes over enrollment, attendance requirements, and other issues had prompted then-Gov. Mary Fallin requested OSBI to look into the fledgling charter school in 2013.
While Epic prevailed in most of those disputes, rumors continued to fly.
Ms. Wynn testified that she believed her job had been created in response to the audit report. She said some things, like those oddly uniform invoices, caught her attention almost immediately.
She said the same 14 OCAS codes were used each month, and they always added up to 10 percent of Epic’s total revenue from the state.
According to Ms. Wynn, that is unusual at best.
“That doesn’t happen,” she said.
In addition, some of the codes seemed questionable. For example, invoices for the online school included food service.
When asked how much EYS paid to provide food for Epic’s online students, Mr. Brock answered succinctly.
“Not much, zero,” he said.
But, thanks to those invoices, by the time the Epic Charter School Board ended its management agreement with EYS on May 21, 2021, Mr. Harris had made $24.8 million, Mr. Chaney brought in $23 million, and Mr. Brock had received $8.7 million, Brenda Holt, director of the Investigative Audit Division of the State Auditor and Inspector’s office testified.
The Student Learning Fund is marketed as an account for each student to spend up to $1,000 for computers, books, musical instruments and lessons, extracurricular activities, tutoring, and similar education-related purchases.
For each Learning Fund purchase, EYS assessed an $85 service fee.
Ms. Wynn was tasked with addressing the auditors’ concerns over the fund. But, she only had access to money under Epic’s Tax ID number.
EYS controlled the Student Learning Fund, which auditors claimed was public money managed by Epic workers who were state employees.
“I expected [the Learning Fund personnel] to be on the payroll for EYS,” she told the court. (Mr. Brock) was approving (the EYS invoices), then receiving the payment [from Epic],” she said.
The auditors noted this as well.
“As the EYS CFO, Brock appears to be responsible for the submission of EYS’ invoices … for both the management fees and the Student Learning Fund.
“As the One-on-One and Blended CFO, he oversees the payment of the same invoices. There is no system of checks and balances in place between the related entities,” the audit report reads.
Ms. Holt also testified about how credit cards were used in the Epic Charter School Student Learning Fund. She found the arrangement to be unusual.
The Student Learning Fund had two credit cards. A Visa card that was issued to the fund. Each Visa bore the name of the employee authorized to use it. The other was an American Express card issued to IAQS.
Ms. Holt said she learned that IAQS stood for Indoor Air Quality Services, the business owned by Mr. Chaney, who had initially been paid Mr. Brock for his services.
Ms. Holt said Epic Charter School employees made purchases using credit cards. EYS invoiced the purchases, and Epic Charter Schools paid those invoices with Learning Fund money.
She said auditors found approximately $817,000 worth of alleged personal purchases made with that card.
Of this, $748,000 appears to have been spent on purchases by Mr. Chaney and his wife.
The remaining $69,000 in personal purchases was split between two Learning Fund employees.
Ms. Holt said the charges included Southwest Airlines, Stub Hub, Men’s Wearhouse, Starbucks, and political donations, including two $2,700 donations to former Oklahoma Superintendent of Public Instruction Joy Hofmeister, who ran against Gov. Kevin Stitt in 2022.
Ms. Holt said she found that Mr. Chaney repaid $446,000 of those purchases, which left $327,000 for the Learning Fund to cover.
Court records also indicate that Mr. Brock allegedly received more than $1 million in illegal overpayments on a Visa card issued to him and used by the Student Learning Fund.
Ms. Holt said that a claim in the Oct. 21 audit report that EYS lawyers tried to prevent auditors from seeing any of the Learning Fund records was true.
According to the investigative report, auditors didn’t get a clear picture of the Student Learning Fund until they were able to access information OSBI had obtained in its investigation.
“[The State Auditor and Inspector] respects the privacy of private companies but is adamant that the stewardship and management of $79.3 million in state appropriated funds designated for student education should be transparent and the records be made available for audit,” the report reads.
Defense lawyers contend that EYS was a private business, so any money paid to it, including state monies meant for the Student Learning Fund, was private money no longer subject to government oversight.
Joe White, of Oklahoma City, represents Mr. Harris. Mr. White is tall and speaks with a country drawl and self-deprecating manner that belies a man ready to exploit any perceived chink in his opponent’s argument.
In court, he aggressively argued that the Student Learning Fund was money EYS earned, comparing it to a state employee’s paycheck.
“Once you get paid, the state doesn’t get to audit your personal bank account, does it?” he asked Ms. Holt.
According to Ms. Holt, the figures in the audit report are relatively conservative. She said it’s her office’s policy to give the audited parties the benefit of the doubt.
“We always try to err on the side of grace and not overstate any of the numbers,” she told the court.
The auditors claim that the Student Learning Fund was used to benefit more than Oklahoma students and the owners of EYS.
Ms. Wynn testified that in 2018, Mr. Harris told the board that Epic Charter Schools Oklahoma had opened Community Strategies—CA, LLC (CS-CA). CS-CA is the non-profit management company for Next Generation, Inc., doing business as Epic Charter Schools California.
“He informed those present that money had flowed to Epic California. There was discussion at that time about that money being paid back,” Ms. Wynn said.
In response to Mr. White’s question, she said she had seen no evidence that the money had been repaid.
According to the audit report, this resulted in the illegal use of Oklahoma tax money and employees to benefit California taxpayers.
Salesha Wilken is a former investigative reporter. She has worked for the State Auditor and Inspector’s office for the past nine years. She testified to finding evidence that EYS transferred Student Learning Fund money to Community Strategies California to “support expansion of EYS.”
She said it appeared the money was used to help the California operation meet payroll. California Strategies was also used to funnel money to the Panola Public Schools in Oklahoma when that district had a cash shortfall, she said.
According to the audit report, Epic One-on-One employees racked up $242,654.42 in labor between 2017 and 2020 working for CS-CA in California and Panola Public Schools in Oklahoma. Panola Public Schools was not part of Epic at that time.
The report states that none of this money was repaid until auditors began asking questions in 2020.
Auditors also found that $203,000 was transferred directly from the student Learning Fund into an Epic-California bank account at one point.
They have found no evidence that money was ever repaid, the report states.
“It shows that those funds were not being used for the students but were being used to enrich EYS,” Ms. Wilken testified. “EYS is the steward of those funds.”
Defense attorneys denied that any public money was misused.
They said the Student Learning Fund was an account owned by EYS, a private company. They contend that the money in the fund belongs to EYS to be used at EYS’s discretion.
“Private companies can dictate the rules concerning their private funds,” Mr. Chaney’s lawyer, Gary Wood, said.
The resolution to that question will determine more than the legal status of a bank account. When the EYS management contract ended in May 2021, there was approximately $5 million in the Student Learning Fund, which prosecutors say EYS was supposed to return to Epic Charter Schools. Instead, they say, the money was invested in several treasury bill accounts.
That money is now the subject of a lawsuit.
When Epic Charter Schools began operation in 2010, CSI’s board oversaw the work. Soon after, most of the CSI board members resigned and were replaced by Robert Stem, Peter Regan, Doug Scott, and Travis Burkett, the court file states.
EYS Attended Board Meetings
“[The board members] were largely acquaintances of Mr. Harris and or Mr. Chaney,” Mr. Brock testified. Investigators and former board member Douglas Scott said at least one of the defendants was present at most board meetings. However, they differ about the sway they held over the board.
“[Harris and Chaney’s] actions and behaviors were indicative of individuals with great influence over the school and the board.
“The board consistently voted unanimously during meetings, rarely questioning the recommendations given or actions taken by Chaney, Harris, and Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Brock,” the court file reads.
Douglas Scott is an attorney from Tulsa who served on the board from 2010 to 2021. He has known Mr. Chaney since they were both boys. But he denied that he or Mr. Harris unduly influenced the board.
“They attended the meetings,” Mr. Scott testified. “They had a broad range of duties.”
Mr. White said the implication that the board was manipulated ignores their commitment to the charter school.
He said board members were volunteers who helped build the largest public school in Oklahoma, which at its height had an enrollment of 60,000 students.
“And the enrollment kept going up, up, and up, didn’t it?” he asked Mr. Scott.
Mr. Scott agreed, saying that he spent a significant amount of time and resources working on behalf of the schools.
Jimmy Harmon, an assistant attorney general prosecuting the case, told the court that auditors found that board members did benefit from their association with Epic Charter Schools.
He said that former board member Robert Stem’s lobbying firm, Capitol Gains, was awarded a contract from Epic the same day he resigned from the board.
According to Mr. Brock, the lobbying deal netted Capitol Gains $520,000.
Mr. Harmon said Mr. Scott’s brother benefitted as well.
“His brother Greg received tens of thousands of dollars for computer work,” Mr. Harmon said.
Mr. White disputes the audit report’s findings.
He pointed out that Mr. Harris was arrested just five days before Ms. Byrd won her party’s nomination for state auditor and inspector. He doesn’t believe that’s a coincidence.
Ms. Byrd dismisses that contention as grasping at straws.
She says the investigations and audits began long before the 2020 elections and that she doesn’t need any high-profile cases to boost her campaign in an election she said she won by 70 points.
“I just can’t even believe that that’s a good defense,” she said.
Each man is charged with one count of racketeering, six counts of embezzlement, two counts of using a computer system or computer network to execute a scheme to defraud, two counts of presenting false claims to the state, and one count each of acquiring unlawful proceeds, acquiring unlawful proceeds in excess of $50,000, obtaining money by false pretenses, and money laundering.
Preliminary hearings are set to resume in May; no trial date has been set.
From Fringe To Mainstream: The Rise Of The BJP In India
Voters in India are getting set to head to the polls in what has been dubbed the world’s biggest election.
Nearly 1 billion people are eligible to vote and to determine whether 73-year-old Narendra Modi, leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), will rule the nation for a third consecutive term.
The elections kicked off yesterday (Friday) and will be carried out in seven phases due to the sheer size of the country, ending June 4.
As Statista’s Anna Fleck shows in the following chart, the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance alliance won 303 out of 550 parliamentary seats in India’s Lok Sabha general elections in 2019 and 282 out of 543 parliamentary seats five years before. In this year’s elections, the NDC is projected to win as many as 399 seats.
Opposition parties have banded together, led by the Indian National Congress party (INC), to form a 26-member alliance, named the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) in an attempt to stop this from happening.
Critics decry the BJP as Hindu nationalists and fear that India will become further divided, accusing the incumbent government of having enabled the persecution of minorities, particularly Muslims, under their rule. Supporters meanwhile praise Modi for securing India’s place as a major global economic power.
The rise of the BJP as India’s majority party was an unlikely one.
Its predecessor, the right-wing Bharatiya Jana Sangh (BJS) party, gained only marginal support and joined the Janata Party (People’s Party), which won the 1977 elections as a catch-all union opposing the declaration of a state of emergency in the country.
After the Janata Party dissolved in 1980, the party was recreated as the BJP and started from the bottom again, gaining followers emphasizing Hindu national pride and hardline politics.
The mayors of California’s three biggest cities have rankled some progressive activists in recent months by joining a wave of fellow Democrats renouncing once popular initiatives to defund the police, reduce sentencing, and undertake other criminal justice reforms amid deep concerns over public safety.
Facing a public backlash over rampant thefts and an epidemic of fentanyl deaths related to drug trafficking, San Francisco Mayor London Breed and San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria in recent months have joined the GOP fight to dismantle Proposition 47. That law, approved by voters in 2014, recategorized thefts below $950 from felonies to misdemeanors, and many critics blame it for the spate of smash-and-grab robberies at department and convenience stores across California.
“We should be locking up criminals, not laundry detergent,” Gloria, who refers to himself as a progressive Democrat, declared in his state-of-the-city address in January.
Meanwhile, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass has called for adding hundreds of police officers to the city’s rolls and boosting their pay.
But Democratic incumbents and candidates in several of the most competitive U.S. House of Representatives races across California – the outcome of which will play a critical role in determining control of the chamber in the next Congress – are either swimming against the tough-on-crime tide or trying to avoid alienating a key ally.
These Democrats have been touting their close ties to a progressive lobbying powerhouse that helped usher in some of the most controversial changes to criminal justice laws across the state in recent years.
Equality California began as a Sacramento-based LGBTQ+ advocacy group 20 years ago but has since become a major player on several issues, including its self-proclaimed priority of transforming the Golden State’s criminal justice system. The influential organization, which rakes in millions from Hollywood celebrities and business interests and received a state grant windfall last year, has been instrumental in promoting a reform agenda that many prominent California Democrats are now trying to reverse.
The group campaigned aggressively to eliminate cash bail for many types of crimes, legalize prostitution, shorten probation periods for misdemeanors and some felonies, and end qualified immunity for police, making it easier for victims of alleged excessive force and other police misconduct to sue officers. The push to lift legal protections for police failed on the federal level but largely succeeded in California when Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a Senate bill into law in the fall of 2021.
In 2022, the group’s PAC also contributed $5,000 to embattled Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascon, the original author of Proposition 47. Gascon survived a close recall effort in 2022, just two months after San Francisco voters ousted District Attorney Chesa Boudin in a blow to the national movement toward more lenient prosecution given the city’s status as one of the nation’s most liberal enclaves.
In the middle of the riots after the police-custody death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Equality California was one of several organizations that called for donations to groups on the “frontlines” of the protests, including the Minnesota Freedom Fund. That fund eventually received $35 million in donations during the tumultuous summer of 2020 and used the money to bail out dozens of defendants, including those accused of murder, violent felonies, and sex crimes.
Under the “issues” section on its website, Equality California lists “criminal justice reform” first among all the issues it works on, including education, faith and religion, gun safety, hate crimes and safety, health care and HIV issues.
“LGBTQ+ people face disproportionate rates of arrest, conviction, incarceration, and recidivism compared to their non-LGBTQ+ peers,” the website asserts in explaining why the group prioritizes reducing criminal penalties and is pushing for more leniency in other aspects of criminal justice law.
Seven Democrats in the most competitive House races have touted their Equality California endorsements on social media. They include Adam Gray, Josh Harder, Joe Kerr, David Min, Will Rollins, Rudy Salas, and George Whitesides.
Whitesides (pictured at top), a former aerospace executive challenging GOP Rep. Mike Garcia in a key House battleground north of Los Angeles, has the closest ties to Equality California. He and his wife donated an undisclosed amount to the group in both 2020 and 2021.
Those donations qualified the Whitesides as Equality California’s “regional influencers” for 2020 and 2021. It’s a title the couple shared with the hedge-fund billionaire Tom Steyer, record executive David Geffen’s foundation, California Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis and her husband, as well as Rep. Sara Jacobs (the granddaughter of Qualcomm founder Irwin Jacobs), and Tom Sandoval, a cast member of the TV reality series “Vanderpump Rules.” (The 2020 and 2021 annual reports do not list an amount associated with the “regional influencers” tier, but the group’s 2019 annual reports notes that a such a designation is earned for contributions of $10,000 to $19,999.)
Whitesides’ campaign did not respond to a request for comment about whether he backs Equality California’s criminal justice priorities.
In February, Will Rollins, a former federal prosecutor challenging veteran GOP Rep. Ken Calvert in a district stretching from Riverside to Palm Springs, touted his Equality California endorsement on X.com, along with a photo of himself dining with the group’s board of directors.
“It was great joining @eqca board members of their board of directors lunch,” Rollins tweeted. “I am proud to be endorsed by Equality California in my race for Congress. When I get to D.C., I am going to fight to advance LGBTQ+ rights for all Americans. Together, we will win.”
The Calvert-Rollins race is a closely fought rematch, with crime taking center stage. Rollins has touted his role as a prosecutor and has criticized Calvert for voting in favor of the First Step Act, President Trump’s signature justice reform package, which released more than 2,200 federal inmates in 2019. The bill was passed with broad bipartisan support in Congress before the pandemic-era crime spikes while the criminal justice reform agenda was gaining Republican and Democratic support. Media outlets have since reported that it released more than 100 violent criminals and sex offenders.
In a local newspaper op-ed, Calvert tried to lump Rollins into the same camp as Gascon and Boudin, calling him “the worst kind of liberal prosecutor” who “routinely cuts soft plea deals with perps and wants to reduce sentences for criminals wreaking havoc on our streets.” Last month, Calvert’s campaign also cut a television ad calling Rollins “extreme” and noting that he “even supports reducing sentences for violent criminals including drug traffickers while California fentanyl deaths skyrocket.”
Rollins has denied the accusations about supporting cash bail and lighter sentences for violent criminals and drug traffickers, asserting that he had a 99% conviction rate and helped put “murders, terrorists, MS-13 and Sinaloa cartel members in prison.” He was less forthright about cash bail, noting that defendants that pose a danger to society or are a flight risk should be detained before trial, but Rollins didn’t indicate whether he supports ending cash bail in other circumstances.
The results of the Calvert-Rollins face-off in 2022 were so close that the Democratic hopeful was attending a new member orientation in Washington when new alerts came across his phone that he had lost to Calvert, the dean of the California delegation.
David Min, a Democratic state senator running against GOP attorney and former state legislator Scott Baugh in a tight race for the Orange County seat vacated by Rep. Katie Porter, was the only Democrat to respond to RCP’s inquiry about the Equality California’s endorsement, and whether he backs the group’s criminal justice agenda.
Concerns about public safety have been making headlines in the country in recent weeks as the traditionally more conservative area strives to discourage criminal elements from nearby Los Angeles from becoming active there. Last month, the Orange County District Attorney’s Office announced a novel public safety campaign aimed at deterring thieves with a message plastered on billboards and bus ads: “Crime doesn’t pay in Orange County.”
“If you steal, we prosecute,” the signs sternly warn.
Min, who was arrested last year for drunk driving in a taxpayer-funded car, still managed to outmaneuver fellow Democrat Joanna Weiss in the primary and secure the endorsement of Porter and the California Democratic Party.
Min campaign spokesman Orrin Evans forwarded the lawmaker’s endorsements from the state’s largest police union, the Peace Officers Research Association of California, or PORAC, and the California Fraternal Order of Police. Evans also touted Min’s record of supporting police budget priorities, including successful requests he made for $2 million for a “real-time crime center” to help police track crime quickly and $1 million for new electric police cruisers.
“Sen. Min has always ensured that law enforcement and first responders have the tools they need to keep Southern California’s families safe and secure,” Roger Hilton, president of the state Fraternal Order of Police, said in a statement along with the endorsement.
In contrast, Baugh has the backing of Orange County Sheriff Don Barnes and several House Republican leaders. In an interview with RCP, the former GOP leader of the state assembly cited a strong tough-on-crime record dating back to the 1990s. Barnes and local District Attorney Todd Spitzer also voted for Baugh to become the chairman of a local gang reduction and intervention program.
Baugh, who previously served as county GOP chairman, countered that Min has supported some of the same sweeping criminal justice reforms as Equality California during his time in Sacramento. Min voted in favor of a 2021 bill eliminating cash bail and another measure in 2022 to automatically seal many felons’ criminal records, including domestic violence convictions.
“Min’s hiding behind the PORAC labor endorsement to run from his progressive policies, including support for no-cash bail,” Baugh said in the interview. “This is the type of cowardly behavior we don’t need in Congress.”
Equality California also keeps track of state and federal lawmakers’ legislative records on key priorities and issues an annual scorecard. In 2022, the score included votes on several bills, including the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, which, if passed, would have eliminated qualified immunity for police. According to the Congressional Budget Office, it also would have cost local departments hundreds of millions of dollars in training and equipment just when several major cities across the country had slashed funding for police.
While Congress was considering the measure, the Fraternal Order of Police argued that ending qualified immunity was “anti-police” and would drastically reduce the number of candidates choosing to become police officers.
Over the past several years, police departments across the country, including in San Francisco and Los Angeles, have faced severe staffing shortages as they struggle to recruit and retain officers. At the height of the defund the police movement, California lost 2,100 police officers (with full arrest powers) and roughly 1,100 civilian staff, diminishing the number of patrol officers to 1991 levels.
In 2021 Equality California scored votes on a handful of bills, including the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act and a measure that would have allowed adults who entered the U.S. as undocumented children to become lawful permanent residents and citizens. That year (and in 2022), Reps. Mike Levin, who is facing a rematch from GOP challenger Matt Gunderson, and Harder, who is in a tight contest against Stockton Mayor Kevin Lincoln, earned 100% ratings from Equality California.
As state legislators, Gray, Min, and Salas received a 100% rating on the group’s 2022 scorecard, with Min maintaining his perfect rating from 2021.
With so many leading California Democrats backtracking on criminal justice reforms, Republicans plan to hammer their opponents who remain undecided about repealing Proposition 47 and other more lenient laws as soft on crime and weak on the border. Despite polls showing voters deeply concerned about illegal immigration and President Biden’s open border policies, California Democrats have continued to support broad amnesty for illegal immigrants and the state’s controversial sanctuary state law, both of which Equality California strongly backs.
In the state, border issues may divide some heavily Latino districts, but Republicans have a greater chance for traction when it comes to crime. Americans’ worries about what they describe as the nation’s crime problems are at a recent high, with 63% characterizing public safety concerns as either extremely or very serious in a November Gallup survey. That’s up from 54% when Gallup last polled voters on the issue and the highest level the polling company has recorded in recent years. The prior high of 60% was recorded in the initial 2000 polling, as well as in 2010 and 2016.
It’s hard to predict whether support for specific criminal justice reforms, such as eliminating cash bail, will hold sway with voters. But with Breed, who is in a tough reelection fight for mayor, and other Democrats pivoting away from the reform movement, it will be easier to focus voters on the issue.
While there is little comprehensive research about the impact of eliminating cash bail on crime, a study by the Yolo County District Attorney’s Office in Northern California early last year found that individuals released on cash-free or low-cost bail were much more likely to re-offend than those who pasted bail. They were also far more likely to commit new violent offenses.
The study used a random sample of 100 people arrested during the county’s zero-bail policy, which was in effect from April 2020 through May 2021. It compared those results to 100 people who were arrested and posted bail in 2018 and 2019. The study found that people released were arrested for new crimes at an average rate 70% higher than those who posted bail, committed felonies 90% more often, and committed misdemeanors 123% more often.
Susan Crabtree is RealClearPolitics’ national political correspondent.
‘Like Toys, Not Drones’: Iran Continues Mocking Israel’s Attack As Contrasting Narratives Emerge
Iran has continued mocking Israel’s limited attack which happened in the early hours of Friday morning. In a fresh interview with NBC, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian dismissed much of the initial reporting in the West concerning the strike, which appeared to center on the city of Isfahan – which hosts a nuclear energy site – as “not accurate”.
“What happened last night was not a strike,” the Iranian top diplomat asserted. He claimed that the the attack involved merely two or three small UAVs, which “were more like toys that our children play with, not drones.”
He said that the UAV’s were all taken out by Iran’s anti-air defenses, and even claimed they took off from inside Iran, suggesting that the attack took place by proxy.
Iranian state TV had reported shortly after midnight as the attack was unfolding that “three drones were observed in the sky over Isfahan. The air defense system became active and destroyed these drones in the sky.”
However, Israeli media along with the New York Times are saying the whole thing was meant as a strong symbolic message to Iran that Israel can inflict severe damage at will if it chooses to:
The alleged Israeli strike overnight Thursday-Friday on Iranian air defenses near the Natanz nuclear site used a high-tech missile that was able to evade Iran’s radar systems, in a move “calibrated to make Iran think twice” before launching another direct attack on Israel, The New York Times reported on Saturday.
Two unnamed Western officials cited by the newspaper said the missile aimed to show Tehran that Israel is able to dodge and neutralize its defenses.
Two Iranian officials said the strike hit a Russian-made S-300 air defense system. They told the newspaper that Iran had not detected intrusions into its airspace from drones, missiles or aircraft.
Israeli sources say that IAF jets were able to launch missiles from outside Iranian airspace, and further did not use Jordanian airspace, given concerns that Amman could be dragged into the conflict.
“Satellite imagery seen by the Times of Israel showed damage to the radar of an S-300 system at the Eighth Shekari Air Base in Isfahan, said to be part of an array defending the nearby top-secret Natanz nuclear site,” Israeli media reports further. “The imagery was not immediately permitted for publication, per the policy of the agency that took the photo.”
But there are contrary reports among Western press accounts. For example, there’s this satellite imaging analysis in CNN which points to an attack which did almost nothing in terms of serious damage:
There does not appear to be any extensive damage at an air base purportedly targeted by an Israeli military strike, according to exclusive satellite images obtained by CNN from Umbra Space.
The synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellite images were taken around 10:18 a.m. local time.
There does not appear to be any large craters in the ground and there are no apparent destroyed buildings. Additional visual satellite imagery will be needed to check for burn scars – which cannot be seen by SAR images — around the complex.
The Iranians have not confirmed or admitted to any fighter jet-launched missiles being used in the attack, as they continue to intentionally downplay it…
The IRGC has been trolling Israel really hard about the alleged use of quadcopters.
They posted this video comparing Iran’s retaliation to Israel’s and used an actual drone toy ad from the early 2000s.
Some Israeli officials actually agree that it was too small of a retaliatory strike. Most notably, Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir had quickly tweeted out in the wake of the overnight attack that the attack on Iran was in the end“lame”.
Iranian leaders have meanwhile declared the utter ‘failure’ of efforts to attack the Islamic Republic, and have further warned that Tehran won’t hesitate to strike back ‘harder’ if attacked by Israel. But the strategy of Iranian officials for now seems to be to simply deny that any level of major operation by Israel took place.
Report comes amid concerns about CCP’s influence, human rights violations…
American universities have entered more than $2.3 billion in contracts with China in the past decade amid on-going concerns about the influence of its communist government on U.S. higher education, a new investigation found.
These contracts included agricultural research regarding orange crops, trainings for airline pilots, and medical trials for a tumor treatment drug developed by a Chinese pharmaceutical company, the Wall Street Journalreported.
The investigation uncovered approximately 2,900 contracts from 2012 and 2024 between Chinese businesses and about 200 U.S. public colleges and universities in all 50 states.
Some involved specialized training, such as $37 million in contracts between Chinese airlines and the University of North Dakota to train and license pilots.
Another $1.8 million in contracts with China’s Institute of Navel Orange at Gannan Normal University and the University of Florida involved researching tree genetics and diseases affecting citrus fruit, according to the investigation.
But others were less specific.
For example, “all three of China’s major government-owned oil companies have funded contracts for $100,000 or more at the University of Texas at Austin, which the school describes only as ‘research activity,’” the investigation found.
The report continued:
Some of the biggest-value China contracts feature franchise-type arrangements for overseas satellite campuses. New York University, which the Education Department database shows has been the largest single recipient of Chinese funding, reported two contracts totaling over $46.5 million for 2021 alone for its Shanghai branch.
The Juilliard School has disclosed over $133 million in such funding over more than a decade for its Tianjin Juilliard School near Beijing, appointed with some 120 Steinway pianos.
These partnerships have U.S. politicians, academics, and students concerned. The Chinese Communist Party has been accused of numerous human rights abuses, from free speech censorship to forced labor and torture to genocide of the Uyghurs, an ethnic minority population.
According to the report:
The Federal Bureau of Investigation and other agencies warn that China’s state has encouraged theft of technological secrets at universities, spread pro-Beijing propaganda, stifled campus debate and harassed students.
Beijing dismisses such characterizations. Its officials say ethnic Chinese students and professors have been unfairly targeted in the U.S., including on American campuses, and urged the U.S. to be mindful of its reputation for academic freedom. The Chinese Embassy in Washington didn’t respond to detailed questions about the university contracts.
American defense officials raised similar concerns about China and artificial intelligence technology in a 2021 report by the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence.
“China’s domestic use of AI is a chilling precedent for anyone around the world who cherishes individual liberty,” the report stated.
Meanwhile, the Athenai Institute, a bipartisan student-led organization, is urging U.S. universities to divest from Chinese government-controlled entities, The College Fixreported this month.
Lawmakers also have been taking action. In 2023, for example, Florida enacted a law restricting public universities and colleges “from accepting grants from or participating in partnerships or agreements” with China and other foreign countries “of concern.”
