53percenter's Blog

The watchdog group StopAntiSemitism.org — which describes itself as a group that “exposes anti-Semitism in all facets of American society through social media platforms and mobilizes Americans through petitions that call to action” — currently has nearly 34,000 signatures for a Change.org petition entitled, “Call on US AG & Antisemitism Envoy Carr to Probe Hamas Affiliated CAIR Ties in Congress.”

The petition makes claims about the Council on American-Islamic Relations’ (CAIR) alleged ties to the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas, and mentions that CAIR was an unindicted co-conspirator in the 2008 Holy Land Foundation case, which was the biggest terror financing case in the history of the U.S. Department of Justice. The petition then ends with a call for U.S. Attorney General William Barr and U.S. Special Envoy for Monitoring and Combating Anti-Semitism Elan Carr to “investigate” any ties between freshman congresswomen Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), and CAIR.

The investigation that the petition calls for may or may not be legitimate. After all, Omar and Tlaib do not in any way hide their affiliations with CAIR.

Regardless, according to StopAntiSemitism.org, the petition is being censored by Change.org.

A press release obtained by The Daily Wire from StopAntiSemitism.org claims the following:

Change.org is aggressively censoring a petition that calls for action against anti-Semitism, which was posted by the watchdog group StopAntisemitism.org. Over the past year, Stop Antisemitism has frequently used the Change.org platform to issue public petitions calling out anti-Semites who threaten and undermine the security of Jewish people and the broader values of the United States. Stop Antisemitism’s past and current petitions are endorsed by nearly 100,000 individuals. …

While Change.org admitted by email on April 3, 2019, that user searches and comments on the petition were disabled, the company has not corrected these issues nor addressed the other allegations. Zachor Legal Institute received a response from Change.org that ignored all substantive questions and concerns raised by its letter.

“Change.org is at odds with its own rules, procedures and guidelines. They refuse to provide substantive responses or uphold their stated mission.” Zachor Legal Institute President Marc Greendorfer said. “The company that claims to empower individuals around the world to be agents of positive change is complicit in our problems.”

The press release also claims that “[t]he option for users to contribute funds to promote the petition after signing it is unavailable” and that “[s]ome users reported that they are unable to sign the petition.”

As The Daily Wire has reported extensively, Omar has frequently trafficked in anti-Semitic tropes and peddled conspiracy theories since joining Congress. For example, The Daily Wire’s Ryan Saavedra reported in March on her serial peddling of the age-old dual loyalty canard:

Embattled Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) ignited another firestorm on Sunday when she made anti-Semitic comments to a Jewish member of Congress, accusing the congresswoman of wanting her to have dual loyalties to Israel. …

On Sunday, Rep. Nita Lowey (D-NY), who is also Jewish, also called out Omar for her anti-Semitic remarks from last week, tweeting: “Lawmakers must be able to debate w/o prejudice or bigotry. I am saddened that Rep. Omar continues to mischaracterize support for Israel. I urge her to retract this statement and engage in further dialogue with the Jewish community on why these comments are so hurtful.”

Omar responded: “Our democracy is built on debate, Congresswoman! I should not be expected to have allegiance/pledge support to a foreign country in order to serve my country in Congress or serve on committee. The people of the 5th elected me to serve their interest. I am sure we agree on that!”

While the United States experiences an “unprecedented” bogus asylum claim-driven migrant influx crisis at our beleaguered southwestern border, less attention is often paid to the contraband that seeps over that porous border — at the behest of the transnational gangs, trafficking rings, and cartels — every single day.

Fentanyl, which is an extremely lethal drug, is perhaps the prime example of the incredibly harmful effects of cartels having “operational control of the border” — as freshman congressman Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) described the situation in his maiden House floor speech. Daniel Horowitz wrote last year at Conservative Review about the fentanyl epidemic:

Rather than a steady decline in fatalities from overdoses to match the decline in prescription opioids, everything went bonkers from 2013 to the present, after the public and politicians turned against the use of prescription opioids. We saw a spike in deaths of unfathomable proportions, getting worse every year through 2014, 2015, and 2016. The level of fatalities doubled and tripled in those states as, not surprisingly, heroin and fentanyl flooded the market. …

The [drug] epidemic we are facing today is not from prescription opioids, at least not more than it has been for an entire generation. The number of prescriptions has already been reduced dramatically, and the overdose rate has leveled off and even dropped in some of the most affected states since 2016, like Ohio. Almost the entirety of the increased fatalities above the long-term existing trajectory beginning in 2012 were from illicit drugs and mainly from the most dangerous one – heroin. Then, as heroin use began to skyrocket in 2013-2014, we began to see the growth of the cursed synthetic drug – fentanyl – which is 50-100 times stronger than morphine and can kill in small quantities. It’s often laced into heroin. In pretty much every state, fentanyl has skyrocketed to such a level that it has overtaken heroin as the leading drug killer. Cocaine and meth overdoses have also gone up a lot but are not nearly as serious.

Now, Jordan Schachtel of Blaze Media reports that U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers announced this week that they interdicted another large shipment of fentanyl that smugglers had attempted to sneak across the border:

Feds announced Tuesday that officials had intercepted 26 pounds of fentanyl, an extremely potent and frequently lethal drug, that was hidden inside of a truck subject to a secondary inspection at the Juarez-Lincoln International Bridge. The bridge separates Laredo, Texas, from the Mexican city of Nuevo Laredo.

A KGNS-TV report added that a canine unit sniffed out 10 separate packages that contained fentanyl, and that the drugs had an estimated street value of $728,000. The case has been turned over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for further investigation, according to CBP.

“Our frontline CBP officers continued to remain vigilant amid heavy Semana Santa traffic and that dedication to the border security mission yielded a significant seizure of fentanyl,” Port Director Albert Flores of the Laredo Port of Entry said in a statement.

The Daily Wire has reported before on the fentanyl crisis. In January, The Daily Wire’s Ryan Saavedra reported on a record-setting fentanyl seizure of 254 pounds:

U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials announced on Thursday that officers made a record-breaking seizure of fentanyl on the U.S.-Mexico border that was enough to kill tens of millions of Americans.

“According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, a canine officer alerted other officers to the presence of 254 pounds of fentanyl hidden inside an 18-wheeler carrying cucumbers, during a secondary inspection at the Mariposa port of entry just past noon on Saturday,” The Arizona Republic reported.

“This is the largest fentanyl seizure in any port of entry,” CBP official Guadalupe Ramirez said. “In CBP, in the history of CBP, this is the largest fentanyl seizure.”

New York City may be on the verge of outlawing its signature encased meat, the hot dog, alongside other “processed meats,” in a bid to make New Yorkers more climate conscious.

Radio station Z100 reports that Mayor Bill de Blaiso signed into law New York’s own version of the “Green New Deal” last week, and part of the NYC GND involves teaching New Yorkers to make healthy, environmentally friendly food choices by banning specific, “problematic” dishes from city menus.

“The plan,” Z100 says, “will cut purchases of red meat by 50 percent in its city-controlled facilities such as hospitals, schools, and correctional facilities. The new commitment builds off of the Meatless Mondays campaign that was adopted by all NYC schools in 2017.”

New Yorkers will be able to keep their precious hot dog street carts, and tourists will still be able to fill up on dirty water dogs in Times Square — at least for now. The Green New Deal only prohibits city facilities from buying and serving hot dogs and other processed meats in bulk to serve in city-run cafeterias, mostly located in city office buildings, jails, and schools.

De Blasio did note, while signing the GND, that New Yorkers should be prepared to make big sacrifices in order to save the planet, however. And if the current legislative scheme isn’t enough to reduce carbon emissions in the city, he may consider expanding the program’s ban.

“It is a difficult plan. It is a necessary plan. … Estimates that tell us that we have only 12 years to get it right. Let’s be clear, we have until 2030 to change things fundamentally, or our lives won’t be the same,” de Blasio said.

Like the “national” Green New Deal, New York City’s version seeks to reduce the metropolis’ carbon emissions to “net zero” by 2050, and like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s plan, covers more than just the environment, but instead demands the nationalization of certain industies, including health care.

A copy of the GND executive summary lists among the program’s goals a universal health care plan for all New Yorkers, fair wages, affordable housing, modern infrastructure, public education improvements, and a “car-free” city by 2050. The plan includes not just food bans, but a first-in-the-nation “congestion charge” for vehicles traveling in and out of Manhattan, and programs designed to “address systematic oppression” within NYC’s boundaries.

The theory behind banning hot dogs, though, is similar to the plan outlined in a national Green New Deal “FAQ” to completely eliminate livestock cultivation: that red meat has an extensive environmental footprint that encompasses everything from methane-producing cattle to the carbon emissions from your backyard grill. The process of raising, handling, packaging, and delivering red meat — and especially processed red meat — is considered by environmentalists as one of the cardinal sins of climate change.

In the grand scheme, banning hot dogs, sausages, and burgers probably won’t make a significant impact on the environment, though. What really makes a difference is a complete ban on industrial agriculture — something few in the United States are likely to support.

One of the first things Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) did as governor was to suspend Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel for the way he handled two mass shootings, including last year’s school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland.

DeSantis signed an executive order suspending the sheriff, noting that Israel failed the people of Broward County.

“Sheriff Israel has repeatedly failed and has demonstrated a pattern of poor leadership,” the executive order said. “He failed to protect Floridians and visitors during the tragic Fort Lauderdale International Airport shooting in 2017. He failed in his duties to keep our families and children safe during the devastating shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on February 14, 2018.”

“These incidents demonstrate Sheriff’s Israel’s repeated incompetence and neglect of duty,” the order continued. “The families of the victims deserve accountability. It is my job as Governor to ensure that the safety of our local communities, especially the safety of our children, is paramount. Government officials must be held accountable for their actions, and/or inactions. For these reasons, I am suspending Sheriff Israel from office effective immediately.”

After he was suspended, Israel vowed to take legal action.

“This suspension is not about what occurred on February 14th,” Israel said at the time. “The governor promised as a candidate – well before he had any facts of the investigation, well before the commission even began their work – that he would remove me from office. Today, he merely fulfilled a campaign promise. This was about politics, not about Parkland.”

Israel’s actions as sheriff were criticized in an official investigation, which found that his office’s active-shooter training was ineffective. The report also criticized Israel for changing department policy that said officers “shall” confront active shooters to say officers “may” confront them.

This change resulted in Broward Deputy Scot Peterson and seven others to stay outside of the high school while a shooter murdered 17 people inside.

Nevertheless, Israel claimed he was being wronged.

The Florida Supreme Court disagreed, ruling on Tuesday that DeSantis had every right to suspend Israel, according to the Hill.

“Today’s @flcourts opinion leaves no doubt of my authority to suspend a government official for neglect of duty and incompetence,” DeSantis wrote on Twitter. “Scott Israel failed to protect the families and students of Broward County and I look forward to the @FLSenate resuming the process of formal removal.”

As the Hill reported, Florida’s Republican-controlled state Senate could reinstate Israel with a vote, though that is unlikely. As of now, Israel will have to run to be elected sheriff again in 2020.

“I hope and expect the Senate will look at the merits of the claim,” Israel’s lawyer Ben Kuehne told the South Florida Sun Sentinel. “If they do, and do not act politically, then Sheriff Israel will be reinstated.”