I read with a mixture of sadness and relief an essay by one Melissa Persling, who by all accounts represents the average 30-something woman in America today. In the article, she laments the fact that she’s single at 38 and feels “unbelievably betrayed by feminism.” Persling feels that way because it is that way. For decades, our culture has failed women by spreading falsehood after falsehood about men, marriage, motherhood and career. It’s been a slow, daily drip of “You go, Girl!” messages, specifically designed to delete men and babies from life’s equation. And it has wreaked havoc on women’s lives.
In an interview with Fox News, Persling explained why she wrote her article. “I wrote a lot of that article, like, truly scared… I really did think, like, wow, you’ve missed your opportunity. You are going to be alone. You’re not going to have a family,” she said.
Persling added, “I was constantly fed this idea that women can do everything. We don’t really need men… I do feel in many ways betrayed by that line of thinking.”
Women are realizing that feminism took away traditional roles but didn’t replace them with a new model for life. (iStock)
Persling then concedes that she received this message from “so many of the women” in her life. “I want to go back to some of those teachers and coaches and say, ‘What the hell did you mean by that? Because we can’t do it all. We can’t. That’s a lie!’” she said.
Yes, it was all a lie — and good on Persling for calling it out in such a public way.
Still, it’s a super hard pill to swallow, made worse by the fact that Persling has been slammed with hateful comments, particularly from men, who insist she’s been selfish. She’s a product of her choices, they say, and, well, too bad.
As a life and relationship coach, I hear regularly from women like Persling who realize they’ve been duped by the narrative that being an independent, self-sustaining woman is enough to be happy. It makes perfect sense that these women would find themselves, down the road, overcome with grief at the prospect of living life alone. And they can’t turn to the culture for help because the culture hails singlehood as the be-all, end-all.
Persling was smart to recognize that being a product of divorce also put her at a disadvantage, since she saw women “taking care of everything” in life. Her mother may not have specifically groomed her to be a feminist, but she absorbed the feminist message of not needing a man all the same. No one told her otherwise.
America is now saturated with women like Persling, who acted upon the wisdom passed along to them by the people they most trusted. These women thought they did everything right, only to have it turn out all wrong. To accept that the advice they received was based on lies is a hard lesson for anyone to learn.
The truth is this purportedly “liberated” path women have been groomed to travel has a domino effect. Because if the goal isn’t marriage and family, what is the goal? To be satisfied with being single forever because at least you have a paycheck and no one to whom you must answer? As Persling said, “I don’t want to wake up at 60 and say, ‘Oh, well, I had a lot of fun!’”
Persling then concedes that she received this message from “so many of the women” in her life: “I want to go back to some of those teachers and coaches and say, ‘What the hell did you mean by that? Because we can’t do it all. We can’t. That’s a lie!’”
The problem with the narrative women has been fed is that it deleted the old way but didn’t replace it with anything new. It conveniently left out the details about how women are supposed to live their lives instead.
I believe Persling when she said she’s “not even a feminist.” That’s the thing about movements and trends: They seep into the culture to such a degree that they cease to need a name at all. You don’t even recognize it’s there, and yet it’s governing your every move.
As Danielle Crittenden wrote in “What Our Mothers Didn’t Tell Us”, feminism “had seeped into their minds like intravenous saline into the arm of an unconscious patient. They were feminists without knowing it.”
But now, thanks to Persling’s bravery, more women will wake up.
Rep. Eric Burlison, R-Mo., told Newsmax Friday that former federal prosecutor Lesley Wolf is “the worst example” of a government employee using her post “for political purposes.” IRS whistleblowers accused Wolf, the former assistant U.S. attorney for Delaware, of having blocked them from interviewing members of the Biden family. Wolf testified before Congress earlier this month, during which she repeatedly told legislators that she was “not authorized” by the Justice Department to answer questions about the case.
In an interview on “Newsline” Friday, Burlison criticized Wolf as “the worst example of an employee in the federal government that has used her position for political purposes, weaponized her agency.” He went on to say, “I think that she should be fired.”
The congressman added that he attempted to “zero-out her salary in the appropriations bills, but unfortunately … we never got to that bill so we could never get a vote on that.”
Burlison said that is “the only way that you’re going to send a message to bureaucrats like Lesley, who want to use their position for political influence.”
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The U.N. Security Council passed a new resolution that calls for speeding up humanitarian aid deliveries into Gaza, but without the original call for an “urgent suspension of hostilities” between Israel and Hamas.
The United States and Russia abstained from Friday’s vote, which was delayed for days as diplomats sought to avoid a veto by the U.S., Israel’s closest ally.
The U.N. says more than a half-million people are starving in Gaza because not enough food has entered the besieged territory as Israel keeps up its blistering campaign of airstrikes and ground operations for over 10 weeks. Tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians are crammed into shelters and tent camps as winter descends, raising fears about the spread of disease.
STOP!!!! Help Israel destroy Hamas and Hezbollah, and the people you’re wringing your hands over will get what they need. Look at the X below.
Hamas terrorists have hijacked yet another humanitarian aid convoy after it crossed over the Rafah border from Egypt.
Palestinian officials said Friday that the death toll has now exceeded 20,000 — around 1% of the territory’s prewar population. The Health Ministry in Gaza does not differentiate between civilian and combatant deaths. Israel says more than 130 of its soldiers have died in its ground offensive after Hamas raided southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing about 1,200 people — mostly civilians — and taking about 240 hostages.
Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Top Stories • 76 Christian Universities Caught Promoting Abortion and Planned Parenthood • Trump Vows to Defend Pro-Life Christians Targeted by FBI, Justice Department • Abortionist Travels the Country Doing Abortions, Says He’s “Proud” to Kill Babies • Speaker Mike Johnson Took His Daughter to Abstinence Event to Teach Her Good Values and Self-Worth
More Pro-Life News •Senate Democrats are Trying to Force Americans to Fund Abortions • Kamala Harris is America’s Abortion Cheerleader • University Possibly Broke Federal and State Law Doing Research With Aborted Baby Parts • Mentally Disabled People Should Not be Euthanized • Scroll Down for Several More Pro-Life News Stories
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Comments or questions? Email us at news@lifenews.com. Copyright 2003-2023 LifeNews.com. All rights reserved. For information on advertising or reprinting news from LifeNews.com, email us.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Monday absurdly claimed Americans overwhelmingly disapprove of Joe Biden’s economy because of Trump.
Recent polls reveal Americans say they were better off financially under Trump. Fox News reporter Peter Doocy repeatedly grilled KJP on Biden’s failed economic agenda that has led to persistent inflation. “On lowering prices, you said earlier that the actions the President has taken have worked. So, is it your sense that, when people were home for Thanksgiving, catching up with their family members they were saying to each other. Can you believe how much more affordable things have gotten?” Peter Doocy asked KJP. Karine Jean-Pierre responded with… READ MORE
A.F. Branco has taken his two greatest passions (art and politics) and translated them into cartoons that have been popular all over the country in various news outlets, including NewsMax, Fox News, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, and “The Washington Post.” He has been recognized by such personalities as Rep. Devin Nunes, Dinesh D’Souza, James Woods, Chris Salcedo, Sarah Palin, Larry Elder, Lars Larson, Rush Limbaugh, and President Trump.
The U.S. Department of the Interior sent an internal bulletin to employees in September on “Supporting Gender Transition in the Federal Workplace.”
According to documents published on X by the Heritage Foundation’s Oversight Project, the department sent out guidelines establishing “gender identity” as a protected class under its federal policy. “Gender identity,”according to the Interior Department, is defined as “an individual’s internal sense of being male, female, another gender, no gender, of multiple genders, or fluid in gender.”
“The document states ‘it is not DOI’s intent to be overly protective,’” the Oversight Project reported, “but then goes on to establish policies governing confidentiality and privacy, dress and appearance, names and pronouns, inclusive language, restrooms and related facilities, workplace assignments and duties, recordkeeping, sick and medical leave, and hiring process.”
“An employee’s transition should be treated with as much sensitivity and confidentiality as any other private or highly personal life experiences,” the department memo reads. “Transitioning employees often want as little publicity about their transition as possible.”
The bulletin also outlines codes for “dress and appearance,” encouraging employees to “evaluate, and consider eliminating, where appropriate, gender-specific dress and appearance rules.”
“Once an employee has informed management that they are transitioning, consistent with the employee’s wishes, DOI dress codes should be applied to employees transitioning to a different gender in the same way that they are applied to other employees of that gender, as appropriate,” the policy reads.
Employees with the National Park Service (NPS) apparently violated the agency dress code during an LGBT “pride” celebration this summer when staff held a parade at Yosemite National Park featuring celebrity environmentalist drag queen Pattie Gonia. While the NPS uniform code expressly prohibits employee participation in demonstrations or public events “wherein the wearing of the uniform could be construed as agency support for a particular issue, position, or political party,” staff draped their uniforms in activist apparel anyway.
In October, the drag queen was featured by the department again with a bizarre clip promoting the false narrative that “queer rights are more under attack than ever” alongside Interior Secretary Deb Haaland.
The transgender policy deployed by Interior leadership in September urges employees to “use gender-neutral language in broad communications to avoid assumptions about gender identity.” Examples of “pronouns,” according to the policy, are “they, them, theirs, ze/hir/hirs, ze/zir/zirs, xe/xem/xyrs.” Bathroom use is up to personal discretion, it says, and those who refuse to abide by departmental policies are warned of retribution for “unlawful discrimination.”
“Repeated, intentional refusal to use the employee’s affirming name/gender/pronouns, and/or repeated reference to the employee’s dead name/gender/pronouns by supervisors/managers, or coworkers is contrary to the goal of treating all employees with dignity and respect,” the policy states. “Such intentional conduct could constitute unlawful discrimination.”
Tristan Justice is the western correspondent for The Federalist and the author of Social Justice Redux, a conservative newsletter on culture, health, and wellness. He has also written for The Washington Examiner and The Daily Signal. His work has also been featured in Real Clear Politics and Fox News. Tristan graduated from George Washington University where he majored in political science and minored in journalism. Follow him on Twitter at @JusticeTristan or contact him at Tristan@thefederalist.com. Sign up for Tristan’s email newsletter here.
Former Attorney General Ed Meese has presented arguments to the Supreme Court that they should reject Special Counsel Jack Smith’s requests because he was unconstitutionally appointed in the first place. Meese, along with law professors Steven G. Calabresi and Gary S. Lawson, filed a friend-of-the-court brief Wednesday to present the case that Attorney General Merrick Garland’s appointment of Smith — a private citizen — is in violation of the Appointments Clause of the Constitution.
“Not clothed in the authority of the federal government, Smith is a modern example of the naked emperor,” the brief states.
“Improperly appointed, he has no more authority to represent the United States in this Court than Bryce Harper, Taylor Swift, or Jeff Bezos,” they argued.
Special Counsel Jack Smith arrives to give remarks on a recently unsealed indictment, including four felony counts against former President Donald Trump in Washington, D.C., on Aug. 1. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
The brief was filed in response to Smith’s request to the court to expedite former President Donald Trump’s case arguing presidential immunity for his actions on Jan. 6, 2021, which are connected to criminal charges brought by Smith. Meese argues that the “illegality” of Smith’s appointment is “sufficient to sink Smith’s petition, and the Court should deny review.”
Messe and company noted in the brief that Smith was appointed “to conduct the ongoing investigation into whether any person or entity [including former President Donald Trump] violated the law in connection with efforts to interfere with the lawful transfer of power following the 2020 presidential election or the certification of the Electoral College vote held on or about January 6, 2021.”
While Garland cited as statutory authority for this appointment, Meese argues that “none of those statutes, nor any other statutory or constitutional provisions, remotely authorized the appointment by the Attorney General of a private citizen to receive extraordinary criminal law enforcement power under the title of Special Counsel.”
“Second, even if one overlooks the absence of statutory authority for the position, there is no statute specifically authorizing the Attorney General, rather than the President by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, to appoint such a Special Counsel,” the former AG wrote.
Former Attorney General Edwin Meese delivers remarks after being awarded the National Medal of Freedom by President Donald Trump during a ceremony in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 8, 2019. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
“Under the Appointments Clause, inferior officers can be appointed by department heads only if Congress so directs by statute… and so directs specifically enough to overcome a clear-statement presumption in favor of presidential appointment and senatorial confirmation. No such statute exists for the Special Counsel,” he added.
Meese, who served as attorney general under former President Reagan, said “the Special Counsel, if a valid officer, is a superior (or principal) rather than inferior officer, and thus cannot be appointed by any means other than presidential appointment and senatorial confirmation regardless of what any statutes purport to say.”
Earlier this month, Smith petitioned the high court to decide Trump’s immunity claims in his case facing charges related to his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results.
The Supreme Court in Washington, D.C. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
Smith asked for expedited consideration of the case to essentially have the high court take over jurisdiction before the lower federal courts have fully decided the matter.
Former President Donald Trump lashed out Thursday at President Joe Biden, calling him an insurrectionist. This, after the Colorado Supreme Court ruled that Trump is ineligible for the state’s 2024 Republican primary ballot because of his alleged involvement in the events of Jan. 6, 2021.
“He certainly supported an insurrection,” Biden told reporters Wednesday in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on his way to a campaign event. “No question about it. None. Zero.”
Colorado’s high court ruled Trump ineligible Tuesday based on Section 3 of the 14th Amendment that disqualifies from office those who engaged in insurrection against the Constitution after taking an oath to support it. Trump has never been charged with insurrection and he is appealing the ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court.
“I’m not an Insurrectionist (‘PEACEFULLY & PATRIOTICALLY’),” Trump posted on Truth Social, referring to his speech Jan. 6 in which he encouraged supporters to “peacefully and patriotically” march to the Capitol building. “Crooked Joe Biden is!!!”
Biden did not share his opinion on the Colorado court ruling but said it was “self-evident” Trump supported an insurrection.
“Certain things are self-evident,” Biden said. “You saw it all. Now, whether the 14th Amendment applies, I’ll let the court make that decision.”
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who has been on travel excursions to Israel since 1973, said in a new Newsmax interview that his recent tour of Kibbutz Kfar Aza, a location hit by Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7, really opened his eyes and he’s “witnessed a lot of things, but nothing like this.”
“I wanted to be here to say I stand with Israel,” Huckabee told Newsmax’s Daniel Cohen at the kibbutz in an interview airing on Newsmax Thursday. “I stand with the Jewish people. What happened to them should never again happen to any human beings on the face of the Earth.”
Huckabee and conservative author Joel Rosenberg together led an American evangelical delegation to the kibbutz, with the tour hosted by a Knesset member, Danny Danon, to send a “powerful message of solidarity with Israel,” Cohen reported.
“We walked there for about an hour,” said Cohen. “The bloodstains have all been scrubbed, but nothing can erase the crimes the terrorists committed there on Oct. 7.”
In all, Hamas terrorists murdered 63 people at Kibbutz Kfar Aza, and took 18 as hostages.
“It was atrocious, and they knew they were targeting children, babies, women, unarmed men, and elderly [people], Holocaust survivors,” said Huckabee. “It just reeks of the worst kind of human atrocity. I want everyone in America and across the world to say we stand with Israel.”
Cohen also reported on Iris Haim, the mother of Yotam Haim, one of three hostages who were mistakenly killed by Israel Defense Forces soldiers last week.
She sent a voice message to the soldiers who shot her son, telling them that she loves them and that she blames “only Hamas” for what happened to her son, Cohen said.
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Parents Joe and Serena Wailes were horrified to discover that their 11-year-old daughter had been assigned to not only room with, but also to share a bed with, a boy on her school trip. (Photo: Screenshot/YouTube)
DENVER—Parents Joe and Serena Wailes were shocked and horrified to discover that their 11-year-old daughter had been assigned to not only room with, but also share a bed with, a boy on her school trip. That boy identified as a transgender girl, the Wailes say, and his parents had allegedly told the school district that he was operating under “stealth mode”—meaning that his gender identity was to be kept secret.
In an interview with The Daily Signal earlier this month, the Wailes shared their experience in detail—how their daughter felt, how the school trip chaperones handled the matter, and what they want from the school district moving forward.
Represented by Alliance Defending Freedom, the Waileses are calling on the Colorado-based Jefferson County Board of Education and Jefferson County Public Schools to clarify “whether JCPS will continue this practice of intentionally withholding information about rooming accommodations from parents like the Waileses, who object to their children rooming with a student of the opposite sex, regardless of the other student’s gender identity.”
UCLA’s Jessie Smith looks on in a women’s beach volleyball match against Cal Poly on the campus of California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, California, on April 16, 2022. Now, another Californian, this one a teen boy who identifies as a girl might win a girls’ volleyball scholarship at the University of Washington, depriving a deserving girl of the award. (Photo: Erick Rasco/Sports Illustrated/Getty Images)
A California transgender volleyball player may become the first biological male recipient of a collegiate Division 1 athletic scholarship designated for women. Tate Drageset, 17, verbally committed to the University of Washington, where Drageset is poised to claim one of 12 Division 1 volleyball scholarships designated for female players, Reduxx first reported on Dec. 13.
A class of 2025 volleyball commitments Twitter page announced Drageset’s intention to play as an outside hitter at the University of Washington.
— Class of 2025 Volleyball Commits (@classof2025vb) June 27, 2023
In high school, Drageset earned MVP honors at the Girls Junior National Championships and was named the California Interscholastic Federation’s Division 5 Player of the Year for 2022-23.
The NCAA needs to prevent players like Drageset from taking scholarships from females, former Division 1 volleyball player and now Independent Women’s Forum spokeswoman Adriana McLamb told The Daily Signal.
“As a former Division 1 NCAA volleyball athlete and current recruiting coordinator, I know and see the uphill battle athletes are facing and will face by competing against a male for roster spots and scholarships designated for women,” McLamb said. “The sad truth is that schools will inevitably recruit the stronger, faster male athlete because the NCAA allows it.”
“The root of this issue is the NCAA, because they have outright refused to set parameters that safeguard their female athletes,” said McLamb, who now coaches aspiring collegiate female volleyball players.
In September 2022, another biological male identifying as a girl spiked the ball in the face of female high school volleyball player Payton McNabb in North Carolina, leaving her with severe head and neck injuries resulting in long-term concussion symptoms.
University of Washington Assistant Director of Athletic Communications Michael Bruscas declined to comment on Drageset.
“NCAA rules prohibit universities from commenting on any student-athlete who has not signed a letter of intent, regardless of whether they are being actively recruited or not, even in instances where media reports are claiming that a verbal commitment has been made,” he told The Daily Signal.
Drageset currently plays on the highest-level team at a Santa Monica, California, volleyball club. According to Drageset’s Hudl account, an online platform for coaches to review player performance, the athlete is 6 feet tall.
An anonymous source identified by Reduxx as the parent of a minor player in the Southern California Volleyball Association community revealed concerns about “the steady escalation of Drageset’s participation in women’s volleyball,” Reduxx reported.
The source said every parent in the volleyball association was aware of Drageset’s participation, but they were afraid to discuss it.
“Everyone is scared of how their child will be treated if they speak up,” the parent told Reduxx. “The stealing of positions and opportunities has been infuriating, and so sad, when you see how it affects the girls. There is no concern for their mental health or safety after being replaced.”
“Stealing the already few opportunities for women at the collegiate level,” Gaines wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “How can he be proud?”
Male takes women's volleyball scholarship at @UW … a soon-to-be Big 10 school
Stealing the already few opportunities for women at the collegiate level. How can he be proud?@UWVolleyball should rescind the scholarship if they really care about women. He can play with the men. pic.twitter.com/Dj7VcDWlW4
Top Stories • Kamala Harris Says Christians Can Support Killing Babies in Abortions • Planned Parenthood Collected $1,780 in Tax Dollars for Every Baby It Killed in Abortion • Group Promotes Pro-Abortion Christmas Cards: Peace, Love and Killing Your Babies • Radical Democrats Want to Force Americans to Fund Abortions Around the World
More Pro-Life News •“Miracle” Mom Wakes Up From Coma After 5 Years When She Laughs at a Joke • Abstinence Works: New Report Shows Teen Sexual Activity Continues to Decline • Planned Parenthood Got $90 Million of COVID Funds Meant to Help Small Businesses • Man Pleads Guilty to Threatening to Assassinate Supreme Court Justice Who Voted for Dobbs
• Scroll Down for Several More Pro-Life News Stories
Looking for an inspiring and motivating speaker for your pro-life event? Don’t have much to spend on a high-priced speaker costing several thousand dollars? Contact news@lifenews.com about having LifeNews Editor Steven Ertelt speak at your event.
Looking for an inspiring and motivating speaker for your pro-life event? Don’t have much to spend on a high-priced speaker costing several thousand dollars? Contact news@lifenews.com about having LifeNews Editor Steven Ertelt speak at your event.
Comments or questions? Email us at news@lifenews.com. Copyright 2003-2023 LifeNews.com. All rights reserved. For information on advertising or reprinting news from LifeNews.com, email us.
In a recent episode of “Meet the Press,” GOP Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) appeared to suggest a lack of compelling evidence in the ongoing impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden.
When questioned by host Kristen Welker about his stance on the allegations against Biden, Graham indicated that he has not been closely following the proceedings. His comments implied that for the inquiry to hold weight, it must demonstrate that Joe Biden benefited financially from his son Hunter Biden’s business dealings. Graham’s statement, “If there were a smoking gun, I think we’d be talking about it,” suggests skepticism about the current… READ MORE…
According to a recent survey conducted by Rasmussen Reports, the majority of Americans continue to believe that Jesus Christ, and not Santa Claus, is the true meaning of Christmas. “Americans may be looking forward to a visit from the jolly fellow in the red suit, but most say Christmas is still about the baby born in Bethlehem,” according to Rasmussen Reports.
According to a recent phone and online poll survey, 57% of American adults agree that Jesus Christ should be the focus of Christmas rather than Santa Claus. Only 22% believed Santa Claus should be the focus, while 20% were undecided.
Rasmussen Reports said “the survey of 1,000 American Adults was conducted on December 8 and 11, 2022 by Rasmussen Reports. READ MORE…
A.F. Branco has taken his two greatest passions (art and politics) and translated them into cartoons that have been popular all over the country in various news outlets, including NewsMax, Fox News, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, and “The Washington Post.” He has been recognized by such personalities as Rep. Devin Nunes, Dinesh D’Souza, James Woods, Chris Salcedo, Sarah Palin, Larry Elder, Lars Larson, Rush Limbaugh, and President Trump.
Tucker Carlson delivers an address at Turning Point USA’s America Fest 2023 in Phoenix, Ariz., on Dec. 18, 2023. | Screengrab/YouTube/Turning Point USA
Conservative political commentator Tucker Carlson framed the cultural and political battles of the United States in theological terms during an address Monday at Turning Point USA’s America Fest 2023 in Arizona.
“The evidence unmistakably shows an acceleration in whatever this dark force is in this country whose only impulse is to destroy, not to improve or create, but to destroy, and it’s all around us,” Carlson told the large audience assembled in the Phoenix Convention Center. “And the only way to stop it is with [moral strength].”
Carlson, who last week launched his own streaming service, argued that political leaders in the U.S. and other Western nations have become increasingly irrational with their policies and that while corruption has always riddled politicians in Washington, D.C., their end goal has shifted in recent decades from selfish enrichment to the destruction of their own country.
“If you live in a society where the people in charge just want to sell you out to get rich, that’s bad,” he said. “But that’s not what we’re watching. We’re watching something much darker than that.”
Carlson believes the tactics of the Biden administration “and their enablers in the Republican Party” indicate their intention is to destroy the U.S., which he noted is inexplicable in rational terms.
“It’s a little bit like burning your own house down,” he said. “So why would you do that? That’s not just an act of destruction. It’s an act of self-destruction. So, is that a political program? No. A political program is designed to help the people who institute it and their voters and donors. Their program helps nobody.”
By implementing policies that hurt the economy, flood the country with unsustainable illegal immigration and effectively discourage young people from having families, Carlson thinks many elected officials are serving as “a conduit of evil,” which he defined as a spiritual force that predates humans, works through them, and destroys its unwitting perpetrators after rendering them miserable.
“If you’re channeling actual evil; if you’re trying to destroy people for the sake of destroying them; if you are lying for the sake of lying, for the thrill of telling a lie; and if you are hurting people for the sin of telling the truth, and you’re offended simply because it is true; if the idea that somebody somewhere might be saying a true thing enrages you, that’s not politics,” he said. “That’s theology.”
Carlson claimed that collective guilt and punishment based on increasingly prevalent identity politics is antithetical to Christianity and Western civilization, which he said emerged from a Christian worldview.
“But you are seeing a leadership class in this country on both sides who are starting to think that way,” he said. “And that is a massive threat to you. So just remember, what threatens you is not a political movement; it’s a spiritual movement. The plan can only end in true sadness and tears and weeping and gnashing of teeth. There’s no happy ending to the story that they are telling.”
Carlson said the political volatility in the U.S. has reached an unprecedented fever pitch and urged his listeners to exhibit “moral strength” in the face of spiritual evil.
“You can only fight back — in fact, maybe you can only survive — not by changing them because you can’t, but by changing yourself,” he concluded, “and by becoming more impressive, more honest, and as a result of that, stronger.”
During a subsequent question-and-answer session, Carlson maintained his belief that “countries, like people, suffer consequences for immorality” and that promoting abortion, prostitution and gender surgeries for children “is a very dangerous thing to do, and we are doing it.”
“And again, I’m not a theologian; don’t ask me if [it’s] the End Times,” he said. “I have no idea.”
In recent months, Carlson has frequently used theological language to explain cultural battles, arguing that much of the current political discourse transcends politics.
Days before Fox News canceled his top-rated primetime show in April, Carlson delivered an address at The Heritage Foundation that similarly presented the political debate over transgenderism and abortion as part of a spiritual war.
“When people […] decide that the goal is to destroy things, destruction for its own sake, ‘hey let’s tear it down,’ what you’re watching is not a political movement, it’s evil,” he said at the time.
Rather than Christians getting caught up in “totally fraudulent debates” over cultural issues, Carlson proposed a commitment to prayer instead.
Hamas turned the Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia in the Gaza Strip into a military base, its director Ahmad Kahlot admitted during an investigation conducted by Israel’s domestic intelligence agency, Shin Bet.
The hospital director’s testimony was revealed in a video of the interrogation published by Shin Bet and Israel Defense Forces on Tuesday evening.
Kahlot was among dozens of armed suspects who surrendered and were arrested at the hospital in the northern Gaza Strip on Dec. 12, according to the IDF. Footage of the mass arrest was published two days later.
Kahlot was recruited into Hamas as a high-ranking officer and several of the hospital’s staff served as military operatives of the Hamas organization under him, he said.
According to Kahlot, about 16 of the hospital’s employees served in a double role as Hamas terrorists, including doctors, nurses, paramedics, and clerks.
Hamas terrorists turned the hospital into a military facility, hiding its operatives there, using ambulances for transport and even holding a kidnapped Israeli soldier there.
“They hide in hospitals because they believe that a hospital is a safe place. They will not be harmed if they are inside a hospital,” he stated.
“Hamas has offices inside the hospitals,” Kahlot continued during the interrogation. “There are places for senior officials – they also brought a kidnapped soldier there. There is a designated place for investigations, internal security, and special security. They all have private phone lines inside the hospital.”
Kahlot explained that Hamas has its own private ambulances, with slightly different colors and no license plates. “It was used to bring the kidnapped soldier and to transfer bodies. It comes and goes without transporting the wounded.”
“Once I begged them to take a wounded man to an Indonesian hospital, for healing, for treatment, they refused. Their mission is more important,” the hospital director told Israeli authorities.
“The leaders of Hamas are cowards. They left us on the ground while they’re holing up in hiding places. They destroyed us.”
More than 70 terrorists were arrested during an operation on the grounds of the Kamal Adwan Hospital last week. Several clashes broke out, during which IDF soldiers eliminated more terrorists.
The detainees were taken for interrogation by Israel’s Military Intelligence Unit 504 and Shin Bet coordinators.
In the footage published by the IDF, the terrorists can be seen leaving the hospital premises holding weapons above their heads as a sign of surrender.
The Colorado Republican Party on Wednesday rallied around Donald Trump after the state supreme court ruled the former president was ineligible for reelection because he stoked an insurrection Jan. 6, 2021, saying it would withdraw from the primary election and move to a caucus system if the ruling stands.
“We think this is an absurd ruling and we’re going to do whatever we can to protect the rights of voters in Colorado and frankly, across the nation, if they choose Donald Trump,” Dave Williams, chair of the Colorado Republican Party, told CNN.
“But we’re going to appeal this to the United States Supreme Court. We’re a party to the case, and we’re not going to take this lying down and, if need be, we’re going to withdraw from the primary and go to a strict caucus process that would allow our voters to choose Donald Trump if they want,” he added.
A divided Colorado Supreme Court on Tuesday declared Trump ineligible for the White House under the U.S. Constitution’s insurrection clause and removed him from the state’s presidential primary ballot, setting up a likely showdown in the nation’s highest court to decide whether the front-runner for the GOP nomination can remain in the race.
The decision from a court whose justices were all appointed by Democrat governors marks the first time in history that Section 3 of the 14th Amendment has been used to disqualify a presidential candidate.
Trump has vowed to appeal the state high court’s 4-3 decision.
GOP candidate Vivek Ramaswamy on Wednesday pledged to withdraw if the disqualification of Trump is sustained.
“I pledge to withdraw from the Colorado GOP primary ballot until Trump is also allowed to be on the ballot,” Ramaswamy said in a video Tuesday.
“And I demand that Ron DeSantis, Chris Christie, and Nikki Haley do the same immediately — or else they are tacitly endorsing this illegal maneuver, which will have disastrous consequences for our country.”
Solange Reyner is a writer and editor for Newsmax. She has more than 15 years in the journalism industry reporting and covering news, sports and politics.
The U.S. Supreme Court must overturn the Colorado Supreme Court’s ruling that Donald Trump cannot appear on the ballot for the state’s Republican presidential primary in March. Otherwise, more states will do the same and the country will stop being a democracy, Judge Andrew Napolitano told Newsmax on Wednesday.
The former New Jersey Superior Court judge told “Wake Up America” that “it’s not the way the system is supposed to work … when judges are at the center of the democratic process, the voters should be at the center of the democratic process.
The 4-3 ruling from the Colorado Supreme Court, whose seven judges were all appointed by Democrats, makes Trump the first presidential candidate ever to be declared ineligible for the presidency under a rarely used provision of the U.S. Constitution that bans officials who have taken part in “insurrection or rebellion” from holding office.
But Napolitano pointed out that “the president has not only not been convicted of participating in or supporting or aiding an insurrection, he has not even been charged with it,” adding that the January 6 charges are not charges of aiding or abetting an insurrection.
If the Colorado Supreme Court’s decision “is not disturbed by the Supreme Court of the United States … then the ballgame will be over for Donald Trump, because other states will do the same thing,” Napolitano said. “That’s why it is vital that the Supreme Court of the United States interfere with this decision, put it on hold and reverse it and let the voters decide … otherwise we don’t have a democracy.”
Napolitano said he was confident the U.S. Supreme Court will take up the issue in the next few days, because ballots will soon begin to be printed” for the primary in Colorado.
He noted there was a trial in Colorado in which a judge found that Trump did participate in and did incite the insurrection on January 6. The Colorado Supreme Court upheld that decision.
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President Joe Biden speaks on renewable energy at the Philly Shipyard on July 20, 2023, in Philadelphia. (Photo: Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
The Biden administration’s energy regulations may cost the U.S. economy $100 billion in gross domestic product each year, according to a new report published by the Committee to Unleash Prosperity.
The administration has unleashed a bevy of regulations from several agencies that have distorted energy markets and disincentivized long-term investment in fossil fuel production, which in turn has increased the costs of energy production and consumption to the detriment of the overall American economy, according to the report.
These policies and their ramifications play to the advantage of major oil producers in Asia and the Middle East, some of which are known to use oil revenues to bankroll terrorist organizations, while American consumers and businesses navigate higher costs.
“This study examines what has happened with oil and gas production when we adjust for the large increase in the world price since [President Joe] Biden entered office, and the upward supply trends that had widely been expected to continue,” the report’s executive summary states. “Coincident with Biden’s new anti-energy policies, vigorous ‘Environmental, Social and Governance’ (ESG) investing and rising business tax rates, U.S. oil production has fallen 1-5 million daily barrels short of previous trends. Increased costs of oil and gas extraction are reducing annual GDP by about $100 billion.”
Further, the administration’s approach to regulating energy markets has chilled incentives for technological innovation in extracting fuels, and the natural gas industry has also underperformed relative to how it was trending when former President Donald Trump was in office, according to the report.
Notably, oil production in the U.S. is hovering at or above record levels, even as the industry deals with the regulatory barrage. While the Biden administration has suggested that this fact demonstrates that it is not cracking down on fossil fuel production, Daniel Turner, an energy sector expert and the executive director for Power The Future, previously told the Daily Caller News Foundation that this narrative is misleading because “the lifetime of an oil well is years in the making, and so all of the production that is online now is from wells that started well before Biden came into office.”
The Committee To Unleash Prosperity’s report also rejects the notion that “Biden’s anti-fossil fuels policies—ranging from taking hundreds of thousands of acres off-line for drilling, to canceling pipelines, to restrictive environmental regulations that make drilling more expensive—are not the reason for the energy crisis and high gas prices at the pump.”
The administration has taken dozens of executive and regulatory actions designed to make oil and gas activity more difficult and expensive since it assumed power in 2021, according to research conducted by the Institute for Energy Research.
The Biden administration has engaged in a broad effort to reduce new oil and gas activity on federally controlled lands, which has resulted in millions of acres being removed from consideration for oil drilling activity. Biden pledged to fully stop oil and gas activity on federal lands as a candidate and issued a moratorium on oil and gas leasing on federal lands in 2021, later saying in August that he would have been able to fulfill that promise if not for the court system.
The administration finalized the most restrictive offshore oil and gas leasing schedule in American history on Friday, has leased the fewest acres for oil and gas drilling of any administration in the last 80 years, and has moved to increase the costs of oil and gas activities on public lands that it has not excluded from such uses altogether.
The administration has also retroactively nixed leases in Alaska and attempted to remove huge swaths of the state’s land from eligibility for oil and gas activity, but the administration’s approach has not satisfied hard-line environmentalists, a key electoral and fundraising constituency for Biden.
The Biden administration’s energy policies are not only holding back the American economy, but also empowering foreign countries to whom the U.S. has ceded control of the marginal price of oil, according to the report.
“Anti-energy policies in the United States enrich the major oil producers in Asia and the Middle East, some of whom use their wealth to fund terrorism. Indeed, they are enriched twice by our policies,” the report states. “One benefit they get is that subtractions from U.S. production are subtractions from world production that contribute to higher world oil prices. The second benefit is that undermining shale activity in the U.S. gives OPEC more pricing power, because we are no longer as able to respond to OPEC production cuts with production increases of our own.”
The White House did not respond immediately to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
Prosecutor Jack Smith is worse than the Grinch as uses lawfare to rid the GOP front runner, Donald Trump from being able to run in the 2024 presidential election.
JUST IN: Jack Smith Ramps Up Effort to Jail Trump, Asks Supreme Court to Weigh Trump’s Immunity Argument – Here’s Why
By Cristina Laila
Special Counsel Jack Smith on Monday asked the US Supreme Court to weigh in on Trump’s immunity claims. In September Trump was hit with 4 counts in Jack Smith’s January 6 case up in DC: Conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding, and conspiracy against rights.
Jack Smith is fighting to keep the March 4 trial date (one day before Super Tuesday) in his January 6 case against Trump in DC.
Trump’s lawyers argued that Trump is immune from federal prosecution for alleged ‘crimes’ committed while … READ MORE…
A.F. Branco has taken his two greatest passions (art and politics) and translated them into cartoons that have been popular all over the country in various news outlets, including NewsMax, Fox News, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, and “The Washington Post.” He has been recognized by such personalities as Rep. Devin Nunes, Dinesh D’Souza, James Woods, Chris Salcedo, Sarah Palin, Larry Elder, Lars Larson, Rush Limbaugh, and President Trump.
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On Friday, a jury in Washington, D.C., issued a significant judgment against former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani in a defamation case brought forward by two 2020 Georgia election workers, Ruby Freeman and Wandrea “Shaye” Moss.
CNN reported that the unanimous verdict included damages for each of the plaintiffs who had accused Giuliani of falsely accusing them of aiding to steal the election from then-President Donald Trump. The lawsuit revealed that both Freeman and Moss experienced immense harassment, racist attacks, and death threats as a result of being falsely accused. This resulted in their need to flee their homes, resign from their positions as election workers, and fear using their real names.
The jury awarded them more than $148 million in damages.
Following the verdict, the former mayor had to also cover the attorney fees of both plaintiffs. He subsequently gave a statement to reporters.
“Possibly will move for a new trial, certainly will appeal,” Giuliani, a former federal prosecutor, said. “The absurdity of the number merely underscores the absurdity of the entire proceeding where I’ve not been allowed to offer one single piece of evidence in defense, of which I have a lot.
“So I am quite confident when this case gets before a fair tribunal, it will be reversed so quickly. That will make your head spin. And the absurd number that just came in will help that, actually,” he added.
“Why did you think it was unfair?” one reporter asked.
“I cannot go into the details. I didn’t testify because the judge made it clear that if I made any mistake or did anything wrong, she was considering contempt,” Giuliani responded. “And this judge does have a reputation for putting people in jail. And I thought, honestly, it wouldn’t do any good.
“Do you still believe what you said about these two women in the wake of the 2020 elections?” another reporter asked.
“I have no doubt. I have no doubt that my comments were made,and they were supportable and are supportable today,” Giuliani added.
“I just did not have an opportunity to present the evidence that we offered,” he said.
“Did you notice we were not allowed to put in one piece of evidence in defense? Do you also realize that liability is not based on any trial? My ability is based on her disagreement with me on discovery, which is absurd. Get it? Because I believe the judge was threatening me with the strong possibility that I’d be held in contempt or that I’d even be put in jail,” he said.
“So, it didn’t seem like it was going to do much to persuade anybody, and it could give her what she seemed to be threatening. Do you believe the women’s testimony? All right. That’s all I have to say,” he added.
“Do you have regrets about some of the comments that the women received?” a reporter then asked.
“Well, of course the comments they received, I had nothing to do with those comments, [they] are abominable. They’re deplorable,” Giuliani insisted.
This $148 million verdict against Giuliani is just one among numerous lawsuits awaiting resolution over “false claims” associated with the 2020 election, Mediaite reported on Friday.
A homeless man pushes his belongings past tents on August 16, 2023, on a Skid Row sidewalk in Los Angeles, California, where homelessness has seen a 10 percent surge compared to last year. A recent report from the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority reveals an estimate of 42,260 people living on the streets of Los Angeles without shelter, as the homeless population has more than doubled over the past decade. | FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images
As rents soared and programs focused on preventing evictions and housing loss ended, homelessness hit a record high in 2023, with roughly 20 out of every 10,000 people in the United States found to be experiencing homelessness on a single night, a new report from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development shows.
Among the key findings of HUD’s 2023 Annual Homeless Assessment Report: Part 1: Point-in-Time Estimates, officials found that homelessness increased across all household types. Roughly 653,100 people nationwide were experiencing homelessness during a Point-In-Time count conducted in January 2023. Between 2022 and 2023, the number of people experiencing homelessness increased by 12%, or an increase of roughly 70,650 people. The 2023 Point-in-Time count is the highest number of people reported as experiencing homelessness on a single night since reporting began in 2007, officials say.
Homelessness among people in families with children rose 16%, while individuals registered an 11% increase in the homeless population.
Most of the homelessness crisis remains centered in the nation’s 50 largest cities. According to the data, nearly 60% of the people experiencing homelessness did so in urban areas, while the remainder of the homeless population was noted in suburban areas (23%) and rural communities (18%).
Reacting to the findings Friday, HUD Secretary Marcia L. Fudge said homelessness “should not exist in the United States” because it is “solvable.”
“From day one, this Administration has put forth a comprehensive plan to tackle homelessness and we’ve acted aggressively and in conjunction with our federal, state, and local partners to address this challenge,” Fudge said in a statement.
“We’ve made positive strides, but there is still more work to be done. This data underscores the urgent need for support for proven solutions and strategies that help people quickly exit homelessness and that prevent homelessness in the first place.”
The data also shows a sharp increase in people who became homeless for the first time. Between the federal fiscal years of 2021 and 2022, there was a 25% increase in people who became newly homeless, even as the number of people who exited homelessness to permanent housing increased by 8%, the agency said.
HUD attributes the rise in homelessness to several factors, including “recent changes in the rental housing market and the winding down of pandemic protections and programs focused on preventing evictions and housing loss.” Additionally, rental housing conditions were “extraordinarily challenging” in the year leading up to the January Point-in-Time count.
“[T]he supply shortage of 2022 likely contributed to this increase in rents and homelessness in 2022,” the HUD release states.
A 2019 report released by the White House Office of Economic Advisers during the Trump administration titled “The State of Homelessness in America” called homelessness a “serious problem” in America “due to decades of misguided and faulty policies.” It also pointed out that homelessness is concentrated in major cities on the West Coast and the Northeast, like Boston, New York City and Washington, D.C., with nearly half (47%) of unsheltered homeless people found in California alone.
President Joe Biden’s younger brother James Biden took a quiet personal loan from one of his now-bankrupt investment companies on the condition that he would leverage his family’s political influence to increase their funding from the Middle East, testimony collected by the House Oversight Committee states. He then used those funds to line his elder brother’s pockets.
Shortly after the FBI raided Americore’s offices in January 2020, the health care company’s former CEO Grant White prepared a lawsuit accusing James of violating the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) and committing fraud. As Mark Hemingway reported at the time, documents prepared as part of the legal proceedings specifically alleged that James used company cash to stuff his pocketbook via a six-figure personal loan but did not deliver on his promise to use the Biden family name to bring the company investments from the Middle East.
“[Biden told me] there’s not a single door in the country that we can’t open. So if I wanted to meet, you know, the head of Google, it’s a phone call,” White said. “He always represented himself as the fundraiser for his brother’s campaigns. … He was the guy raising the money and so he knew everybody.”
Corporate media like Politico acknowledged that James “introduced Americore’s founder to his older brother” but never paid back the loan in full. James eventually paid Americore a $350,000 settlement over the loan dispute.
Americore Chapter 11 Trustee Carol Fox confirmed to the House Oversight Committee on Monday that the company quietly loaned $600,000 to James on the condition that his political connections would bring the company funding from the Middle East.
Americore handed over $200,000 of the loan to James in March 2018, a decision that Fox said the company deliberately decided to do without documentation. Shortly after he received the wire, James wrote a check for the same amount to his elder brother Joe that he painted as a personal loan repayment.
When House investigators showed Fox the check on Monday, she commented that $200,000 is a hefty sum. She also said that the money that eventually lined Joe’s pockets came from either “predatory loans or senior citizens’ money fraudulently invested by James Biden’s business partner, Michael Lewitt.”
The House Oversight Committee warned in October that the Biden brothers’ 2018 financial exchange warranted more scrutiny.
The $200,000 transfer is even more suspect in light of news that Joe received a $40,000 “loan repayment” in the form of a check from Sara and James Biden’s personal checking account in September 2017. That transfer followed shortly after a handful of transactions that were part of a deal Hunter Biden, Joe’s son and James’ nephew, struck with businessmen linked to communist China.
Just a few months prior in June 2017, Hunter had written in a WhatsApp message to his uncle and to other Biden business associates that he was hesitant to “sign over” the family “brand” to another associate. House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith identified the “brand” as Joe.
Jordan Boyd is a staff writer at The Federalist and co-producer of The Federalist Radio Hour. Her work has also been featured in The Daily Wire, Fox News, and RealClearPolitics. Jordan graduated from Baylor University where she majored in political science and minored in journalism. Follow her on Twitter @jordanboydtx.
For Democrats to succeed with their 2024 presidential campaign strategy of imprisoning the current front-runner in the race, they need a massive assist from key judges.
District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan has done everything in her power to speed up the process for one of the complicated cases Democrats have filed against former President Donald Trump. Whereas the standard federal fraud and conspiracy case takes about two years to get to trial, controversial Special Counsel Jack Smith and Chutkan have worked in concert to get the trial started in March, a breathtaking seven months after Trump’s indictment.
Likewise, D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Florence Pan is doing her part to assist the effort to give Trump far less time than other defendants to prepare for a trial against him. Last week, she led a panel to fast-track an appeal in order to facilitate Smith’s goal of securing a quick conviction before one of Washington, D.C.’s notoriously partisan juries.
“Any fair-minded observer has to agree” that Smith and Chutkan are acting based on the election schedule, conceded former federal prosecutor and left-wing pundit Elie Honig. “Just look at Jack Smith’s conduct in this case. The motivating principle behind every procedural request he’s made has been speed, has been getting this trial in before the election.”
Election interference isn’t incidental to this prosecution, then, it’s the entire point.
While hundreds of defendants in the relatively simple Jan. 6 cases brought by the Department of Justice have had a few years to prepare for trial, Trump and his attorneys have to prepare for one of the most complicated and unprecedented cases in American history in just a matter of months. “Donald Trump is being given far less time to prepare than other defendants,” Honig said.
In September, Trump’s legal team asked Chutkan to recuse herself due to her personal bias against the former president and his supporters. Chutkan, the foreign-born “scion of Marxist revolutionaries,” has received attention for her partisan and incendiary commentary against Trump and his supporters. She denied the request. In October, Trump’s attorneys asked for the suit to be dismissed on multiple grounds, including presidential immunity, violation of the freedom of speech clause, violation of the double jeopardy clause and due process clause of the Fifth Amendment, and several other issues. By Dec. 1, Chutkan ruled against Trump in each case.
A week later, Trump announced his plan to appeal Chutkan’s ruling. The next court to hear the case would be the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals.
On Dec. 11, Smith did two things. He asked the D.C. Circuit to expedite Trump’s appeal, and he asked the Supreme Court to expedite an appeal as well. He explained to the lower court that while the Supreme Court is considering the petition, the D.C. Circuit has jurisdiction. The singular goal of rushing the process is to make sure that one way or another, Democrats can ram through the trial and conviction of their main political opponent to control the outcome of the election.
In the D.C. Circuit Court, Smith asked that Trump’s attorneys be forced to prepare and file their opening brief within 10 days, that the government get an additional week to respond, and that Trump’s attorneys have three days to respond to that government brief.
Trump’s team was given two days to prepare an argument against Smith’s request for this shockingly abbreviated schedule. In its 16-page response, Trump’s legal team noted that the case was among the most complex and unprecedented in history, that it presented serious constitutional questions, and that rushing the process would violate Trump’s due process and Sixth Amendment rights. Trump’s lawyers also noted how the issues in this trial would affect every president, not just the one Democrats are consumed with hatred toward.
“Could President George W. Bush face criminal charges of defrauding the United States and obstructing official proceedings for allegedly giving Congress false information about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, to induce war on false premises? Could President Obama be charged with murder for allegedly authorizing the drone strike that killed Anwar Al-Awlaki and his sixteen-year-old son, both U.S. citizens?” Trump’s attorneys asked.
The team noted how rarely the circuit court expedites such legal procedures, and never in cases even close to the sensitivity of this one. Trump’s attorneys said Chutkan’s speed contributed to her making sloppy mistakes and failing to give thoughtful consideration to arguments.
Citing the court’s own “handbook of practice and internal procedures,” Trump’s attorneys said the court should set a reasonable schedule of providing Trump 40 days to serve and file his initial brief, 21 days to file a reply brief, and 45 days to prepare for oral argument.
“Anything less would result in a heedless rush to judgment on some of the most sensitive and important issues that this Court may ever decide,” Trump’s attorneys wrote.
Instead, the three judges on the D.C. Circuit did precisely what Smith asked them to. They gave Trump until Saturday, Dec. 23 to file his initial brief.
Liberal Panel Lassos the Case for Itself
Each month, the D.C. Circuit has a panel of three judges who consider motions that come before the court. The panel changes each month. While many of the motions that come before the court are simple and administrative, others relate to complicated cases that will require hearings and other court actions. The panel of judges that begins hearing appeals usually keeps the case as it progresses.
This is important because the December panel is particularly left-wing, even for the left-leaning D.C. Circuit. Karen Henderson, the 79-year-old appointee of George H.W. Bush, is on the panel. More importantly, two relatively young Biden appointees named J. Michelle Childs and Florence Pan are also on the panel.
Panels in the coming months will reportedly not be as left-wing as the December panel. The scheduling question, then, becomes one of how hostile the panel of judges will be to Trump’s appeal. By setting an aggressive schedule, the December panel can keep with the case and help ensure Democrats can get their conviction in time for it to affect the election.
Judge Florence Pan has shown a particular interest in lassoing the case for herself. Appointed in 2022, Pan is the wife of Max Stier, a longtime associate of Bill and Hillary Clinton. Stier is also known for being one of the Democrats eager to join the smear campaign against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. Stier and Kavanaugh had been on opposite sides of the Whitewater investigation in the late 1990s. When Democrats ran their unseemly attack on Kavanaugh, Stier told the FBI and two anti-Kavanaugh reporters at The New York Times a weird story about how freshmen at Yale might have done something to an inebriated Kavanaugh and a young woman that was inappropriate. The woman, for her part, told friends she has no recollection of what Stier claimed.
“Stier has always held himself out as a consummate civil servant and above politics, but he provided information wildly irrelevant but calculated to inflame the situation. He’s a malign actor,” said one attorney about the stunt.
Pan is also the judge who wrote the D.C. Circuit’s opinion upholding the reinterpretation of an obscure financial crimes statute to imprison Republican protesters for years. The Supreme Court announced it would be hearing an appeal of her decision in the current term. Many constitutional scholars agree with the dissent, which stated the government’s use of the statute to go after protesters is “implausibly broad and unconstitutional.”
On December 18, the D.C. Circuit announced it was scheduling oral argument for January 9, another example of the way Democrats are rushing to give Trump less time to prepare for argument than other defendants receive. Judge Henderson, the lone Republican appointee on the panel, took the rare step of publicly noting she disagrees with the extreme path chosen by her Democrat-appointed colleagues on the panel.
“Judge Henderson would stay any further action by this court until the United States Supreme Court has taken final action on the Government’s Petition for Certiorari before Judgment now pending before it in this case,” noted the Court order.
Too many Americans have forgotten how to be tough. Too many are just giving up. They’re “quiet quitting” their jobs, and even their marriages. The youngest generation in the workforce claims to be “completely overwhelmed” by daily life.
It’s true that we’re facing significant challenges at home and abroad today. But in America’s long history, that’s nothing new. Our greatest leaders were molded into towering figures because of – not in spite of – the challenges they faced.
At the dawn of the 20th century, two such men were Theodore Roosevelt and Booker T. Washington. One of these men had to overcome the evils of slavery, and fought for the rest of his life against evil institutional racism. The other was born into privilege, but forced himself to conquer the fragile health that plagued him in youth.
Booker T. Washington and Teddy Roosevelt (Sentinel)
They both went on to become prominent men of their day, and when the president and the civil rights leader came together, they worked hard to make the new century a fairer and more equitable one for all Americans.
Booker T. Washington’s first home was a one-room log cabin. Meals were “a piece of bread here and a scrap of meat there.” He wore no shoes until he was 8. Brutalizing punishment was a fact of life. And he could forget about education. “Learning from books in a schoolroom,” his mother explained, “[is] forbidden to a Negro child.” He was told reading was “dangerous,” but that only upped his curiosity.
“From that moment I resolved that I should never be satisfied until I learned what this dangerous practice was like.”
At the age of 16, he walked all the way to the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute. His teachers there were impressed by his work ethic, with one, Nathalie Lord, remarking: “I think I may safely say he was never idle.”
It soon became clear that Booker wasn’t just interested in acquiring knowledge for his own sake. “To help his people,” Miss Lord learned, “was foremost in his mind.”
And help he did. After spending several years teaching, in 1881 he became the head of the brand-new Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, a training school for Black educators. First, though, he had to build the campus.
Washington and his students took on the hard work of clearing dozens of acres. One of his colleagues later wrote: “They couldn’t say they were too good for that kind of work when Mr. Washington himself was at it harder than any of them.”
The Tuskegee Institute grew into the base from which Washington launched a national movement to improve the lives of Black Americans. By 1901, Washington was such a major voice in the national conversation that he became the first Black person to dine at the White House – at the invitation of President Theodore Roosevelt.
Roosevelt’s privileged circumstances could hardly have been more different from Washington’s, but he too faced early challenges that made him into the man he was. Colds, stomach upsets and fevers affected him in early childhood. At age 3, he developed asthma, soon followed by acute bouts of diarrhea and vomiting.
Theodore was 14 and had suffered years of sickness when his father sat him down for a man-to-man conversation about his health. “You have the mind, but you have not the body,” his father said. “Without the help of the body the mind cannot go as far as it should.”
But the boy was ready to rise to the challenge. “I’ll make my body,” he promised.
He started training by lifting weights, wrestling and boxing lessons. Theodore persisted and, as one of his sisters observed, he “widen[ed] his chest by regular, monotonous motion – drudgery indeed.”
He worked his mind, too, reading voraciously, his tastes varying from boys’ fiction to travel books and works on zoology and natural history. Over years of hard work, he turned into the man who would enter New York state politics in 1886, kicking off the true start of a brilliant career that saw him in the White House by 1901.
On Oct. 16 of that year, he invited Booker T. Washington to dinner. Roosevelt had been in office for barely a month. His predecessor William McKinley had been assassinated, and it was now up to Roosevelt to lead a country that was split by racial divisions and tensions despite the end of the Civil War decades earlier.
William McKinley (1843-1901) was the 25th president of the United States, serving from March 4, 1897, until his assassination in September 1901, six months into his second term. (Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
One fateful meal brought together two men whose lives, though very different, had been shaped by similar commitment to overcoming adversity. As Washington fought for equal rights, Roosevelt, bolstered by Washington’s encouragement, fought to appoint Black Americans (and fair-minded Whites) to government positions, becoming personally involved in many cases.
He closed a local post office in Mississippi after they unfairly dismissed their Black postmistress. He faced wailing denunciations from the press and political opposition, but Booker T. Washington had his back.
Both Booker T. and Teddy had vision. They had drive. And their skins were tough enough that they drove forward even in the face of often vicious criticism.
We are a better nation because they chose to fight. Both of those men would have no time for “quiet quitters.” They would not be “overwhelmed” by daily life. Nothing would stop them from fighting for what’s right. That’s a legacy we can all look up to.
Brian Kilmeade is the co-host of FOX News Channel’s (FNC) FOX & Friends (weekdays 6-9 AM/ET) alongside Steve Doocy and Ainsley Earhardt and the host of One Nation with Brian Kilmeade (Saturdays 8-9 PM/ET).
As the clock ticks closer to 2024, one outspoken economist is making a dire predication about the markets in the new year.
“Since 2009, this has been 100% artificial, unprecedented money printing and deficits; $27 trillion over 15 years, to be exact. This is off the charts, 100% artificial, which means we’re in a dangerous state,” Harry Dent told Fox News Digital. “I think 2024 is going to be the biggest single crash year we’ll see in our lifetimes.”
“I’m the guy that’s praying for a crash while everybody else is not. We need to get back down to normal, and we need to send a message to central banks,” he continued. “This should be a lesson I don’t think we’ll ever revisit. I don’t think we’ll ever see a bubble for any of our lifetimes again.”
Dent, who spent the majority of his career analyzing proprietary research, credited his against-the-grain prediction to overvalued markets and excessive stimulus spending. While recent rallies have overwhelmingly provided investors with mild recession expectations, Dent remained firm that an “everything bubble” will burst next year.
Historically, market bubbles are characterized by a rapid rise in stock prices, before being met by a sharp fall.
Economist Harry S. Dent warned of a market crash “of a lifetime” with Fox News Digital. (Fox News)
The economist noted that this bubble actually started in late 2021 after the height of the COVID pandemic, with the first signs showing in 2022 when Nasdaq was down 38%. The new year will bring the “B wave” of the crash.
“The Roaring 20s bubble was not an everything bubble. [A] real estate barely bubble [in 2008], it was stocks and urban real estate that bubbled,” Dent said.“This is the one time I’m telling you, do not listen to your financial adviser. Things are not going to come back to normal in a few years. We may never see these levels again. And this crash is not going to be a correction. It’s going to be more in the ’29 to ’32 level. And anybody who sat through that would have shot their stockbroker.”
“That’s an 86% crash in the S&P and a 92% crash in the NASDAQ. And crypto, it’s going to be 96%. So that is a big deal,” the economist added. “And real estate, by the way, is only projected, by me, to go back to its 2012 lows… but that’s a 50% crash for the average house, which went down 34% in the last crash, more than the Great Depression, more than any time in history. That is what’s going to hurt people the most.”
Criticizing investors who have played into a year-end market rally where the Dow Jones Industrial Average ended last week scoring its third record close after crossing 37,000, Dent encouraged Americans to “get out of the way.”
Zuma Global President Heather Zumarraga discusses whether there is any danger of a market selloff in 2024 on ‘Varney & Co.’
“If I’m right, it is going to be the biggest crash of our lifetime, most of it happening in 2024. You’re going to see it start and be more obvious by May,” the analyst stressed. “So if you just get out for six to 12 months and stuff stays at the highest valuation history, maybe you miss a little more gains if I’m wrong. If I’m right, you’re going to save massive losses and be able to reinvest a year or year-and-a-half from now at unbelievably low prices and magnify your gains beyond compare.”
“We’re still up there. We’re still near the highs, and that shouldn’t have happened. So you’ve gotten a gift… you’ve gotten this rebound where you get a second chance to get out near where you could have before. Boy, [that’s] lucky, lucky, lucky.”
Last week, the Fed hinted it would end its historic campaign to bring down inflation, propelling a new streak of records for the Dow.
Economist Peter Morici reacts to the Fed signaling that it could cut interest rates three times in 2024 on ‘Varney & Co.’ Policymakers, in their annual projections, priced in the potential of three rate cuts, with the federal funds rate falling to a range of 4.4% to 4.9%, down from the current 5.25% to 5.50%.
Looking at the Federal Reserve’s rate trajectory, Dent argued there’s “no chance” of a soft landing. He believes continued disinflation will turn into deflation for the first time since the 1930s, and that the central bank has a “weak” economy in its hands.
“The only reason they had to tighten so much is because they stimulated too much over COVID. But that tightening is now going to hit way more in 2024,” Dent said. “And when you stop that gravy train and reverse the tightening, you’re going to be in a depression within a year, not a mile. All this talk about, ‘Oh, yeah, now we’re going to have a mild recession’ – not a chance in Hades.”
“Depressions are different from recessions. They go much deeper, and they end up in deflation,” he further explained. “It’s going to bring down a lot of consumer price inflation, and especially housing… When this asset bubble bursts and the price of everything, especially housing, comes back down to reality, imagine, not only can you buy the house you want at half-off… you can buy twice as nice a house here for the same mortgage you were going to get before. How’s that for a Christmas present?”
Stockmarket Cycles editor and publisher Peter Eliades provides his market outlook on ‘Cavuto: Coast to Coast.’
The “everything” bubble will leave a lasting slowdown impact for 12 to 14 years, Dent cautioned. During that time, he agreed America’s wealth gap would widen as the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.
“This is going to hurt the rich a lot more than the average person. The average person is going to lose their job for six months to two years. The average rich person is going to lose 50% to 80% of their lifetime accumulated net worth,” Dent said. “They’re going to see the biggest comedown to reality. And then the next stage of the boom is the millennial boom, which will not be as long as the baby boom, but it’ll go into 2037 before we slow down again. That boom will be less rich-get-richer, it will be more the middle class catching up again.”
Democrats are marching through various stages of grief as they contemplate President Joe Biden running for reelection in 2024. They have variously been hopeful, worried, frantic … and now they’re getting downright angry.
Far-left columnist Harold Meyerson, editor of the liberal magazine American Prospect, is furious that more Democrats have not jumped into the race. His latest piece asks, “Are the Democrats sleepwalking to disaster?” Disaster, of course, being the election of Donald Trump, who will bring the U.S. – according to Meyerson – to the “brink of authoritarian rule.”
The former Washington Post writer says Biden has been an “excellent president,” but is concerned that he is “the candidate least able to defeat Donald Trump.” Meyerson is certainly not alone; a rising chorus of Democrat voices are urging Biden to step aside, including now, apparently, Barack Obama. The New York Post reports that the former president “knows this is going to be a close race” and “feels that Democrats very well could lose.”
The question is: who might replace Biden? Meyerson lofts Gavin Newsom as a possibility but notes that the California governor “lacks appeal to working-class voters (California has the lowest share of white working-class residents of any state save Hawaii).”
Polls look bad for President Joe Biden’s chances of keeping the White House in 2024. But the Democrat alternatives aren’t much better. FILE: A flag flies atop the White House November 15, 2000. (Photo by Alex Wong/Newsmakers) (Getty Images)
He also throws Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer into the mix but supposes she would “face misogynistic hurdles,” deploying one of Hillary Clinton’s many excuses for losing in 2016. He totally ignores Vice President Kamala Harris, as do most commentators, even though tossing her aside could be risky for Democrats.
Here is the truth: the Democrat bench is terrible.
For months, Newsom has been the favored candidate of elite liberals. He’s reliably progressive, telegenic and has been running a stealth campaign to introduce himself to American voters. Unfortunately for Newsom backers, the governor is slip-sliding towards oblivion. First, he surprisingly performed a major face-plant in his debate with Republican Ron DeSantis on Sean Hannity’s Fox News show. Most commentators, including myself, expected the glib Newsom to run rings around the supposedly wooden and inarticulate DeSantis.
Instead, Florida’s governor came armed with facts and figures showing his state beating out California on every major metric important to voters – cost of living, taxes, employment, homelessness and crime. Not only did DeSantis win on points, he also won on style. Newsom was smug, condescending and unlikeable. It was a wipeout.
Second, California’s nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office recently projected the state would run a 2024-25 budget deficit of $68 billion next year, twice as large as recorded in 2023-24. The projected gap is an all-time record, as is the state’s $310 billion spending plan. Commentators in California pounced on the news, with the Mercury News declaring “Newsom owns this mess.” The editorial board reminded Californians that at the beginning of last year, Newsom “was bragging about the state’s $98 billion budget surplus.” Oops.
Newsom was first elected governor in 2019; his proposed budget for the 2019-2020 fiscal year called for spending of $209 billion. So, in five years, the budget has skyrocketed nearly 50%; on a per-person basis, it has jumped 56%, because more than one million residents have fled the state’s high taxes and impossible business regulations.
Where has the money gone? More than 50 billion was allocated in the past two budgets for climate change, enormous funds handed to unions like the childcare workers group that is demanding a 25% pay hike and teachers who were given an 8.2% cost-of-living raise; taxpayer money has also funded a 10% increase in welfare payments, and numerous other progressive priorities.
Vice President Kamala Harris would be a logical choice to replace her boss, President Joe Biden. But she’s even less popular than he is. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)
Newsom’s mismanagement of California’s finances is a blueprint, as DeSantis charged in their debate, for how Democrats will crush the U.S. economy.
If Newsom falls appropriately by the wayside, could Governor Gretchen Whitmer be next up? Unlike Newsom, she represents an important swing state, and her favorability ratings in Michigan are better than the president’s. In addition, she has a following with Black voters, which Newsom lacks. Politico reports that Democrats outside of Michigan have encouraged her to run, including members of the Congressional Black Caucus. Also, a female candidate could help Democrats next year keep the focus on abortion. Polling shows Whitmer competing against Donald Trump more successfully than Biden, Harris or Newsom. In a month-old Fox News poll, all four Democrats lose to Trump, but Whitmer is down by only 2 points.
Still, the Michigan governor is remembered as the author of ludicrous COVID-19 mandates, such as allowing state residents to shop at hardware stores, but outlawing purchases of seeds or other gardening supplies.
In addition, her state is losing population, like California, though less rapidly. Michigan has also acquired a large Muslim population, which could complicate Whitmer or Biden’s prospects in the state if Democrats continue to support Israel. Further, rivals could go after Michigan’s governor for enacting tougher gun laws but failing to drive down crime in what some have called “America’s most dangerous state.” The state harbors eight of the most crime-ridden cities in the U.S.
Unfortunately for Newsom backers, the governor is slip-sliding towards oblivion. First, he surprisingly performed a major face-plant in his debate with Republican Ron DeSantis on Sean Hannity’s Fox News show. Most commentators, including myself, expected the glib Newsom to run rings around the supposedly wooden and inarticulate DeSantis.
Whitmer’s main handicap, however, is that she is not well known nationally. In a recent Economist/YouGov poll, 31% of respondents said they would like to see the governor run for president, but a whopping 45% were “unsure.” If the selection of a candidate falls to the Democrat convention next summer, Whitmer would have little time to introduce herself.
Harris is the obvious replacement should Biden bow out. But her approval ratings are even worse than the president’s, despite numerous efforts by her team and the White House to gin up support. The Real Clear Politics average approval shows her underwater by 20 points; her boss scores a negative 15 points. She also has worse favorable/unfavorable ratings than Donald Trump.
Newsom, Whitmer and Harris are all likely contenders should Biden withdraw from the race. Given their likely electability, Joe may be forgiven for staying put.
Liz Peek is a Fox News contributor and former partner of major bracket Wall Street firm Wertheim & Company. A former columnist for the Fiscal Times, she writes for The Hill and contributes frequently to Fox News, the New York Sun and other publications. For more visit LizPeek.com. Follow her on Twitter @LizPeek.
Some White House staffers say President Joe Biden doesn’t realize how old he can come across to others, Axios reported. Biden likes to tell friends and family, “I feel so much younger than my age.”
A former official, however, told Axios: “His age is clearly something voters are worried about, fairly or not, and yelling, ‘Nuh-uh’ isn’t cutting it.”
With polls showing that more than 70% of voters have concerns about Biden, 81, serving a second term, his reluctance to acknowledge his physical limitations is causing tension on his team, Axios reported Tuesday. Current and former aides to Biden say he often pushes to do more travel and events than they recommend. Pushing up against his limits sometimes “creates a cycle” in which he wears out himself and then appears fatigued during public events, Axios reported.
“He is his own worst enemy when it comes to his schedule,” a former Biden aide said, according to Axios.
Biden has shown frustration with the perception that he’s too old to be president.
“With regard to age, I can’t even say, I guess, how old I am, I can’t even say the number. It doesn’t register with me,” he said in April.
Despite his sensitivity about his age, Biden in recent months has accepted changes to help him stay healthy and avoid tripping. He’s using the shorter stairs on Air Force One and wearing tennis shoes more often, Axios reported.
Reuters reported last month that Biden’s age has become a defining part of the 2024 campaign. Even some Democrats have questions about his age. Biden entered office as the oldest president and would be 86 at the end of a second term.
Former President Donald Trump, the clear front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, frequently says Biden is too old for the job.
“We have a man that – he can’t even walk off a stage,” Trump, 77, said at a campaign rally in New Hampshire in October, Spectrum News reported. “He walks off the stage, just finishes his speech – he has no idea.”
First lady Jill Biden and her staff are involved in forming the president’s schedule.
A White House official told Axios that the Bidens keep “an eye on one another’s schedules for the sake of balance — and they are far from the only couple in the administration who does that.”
In his memoir, “Promise Me, Dad,” Joe Biden wrote that Jill Biden would tell her husband’s then-chief of staff, Steve Ricchetti, “Joe’s working too hard. He’s exhausted. He’s not sleeping. It’s going to kill him.”
The Heritage Foundation is suing the Treasury Department under President Joe Biden, seen here on Dec. 13, for communications about redefining the term “recession.” (Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL—The Treasury Department under President Joe Biden has refused to hand over documents showing how officials decided to alter the definition of a recession after the first two quarters of 2022 saw declines in gross domestic product, the traditional definition of a recession.
The Heritage Foundation filed a Freedom of Information Act request on July 6, asking Treasury for internal communications containing the terms “recession,” “alternative definition of recession” and “alternative recession measurements.” (The Daily Signal is The Heritage Foundation’s news outlet.)
The Treasury Department first asked Heritage to narrow the scope of its request, which Heritage did. Yet Treasury failed to hand over the documents, so Heritage filed a lawsuit on Dec. 1, claiming the department violated the Freedom of Information Act.
“The Treasury’s job is to collect taxes and allocate revenue per the dictates of Congress, not engage in Orwellian word games to distract from the economic failures of the leftist agenda,” E.J. Antoni, a research fellow with Heritage’s Grover M. Hermann Center for the Federal Budget, told The Daily Signal in a statement Tuesday.
The lawsuit quotes the International Monetary Fund, which notes that while “there is no official definition of recession … most commentators and analysts use, as a practical definition of recession, two consecutive quarters of decline in a country’s real (inflation-adjusted) gross domestic product.”
In the first quarter of 2022, U.S. inflation-adjusted GDP declined by 1.6%, and it declined by an additional 0.6% in the second quarter of last year.
In July 2022, however, the White House stated that “it is unlikely that the decline of the GDP in the first quarter of this year—even if followed by another GDP decline in the second quarter—indicates a recession.”
“This position is in extreme tension with conventional wisdom and the position of the Board of the Federal Reserve,” the lawsuit states.
The National Bureau of Economic Research, a nonprofit that aims to determine America’s business cycles, defines a recession as “a significant decline in economic activity that is spread across the economy and that lasts more than a few months.” The bureau claimed that the decline in 2022 did not fit its definition.
The White House has repeatedly claimed that the economy is improving due to Biden’s economic policies it brands “Bidenomics.” President Joe Biden has touted declines in the rate of inflation—which in this case do not mean that prices have declined, but that they are rising at a slower pace—as if they meant inflation is no longer a factor affecting Americans.
“The Biden administration clearly isn’t too proud of their destructive ‘Bidenomics’ if they are hiding documents related to the most basic questions,” Mike Howell, director of The Heritage Foundation’s Oversight Project and a signatory on the lawsuit, told The Daily Signal. “If ‘Bidenomics’ was so great, why do we have to sue them for this?”
Since Biden took office in 2021, inflation has outpaced wage increases in 27 of the past 31 months. According to Antoni, the Heritage researcher, the average American worker pays $4.97 per hour under Biden in the hidden tax of inflation, effectively doubling how much he or she pays in federal income tax. The typical American family with two parents working has lost more than $5,000 in annual income.
A Monmouth University poll surveying 803 U.S. adults between Nov. 30 and Dec. 4 found that 68% of respondents disapproved of Biden’s handling of inflation.
From Philadelphia and Chicago to Issaquah, Washington, and Shady Cove, Oregon, ordinary Americans routinely use firearms to defend themselves, their homes, and their families. (Photo illustration: Evgen Prozhyrko/Getty Images)
As cities across the country reel from explosive crime rates, many politicians at the local, state, and federal levels are too preoccupied with disarming peaceable American gun owners to identify, arrest, and prosecute actual criminals adequately.
Two masked attackers met their match last month when they attacked Los Angeles resident Vince Ricci as he walked toward the front door of his house. The pair brandished a firearm at Ricci, who pulled out his own gun and shot at the thugs, who ran away. Ricci successfully defended not only himself but his wife and baby daughter, who were inside.
Like millions of other Americans, Ricci is a law-abiding gun owner who carries a firearm for protection. Well, he used to be.
After the attack, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department suspended Ricci’s concealed carry permit for reasons that are still unclear. His attackers were still at large, and he said he worries that his family will “become a statistic” because of this unfair treatment as a crime victim.
Despite repeated attempts by gun control advocates to downplay the importance of armed self-defense, successful defensive gun uses such as Ricci’s actions are far from a rare occurrence. Almost every major study has found that Americans use their firearms in self-defense between 500,000 and 3 million times annually, as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has acknowledged. In 2021, the most comprehensive study ever conducted on the issue concluded that roughly 1.6 million defensive gun uses occur in the United States every year.
For this reason, The Daily Signal publishes a monthly article highlighting some of the previous
month’s many news stories on defensive gun use that you may have missed—or that might not have made it to the national spotlight in the first place. (Read other accounts here from past months and years. You also may follow @DailyDGU on X, formerly Twitter, for daily highlights of defensive gun uses.)
The examples below represent only a small portion of the news stories on defensive gun use that we found in November. You may explore more using The Heritage Foundation’s interactive Defensive Gun Use Database. (The Daily Signal is Heritage’s multimedia news organization.)
Nov. 2, Mesquite, Texas: A jewelry store owner shot at thieves attempting to steal his merchandise, police said. Two young men, one armed, entered as the owner was preparing his golf bag for a tournament the next day. The owner exchanged gunfire with the armed man until both would-be robbers ran. It was the second time the store owner had shot at armed thieves in his store; earlier this year, $75,000 worth of merchandise was stolen from his car.
Nov. 4, Walton County, Florida: After a criminal fled during a traffic stop initiated because he was driving a stolen car, police said, the ensuing manhunt ended in a citizen’s arrest. The car thief tried to break into a nearby home, and police officers arrived to find three residents holding the suspect at gunpoint.
Nov. 5, Los Angeles: In the Ricci case described above, two robbers charged a concealed carry holder as he walked to his front door, police said. One attacker pointed a gun at the homeowner, who pulled out his own gun and fired until the two fled. His wife, 5-month-old baby, and a nanny were inside the residence.
Nov. 8, Chicago: Police said a group of armed robbers attacked a man who had just crashed his car. The concealed carry holder and the robbers then exchanged more than 30 rounds. One of the man’s assailants sought medical attention and was taken into custody.
Nov. 12, Allegre, Kentucky: A property dispute turned into a physical altercation in which a man shot three assailants in self-defense, police said. He was treated for injuries that weren’t life-threatening. The three assailants involved were charged with trespassing, assault, and terroristic threatening.
Nov. 17, Issaquah, Washington: Police said a woman fatally shot her ex-boyfriend when he tried to break into her apartment. Authorities questioned and released her after determining that she acted in self-defense. “From now on, I will be walking the neighborhood with a gun,” one neighbor said.
Nov. 19, Philadelphia: A man fired his gun in self-defense as a group of teenagers attacked him in a transit station, police said. He scared the teens away, and there were no reported injuries. The week before, another man was robbed and pulled down a stairway in the same area.
Nov. 20, Shady Cove, Oregon: A homeowner shot and killed an intruder during a home invasion, investigators said. One resident had a “valid protection order” against the slain intruder, the Jackson County Sherriff’s Office said.
Nov. 25, Hampton, Virginia: A driver shot and wounded an armed carjacker, police said. Critically wounded, the thief fled in the stolen vehicle and was caught minutes later after driving to a local hospital. Less than two hours before, police said, the same man had carjacked another automobile at gunpoint. He was charged with both carjackings and with using a firearm in committing a felony.
Nov. 26, Richland County, South Carolina: Police said a woman shot and killed a man who had followed her home, aggressively approached, and tried to hit her. The woman had obtained a protective order against the man, who had a history of domestic violence.
Nov. 29, Nashville, Tennessee: A man was shot in his home when his girlfriend’s ex-boyfriend broke in and attacked him, police said. The wounded man and his girlfriend both shot back at the intruder, who fled. Three warrants for the attacker’s arrest were active at the time, all involving his behavior toward the former girlfriend.
From Chicago and Philadelphia to Issaquah, Washington, and Shady Cove, Oregon, ordinary Americans routinely use their firearms to defend themselves, their homes, and their families. In many of these instances, the victims either had orders of protection against their attacker, or the attacker otherwise had a clear history of violent, criminal behavior. In one incident, another crime had been committed in the same area less than a week earlier.
If law enforcement can’t keep people safe, especially from a demonstrated threat, it is up to ordinary Americans to exercise their Second Amendment rights to protect themselves and their loved ones.
Governor Gavin Newsom should read Larry Elder’s Most recent book “As Goes California” In an entertaining account of his surprisingly strong run for California governor in the 2021 recall election, bestselling author, commentator, and radio host Larry Elder argues that Democrats have systematically failed our country—especially black Americans. ORDER lARRY’S BOOK HERE!!!
Throughout his years as a popular LA talk radio host, Larry Elder watched California go from bad to worse under a regime of corrupt and ideological liberal management. Rising rates of crime, addiction, homelessness, immigration, and failing schools, skyrocketing energy and housing costs, crushing anti-business regulation, and numerous other problems—all traceable to Democratic policies—made life harder for the average Californian. Then came the COVID lockdowns, school closings, mask and vaccine mandates, the BLM riots, the defund the police movement, and a general breakdown of law and order in San Francisco and LA. People began fleeing the state in droves. In the midst of all this, Governor Gavin Newsom saw fit to drop $12,000 at a trendy French restaurant, sparking outrage throughout the state and leading to demands for a recall. A special election was held, and forty-five candidates jumped in. READ MORE…
A.F. Branco has taken his two greatest passions (art and politics) and translated them into cartoons that have been popular all over the country in various news outlets, including NewsMax, Fox News, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, and “The Washington Post.” He has been recognized by such personalities as Rep. Devin Nunes, Dinesh D’Souza, James Woods, Chris Salcedo, Sarah Palin, Larry Elder, Lars Larson, Rush Limbaugh, and President Trump.
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A recently elected Pennsylvania school board president made his priorities clear this month when she was sworn in using controversial books, including sexually explicit material.
On Dec. 4, Karen Smith, a Democrat who was elected to lead the state’s third-largest school district in November, was sworn in with a stack of books, including sexually explicit material.
“Thank you for your trust in me, I do not take this hand lightly,” Smith said when she became president of the Central Bucks County School Board. “To my supporters, I am so very thankful. To those of you who have challenged me, I will do all I can to hear your voices and concerns.”
However, based on the books upon which she swore an oath, Smith’s pledge to keep an open mind to parental concerns was hardly austere. According to Fox News, one of the books used in the swearing ceremony included Flamer, by Mike Curato, published in 2020.
“[Flamer] tells the story of a character who is bullied at a Boy Scouts summer camp for ‘acting in a manner considered stereotypical of gay men,’” Fox News reported. “The graphic novel includes characters discussing pornography, erections, masturbation, penis size, and an illustration that depicts naked teenage boys.”
Other books included in the stack upon which she was sworn in were Night, by Elie Wiesel; The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison; and All Boys Aren’t Blue, by George M. Johnson. At least three of the books Smith was sworn in on were listed in the top 5 of the American Library Association’s (ALA) “most challenged books” of 2022. The national library group’s activism promoting these books in local curriculums has led conservative policymakers in at least nine states to begin severing ties with the ALA. Last week, Texas, which ended its tax-subsidized affiliation with the ALA in August, passed new rules to keep “sexually explicit” books out of school libraries.
Smith’s decision to use material endorsed by far-left activists to infiltrate classrooms illustrates how identity politics has become embraced as a cynical, secular religion. Had Smith been genuine with a pledge to hear district parents’ concerns, she might have chosen different material to be sworn in on.
Silvi Haldipur, a mom of two boys in Bucks County schools, said she was previously “horrified” by LGBT and antisemitic remarks in the boardroom of the east Pennsylvania district. However, parents in this district could have more difficulty being involved in their children’s education moving forward. The school board’s new Democrat majority immediately voted to “freeze two policies related to library books that passed last year along with other policies.” This includes halting a previous update to the Library Materials policy that allowed parents to challenge certain books in the classroom.
Tristan Justice is the western correspondent for The Federalist and the author of Social Justice Redux, a conservative newsletter on culture, health, and wellness. He has also written for The Washington Examiner and The Daily Signal. His work has also been featured in Real Clear Politics and Fox News. Tristan graduated from George Washington University where he majored in political science and minored in journalism. Follow him on Twitter at @JusticeTristan or contact him at Tristan@thefederalist.com. Sign up for Tristan’s email newsletter here.
Over the past two weeks, regime-approved press outlets have run several articles rushing to the defense of leftists’ latest scheme to inflate voter rolls with likely-Democrat voters: the Electronic Registration Information Center. Otherwise known as ERIC, this organization is a widely used voter-roll “management” system founded by Democrat activist David Becker that was “sold to states as a quick and easy way to update their voter rolls.” In reality, ERIC’s membership agreement places a higher priority on registering new voters than on cleaning up existing voter rolls.
The program inflates voter rolls by requiring member states to contact “eligible but unregistered” residents to encourage them to register to vote. When a state becomes an ERIC member, it is required to submit “all active and inactive voter files,” “all licensing or identification records contained in the motor vehicles database,” and any state files related to “voter registration functions” to the organization, which then compares this information with that submitted by other member states.
It’s after this process that ERIC compiles updated voter-roll information — including lists of voters who have multiple registrations, moved, or died, and lists of “eligible but unregistered” voters — and sends it to member states. As Victoria Marshall wrote in these pages, ERIC mandates that states engage in voter list maintenance “only after [they have] independently validated” the data they receive from the organization. In other words, “if a state does not independently validate the ERIC data, it is not required to clean its voter rolls.”
ERIC’s ties to Becker — who has since resigned from his role as a nonvoting ERIC board member — and its refusal to change its bylaws have prompted a flurry of GOP election officials to withdraw their states from the organization within the past two years. Included in this growing list are the states of Virginia, Florida, Ohio, Texas, and several others. Some of these jurisdictions, including Virginia, Ohio, and Alabama, have since formed separate interstate voter data-sharing pacts to serve as an ERIC replacement.
In light of ERIC’s steady collapse, Votebeat’s Jen Fifield and Rolling Stone’s Adam Rawnsley and Asawin Suebsaeng have painted these GOP officials as “conspiracy theorists” and fomented Democrat accusations that these states are struggling to effectively share and maintain accurate voter rolls. While handing out “far-right” and “MAGA Republican” labels like candy on Halloween, these “reporters” weave a web of deception to obscure the organization’s role in Democrats’ election machine.
Both articles’ writers, for example, attempt to pin the source of Republican election officials’ concerns with ERIC on a 2022 Gateway Pundit piece about the organization, which they quickly dismiss as riddled with “conspiracy theories.” Of course, nowhere in their articles do these so-called “journalists” bother to explore one of the — if not the — most alarming details about ERIC: the group’s ties to the Center for Election Innovation and Research (CEIR), a Becker-founded nonprofit responsible for interfering in the 2020 election to help Democrats.
CEIR and the Center for Tech and Civic Life collectively received hundreds of millions of dollars from Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg leading up to the 2020 contest. These “Zuckbucks” were then poured into local election offices throughout the country to push sloppy Democrat-backed voting policies, such as mass mail-in voting and the widespread use of ballot drop boxes. Analyses have shown these grants were heavily skewed toward Democrat municipalities, especially in swing states, effectively making it a giant Democrat get-out-the-vote operation.
As The Federalist previously reported and communication records have indicated, CEIR enjoys a transactional relationship with ERIC, which sends the voter-roll data it receives from states to CEIR. Upon receiving the data, CEIR “then develops targeted mailing lists and sends them back to the states to use for voter registration outreach.” In other words, CEIR — a highly partisan nonprofit with a history of left-wing activism — is creating lists of potential (and likely Democrat) voters for states to register in the lead-up to major elections.
Convenient how that incredibly important detail didn’t make it into the Votebeat and Rolling Stone articles, isn’t it?
Fifield then took things a step further by advancing the contrived narrative that Republican officials whose states left ERIC are having difficulty sharing voter data with other states and ensuring accuracy within their voter rolls. She bases this claim upon internal documents obtained by American Oversight, a left-wing nonprofit dedicated to “filing open records requests targeting Republican interests.”
Contrary to Fifield’s activist “reporting,” several GOP secretaries of state whose jurisdictions have departed ERIC have publicly testified under oath that they haven’t experienced any issues with managing their voter rolls since withdrawing from the organization. In October, Secretaries of State Frank LaRose of Ohio and Cord Byrd of Florida spoke before a Pennsylvania Senate committee hearing about their respective experiences with ERIC and maintaining accurate voter registration lists since departing the program.
When asked if he thought states can keep voter rolls clean without ERIC, LaRose replied, “100 percent,” and went on to debunk Democrats’ sky-is-falling talking points about what will happen if states withdraw from the organization.
ERIC “has only existed for the last 10 or 12 years, and states have had this responsibility for a long time to maintain accurate voter rolls,” LaRose said. “States absolutely can maintain the accuracy of their voter rolls if they’re intentional about it. And it’s important to use all the different tools at your disposal.”
LaRose went on to describe Ohio’s various processes of removing deceased voters, noncitizens, and other ineligible voters from its voter registration lists. He also discussed the effectiveness of data-sharing pacts with other states and noted Ohio’s intent to formulate these agreements with more states ahead of the 2024 election.
Meanwhile, Byrd explained how interstate data-sharing agreements have allowed Florida to possess greater control over its voter data, saying, “We know exactly what we’re sharing with the other state [and] they know what they’re sharing with us.” Byrd expressed hope that “through these different [memorandums of understanding] … a consistent standard will be created” when it comes to states exchanging voter data.
ERIC’s role in the left’s get-out-the-vote apparatus is bigger than Democrats are willing to admit — and that’s exactly why their regime-approved media allies will never tell their readers the truth about it.
Shawn Fleetwood is a staff writer for The Federalist and a graduate of the University of Mary Washington. He previously served as a state content writer for Convention of States Action and his work has been featured in numerous outlets, including RealClearPolitics, RealClearHealth, and Conservative Review. Follow him on Twitter @ShawnFleetwood
U.S. Capitol Police are continuing to investigate the filming of a sex tape inside a prominent hearing room at the Hart Senate Office Building, a source told Fox News on Monday. Fox has learned that the Senate sex tape was recorded last week. But time of day is unclear. A Congressional security source is promising a “thorough investigation” with interviews upcoming. While there are currently no pending charges in the case, a security source did not rule out the possibility.
The investigation comes after a staffer filmed an amateur pornography video inside a Senate hearing room. The identities of the men in the video have not been confirmed. The Daily Caller, which broke news of the video, reported that the footage was leaked in a chat and was “shared in a private group for gay men in politics.”
U.S. Capitol Police are continuing to investigate the filming of a sex tape inside a prominent hearing room at the Hart Senate Office Building, a source told Fox News on Monday. (Caroline Brehman/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
Room 216 in the Hart Senate Office Building is a storied hearing room. The dais where the graphic video was filmed is a place from which U.S. senators have grilled high-profile presidential nominees, including those who would go on to become justices of the Supreme Court.
Fox News contributor Jonathan Turley, an attorney and professor at George Washington University Law, discussed possible charges that could be brought last week. Turley said, “the question is whether this unofficial use would constitute trespass.”
“It also uses an official area for personal purposes, though it is not clear if there were any commercial benefits garnered from the video found on various sites,” Turley wrote.
Sen. Ben Cardin’s office says the staffer involved in the filming of a sex tape is no longer with the office. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Turley said one possible charge could fall under D.C. code section 22-1312, which discusses lewd, indecent or obscene acts.
“It is unlawful for a person, in public, to make an obscene or indecent exposure of his or her genitalia or anus, to engage in masturbation, or to engage in a sexual act as defined in § 22-3001(8). It is unlawful for a person to make an obscene or indecent sexual proposal to a minor. A person who violates any provision of this section shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction, shall be fined not more than the amount set forth in § 22-3571.01, imprisoned for not more than 90 days, or both,” the criminal code states.
A hearing room in the Hart Senate Office Building. (Caroline Brehman/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
Turley says the question regarding charges falling under this section would be whether a locked Senate committee room is considered “in public.”
Whether or not any video filmed in the hearing room was used to make money could also “have bearing on potential charges,” Turley argued.
Fox News’ Adam Sabes and Chris Pandolfo contributed to this report
Anders Hagstrom is a reporter with Fox News Digital covering national politics and major breaking news events. Send tips to Anders.Hagstrom@Fox.com, or on Twitter: @Hagstrom_Anders.
An abandoned electric car is buried in snow in Draper, Utah, on Feb. 23, after a powerful winter storm dumped up to two feet of snow. When the temperature drops below 40 degrees, electric vehicles experience a reduction in range and efficiency, with losses of up to 40% when the heating system is in use. (Photo: George Frey/AFP/Getty Images)
Andrew Weiss is a research assistant at the Center for Energy, Climate and Environment at The Heritage Foundation.
EAU CLAIRE, Wis.— Here in Wisconsin, where fewer than one-tenth of 1% of vehicles are fully electric, it’s rare to see an EV outside the city. That’s why the latest international climate conference, Conference of the Parties (COP28), which advocated widespread adoption of electric vehicles, should have Wisconsinites concerned.
When the temperature drops below 40 degrees, which occurs over 200 days per year in Eau Claire, electric vehicles experience a reduction in range and efficiency, with losses of up to 40% when the heating system is in use. My visit to my local automotive shop to have the tires rotated on the family Ram truck was unaffected by the 13-degree Fahrenheit weather.
While the truck was up on the lift, Liz Fox, a service adviser at the shop, told me that while not many electric vehicles come in for repairs, when they do, repairs typically take longer and are more expensive than repairing internal-combustion engine vehicles.
“Switching to EVs is really costly, and it’s going to be really time-consuming.” Fox told me. She cited a recent case where nearly two months were spent troubleshooting and sourcing components on a broken EV, despite having a certified electric vehicle technician.
She’s not alone. A recent report shows that repair costs for EVs are 56% more expensive than traditional vehicles—and purchase costs are often 50% higher.
A new special report by The Heritage Foundation, “Powering Human Advancement,” shows how access to affordable, abundant energy is essential to living. (The Daily Signal is the news outlet of The Heritage Foundation.)
“Depriving people in any society of reliable and affordable energy denies them access to clean water, adequate medical care, affordable transportation, and economic opportunities, which will limit any human advancement, especially in the most vulnerable of countries,” the report states.
Governments and international organizations cannot force renewable energy and electric vehicles before people are ready. That’s a recipe for crisis.
Construction sites in Eau Claire feature battered pickup trucks and SUVs driven by construction workers, who can’t afford EVs. There is no subway in Eau Claire, bus service is limited, and people can’t rely on bicycles due to snowy weather and long distances.
Affordable transportation provides a means to a job, a ride to school, and to take weekend trips and vacations with the family.
In contrast, EVs are popular as second cars with upper-income individuals who have short commutes. Americans value the freedom to choose gasoline-only, hybrid, or electric vehicles, and for that freedom, it’s crucial to have alternative choices. But the organizers of COP28, supported by President Joe Biden, don’t want Americans or residents of other countries to choose which vehicles to buy.
This erosion of choice is not only detrimental to consumer freedom, but also to the livelihood of auto producers and car dealers. Look no further than last month’s letter to Biden signed by about 4,000 auto dealers, who were disturbed at the surging supply of unsold electric vehicles on their lots. Even with subsidies to car manufacturers and tax credits for buyers, only 7% of new-vehicle sales are electric, well below Biden’s 2030 goal of 60%.
Codifying the recommendations of COP28 would require that America generate an additional costly 1.4 trillion kilowatt-hours of electricity, or 30% of current output, to support the charging needs of a full fleet of electric vehicles.
Over the past two decades, nearly $7 trillion has been spent globally on subsidies for wind and solar energy. Despite this substantial investment, these sources contribute only 2.3% to the global supply of energy. Pairing fully electric vehicles with costly and unreliable electricity is a recipe for disaster.
Wisconsinites appreciate the benefits of affordable energy and the mobility of gasoline-powered cars. As a cold Christmas approaches, they know that COP28 recommendations won’t fly here in the Badger State.
The Supreme Court takes the case of Jan. 6 defendants to determine whether the charge of obstructing an official proceeding was applicable. Donald Trump was charged with the same crime, so the court’s decision could affect his legal battle. Pictured: Former President Trump gestures during a campaign rally at the Reno-Sparks Convention Center on Dec. 17 in Reno, Nevada. (Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
John G. Malcolm is the vice president of the Institute for Constitutional Government and director of the Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies, overseeing The Heritage Foundation’s work to increase understanding of the Constitution and the rule of law.
The Supreme Court agreed on Wednesday to hear a case that does not involve Donald Trump as a defendant but which could, nonetheless, have a dramatic impact on one of the criminal cases that is pending against the former president.
Here’s the background.
On Jan. 6, 2021, over 2,000 Trump supporters entered the U.S. Capitol and disrupted Congress as it attempted to certify the results of the presidential election. Joseph Fischer, Edward Lang, and Garret Miller were among them. The three were subsequently charged in separate indictments with various offenses. While they do not contest the validity of many of the charges that are still pending against them, each filed a motion to dismiss a charge common to each of them: obstructing an official proceeding in violation of 18 U.S. Code § 1512(c)(2). That statute provides:
(c) Whoever corruptly—
(1) alters, destroys, mutilates, or conceals a record, document, or other object, or attempts to do so, with the intent to impair the object’s integrity or availability for use in an official proceeding; or
(2) otherwise obstructs, influences, or impedes any official proceeding, or attempts to do so,
shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 20 years, or both.
This statute, passed in 2002 as part of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, was part of the government’s response to the Enron scandal in which executives at Arthur Andersen, Enron’s outside auditor, ordered the destruction of “tons” of documents over a two-week period—literally bringing in a mobile shredding truck and shredders from another company so that they could shred documents around-the-clock at a rate of 7,000 pounds per hour—after the failed energy trading company learned that its accounting practices were the subject of an investigation by federal regulators.
While this law was clearly aimed at corporate wrongdoing that involves an attempt to obstruct a government investigation or proceeding by destroying potential documentary evidence or tampering with witnesses, the government has, on occasion, attempted to broadly apply this law to other, less common circumstances. For example, in Yates v. United States, the government charged a fishing boat captain with violating a similar provision in Sarbanes-Oxley for “destroying” allegedly undersized fish (by tossing them overboard) in order to “impede” a federal investigation being conducted by an official acting on behalf of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. In 2015, a closely divided Supreme Court held that “destroying” a fish did not fit within the type of evidence to which the statute applies.
The federal trial judge in Miller’s case granted his motion to dismiss the obstruction count, holding that, while the joint session of Congress on Jan. 6 was an “official proceeding,” the conduct alleged in the indictment fell outside the scope of the statute. The court concluded that the language in the first subsection modified the scope of the second subsection and that the indictment was deficient because the government did not allege that Miller “took some action with respect to a document, record, or other object in order to corruptly obstruct, impede, or influence Congress’s certification of the electoral vote.” For this reason, the judge also dismissed the obstruction counts against Fischer and Lang.
However, a divided panel of the D.C. Circuit Court reversed the district court’s decision.
The majority opinion, written by Judge Florence Pan (a Biden appointee) and joined by Judge Justin Walker (a Trump appointee), adopted the government’s argument that the use of the word “otherwise” in subsection (c)(2) was meant as a “catchall” to encompass any and all forms of obstructive conduct designed to impact any federal investigation or other “official proceeding.”
Judge Greg Katsas (a Trump appointee) dissented, arguing that the word “otherwise” was meant to convey that the obstructive act must be of the same type, and in a similar manner, as those items listed immediately beforehand in subsection (c)(1)—all of which deal with tampering with or impairing the acquisition of relevant evidence, such as witness tampering or destroying, altering, or fabricating a document—and that, at the very least, any ambiguity in the statute ought to be resolved in favor of the accused (a well-established principle in criminal law known as the Rule of Lenity).
The eventual decision by the Supreme Court in Fischer v. United States could have a far-reaching impact not only on the more than 300 individuals who have been charged with violating that statute in connection with their actions on Jan. 6, but also on the criminal case that Special Counsel Jack Smith has brought against former President Trump that is pending in federal court in the District of Columbia before Judge Tanya Chutkan.
In that case, Trump has been charged with committing four crimes, including conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding (Count Two) and obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding (Count Three), both of which would likely fall if the Supreme Court rules against the government in the Fischer case. That is because, setting aside the issue of whether Trump bears any responsibility for what happened at the Capitol on Jan. 6, it is clear that what happened did not involve document destruction or witness tampering.
The remaining charges also rest on a tenuous legal footing.
Count One alleges that Trump engaged in a conspiracy to defraud the United States in violation of 18 U.S. Code § 371 by using dishonesty to obstruct the procedures by which votes are collected, counted, and certified. In recent years, in cases like Kelly v. United States (2020), Ciminelli v. United States (2023), and Percoco v. United States (2023), the Supreme Court has taken a dim view of more amorphous theories of what constitutes fraud against the United States. As Justice Clarence Thomas wrote for a unanimous Supreme Court in Ciminelli, “Federal fraud statutes criminalize only schemes to deprive people of traditional property rights,” i.e., money or property. As the court said, federal “fraud statutes do no not vest a general power in ‘the Federal government … to enforce (its view of) integrity in broad swaths of state and local policymaking.’”
Fulton County leftist poll worker, Ruby Freeman, caught shoving the same ballots into the scanner over & over. pic.twitter.com/z0GOrywpiw
Here, there is no claim in the indictment that Trump was attempting to defraud anyone of money or property, which the Supreme Court has suggested is a necessary precondition of any claim under any federal fraud statute, including this one.
Count Four alleges that Trump engaged in a conspiracy against rights in violation of 18 U.S. Code § 241. This statute, which was part of the Enforcement Act of 1871, also known as the Ku Klux Klan Act, was designed to stop the terrible violence, threats, and intimidation being committed against newly freed blacks and their white allies in the South. The act prohibits anyone from conspiring to “injure, oppress, threaten, or intimidate” any person from “the free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege secured to him by the Constitution or laws of the United States.”
The theory behind this charge seems to be that it was unlawful to attempt to deprive people who voted for Joe Biden, who was ultimately declared the winner, of their votes. The indictment suggests that merely questioning the conduct of an election or the propriety of election procedures, including raising such issues in court, could constitute an attempt to “disenfranchise” all the people who voted for the person who was—rightly or wrongly—declared the winner, in this case, Joe Biden.
One could easily imagine how this would have a chilling effect on the First Amendment rights of anyone who dares to question the conduct of our elections or the results in a particular election.
I don’t recall anyone claiming that then-Vice President Al Gore or anyone connected with his campaign could or should be charged with conspiring to overturn an election in 2000 when he mounted numerous legal challenges against George W. Bush, which could, under this indictment’s theory, be characterized as an attempt to disenfranchise those who voted for Bush. Lest anyone forget, Al Gore lost the initial vote count in Florida and every single recount in every single county in Florida, including Palm Beach County. Yet Gore continued to contest the election until the Supreme Court put an end to the litigation in Bush v. Gore.
The same could be said for those who said rigged voting machines in Ohio cost John Kerry the election in 2004 as well as those who urged Trump electors to vote for Hillary Clinton following the 2016 election because Trump was an “illegitimate” president who had colluded with Russian intelligence agents to steal the election.
This is not the first time that Jack Smith has been overly aggressive in his attempts to unreasonably expand the text of a criminal statute in a case involving a public official. In 2016, a unanimous Supreme Court overturned the bribery conviction that Smith had obtained against former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, concluding that many of the acts that McDonnell engaged in did not constitute “official acts” and that adopting Smith’s reading of the federal bribery statute would likely chill the interactions of public officials with their constituents out of fear of prosecution, making it difficult for them to do their jobs.
Proceedings in the D.C. case are currently on hold pending Trump’s appeal of Chutkan’s decision denying his motion to dismiss all the charges on the grounds of presidential immunity and double jeopardy. This threatens to delay the trial, currently scheduled to begin on March 4, which is why Smith has filed an “extraordinary request” urging the Supreme Court to hear that appeal on an expedited basis, bypassing review by the D.C. Circuit. The Supreme Court’s decision to hear the Fischer case is yet another reason why the trial is likely to be delayed.
With the trial dates of other three criminal cases against Trump up in the air, it is far from clear that any of these trials will occur anytime soon, much to the dismay and disappointment of liberals and Never-Trumpers.
Dershowitz is a Democrat who voted for Obama but says during this segment that his relationship with Obama is over.
He also makes some pointed comments about the college students who are protesting for Hamas. Alan Dershowitz calls out Obama’s ‘deep hatred of Israel’: ‘He should be ashamed’ Expressing outrage over former President Barack Obama’s call for an end to Israeli “occupation,” Harvard Law professor emeritus Alan Dershowitz expanded on why he’s never… READ MORE..
Elk River board censures pro-parent school board members
Two Elk River school board members who were elected on a pro-parent platform say they are being intimidated by their colleagues after the board voted to censure them for misconduct Monday night. A standing-room only crowd listened as school board attorney Michael Waldspurger read the allegations against newly elected board members John Anderson and Mindy Freiberg before presenting a censure resolution, which the board voted on and approved. Anderson and Freiberg were elected to the ISD 728 board in 2022.
“They want us off the board, but they aren’t going to get rid of me that easy,” Freiberg said.
Allegations of misconduct included being late or unprepared for meetings, speaking to legislators or constituents without authority, inquiring about curriculum, and failing to communicate with Superintendent Dan Bittman, the board’s… READ MORE…
The Democrats have been killing off their future voters through nationwide legal abortion, which explains their passion for open borders.
Majority of Americans Greatly Concerned About Border Security According to New Fox News Poll
by David Greyson
Border security is one of the top concerns for the average American. Although most of the media is ignoring the crisis, it is a vital topic heading into the 2024 election. Since August, the importance of border security has jumped eight percentage points in national polls.
A Fox News poll released Sunday shows 8 out of 10 voters see the border as a significant priority with some seeing it as an emergency or major issue. A majority of those polled said increasing the number of Border Patrol agents was the best way to… READ MORE…
A.F. Branco has taken his two greatest passions (art and politics) and translated them into cartoons that have been popular all over the country in various news outlets, including NewsMax, Fox News, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, and “The Washington Post.” He has been recognized by such personalities as Rep. Devin Nunes, Dinesh D’Souza, James Woods, Chris Salcedo, Sarah Palin, Larry Elder, Lars Larson, Rush Limbaugh, and President Trump.
Top Stories • University Scalped 5-Month-Old Unborn Babies and Stitched the Hair on to Lab Rats • Supreme Court Justices Quickly Agreed With Alito That There’s No Right to Abortion • Joe Biden Ditched Safety Regulations, Now Abortions Pills are Injuring Thousands of Women • Planned Parenthood, America’s Biggest Abortion Biz, Has Received $7.9 Billion in Taxpayer Funding
More Pro-Life News • Pro-Life Pregnancy Centers Have Helped 1 Million More Women Since Roe Overturned • The Media is Lying About Kate Cox and Abortions on Disabled Babies • Court Rules Against Woman Stopped From Praying at Abortion Clinic: Your Prayers are “Harassment” • Children Survive Trisomy 18, They Should Not be Killed in Abortions • Scroll Down for Several More Pro-Life News Stories
Looking for an inspiring and motivating speaker for your pro-life event? Don’t have much to spend on a high-priced speaker costing several thousand dollars? Contact news@lifenews.com about having LifeNews Editor Steven Ertelt speak at your event.
Looking for an inspiring and motivating speaker for your pro-life event? Don’t have much to spend on a high-priced speaker costing several thousand dollars? Contact news@lifenews.com about having LifeNews Editor Steven Ertelt speak at your event.
Massachusetts Health Department is Pushing Dangerous Abortion Drugs on Students
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The Virginia Supreme Court unanimously voted Thursday to revive a lawsuit filed by a teacher who was terminated for declining to use male pronouns to refer to a female student.
In 2018, Peter Vlaming was fired from his job of seven years as a French teacher at West Point High School because he would not address a student by biologically inaccurate pronouns. Vlaming “told his superiors his Christian faith prevented him from using male pronouns” for the student. The student complained, leading to a four-hour hearing with the school board, which ultimately voted 5-0 to fire Vlaming for “discrimination.”
“That discrimination then leads to creating a hostile learning environment,” claimed West Point Schools Superintendent Laura Abel. “And the student had expressed that. The parent had expressed that. They felt disrespected.”
Vlaming sued the school board in 2019. After a circuit court judge dismissed the suit in 2021, the seven justices on the Virginia Supreme Court ruled that Vlaming’s case alleging that his rights to free religious exercise and free speech were violated deserves to move forward.
“Peter wasn’t fired for something he said; he was fired for something he couldn’t say,” said Chris Schandevel, a senior defense counsel for the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), who represents Vlaming. “The Virginia Supreme Court rightly agreed that Peter’s case against the school board for violating his rights under the Virginia Constitution and state law should proceed.”
In December last year, another teacher represented by ADF filed a lawsuit challenging her termination for refusing to refer to a student by inaccurate pronouns. Ohio middle school teacher Vivian Geraghty was fired over her religious objections to addressing two students by names and pronouns contradictory to their biology.
“Schools can’t force teachers to set their religious beliefs aside just to keep a job and they also can’t force teachers to say things that are untrue and harmful to students,” ADF legal counsel Logan Spena told the Daily Caller.
In California, a Christian teacher was let go for her refusal to conceal students’ attempts to dress and act as the opposite sex from parents. Jessica Tapia was a physical education teacher who would not permit male students to use women’s locker rooms and objected to district policy mandating that teachers hide students’ gender confusion from parents.
“[The district] called me back to work but presented me with various directives, to which I responded I would not be able to comply with some of them based on my beliefs, such as having to call students by their preferred gender/pronoun and withhold that information from their parents,” Tapia told the Daily Caller. “I believe God is love and the most loving thing we can do is affirm one another in who God made us to be.”
Tristan Justice is the western correspondent for The Federalist and the author of Social Justice Redux, a conservative newsletter on culture, health, and wellness. He has also written for The Washington Examiner and The Daily Signal. His work has also been featured in Real Clear Politics and Fox News. Tristan graduated from George Washington University where he majored in political science and minored in journalism. Follow him on Twitter at @JusticeTristan or contact him at Tristan@thefederalist.com. Sign up for Tristan’s email newsletter here.
Democrats’ Marxist takeover of America’s education system is rearing its ugly head on an almost daily basis, and the latest stories out of Illinois are further proof of it.
On Thursday, Parents Defending Education reported that students attending the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy (IMSA) orchestrated a protest and walkout on Dec. 8 demanding harsh punishments for individuals who have “bias incident reports” filed against them. According to the academy’s website, anyone from IMSA students to alumni and visitors can file on-the-record or anonymous reports alleging incidents of “bias” committed by other IMSA community members. The reports are then investigated by school staff such as the chief human resources/equity officer and/or the director of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI).
IMSA students who participated in the Dec. 8 demonstration, however, are demanding the university take its leftist policies even further. Included in their list of demands are requests for the school to publicize a list of “possible consequences for students following a bias incident report,” including “detentions, removal from leadership positions, suspensions, expulsions, and notification to parents.”
But the students who chanted “Silence is complacence!” and “Why are our pronouns not used?” during the Dec. 8 demonstration didn’t stop there. They also want the university to notify any “potential future colleges” that offending students may consider transferring to or attending in the future, after they are presumably expelled for their supposed transgressions. In essence, the demonstrators want to destroy possible offenders’ future educational and career prospects based on potentially-anonymous reporting of “incidents” like not using a person’s preferred pronouns.
The list also includes a demand that possible consequences for offending faculty members be publicized, recommending punishments that “include, but go beyond only educational conversations and required training.”
Students at the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy (IMSA) — the top STEM school in the state — staged a sit-in and walkout last week over grievances related to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).
Meanwhile, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, a far-left Democrat, announced plans this week to cripple the city’s “high-achieving selective-enrollment schools” in the name of so-called “equity.” During his mayoral campaign earlier this year, Johnson explicitly promised city residents his administration “would not end selective enrollment” at Chicago public schools.
According to The Daily Mail, the proposal put forward by Johnson’s education board would effectively “stop gifted children from lower income backgrounds from academically competing to get into high-performing schools.” Some of these schools are among the nation’s highest ranking high schools and offer children who grow up in difficult circumstances opportunities to further their academic careers.
Shawn Fleetwood is a staff writer for The Federalist and a graduate of the University of Mary Washington. He previously served as a state content writer for Convention of States Action and his work has been featured in numerous outlets, including RealClearPolitics, RealClearHealth, and Conservative Review. Follow him on Twitter @ShawnFleetwood
After months of left-wing frustration with Sen. John Fetterman’s, D-Penn., over his pro-Israel stance, the lawmaker officially declared he does not align with the progressive wing of the Democratic Party.
In an interview with NBC News, the freshman U.S. senator said, “I’m not a progressive,” and explained how he differs with leftists in the party on the subjects of Israel and illegal immigration.
“I just think I’m a Democrat that is very committed to choice and other things. But with Israel, I’m going to be on the right side of that. And immigration is something near and dear to me, and I think we do have to effectively address it as well,” Fetterman said.
During a recent interview with NBC News, Sen. John Fetterman, D-Penn., declared he’s “not a progressive.” (Photographer: Nathan Howard/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Fetterman’s words come after weeks of him taking notably non-leftist positions on hot topics of the day. Where many in the party have sympathized with the Palestinian’s struggles amid the Israel-Hamas War and have called for a “cease-fire” in the conflict, Fetterman has openly supported Israel’s right to defend itself, and has even mocked progressive protesters demanding he speak out against Israel’s war effort. That’s earned the ire of some of the far-left voices in the party and even former staffers who say they feel betrayed.
Separating from Democratic socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., on the issue, NBC noted, “Fetterman’s fierce and unwavering support for Israel breaks sharply with demands by Sanders to withdraw U.S. military aid and has drawn searing criticism from the left as the Palestinian death toll soars amid the Israeli government’s bombing campaign in retaliation for the Oct. 7 Hamas attack.”
He also has freely criticized his party for not pushing out Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., who was federally indicted for alleged involvement in a bribery scheme, in addition to bucking the party on calls for stronger border security. Ripping Menendez, he told NBC, “He needs to go. I don’t understand why he can be here, having expelled [George] Santos. But I’m sure there might be a very innocent explanation of having gold bars in your mattress and overstuffed envelopes of cash.”
Sen. John Fetterman has broken with the far left in his party by denouncing pro-Palestinian protesters on multiple occasions. (Getty Images // Fox News Digital)
The outlet also mentioned his unique stance on immigration.
“Fetterman insisted he can be pro-immigration while also favoring policies to restrict the flow of migration to manageable levels, disagreeing with progressives who oppose new limits on asylum and bash some of the ideas in the negotiations as cruel,” NBC reported.
He told NBC, “It’s a reasonable conversation — until somebody can say there’s an explanation on what we can do when 270,000 people are being encountered on the border, not including the ones, of course, that we don’t know about.”
“To put that in reference, that is essentially the size of Pittsburgh, the second-largest city in Pennsylvania,” he added.
He continues to vote with President Biden’s policies the vast majority of the time, however.
Fetterman was elected last year after a difficult 2022 race made more complicated by a stroke that nearly killed him and continues to make it difficult for him to process conversations. He also suffered from depression as a result and had to check into a hospital shortly after taking office this year.
Left-wing outlet The New Republic wrote Friday that Fetterman had “officially divorced himself from the progressive movement.”
However, his chief of staff Adam Jentleson said he’s “always had” these positions.
1. The four creators of the Charlie Brown Christmas special were veterans of the U.S. military.
Charles Schulz, the creator of Charlie Brown and the writer of the script for the Christmas special, was a U.S. Army combat veteran of World War II. The show’s producer, Lee Mendelson, served in the United States Air Force. Vince Guaraldi, who composed the music for the special, was a U.S. Army veteran, as was the program’s director and animator, Bill Melendez. When an interviewer asked Schulz what his proudest accomplishment was, Schulz pointed to a framed military award he kept on his studio wall — his Combat Infantryman’s Badge, which is awarded to infantrymen who have fought in active ground combat.
2. CBS executives were dismayed when they first screened ‘A Charlie Brown Christmas’
The executives were shocked by the animation’s poor quality and by the show’s amateur voice talent. They were dismayed by the use of jazz music in a Christmas special and by the absence of a laugh track (something Schulz had refused to insert). The executives were particularly put off by the show’s overt religiosity (“The Bible thing scares us!”). They concluded by pointedly telling Lee Mendelson, the show’s producer, that they would not be ordering any more specials from him or Schulz.
3. Neil Reagan, President Ronald Reagan’s older brother, played a role in the special’s production.
In 1965 Neil Reagan, the younger brother of the future president, was plotting his brother’s first run for political office. Neil was also the West Coast manager of Coca-Cola’s advertising firm. When the TV special was in the pre-production stage, the adman was shown the storyboards for the holiday program and a rough version of the animation.
Reagan was aghast at the show’s slow plodding. He told Schulz and Mendelson, the show’s producer, that if he gave his honest opinion of the program to his superiors back in New York City, they would shut down the production immediately. Mendelson pleaded that the show would be much better once it had a soundtrack and when color was added to the animation. Reagan pondered for a long time before responding, “OK, it might cost me my job, but I’m not going to say anything.”
“A Charlie Brown Christmas” has become an iconic part of every Christmas season. (Photo by ABC Photo Archives/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images)
4. The Peanuts characters were very difficult to animate
Charles Schulz’s “Peanuts” characters were incredibly difficult to render in animation. They had large round heads, making it difficult to gather them together in a scene without their oversized skulls banging into one another. Their arms couldn’t reach the top of their heads, restricting certain movements, and their short stubby legs made walking look awkward.
Ironically, the minimalism of Schulz’s drawing also made them more difficult to animate. Because there were so few reference points on their faces, if an eye were a little too far to the left or right, the character would look disfigured.
5. The special contains many continuity errors
For example, when Lucy approaches her psychiatric booth it has no snow on it, but when she arrives, she has to wipe away snow before sitting down to consult with Charlie Brown. In the same scene, her sign sometimes says “The Doctor is Real In” while at other times it says “The Doctor is In.”
In a later scene, Charlie Brown’s nose disappears when he is addressing Lucy and discussing the need for a Christmas tree. Also, at times, the sad Christmas tree has three branches, while at other times it has six or more.
6. In the climactic scene of ‘A Charlie Brown Christmas,’ Linus’s blanket plays a key but little-noticed role
During the special’s climactic scene, when Linus recites from the Gospel of Luke, he drops his security blanket at the exact moment he utters the words “fear not.” The moment is handled subtly, but it is rich with significance, both in the context of the character and the words being spoken.
Linus had been clinging to the blanket since its introduction into the comic strip on June 1, 1954. The words “fear not” or “be not afraid” are reportedly the most common phrases in the Bible, found 365 times in Scripture.
7. A Mexican immigrant directed and animated the special
Jose Cuauhtemoc “Bill” Melendez immigrated to Arizona with his mother and siblings as a young boy before relocating to Los Angeles. An excellent student, Melendez mistakenly thought that since he was not a U.S. citizen, he could not attend college at UCLA, so he went to work at a lumberyard.
His talent for drawing led him to the animation training program at Disney in the 1930s. Melendez was drafted into the Army during World War II where he was sworn in as a U.S. citizen. Melendez first animated the “Peanuts” characters for Ford commercials in the 1950s. He quickly developed a close friendship with Schulz and became the only person Schulz would ever entrust to animate his cartoon characters.
The cover of Michael Keane’s book, “Charlie Brown’s Christmas Miracle: The Inspiring, Untold Story of the Making of a Holiday Classic.”
8. The Golden Gate Bridge played an important role in the special’s soundtrack
In 1963, Mendelson was working on a documentary about Schulz and was desperately in need of finding music for the show’s soundtrack. While driving across the Golden Gate Bridge and listening to his car’s radio, he heard a captivating tune — “Cast Your Fate to the Wind” by jazz musician Vince Guaraldi.
Mendelson reached out to Guaraldi and asked him to compose the music for the documentary. Just a few days later, while Guaraldi himself was driving across the Golden Gate Bridge, inspiration would strike the musician. He rushed home and sat down at his piano and played the tune that had entered his head. The melody became known as “Linus and Lucy” and is the signature song of the Peanuts franchise.
9. Schulz insisted on keeping Linus’s recitation from Scripture in the special, against objections
When Schulz proposed having Linus recite from the Gospel of Luke in the Christmas special, he was met with objections by both the producer, Mendelson, and the show’s director, Melendez. “We can’t do this, it’s too religious,” said Melendez. Mendelson agreed, arguing that religion didn’t belong in a cartoon.
Ironically, the minimalism of Schulz’s drawing also made them more difficult to animate. Because there were so few reference points on their faces, if an eye were a little too far to the left or right, the character would look disfigured.
Schulz’s proposed scene would expose the special to attacks from both religious and non-religious viewers. Churchgoers might object that animating from the Bible and having its sacred verses spoken by cartoon characters was sacrilegious. Those who were less religious might be turned off by what they perceived to be preachy moralizing. Schulz, however, was insistent. “If we don’t do it, who will?” he asked.
10. Some of the child actors were too young to read their scripts
Some of the children who were the voice talent for the special, when handed their scripts with their lines of dialogue, stared back at Melendez, the special’s director, in stunned silence. They had not yet learned how to read.
This necessitated Melendez having to recite the lines to his young talent, and then having each actor repeat the words back. At times, a single word had to be broken down into bite-sized syllables, even for the actors who could read. The end result was that much of the dialogue in the special has an uneven, choppy cadence to it.
Rep. Victoria Spartz, R-Ind., told Newsmax on Friday that Republicans must make it clear that they “will hold the ground on border security” when it comes to passing additional aid for Ukraine. Spartz, the first native Ukrainian to serve in U.S. Congress, told “Newsline” in an interview that there’s “no doubt” that negotiations on a deal on border security and Ukraine aid haven’t progressed as far as some would hope.
She said that Republicans must ensure that “Democrats understand … that we will hold the ground on border security because if we don’t protect our country there is no hope for anyone else in the world.”
Spartz went on to accuse President Joe Biden of “slow-walking aid to Ukraine” and allowing Russian President Vladimir Putin “to advance that far and fortify … which costs a lot of money and a lot of lives for Ukrainians.”
She continued, “I think we need to be tougher, but we have to have … [an] agreement on border security and [Biden] needs to understand we will hold the ground.”
The congresswoman said Biden is “getting better” when it comes to policies for asylum seekers, “but he’s not willing to … tighten the parole that he’s been abusing.”
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The House must send the Senate a solid, airtight case for impeaching President Joe Biden, and even then, the “bar is real high” about whether the charges against him will be impeachable, Sen. Markwayne Mullin said on Newsmax Friday.
And, the Oklahoma Republican told Newsmax’s “Wake Up America” that five moderate Democrats — who he refused to name — would “definitely be looking to convict” the president if a “convictable offense” can be proven, even though the Senate is under majority control by Biden’s party.
Even with the five Democrats being willing to convict Biden if there is a proven case, that would not be enough to convict Biden, because the Constitution requires two-thirds of the body to make that happen.
“What’s interesting about the Senate versus the House is senators have a lot bigger area, a lot bigger state to cover, so they cover blue parts of the state plus red parts,” he said. “When you talk to some more moderate-leaning senators, they will tell you that if the House sends over an airtight case that completely points to the president, breaking the law, treason, misdemeanors, high crimes, they would try it just like they would any other case.”
The five senators who have said they’ll vote to convict are “senators that I’ve had some relationship with, but we usually vote opposite on most things,” said Mullin.
He said that it will take a solid case before those senators will vote against Biden.
“One thing that we’ve asked for during this impeachment inquiry that that the House will send us a solid case,” Mullin said. “Listen, an inquiry doesn’t mean that they’re going to impeach the president. All that means is they have access to the records the White House and the Biden family haven’t been giving us.”
He pointed out that when the investigation into Biden and his family members, the White Houe was saying that the family did nothing wrong, but those claims have changed.
“Now they’re starting to say that Joe Biden didn’t do anything wrong,” he said. “They’re saying that the Hunter Biden’s business deals aren’t attached to President Biden when we know there were over 50 shell companies, and there are numerous bank records that we’ve been able to get from Hunter Biden.”
However, he said that when Republicans try getting something from the White House about the president, the Department of Justice, “which is run by obviously, Joe Biden” has said that without an impeachment inquiry, they’re not obligated to give it to us.”
This means that the House must give the Senate a case that’s “convictable and the bar is real high,” said Mullin.
Further, alleged acts involving misdemeanors, high crimes, or treason must be proven to have been committed when Biden was president, not when he was vice president or a private citizen, the senator said, because “What he did in between the two may not be impeachable.”
It would be an impeachable offense, though, if as president, Biden “used his office to benefit him, to gain favor of other countries while they’re paying him,” Mullin said. “Then we absolutely should convict him.”
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
As I have written before, I sincerely wish the Republicans would drop all discussions about impeachment. This mess has been going back and forth since Clinton. It’s time to stop the cycle and focus on this economy, the border, regulations, and the general business climate.
A study discredits the claim that climate change is largely responsible for mass migration, suggesting that the Biden administration is using it to distract from its open-border immigration policies. Pictured: A woman walks down a street in Gardi Sugdub, Panama, on Oct. 11. (Photo: Adri Salido/Getty Images)
Simon Hankinson, a former foreign service officer with the State Department, is a senior research fellow in The Heritage Foundation’s Border Security and Immigration Center.
The BorderLine is a weekly Daily Signal feature examining everything from the unprecedented illegal immigration crisis at the border to immigration’s impact on cities and states throughout the land. We will also shed light on other critical border-related issues like human trafficking, drug smuggling, terrorism, and more.
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To avoid admitting that President Joe Biden’s own policies are responsible for mass illegal migration, his administration is keen to implicate “climate change” as the root cause instead. Biden has done everything in his power to facilitate unlimited immigration, from setting up overseas “Safe Mobility Offices” to encouraging asylum claims to inventing “lawful pathways” that are really unlawful, using mass immigration parole to bypass requiring a visa for entry into the country. Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas has shifted all available resources from deterring illegal aliens to instead bringing them into the country.
By releasing thousands of illegal aliens at the border daily and fostering nearly unlimited asylum applications, the Biden administration adds to court backlogs already so long that aliens have de facto amnesty. The small percentage of asylum cases that eventually qualify have been buried by fraudulent and spurious ones. This is all by design. But the Biden administration is hoping to distract from this dismal record by blaming the whole thing on climate change.
The White House’s “Report on the Impact of Climate Change on Migration” declares “the United States will need to strengthen the application of existing protection frameworks, adjust U.S. protection mechanisms to better accommodate people fleeing the impacts of climate change, and evaluate the need for additional legal protections for those who have no alternative but to migrate.”
That word salad could mean more bogus immigration parole programs and including climate change in the criteria for granting asylum. But blaming illegal mass migration on warmer weather is politics, not science. Linking small changes in annual planetary average temperatures to specific weather patterns is difficult. Blaming weather for individual decisions to illegally come to the United States—often through several safe countries on the way—is not credible.
A recent Migration Policy Institute report notes that “[e]nvironmental issues are generally minor factors in people’s migration decisions, typically far behind economic imperatives, even in highly climate-affected countries.” A report by the Dialogue cites “political crises, economic insecurity, violence, weak social protection systems, COVID-19 contagion, low vaccination rates, and natural disasters” as “factors explaining current migration.” It concludes that “overall, aspirational or poor material conditions in the homeland is an important common denominator.”
A lack of affordable and reliable energy is associated with a lack of access to clean water, adequate medical care, affordable transportation, and economic opportunities, all of which stall human advancement, especially in the most vulnerable countries. Energy, in all its diverse forms, should be harnessed by all societies—because high-income societies are also high-energy societies.
(The Daily Signal is Heritage’s news and commentary outlet.)
In other words, when illegal aliens select the U.S. as their destination, their main reason is to leave poverty and look for a better life either through finding a job or relying on America’s social safety net.
Under U.S. immigration law, being poor or wanting a better job don’t qualify an alien for asylum. To be eligible, applicants have to prove that if returned home, they would be persecuted on the basis of race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or membership in a particular social group. The “particular social group” category, already too broad, was expanded beyond reason by Biden administration guidance to the government staff who decide asylum cases. With the system already overburdened, activists now want to expand the asylum criteria even further.
The New York Times recently reported on the Miskito people of Honduras. Historically poor, subject to hurricanes, and now beset by drug cartels, some of them picked up and left. They didn’t relocate within Honduras or go to the nearest safe countries—Mexico or Guatemala—but trekked 2,500 miles north to the United States. Drawn by Biden’s open border, they now plan to claim asylum based on “extreme weather wrought by climate change,” helped by the National Immigration Project.
But the reality is that America is not to blame for their plight. U.S. greenhouse gas emissions have been falling. This is not because of Biden’s massive subsidies to renewable energy and electric vehicles; it’s the fruit of improved technology and investment by the private sector, as well as the conversion to cleaner natural gas.
In Europe, Germany and Britain are crippling their economies and sticking their populations with huge increases in energy costs in the pursuit of lower emissions. Meanwhile, China is building a coal-fired power plant every two weeks and continues to increase emissions year over year. India isn’t far behind.
This doesn’t stop the global Left from using climate change as an irrefutable catchall cause for illegal immigration, for which they blame only the developed world. Beijing wins again as mass migration based on fraud only targets desirable countries like the U.S. Other than maybe North Koreans, no one is lining up to get into China.
The plight of the Miskito, and of hundreds of millions of people across this crowded planet, can inspire our sympathy and aid, but it is not grounds for asylum. If we wish to remain a stable and prosperous society in an uncertain world, it can never be grounds for asylum.
The U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change claims that “[p]rojected population displacements by 2050 in Central and South America, sub-Saharan Africa, and South Asia due to climate change, rang[e] from 31 million to 143 million people.” To call that range “ballpark” would be generous, but there is no doubt that millions will continue to migrate, for various reasons, in the future. That doesn’t make it the duty of every desirable country on earth to surrender control over its borders, identity, and destiny in response.
Who comes to the United States, how many, and where from is a decision for American voters, not for globalist climate crusaders. The U.S. should offer our expertise and example to help countries overcome the challenges of a changing planet, but we can’t be the world’s default refuge.
Our current asylum system was designed for the 1950s, with the fresh memory of Jews fleeing Nazi extermination and dissidents fleeing communist tyranny. This humanitarian program was not intended for, and it has been destroyed by, mass migration for largely economic reasons. The result is engendering political pushback across the developed world. The U.S. needs to rethink the Refugee Act of 1980, which defines who qualifies for asylum. Climate change should be explicitly excluded, and the “particular social group” category eliminated or, at the very least, tightly restricted.
Under the Biden administration, it doesn’t really matter to the Miskito or other asylum claimants how unsound the basis of their claim is. They’ll be allowed to remain in the United States and work while they wait out a many-years-long court process. That’s ridiculous, and it’s why, in May of this year, the House of Representatives passed needed reform of the asylum criteria that would require people to wait for their asylum decision outside the U.S.
In the national interest, the Senate and Biden should accept these necessary reforms and abandon the canard that climate change justifies the president’s failed immigration policies.
Hunter Biden gives a statement to media outlets regarding the House Oversight and Accountability Committee investigation into his business interests outside of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Dec. 13, 2023. (Photo: Craig Hudson/The Washington Post/Getty Images)
Hunter Biden defied a congressional subpoena on Wednesday, an action his father has previously said should be prosecuted. President Joe Bidensaid in October 2021 that individuals who defy subpoenas from the January 6 House Select Committee should be prosecuted, and the Justice Department indicted Steve Bannon for doing so in November 2021. Legal experts said the president’s son could be, but for various reasons may not be, likewise prosecuted by the Biden Justice Department for his choice to hold a press conference on Capitol Hill instead of sitting his deposition before the House Oversight Committee.
Criminal defense attorney and legal analyst Philip Holloway told the Daily Caller News Foundation that the law “must be applied equally or it has no meaning.”
“Hunter Biden needs to be held to the same standard as other recent people who have thumbed their noses at congressional subpoenas,” Holloway said. “In this case, however, Hunter went so far as to show up on Capitol grounds and hold a press conference, thereby figuratively giving the middle finger to the House of Representatives. It is imperative that he be cited for contempt and that he be prosecuted by the U.S. attorney just as was the case recently with Bannon.”
Holloway called dodging a valid subpoena “just stupid,” noting Hunter could have “invoked the Fifth Amendment” at his deposition.
“I scratch my head wondering why Hunter’s lawyer—who stood with him at the presser—would subject his client to additional criminal charges,” he said. “I would never have advised someone to dodge a subpoena.”
George Washington University Law professor Jonathan Turley made a similar point Thursday, writing that Republicans initiating contempt of Congress proceedings could “force the hand of Attorney General Merrick Garland” and calling Hunter’s refusal to appear an “unenforced error.” Garland said in 2021 that the prosecution of Bannon was in pursuit of “equal justice under the law.”
“Since my first day in office, I have promised Justice Department employees that together we would show the American people by word and deed that the department adheres to the rule of law, follows the facts and the law and pursues equal justice under the law,” said Garland in a statement at the time. “Today’s charges reflect the department’s steadfast commitment to these principles.”
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan said in a statement Wednesday that they intend to initiate contempt of Congress proceedings.
Former federal prosecutor Andy McCarthy wrote Wednesday that the younger Biden knows he won’t be prosecuted by the Justice Department.
“Similarly, Hunter Biden knows that, while the House could hold him in contempt, the Biden Justice Department is not going to prosecute him for criminal contempt for [sic] three reasons,” he wrote. “(1) he’s the president’s son; (2) there’s already tension with the White House because prosecutors botched the sweetheart plea deal and have now indicted Hunter twice (putting the president in the politically compromising position of having to pardon him at some point); and (3) the Justice Department is part of an administration whose story is that the impeachment inquiry is an illegitimate political hit job forced by MAGA Republicans so they can orchestrate proceedings hyped as ‘Biden impeachment’ in parallel with the criminal proceedings Trump faces in court, which Democrats are hyping.”
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Hunter Biden parses his words unwisely, trying to avoid connecting his father to any of his business dealings.
One Word Hunter Biden Used During Statement at DC Presser Tore Up Joe Biden’s Defense of Corruption Allegations (VIDEO)
By Cristina Laila
Hunter Biden on Wednesday arrived in DC and gave a press conference on Capitol Hill where he revealed he will only answer questions under his own rules despite a congressional subpoena.
Congressional Republicans subpoenaed Hunter Biden for a closed-door deposition related to his influence-peddling and family corruption.
Hunter Biden on Wednesday said he will only testify “at a public hearing.”
The first son also made a damning statement that tore up Joe Biden’s corruption defense. One word Hunter Biden used caught the attention of Republican lawmakers and reporters. READ MORE…
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More Pro-Life News • Planned Parenthood Admits Unborn Babies Have Beating Hearts • Country Star RaeLynn Says Her Mom Almost Had an Abortion, That’s Why She’s Pro-Life • There is No Reason to Kill Disabled Babies in Abortions • The Media Complains Abortion Bans are Saving Babies, But I’m Glad They’re Alive • Scroll Down for Several More Pro-Life News Stories
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These policies and their ramifications play to the advantage of major oil producers in Asia and the Middle East, some of which are known to use oil revenues to bankroll terrorist organizations, while American consumers and businesses navigate higher costs.
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