Andrew Tate Sentenced to 12 Years Imprisonment for Drug Trafficking

Ken Silva
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Andrew Tate Sentenced to 12 Years Imprisonment for Drug Trafficking

(Ken Silva, Headline USA) The Justice Department announced Tuesday that Andrew Tate was sentenced o 144 months in federal prison for leading a drug trafficking enterprise that distributed narcotics, including crack cocaine and methamphetamine.

No, the DOJ wasn’t referring to infamous “manosphere” influencer Andrew Tate, who’s facing sex-trafficking charges in Romania. The Tate going to prison in the U.S. is a 56-year-old South Los Angeles man who goes by the nickname “Batman.”

According to the DOJ, the American Tate was the lead defendant in an indictment targeting the gang’s members and associates as part of an investigation dubbed “Operation Hoover Dam.” He was the final defendant to be sentenced in that case.

The DOJ alleged that Tate owned a business named TNN Market, from where he sold methamphetamine, crack cocaine and powder cocaine.

Tate and co-defendant Bobby Lorenzo Reed, 59, a.k.a. “Zo” and “Z,” who owned the South Los Angeles-based store H&E Smoke and Snack Shop, referred customers to one another, supplied one another, and directed their employees to participate in dozens of narcotics transactions from June 2017 to May 2018.

Reed is serving a 10-year prison sentence after pleading guilty in June 2022 to federal narcotics charges in this case.

“Tate participated in an extensive and long-running drug conspiracy to sell drugs, including methamphetamine and crack cocaine, in South Los Angeles,” prosecutors argued in a sentencing memorandum. “Tate’s role in the drug conspiracy was significant; he was the head of the entire drug trafficking enterprise pumping drugs into a vulnerable area of Los Angeles.”

While the more famous Tate might not be in American jail—yet—it looks like some in the U.S. government would like for that to change. As Headline USA reported in December, the Department of Homeland Security funded a study that links Tate, Pearl Davis and other “Manosphere” influencers to domestic terrorism.

The study stems from the Targeted Violence & Terrorism Prevention Grant Program, or TVTP—an initiative where the DHS disperses millions of dollars in grants to think tanks and academic groups, which then attempt to identify potential terrorists based on behavioral indicators. TVTP has been aptly described by some researchers as a “pre-crime” program.

Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/jd_cashless.

Desperate Biden Plans to Pander to Voting-Age Stoners by Reclassifying Marijuana

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Desperate Biden Plans to Pander to Voting-Age Stoners by Reclassifying Marijuana

(Headline USA) The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration will move to reclassify marijuana as a less dangerous drug, the Associated Press has learned, a historic shift to generations of American drug policy that could have wide ripple effects across the country.

The proposal, which still must be reviewed by the White House Office of Management and Budget, would recognize the medical uses of cannabis and acknowledge it has less potential for abuse than some of the nation’s most dangerous drugs. However, it would not legalize marijuana outright for recreational use.

The agency’s move, confirmed to the AP on Tuesday by five people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive regulatory review, clears the last significant regulatory hurdle before the agency’s biggest policy change in more than 50 years can take effect.

Once OMB signs off, the DEA will take public comment on the plan to move marijuana from its current classification as a Schedule I drug, alongside heroin and LSD.

It moves pot to Schedule III, alongside ketamine and some anabolic steroids, following a recommendation from the federal Health and Human Services Department. After the public comment period and a review by an administrative judge, the agency would eventually publish the final rule.

The proposal will be formally signed by Attorney General Merrick Garland, whose agency has ultimate oversight of the DEA, according to another person familiar with the process who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.

Garland’s signature throws the full weight of the Justice Department behind the move and appears to signal its importance to the Biden administration.

It comes after President Joe Biden called for a review of federal marijuana law in October 2022 and moved to pardon thousands of Americans convicted federally of simple possession of the drug. He has also called on governors and local leaders to take similar steps to erase marijuana convictions.

“Criminal records for marijuana use and possession have imposed needless barriers to employment, housing, and educational opportunities,” Biden said in December.

“Too many lives have been upended because of our failed approach to marijuana,” he continued. “It’s time that we right these wrongs.”

The rhetoric comes in sharp contrast to that which Biden once espoused, when he was one of the leading advocates of tough criminal consequences for drug abusers.

Biden has been hammered for the inconsistencies in his past policies after his own son’s drug-abuse habits came to light.

The election year announcement comes as Biden, who faces an unprecedentedly low approval rating, scrambles to find some way to win over various voter segments.

After angering black voters over a recent proposal to ban menthol cigarettes, which he quicky backpedaled on, the marijuana reclassification could provide a go-to talking point with Biden’s core constituency of stoners, vagrants, unemployed ne’er-do-wells and aspiring professional video-game players.

Politically, it is low-hanging fruit that faces little opposition from either side of the aisle, given that many states already have taken the step of decriminalizing it in some form or another.

A Gallup poll last fall found 70% of adults support legalization, the highest level yet recorded by the polling firm and more than double the roughly 30% who backed it in 2000.

The DEA didn’t respond to repeated requests for comment.

Schedule III drugs are still controlled substances and subject to rules and regulations, and people who traffic in them without permission could still face federal criminal prosecution.

Some critics argue the DEA shouldn’t change course on marijuana, saying rescheduling isn’t necessary and could lead to harmful side effects.

Jack Riley, a former deputy administrator of the DEA, said he had concerns about the proposed change because he thinks marijuana remains a possible “gateway drug,” one that may lead to the use of other drugs.

“But in terms of us getting clear to use our resources to combat other major drugs, that’s a positive,” Riley said, noting that fentanyl alone accounts for more than 100,000 deaths in the U.S. a year.

On the other end of the spectrum, others argue marijuana should be treated the way alcohol is.

Last week, 21 Democrats led by Senate Majority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., sent a letter to DEA Administrator Anne Milgram and Garland arguing marijuana should be dropped from the controlled-substances list and instead regulated like alcohol.

“It is time for the DEA to act,” the lawmakers wrote. “Right now, the Administration has the opportunity to resolve more than 50 years of failed, racially discriminatory marijuana policy.”

Federal drug policy has lagged behind many states in recent years, with 38 having already legalized medical marijuana and 24 legalizing its recreational use.

That’s helped fuel fast growth in the marijuana industry, with an estimated worth of nearly $30 billion.

Easing federal regulations could reduce the tax burden that can be 70% or more for businesses, according to industry groups. It could also make it easier to research marijuana, since it’s very difficult to conduct authorized clinical studies on Schedule I substances.

The immediate effect of rescheduling on the nation’s criminal justice system would likely be more muted, since federal prosecutions for simple possession have been fairly rare in recent years.

But loosening restrictions could carry a host of unintended consequences in the drug war and beyond.

Critics point out that as a Schedule III drug, marijuana would remain regulated by the DEA. That means the roughly 15,000 cannabis dispensaries in the U.S. would have to register with the DEA like regular pharmacies and fulfill strict reporting requirements, something that they are loath to do and that the DEA is ill equipped to handle.

Then there’s the United States’s international treaty obligations, chief among them the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, which requires the criminalization of cannabis.

In 2016, during the Obama administration, the DEA cited the U.S.’s international obligations and the findings of a federal court of appeals in Washington in denying a similar request to reschedule marijuana.

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press

Corrupt Judge Merchan Fines Trump $9K for Exposing Trial Double-Standard

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Corrupt Judge Merchan Fines Trump $9K for Exposing Trial Double-Standard

(Headline USA) Compromised Judge Juan Merchan—whose daughter Loren has reaped some $18 million in profits by peddling the prospect of a conviction for former President Donald Trump—delivered him a $9,000 fine Tuesday for exposing the judicial double-standard on Truth Social, purportedly in defiance of a previously issued gag order.

Donald Trump was held in contempt for repeatedly making public statements about witnesses, jurors and others connected to his New York trial—despite the fact that witnesses, including his former lawyer, Michael Cohen, have been allowed to do so to Trump’s detriment, potentially inflicting political damage or, worse, influencing the outcome of the trial itself.

Merchan further warned that Trump could be jailed if he does it again.

Prosecutors had alleged 10 violations, but Merchan found there were nine. Trump stared down at the table in front of him as the judge read the ruling, frowning slightly.

It was a stinging rebuke of presumptive GOP presidential nominee’s insistence that he was exercising his free-speech rights. The judge’s stunning threat to jail a former president signaled that Trump’s already precarious legal standing could further spiral depending on his behavior during the remainder of the trial.

Trump did not respond to reporters’ shouted inquiries about the fine in the courthouse hallway as court resumed for the afternoon.

Merchan claimed that he was “keenly aware of, and protective of,” Trump’s First Amendment rights, “particularly given his candidacy for the office of President of the United States.”

However, the judge has given little evidence that his own credibility is something to be relied upon given his previous false assurances that he was capable of impartiality. Immediately, the former Biden donor proceeded to enact lopsided decisions against the defense and even launched into a tirade last week, ranting at Trump’s attorneys.

Nonetheless, in his latest order he waxed poetic with platitudes to maintain an air of fairness that belied his actions.

“It is critically important that defendant’s legitimate free speech rights not be curtailed, that he be able to fully campaign for the office which he seeks and that he be able to respond and defend himself against political attacks,” Merchan wrote.

Still, he warned that the court would not tolerate “willful violations of its lawful orders and that if necessary and appropriate under the circumstances, it will impose an incarceratory punishment.”

Trump is used to having constant access to his social media bullhorn to slam opponents and speak his mind. But he does have experience with gag orders, which were also imposed, bizarrely, by Judge Arthur Engoron, in his recent civil trial. Judge Tanya Chutkan also has imposed one on him in the Washington, D.C. trial that is currently on hold.

After Engoron ruled him to have violated those orders, he paid more than $15,000 in fines.

Tuesday’s ruling came at the start of the second week of testimony in the historic case, in which Manhattan prosecutors claimed, without evidence, that Trump and his associates took part in an illegal scheme to influence the 2016 presidential campaign.

That entailed issuing non-disclosure settlements to a doorman with a torrid yarn; former Playboy bunny Karen McDougal, who had accusations of an affair; and to porn star Stormy Daniels, who alleged a sexual encounter with Trump. He has pleaded not guilty and says the stories are all fake.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and his team must prove that Trump committed a crime in order to make the ambitious charges stick, although none has yet come to light from the prosecution. They must also explain how Trump and his associate intended to defraud when discreetly listing the payments in private ledgers.

Trump was ordered to pay the gag-order fine by the close of business Friday, and he deleted, as ordered, the offending posts from his Truth Social account and campaign website Tuesday.

The judge was also weighing other alleged gag-order violations by Trump and will hear arguments Thursday.

Of the 10 posts, the one Merchan ruled was not a violation came on April 10, a post referring to Cohen and Daniels as “sleaze bags.” Merchan said Trump’s contention that he was responding to previous posts by Cohen “is sufficient to give” him pause on whether the post was a violation.

Those found to be violations included a Trump post quoting Fox News host Jesse Watters’s claim that left-wing activists were lying to infiltrate the jury “constitutes a clear violation” of the gag order. Merchan noted that the words contained within the quotation marks in Trump’s April 17 post misstated what Watters actually said.

Merchan cautioned that the gag order “not be used as a sword instead of a shield by potential witnesses” and that if people who are protected by the order, like Cohen, continue to attack Trump “it becomes apparent” they don’t need the gag order’s protection.

Cohen, Trump’s former attorney, has said he will refrain from commenting about Trump until after he testifies at the trial.

On Tuesday, he said in a text message to the Associated Press: “The imposed fine is irrelevant. Judge Merchan’s decision elucidates that this behavior will not be tolerated and that no one is above the law.”

Trump’s attorneys have suggested that he was engaged in an effort to protect his name and his family—not to influence the outcome of the presidential election.

The trial—the first of Trump’s four criminal cases to come before a jury—is expected to last for another month or more. And with every moment Trump is in court, he’s growing increasingly frustrated while the November election moves ever closer.

“This is a case that should have never been brought,” he said.

In a rare show of reasonableness, Merchan did announce that he would halt the trial on May 17 to allow Trump to attend his son Barron’s high school graduation.

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press

Pedophile Ex-Federal Attorney Sentenced to Prison

Ken Silva
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Pedophile Ex-Federal Attorney Sentenced to Prison

(Ken Silva, Headline USA) The Justice Department announced Tuesday that a former federal attorney was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment for conspiring to sexually exploit numerous children.

According to the DOJ, the former attorney for the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Mark Black, 50, of Arlington, Virginia, was a member of two online groups dedicated to locating prepubescent girls online and convincing the girls to livestream themselves engaging in sexually explicit conduct.

The DOJ said in a Tuesday press release that Black induced a prepubescent minor to engage in sexually explicit conduct on a live-streaming application while screen-recording that activity in July 2019.

That same month, Black and a co-conspirator allegedly also groomed another prepubescent minor to engage in sexually explicit acts on a photo- and video-sharing application. The co-conspirator surreptitiously hacked into that girl’s live-video feed and recorded the sexual acts before sending them to Black, according to the DOJ.

“Between July 2019 and March 2022, Black and the same co-conspirator were members of two additional groups dedicated to the sexual exploitation of children and the sharing of child sexual abuse material (CSAM),” the DOJ added. “In January 2021, Black sent CSAM of a minor to one of the groups.”

Black’s electronic devices were said to be found with about 172,707 images of child porn. Of those files, over 1,300 depicted identified victims of his conduct, the DOJ said.

Black, who was formerly the Arlington Aquatic Club (AAC) board president, pleaded guilty in January to conspiracy to produce child pornography and coercion and enticement of a minor.

The FBI and FDIC-OIG investigated the case, which was part of the DOJ’s Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006.

Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/jd_cashless.

Canada Designated Proud Boys as Terrorist Group as Favor to Biden, New Research Indicates

Ken Silva
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Canada Designated Proud Boys as Terrorist Group as Favor to Biden, New Research Indicates

(Ken Silva, Headline USA) In February 2021, Justin Trudeau’s government designated the Proud Boys as a terrorist organization—lumping them in with groups such as Al-Qaeda, ISIS and Boko Haram.

At the time, Canada’s federal Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness said the Proud Boys posed a national security threat. The country’s National Democratic Party leader, Jagmeet Singh, alleged that the Proud Boys “helped execute” an act of “domestic terrorism” in relation to the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol Hill uprising.

Canada’s Proud Boys chapter then dissolved in May 2021.

But now, a new analysis from the C2C Journal—described as Canada’s largest conservative blog—shows that the Proud Boys in Canada never broke any laws, either before or after it was designated as a terrorist group.

Furthermore, “there is no indication that Canada’s Department of Justice prepared a dossier of evidence against the Proud Boys in advance, which Canada’s anti-terror law requires before the government may list a group as a terror entity,” C2C Journal found in its analysis, published Monday.

“The Government of Canada held no apparent other evidence to substantiate its accusations that the Proud Boys had engaged in violence – let alone an ‘escalation’ of violence – were planning to do so, or posed a substantial threat thereof.”

Additionally, C2C Journal found that Canadian law enforcement seemingly don’t have any investigations into Proud Boys activities.

The conservative blog said it couldn’t find any members of the Canadian Proud Boys to find out how the terrorist designation affected them. Possible repercussions include being de-banked and de-platformed—something that happened to Canada’s Freedom Convoy and other dissidents there and in the U.S.

Even buying a hat from the Proud Boys is now illegal due to the terrorist designation, C2C Journal noted.

C2C Journal suggested that the terrorist designation was purely a political move.

“Could the rest of the explanation be as simple – and cynical – as incoming President Biden just needing a quick favor from a willing ally? The designation would have come as welcome support to the narrative of the Capitol protests being a planned “insurrection” aimed at taking over the U.S. government,” the site said.

“Canada’s move, indeed, became major news that same day in Washington.”

Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/jd_cashless.

Officers Killed in N.C. Ambush Disadvantaged by Upstairs Shooter

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Officers Killed in N.C. Ambush Disadvantaged by Upstairs Shooter

(Headline USA) Four law enforcement officers in North Carolina who were killed while trying to capture a man immediately faced gunfire as they approached, unable to withstand shots from upstairs in a house, authorities said Tuesday.

Still reeling from Monday’s attack—the deadliest against U.S. law enforcement officers since 2016—investigators in Charlotte said they weren’t sure whether there was a second shooter and that more work was needed to determine what happened.

“Charlotte isn’t going to be the last place that this happens,” Mayor Vi Lyles said, “but Charlotte will be the place that will heal, that will heal with dignity and respect for everyone.”

A task force made up of officers from different agencies had arrived in the suburban neighborhood to try to capture Terry Clark Hughes Jr., 39, who was wanted for possession of a firearm by an ex-felon and fleeing to elude in Lincoln County, North Carolina.

Those killed were identified as Sam Poloche and William Elliott of the North Carolina Department of Adult Corrections; Charlotte-Mecklenburg Officer Joshua Eyer; and Deputy U.S. Marshal Thomas Weeks. Four other officers were wounded in the shootout, and Hughes was also killed.

From left: Sam Poloche and William Elliott of the North Carolina Department of Adult Corrections; Charlotte-Mecklenburg Officer Joshua Eyer; and Deputy U.S. Marshal Thomas Weeks. / PHOTOS via AP

More than 100 spent rounds were found, though it wasn’t clear how many of those were fired by the suspect, said Charlotte–Mecklenburg Police Chief Johnny Jennings.

At least 12 officers also fired their weapons.

“Even though officers were trying to take cover, they were at a disadvantage because the suspect was up at a higher level and they were returning fire from a lower position,” Jennings said, adding that the gunman was “shooting from upstairs.”

That strategic advantage allowed Hughes to “unload several rounds towards our officers within a matter of seconds,” while the choice of ammunition was able to rip through the officers’ traditional body armor, Jennings said.

An AR-15 semi-automatic rifle, a 40-caliber handgun and ammunition were found at the scene.

It was the deadliest day for U.S. law enforcement in one incident since five officers were ambushed by a black supremacist in Dallas in 2016.

Terry Clark Hughes
Terry Clark Hughes / PHOTO: Charlotte-Meckenburg Police

Hughes’s criminal record in North Carolina goes back more than a decade. It includes prison time and convictions for breaking and entering, reckless driving, eluding arrest and illegally possessing a gun as a former felon, according to state records.

Two females who were inside the house, including a minor, were cooperating and have not been charged, said Jennings, adding that investigators weren’t pursuing additional suspects.

Jennings said Monday that a second shooter was suspected of firing at police. But by Tuesday, he wasn’t as firm and said that possibility was still being checked.

After a three-hour standoff, the home was torn open. Armored vehicles smashed into it, ripping off windows and entire doorways that were left broken. Several armored vehicles were parked across yards, some with tree branches dangling off them.

Before taking questions from reporters Tuesday, officials expressed sorrow and awe for the slain and wounded officers.

Eyer was recently honored as a Charlotte–Mecklenburg officer of the month, partly for working to get guns off the streets. The chief said he was killed while responding to help others who were facing gunfire at the scene.

“We saw … officers going into the line of fire to save their brothers in blue, who have gone down in the act of trying to keep our community safe,” Jennings said. “To me, that’s truly heroic.”

Neighbors said gunfire lasted for several minutes. Rissa Reign was cleaning her house when she heard the first shots. There was a pause, followed by a second set of shots and then a third.

“When we came outside, there were no cops at all, then cops started rushing, rushing, rushing, rushing in,” she said, adding that armored SWAT trucks quickly followed, “going over the grass, everything, and they started shooting again.”

The neighborhood, of one– and two-story, brick homes and small trimmed lawns, is very safe, said Alex Rivera, who lives on a street nearby.

“I see, like, 50 police cars zooming in, and then I hear gunshots,” he said on the front porch of the house he shares with his cousin. “I was scared, because there was so much going on.“

The last marshal killed in the line of duty was in November 2018. Chase White was shot in Tucson, Arizona, by a man wanted for stalking local law enforcement.

The Carolinas Regional Fugitive Task Force, headquartered in Charlotte, is comprised of 70 federal, state and local agencies collaborating to capture crime suspects.

“This is a loss for the entire country,” said Marshals Service Director Ronald Davis, who traveled to Charlotte. “Losing a deputy, losing task force officers is like losing a family member because, quite frankly, they are family members.”

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press

Anti-Semitic Domestic Terrorists Seize Control of Columbia Univ. Building, Hoist Hamas Flag

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Anti-Semitic Domestic Terrorists Seize Control of Columbia Univ. Building, Hoist Hamas Flag

(Christian Wade, The Center Square) Pro-Hamas rioters backed by George Soros broke windows, barricaded doors and occupied a building at New York’s Columbia University overnight after school officials said they would not cede to demands from demonstrators to divest assets from the Israeli government.

Hundreds of agitators created a human chain in front of the building to block campus police. Columbia faculty members were also involved in blocking security.

The breach of Columbia’s Hamilton Hall began around 12:30 a.m. on Tuesday by students and others who have refused to leave the so-called Gaza Solidarity Encampment on the campus grounds, according to published news reports.

Although Columbia responded with the threat of expulsion, many of the masked activists were believed to be paid instigators and not students of the school.

As of Wednesday, the school had reportedly dropped the charges and refused to let the New York Police Department in to addresss the situation.

Video footage showed the rioters, smashing windows and unfurling an Intifada flag from a window as they chanted “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” and “Palestine will live forever.”

They hung a hand-written sign reading “Hind’s Hall” after a 6-year-old Palestinian child who was allegedly killed by the Israeli military.

The escalation in the protests came after university officials suspended students who had refused to leave an encampment set up about two weeks ago.

Columbia President Nemat “Minouche” Shafik has also declined to divest the university’s financial holdings from Israel, a key demand of the protesters.

The NYPD, which must get permission from the university to enter the campus, hadn’t intervened in the riot, but news reports showed a heavy police presence outside the university’s gates.

University officials distributed flyers to students on Monday notifying them that they would not face suspension if they exited the encampment by 2 p.m. on Tuesday, according to published reports.

The university closed school grounds to students who did not live on campus.

The riot was part of a wave of anti-Semitic protests that have swept U.S. college campuses over the past week as the Soros-backed activists engage in structure-testing ahead of the November election.

Few likely have any deep knowledge of the conflict betweeen Hamas and Israel. However, the dry-run mobilization will allow organizers to build a network of seemingly “organic” activists who can reap chaos as schools adjourn in the summer months.

A catalyzing incident such as another George Floyd-style slaying or an unfavorable Supreme Court verdict could bring the return of race riots similar to the Black Lives Matter movement that endured for months in 2020.

Ostensibly, however,  the current “student” activism comes in response to Israel’s war in Gaza, which was prompted by the Oct. 7 attack by the terrorist group Hamas that killed 1,200 Israelis and injured many others. Hamas also took hostages, many of whom are still in captivity.

Dozens of arrests have been made at Harvard, Yale and other elite schools as campus police and law enforcement have been called in to take down the makeshift encampments, which violate school policies. Hundreds of people have been arrested.

At Columbia, Jewish students have said they feel unsafe with protesters chanting Naziesque slogans and holding signs, which has prompted New York lawmakers to call on the university to clear protesters that some have called “terrorist sympathizers.”

“Columbia has surrendered to the radical pro-Hamas anti-Semitic mob instead of securing campus and protecting Columbia’s Jewish students,” Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., said in a statement. “There can be no more extensions or delays. There can be no negotiations with self-proclaimed Hamas terrorists and their sympathizers.”

In response to the Columbia protests, Reps. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y. and Richie Torres, D-N.Y., have filed legislation requiring the U.S. Department of Education to establish a third-party “anti-Semitism monitor” on any U.S. college or university receiving federal funding.

The monitor would have the authority to recommend that universities be stripped of federal funding for not doing enough to crack down on anti-Semitic demonstrations.

“Rising anti-Semitism on our college campuses is a major concern and we must act to ensure the safety of students,” Lawler said. “If colleges will not step up to protect their students, Congress must act.”

As Hamas Rioters Run Amok, N.Y. School Freezes Conservative Group’s Funding, Bans Speakers

Molly Bruns
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As Hamas Rioters Run Amok, N.Y. School Freezes Conservative Group’s Funding, Bans Speakers

(Molly Bruns, Headline USA) As George Soros-backed left-wing rioters terrorize college campuses across the country with impunity, conservative student groups continue to face unconstitutional obstacles at every turn.

One such battle, between the student government for the University of Buffalo and the school’s chapter of Young Americans for Freedom, went to federal court on Friday after the school sought to cut the group’s funding and ban it from hosting on-campus events, according to the College Fix.

UB’s Student Association froze $6,000 in YAF funding after the group refused to cut ties with YAF’s national organization.

A month later, the Student Association agreed to re-recognize YAF, but it continued to demand that the local chapter to forfeit its right to sue, turn over its funding and limit its coordination with “other individuals or organizations.”

The YAF group declined to make the requested changes, leading to Friday’s hearing at the U.S. District Court for the Western District of New York.

The conservative, pro-Christian Alliance Defending Freedom represented the group in the case.

“It’s unfortunate that University at Buffalo is penalizing Young Americans for Freedom from pursuing their group’s mission,” ADF attorney Logan Spena said.

“We are grateful for the opportunity to argue before the court to affirm that universities can’t force student groups like YAF to give up their constitutional freedom to receive official recognition and the benefits that flow from it,” Spena added.

The Student Association altered its policies after the YAF chapter invited conservative commentator and Daily Wire host Michael Knowles to campus to speak about transgenderism, eliciting an uproar among leftist groups who sought to disrupt the event and force its cancellation.

The school administration released an official statement titled “Standing With Our Transgender Community,” and a student protest took place outside of the building where Knowles spoke.

According to the ADF, student governments often overstep their bounds.

“Unfortunately, it is all too common for student governments to abuse their authority by adopting policies that violate students’ liberties,” ADF attorney Travis Barham explained. “But rarely have we seen a student government that treats student groups as its wholly owned subsidiaries that it can micromanage, and rarely have we seen a university that would permit this level of mistreatment.”

Defense Secretary Admits U.S. Troops are Sitting Ducks for Hamas

Ken Silva
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Defense Secretary Admits U.S. Troops are Sitting Ducks for Hamas

(Ken Silva, Headline USA) Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin made a shocking admission Tuesday during a congressional budget hearing, where he told Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., that the Pentagon is purposely putting U.S. troops’ lives in danger in the Israel-Palestine war.

Austin admitted this when Gaetz was asking about the implications of the U.S. agreeing to build a $320 million pier on the coast of Gaza to help deliver aid to Palestinian civilians. President Joe Biden recently ordered the military to construct the pier instead of pressuring Israel to open more land border crossings.

The construction entails at least 1,000 US troops operating just off the coast of Gaza, making them prime targets for Hamas. A staging area for the pier has already come under mortar fire, as noted by antiwar.com.

Expressing concern about this precarious situation, Gaetz asked Austin whether the 1,000 troops will fight back if they’re attacked.

“They have the right to return fire to protect themselves,” Austin responded.

Gaetz then asked if he thinks an attack is likely, and the defense secretary said it’s “possible.”

“Don’t you think that’s boots on the ground? President Biden told the country we weren’t going to have boots on the ground in Gaza,” Gaetz continued.

Austin insisted that there won’t be American boots in Gaza. But Gaetz said he didn’t see the difference of U.S. boots being on Gaza’s physical land and them being on a pier connected to Gaza.

“You guys seem to be sort of saying that boots on a pier connected to the ground connected to servicemembers shooting into Gaza doesn’t count as boots on the ground,” Gaetz remarked.

“It does not,” Austin responded.

Gaetz suggested that the entire operation is illegal because it hasn’t been authorized by Congress.

“I think you’re going to find that Americans’ have a different perspective on that. And if we’re going to have people shooting into Gaza, we should probably have a vote on that pursuant to our War Powers Act,” he said.

Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/jd_cashless.

10 More Years? Zelenskyy Plotting Another Decade of U.S. Aid

Ken Silva
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10 More Years? Zelenskyy Plotting Another Decade of U.S. Aid

(Ken Silva, Headline USA) Following Congress approving a highly controversial $95 billion foreign aid package that includes $65 billion for Ukraine to continue fighting Russia, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy suggested that even more aid would be needed in the future—though he didn’t say how much.

“Giving U.S. specific timeline of the war, well, it depends on how soon we get this aid,” Zelenskyy said in a Sunday interview with NBC News’s Meet the Press. “There are so many variables, so many factors.”

Now, Zelenskyy is signalling that Ukraine will need aid for at least another decade. In a statement he released Sunday, Ukraine’s leader said talks are already in process for more assistance.

“Our teams, Ukraine and the United States, are currently working on a bilateral security agreement, and we are already working on a specific text. Our goal is to make this agreement the strongest of all. We are discussing the specific foundations of our security and cooperation,” he said.

“We are also working on fixing specific levels of support for this year and for the next ten years, including armed support, financial, political, and joint arms production.”

Zelenskyy’s remarks add insult to injury for conservatives who had voiced opposition to funding Biden’s proxy war.

“They want you to pay for Ukraine forever,” remarked Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla.

However, there are signs that Ukraine won’t be able to fight a conventional war for another decade, even if it wanted to.

Reuters reported Monday that Russia now holds at least 18% of the country, and has been gaining ground since the failure of Kyiv’s 2023 counter-offensive.

The aid the U.S. is providing seems to be getting used up as quickly as the Pentagon can supply it. The New York Times reported this month that Ukraine has withdrawn its American Abrams tanks, which cost about $10 million apiece, from the front line after five of them were destroyed by relatively cheap Russian drones.

During its recent withdrawal from Avdiivka, a city in eastern Ukraine that was the focus of intense fighting for months, several tanks were lost to Russian attacks.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/jd_cashless.

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