The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People launched a campaign on Tuesday calling for Black athletes, recruits, fans, and alumni to withhold athletic and financial support at public universities in states that the NAACP said have moved ‘to limit Black voting representation.’ [That’s a misrepresentation!] The “Out of Bounds” campaign’s primary goal is to call on top football and basketball players recruited by programs from select states to withhold their commitments until “fair congressional maps” are restored in those states, the NAACP’s statement said. “The NAACP will not watch the same institutions that depend on Black athletic prowess to fill their stadiums and their bank accounts remain silent while their states strip Black communities of their voice,” Derrick Johnson, President & CEO of the NAACP, said in a statement. If the athletes do what the NAACP wants, they’re going to end up like Colin Kaepernick, without a team. Meanwhile, nothing will happen to the NAACP ‘leaders’ telling them to do it. And it will accomplish nothing. The law is the law. The Supreme Court banned racism in districting. The NAACP was once a great organization fighting for Black people. Now it’s just a communist organization fighting for communists. Don’t listen to them, kids! To all the Black athletes out there that go to school in the South, y’all better not listen to the NAACP and mess up your scholarships and your potential for generational wealth over some fake outrage Let her cook! pic.twitter.com/OREGfa1qel — Woodz (@Nibiru1000) May 20, 2026   The post NAACP Calls Young Black Athletes to Sacrifice Themselves appeared first on www.independentsentinel.com.

Ugandan Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani gave press passes to women who endorse the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, allegedly at the hands of Luigi Mangione. They give these types of people press passes, so they can influence the court and a culture. The far-left likes the chaos. They don’t care that Thompson was murdered and think it’s okay to use violence under some conditions. They are supporting murder. Mr. Thompson was not only murdered. He was executed. Ashley Rojas is one of the women, and she said she is glad Thompson’s children no longer have to live with him. These women aren’t just foolish; they seem evil. And why did Zohran give them press passes? Finnerty thinks it’s because he agrees with them. The post Zohran Gave Mangione-Trial Press Passes to Women Who Support Murder appeared first on www.independentsentinel.com.

A male athlete named AB Hernandez won three events at a girls sectional final tournament in California over the weekend, forcing female athletes to share the podium with him. Still, the athlete’s mother believes her son is the real victim. Hernandez, from Jurupa Valley High School, took first place in the girls long jump, high jump, and triple jump at the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) Southern Section finals in Division 3. Due to new rules, female athletes who would have won first place if it were not for Hernandez, a male, participating in the girls contest, had to share the first place spot on the podium. Hernandez was not present at one ceremony, but later shared a spot with female winner Gwynneth Mureika, according to OutKick. At another ceremony, the female athlete did not show up and Hernandez had the top spot on the podium to himself. The trans-identifying athlete’s mother shared a post from “Rainbow Families Action” on Instagram, which excoriated the new rules and claimed Hernandez was the one being bullied. “All these big tough ex-athletes at CIF, and the most courage they could muster was to hand this to coaches at AB’s meet today,” the post said, captioning a letter about the new rules that allow female athletes to advance and share the podium. “Not one of them was brave enough to look her or her mother in the eye and say ‘This whole project of violating Ed Code is aimed at you. A child,'” the post continued. “Government sanctioned bullying of a kid?”   View this post on Instagram   A post shared by Rainbow Families Action (@rainbowfamiliesaction) Hernandez, who also dominates in girls’ volleyball, is moving on to compete against top female track athletes in the state and will likely advance to the state finals, which are set to start on May 29. Last year, Hernandez won gold in the female triple jump and high jump at the state finals. He also took home the silver in the long jump. In response to California allowing boys to compete in girls’ sports, the Trump Department of Justice in 2025 sued the California Department of Education and the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) over violations of Title IX. Related: Male Dominates Girls’ Track At California State Finals Despite Trump Threat

America has known for decades that its children are being preyed upon digitally at an industrial scale, and that the predators are overwhelmingly our own citizens. The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children’s CyberTipline logged 21.3 million reports of suspected child sexual exploitation, containing more than 61.8 million images, videos, and files. Child sex trafficking reports alone reached 113,500 — a 323% surge from the prior year. Generative AI has supercharged the nightmare, producing more than 1.5 million reports tied to AI-generated abuse material. The U.S. hosts more child sexual abuse material online than any other country, accounting for approximately 30% of the global total of CSAM URLs. This trafficking is not primarily the kind Americans are often taught to imagine: foreign cartels smuggling victims across the border. Federal data and long-term studies of commercial sexual exploitation of minors show the perpetrators are 98.8% U.S. citizens — overwhelmingly male, with an average age of 28.5, and frequently someone the child already knows. Databases sit on evidence of up to 89,000 unidentified American child victims. Hundreds of thousands of U.S. IP addresses have been caught trading child sexual abuse material involving kids under 12. This is American-on-American crime via the online world. Digital platforms host, algorithmically amplify, and profit from grooming, sextortion, and trafficking children while facing almost no legal consequences for failing to act aggressively. They rake in billions from ad revenue generated by the very engagement these crimes produce. Predators operate openly across Instagram DMs, Snapchat disappearing messages, TikTok, Discord, gaming platforms, peer-to-peer networks, and encrypted apps — moving kids from “friendly” chats to coercion, to live-streamed abuse, to motel-room ads posted on sites that generate clicks and dollars for the tech giants. Big Tech ultimately benefits. Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act was created to protect a young internet industry and encourage platforms to moderate harmful content. But as technology changed, courts interpreted the statute broadly, and platforms grew into some of the most powerful companies in the world, that shield became something far larger than Congress originally contemplated. By 2018, lawmakers had formally acknowledged that Section 230 was being used to protect websites facilitating sex trafficking. Yet targeted reforms for child exploitation and trafficking have remained slow and incomplete. The human reality of this exploitation is sickening. Tim Tebow laid it bare in testimony before Sen. Josh Hawley’s (R–MO) subcommittee earlier this year. He held up a DOJ database map of the United States blanketed in 338,000 red pinpricks. Each red dot represented a unique American IP address that, in just six months, downloaded, shared, or distributed images and videos of children under 12 being raped. The barely visible blue marks represented the handful of actual law enforcement investigations. Behind every red dot is a real child — still unidentified, still trapped, or still forced to live with the knowledge that images of their abuse are being traded online. For far too long, the response has been inadequate. Years of under-resourcing have left federal investigators badly outmatched. According to Hawley’s office, DHS currently has only seven forensic analysts working these cases. Under the current administration, federal enforcement has shown what urgency can accomplish. FBI Director Kash Patel’s Operation Iron Pursuit located more than 200 child victims and led to the arrests of more than 350 alleged child sexual abuse offenders in a historic one-month nationwide effort. But a successful enforcement operation, however commendable, is not the same thing as a permanent rescue infrastructure. An administration can prioritize enforcement for a term. However, Congress must provide the manpower, funding, and statutory backing so that rescue and prevention do not depend on a temporary surge of political will. Belatedly, Congress is beginning to move. Rep. Laurel Lee’s (R-FL) REPORT Act, sponsored by Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) and signed into law in 2024, required online platforms to report not only child sexual abuse material but also child sex trafficking and online enticement to NCMEC. The flood of new data is, in part, the result of finally forcing platforms to disclose more of what has been happening in the dark. The TAKE IT DOWN Act, signed into law last year, criminalized the publication of nonconsensual intimate images, including AI-generated sexual deepfakes, and required covered platforms to establish a removal process for victims. Recently, the FTC has been enforcing the law’s notice-and-removal provision, requiring platforms to remove qualifying content and known identical copies within 48 hours of a valid request. But takedown is only one side of the fight. Once a child has been groomed, coerced, recorded, or trafficked, the crisis has already reached the point of rescue. That is why Lee’s bipartisan Renewed Hope Act targets the identification bottleneck by requiring DHS to hire, train, and deploy at least 200 specialized investigators, forensic experts, and analysts to the Child Exploitation Investigations Unit and HSI field offices nationwide. Hawley has moved the Renewed Hope Act framework into the Senate’s broader DHS funding fight, giving the child exploitation measure a potentially faster path than it would have as a standalone House bill. The provision, included in the GOP’s DHS reconciliation package, the SECURE America Act, would allocate $108.5 million to hire those HSI personnel. By folding Renewed Hope into a larger DHS funding vehicle expected to move through the Senate, Hawley has increased the likelihood that the effort could gain momentum quickly and deliver resources directly to the investigators responsible for identifying unknown victims and pursuing their abusers. Taken together, these measures begin to form the outline of a serious national response: report the exploitation, take down the material, arrest the predators, identify the victims, and build the investigative capacity to rescue children before their abuse becomes another permanent file in a federal database. But the fight remains precarious. The government cannot simply fund the rescue of children after exploitation occurs. It must make digital child exploitation harder to commit in the first place. That means stronger age protections, better evidence preservation, faster takedown mechanisms, meaningful cooperation with law enforcement, real consequences for platforms that allow predators to operate with impunity, and a long-overdue reckoning with Section 230. Our societal sickness has mainstreamed pornography, sexualized minors in entertainment and fashion, and taught generations of children that traditional boundaries around sex and age are oppressive or outdated. Our culture created these predators, and our internet gave them anonymity, infinite reach, and an endless supply of victims. Whether Congress is truly waking up will be decided in the coming weeks. Our children, the thousands waiting behind those flashing red dots, deserve more than another round of hearings and headlines. *** Bethany Miller is director of Communications at NRB, managing editor of The Conservateur, and a fellow at Concerned Women for America.

When Zohran Mamdani served in the New York State Assembly, he voted for a plan to hire more teachers and build more classrooms in New York City to keep class sizes small. As mayor, Mamdani has other priorities. Mamdani’s 2027 budget, which he unveiled last week, includes $122 million for new teachers and $1.5 billion for classroom construction. That may seem like a sizable investment — but according to New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, this budget puts the city more than $13.01 billion behind its goal to keep class sizes small. If Mamdani wanted to find the money, he could re-evaluate the $4.3 billion the city spends on its migrant population. New York’s sanctuary city status proved so costly that Mamdani’s predecessor, Mayor Eric Adams, warned the Biden administration that unless it got the southern border under control, New York would have to cut back on social services for migrants. Mamdani, who signed an executive order reaffirming New York’s sanctuary city status shortly after taking office, plans to pursue “a new path of defiance through compassion” where New York cares for everyone regardless of whether they pay taxes or not. During his budget unveiling, Mamdani said he “refuses to kick structural challenges down the road for someone else to solve later.” For that reason, Mamdani has declared an “extension” for the class size plan — an extension that does not appear to have an end date. In the meantime, Mamdani is framing his refusal to deliver on the education improvement plan he himself voted for as a good thing for students. “Our administration believes deeply in the state law capping class sizes and I am proud to have voted for this mandate during my time in the state assembly,” he said. “This extension will generate approximately $500 million in savings in the upcoming fiscal year, but more importantly it will allow us to implement an achievable plan that better serves our students and our teachers.” New York City Council Member Vickie Palladino disagrees. “Smaller class sizes mean more classrooms and more teachers, which he doesn’t have the money to do,” Palladino told The Daily Wire. Mamdani is “operating a budget by bailout,” she added, “hoping that down in the road, in 2028, he’ll get a Democratic president to give us a $10 billion, $20 billion, or maybe more. But by that time, the middle class will be gone.” New York public schools are already suffering. The State Education Department’s annual report shows that only 22% of fourth graders were proficient in reading and only 29% in math. A report from the comptroller’s office also showed that bullying and drug-related incidents have increased this year. New York also changed how it collects data, now only reporting assaults or possession of weapons if the school refers the student to the police, the act would count as a felony, and the offender is at least ten years old. The extension isn’t Mamdani’s only proposed public education shakeup. The mayor is planning to phase out New York City’s gifted student program over concerns that some children might be receiving a better education than others. “I will return to the previous policy,” Mamdani said, referencing former Mayor Bill de Blasio’s plan to end the gifted program. “Ultimately, my administration would aim to make sure that every child receives a high-quality early education that nurtures their curiosity and learning.”

Ted Bundy had admirers. Jeffrey Dahmer had a girlfriend. Luigi Mangione has a mob of bloodthirsty progressive fanatics, and now, press credentials. Meet the self-proclaimed “Mangionistas“: Abril Rios, Ashley Rojas, and Lena Weissbrot. Three young women who have apparently fallen head over heels for the man accused of executing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in cold blood on a Midtown Manhattan sidewalk on December 4, 2024. A father of two was shot in the back while walking to an investor conference. For months, the trio has been posting trial updates, churning out “Free Luigi” content, and calling for jury nullification through thirst traps and anti-corporate screeds. New York City’s socialist mayor, Zohran Mamdani, handed them lanyards to do it. Under the city’s newly relaxed “indie creator” credentialing rules, you qualify for a press pass if you’ve posted six or more pieces of content about a breaking news event. Six posts. Low bar. So Abril Rios, self-described “Hot Girl for Zohran” and proud Mangionista, walked up to the courthouse covering a murder trial for a man she openly worships, press pass dangling from her neck. Same for Ashley Rojas, who bills herself as a “writer,” and Lena Weissbrot: Self-described game developer, rapper performing under the stage name “Fellatia G,” and the owner of an online wishlist that includes a bulletproof helmet, body armor, and a 3D printer. Just normal press corps stuff. Outside the courthouse Monday, Rojas looked into a camera and said, city-issued credential swinging from her neck: “I’m standing on business: f*ck Brian Thompson. I don’t give a flying f*ck he died. F*ck Brian Thompson. F*ck his mom.” Weissbrot donning a neon green, pink, and purple striped costume and sporting pigtails added coldly that Thompson’s teenage sons “are better off without him” and should “enjoy the blood money.” Then she drew a slow finger across her throat and said his name. Rios, chomping gum, wondered aloud why the Second Amendment exists if not to “shoot up schools,” before turning to the camera and informing the president of the United States: “Trump, I’m coming for you, baby.” What lovely, classy, tolerant women New York City is churning out these days. On Instagram, Weissbrot posted a lengthy caption beneath a photo of herself in her Luigi costume, which included the following disclaimer: “I condemn all violence by all people of all time in perpetuity forever.” Beautiful. She then spent the rest of the caption calling the American healthcare system “a slaughter house,” declaring that whoever killed Brian Thompson is a “hero,” and arguing that people have the right to violence when they feel threatened and the threat “refuses to stop.” So: violence condemned, permanently, universally. Unless the target is someone you’ve decided deserves it. The permission structure for murder, it turns out, has a very low bar on the Left. Especially for “hot” girls for Zohran, who are quite “hot” for “heroic violence.” As a society, we should be pointing at and shaming these people. But instead of condemning this dangerous and frightening behavior, mentally ill women have been given a megaphone. Besides abiding by a moral code reads something like: “Thou shall do whatever the f*ck thou wants to people who disagree with thou. Murder is cool if it’s against someone uncool. Stand on business, Queen,” they’re also just wholeheartedly wrong on the merits. They claimed, with apparent sincerity, that Brian Thompson personally killed more people than Osama bin Laden. First: if Bin Laden were somehow in a courtroom today, something tells me these women would be posting thirst traps for him too. Second: this is simply deranged. Total U.S. deaths run roughly 3.1 million annually. The leading killers are heart disease, cancer, and accidents, not claim denials. American private insurance, for all its flaws, has driven the medical innovation that gives the U.S. some of the highest cancer survival rates in the world. Brian Thompson started with next to nothing, spent over two decades rising through UnitedHealth Group, and built a life. He did not deserve to be shot from behind. His sons did not deserve to lose their father. His wife did not deserve to be widowed. But facts are irrelevant here, because the Mangionistas don’t want solutions. They want blood, and they want it to be aesthetically pleasing on their feeds. There’s a clinical name for this: Hybristophilia, a romantic or sexual attraction to violent criminals, is a well-documented, overwhelmingly female phenomenon. Social media, true-crime TikTok, and the romanticization of the “dangerous misunderstood man” have turbocharged it. Add weaponized female empathy, an anti-corporate ideology that teaches generations that billionaires are the real terrorists, and platforms that reward outrage over accuracy, and you get a press-badged ghoul telling a dead man’s kids to enjoy the blood money. This is not a few bad apples, and the data bears that out. Affective polarization is at a record high. At least 41% of Americans aged 18–29 viewed Thompson’s death as at least “somewhat acceptable.” Political violence from the Left is rising. When institutions (including the mayor’s office) legitimize and platform those who glorify it, the problem doesn’t stay online. The Mangionistas are not a fringe aberration. They are the logical, grotesque endpoint of a progressive ideology that spent decades replacing objective and religious morality with emotivism, facts with feelings, and the rule of law with tribal vengeance. When you teach people that success is theft, that corporations are terrorists, and that murdering someone “uncool” is activism, you don’t get revolutionaries. You get this. Even Mangione’s own attorney, Karen Friedman Agnifilo, condemned the trio. “These individuals do not represent the views of Luigi,” she said, calling their statements “vile and irresponsible.” When your behavior is too unhinged for the accused murderer’s defense team, you have made a serious wrong turn. Take the press passes back, Mayor Mamdani. Some things shouldn’t come with a lanyard.

This article is part of Upstream, The Daily Wire’s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you. *** As we gather together on Memorial Day weekend to honor the extraordinary sacrifice of our nation’s fallen heroes, many of us go full carpe diem with our hard-earned freedom by celebrating with our favorite people and a proper meal. But whether you’re the backyard barbecue, pool party, or picnic in the park type, you can’t go full-send without a crowd-pleasing side.  Save the pool noodles for someone else’s watery coleslaw. This weekend, we’re riffing on five home-run favorites to tickle your taste buds and serve up a good ol’ plate of U.S.A. And, since they’re easy to prep and simple to transport, you can focus on more important things — like doing a surprise cannonball into the pool next to grandma who already told you several times she doesn’t want to get her hair wet. Welcome to the unofficial start of summer. But first, food. Fritos Corn Salad Don’t even pretend it’s not Fritos Summer. America’s greatest curly little deep-fried corn chip breaks free of its foil-pouch prison to turn creamy corn salad into your new signature dip. A spin on the trendy Mexican roasted street corn “elote” you’re seeing everywhere, this salad takes the corn off the cob and gives it the crunchy topping it deserves via crumbled Fritos folded into the mix. Use fresh summer corn, or throw everything together last-minute with the canned stuff, and add a few jalapeño slices for kick. Serve with more Fritos, top burgers and tacos, or eat it as-is with a spoon. Just make a big bowl because this one’s gonna fly off the table.  Make it: Creamy Fritos Corn Salad Garden Fresh Avocado Salad Harness the five-second window when avocados are perfectly ripe with a fresh salad that puts that creamy, buttery glory front and center. It’s similar to guacamole, but it’s so fresh and tangy you’ll be craving it all summer.   View this post on Instagram   A post shared by Jeanine Donofrio (@loveandlemons) Cilantro, red onions, and jalapeños keep things feeling just-picked, while cucumber and cherry tomatoes add playful texture. Just chop your avocado when it’s ripe but not mushy if you want a salad that’s camera-ready. Even better, that zingy seasoned lime-and-honey vinaigrette keeps everything from getting brown, so you can fix it and forget it until everyone’s ready to eat.  Make it: Garden Fresh Avocado Salad Saucy Smoky Baked Beans No one’s trying to step on Aunt Beatrice’s toes with a competing dish of baked beans. But once you try this saucy and smoky baked beans recipe, you might never go back to other baked beans again.    View this post on Instagram   A post shared by Jessica Merchant (@howsweeteats) Whoever invented sweet and savory vegetables deserves an award. Here, Bush’s Grillin’ Beans, sweet onions, and bacon get a gourmet makeover thanks to Dijon, barbecue sauce, and apple cider vinegar. Like a little smoke? Check out that seasoning with its smoked paprika and chipotle chili powder. Assemble this recipe ahead of time, and cook it on the day. And always feel free to bake your beans with extra bacon on top. America. Make it: Saucy Smoky Baked Beans Panko Parmesan Mac and Cheese Plenty of elite mac and cheese recipes boast fancy ingredients and cooking methods, but in real life, the secret to the best mac and cheese is the contrast between rich, cheesy, flavor-packed al dente noodles and a crunchy, seasoned topping. This version checks both boxes without even blinking. Another secret is a homemade roux. Once you’ve mixed butter and flour with warm milk until smooth, sharp cheddar and Gruyère pull cheese duty with chewy elbow noodles. But the Japanese panko, butter, and parmesan combo that gets sprinkled on top and baked until golden brown? Chef’s kiss. You can go ahead and add this little number to your regular rotation. Make it: Panko Parmesan Mac and Cheese  Tangy Deviled Egg Potato Salad If you’re unde-side-ed on whether to do deviled eggs or potato salad for Memorial Day, allow me to introduce you to the ultimate mashup: deviled egg potato salad. Start a new tradition by putting your two favorite things in one big, delicious bowl.   View this post on Instagram   A post shared by Southern Living (@southernlivingmag) The iconic flavors of each dish come together in harmony for a tangy salad you can customize to be as spicy hot as you like. Creamy mayo holds everything together while fresh parsley and celery add a grassy texture. And don’t forget the dill pickle relish, yellow mustard, apple cider vinegar, and paprika.  For anyone determined to peel perfect shells for legit deviled eggs, bless your heart. But on a long weekend, I’d rather not stress over shells that won’t budge and whites that fall apart. Here, hard-boiled eggs get chopped and tossed into the mix (you can even use the pre-peeled kind from the store). The most effort you’ll have to give is boiling baby new potatoes and then moving the fork from the salad to your mouth. Sprinkled with paprika or bedazzled with bacon, deviled egg potato salad is simply delicious. Make it: Tangy Deviled Egg Potato Salad