The Babylon Bee has obtained this exclusive, official, 100% real Gavin Newsom election ad

https://x.com/TheBabylonBee/status/1836518555648692570

EXCLUSIVE: New Docs Shed Light On Air Force’s ‘Goal’ To Reduce ‘White Male Population’ Joining Officer Ranks

The Air Force finally handed over a trove of documents pertaining to its sweeping “goal” of reducing the number of white male applicants in a popular officer program after spending months stonewalling requests for their release.

Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman C.Q. Brown — at the time the highest-ranking member of the Air Force — issued a memorandum in 2022 that the branch was updating its racial and gender demographic goals for applicants seeking to become officers, in a bid to prioritize “diversity and inclusion.” Internal documents obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation include a slideshow from 2022 where the Air Force outlines racial and gender quotas and details how it hopes to “achieve” a reduced number of white males in its Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) officer’s applicant program.

The documents reflect the Biden-Harris Pentagon’s intense focus on implementing diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies in the armed forces, even as the military continues to combat dwindling morale among its rank-and-file, recruiting and retention shortfalls and low pay.

“The American people are rightly concerned that, at a time when our country is facing dangerous and increasing threats throughout the world, the Air Force is focused on recruitment efforts based on arbitrary racial diversity goals — not merit or increasing the force’s lethality,” James Fitzpatrick, director of the Center To Advance Security In America (CASA), told the DCNF.

CASA requested records regarding the Air Force’s new officer applicant standards through a federal transparency request, called a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request in 2023. At the time, the Air Force said it couldn’t find any records, according to a letter obtained by the DCNF.

CASA then sued the Air Force for the records in April 2024 and received hundreds of documents and slides in response, which the DCNF subsequently obtained.

A spokesperson for the Air Force told the DCNF “The FOIA request was being processed at multiple levels within the Air Force.”

“One of the units responded to the FOIA request with a ‘no responsive records’ response after conducting their own local search, while the remainder of the units continued to process the responsive documents that were ultimately provided,” the spokesperson told the DCNF.

One of the slides in question, labeled “AFROTC White,” depicts a graph that shows the percentage of white male ROTC officer applicants declining from approximately 60% in fiscal year 2019 to a projected 50% in fiscal year 2023. The graph further details how the Air Force’s goal is to reduce that percentage down to approximately 43% by fiscal year 2029, denoted by a star with the label “achieve(d) goal.”

“White male population will decline as other demographics increase,” the slide reads.

The respective slides in question also explain that the Air Force is either on track or needs to do more to hit racial and gender quotas in the ROTC’s officer applicant pool.

For example, with the African American population, the slideshow suggests the Air Force “target [the] male population through ongoing programs and marketing” and notes it has already met its “female goal” for ROTC officer applicants. For the American Indian, Asian and Hispanic applicants, the slideshow says the Air Force is “on track to grow diversity.”

“These documents show us that the Air Force has taken steps toward implementing their new directive of specific racial quotas for officer recruitment and enrollment throughout the branch,” Fitzpatrick told the DCNF.

Included in the slide deck are funding requests for diversity recruiting initiatives, including $500,000 for “diversity advertising campaigns” and $250,000 for “influencer engagements.”

In a separate set of documents from as early as 2022, the Air Force outlines its efforts to modify ROTC scholarship programs, which “play an important role in accession and diversity goals.” The Air Force suggests modifying the scholarship models could remove certain “testing barriers” to entry for under-represented groups.

The diversity plans extend to the Air Force’s Aim High Flight Academy (AHFA), an aviation scholarship program for high school, ROTC and Air Force Academy students, according to the documents. The Air Force notes that the AFHA applicant pool should be made up of a “minimum” of 60% underrepresented groups, further noting that it must be at least 35% minorities.

Like other branches of the military, the Air Force has struggled to keep up with recruiting and retention targets in recent years. The Navy is expected to miss its recruiting goals in 2024; the Marine Corps, Army and Air Force are on on track to meet their goals, although the latter two branches missed their targets in 2022 and 2023, according to Military Times.

Only approximately 57% of servicemembers or military families polled by the Military Family Advisory Network in 2023 said they’d recommend joining the service, compared to 74% in 2019. Among some of the reasons the respondents wouldn’t recommend service were the politically charged nature of the military, differences and divisions, and low pay, among others.

A year-long study from the Arizona State University Center for American Institutions found that the Pentagon has turned into a “vast DEI bureaucracy” in the last four decades, a challenge that has been exacerbated by the Biden-Harris administration.

“It’s no surprise that young people are turning away from military service in record numbers… DEI indoctrination has become a core component of military training that begins for officers even at the service academies,” Matt Lohmeier, former Space Force commander, said in a statement in June.

https://dailycaller.com/2024/09/19/exclusive-new-docs-shed-light-air-force-reduce-white-male-population-joining-officer-ranks/

Elon Musk says SpaceX will sue FAA for 'regulatory overreach

Elon Musk said on Tuesday that SpaceX will file a lawsuit against the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), accusing the agency of "regulatory overreach."

"SpaceX will be filing suit against the FAA for regulatory overreach," Musk said in a post on X.

The tech billionaire's comments came after the FAA proposed fines of $633,000 against SpaceX on Tuesday, alleging Musk's company did not "follow its license requirements" related to a pair of launches last summer.

The agency alleged SpaceX incurred $350,000 in fines during a June 18, 2023, launch by using an "unapproved control room" and not "conduct[ing] the required T-2 hour poll."

The other roughly $283,000 in fines stemmed from a July 28, 2023, launch in which Musk’s company allegedly "used the unapproved rocket propellant farm," the FAA said.

SpaceX asked for a revision in its communications plan for the June 2023 launch and one for its explosive site plan for the July 2023 mission, according to the FAA’s press release.

"Safety drives everything we do at the FAA, including a legal responsibility for the safety oversight of companies with commercial space transportation licenses. Failure of a company to comply with the safety requirements will result in consequences," FAA Chief Counsel Marc Nichols said in a statement.

SpaceX has a 30-day response window for the fines, according to the FAA.

FOX Business reached out to SpaceX for comment on the proposed fines and Musk's social media post.

The company has a strong presence in the space industry, including contracts with the federal government. It notched its 90th mission of the year on Tuesday.

https://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/elon-musk-says-spacex-sue-faa-regulatory-overreach

First Somali Refugee to Run Public Housing Admits to Stealing Millions - 1 in 3 Minneapolis Public Housing residents are Somalis

Glass ceilings get broken, then wallets get stolen. Only in America? No. Only in Gov. Walz’s Minnesota.

But first, let’s pause to celebrate the incredible historic moment of the first Somali refugee to run a public housing agency.

Sharmarke Issa was confirmed by the Minneapolis City Council to chair Minneapolis Public Housing Authority (MPHA). Issa is the first immigrant and first East African to serve as chair of the MPHA Board of Commissioners.

“Having grown up in in Minneapolis public housing after coming to our city as a refugee, Sharmarke’s story of success highlights public housing as vital asset in Minneapolis,” said Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey. “Sharmarke’s life experience and background in urban planning are especially important to MPHA’s mission. At a time when the federal government continues to shortchange housing funding, he will be a skilled steward of our public housing infrastructure who understands and centers the needs of residents.”

Approximately one-third of Minneapolis Public Housing residents are members of the East-African community.

One third. 1 in 3 are Somalis. Just one of those little factoids about diversity being our strength. Kinda like Issa’s stewardship.

An Edina man who chaired the board of the Minneapolis Public Housing Authority pleaded guilty Wednesday to federal wire fraud charges for his role in the Feeding Our Future nutrition program fraud scheme.

That was a $250 million social welfare fraud to help the Somali community.

Sharmarke Issa, 42, admitted to running entities that laundered federal funding for the scheme, including Wacan Restaurant LLC and a nonprofit called Minnesota’s Somali Community.

Issa was responsible for $7.6 million of the $50 million in fraud scheme money that the federal government says it lost,

Issa claimed to serve 2.3 million meals to children at his food sites. He admitted that some of the fraud scheme money instead went to properties he purchased in Edina, Minneapolis and elsewhere.

Everyone is now pretending to be shocked and outraged at water being wet.

When Sharmarke’s name first surfaced in 2022 as part of the case, Frey said the allegations against him were “appalling” and “run counter to the values that we are entrusted to uphold in the City of Minneapolis.”

Forget it Jake, it’s Somalitown.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/first-somali-refugee-to-run-public-housing-admits-to-stealing-millions/

Brazil fines Musk's X for site's return after ban

Brazil has fined Elon Musk's companies after some users in the country were able to briefly access the social media platform X, despite a ban imposed last month.

Brazilian users swarmed the site on Wednesday after X updated how its servers within the country were accessed.

The platform’s restoration was unintended, the company said. Hours later access was again blocked.

On Thursday, a Brazilian court fined the firm five million reais ($920,000; £695,000) for breaching the ban.

The company moved its service back to its previous provider on Thursday afternoon, according to the ABRINT internet provider association, which said it noticed the change while testing to block the new servers.

X and Cloudflare have not yet confirmed the move, but ABRINT said X's public DNS (Domain Name System) indicated a return.

Supreme Court judge Alexandre de Moraes had described the company as having committed a "trick" in re-enabling access for some users.

He then fined X and Mr Musk's other company, the internet satellite firm Starlink, more than $920,000 (£695,000) for each day X operates in Brazil.

But it's unclear if the court can enforce payment of the fine or will seek payment now that service has been return to its previous servers.

Mr Musk's firms have previously ignored Brazilian court orders, including the court order from Justice de Moraes which led to the social media site being banned in the first place in August.

Explaining the sudden access for some users on Wednesday, X said a change of network providers had "resulted in an inadvertent and temporary service restoration to Brazilian users".

“While we expect the platform to be inaccessible again in Brazil soon, we continue efforts to work with the Brazilian government to return very soon for the people of Brazil,” an X spokesperson said in a statement.

The company’s explanation had caught some observers by surprise.

"Everything that happened during the day led us to believe that it was on purpose," said Basílio Rodriguez Pérez, advisor to ABRINT, the country's leading trade group for Internet Service Providers (ISP).

ABRINT said X moved to servers hosted by Cloudflare, and that the site appeared to be using dynamic internet protocol (IP) addresses that change constantly, indicating to him that the change in access to Brazilian users was purposeful.

By contrast, the previous system had relied on specific IP addresses that could be more easily blocked.

Mr Rodriguez Pérez, ABRINT advisor, said those dynamic IP addresses could also be linked to critical services within Brazil.

"Many of these IP [addresses] are shared with other legitimate services, such as banks and large internet platforms, making it impossible to block an IP [address] without affecting other services."

That includes the service PIX, which millions of Brazilians depend on to make digital payments.

Despite the change, some experts said Cloudflare was well-positioned to help Brazil reinforce the ban.

“Actually, I think the ban would be even more effective if Cloudflare really cooperates with the government,” said Felipe Autran, a constitutional lawyer in Brasilia, the country’s capital.

“I think they will, since they are such a huge provider for many Brazilian enterprises and also the government.”

Brazil is said to be one of the largest markets for Mr Musk's social media network.

The platform was banned in the country last month after failing to meet a court deadline to appoint a new legal representative in the country.

It marked the most significant development in a feud between Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes and Mr Musk, which began in April, when the judge ordered the suspension of dozens of X accounts for allegedly spreading disinformation.

At one point, Musk’s satellite internet provider Starlink - a subsidiary of spacecraft manufacturer SpaceX - declared it would allow its customers in Brazil to log onto X. Starlink backed down after the nation’s telecommunication agency threatened to revoke its licence to operate there.

Observers in Brazil have expressed frustration with both X and the Brazilian government over the fractured relationship.

“It’s a game of chess and we are the pieces on the board,” Mr Pérez said. “But it's not us who are playing. It's the government and X who are playing.”

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy4dn4z02emo