Justice Department targets whistleblower, Biden looks to penalize franchise owners and additional opinions

Conservative: Justice Dept. Targets Whistleblower

“Texas Children’s Hospital made no secret of its support for transgender medicine,” notes City Journal’s Christopher Rufo: Its doctors administered “puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and other medical interventions to children who self-identified as ‘trans.’ ” As public pressures mounted, “CEO Mark Wallace announced that he was shutting down the child gender clinic,” but his doctors “never stopped.” Surgery resident Eithan Haim, who “felt morally obligated to expose the subterfuge,” contacted Rufo about doctors “continuing to perform sex-change procedures on children as young as 11,” leading to a state ban. Now the Biden Justice Department has threatened “Haim with prosecution,” and so intimidating “other medical professionals who would consider blowing the whistle on the barbarism of ‘transgender medicine.’ ” Those voices are needed “if we are to succeed in shutting down the child sex-change business in the United States.”

Business desk: Biden Aims To Sock Franchisees

If President Biden “has his way, the independence” of franchisees “will disappear,” Rep. Kevin Hern (R-Okla.), a former McDonalds franchisee, warns at The Hill. Biden’s National Labor Relations Board appointees want to expand the “joint employer” concept, turning franchisees into subordinates of their franchisors. “The local entrepreneur who took a chance” to invest in a franchise would be “reduced to a mid-level manager.” Biden is clearly sucking up to unions, as the move would ease “the path to unionization.” Yet franchising “cannot exist with joint employer.” And franchising “gives people from all walks of life — even someone who grew up in poverty, like me — a chance” to “experience the American Dream.” Biden might not understand that, but franchisees “sure do.”

Foreign desk: Palestine Statehood Now a Joke

While “many Palestinians aspire to establish a state called Palestine” it seems “as of now, those are only aspirations,” declares Commentary’s Seth Mandel. “You may remember in late May, when the governments of Spain, Ireland, and Norway jointly announced that they were recognizing ‘Palestine.’” Yet the only real effect “was to shatter any remaining hope for many of the hostages by encouraging Hamas to see Israel as increasingly isolated and likely to be blamed for the failure of any deal.” “None of this is good for the Palestinians themselves, of course, as “it prolongs the war.” These nations “have recognized a country with no diplomatic presence and no borders.” “Perhaps the Palestinians can now argue that at the very least, they are as much a real state as Spain.”

From the Right: Condemning a Hostage Rescue?

It’s a “non-surprise” that “professional anti-Israel voices, United Nations officials and the European Union foreign-policy chief rushed to attack Israel” for Saturday’s rescue of Noa Argamani and three other hostages, scoff The Wall Street Journal’s editors: “

How dare Israel rescue its own citizens. Didn’t it know there would be casualties? The BBC asked whether Israel gave a warning that the rescue raid was coming. Seriously? A tip-off to terrorists? Perhaps read them Miranda rights too.” What madness: “Hamas started the war with a massacre, took these hostages and hid them in a crowded civilian area. Then, when Israel came to free them, Hamas responded with heavy fire, including RPGs — yet people are condemning Israel.”

Investigative journo: Caucuses’ Special-Interest Windfall

The Congressional Black Caucus and Hispanic Caucus truly “stand out” for their “unparalleled fundraising” via two “independent but closely aligned nonprofit arms,” reports James Varney at RealClearInvestigations.

The nonprofit Congressional Black Caucus Foundation and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Foundation create “a very cozy relationship that complies with the law,” yet amounts to “elected officials and corporations working together and there’s lots of money involved,” notes Hillsdale prof Joe Postell. Records show the groups raked in $75 million between them from 2020 to 2022 alone. It’s obviously just “another avenue for special interest money”: You may not find a “smoking gun,” explains Postell, but “you can see the money going into the caucus’ nonprofits and then see favorable legislation coming out.”

— Compiled by The Post Editorial Board