Independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. failed to qualify for the first presidential debate of the 2024 election cycle that CNN set to host in one week. CNN said the qualification window closed after midnight on Thursday, with President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump meeting the requirements. Kennedy did not meet the criteria to appear, a CNN spokesperson told NBC News. He missed the threshold to qualify in two key areas. Candidates needed to receive at least 15% in four national polls approved by CNN. Kennedy only earned that percentage in three of the accepted surveys. In addition, Kennedy is not on a sufficient number of state ballots to reach the requisite 270 electoral vote threshold to win the presidency. Kennedy’s signature-gathering effort has gained him ballot access in six states as of Thursday, according to The New York Times, which totals just 89 Electoral College votes. In a statement, Kennedy said his exclusion from the debate is “undemocratic, un-American, and cowardly.” Kennedy filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) at the end of last month, accusing CNN of colluding with Biden and Trump to keep him off the debate stage. The complaint alleged that CNN was making “prohibited corporate contributions” to Biden and Trump by demanding Kennedy meet different criteria. CNN defended its requirements, noting how Trump and Biden meet the ballot access threshold because they are the presumptive nominees of major parties. The last time a third-party candidate appeared in a presidential debate was in 1992 when Ross Perot faced off against President George H.W. Bush and Arkansas Democratic Governor Bill Clinton. Clinton won the election but did not receive a mandate. Kennedy initially ran this cycle as a Democrat but shifted to an independent campaign after criticizing his party for not holding primary debates, among other gripes. CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILYWIRE+ APP CNN’s debate is slated for 9 p.m. ET on Thursday, June 27. “State of the Union” anchors Jake Tapper and Dana Bash have been selected as moderators. It is expected to be a 90-minute event with two commercial breaks during which staff are not allowed to interact with their candidate. There will be no studio audience. Rules include no props, a coin flip to determine who stands at what podium, and muting each candidate’s microphone when it is not his turn to speak. Another presidential debate between Biden and Trump is planned for Tuesday, September 10. ABC News, the host, has set criteria that match CNN’s requirements.

Jewish students were “literally confined and stuck” on a cruise ship as anti-Semitism took over this year’s Semester at Sea trip. With anti-Israel genocidal slogans plastered on doors, and on-ship performers saying Israelis were “thirsty for blood,” the dean comforted students by telling them they were fortunate it was easy to hide being Jewish, according to interviews and materials reviewed by The Daily Wire. This year’s Semester at Sea voyage, in which college students spend a semester aboard a cruise ship traveling to different study abroad locations, took place amid the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza that has sparked anti-Semitic college protests around the world. Just weeks into the trip, the anti-Semitism arrived on the ship, with swaths of students wearing keffiyehs and posting anti-Israel materials throughout the ship, including on the doors of Jewish students. “I know this is happening all over the world on college campuses, but the difference here… is our students are on a ship,” said Leora Azoulay Short, whose daughter Emily was aboard the ship. “They are literally confined and stuck on a small ship where they are feeling attacked, unsafe, and in an unfriendly environment by many of the other students.” A mother says her daughter and other Jewish students were “literally confined and stuck” on a cruise ship as anti-Semitism took over this year’s Semester at Sea trip. Reporter @KassyDillon spoke with her, and reviewed the evidence: pic.twitter.com/P7CXbJUKbw — Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) June 20, 2024 Short said the anti-Semitism of the trip became apparent after a stop in Malaysia, a majority-Muslim country in Southeast Asia that has openly backed Palestinians against Israel. Students returned to the ship wearing keffiyehs and t-shirts with anti-Israel slogans. Shortly after, a lecturer boarded the ship to speak about South Africa and went on a tirade about Israel, according to Short. “Before the port of South Africa, they had a lecturer come on board… and at the end of her lecture, she made a statement to the students that many years ago South Africa had dealt with apartheid and once again, this is happening in the world with Israel,” Short said. The next day, students reportedly woke up to anti-Israel posters around the ship, including on some Jewish students’ doors. “They were saying, ‘from the river to the sea,’ ‘stop the genocide.’ Just all kinds of offensive and often untrue … anti-Israel propaganda that they had probably seen in Malaysia and then heard from the South African lecturer.” Students’ doors that had anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian posters, including one with the genocidal anti-Israel slogan “from the river to the sea.” (Photo: Courtesy) A few Jewish students retaliated by ripping down the posters and scheduling a meeting with the ship’s dean, Marti Fessenden. According to Short, Fessenden told students not only that the slogans on the posters were not offensive, but also that they should be grateful they can hide their Jewish identity, unlike other minorities. “She proceeded to tell them that they should, in fact, find themselves to be lucky and grateful that they can hide their Jewish identity and that black people do not have that opportunity,” Short said, adding that the dean eventually took back the statement after complaints from parents. The next day, one of the Jewish students — who scheduled the meeting with Fessenden — found a letter in her mailbox with the genocidal anti-Israel slogan “from the river to the sea.” A world map, which is a central symbol to SaS, was also vandalized with the words “terrorist” and “Nazi” written next to Israel with the Jewish state’s name crossed out and replaced with “Palestine.” Semester at Sea map vandalized with the words “terrorist” and “Nazi” written next to Israel. (Photo: Courtesy) This was just the beginning of on-ship rhetoric targeting Jewish students. During a rap performance held on the ship, the spouse of a “life-long learner” who serves as a mentor on the trip accused Israel of terrorism, genocide, being “thirsty for blood,” and being “about the money,” video of the event shows. “In Ukraine, Putin is a criminal, but Netanyahu is getting a pass like he is invisible. We picking and choosing exactly who we call a terrorist… it’s f***** up that we can’t agree what is the human side, if it ain’t white kids dying then we just let it slide,” the man rapped. “Look at Joe Biden, he don’t even hide it. Israel is thirsty for blood and he just get behind it. Complicit in genocide America is very quiet… the point is to gentrify through occupation,” he added. “It’s about the money, it’s always about the money.” He then broke into song encouraging the enthusiastic crowd to chant “f*** that” after he shouted “apartheid” or “genocide.” Semester at Sea posted a video on Instagram of the performer dancing with a dean on stage during his act — the video didn’t include his comments about Israel. While in South Africa, students visited the Desmond Tutu Foundation and had photos of them featured in the Dean’s Memo with some holding a Palestinian flag, donning keffiyehs, and holding signs calling to “stop the genocide” and stating that “Zionism is racism.” Photos included in the Dean’s Memo with students holding a Palestinian flag, donning keffiyehs, and holding signs calling to “stop the genocide” and stating “Zionism is racism.” “Since we had two extra days at port due to our diversion, we were asked to visit two places that highlighted South Africa’s rich history of human rights activism,” the memo read, adding a quote from a student who went to the Desmond Tutu Foundation and met with with the head of the Palestinian Solidarity Campaign, Usuf Chikte. “Thanks Kam for sending in your submissions and for sharing your reflections.” In a December interview, Chikte called Hamas “liberator fighters” and denied the atrocities Hamas committed during its October 7 massacre of Israeli civilians in a December interview. In a March 26 email to Jewish students, Fessenden said she made a “correction” to the Dean’s Memo and that the photos were “mistakenly included.” “As I trust you are well aware, we mistakenly included a student group photo that included antisemitic signage in the memo yesterday,” Fessenden wrote. “As soon as it was pointed out, we removed the photo. We feel awful that the language on the signage was not noticed prior to it making into the memo [sic].” In her public correction, Fessenden apologized for “this error and any harmful impact it may have caused.” Short said she believes Semester at Sea’s relationship with the Desmond & Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation is problematic in itself. “In spite of all the good that Desmond Tutu has done, he is also known to be one of the biggest anti-Semites of our time,” Short said, referring to a label given by Alan Dershowitz. “He has continuously supported anti-Israel movements and has been really offensive to the Jewish and Israel community.” Tutu, who died in 2021, was an anti-apartheid human rights activist, Nobel Peace Prize recipient and Anglican bishop. He also was a pro-Palestinian activist, who spoke about the “influence” of the “Jewish lobby” and who made a speech at Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust Museum, urging forgiveness for the Nazis. ST PAUL, MN – JULY 20: Archbishop Desmond Tutu takes the stage during the 2014 Starkey Hearing Foundation So The World May Hear Gala at the St. Paul RiverCentre on July 20, 2014 in St. Paul, Minnesota.(Photo by Adam Bettcher/Getty Images for Starkey Hearing Foundation) With no signs that anti-Semitism was subsiding on the trip and at the demand of parents, Semester at Sea flew the director of Hillel of Colorado, Daniel Bennett, onto the ship to provide support. “For the past six weeks I’ve spoken, Zoomed, and texted daily with SAS parents (helpless and furious doesn’t do justice to how they feel, and I can only assure them I will do all I can when I get to Portugal – and after),” Bennett wrote in a blog post before he boarded the ship in Portugal. “Administrators at Colorado State University and in the SAS office in Ft. Collins now understand that what Jewish students onboard have faced is far more than garden-variety antisemitism.” His blog claims the lecturer prior to South Africa said “Israel is a worse example of Apartheid than South Africa ever was” and that students wore t-shirts depicting the leader of Hamas, Yahya Sinwar, on the ship. Bennet also said he spoke several times with “an onboard academic dean” who “cannot or will not check student behavior.” According to Short, Jewish students were unable to meet with Bennett because his brief visit to the ship came while students were exploring a port. “I don’t know if it was planned or not, but they had him fly on when the students were actually at port,” Short said. “They were aware of him being on the ship, and they were offered the opportunity to come back to the ship and meet with him but as you can imagine, most of these students already had plans and were on tours and could not make it back to meet with him.” Bennett did not respond to a request for comment on his trip. Semester at Sea’s Vice President of Marketing and Recruitment Jason Hughes, condemned anti-Semitism in an email to The Daily Wire. He declined to speak to the specific incidents alleged by students, and instead shared a blog post calling the past voyage “challenging” and not immune to “global happenings.” “Like many people around the world, members of our shipboard community are impacted by the Middle East conflict,” the blog by Hughes states. “Sadness, fear, and anger over this conflict have sparked conversations and resulted in public displays of stances and beliefs. Visceral reactions to discourses and signs of support or disapproval have created discomfort for some and trepidation for others.” Though the blog states that the program does not tolerate intolerance, it also includes a quote from Semester at Sea’s CEO stating that he welcomes last semester’s conditions on the ship. “While we might wish that there were no challenging conditions on our ship, I don’t wish for that. I welcome it, as difficult as it may sometimes prove to be,” Scott Marshall, the president and CEO said. While the voyage is over Short said she wants Semester at Sea to take responsibility for what students went through, and ensure its staff is better prepared for future semesters. “I’m speaking out now because I don’t want future students to have to deal with what these students dealt with on this journey,” she said. “We know that this is going to happen again—unfortunately, this is the world we live in.”

A multi-state FBI counterterrorism wiretap sting has rolled up eight Tajikistani nationals in three cities who had entered over the U.S. Southwest Border and were plotting some sort of bombing. On its own, what little is known about this terrible new consequence of President Joe Biden’s ongoing historic mass migration border crisis – a coordinated, large-cell infiltration attack on the homeland – ranked as startling enough to draw congressional demands for much more basic information than the administration will currently release. “Unfortunately, the unacceptable security failures that have allowed individuals with terrorist ties to enter the United States through the Southwest Border have become an alarming pattern under the administration,” states a recent U.S. House Homeland Security Committee letter demanding the Biden administration disclose how it failed here.  Not yet demanded, however, is attention to a recent revelation about the Tajik Eight case that should propel what is happening at the border to an even higher and broader level of national security concern. NBC News has reported that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), of all agencies, actually vetted and pre-approved the entry of at least one of the busted Tajikistanis on the administration’s “CBP One” phone app — a humanitarian parole scheme. The CBP One phone app-based entry program has allowed more than 500,000 foreign nationals from 100 different countries who intended to illegally cross the border to instead schedule a DHS-approved “legal” escort through eight U.S.-Mexico land ports, according to information exclusively obtained and reported by the Center for Immigration Studies through Freedom of Information Act litigation over the past year. JACUMBA HOT SPRINGS, CALIFORNIA – DECEMBER 01: Asylum seeking migrants from Tajikistan (C) walk toward a makeshift camp to await processing by the U.S. Border Patrol after crossing into the United States. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images) The Biden administration began piloting the program in May 2021 but dramatically expanded it in January 2023, it said, as a means to clear politically damaging illegal entry border congestion.  Almost all 500,000, we are assured, were supposedly well vetted for security, then granted quick release into the United States, sight unseen, on two-year, renewable permits that also come with work authorization eligibility.  But the NBC revelation that one or more of the arrested Tajiks used the CBP One land ports entry scheme warrants new scrutiny about that land port pipeline into the country. It poses a unique national security risk, quite separate from traditional illegal border crossings, especially the vetting that is supposedly done byDHS before passage is granted. In this case, the vetting obviously didn’t work.. But for how many others did the vetting system not work? The odds do not look promising. It turns out that DHS personnel have approved not one or two problematic Tajiks of malintent for passage, but hundreds from that Muslim-majority country of U.S. terrorism concern over the past couple of years – and literally thousands from some two dozen other nations of terrorism concern, according to an analysis of the center’s FOIA lawsuit data on this program. From its May 2021 inception through at least December 2023, DHS approved 888 Tajiks for land port passage and release into the country on the two-year humanitarian parole releases, no doubt many more during the first half of 2024. And they are the least of a rich diversity of foreign nationals from two dozen nations of terrorism concern that the administration has wittingly allowed through the pipeline. Thousands More Approved For Entry The historical context as a homeland security matter for these entries is important to know. To reduce the risk of terrorist border infiltration a few years after 9/11, the U.S. homeland security enterprise began tagging those arriving from some 35-40 nations where Islamic terrorist groups operate as “special interest aliens,” or SIAs, which flagged them for detention and additional security vetting. The Biden administration now uses the term “special interest migrants” internally. SIAs are not regarded as terrorists but, because they arrive from nations where avowed anti-U.S. terrorist groups are prevalent, homeland security protocols dating back to a 2004 CBP Memorandum required extra security procedures for those coming from the designated list of countries. Tajikistan has been on that list from the beginning. U.S. Customs and Border Protection. November 1, 2004. In addition to the 888 Tajiks allowed in through the CBP One app program, DHS has authorized thousands more from 24 special interest countries to enter, including from Afghanistan (653), and smatterings from Iran (27), Lebanon (10), Syria (7), Iraq (4), Egypt (6), and Jordan (5). But the largest numbers of SIAs let in are coming from other Muslim-majority former Soviet republics in Central Asia neighboring Tajikistan, such as Kyrgyzstan (4,224 through December), Uzbekistan (2,071), and Kazakhstan (585). The terrorism section of the CIA’s “World Factbook” notes that U.S.-designated foreign terrorist groups have long operated in the dangerous neighborhood that all three of the most numerous of the SIAs hail from: the Kyrgyz Republic, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan. Afghanistan is in the same tough neighborhood. Kyrgyz women in a Matamoros, Mexico hotel waiting for DHS to approve their CBP One phone app applications for escorted entry into Brownsville, Texas. May 2023. photo by Todd Bensman Among the groups operating in those three countries are the Islamic Jihad Union, the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, and ISIS-Khorasan (ISIS-K). But there are many other extremist groups operating in the region too, such as the Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan and various ISIS-affiliated groups the government has suppressed, according to the U.S. State Department’s 2021 Country Report on Terrorism for Tajikistan, and who might want to flee to the United States. The same report notes that terrorist group members move throughout the mostly unguarded borders of these countries, with Tajikistan asserting that “thousands of militants” come and go from neighboring Afghanistan. As one indication of public sentiment toward Islamic extremist ideology in the Kyrgyz Republic, an estimated 850 of its citizens reportedly joined ISIS between 2013 and 2015, and regional scholars insist the real number is higher, according to George Washington University’s Counter Extremism Project. Uzbekistan also has figured prominently in global counterterrorism efforts, in part because the internationally designated terrorist organization known as the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan has had regional and global reach and regularly conducts attacks. Extremists from Uzbekistan have been implicated in U.S. attacks and plots too. Hundreds of Uzbeks also fought for ISIS and many have returned. At issue with the entry of one or more of the Tajik Eight, along with the thousands of other government-authorized entries of SIAs, is whether the Biden administration’s DHS is conducting effective enhanced security screening. Failing Security Screening  DHS Secretary Alejandra Mayorkas has repeatedly assured the American public that security vetting for this program is its highlight.  DHS policy documents say all approved CBP One applicants pass “rigorous biometric and biographic national security and public safety screening and vetting.” JOHAN ORDONEZ/AFP via Getty Images CBP agents and U.S. processors, however, mainly run this information through criminal and domestic national security databases looking for matches to U.S. criminal records, warrants, and terrorism watch lists, those who do this work say. A DHS source with direct knowledge of government vetting processes for the CBP One land port parole program, who was not authorized to speak or be identified, told me last fall that all of the SIAs going through the CBP One appointment and parole at the land ports are run through more databases than non-SIA applicants — these ones containing classified intelligence information — as a means to detect terrorism problems. But this vetting process is deeply flawed, experts say, because of a presumption that only fractional few real terrorists ever make intelligence databases. Database checks can’t detect information that is not in them. “The only thing we can query is information that we have,” former FBI Director James Comey once said of vetting foreign national refugees. “So, if we have no information on someone, they’ve never crossed our radar screen, they’ve never been a ripple in the pond, there will be no record of them there and so it will be challenging.” Neither can U.S. intelligence agencies very well check for derogatory information with governments that are diplomatically hostile to the United States and would never cooperate, such as Iran, Syria, Yemen, and Afghanistan. Pertinent Questions “That’s a really hard target to analyze, and to just shoot from the hip and let them in is absolute insanity in my book,” said James G. Conway, a retired FBI counterterrorism agent who after 9/11 worked in Mexico trying to detect terrorists within the SIA flows. “How would you knowingly and wittingly bring people from terrorist countries into the United States with that level of vetting? Some of these terrorism countries don’t even have an electric grid let alone a computer system, and you can’t scrub them on databases that don’t exist. The whole thing is insane to me. “What’s the motivation? I mean, why would they do that?” Conway added, referencing the Biden administration’s approval of SIAs for the CBP One entry program. That’s a pertinent question that lawmakers, media pundits, and reporters might start asking before there’s blood in American streets. * * * Todd Bensman is a two-time National Press Club award winner, graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism, and 23-year veteran newspaper reporter.

Having a sister who is dating a professional football player is pretty darn cool. But it’s even cooler when they give you a sweet present! Troy Fautanu gifted his girlfriend’s little bro with a super awesome gift. I’m sure he won’t forget this! This little boy was celebrating his tenth birthday and Troy took a moment to provide him with the best gift for a little Steelers fan: a jersey! How sweet is that? @caryszayda i love that my bbys love troy @Troy Fautanu @Pittsburgh Steelers #steelers #steelersnation #tenthbirthday #numberonefan ♬ Happy Birthday – Jovanie Troy Fautanu’s girlfriend organized the whole thing and her little brother got to enjoy all the benefits. He opened the bag and held up the jersey, immediately amazed at the signature. “To my dawg, T: Love you lil bro!” read the jersey. What an incredible, thoughtful birthday present. This image is from TikTok. Sports are an amazing opportunity for folks from different generations to come together and celebrate. One of the commenters on the post shared a story from their time playing football: “I played Division II football at a school in the middle of nowhere, but those kids always looked at us like mega stars. What an awesome gift,” they wrote. A lot of the fans praised Troy, sharing posts along the lines of, “And just like that, I’m a Troy Fautanu fan.” This image is from TikTok. But that wasn’t the only special comment. In addition to loads of fans excited for this little guy, Troy Fautanu added a comment about his girlfriend’s little bro. “My dawg ,” he said. Short and sweet! Troy and his girlfriend’s super nice gesture is a reminder about the act of caring for one another. They didn’t get him something over the top to make themselves look fancy — they gave the kiddo something he’d cherish. Happy birthday, T! The featured image for this post is from TikTok. The post Steelers Rookie Surprises His Girlfriend’s Little Brother With Precious Birthday Gift appeared first on InspireMore.

Chomsky's wife confirmed to multiple news outlets that he is not dead.

'Ancient mariner abilities'

the margin has since narrowed to eight points

'Propaganda'

After some research, they found his name on the state sex offender website

'So-called Christians'