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Tuesday, February 6, 2024

Widespread Criticism of Bipartisan Border Bill

Washington Post: The $118 billion national security legislation also includes billions of dollars in funding for Ukraine, Israel, the Indo-Pacific and humanitarian aid, but it has a politically perilous path ahead. Lawmakers on both the right and the left have slammed the measure and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) called it “dead on arrival” in the chamber. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) announced that he would hold the first procedural vote on the legislation on Wednesday (Washington Post). Senator J. D. Vance: “The border never closes” is a good summary of this bill, and of Joe Biden’s policy (X). Speaker Mike Johnson: The Biden administration created the border catastrophe. The President has the authority to take action today to fix it. But he refuses to act (X). Katie Pavlich: Former President Trump is ripping apart the Senate’s “border security” bill as Republicans James Lankford and Mitch McConnell urge members to vote in favor of the legislation. “Only a fool, or a Radical Left Democrat, would vote for this horrendous Border Bill, which only gives Shutdown Authority after 5000 Encounters a day, when we already have the right to CLOSE THE BORDER NOW, which must be done,” Trump posted (Townhall). Brian Kilmeade: Sen Lankford insists bill does not allow 5k people to enter in a day (X). Ryan James Girdusky: And there it is… what Sinema and Lankford swore wasn’t in the bill. It guarantees that up to 1.8 million illegal aliens can come over our border before it’s an emergency (X).

13 GOP Governors Gather in Texas to Support Governor Greg Abbott’s Border Security Plan

Daily Caller: Thirteen Republican governors attended a Sunday media briefing in Eagle Pass, Texas during which Governor Greg Abbott urged President Joe Biden to take action on the issue of illegal migrant entries along the southern U.S. border. Abbott intensified his clash with the Biden administration over runaway immigration issues, demanding immediate action to stem the flow of illegal migrants across the southern border. Abbott’s critique of Biden’s handling of border security was unreserved. He accused the administration of neglecting its duties, emphasizing the onus now falls squarely on the federal government to uphold the nation’s laws (Daily Caller). Daily Wire: We spoke to Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee earlier today at the southern border, where she says Texas is proving it can do the job the Biden administration says is impossible, “States are coming together, working together, to help do the job of the federal government” (X).

Number of Encounters at the Border Since Biden Has Been in Office, Exceeds Arizona’s Population

Western Journal: The number of people entering the United States illegally at the nation’s southern border since President Joe Biden took office now exceeds the population of Arizona. The Grand Canyon State is the 14th most populous in the country with just over 7.4 million people. The total number under Biden equals 7,156,685, which is less than Arizona’s population. However, there also have been more than 1.7 million known “gotaways” at the border since Biden became president, putting the total illegal crossings at close to 8.9 million — far in excess of Arizona’s population (Western Journal). Missouri Freedom Caucus: What could possibly go wrong (X)?

Biden to Forgive Student Loans for Thousands of Borrowers, Claims, "It's not costing people"

Business Insider: More student-loan borrowers can expect debt relief starting this month through a new repayment reform. In early January, the Education Department announced that borrowers enrolled in the SAVE income-driven repayment plan who originally borrowed $12,000 or less would begin to see their loans forgiven in February if they made at least 10 years of qualifying payments. The department is rolling out this relief early — when SAVE was announced over the summer, that provision of the plan wasn’t set to be implemented until summer 2024 (Business Insider). RNC Research: Joe Biden falsely claims his student debt cancellation is free: “It’s not costing people.” He’s wrong. That debt gets transferred to Americans who didn’t go to college through inflation and taxes (X).

CNN Making Changes Once Again Amid Ratings Decline

Daily Caller: CNN is reportedly making drastic changes as a ratings slump continues to take its toll on the network, and one morning show left over from the Chris Licht era is getting the ax (Daily Caller). Mediaite: Poppy Harlow and Phil Mattingly, the current hosts of CNN This Morning (6 a.m. to 9 a.m.), will be taking on new roles at the network. Kasie Hunt, who hosts the 5 a.m. hour on CNN, will take over the new, smaller iteration of CNN This Morning, now from 5 a.m. to 7 a.m. Jim Acosta, who currently anchors a five hour stretch of weekend programming on CNN, will move to weekdays to host CNN Newsroom at 10 a.m. On the backend, the new slate means CNN will no longer be producing its morning programming out of its Hudson Yards studios New York; the team that produces CNN This Morning in New York will be disbanded; in an internal memo, CNN CEO Mark Thompson said they “will be strongly encouraging [those staffers] to apply for the many new open roles that we are making available this week in Atlanta and Washington, DC, along with a number of other open roles in New York in other programming blocks” (Mediaite).

Fulton County DA Fani Willis Confirms Relationship with Special Prosecutor in Trump Case

Associated Press: Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis acknowledged in a court filing on Friday having a “personal relationship” with a special prosecutor she hired for the Georgia election interference case against former President Donald Trump but argued there are no grounds to dismiss the case or to remove her from the prosecution. Willis hired special prosecutor Nathan Wade in November 2021 to assist her investigation into whether the Republican ex-president and others broke any laws as they tried to overturn his loss in the 2020 presidential election in Georgia. Since Trump and 18 others were indicted in August, Wade has led the team of lawyers Willis assembled to prosecute the case (Associated Press). Townhall: Willis and Wade, who’s charging the county $250 an hour for his work, a bill that has amounted to more than $654,000 in income, are accused of similar allegations of misusing taxpayer dollars on lavish vacations the two allegedly took together as lovers (Townhall). Newsmax: Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., told Newsmax on Monday that Fulton County, Georgia, District Attorney Fani Willis apparently spent federal funds on “swag” and “trips,” and House Republicans have served her with a subpoena to determine where the money went (Newsmax).

14-Year-Old Palestinian Boy Tries to Kill Israeli Border Agent

His death is on Hamas for brainwashing a child. Daily Mail: This is the moment Israeli police shot dead a Palestinian boy in West Bank after he tried to stab an officer. Footage shows a 14-year-old boy – identified as Wadia Shadi Sa’ad Alian – cross a busy road and approach an armed Border Police officer stationed at a checkpoint near the settlement of Ma’ale Adumim in West Bank. As the officer frisked to check him for weapons, the teenager drew what appeared to be a knife from his coat pockets and attempted to stab the policeman several times. When he was unsuccessful in harming the officer, the boy ran away, but was gunned down from behind by the officer and his two colleagues. The student living in the mostly-Palestinian Jabel Mukaber neighborhood in east Jerusalem died from his injuries (Daily Mail). Maria Medvin: 14 year old Palestinian boy tried to stab a border guard in Israel. He was shot and killed by another guard. Watch the story. It will be the next “Israel is killing Palestinian kids” propaganda (X).

Professional Female Boxer, Coach Slams USA Boxing for Allowing Transgender Athletes to Compete

Fox News: A female former competitive boxer is slamming one of the sport’s top governing bodies over a decision to allow biological males to fight against women in the ring, warning that it will result in women getting hurt and opportunities being taken away from female boxers. “When I heard that they were allowing transgender people to box women, I could not believe it,” Cary Williams, a former female competitive boxer and Olympic level boxing coach, told Fox News. “I know it’s been going on in a lot of sports, which is not right on any level. But when you’re talking about people punching each other in the face, in the body, in the head, I really was surprised.” USA Boxing announced a fighter who transitioned from male to female can compete in the female category under several conditions spelled out in the rule book that involve what the fighter identifies as, hormone levels and the completion of gender surgery. Williams said this move will result in women being severely harmed in the ring and told a story about when she was a 30-year-old fighter sparring with a 16-year-old male to prepare for a fight. She experienced firsthand the physical and biological differences between males and females (Fox News).

Dartmouth College Reverses Course, Will Require SAT/ACT Test Results in Admissions

Good for them. Wall Street Journal: Dartmouth College will require SAT or ACT scores beginning with next year’s class of applicants, the first Ivy League school to reverse course on pandemic-era test-optional policies. The New Hampshire school said it was making the move based on new research showing that, at Ivy League and other highly selective schools, standardized test scores help predict first-year college performance—even better than high-school grades do (Wall Street Journal). National Review: Performance on such tests is an important barometer of student academic caliber, the faculty said. With Dartmouth recruiting more international students, as well as students from lesser-known high schools, test scores provide more data on academic prowess. Rather than handicap underprivileged students, the test requirement can help shine a spotlight on achievers from poor areas and give them a chance to succeed (National Review).

10.

“Woke Kindergarten” Hurts Childrens’ Test Scores

Daily Wire: A low-performing Bay Area elementary school saw its student achievement dip even further after introducing “Woke Kindergarten.” Glassbrook Elementary School in Hayward paid $250,000 for a company called Woke Kindergarten to train its teachers in topics like white supremacy and oppression. To pay Woke Kindergarten, the school used federal funds — money from a federal program meant to help boost test scores for the country’s lowest-performing schools. Woke Kindergarten’s curriculum, which can be used with any of Glassbrook Elementary’s 474 students, includes a “woke word of the day,” words like “strike,” “ceasefire” and “protest.” This is meant to introduce children to a “language of the resistance” or a “liberatory vocabulary in a way that they can easily digest, understand and most importantly, use in their critiques of the system.” English and math scores have both declined four percentage points each. Less than 4% of students were proficient in math, and less than 12% of students were proficient in English as of last spring (Daily Wire).