Matthew Lilley On Race and Admissions, Elite Universities Cannot Be Trusted What the data reveal about schools’ compliance with Students for Fair Admissions

https://www.city-journal.org/article/on-race-and-admissions-elite-universities-cannot-be-trusted

When the Supreme Court banned the use of race in college admissions in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, elite universities variously condemned and pledged to subvert the verdict. Now that multiple top schools have announced the racial composition of their 2028 classes, we’re learning what that looks like in practice.

Ending race-based affirmative action was expected to change elite universities’ demographics substantially. Indeed, in SFFA, many of these schools signed an amicus brief arguing that it was imperative that they be allowed to continue discriminating, because race-neutral methods would keep them from admitting classes with—in their view—enough black and Hispanic students.

Yet, in their first admitted undergraduate classes following the Supreme Court’s ruling, several top universities, including Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Penn, and Duke, have seen little to none of the expected shift in the racial composition. On average, the cumulative black and Hispanic shares of these schools’ incoming classes has declined by just 0.6 percentage points (from 26.8 percent to 26.2 percent), while the Asian share has fallen 2.4 percentage points (from 32 percent to 29.6 percent). Though schools record their demographic data differently—some exclude international students from their calculations, for example—the general pattern indicated by these results is troubling.

We know that elite universities previously discriminated against white and Asian applicants to benefit black and Hispanic students. So, universities like Yale that signed the amicus brief and have seen little change in their demographics after SFFA are either breaking the law now, or they were misleading the Supreme Court when they declared race-neutral methods insufficient to achieve their diversity goals. Which is it? The answer is probably both.

Department of Justice Sues Alabama to Keep Illegal Aliens on Voter Rolls By Eric Lendrum

https://amgreatness.com/2024/09/30/department-of-justice-sues-alabama-to-keep-illegal-aliens-on-voter-rolls/

The Biden-Harris Department of Justice (DOJ) has filed a lawsuit against the state of Alabama over its recent purging of illegal aliens from its voter rolls, demanding that non-citizens be put back on the rolls and allowed to vote in November.

According to Fox News, the lawsuit stems from Secretary of State Wes Allen’s (R-Ala.) decision to remove 3,251 people from the state’s voter rolls who have been issued non-citizen identification numbers, meaning that they are recognized by the federal government and still have to pay taxes despite being non-citizens. These numbers are issued by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), and also serve to provide illegals with the means of getting driver’s licenses and providing proof of residence in the country.

“I have been clear that I will not tolerate the participation of noncitizens in our elections,” said Allen in a previous statement. “I have even gone so far as to testify before a United States Senate Committee regarding the importance of this issue. We have examined the current voter file in an attempt to identify anyone who appears on that list that has been issued a noncitizen identification number.”

The DOJ is now arguing that Allen is in violation of the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) of 1993, which demands that any state that makes changes to its voter registration lists must do so at least 90 days before a federal election. Allen announced his changes with 84 days left before the election.

“The right to vote is one of the most sacred rights in our democracy,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, in her own statement. “As Election Day approaches, it is critical that Alabama redress voter confusion resulting from its list maintenance mailings sent in violation of federal law.”

Three Iranian Nationals Charged for Hacking Operation Targeting Trump Campaign By James Lynch

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/three-iranian-nationals-charged-for-hacking-operation-targeting-trump-campaign/

Three Iranian nationals are facing criminal charges for allegedly hacking the Trump campaign and leaking stolen materials to the media to interfere with the 2024 presidential election and advance the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’s agenda.

Masoud Jalili, 36, Seyyed Ali Aghamiri, 34, and Yaser Balaghi, 37, are being charged with allegedly participating in a yearslong hacking operation that targeted dozens of current and former U.S. officials, members of the press, nongovernmental organizations, and campaign officials, the Justice Department announced Friday.

The unsealed indictment against the IRGC-linked operatives includes charges of wire fraud, material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization, and aggravated identity theft for the cyber attacks. Each one of the defendants would face a lengthy prison sentence if convicted.

“In August, the Intelligence Community reported an ongoing effort by Iran to compromise former President Trump’s campaign and to influence the U.S. election process,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in remarks delivered Friday afternoon.

“The Intelligence Community further reported that Iranian malicious cyber actors have continued their efforts since June to send stolen, non-public material associated with former President Trump’s campaign to U.S. media organizations,” he added.

The Iranian hackers sent unsolicited emails containing the Trump campaign’s materials to the Biden-Harris campaign around late June after beginning to target the Trump campaign the month before, according to the indictment. Biden-Harris campaign officials did not reply to the emails. Beginning in July, the hackers circulated to members of the media internal campaign materials on the Trump campaign’s potential vice presidential selection.

In carrying out the scheme, Iranian hackers impersonated numerous public figures such as current and former U.S. officials to trick victims into opening spear-phishing emails holding malware. They used multiple techniques to hide their identities such as virtual private networks, fake email accounts, and the accounts of compromised victims to advance the hacking scheme.

Meet Russell Rickford, Who Found Oct. 7 ‘Exhilarating’ Can you guess where he’s teaching? Hugh Fitzgerald

https://www.frontpagemag.com/meet-russell-rickford-who-found-oct-7-exhilarating/

The New York Post reported Thursday that “the Cornell University professor who last year called Hamas’ depraved Oct. 7 attack ‘exhilarating’ sparked more outrage Wednesday after taking part in an anti-Israel march on campus where protesters chanted, ‘Long live the intifada.’” More on Russell Rickford’s reappearance in the anti-Israel protesters’ ranks can be found here: “Cornell professor who cheered Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack sparks more outrage after marching in anti-Israel protest,” by Carl Campanile and David Propper, New York Post, September 19, 2024:

Associate history professor Russell Rickford walked with dozens of demonstrators as they spewed slogans against Israel, with one Jewish student calling the controversial instructor’s presence at the protest “insane” and another accusing him of “emboldening hate.”

Rickford was the only faculty member accompanying anti-Israel and pro-Hamas demonstrators on September 18. The participants were calling for support of an Intifada, a violent “uprising” of Palestinians against the Jews of Israel, akin to the Second Intifada.

Photos and videos obtained by The Post show Rickford clapping along with the chants as he walked with a keffiyeh around his shoulders and wearing an Ivy cap on his head — similar to the hat he wore last year when he made his shocking statements.

Intifada is the Arabic word that in English means “uprising” or “shaking off.”

In the context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, intifada has been used to describe violent Palestinian protests against the Jewish state, according to the American Jewish Committee. The White House has previously condemned the phrase.

Protesters eventually crashed a career fair that was held on campus where school officials said they pushed past school police officers — though it does not appear Rickford was part of that disruption from footage posted online.

State Department Aiding Illegals And the disturbing story of a Munich terrorist’s grandson. by Lloyd Billingsley

https://www.frontpagemag.com/state-department-aiding-illegals/

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is primarily responsible for the invasion of some 10 million illegals, approximately the population of Portugal, with no criminal background checks. Rep. Darrell Issa, California Republican and member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, charges that the State Department is encouraging foreign nationals to avoid seeking asylum in Mexico and instead enter the United States at “federal taxpayers’ expense.”

The State Department operates the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration (PRM), which funds legal representation and counseling related to immigration proceedings. The PRM channels funds through non-profits and the UN Refugee Agency. Julia Valls Noyes, assistant secretary for the PRM, told Issa that the US government was not funding the non-profits and aiding in immigration activities.

“Your department is responsible for giving us knowingly false information,” Issa told Valls Noyes, pointing out that money is “fungible.” She acknowledged that some presentations would have been illegal but denied that they were funded by PRM. Issa wasn’t going for it.

“All the people involved in this have to be fleshed out,” Issa told a recent hearing. “It’s about not quitting until you have the truth and not quitting until people who attempt to obfuscate or hide have been held accountable.” This deceit has not received the attention it deserves and a key back story about a strange “migrant” also needs to be fleshed out.

American Liberty In The Balance

https://issuesinsights.com/2024/10/01/american-liberty-in-the-balance/

John Kerry, maybe the most pompous politician of our lifetimes, admits that the First Amendment is an obstacle to the Democrats’ hard-left agenda. It’s a deeply disturbing statement perfectly in line with the party’s irrepressible authoritarian urges.

At last week’s Sustainable Development Impact Meetings of the World Economic Forum, Kerry, a long-time U.S. senator from Massachusetts, secretary of state for four years of the eight-year Obama nightmare, Joe Biden’s climate czar and a failed presidential candidate, acknowledged that his party wants to censor speech that it doesn’t approve of.

“Our First Amendment stands as a major block to the ability to be able to hammer [disinformation] out of existence,” he said. “What we need is to win the ground, win the right to govern by hopefully winning enough votes that you’re free to be able to implement change.”

This was ominously followed by his warning that “there are some people in our country who prepared to implement change by other means.”

His party will take that as a reference to Jan. 6. But the rest of us should understand that he’s saying that Democrats can take power the easy way or the hard way – so just turn it over to us in November and we won’t have to be more coercive than we already are.

Democratic senators demand sanctions against ‘settlement’ group By David Isaac

https://www.jns.org/democratic-senators-demand-sanctions-against-settlement-group/

Three U.S. Democratic senators have urged further sanctions against “extremist settlers” and their supporters, singling out in particular the Amana (“Covenant”) organization, which works to develop Israeli communities in Judea and Samaria.

“We cannot allow a reckless and dangerous minority to continue to endanger Israelis and Palestinians alike through theft, arson, intimidation, violence, and worse,” the senators wrote in a Sept. 27 letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.

“Targeted sanctions have long been a valuable tool in holding violent extremists accountable for their actions and creating space for peaceful and more rational actors to work,” they added.

The signatories are Sens. Ben Cardin (D-Md.), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee; Jack Reed (D-R.I.), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee; and Mark Warner (D-Va.), chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.

The senators expressed strong support for the Biden administration’s earlier sanctions against Israeli individuals and groups, such as the Lehava and Tzav 9 organizations.

“Amana has a long and well-documented history of supporting extremist settlers who expropriate Palestinian land and threaten Palestinian landholders, farmers, and shepherds. Amana has played a central role in forming and sustaining hill-top outposts illegal under Israeli law, often by granting loans to bankroll their start,” they wrote.

Were the United States to sanction Amana it would join Canada, which imposed sanctions on the group in June under its Special Economic Measures (Extremist Settler Violence) Regulations.

Amana, the settlement movement of Gush Emunim, was established in 1976, becoming a registered association in 1978, to help develop communities in Judea, Samaria, the Golan Heights, the Galilee, Negev and Gush Katif (a settlement bloc in the Gaza Strip evacuated in 2005).

Israel’s war on Hezbollah enhances US national/homeland security Yoram Ettinger

 bit.ly/4drgASa

Israel’s war on Hezbollah, Hamas and Houthi terrorists – and their patron, Iran’s Ayatollahs – highlights Israel’s unique role as a force multiplier for the US.  It sheds light on the mutually-beneficial, two-way-street of US-Israel cooperation, which yields to the US taxpayer more than US foreign aid to Israel.
For example:

*Israel fights Hezbollah, which is a global epicenter – second only to Iran’s Ayatollahs – of anti-US terrorism, drug trafficking and money laundering, extending from the Middle East to the American continent. As a proxy of Iran’s Ayatollahs, Hezbollah has proliferated terrorist cells in the US – “the Great American Satan” – and has carried out terror assaults on US installations in the Middle East and beyond. Moreover, since the early 1980s, Hezbollah has collaborated with drug cartels in Mexico, Colombia, Bolivia, Ecuador and Brazil; has trained Latin American terrorists (on their way to the US) in the tri-border areas of Argentina-Paraguay-Brazil and Chile-Peru-Bolivia; has conducted a mega-billion-dollar money laundering operation between Latin America, West Africa, Europe and the Middle East; has terrorized pro-US regimes in western, northern and eastern Africa; and has systematically attempted to topple all pro-US “apostate” Sunni Arab regimes, such as Jordan, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Kuwait, Egypt and Morocco. Hezbollah and Iran’s Ayatollahs have targeted Israel as the vanguard of the US, and the US’ first line of defense, in the “abode of Islam.”

THE UN CHIEF’S FOUL LANGUAGE-RUTHIE BLUM

https://www.jns.org/the-un-chiefs-foul-language/

It’s one thing for terrorist regimes and their fellow travelers to condemn Israel for fighting back forcefully against the mortal threats in and along its borders. It’s even logical for those entities to bemoan the assassination of the mass murderers attempting to fulfill genocidal, hegemonic aspirations through the slaughter of Jews.

But when the knee-jerk reaction of self-proclaimed “human rights” champions with heavy titles and hefty budgets is to blame the Jewish state for defending itself, while making the free world a safer place, a more dangerous phenomenon is at work.

Nor does equating Israel with enemies bent on its destruction disguise the antisemitism at play. An expert at this transparent ploy is U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres.

Following the Israeli airstrikes on Friday night in the Dahieh suburb of Beirut, Guterres expressed “grave concern.” What he didn’t do was mention the target of those attacks: Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah—the mass murderer whose death was celebrated across the Middle East, including in Lebanon, by the victims of his brutality.

This “cycle of violence must stop now, and all sides must step back from the brink,” he said. “The people of Lebanon, the people of Israel, as well as the wider region, cannot afford an all-out war.”
The cycle of violence. That’s the classic euphemism employed by Israel’s detractors to deny its right—nay duty—to defend itself. And in case Guterres hasn’t been paying attention, an “all-out war” has been raging against the Jewish state for the past year, not including the ongoing battles imposed on it since its inception.

To make an even greater mockery of his role in the farcical international body, he proceeded to “urge the parties to recommit to the full implementation of Security Council Resolution 1701 … and immediately return to a cessation of hostilities.”

HAMAS ADMITS: CHAIRMAN OF UN TEACHERS’ ASSOCIATION WAS A HAMAS LEADER [Notes by Tom Gross]

https://shoutout.wix.com/so/4aP91zP15?languageTag=en&cid=6d7b5d9a-848f-4a97-a205-5e75871c534e

Overnight, Israel attacked a Palestinian terror base in Tyre, Lebanon.The target was Fateh al Sharif, chairman of the UNWRA teachers’ association there, who was killed in the attack.

 Western media this morning are referring to him as some kind of innocent UN employee.

 What they are not saying is that this morning Hamas published an official proclamation (above) announcing his death and calling him the “martyr leader Fateh al Sharif Abu Al-Amin, the leader of the Islamic resistance movement Hamas in Lebanon and a member of the movement’s leadership abroad.”

 As is the case in Gaza, Hamas in Lebanon is deeply embedded in UNWRA, the UN body supposed to be dedicated to peace, not to murderous Jihadi terrorism.

UNRWA is funded by the British and other western governments