Monthly Archives: September 2025

Helping Drug Addicts Instead Of Enabling Them

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On Thursday, The New York Post posted an article about OnPoint NYC the “safe injection” sites where hard-drug addicts shoot up under medical supervision. The sites were set up in 2021 and funded under President Joe Biden, the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration quietly awarded the program a $2 million annual grant — and paid out just over half of it.

The article reports:

That grant, revealed here for the first time, has been terminated under President Donald Trump, SAMHSA Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Art Kleinschmidt told me.

OnPoint, he said, was “a misguided harm reduction program that [was] incompatible with federal law and applicable Executive Orders.”

Indeed, Trump’s July 25 order specifically barred funding for “safe consumption efforts that only facilitate illegal drug use and its attendant harm.”

True: Acquiescing in drug use only serves to encourage it — as well as other outrages documented by The Post, including sidewalk sex and drug dealing outside OnPoint’s sites in East Harlem and Washington Heights. 

But unless Trump’s Justice Department moves to shut down OnPoint — the only such program in the country — federal defunding won’t pull the plug on its dangers. 

The SAMHSA grant was just a small part of OnPoint’s $14 million annual budget, which includes millions in taxpayer dollars from New York state and New York City, along with private funding from the New York Community Trust, the Open Society Foundation, Deutsche Bank and others.

The article notes:

Yet OnPoint could do much more than just accept drug use as a valid lifestyle choice.

It could help us learn important information about the addicted, including statistics on how many have overdosed and died elsewhere, how many have been arrested for assault or robbery, and crucially, how many have sought treatment to beat their drug habit.

A reformed and constructive OnPoint would seek such data — perhaps through required electronic ankle bracelets — to not just reduce overdoses, but to reduce addiction itself.

The article reports that last September the Canadian province of British Columbia passed a law permitting involuntary commitment for both psychiatric problems and substance abuse — a policy New York state legislators have rejected.

Putting that policy in place in New York City would save lives and reduce crime.

Things Are Changing

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On Friday, Breitbart reported that Garfield New Jersey Mayor Everett E. Garnto, Jr. will be leaving the Democrat Party and endorsing Republican Jack Ciattarelli for governor.

The article reports:

The announcement came during Ciattarelli’s Garfield Rally. Michael Casey, New Jersey State Director for Early Vote Action, reported on X that the rally was “standing room only as hundreds of Garfield residents were in attendance,” calling it a “MAJOR endorsement for @Jack4NJ in a city that has been a longtime Democrat stronghold.”

Garnto, a retired Garfield police officer who served 29 years on the force and 12 years as president of the local Police Benevolent Association, was elected to the city council in November 2024 as a Democrat. He later became mayor after his colleagues selected him for the position. The lifelong resident also served as a school board member and vice chair of the Garfield Housing Authority before winning elected office.

The party switch carries weight in Garfield, home to more than 30,000 residents and the fifth-largest municipality in Bergen County. Although Murphy narrowly carried the city by just over 150 votes in 2021, Donald Trump won Garfield by nearly nine points in 2024. Local voter registration trends and Garnto’s own admission that he supported Trump in the last presidential election underscore the city’s shifting political climate.

The article concludes:

Addressing attendees on Thursday, Ciattarelli said Democrats joining his effort demonstrates that voters across the political spectrum are dissatisfied with the state’s leadership. “It’s not just Republicans who are crying out for change,” Ciattarelli remarked. “It’s unaffiliated, independent voters and yes, even moderate Democrats who’ve come to the realization that this current administration has failed.” He added that his campaign’s focus remains on “getting up and down this state” to present voters with a vision for lowering costs and restoring affordability.

Aside for the high taxes, high cost of living, and congestion, New Jersey residents who leave the state have to pay a tax on the sale of their home. If they are not buying another house in New Jersey, they have to pay an exit tax. It is definitely time for a change.

Nefarious Intentions?

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On Thursday, Zero Hedge posted an article about an illegal alien stopped by deputies of the Dorchester County Sheriff’s Office for speeding. Dorchester County is in South Carolina. When the deputies searched his car, they found three clear plastic bags with 8.6 gross grams of cocaine, ten firearms, and multiple magazines with various rounds of ammunition. That doesn’t sound like someone who was in the country only to do the jobs Americans won’t do.

The article notes:

The optics for the Democratic Party are not great at the moment.

Whether it’s vehemently rejecting President Trump’s mission to restore law and order in crime-ridden progressive cities or opposing the deportation of criminal illegal aliens, the party of confused radicals – still unable to define what a woman is – bankrolled by rogue leftist billionaires and propped up by dark-money NGOs, has firmly branded itself as the party of “America Last.”

If Democrats had their way, no illegal alien would ever be deported. That’s because these third-worlders are seen as the party’s future voting base to seize more political power. For a glimpse into exactly who these individuals are, look no further than a shocking new report out of Charleston, South Carolina.

The article links to a poll showing most Americans want illegal aliens deported”

Americans are waking up and fed up with the globalist regime in the previous administration that flooded the nation with millions of illegals. Now, some of these criminal illegals are heavily armed.

A large part of making our cities safe will be deporting people who are here illegally.

The Economic Impact Of The Trump Presidency

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On Tuesday, Stephen Moore posted an article at The New York Post comparing the Trump economy and the Biden economy.

The article includes the following graph:

The article reports:

In other words, the middle class mostly treaded water in the Biden years, but enjoyed an income surge through most of Trump’s term.

The Census Bureau also collects data on the income cut-off for households in the bottom 25% of the income spectrum — that is, the income level a household would have to reach to move out of the bottom 25%.

The article also notes:

The article concludes:

Not even Biden’s large cash welfare benefits could reverse the silent-killer effect of inflation’s 22% cumulative price hikes in gas, groceries and rents from 2021 to 2024.

Second, Trump’s 2017 tax policies — which were and still are ridiculed as “tax cuts for the rich” — actually benefited all income groups by increasing jobs and boosting the overall economy.

The share of the income-tax burden paid by the richest Americans actually rose after the president’s tax cuts kicked in. 

Now that Congress has extended those lower tax rates, we may see a similar across-the-board rise in everyone’s income over the next three years.

I am looking forward to the Trump economy.

The Real Roadblock

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I am not a fan of Senator Thune. I firmly believe he only does the right thing when it is in his best interest. Otherwise, he is a tool of the Washington establishment. A recent article in The Federalist confirmed my opinion.

On Wednesday, The Federalist reported:

Senate Majority Leader John Thune wants GOP voters to believe that Senate Republicans have no ability to speed up confirmation of the more than 140 Trump nominees languishing in the upper chamber. But that isn’t entirely true.

After returning from Congress’s month-long August vacation, Thune took to the Senate floor on Tuesday to pin the blame for the continued confirmation delay of the president’s appointees squarely on the shoulders of Senate Democrats. Verbally wagging his finger at his leftist colleagues, the majority leader said that “their historic obstruction cannot continue.”

“All it takes is a little behavioral change and a willingness to acknowledge President Trump won an election, the American people voted for him, and they expect him to be able to populate his administration with the people that he wants to serve in many of these positions,” Thune said. “The Democrats can play ball — the way every Democrat and Republican Senate have, going back as far as we can find in the annals of history — or things are going to have to change around here. It’s as simple as that. And the ball, I would say, Mr. President, is in the Democrats’ court.”

Except, the ball is not in Democrats’ court — it’s in Thune’s. Contrary to his persistent narrative about Democrat obstruction, the Senate majority leader has always possessed the power to hold the upper chamber in session until confirmation of Trump’s nominees are complete.

The article concludes:

Of course, the key phrase in Bovard’s remarks is “willing.” Like when it comes to fulfilling issue-based promises they campaign on, many Republican senators have shown little to no appetite for doing what’s necessary to get the president’s nominees across the finish line. And that’s especially true for Thune, who has seemingly recanted on his pledge — which he made a day after Trump’s inauguration — that Senate Republicans “are ready to work as long as needed to confirm President Trump’s nominees,” including “Nights. Weekends. Recesses.”

The bottom line is that Thune and the Senate GOP are not going to act out of the goodness of their hearts. It’s going to take vocal, consistent, and continued pressure from Trump and Republican voters to get them to actually do their jobs.

The article explains that there are ways to break the logjam, but the Republican elites are not interested in breaking the logjam. Somehow the idea of Republican unity and working toward a common purpose was thrown out the window by the Republican establishment when President Trump was elected.

The Only Solution For New York City

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Back in the age of dinosaurs (the 1960’s), I spend two years in school in New York City. I rode the subways, took buses, wandered around Penn Station and Grand Central Station. I felt relatively safe. I ate affordable lunches at the Automat and the various restaurants in and around Grand Central Station. Under John Lindsay, the city was relatively safe. I would not feel safe enough to do any of that now.

On Tuesday, Michael Goodwin at The New York Post posted an article about the upcoming election for Mayor of New York City and one of its former Mayors.

The article reports:

Whew, better late than never!

That was my first reaction to the news that President Trump intends to give Rudy Giuliani the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

The announcement followed the serious weekend car crash in New Hampshire that sent the 81-year-old Giuliani to the hospital.

Thankfully, his injuries, said to include a broken vertebrae, are not life-threatening and he has been released from the hospital.

A likely result is Trump’s presentation will focus almost exclusively on Giuliani’s greatest achievement: His stellar tenure as New York’s mayor.

Although he later served as Trump’s pugnacious lawyer during the disputed aftermath of the 2020 election, it was during Giuliani’s two terms as Gotham’s fearless leader that he proved he is fully worthy of America’s highest civilian honor.

The article notes the current condition of New York City:

Giuliani was succeeded by Michael Bloomberg, a fellow Republican whom Rudy endorsed, and their combined five terms over two decades ushered in a new Golden Age in Gotham.

The city was never better, a fact that has made the subsequent years of decline a bitter pill for many and a lesson in the power of leadership, and why elections matter.

Unfortunately, the city is once again consumed with doubts as a mayoral campaign offers little hope.

Indeed, the current crisis is driven home by the fact that Bill de Blasio, who succeeded Bloomberg, took the city backward for the better part of eight years.

And now de Blasio, known as Mayor Putz in my book, is endorsing socialist Zohran Mamdani, and claiming Mamdani has “the right ideas.”

In fact, Mamdani, an anti-cop socialist and an antisemite, has all the wrong ideas for New York.

His election would take the city in the wrong direction, to a version of the bad old days that Giuliani and Bloomberg overcame.

The article includes some well-deserved praise for both Rudy Giuliani and President Trump:

Ah, but that’s not to say that the Rudy model has vanished.

In fact, a certain president was a close witness to Giuliani’s operatic performance and the changes he brought about in his hometown.

Although Trump was never accused of being a shrinking violet in the business world, I’ve long believed that he was largely inspired by Rudy’s take-no-prisoners approach to politics, and realized it was a viable path for him to follow as he, too, crashed the ­political establishment.

Trump, of course, personalized that approach to twice capture the White House, surpassing Rudy and his own dreams of sitting in the Oval Office.

Even now, the similarities between the two men remain striking.

In both of his terms, Trump has been, like Rudy, a perpetual motion machine who rarely sleeps and is always ready for the next fight.

He, too, has an endless stream of big ideas in the works, waiting their turn in the limelight.

Both are New Yorkers to the core, and were born to lead.

Fortunately for the rest of us, they chose public service.

I hope New York City voters realize the danger they are in if they elect Zohran Mamdani.

Sometimes You Just Can’t Make This Stuff Up!

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On Wednesday, The Daily Caller posted an article about the nationwide “Workers Over Billionaires” protest on Labor Day. Oddly enough, the protest was funded by billionaires. How does that make sense>

The article reports:

Billionaire backers were behind the nationwide “Workers Over Billionaires” protest on Labor Day, which took aim at the Trump administration’s policies and called for an end to what organizers described as a “billionaire takeover.”

More than 1,000 protests across the country on Monday drew over half a million people, according to May Day Strong, the coalition that organized the events. Despite the protests being promoted as grassroots movements of working-class Americans, one of the coalition’s central organizers — the Working Families Organization Inc. — is itself heavily funded by billionaires, including the Soros family.

We need to remember (particularly as the mid-term elections approach) that today’s protesters are paid. They hold signs that often are professionally printed. I am a child of the 1960’s–no one paid us and we had to make our own signs. We protested because we cared about something. The protesters of today may care about what they are protesting, but somehow it seems a little less genuine if they are being paid to protest.

The article notes:

Yet, the Open Society Foundations, founded by billionaire megadonor George Soros, has doled out $23,700,000 to the Working Families Organization since 2016, according to the foundation’s website. 

The organization has also received $950,000 since 2021 from Democracy Fund Voice, a 501(c)(4) nonprofit funded by billionaire eBay founder Pierre Omidyar, tax filings show. Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz’s Open Philanthropy also gave $1.44 million to the Working Families Organization in 2019, and another $1.5 million in 2021. 

The Working Families Organization has also received millions from Democrat-aligned “dark money” groups, which funnel hard-to-track dollars into liberal political organizations and advocacy groups. For example, the Tides Foundation has directed over $65 million to the group since 2018, while the Sixteen Thirty Fund has also contributed hundreds of thousands to the group, according to financial disclosures. 

It is going to be hard to convince me that your protest is sincere if I know that you are being paid to protest.

Our Justice System Isn’t Working

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On Monday, The New York Post posted an article about a woman who was charged with a felony for threatening to kill President Trump. The woman, Nathalie Rose Jones, had been denied bail because of persistent threats to President Trump she posted on social media.

The article reports:

A New York City woman locked up for making deranged social media posts threatening to kill President Trump was quietly released by a Democrat-appointed judge last week.

Chief US District Judge James Boasberg, appointed by President Barack Obama, released Nathalie Rose Jones, a 50-year-old Big Apple resident, under electronic monitoring on Aug. 27 and ordered that she see a psychiatrist once back home, court documents revealed.

The article includes the following:

“Here’s where we are,” Jones wrote in a long Facebook post on Aug. 6.

“I literally told FBI in five states today that I am willing to sacrificially kill this POTUS by disemboweling him and cutting out his trachea with Liz Cheney and all The Affirmation present,” she allegedly wrote, ending the paragraph, “Let’s deal with this and restore domestic tranquility.”

In other posts, Jones urged Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to “please arrange the arrest and removal ceremony of POTUS Trump as a terrorist on the American People from 10-2pm at the White House on Saturday, August 16th, 2025.”

Officials were aware of concerning posts starting on Aug. 2 and Jones herself told Secret Service agents in an Aug. 15 interview that she would “carry out the mission of killing” Trump with a “bladed object” if she were given the chance.

Many of her social media posts tagged federal agencies such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and the Department of Homeland Security.

Friends of Jones told Boasberg, appointed by Obama in 2011, that she has a history of “schizophrenia” and mental illness but has never become violent, Law and Crime reported, citing court docs.

Ms. Jones needs to spend some time in a place that treats mental health patients. She is a danger not only to President Trump, but to society.

Fighting The Drug War

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On Wednesday, The Epoch Times posted an article about the largest seizure of chemical precursors for making drugs such as methamphetamine and fentanyl in U.S. history.

The article reports:

The chemicals, of Chinese origin, were headed to the Sinaloa cartel to be made into drugs that could be sold on the street.

When asked by reporters about the operation in which the chemicals were confiscated, officials said they were taken on the “high seas,” but declined to give further details.

…Had the precursors made it to their destination, they would have been made into hundreds of thousands of pounds of methamphetamine, with profits of more than $500 million, according to the officials’ statements.

Pirro said this seizure was made possible by the State Department’s decision to designate major drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations earlier this year.

The article concludes:

CBP  (United States Customs and Border Protection) Field Operations Director Jud Murdock noted that the Sinaloa cartel, which was slated to receive the chemicals, is one of the “most violent and brutal terrorist organizations in the world.”

According to Murdock, the cartel has produced and distributed record amounts of drugs worldwide and is responsible for countless deaths and destruction in the United States and abroad.

“The Sinaloa cartel activities are not merely criminal; they are acts of terror that threaten the safety and security of our nation,” Murdock said. “By targeting the supply chains and disrupting their operations, we are sending a clear message: DHS will not tolerate anyone or anything that wants to harm our community.”

This comes just days after former Mexican cartel kingpin Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada García pleaded guilty to drug charges in federal court in the Brooklyn borough of New York City on Aug. 25.

Zambada García, the longtime leader of the Sinaloa cartel, admitted to playing a role in a drug-trafficking operation that funneled large quantities of illicit substances, including cocaine and heroin, into the United States for years.

The prosecutors said that the Sinaloa cartel became the largest drug-trafficking organization in the world because of Zambada García and cofounder Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán.

This won’t end drug use and deaths in America, but it is definitely a step in the right direction.

Putting Space Force Where It Belongs

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The center of rocket science has always been Huntsville, Alabama. Soon, Space Force will join the rocket scientists. Actually, that makes perfect sense.

On Tuesday, Hot Air reported:

Space Force should have always been in Huntsville with the rest of the rocket scientists, and now, at long last, it will be.

It has always made sense, which is why it was the no-brainer choice for its home originally. The proximity to so many of NASA’s extended agencies already physically in Huntsville, many of them safe and sound behind the guarded walls of Redstone Arsenal. The Marshall Space Flight Center, which is NASA’s ‘lead center for the development of rocket propulsion systems and technologies,’ is way cool to drive past. I had no idea it was up there on my first visit to Huntsville.

…Not only because of what was already in the area, contractor-wise and NASA assets, but because the location is perfect. Right on I-65, a centrally located north-south main interstate, just a short run to the Port of Mobile for trucked-in, shipped, or rail parts. Easy access to the Houston Space Center and any tie-ins with SpaceX that might be in current development. 

If they need to head east to Cape Canaveral and the Kennedy Space Center, they turn left when they hit I-10 instead of right, and off they go. Or, for that matter, if they have to send folks down to work with Central Command in Tampa. It’s all within a day’s drive – granted, a long one, but the most important feature of Huntsville is, as we always say, ‘You can get there from here.‘

Switching the Space Force headquarters to Colorado Springs was a bitter, vindictive political move by the incoming Biden administration to pull a justifiable defense placement asset away from a red voting state and hand it off to a blue one. 

The article notes:

For the ignorant and uninitiated, Huntsville, AL is ‘Rocket City,’ birthed by the very man who started it all for the United States. Werner Von Braun even had the foresight to ensure that a museum would be founded to preserve and document the space history being made in Huntsville.

I wonder how much money this will save the government in travel expenses and other expenses that are the result of putting the Space Force headquarters in Colorado.

This is another step toward making the government cost efficient. The government will probably never be cost efficient, but at least we can make steps in that direction.

A Voice Of Reason

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On Tuesday, Breitbart posted an article about crime in Chicago. During the Labor Day Weekend, 7 people were killed and 49 were wounded in shootings. 

The article reports:

On Monday’s broadcast of Newsmax TV’s “Newsline,” Chicago Alderman Raymond Lopez said that “We need the National Guard to help take off the pressure from the Chicago Police Department” by guarding city assets the police are having to guard and said that he wants to see crime drop even more than it has in Chicago and he wants the same sort of crime reduction that Washington, D.C. has seen.

Lopez stated, “It’s very easy for Brandon Johnson to put together these orders that are meaningless. But we need the help. We need the National Guard to help take off the pressure from the Chicago Police Department, which is guarding some of the city’s assets. And we could better use their personnel, their intel., and their training in the neighborhoods.”

Bringing in the National Guard would help initially to stop crime, but the city also needs courts and judges who will punish the criminals. Chicago also needs to end its no-cash bail policy so that criminals who are arrested stay in jail until they are tried.

The National Guard can initially be used to get crime under control, but until the legal systems in our major cities work to combat crime, the National Guard will only be a temporary solution.

Digital Currency:  Threat to Freedom?

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Author:  R. Alan Harrop, Ph.D 

 Like all things, the high-technology revolution we are experiencing has both positive and negative possible outcomes. Those who advocate the new high-tech systems only tell us the positive side since they are the ones most likely to benefit financially. I strongly recommend that you read or re-read George Orwell’s novel, 1984. In that story, the author shows some of the ways that modern technological advances can negatively impact our most basic freedoms.

The January 6th investigation showcased how easy it is for the federal government to monitor our whereabouts using our cell phone locations. Our movements can be traced not only in the present, but also in the past. Many people were subjected to criminal charges because their cell phone location data indicated they were on the Capitol grounds on January 6th. In his prophetic book, Orwell relates how two of the characters had to arrange meeting in a forest in order to avoid being filmed and monitored together in public. The extensive use of digital surveillance cameras throughout our country has established exactly that scenario in today’s society. While one could argue that surveillance cameras are useful to identify law breakers, which is true, the cameras provide the capability for the government to use this information for nefarious purposes if it so chooses. Ask the innocent people caught up in the January 6th dragnet.

A couple of more mundane examples are the attempted use of GPS tracking data on automobiles by a city in the United Kingdom to put limits on how many miles a resident could drive from that city. How about the proposal by some of the environmental extremists to limit how many miles a person is allowed to drive per year to reduce fossil fuel consumption and emissions? Farfetched? Look at the mandatory system currently in place that slows down a diesel-powered truck to 5 MPH if there is a defect in the emissions control system that has not been corrected within a certain predetermined mileage limit? The point is that high tech is providing mechanisms for the government to control our lives in ways that were never anticipated years ago.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is another rapidly advancing technology that has the potential for very positive changes that may enhance human existence, but at the same time could be used to interfere with our freedoms in significant ways.

Now we come to the issue of digital currency, which is in the process of being implemented in several other countries. The Biden administration sanctioned the development of a proposal or plan for digital currency here in the United States. While not yet implemented, we could see it in the near future. Digital currency is a government-controlled system that does away with cash transactions and replaces them with a system of electronic data for all monetary transactions. Your wealth exists only as an electronic record somewhere in the digital world. The software even has what is called a digital wallet which is where your assets are stored for use in purchasing and selling. Why would anyone want this phantom money system? The main advantage according to advocates is that the government would have increased ability to manage the economy by monitoring and controlling the use of money. Of course, this would also allow the government to monitor and record all your purchases and expenditures.

Unlike credit cards and bank accounts today that use electronic accounting for deposits and withdrawals, the digital currency system bypasses the local banks and is managed directly by the federal government. Now, what could possibly go wrong with that? Well, actually several things. We continually hear about foreign entities successfully hacking into supposedly secure private business and government computer systems. What if these hackers destroyed the entire digital system? How about an attack on our electrical system? The old saying, “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket” applies here. Another issue is that the government could monitor and actually control how you spend your money. They could easily see what you are spending your money on and redirect it to items they deem more appropriate. For example–buying too many juicy steaks instead of beans. Of course, no government would ever do such a thing; or would a government that mandates unproven vaccines do so?

The bottom line is that a digital currency system, while it may have some advantages, would give the government almost unlimited capability to monitor and control our economic freedom to spend our own money as we see fit. By the way, which country is strongly moving towards a complete digital currency system? You guessed it; communist China. We must monitor where our legislators are on this issue if we are to preserve our freedom.

An Interesting Social Change

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On Monday, The Daily Signal posted an article about the declining number of teenagers who have summer jobs.

The article reports:

As an older millennial, my high school and college summers were defined largely by the jobs I held. Not many of today’s teens can say the same.

Once a rite of passage, teen jobs are now endangered. Just 35% of 16- to 19-year-olds worked last summer, down from 54% in 2000.

It’s a big deal.

My only purpose in working as a teen was to earn as much money as possible. But I now realize the experience and life lessons those jobs provided were far more valuable.

Low-wage, entry-level jobs provide the perfect opportunity for young people to learn the importance of key skills: showing up on time, getting along with co-workers, demonstrating respect and kindness toward customers who may lack both, and staying on task even when it is difficult or boring.

Learning these skills early has long-run benefits. Multiple studies link part-time work during high school to higher future wages and occupational status, and more consistent employment.

The article notes an interesting statistic:

For example, Christopher Ruhm and Charles Baum, writing in the Southern Economic Journal, found that teens who held part-time jobs realized 7% higher future earnings than their peers who did not work. And researchers Jeremy Staff and Jeylan Mortimer found that teen employment is “a key formative experience, which establishes patterns of schooling and working that persist during the succeeding years.”

I remember the summer job I held in high school–I worked in the Ladies’ Sportswear Department of a New York discount store. The experience convinced me that I never wanted to work in retail. However, I learned to be on time. I learned that not all people are reasonable. I also learned that not everyone is honest. Those were important skills to learn.

The article states:

The recent plunge in teen employment occurred during the Great Recession, which coincided with dozens of state minimum wage hikes and a federal minimum wage increase. The teen unemployment rate hit a record 27.2% in 2009 and 2010 and remained above 20% for six straight years from 2008 to 2014. That lack of opportunities naturally led many teens to give up the notion of work, contributing to sustained low levels of teen employment.

Today, 10 states and the District of Columbia have minimum wages of $15 or more and multiple cities in Washington state mandate over $20 per hour. Most teenagers can’t create that much value right out of the gate.

Government mandates also force employers to provide health insurance, vacation, paid family leave and other costly benefits that can further dissuade employers from hiring teenagers, while restrictions on the types of jobs teens can perform and the hours they can work can also preclude their employment.

Policymakers should help make teen jobs great again by removing barriers that make it harder for teens to earn, learn and improve themselves.

Let’s give our teenagers a chance to learn the life skills they need to be successful.

Keeping Children Safe

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There may be an alternative to arming teachers to keep children safe, and one school seems to have found that alternative.

On Monday, The New York Post reported:

A Long Island school has rolled out what it says is one of America’s most advanced security systems – able to autolock doors and assess threats in split seconds.

“It’s going to save lives,” XSponse CEO Lee Mandel said of Plainedge High School’s new state-of-the-art protective system unveiled ahead of the new school year.

…Announced a day after the tragic shooting of Mass at Annunciation Catholic Church in Minneapolis, each classroom at the North Massapequa campus has been outfitted with doors that autolock during emergencies and high-tech video monitors that first responders can access in real time.

“No one has been able to put eyes into a classroom. We’re, in essence, putting a first responder in every single classroom,” added Mandel.

School officials — each of whom carries a special smart-ID badge to activate the system — can make both announcements and livestream video through the devices to classrooms sheltering in place.

Badges have a Life Alert-esque panic button that, when pressed, sends a hyperlocal GPS location to its exact whereabouts in the building through a detailed, color-coded map of campus shared with responding authorities.

“Having that makes it incredible to really speed up the reaction time and the response for first responders,” Mandel said.

The badges also correspond to an active second in-classroom device that can communicate to the outside. Panic buttons are also placed around the school for students to use in emergencies.

The article notes:

What XSponse is doing in Plainedge — a blueprint for other schools across the nation — has been supported by two parents who have lost their own children during the Parkland school shooting of 2018.

Andrew Pollack, whose daughter Meadow was killed in the senseless attack, now works with the company to promote school safety.

“My daughter would want to know I’m making a difference in the world,” Pollack, originally of Oceanside, said.

“It’s amazing technology. I went to a board meeting in Plainedge, and it was a big turnout…they all wanted to see it.”

Ryan Petty, who lost his daughter Alaina in the shooting, emphasized how significant even a few split seconds taken off a response time can be.

“Parkland was over in under six minutes,” Petty, now a member of the Florida State Board of Education working with XSponse, said.

This is something all School Boards should investigate.

Creative Editing on CBS (Again)?

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If you are depending on CBS for your news, you are not only uninformed–you are misinformed. Their latest effort in creative editing occurred during an interview with Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem on Face the Nation.

On Monday, Townhall reported:

Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem is ripping into CBS News for omitting her full answers during an interview on Face the Nation. The network cut almost 25 percent of her answers for their Sunday show, where Ms. Noem spoke about the ongoing efforts and operations to deport illegal aliens. She also expounded more about the ongoing case against Abrego Garcia, but CBS News took the hatchet to that as well (via DHS):

During the broadcast, CBS edits deprived the American people from hearing the truth about MS-13 gang member Kilmar Abrego Garcia. The following 25 seconds were cut from her answer:

“This individual was a known human smuggler, MS-13 gang member, an individual who was  a wife beater, and someone who was um so perverted that he solicited nude photos from minors. And even his fellow human traffickers told him to knock it off. He was so sick in what he was doing and how he was treating small children. So, uh, he needs to  never be in the United States of America and our administration is making sure we’re doing all that we can to bring him to justice.” 

During an answer to a question about Secretary Noem’s successful arrest of 5,000 illegal aliens in Los Angeles, CBS cut the following: 

“…And many of these individuals were people who have, you know, conducted horrific um horrific activities against American citizens, trafficking of children and pedophiles. And so that’s uh one of the things that the people of a LA can be grateful for is that they don’t have those bad actors, those people on their streets anymore because of the work of President Trump and his administration.” 

We don’t need foreign criminals walking around America. We have enough of our own.

Restoring Confidence In Our Elections

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On Sunday, The Epoch Times posted an article about President Trump’s plan to restore confidence in America’s elections. States have authority over how to hold their elections, but they are required to comply with federal prohibitions.

The article reports:

President Donald Trump said on Aug. 30 that he has decided to issue an executive order to request that federal elections require the presentation of voter ID in order to cast a ballot.

“Voter I.D. Must Be Part of Every Single Vote. No exceptions!” Trump wrote on a post on Truth Social. “I Will Be Doing An Executive Order To That End!!!”

The president did not give a timeline for his order. The midterm elections will be held on Nov. 3, 2026.

…The president also repeated his opposition to the widespread adoption of mail-in ballots and the use of electronic voting systems, although this time he didn’t say they would be the subject of any executive action.

“Also, No Mail-In Voting, Except For Those That Are Very Ill, And The Far Away Military. Use paper ballots only!!!” he said.

Earlier this month, Trump had pledged to issue an executive order ahead of the 2026 midterm elections to end the use of mail-in ballots and return to the use of paper ballots instead of voting machines.

It would be possible to count paper ballots by counting ballots in individual precincts. It would be tedious, but it would be accurate.

In 2005, former President Jimmy Carter created the Commission on Federal Election Reform. The Commission made 87 recommendations that would improve election integrity. The Commission noted that one of the places most vulnerable to election fraud was mail-in ballots.  

The Time To Choose

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Milton Friedman once stated that you cannot have both an open border and a welfare state simultaneously, as the influx of immigrants could strain welfare resources. However, some economists suggest that limiting immigrants’ access to welfare could allow for both policies to coexist. A quick glance at the economies of the European countries who have attempted to do both confirms Milton Friedman’s statement.

On Saturday, The Gateway Pundit reported:

The Trump administration is putting illegal aliens on notice: taxpayer-funded housing is for AMERICANS, not for those who broke the law to come here.

On Friday, Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Scott Turner announced that all Public Housing Authorities (PHAs) nationwide have 30 days to conduct audits verifying the legal status of every single tenant in Section 8 housing and other HUD-funded programs.

The first housing authority to face scrutiny is Washington, D.C., where Turner confirmed that the DC Housing Authority has already been put on notice, according to Fox News.

More than 3,000 PHAs across the nation are receiving the same marching orders. If they fail to comply, Turner warned, they risk losing federal funding.

Every dollar that pays for public housing comes out of the pockets of the American taxpayer. If a taxpayer chooses to house a non-citizen, that is their business, but government benefits should go to American citizens.

The article states:

Turner revealed that only 1 out of 4 eligible American families currently receives HUD assistance due to past administrations turning a blind eye to illegal alien abuse.

In a blistering letter to every Public Housing Authority (PHA) in America, Turner laid down the law: within 30 days, all housing agencies must provide a full and complete accounting of every tenant living in HUD-funded housing.

That means names, mailing addresses, number of bedrooms, the cost of each unit, and most importantly, proof of American citizenship or legal immigration status.

We have to provide for Americans who are struggling economically before we provide for people who broke the law in coming here.

An Interesting Rumor

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There is a rumor circulating that the Trump administration might send U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) officials to polling stations on Election Day. Some Democrat politicians have already gone on the record to say that they are opposed to the idea because it might intimidate voters. Wait a minute–only American citizens are supposed to be voting. Why would they be intimidated by ICE?

On August 14th, Newsbusters posted an article explaining the possible origins of the rumor.

The article reports:

Former CNN host Jim Acosta hates conspiracy theories unless, of course, he happens to be the one peddling them. On his Tuesday Substack podcast, Acosta mused, without evidence, that the Trump Administration could send ICE to polling stations to intimidate Latinos into not voting.

During a discussion with former Ohio Democratic Party Chairman and “democracy warrior” David Pepper, Acosta lamented, “The thing that you just mentioned a few moments ago about putting police officers or troops outside polling stations. It does remind me of something I saw—a very disturbing story in The Washington Post today that says that ‘the Trump administration is evaluating plans that would establish a ‘Domestic Civil Disturbance Quick Reaction Force’ composed of hundreds of National Guard troops tasked with rapidly deploying into American cities facing protests or other unrest.’ This is according to ‘internal Pentagon documents reviewed by The Washington Post.’”

Showing a lack of originality, Acosta proclaimed, “This is just nutty, dystopian, Handmaid’s Tale-type stuff.”

Where were these people when the New Black Panthers were standing outside a polling place with billy clubs in Philadelphia in 2008? Just for the record, the charges of voter intimidation against the New Black Panthers were dismissed by the Obama Justice Department in May 2009.

Current reporting says that there will not be ICE agents at polling places.