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Too Dead to Live and Too Alive to Die, Gen Z is Generation Zombie


BY: FORREST ROBINSON | APRIL 13, 2023

Read more at https://thefederalist.com/2023/04/13/too-dead-to-live-and-too-alive-to-die-gen-z-is-generation-zombie/

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An undead generation has emerged — a horde of Gen Z zombies mindlessly marching, ready to mobilize but not thrive.

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Does Generation Z take anything seriously? Earnestness is “cringe,” being in love makes one a “simp,” and ambition makes one a “try-hard.”

There is a “deeper ideology lurking in the minds of younger millennials & Gen Z,” as Esmé Partridge writes, “the rejection of idealism in all its forms.” Disenchanted with the world, plagued by hopelessness and nihilism, we have become a generation of zombies — a group of youth that is too dead to live and too alive to die. 

No Purpose or Place

In the 1920s, famed novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald described his lost generation as one that had “grown up to find all gods dead, all wars fought, and all faith in man shaken.” 

A century later, Gen Z finds itself in a similar position. The past haunts us, and a stormy future looms over the horizon. Even in our happiest moments, we’ve come to expect something bad just around the corner. Anxiousness afflicts many Zoomers — more than half of us already think humanity is doomed.

Though we share similarities with past generations, Gen Z is unique. Some argue Zoomers will eventually outgrow their crazy beliefs in the same way hippies eventually got jobs and created families. Millennials, however, are only getting more liberal as they age, breaking one of the oldest rules in politics. According to a recent Gallup poll, roughly 1 in 5 Gen Z adults says he or she is LGBTQ.

First and foremost, Gen Z craves distinction. They want to differentiate themselves from the masses by changing the world through fighting climate change, institutional racism, capitalism — you name it. This might explain why 1 in 4 people aged 16-25 wants to become an influencer when he or she grows up.

Why the thirst for power and status? Humans need goals that require effort to attain. We are like archers who need a clear and higher target. The popularity of figures such as Jordan Peterson shows that, especially for young men, it is no longer clear what that target is.

A Developmental Crisis

In the book “iGen,” Jean Twenge observes that more than previous generations, Zoomers aren’t growing up. We don’t have a meaningful target anymore. Gen Z is dating less, quitting jobs, not attending church, and spending half its waking time online. If Zoomers need attention, they use Instagram. Bored? Netflix or Youtube. Horny? Pornhub. Hungry? UberEats.

It’s not surprising that pundits like Jesse Singal and Jonathan Haidt blame social media for Gen Z’s stunted growth. Apps such as TikTok and Instagram have no doubt profoundly affected us, but blaming social media for Gen Z’s mental health epidemic is only half-correct.

Before we had Instagram, we had liberalism. As Patrick Deneen once wrote, “It is less a matter of our technology ‘making us’ than of our deeper political commitments shaping our technology.”

Jaded and Conformist

Inauthenticity has reached its peak with Gen Z. To be part of the in-group, a Zoomer must adopt a live-and-let-live attitude and remain blasé at all times, unattached to all people and things. Like Gen X, they avoid sincerity, choosing instead to be ironic, humorous, or just plain passionless.

For Zoomers, being serious is “cringe.” They dislike partisan politics because it’s rooted in taking differences seriously. Gen Z is disproportionately liberal not because they are passionate card-carrying Democrats — although some of them are — but because they are apathetic. They just want to be left alone by what the media portray as Bible thumpers, old white politicians, and conservatives. 

It is revealing that the only time Gen Z ever seems mobilized to take things seriously is when a police officer kills a black man or abortion is restricted. Gen Z is so well catechized into its political religion that within minutes, like a flock of sheep, millions of Zoomers suddenly start sharing infographics, donation pages, and memes all over social media. Gen Z only cares about a particular issue when a so-called victim group is allegedly oppressed, or there’s a threat to its autonomy. As soon as the latest political trend goes away, Zoomers stop caring.

A Generation Without Love

The sexual revolution of the ’60s didn’t bring about communism, as Wilhelm Reich hoped, but capitalism in the sexual market. Now driven by a desire for recognition, Zoomers want sexual empowerment above all else.

To that end, Zoomers avoid caring about finding relationships. As one study found, “only one in 10 Gen Z members say they are ‘committed to being committed,’” preferring solitude (or situationships) to real relationships. 

Since seeking commitment is now perceived as exerting pressure, young people must put up a facade of unseriousness and just look for green flags so as not to alienate the person they desire.

Even in a relationship, the psychoanalyzing doesn’t cease. Zoomers analyze texts, obsess over appearance, and worry that their romantic interests are dating other people from Tinder. This perpetual state of uncertainty is so exhausting that many are choosing to either throw out sexual rules completely or abstain from relationships altogether.

Repressed and Insecure

With religious values and sexual norms no longer fixed, many Zoomers struggle to nail down a sense of worth and are thus insecure. Not expressing their real personalities or feelings, these Zoomers live in a perpetual state of “LARPing” and suffer from main character syndrome.

Given their repression of “cringe” thoughts and feelings the in-group might not like, Gen Z’s higher likelihood of engaging in self-harm is unsurprising. To escape the torturous emptiness so many Zoomers find themselves in today, many reach for a razor blade or a smartphone. Either Zoomers gobble down drugs for mental illness, harm themselves, or vainly attempt to produce a sense of self with endless selfies and videos for their followers.

The Zoomers’ obsession with “mental health” and “normalizing” certain behaviors is a byproduct of their unstable self-image. Without knowing how to make sense of their emotions, they outsource the task of understanding themselves to therapists. 

Godless and Selfish

More than anything, Gen Z wants to feel alive. They turned out in droves to support BLM in 2020 because it enabled them to experience the emotional highs and lows of religion without the responsibilities. As Twitter user Zero HP Lovecraft wrote, “Christians are persecuted by bureaucrats, tamely and passively,” while black people “are persecuted by cops with guns and gas grenades. … Only one of these is exciting.” In other words, one belief system feels boring and uninteresting, the other eventful and real — hence why many gravitate toward the latter.

Even many modern so-called Christians, as Rod Dreher observed, use religion as “a psychological adjunct to life, a buffer to the harshness of the materialistic, individualistic lives they actually want to lead.” In the context of Zoomers, that makes religion — and its secular woke derivatives — a supposed stimulant for attaining health and well-being. Since Gen Z now worships the “God within,” there has been a rise in gnostic beliefs, self-improvement and wellness cults, astrology and tarot, and, of course, LGBT orthodoxy.

In our post-religious society, life has been reduced to a biological process that must be optimized for the sake of social approval. Instead of prayer, we use painkillers. Instead of aspiring toward good works that glorify God, we engage in meaningless activities that glorify ourselves. And out of that reality has emerged the next undead generation. The horde of Gen Z zombies is mindlessly marching, ready to mobilize but not thrive.

Forrest Robinson is a student at Gordon College in Wenham, Ma. He frequently posts threads on his Twitter @Foz89107323.

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Nashville Tragedy Shows Why It Isn’t Compassionate To Fuel Mental Illness


BY: KYLEE GRISWOLD | MARCH 28, 2023

Read more at https://thefederalist.com/2023/03/28/nashville-tragedy-shows-why-it-isnt-compassionate-to-fuel-mental-illness/

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Behind all the partisanship of the shooting story is an unavoidable reality: Our modern mental-health crisis is out of control.

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It’s difficult to fathom that several families started their day with one less precious child around the breakfast table this morning. It’s also hard to fathom responding to that reality — caused by a transgender mass shooter who left three 9-year-olds and several adults dead in a “targeted attack” at a Christian elementary school — by confessing you misgendered the murderer and blasting your political opponents over the same tired gun-control talking points.

But behind all the partisan smoke and mirrors of the Nashville story is an unmistakable and unavoidable reality: Our modern mental health crisis is out of control.

You don’t even have to dig into the glaring transgender element of the case to acknowledge this fact. No mentally healthy person blasts their way into a building of defenseless children to murder them in cold blood, much less devises a detailed plan literally mapping out how to make it happen. Transgender perpetrator or not, this sick pattern has repeated itself with unsettling frequency.

And though President Joe Biden, his press secretary, and other politicians disgustingly spun the attack to blame so-called “assault weapons” and imply conservatives are complicit in mass murder, the simple reality is that over the past handful of decades, firearms have changed very little. Meanwhile, mental illness has proliferated and our culture’s conception of it dangerously evolved.

That’s why the transgender identity of the shooter can’t be fully ignored — not for those who truly care to understand the gnarly roots of this violence. Despite the protestations of LGBT apologists, gender dysphoria and trans-related narcissism are inextricable from America’s broader mental health emergency.

A Celebration of Sickness

The psychological pendulum has swung woefully far: Illness that was once stigmatized, often to the unhelpful point of suppressing it instead of encouraging the sufferers to seek help, is now celebrated and socially encouraged. If it isn’t teachers brainwashing impressionable kids with sexual confusion and instructing them to keep it secret from their parents, it’s parents catechizing their own children in fallacies. Spend just a few minutes on TikTok, and you’ll get a glimpse of the affected masses — self-loathing, split personalities, nonsensical pronouns and sexual identities, desperate androgyny, narcissism, bipolar outbursts, and more.

Examples of encouraged mental illness abound — even medical doctors fuel delusion by pretending sex is “assigned” and asking for patients’ preferred pronouns — but here’s one directly in response to the shooting. A group called the Trans Resistance Network made the shooter out to be a victim, blaming the “avalanche” of legislation seeking to protect minors from chemical and surgical castration and accusing conservatives of “nothing less than the genocidal eradication of trans people from society.” Many trans-identifying people suffer from “anxiety, depression, [and] thoughts of suicide,” the group correctly noted, but then associated these struggles not with broader mental unhealth but with “lack of acceptance” of gender dysphoria from “religious institutions.”

Note the group’s promotion of mental instability:

It is a testament to the inner strength and beauty of transgender people, that despite the … constant anti-trans bigotry and violence, so many of us continue to persevere, survive, and even thrive. We will not be eradicated or erased.

The same can’t be said for the innocent lives that were snuffed out in an instant in the Nashville shooting. Where derangement is considered “inner strength and beauty,” mental sickness thrives, and now children, not angry activists, are the ones who have been erased.

At least in part. There’s more to the story for these Christian families, who can cling to the assurance that for a follower of Jesus to be absent from his body is to be present with the Lord. This violent and sin-marred world is not our home, and it’s the closest to hell Christians will ever get. No religious hatred, mental affliction, or targeted attack can eradicate that sure hope.

A Call to Action

Those truths aren’t just a comfort for the broken-hearted, however. They’re a call to action for redeemed sinners. With a focus on eternity, we’re still sojourners here, surrounded by tormented souls with not only deep spiritual needs but physical and mental ones. And so we must fight.

We must fight against the spiritual forces that discourage us and tempt us to doubt and deny truth, and against agents of the devil who seduce our children with sexual fantasies. We must fight for the beauty and sacredness of human life. For the mental and physical health of those within our care. And for the glorious truth of the gospel and the immutable nature of the sexes that leads to human flourishing.

This fight requires compassion. But it also requires that we don’t forfeit the definition of that word to medical professionals who profit from carving up children, or to Marxist ideologues, or to a bad-faith press. Instead, follow the only perfect example: When Jesus saw the “helpless” crowds, “like sheep without a shepherd,” He was “moved with compassion” toward them. He engaged. He healed.

May He be the source of our compassion as we engage our modern mental affliction, and may He provide the healing we desperately need.

Kylee Griswold is the editorial director of The Federalist. She previously worked as the copy editor for the Washington Examiner magazine and as an editor and producer at National Geographic. She holds a B.S. in Communication Arts/Speech and an A.S. in Criminal Justice and writes on topics including feminism and gender issues, religion, and the media. Follow her on Twitter @kyleezempel.

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‘Woke’ Effectively Describes The Left’s Insanity, And That’s Why They Hate When You Say It


BY: SAMUEL MANGOLD-LENETT | MARCH 17, 2023

Read more at https://thefederalist.com/2023/03/17/woke-effectively-describes-the-lefts-insanity-and-thats-why-they-hate-when-you-say-it/

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Woke-ism is intentionally ambiguous. So when you describe it, that offends those who wish for its intentions to remain murky.

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When was the last time you were called racist? When was the last time you actually cared about being called racist? Odds are you get called it quite often and care (or should care) about being called it very little.

That’s because lobbing accusations of racial bigotry at anyone who gets in their way is second nature for the left. So when people stopped taking these accusations seriously — realizing it is simply impossible for everything to be racist — the left began decrying “white supremacy,” semantically invoking Nazism.

When accusations of racism failed to coerce enough action, the left moved on to a pejorative with far worse aesthetics while maintaining the same message. Accusing people and institutions of “racism” had lost its utility due to rhetorical inflation, and the era of “systemic white supremacy” had begun.

According to some, the conservative movement and the American right writ large are experiencing a similar ongoing dilemma with the word “woke.” Many suggest the word has come to mean nothing due to right-wing over-saturation, while others insist it has taken on a far more nefarious tone.

Nevertheless, the question remains: Why has the word “woke” become so problematic?

Bad Faith

On Tuesday, Bethany Mandel, co-author of “Stolen Youth: How Radicals Are Erasing Innocence and Indoctrinating a Generation,” appeared on The Hill’s “Rising” to discuss leftism’s role in damaging American families. 

During the discussion, Briahna Joy Gray, co-host of the “Bad Faith” podcast, inquired if Mandel would “mind defining ‘woke,’ ’cause it’s come up a couple [of] times, and I just want to make sure we’re all on the same page.” What followed was a brief moment of self-consciousness in which the author stumbled over her words before offering a generally accepted definition of the term.

Despite this, the moment was clipped, and the author was lambasted as both a bigot and buffoon across the web. 

The whole point of this exercise was to humiliate someone offering a coherent definition of woke-ism that was insufficiently deferential to the whims of leftist ideologues. However, this attempt was unsuccessful. 

What Is Woke?

Dragging Mandel through the digital public square did not result in the typical groveling struggle session that has come to be expected whenever people explain their opinions in public, but it did inspire many to inquire about the nature of the term “woke.”

The term started to increase in prevalence in the early-to-mid-2010s back when “Black Lives Matter” referred to a hashtag, not an organization, and when the hot-button social issue du jour was the legalization of homosexual marriage. Despite its original meaning, used in common parlance simply to refer to personal vigilance, “woke” quickly took on social and political meanings. Like how every other community uses specific language to signify in-group allegiance, “woke” was used to inculcate oneself among the broader cause of the burgeoning leftist cultural hegemony and, by extension, the Democrat Party.

But as the term became more and more associated with the party, it became less specifically connected with racial protest movements and more so a shibboleth for supporting the party platform — “stay woke,” the slogan went.

It is undeniable that woke-ism and the people who get protective of the identifying label “woke” have an influential presence on the political and cultural left. There was even a short-lived Hulu series titled “Woke” that chronicled a previously apolitical black cartoonist’s journey through the intersectional landscape of identity politics. And in 2018, “Saturday Night Live” poked fun at the concept of corporate fashion brands using woke-ism to market schlock to well-intentioned hipsters.

Woke-ism came to define a movement so insurgent among the institutionalized powers of the left that even its vanguards like former President Barack Obama and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, who undeniably had a role ushering it in, bemoaned its rancorous presence and how it distracts from the Democrat Party’s larger goals. 

This was something the Democrats fully embraced until they could no longer fully control the semantics around it.

It’s a Good Bad Word

Woke-ism is simultaneously a persistent ideological framework and a general inclination — it depends on the person or institution in question at the time. But both rely upon a consistent smorgasbord of Marxian dialectics and ideological accouterment — gender theory, critical race theory, et al. — that seeks to usurp the ideals of the American founding and impose contemporary whims. 

The word has become as commonplace among the current-day conservative movement as MAGA hats and “lock her up” chants were at 2016 Trump rallies. And this is, to be fair, totally warranted; what other slogany-sounding word really works as a catch-all for what leftism has become? 

Sure, it would help if the right had a more tactical approach to diagnosing and labeling each and every radical change introduced to our society at breakneck speed, but that’s not how people work. The right can and should identify the unique threats of identitarian Marxism, managerialism, and contemporary Lysenkoism, but is labeling all of these things useful? 

Using “woke” as a catch-all label for radical leftism is effective. That’s one of the major reasons why the left hates it. They lost complete control of the English language, and the word they used to indicate their radicalism to one another is being used to expose that radicalism to the rest of the world.

Woke-ism is an intentionally ambiguous framework that is meant to keep out interlopers and reward its advocates. Therefore, simply describing it as what it is, is anathema to those who wish for its intentions to remain ambiguous.

Simply saying “woke” works.

Samuel Mangold-Lenett is a staff editor at The Federalist. His writing has been featured in the Daily Wire, Townhall, The American Spectator, and other outlets. He is a 2022 Claremont Institute Publius Fellow. Follow him on Twitter @Mangold_Lenett.

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How Sarah Sanders Is Putting Arkansas On The Map


By: Brent Scher | March 13, 2023

Read more at https://www.conservativereview.com/how-sarah-sanders-is-putting-arkansas-on-the-map-2659587206.html/

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LITTLE ROCK, Ark.—Less than one month into her first term as Arkansas governor, Sarah Sanders was tapped to deliver the Republican response to President Joe Biden’s State of the Union, a speaking slot typically granted to rising stars in the party with the intent to elevate them onto the national stage. But stepping onto the national stage doesn’t appear to be Sanders’s goal—at least for now.

OTS

In her address, she used Arkansas as the example of what Republicans are doing across the country. “Here in Arkansas and across America, Republicans are working to end the policy of trapping kids in failing schools and sentencing them to a lifetime of poverty,” Sanders said.  ”We will educate, not indoctrinate our kids, and put students on a path to success.”

In an hour-long interview, the former White House press secretary dodged questions about the 2024 election, diverting the conversation back to what she’s doing in Arkansas.

She already has substantive accomplishments to point to. This past Tuesday, exactly one month after her State of the Union response, the state legislature passed Sanders’s signature legislation, an ambitious overhaul of Arkansas schools, and she has already signed it into law. Corey DeAngelis, a leading advocate for school choice, said Arkansas is now the “gold standard for educational freedom.”

The bill is a kitchen-sink approach to education reform—in addition to establishing universal school choice, it yanks obscene sexual materials and critical race theory from classrooms, sets stringent new learning standards, and raises the base teacher salary from $36,000 to $50,000.

“This is what bold conservative education legislation looks like,” Sanders said from the governor’s office, where she monitored the debate on the bill taking place on the other side of the Capitol.

And Sanders says Arkansas as a whole can be the “blueprint” for what conservative states could do.

Sanders joins a crowd of superstar Republican governors making headway by focusing on schools, and armed with a legislature of staunch conservatives, she’s charging ahead of other states. Florida’s Ron DeSantis is still fighting to get the sorts of reforms passed by Arkansas in Sanders’s first few weeks over hurdles in his legislature—his universal school choice bill, for example, faces even some Republican opposition. Sanders came out of her long campaign in Arkansas eager to establish herself as the “Education Governor” and thus far is doing just that.

Sanders’s growing profile has also made her a target of Democratic activists and politicians. Washington Post columnists are writing hit pieces questioning why anyone would move to Arkansas: “Good luck recruiting Californians for Arkansas, Sarah Sanders,” wrote Philip Bump. Shortly after Sanders’s national address, California Democratic governor Gavin Newsom took aim at Arkansas’s crime rate and last week was taking shots on Twitter about local Arkansas pieces of legislation.

Sanders acknowledges that she’s drawing more scrutiny to her state, but she doesn’t think that’s a bad thing. “We outkick our coverage, frankly, in a lot of places,” she said.

“When it comes to politicians on the national stage for a small state, we have some pretty big names out there,” the governor said. “I’m sure you’ll find people that will disagree, but my opinion is that it’s a good thing for our state, and I plan on using that platform to better us.”

Sanders says the critics are unavoidable. “I try to tune it out and stay focused on the objectives in front of us. There are people who wouldn’t care what’s in the bill, they’re gonna hate it simply because I’m associated with it. They don’t want to see me be successful. Certainly, that’s disappointing, but not surprising, and it’s not gonna slow us down from doing things that we feel like are the right thing to do.”

Sanders sharpened her ability to drown out the critics as White House press secretary. Not only was Sanders the longest-serving Trump administration press secretary—she was the only person to hold the job for more than a year—she was also the most successful, taking over as the daily briefing became a media feeding frenzy and adding a semblance of order to the chaos. She remains beloved by staff, some of whom followed her to Arkansas, and her former boss, to whom she still talks regularly.

Though Sanders is taking advantage of lessons learned at the White House, former colleagues say she’s also developed the ability to talk fluently about policy.

“We used to tell her, you need to get more detail,” said a former White House colleague. “Now the opposite is the case. She’s gone from somebody who was laser-focused on communications with a thin understanding of the policy to somebody who is a policy expert. It’s impressive to me.”

It’s not the first transformation of her career, Sanders says. When she first joined the Donald Trump campaign, she never foresaw that she’d become the lead spokeswoman for Trump’s administration.

“I was much more on the strategy and political operation side, and really didn’t see myself as a front person or the public-facing individual,” she explained.

Sanders joined the Trump campaign in 2016 to do coalition-building in the South, but after a few TV appearances, Trump called her to say he wanted to see her on television every day. And at the White House, after Sanders filled in for then-White House press secretary Sean Spicer while serving as his deputy, Trump tapped her to fill the job.

Her rise to the Arkansas governorship is a different story. Sanders announced her run in January 2021 and, as the prohibitive favorite from the outset, had two years to prepare for the job. It’s during that time that she decided she wanted to be the “Education Governor”—she not only became an expert on the issue but also gained confidence that she had to make it her trademark legislation.

“I went to all 75 counties,” Sanders said. “Everywhere I went as I traveled on the campaign for two years, every community wants their kids to do better. If we don’t have a good education system in place, then we are not setting our kids up for success.”

On the ground in Arkansas, Republicans say Sanders has brought a “new energy” to the legislature. “The whole atmosphere and mood of everything is different,” said Bart Hester, who leads the state’s upper chamber. “It’s such a fun energy, an exciting and new energy. It’s fun to come in everyday.”

Hester says the onslaught of opposition from teachers’ unions against the education bill was no match for Sanders.

“We have a governor now where members are more scared of her than they are their superintendents or the teacher union—we’ve never experienced that,” Hester said. “They don’t want to disappoint her—they know that she’s super popular, they don’t want to be the guy that was against their number-one priority.”

Sanders scoffs at suggestions that her education plan was a “copycat” of legislation championed by DeSantis, another high-profile Republican governor. “Hard to copy when ours is much bigger and goes much further,” Sanders said. But she has nothing negative to say about her Republican counterpart in Florida, and says there’s a “great sense of camaraderie and willingness to share best practices” between her and DeSantis, who has emerged as Trump’s chief competition in the Republican Party.

Sanders is yet to weigh in on who the Republican presidential nominee should be in 2024—her “focus is solely on Arkansas,” she says, in the same way every ambitious and upwardly mobile politician does. And Trump, her former boss, reportedly called Sanders in recent weeks to ask for her endorsement, which still hasn’t come.

But she also said she “maintains a great relationship” with Trump, and left the door open for an endorsement in the future.

“When the time comes, maybe, but right now, I don’t want to do anything that takes away from the huge agenda list that we have to get done here in Arkansas,” Sanders said. “I don’t intend on slowing down on that front at any point soon. And so I don’t want to do anything that takes away, not just my attention, but also the attention of what we’re accomplishing.”

A former White House colleague who remains close to Sanders doesn’t expect her 2024 neutrality to change any time soon. “Trump’s not her boss anymore,” the former colleague said. “Her boss is the people of Arkansas, and that’s where I assume her priorities will lie.”

Republicans in the state appreciate her focus on Arkansas and recognize she’s putting the work they’re doing in the Capitol first. “Everyone wants a minute with her—she can be Sarah the national celebrity, or Sarah the governor, and she only has so many minutes in a day,” Hester said. “She is spending those minutes as Sarah the governor.”

Republican state senator Matt McKee says Sanders has the whole legislature bullish on Arkansas.

“I know Florida’s been at the forefront, Texas has done things, but Arkansas can be the place,” McKee said.

Sanders says her appreciation for Arkansas has grown since moving her family back to her home state. After traveling to each county for her campaign, she has enhanced her ability to sell the state to visitors. The governor boasts that she can point to the best place to eat in any Arkansas town—this reporter was sent to CJ’s Butcher Boy Burgers in Russellville.

When it comes to dining, things are going more smoothly for Sanders in Arkansas. Thus far, she says she hasn’t been denied service, as she was in 2019 at the Red Hen restaurant in Virginia.

TikTok

“You know, knock on wood, I have not been asked to leave any restaurant so far,” Sanders said. “It’s amazing to be home.”

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If Anybody Should Pay Reparations for Slavery, It’s The Democrat Party


BY: WINSTON BRADY | MARCH 06, 2023

Read more at https://thefederalist.com/2023/03/06/if-anybody-should-pay-reparations-for-slavery-its-the-democrat-party/

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If anyone should pay reparations to black Americans for the injustices of slavery, it should be the institutions that preserved slavery’s legacy.

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The call for reparations attracts more supporters every day. Even Disney has joined the cause, weaving the issue of monetary payments to the descendants of slaves into a storyline on the “The Proud Family” series on the company’s streaming service. But what generated the most controversy was one episode in which the show’s protagonists perform a song entitled “Slaves Built This Country” after they discover the founder of their town was a slaveholder.

Setting their frustrations over racial injustice and hardship to music, the cartoon children sing that slaves “made your families rich from the southern plantation, to the northern bankers, to the New England ship owners, the Founding Fathers, former presidents, current senators.” Catchy though the song may be, the children leave out one prominent beneficiary of slavery, one in the best position to provide the reparations called for: the Democratic Party.  

One may argue for or against reparations on many different grounds. At its heart, supporters for reparations say that freed slaves never received any kind of compensation for their hardship from their owners. Thus, the descendants of slaveowners owe financial restitution to the descendants of their slaves, which would alleviate income inequality and atone for slavery, America’s “original sin.” Opponents of reparations argue one group of people, who did not commit the original wrong, should not be forced to make restitution to a group who indirectly received the wrong. From this angle, reparations seem more like “legal plunder,” a term coined by the French economist Frédéric Bastiat. Such an act “takes from some persons what belongs to them, and gives it to other persons to whom it does not belong.”

But if the supporters of reparations are right and that some restitution must be made, it becomes obvious who should do it: the Democratic Party. Indeed, it is an objective fact that the Democratic Party is intimately tied to slavery and segregation. The Democratic Party was founded by Andrew Jackson of Tennessee, himself a slaveowner, and Martin Van Buren, a New Yorker who owned at least one slave and exploited enslaved labor. More importantly, Van Buren’s plan gained the support of southern politicians for his policies in exchange for his support of the “peculiar institution” of plantation slavery. Such politicians became so numerous they had a name: doughfaces, since their characters lacked all substance.

This pattern continued through the end of the Civil War and the early 20th century. After the Civil War, Democratic politicians in the southern U.S. supported segregationist policies that brutally infringed upon the rights and dignity of African-Americans. 

As a result of this history, the Democratic Party should provide reparations, not the descendants of one class deemed politically expendable. Still, you may say, “that was the Democratic Party of the mid-19th century. So much has changed since then that the current officeholders and politicians could not possibly bear any blame for what their forebears did.” This is true, but it is also true of the American people.

Today, the American people are not directly responsible for slavery, segregation, Indian removal (also Van Buren), and a host of other injustices for which prominent Democrats ask for reparations. Moreover, the American people are being forced to pay for more spending programs, up to and including reparations. How is it any fairer to ask the American people to accept another raise in their taxes to fix a problem the progenitors of the Democratic Party started? Shouldn’t that be at least acknowledged? 

They acknowledge institutionalized racism, but they entirely ignore the fact that they were the ones who institutionalized it. The Democratic Party, as a private institution, is in the best position to provide reparations for the evils of slavery and segregation they did so much to perpetuate. If the Democratic Party admitted its wrongdoing and offered financial compensation to the descendants of slaves, it would immediately remove reparations as a possible unwise and unreasonable expansion of government. Moreover, the Democratic Party, with its expansive network of donors and connections that includes local community and civic leaders, could far more effectively handle the distribution of reparations itself.

If the Democratic Party really wants to move the country past the legacies of slavery and segregation, it should acknowledge its role in promoting them. If there are any groups in the U.S. that should provide material assistance to black Americans to make amends for the injustices committed against them, it should be the institutions that committed those injustices. The Democrats, the self-proclaimed “party of the people,” and not the people of the United States themselves, should bear that cultural and financial responsibility.

Winston Brady is the Director of Curriculum and Thales Press at Thales Academy, a network of classical schools with campuses in North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and South Carolina. A graduate of the College of William & Mary, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, and the Kenan-Flagler School of Business at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Winston writes on the intersection of history, politics, and culture, as seen through the lens of classical wisdom and virtue. He lives in Wake Forest with his wife Rachel of ten years and his three boys, Hunter, Jack, and Samuel, all of whom will one day learn Latin.

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Classified Documents Are a New Potential Trap for Any Politician Who Crosses the Deep State


BY: JOY PULLMANN | JANUARY 30, 2023

Read more at https://thefederalist.com/2023/01/30/classified-documents-are-a-new-potential-trap-for-any-politician-who-crosses-the-deep-state/

Chuck Schumer and Merrick Garland talking
The Trump years saw a massive acceleration in the trend of unelected bureaucrats exercising power over elected officials, including by weaponizing classified information.

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Procedural complaints about classified documents are quickly turning into a catch-all trap that can depose duly elected officials, especially those tasked with oversight of U.S. intelligence agencies. Last August, an unprecedented classified document complaint provided a pretext for an FBI raid on former President Donald Trump’s home, in an eerie echo of the use of police and military resources against opposing politicians typical of banana republics.

That administrative power flex has now been turned into the unprecedented appointment of three special counsels, most recently against the deeply unpopular current Democrat Party figurehead, Joe Biden. This all reverses the American structure of elected officials maintaining oversight of unelected permanent administrators. Instead, we now have unelected bureaucrats performing selective “oversight” of elected officials.

Of course, that pattern erases Americans’ deepest political birthright: government of the people, by the people, and for the people. A government not ultimately controlled by elected representatives of the citizenry is not a republic, nor is it any kind of democracy. Without elections truly affecting government policies, the original United States is no more, and its elections are a sham.

The subversion of elected representative government via weaponized intelligence has been expanding for some time. The Trump presidential years saw a massive acceleration in this pre-existing trend of unelected bureaucrats exercising increasing power over elected officials, including by weaponizing classified information, usually via highly selective leaks to leftist media.

Recall that Michael Flynn, a would-be reformer of U.S. intelligence, was neatly precluded from becoming Trump’s national security advisor via leaks of classified intel to the media that a (still) gullible Vice President Mike Pence bought hook, line, and sinker. Rather than the leaker being sought, caught, and punished, Flynn was. The selective and deceptive leaks were shanghaied into a Justice Department investigation that ended with Flynn narrowly escaping jail time and professional repercussions for his son so long as he promised to disappear from public view.

The same pattern occurred in multiple cycles with Spygate, the wholly manufactured projection of treasonous collusion with Russia from the Democratic Party onto Trump. Rep. Adam Schiff, who has been recently kicked off the House Intelligence Committee, repeatedly used his access to classified intelligence to fan the Spygate flames as well as the two impeachments of Trump. So did multiple other deep-state actors, including the Hillary Clinton campaign.

Notice there’s no probe into Schiff’s blatant and repeated misuse of the classified information he was privileged to receive on the House Intelligence Committee. But there could be if he stopped being such a useful Democrat.

This is how, as Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer threatened Trump early in the latter’s term, intelligence agencies “have six ways from Sunday at getting back at you.” It is how the intelligence tail can — and now does — wag the congressional dog. This has been ongoing now for decades and is perpetually expanding its reach.

This allows the document-holders to function as a shadow government that essentially controls the elected government by picking what bits of information to release to achieve its own ends rather than the priorities of American voters. This selective deployment of intelligence has been even used to goad the United States into wars it doesn’t win that expand the military-industrial complex and distract U.S. officials while defenestrating U.S. national interests. It was used to lie to Trump about U.S. military activities and prevent him from exercising his due presidential authority over U.S. military affairs.

Those who presented unreliable, counterproductive, and false intelligence to presidents from George W. Bush to Barack Obama to Trump have not been punished, nor often even identified. Neither has the person who compromised the safety and collegiality of the U.S. Supreme Court by leaking the pro-life Dobbs decision last May.

Curiously, neither have there been any administrative-state leaks about the many connections between the Biden family and the Chinese Communist Party. This is not a tool to be applied equally, you see, or in service of the public good. It’s only yet another knife to pull out against those who cross the wrong people.

That’s how expansive, vague, and proliferating laws, regulations, and bureaucracies all work: as tools of selective prosecution to be wielded at the whims of the powerful against those who threaten their power. The erasure of self-government and the rule of law go hand in hand, collapsed by the administrative state’s erasure of the separation of powers that protect individual liberty and justice for all.

This expanding weaponization of classified intel into selective probes of those who have access to at least some of it allows deep-state entities even more control over elected officials. This standard of probes for possessing “unauthorized” classified documents can be applied to any current or former president, as well as many other officials.

As a Project for Government Oversight lawyer told USA Today: “I’d bet you that if they go back to all of the living presidents and root through their homes and their libraries and their warehouses and garages, they’re going to unearth some classified documents there.” Other presidential experts told USA Today that essentially every presidential administration since 1978 has mishandled classified documents.

The same applies to numerous other elected and unelected officials, such as those on House and Senate military intelligence committees and in the executive branch. This is partly because U.S. intelligence agencies improperly classify “millions” of materials, partly to hide their activities by lying that materials elected representatives seek implicate “national security.” It’s a convenient, unfalsifiable excuse that allows U.S. intelligence agencies to function as poisonous self-licking ice cream cones.

U.S. intelligence agencies improperly classify “millions” of materials, partly to hide their activities by lying that materials elected representatives seek implicate “national security.” It’s a convenient, unfalsifiable excuse that allows U.S. intelligence agencies to function as poisonous self-licking ice cream cones.

This all recalls one of the famous lines of one of the world’s most famous of secret police, Joseph Stalin’s NKVD chief, Lavrentiy Beria: “Show me the man, and I’ll show you the crime.” That is how secret police function. It is how U.S. intelligence agencies function now, with help from their administrative-state allies such as the Department of So-Called Justice. Their use of selective prosecutions and investigations to hamstring and punish their enemies may not be unlimited now, but it is expanding.

All members of Congress must be aware of this and use all the powers at their disposal to fight it, for as the administrative apparatus strengthens, the American republic dissolves.

Joy Pullmann is executive editor of The Federalist, a happy wife, and the mother of six children. Her just-published ebook is “101 Strategies For Living Well Amid Inflation.” Her bestselling ebook is “Classic Books for Young Children.” Mrs. Pullmann identifies as native American and gender natural. Her many books include “The Education Invasion: How Common Core Fights Parents for Control of American Kids,” from Encounter Books. Joy is also a grateful graduate of the Hillsdale College honors and journalism programs.

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Kari Lake Fires Off Biting One-Line Statement After Outlets Call Race for Katie Hobbs


 By Jack Davis  November 15, 2022 at 6:49am

Read more at https://www.westernjournal.com/kari-lake-fires-off-biting-one-line-statement-outlets-call-race-katie-hobbs/

Republican Kari Lake is not wilting after projections emerged Monday that she will lose the Arizona governor’s race to Democrat Katie Hobbs.

“Arizonans know BS when they see it,” Lake said on Twitter.

During the campaign, she had frequently questioned the integrity of the 2020 election that led to Joe Biden’s presidency, and last month she had told ABC News that she would concede the gubernatorial race only if “it’s fair, honest and transparent.”

Trending: Breaking: Insider Reveals Kari Lake Will NOT Concede Governor’s Race After Media Calls It for Hobbs

“When I first started voting back in the ’80s, we had Election Day,” Lake said in that interview. “Our Constitution says Election Day. It doesn’t say election season, election month, and we’ve watched as our Election Day has turned into election week and election weeks and now election month. And the longer you drag that out, the more fraud with problems there are.”

  • On Monday, nearly a week after the midterm elections, ABC News projected Hobbs to be the winner of the Arizona race, concluding that her election was part of “a stunning rejection of election deniers in midterm contests.”
  • CNN also projected the Democrat to win, saying she was “defeating one of the most prominent defenders of former President Donald Trump’s lies about the 2020 election.”
  • Fox News joined the chorus declaring Lake had been defeated but noted that according to Arizona’s rules, the contest might face a recount.
  • The Associated Press explained its call for Hobbs by saying “the latest round of vote releases gave her a big enough lead that the AP determined she would not relinquish it.”
  • “The AP concluded that, even though Lake had been posting increasingly larger margins in vote updates from Maricopa County, she was not gaining a big enough share to overtake Hobbs and was running out of remaining votes,” the wire service said.

AP numbers posted in The New York Times on Monday night gave Hobbs a margin of about 20,000 votes out of the roughly 2.5 million votes cast with 95 percent reported.

Hobbs issued a statement after media outlets proclaimed her to have won.

“I want to thank the voters for entrusting me with this immense responsibility. It is truly an honor of a lifetime, and I will do everything in my power to make you proud. I want to thank my family, our volunteers, and campaign staff. Without all of your hard work, passion, and sacrifice this night would not be possible. Thank you from the bottom of my heart,” she said.

Related: Kari Lake Gains Significant Ground After Arizona Posts Major Vote Update

“For the Arizonans who did not vote for me, I will work just as hard for you – because even in this moment of division, I believe there is so much more that connects us,” she said, adding, “Let’s get to work.”

During the campaign, Hobbs had labeled Lake an “election-denying, media-hating, conspiracy-loving, chaos-causing opponent.”

Journalist Kyle Becker offered his thoughts that denying an election was fair does not mean one wears the media label of “election denier.”

Lake has said Hobbs, who as Arizona’s secretary of state oversees elections, should have recused herself from overseeing the election.

Jack Davis

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Jack Davis is a freelance writer who joined The Western Journal in July 2015 and chronicled the campaign that saw President Donald Trump elected. Since then, he has written extensively for The Western Journal on the Trump administration as well as foreign policy and military issues.

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Will Conservatives Make Use Of Power This Time Around?


BY: CHRISTOPHER BEDFORD | NOVEMBER 09, 2022

Read more at https://thefederalist.com/2022/11/09/will-conservatives-make-use-of-power-this-time-around/

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Election night can be fun, but Republicans should not underestimate their opponents’ ability to keep a tight grip on control in Washington.

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Election night can feel a rush for conservatives, which makes sense: After a few years, those politicians who rejected the country’s history, attacked the police, weaponized science, and persecuted Christians and their children were finally sent packing.

It’s always good to get a little separation from something as destructive as the modern Democratic Party, but there’s one problem, and it’s what comes next?

Really. Most of us lived through Scott Brown’s special election to replace the late Sen. Ted Kennedy. Just two years after he’d been elected in a historic victory, President Barack Obama had launched his signature legislation to increase government control over health care, and the reaction to his (and the GOP’s) elitist overreaches had finally brought out a previously quiet base of Americans. If he won the election, Scott Brown would break Obama’s supermajority, and stop Obamacare from becoming law.

As the election approached, the excitement spread. My parents took a commercial flight a few days before Election Day where the pilot pranked the intercom system, asking a “Sen. Scott Brown to please come to the front of the plane” to raucous applause. When the day finally came, I was off at the D.C. bar I was working at, so flew home to vote and spend my last dollar sharing a room at the campaign’s hotel. “Tonight’s Gonna Be A Good Night” blasted out of the speakers, while a smiling Gov. Mitt Romney gave television interviews from the ballroom risers.

I still have the issue of the arch-liberal Boston Globe announcing Brown’s win that night. I saved it because I thought he’d stopped Obamacare from becoming reality. And Brown did try! (At least on that issue.) The Republican Party, however, underestimated the lengths their political opponents would go to wield power and defeat their opponents. Twelve years later, Obamacare is still the law of the land and by now, not even talked about.

Ten months after the special election, Americans got another go at sending their men to Washington. The “tea party wave” was so strong, even the always-confident president appeared quiet and chastened, admitting to reporters his party had lost touch and taken “a shellacking.”

But he didn’t give up, eventually warning his opponents, “I’ve got a pen, and I’ve got a phone,” before embarking on an ambitious agenda (that included remaking American citizenship) wielding solely executive power.

There was something to 2016, sure. A total outsider was elected president and, despite years of conspiracy theories, owed nothing to anyone. He’d serve as a wrecking ball, fighting the left on every front they opened, but by 2021, was gone. If just under two years on, Republicans are back, to what end?

Sure, neither Mitch McConnell nor Kevin McCarthy will be winning the presidency (a fact they’ll remind you of ad nauseum), but if they win the power of nominations and the power of the purse, how viciously will they wield the power they’ve been handed?

Will they halt the president’s extremely successful judicial nomination record? Halt it completely, without exception?

  • Will they ask where the billions in dollars and arms going to Ukraine ended up, or just keep sleepwalking toward a nuclear standoff?
  • Will they claw back the IRS’s newfound funds, or leave their tens of thousands of new agents on the job?
  • Will they continue to send $45 billion to America’s hard-left universities without a word of objection, as they have for years?
  • Will they demand funding for a wall, end funding toward abortions here and abroad, and refuse to confirm ambassadors and other posts devoted to spreading the left’s culture war to Vatican City and further abroad?
  • Will they break up the Big Tech companies who wield their power to control the flow of information to voters?

Or on all these issues, will they just tinker around the edges and go on Fox News to crow about it?

While election nights like last night can be a whole lot of fun, the reality is voters often wake up next to a stranger who’s planning to stick around for the next two years.

Conservatives have been losing for about a century now, and at this point rightly find little to conserve. If this will change any at all, they’ll need to think of themselves not as conservatives, but as revolutionaries. If they’re going to make a difference, they might as well: They’ll be up against a powerful executive, its sprawling army of lifelong employees, its allies in the intelligence agencies, Pentagon, corporate media, Silicon Valley, Wall Street, and beyond.

Like an addict realizing the vicious power the drug holds over them, some among us have finally realized the vicious power being wielded against the West. We’ve been losing for a century, yes, but really, we’ve only begun to fight. Maybe 2022 will be different from all the rest, but not without a fight. You don’t beat the regime by voting on Election Day — you beat it by making hell each and every day.

Christopher Bedford is the executive editor of the upcoming Common Sense magazine, from the Common Sense Society. From December 2019 through October 2022, he was a senior editor at The Federalist. He is vice chairman of Young Americans for Freedom, a board member at The Daily Caller News Foundation and National Journalism Center, and the author of “The Art of the Donald.” His work has been featured in The American Mind, National Review, the New York Post and the Daily Caller, where he led the Daily Caller News Foundation and spent eight years. A frequent guest on Fox News and Fox Business, he was raised in Massachusetts and lives across the river from D.C. Follow him on Twitter.

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Liberal Supreme Court Justice Blocks Jan. 6 Committee


 By Jack Davis  October 27, 2022

Read more at https://www.westernjournal.com/liberal-supreme-court-justice-blocks-jan-6-committee/

Efforts by the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol incursion to examine phone records of the Arizona Republican Party chairwoman have been stymied by a member of the U.S. Supreme Court’s liberal wing.

Justice Elena Kagan on Wednesday temporarily blocked the panel from accessing the phone records of Dr. Kelli Ward and her husband, Mark Ward, according to The Hill.

Kagan’s order was terse, saying, “Upon consideration of the application of counsel for the applicants, it is ordered that the October 22, 2022 order of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, case No. 22-16473, is hereby stayed pending further order of the undersigned or of the Court.

“Likewise, respondent T-Mobile USA, Inc. is temporarily enjoined from releasing the records requested by the House Select Committee pending further order of the undersigned or of the Court.

“It is further ordered that a response to the application be filed on or before Friday, October 28, 2022, by 5 p.m. (EDT).”

Kagan was involved because she is the justice assigned to handle emergency requests from Arizona.

The Wards had sued to block access to their phone records. After losing their case at the district court level, they appealed, but the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit voted 2-1 to deny their bid to protect their records, according to CNN.

That prompted the emergency appeal to Kagan. “This is an unprecedented case with profound precedential implications for future congressional investigations and political associational rights under the First Amendment,” the Wards said in the appeal.

“In a first-of-its-kind situation, a select committee of the United States Congress, dominated by one political party, has subpoenaed the personal telephone and text message records of a state chair of the rival political party relating to one of the most contentious political events in American history—the 2020 election and the Capitol riot of January 6, 2021.”

The appeal painted the case as potentially setting a dire precedent.

“If Dr. Ward’s telephone and text message records are disclosed, congressional investigators are going to contact every person who communicated with her during and immediately after the tumult of the 2020 election. That is not speculation, it is a certainty. There is no other reason for the Committee to seek this information,” the Wards’ filing said.

“There can be no greater chill on public participation in partisan politics than a call, visit, or subpoena, from federal investigators,” they wrote.

The appellate panel ruled against the Wards, saying the federal subpoena “is substantially related to the important government interest in investigating the causes of the January 6 attack and protecting future elections from similar threats.”

“The investigation, after all, is not about Ward’s politics; it is about her involvement in the events leading up to the January 6 attack, and it seeks to uncover those with whom she communicated in connection with those events,” Judges Barry Silverman and Eric Miller wrote in the majority opinion. “That some of the people with whom Ward communicated may be members of a political party does not establish that the subpoena is likely to reveal ‘sensitive information about [the party’s] members and supporters.’”

The two judges who formed the majority castigated the activities of the Wards, who were electors pledged to former President Donald Trump.

“Ward participated in a scheme to send spurious electoral votes to Congress, a scheme that the committee describes as ‘a key part’ of the ‘effort to overturn the election’ that culminated on Jan. 6,” the opinion said.

In her dissent, Judge Sandra Ikuta said the Wards have valid constitutional rights that were insufficiently considered.

“The communications at issue here between members of a political party about an election implicate a core associational right protected by the First Amendment,” Ikuta wrote.

“Regardless of Ward’s position regarding the 2020 election, her right to engage in discussions with her political associates remains entitled to First Amendment protection against the government’s compelled disclosure of her political affiliations,” the judge said. “We must be vigilant to protect First Amendment rights — even when raised by an individual alleged to have engaged in a nefarious ‘scheme.’”

Jack Davis

Contributor

Jack Davis is a freelance writer who joined The Western Journal in July 2015 and chronicled the campaign that saw President Donald Trump elected. Since then, he has written extensively for The Western Journal on the Trump administration as well as foreign policy and military issues.

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‘Elitist Cabal’: Tulsi Gabbard Announces She’s Leaving The Democratic Party


By NICOLE SILVERIO, MEDIA REPORTER | October 11, 2022

Read more at https://dailycaller.com/2022/10/11/tulsi-gabbard-leaving-democratic-party/

Tulsi Gabbard
[Screenshot/Twitter/Tulsi Gabbard]

Former Democratic presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard announced Tuesday her departure from the Democratic Party. Gabbard said on a Twitter video that the Democratic Party is controlled by an “elitist cabal of warmongers” promoting division and “anti-white wokeism.”

“I can no longer remain in today’s Democratic Party that’s under the complete control of an elitist cabal of warmongers who are driven by cowardly woke-ness, who divide us by racializing every issue and stoke anti-white racism, actively work to undermine our God-given freedoms that enshrined in our Constitution, who are hostile towards people of faith and spirituality.”

Gabbard criticized the party’s previous push to defund the police and its handling of the U.S.-Mexico border while accusing it of veering the nation “closer to nuclear war.” (RELATED: ‘Essentially Erase Women’: Tulsi Gabbard Slams Biden Admin’s Overhaul Of Key Civil Rights Law) 

“I believe in a government of the people, by the people and for the people,” she said. “Unfortunately, the Democratic Party does not. Instead, it stands for a government that is of, by and for the powerful elite. Now I’m calling on my fellow commonsense, independent minded Democrats to join me in leaving the Democratic Party. If you can no longer stomach the direction of the so-called woke Democratic Party ideologues are taking our country, then I invite you to join me.”

Gabbard has been highly critical of the Democratic Party, accusing them of stoking racial divisions in America and supporting open borders. She also further criticized President Joe Biden’s administration’s response to the war in Ukraine, which has put the country on a collision course with nuclear-armed Russia. 

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Martha’s Vineyard Isn’t The First Time Democrats Failed To Live Up To Their Empty ‘Sanctuary’ Promises


BY: SIMON HANKINSON | SEPTEMBER 22, 2022

Read more at https://thefederalist.com/2022/09/22/marthas-vineyard-isnt-the-first-time-democrats-failed-to-live-up-to-their-empty-sanctuary-promises/

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Earlier this month, a Washington Post editorial acknowledged there was “no end in sight to the procession of buses inbound” to Washington, D.C., and praised Mayor Muriel Bowser for earmarking $10 million for the nearly 10,000 illegal immigrants who have arrived in the capital — about 15 percent of whom intend to remain there.  

The Biden administration pretends it has the burgeoning problem of illegal immigration under control. Late last month, White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre claimed that people aren’t just walking across the border. And just last week, Vice President Kamala Harris insisted the border was “secure.” 

Much of the national media are happy to play along with this deliberate deception. The same corporate media that last year blithely ignored the federal government’s mass, midnight airlifting of illegal immigrants to New York; Jacksonville, Florida; and points beyond are now obsessed when a southern governor flies 50 Venezuelans to swanky Martha’s Vineyard. 

In their eyes, when the administration ships tens of thousands of illegal immigrants under cover of darkness, it’s no big deal. But if the Post spots 50 people flown into Martha’s Vineyard, somehow, it’s a “crisis.” The media never accused the administration of using migrants as pawns or being inhumane, yet the latter is doing exactly what Texas and Arizona are on a vast scale. 

The Post’s editors argue that “state and local officials nationwide must accommodate a flow of migrants — in schools, shelters, streets” as if there is no alternative. They seem unaware that for 250 years, the United States had an immigration law and that, for much of that time, the executive branch did its job, enforcing the law and defending our border. 

What the open-borders, sanctuary-city crowd are at last realizing is that their blank checks can be cashed. New York and Washington’s social services are drowning under a mere 10,000 arrivals each. They’re lucky not to be El Paso (population 684,000), which is dealing with 1,400 illegal migrants arriving per day, or Yuma (population 97,000), which has received 250,000 so far this year. 

Mayor Bowser’s $10 million might sound like a lot but putting just 200 people in hotel rooms in Washington at $200 per night comes out to upwards of $15 million annually, and educating the “about 70” new illegal immigrant children now enrolled in D.C. public schools will cost a couple million more for the first year. What happens next year? 

New York City already has 7,600 migrants in its homeless shelters, which are 99 percent full, and is struggling to find housing for 5,000 new arrivals. As if trying to put out a fire with an eye-dropper, the city has opened a $6.7 million “welcome center” in Manhattan to receive migrants arriving by bus. Cost estimates for housing the city’s noncitizens already exceed $300 million a year. To complicate things, New York requires residents to spend at least 90 days in a shelter before being eligible for housing vouchers. It also requires a background check to verify applications. This normally takes a month, but it will presumably longer to process illegal immigrants who have no records that can be checked. 

Even assuming all the new arrivals actually claim asylum, the average wait for an initial hearing in New York is over three years. In the meantime, they will be public charges on the city’s schools, hospitals, and housing. How long will New York taxpayers put up with this? Well, Mayor Eric Adams has admitted that the city is reaching the end of its rope, and officials are now said to be reconsidering their “right to shelter” commitment to house unlimited foreign indigents on top of New York’s plentiful home-grown needy.

New York and Washington actually look tough compared to Chicago. Mayor Lori Lightfoot proudly signed a “Welcoming City” ordinance in February 2021 to stop city police from working with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. But when the first busloads of 50 migrants arrived in early September, she packed them off to neighboring Burr Ridge without telling its mayor.

Later, when 500 migrants arrived in Chicago, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker declared an emergency and called out the National Guard. Coincidentally, Chicago has suffered almost the same number (491) of murders this year, but that’s not considered an emergency worthy of mobilizing the guard. 

How long will this game of pass-the-parcel continue? Migrants deserve to be treated with dignity and compassion. However, that does not require those who enter illegally to stay here — on the taxpayer’s dime — until our overwhelmed immigration courts can get around to hearing their cases. Under the Migrant Protection Protocols, they could be housed outside our borders while their cases are considered. Even if not, ICE has to be allowed to do its duty, and those who fail to file for asylum or whose cases are denied after due process should be quickly deported as the law requires. It’s time President Biden stopped denying the crisis at the southern border and accepted the truth. Only then can we work for a national solution to the ongoing migrant crisis.

A former State Department official, Simon Hankinson is a senior research fellow in The Heritage Foundation’s Davis Institute for National Security and Foreign Affairs.

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    For Lack Of Public Confidence In The Supreme Court, John Roberts Has Only Himself To Blame


    BY: SHAWN FLEETWOOD | SEPTEMBER 14, 2022

    Read more at https://thefederalist.com/2022/09/14/for-lack-of-public-confidence-in-the-supreme-court-john-roberts-has-only-himself-to-blame/

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    U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts

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    U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts is back in the public spotlight and his latest remarks on judicial integrity are turning heads. Appearing at the 10th Circuit Bench and Bar Conference in Colorado Springs, Colorado on Friday, the chief justice spoke about the perceived credibility of the Supreme Court among the American public and how disagreeing with its opinions “is not a basis for questioning [its] legitimacy.”

    “The court has always decided controversial cases and decisions have always been subject to intense criticism, and that is entirely appropriate,” Roberts said. “But I don’t understand the connection between the opinions people disagree with and the legitimacy of the Supreme Court.”

    Following the Supreme Court’s rulings on several hot-button issues this past session, such as the striking down of Roe v. Wade and upholding of Second Amendment rights, Democrats and their sycophants in legacy media have been quick to vilify the high court and call into question its ability to operate as an independent body simply because a majority of justices didn’t give them the outcomes they wanted. While it’s fair for Roberts to push back against such logic and distinguish the legitimacy of the high court from its judicial decisions, his next comments were impossible to take seriously.

    “If the court doesn’t retain its legitimate function of interpreting the Constitution, I’m not sure who would take up that mantle,” the chief justice said. “You don’t want the political branches telling you what the law is, and you don’t want public opinion to be the guide about what the appropriate decision is.”

    For someone who holds the rank of chief justice, the lack of self-awareness from Roberts is stunning. Throughout his tenure on the Supreme Court, Roberts’s judicial decision-making on various high-profile cases has been guided by “public opinion.”

    When the court was considering the constitutionality of Obamacare in the 2012 NFIB v. Sebelius case, for instance, Roberts reportedly took extensive actions behind the scenes to alter the Supreme Court’s final decision on the matter, even though Obamacare is obviously unconstitutional. After initially siding with his Republican-appointed colleagues in striking down the individual mandate of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) “on the grounds that it went beyond Congress’s power to regulate interstate commerce,” Roberts got cold feet over fears of potential public blowback over the high court’s impending decision and worked with his Democrat-appointed colleagues to change it.

    As reported by SCOTUS biographer Joan Biskupic in her book, “The Chief,” Roberts’s bid to play politics led him to form a deal with leftist Justices Stephen Breyer and Elena Kagan that upheld and struck down certain portions of the ACA.

    “After trying unsuccessfully to find a middle way with [Justice Anthony] Kennedy, who was ‘unusually firm’ and even ‘put off’ by the courtship, Roberts turned to the Court’s two moderate liberals, Stephen Breyer and Elena Kagan,” a review of “The Chief” published in The Atlantic reads. “The threesome negotiated a compromise decision that upheld the ACA’s individual mandate under Congress’s taxing power, while striking down the Medicaid expansion.”

    Biskupic’s reporting echoes findings released by CBS News’ Jan Crawford. She in 2012 reported that “Roberts pays attention to media coverage” and that “[a]s chief justice, he is keenly aware of his leadership role on the court” and “is sensitive to how the court is perceived by the public.”

    In spite of his efforts to maintain the court’s favorability as measured by often-biased poll results, Roberts’s games in the NFIB v. Sebelius case did the exact opposite. As detailed in their bestselling book, “Justice on Trial: The Kavanaugh Confirmation and the Future of the Supreme Court,” Federalist Editor-in-Chief Mollie Hemingway and President of the Judicial Crisis Network Carrie Severino detail how “Pew [Research] reported that after the decision the Court remained at its all-time-low 52 percent approval.”

    “The accepted narrative, even among those who welcomed the chief’s decision, was that he changed his legal position not on principle but in response to public pressure,” Hemingway and Severino write. “The right lost respect for him, and the decision won him no friends on the left, which still portrays him as unforgivably conservative and a craven political operative. It was a regrettable outcome for anyone concerned about the legitimacy of the Court.”

    Roberts’s deference to the consistently changing and poll-manipulated opinions of the American public at the expense of upholding the Constitution didn’t stop at the Obamacare ruling, either. Over the years, Roberts has routinely abandoned originalism for political activism, with the court’s 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision striking down Roe‘s made-up “constitutional right” to an abortion serving as a more recent example.

    Despite Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett all correctly maintaining that the precedent established in Roe was unconstitutional garbage, Roberts attempted — yet again — to play politician and convince one of his Republican-appointed colleagues to change his or her vote before the opinion was released. Originally reported by The Washington Post and later Biskupic, Roberts directed his lobbying to save Roe toward justices including Brett Kavanaugh, which “continued through the final weeks of the [2021-2022] session.”

    “Multiple sources told CNN that Roberts’ overtures this spring, particularly to Kavanaugh, raised fears among conservatives and hope among liberals that the chief could change the outcome in the most closely watched case in decades,” Biskupic writes. “Once the draft was published by Politico, conservatives pressed their colleagues to try to hasten release of the final decision, lest anything suddenly threaten their majority.”

    The report went on to detail how the abrupt May leak of the Supreme Court’s majority draft opinion in Dobbs “thwarted” Roberts’ efforts, with Biskupic noting how the chief justice “can usually work in private, seeking and offering concessions, without anyone beyond the court knowing how he or other individual justices have voted or what they may be writing.”

    In the final opinion, Roberts ultimately sided with the leftist justices of the court in upholding Roe, while also voting with his Republican-appointed colleagues to uphold the Mississippi 15-week abortion law as constitutional.

    Whether he wants to admit it to himself or not, a decline in public confidence in the Supreme Court isn’t due to any originalist rulings, but to Roberts’s political activism. The role of a judge is — and always has been — to apply the Constitution as it was originally written by the Founders; not manipulate the law to satisfy some personal desire for public approval.

    In abdicating his responsibility as a justice, Roberts has given the country every reason to be skeptical of the court’s ability to operate freely from the politics that plague America’s societal discourse. If the chief justice had any interest in ensuring the future of the Supreme Court’s legitimacy, he would quit acting like Mitch McConnell in a robe and start behaving like the judge he was appointed to be.

    Shawn Fleetwood is a Staff Writer for The Federalist and a graduate of the University of Mary Washington. He also serves 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

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      Unintended Consequences: Vaccine Mandates Are Flipping Voter Registrations And Driving Political Change


      BY: ASHLEY BATEMAN | SEPTEMBER 08, 2022

      Read more at https://thefederalist.com/2022/09/08/vaccine-mandates-are-flipping-voter-registrations-and-driving-political-change/

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      A devout Christian, father, and African-American, Michael Anderson didn’t feel represented by either party and until Jan. 31 of this year, remained politically unaffiliated. But a series of events has led him to align with and campaign alongside conservatives in one of North Carolina’s most liberal counties.

      Anderson is an attorney for a Big Tech company in Charlotte. Headquartered just a few miles across the border in South Carolina, his company claims the fifth largest internet footprint in the United States. Higher-ups have a stated goal of widespread “influence.” They are making good on that goal.

      On Nov 18, 2021, the CEO stood before an all-employee meeting at the Charlotte location and declared for the “greater good of humanity” it was no longer enough to segregate the workers who had not received a Covid-19 vaccine. They had to be removed entirely. The entire company had been working remotely for nearly two years at that point, Anderson said. The announcement came just before the holidays.

      “Hundreds of people found out that day they would be fired unless they submitted to the mandate without an approved medical or religious exemption,” Anderson said.

      Anderson reached out to co-workers via an internal Slack channel sharing his concerns and received a flood of responses expressing stress and fear.

      “I’ve worked in some difficult places with some difficult people and that was the most difficult week of my career,” Anderson said. “I grew up in a single-parent family below the poverty level. Single mothers [were contacting me]. Pregnant women were contacting me to see whether they could receive a medical exemption. There were so many inequities and unjust consequences to this poorly thought out, draconian mandate.”

      About 60 employees linked up. “All these people [losing their jobs] are super high-performing, hardworking people, some who have been in the company for 15-16 years,” Anderson said. “I asked the CEO to change the policy, the director of diversity, the General Counsel; I couldn’t change their minds.”

      Anderson began using his legal expertise to assist exemption-seekers. Alongside like-minded freedom fighters, he developed a coalition, ByManyOrByFew, to inform, educate and connect voters.

      “I thought we ought to do something to fight against these policies and funnel people toward politicians who were freedom-minded,” he said.

      But Anderson didn’t stop there. Within weeks of the company announcement, he decided to run for a North Carolina House seat in Mecklenburg, one of the most Democratic counties in the state. Choosing a party affiliation by now was a no-brainer.

      In preparation to testify before the South Carolina House and Ways subcommittee on December 7, 2021, for a workplace vaccination bill that could eventually impact the North Carolina arm of the company he works for, Anderson reached out to both political parties. Not one Democrat would respond, but many Republicans fighting for individual rights did. “Forty-four Caucasians were fighting to protect my rights,” he said.

      Vaccines historically have a disparate impact on minorities. Anderson references the Tuskegee Experiment, as one horrific example. He saw history repeating itself with the Covid-19 vaccine, led by a Democratic president.

      “When you had these vaccine mandates come out, I placed the blame at the feet of President Biden,” Anderson said. “Although his mandates were ultimately unsuccessful, a lot of companies were encouraged and enabled to have their own vaccine mandates and a private company has a lot more flexibility compared to the government. As a result, by their terms, that caused systemic, institutional racism because it has a disparate impact on minorities.”

      That is who Anderson specifically wants to champion; and who Democrats continuously fail to support or outright harm with disastrous policies. Even with the CDC’s recently updated vaccine guidelines, Democratic leaders like Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser are pursuing policies that hurt miniorities disproportionately, like a vaccine mandate that would bar 40 percent of D.C. black teenagers from in-person learning.

      “My district is 60 percent African American, 20 percent Latino,” Anderson said. “The reason why I like that and that’s where I want to be is not only because I am African American, there’s no demographic flipping faster from Democrat to Republican than Latino. And if you look at the vaccine mandates, there is no race that was hurt worse than African Americans.”

      Minority voters have been impacted by other far-left policies, and are expressing their discontent at the polls. A recent interview by NPR with political scientist Ruy Teixeira revealed how Democrats are driving minority voters to flip partisanship, especially in the Latino population. 

      “…[T]he ultra-progressive wing of the Democratic Party privileging criminal justice reform over public safety,” has become a major concern of minority voters, Teixeira said. “People want to be safe from crime, and that includes a lot of nonwhite voters. It is not a matter for them of choosing between the two, but rather above all, you’ve got to keep our community safe.”

      Anderson’s opponent for NC House District 99, Democratic Rep. Nasif Majeed, supported the “ultra-progressive” defunding of the Charlotte police in his previous campaign. Charlotte now has only 1,600 police officers for a city of 1 million people. Three hundred defections or retirements are expected in the near term and salaries start as low as $40,000. A lack of manpower has resulted in unanswered 911 calls and crimes below a felony going entirely unaddressed. “Social justice warriors” are crippling police response, according to local law enforcement.

      Democrats’ leftist ideologies ruin cities and Anderson wants to get his town back on track, but he knows reform isn’t possible alongside current Democrats in North Carolina’s House, who hold a majority in the legislature. 

      A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania Law School, Anderson grew up below the poverty level in a biracial, single-parent home. Progressive policies pressed during the pandemic are driving inequity that entrap and eliminate those the far-left claim to champion, he said. He feels there is no place for him in the Democratic Party right now.

      Through door-to-door campaigning, he’s found that many registered Democrats in Charlotte agree.

      “I ask people what issues they need represented and how the system is failing them,” Anderson said. “You have to have conversations with people to know.”

      Empowered by a Democrat president, Democrat House, and a coalition of Democrat governors, Covid-19 tyranny has driven a new type of minority leader like Anderson to represent an increasingly diverse Republican party — one that engages in the political battle and fights for the now tenuous freedoms once taken for granted.

      Ashley Bateman is a policy writer for The Heartland Institute and blogger for Ascension Press. Her work has been featured in The Washington Times, The Daily Caller, The New York Post, The American Thinker and numerous other publications. She previously worked as an adjunct scholar for The Lexington Institute and as editor, writer and photographer for The Warner Weekly, a publication for the American military community in Bamberg, Germany. Ashley is a board member at a Catholic homeschool cooperative in Virginia. She homeschools her four incredible children along with her brilliant engineer/scientist husband who lives in Virginia.

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      C. Douglas Golden Op-ed: Biden Admin Lit Megafire That Burned 432 Homes, Now US Is Forcing Victims to Pay for It


       By C. Douglas Golden  August 2, 2022 at 8:03am

      Read more at https://www.westernjournal.com/biden-admin-lit-megafire-burned-432-homes-now-us-forcing-victims-pay/

      When the federal government started a wildfire that burned 432 homes in New Mexico back in May, President Joe Biden promised that the U.S. government would be footing the bill.

      “Today, I’m announcing the federal government’s covering 100 percent of the cost,” Biden said during a June 11 speech at the New Mexico State Regional Training Installation Facility in Santa Fe.

      Unfortunately, that doesn’t appear to be the case, according to Reuters.

      The U.S. Department of Agriculture is now telling victims that they need to share the cost of the fire because Biden’s declaration didn’t waive a federal statute requiring cost-sharing.

      According to The Associated Press, the wildfire — the largest in the state’s history — resulted from two controlled burns by the U.S. Forest Service in regions known as Calf’s Canyon and Hermit’s Peak.

      Lo and behold, the controlled burns got out of control. The resulting fire incinerated 432 residences over a 530-square-mile area, Reuters reported.

      The burn damage consisted “of mostly privately owned forests and meadows, much of it held by members of centuries-old Indo-Hispano ranching communities,” the report said.

      During his remarks in Santa Fe, Biden made it clear there was a bit of an asterisk to the promise that 100 percent of the cost would be borne by the federal government.

      According to a White House transcript of his remarks, the president noted that “we have a responsibility, as a government, as a — to deal with the communities who are put in — in such jeopardy” and vowed that the federal government would cover “100 percent of the cost of debris removal and emergency protective measures for the next critical months.”

      However, he added that the funding was intended to “be a strong bridge until we — that we pass the — the Hermit’s Peak Fire Assistance Act.”

      If that law passes, it could provide total federal compensation — although not in the near term, given that the legislation isn’t likely to be voted on until the fall. Thus, for the moment, many of the fire victims now have to pay for the damage the federal government caused.

      Take Daniel Encinias, a 55-year-old rancher who met Biden during his visit to New Mexico. He’s living in a camping trailer next to the ashes of his Tierra Monte, New Mexico, home. He’s not alone, either: His wife, Lori, his three teenagers and 12 pets are all in there, too.

      He was also told by the Department of Agriculture he would get quick support at minimal cost. That’s a good thing because, as with many in his low-income corner of the world, he didn’t have insurance.

      That’s not quite how it worked, however.

      “Encinias submitted an application to the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) to fix his well, but was told to share 25% of costs based on a federal statute that could not be waived as it did not fall under Biden’s declaration,” Reuters reported.

      “Encinias said he was told by NRCS officials his application would be considered in September and recovery work would begin six to 12 months thereafter if he was accepted.”

      “Why the hell am I going to pay anything when I didn’t cause this damn fire?” he said.

      After starting New Mexico fire, U.S. asks victims to pay

      http://reut.rs/3PNTmuu

      Originally tweeted by Reuters (@Reuters) on July 31, 2022.

      Encinias, a retired electrician, is doing some of the work himself. As for feeding his cattle, he’s been forced to buy hay because the baler he owns was destroyed in the fire.

      The family is surviving on the $37,000 maximum Federal Emergency Management Agency payout for the destruction of their five-bedroom house in the fire.

      “I’m hoping that finally something works out where it helps the people,” Encinias said.

      Then there’s rancher Kenny Zamora, who saw 170 acres of his forest burned. Following the fire, heavy rains caused debris to slide down hills no longer able to absorb water, leaving his pastures covered in 2 feet of muck.

      “If you don’t have insurance, you’re pretty much on your own,” he said.

      He’s not kidding. After applying to the USDA’s Farms Service Agency for help to feed his livestock, he was told he wasn’t eligible, with USDA officials telling him the Emergency Forest Restoration Program in the area hasn’t been funded yet.

      These two are hardly alone, according to Reuters.

      “Many fire-hit families cannot afford sharing at least 25% of costs on the USDA’s Emergency Forest Restoration Program (EFRP) which offers relief such as stabilization of burn areas prone to flash flooding, according to New Mexico State Forester Laura McCarthy. Residents sometimes own large areas of land passed down from 1800s Spanish-Mexican land grants while working blue-collar jobs,” the report said.

      “They’re really struggling,” the state forester said.

      So, what happens to people like Encinias in the interim?

      Don’t ask the local NRCS office in Las Vegas, New Mexico, where Encinias had applied for aid. Its response to Reuters’ request for comment was to direct the wire service to the national office. The national office, however, didn’t respond to the request. Neither did the White House.

      Biden made a promise. Yet his administration has been more concerned with getting its mega-spending bills through Congress than with delivering for these ranchers.

      “It’s not a gift,” the president said in June. “We have a responsibility to help this state recover, to help the families who have been here for centuries, and the beautiful northern New Mexico villages who can’t go home and whose livelihoods have been fundamentally changed.”

      If this really is a responsibility of his administration, he needs to start acting that way.

      C. Douglas Golden, Contributor,

      C. Douglas Golden is a writer who splits his time between the United States and Southeast Asia. Specializing in political commentary and world affairs, he’s written for Conservative Tribune and The Western Journal since 2014.

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      Kamala Harris Goes Off the Deep End and Declares War on Supreme Court and GOP: ‘How Dare They’


      Reported By Elizabeth Stauffer  May 4, 2022 at 9:59am

      Read more at https://www.westernjournal.com/kamala-harris-goes-off-deep-end-declares-war-supreme-court-gop-dare/

      Reminiscent of young environmental activist Greta Thunberg’s bratty “How dare you!” denunciation of world leaders, Vice President Kamala Harris railed against Republican leaders who she claimed are trying to “weaponize” the law against women on Tuesday evening. Speaking at an event for EMILY’s List, a political action committee that works to elect pro-abortion female candidates, Harris declared war on the Supreme Court over a draft opinion showing that a majority of justices are prepared to strike down the Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion.

      The document apparently was leaked to Politico, which reported on it Monday night. Harris’ speech had been scheduled prior to the report.

      In her address, she expanded upon a brief statement she had released earlier in the day framing the overturning of Roe v. Wade as a threat to “the rights of all Americans.”

      “Women’s rights in America are under attack,” the vice president began.

      “Roe v. Wade, in its power, has protected a woman’s right — her right — to make decisions about her own body for nearly half a century,” she said.

      “If the court overturns Roe v. Wade, it will be a direct assault on freedom — on the fundamental right of self-determination to which all Americans are entitled.”

      “Women in almost half the country could see their access to abortion severely limited,” Harris said. “In 13 of those states, women would lose access to abortion immediately and outright.”

      “Those Republican leaders who are trying to weaponize the use of the law against women,” she said, her anger rising, “Well we say, how dare they! How dare they tell a woman what she can do and cannot do with her own body. How dare they! How dare they try to stop her from determining her own future! How dare they try to deny women their rights and their freedoms.”

      READ THE REST OF THIS REPORT AT https://www.westernjournal.com/kamala-harris-goes-off-deep-end-declares-war-supreme-court-gop-dare/

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      Thousands of ‘Ballot Mules’ Delivered Tens of Thousands of Votes for Biden? NY Post Publishes Devastating Claims


      Reported By Jack Davis | April 25, 2022

      Read more at https://www.westernjournal.com/thousands-ballot-mules-delivered-tens-thousands-votes-biden-ny-post-publishes-devastating-claims/

      A new report that analyzed the forthcoming movie from conservative filmmaker Dinesh D’Souza warns that based on the 2020 election, Democrats have a “cunning plan” for the future.

      After previewing the documentary “2,000 Mules,” New York Post columnist Miranda Devine wrote that “pesky evidence is starting to emerge of systematic schemes to subvert the electoral process — which must not be allowed to happen again if we are to restore faith in elections.”

      Devine called the movie — which debuts next month — “the most compelling evidence to date” concerning the race between then-President Donald Trump and Democrat Joe Biden and said research conducted by the election integrity group True the Vote reveals what appears to be “suspicious ballot harvesting.”

      The Western Journal reached out to the Biden White House for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

      The research Devine cited relied on sophisticated tracking and surveillance video to reach its conclusions.

      True the Vote acquired 3 trillion geo-location signals from cellphones that were near ballot drop boxes and election nonprofits in the weeks leading up to the Nov. 3, 2020 vote.

      “Then they went searching for ‘mules,’ operatives who picked up ballots from election NGOs — such as Stacey Abrams’ outfit, ‘Fair Fight Action’ — and then carried them to different drop boxes, depositing between three to 10 ballots in each box before moving to the next,” Devine wrote.

      Catherine Engelbrecht, founder of True the Vote, said she chose the term “mule” for the people involved in the operation because “it felt a lot like a cartel, it felt like trafficking … This is in its essence ballot trafficking … You have the collectors. You have the stash houses, which are the nonprofits. And then you have the mules that are doing the drops.”

      Devine wrote that the network included individuals in battleground states who collected ballots from organizations that were ostensibly out to help everybody vote and then put them in drop boxes, a few at a time.

      “The extent of the operation is jaw-dropping,” she said.

      “When a mule is matched with video, you can see the scheme come to life,” she wrote.

      Devine noted one snippet from the film.

      “A car pulls up at a drop box after midnight. A man gets out, looks around surreptitiously, approaches the box, stuffs in a handful of ballots and hightails it out of there. Then he goes to the next box, again and again,” she wrote.

      D’Souza said the efforts of the mules could have swung the election based on his contention that at least 380,000 potentially fraudulent votes were tracked by the project.

      “Shockingly, even this narrow way of looking at just our 2,000 mules in these swing states gives Trump the win with 279 electoral votes to Biden’s 259,” he said.

      Devine said that’s hard to prove. “There is no way to scrutinize those ballots now and see if they are fraudulent but if we must have drop boxes at election time, they need to be secure and under 24/7 surveillance,” she said.

      She said Republicans cannot spend all of their time on the 2020 election because it “makes them look like sore losers.”

      However, she also noted an interview with Trump in which he compared the election to a diamond theft at Tiffany’s.

      “There’s no getting the diamonds back now. But we can stop the store being robbed again,” Devine wrote.

      Jack Davis

      Contributor, News

      Jack Davis is a freelance writer who joined The Western Journal in July 2015 and chronicled the campaign that saw President Donald Trump elected. Since then, he has written extensively for The Western Journal on the Trump administration as well as foreign policy and military issues.

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      Joe Biden’s State Of The Union Previewed Dems’ Fake Attempt To Walk Back Their Culture War


      REPORTED BY: EMILY JASHINSKY | MARCH 02, 2022

      Read more at https://thefederalist.com/2022/03/02/joe-bidens-state-of-the-union-previewed-dems-fake-attempt-to-walk-back-their-culture-war/

      Joe Biden’s ”State of the Union” address clearly marked an attempt by his White House to make their culture war seem like an afterthought. It’s not, of course, as evidenced by the president’s description of abortion as “health care” and his demand that Congress pass the radical Equality Act. But the bulk of Biden’s speech focused on “meat and potatoes,” as Chris Hayes repeatedly claimed during MSNBC’s coverage.

      It’s true, Biden dedicated much of his address to Ukraine, infrastructure, the economy, health care, and Covid-19. He earned a robust round of applause with a line that said, “We should all agree the answer is not to defund the police. It is to fund the police.” He touched on guns, immigration, and the environment, but they were hardly his focus. Notably, Joy Reid lamented the absence of Jan. 6 from Biden’s address, arguing it was characteristically devoid of “red meat.” Reid was right to find that balance remarkable. Rather than signaling a shift away from Democrats’ scorched-earth culture war, Biden’s speech signaled a shift away from the party’s strategy of obsessing over identity politics. This comes with an enormous caveat: Democrats cannot and will not meaningfully make any such pivot beyond rhetoric.

      Until they’re willing to drop truly radical policies like the Equality Act, it’s all smoke and mirrors meant to distract voters from what they’re actually doing to the culture. Democrats cannot simply pretend the summer of 2020 and the lockdowns never happened, no matter how much the media might help them try, because the party has now spent years committing to inflated definitions of bigotry that would condemn any moderation from their positions. Sure, voters have short memories and the media is complicit. But these definitions are now baked into our institutions. They are ingrained in the minds of a generation. They’re clung to by journalists and activists that Democrats need to please.

      Samuel Goldman of George Washington University disrupted the annual flood of breathless SOTU tweets with a great reminder on Tuesday night. “Guys, this speech is not for you,” he wrote. “It’s for D-leaners who disapprove of the administration and these are the lines that worked for them in focus groups. Don’t overthink it.”

      That’s exactly right and it’s also why Biden’s “meat and potatoes” tone felt different. From recalls and losses like Terry McAuliffe’s to Biden’s dismal ratings to Covid missteps and brutal new polls, establishment Democrats (and even their allies in the corporate press) are worried enough about their power to start making small sacrifices in the culture war, even if they’re superficial. And they have to be superficial, because establishment Democrats have spent years emboldening the cultural left, so much that small departures from dogma are now treated as bigotry by a vocal minority of their base. While those voices may be a minority of the base, many of them are very powerful, and they can weaponize all of Democrats’ prior cultural leftism against them to level accusations of racism and sexism and all the other -isms over rhetoric alone. See this tweet Rep. Cori Bush, D-Mo., blasted out to her 900,000 followers after the speech.

      Biden’s heavy focus on “meat and potatoes” signaled a cynical but long overdue attempt by the Democratic establishment to convince voters they’re not frenzied culture warriors. Unfortunately for Biden and his party, they are indeed frenzied culture warriors and they’re going to have a difficult time proving otherwise without alienating the radicals they’ve tried so hard to appease. It’s at least good news that voters are rejecting cultural leftism so clearly, even Beltway liberals are noticing.

      Emily Jashinsky is culture editor at The Federalist. She previously covered politics as a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner. Prior to joining the Examiner, Emily was the spokeswoman for Young America’s Foundation. She’s interviewed leading politicians and entertainers and appeared regularly as a guest on major television news programs, including “Fox News Sunday,” “Media Buzz,” and “The McLaughlin Group.” Her work has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Post, Real Clear Politics, and more. Emily also serves as director of the National Journalism Center and a visiting fellow at Independent Women’s Forum. Originally from Wisconsin, she is a graduate of George Washington University.

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      Samantha Chang Op-ed: Biden Nuclear Hire Is Drag Queen Who Talks About ‘Sex with Animals’ and Has Called NIH Chief ‘Daddy Fauci’


      Commentary By Samantha Chang | February 11, 2022

      Read more at https://www.westernjournal.com/biden-nuclear-hire-drag-queen-talks-sex-animals-called-nih-chief-daddy-fauci/

      The Biden administration continues to make bizarre recruiting decisions for top government jobs on the basis of toxic identity politics. A recent addition to President Joe Biden’s motley crew of dubious hires is drag queen Sam Brinton, who was tapped last month as the “Deputy Assistant Secretary of Spent Fuel and Waste Disposition in the Office of Nuclear Energy for the Department of Energy.”

      Rather than touting his qualifications for the job, Brinton — who lists his pronouns as “they”/”them” — bragged on Twitter about his unique status as the “first gender fluid person in federal government leadership.”

      In a biographical statement on an LGBT website provided by Brinton, he boasted about having “worn his stilettos to Congress to advise legislators about nuclear policy and to the White House, where he advised President Obama and Michelle Obama on LGBT issues.”

      The bio continued: “He shows young men and women everywhere he goes that they can be who they are and gives them courage. Once, while he was walking around Disney World in 6 inch stilettos with his boyfriend, a young gay boy saw Sam with his boyfriend and started crying. He told his mother, ‘It’s true, Mom. WE can be our own princess here.’”

      Brinton is an active member of the Washington, D.C., chapter of a drag queen society known as the “Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence,” the National Pulse reported Thursday.

      The drag queen has referred to White House chief medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci as “Daddy Fauci” and even called him a “saint.”

      There are also photos on social media where he displays his fondness for “pup play,” a sexual role-playing game.

      In a 2016 interview with the LGBT-focused Metro Weekly magazine, Brinton discussed his fetish in detail.

      “Pup and I have what I feel is one of the most ideally perfect connections between our personal and kink life,” he said. “Both of us have other partners, so we come into this space, and then we come out of it, knowing the boundaries of where your kink and non-kink relationships begin and end.”

      Brinton acknowledged that others didn’t understand his activities.

      “One of the hardest things about being a handler is that I’ve honestly had people ask, ‘Wait, you have sex with animals?’” he told Metro Weekly. “They believe it’s abusive, that it’s taking advantage of someone who may not be acting up to a level of human responsibility. …

      “The other misperception is that I have some really messed up background, like, did I have some horrible childhood trauma that made me like to have sex with animals.”

      This is who’s helping Biden run the country right now, which is in shambles amid record inflation, soaring crime, race wars and ongoing border invasions.


      People can do whatever they want in the privacy of their homes (provided it’s not illegal or hurting anyone), but the fact that the kinky sex life of a high-level Department of Energy executive overshadows his qualifications is truly alarming. This is how empires crash and burn.

      Under Biden, we are witnessing the real-time destruction of America — economically, culturally and socially. And we’re only in Year 2 of his reign.

      Truth and Accuracy

      We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.

      Samantha Chang, Contributor,

      Samantha Chang is a politics writer, lawyer and financial editor based in New York City.

      @Samantha_Chang

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      Randy DeSoto Op-ed: Adam Schiff Gets Verbally KO-ed on Air When Fed-Up Interviewer Finally Nails Him


      Commentary By Randy DeSoto | November 9, 2021

      Read more at https://www.westernjournal.com/adam-schiff-gets-verbally-ko-ed-air-fed-interviewer-finally-nails/

      Former Trump administration State Department spokesperson Morgan Ortagus clearly made House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff uncomfortable when she pressed him on Tuesday about his promotion of the debunked Steele dossier.

      Last week, special counsel John Durham charged Igor Danchenko with five counts of lying to the FBI. Danchenko is a Russian national who worked at the liberal Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., and is believed to be a primary source of information contained in the infamous anti-Trump dossier compiled by former British intelligence agent Christopher Steele. That document was paid for by the Hillary Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee and was used to help launch the Russia probe in search of ties between the 2016 Donald Trump presidential campaign and Russia.

      Ortagus, who was a guest-hosting ABC’s “The View” on Tuesday, questioned Schiff about his promotion of the Steele dossier and the false narrative underlying it.

      “You’ve been really prolific over the past few years being the head of the Intel Committee. You defended, promoted, you even read into the Congressional Record the Steele dossier,” Ortagus said.

      “And we know last week the main source of the dossier was indicted by the FBI for lying about most of the key claims in that dossier. Do you have any reflections on your role in promoting this to the American people?” she asked.

      Schiff first responded in a reasonable fashion, saying any who lied to the FBI should be prosecuted.

      He then defended his conduct.

      “We couldn’t have known, for example, people were lying to Christopher Steele. So it was proper to investigate them,” Schiff said.

      The congressman added that one benefit of the investigation was learning that Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort had given polling data to Russian intelligence. Schiff was playing pretty fast and loose with the facts. According to The Associated Press, Manafort gave polling data to Konstantin Kilimnik, a Russian and Ukrainian political consultant, who allegedly passed it along to Russian intelligence.

      “But Mueller’s team said it couldn’t ‘reliably determine’ Manafort’s purpose in sharing it, nor assess what Kilimnik may have done with it,” the AP reported.

      That sort of exaggeration by Schiff was typical throughout the Russia probe.

      Ortagus reminded Schiff that Manafort was removed from the campaign in the summer of 2016 when questions arose regarding his past lobbying work for pro-Russian Ukrainian oligarchs. Further, it should be noted that Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team, though filled with Democratic investigators, “did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated” with Russia, according to the Justice Department’s Mueller report.

      Ortagus then brought the conversation back to Schiff’s role in promoting the whole collusion false narrative and the dossier.

      “You may have helped spread Russian disinformation yourself for years by promoting this. I think that’s what Republicans and what people who entrusted you as the Intel Committee chair are so confused about your culpability in all of this,” Ortagus said.

      “Well, I completely disagree with your premise,” Schiff responded. “It’s one thing to say allegations should be investigated, and they were. It’s another to say that we should have foreseen in advance that some people were lying to Christopher Steele, which is impossible of course to do.”

      The Californian sells himself short. He was constantly out in front of the cameras claiming he was privy to intelligence that he could not share with the public validating the collusion charge. For example in March 2017, NBC “Meet The Press” host Chuck Todd asked Schiff if there was anything beyond circumstantial evidence suggesting the Trump campaign’s connection to Russia.

      “I can tell you that the case is more than that and I can’t go into the particulars, but there is more than circumstantial evidence now,” Schiff said.

      Further questioned whether he had seen direct evidence, the representative responded, “I don’t want to get into specifics but I will say that there is evidence that is not circumstantial and is very much worthy of an investigation.”

      Despite making claims like that for many months, Schiff never came forward with such evidence, even after Mueller issued his report.

      On Tuesday’s showing of “The View,” the Democrat pivoted away from discussing the dossier to raising the issue of the 2019 House Democratic impeachment of Trump and the Capitol incursion to prove investigating him was justified.

      You’ll recall it was during the impeachment hearing that Schiff famously made up his own fanciful version of Trump’s call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to build his case that the American leader conducted a shakedown to secure an investigation into Joe and Hunter Biden’s shady dealings in Ukraine. This performance was even after Zelensky himself said he felt no pressure from Trump’s call and his country launched no investigation into the Bidens.

      Schiff told Ortagus, “None of that is undercut. None of that serious misconduct is in any way diminished by the fact that people lied to Christopher Steele.”

      “No. I think just your credibility is,” Ortagus shot back.

      Schiff then opted for the verbal attack of a schoolboy, saying, “I think the credibility of your question is in doubt.”

      Having boasted about so much with so little pushback from the media, it was refreshing to see his feet actually held to the fire for once.

      Randy DeSoto, Senior Staff Writer

      Randy DeSoto has written more than 2,000 articles for The Western Journal since he joined the company in 2015. He is a graduate of West Point and Regent University School of Law. He is the author of the book “We Hold These Truths” and screenwriter of the political documentary “I Want Your Money.”@RandyDeSoto

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      Matthew Cochran Op-ed: Amid The Parent Surge, Republicans Can Either Lead, Follow, Or Get Out Of The Way


      Commentary By Matthew Cochran | NOVEMBER 9, 2021

      Read more at https://thefederalist.com/2021/11/09/amid-the-parent-surge-republicans-can-either-lead-follow-or-get-out-of-the-way/

      Photo Bryan Alexander / Flickr

      Americans have two political parties, both of which we loathe. We take turns punishing one by rewarding the other. Our political elites depend on this vicious cycle, and it’s why the only thing both parties ever seem to agree on is screwing ordinary Americans like a two-headed weasel in heat.

      It’s easy to think it’s merely that vicious cycle at work in Virginia’s recent election upset: Democrats came out hard in favor of enabling bathroom rape, teaching kids that white skin is evil, and alerting the FBI about parents who expressed concern over such things.

      So they got punished for it, and now Republicans have a new opportunity to squander. After that, Americans would normally punish the GOP for failing their mandate by reelecting Democrats who finally rediscovered how to shut up about their true intentions for five minutes.

      But the opportunity presented to Virginia Republicans goes beyond another chance for the GOP to suckle on a fresh serving of voters’ goodwill. The massive rightward shift in Virginia wasn’t just business as usual. It was driven by a growing number of parents choosing to reclaim their authority over their households.

      Parents Awaken to Their Responsibilities

      Providence has given parents the awesome responsibility to raise and provide for the well-being of their children. Like any true responsibility, it comes with the authority to carry it out. When parents are unable to fulfill those responsibilities alone, they delegate.

      For example, if parents cannot reliably protect their household from murderers, rapists, and robbers, they collaborate with institutions that can. If they cannot adequately educate their children alone, they enlist the help of teachers. This delegation is ultimately why any and every government institution exists: to assist families in some way or another.

      It is precisely this authority Democrat Terry McAuliffe openly tried to usurp. As a result, the election became a referendum on whether children belong to the state. Enough parents were willing to say “no” that a blue state turned red overnight.

      Parents can be tricked into delegating their authority to the unfit if they can plausibly tell themselves their children will be fine. The public school system is proof enough of that.

      But the past couple of years have rapidly eroded that plausibility. We’ve seen schools forcibly cover children’s faces and isolate them from friends over an illness that poses virtually no threat to them. Remote learning also exposed their curriculum to an extent most parents had never witnessed before. The promotion of sexual degeneracy by schools is likewise coming home to roost more and more often.

      Justice Delayed Is Justice Denied

      It’s also not just Virginia and not just the schools. Our state and federal governments have spent two years devastating our economy, stripping our stores bare, and inflating our currency, making it harder than ever to care for our children. Our media has spent even longer lying to us about all this and more, and it is only doubling down on censorship for the sake of our elites. Worst of all, the Biden-Harris administration has tried to threaten our families with destitution unless we submit to vaccines whose risks often far outstrip any potential benefit.

      These are not things parents will forget—especially when committed by those to whom we delegated our authority for the sake of our children. There are also limits to how long any parent is willing to simply wait and hope for improvement before taking action for our children’s sake.

      This reclamation of authority by parents is still a work in progress, certainly—McAuliffe only lost by two points, after all. But it is in progress, and it’s not easily reversible.

      Once a parent realizes someone has threatened his child, he will never trust that person again. If parents cannot disassociate the people threatening them from the institutions these people run, then they will not trust the institutions either.

      Nobody who’s gotten a good look at the true face of progressivism is going to forget it anytime soon. This new dynamic is not stopping. It is accelerating.

      If Republicans Don’t Use Their Power, They’re Toast

      That brings us to the opportunity for Republicans. I’ve seen a lot of people are calling this a seismic shift in government. But the only reason parents voted for Republicans is that they still hold out hope that the GOP might willingly serve on their behalf.

      Should that hope prove false, parents won’t stop trying to reclaim their authority; they will just start doing so in even more earth-shaking ways. One way or another, America’s vicious two-party cycle is not going to persist for much longer. This is the bare minimum Republican office-holders need to do to keep that hope alive.

      First, education needs to be addressed, and a few token policy changes aren’t going to cut it. Those faculty and administrators who betrayed parents’ trust need to be removed.

      The person who was distributing pornography to your children in school, for example, won’t suddenly become trustworthy because someone makes a rule. The same is true of teachers and administrators who hate your child because of her skin tone. Those people need to go—some fired, some even prosecuted.

      Public universities that train teachers to act this way likewise need to be addressed. No program peddling degeneracy and critical race theory to aspiring educators should receive any state funding.

      To the timid who complain, “But that’s cancel culture!” I simply respond, “Yes.” If someone starts shooting at your children, you aren’t “sinking to their level” by returning fire. It is parents’ moral obligation to fight back. Leftist institutions chose to escalate to this level of aggression, and they can choke on the consequences.

      Yes, this will certainly be a long and difficult battle, which is why parents should immediately be given school choice until it’s resolved. Let parents take their tax dollars away from these errant institutions so they can enlist the help of real schools instead.

      Faith In Election Integrity Must Be Restored

      Republicans’ second job should be to decisively end voter fraud in their municipalities so parents are guaranteed a voice in their government. There is no point in winning votes if we lose on counting votes.

      Do a full forensic investigation of elections you won whether you think there was fraud or not. Prosecute every violation you find whether it made a difference in the outcome or not. And after the investigation, enact common-sense fraud control to address everything you found.

      Americans deserve to have confidence in their elections, and parents need to know they still have a say. Republicans need to teach by example that any state or municipality that refuses to transparently ensure the fairness of its elections is doing so because they have something to hide.

      Third, Republicans need to use their state and local offices to protect people against the corporations and the federal government that are actively attacking families. Ban corporate mask and vaccine mandates. Provide compensation and other assistance for people being fired for their consciences. Enact laws explicitly holding corporations responsible for the side-effects of any medical treatment they mandate. And, of course, prevent schools from forcing vaccines and other procedures on students—or encouraging such things behind their backs.

      Sanctuary States for Right Voters

      Now that federal officials are trying to classify outspoken parents as domestic terrorists, states and municipalities will also need to protect their people from those agencies. Republicans should be as diligent about creating sanctuary cities for their own people as the Democrats are about creating sanctuaries for illegal aliens.

      Republicans and other conservatives have been great at making careers out of complaining about the left, but that isn’t going to cut it anymore. Parents are finally acting like parents again and taking back their God-given authority. They are offering Republicans a chance to assist them. They aren’t going to stop taking action just because Republicans fail yet again.

      Neither are they going to stop because leftists call them racist for the thousandth time. Not only is everyone growing numb to such histrionics, they cease to matter when our children are under threat.

      The left can complain about white women voting for white kids all they want, but mothers and fathers are almost always going to vote for their children—not because they’re white, but because they’re their children. No adequate parent really cares about someone’s motive for viciously attacking his family; parents are still going to defend their kids no matter what it takes.

      Matthew’s writing may be found at The 96th Thesis. You can also follow him on Twitter @matt_e_cochran or subscribe to his YouTube Channel, Lutheran in a Strange Land. He holds an MA from Concordia Theological Seminary.

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      How 31 Republicans Just Betrayed The Country To Reward Illegal Immigration, Worsen Inflation, And Pay Off Democrats’ Donors


      Reported By Rachel BovardNOVEMBER 8, 2021

      At nearly midnight on Friday, 13 House Republicans gave Speaker Nancy Pelosi the votes she needed to pass the so-called “bipartisan infrastructure bill” — colloquially known in DC as the BIF. In doing so, these House Republicans, among them two members of the House GOP leadership team, all but guaranteed House passage of Joe Biden’s hotly partisan, $2 trillion reconciliation bill, which represents the largest cradle-to-grave expansion of federal power since the New Deal.

      Over at National Review, Philip Klein called the move by these 13 Republicans “political malpractice,” and a “betrayal.” He’s right, particularly on the first point. 

      Republicans who supported the bill predictably justified their vote as one for “roads and bridges,” pointing to the benefits that the bill’s largest provisions — like the $47 billion in climate funding and the $66 billion for the failing Amtrak system, provided without any reform — will ostensibly bring to their districts. 

      As Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) told The Hill, “I thought it was good for our district, I thought it was good for our country.” Meanwhile, left-of-center commentator Andrew Sullivan huffed about the “fanatical tribalism” being applied to a bill about infrastructure.

      That the BIF was a bill solely focused on infrastructure may have been true at the bill’s conception. But for months, a single and unavoidable political reality has been obvious: the substance of the bill hardly mattered. Rather, the infrastructure bill was but a chit, a chess piece, in forcing through passage of the larger, hotly partisan reconciliation legislation. Their fates were linked; one would not pass without the other. 

      This was a choice made very clearly, and very openly, by congressional Democrats. In June, Pelosi stated, “There ain’t gonna be no bipartisan bill, unless we have a reconciliation bill,” a sentiment she reiterated in October when she confirmed “the bipartisan infrastructure bill will pass once we have agreement on the reconciliation bill.” 

      House Progressives made the linkage of the two bills central to their strategy of leveraging concessions in the reconciliation legislation, refusing to provide votes for the BIF until their reconciliation demands were met (six of them ended up refusing to support passage the BIF, paving the way for House Republicans to be the deciding votes).

      Even President Joe Biden tied the fate of the infrastructure legislation to the reconciliation bill. He did so explicitly in June, then said he didn’t really mean it after Senate Republicans expressed outrage (but then 18 of them voted to pass the bill in August, anyway), and then linked them again in October when he told House Democrats that infrastructure “ain’t going to happen until we reach an agreement on the next piece of legislation,” reconciliation the infrastructure bill.

      So to claim that a vote for the infrastructure legislation was merely a vote for “roads and bridges,” devoid of any other major political context, is just willfully ignorant of the obvious and openly stated politics at work. A vote for the infrastructure bill was very clearly a vote for the reconciliation legislation. The inability to understand this reality raises not only questions of basic political acumen, but of the ability of House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s leadership team to hold their conference together on consequential votes.

      It’s worth unpacking a few of the provisions in the reconciliation bill that this group of Republicans will help make possible. Among them:

      • A 10-year amnesty for illegal immigrants, which includes work permits and driver’s licenses and cannot be undone by future administrations for a decade.
      • Provides millions of dollars in funding for the IRS to enforce the Biden administration’s plan to review every bank account with $10,000 or more. 
      • Expands and shores up provisions of Obamacare.
      • Eliminates the statutory cap on employment visas, effectively allowing Big Tech companies and other mega-corporations to prioritize hiring foreign workers over American workers.
      • Facilitates enforcement of Biden’s vaccine mandate by increasing OSHA penalties on businesses up to $700,000 per violation and provides billions in funding for the Department of Labor to increase enforcement.
      • Mandates taxpayer coverage of abortion, leaving the long-agreed upon Hyde amendment out of the bill.
      • Provides half a trillion dollars in climate spending, including clean energy tax credits to subsidize solar, electric vehicles, and clean energy production, as well as federal spending on clean energy technology and manufacturing, all while limiting domestic energy production, thereby increasing dependence on Russia and China.
      • Provides roughly $400 billion for expanded government childcare and universal pre-K, which pumps millions into failed Head Start programs, excludes support for families who prefer at-home child-care arrangements, and by requiring that preschool teachers have a college degree, will reduce the availability of child-care options.
      • A host of new taxes, and a giant tax cut for the rich: by including a repeal on the cap for the state and local tax deduction, Democrats will provide a $30 billion net direct tax cut for the top 5 percent of earners, largely in blue states where the state and local taxes are much higher.

      The “Build Back Better” reconciliation legislation is a bill that transforms the role of the state in every aspect of an individual’s life, while expanding key Democratic priorities like amnesty, abortion, cheap foreign labor, a dysfunctional health care system, and invasions of financial privacy. And consideration of the bill in the House wasn’t made possible by the Democrats in the majority, but by House Republicans.  

      There are those, like Sullivan, who will still bemoan that political polarization has taken over even relatively popular policies like infrastructure. But politicizing the infrastructure bill was the clear and unambiguous choice that Democrats made when they linked the two bills. To expect most Republicans to be as tin-eared and politically naive (or, like Rep. Adam Kinzinger, as openly tied to Democratic priorities) as the group of 13 is ridiculous. It’s asking them to act against their own self-interest. 

      Democrats drafted a partisan reconciliation bill with no Republican input, full of provisions they knew Republicans wouldn’t support, and then hijacked an otherwise bipartisan bill to ensure passage of its much more expansive and partisan cousin. This was a specific choice Democrats made, and Republicans are not responsible for it — nor should they be expected to vote for a bill that is the stated gateway to related legislation with which they profoundly disagree.

      Regardless, the infrastructure bill now goes to the president’s desk. Eighteen Republican senators helped pass it in August, and so did 13 House Republicans (for a total of 31), knowing full well they were also voting on the amnesty-filled, abortion-funding, financially-snooping, cheap-labor loving reconciliation bill, gave it the required boost. Betrayal, as Klein noted, is not too strong a term.

      Rachel Bovard is The Federalist’s senior tech columnist and the senior director of policy at the Conservative Partnership Institute.

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      C. Douglas Golden Op-ed: The Truth About Democrats’ Tax Bill Revealed, Middle-Class Americans Are in for a Nasty Surprise


      Commentary By C. Douglas Golden | September 29, 2021

      Read more at https://www.westernjournal.com/truth-democrats-tax-bill-revealed-middle-class-americans-nasty-surprise/

      President Joe Biden, left, meets with Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and committee chairs to discuss the coronavirus relief legislation in the Oval Office at the White House on Feb. 5, 2021, in Washington, D.C. (Stefani Reynolds – Pool / Getty Images)

      President Joe Biden’s “Build Back Better” agenda is supposed to tax the wealthy to help the middle class. If you don’t believe me, just ask Biden, who’s more than willing to tell you about it on his Twitter account.

      To be fair, I’m assuming the messages aren’t written by Biden himself, a man who seems like his relationship with technology involves yelling at his phone, either asking Siri to find his slippers or telling Scotty to beam him up. However, whoever tweets for him stays on message when it comes to the president’s tax-and-spend plan.

      “We’re going to pass a historic middle class tax cut — and we’ll do it by making those at the top pay their fair share,” one tweet from Sunday read. “I know the crowd on Park Ave might not like it, but it’s time we give people in towns like Scranton — the folks I grew up with — a break for a change.”

      “From health care to child care, my Build Back Better Agenda will lower everyday costs for middle class Americans,” a tweet from this Monday read.

      “I’m not looking to punish anyone, I just think it’s only fair that the wealthiest Americans pay their fair share once again. Then, we’ll use that money to invest in the middle class,” a tweet from last week reads.

      “For me it’s pretty simple: It’s about time working people got the tax breaks in this country,” a tweet from the day before that read. “That’s the Build Back Better Agenda.”

      If someone has to repeat themselves this much, it’s usually because they’re lying — and, lo and behold, the Joint Committee on Taxation seems to have confirmed that.

      According to a media release from the Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee on Tuesday, the Joint Committee on Taxation — a non-partisan congressional tax scorekeeper — found that almost every income level below the threshold the Biden administration said would be immune would take a hit.

      Furthermore, the committee’s analysis found the vast majority of taxpayers would see no benefit from the plan in its current form.

      According to the analysis, by the calendar year 2023, nearly 5 percent of those making between $40,000 and $50,000 would see a tax increase. Nine percent of those making between $50,000 and $75,000 would see an increase, 18 percent earning between $75,000 and $100,000 would see their taxes go up and 35 percent of those earning between $100,000 and $200,000 would be subject to a hike.

      The media release also noted that the benefit most people see will pretty much be nil.

      In 2023, two-thirds of all taxpayers won’t get see any kind of real benefit from the legislation, either seeing their tax bill changed by less than $100 or getting a tax increase.

      By 2027, this number would balloon to 85.5 percent, with huge swaths of the middle class seeing a sizable tax increase; these numbers are projected to stay mostly steady until 2031.

      Meanwhile, the Joint Committee on Taxation also found that hiking corporate taxes would hit middle-class Americans hard, too.

      “Within 10 years of a corporate tax increase from 21 percent to 25 percent, 66.3 percent of the corporate tax burden would be borne by lower- and middle-income taxpayers with income well below $500,000,” an August media release from the Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee read.

      “This statistic becomes only more striking in absolute number of taxpayers. Of the more than 172 million taxpayers who would bear the burden of the increased corporate tax rate, 98.4 percent, or about 169 million, have incomes under $500,000.”

      Of course, the charge from the left would be that this doesn’t take into account what the spending these tax hikes will pay for is going to buy for the middle class. Beyond the fact these “investments” never bring back the kind of returns that are promised, Biden promised a middle-class tax cut. At least in the plan’s current form, it doesn’t look like it’ll end up delivering — no matter what the president says.

      Do you know who did lower taxes on the middle class? Former President Donald Trump.

      Joe Biden may have spent much of the campaign whining about Trump’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, which slashed taxes across the board. Most of the outrage focused on the fact he didn’t soak the rich: “Tax experts estimate that over the long run, 83% of Trump’s tax giveaway will flow to the top 1% of earners in this country,” Biden’s campaign website read.

      And yet, in March of 2020, MarketWatch reported that “Americans paid almost $64 billion less in federal income taxes during the first year under the Republican tax overhaul signed into law in late 2017 by President Donald Trump, with some of the sharpest drops clustered among taxpayers earning between $25,000 and $100,000 a year, even as the overall number of refunds dropped during a turbulent tax season” in 2019.

      Biden plans on taking that away. In return, he’s offered nothing of substance — except, as promised, he’s soaking the rich. And the upper-middle class. And some people in the middle class, too. But mainly the rich. See, priorities!

      Biden may not be giving people in towns like Scranton — the folks he grew up with — a break the same way Trump did. But at least they can watch as his administration takes (and then squanders) Park Avenue’s money. He’ll be squandering Scranton’s money, too, but at least they get the joy of class-based schadenfreude out of the deal.

      C. Douglas Golden, Contributor

      C. Douglas Golden is a writer who splits his time between the United States and Southeast Asia. Specializing in political commentary and world affairs, he’s written for Conservative Tribune and The Western Journal since 2014.

      @CillianZealFacebook

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      AZ Auditors Say Over 17,000 Duplicate Ballots Found in Maricopa County, 1.5 Times What Biden Won By


      Reported By Michael Austin | September 24, 2021

      Read more at https://www.westernjournal.com/az-auditors-say-17000-duplicate-ballots-found-maricopa-county-1-5-times-biden-won/

      On Friday, Arizona state Republicans announced the findings of the Arizona Senate audit of the 2020 presidential election results in Maricopa County. Among the audit’s many findings was that over 17,000 total duplicate ballots — meaning ballots submitted by individuals who voted more than once in the election — were found.

      As much was revealed by Dr. Shiva Ayyadurai, an expert in pattern recognition and classification of diverse signals and signatures who has four degrees from M.I.T. The Arizona Republicans conducting the audit enlisted Ayyadurai and his team of experts to aid in the audit by investigating mail-in ballot envelopes used in the election. The team reported it found 17,322 duplicate ballots in the election.

      As noted by Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake on Twitter, Maricopa County itself had reported no duplicate ballots.

      “Maricopa reported ZERO duplicate ballots. Real total is 17,322,” Lake wrote on Twitter.

      “This is more than enough to change the election result.”

      Other conservatives went to Twitter to react to the shocking findings as well.

      The Western Journal is following the Arizona audit results closely.

      If you want to stay informed on the investigation’s many findings, stay tuned.

      Michael Austin

      Michael Austin joined The Western Journal as a staff reporter in 2020. Since then, he has authored hundreds of stories, including several original reports. He also co-hosts the outlet’s video podcast, “WJ Live.”

      @mikeswriting

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      Biden Promise Broken: Tax Hike on Mostly Middle, Lower Classes Would Fund $3.5T Spending Spree


      Reported By Michael Austin  September 17, 2021 at 8:59am

      During his campaign for the presidency, President Biden promised to not raise taxes on any Americans making less than $400,000 a year. If House Democrats are successful in passing their new tax proposal, that promise will soon be broken.

      According to CNBC, the proposal is meant to pay for a healthy portion of their new $3.5 trillion spending plan, bringing in as much as $96 billion in revenue over the next decade. A plan summary released by Democrats reveals that part of the tax plan would target tobacco and nicotine products, including cigarettes, e-cigarettes, small cigars, smokeless tobacco and roll-your-own tobacco.

      Multiple studies have shown that the majority of the users of these products are low-income Americans. For example, research from the Truth Initiative found that 72 percent of tobacco smokers come from low-income communities. Other peer-reviewed studies have found small cigar and roll-your-own tobacco consumers also tend to be disproportionately low-income. Among U.S. adults, even e-cigarettes, despite their relative novelty, were found to be used most often by those classified as either “poor” or “near poor,” according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

      Given these studies, it is safe to say that the majority of the $96 billion in revenue Democrats hope to take in will come from lower-income communities, not from those making over $400,000 a year, as Biden promised.

      Even without the tobacco tax, however, many critics of the current administration have noted that Biden already subverted his promise by drastically raising the level of inflation, which American economist Milton Friedman famously described as “taxation without representation.” As noted by Andy Puzder of Real Clear Politics on Aug. 12, Biden and the Democrats’ willingness to “pour massive amounts of dollars into the economy” is drastically lowering the value of the American dollar. As the government inflates the economy by printing off more money, the average American’s savings become less and less valuable.

      In order to combat this, Republican Reps. Kevin Hern of Oklahoma and Lloyd Smucker of Pennsylvania introduced amendments to the Democrats’ spending plan on Tuesday that would essentially block any new tax increases until inflation and unemployment returned to pre-pandemic levels.

      “It’s not hard to understand that this is the wrong time for Democrats to shove one of the largest tax increases in American history on the American people that have not regained their strength from the brutal blow of COVID-19,” Hern said during the Tuesday hearing.

      “Inflation is a tax on all Americans and it hurts working-class Americans the most.”

      Democrats blocked the bills, meaning middle-class and lower-income Americans may soon be paying even more money to the federal government.

      Michael Austin

      Michael Austin joined The Western Journal as a staff reporter in 2020. Since then, he has authored hundreds of stories, including several original reports. He also co-hosts the outlet’s video podcast, “WJ Live.”

      @mikeswriting

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      More Trouble for Biden: North Korea Claims Successful Test of ‘Weapon of Great Significance’


      Reported By Dillon Burroughs  September 13, 2021

      Read more at https://www.westernjournal.com/trouble-biden-north-korea-claims-successful-test-weapon-great-significance/

      North Korea announced on Monday that its military had successfully tested long-range cruise missiles with the ability to strike a target more than 900 miles away.

      “The ‘long-range cruise missiles’ were launched on Saturday and Sunday and allegedly hit a target 1,500 kilometers away, officials said on North Korea‘s state-run media,” ABC News reported.

      “The missiles flew for over two hours, according to the report,” the report said.

      Joseph Dempsey, a defense researcher at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, said the development of a cruise missile should be a concern, the BBC reported on Monday.

      “The development of a long-range cruise missile could pose additional challenges for South Korea’s missile defenses,” Dempsey said.

      He said that a “cruise missile doesn’t have to follow a straight trajectory. Its flight plan may be programmed to avoid defenses or use terrain to reduce detection, but we still don’t know exactly how the North Korean version navigates.”

      Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato said that unlike previous launches by North Korea, the latest missile test did not fly over Japan. But if the missile can fly as far as North Korea reported, he said, “it would be a major concern for us,” according to NBC News.

      The missile test follows an August report by the International Atomic Energy Agency that said North Korea appears to have restarted a nuclear reactor capable of producing plutonium for nuclear weapons.

      “Since early July 2021, there have been indications consistent with the operation of the 5MW(e) reactor,” the IAEA report said.

      “The DPRK’s nuclear activities continue to be a cause for serious concern,” the report said. “Furthermore, the new indications of the operation of the 5MW(e) reactor and the Radiochemical Laboratory are deeply troubling.’

      “The continuation of the DPRK’s nuclear programme is a clear violation of relevant UN Security Council resolutions and is deeply regrettable.”

      “Yongbyon, a nuclear complex at the heart of North Korea’s nuclear programme,” is the location of the reactor, Reuters reported Monday.

      “More plutonium could help North Korea make smaller nuclear weapons to fit on its ballistic missiles, said David Albright, president of the Institute for Science and International Security,” the report said.

      “It appears to indicate North Korea has resumed producing plutonium for its nuclear weapons program,” said Gary Samore, director of the Crown Center for Middle East Studies at Brandeis University, according to The Wall Street Journal.

      “While North Korea already has a significant stockpile of nuclear weapons,” Samore added.

      Dillon Burroughs | Breaking News/Media Reporter

      Dillon Burroughs reports on breaking news for The Western Journal and is the author or co-author of numerous books.

      @dillonburroughs

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      Michael Austin Op-ed: Taliban Thrilled: Psaki Confirms Biden Will Not Speak on 20th Anniversary of 9/11


      Commentary By Michael Austin  September 9, 2021

      Read more at https://www.westernjournal.com/taliban-thrilled-psaki-confirms-biden-will-not-speak-20th-anniversary-9-11/

      There’s little doubt President Joe Biden has been planning his 9/11 anniversary speech for some time now. After all, the main cause of the entire Afghanistan withdrawal disaster was Biden’s insistence on an artificial deadline — Aug. 31 — so that, when the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks rolled around, he could presumably boast all about how he did what no other post-9/11 president before him could. He could say he ended the war in Afghanistan.

      Things didn’t work out quite as Biden hoped — the overly hasty nature of the withdrawal resulted in a terrorist takeover of the country, a result that many intelligence officials predicted and warned the president would happen, despite his assurances to the American people.

      And now, as his approval rating plummets, the president will not address the nation live on the 20th anniversary of 9/11.

      “[White House press secretary] Jen Psaki confirms Joe Biden will not deliver a live speech on 20th anniversary of 9/11,” Breitbart News’ White House correspondent Charlie Spiering revealed on Twitter on Thursday.

      Spiering then quoted Psaki as saying “You will hear from [Biden] in the form of a video in advance — or if that will be available that day, I should say.”

      Reuters reported the president, instead of addressing the nation live on Saturday, plans to visit the three memorial sites of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, ignoring the family members of 9/11 victims who have asked Biden not to show his face.

      In a prerecorded video, should he choose to film one, there’s still a good chance Biden will use the opportunity to brag about his “success” in Afghanistan.

      He may do so, despite leaving hundreds of Americans stranded in the terrorist-controlled country, despite handing over billions of dollars worth of military equipment to the Taliban and despite the fact that his actions indirectly led to the deaths of 13 service members in Afghanistan.

      On the 20th anniversary of 9/11, Americans will be mourning the devastating loss of those brave men and women, some of whom weren’t even old enough to buy alcohol.

      And also on 9/11, thanks directly to Biden’s actions, the Taliban will be celebrating. In fact, the terrorist group reportedly plans to have an inauguration ceremony for its new government on that very day.

      “Speaking about the symbolism of the War on Terror, the Taliban are planning to have their interim government inauguration ceremony on Saturday, September 11th, on the 20th anniversary of 9/11,” former U.S. State Department adviser and Afghan native Arash Yaqin revealed on Tuesday.

      If Biden does release a video on Saturday in honor of the 9/11 anniversary, it is likely he will ignore all the facts, as he usually does. He’s too cowardly to face up to the consequences of his actions. Otherwise, he’d be addressing the nation live.

      Michael Austin

      Michael Austin joined The Western Journal as a staff reporter in 2020. Since then, he has authored hundreds of stories, including several original reports. He also co-hosts the outlet’s video podcast, “WJ Live.”

      @mikeswriting

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      Jacob Gurney Op-ed: Biden Head Scratcher: By 2020, We Will Make Sure All Our Electricity Is Zero Emissions


      Commentary by By Jacob Gurney  September 7, 2021

      Read more at https://www.westernjournal.com/biden-head-scratcher-2020-will-make-sure-electricity-zero-emissions/

      President Joe Biden added yet another blunder to his ever-growing list on Tuesday. The president was giving a speech about his administration’s response to Hurricane Ida on Tuesday when he made the questionable remarks. As expected, Biden made numerous other head-scratching statements throughout the briefing. Also as expected, and per the Democrats’ playbook, he had to infuse apocalyptic, climate-change fearmongering into the mix. His biggest problem was that some of his remarks did not quite line up with reality.

      “We are determined, we are determined that we are going to deal with climate change and, and have zero emissions, net emissions by 2050. By 2020, make sure all our electricity is zero emissions. We’re going to be able to do these things but we’ve got to move. We’ve got to move. And we’ve got to move the rest of the world. It is not just the United States of America,” Biden said in the speech.

      2020? OK.

      This might not seem like a big deal. People often confuse what year it is for a period of time after the new year. That is not uncommon. Additionally, some people may be forgiving of the president’s remarks considering his age and all that has happened recently. These are all valid points.

      However, it is now September, well into 2021. Not only that, but the president did not correct his mistake at all, or even seem to notice it, though he corrected some of his other slip-ups. It does not seem to register with him what he said or that what he said was incorrect.

      Even Sen. Chuck Schumer appeared to note Biden’s flub.

      It was just one more thing that Americans can wonder about concerning the president’s mental faculties. While the president did not correct himself during the speech, the official transcript of the speech released by the White House corrected these remarks to show the president meant to say “2050” where he stated 2020. Convenient — but it at least clarified what he supposedly meant.

      As the video showed, Biden struggled with his following remarks as well, though he at least (unsuccessfully) tried to fix what he said in this instance.

      “And so, folks, this summer alone, communities with over 100 million Americans, a hundred American, Americans call home, have been struck by extreme weather,” Biden said.

      It appeared that the president attempted to reference the number of Americans effected negatively by weather events.

      It is not unlike Biden to get his facts or words mixed up. He is known as a human gaffe machine. But the fact it did not even seem to register with him how wrong 2020 was, is really astounding. Nevertheless, with questions about the president’s mental state appearing sometimes even in the establishment media now, having him not blink an eye as he says we will reach a goal by last year is simply not a good look for Biden.

      Americans are only going to keep questioning the president’s cognitive awareness and capabilities as a result.

      Jacob Gurney

      Jacob Gurney was a Western Journal contributor who started his writing career at his local daily newspaper. He has also written for various online media websites covering politics, sports and video games.

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      Biden Tells Israeli Government He’s Reversing Trump’s Jerusalem Move Despite Its Strong Objections


      Reported by By Andrew Jose  September 8, 2021

      Read more at https://www.westernjournal.com/biden-tells-israeli-government-reversing-trumps-jerusalem-move-despite-strong-objections/

      President Joe Biden, right, meets with Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett in the Oval Office at the White House on Aug. 27, 2021.President Joe Biden, right, meets with Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett in the Oval Office at the White House on Aug. 27, 2021. (Sarahbeth Maney – Pool / Getty Images)

      President Joe Biden is expected to reopen the U.S. consulate in Jerusalem, in a reversal of a decision by former President Donald Trump. When the Trump administration moved the U.S. Embassy in 2019 from Tel Aviv to Israel’s capital city of Jerusalem, the consulate was merged with the new embassy — a move that led to worsening ties with the Palestinian Authority, NPR reported at the time.

      However, according to a Wednesday report by Axios, the Biden administration has its eyes set on overturning the decision made by the Trump administration, despite Israeli objections.

      “President Biden told Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett during their White House meeting that he will not abandon his plan to reopen the U.S. consulate in Jerusalem, setting up a major point of contention between the administrations,” Axios reported.

      Citing unnamed Israeli and U.S. officials, Axios correspondent Barak Ravid reported that during Bennett’s bilateral meeting with Biden, the issue of the consulate in Jerusalem was raised multiple times by the U.S. president. Biden reportedly stressed that he had made a campaign pledge regarding the issue. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has also already said the U.S. would go ahead with the decision. According to Axios, the Biden administration previously agreed to carry out the reopening after Nov. 4, which is the deadline for Bennett to get his budget passed in the Knesset, the unicameral Israeli equivalent of Congress.

      Biden’s plans were criticized by several Israeli officials.

      “We think it’s a bad idea,” Israel’s foreign minister, Yair Lapid, told journalists on Sept. 1, according to The Guardian.

      “Jerusalem is the sovereign capital of Israel and Israel alone, and therefore we don’t think it’s a good idea.”

      “We know that the [Biden] administration has a different way of looking at this, but since it is happening in Israel, we are sure they are listening to us very carefully,” Lapid said.

      “Jerusalem is the capital of one country only: Israel. I don’t want to go into details, but this is my clear position,” Bennett told the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations on Friday through a Zoom video conference.

      Bennett, however, also mentioned that he desired a “no drama” relationship with the Biden administration, according to Axios. The outlet reported that many Israeli leaders, such as Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked and Minister of Justice Gideon Sa’ar, believe that reopening the consulate would be tantamount to Biden infringing on Israel’s sovereignty in Jerusalem. Israel considers all of Jerusalem to be its capital. The Palestinians seek the eastern half of the city to be the capital of their desired Palestinian state.

      “We have an interesting and yet delicate structure of our government and we think this might destabilize this government and I don’t think the American administration wants this to happen,” Lapid told reporters at the Sept. 1 news conference, The Guardian reported.

      “If the Biden administration wants to see Netanyahu abandoning his Pilates classes and going back to the prime minister’s office, this is the best way to do it,” a senior Israeli official told Axios.

      Andrew Jose, Contributor

      Andrew Jose is a journalist covering business and finance, foreign policy and the aviation industry, among other beats.

      @realAndrewJose

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      US Special Ops Veterans Form Their Own Squad, Travel to Kabul for Extremely Dangerous Rescue Mission


      Reported By Dillon Burroughs | August 27, 2021

      Read more at https://www.westernjournal.com/us-special-ops-veterans-form-squad-travel-kabul-extremely-dangerous-rescue-mission/

      A volunteer group of American veterans launched a final mission on Wednesday night, dubbed “Pineapple Express,” to reportedly help hundreds of members of Afghan elite forces and their families reach safety. The group, dubbed Task Force Pineapple, operated in darkness to help those at risk.

      “As of Thursday morning, the group said it had brought as many as 500 Afghan special operators, assets and enablers and their families into the airport in Kabul overnight, handing them each over to the protective custody of the U.S. military,” ABC News reported.

      “That number added to more than 130 others over the past 10 days who had been smuggled into the airport encircled by Taliban fighters since the capital fell to the extremists on Aug. 16 by Task Force Pineapple, an ad hoc groups of current and former U.S. special operators, aid workers, intelligence officers and others with experience in Afghanistan who banded together to save as many Afghan allies as they could.”

      The group was led by Army Lt. Col. Scott Mann, who leads an organization called Rooftop Leadership. Mann is a retired Green Beret commander.

      “We made a commitment to get them out and this is our chance to do the right thing. And I’m telling you if we don’t, Brianna, it’s going to haunt us for a very, very long time,” Mann said during a CNN interview on Monday.

      A GoFundMe page offered supporters an opportunity to donate to the group’s expenses. A video from Mann also explained the purpose behind the group’s effort.

      More than $68,000 had been donated as of Friday morning.

      The news comes as more than 100 people were killed in Kabul on Thursday. A total of 13 U.S. military personnel were killed, with more injured.

      The U.S. continued evacuation flights from the Kabul airport on Thursday. The Hill reported 12,500 people were evacuated from Afghanistan between early Thursday to early Friday morning.

      “Of the 12,500 evacuees, roughly 8,500 of them were on 35 U.S. military flights out of Kabul, which included 29 C-17 planes and six C-130 planes. Another 4,000 people were carried on 54 coalition flights out of Kabul,” The Hill reported.

      “White House officials said that since Aug. 14, the U.S. has evacuated and facilitated the evacuation of about 105,000 people out of Afghanistan.’

      “Since the end of July, approximately 110,600 people have been relocated.”

      Dillon Burroughs, Breaking News/Media Reporter

      Dillon Burroughs reports on breaking news for The Western Journal and is the author or co-author of numerous books.@dillonburroughs

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      George W. Bush Sends Message to Afghanistan War Veterans, Calls on Biden Admin to Take Action


      Reported By Jack Davis  August 17, 2021

      Read more at https://www.westernjournal.com/george-w-bush-sends-message-afghanistan-war-veterans-calls-biden-admin-take-action/

      Former President George W. Bush issued a statement Monday expressing “deep sadness” over the debacle in Afghanistan. Bush was president when America launched Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan to hunt down those responsible for the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

      Last month, in a rare display of comment on the policies of a successor, he said he disagreed with President Joe Biden’s decision to withdraw all military troops from Afghanistan, according to The Washington Post. Bush said he was “afraid Afghan women and girls are going to suffer unspeakable harm” as a result of the withdrawal.

      “I think the consequences are going to be unbelievably bad. And I’m sad. Laura and I spent a lot of time with Afghan women. And they’re scared,” he said,

      “I think about all the interpreters and people that helped — not only U.S. troops, but NATO troops — and they’re just, it seems like they’re just going to be left behind to be slaughtered by these very brutal people,” Bush said.

      “And it breaks my heart.”

      On Monday, he said in his statement that he and former first lady Laura Bush “have been watching the tragic events unfolding in Afghanistan with deep sadness. Our hearts are heavy for both the Afghan people who have suffered so much and for the Americans and NATO allies who have sacrificed so much,” he said, according to a statement sent by the Bush Center.

      Bush said no ally should be left behind.

      “The Afghans now at the greatest risk are the same ones who have been on the forefront of progress inside their nation. President Biden has promised to evacuate these Afghans, along with American citizens and our allies,” he said.

      “The United States government has the legal authority to cut the red tape for refugees during urgent humanitarian crises. And we have the responsibility and the resources to secure safe passage for them now, without bureaucratic delay. Our most stalwart allies, along with private NGOs, are ready to help,” Bush added.

      Amid scenes of panic from Kabul, Bush said that with the American military in charge, there is hope for the best possible outcome.

      “Laura and I are confident that the evacuation efforts will be effective because they are being carried out by the remarkable men and women of the United States Armed Forces, diplomatic corps, and intelligence community,” the statement said.

      Bush then added a statement to veterans and service members.

      “Many of you deal with wounds of war, both visible and invisible. And some of your brothers and sisters in arms made the ultimate sacrifice in the war on terror. Each day, we have been humbled by your commitment and your courage,” he said.

      Bush sought to validate the sacrifice of the more than 2,000 Americans who died and the more than 20,000 wounded in Afghanistan.

      “You took out a brutal enemy and denied Al Qaeda a safe haven while building schools, sending supplies, and providing medical care. You kept America safe from further terror attacks, provided two decades of security and opportunity for millions, and made America proud. We thank you from the bottom of our hearts and will always honor your contributions,” he said.

      Bush, who was president in America’s dark days of adversity, said hope always endures.

      “In times like these, it can be hard to remain optimistic. Laura and I will steadfastly remain so. Like our country, Afghanistan is also made up of resilient, vibrant people. Nearly 65 percent of the population is under twenty-five years old. The choices they will make for opportunity, education, and liberty will also determine Afghanistan’s future,” he said.

      The former president then quoted Sakena Yacoobi of the Afghan Institute of Learning, who helped open schools for girls, as saying, “The Taliban cannot crush a dream. We will prevail, even if it takes longer than we wanted it to.”

      “Laura and I, along with the team at the Bush Center, stand ready as Americans to lend our support and assistance in this time of need. Let us all resolve to be united in saving lives and praying for the people of Afghanistan,” the statement said in closing.

      Jack Davis, Contributor

      Jack Davis is a freelance writer who joined The Western Journal in July 2015 and chronicled the campaign that saw President Donald Trump elected. Since then, he has written extensively for The Western Journal on the Trump administration as well as foreign policy and military issues.

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      Leaked Audio Reveals Mayorkas Admitting ‘We’re Going to Lose’ Border Crisis: Report


      Reported By Dillon Burroughs | August 13, 2021

      Read more at https://www.westernjournal.com/leaked-audio-reveals-mayorkas-admitting-going-lose-border-crisis-report/

      Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas met with Border Patrol agents in Texas, reportedly stating “we’re going to lose” the border crisis in an audio recording leaked on Friday.

      “A couple of days ago I was down in Mexico, and I said look, you know, if, if our borders are the first line of defense, we’re going to lose and this is unsustainable,” Mayorkas said, according to audio reportedly obtained by Fox News correspondent Bill Melugin.

      “We can’t continue like this, our people in the field can’t continue and our system isn’t built for it,” he added.

      “In July there were over 212,000 illegal immigrants who came into the country (and that’s not counting the ‘got-aways’ / only God knows how many we missed),” South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham tweeted.

      “The men and women of the Border Patrol are heroes who are being asked to do the impossible.”

      The leaked audio comes as it was reported authorities made 212,672 apprehensions at the southern border in July. The number marks a 13 percent increase over June and a 21-year high for a single-month total, according to U.S. News & World Report.

      “The U.S. also saw a 24 percent uptick in the number of unaccompanied children at the southwest border as well as a nearly 50 percent jump in the number of families,” The Hill reported on Thursday.

      The surge of illegal immigrants has led Arizona Republican Rep. Andy Biggs to pursue the impeachment of Mayorkas. Biggs filed the articles of impeachment on Tuesday, tweeting, “I just filed articles of impeachment against Secretary Mayorkas.’

      “His impeachment is well overdue and critical for the security of our nation.”

      Arkansas Republican Sen. Tom Cotton agreed with Biggs, tweeting on Thursday, “Time for Secretary Mayorkas to go.”

      Even so, the impeachment is unlikely to move forward in the Democrat-controlled House.

      Dillon Burroughs, Breaking News/Media Reporter

      Dillon Burroughs reports on breaking news for The Western Journal and is the author or co-author of numerous books.@dillonburroughs

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      Op-ed: Woke Politics Backfire as NBC’s Olympics Coverage Hits Ratings Rock Bottom


      Commentary by Cameron Arcand August 9, 2021

      Read more at https://www.westernjournal.com/woke-politics-backfire-nbcs-olympics-coverage-hits-ratings-rock-bottom/

      Go woke, go broke.

      In this case, NBC was the middleman in an Olympics where many of the athletes were less than thrilled to be representing the United States.

      On July 26, for example, there were only 14.7 million people watching primetime coverage — a 49 percent drop from the 2016 Olympics and a 53 percent decline from the 2012 Olympics, Fox News reported. These ratings are so poor that the network began re-airing commercials for advertisers at no additional charge.

      The Monmouth University Polling Institute released a poll showing that 43 percent of Americans did not have much interest in watching the games whatsoever. Patrick Murray of the polling institute told Fox News that the reason might have been the politicization of the games by some athletes.

      “The Olympic spirit is a bit dampened this year,” he said.

      “The delay from last year and lack of spectators have taken the edge off the typical anticipation and excitement for this event. But the emergence of Black Lives Matter in the sports world has also led to a backlash among some Americans.”

      Hammer throw competitor Gwen Berry made headlines when she turned away from the American flag at the Olympic trials and raised a clenched fist during the Tokyo Games.

      “I’m just here to represent, man,” she said last week, CNN reported.

      “I know a lot of people like me, a lot of athletes like me, a lot of people are scared to succeed or speak out. As long as I can represent those people, I’m fine.”

      Berry also had an “X” written on her hand in protest during the final.

      Fencer Race Imboden did the same thing, saying he did so in “support of athletes of color, Ending Gun violence, and all the athletes who wish to use their voice on the platform they’ve earned,” according to CNN.

      Shot-putter Raven Saunders crossed her arms during her medal ceremony, explaining later that the “X” was “the intersection of where all people who are oppressed meet.”

      Then there is U.S. soccer captain and social justice connoisseur Megan Rapinoe, who led the charge in kneeling in protest before her team’s games.

      “It’s an opportunity for us to continue to use our voices and use our platforms to talk about the things that affect all of us intimately in different ways,” Rapinoe said, according to The Associated Press.

      “We have people from Team USA, from all over the country, from all backgrounds, and people literally from all over the world for every other team so I obviously encourage everyone to use that platform to the best of their ability to do the most good that they possibly can in the world, especially as all eyes are on Tokyo these next couple weeks,” she later added.

      Rapinoe and her team went on to finish a disappointing third in Tokyo.

      While they certainly have the right to protest, Americans have the right to turn off the television when they feel their country is being insulted or disrespected.

      There were many athletes who were extremely patriotic on the world stage, but the social justice warriors have become martyrs in the establishment media and have monopolized the coverage.

      Cable television is already a dying medium, and wokeness could be the nail in the coffin.

      Cameron Arcand, Contributor,

      Cameron Arcand is a political commentator based in Orange County, California. His “Young Not Stupid” column launched at The Western Journal in January 2021, making Cameron one of the youngest columnists for a national news outlet in the United States. He has appeared on One America News, and has been a Young America’s Foundation member since 2019.@cameron_arcand

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      Teachers Union Publishes Instruction Manual from Hell – Here’s the Sick How-to Guide


      Reported by Mike Landry | August 5, 2021

      Read more at https://www.westernjournal.com/teachers-union-publishes-instruction-manual-sick-guide/

      Prepare to be patted on the head.

      And listen for the “Tsk, tsk, you don’t really understand what we’re about, dear.” That’s how it will be in Minnesota and probably elsewhere if a leftist teachers union can spread its ideas on how to respond to its promotion of critical race theory.

      Before reading the following, you might want to take a deep breath and exhale or whatever it is you do to reduce stress. You might have to do that after reading it, too.

      Education Minnesota is trying to counter growing community pushback against CRT around the state, so it has published a guide on how teachers should respond, a copy of which was obtained by Powerline and publicized by Minnesota’s Alpha News. First of all, the union tells teachers not to call what they’re teaching critical race theory. They know parents are catching on. And the guide presents buckets of mush designed to obscure the issue and talk down to critics.

      It’s a classic snow job using the special language of “educanto,” a term coined by the late Paul Greenberg, public school critic and Pulitzer Prize-winning Arkansas newspaper editor. Education Minnesota tells teachers that when asked why they teach kids that all white people are racist, they should give the following response:

      “First off, I’m thrilled you’re taking such a deep interest in how and what our kids are taught, a conversation that I feel is long overdue.

      “What I know most Americans believe is that we expect our students — whatever their color or background — to be able to learn hard truths and handle honest history and civics.”

      May I pat your head?

      “I believe in children’s potential to meet new challenges and have an honest reckoning, and when we try to edit and distort our history, we are doing them, and our future, a disservice. My loyalty is to children and who and what they can become.”

      That’s how teachers should respond to your question about their “evil white people” push. And, of course, as the left always says: It’s for the children.

      Education Minnesota does more than purr in its teacher voice. In its guide for its union members, it provides does some hard-knuckle political messaging against CRT critics by presenting “Key Concepts for Responding.”

      Here are excerpts:

      • “Seize the moral high ground and engage on our terms. With attention on education, let’s talk about the teaching and curricula we support and communicate how it benefits all students.”
      • “Ascribe motivations to the opposition. Instead of reflexively repeating the opposition’s claims to dispel them (e.g. ‘we are not teaching grade schoolers about XYZ’) talk about why they’re attacking standards, equity and classroom educators.”
      • “Bring the conversation back to what we want. Don’t stay on defense.”
      • “Avoid the academic term ‘critical race theory. This phrase, unfamiliar to most audiences, has been redefined by the political right as an all-purpose racial dog whistle. Talk instead about the more honest and more complete education our students deserve.”
      • “[I]t is so disappointing to see that a few billionaires, and the promoters and talking heads they pay for, have launched a national campaign to mislead Americans about the lessons educators teach about history, culture, gender and politics.”
      • “Once again, they’re trying to distract and divide us so we don’t demand the richest 1 percent and the largest corporations pay what they owe for what our communities need, like affordable health care for all.”

      Leftist educators try to hide what they’re teaching, but word is getting out. The Center for the American Experiment has been monitoring CRT in Minnesota and produced a video noting instances of it. It found that in Burnsville, fourth-graders were reading a book that said police officers were “mean to black people but nice to white people” and deliberately shot black men.

      • The video cited officials in the Minneapolis suburb of Hopkins as saying school operations were built on “white supremacy” values of logic, linear thinking, perfectionism, objectivity and  “requiring black students to turn in assignments on time.” Letter grades are gone since they are part of “a dominant white culture.”
      • White Bear Lake sixth-graders were divided into groups based on race, sex, religion and place of birth and told to address issues of oppression and privilege.
      • Edina kindergarteners through second-graders did an exercise on how to identify themselves by their skin color. Kindergarten through second grade!
      • St. Louis Park scrapped the gifted and talented program, opening it to everyone and focusing on “anti-racist talent development.”
      • Minnesota teachers are taking anti-racism training, which, in effect, advocates new forms of racial discrimination, according to the video.

      It’s not known if Minnesota schoolchildren are learning, like first- and second-graders in the Chicago suburb of Evanston, that “whiteness is a bad deal” and that if you are white, you essentially are a devil oppressing people of color, as reported Wednesday in a RealClear Policy piece that included shocking curriculum photos.

      Education Minnesota defines CRT as “an academic framework that is more than 40 years old and is centered on the idea that racism is systemic, not just a product of individual bias or prejudice, and embedded in our policies legal structure.”

      Indeed, CRT came from legal theorists during the 1970s and ’80s. The problem is it left the campus, and no matter how groups like Education Minnesota try to hide it, it is gumming up primary and secondary education.

      Victor Davis Hanson, a classicist scholar and social commentator whose gravitas stems from also having been a farmer, points out a problem with woke nonsense being dreamed up on the college campus. College professors, Hansen has said, were once like court jesters of old. They could say all kinds of crazy things and no one was offended, not even the king, because everyone knew professors, like jesters, had no real power. Now, according to Hansen, crazy ideas have escaped the campus and are setting public policy.

      It’s part of corporate wokeness, too.

      Classic Marxism may have hit some resistance since its call for dividing people by income and class could be hindered by the relative affluence of most of the U.S. population, at least by world standards. But for sure, today’s Marxists are focused on dividing by race and gender to class. And critical race theory fits right in.

      There’s a lot to process here: lying teachers, overt racism, emotional oppression upon very young children. You might want to take that deep breath.

      Mike Landry, Contributor,

      Mike Landry, PhD, is a retired business professor. He has been a journalist, broadcaster and church pastor. He writes from Northwest Arkansas on current events and business history.

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      Hidden on Page 508 of the Infrastructure Bill Is a Plan to Make It Too Expensive to Drive a Car


      Reported by Taylor Penley | August 4, 2021

      Read more at https://www.westernjournal.com/hidden-page-508-infrastructure-bill-plan-make-expensive-drive-car/

      The cost of living is on the rise, calls for yet another wave of pandemic restrictions have begun and now, buried deep in the so-called bipartisan infrastructure bill, the left has laid out yet another idea to bring Americans to their knees. Make no mistake: The suffering is intentional, goal-oriented and not bound to stop anytime soon. Still, one proposal in the 2,702 page infrastructure bill seems especially cruel — cruel enough to make it too expensive for many Americans to even drive a car.

      Nick Short of the Claremont Institute highlighted an item on Pages 508-519 of the bill that would introduce a national per-mile motor vehicle user fee on a trial basis.

      “Buried on page 508 of the 2,702 page infrastructure bill is a pilot program for a national motor vehicle per-mile user fee (MBUF) which is basically a long-term plan to make it too expensive to drive a car,” Short said Tuesday on Twitter.

      The pilot program is set up “to test the design, acceptance, implementation, and financial sustainability of a national motor vehicle per-mile user fee, to address the need for additional revenue for surface transportation infrastructure and a national motor vehicle per-mile user fee” and “to provide recommendations relating to the adoption and implementation of a national motor vehicle per-mile user fee,” the bill says.

      An article from The Lid Blog attached to Short’s tweet detailed the proposal even further, breaking down each component, from the program’s objectives to its proposal that “volunteers” from each state should discover different ways to collect data on miles driven by “both commercial and private vehicle operators.”

      On Page 513, the proposal says that the “Secretary of the Treasury shall establish, on an annual basis, per-mile user fees for passenger motor vehicles, light trucks, and medium- and heavy-duty trucks.” In theory, these per-mile user fees would vary by vehicle contingent upon several factors, including — you guessed it — environmental impact.

      To ease any apprehension about participating in the pilot program, the measure indicates that participants’ identities will be protected, perhaps, as The Lid said, to prevent ostracization “if this happens and achieves the desired result.”

      The left can chalk up this test run of what eventually might turn into a full-blown measure to make owning a vehicle next-to-impossible as an effort to be “environmentally conscious,” but is it instead another way to cripple our existing ways of life?

      We might dismiss it now, but imagine telling yourself five years ago that the government would order small business closures, codify when and how Americans could worship and adopt an increasingly draconian “do as I say, not as I do” policy to address a global pandemic.

      From the way we work to the way we breathe, so many aspects of our lives have already changed — albeit willingly, for some. What’s so different about changing how we get to one place from another?

      With $10 million dedicated to this program for each year from 2022 to 2026, it’s easy to see how the government doles out what it acquires from hardworking Americans.

      Any Republican lawmakers who vote in favor of this “bipartisan” bill have no right to label themselves “conservative.”

      This proposal is the antithesis of conservatism.

      Taylor PenleyContributor,

      Taylor Penley is a political commentator residing in Northwest Georgia. She holds a BA in English with minors in rhetoric/writing and global studies from Dalton State College. As a student, she worked in government relations and interned for Georgia’s 14th congressional district. She previously published an article with Future Female Leaders and published a rhetorical analysis of President Reagan’s Brandenburg Gate Address in a collegiate journal. She aspires to earn an MA and a PhD in journalism in the near future.

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      Political

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      Border Crisis Goes Into Overdrive as Cameras Catch 1,000 Immigrants Being Held Under a Bridge


      Reported by Dillon Burroughs | August 2, 2021

      Read more at https://www.westernjournal.com/border-crisis-goes-overdrive-cameras-catch-1000-immigrants-held-bridge/

      A new video shows up to 1,000 illegal immigrants were held for processing outdoors under a bridge near the U.S.-Mexico border on Sunday as the Border Patrol’s Rio Grande Valley Sector in Texas continues to experience a surge of people crossing the border.

      Fox News reporter Bill Melugin tweeted, “This is the largest group of migrants we’ve ever seen being held by Border Patrol under Anzalduas Bridge in Mission, TX. Looks like it could be up to 1,000 people. We can only get a look at the area with our drone. There’s a popular Rio Grande crossing area nearby.”

      Townhall.com reporter Julio Rosas also shared photos of the scene on Twitter, saying, “I’ve seen Border Patrol’s processing site underneath the Anzalduas International Bridge in Mission, TX off and on since March.

      “I can say this is the most illegal immigrants I’ve seen at the site at one time. It’s close to 100 degrees out right now.”

      Rosas also shared a video from Sunday night of another group, saying, “Another night in La Joya, TX another large group of illegal immigrants turning themselves over to Border Patrol. There are well over 150 people here. There is also a lot of sneezing and coughing among the group.”

      “Can’t stress enough that I’ve never seen such a large group at one time who have as many individuals who appear/sound to be sick,” he said.

      The report comes as the delta variant of the coronavirus has led to a spike in new cases in recent weeks while President Joe Biden’s administration welcomes illegal immigrants into the country. Last week, authorities said a charity in the border town of La Joya had rented an entire hotel to house illegal immigrants who have tested positive for COVID-19, giving no notification to the local community.

      “Police in La Joya, TX, a Border town, announce a charity has rented an entire hotel here for COVID-positive migrants,” Fox News State Department Correspondent Rich Edson tweeted Wednesday night. “They say they only found out when a family, showing symptoms and staying there, ate at a restaurant next door. A customer flagged down a police officer.”

      A later post added, “They’re advising La Joya to mask up and distance.”

      “The La Joya Police Department said a patrol officer was waved down Monday by someone concerned about a group that appeared to be sick at a Whataburger fast food restaurant,” Fox News reported late Wednesday night.

      “The officer found a family inside who were coughing and sneezing and not adhering to health guidelines, including the wearing of masks, authorities said during a news conference,” the report said.

      La Joya Police Sgt. Manuel Casas said his department and the city had not been notified of the situation.

      “We did not know this,” he said. “No one told the city of La Joya. No one told the police department that these people were here, and no one told us that these people were possibly ill.”

      The reported individuals were staying at Texas Inn & Suites after being released by Border Patrol.

      Dillon Burroughs, Breaking News/Media Reporter

      Dillon Burroughs reports on breaking news for The Western Journal and is the author or co-author of numerous books.@dillonburroughs

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      Capitol Police Arrest Democratic Congresswoman for Storming Federal Building


      Reported by Jack Davis | July 16, 2021

      Read more at https://www.westernjournal.com/capitol-police-arrest-democratic-congresswoman-storming-federal-building/

      The chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus celebrated her arrest Thursday after leading an incursion of protesters into the Hart Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill. Democratic Rep. Joyce Beatty of Ohio said that breaking the law was an important way to illustrate her belief that voting reforms passed by state legislatures will disenfranchise black voters.

      “I stand in solidarity with Black women and allies across the country in defense of our constitutional right to vote. We have come too far and fought too hard to see everything systematically dismantled and restricted by those who wish to silence us,” Beatty said in a statement on her website.

      She said more protests will follow.

      “Be assured that this is just the beginning. This is Our Power, Our Message,” the congresswoman in the statement.

      “You can arrest me. You can’t stop me. You can’t silence me,” Beatty said on Twitter.

      NBC News reported that the protesters who joined Beatty in the incursion demanded passage of the so-called For the People Act, a Democrat bill that would largely put elections under the thumb of the federal government instead of the states.

      Capitol Police said the demonstrators were arrested after refusing to disperse.

      “This afternoon, nine people were arrested for demonstrating in a prohibited area on Capitol Grounds,” the department said in a statement on Thursday.

      “At approximately 3:30pm, the United States Capitol Police responded to the Atrium in the Hart Senate Office Building for reports of illegal demonstration activity. After officers arrived on the scene, they warned the demonstrators three times to stop. Those who refused were arrested for D.C. Code §22-1307. Two males and seven females were transported to USCP Headquarters for processing,” Capitol Police said.

      Unlike the coverage of the Jan. 6 incursion of the U.S. Capitol by supporters of then-President Donald Trump, there was no hue-and-cry in the media about Beatty and the other protesters staging an “insurrection” or “threatening our democracy.”

      Many Republicans have said the fight over election reform legislation is an attempt by Democrats to use their current congressional majority as a means to cement leftist rule in America.

      “Democrats want to rig every election going forward to make it nearly impossible for a conservative to win again,” Fox News host Laura Ingraham said Wednesday.

      “They’re now effectively arguing that the very voting rules that delivered two two-term victories for Bill Clinton and Barack Obama are essentially just like Jim Crow 2.0,” she said.

      “So this leaves them really with only one option in their mind, which is to promote racial fear-mongering in pretty much everything around them. We already know what they’re doing in our schools, to our workplaces, the military, even to now our system of voting,” Ingraham said.

      Fox News host Sean Hannity said the left’s fuss over voting rights is part of a strategy to sway the 2022 elections.

      “So what does this really all about? We all know there’s nothing racist about integrity in elections. Democrats are obviously worried. Chances are they now believe they probably will lose in 2022 and maybe even 2024,” he said Thursday on “Hannity.”

      “Mark my words, if Democrats suffer huge losses in 2022, they will blame racist right-wing voter suppression. … The truth isn’t important to the Democratic Party or the media mob, for that matter. Power is all that matters,” Hannity said.

      Jack Davis, Contributor,

      Jack Davis is a freelance writer who joined The Western Journal in July 2015 and chronicled the campaign that saw President Donald Trump elected. Since then, he has written extensively for The Western Journal on the Trump administration as well as foreign policy and military issues.

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      Political

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      Breaking: AZ Auditors Reveal Massively Disturbing Results in 2020 Election


      Reported by Michael Austin July 15, 2021

      Read more at https://www.westernjournal.com/breaking-az-auditors-reveal-massively-disturbing-results-2020-election/

      On Thursday, Arizona Republicans issued a major announcement related to the audit of Maricopa County’s 2020 general election results. During the proceedings, Arizona state Senate President Karen Fann, along with state Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Warren Petersen, gave the floor to auditors who announced that as many as 74,000 absentee ballot mail-in records are missing in addition to a great many vote irregularities found by the audit.

      “… as many as 74,000 absentee ballot mail-in records are missing in addition to a great many vote irregularities found by the audit.“

      Fann began the hearing by introducing three individuals who played key roles in the state audit.

      Lead auditor Doug Logan first introduced a video clip that detailed the process and emphasized the security measures that were taken to ensure the audit could proceed safely.

      Former Arizona Secretary of State and Arizona Senate liaison Ken Bennett then provided specifics of the audit, including how many ballots were received and examined, how data was collected and examined from voting equipment and which security protocols were enforced while the audit took place.

      The liaison noted that the examination of duplicate ballots was a particularly strenuous process. Duplicate ballots are typically produced when a ballot becomes damaged or is improperly marked.

      “It has created great difficulty to try to match up a duplicated ballot to its duplicate,” Bennett said, noting that some serial numbers were completely missing from duplicated ballots, ……….. READ THE REST OF THIS IMPORTANT REPORT AT https://www.westernjournal.com/breaking-az-auditors-reveal-massively-disturbing-results-2020-election/

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      Pennsylvania County Will Refuse to Submit Voting Machines for Audit After Threat from Democratic Official


      Reported by Jack Davis | July 14, 2021

      Read more at https://www.westernjournal.com/pennsylvania-county-will-refuse-submit-voting-machines-audit-threat-democratic-official/

      With threats from a top official in Pennsylvania’s Democratic-dominated administration ringing in their ears, officials from one Pennsylvania county have refused to participate in an audit of the state’s 2020 election results. Although Tioga County is led by Republicans, county solicitor Christopher Gabriel said cooperating with the audit proposed by state Sen. Doug Mastriano would in effect be operating with a sword over the heads of county officials, according to KDKA-TV.

      Last week, Acting Secretary of State Veronica Degraffenreid, an appointee of Democratic Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf, issued an order ensuring counties could not cooperate with an election audit even if they wanted to.Advertisement – story continues below

      “County Boards of Elections shall not provide physical, electronic, or internal access to third parties seeking to copy and/or conduct an examination of state-certified electronic voting systems, or any components of such systems, including but not limited to: election management software and systems, tabulators, scanners, counters, automatic tabulating equipment, voting devices, servers, ballot marking devices, paper ballot or ballot card printers, portable memory media devices (thumb drives, flash drives and the like), and any other hardware, software or devices being used as part of the election management system,” the order said.

      And if any county were to be so bold as to defy the Democratic state administration and provide its voting machines for an election audit, it would pay the price. The order threatened that if a county were to allow an outside agency to audit its machines, “the Department of State will withdraw the certification or use authority for those pieces of the county voting system.”

      Then came the hammer.

      “The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania will not reimburse any cost of replacement voting equipment for which certification or use authority has been withdrawn pursuant to this directive,” the order said.

      Gabriel said that left Tioga County with very little wiggle room.

      “We can’t be in a position where we don’t have the election machines, because we have to run the next election, these are extremely expensive machines and our position is we need to follow the direction that the secretary has given us,” Gabriel said.

      Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald additionally implied that, if asked, his county will also not participate, noting that such a move would “cost the taxpayers of Allegheny County millions of dollars and potentially have the machines that we bought invalidated in which we can’t use them again.”

      TO READ THE REST OF THIS REPORT GO TO https://www.westernjournal.com/pennsylvania-county-will-refuse-submit-voting-machines-audit-threat-democratic-official/

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      Political

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      Photos Show What US Admiral Meant When He Warned of China’s ‘Breathtaking’ Nuclear Expansion


      Reported by Isa Cox July 3, 2021 at 1:41pm

      Read more at https://www.westernjournal.com/photos-show-us-admiral-meant-warned-chinas-breathtaking-nuclear-expansion/

      In April, U.S. Navy Adm. Charles Richard, the commander of U.S. Strategic Command, warned a congressional panel that China’s nuclear program was in the midst of a “breathtaking expansion,” including the development of intercontinental ballistic missiles, mobile missile launchers and nuclear-capable submarines. Now, satellite imagery has confirmed that Richard was by no means exaggerating.

      Researchers from the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies in Monterey, California, obtained the images which were initially captured by commercial satellites. The images depict the construction of over 100 new silos for ICBMs in the desert outside the city of Yumen, which is in northwestern China, The Washington Post reported.

      Should these 119 near-identical construction sites be completed, it would mark a significant expansion in the country’s relatively meager stock of nuclear weapons. The Post noted that the number of silos doesn’t necessarily indicate the number of weapons intended to be stored within them, as China has been known to use decoy silos in the past in a similar fashion to a strategy used by the U.S. during the Cold War to mislead Soviet intelligence forces.

      “The reported silo construction project could provide China with yet another means of concealing its most powerful weapons. The construction sites spotted on satellite photos are arrayed in two huge swaths, covering parts of a desert basin stretching to the west and southwest of Yumen, a city of 170,000 people along China’s ancient Silk Road,” The Post explained.

      “Each site is separated from its neighbors by about two miles, and many of the sites are concealed by a large, dome-like covering, following a practice observed at known construction sites for missile silos in other parts of China. At sites where the dome is not in place, construction crews can be seen excavating a characteristic circular-shaped pit in the desert floor. Another construction site appears to be a partially built control center.”

      Jeffrey Lewis, who was part of the team that reviewed the satellite images, explained in a summary of his analysis on the findings as provided to The Post that, when added to similar construction projects, these silos would bring the total count to 145 across the Chinese mainland.

      “We believe China is expanding its nuclear forces in part to maintain a deterrent that can survive a U.S. first strike in sufficient numbers to defeat U.S. missile defenses,” he explained.

      This intelligence underscores the urgency with which China is bolstering its defenses in likely anticipation of any attempt at foreign intervention in its aggressive expansion of power both at home and abroad.

      Lewis, who described the sheer scale of the construction projects as “incredible,” believes the silos are likely intended for a Chinese ICBM known as the DF-41, which is capable of carrying multiple warheads and can strike targets as far off as 9,300 miles. Yes — that means they could, potentially, have the capacity to reach the U.S. mainland.

      Although the U.S. Department of Defense declined to comment on the satellite images or discuss any of its own intelligence on China’s nuclear capabilities, a spokesperson pointed to previous warnings that any such concern is likely justified.

      “Defense Department leaders have testified and publicly spoken about China’s growing nuclear capabilities, which we expect to double or more over the next decade,” spox John Supple said.

      Lewis believes that China, which boasts a significantly smaller nuclear arsenal than those in the U.S. and Russia, has engaged a “limited deterrence” doctrine that simply prioritizes its ability to retaliate if attacked.

      Yet while he believes that the satellite images could be indicative of a “shell game” on the part of China, i.e. that they’re simply designed to give the appearance that they’re more nuclear-capable than they really are, the sheer multitude of so many potential launch sites could serve as a warning to U.S. officials to modernize our own arsenal.

      While Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in February that the Biden administration plans to “pursue arms control to reduce the dangers from China’s modern and growing nuclear arsenal,” he offered no specifics on what this would look like, merely vowing to pursue “effective arms control that enhances stability, transparency and predictability while reducing the risks of costly, dangerous arms races.”

      It appears that we’re in an arms race with China whether we like it or not, however, and that’s exactly where the nation wants us to be.

      In 2019, China unveiled new nuclear warheads amid massive pomp and circumstance reminiscent of Soviet and Mao-era military parades as the 70th anniversary of the establishment of the People’s Republic of China was being celebrated. This came as a trade war with the United States loomed thanks to former President Donald Trump’s tough stance on the aspiring global superpower. That was when the DF-41 made its public debut amid the tightly synchronized goose-stepping and Cold War-style theatrics of the celebratory parade.

      Now that President Joe Biden is in office, Beijing has made clear it’s hardly afraid of Trump’s successor — a fact made embarrassingly plain in the first diplomatic talks between his administration and China when the nation’s diplomatic team publicly humiliated Blinken — on U.S. soil, no less. The Biden administration has publicly condemned China’s human rights abuses among the Uyghur population in the Xinjiang province and its authoritarian crackdown in the previously liberal and autonomous Hong Kong, but has stopped short of taking any action against the antagonistic communist nation.

      During his remarks on the centennial anniversary of the founding of the Chinese Communist Party this week, President Xi Jinping vowed “broken heads and bloodshed” to any foreign adversaries which provoke or enrage China, a message which is entirely consistent with the notorious “wolf warrior” diplomacy exercised by his regime.

      China may be doing its best to fluff up its feathers and appear more powerful than it is on the world stage — but it’s determined to increase its power by any means necessary, and it is this fierce determination and fearless provocation of foreign powers that we have to be concerned about.

      As long as Biden continues to take a weak and soft stance on China and President Xi, a man he once described as a “friend,” China will take every single advantage such leniency affords it.

      ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

      Isa Cox, Contributor, Commentary

      Isa grew up in San Francisco, where she was briefly a far-left socialist before finding Jesus and her husband in Hawaii. She now homeschools their two boys and freelances in the Ozarks.@crunchyconmama

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      Michael Brown Op-ed: What the IRS got remarkably right in the midst of a terribly wrong ruling


      Commentary By Michael Brown, CP Op-Ed Contributor| Monday, June 21, 2021

      Read more at https://www.christianpost.com/voices/what-the-irs-got-remarkably-right.html/

      Michael Brown
      Michael Brown holds a Ph.D. in Near Eastern Languages and Literatures from New York University and has served as a professor at a number of seminaries. He is the author of 25 books and hosts the nationally syndicated, daily talk radio show, the Line of Fire. | Courtesy of Michael Brown

      Just type the words IRS, Christian, and Bible in your search engine and you’ll get a flood of results, most of them starting with headlines like this: “IRS denies Christian nonprofit tax exemption, saying biblical values are Republican.” Or this, “IRS denies tax-exempt status to Christian nonprofit group because ‘Bible teachings are typically affiliated with the Republican Party’.”

      Naturally, there has been outrage among Christian conservatives over this ruling, pointing to this yet another example of the IRS’s anti-Christian, anti-conservative bias. That’s also why most of the commentary has focused on the egregious ruling itself, which is being appealed.

      Yet, in the midst of this very wrong ruling, the IRS made a very right observation: by and large, the Republican Party is more aligned with biblical teaching than is the Democratic Party.

      Of course, neither major party is fully aligned with God and His Word. And, without a doubt, the world of politics cannot be confused with the purity of the spiritual realm and the kingdom of God. We can also debate which party’s policies are closest to biblical values when it comes to helping the poor or the immigrant.

      That’s why, on principle, even though I have voted for Republican candidates for years while not voting for a single Democrat, I am registered as an Independent. It’s just my way of saying that I cannot align myself fully with any political party.

      At the same time, when it comes to important biblical values, in the great majority of cases, the Republican platform is more aligned with Scripture than is the Democratic platform, to the point of getting the backhanded recognition of the IRS.

      As for the organization involved in this ruling, it is called Christians Engaged, and its stated purpose is: “to awaken, motivate, educate, and empower ordinary believers in Jesus Christ to.”

      Their threefold emphasis is: “Pray for our nation and elected officials regularly. Vote in every election to impact our culture. Engage our hearts in some form of political education or activism for the furtherance of our nation.”

      Yet when they applied for tax exempt status, they were rejected.

      In the words of the official IRS ruling (I’m quoting the most relevant section), “Specifically, you educate Christians on what the Bible says in areas where they can be instrumental including the areas of sanctity of life, the definition of marriage, biblical justice, freedom of speech, defense, and borders and immigration, U.S. and Israel relations. The Bible teachings are typically affiliated with the [Republican Party] and candidates. This disqualifies you from exemption under IRC Section 501(c)(3).”

      Again, the mocking headlines were well deserved, including this one, from RedState: “The IRS says if you believe in God and the Bible, you are working for the GOP.”

      That’s why, for good reason, the ruling is being appealed by First Liberty Institute, which has argued that the IRS ruling “errs in three ways: 1) [it] invents a nonexistent requirement that exempt organizations be neutral on public policy issues; 2) [it] incorrectly concludes that Christians Engaged primarily serves private, nonexempt purposes rather than public, exempt purposes because he thinks its beliefs overlap with the Republican Party’s policy positions; and 3) [it] violates the First Amendment’s Free Speech, and Free Exercise, and Establishment clauses by engaging in both viewpoint discrimination and religious discrimination.”

      Yet in the midst of the pushback against the IRS, many have missed the biting irony of the words of the ruling where biblical teaching is associated with the Republican Party. In large measure, the IRS got this exactly right.

      As noted in RedState, “The Bible, yes, IRS, the word is capitalized, is not neutral on the sanctity of life. It is not neutral on homosexuality. It is not neutral on marriage. It is not neutral on justice.”

      Let’s remember that the Democrats positioned themselves as the party of the Religious “Nones” (meaning, people with no religious affiliation).

      And it is the Democrats who have become increasingly radical in their pro-abortion zeal.

      And the Democrats who are pushing the Equality Act, which guts religious liberties in favor of LGBT extremism.

      As I noted in September 2019, “There is no question about it. There is not even a desire to hide it. The Democrat Party continues to grow spiritually darker to the point of actually proclaiming itself the party of the religiously non-affiliated. Is it any surprise?”

      Or, as I pointed out in August 2020 (with regard to the Biden-Sanders “Unity Plan”), “God is never mentioned in the document. Not once.” In contrast, “the word gender occurs 22 times.

      “More importantly, ‘transgender’ occurs twice, and in very specific contexts: ‘we will act expeditiously to reinstate Department of Education guidance protecting transgender students’ rights under Title IX and make clear that schools shall not discriminate based on LGBTQ status.’”

      In sum, “LGBTQ” is “mentioned 17 times in the plan” while “‘religion’ is mentioned once, ‘Christian’ and ‘Jew’ and ‘God’ are not mentioned at all, but ‘LGBTQ’ is mentioned 17 times. Need I say more?”

      And what of the rising, virtually unchecked tide of anti-Zionism and antisemitism within the Democratic Party?

      For good reason the IRS pointed to what “the Bible says” with regard to “U.S. and Israel relations.” Here, too, the Republican Party stands much closer to Scripture than does the Democratic Party.

      So, while the IRS ruled quite wrongly in denying Christians Engaged tax-exempt status, it ironically got one thing right: if you teach the Bible accurately, by and large, you’ll end up siding with the Republicans rather than the Democrats.

      ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

      Dr. Michael Brown (www.askdrbrown.org) is the host of the nationally syndicated Line of Fire radio program.  He holds a Ph.D. in Near Eastern Languages and Literatures from New York University and has served as a professor at a number of seminaries. He is the author of 40 books.  Connect with him on Facebook, Twitter, or YouTube.

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      ‘Bombshell’ Document from Georgia Investigator Reveals ‘Massive’ Election Integrity Problems


      Reported by Erin Coates | June 18, 2021

      Read more at https://www.westernjournal.com/bombshell-document-georgia-investigator-reveals-massive-election-integrity-problems/

      A 29-page memo from a Fulton County, Georgia, election monitor outlined “massive” election integrity failures and mismanagement, according to a new report.

      Just the News published what it described as a “bombshell report” that cited problems including double-counting votes, insecure storage of ballots and the removal of election material at a vote collection warehouse.

      “This seems like a massive chain of custody problem,” Carter Jones wrote in his memo.

      The time stamp on the notation was at 4 p.m. on election day and Jones said he observed absentee ballots arriving at the scanning center at Atlanta’s State Farm Arena “in rolling bins 2k at a time.”

      “It is my understanding is that the ballots are supposed to be moved in numbered, sealed boxes to protect them,” he wrote.

      “Too many ballots coming in for secure black ballot boxes.”

      In another instance, he noted that he observed someone taking the wrong suitcase of poll pads.

      “Seems to be a mystery who this person was,” he wrote. “Should have chain of custody paperwork!! That means that a stranger just walked out with sensitive election materials?”

      Jones also appeared concerned about workers from a firm called Happy Faces. He reported the workers could be heard saying they were ready to “f*ck sh*t up.”

      “I must keep an eye on these two,” he wrote.

      “Perhaps this was a bad joke, but it was very poorly timed in the presence of a poll watcher.”

      YOU CAN READ THE REST OF THIS REPORT AT https://www.westernjournal.com/bombshell-document-georgia-investigator-reveals-massive-election-integrity-problems/

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      White House Forced to Issue Clarification on Gesture Biden Made in Opening Seconds of Putin Meeting


      Reported by Erin Coates | June 16, 2021

      Read more at https://www.westernjournal.com/white-house-forced-issue-clarification-gesture-biden-made-opening-seconds-putin-meeting/

      The White House quickly issued a clarification that President Joe Biden’s answer to a reporter’s question Wednesday in Geneva was not what it seemed. Prior to Biden’s meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Switzerland, the two leaders appeared together for a brief and chaotic photo opportunity, according to The Associated Press. When a reporter asked if Putin could be trusted, Biden appeared to nod in agreement.

      “Inside, a pooler shouted Mr. President, do you trust Putin? Biden nodded yes up and down,” CBS News reporter Kathryn Watson tweeted, quoting the print pool. Political reporter Yamiche Alcindor added that it appeared that Biden “looked directly at the reporter and nodded affirmatively.”

      The White House communications staff moved quickly to claim the president wasn’t answering the Putin question but was just giving “a general head nod in the direction of the media.”

      “During a chaotic free for all with members of the press shouting questions over each other, the President gave a general head nod in the direction of the media,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki told Alcindor.

      “He wasn’t responding to any question or anything other than the chaos.”

      White House Communications Director Kate Beddingfield offered a similar explanation, adding that two days ago Biden said “verify, then trust” in relation to Putin.

      Biden has previously called Putin a “killer” and has claimed that as vice president a decade ago he looked into Putin’s eyes and told him he was missing a “soul.”

      Journalists and security officers were shoving to get into the small room Wednesday, creating a bit of chaos prior to the meeting, according to the AP.

      YOU CAN READ THE REST OF THIS REPORT AT https://www.westernjournal.com/white-house-forced-issue-clarification-gesture-biden-made-opening-seconds-putin-meeting/?utm_source=Email&utm_medium=aa-breaking&utm_campaign=can&utm_content=firefly

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      Biden Releases New Domestic Terrorism Strategy that Names White Supremacists and Anti-Government Activists as Biggest Threats


      Reported by Jack Davis | June 15, 2021

      Read more at https://www.westernjournal.com/biden-releases-new-domestic-terrorism-strategy-names-white-supremacists-anti-government-activists-biggest-threats/

      The Biden administration has announced a domestic terrorism strategy that it says will focus on white supremacists and anti-government extremists who use violence to achieve their goals. President Joe Biden came into office vowing to revamp America’s domestic terrorism rules in the aftermath of the Capitol incursion. But the result, announced Tuesday, has some concerned.

      Stewart Baker, a Homeland Security lawyer in the administration of former President George W. Bush, said Biden’s approach has him “deeply uneasy.”

      “The administration intends to deploy the language and tools of counterterrorism against people on the far right of the U.S. political spectrum,” he told NBC News.

      “Those people are certainly not all innocents. Some of them have committed mass murder, killings of federal officers and the like. But it’s hard to say that such violence has been the signature of an organization or, really, of more than one or two individuals whose beliefs border on mental illness. Preventing and punishing such violence is what law enforcement tools are for,” he said.

      Counterterrorism strategies, he said, should focus on the “much more dangerous forms of terrorism we’ve seen from ISIS and al-Qaida.”

      Biden’s strategy is based on his administration’s assessment that “the two most lethal elements of today’s domestic terrorism threat are (1) racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists who advocate for the superiority of the white race and (2) anti-government or anti-authority violent extremists, such as militia violent extremists,” according to a White House fact sheet.

      The strategy calls for spending millions to beef up the ability of local governments to prevent or respond to domestic terrorism. Some groups will come in for extra attention.

      “The Department of Defense (DOD) is incorporating training for servicemembers separating or retiring from the military on potential targeting of those with military training by violent extremist actors,” the fact sheet said.

      The fact sheet also said that the federal government “is improving employee screening to enhance methods for identifying domestic terrorists who might pose insider threats. The Office of Personnel Management will consider updates to the forms used to apply for sensitive roles in the Federal Government that could assist investigators in identifying potential domestic terrorism threats.”

      YOU CAN READ THE REST OF THIS REPORT AT https://www.westernjournal.com/biden-releases-new-domestic-terrorism-strategy-names-white-supremacists-anti-government-activists-biggest-threats/?utm_source=Email&utm_medium=aa-breaking&utm_campaign=can&utm_content=firefly

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      Biden’s G-7 Trip Gets Off to Bad Start as Lawmaker Says He’s ‘Senile,’ ‘Won’t Remember’ What He’s Told


      Reported by Kipp Jones | June 10, 2021

      Read more at https://www.westernjournal.com/bidens-g-7-trip-gets-off-bad-start-lawmaker-says-senile-wont-remember-told/

      Remember when the establishment media told us that our friends and foes across the world were collectively laughing at us when former President Donald Trump was running the show? Some of those people are certainly laughing now — if they aren’t fuming.

      One British politician reportedly called President Joe Biden “senile” this week as he makes his first trip abroad as commander in chief to attend a G-7 summit in the U.K. The Sun reported that the globalist Democrat has already ruffled some feathers in Britain, sticking his nose into a dispute involving Brexit, the European Union and sausage.

      Basically, the EU does not allow chilled meats to be imported into member nations, and Britain is no longer a member of the EU. The U.K. is unwilling to enforce a sausage blockade on Northern Ireland, so multiple parties find themselves at odds over pork.

      Enter Biden, who can’t even manage an international border on this side of the pond. The president expressed “great concern” over Britain’s handling of the trade disagreement, according to The Times, and ordered the top American diplomat in the U.K. to essentially censure London — siding with the EU in doing so.

      One member of Parliament — described by Politico only as a “conservative Brexiteer” — had harsh words for Biden on Thursday.

      “America should remember who their allies are,” the MP said. “Unfortunately he’s so senile that he probably won’t remember what we tell him anyway. Unless an aide is listening I’m not sure he’s going to remember for very long.”

      Trump ally and Brexit leader Nigel Farage also ripped Biden.

      “We now have an anti-British US President in the White House. I hope all those who condemned Trump see their stupidity,” Farage tweeted.

      If our friends have such nice things to say about Biden, imagine what our enemies are saying about him behind closed doors. In a matter of months, Biden has mismanaged this country’s affairs to the point where our southern border is the epicenter of a humanitarian crisis, inflation is skyrocketing and unemployed Americans are being paid to sit at home while businesses face a labor shortage.

      One could make the compelling case that Biden isn’t qualified to weigh in on an overseas sausage dispute. The Brits certainly don’t need any input from a 78-year-old Democrat from Delaware.

      The president’s bumbling, combined with Vice President Kamala Harris’ disastrous visit to Mexico and Central America earlier this week, makes the Biden administration 0 for 2 on international trips. The pair should cut their losses while they still have a shred of credibility left at home and abroad.

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      International Politics

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      Georgia Poll Manager: There Were ‘Pristine’ Biden Ballots That Looked Like They’d Been Xeroxed


      Reported by Taylor Penley June 8, 2021 at 4:21pm

      Read more at https://www.westernjournal.com/georgia-poll-manager-pristine-biden-ballots-looked-like-xeroxed/

      Suzi Voyles is no stranger to elections. And after monitoring voting in Atlanta-area Fulton County, Georgia, for two decades, Voyles said that the highly contentious 2020 election proved to be unlike any other. Voyles testified that as she thumbed through a stack of mail-in ballots last November, strangely “pristine” ballots printed on stock paper different from the others seized her attention.

      What did these ballots have in common?

      Voyles testified that each ballot contained uniformly filled-in ovals, and every one presented an identical crescent-shaped “void” inside them — indicating the ballots weren’t filled in with pencil or pen, but rather by toner ink.

      “Every single ballot was absolutely identical and they appeared to be printed with some sort of marking device,” Voyles said. “And the fact that there was a little eclipse in an oval that was void in exactly the same spot in all these ballots, we didn’t see any differentiation — even when it came to the Senate candidates or when it came to some of the referendums on the back.”

      “Everything was precisely the same. I’ve never seen that before in 20 years,” Voyles said. She added that these suspicious ballots had no creases or folds indicative of other mail-in ballots extracted from envelopes.

      Voyles wasn’t alone in her testimony.

      According to RealClear Investigations, at least three other Fulton County poll workers reported that they encountered the same enigma in other stacks of absentee ballots and have joined Voyles in “swearing under penalty of perjury that [the ballots] looked fake.”

      Eight months later, we see the same suspicion resurging in the Republican stronghold that unexpectedly flipped blue for the first time since 1992. Using affidavits to convince a state judge to warrant a closer inspection of ballots for potential illicit election activity, election integrity advocates assert that Biden’s late surge of 12,000 votes was manufactured — and for good reason.

      “We have what is almost surely major absentee-ballot fraud in Fulton County involving 10,000 to 20,000 probably false ballots,” Garland Favorito, poll watcher and a lead petitioner in the case against fraudulent ballots, told RealClear Investigations.

      “We have confirmed that there are five pallets of shrink-wrapped ballots in a county warehouse,” he added, reiterating his claim.

      As questions surrounding the legitimacy of the 2020 election outcome continued in Georgia, as well as other states, Superior Court Judge Brian Amero ordered on May 21 that 147,000 ballots be unsealed and asked that officials guard the warehouse containing these ballots until an inspection date could be set, according to the report. Unfortunately, the warehouse’s security was breached only eight days later. According to Favorito, “The front door was [found] unlocked and wide open in violation of the court order.”

      County officials did confirm that security motion detectors were triggered shortly after deputies left the premises, but said the room containing the ballots was “never breached or compromised.”

      Still, Favorito — and likely many others — would not be convinced and Favorito seeks to obtain security footage to supplement the investigation, the report states.

      Still, all of the contention brewing in the Peach State appears to reaffirm many suspicions that have arisen since Nov. 3 — and may validate Voyle’s bombshell claims. We can’t allow our officials to ignore their obligation to ensure fair, ethical elections for all Americans.

      If we do, we have surrendered the most integral aspect of our republic.

      Taylor Penley, Contributor, Commentary

      Taylor Penley is a government relations intern and student studying English, rhetoric and global studies. She plans to graduate in May 2021 and begin a master of arts program in political science this fall.

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      Political

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      Flashback: Gerald Ford’s Eerie Prediction Could Soon Come True for Kamala Harris


      Commentary by Brett Kershaw | June 9, 2021

      Read more at https://www.westernjournal.com/flashback-gerald-fords-eerie-prediction-soon-come-true-kamala-harris/

      If any former president had access to an operational time machine, it may have been former President Gerald Ford.

      But his foresight would not focus on the degradation of America’s international standing or the fiscal ramifications of stagflation and untethered federal spending. Rather, it would deal with how America would elect, or more precisely, promote the first female president.

      When Ford visited the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum in West Branch, Iowa, on Oct. 18, 1989 — approximately a decade after leaving office — he was given the special chance to share with the nation’s youth the role that former presidents played in American society, after they departed from the presidency.

      In this setting, the former president did not have to worry about ditching and dodging around the biting journalistic questions of the day. Instead, he was asked by one young girl, “What advice would you give a young lady wanting to become president of the United States?”

      With a smile, the former president opened with, “Well I hope we do have a young lady at some point become president of the United States.” His following description would appear as if the 38th president was a part-time Nostradamus.

      “I can tell you how I think it will happen because it won’t happen in the normal course of events.”

      “Either the Republican or Democrat political party will nominate a man for president and a woman for vice president. And the woman and man will win, so you’ll end up with a president — a male — and a vice president — a female,” he said.

      “In that term of office of the president, the president will die and the woman will become president under the law or Constitution,” Ford said, in an unknowingly foreboding sense.

      Taking a quick look at the current administration, it may appear Ford was onto something.

      At various times, President Joe Biden has slipped up — as he is known to do on occasion — and indicate that Vice President Kamala Harris is, in fact, his “president-elect” or “President Harris.”

      https://www.youtube.com/embed/ngjX4g79lK8?feature=oembedAdvertisement – story continues below

      Could Ford’s fortune-telling be correct?

      There are a few pathways by which the vice president could become president. In the case of an assassination or resignation, the 25th Amendment gives the vice president the authority to take the role of the executive. In other cases, the mechanism of impeachment and removal gives Congress the means to check a president’s bad behavior.

      Absent a popularly held election, however, it would be interesting to see how the American people would react to a Harris presidency, as conservatives, libertarians and even some progressives and liberals have voiced their concerns over her authoritarian record.

      After former Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii highlighted Harris’ record as attorney general and prosecutor at a Democratic presidential debate in 2019, much of the country recoiled upon hearing that she forced prisoners to stay past their sentences and purposely hid evidence of innocence for a man sitting on death row.

      As a Washington grifter, Harris’ actions do not often win the hearts and minds of the American people.

      President Ford, nonetheless, left those young visitors with one last message.

      “Once that barrier is broken, from then on men better be careful because they’ll have a hard, hard time ever even getting a nomination in the future.”

      With everyone’s eyes set on 2024, it may be time for the guys to watch out.

      Brett Kershaw, Associate Staff Writer

      Brett Kershaw is an associate staff writer for The Western Journal. A graduate of Virginia Tech with bachelor of arts degrees in political science and history, he is a published author who often studies political philosophy and political history.

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      Political

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      ‘Their Legacy Is Immortal’: Trump Delivers Stirring Memorial Day Statement


      Reported by Dillon Burroughs | May 31, 2021

      Read more at https://www.westernjournal.com/legacy-immortal-trump-delivers-stirring-memorial-day-statement/

      In contrast with brief comments from President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris prior to Memorial Day, former President Donald Trump released a statement on Monday to remind Americans of the reasons behind the holiday.

      “On this Memorial Day, we remember the fallen heroes who took their last breaths in defense of our Nation, our families, our citizens, and our sacred freedoms,” Trump wrote in a statement.

      “The depth of their devotion, the steel of their resolve, and the purity of their patriotism has no equal in human history. On distant battlefields, in far-off oceans, and high in the skies above, they faced down our enemies and gave their lives so that America would prevail,” the former president added.

      Trump also highlighted the “supreme sacrifice” given by many armed forces personnel who have served the nation.

      “They made the supreme sacrifice so that our people can live in safety and our Nation can thrive in peace. It is because of their gallantry that we can together, as one people, continue our pursuit of America’s glorious destiny,” he said.

      Trump referred to the service of America’s fallen heroes as “immortal,” highlighting loyalty to those who have paid the ultimate price with their lives on the battlefield.

      “We owe all that we are, and everything we ever hope to be, to these unrivaled heroes. Their memory and their legacy is immortal. Our loyalty to them and to their families is eternal and everlasting,” he said.

      In contrast to the “woke” promotions highlighted in recent military ads, Trump referred to the nation’s military personnel as warriors.

      “America’s warriors are the single greatest force for justice, peace, liberty, and security among all the nations ever to exist on earth. God bless our fallen Soldiers, Sailors, Coast Guardsmen, Airmen, and Marines. We honor them today, forever, and always,” Trump said.

      The former president’s statement serves as a follow-up to his Thursday attacks on the Biden administration before Memorial Day.

      “With Memorial Day Weekend coming up, tomorrow people start driving in the biggest automobile days of the year,” Trump said in the statement.

      “I’m sorry to say the gasoline prices that you will be confronted with are far higher than they were just a short number of months ago where we had gasoline under $2 a gallon.”

      Trump’s statement also strongly contrasted Twitter posts by both Biden and Harris entering the holiday weekend.

      Biden tweeted, “Stay cool this weekend, folks.” He later added a more traditional Memorial Day statement.

      Harris simply posted Friday, “Enjoy the long weekend.”

      The vice president’s initial post angered many on social media who found her whimsical words offensive, as Memorial Day commemorates Americans who have died in the armed forces.

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      COMMENTARY: State Residents Rip Back Power from Governor, Enact Two Constitutional Amendments to Keep COVID Power Grab from Ever Happening Again


      Demonstrators rally outside the Pennsylvania Capitol Building to protest the continued closure of businesses due to the coronavirus pandemic on May 15, 2020, in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.Demonstrators rally outside the Pennsylvania Capitol Building to protest the continued closure of businesses due to the coronavirus pandemic on May 15, 2020, in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. (Mark Makela / Getty Images)

      Commentary by Elizabeth Stauffer| May 20, 2021

      Read more at https://www.westernjournal.com/state-residents-rip-back-power-governor-enact-two-constitutional-amendments-keep-covid-power-grab-ever-happening/

      In one of the first signs that American citizens are cognizant of the country’s dangerous descent into a one-party rule, residents of Pennsylvania sent a powerful message to those responsible on Tuesday: Stop!

      The pandemic provided governors, mayors and other local leaders with extraordinary opportunities to expand their influence over the citizens in their states. Nowhere were these emergency powers more egregiously abused than in states, cities and towns governed by Democrats. By all measures, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf was one of the worst offenders.

      WHYY-TV reported that two constitutional amendments passed statewide referenda that will provide the state’s General Assembly with “more power to block emergency declarations.”

      The amendment to Article III, Section 9 of the Pennsylvania Constitution grants the legislature the ability to “terminate the Governor’s Covid-19 disaster emergency declaration without presenting it to the Governor for his approval.”

      Prior to this amendment, measures passed by both the state House and Senate required the approval of the governor. Needless to say, all of the Republican-controlled legislature’s attempts to end or minimize Wolf’s orders ended in vetoes which required a two-thirds vote in both chambers to override. With the passage of this resolution, a simple majority vote in the state House and the Senate is all that is necessary. Veto power is no longer available to the governor.

      Under the old law, the governor had the authority to issue an emergency order which would remain in effect for 90 days, at which point he or she could either renew it or end it. The new amendment stipulates that a “disaster emergency declaration will expire automatically after 21 days, regardless of the severity of the emergency, unless the General Assembly takes action to extend the disaster emergency.”

      WHYY noted that a COVID-19 emergency order is currently in effect and is set to expire on Memorial Day. If Wolf chooses to renew it, a simple majority vote in the state House and Senate could end it in 21 days.

      Democrats are reportedly worried that the legislature will act “to cancel COVID-19 emergency declarations without considering public health or consulting with the Governor’s office.”

      State House Majority Leader Kerry Benninghoff and Speaker Bryan Cutler, both Republicans, sought to reassure them in a joint statement which said, “We stand ready to reasonably and responsibly manage Pennsylvania through this ongoing global pandemic, the scourge of opioid addiction, and other long-term challenges that may come to face this Commonwealth.”

      State Republican lawmakers Senate Majority Leader Kim Ward and Senate President Jake Corman were more direct. In a joint statement, they wrote, “This decision by the people is not about taking power away from any one branch of government. It’s about re-establishing the balance of power between three equal branches of government as guaranteed by the constitution.”

      Gov. Wolf, unsurprisingly, vehemently opposed these amendments. According to The Morning Call, the governor said in January that “Republicans were injecting partisan politics into emergency disaster response in a ‘thinly veiled power grab.’ Just last week, he warned that the provisions were a threat to a functioning society that must respond to increasingly complicated disasters.”

      A thinly veiled power grab? I’m practically speechless. What stunning hypocrisy coming from a man who used the COVID-19 pandemic to trample all over his constituents’ rights by shutting down businesses, halting participation in high school sports, closing schools and mandating mask-wearing outside the home.

      Anyway, the governor held a news conference on Wednesday in Pottstown, Pennsylvania. He said he’d spoken to leaders of both parties in the legislature to discuss “a path forward,” the Morning Call reported.

      “We’re starting that conversation. You can’t just flick a switch and make the change,” he told reporters. “But the voters have spoken, and we’re going to do what I think the voters expect us to do and make the best of it.”

      WHYY reported the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency expressed its disappointment with the election results in a statement which read, “The constitutional amendments have the potential to politicize future disasters and their management. PEMA always stands ready to respond to any situation but we’re extremely disappointed that our efforts, and the efforts of our other state agencies, could be constrained by partisan politics, which has no place in emergency response efforts.”

      The passage of these amendments was a victory for those with whom the principles of liberty and freedom still have meaning. In an email provided to The Western Journal, Commonwealth Foundation President and CEO Charles Mitchell reacted to the passage of these amendments with tremendous joy and relief. He called Tuesday a “momentous day in the history of Pennsylvania and the United States” and wrote that “voters have defended some of our most important founding principles, including the separation of powers between branches of government and the fundamental importance of each citizen’s liberty.”

      Many governors “saw their emergency powers laws as a vehicle for them to act in contradiction to their own state constitutions and the U.S. Constitution for as long as they’d like.” Most of us would agree with that statement.

      Mitchell quoted James Madison in Federalist Paper No. 51: “But the great security against a gradual concentration of the several powers in the same department, consists in giving to those who administer each department, the necessary constitutional means, and personal motives, to resist encroachments of the others … it may be a reflection on human nature, that such devices should be necessary to control the abuses of government.”

      “Two hundred and thirty-three years after Madison wrote that statement, voters in Pennsylvania reaffirmed its truth,” Mitchell concluded.

      May Pennsylvania voters be the first of many states in the nation to impose restrictions on a governor’s authority under an emergency disaster declaration.

      ABOUT THE COMMENTATOR:

      Elizabeth Stauffer, Contributor, Commentary

      Elizabeth is a contract writer at The Western Journal. Her articles have appeared on many conservative websites including RedState, Newsmax, The Federalist, Bongino.com, HotAir, Instapundit, MSN and RealClearPolitics. Please visit Elizabeth’s new conservative blog: TheAmericanCrisis.org

      @StaufferVaughn

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      Ted Cruz Slams Racist MSNBC Host, Poses the 1 Question People Have Been Asking


      Reported by Landon Mion | May 12, 2021

      Read more at https://www.westernjournal.com/ted-cruz-slams-racist-msnbc-host-poses-1-question-people-asking/

      Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas responded to MSNBC host Joy Reid’s racist remarks against him by questioning why the network permitted her to get away with it and saying that comments of the like were leading Hispanics to turn their back on the Democratic Party.

      On Tuesday, Reid discussed the Texas senator with guests Democratic Sen. Alex Padilla of California and NAACP legal counsel Janai Nelson, and made a reference to the movie “Django Unchained” — comparing Cruz to a traitorous house slave in the film for not supporting the For the People Act, which aims at altering voting processes across the country.

      Cruz’s rebuttal was swift, calling out the host of the MSNBC segment “The Reid Out” for “using overt racial slurs” to make assumptions concerning how Hispanic-Americans should vote.

      “I appreciate MSNBC lecturing me on how people of ‘my race’ are supposed to vote,” Cruz tweeted on Wednesday. “This arrogant condescension is a big reason Hispanic voters are moving right in large numbers.

      “Also, why is MSNBC ok with their hosts using overt racial slurs (‘Stephen from Django’)?”

      https://platform.twitter.com/embed/Tweet.html?creatorScreenName=WestJournalism&dnt=true&embedId=twitter-widget-0&features=eyJ0ZndfZXhwZXJpbWVudHNfY29va2llX2V4cGlyYXRpb24iOnsiYnVja2V0IjoxMjA5NjAwLCJ2ZXJzaW9uIjpudWxsfSwidGZ3X2hvcml6b25fdHdlZXRfZW1iZWRfOTU1NSI6eyJidWNrZXQiOiJodGUiLCJ2ZXJzaW9uIjpudWxsfSwidGZ3X3R3ZWV0X2VtYmVkX2NsaWNrYWJpbGl0eV8xMjEwMiI6eyJidWNrZXQiOiJjb250cm9sIiwidmVyc2lvbiI6bnVsbH19&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=false&id=1392501208875683845&lang=en&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.westernjournal.com%2Fted-cruz-slams-racist-msnbc-host-poses-1-question-people-asking%2F&sessionId=6e43aa6771fcfead5347c9048446eb527afbcd73&siteScreenName=WestJournalism&theme=light&widgetsVersion=82e1070%3A1619632193066&width=550px

      Cruz called the For the People Act, officially known as House Resolution 1, “Jim Crow 2.0” — a reference to President Joe Biden’s remarks about Georgia’s new voting law, which the president called “Jim Crow in the 21st Century.”

      “Jim Crow laws were bigoted, racist, and disenfranchised millions of people,” Cruz said in a Tuesday tweet. “Those laws were drafted by Democrats and implemented by Democrats to keep Democrats in power. Today, Democrats are doing it again. The Corrupt Politicians Act is Jim Crow 2.0.”

      https://platform.twitter.com/embed/Tweet.html?creatorScreenName=WestJournalism&dnt=true&embedId=twitter-widget-1&features=eyJ0ZndfZXhwZXJpbWVudHNfY29va2llX2V4cGlyYXRpb24iOnsiYnVja2V0IjoxMjA5NjAwLCJ2ZXJzaW9uIjpudWxsfSwidGZ3X2hvcml6b25fdHdlZXRfZW1iZWRfOTU1NSI6eyJidWNrZXQiOiJodGUiLCJ2ZXJzaW9uIjpudWxsfSwidGZ3X3R3ZWV0X2VtYmVkX2NsaWNrYWJpbGl0eV8xMjEwMiI6eyJidWNrZXQiOiJjb250cm9sIiwidmVyc2lvbiI6bnVsbH19&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=false&id=1392149167712219138&lang=en&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.westernjournal.com%2Fted-cruz-slams-racist-msnbc-host-poses-1-question-people-asking%2F&sessionId=6e43aa6771fcfead5347c9048446eb527afbcd73&siteScreenName=WestJournalism&theme=light&widgetsVersion=82e1070%3A1619632193066&width=550px

      Reid was highly critical of Cruz and the GOP after his comment, alleging that the Republican Party was attempting voter suppression in his state of Texas.

      “Ted Cruz says a lot of stupid things,” Reid said Tuesday. “He does a lot of stupid things. But I personally — as a person of color, as a black person — am beyond offended that he would dare use the word ‘Jim Crow’ when his party is literally a ‘Jim Crow’ party at this point, trying to suppress the votes of people, including in his home state.”

      She later called Cruz “Stephen from Django Unchained.”

      http://”https://platform.twitter.com/embed/Tweet.html?creatorScreenName=WestJournalism&dnt=true&embedId=twitter-widget-2&features=eyJ0ZndfZXhwZXJpbWVudHNfY29va2llX2V4cGlyYXRpb24iOnsiYnVja2V0IjoxMjA5NjAwLCJ2ZXJzaW9uIjpudWxsfSwidGZ3X2hvcml6b25fdHdlZXRfZW1iZWRfOTU1NSI6eyJidWNrZXQiOiJodGUiLCJ2ZXJzaW9uIjpudWxsfSwidGZ3X3R3ZWV0X2VtYmVkX2NsaWNrYWJpbGl0eV8xMjEwMiI6eyJidWNrZXQiOiJjb250cm9sIiwidmVyc2lvbiI6bnVsbH19&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=false&id=1392266135798702084&lang=en&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.westernjournal.com%2Fted-cruz-slams-racist-msnbc-host-poses-1-question-people-asking%2F&sessionId=6e43aa6771fcfead5347c9048446eb527afbcd73&siteScreenName=WestJournalism&theme=light&widgetsVersion=82e1070%3A1619632193066&width=550pxRelated:

      Reid continued with attacks on the Texas senator, saying that he “could give a d**n about Jim Crow,” and that he has “never raised once concern ever in his entire life … about Jim Crow or racism or discrimination.”

      WARNING: The following video contains vulgar language that some viewers will find offensive.

      https://platform.twitter.com/embed/Tweet.html?creatorScreenName=WestJournalism&dnt=true&embedId=twitter-widget-3&features=eyJ0ZndfZXhwZXJpbWVudHNfY29va2llX2V4cGlyYXRpb24iOnsiYnVja2V0IjoxMjA5NjAwLCJ2ZXJzaW9uIjpudWxsfSwidGZ3X2hvcml6b25fdHdlZXRfZW1iZWRfOTU1NSI6eyJidWNrZXQiOiJodGUiLCJ2ZXJzaW9uIjpudWxsfSwidGZ3X3R3ZWV0X2VtYmVkX2NsaWNrYWJpbGl0eV8xMjEwMiI6eyJidWNrZXQiOiJjb250cm9sIiwidmVyc2lvbiI6bnVsbH19&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=false&id=1392261600472612870&lang=en&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.westernjournal.com%2Fted-cruz-slams-racist-msnbc-host-poses-1-question-people-asking%2F&sessionId=6e43aa6771fcfead5347c9048446eb527afbcd73&siteScreenName=WestJournalism&theme=light&widgetsVersion=82e1070%3A1619632193066&width=550px

      Reid suggested Cruz was a traitor to Hispanics and defended HR 1, saying that if it fails to pass, America may never see free and fair elections again.

      Republicans, however, have said that the act threatens election integrity and the rights of states.

      “The legislation would strip states of their constitutional authority to run elections and allow the federal government to decree what’s best,” Republican Sen. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia said in a Fox News Op-Ed.

      “It would ban voter ID laws, which maintain the integrity of elections in my state and a majority of others … To put it simply: states don’t need Washington, D.C., to strip them of their authority and impose burdensome requirements to fix problems that do not exist,” Moore said.

      Reid has made racist comments about Republicans in the past. She has made an “Uncle Tom” reference, alluding to the Harriet Beecher Stowe novel, about Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, whom she called “Uncle Clarence.” She has also called Republican Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina the token black person in the Republican Party.

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      Op-ed: Former Obama WH Doc: Biden ‘Hiding’ from Public Is ‘Major Red Flag,’ Something Isn’t Right


      Commentary by By Samantha Chang | Published March 22, 2021

      Read more at https://www.westernjournal.com/former-obama-wh-doc-biden-hiding-public-major-red-flag-something-isnt-right/

      Then-White House physician Dr. Ronny Jackson speaks to reporters during a briefing at the White House in Washington Jan. 16, 2018.Manuel Balce Ceneta / APThen-White House physician Dr. Ronny Jackson speaks to reporters during a briefing at the White House in Washington Jan. 16, 2018. (Manuel Balce Ceneta / AP)

      Ronny Jackson, who was the White House physician to former Presidents George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Donald Trump, has joined a growing legion of Americans (and medical experts) who are gravely concerned about the physical and mental health of President Joe Biden.

      Jackson — a retired Navy rear admiral who now represents Texas as a Republican congressman — sounded the alarm on Sunday when he said Biden’s lack of public appearances is a “MAJOR red flag” signaling that something is seriously wrong with the 78-year-old career politician. Biden has yet to hold a formal news conference as president.

      “I served as White House physician under THREE Presidents,” Jackson tweeted. “I’ve seen what it takes physically AND mentally to do the job.’

      “I can tell you right now that the way Biden is hiding from the public is a MAJOR red flag. Something’s not right!”

      Jackson made the remarks two days after Biden tripped three times while walking up the staircase of Air Force One. Keep in mind that he was previously vice president for eight years, so he has walked up those same steps numerous times before. It’s not as if he’s unfamiliar with those stairs.

      The White House comically blamed the wind for Biden’s blunder, but the sad imagery of a septuagenarian stumbling helplessly as cameras rolled ignited a worldwide feeding frenzy.

       

      While the liberal American media tried to downplay Biden’s epic stumble, the British and other international press headlined it (as they should, since he’s supposed to be the “leader of the free world”).

       

      Jackson is not the only physician who has expressed concern about Biden’s mental and physical fitness.

      YOU CAN READ THE REST OF THIS ARTICLE BY GOING TO https://www.westernjournal.com/former-obama-wh-doc-biden-hiding-public-major-red-flag-something-isnt-right/

      ABOUT THE COMMENTATOR:
      Samantha Chang
      Contributor, Commentary
      Samantha Chang is a politics writer, lawyer and financial editor based in New York City.

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