Politics

• Last night’s other DNC speakers: Joe Biden may have been the headliner last night, but the speaking slots were dominated by women. This makes sense because the Democrats have increasingly become The Party of Women. There, for example, was Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who shrilly told her admirers that Kamala Harris “is as committed to our reproductive and civil rights as she is to taking on corporate greed. And she is working tirelessly to secure a ceasefire in Gaza and bringing hostages home.” And there was Hillary Clinton, who seemingly only yesterday was soaking up the love at the 2016 DNC, on the way to a delightfully devastating loss to Donald Trump. But the delegates appear to have gotten over it, and they gave their lonesome loser a warm reception. Clinton also extolled Harris’s virtues and her quest to break through “that highest, hardest glass ceiling.” Mercifully, she refrained from breaking into “The Macarena” like she did in 1996. “I wish my mother and Kamala’s mother could see us,” Clinton said. “They would say, ‘Keep going!’” Perhaps they would. Or perhaps they’d be creeped out at the singular focus of today’s Democrat women, which is abortion, abortion, abortion.

• New Harris ads spread blatant lies, claim Republicans want to outlaw birth control (Blaze Media)

• Democrats demand ID to get into their convention but not to vote for president (The Federalist)

• Satire: Kamala Harris unveils new economic platform “We must seize the means of production and execute the Bourgeoisie” (Babylon Bee)

• ChiTown mayor blames GOP for … something: Democrats love to project, and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson is no exception. Yesterday, while hard-left protesters were tearing down the fencing surrounding the United Center, site of the Democratic National Convention, Johnson was lashing out at … Republicans. “Protecting the First Amendment,” he said. “That’s what we’ve done. We’ve done that. Here’s what the failure is: an extreme Republican Party that doesn’t believe in democracy, an extreme Republican Party that attacked this country, an extreme Republican Party with [Texas] Governor [Greg] Abbott attacking the city of Chicago.” Johnson’s counterattack on Abbott, we presume, is in response to the border governor’s generous shuttling of illegal immigrants to the Windy Sanctuary City. But as for the Jew-hating, pro-Hamas protesters who’ve flooded the streets of Chicago, we’d venture to guess that not a single one of them was sent there by Governor Abbott. Johnson might not want to admit it, but his city, with its nation’s-highest murder rate and its iron-fisted Democrat control, is the perfect venue for displaying the fruits of Democrat governance.

• Menendez negotiating pardon from Biden for leaving Senate race (NY Post)

• George Santos pleads guilty to two counts in federal corruption case, faces years in prison (USA Today)

• DC councilman who once claimed Jews control the weather charged with taking $150,000 in bribes (Not the Bee)

Middle East

• Israel accepts ceasefire proposal: Israel has agreed to a U.S.-proposed ceasefire in Gaza that would include the exchange of hostages. Secretary of State Antony Blinken called it “probably the best, maybe the last, opportunity to get the hostages home, to get a ceasefire, and to put everyone on a better path to enduring peace and security.” The problem is that Hamas has yet to agree to the deal. Should Hamas do so, a six-week ceasefire would be established during which the two would discuss a hostage exchange; 109 Israeli hostages, either dead or alive, remain in Gaza. Hamas recently dropped its demand that any ceasefire deal must be permanent. However, the terrorist group also stated that any deal must include an agreement for ending the war. Meanwhile, on Monday, the IDF conducted an operation in Gaza to recover the bodies of six Israeli hostages. Also on Monday, Hamas and Islamic Jihad claimed credit for a suicide bombing in Tel Aviv outside a synagogue that killed the bomber and injured a bystander.

Culture

• Columbia lied about expelling its insurrectionists: It’s been a rough stretch for Columbia University of late, given that its beleaguered president, Minouche Shafik, recently decided to spend less time among the Jew-haters and more time with her family. But Columbia does itself no favors when it refuses to hold responsible those who’ve so thoroughly tarnished its image, especially after having vowed to do so. As National Review reports, the Ivy League school “has failed to discipline students who broke into and occupied a building on campus, even after pledging to do so, according to a new House Education and Workforce Committee report.” Said the committee’s Republican chairwoman, Virginia Foxx: “The failure of Columbia’s invertebrate administration to hold accountable students who violate university rules and break the law is disgraceful and unacceptable. … By allowing its own disciplinary process to be thwarted by radical students and faculty, Columbia has waved the white flag in surrender while offering up a get-out-of-jail-free card to those who participated in those unlawful actions.”

• Montana high court quashes Parental Consent for Abortion Act: It’s been more than two years since the Supreme Court overturned the abomination of Roe v. Wade, and Democrat reports of back-alley abortions with dirty coat hangers continue to be, uh, greatly exaggerated. No, the decision didn’t usher in “The Handmaid’s Tale” in America. But, yes, the states themselves have been hammering out their own policies on this deeply contentious issue. Federalism, after all, is federalism. And sometimes, it doesn’t go the way we’d expected it to. Take deep-red Montana, for example. There, as The Christian Post reports, the state Supreme Court “struck down a law requiring parental notification before minors can have an abortion as the debate about the legality of abortion is expected to continue in the state and nationwide.” The decision thus “upheld a lower court ruling invalidating the Parental Consent for Abortion Act of 2013.” The law had been litigated for more than a decade, and it thus never took effect. This illustrates the challenges faced by the pro-life movement, as well as the power of the Left’s abortion lobby, even in reliably red states.

• Retribution for nurse who defended kids: Vanessa Sivadge, a nurse at Children’s Hospital in Houston, Texas, who blew the whistle on the hospital’s illegal “gender transitioning” treatment of children, has been fired. Sivadge’s claims corroborate the allegations against the hospital made by Dr. Eithan Haim, who first exposed the illegal practices. His whistleblowing got him in hot water with the Biden administration, which targeted him with bogus claims of HIPAA violations. Sivadge says that she was fired this past Friday, and her firing was “unlawful for two reasons: it is retaliation for my coming forward with information on TCH’s egregious pattern of deception and Medicaid fraud, and this action also illegally disregarded my request to transfer due to my belief that these procedures bring irreversible harm and lifelong regret to children confused about their sex.” Sivadge says she will not back down and has retained legal counsel. “The risks have never been higher for whistleblowers who come forward to expose wrongdoing,” she said, “but when the lives and wellbeing of children are at stake, it is always worth it.” A GiveSendGo fund has been set up in support of her legal battles.

• Gayest “Star Wars” doesn’t get second season: Disney may be finally, slowly waking up to the realization that the bottom line matters more than producing woke shows that nobody wants to watch. Indeed, Disney’s promotion of woke ideology may have hit its peak with its latest “Star Wars” series, “The Acolyte,” which is now believed to be the lowest-rated “Star Wars” series Disney has produced. As a result, Lucasfilm, which is owned by Disney, has canceled a second season. The show’s creator and director, Leslye Headland, who is a flag-waving member of the “LGBTQ community,” had trumpeted her plan to infuse the series with a gay agenda. Well, most folks found this woke promotion uninteresting, uninspiring, offensive, and, most importantly, entirely out of place for a “Star Wars” show.

Good News

• DEI dies at Harley-Davidson: Thanks to Robby Starbuck and his campaign to expose to the American public the cancer of wokeness that has infiltrated some of America’s most iconic companies, Tractor Supply, John Deere, and now Harley-Davidson have backtracked and jettisoned the neo-Marxist ideology found in the DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) and ESG (environmental, social, and governance) agenda. Last week, Starbuck posted a video on X wherein Harley-Davidson’s president, CEO, and chairman, Jochen Zeitz, boasted about his efforts to “take on capitalism and redefine it” since taking over the company in 2020. This redefining effectively translates into promoting DEI and ESG initiatives. But it got worse — Zeitz further compared himself to the Taliban, saying, “Harley’s all about the sound and the smell of the Harley-Davidson, isn’t it? So I became the Taliban again in a sustainable way. I decided to chair — actually, create a sustainability committee … which I’m still chairing today.” The backlash from Harley-Davidson fans came hard and fast, and on Monday the company announced it was ending all its DEI and ESG initiatives. Furthermore, the motorcycle company will end its relationship with various LGBTQ-promoting groups, such as the Human Rights Campaign, and sponsorships of annual Pride festivals. It is good news when an iconic American company drifting into the toxic realm of wokeness gets course-corrected by its customer base.

Misc.

• Judge throws out Hunter Biden’s attempt to have tax case dismissed (National Review)

• Canadian railways are barreling toward a labor shutdown (Morning Brew)

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