Cross-Examination

• Good news: DeSantis’s Disney dumps DEI: In a clear win for Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and his crusade against wokeness, the Reedy Creek Improvement District reversed course on pushing the Left’s Marxist ideology of “diversity, equity, and inclusion” at Disney. The new director of the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District, Glenton Gilzean, explained, “The so-called diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives were advanced during the tenure of the previous board and they were illegal and simply unAmerican.” He added, “Our district will no longer participate in any attempt to divide us by race or advance the notion that we are not created equal.” The new board discovered that the Disney-controlled Reedy Creek District had been routinely awarding contracts based upon a business owner’s race or gender “to ensure that contractors met a certain threshold of diversity.” While some conservatives have been critical of DeSantis for “picking a fight with Disney,” what he has demonstrated is the willingness to use the power of government to uphold Floridians’ civil rights and combat the fundamentally racist nature of woke ideology. And he is getting real results.

• Good news: Biden rebuked on gun regs: A panel of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has put the brakes on Joe Biden’s recent Second Amendment-infringing regulation, the requirement that gun owners register their pistol braces. Gun rights advocates quickly objected to the new regulation, which went into effect on June 1. Two Texas gun owners filed a lawsuit challenging the new rule. In a decision to block the rule, the court contended that the Biden administration’s pistol brace registration requirement would likely not survive a legal challenge. In other words, it’s unconstitutional.

• “Bidenvilles of homelessness”: Thanks to Joe Biden’s de facto open-border policy, the massive influx of illegal immigrants has created a surge in homelessness in America’s major cities. Cities such as New York City have seen their homeless shelters overfill as thousands of illegal aliens have moved in. With the shelters filled, the population of homeless has spilled out onto city sidewalks. Tent cities have formed in many public parks, filled with homeless, which are now being dubbed “Bidenvilles.” Of course, many of these Bidenvilles have sprung up in Democrat-run self-proclaimed “sanctuary cities,” and residents are becoming fed up. Well, when they go to cast their vote in 2024, there is clearly only one party to blame — the Democrat Party that invited this mess in the first place.

• Record temps don’t deter illegal immigration: The surge in migrants illegally entering the U.S. has not slowed down this summer despite the hot weather. Past summers saw a lull in the number of border crossings, but this year the opposite has occurred. U.S. Border Patrol reports that in June there were 99,545 illegals interdicted and in July the number rose to more than 130,000. Temperatures reached over 110 degrees in Arizona for much of July and have been very high elsewhere in the Southwest. Yet according to CBP records, last month saw the highest one-month total in illegal crossings in the Tucson sector in 15 years. The reason has everything to do with Joe Biden’s immigration policy — migrants know that if they can get across, then they will most likely be able to stay, so they are willing to brave the oppressive heat. Meanwhile, the Pentagon is now pulling 1,100 troops from the border after deploying them earlier this year in lieu of Title 42 ending.

• It’s a conspiracy: During a two-week operation in July dubbed “Operation Cross Country,” the FBI was able to locate and free 200 sex-trafficking victims, 59 of whom were children. Furthermore, the operation was able to identify or arrest 68 traffickers and 126 individuals suspected of child sex exploitation. Attorney General Merrick Garland observed, “Sex traffickers exploit and endanger some of the most vulnerable members of our society and cause their victims unimaginable harm.” Michelle DeLaune, president and CEO of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), noted, “As a society, we must work together to ensure the protection, support, and empowerment of those impacted by this heinous crime.” Exactly, but that cannot happen when much of the Leftmedia reacts to exposing the problem as promoting some conspiracy theory.

• NYC’s bad crime plan: Instead of spending money on expanding the number of officers in the New York City Police Department, Mayor Eric Adams’s new plan to fight spiking crime in the Big Apple is to spend money on building more housing, more youth job opportunities, and more mental health programs. Wondering how this will immediately and directly tackle surging violent crime in the city is apparently to ask the wrong question. The city’s “gun violence” task force calls its $500 million plan the “Blueprint for Community Safety,” which Adams claims will help “stop the violence before it happens on our streets.” What it actually looks like is a shakedown of NYC taxpayers wrapped in a feel-good virtue signal that does nothing to actually stop criminals.

Headlines

• Trump to appear in federal court to face 2020 election charges (NBC News)

• Pence comes out swinging at Trump following Jan 6 indictment: “Should never be president” (Fox News)

• Ron DeSantis agrees to debate Gavin Newsom on Fox News (Politico)

• USWNT torched for not celebrating national anthem at World Cup (Fox Business)

• Pittsburgh synagogue shooter sentenced to death by jury (Daily Wire)

• George Soros-tied fund, Fortress buy bankrupt Vice Media for $350M (NY Post)

• China investing millions in U.S. K-12 schools (Hot Air)

• Dr. Jordan Peterson launching online university to counter left-wing bias (Fox News)

• White South African farmer’s throat slit on his property by four teens the day after 90,000 black people gathered in a stadium to chant about killing white farmers (Not the Bee)

• Satire: Democrats clarify that no one is above the law that they selectively enforce (Babylon Bee)

For more editors’ choice headlines, click here.