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April 2025

Texas Recognizes “Pakistan Day” As Pakistan Destroys Human Rights by Uzay Bulut

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/21551/texas-recognizes-pakistan-day

The problem is that at the same time as Texas was celebrating “Pakistan Day”, in Pakistan, Christian citizens were being arrested and sentenced to death for “blasphemy,” and Muslims were abducting young Christian girls to sexually abuse, forcibly “marry,” and coerce into converting to Islam.

Pakistan’s national and provincial parliaments have given their consent to these atrocities…. Christians, Hindus and other non-Muslim communities in Pakistan have been enduring increased levels of violence and persecution….

Under Pakistan’s blasphemy laws, anyone found guilty of insulting Islam, its prophet or other religious figures can be imprisoned and sentenced to death…. The police are often biased and refuse to file reports from Christians and Hindus.

The Texas House of Representatives might instead have dedicated March 23 to Pakistan’s abduction victims and abused children.

“The introduction of a ‘Single National Curriculum’ in schools denigrates religious minorities and enforces the teaching of the Quran and subjects like Mathematics and Science in an Islamized manner. Thus, religion is permeating school education… Radical Islamic groups are flourishing… Such groups are innumerable and even a ban will only make them re-organize, re-brand and re-emerge. The default option for dealing with radical Islamic movements (who are able to mobilize millions for street demonstrations) is appeasement and even accommodation…” — Open Doors, December 2024.

“Occupations that are deemed low, dirty, and degrading—such as cleaning sewers or working in brick kilns—are reserved for Christians by the authorities. Many believers are referred to as ‘chura’, a derogatory term meaning ‘filthy’. Christians are also vulnerable to being trapped in bonded labor.” — Open Doors, 2024.

Have Pakistani Texans done anything to help the victims of these horrific human rights abuses in Pakistan or raised awareness of them in any way while in the US? In what areas have they effectively cooperated with the US government? Have they used their resources to fight Islamic terror groups; if so, to what extent? Has Pakistan been a great US ally? What has the government of Pakistan actually done to deserve being celebrated with an official day by the Texas House of Representatives?

Liz Peek: Cory Booker’s latest stunt could embarrass Democrats

https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/liz-peek-cory-bookers-latest-stunt-could-embarrass-democrats

Cory Booker, fresh off demonstrating that he is capable of going 25 hours without a bathroom break, is “demanding” an investigation into alleged insider trading at the Trump White House. 

Booker contends that when the president announced a reprieve from the imposition of draconian tariffs, which set stocks soaring by record amounts, Trump or his White House colleagues likely traded on the news, illicitly reaping gains from the markets’ big moves.

The New Jersey senator has not one iota of proof that anyone in the Trump camp bought stocks ahead of the big announcement, but Booker, rapidly morphing into the P. T. Barnum of Democrat politics, is searching for showstoppers – facts be damned.

Asked on NBC News’ Meet the Press if Democrats had any evidence of wrongdoing, Booker first dodged the question and then said, “There is enough of an offense here, there’s enough smoke here that should demand congressional hearings.” So, actually no. 

Let’s be honest: Booker and his Democrat compatriots were furious that markets boomed in response to the temporary tariff hiatus. They and their media allies have worked overtime to scare voters, predicting that Trump’s trade moves will torpedo our economy; plunging markets fed their narrative. Not only has Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer et al promised that Trump will drive us into recession, they also suggest that his efforts to make global trading more favorable to U.S. firms will undermine the U.S. dollar’s status as the world’s reserve currency.

Democrats are not afraid that Trump will fail; they are panicked that he might actually succeed.

Booker most recently made headlines by breaking a fellow Democrat’s record for staging the longest-ever senate filibuster.

A Young Socialist Wants to Run NYC. Could He Win?By Olivia Reingold

https://www.thefp.com/p/socialist-mayor-new-york-zohran-mamdani?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

Zohran Mamdani vows to spend billions subsidizing buses, housing, and grocery stores. He says he’ll arrest the Israeli PM if he ever steps foot in NYC. And he’s surging in the polls.

Unless you follow New York politics like a hawk, chances are you’ve never heard of Zohran Kwame Mamdani. The 33-year-old socialist is one of the youngest candidates to ever seek the mayorship of New York City. If he wins, he wants to turn the Big Apple into a Havana on the Hudson with free buses, government-run grocery stores, and no more rent hikes for millions.

“It is socialism that we are fighting for,” he told an online audience in 2021.

In a city where 61 percent of residents say they’re struggling to meet their basic needs, Mamdani is gaining traction by vowing to “lower the cost of living” in New York City. His housing plan, one of his ideas on how to make New York more affordable, costs $100 billion, only slightly less than the entire size of this year’s city budget. That’s on top of the $7 billion his other agenda items would cost, including $800 million for free buses, $1.1 billion to build a new Department of Community Safety, and $5 billion funding free childcare for all kids ages 6 weeks to 5 years.

Mamdani is also a member of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), a group that advocates abolishing prisons, granting voting rights to some “noncitizens,” ending “Israeli apartheid,” and establishing “a democratic secular state, from the river to the sea.” He has even said he would arrest Benjamin Netanyahu if the Israeli prime minister ever stepped foot in New York to prove “our values are in line with international law.”

Mamdani has also attended rallies held by Within Our Lifetime, a radical anti-Israel group that has been denounced by other progressives, including Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, for protesting an exhibit dedicated to victims of October 7, 2023, the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel that left 1,200 dead. As the group reportedly chanted “kill another Zionist now” outside the exhibit, survivors inside gave testimony about the horror.

When asked twice to clarify his relationship to the group, the Mamdani campaign did not provide comment to The Free Press.

Six years ago, Mamdani was a total unknown, working as a foreclosure prevention counselor for Chhaya, a nonprofit focused on the “well-being of South Asian and Indo-Caribbean communities in New York City.” That year, only one year after moving to Astoria, Queens, from the Upper West Side, he decided to run in the 2020 election for his new neighborhood’s seat in the New York State Assembly.

Feds Refer Letitia James to DOJ for Criminal Prosecution Paula Bolyard

https://pjmedia.com/paula-bolyard/2025/04/15/boom-feds-refer-letitia-james-to-doj-for-prosecution-n4938940

In a Monday night letter, William J. Pulter, director of the U.S. Federal Housing Agency (FHFA), referred New York Attorney General Letitia James to the Department of Justice for prosecution of mortgage fraud. 

My colleague Athena Thorne wrote over the weekend: 

We’re talking about Letitia “No one is above the law” James, a poster child for the weaponized justice system that tried to sandbag and impoverish Donald Trump and put him away for the rest of his life. As they say, if you’re going to take a shot at the king, you better not miss. Or, in this case, you better not have an apparent pattern of fraudulent real estate transactions.

Now, it appears, James’s chickens are coming home to roost. 

“Pursuant to my authority as Director of the U.S. Federal Housing Finance Agency (“U.S.Federal Housing” or “FHFA”), I am referring the matter below,” Pulter wrote. “As regulator of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the Federal Home Loan Banks, we take very seriously allegations of mortgage fraud or other criminal activity. Such misconduct jeopardizes the safety and soundness of FHFA’s regulated entities and the security and stability of the U.S. mortgage market.” 

Pulter said the agency has “identified matters that are appropriate for referral to the U.S. Department of Justice for consideration of criminal prosecution.”

Multiplication, Biden-Style: School Bias Cases Doubled Trump moves to dismantle the Education Department’s civil rights arm, slashing investigations as critics warn it threatens protections for millions of U.S. students. By James Varney

https://amgreatness.com/2025/04/16/multiplication-biden-style-school-bias-cases-doubled/

This article was originally published by RealClearInvestigations and made available via RealClearWire.

While limiting strings-attached grants and curbing federal regulation, President Trump’s efforts to dismantle the Department of Education also take aim at a key tool bureaucrats use to oversee schools in all 50 states: civil rights investigations.

Probes handled by the department’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) against public schools, colleges, and universities roughly doubled during the Biden administration, topping 20,000 last year. Investigations by hundreds of OCR lawyers and staff members – and responses to them by untold numbers of school officials and administrators – touched on everything from allegations of sexual violence and disability accommodations to website compatibility.

Defenders of the office say it has been an invaluable protector of civil rights for America’s nearly 70 million students. They say eliminating or even downsizing the office, which has already begun, would kneecap thousands of ongoing investigations while abolishing a prime instrument of justice.

“This reckless action strips students of vital resources and tears down statutorily mandated functions that are essential to addressing racial and economic inequality in education,” the ACLU declared last month. Trump, it said, has put “millions of students’ education and civil rights at risk.”

Advocates for handicapped students, who until recent years accounted for half of all complaints, are concerned they might get the short shrift in the Trump administration and have gone to court to block cuts. “We have many members who file complaints, and it has left many of them in limbo, or distraught, thinking there will be no accountability,” said Selene A. Almazan, legal director of the Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates, plaintiffs in a suit filed March 14.

But backers of Trump’s effort to eliminate the Department of Education counter that the Office for Civil Rights is a symbol of how the federal government has expanded its reach into what they describe as chiefly local matters. They say its investigative arm has been designed to make it as easy as possible for the department to maximize its influence and oversight through investigations.

Ivory Tower Hypocrite: Wake Forest University Administrators coddle pro-Hamas demonstrators yet cancel IDF soldier’s speech. by Sara Dogan

https://www.frontpagemag.com/ivory-tower-hypocrite-wake-forest-university/

Wake Forest University, located in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, waxes eloquently about the importance of freedom of expression in its policies and promotional materials.  But the prestigious university is guilty of a double standard when it comes to deciding who truly deserves free speech on campus.

In late April of 2024, a student group calling itself Free Palestine established an illegal 3-day encampment on Hearn Plaza on campus. Demonstrators chalked genocidal and Jew-hating messages on the sidewalk reading “From the river to the sea” (a call to destroy the totality of Israel as a Jewish homeland) and “F*** Israel.” The Amcha Institute, an anti-Semitism watchdog group, reports that “several university faculty and staff members volunteered to watch over the protesters in shifts” and that “one faculty member tried to prevent a student from pouring water out on the antisemitic chalk messages, while another confronted students for taking videos of the huddled group.”  When “One student said that they were bothered by the protesters’ presence on their campus…a faculty member replied that the student could go back to their room.”

Instead of immediately shutting down this illegal pro-Hamas rally, Wake Forest administrators instead negotiated with the agitators. “Throughout the evening, our shared goal was to keep everyone safe and avoid disruption of our academic mission and planned campus activities. It was a priority to seek a peaceful outcome. Administrators and the organizers of the demonstration remained in dialogue throughout the evening, night and early morning, and reached an agreement shortly after 9 a.m. that led to students agreeing to take down the tents in the encampment,” explained a statement from administrators that was emailed to the full university community.

Sanity Returns To The Appliance Aisle

https://issuesinsights.com/2025/04/16/sanity-returns-to-the-appliance-aisle/

Acting to please a constituency that prefers scarcity over abundance, Joe Biden ordered up a list of federal rules that restricted consumer choice. Given the exhaustive White House agenda that began when Donald Trump took office on Jan. 20, it would have been unsurprising had he waited to unwind the Biden regulatory knot. But to his credit, Trump has been moving on that, too.

Ignoring the left’s constant “we’re running out of everything” screeching, Trump restored “shower freedom” earlier this month with an executive order “to end the Obama-Biden war on water pressure.” The new rule rescinds “the overly complicated federal rule that redefined ‘showerhead’ under Obama and Biden,” says the administration.

The previous rule, which burned through 13,000 words to define “showerhead,” restricted multi-nozzle showerheads to 2.5 gallons of water per minute. The new rule allows each nozzle in a showerhead to pump out 2.5 gallons of water per minute.

It’s the second time Trump changed the rule. The first time was in 2020. Of course Biden dropped that order after he took office and the government reverted to the Obama restrictions.

Trump’s change make sense. The Democrats’ limitations don’t. It should be obvious that people would have to take longer showers when the water flow is restricted, same as they also have to often flush multiple times to get the job done when per-flush water flow in toilets is capped. In the end, nothing is saved.

Heather Mac Donald The White House’s Clumsy Attack on Harvard The Trump administration’s crusade against the university is unquestionably justified, but its methods may not pass muster in court.

https://www.city-journal.org/article/trump-harvard-funding-freeze-anti-semitism-race-dei

“The administration is growing ever bolder in its crusade against the institutions responsible for left-wing ideology—whether elite law firms or universities. That crusade is unquestionably justified. Its targets deserve little sympathy. But a question arises: Is the administration more interested in maximal disruption or in achieving its long-term goals? The two aims may not be compatible.”

The Trump administration’s war on higher education has entered its hottest phase yet. On April 14, the administration froze $2.26 billion in federal funding for Harvard University, in response to Harvard’s rejection of administration demands for reform. News of the university’s defiance ricocheted around the globe. The fate of the White House’s academic reform efforts depends heavily on how the coming showdown concludes.

The present conflict began in on April 11, when representatives of the Trump administration’s Joint Anti-Semitism Task Force sent a demand letter to the Harvard president and the head of the Harvard Corporation (the university’s equivalent of a board of trustees). The April 11 mandate is much more sweeping and detailed than the task force’s March 13 demand letter to Columbia University.

Christopher F. Rufo The Right Is Winning the Battle Over Higher Education President Trump has ensured that the civil-rights regime will no longer be a one-way lever to embed left-wing ideologies in elite institutions.

https://www.city-journal.org/article/higher-education-ivy-league-universities-funding-trump-civil-rights

Several years ago, the author Christopher Caldwell changed the conversation with his book The Age of Entitlement. The book argued that the civil-rights regime established in the 1960s marked a fundamental departure from America’s constitutional tradition. Though launched with the noble intention of stopping racial discrimination, Caldwell argued, the Civil Rights Act–and the bureaucracy it spawned–gradually consumed core American freedoms and became a vehicle for entrenching left-wing racialist ideology throughout American institutions.

In the decades that followed, the Right’s response was marked by ambivalence. Some libertarians called for repealing the Civil Rights Act, but—like many libertarian proposals—this was never a political possibility, given the Act’s broad public support. The establishment Right, meanwhile, largely suppressed its private misgivings. Republicans repeatedly voted to expand the civil-rights regime, further embedding dubious concepts like disparate-impact theory into law.

Now, all of this has changed. After mounting a successful fight against DEI, the political Right has come to accept that if there must be a civil-rights regime, it should be one of its own making. Rather than continue to defer to left-wing interpretations of civil-rights law, the Right can now advance a framework grounded in colorblind equality, not racialist ideology.

The first field of battle is higher education. The Trump administration has set its sights on the Ivy League universities, which have not only advanced the ideologies of left-wing racialism but made them administrative policy.

Arson attack suspect cited what Jewish gov ‘wants to do to Palestinian people’

https://www.jns.org/arson-attack-suspect-cited-what-jewish-gov-wants-to-do-to-palestinian-people/?utm_campaign=

Cody Balmer told police that Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro must know that he “will not take part in his plans for what he wants to do to the Palestinian people,” per a warrant.

Cody A. Balmer, 38, of Harrisburg, Pa., who called authorities on Sunday at 2:50 a.m. and admitted to firebombing the Pennsylvania governor’s mansion less than an hour prior, told 911 operators that he wanted Gov. Josh Shapiro to know that he “will not take part in his plans for what he wants to do to the Palestinian people,” per a search warrant obtained by Penn Live.

The suspect also told 911 operators that he had to “stop having my friends killed” and “our people have been put through too much by that monster,” per the warrant. Penn Live noted that the document suggests that “Balmer’s intonation and cadence sounded like he was possibly reading from a script.”

“You all know where to find me. I’m not hiding, and I will confess to everything that I had done,” the suspect said, per the warrant.

“Dauphin County District Attorney Fran Chardo, who is prosecuting the case, said he has not decided yet whether he will charge Balmer with ‘ethnic intimidation’—Pennsylvania’s hate crime statute—but said he will argue Balmer’s motives should make his sentencing more severe if he is convicted,” Penn Live reported.