VIDEO: Regime Change in Iran is the Only Viable Way to Stop Iran From Trying Destroy Israel and Eventually the Western World

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Regime change in Iran is the only viable way to stop Iran from trying to destroy Israel, it’s Sunni Arab Neighbors, and eventually the Western world.

From an Iranian Perspective, given what happened last Saturday night, Israel should respond ASAP. The best way to do so is go after the regime’s sources of revenue – i.e., its export oil/gas infrastructure in the Persian Gulf.

Please watch a superb interview with the Iranian Crown Iranian Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi’s on why Regime Change is the only effective way to stop Iran from trying to destroy Israel and eventually the Western world, below.

We don’t need American/Israeli troops on the ground to do this. History tells us that once the Iranian people believe their regime cannot do what it needs to stay in power, the people will go out in the streets and do the rest.

I witnessed this first hand when I was going to university in Mashhad, Iran during the early and mid-stages of the 1978-79 Islamic revolution. When they saw the regime was unwilling/unable to do what was necessary to keep itself in power, they revolted and did the rest. Iranian history is replete with many other examples like this.

The best way to make this happen now is destroy the regime’s only source of income – i.e., Iran’s oil/gas export infrastructure. After the regime is gone, that could be rebuilt.

For an example please see the signs in the attached document which appeared in the streets of Tehran immediately after last Saturday’s Israeli destruction of the Iranian missiles and unmanned aerial devices the Iranian regime sent against Israel.

From an Iranian perspective, Israel must respond to Iran’s aggression against Israel ASAP and devastatingly. Otherwise, Israel looks weak. The will embolden the Iranian regime to up the ante against Israel.

Please watch Piers Morgan speaks to the Crown Prince of Iran Rezi Pahlavi [at 2:30 minute mark]:

We don’t need American/Israeli troops on the ground to do this. History tells us that once the Iranian people believe their regime cannot do what it needs to stay in power, the people will go out in the streets and do the rest.

I was going to university in Mashhad, Iran during the early and mid-stages of the 1978-79 Islamic revolution. I saw this in action. When they saw the regime was unwilling/unable to do what was necessary to keep itself in power, they revolted and did the rest. Iranian history is replete with many other examples like this.

The best way to make this happen now is to go after the regime’s source of income – i.e., destroy its only source of income – to destroy Iran’s oil/gas export infrastructure. After the regime is gone, that could be rebuilt.

For an example please see the signs below which appeared in the streets of Tehran immediately after last Saturday’s Israeli destruction of the Iranian missiles and unmanned aerial devices the Iranian regime sent against Israel.

From an Iranian perspective, Israel must respond to Iran’s aggression against Israel ASAP and devastatingly. Otherwise, Israel looks weak. The will embolden the Iranian regime to up the ante against Israel.

©2024. Harold Rhode. All rights reserved.

RELATED VIDEO: “The world should support the Iranian people,” exiled Crown Prince of Iran

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Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch Grills Biden DOJ Over Extreme Jan. 6 Sentences

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Truth Press reports,

“Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch grilled Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar over the extreme prison sentences handed down to January 6 defendants when compared with similarly situated left-wing protesters and rioters, the overwhelming majority of whom face slaps on the wrist if they face any accountability at all.

The court is currently hearing oral arguments in a case brought forward by former Pennsylvania police officer Joseph Fischer, one of several hundred January 6 defendants charged with an obscure felony for “obstruction of an official proceeding.” The novel legal theory draws from the Enron corruption scandal and has been exclusively deployed against January 6 defendants.”

Justice Gorsuch Grills Biden DOJ Over Extreme Jan. 6 Sentences – Truth Press

Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch grilled Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar over the extreme prison sentences handed down to January 6 defendants when compared with similarly situated left-wing protesters and rioters, the overwhelming majority of whom face slaps on the wrist if they face any accountability at all.

The court is currently hearing oral arguments in a case brought forward by former Pennsylvania police officer Joseph Fischer, one of several hundred January 6 defendants charged with an obscure felony for “obstruction of an official proceeding.” The novel legal theory draws from the Enron corruption scandal and has been exclusively deployed against January 6 defendants.

While January 6 defendants are charged with the felony statute, in addition to a handful of misdemeanors, the vast majority of left-wing protesters are not even charged when engaging in similar conduct. There has been no four-year manhunt to hunt down trespassers from the 2020 riots — thousands of whom trespassed on federal property — nor has the DOJ hunted pro-Palestine protesters who have stormed the White House, abortion protesters, far-left militants who attacked federal courthouses in 2020, and thousands of other left-wing protesters who have occupied federal buildings and obstructed proceedings.

During Wednesday’s arguments, Gorsuch pressed Prelogar over the disparities in sentencing while referencing a number of examples, including the protests against Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination. “Would a sit-in that disrupts a trial or access to a federal courthouse qualify? Would a heckler in today’s audience qualify or at the State of the Union address?” Gorsuch questioned.

“Would pulling a fire alarm before a vote qualify for 20 years in federal prison?” he continued, referencing the incident where Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) pulled a fire alarm and caused Congress to pause a vote. Bowman was given a slap on the wrist where he avoided jail time and was merely required to write an apology essay about his actions.

Prelogar responded by referring to real world examples cited by Gorsuch as “hypotheticals.” She went on to state that proving intent is a key aspect of the statute and insinuated that malicious intent was evident in the case of Trump supporters on January 6, though this is not the case with “minor disruptions” from left-wing protesters.

“So that means that if you have some minor disruption or delay or some minimal outburst, we don’t think it falls within the actus reus to begin with,” she said.

“My outbursts require the court to reconvene after the proceeding has been brought back into line, or the pulling of the fire alarm, the vote has to be rescheduled, or the protest outside of a courthouse makes it inaccessible for a period of time. Are those all federal felonies subject to 20 years in prison?” Gorsuch followed up.

Read full article.

©2024. Amil Imani. All rights reserved.

‘No Choice But To Respond’: Israel Weighs Retaliatory Options Against Iran As Biden Admin Urges Restraint

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Israel is weighing retaliation options against Iran, which attacked the country on Saturday, as the Biden administration ramps up calls for restraint.

Iran launched hundreds of ballistic missiles and suicide drones at Israel on Saturday — the vast majority of which were intercepted or missed their targets — in retaliation for Israel’s airstrikes on a diplomatic compound in Syria that killed several high-level Iranian military operatives on Apr. 1. Israel’s war cabinet convened on Monday to weigh response options as the Biden administration and European allies are calling on the country to deescalate the situation and embrace a diplomatic approach, rather than a military one.

President Joe Biden told Israeli Prime Minister  Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday he needed to “take the win” from Iran’s failed attack, which was also deterred by U.S. forces in the region, underscoring concerns that an Israeli response could spark a broader regional conflict, a senior administration official told Axios. Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin during a phone call on Sunday there must be a response to Iran, according to a U.S. official and source familiar with the call who spoke to Axios, though it’s unclear what such a response could look like.

It is unacceptable to allow Iran to launch an attack directly from within its soil when Israel strikes Iranian targets inside of Syria, Gallant reportedly told Austin.

“If Israel absorbs these blows, she will be alone, her deterrence eroded and [Supreme Leader of Iran Ali Khamenei’s] direct attacks normalized,” Mark Dubowitz, CEO of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies (FDD), said on Sunday. “Khamenei will go back to his proxy attacks, the world will just accept them and restrain Israel.”

“Time to hit the head of the Octopus,” Dubowtiz said. “But patience is a virtue.”

It is the first time Tehran has chosen to launch a strike from directly within its soil against Israel since Oct. 7, the day Hamas, an Iranian-backed terror group, invaded Israel and killed roughly 1,200 people, prompting a massive Israeli counter-offensive. Until Saturday, Iran has solely relied on its network of terror groups throughout the Middle East to launch attacks against Israel and its allies.

Netanyahu asked the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to provide him with a readout of potential targets and strike options, including hitting a facility inside of Tehran or launching a cyberattack, an official familiar with the talks told The Washington Post. Israel will likely engage in some sort of retaliatory response, but it’s likely to be measured so as to not spark broader regional conflict, Gabriel Noronha, executive director of Polaris National Security and former State Department official, told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

“Part of this is that the West would be smart if they actually offered tangible, real consequences on Iran to supplement or replace some of this kinetic action which Israel is considering. I think Israel still has to do something retaliatory, that can be kinetic, that can be cyber, that can be covert action, but they have to do something just to rebalance, or to settle the score,” Noronha told the DCNF.  “I don’t think in that Israeli response, they need to do anything lethal. I think if they take out either critical ballistic missile or drone-related infrastructure facilities, or perhaps oil-related, energy-related facilities, without causing the high casualties, I think that’s sort of a way to demonstrate, ‘Hey, you can’t go and launch missiles into our territory without consequence. But we’re not trying to turn into a tit-for-tat.’”

“Now the issue is that Iran is doing some interesting messaging. They’re basically saying, ‘If Israel responds, we will respond 10 times greater.’ That’s ridiculous, they don’t have like they don’t have the measures to do that unilaterally,” Noronha told the DCNF. “One thing is attacked demonstrated is that Iran’s conventional capabilities to attack Israel on their own are really bad. They don’t have they don’t have the ability, apparently, to actually hit targets on their own without using their [terror] proxies.”

Other experts speculated that striking back at Tehran could open a new front of conflict between Israel and Iran, which may threaten Israel’s — already fighting a war in Gaza — national security.

“That is a fight Israel cannot win. The Iron Dome system along with all the allied air power knocking down drones and missiles, performed brilliantly — this time. But Israel burned through a lot of interceptor missiles to knock down those cheap Iranian drones,” retired Lt. Col. Daniel Davis, a senior fellow and military expert at Defense Priorities, told the DCNF. “It seems likely that Iran can produce a lot more Shahid and similar type drones than Israel has Iron Dome and Patriot interceptor missiles.”

“If the two sides get into a sustained war measured in months, Israel may soon find itself with insufficient air defenses,” Davis told the DCNF. “Then even the slow-moving, unsophisticated Shahid drones would cause major harm to Israeli targets, as they pack a significant warhead and have excellent guidance systems.”

During their phone call on Sunday, Gallant told Austin that the current standoff with Tehran creates an opportunity to form “a strategic alliance to counter the threat posed by Iran,” according to Axios. But Biden told Netanyahu during their phone call a day prior that the U.S. would not participate in or support an Israeli counterattack against Iran, which could spur Israel not to strike, Davis told the DCNF.

“Netanyahu is now in a tough position, because if he strikes into Iran now — and especially if he hits Iranian nuclear facilities — he may get condemnation from some quarters in the West,” Davis told the DCNF.

Biden has been criticized for taking a policy of appeasement toward Iran in a bid to try and deter the country from acting hostile to U.S. allies. The Biden administration allowed Iran access to billions of dollars after failing to enforce oil sanctions, paying “ransom” for six hostages in late 2023 and extending a sanctions waiver so that Tehran could have access to revenues made from Iraqi energy transactions.

“President Biden needs to face reality: His policies of appeasing Iran while waging political warfare against Israel led Tehran to conclude it could launch a massive attack on Israel and face no consequences,” Richard Goldberg, senior fellow at FDD, wrote on Sunday. “The White House has been showering Tehran with access to cash in hopes of incentivizing better behavior.”

“It’s quite logical for the mullahs to examine the record and conclude a strategic-level strike on Israel would end in two results: zero consequences for Tehran and pressure on Israel not to respond,” Goldberg said. “Israel, however, has no choice but to respond forcefully to this attack — imposing costs high enough on Tehran to turn the ayatollah’s calculation into a miscalculation.”

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

AUTHOR

JAKE SMITH

Contributor.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

National Guardsman Shoots Migrant Who Allegedly Stabbed Two Others

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A National Guard soldier fired at a migrant who stabbed two individuals at the Texas-Mexico border, according to a document obtained by NewsNation.

The incident occurred on Sunday afternoon along the Rio Grande River in El Paso’s Lower Valley, NewsNation reported. A member of the Indiana National Guard — deployed to the area as part of Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s Operation Lone Star – witnessed an individual stab a fellow migrant and fired their weapon in response, according to the outlet.

The stabbing reportedly took place on the U.S. side of the river.

“Early on the afternoon of 14 April, a National Guard service member assigned to Operation Lone Star discharged a weapon in a border-related incident. The incident is under investigation,” the Texas Military Department said in a statement to the Daily Caller News Foundation on Monday.

The individual crossed back onto the Mexican side of the border after being shot at, NewsNation reported. The document did not make clear if the attacker was struck by the shot.

Investigators later determined that two individuals were stabbed during the incident, according to NewsNation. A local fire and rescue crew responded shortly after and treated both migrants for “superficial wounds” that were not deemed to be life-threatening.

“More information will be made available as the investigation progresses,” the Texas Military Department continued in their statement.

The Texas Department of Public Safety did not immediately respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.

AUTHOR

JASON HOPKINS

Contributor

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

Ethics, Harvard style

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Well, you’ll wait in vain.

Ms. Gay, untouchable due to her being both black and female, while forced to resign as Harvard’s President after her public unwillingness to call out the virulent antisemitic pro-Hamas protests at this once highly esteemed university, has been rewarded with a salary just shy of a million a year.

And, irony of ironies, she’ll be teaching a brand new ethics class!

One may well wonder what the topic will be: Situational ethics? Moral relativism? How to successfully plagiarize beyond your wildest dreams? And/or how to disguise your hatred of Jews as sympathy for those Palestinians who merely want all of Israel for themselves, minus the Jews, from the river to the sea?

The possibilities are rich indeed.

Read more about it in Gateway Pundit here.

©2024. Cherie Zaslawsky. All rights reserved.

To Our friends in the IDF — Stop Talking & Start Planning Your Strategic, Operational & Tactical Response to Destroy the Iranian Government

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To our friends at the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) we salute you and send you our very best wishes.

Congratulations on your success and superior military capabilities in destroying the incoming ballistic missiles and drones fired upon your beautiful country Israel by the terrorist state of Iran.

I am a retired U.S. Navy Senior Chief, Surface Warfare and Air Warfare designated. I served with you in the past at a training command. I am also a veteran of Operation Desert Shield and Operation Desert Storm.

I offer you my military strategic, operational and tactical advice such as it is from my past experiences.

  1. Stop stating publicly that you are going to respond militarily to the terrorist state of Iran. Stop talking and let the evil Iranian government fall into complacency. Instead state the matter is closed when in fact it is not.
  2. Do not tell the Biden administration or any country you consider friendly towards Israel any plans you may have for a future military strike against Iran. The Biden administration will share this information with the Iranian government. The Biden administration is NOT your friend.
  3. Military strategy is the long term planning and execution between adversaries. Military tactics is the movement of military troops on a particular battlefield. You know this already and “You’ve got this covered” just don’t talk about it.
  4. Stop talking to the American and all media outlets unless it’s disinformation because it will be fed back to the Iranian government. Ask yourself why was Biden on vacation over the weekend when he knew Iran was going to attack you.

In Operation Desert Storm in 1991 we told the fake news CNN we would enter Iraq and Kuwait from the South. Saddam Hussein thus relocated most of his military personnel and also buried his Russian made tanks in the Kuwaiti and Iraqi sand in the south after getting this information from CNN.

We then entered Iraq from the north quickly gaining military ground and air superiority. The Iraqi military that was left in the north surrendered quickly.

We then took out the Russian made tanks from the air while the tank crews ran their Air Conditioners as our pilots could see the tank heat signatures from the diesel engines that were used to run the AC units.

Thanks to CNN reporting the false information we fed them we had an easy entry into northern Iraq. CNN is not your friend.

We loved watching the fake news CNN reporting the disinformation from the beach in southern Kuwait and like the idiots they are nobody showed for their party.

Don’t talk to the fake news media unless it’s disinformation.

5. Do nothing and say nothing and wait for our Presidential election in November. Stop talking about future military operations unless it’s disinformation.

Plan your response in destroying the Iranian government in 2025. Trump will be in the White House and he is your true real friend not Biden. You must take out the government and their senior military leadership first.

Iran is a centralized government like most Communist countries. If you take out the people giving the orders first this dismantles their ability to respond to your just deserved military action. You can then take out their nuclear weapons facilities second.

6. Be patient and when the time is right do what must be done to ensure the permanent security of your nation and people. But wait – your enemy must fall into complacency. Right now they are waiting for your response.

7. The Iranian government used over 300 missiles and drones against your homeland and could replace them by 2025 that is true but disregard that.

You’ve already proven your strength and Iran rebuilding its missile and drone inventory should not be taken as a requirement to initiate immediate action against this evil regime. Patience is the key and an unprecedented military strike that totally eradicates their government should be taken but not yet.

Wait until 2025 and wait until Trump has hired real American leadership in our Pentagon that actually supports you. Give him time to rebuild our military leadership and remove the woke commie military leaders currently in our armed forces.

Then do what you have to do without notifying anyone. Bam! Take no prisoners.

Trump will back you up always.

©2024. Geoff Ross. All rights reserved.

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Comparing Two Democrats: Confederate Jefferson Davis and Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr.

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Some would say that America is now in a second Civil War.

The first Civil War was between the Confederates and Union and lasted from April 12, 1861 to April 9, 1865. Elected President of the Confederate States of America was former Democrat Senator Jefferson Davis.

Davis was a compromise candidate chosen to appease both the moderate and radical factions in the Congress.

When the newly formed Confederacy opened fire on Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861, Grant wrote that, “There are but two parties now: traitors and patriots. And I want hereafter to be ranked with the latter.” 

Motivated by love for his country, Grant decided to help the Union cause by serving again in the Army under President Abraham Lincoln.

Fast forward 160 years later to January 20, 2021 and the inauguration of former Democrat Senator Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr. as president of the United States of America.

Biden was also a compromise candidate chosen to appease both the moderate and radical factions of the Democrat Party and Democrat members of the U.S. Congress.

The American Civil War 2.0

The first America Civil War was about seceding from the Union and embracing enslaving of blacks. The first civil war became an armed conflict.

According to the American Battlefield Trust, “The Civil War was America’s bloodiest conflict.  The unprecedented violence of battles such as Shiloh, Antietam, Stones River, and Gettysburg shocked citizens and international observers alike.  Nearly as many men died in captivity during the Civil War as were killed in the whole of the Vietnam War.  Hundreds of thousands died of disease.  Roughly 2% of the population, an estimated 620,000 men, lost their lives in the line of duty.  Taken as a percentage of today’s population, the toll would have risen as high as 6 million souls.”

During his 2nd Inaugural Address on March 4, 1865,  President Abraham Lincoln said, “Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman’s two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said ‘the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether’.”

American Civil War 2.0 is about destroying our Constitutional Republic and replacing it with a one world order. It also requires the enslaving of the American people.

It is yet to be seen if it will become a fully armed conflict, although we are witnessing groups like the pro-Hamas supporters calling for “the death of America” and their storming of the White House and violent marches across America waving the flag of the terrorist group Hamas and the burning of the American flag.

WATCH: Note that this group is called “pro-Palestinian” rather than pro-Hezbollah, note the Hezbollah flag in the background.

The American Civil War 2.0 is in essence not seceding from the United States but rather destroying it from within by a cabal of traitors.

Abraham Lincoln wrote, “America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.”

This effort is spearheaded by an alliance of four groups.

The Red-Green-Rainbow Alliance

An alliance of four groups is the new Confederacy. These four groups are:

  1. The Reds. The Marxists, Leninists, Communists who want to destroy our merit based economy and replace it with a state run and highly regulated dictatorship, much like Cuba. The economy is now controlled by Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) policies at every corporation and business in America. Simply put, ESG measures how a company operates while impact measures what a company does.
  2. The Green Islamists. The Islamists are anti-American, anti-Semitic, anti-Christian and anti-Israel. It has become a driving force globally and across America after the unprovoked October 7th massacre by Hamas.
  3. The Green Eco-Nazis’ Movement. This movement is bent on taking total control of two things: oil and CO2. Taking control of our oil means controlling all aspects of our economy from the automobile industry with all electric vehicles, to how one heats and cools their homes, to the cost of transporting goods and services across America. Control of CO2 is control over our food supply. Plants require CO2 to produce oxygen and food. Control of CO2 emissions leads to increased control over the food supply.
  4. The Rainbow Alliance. The LGBTQIE movement has taken control of our children from K-24, demanding the right to castrate oneself, causing massive gender confusion and has lead to the implementation of diversity, equity and inclusion programs from the schoolhouse to the White House and from the school room to every corporate board room in America. This movement is set on destroying our faith, families and taking away our freedoms.

Here is the most accurate summary titled “The Hour is Getting Late” of Donald J. Trump and why he must win on November 5th, 2024. 

The Bottom Line

When in a Civil War one needs a wartime President.

In a January 9th, 2021 article Cherie Zaslawsky wrote, “Those with the stomach to watch the proceedings in Congress on January 6th witnessed a shameful display of cowardice, deceit, ignorance and treasonous collusion as most of the members in both houses, but especially the Senate, couldn’t sell out their country fast enough.”

At the time  retired United States Air Force Lieutenant General Thomas McEnerny said:

“He [President Trump] has got to declare a national emergency…He should also use The Insurrection Act because we have an insurrection right now in this country…The Democratic perpetrators of this, plus the Russians, Chinese and Iran, have not disguised this cyber warfare on America… This is treason, folks! This is war!”

Stewart Rhodes, the founder of Oath Keepers, put it this way, in an open letter to President Trump:

“It’s time to honor [your] oath by defending the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic. This is your moment of destiny. Will you take your place in history as the savior of our Republic, right up there with President Washington and Lincoln? Or will you fail to act, while you still can, and leave office on January 20, 2021, leaving We the People to fight a desperate revolution/civil war against an illegitimate usurper and his Chicom puppet regime?

You must act NOW as a wartime President, pursuant to your oath to defend the Constitution, which is very similar to the oath all of us veterans swore. We are already in a fight. It’s better to wage it with you as Commander-in-Chief than to have you comply with a fraudulent election, leave office, and leave the White House in the hands of illegitimate usurpers and Chinese puppets. Please don’t do it. Do NOT concede, and do NOT wait until January 20, 2021. Strike now.”

We know what President Donald J. Trump must do when inaugurated on January 20th, 2025.

He must drain the swamp from the schoolhouse to the White House, completely and totally.

©2024. Dr. Rich Swier. All rights reserved.

RELATED VIDEO: Robert Spencer on How the Left Is Trying to Foment a Civil War

If the World Sees Us [with a] Lack of Resolve, ‘They Will Come with Guns Blazing,’ Johnson Warns

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Americans woke up to plenty of terrifying headlines Sunday after Iran lobbed more than 300 missiles and drones at Israel. “The world stands at the brink of an all-out war,” The Telegraph insisted. Columbian President Gustavo Petro publicly despaired, calling the weekend’s attack “a prelude to World War III.” Here at home, President Joe Biden continued to walk a political tightrope, declaring his “ironclad commitment to the security of Israel,” while privately urging Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to suck it up and take whatever Iran dishes out.

Like most people watching the scene unfold, the editors at National Review can’t believe the White House’s suggestion that the Jewish state sit on its hands. “Any effort to impede Israel’s retaliation would be morally disgraceful and strategically inane,” they wrote. “… No nation could live under a situation in which another nation vowing to destroy it can threaten its population in this manner, and rest on the hope that it can meet every future attack with the same amount of success in shooting down weapons.”

On the Hill, leaders saw right through Biden’s cheap political ploy. This is a country, Rubio said of Israel, that has faced “constant existential threats to their existence on a repeated basis. … What I don’t understand is why Joe Biden and the administration would leak to the media, the contents of a conversation which he tells Netanyahu he doesn’t think that Netanyahu should respond at all,” unless, as he suspects, it’s to placate their pro-Palestine, anti-Semitic base. “It is the continuing part of the public game they are playing which frankly encourages Iran and Hezbollah.”

But then, as plenty of experts have pointed out, Biden has already done more than his share to help the Islamist regime. “Within weeks of taking office, Biden removed the terrorist designation on Iran’s proxy in Yemen, the Houthis,” NRO’s editors pointed out. “[H]e allowed the U.N. sanctions against the Iranian missile and drone program to expire. Those were the types of weapons not only that were used [Saturday] night but that Iran has sold to Russia for use against Ukraine.”

When pressed about the decision to relax sanctions — ultimately giving Iran five months to build up its missile capabilities and cash reserves — U.S. National Security Council Coordinator John Kirby defended Biden. Asked by Fox News’s Shannon Bream if the administration could’ve done more to deter Tehran, Kirby claimed that it was “hard to look at what President Biden has done with respect to Iran and say that he hasn’t been tough on Iran.”

That’s interesting, former National Security Council member Richard Goldberg said, since Biden hasn’t stopped the flow of money to Iran since the weekend’s attacks. The U.N. Security Council called an emergency meeting Sunday only to adjourn without taking “any meaningful action.” It’s unfathomable to Goldberg, who pointed out, “This was a massive, unprecedented, and unacceptable strategic attack on Israel. It would be a huge mistake to pull Israel back from a military retaliation — but it’s downright insanity to keep $10 billion accessible to Tehran in the aftermath. The president needs to lock down all the money he made available to Tehran these past months.”

Although American Ambassador Robert Wood made a tepid promise that Washington “will explore additional measures to hold Iran accountable,” no one is quite sure what that means. Meanwhile, Mark Dubowitz wanted people to know, there’s been a “massive increase in Iranian nuclear enrichment since President Biden [was] elected.” “Facts are stubborn things,” he warned. “So is [Ayatollah] Khamenei when he faces minimal American pressure and massive sanctions relief.”

At the very least, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) told the press, Congress can finally finish the work of Israeli aid that he started more than five months ago. As Family Research Council President Tony Perkins pointed out on “This Week on the Hill,” the first substantive bill that the House passed after Johnson took the gavel was $14.5 billion in assistance for Israel — which the new speaker offset by cutting an IRS slush fund. Democrats voted against it. “And what has the Senate done with it?” Perkins asked Johnson.

“Well,” he replied, “nothing. It’s been sitting on [Schumer’s] desk. I tried again to do a clean Israel [bill] just a full unpaid for assistance. One hundred sixty-six House Democrats voted against it, and Joe Biden threatened to veto it. A clean Israel funding bill. They said no. That’s a pretty amazing thing.”

Even more incredible, Johnson invited Netanyahu to speak before a joint session of Congress, and Schumer refuses to authorize it — despite being the highest-ranking, longest-serving Jewish member of Congress. “It’s stunning, it really is,” the speaker agreed. What happened to Israel being a bipartisan issue, Perkins wanted to know? “Right,” Johnson replied. “The Democrats are turning their back on Israel now [from] the president on down.”

It’s all “deeply concerning” to Netanyahu, the speaker relayed after multiple conversations with the prime minister. “It’s almost unbelievable that the president has turned his back since October 7th on Israel. They’re leaning into the pro-Hamas, pro-protestor branch of their party. … [T]hey’re fearful of that wing of the party. And it’s a rising number of young progressives who are screaming that Israel is the enemy somehow. … You had 50 House Democrats just a few days ago, sent a letter saying that we should no longer have arms transfers to Israel so they can defend their very existence,” he pointed out. “It’s incredible.”

This whole shift in the Democratic Party is alarming, Johnson agreed. “The reason we stand with Israel, for us, it’s a matter of faith, but it’s also a matter of geopolitical stability. They’re the only democracy in the Middle East.”

Before he was speaker, Johnson talked about a meeting with Netanyahu and his cabinet, where they told him, “We want to remind you all that the reason that Israel can stand is because they know that our brother America — the big brother — as it were, is standing behind them, looking over their shoulder.” In other words, he explained, “If the world ever sees that we lack that resolve, they will come with all guns blazing, literally, against Israel. It’s a dangerous, dangerous situation right now. We cannot show a lack of resolve.”

And “the idea that we would not roll out the red carpet and invite our close friend and ally to come and update the Congress on [the war], to me, is unconscionable,” he reiterated. But these issues are going to come home to roost, Johnson warned. If the Democratic Party continues to be held hostage by radical forces that want to abandon Israel, it spells trouble for Biden and company.

“I think they’ve got a very real political problem on their hands. But this should transcend politics. This is bigger than that. This is about safety and security, not just [for] Israel, but the American people. We have got to stand strong right now. They need to put politics aside. But, yes, they’ve got a real problem going into an election year when a rising number of their base is now turning against Israel.”

The Americans who care about this situation, who understand the importance of our ally Israel, need to “let their voices be heard,” Johnson urged. “They need to prevail upon members of Congress to get this job done. I’ve tried to get Israel funded [with] the supplemental, the defense package, that they need. It’s about $14 billion.”

The Middle East is a tough neighborhood, Perkins pointed out. Most of the surrounding nations have threatened to wipe Israel off the map — including Iran. And “you cannot fight to a draw. You have to fight to win. The prime minister understands that. But apparently, the Biden administration does not.”

AUTHOR

Suzanne Bowdey

Suzanne Bowdey serves as editorial director and senior writer at The Washington Stand.

EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2024 Family Research Council.

The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

Elementary School Denies Request to Start Prayer Club, Approves ‘Pride Club’

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In 2015, religious freedom seemed compromised when a Washington high school football coach was fired for praying with his team after a game. Joe Kennedy waited roughly six years for the Supreme Court to hear the oral arguments for his case. He was represented by a Christian nonprofit legal organization, First Liberty Institute (FLI), which took the position that “no teacher or coach should lose their job for simply expressing their faith while in public.” This was a notable case in 2022, and recent events have caused the issue to resurface.

Earlier this year, Laura, an 11-year-old girl who attends Creekside Elementary in Washington State, requested to start an interfaith prayer club at her school. But her request was denied.

When Laura and her mom approached the principal about the matter in February, they were informed that the school’s budget for clubs had been finalized in October. And according to a spokesperson for Issaquah School District, “[C]lubs offered are student-interest driven and meet outside of the school day. At the elementary level, participation in a club also requires parent permission. Once the school year begins, the building budget is set, and additional clubs are usually not added until the following school year.” But the story doesn’t end here.

Laura’s group, which she hoped to start with her friend, was meant to include people of all different religious backgrounds. She shared with Fox News that she was feeling alone, and that she thought this would be a good idea to bring students together. “I think that this is something that I am very passionate about,” she added. “I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t really want to make this happen, if I didn’t think that it would be a great opportunity for everyone.” It was later discovered that an LGBT club was approved only a week prior to Laura’s club request being denied, which has caused spectators to raise their eyebrows.

As a result of this alleged hypocrisy, Laura filed a lawsuit on the grounds of religious discrimination with the help of FLI. Attorneys pointed out in a letter to the school, “The First Amendment ‘doubly protects religious speech.’ These First Amendment protections extend to elementary school students expressing their sincere religious beliefs through voluntary clubs. Yet the school district flouted its First Amendment obligations when they refused to allow a student-led interfaith prayer club. Its unlawful action violates both the Free Exercise Clause and the Free Speech Clause.”

Kayla Toney, associate counsel at First Liberty Institute, explained, “Denying the formation of a religious student club while allowing other clubs violates the Constitution,” drawing attention to the fact that the similar case with Coach Kennedy occurred “just a short drive away” from Laura’s elementary school. And in comments to The Washington Stand, Arielle Del Turco, Family Research Council’s director of the Center for Religious Liberty, said, “The fact that Creekside Elementary denied a religious club the same month that it approved a Pride club reveals a lot about American culture right now.”

She continued, “Sadly, the promotion of LGBT identities is held sacred while religion is sidelined and marginalized. It’s heartbreaking that Laura, a fifth-grade student, felt alone at school as a religious believer and that she knew other students who felt the same way. She reacted in exactly the right way by making an effort to build community with religious students.”

Del Turco went on to emphasize that, “Oftentimes, when people seek to prevent religious expression in government venues, they will use the excuse that they don’t want to imply that the government favors one religion over another.” However, when it comes to Laura’s case, she pointed out that “the school doesn’t even have that flimsy excuse because the students were seeking to start a … club that would be open to students of different faiths.”

Ultimately, “Any school that allows other clubs while specifically denying religious clubs is acting in a discriminatory manner and violating the First Amendment, which protects freedom of expression and the free exercise of religion.” Del Turco concluded, “Christian fifth graders shouldn’t face viewpoint discrimination from their school leadership. It shouldn’t have had to come to this, but I fully expect this injustice to be rectified in the courts.”

AUTHOR

Sarah Holliday

Sarah Holliday is a reporter at The Washington Stand.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2024 Family Research Council.

The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

‘It’s Bullsh*t’: Marine At Center Of New Afghanistan Probe Accuses Pentagon Of Covering Up Evidence

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A Marine at the center of a supplemental probe into the deadly suicide bombing during the 2021 U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan accused the Pentagon of concealing information showing it could have been prevented.

Former Sgt. Tyler Vargas-Andrews caused a stir after he testified in March 2023 that he had sights on an individual he and others on the ground believed to be the suicide bomber while in the guard tower next to Abbey Gate, but was denied permission to engage. After CENTCOM opened up a new probe into the incident to address his allegations and found nothing to corroborate them, the former sniper told the Daily Caller News Foundation he agreed the bomber suspect at the time was a “separate individual” from the man the Pentagon just identified as the perpetrator but stood by his testimony.

“That is the truth. For anyone to say that this wasn’t preventable when we had on the ground intel passed to us stating the threat, it’s bullshit. We were told that the bomber was headed to Abbey Gate in real time, we all knew that,” he told the DCNF.

“I believe that a lot has been covered up,” he added.

Vargas-Andrews lost two of his limbs in the bombing, which took the lives of 13 U.S. service members and killed and wounded dozens of Afghan civilians.

Marines stationed in and around the watchtower near Hamid Karzai International Airport’s Abbey Gate may have confused formal intelligence with “spot reports” made by service members in real time that had not been vetted, the secondary review found, according to The Washington Post.

“Over the past two years, some service members have claimed that they had the bomber in their sights, and they could have prevented the attack,” a U.S. official on the supplemental review team said on Friday, according to CNN. “But we now know that is not correct.”

While Vargas-Andrews disputed the finding, he did not dispute that the person Marines at the time believed to be the prime threat was not the eventual bomber, he told the Post.

The first investigation completed in November 2021 concluded a lone suicide bomber managed to bypass Taliban checkpoints but contained nothing to suggest the perpetrator had been identified or that a request to shoot traveled up the chain of command, interview logs show.

Investigators, “although as thorough as they could be,” told Vargas-Andrews and his team during the course of the secondary probe that photos of the bomber, which were taken while the sniper team was tracking threats, could not be retrieved from any facility in the Pentagon or a U.S. intelligence agency.

“They stated they combed through everything high and low,” he told the DCNF. “So what happened to those hundreds of photos, which are potential intelligence? That is a failure.”

Many photos Vargas-Andrews’ sniper team collected, and photos taken by other units, vanished during the course of the chaotic evacuation in August 2021, a person familiar with the investigation told the Post. Those included two individuals the snipers requested to shoot.

One individual nicknamed the “man in black,” due to his black headscarf and shaved head, was thought to be the suicide bomber, CNN reported.

Vargas told the DCNF the photo of the suspect referenced in the report came from a cell phone and was taken from the display on his team’s camera

CENTCOM’s secondary report identified the bomber as Abdul Rahman Al-Logari, an Islamic State (ISIS) operative whom the Taliban had recently released from prison, according to CNN. Cross-comparison of the figures in each photo — CENTCOM obtained al-Logari’s prison mugshot — “received the strongest negative possible rating” they depicted the same person, officials said.

Vargas-Andrews maintained he still had an opportunity to engage the bomber.

“I will stand by my testimony and what we experienced till the day I die,” Vargas-Andrews told the DCNF.

CENTCOM did not immediately respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.

AUTHOR

MICAELA BURROW

Investigative reporter, defense.

RELATED ARTICLE: Pentagon Won’t Respond To New Research Casting Doubt On Studies Supporting Military’s DEI Push

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

The Mullahs Ruling Iran Are Not Iranians

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I have repeatedly said that the mullahs ruling Iran are not Iranians. They truly despise Iran and its glorious past. Genetically, they are mostly Arabs. They even hate its name. There were never any questions about the Islamists denigrating Iran and exalting Muhammad. These creatures owe their very livelihood to the lucrative business that Muhammad launched for their parasitic, shameful existence. It is vital for these leeches to continue trumpeting the sainthood of the founder of their business and driving all the competition out of business.

Just recently, Sayyid Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami became a senior Iranian cleric, as well as a senior member of the Assembly of Experts, also Tehran’s Friday prayer leader. He once proved me right. Give this worm credit for paying homage to the source of his shameful livelihood.

“How dare the people of Iran even think of having a revolution or a referendum! This government belongs to Imam Zaman (The Lord of the Age), and if anyone considers himself an Iranian, he needs to get the hell out of here. This soil belongs to us, the followers of Imam Zaman and his tribe. Iran’s name was created by ignorant people, and incidentally, this name is very provocative. This ignorant name (Iran) must be changed to something like “Velayat” lest it provoke our enemies (Iranian people).”

The battle against these inhuman (subhuman) oppressors in Iran has been arduous and long. It is the battle of Iran’s true sons and daughters and the rest of mankind. It remains our duty to work our hardest to remove these leeches from power.

We recognize that the dysfunctional Islamic software is deeply ingrained in the minds of many Muslims, who opt to remain in mental bondage rather than purge their minds of this software and join the rest of the human family with a new emancipating program for life: liberty.

Islamic clergy, the parasitic prime beneficiaries of Islam, are master practitioners of the carrot-and-stick strategy. By drawing heavily from the Quran and the Hadith, the conniving mullahs and imams have assembled a potent arsenal of threats and promises to keep the faithful in line. They had little trouble in so doing since Islamic scripture is replete with descriptions of the graphic horrific punishment awaiting the wayward and the unbelievers, while the rewards for the obedient and docile if they are male, are described as an endless variety of sensual pleasures. Anyone daring to leave the corral of Islam is apostate and automatically condemned to death. And that’s just for starters. The punishment awaiting the ungrateful deserter of the one and only true path, Islam, is horrific eternal torment in Allah’s hell.

The Islamic Republic of Iran, which holds in great contempt any non-Islamic belief or heritage, has embarked on destroying many pre-Islamic archeological sites in Iran, such as Pasargad and Persepolis — some of humanity’s most prized cultural heritage — on the pretext of building a dam. The heinous destruction of the two Bamiyan Buddha statues by Afghanistan’s Taliban pales in comparison to the present barbaric designs of the Islamic Republic. Pasargad and Persepolis are more than a mere collection of ancient structures. They are an embodiment of humanity’s historical respect for liberty and tolerance of diversity.

But the high clergy of Iran is not exactly living up to its brand. The mullah Mafia has a great scam going. They promise the ignorant Islamic devotees the phony “paradise” of the afterlife while they themselves enjoy their paradise of women, wealth, and wine on this earth. They are unrivaled in duplicity and heartlessness. So, in nearly perfect emulation of Muhammad and his leadership 1400 years ago, the pious mullahs go about plotting earthly destruction as they enrich themselves and enjoy earthly pleasures on the backs of their people.

Many Iranians are praying that help is on its way and that the ongoing protests now will not result in a repeat of 2009, when Obama threw a lifeline to the mullahs’ regime by not supporting the Iranian people, in effect siding with the genocidal mullahs. The turbaned thugs were taking their final breath, being completely broke, and the good old USA came to the rescue, releasing billions of dollars and easing other sanctions. I will never understand this.

My aspiration for my motherland is to see it freed from the evil that has been visited upon it ever since our people bought into a most depraved version of Islam. Whether people become Baha’is, Zoroastrians, or Christians, this should be a free choice for each person. Even if a person insists on remaining Muslim, that is his or her prerogative. Yet imposing the suffocating intolerance of Islam on an entire nation is something that neither I nor any person who lives in Iran can accept. Our beloved Iran deserves to be a country where, once again, we take pride in being its children instead of the present, when we often do all we can to conceal our nation of birth when visiting abroad.

©2024. Amil Imani. All rights reserved.

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ELECTION RIGGING: Corrupt Biden-Donor Judge Says He Will Arrest Trump If He Skips One Day of Months Long Trial

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If you can’t beat him, arrest him.

They banned him from attending his son’s graduation. And far more broadly, they are deliberately keeping him off the campaign trail.

Murderers, rapists, looters, illegal criminals roam our streets with impunity but Trump will be arrested.

Trump Judge Merchan Warns Of Arrest If Trump Disrupts Or Skips Hush Money Trial

Story by Brian Bushard, Forbes Staff

New York Judge Juan Merchan on Monday warned former President Donald Trump could be arrested if he disrupts proceedings or skips the trial in his hush money case in Manhattan, as prosecutors claim Trump violated his gag order.

Key Facts

Trump, who faces 34 felony charges for allegedly falsifying business documents stemming from hush money payments to former adult film star Stormy Daniels, appeared in the Manhattan court Monday morning for a trial expected to last six weeks, despite Trump’s efforts to delay the proceedings.

Trump attorney Todd Blanche argued on Monday that Trump wants to be present for trial proceedings including sidebar conferences during the trial and voir dire—the initial examination of a witness or a juror…

Continue reading.

AUTHOR

Pamela Geller

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EDITORS NOTE: This Geller Report is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

NYC: Pro-Hamas protestors scream ‘Death to America,’ burn American flag

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No one will be deported. No one will even be investigated. It isn’t as if these were “insurrectionists” or some other group that is out of favor with the regime.

AUTHOR

ROBERT SPENCER

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EDITORS NOTE: This Jihad Watch column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Supreme Court To Weigh Case That Could Upend Hundreds Of Jan. 6 Prosecutions

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The Supreme Court will hear a case Tuesday that could have major implications for hundreds of Jan. 6 defendants — as well as special counsel Jack Smith’s prosecution of former President Donald Trump.

The case, Fischer v. United States, asks the Supreme Court to weigh the scope of an obstruction statute, Section 1512(c)(2), which penalizes anyone who corruptly “obstructs, influences, or impedes any official proceeding” with up to 20 years in prison. Joseph Fischer, who entered the Capitol on Jan. 6, argues that his prosecution under the law for obstructing Congress’ certification of the 2020 election was an “unprecedented expansion” of the statute.

The law, enacted as part of the Corporate Fraud and Accountability Act of 2002, was intended to target evidence tampering, focusing on “deterring fraud and abuse by corporate executives,” Fischer argues.

“Before the January 6 cases, no court had applied Section 1512(c)(2) to conduct not intended to affect the availability or integrity of evidence,” Fischer’s attorneys argued in a brief. “Nor had a defendant ever been convicted of an obstruction-of-Congress offense outside the context of a legislative inquiry or investigation.”

Fischer stated he was in the Capitol for less than four minutes —  after Congress had already recessed — and “was not part of the mob that forced the electoral certification to stop.” He was arrested in February 2021 on several charges, including assaulting Capitol police.

Should the Supreme Court agree with Fischer, it could impact not just his case, but hundreds of defendants the Department of Justice (DOJ) charged with a felony under the statute. Over 353 of the nearly 1,387 Jan. 6 defendants have been charged with “corruptly obstructing, influencing, or impeding an official proceeding,” according to the DOJ.

Several defendants have already been granted early release ahead of the ruling, including Kevin Seefried, Alexander Sheppard and Thomas B. Adams Jr., according to The Washington Post.

“It takes four justices to grant certiorari and, although this court will not attempt to read tea leaves, the Supreme Court’s decision to review Fischer means, at a minimum, that this case poses a ‘close question,’” District Court Judge Amit P. Mehta wrote in the January decision granting Adams’ release.

The government argues that the text “is not limited to conduct that affects the integrity or availability of evidence.”

“Instead, Congress adopted a traditional catchall clause, reaching all forms of corrupt obstruction of an official proceeding,” it said in a brief.

The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals favored the government’s interpretation 2-1 in an April 2023 ruling, finding that the “meaning of the statute is unambiguous.”

“Under the most natural reading of the statute, §1512(c)(2) applies to all forms of corrupt obstruction of an official proceeding,” Judge Florence Pan, a Biden appointee, wrote in the majority opinion.

But Judge Gregory Katsas, a Trump appointee, wrote that the government’s interpretation was “mistaken,” making it “implausibly broad and unconstitutional in a significant number of applications.”

“Among other things, that construction would sweep in advocacy, lobbying, and protest—common mechanisms by which citizens attempt to influence official proceedings,” he wrote. “Historically, these activities did not constitute obstruction unless they directly impinged on a proceeding’s truth-seeking function through acts such as bribing a decisionmaker or falsifying evidence presented to it.”

“The government’s reading is also hard to reconcile with the structure and history of section 1512, and with decades of precedent applying section 1512(c) only to acts that affect the integrity or availability of evidence,” he wrote.

Republican Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton, House Judiciary Committee Chair Rep. Jim Jordan and 21 other members of Congress wrote in an amicus brief filed with the Supreme Court that the lower court’s ruling “will only reward and incentivize politically motivated uses of ill-fitting criminal statutes with harsh penalties.”

While the Supreme Court will weigh Trump’s bid to dismiss his election interference case based on presidential immunity in April, the Fischer case could also jeopardize part of the indictment.

Two of Trump’s charges in his election interference case are centered on the obstruction statute. Smith’s indictment alleges Trump used “knowingly false claims of election fraud to obstruct the federal government function by which those results are collected, counted, and certified.”

New York University law professor Richard A. Epstein wrote for the Hoover Institution in March that a correct reading of the statute “torpedoes a key part of the Smith indictment.”

“Trump never entered the Capitol building, and he never made any statement urging rioters to enter the building,” he wrote. “His despicable conduct consisted of watching the proceedings before asking the rioters and trespassers to leave the premises, which does not count as obstruction under any legal authority of which I am aware.”

Smith addressed this in the footnote of his brief filed this week in Trump’s election interference, claiming the charges would still be valid regardless of the Supreme Court’s decision on how to read the text of Section 1512(c)(2). He wrote that the “use of falsehoods or creation of ‘false’ documents satisfies an evidence-impairment interpretation.”

Trump’s case is currently on hold at the district court pending the justices’ decision. Oral arguments will be held April 25 to consider Trump’s presidential immunity argument.

AUTHOR

KATELYNN RICHARDSON

Contributor.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

‘Hammered From All Sides’: Minority Truckers Say California’s Green Regs Are Destroying Their American Dream

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Minority truckers are struggling to stay afloat as the state of California levies stringent green regulations on their businesses, according to some of those affected who spoke with the Daily Caller News Foundation.

The California Air Resources Board (CARB), California’s environmental regulatory agency, will ban the sale of new diesel heavy-duty trucks starting in 2036, a policy partially motivated by a desire to improve health outcomes for minority populations. That requirement is the latest in a string of similar requirements imposed in recent years, all of which have made it excessively difficult for minorities to operate their own trucking enterprises and pursue the American dream, some of those small business owners told the DCNF.

“Many California neighborhoods, especially Black and Brown, low-income and vulnerable communities, live, work, play and attend schools adjacent to the ports, railyards, distribution centers and freight corridors and experience the heaviest truck traffic,” CARB said in 2020 after proposing its most recent “clean truck” rule. That particular rule for trucks was motivated in part to address the “disproportionate risks and health and pollution burdens affecting these communities,” the agency said at the time.

While bureaucrats writing the rules pitch them as a way to reduce respiratory and health ailments in minority communities that live in and around frequently-trafficked trucking routes, some minority truckers told the DCNF that the rules are squeezing them financially in ways that render any purported health benefits moot.

“A lot of our members are minority-owned small businesses,” Joe Rajkovacz, the director of governmental affairs and communications for the Western States Trucking Association, told the DCNF. “Here in California, there is a decided indifference to small business trucking by both politicians and bureaucrats.”

Randy Thomas, a black man, grew up in South Central Los Angeles as the son of a World War II veteran and a lifelong resident of California. He ran his trucking firm for many decades, growing his business from a one-man operation to a company that employed 15 drivers and provided enough income to send all of his children to college, making them the first in his family to get the chance to do so.

By 2009, the regulatory environment left him no choice to shut down his business, as it did not make financial sense for him to purchase new and expensive trucks to meet new mandates.

“I did my first trip when I was 20. Everything was going great from 1971 up until around the time that (former President Barack) Obama got into office,” Thomas told the DCNF. “By 2008, we come up with this clean truck program here. We were having all these meetings. I’m looking at the division between the environmentalists, telling us about CO2 and gases …  I’m looking at the charts of what our engines that we had at that time, which were made mainly mechanical diesel, and they had no idea what engine was gonna be the engine they were writing into prospective goals.”

“Guys are going out of business like you wouldn’t believe,” Thomas told the DCNF about other Californian truckers he knows.

After closing his business, Jackson moved on to a different company, and he still drives truck routes delivering medical supplies and other time-sensitive loads. But, as he explained to the DCNF, “it wasn’t my company anymore.”

Bill Aboudi, a Palestinian-American who still owns his own small trucking company operating out of the Port of Oakland, touched on some of the same themes in an interview with the DCNF.

Aboudi was born in 1966, and his father went missing in action during the Six Day War between Israel and a coalition of Arab states in 1967. Aboudi immigrated to the U.S. when he was 14 years old, and started helping his brother out with his trucking business in 1989 after he got out of the California National Guard and never left the industry.

“I live in the middle of getting hammered from all sides. One of the first things that CARB always makes it out to be, is if you’re in the trucking business, you’re a polluter. I always try and explain to them, I’ve got an organic garden, I have about three fruit trees in my backyard. I used to keep bees … I’ve got 12 chickens. I love the environment, and I want to get the best technology for my operation,” Aboudi told the DCNF. “It seems like the regulators have no clue. They want to be able to turn on a switch and have everybody switch directionally right away … They end up reducing our company size and stunting our growth.”

Assembly Bill 5, which reclassified California’s 70,000 independent owner-operators as employees of shipping companies rather than independent contractors, was another policy that hurt the workers politicians purported to help, Aboudi said.

“This kills the liberty of being a trucker and kills the American dream,” Miguel Ramirez, a Los Angeles-based trucker, told the DCNF in July 2022.

It’s not just truckers who are impacted by regulations and their impacts on California’s trucking operators, Aboudi explained to the DCNF. There are many thousands of blue-collar workers — including immigrants like him — whose jobs rely on California’s busy ports, providing parts for trucks and other closely-related trades.

“I am still paying for trucks that I upgraded on the last round, and I can’t use them,” Aboudi continued, referencing older regulations. “Now I’m paying for the newer trucks that I upgraded to. And I’m being told I’m gonna have to go to zero-emission trucks that are still in the first stage of development … We’ve already had to downsize our company from 13 trucks to eight trucks.”

While bureaucrats in Sacramento and the supporters of their political superiors in Los Angeles and San Francisco may think that their progressive approach to environmental policy is benefiting minority communities, the opposite is true in many cases, according to Donna Jackson, the director of membership development for the National Center for Public Policy Research’s Project 21.

“California leads the country in enacting climate change policies that are increasingly leading to tiered social classes, the rich and the poor,” Jackson told the DCNF. “Like the Biden administration, California has ignored the real needs of underserved communities. Its climate change policies are destroying minority businesses and creating needless barriers to upward economic mobility. The result of all of this is not just job losses, but lost role models, financially unstable families, declining home ownership rates and a loss of community pride.”

CARB did not respond immediately to a request for comment.

AUTHOR

NICK POPE

Contributor.

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Biden Admin Signals Support For Embattled High-Speed Rail Project. Critics Say It’s A ‘Boondoggle’

 

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