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A Victory For Election Integrity (Almost)

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On Tuesday, Yahoo News reported that a Fulton County judge has now ruled that observers will be allowed into the reporting room on Election Day.

The article reports:

State Senator Greg Dolezal, along with two co-plaintiffs, U.S. House candidate Christopher Mora and Cobb County District 1 Commissioner Keli Gambrill, filed an emergency lawsuit against Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who is a Republican gubernatorial candidate.

Fulton County Superior Court Chief Judge Ural Glanville granted the injunction, prohibiting Raffensperger and staff from excluding observers from the state’s election operations.

Judge Glanville held that Georgia law “expressly entitles properly designated poll watchers to observe the conduct of the election and the counting and recording of votes at tabulation centers and related locations.”

Judge Glanville also found that denying observation would cause injury as transparency would be lost.

Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger took office in 2019. The term of office is four years. He was elected again in 2022 and ran for Governor this year. He was defeated in the primary. To be honest, I have a lot of questions about this man’s integrity. I wonder why the people of George have elected him twice. Why would the Secretary of State want to exclude observers from the election process?

The article notes that the temporary restraining order expires May 28, unless modified. That restraining order should go through the November election.

UPDATE: I celebrated too soon.

On Monday, CBS News reported:

While Fulton County Superior Court Judge Ural Glanville originally granted a temporary suspending order allowing the poll watchers and other officials into reporting room. He reversed the decision hours later, saying that the petitioners did not comply with Georgia law when seeking the injunction against Raffensperger.

If I could, I would put the vote counting and the vote recording in a stadium with huge TV screens so everyone could see the vote counting all the time!

This Should Be Obvious And Should Have Been Done Already

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Senator Tom Cotton’s office posted the following Press Release on Tuesday:

Washington, D.C. — Senator Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas), joined by 24 colleagues, sent a letter to President Trump requesting that his administration work with the United Nations (UN) to fully dismantle and eliminate the budget of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). Numerous UNRWA employees have ties to Hamas and other terrorist groups, yet they continue to receive millions of dollars annually from the UN.

The letter is cosigned by Senators Jim Banks (R-Indiana), John Barrasso (R-Wyoming), Marsha Blackburn (R-Tennessee), Katie Britt (R-Alabama), Ted Budd (R-North Carolina), Susan Collins (R-Maine), Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), Kevin Cramer (R-North Dakota), Ted Cruz (R-Texas), John Curtis (R-Utah), Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), Deb Fischer (R-Nebraska), Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina), Bill Hagerty (R-Tennessee), John Hoeven (R-North Dakota), James Lankford (R-Oklahoma), Mike Lee (R-Utah), Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyoming), Dave McCormick (R-Pennsylvania), Mike Rounds (R-South Dakota), Rick Scott (R-Florida), Tim Scott (R-South Carolina), Tim Sheehy (R-Montana), and Roger Wicker (R-Mississippi).

In part, the Senators wrote:

“We strongly urge your administration to take decisive action to fully dismantle UNRWA and eliminate it from the UN budget. Any aid organization in Gaza or otherwise must be demonstrably free of ties to terrorism and committed to transparency, accountability, and peace. We must ensure this failed system doesn’t continue reinforcing the conditions that have fueled terrorism for generations. The time to act is now.”

Please follow the link to read the entire letter. This should have been done as soon as we realized that UNRWA employees took part in the October 7 attack on Israel.

Your Surroundings Really Do Matter

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Renewing National Landmarks may not seem important, but it is. There is a lot to be said for having a peaceful, well-maintained place where you can take your children for a walk in the park. That is part of what President Trump is doing to Washington, D.C.

On May 15th, Yahoo News reported:

WASHINGTON (DC News Now) — The water is flowing again at the cascading fountain at Meridian Hill Park after it was closed for more than half a decade.

Meridian Hill Park, also known as Malcolm X Park, is a National Historic Landmark in the Northwest, D.C. It is located along 16th Street and is home to the 13-basin cascading fountain, one of the longest in North America.

In March, the National Park Service (NPS) partially closed the park as work began to restore the fountain, which has been closed since about 2019.

…“This is not just a luxury. This is something we all need in our lives. We need our village greens. And it’s so wonderful to have this one coming back to life,” said Steve Coleman, director of Washington Parks and People.

…People who live in the community told DC News Now that seeing the fountain come back to life makes them happy.

“It’s a real thrill, it’s been way too long,” added Coleman. “The fountain is the heart of the park and the park is really the heart of D.C. as a village green for all. It’s truly an amazing place, it is breathtaking actually.”

The article includes several photos of the fountain. This is one of them:

What a beautiful area in a city that is now much safer than it was before President Trump took office.

It Really Is Up To The Voters

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On Monday, The Washington Free Beacon posted an article about Adam Hamawy, who is running for Congress from New Jersey. Dr. Hamawy is the son of Egyptian migrants.

The article notes:

Victims and survivors of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing reacted with shock and horror at the possibility—if not likelihood—that a close associate of the “Blind Sheikh” terrorist mastermind who inspired the attack may soon be a member of Congress.

Adam Hamawy, a Princeton plastic surgeon, is a frontrunner in a crowded Democratic primary to replace retiring Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D.) in New Jersey’s deep-blue 12th Congressional District—despite his years-long friendship with Omar Abdel-Rahman, the Muslim extremist cleric who was sentenced to life in prison for his role in the 1993 bombing.

In 1995 one of the charges against Omar Abdel-Rahman was conspiring to assassinate Egyptian President Hasni Mubarak. He was also charged with solicitation to attack a U.S. military installation, and conspiracy to conduct bombings. Dr. Hamawy testified as a defense witness in that trial.

The article notes:

Hamawy’s Democratic opponents in the race have so far treated the scandal gingerly—though there are signs that is beginning to change as the race heads into the final two weeks before the primary, which will almost certainly crown the winner of the general election.

“You are known by the company you keep. In the mid 1990s when Adam Hamawy indicated he was an interpreter for [the Blind Sheikh], who was convicted of acts against this country, he sat in a ride and developed amnesia about what transpired on that very long road trip,” Plainfield, N.J., mayor Adrian Mapp (D.) told InsiderNJ Thursday.

“You can’t describe Adam Hamawy as a progressive,” Mapp went on. “He is what you would call a radical extremist. Individuals associating with clearly anti-American views like the convicted Sheikh call into question people like Dr. Hamawy.”

Reps for Hamawy did not respond to requests for comment from the Free Beacon.

Dr. Hamawy is endorsed by Bernie Sanders, Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar, and Ro Khanna.

Saving America:  Big Brother 

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Author:  R. Alan Harrop,Ph.D.

Beware of good intentions! This is a warning that should be heeded by our elected officials as well as we the citizens of this great country. Many new programs and government directives may intend to solve a problem or even protect the people. However, in the case of the subject of this article the government takes onto itself a potential power over the people which we, the people, would never have agreed to if given the choice.

In 2021, the Democrat controlled Senate added an amendment to an massive Infrastructure bill that funded highway and bridge construction. The amendment, Section 24220, required all automobiles manufactured in the United States beginning in 2026/2027 to contain a monitoring system that was designed to test the functioning of a driver before or even after the person’s vehicle was started and driven. The system is to consist of cameras, sensors, and electronics designed to observe the driver’s eye motions, braking and steering functioning. An algorithm in the vehicle computer will then determine whether the person is fit to drive. I will bet that none of you knew that such a requirement is now required. I sure did not. Apparently, it was put in the large infrastructure bill at the last moment, generally unknown to the public, and not covered by the media that I know of.

Now, if you believe and trust that the federal government and their bureaucrats can be relied upon to never exceed the original intention of such a regulation, then you are living in a dream world. There are numerous instances of regulations being expanded and misused as I am sure you are aware. This reminds me, like many other things done by the Marxist Democrats, of the warnings of George Orwell in his book 1984, where the government increasingly monitors citizens and arrests them when they try to avoid government scrutiny systems. By the way, the estimated additional cost to a new vehicle is over $2,000. Not only is this a clear violation to our right to privacy and personal freedom, but it provides a mechanism by which the government could implement a system in the future where they can control you use of your vehicle whenever they choose. They can already track your location, speed, etc. using GPS technology. Another example, perhaps not quite so draconian, is already in place on diesel vehicles. I own a 2016 Ram 2500 diesel truck that I primarily use for towing an RV. It has a built in Diesel Exhaust System that if not functioning properly will slow the truck down to a maximum of 5MPH if the error in the system is not corrected within 150 miles of the warning light appearing. This happened to me recently, and cost me $3300 for repairs. Interestingly, my local mechanic was not able to repair the system because the required parts were only available through a dealership. No one told me about this infringement on my rights when I purchased the truck.

A couple of efforts have been initiated by few Republican congressman to repeal this regulation. One is HR1137-No Kill Switches in Cars Act that was originally filed by Representative Scott Perry of Pennsylvania. Representative Chip Roy of Texas has also been active in trying to have the kill switches removed. Sadly, not all Republicans have supported their efforts. I strongly suggest that you contact your congressional representative and let him know what your position is on kill switches. Remember, the road to totalitarian control is a gradual erosion of your rights and freedoms, often masked by some seemingly positive goal. Trusting government to do what they say is always a bad idea as we saw with the Covid lockdowns and mandatory vaccines.

The Verdict Should Be Obvious

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I realize that in America you are innocent until proven guilty, but what happens when your crime is filmed by security cameras? We may be about to find out.

On December 4, 2024, Brian Thompson, the CEO of United HeathCare was shot and killed in Manhattan. Luigi Mangione was arrested for the crime and is currently on trial in New York City.

On Monday, The New York Post reported:

Jurors at Luigi Mangione’s murder trial will get to see the 3D-printed pistol and alleged “manifesto” found inside his backpack, a judge ruled Monday — handing prosecutors a key legal win.

Altoona, Pa. cops followed appropriate legal protocol when searching the accused assassin’s bag at the police station after nabbing him for the December 2024 execution of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Gregory Carro found.

The weapon was discovered inside the 28-year-old Mangione’s bag after his arrest at an Altoona McDonald’s, which followed a dramatic five-day manhunt.

Prosecutors will also be able to show Mangione’s journal, in which the University of Pennsylvania grad mused about killing the “greedy” CEO to denounce an industry that “extracts human life force for money.”

But Carro separately blocked other evidence — including a loaded magazine, Mangione’s wallet and passport and a computer chip hidden inside a cardboard sleeve — that police obtained from Mangione’s bag before getting a warrant.

Police breached Mangione’s rights by searching the knapsack without a warrant even though it was outside of the accused killer’s reach — where officers did not need to search it to protect themselves or the public, the judge found.

“I find that the search of the backpack at the McDonald’s was an improper warrantless search,” the judge said from the bench as Mangione sat at the defense table, handcuffed and wearing a blue suit, during a brief hearing in Manhattan Supreme Court.

The article notes the comments of the Mangione supporters outside the courtroom:

Several supporters proudly displayed press badges granted to them by the New York City Mayor’s Office — and were not shy in expressing their admiration for the accused killer.

“I’m saying f–k Brian Thompson. I don’t give a flying f–k he died,” Ashley Rojas, one such city-accredited “press” member, told reporters outside the courthouse.

Their comments are frightening. What ever happened to respect for life?

Less Than

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As people, it is very easy to fall into the trap of ‘less than.’ No matter how poor you are, you can always find someone poorer. No matter how little education you have, you can always find someone with less. The problem comes when you begin to see someone with a different education,  economic level, or different set of beliefs as ‘less than.’ It’s easy to overvalue yourself and consider others as somehow inferior.  Slavery is an example of the outcome of a ‘less than’ mentality. Slavery still exists in cultures with a ‘less than’ mentality. The atrocities committed by the Muslims against the Israelis on October 7th were the result of a ‘less than’ mentality. If you don’t see your fellow humans as having the same value you have, you have no problem mistreating them or doing horrific things to them. That is one of the concerning things about the number of Islamists that have come into America in recent years. In Islam, infidels (anyone who is not Muslim) are ‘less than.’ Infidel women can be sexually assaulted, people can be made slaves, and people can be killed for being infidels. The concept of ‘less than’ is also relevant to our relationship with China.

Tyrannical governments sometimes encourage the ‘less than’ mentality. When people are taught to look at certain groups as ‘less than,’ they can be trained not to care what happens to the people in those groups. We saw that principle in Nazi Germany. We are currently seeing that principle in China.

In China, first the Falun Gong and then the Uyghurs began to be considered ‘less than’ by the Chinese government and eventually the Chinese people. People who practiced Falun Gong or were Uyghurs were put in prisons. According to author Jan Jekielek in his book KILLED TO ORDER, published this year, many of those prisoners are used as involuntary organ donors. The fees charged to the recipients of these organs are paying for China’s healthcare program. A cornea transplant costs about $30,000 and a liver-kidney transplant costs about $180,000. The book gives one example of a person waiting for a heart transplant (years of waiting in America because of the unique circumstances of obtaining a donated heart) who was able to get a heart transplant in China in two weeks. Because the person was more focused on getting a new heart than the details, he did not totally research the procedure beforehand. I can’t imagine how he felt when he realized how the heart was obtained. Many of the people receiving the organs are told that the organs come from prisoners who have received the death penalty. The numbers do not bear that out. THE SLAUGHTER written by Ethan Gutmann after interviews with refugees, medical staff, and officials, estimates 65,000 deaths of Falun Gong members for organ transplants between 2000 and 2008.

Israel has blocked its medical insurance programs from funding Chinese organ transplants for Israelis. I think America needs to block American health insurance companies from paying for Chinese organ transplants.

In March 2025, H.R.2114 – Block Organ Transplant Purchases from China Act of 2025 was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives. It was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, and in addition to the Committee on Ways and Means, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned. It has been there ever since. This is one bill that I think all Americans could probably agree on—harvesting organs from live humans is barbaric.

Where are the Human Rights Commissions of the United Nations and the World Court on this matter? Where is the World Health Organization? Why is H.R. 2114 still in committee after more than a year?

The only way to put these barbarians out of business is for every country in the world to ban their citizens from receiving organ transplants in China. Otherwise, the practice will continue. This is worse than anything the Nazis in Germany ever imagined.

Most of the information for this article came from KILLED TO ORDER by Jan Jekielek.

Gen Z Is Finding Hope

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Gen Z consists of people born roughly between 1997 and 2012. They are between 14 and 29 years old. They have navigated Covid, and many of them were alive on 9/11, although they might not remember that event unless they lost someone they loved. They have navigated school closings, church closings, and missed significant milestones in growing up–senior proms, school athletics, graduation ceremonies, band and choir concerts, etc. They were forced into remote learning. They have seen a lot of challenges. Their response to those challenges is encouraging.

On Sunday, The Daily Caller reported:

Thousands of Christians flooded the National Mall on Sunday to attend Rededicate 250, an opportunity to publicly pray and worship in Washington alongside their fellow Americans ahead of the nation’s Semiquincentennial.

Among them were 22-year-old Anthony Gross and 26-year-old Kate DePetro, who have seen firsthand the resurgence of faith in even the most secular cities, especially among America’s youth.

Gen Z has been regarded as the “anxious generation,” so it’s no wonder they are flocking to Christianity. Gross and DePetro have had a front row seat to this revival with their viral “Pizza to Pews” meetups in New York City, where young Catholics gather for a slice before attending mass in the middle of Manhattan.

“It happened very authentically,” DePetro told the Daily Caller. “Anthony and I, when he lived in New York, both went to the wonderful Church of St. Joseph’s, and I was at church alone. He walked in, asked to sit with me, and then our pew just started to grow.”

“We were thinking about how there must be other people within the church who are either sitting alone or maybe don’t go because they don’t want to sit alone, or maybe they are young people who want to get back into their faith but don’t know where to start,” DePetro added. “So we just threw a pizza party for our church and put it on social media, and the turnout has been incredible.”

The article concludes:

With more and more young Americans finding their faith in Christ, it is notable that the Catholic Church in particular has seen a surge in Gen Z attendees and converts.

“We need to search for something,” Gross told the Caller. “Purpose, meaning, belonging. And the purest form of that is turning back to God. And I do think the structure and tradition of Catholicism is very appealing.”

“I think there’s real momentum right now in our generation, and turning back to God, it’s a beautiful thing,” DePetro said.

It is a beautiful thing.

Getting The Job Done Despite The Roadblocks

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On Friday, The Daily Signal posted part of an interview with President Donald Trump’s border czar Tom Homan by the Daily Signal’s Senior National Security and Legal Analyst Mehek Cooke.

Here are a few excerpts from that interview:

Mehek Cooke:…I’m watching New York Democrats today, and they are moving to limit local cooperation with [Immigration and Customs Enforcement]. They’re moving to restrict you and ban you and ICE officers from even wearing masks, as I’ve seen a massive surge in the type of violence that’s coming out against ICE officers.

Tom Homan: …A couple things. First of all, you know, good luck with the law of banning masks. Federal law always trumps state and local law. And while threats are up over 8,000%, masks is a non-starter, so good luck enforcing that.  

Second thing is, you talk about New York. You know, I met with Governor Hochul a couple months ago, and I told her about what happened in Minnesota, that, you know, we were able to draw some resources out of Minnesota because the local jails cooperated with us.

And I told her the same thing, because I knew this legislation was coming. I said, Look, you end cooperation in the jails, we’re going to have to send more agents to do the job, because now rather than one agent arresting one bad guy in the jail, which is safer for the agent, safer for the alien, safer for the community, of course, you’re going to release him. Now we got to send a whole team, six or seven agents, to go find him. So, it’s going to result more agents in the community.

Totally briefed on the whole thing, but she decided to go ahead and do it anyways. Well, I made a statement that we’re going to send more agents to New York. We have to as a response to this to go arrest those public safety threats.

Border Czar Homan also notes that when states will not let ICE use local jails to house arrested illegals, he can simply ship the illegals to a state that is willing to house them.

Please follow the link to read the entire article. The problem with illegal immigration is not organic–it has been put together by people who do not want the best for America.

Saving America:  Indebtedness

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Author:  R. Alan Harrop, Ph.D. 

This is another article in the series on issues vital to our country as we prepare for the 250th anniversary of its founding. There is obviously a growing problem with the soaring national debt, but I also want to address the indebtedness of individuals, which is also a problem, especially for the younger generations. As usual, at the end I will outline some actions that could be taken to deal with these problems.

First, the national debt. If you have never logged into the National Debt Clock, this would be a good time to do so. It provides a running tally of various measures of the country’s financial situation. As of this instant, the U.S. national debt is $ 39.16 trillion and growing by leaps and bounds. This amounts to a $ 357,000 debt for each taxpayer. The interest on the debt has now reached $1.02 trillion per year! This is more than the Dept. of War budget of $935 billion. The highest budget item is Medicare/Medicaid at $1.95 trillion, followed by Social Security at $1.63 trillion. It should be noted that Medicare/Medicaid did not even exist in1960.

The financial health of a country is frequently measured by the ratio of a country’s Gross National Product (GNP; which is the worth of all production) to its total debt. The ratio in 1980 for the U.S. was 34%; now it is 125%, which most economists consider to be unsustainable. For comparison purposes, it would be like owing 125% more than your total income per year. The combined total of expenditures for social programs (including Medicare/Medicaid and Social Security) has now reached $3.58 trillion, which is about 60% of the total budget. If you had any doubts that we are sliding towards Marxism, the figure should resolve those doubts. We are printing money we do not have, or are ever likely to have, like a bunch of drunken sailors, greatly contributing to inflation. Margaret Thatcher, a previous Chancellor of the United Kingdom, once stated correctly that” Marxism continues until they run out of other people’s money,” then it collapses.

Alright, we understand the problem, so what do we do about it? First, we need to stop electing politicians that promise all kinds of free stuff just to get elected. We may need to consider term limits to get them to do the right thing when they are in their last term. A constitutional amendment that requires a balanced budget like those that exist in some states (like North Carolina) would help. Weaning people off free stuff is very difficult if not impossible, but putting limits on how long a person is eligible for each welfare program would help as would enforceable work requirements. Reducing the federal government workforce as President Trump is doing would also help since there are currently 2,568,000 government employees. What is the likelihood any of these actions will be taken? Slim to none. The result if nothing is done is a collapse of the value of the dollar. Not a pleasant prospect to say the least. This is another reason to invest some of one’s savings in precious metals.

Now let’s turn to personal debt. As of April 27, 2026, the total personal debt in the U.S. is $18.8 trillion. The largest portion of the debt is for mortgages, $12.8 trillion; followed by auto loans, $1.64 trillion; student loans, $1.63 trillion, and credit cards, $1.28 trillion. Although the amount of debt is higher for middle aged people, the highest loan defaults are with those from 20 to 29 years old. College tuition is the category of expenses that has gone up the most–at 900%, since 1983. This compares to medical care at 248%, housing at 486%, and gasoline at 192%. I believe that part of the ridiculous increase in tuition was due to the ease at which students could obtain federal student loans as compared to more restrictive private loans that allowed colleges to increase tuition and not lose students. Also, the tremendous increase in foreign students, now at 1.2 million, most of whom pay the highest tuition, has allowed colleges to increase spending. The average college loan balance in the U.S. is $40,000 at 6.5% for 10 years. The average credit card balance is now at $7,220. Approximately, 50% of credit card holders carry a month-to-month balance with interest rates ranging from 20 – 25%. Clearly, indebtedness is increasing especially among the younger age groups.

How can this problem be solved?  Listening to Dave Ramsey and reading his books would help. He stresses the importance of living debt free, which of course requires living within ones means. Making and living by a budget and cutting up credit cards are two of his main messages to the younger generation. There was a time when people used cash or even wrote checks that had to be within the limit of the money you had in your account. This made people face the reality of their fiscal limits. People have to take responsibility for their indebtedness and realize that a satisfying and happy life is not dependent on spending money. Quite the opposite in many ways, since conflict over money has been a major factor in marital stress and divorce.

Understanding The Value Of Tariffs

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There are a number of economists complaining that the Trump administration’s tariffs are a tax on Americans. That may be partially true, but it is totally ignoring the bigger picture. We wouldn’t need tariffs if we actually had a level playing field, but no administration has been willing to attempt to level that playing field up until now.

On Saturday, American Greatness reported:

If one were to honestly accept the Free Traders’ logic that a company passing off its costs of compliance with a federal statute and/or regulation on to consumers constitutes a “tax,” one would then be required to declare almost every governmental decision touching upon the health, safety, and welfare of the nation a tax as well. So, too, corporations and companies are not required to pass on the costs of the tariffs to anyone. It is a choice they make based upon market conditions.

Yet, consider the inanity of arguing that statutes opposing child labor laws are a tax because they will raise the cost of labor that the mining company then must pass on to consumers. (I am, admittedly, not a libertarian.)

One may also ponder the fact that nations with high tariffs on American goods and services do not make similar protestations that tariffs are a tax on their consumers. Why? Because these nations’ industries and sectors employ workers and produce goods and services that constitute a net benefit to their citizens’ standard of living—a standard of living these governments are determined to preserve, if for no other reason than their own political self-preservation.

This has not been the case here at home prior to the election of President Trump. Understanding there is a free trade tax on Americans, President Trump has refused to perpetuate the post-World War II economic policy that enabled our war-ravaged former allies and enemies to rebuild their nascent industrial bases courtesy of high tariffs against imported US goods, with the corresponding result that they had lower entry barriers for them to access the American market.

While this policy accomplished its goal long ago, the unfortunate and entirely predictable result was that the nations that benefited from high tariffs on US goods—as well as those US corporate interests that also benefited from them—would never seek to see them repealed, allowing free and fair competition with and in the American market.

The article notes that U.S. Steel is coming back to America because of the tariffs. That is a good thing.

They Might Want To Reconsider This

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Like it or not, the world’s economy runs on fossil fuel. As of yet, scientists have not found a perpetual energy machine to match the perpetual motion machine they have been looking for forever. Green energy isn’t really green when you look at what is involved in its manufacture and what is involved in storing the energy for the times the wind doesn’t blow or the sun doesn’t shine. It may be practical and clean in the future, but we are not there yet. Finding cleaner ways to use fossil fuel and investigating nuclear fusion make much more sense right now.

On Saturday, Zero Hedge posted an article about the United Kingdom’s move away from their own natural resources.

The article reports:

  • The UK government will introduce legislation banning new North Sea oil and gas exploration licences as part of its Energy Independence Bill.
  • Critics argue the policy will increase Britain’s reliance on imported fossil fuels while damaging Scotland’s oil and gas industry.
  • Rising oil prices and disruptions tied to the Iran conflict have intensified political pressure on Labour to reconsider the ban.

The government will make it illegal to grant new oil and gas licences in the North Sea, the King said at the state opening of Parliament, in a sign ministers are refusing to buckle in the face of a barrage of criticism that the policy is depriving the UK of billions of pounds in tax receipts without helping the environment.

…Oil and gas still accounts for three-quarters of the UK’s energy mix. And the majority of those fossil fuels are now shipped in from abroad, meaning other economies benefit from the job creation and tax receipts that are derived from the lucrative drilling and refining processes.

Calls for the ministers to rethink the ban have grown louder since the outbreak of war in Iran led the price of crude oil to nearly double in a month.

Last week, Norway, which drills for oil in the same area of the North Sea as Britain, approved plans to reopen three gasfields that had been shut for decades to help sate the global demand for fossil fuels caused by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz shipping lane.

Energy independence is a good idea for any country. It is a national security issue as well as an economic issue.

A Welcome Change

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On Friday, Breitbart reported the following:

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced this week that April marked twelve consecutive months of zero releases of illegal aliens apprehended by Border Patrol at the southwest border with Mexico into the United States — a milestone officials say reflects the most secure border in American history under President Donald Trump. DHS reports a 94 percent drop in illegal border apprehensions compared to the Biden era, with daily crossings now lower than what agents encountered in a single hour at the height of the 2023 crisis.

Twelve straight months of ZERO releases at the border. Under President Donald Trump’s leadership, we are delivering the most secure border in American history,” said DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin. “The days of catch and release are over. We are enforcing the nation’s laws and sending illegal aliens back to their home countries.”

Two years ago, Border Patrol agents, under orders from President Joe Biden and then-DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, released more than 68,000 illegal aliens who were apprehended at the border into the U.S. interior, according to CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott.

It is unrealistic to expect 68,000 to be able to assimilate into America. How many of those became recipients of welfare programs designed for American citizens? How many of them broke additional laws after crossing the border illegally?

The article concludes:

“CBP has seized 61% more drugs this fiscal year through April than it seized during the same period of FY 2024, and CBP seized 53% more drugs this fiscal year than it seized on average during the last four years in this same period,” DHS reported.

DHS officials say the dramatic collapse in illegal crossings — paired with a surge in drug seizures as agents return to frontline enforcement — underscores the scale of the turnaround since the Biden‑Mayorkas years, when more than 68,000 migrants were released into the U.S. interior in a single month. “Every minute of every day, President Trump’s border security policies are making every American safer,” Commissioner Scott said. With year‑to‑date apprehensions down 95 percent and drug interdictions surging, DHS argues the numbers speak for themselves: the era of catch‑and‑release is over.

America’s drug problem needs to be addressed by arresting the distributors and helping the addicted, but fewer illegal drugs coming across the border is always a good thing.

It’s Only A Problem When They Do It!

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California has what is called a ‘jungle primary,’ which means there are not separate party primaries–everyone is in one primary, and the top two candidates go on the ballot. Because California is about as blue a blue state as possible, generally that puts two Democrats on the ballot for governor. No problem. However, this year there is a problem. There is a possibility (remote, but there) that two Republicans will be on the ballot and the Democrats will be shut out. If there is a Democrat and a Republican on the ballot, the Democrat wins (even if it takes thousands of mail-in ballots that show up after the election to ensure that victory). But if the Democrats are shut out of the election, California could have a Republican governor (horrors!). So what can be done?

On Friday, Legal Insurrection posted an article quoting Politico:

Gavin Newsom said he’s confident at least one Democrat will advance from California’s June gubernatorial primary, hinting at a “break-the-glass” contingency plan as he declined — yet again — to endorse in the race.

The California governor, speaking at his budget presentation on Thursday, said that rather than pick a candidate, he has focused on ensuring that Democrats are not locked out of the primary, in which the top-two vote getters regardless of party go on to the general election.

“I do not see that scenario taking place,” he said.

Newsom said there was a “break-the-glass” contingency plan to prevent that from happening, and alluded to behind-the-scenes efforts to rally people. He did not specify his activities, but the Democratic Governors Association recently began sending mail highlighting Republican Steve Hilton as a fierce conservative. The ostensible opposition campaign could drive GOP voters to Hilton, ensuring he consolidates the party’s voters and saps the support of the other Republican candidate, Chad Bianco, enough to keep him from finishing in the top two.

The article at Legal Insurrection concludes:

It may be worth taking a closer look at what precisely Democratic operatives are doing behind the scenes to shape — and potentially influence — the trajectory of this race. With so much at stake, you can bet Democrats will pull out all the stops to prevent a Republican from capturing the governorship.

That reality raises broader questions about coordination, spending, ballot harvesting operations, and other political tactics that could affect the outcome of the contest long before votes are cast. Just as the Republican National Committee deployed teams of attorneys ahead of the 2024 presidential election to monitor election procedures and respond quickly to potential irregularities, Republicans may want to consider a similarly proactive legal and organizational strategy in California’s gubernatorial race.

Similar to what pundits say about any potential deal with Iran, when dealing with Democrats, the guiding principle should be: “Don’t trust and verify, verify, verify.”

About That New York City Budget Deficit…

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New York City Mayor Mamdani has claimed that he has solved New York City’s budget problem without raising taxes. Great! But let’s look at the small print.

On May 15th, Townhall reported:

Being a socialist means never having to understand how things in the real world work. That includes math, apparently, as New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani demonstrated yesterday. He announced he’d managed to miraculously close the city’s gaping budget deficit simply by “taxing the rich” and not cutting services.

That’s a lie, of course. The deficit was closed by delaying city contributions to the pension fun (good luck in retirement, city workers!) and a massive taxpayer bailout from Albany. That means Mamdani got the money from working class New Yorkers, and not “the rich.”

But his socialist supporters fell for it, hook, line, and sinker.

On May 12th, The New York Post posted a list of the increased charges to average New Yorkers to help balance the budget:

As every parent of a teenager has stated at least once, “Money does not grow on trees.” Socialism is expensive.

The New York Post notes:

The Department of Veterans’ Services is also ready to slash unspecified veteran events to save a measly $60,000, and Sanitation is expecting to cancel a battery disposal program to the tune of $353,000.

Under the “savings” plan, officials merely re-estimated revenue they believed would be more accurate, including counting on millions of dollars more for handgun licenses, permit applications to the Landmark Preservation Commission and Taxi and Limousine Commission license renewal fees.

The lion’s share of savings stems from the Department of Education, leaning heavily on vaguely defined “cost containment.”

About $149.5 million this fiscal year is expected to be saved from “improved financial controls,” while an eye-popping $922 million would be saved next year, which would be driven by “improved financial control,” including $30.3 million in procurement “reform.”

Mamdani, during a Tuesday press conference announcing his first budget, insisted his team searched “for every efficiency and savings we can find.”

“It is evidence of a new era of government in our city, one that can balance both ambition and fiscal responsibility, one that can invest in housing, child care, libraries, parks, schools and climate resiliency, while also cutting waste and finding efficiencies,” he said.

I just hope that when Mayor Mamdani goes to President Trump for a bailout, President Trump reacts the same way President Ford did when New York City asked for a bailout in 1975. President Ford said that while there might be risk and some temporary fluctuations in the financial markets, the greater risk to the American people was “provid[ing] a Federal blank check for the leaders of New York City” and not pushing for a “long-run solution to the city’s problems.”

I guess New York City is still looking for that long-run solution.

Solving The Medicare Fraud Problem

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On Wednesday, The Daily Signal posted an article about the next steps in dealing with home health care fraud.

The article reports:JD

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is pausing new Medicare enrollment for hospices and home health agencies for six months to review alleged rampant fraud.

Vice President JD Vance’s Anti-Fraud Task Force is working with the agency to combat fraud, waste, and abuse in Medicare. So far, the task force has withheld $1.4 billion in federal funding from home health and hospice providers across the country, Fox News reported.

“We’ve seen systemic and deeply troubling fraud in the hospice and home health space, with bad actors exploiting some of our most vulnerable Medicare patients and stealing money from the American taxpayer,” CMS Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz said.

“Today we’re shutting the door on fraud—preventing new bad actors from entering Medicare while we aggressively identify, investigate, and remove those already exploiting them. This is about protecting patients, restoring integrity, and safeguarding taxpayer dollars,” Oz said.

The announcement comes after the Daily Wire reported on alleged widespread Medicare fraud in Ohio’s home health industry. Officials with Ohio Medicaid told the Columbus Dispatch the department had been investigating fraud concerns before the recent reports surfaced.

The moratorium will not affect current Medicare enrollments. Existing providers will continue to deliver services to Medicare beneficiaries.

The article concludes:

In February, Vance announced that the administration was withholding reimbursements for $259.5 million in Medicaid funds from Minnesota pending an investigation into allegations of widespread welfare fraud there.

Vance is holding a news conference Wednesday afternoon to warn all 50 states they must fully comply with anti-fraud statutes or risk losing federal Medicaid funding, the Wall Street Journal reported.

“Under President Trump, we are unleashing the most aggressive federal anti-fraud efforts in American history,” Vance said. “We won’t rest until we root out every bit of fraud infecting our government and screwing over taxpayers.”

Getting rid of the fraud in Medicaid and Medicare could easily add years to the life of the programs. It is long past time this was done.

China And Drugs

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The Trump administration’s war on drugs is having an impact on the amount of drugs coming into America. According to Reuters (source here), drug overdose deaths in the United States fell nearly 14% in ​2025, federal estimates showed on ‌Wednesday, marking a third consecutive year of declines. Unfortunately, we still have a problem with drugs, and those who sell them are getting more creative.

On Tuesday, The Epoch Times reported:

A Chinese national has been indicted by the federal authorities in Florida for his alleged role in a plot to import and distribute large quantities of a new synthetic opioid, protonitazene, which is “significantly more potent than fentanyl,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida said in a May 11 statement.

Jia Guo and Seven Schmidt, an associate from Las Vegas, Nevada, are charged with conspiracy to import protonitazene into the United States from China and conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute protonitazene. “If convicted, each defendant faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison for each of the two counts,” the attorney’s office said.

The pair allegedly began operating a drug trafficking operation in September 2024. In the statement, the attorney’s office said the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service (USPIS) had investigated the pair, with assistance from China’s Ministry of Public Security.

The article notes:

In September, Frank Tarentino, who heads the New York Division of the DEA, warned about the growing threat from new synthetic opioids called nitazenes, which are being imported from China. He said they are increasingly prevalent on the illicit drug scene.
Nitazenes are delivered in the form of counterfeit pills mimicking drugs such as Xanax or Percocet, according to the DEA. They are more resistant than fentanyl to naloxone, a medication that can reverse opioid overdoses.

“Here in the United States, we have found it in heroin, methamphetamine, in some cases fentanyl, and more alarmingly, we have now seen it pressed into pills,” Tarentino said in a Sept. 10, 2025, interview with NTD, a sister outlet of The Epoch Times.

“These pills are made to look familiar, but one pill can kill,” Reding Quiñones said on May 11. “If you use South Florida as a gateway to import synthetic opioids, make counterfeit pills, or profit from addiction, you will face federal prosecution.”

Never take a pill that is from anywhere except a prescription bottle with your name on it!

Why Is This A Partisan Matter?

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Yesterday, Hot Air posted an article about the US Senate Homeland Security Committee testimony of James Erdman III.

The article reports:

James Erdman III is testifying today before the US Senate Homeland Security Committee, and he is blowing the whistle on the CIA’s willingness to bow to Dr. Anthony Fauci’s insistence that COVID did not originate in lab leak, likely tied to gain-of-function research.

No surprise there, I have to say. At the time, the CIA agreed to withhold its conclusion that the most likely explanation for COVID’s spread was a lab leak, although it has subsequently stated that the lab leak was likely.

Yesterday MSN reported:

No Democrats attended a committee hearing Wednesday featuring a whistleblower who accused former Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Anthony Facui of covering-up details about the origins of COVID-19.

Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) employee James Erdman III appeared before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee to testify about Fauci’s alleged role in covering-up the origins of COVID-19, with no Democrats on the committee being present.

“No Democrats showed. They don’t care to dismantle the deep state,” Gabrielle Lipsky, the deputy communications director for Republican Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Hot Air notes:

This tale, as far as I can tell, is more about the willingness of bureaucracies to cooperate to cover up their own role in disasters than the CIA’s participation in causing this particular one. There is no indication that it played any role itself, but rather that it bowed to political pressure from Fauci et al to cover up their own.

Covid was something that impacted all Americans in some way. Lying to the American people about its origins did nothing to help any of us. The fact that the Democrats did not bother to show up for this hearing is concerning. Their constituents was as impacted by Covid as those of the Republicans.

Ending The Chinese Police In New York City

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In the past I have posted two articles about the Chinese police quietly operating in New York City to monitor the activities of Chinese citizens in America (here and here). At least one of those undercover police stations in New York City has been shut down.

On Wednesday, The Epoch Times reported:

A jury has found the Chinese American who ran Beijing’s undercover police station in New York City guilty of being a foreign agent for China.

He was also found guilty of obstructing justice by deleting WeChat messages documenting his direct communications with his contact in the Chinese Ministry of Public Security (MPS).

Lu Jianwang, 64, community leader and former president of the America ChangLe Association, was convicted on May 13 in Brooklyn Federal Court.

The jury found him not guilty of conspiring with others as a Chinese agent.

Lu ran the Overseas Chinese Police Service Center out of the offices of the hometown association on East Broadway in New York City’s Chinatown.

Lu is now being held accountable, and the police station has seen its “sinister purpose disrupted,” Joseph Nocella, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said in a statement.

The article notes:

The New York City branch run by Lu was just one of 30 stations launched on Jan. 10, 2022, by the Fuzhou Ministry of Public Security.

Prosecutors said the station was part of a larger campaign of transnational repression to monitor and intimidate Chinese people living abroad.

“I think if you’re a member of a community that originated in another country, you have to be very, very, very careful how you deal with people from your home country,” said Lu’s attorney, John Carman. “That should make everybody very nervous about reaching out and doing good things when there’s somebody who’s a government official from another country.”

Carman also said Lu would be appealing the verdict.

The charge of not registering as a foreign agent for the Chinese regime carries a maximum prison sentence of five years. The maximum sentence for the obstruction of justice charge is 20 years in prison. A date for sentencing has not yet been set.

Communism does not allow freedom–even when you leave the communist country.

About Term Limits

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On the surface, term limits seems like a good idea to break up the bureaucracy the inhabits the Washington swamp. However, when you look more closely at term limits, they are not really a viable solution.

On Wednesday, American Greatness posted an article about term limits.

The article reports:

Attempts to restructure government at the federal level are mostly on the Democrat agenda. Pack the US Supreme Court. Elect presidents via popular vote. Turn Puerto Rico and Washington, DC, into states with two senators each. Implement national mail-in voting, automatic voter registration, legalize ballot harvesting, lower the voting age to 16, let felons vote, let noncitizens vote. And, of course, end the Senate filibuster. If they could, Democrats would do all of this.

Meanwhile, however, there is a growing bipartisan movement to implement term limits for members of the House and Senate. A bill has been introduced in the 119th Congress, and President Trump has supported term limits consistently since he first ran for president in 2016. But federal term limits would do more harm than good. Explaining why offers insights into how an entrenched bureaucracy gains power in democracies, and California is a prime example.

Term limits came to California back in 1990 via a ballot initiative, because it was the only way the state’s Republicans, still relatively influential, could get rid of Willie Brown. For decades, Assembly Speaker Brown controlled everything that happened in the state legislature. If Brown didn’t support your bill, your bill was dead. As a 25-year veteran member of the Assembly, Brown virtually ruled Sacramento by 1990. Every piece of legislation required his imprimatur. And every aspiring Democrat, including Brown’s protégé Kamala Harris, went through Brown on their way to prominence in state politics.

The consequences have been enormous. Brown may not have been a Republican favorite, but he got things done. By virtue of his many years in the Capitol, Brown knew how every lever of power worked, and he knew every bureaucrat, every union official, and every lobbyist. He was a perennial player; he knew the game backwards and forwards, and when something had to happen in California, Brown was there to make it happen. Say what you will about his politics or his party; back then, California had a government that worked.

The article concludes:

Imagine what Washington, DC, already gripped by a deep-state bureaucracy, would be like if elected politicians were termed out of office right about the point where they’d acquired enough experience to navigate this swamp. Whatever oversight is still possible, whatever reforms and restructurings that might be in the interests of the American people would no longer have advocates who had mastered the details and could exercise long-term leadership. Of course, many members of Congress become swamp rats, entrenched, bought, manipulated, and indifferent to their constituents. But our obligation as citizens is to expose them and ensure that they lose the next election. If they’re such a problem, we must find a candidate to oppose them who can earn a majority of the votes in their district. That’s how you term-limit a bad politician. You beat them in an election.

When you eliminate the bad politicians, you also eliminate the good ones. You turn the machinery of government over to people who have spent decades learning how to control elected politicians, many of whom come into Congress without any previous experience in government. It is easy to disparage all politicians and, therefore, wish to control them by sticking a revolving door into the system and pushing everyone in and out after 12 years. But be careful what you wish for.

If you term limit the elected officials and leave the bureaucrats, you will have a swamp run by bureaucrats. The real solution is for more Americans to get involved in primary elections and give us better candidates to vote for.

Ignoring The Will Of The Voters

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President Trump was elected by a large majority. Congress (particularly the Senate) does not seem to understand that. The Senate has been blocking the SAVE Act which 80 percent of Americans support, but it has also been blocking President Trump’s nominations.

On Tuesday, Amuse on X noted that the Senate has been in pro forma session rather than go into recess and let the President make recess appointments.

The article at Amuse on X reports:

The pattern, until recently, was easy to describe. Pro forma sessions, when used to prevent recess appointments, were always an opposition-party weapon. Senate Democrats used them to block George W. Bush. Senate Republicans used them to block Barack Obama. Each side learned the tactic from the other and used it to constrain a president of the rival party. By the standards of American constitutional practice, that was ordinary politics. The branches fought, the parties fought, and the alignment was predictable. The president and his Senate majority stood on one side. The opposition Senate used scheduling to deny him appointments power on the other.

Donald Trump broke that pattern, although not by his own action. The Senate broke it for him. In August 2017, Scripps News reported that Senator Mitch McConnell’s Senate held nine pro forma sessions during the August work period, sessions which by their structure prevented President Trump from making recess appointments during a stretch of weeks in which his Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, appeared at risk of being replaced. Axios and the Voice of America described the calendar in similar terms. The legal effect of the schedule was unmistakable. By breaking the long summer break into intervals of less than four days at a time, the chamber denied the president a constitutionally qualifying recess. The Republican majority’s calendar, not the Democratic minority, was what made the difference.

The article concludes:

This is not a high-minded defense of the Senate. It is obstruction wrapped in procedural Latin. A Republican leader who genuinely believed in advice and consent would be moving heaven and earth to schedule the floor time, change the rules where needed, and confirm the President’s people. He would not be reading scripts into an empty chamber for the express, well-understood purpose of denying the President a recess. Donald Trump did not invent this constitutional collision. He is simply the first president in American history to absorb its full weight from his own side, after the Supreme Court made the relevant law clear, and at the precise moment the voters had handed his party the unified government that was supposed to make obstruction like this impossible. The voters did their part. Leader Thune has not done his.

It’s time to replace John Thune.

Refusing To Learn From History

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Minneapolis raised its minimum wage to $15 an hour in 2017. I have previously posted articles about the results of increasing the minimum wage (here and here). Those of us who understand economics knew exactly what the results of that increase would be. Unfortunately, the writers for The Minnesota Star Tribune had no idea.

A Townhall article from Tuesday quotes The Minnesota Star Tribune (Townhall added the emphasis_:

When the Minneapolis City Council approved a controversial $15 minimum wage in 2017, no one knew what would happen next.

Workers and business owners made dueling predictions of boom or bust that would result from the citywide wage hike. Cities with similar policies were still phasing in the $15 minimum, so it was impossible to say who was right.

Nearly a decade later, businesses in Minneapolis and St. Paul — which passed its own similar law in 2018 — say they’re stretched thinner than ever, and both cities have lost thousands of jobs.

Pressure on the hospitality industry is particularly acute. Restaurants and other leisure-related businesses say shrinking margins have left them less able to weather economic shocks, such as the federal immigration crackdown that forced many to temporarily close this winter.

The Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, which has studied the effects of the $15 minimum wage in Minneapolis since 2018, recently reported minimum wage policies have resulted in higher hourly pay but fewer available hours and positions. That has meant lower earnings: Between 2017 and 2021, the average decline in wage earnings across all industries was 1% in Minneapolis and about 2% in St. Paul. The research controlled for the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and unrest after George Floyd’s murder in 2020.

The article at Townhall notes:

We all knew exactly what would happen. Because we have years of minimum wage hikes that demonstrate the same pattern.

You don’t have to be a genius to predict that despite the empirical evidence that minimum wage hikes don’t help workers, more cities and states will implement them in the near future.

This Is NOT Normal Politics!

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We have two major political parties. Theoretically both parties want what is best for America–they just have different ideas as to what that is and how to get there. Lately that doesn’t seem to be the case. I used to be a Democrat. I believed in ideas that I thought the Democrats believed in–equal rights (even though the Democrats were the ones who filibustered the Civil Rights Act), a strong safety net (which has been majorly abused), and equal pay for women (which according to the statistics is now a fact). However, somewhere along the line, the Democrat party got lost. They don’t seem to have a platform now except hate Israel and get President Trump. At best that is unattractive, at worst it is just plain stupid.

On Tuesday, Just the News reported:

In the final weeks of Joe Biden’s presidency, FBI agents tied to Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation memorialized anew their belief that President Donald Trump broke the law in contesting the 2020 election and secretly arranged to preserve their evidence until 2030 in memos that raise alarm they could revive their prosecution after Trump leaves office.

The FBI memos and emails closing out the controversial Arctic Frost investigation – obtained by Just the News – show the bureau chose not to relinquish the evidence it gathered after Smith went to court to dismiss charges against Trump, even though that is the normal practice for agents. Instead, they created a preservation order keeping the evidence in FBI custody for two years after Trump’s second term ends, claiming it was necessary to do so because of ongoing litigation, the memos show.

Do the charges still make sense with all of the evidence now showing serious voter irregularities in swing states?

The article notes:

FBI emails and memos obtained by Just the News dating back to early 2025 show how the FBI agents and DOJ prosecutors who had been working on the criminal prosecutions aimed at Trump and his allies worked to close the 2020 election-related case against the incoming president, while also seemingly leaving open the door for the criminal case to be revived once Trump leaves office and a Democrat again holds the reins at the Justice Department.

“The American people deserve to know how this egregious weaponization of power to target political opponents and President Trump happened inside an institution meant to protect them,” FBI Director Kash Patel told Just the News. “We shut down the weaponized CR-15 squad, and we are going to keep following the facts until there is full accountability. The FBI exists to protect the country, not to preserve political prosecutions for a future administration.”

Following Trump’s victory in November 2024 over Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris, Smith sought to dismiss his case against Trump “without prejudice” – leaving open the possibility that the charges could be refiled in the future.

Please follow the link to read the entire article. This is not acceptable behavior on the part of the Biden Justice Department.