America Under the Control of Left-Wing Immigration Policy

posted by Jim Davis at American Thinker 

Illinois’s Democrat governor, J.B. Pritzker, is about to sign a new bill into law that will allow illegal immigrants to become driving instructors. From Peoria’s NBC affiliate:

A proposal that’s passed both chambers would allow some immigrants to become driving instructors in Illinois. In the state, non U.S. citizens can apply for a special drivers license called a Temporary Visitor Drivers License or TVDL.

You might ask, “Where did that TVDL come from?” We’ve had a Democrat-controlled state legislature since 2003, and they currently have supermajorities in both chambers. Except for a single-term RINO governor in 2015–18, we’ve also had 100% Democrat governors since 2003.

The Democrats’ attitudes about illegal immigration have “evolved” considerably since Clinton, Obama, and Schumer talked tough about it 20–30 years ago. If Trump were to read any one of those speeches out loud on the air tonight, he’d be called a racist.

In June 2023, Pritzker even started allowing illegal immigrants to get standard drivers’ licenses, phasing out TVDLs, which had become a “Scarlet Letter” for illegals:

Pritzker signs law giving driver’s licenses to noncitizen immigrants

‘This legislation is a significant step in eliminating the barriers to opportunity that many undocumented immigrants face,’ said Pritzker. ‘We’re ensuring every eligible individual can obtain a driver’s license, making our roads safer, decreasing stigma, and creating more equitable systems for all.’

Notice the careful use of terms like “noncitizen,” “undocumented immigrant,” or just “immigrant.” Nowhere do we see “illegal.” But that’s what these code terms mean. Notice also the deep concern about “stigma,” “incidents of discrimination,” and “creating more equitable systems.”

In 2019, Tom Homan described DUIs by illegal immigrants as a “public safety issue”:

‘Ten thousand people a year die from DUIs, twenty eight people a day die from DUIs,’ said Homan. ‘I’d rather put an illegal alien in jail for DUI than white-collar bank fraud. It isn’t about if it’s a felony or misdemeanor, it’s about, is it a public safety threat and is it threatening American citizens? DUIs, are you kidding me? That’s a public safety issue.’

I’ve collected the following anecdotal evidence — but as Dr. Paul Cameron and the Family Research Council learned in the 1980s, the dominant left-wing media and academia carefully discredit anecdotal evidence, if it doesn’t serve left-wing politics. As part of my volunteer work for our church, I regularly provide rides to low-income people for such things as medical appointments, job interviews, and court hearings. So I see the insides of public aid offices, driver services facilities, and courtrooms on a regular basis. (I live in a suburban-Chicago county that’s roughly 10% Latino, according to the Census Bureau—keep that in mind.)

After two months of monitoring, among DUI defendants on our traffic court docket, 19.7% had a Hispanic last name — nearly twice as many as the Latinos in the overall population. And it’s much the same in felony court.

The public aid office and the driver services office are practically wallpapered with notices in Spanish, and substantial portions of the respective staffs are bilingual.

White applicants for SNAP benefits (“food stamps”) are told they’ll get their SNAP debit cards in the mail in 10–14 business days — in other words, up to three weeks. But Latino applicants, who rarely know any English at all, frequently walk into the public aid office with three pieces of paper and walk out happily with an “emergency” SNAP card. So they get same-day service.

I also had extensive opportunities to observe English as a Second Language (ESL) teaching in action, at Chicago’s special school for children of illegal immigrants: Rodolfo Lozano Bilingual Academy, which is of course named for a socialist Latino political figure from Chicago’s past. As I previously wrote, Lozano has the lion’s share of speech therapists and speech pathologists employed by the Chicago Public Schools, because… equity. After all, they have to pronounce English correctly. And I concede that for any immigrant, that isn’t easy.

But they don’t teach “English as a second language” at Lozano. They teach just enough words of English to get by in a city like Chicago. The actual day-to-day lessons are given in Spanish, because “it’s just easier that way.”

So we need bilingual driving instructors. And to fill that quota, we need to hire illegals.

These are just the raw facts, as I’ve observed them. Here are a few more facts that arise, at least in part, from the left’s love affair with illegal immigrants.

Our national debt is now $37 trillion. That’s an average of $383,000 for every taxpayer. The state of Illinois has $159 billion in debt, which is largely unfunded pension liabilities for state workers (an overwhelming majority of whom, particularly at the top levels, are Democrats). This adds another $28,000 in debt per taxpayer.

Pritzker cheerfully doubled the state’s motor fuel tax without a corresponding increase in EV taxes, but deficit spending is a problem wherever Democrats are in charge. California’s debt is $520 billion; New York’s, despite a state constitutional amendment (ratified the last time the GOP was in charge) requiring a balanced budget, is $368 billion.

Next, let’s look at what happens when a leftist Western government goes too far to protect illegal immigrants. Our cousins across the pond in the United Kingdom went too far. The son of Rwandan “migrants” murdered three young British girls at a Taylor Swift dance party, and wounded several more. But as Pritzker said, we mustn’t stigmatize the poor dears.

Naturally though, there were a lot of negative reactions from British parents, and others involved with the care of British children. In the wake of the killings, professional babysitter Lucy Connolly posted an anti-immigrant tweet, which landed her in jail. Here’s the tweet:

Connolly has been sentenced to 2-1/2 years in prison for her mean tweets, under British “hate speech” laws. Her sentence was upheld on appeal. As Matt Walsh observed at Daily Wire, this was a far harsher sentence than Muslim immigrants, and left-wing politicians, received for the following crimes:

Crime number one: Exposing yourself to a 13-year-old girl, and then stalking her through the streets when she spots you, forcing the girl to bang on the doors of random apartments so that she can hide. Crime number two: publicly threatening to murder an infidel who dares to insult Mohammed. Crime number three: Sexually assaulting a 12-year-old. And crime number four: domestic abuse, including physical abuse, over a three-year-period.

Think it can’t happen here? Think again. Our universities already have codes of conduct that can produce a suspension or expulsion for “hate speech” targeting any of the left’s favorite protected groups.

Red Pill News and Badlands Media- May 31

 

Democrats and Their DEI Albatrosses ~ VDH

posted by Victor Davis Hanson at Townhall 

A few Democratic officeholders, activists, and pundits are finally coming to their senses that their brand is toxic to a majority of the American people.

The Biden administration killed what was left of it in a number of ways. 

First, it serially lied to Americans about the cognitive decline and cancerous condition of President Joe Biden, both while in and after office.  

Only when caught did the complicit media fess up that the Biden inner circle serially misled the American people about Biden's inability to fulfill the duties of the presidency. 

Second, left-wing politicos used Biden as a waxen effigy. His job was to pose as a "moderate" cover to push through the most radical and unpopular agenda in the last half century. 

Only that way could "Old Joe Biden from Scranton" and his backroom handlers ram down the throat of the American people unpopular policies that nearly wrecked the country: hyperinflation and $7 trillion in new debt, weaponization of the government, and partisan lawfare, an open border and 12 million illegal aliens, a racialist DEI commissariat, a crackpot Green New Deal, defunding the police, biological men competing in girls' sports, and two theater-wide wars abroad. 

Third, without either a functional president or viable initiatives, the new hard-left Democrats sought to brand Donald Trump as "Hitler" and half the country who supported him as "fascists."  

For nearly nine years, the Democrats launched one failed hoax after another on the American people: "Russian collusion," "laptop disinformation," and the lying so-called "51 intelligence authorities." They proved quite willing to undermine the rule of law by manipulating the court system in efforts to destroy their bogeyman, Trump. 

Never had the American people seen a political party engineer 93 bogus indictments of a rival candidate and ex-president. Two dozen states tried to take Trump off their presidential ballots. And the Biden Department of Justice sicced an FBI SWAT team to barge into Trump's home. 

The people finally got tired of all the potty-mouthed Democrat videos, the congressional stunts and meltdowns, the pampered rich kids rioting on elite campuses, the knee-jerk obsessions with racial slurs, the firebombing of Tesla dealerships, the romanticization of left-wing political murderers -- and always the adolescent tantrums over Trump. 

The Democrats had mostly given up on democracy some 13 years ago. That was the last time they transparently and democratically nominated Barack Obama a second time as their presidential candidate. 

Ever since, their nominations have been rigged.

In 2020, party insiders -- terrified of the left-wing crazy primary field -- forced out all the leading contenders. 

Then they coronated the debilitated but still supposedly useful moderate Biden as their COVID-era candidate. Biden then bragged that he would pick his vice president on the basis of race and gender.

What followed was the most bizarre campaign in history. 

Biden stayed put in his basement and outsourced his candidacy to the partisan media. 

Party activists changed long-standing voting laws in the key swing states. For the first time in American history, 70 percent of Americans did not vote in person on Election Day -- the majority of them by design Democrats. 

Next, in 2024, they forced the now no longer useful Biden off the ticket, nullifying his 14 million primary voters. 

Then, without a vote, they rammed in inept Vice President Kamala Harris as the nominee. As a failed candidate in 2020, she had never won a single delegate. 

Some in the party now concede it must roust out its radicals. 

But Democrats will not. 

AOC and her Squad, the unhinged Jasmine Crockets of the party, and the ossified socialist Bernie Bros would demonize any Democrat who offered a sane reboot. 

A few fossils in the party may think they know how to save it. But they are terrified that the medicine would be considered far worse than the illness that prompted it. 

Would Democrats consider embracing measured and legal-only immigration? 

No -- the crazy base would scream "xenophobe!"

A return to meritocracy and the Martin Luther King notion of race as incidental, not essential, to who we are? 

Again, that would be called "racist!"

Maybe reforms to fix failed schools with vouchers, school choice, and charter schools? 

Again, "racist!" 

How about developing gas and oil reserves and nuclear power to lower energy costs for the struggling middle class? 

That would be condemned as "destroying the planet!" 

Restore police forces, end critical race and legal theory, and deter criminals with tough sentencing?

Again, "racist!"

How about ceasing the whiny fixations with "white privilege" and "white rage?" Or quit seeing a "white supremacist" under every bed? 

Again, "racist!"

The left created DEI -- the use of race to adjudicate every political issue. 

And like any addictive, toxic drug, they now can neither survive with DEI -- nor without it.

When Jeb and Hillary Saved the Republic

posted by J.B. Shurk at American Thinker 

There was a moment in the late spring of 2015 when I realized that the ground beneath our feet was shifting.  During an appearance on Fox News, Charles Krauthammer was asked to predict the Republican and Democrat nominees for the 2016 election.  He said rather confidently that the nominees would be “Jeb” Bush and Hillary Clinton.  When asked to explain his reasoning, Dr. Krauthammer pointed out that Bush and Clinton had the money, the political infrastructure, and the backing of their respective party elites.  

I found his predictions unsettling — partly because “Jeb” and Hillary represent dynastic houses whose mere mention sharply divides the American people and partly because their preordained anointments seem particularly distasteful in a nation that enjoys lecturing the rest of the world on “democracy.”  

We were a decade and a half into “nation-building” projects in Afghanistan and Iraq and several decades into our grand mission of “making the world safe for democracy,” and voters were being told that they would have to choose between unlikable scions from two of America’s most despised politico-aristocratic families.  Why?  Because the moneyed elites had decided that a Bush or Clinton would again rule in the United States.  That awful choice appeared indistinguishable from telling the people of Afghanistan or Iraq that they could vote for whomever they wanted to lead their nations — so long as that leader came from one of a handful of noble families preselected by Western intelligence agencies. 

Making matters worse, it was well known how chummy the Bushes and Clintons are.  President George Bush I reportedly thought of the credibly accused rapist Bill Clinton as another son.  President Bush II still refers to Bill as his “brother” and Hillary as his “sister.”  So a contest between “Jeb” and Hillary wasn’t really a contest at all.  If they were the nominees, a member of the Bush-Clinton extended family would definitely return to the White House.

After hearing Krauthammer’s answer, I checked online social media platforms to see what regular Republican voters thought.  They were livid.  I had witnessed shades of this fury years before, when President Obama and Senate Democrats ignored traditional filibuster rules and rammed nationalized medicine (AKA Obamacare) through Congress.  I had seen percolating anger grow more intense as Tea Party movements across the country struggled to elect Republicans who would actually represent their constituents.  (News flash: Many of those RINO liars betrayed their voters, too.)  After working so hard over three election cycles to arrest America’s descent into “woke” socialism and getting nothing in return other than broken promises and feckless weaklings such as Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan, Republican voters were in no mood to hear that 2016 would be the year for another Bush princeling or wicked Clinton queen.

There had been many contributing factors that led us to this consequential moment in American history: the societally destructive 2000 election, when America had no president-elect until mid-December; the psychological whiplash of the 9/11, anthrax, and D.C. sniper attacks; the “pre-emptive” wars and regime changes that transformed into decades-long occupations; Bush’s support for mass amnesty for illegal aliens; the risky (yet government-backed) mortgage securities that nearly collapsed the stock market; Obama’s government takeover of health insurance; Obama’s support for mass amnesty for illegal aliens; Obama’s decision to divide Americans by racial animus whenever possible; the realization that post-9/11 security protocols at airports and pervasive public surveillance are never going away; the realization that the PATRIOT Act has been retooled to spy on Democrats’ political enemies; the realization that Establishment Republicans such as Mitch McConnell and John Cornyn work to undermine grassroots Republicans; the realization that most elected Republicans (especially in D.C.) despise their voters and advance the interests of the administrative state, the Intelligence Community, and multinational corporations; the realization that most elected Democrats and Republicans pretend to fight one another, belong to the same Uniparty, and secretly want the same things.

These insidious cancers ate away at the national psyche, each a proximate cause of America’s twenty-first-century infirmity.  The Bush vs. Clinton redux was the straw that broke the camel’s back.  For regular voters who might have been sleepwalking toward another national nightmare filled with Jimmy Carter’s soul-crushing “malaise,” the Deep State’s theatrical pageantry during the 2016 election was simply too grotesque to ignore.

Within weeks of Krauthammer’s prediction, a well known businessman, celebrity, and political “outsider” took a ride down a golden escalator and changed everything.  Donald Trump recognized the significance of the turbulent political winds.  Republican voters recognized the unique opportunity they had to smash the Republican Establishment in the teeth.  Even Democrat voters recognized the revolutionary moment in American history and pushed hard for their version of an “outsider”: Vermont communist Bernie Sanders, a man who would have likely won the Democrat party nomination had Hillary Clinton and Democrat elites not rigged their own primaries.  

It’s worth remembering that Establishment Democrats cleared the primary field for Hillary.  Only she, Bernie, and former Maryland governor Martin O’Malley competed in the first nominating contest, the Iowa caucuses.  When Hillary barely bested Bernie in Iowa (with the closest margin in state history), O’Malley dropped out.  And when Bernie won big in New Hampshire (by over twenty points), Hillary’s planned coronation looked far from certain.  Ultimately, Hillary Clinton prevailed for three reasons: (1) “superdelegates” in the Democrat party vetoed primary voters’ preference for Sanders, (2) Obama’s corrupt DOJ threatened Bernie’s wife with criminal prosecution, and (3) Bernie refused to call out Democrat party officials for actively undermining his campaign.  

Communist Bernie Sanders was never supposed to be serious competition for Hillary Clinton in 2016.  She was supposed to annihilate him in spectacular fashion on her way to a certain nomination and use her landslide victory as a springboard for the general election.  The fact that she managed to beat a relatively unknown Vermont hippie only by rigging the primaries proved that Democrat voters really did not like her.

It’s also worth remembering that Hillary’s campaign was not so quietly pushing for the candidacy of Donald Trump.  While MSNBC hosts such as Joe Scarborough promoted Trump daily until he clinched the nomination, Hillary surrogates went on television and pretended to fear the possibility of facing Trump in the general election.  They should have been afraid, but they most definitely were not.  They couldn’t imagine an easier path to the White House for Hillary Clinton than a scenario in which she had only to beat Vermont communist Bernie Sanders and New York “reality show tycoon” Donald Trump.  

The corporate news media gave Hillary every advantage.  They ignored her culpability in the 2012 Benghazi attack.  They laughed off the fact that she kept top-secret documents on a private server that foreign governments had repeatedly hacked.  They pushed her Russia collusion hoax framing Donald Trump as a Russian asset — effectively conspiring with the Clinton campaign and Obama’s Intelligence Community to defraud the American people.  They did everything they could to aid her in the presidential debates.  They treated her victory as a foregone conclusion.  And still she lost!

So much has happened since President Trump beat Hillary Clinton that it is easy to forget how revolutionary that moment in history was.  For more than a century, the American Establishment had been “manufacturing consent” — pretending to respect the will of the people while engineering elections in which Americans had no real options.  The planned Bush vs. Clinton general election of 2016 was a bridge too far.  Americans detested the idea of another Bush or Clinton, and millions of irregular voters liked what Donald Trump had to say.  

President Trump’s victory represented a massive shift in social consciousness.  Because people are “awake,” the Establishment is afraid.  Now, that’s what I’d call “progress.”

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The 𝐖𝟑𝐏 𝓓𝓐𝓘𝓛𝓨 𝓗𝓾𝓶𝓸𝓻, 𝓜𝓾𝓼𝓲𝓬, 𝓐𝓻𝓽, 𝓞𝓟𝓔𝓝 𝓣𝓗𝓡𝓔𝓐𝓓 

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New York Times Suddenly Concerned About Palantir Data Compilation and Building of Surveillance State

Sundance reporting for CTH 

The New York Times (think DHS embeds) are not concerned about the building of a surveillance state using cross-reference artificial intelligence systems into various government agencies; no, the New York Times (think DHS embeds) are concerned it is President Trump triggering the building of the process, and the parameters therein.

I have outlined this seemingly inevitable construct with great granular detail, that is creating the surveillance state for almost a year. Culminating in a December 2024 recap [SEE HERE] along with my position in January of this year [SEE HERE].  I do not like it, but I understand the arguments behind it.

[New York Times] – In March, President Trump signed an executive order calling for the federal government to share data across agencies, raising questions over whether he might compile a master list of personal information on Americans that could give him untold surveillance power.

Mr. Trump has not publicly talked about the effort since. But behind the scenes, officials have quietly put technological building blocks into place to enable his plan. In particular, they have turned to one company: Palantir, the data analysis and technology firm.

The Trump administration has expanded Palantir’s work across the federal government in recent months. The company has received more than $113 million in federal government spending since Mr. Trump took office, according to public records, including additional funds from existing contracts as well as new contracts with the Department of Homeland Security and the Pentagon. (This does not include a $795 million contract that the Department of Defense awarded the company last week, which has not been spent.)

Representatives of Palantir are also speaking to at least two other agencies — the Social Security Administration and the Internal Revenue Service — about buying its technology, according to six government officials and Palantir employees with knowledge of the discussions.

The push has put a key Palantir product called Foundry into at least four federal agencies, including D.H.S. and the Health and Human Services Department. Widely adopting Foundry, which organizes and analyzes data, paves the way for Mr. Trump to easily merge information from different agencies, the government officials said.

Creating detailed portraits of Americans based on government data is not just a pipe dream. The Trump administration has already sought access to hundreds of data points on citizens and others through government databases.

[…] Palantir’s selection as a chief vendor for the project was driven by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, according to the government officials. At least three DOGE members formerly worked at Palantir, while two others had worked at companies funded by Peter Thiel, an investor and a founder of Palantir. (read more)

Every element of the U.S. surveillance state is contingent upon selling the ‘security’ message.  With a comprehensive and interconnected database of identity for all Americans: •it makes illegal alien captures and deportations more efficient; •it makes eliminating fraud and abuse in the entitlement programs more substantial; •it can make voting more secure, and •it could protect the identity of Americans from theft and exploitation.

Peter Thiel (Palantir), Elon Musk (xAI, SpaceX), Larry Ellison (Oracle), David Sacks and a host of mutually aligned artificial intelligence builders stand to benefit financially from a technologically efficient Surveillance State. Their companies and their AI software products are the targeting tools within the DHS surveillance system itself.

Do not be misled by their ownership of different companies within this construct, they are all mutually allied; factually, they are all friends in the same tech sector.

The tools created by Palantir et al, are multifunctional. They can be used by the Pentagon and CIA for military application, and they can be used by DNI, DHS, FBI and TSA for domestic application.

Just as the Patriot Act redefined “terror threats” to begin sweeping 360 degrees, so too are the tools of the surveillance state designed for both foreign and domestic application.

There is no way to avoid being the target of a weapon once that weapon is created. However, unlike the mutually assured destruction within the nuclear analogy, there will be no threat of mutual application within the surveillance bomb.  There are going to be castes or tiers of people not subjected to the outcome of detonation; therein lies my biggest point against it.

There are going to be tiers of people who are not subjected to the rules of the Surveillance State. There are going to be tiers of people, powerful, influential, some intensely rich people, to whom the application of the surveillance does not exist.

I have already seen this ‘tiered’ system starting to come into place. I have witnessed firsthand the outcomes of the software being deployed within the design of their building.  I have witnessed real identities masked by the system as an outcome of their status. Facial recognition programs that black out search results based on arbitrary definitions and determinations of those who control the surveillance application.

Inside the surveillance system, supported by the policy team behind President Trump, there will be classes of people. Just as we defined “essential workers” within the COVID-19 pandemic. This essential group will be classed based on their administrative value to the government operators who control the mechanics of outcomes; perhaps “essential administrators.” This is a natural outcome of the mindset behind “continuity of government,” the baseline for the Patriot Act creation.

I have traveled throughout the East and West to gain perspective on what makes us different; what makes Americans different.  What I can assert with clarity is that if we lose the Liberty argument then the ideological representatives behind Barack Obama will have succeeded, the fundamental transformation will be irreversible.

While the Declaration of Independence is long regarded as the greatest written declaration of purpose, the latter created Bill of Rights, the first Ten original amendments to the U.S. Constitution, is just as important. The first declared our intent; the second defined how our founders intended to retain the intent during our collective assembly. Together they outline what set the course to make America great.

This frames the cornerstone of my viewpoints on all of the characters in politics.  It is not a matter of debate that on these core issues of Liberty and the concerns around the Surveillance State will impact us all.  Everything else is a downstream consequence.

If the system is unavoidable, then what underpins my opposition?  Well, the tiered system of constitutional protections only for particular categories of personage must be rebuked.  On this matter there cannot be compromise, because every outcome that impedes our way of life is a derivative of this value, “all men are created equal.”

What is the value of national security, when the liberty that secures the values of America is destroyed in the process? Either the Fourth Amendment means something, or it does not!

U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer Explains Current Status of Trade Negotiations, EU Trade Barriers and Court Tariff Challenges

United States Trade Representative Jamieson Greer is the guy who has to navigate all the legal and detailed structures around all of the trade agreements.  As USTR there is a lot of responsibility upon Mr Greer to navigate the way through the impediments thrown at him and President Trump by the multinational corporations and banks who are impacted by the America-First trade policy.

USTR Greer appears on CNBC to discuss some of the current issues and challenges, as well as the solutions and motivations behind them. If you are interested in the legal dynamics behind the larger trade policy issues, these appearances by USTR Greer are important.  WATCH:

Get All Your Shopping Done Now So You Don’t Have To Go Out Till Independence Day

If you care about the mental or spiritual health of children, don’t shop where pride is sold. Recognize that you are being used.

Beth Brelje reporting for The Federalist

Pride stickers and other rainbow trinkets have already been popping up at check-out counters at mom and pop shops and big box stores in anticipation of LGBT “pride month.” By June 1, gay, lesbian, trans, and “queer” merchandise will be at peak stock, signaling a great time to put your debit card on ice until it is over.

Because even if you don’t buy the rainbow-sole shoes at Converse, you still have to sit through a video of same-sex smooching and banal preaching, “Just exist as your authentic self.” And even if you don’t buy the stainless steel “pride-inspired” tumbler at Caribou Coffee to celebrate “the power to Be Yourself,” the company will still donate $5,000 to Rainbow Wardrobe, “which provides free gender-affirming clothing to help individuals express their true selves with confidence.”

Buy their coffee, fill their coffers, and now you are financially supporting genital mutilation culture. If you care about the mental or spiritual health of children, don’t shop where pride is sold. Recognize that you are being used. These companies care about you like a dentist selling cotton candy in the waiting room.

Want proof? Look at Target, which went full rainbow in 2023, with chest binding bathing suits for girls, and “tuck-friendly” swimwear and shorts for young boys. Target faced a backlash of boycotts and responded by moving some merch to less prominent places in its stores.  

This year, Target sort of read the room. It has comparatively tamed its pride offerings to the point of ridicule, and the LGBT community is not happy. But the company is still pandering to the community with five pages of rainbow-themed junk, including bingo cards and a “Live your truth” shirt.

It is also offering a pair of cheap, imported “pride” bird figurines, named “Gal and Pal.” They are part of a collection of possibly cross-dressing drag queen birds? Both birds have long eyelashes, one has pink sunglasses, one appears to be touting the lesbian flag, but they both wear butch vests. Are these chicks romantically entangled, or just pals?

Target also offers the weirdest accessory ever: an almost-bird-sized moving truck for Gal and Pal featuring the lesbian pride flag colors and a “pride” license plate. The driver’s compartment is too small for the birds to fit, but one will fit in the back of the truck. Someone is going to buy that truck with no clue what it stands for.       

Image CreditScreenshot

The 2023 boycotts of Target and Bud Light — after the popular beer launched a marketing campaign centered on a man pretending to be a woman — show it is possible to fight back against the woke absurdity of pandering corporations. If you want respect, don’t let yourself be used. If you want to be special and unique from all other people, good news: not buying the same LGBT pride rainbow socks as 12 other people means you already are. It only lines the pockets of corporations who wanted a holiday between graduation and July 4. 

If you want to live in harmony with other people — if you crave acceptance — don’t be prideful. That is self-absorbed. No group needs a month to celebrate the inherent human dignity within every person. Go chase the original rainbow, learn your true worth, and thrive without needing a T-shirt to prove it.

CBS Is in Turmoil As President Trump Rejects the Network Defamation Suit Settlement Offer

Brad Slager reporting for RedState 

It is somewhat ironic that last weekend, Tom Cruise released the conclusion of his long-running action movie franchise, as it has been a lengthy and arduous path for Paramount Pictures, which faces its own “Mission: Impossible.” As the entertainment giant is straining to strike a new business conglomerate, in terms of business dealings, this has been a saga with an endless string of plot twists.

The latest chapter involves the desire for resolution in a court case involving Donald Trump, but the president has come out to declare that he is rejecting an offer made by the company. His demands are creating a schism inside CBS, as internal conflicts are arising between the news division, its vaunted news program, and the top-level executive suites at Paramount. The developments have been entertaining and are only getting more dramatic.

Paramount Global – parent company of CBS – has been trying to strike a merger agreement with Skydance Media. Paramount began shopping for offers as far back as 2023 with various corporate suitors before settling on terms with Skydance – only to be met with a perpetual series of setbacks; CEO shifts and lawsuits brought by shareholders have queered things repeatedly, but now a real detour involves a bigger antagonist – the White House.

As the two companies have reached final terms, they only need governmental approval, but that was thrown into the trick-bag when Donald Trump filed a suit against CBS for campaign violations based on the infamous Kamala Harris interview that “60 Minutes” conducted ahead of the election. That hatchet job editing performance was regarded as a benefit for the Harris campaign, and the case is winding through the courts. 

This legal wrangling is affecting the governmental approval process, and in an effort to sidestep further delays, the heads of Paramount have been eager to reach a deal with President Trump. They have come up with an offer of $15 million, but this has been roundly rejected. Trump has stated he will not settle for a figure less than $25 million, but there is an issue that looms deeper than the dollar figure. He also has demanded an apology to be made on the air, and this appears to be more of the impediment to a resolution.

Since the emergence of this lawsuit, the battles under the roof at CBS have become apparent. The executives are leaning on the news division to tone down the attack posture made towards the president and his administration in the hopes of quelling the litigation, and the players in that sector of CBS have been resistant. Last month, longtime “60 Minutes” executive producer Bill Owens resigned over the pressure he was receiving from on high. Just over a week ago, the network saw the CEO of the news division, Wendy McMahon, leaving for similar issues.

This shows how the news division, and specifically the staff at “60 Minutes,” are supremely opposed to anything approaching a sober approach to things. On-air anchor Scott Pelley has taken on the role of being the rabid pit bull of the news outfit (if the monotonous cough syrup-induced delivery of Pelley could ever be described as “rabid”). He has delivered a stern rebuke of the Paramount executives on the air, and this past weekend, he was turning improperly political at a college commencement ceremony.

Considering that this merger entails a market valuation of upwards of $8 billion, the haggling over a $10 million sum seems the lesser issue. Based on the behavior and actions from the news division and its revered news program, this call for a formal apology is one thing that will take extreme pressure to see come forth. Based on the fact that we have seen continued aggressive reporting from the news division and obstinate reactions from the “60 Minutes” team, it feels like more jobs will need to come to a conclusion — either voluntarily or by force — before the terms can be met.