Lloyd Austin Says Troops On Gaza Pier Are Not ‘Boots On The Ground’
Screenshot 2024-04-30 at 12.16.23
 
 
MICAELA BURROW
INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER, DEFENSE
April 30, 2024
1:24 PM ET
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Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin insisted Tuesday that stationing troops off a humanitarian pier leading to Gaza does not count as having boots on land, while leaving wide open the possibility of a live-fire exchange with attackers on the ground.

The statement appears to undercut the Biden administration’s attempts to assuage concerns about the safety of the 1,000 U.S. troops who just began construction on the artificial port, and its insistence that the U.S. military will not be involved in combat operations in Gaza while supporting Israel’s war against Hamas. Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida said the administration is claiming that “boots on a pier connected to the ground connected to service members shooting into Gaza doesn’t count as boots on the ground” at a House Armed Services Committee hearing Tuesday.


“It does not,” Austin responded.

https://dailycaller.com/2024/04/30/lloyd-austin-says-troops-on-gaza-pier-not-boots-ground/

Joe Biden’s Deputies Force Transgenderism into Workplaces

Hannah Knudsen 30 Apr 2024

President Joe Biden’s deputies are forcing transgenderism into workplaces via updated federal workplace guidelines that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) released.

Under the guidance, employers who adhere to biological reality — expecting biological males to use the men’s restroom and biological women to use the women’s restroom — will be committing workplace “harassment” if they refuse to allow employees to choose restrooms based on their gender identity rather than biological sex. Further, employers will be committing workplace harassment if they “repeatedly misgender” employees, according to reports.

According to a press release from the EEOC, “These laws protect covered employees from harassment based on race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth or related medical conditions; sexual orientation; and gender identity), national origin, disability, age (40 or older) or genetic information [emphasis added].”

The guidance reads:

    Sex-based discrimination under Title VII includes employment discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity. Accordingly, sex-based harassment includes harassment based on sexual orientation or gender identity, including how that identity is expressed. Harassing conduct based on sexual orientation or gender identity includes epithets regarding sexual orientation or gender identity; physical assault due to sexual orientation or gender identity; outing (disclosure of an individual’s sexual orientation or gender identity without permission); harassing conduct because an individual does not present in a manner that would stereotypically be associated with that person’s sex; repeated and intentional use of a name or pronoun inconsistent with the individual’s known gender identity (misgendering); or the denial of access to a bathroom or other sex-segregated facility consistent with the individual’s gender identity.

The updated guidance from the EEOC, released Monday, is the first update in more than two decades.

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https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2024/04/30/joe-bidens-deputies-force-transgenderism-into-workplaces/

China’s Real Military Budget Has Quietly Become Almost as Big as Ours
By Mackenzie Eaglen

The Hill

April 30, 2024
 
Americans are too often put at ease by the erroneous statistic that the U.S. spends “more than the next 10 countries combined” on its military.

It’s time to put a stake in the heart of this tired trope, because it is simply no longer true. A more careful examination shows Beijing’s military budget is on par with that the U.S.

In the last decade, Beijing’s self-reported defense budget has more than doubled. China also now boasts the largest navy in the world, alongside the biggest coast guard and maritime militia. It has the globe’s biggest army and sub-strategic missile force to boot. It continues to make peer-level leaps in advanced military fields of hypersonic missiles and quantum computing technologies.

Beijing must cheer our complacency at believing it could achieve such outcomes while spending just a quarter of what the U.S. spends on its military. But our new research indicates that China is plowing far more money into hard power than it professes, with a military budget that might have been as high as $711 billion in 2022.

https://www.aei.org/op-eds/chinas-real-military-budget-has-quietly-become-almost-as-big-as-ours/

Not a healthy choice to kick a Bison.

The incident took stupid human tricks to an entirely new level, the curator of the Yellowstone National Park: Invasion of the Idiots* social media site told Cowboy State Daily on Monday.

“You think you’ve heard it all, and then there’s this,” Jen Mignard said. “That is absolutely nutty. What the heck?”

Clarance Yoder, 40, of Idaho Falls, suffered only minor injures in the attack that happened April 21, according to the statement released Monday afternoon by the Yellowstone National Park Public Affairs Office.

Yoder was charged with being under the influence of alcohol to a degree that may endanger oneself, disorderly conduct as to create or maintain a hazardous condition, approaching wildlife and disturbing wildlife.

He appeared in court April 22 and pleaded not guilty to all charges.
*
Official Scorecard
For those keeping score, if convicted, Yoder would receive at least 100 points in the "Bison versus Tourists" scorecard available on the Yellowstone: Invasion of the Idiots page.

 According to the scorecard, a trip to the hospital, as a result of a bison incident, is worth 100 points.

 A simple ground goring is worth one point. But if the goring was preceded by a charge, two points are awarded.

 Eight hundred points are presented for flying over a fence due to a head butt.

 The real money winners, however, are for de-pantsing: 1,000 points; goring and getting tossed into a tree: 2,000 points; goring, getting tossed into a tree, and de-pantsing: 10 million points.

https://cowboystatedaily.com/2024/04/29/man-accused-of-drunk-kicking-bison-sets-off-yellowstones-animal-attack-season/