Monthly Archives: March 2026

Restoring Our Heritage

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I am aware that Christopher Columbus was not actually the first person to discover America, but tradition gives him the credit and the holiday. That credit and holiday is being restored under the Trump administration.

On Sunday, The New York Post reported:

A new statue of Christopher Columbus went up on the White House grounds Sunday that was built using pieces from a monument to the Italian explorer that protesters destroyed six years ago. 

The 13-foot, one-ton replica of a Columbus statue toppled in Baltimore in 2020 – then dumped into the city’s inner harbor – was commissioned by the Conference of Presidents of Major Italian American Organizations and is part of the White House’s celebration of America’s 250th anniversary. 

The 13-foot replica was placed Sunday outside the Eisenhower Executive Office Building after Baltimore officials refused to install it.

The article notes:

“Columbus statues have long stood as symbols of pride and cultural identity for more than 18 million Americans of Italian descent,” Basil M. Russo, the conference’s president, said in a statement. “For over a century, Columbus’s legacy helped Italian immigrants navigate prejudice and hardship, serving as a source of unity and belonging as they built new lives in this country. 

“Columbus Day itself emerged in the aftermath of the 1891 New Orleans lynching, when 11 Italian immigrants were killed by a mob of thousands, an event that prompted a national effort to promote the acceptance and assimilation of Italian Americans,” Russo continued. “This history remains central to why these monuments matter.”

This is the picture of the new statue:

A nation should never deny its own history.

President Trump’s Policies To The Rescue

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On Friday, The Center Square posted an article about an unexpected benefit of one of President Trump’s policies.

The article reports:

U.S Gulf Coast LNG export plants are poised to increase shipments in global markets desperate for gas supplies as damage assessments show a year or longer will be needed to repair Qatar’s giant LNG production facility located along the Persian Gulf.

Iranian missile strikes late Wednesday caused extensive damage to the Ras Laffan Industrial City, the world’s largest LNG export hub capable of loading several super-sized tankers simultaneously and processing over 77 million tons of gas annually.

The disruption has wiped out approximately 17% of Qatar’s LNG capacity, leading to forced suspensions on long-term contracts to Italy, Belgium, South Korea and China. Qatar officials estimate LNG production units with 12.8 million tons of annual capacity that were expected to come online in 2026 will instead take three to five years to repair.

“When LNG buyers can’t get the gas from the original source, they take it from whoever might have it available, and right now that’s basically the U.S. and Australia,” said Eric Smith, associate director of the Tulane Energy Institute.

Smith notes that hundreds of ships – including many LNG vessels – are currently trapped in the Persian Gulf north of the Strait of Hormuz, preventing them from delivering their cargos, further complicating the delivery of LNG in global markets.

Iran is a rogue state, and right now the country is lashing out at everyone and everything in an effort to save its tyrannical regime. They are illustrating why the regime is a threat to the world and needs to be removed from power.

The article concludes:

Tulane’s Smith said the United States is not insulated from price increases in global LNG markets, so American consumers can expect to see higher costs for electricity and some manufactured goods.

“Even though LNG accounts for only about 12% to 14% of our total output of natural gas, feeding those LNG plants influences the price the public pays for residential gas supplies in Louisiana and other states,” Smith said. “The local gas utilities are generally going to pass the higher costs onto ratepayers.”

Louisiana Midcontinent Oil and Gas Association President Tommy Faucheux said recent events in Iran and Venezuela have caused many to look to the U.S. for leadership and energy security.

“Thanks to the American Energy Dominance Agenda, our country is in a very different place than we were during past Middle Eastern conflicts when we were dependent on foreign sources of energy. We are now a net energy exporter, thanks in no small part to the energy industry we have developed here in our state,” Faucheux said.

Working Together To Protect The Strait Of Hormuz

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On Sunday, Red State posted an article about the plans to keep the Strait of Hormuz open.

The article reports:

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte appeared on “Face the Nation” to talk about the Strait of Hormuz and the threats from Iran.

Rutte explained that the good news was that 22 countries were coming together to make sure that the Strait of Hormuz was free. He explained they’d always gotten things achieved before, as when President Donald Trump had gotten things like the NATO allies to pay their 5 percent share, which helped to provide for greater defense. He said he was “absolutely convinced” they could do the job when it came to Iran.

Most of the 22 are NATO countries. Others involved also included Japan, Korea, Australia, New Zealand, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain. “So we are now planning the military people and others amongst this group of 22 nations and with the U.S.,” Rutte said.

…Rutte followed Waltz (U.N. Ambassador Mike Waltz) and spoke about Iran targeting Diego Garcia with two intermediate-range ballistic missiles (IRBM). The targeting of an island 2,500 miles away from Iran suggested that they could potentially hit European capitals and U.S. bases in Europe. Iran had previously denied having such capability, but Trump warned they had it.

The article concludes:

Rutte said they were looking at the facts to confirm the capability, but he said if this was true, that was more evidence that Trump’s decision to take out Iran’s ballistic missile capability and the nuclear capability was “crucial.” He explained that if Iran had the missile and nuclear capability, that would be an “existential threat” to everyone in the region and the stability of the world.

“I really hope the American people will be with him because he’s doing this to make the whole world safer,” Rutte said. That part really ticked off some Europeans on social media when he took up for Trump and said he was right. But Rutte has shown in the past he’s not afraid to stick up for what Trump is trying to achieve, just as he did when Trump was trying to get other NATO nations to pay their share of the defense costs.

Because of President Trump’s energy policies, American oil does not depend on the Strait of Hormuz. It is an indication of America’s generosity that it is willing to help the countries that are dependent on the Strait put together a coalition to keep the Strait open.

Policy Changes Before An Election?

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It’s amazing what politicians will do to get elected. On Saturday, Hot Air posted an article with one example.

The article reports:

Kathy Hochul is up for reelection this year, and has a big, big problem: for all the talk about an “affordability” agenda, every single policy the Democrats like to push increases costs, reduces quality of life, and drives people out of Blue states.

And one of the worst problems she faces is skyrocketing energy bills, and the prospect that those prices will rise even more and faster in the next few years as climate deadlines rapidly approach.

The article quotes The New York Times:

Gov. Kathy Hochul on Friday moved to alter and delay the implementation of New York State’s landmark 2019 climate law, which calls for gradually decreasing greenhouse gas emissions by certain deadlines.

Those proposed adjustments include delaying issuing the regulations for enforcing the law — already two years late — until 2030 and amending how certain emissions are measured.

“We need more time,” Ms. Hochul wrote in an editorial that was published on Friday morning in The Empire Report, a news site that covers state politics. “So much has radically changed since the Climate Act was enacted, necessitating common-sense adjustments.”

The proposal, anticipated by lawmakers in Albany, comes late in the budget negotiation process. Although Ms. Hochul has considerable leverage to push for her agenda during this time, members of the Legislature will need to approve the final budget, which would include changes to the climate law.

The article notes:

There is not a serious person alive who didn’t understand that imposing huge costs for not meeting impossible climate goals would raise costs for consumers. You had to have had a lobotomy or be a liberal to not predict this.

Passing the climate law in 2019 was perfect for liberal politicians; it helped funnel money in great quantities to political allies for years, and the worst of the price increases was put into the seemingly distant future. But that “distant” future is not so distant now, and Hochul sees political trouble if she doesn’t relieve the artificial price pressure the law has created.

The article concludes:

As always, the Democrats warn about a fake crisis, promise the moon, spend tons of money, make things infinitely worse, and then say they will fix the problem.

Hey, folks, I have a better plan: get rid of these idiots and elect some Republicans. They aren’t perfect, but you get a lot fewer butterfly bridges, fraudulent programs, insane green energy laws, and as a bonus, we won’t put boys in girls’ locker rooms.

Give it a try. You may like it.

The Governor’s election in New York State is going to be fun to watch!

The Negotiators Lied

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It isn’t really a surprise that the Iranians trying to get President Trump to agree to letting them have a nuclear program lied, but now we have further proof.

On Saturday, The Jerusalem Post reported:

Iran fired two ballistic missiles at a joint US-UK military base, Diego Garcia, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday night, citing multiple US officials. 

One of the missiles failed in flight, and a US warship fired an interception at the other. At this time, it has not been determined if an interception was made, but neither missile hit the base, officials told WSJ. 

Diego Garcia is located about 4,000 kilometers from Iran, double the 2,000-kilometer range that Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Iran’s ballistic missiles had last month. 

According to a report published by Israel’s Alma Research and Education Center at the start of the war, Iran’s missile inventory primarily consists of short-range ballistic missiles, which reach up to 1,000 kilometers, and medium-range ballistic missiles, which can reach as far as 3,000 kilometers.

However, the Center added that “according to various reports, long-range ballistic missiles are currently in advanced stages of development.”

Note that during the negotiations with Iran, the Iranian Foreign Minister claimed that Iran only had missiles with a 2,000 kilometer range. What else was he lying about?

If we had waited to attack Iran until after they had developed long-range missiles, the world would have been blackmailed by Iran. A country constantly yelling “Death to Israel” and “Death to America” would have been a worldwide threat if they had nuclear missiles and the capability to deliver them. Thank God for a President with the courage to attack them when he did–time was running out.

Better Late Than Never

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On Saturday, Breitbart posted an article about the efforts to secure the Strait of Hormuz.

The article reports:

More than 20 nations spanning from Asia to Europe to the Gulf have expressed a “readiness to contribute” to the effort of opening up the Strait of Hormuz amid threats to ships by the Islamist regime in Iran.

They should contribute. They are the countries getting the oil. Only a fraction of the oil that America uses goes through the Strait of Hormuz. Almost all of the oil that goes through goes to Europe, China, and places other than America. The closing of the Strait does affect America because of the impact on world oil prices, but it does not create a fuel shortage in America.

The article notes:

In a joint statement released on Saturday morning, the nations of Australia, Bahrain, Canada, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Republic of Korea, Romania, Slovenia, Sweden, United Arab Emirates, and the United Kingdom condemned in the “strongest terms” the recent attacks by Iran against unarmed, civilian shipping vessels, its attacks on oil and gas infrastructure throughout the Gulf, and its move to shut down traffic in the Strait of Hormuz.

“We express our deep concern about the escalating conflict. We call on Iran to cease immediately its threats, laying of mines, drone and missile attacks and other attempts to block the Strait to commercial shipping, and to comply with UN Security Council Resolution 2817,” the group of nations said.

“Freedom of navigation is a fundamental principle of international law, including under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. The effects of Iran’s actions will be felt by people in all parts of the world, especially the most vulnerable.”

“We emphasise that such interference with international shipping and the disruption of global energy supply chains constitute a threat to international peace and security. In this regard, we call for an immediate comprehensive moratorium on attacks on civilian infrastructure, including oil and gas installations,” they continued.

“We express our readiness to contribute to appropriate efforts to ensure safe passage through the Strait. We welcome the commitment of nations who are engaging in preparatory planning.”

The heavy lifting has already been done by America and Israel, but the people affected by the closing of the Strait need to be part of the actions needed to reopen the Strait.

Saving American Lives

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On Friday, The Dallas Express posted an article about a recent Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) operation.

The article reports:

Armed with battering rams and search warrants, federal agents stormed homes and warehouses across the country, seizing millions in cash, piles of illegal drugs and a deadly arsenal, signaling an aggressive escalation in America’s war on drugs.

The multi-agency crackdown, highlighted by the DEA’s Operation Fentanyl Free America, comes as the United States faces a shifting landscape in the opioid crisis. Although overdose deaths have declined from record highs, fentanyl and other synthetic drugs remain a deadly threat, fueling action by law enforcement and policymakers.

In the second phase of Operation Fentanyl Free America, the DEA seized more than 4.7 million fentanyl pills and nearly 2,400 pounds of fentanyl powder between Jan. 12 and Feb. 10.

“The drug poisoning epidemic has been cultivated by designated terrorist cartels who operate like multi-billion-dollar corporations and have weaponized fentanyl with the clear objective to increase America’s dependence on illicit drugs,” DEA Administrator Terrance Cole said in a statement.

Agents also confiscated 147,000 pounds of cocaine, 21,000 pounds of methamphetamine, more than 26 million methamphetamine pills, 1,200 pounds of heroin, 65,000 pounds of illicit cannabis and more than 1,500 firearms. More than 3,000 arrests were made nationwide.

…While drug overdose deaths have declined in the U.S., they remain a significant public health crisis. Provisional CDC data show about 87,000 overdose deaths from October 2023 to September 2024, a drop from around 114,000 the previous year and the lowest total in any 12-month period since June 2020. For families, the toll remains devastating.

In December, the DEA reported that the first phase of the operation put “unprecedented pressure on the global fentanyl supply chain.” DEA lab testing found that 29% of fentanyl pills analyzed in fiscal year 2025 contained a potentially lethal dose, a sharp decrease from 76% in fiscal 2023. Fentanyl powder purity also dropped to 10.3%, down from 19.5%.

The article concludes:

Last month, the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Seneca’s crew unloaded about 17,750 pounds of cocaine worth more than $133.5 million in Port Everglades from four interdictions in international waters off the eastern Pacific Ocean, according to the Coast Guard.

Most of the world’s cocaine supply comes from nearby Colombia. China and other Asian nations produce most of the precursor chemicals needed to make fentanyl, the potent opioid responsible for most U.S. overdose deaths in recent years.

We need to find the core of the drug problem in America and dry up the market, but until we are able to do that, taking the drugs off of the street saves lives.

Rules For Thee And For Me

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On Friday, The Daily Caller posted an article about a law passed in the Senate that would exempt lawmakers from special treatment at airport security lines–lawmakers would have to wait in line just like everyone else.

The article reports:

The Senate passed a bill to end lawmakers’ special privileges to bypass airport security lines late Thursday night while security personnel continue to manage hours-long lines while working without pay through a partial government shutdown.

The End Special Treatment for Congress at Airports Act was introduced by Republican Texas Sen. John Cornyn and approved by unanimous consent because no senators were present on the floor to object to the legislation. The bill passed as the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) shutdown prepared to enter its 35th day — tied for the second-longest in American history — with Transportation Security Administration (TSA) workers struggling to manage a surge in spring break travelers.

…“Maybe, just maybe, if Congress has to live under the same laws that everybody else does, it will motivate us to get our work done. In other words to fund the [DHS],” Cornyn said on the Senate floor Thursday night. “So no American, no air traveler will have to suffer the disruption and tribulations that many, many travelers are having to experience now. It’s not too much to expect that Congress will be subject to the rules as everybody else.”

…The legislation now awaits passage in the House, and then would go to President Donald Trump’s desk for signature. The TSA is an agency of the DHS.

I hope this law is passed in the House and signed into law in as short a time as possible!

The article concludes:

Air travel worker unions, airlines have called on Congress to resolve differences and restore funding as stress mounts on workers, and TSA specifically called on Democrats to stop withholding their votes to end the shutdown.

“The shutdown is having very real consequences, and hardworking federal aviation workers, the airline industry and our passengers are being used as a political football once again. This is simply unacceptable and un-American,” Airlines for America president and CEO Chris Sununu, a former Republican governor of New Hampshire, said in a statement.

Cornyn is currently locked in an extremely expensive runoff primary contest against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton that President Donald Trump and Cornyn’s Senate counterpart, Republican Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, have chosen to stay out of. Trump said he will make an endorsement soon, and Paxton said he will drop out of the race if the Senate passes the SAVE America Act. Soon after, Cornyn advocated to eliminate the Senate’s 60-vote filibuster threshold despite defending the protective measure in 2022.

No Democrat who continues to vote for this shutdown should be re-elected!

Good News For Taxpayers And Pro-Life Americans

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On Friday, Townhall posted an article about the legal challenges by Planned Parenthood to the ban on taxpayer money being used to fund abortion.

The article reports:

When President Trump signed the “Big Beautiful Bill” on July 4, 2025, cutting off federal Medicaid reimbursements to large abortion providers under Section 71113, the abortion industry immediately launched a coordinated, multi-front legal assault to force the money to keep flowing. The ACLJ jumped into the fight on Day One – and never looked back.

…Planned Parenthood filed suit in the Massachusetts federal district court within days of the bill’s passage. When the district judge granted two sweeping preliminary injunctions – claiming the defunding violated Planned Parenthood’s First Amendment rights – we filed four amicus briefs fighting back, including urging the First Circuit to issue an emergency stay. The First Circuit granted the stay on September 11, cutting off Planned Parenthood’s funding while the case proceeded – and later issued a unanimous landmark ruling upholding Section 71113 in its entirety and vacating both injunctions. Win.

Maine Family Planning opened a second legal front in Maine federal district court. We filed amicus briefs there at both the district and appellate levels arguing that no court can force Congress to spend money it specifically voted not to spend. The district court denied their injunction entirely, and after the First Circuit’s decisive ruling in the Planned Parenthood case, Maine Family Planning abandoned its appeal altogether and stipulated to dismissal. Win.

Even as those cases were resolved, California organized a coalition of 22 states to file their own lawsuit – California et al. v. HHS – seeking to reimpose Planned Parenthood funding across their jurisdictions. We filed our seventh amicus brief there, and the First Circuit handed California a decisive defeat, granting a stay that allowed Section 71113 to take effect even in the plaintiff states. With no viable legal theory remaining, the coalition has now dismissed its own case, seeing the writing on the wall. Win.

The article concludes:

As monumental as today’s victory is, Section 71113 of the “Big Beautiful Bill” cuts off Planned Parenthood’s Medicaid funding for one year. The abortion lobby will regroup. The only way to make this permanent is through Congress. The ACLJ will be at the forefront of that fight, just as we have been at every stage of this one.

I don’t know if we will ever be able to end legal abortion, but at least we can stop the taxpayers being forced to pay for it.

Keeping America’s Roads Safer

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On Wednesday, The Post Millennial posted an article about changes being made to the Commercial Driver’s License (CDL) program in America.

The article reports:

Roughly 200,000 immigrant truck drivers in the United States are set to lose their commercial driver’s licenses (CDLs) this week after a new Trump administration rule went into effect Monday to keep illegal immigrants off the roads.

Under the rule, non-citizens, including asylum seekers, refugees, and recipients of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), will no longer be eligible to obtain CDLs, even if they are legally authorized to work in the United States. Those who already hold licenses will not be able to renew them as they expire. Federal data indicates that about 200,000 immigrants currently hold CDLs, accounting for roughly 5 percent of all commercial truck drivers nationwide.

Frankly, I think they are overreacting on this. If someone is legally authorized to work here and speaks English well enough to understand road signs and instructions from law enforcement, I have no problem with them obtaining a license.

The article concludes:

In Washington state, another illegal immigrant truck driver was arrested following a deadly crash in which his tractor-trailer slammed into stopped traffic, killing a 29-year-old man. Authorities said the driver made no attempt to brake and had allegedly falsified his electronic driving logs. Due to sanctuary state laws, he was released.

The issue has also raised concerns about how some drivers obtained licenses in the first place. Washington state officials acknowledged that nearly 700 commercial driver’s licenses were mistakenly issued over seven years to non-citizens who did not qualify.

During his State of the Union address, President Donald Trump called on lawmakers to pass legislation further restricting access to commercial licenses for immigrants. The following day, Sen. Jim Banks (R-IN) introduced a bill that would go even further than the administration’s rule by immediately revoking existing CDLs from migrants in the affected categories, rather than allowing them to expire over time.

Seems A Little Ungrateful

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It is very disheartening to some Americans that when the members of the  North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) were asked to help secure the Strait of Hormuz they seemed disinterested. America has been the main funder and defender of NATO since it was formed, and the lack of support for America in ending Iranian terrorism was disappointing. However, things happen, and NATO members seem to be changing their tune.

On Wednesday, Red State reported:

As we reported, President Donald Trump asked our NATO allies and others to help contribute to a coalition of escort ships to help ensure safe passage in the Strait of Hormuz.

But he was rebuffed by some of the NATO allies, like Germany, who said that they didn’t start the military action, so why should they be involved? These are some of the same folks who thought the United States should pay endlessly for Ukraine, despite that not being “our war.’

They had a bit of a karmic wake-up call when the hotel where their European Union Advisory Mission is housed was hit by an Iran-backed drone in Baghdad.

But now Trump is also calling their bluff, because the bottom line is that the U.S. ships very little through the Strait — it’s far more important to others. So Trump posted on Truth Social that if allies want to play the weak-kneed weasel game, maybe the U.S. should just not provide any escorts, and just let the countries that use it be responsible for it.

The article notes:

“I have been in contact with many allies,” Rutte (NATO SecGen Mark Rutte) said during a NATO exercise in Norway.

“We all agree, of course, that Strait has to open up again. And what I know is that allies are working together, discussing how to do that, what is the best way to do it. They’re working on that collectively to find a way forward.”

Rutte also explained the ballistic missile and nuclear capability had been “severely degraded.”

Gee, what happened to “We didn’t start it”? Sounds like Trump shamed them into movement. Rutte gets Trump, so he knows they have to pony up.

Others are showing up some of our European allies. As we reported, India is providing warships to protect their own ships; it is one of the biggest shippers through the Strait, along with China.

…The United Arab Emirates may join a U.S.-led effort to protect shipping in the Strait of Hormuz after Iran all but shut the vital waterway to ships as Tehran wages war with Israel and ‌the United States, a senior Emirati official said on Tuesday.

Anwar Gargash, the diplomatic adviser to the UAE president, said talks were ongoing and no formal plan had been agreed, but that “big countries” in Asia, the Middle East, and Europe bore responsibility for ensuring the flow of trade and energy.

Iran has made a number of strategic mistakes during this war. One of those mistakes was attacking their neighbors who were attempting to remain neutral. I see good things in the future for the people of Iran, but not so good things in the future for the current leaders of Iran.

I Think She Has Missed The Point

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On Thursday, Hot Air posted an article titled, “Kathy Hochul Begs Rich People to Come Back to New York.” Why does she think they left?

The article reports:

Hochul’s appeal to the millionaires who are fleeing New York came last week at a POLITICO “Fireside Chat” that was fascinating, if you are into such things. It gave us insight into the dilemma that national Democrats face: their base is radicalized, their records are appalling, and their states are bleeding citizens.

Here are a quote from the chat:

Now, there are some patriotic millionaires who stepped up. Okay, cut me the checks. If you want to be supportive, but maybe the first step should be to go down to Palm Beach and see who we can bring back home because our tax base has been eroded. So I philosophically don’t have a problem, I have to look at the fact that we are in competition with other states who have less of a tax burden on their corporations and their individuals. And I would say remote work changed everything. There were people who could only work in an office in Manhattan or work in New York State and they were captives to our state. They were going to stay. We saw that that’s not the case. Wall Street, businesses looking at Texas? They’re not going there because they have a nicer governor, I know that for sure, but they’re going there because of the tax rate. We have to be smart about this. But we can fund what we want to fund with what we already are taking in.

I have a few questions. How many people have your extensive social programs actually helped? How much of the money collected in taxes actually goes to the people who need it and how much goes to bureaucratic expenses? Why should a businessman bring his business to a place that is extremely expensive to do business?

Bad management gets bad results!

This Is No Way To Treat Voters

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On Wednesday, Townhall posted an article about the continuing partial shutdown of the government. This is a government shutdown brought about by petulant Democrats who have decided that they want to control how the Executive Branch administers border control and immigration enforcement. At the present time, Congress is not inconvenienced by the long lines at the airport because people who serve in Congress are immediately escorted to the front of the line. They don’t have to deal with the consequences of their actions. But it gets worse.

This was posted on X:

It should not be to goal of elected officials to make the people who elected them hurt!

Another X post included in the article:

The article concludes:

Whoever told the Democrats that this was a winning strategy doesn’t understand the American people. With the exception of the Leftist loon fringe, most of us do not approve of being used as political pawns, and we do not like it when the Democrats inflict pain on us for their gain.

More than that, after years of seeing illegal immigrants kill our citizens, increase crime in our cities, and flout American laws, we’re not going to look kindly on returning to the policies of the Biden years.

This will backfire on Democrats.

No Democrat who has supported this shutdown deserves your vote in November.

In What World Is This Acceptable Behavior?

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Mark 3:25 in the New King James Version says, “And if a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand.” Some of the people who work for the American government need to learn that principle.

On Tuesday, Just the News, reported the following:

Analysts inside the U.S. intelligence community sought to conceal evidence of Chinese influence efforts from President Donald Trump during the 2020 election, with analysts saying they didn’t want their intel used by “that vulgarian in the Oval Office” to pursue policies toward China they personally disagreed with.

The revelation is found within a January 2021 report written by — and never before reported upon comments by — analytic ombudsman Barry Zulauf, who conducted a review of the spy community’s handling of Russian versus Chinese meddling efforts during the 2020 election. Among his conclusions was that intelligence analysts downplayed China’s actions because they had disdain for the “vulgarian” Trump and did not want to support the policies and priorities of the Trump administration toward China with which they “personally disagree.”

Just the News reported this week that the U.S. intelligence community has known since early 2020 that Beijing also gained access to American voter registration data and used that information to conduct opinion analysis related to the presidential election between Trump and then-former Vice President Joe Biden.

That is totally unacceptable behavior. They were hired to do a job–inform the President of terrorist threats and activities–not to act on their own political views.

The article notes:

The Justice Department, FBI, DHS, and CISA put out a “joint report” in March 2021 which argued there was “no evidence that any foreign government-affiliated actor manipulated election results or otherwise compromised the integrity of the 2020 federal elections.”

The report downplayed or dismissed the impact that Chinese meddling may have had.

“We identified several incidents when Russian, Chinese, and Iranian government-affiliated actors materially impacted the security of networks associated with or pertaining to U.S. political organizations, candidates, and campaigns during 2020 federal elections,” the joint report said. “In most cases, the IC has assessed that it is unclear if those actors sought these accesses to inform broader foreign policy interests or election-specific operations. Several such actors gathered at least some information they could have released in influence operations, but ultimately we did not see any such materials deployed, modified, or destroyed.”

The people responsible for holding back the information should be fired and barred from ever working for the government again. I don’t know if any criminal charges would be applicable, but this is borderline treason.

The Same Rules Should Apply To Everyone

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One of the most contested races in the North Carolina primary election this month was the Republican primary race between state Senate Leader Phil Berger and Rockingham County Sheriff Sam Page. As of now, Sam Page has won the race by 23 votes. Phil Berger is demanding a recount (which he is entitled to). He is, however, required to play by the recount rules.

On Wednesday, The Daily Haymaker reported:

Republican state Senate Leader Phil Berger (R-Rockingham) was handed a setback in his election recount efforts Wednesday when the North Carolina State Board of Elections declined to take up his request for an expedited hand-eye recount of 220 ballots.

The decision comes as Berger seeks to overcome a 23-vote deficit to primary opponent Rockingham County Sheriff Sam Page. The request for the hand-eye examination — meaning visual review by human counters without the use of a machine — came as part of Berger’s request for a recount of the race on Tuesday, which remains ongoing.

Of the ballots Berger singled out, 217 are undervotes, in which voters appear to have not voted on a ballot item despite casting a ballot, either because they left the section blank or left an unclear marking. The other three are overvotes, ballots in which multiple candidates appear to have been selected, invalidating the vote

There is no remedy for the former if they truly are undervotes, said State Board of Elections Executive Director Sam Hayes, because the board “can’t account for something that is not there.”

Under state law, “if it is impossible to clearly determine a voter’s choice in a ballot item, the official ballot shall not be counted for that ballot item.” For ballot items where selections cannot be read by a machine, votes can only be counted if “human counters can clearly determine the voter’s choice.”

The article concludes:

Spending $12 million of other people’s money to eviscerate your opponent — and you STILL manage to lose by 23 votes. Losing your home county by 2-to-1.  (*Oh, the agony …*)

The Mustache™ is hinting that they’re planning to lawyer up and pull a Jefferson Griffin.  And why not?  It worked *so well* for the plan’s namesake.

I wonder if the party establishment will moan as loudly this time about all the damage the court fight is doing to the party?

This is something to watch carefully. Phil Berger is not going to give up his power easily.

When Things Aren’t Going Your Way, Just Change The Way You Report Them

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On Sunday, Legal Insurrection posted an article about a change in the way New York City reports hate crime data.

The article reports:

Hateful antisemitic incidents skyrocketed 182% across the Big Apple in January compared to a year ago, even as other crimes such as murders and shootings reached record lows, according to NYPD data.

There were 31 hate crimes against Jewish people reported in the first month of 2026, which is 20 more than the same time last year, the startling stats show.

…The number of bias incidents investigated by the NYPD’s Hate Crimes Task Force increased by 152% (58 vs. 23). Specifically, anti-Jewish hate crimes increased by 182% (31 vs. 11), which accounted for more than half of all the hate crime incidents in January.

So what is the city’s response? They are changing the way they report the crimes.

The article reports:

It was yet more proof that Mamdani’s anti-Israel, pro-Hamas, antisemitic rhetoric from his days as a New York Assemblyman and then candidate for mayor had emboldened like-minded individuals in the city at a time tensions between Jewish critics and the Democratic Socialist mayor were already rising.

Fast forward a month, and the NYPD has conveniently announced that they are now going to report on hate crime stats differently:

Previously, the department reported alleged hate crimes that were still under review. The NYPD will now report hate crimes that have been investigated and officially confirmed as such by the Hate Crimes Task Force. This updated methodology will provide a more accurate representation of confirmed hate crimes in the city. For the month of February, the NYPD recorded 38 hate crimes.

It’s a move that was immediately criticized by hate crime experts who say the new way of reporting the data could skew the true picture:

“It would be erroneous to consider that’s a drop in hate crimes,” said Frank Pezzella, a professor at John Jay College and author of the book “The Measurement of Hate Crimes in America.”

When you don’t like the numbers, change the way you report them!

Islam Is Not A Religion Of Tolerance

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Remember that in March 2001 the Taliban in Afghanistan blew up the ancient Buddha statues of Bamiyan in Afghanistan, monuments carved into sandstone cliffs 1,500 years ago that symbols of the region’s history. There was no acknowledgement of their historical significance. They were not part of Islam and were thus destroyed. A leopard does not change its spots.

On Monday, PJ Media reported:

Last week, I reported on an Iranian strike that hit dangerously near the Church of the Holy Sepulcher — built over Christ’s gravestone — and the Western Wall, the last remaining part of the final Jewish Temple. Just in case there was any doubt as to the Iranian Islamic regime deliberately wanting to hit important religious sites during the conflict with Israel and the USA, on March 16 shrapnel again rained down on Old City Jerusalem, damaging part of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.

The state of Israel shared a photograph with an image of the shrapnel that hit the roof:

The article notes:

Another important clarification is that Israel did intercept the Iranian missiles, but that did not entirely block the shrapnel from falling down on structures below.

The article concludes:

Churches and chapels connected to Christ’s Passion, the Western Wall, and Al Aqsa mosque compound have all narrowly escaped destruction from Iranian counterstrikes. As someone who thinks the Al Aqsa mosque compound should have been removed years ago from the Temple Mount when the Israelis retook Jerusalem from the jihadi Jordanians, I would not exactly be sorry if the Iranians accidentally destroyed that mosque, except that they might take out some innocent civilians at the same time.

Iranian proxy Hamas uses Al Aqsa’s presence there as an excuse for claiming Jerusalem for Islam, hence the Oct. 7 massacre was “Al Aqsa flood.” It would be incredibly ironic, however, if the Iranian regime accidentally hit the mosque that they use as an excuse for claiming Jerusalem shouldn’t be owned by Jews.

Iran is a blight on the Middle East. They have funded terror since 1979. I pray that this war will end quickly and that the Persian people will again be free and in charge of Iran.

When Voters Are Paying Attention…

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Recently there was a public outcry about a gun law making its way through the Virginia legislature that contained the following provision:

“The provisions of this section shall not apply to any member of the General Assembly who leaves a handgun in an unattended motor vehicle pursuant to § 18.2-308.7:1 when such vehicle is parked in any parking structure reserved for members of the General Assembly under § 2.2-1172.” 

Someone noticed and the information went viral. When the voters pay attention, occasionally the legislature listens.

On Monday, The Center Square reported:

As Virginia lawmakers wrapped up work on firearm legislation before adjournment, they considered and ultimately rejected substitute language in House Bill 110 that Republicans said would give General Assembly members different treatment in a bill dealing with handguns left in unattended vehicles.

House Bill 110 would prohibit a person from leaving visible a handgun in an unattended motor vehicle and impose a civil penalty of up to $500 if signed into law. A conference report substitute included language Republicans objected to, but that language was not included in the final version approved by both chambers.

The Bill still has some serious problems:

Del. Wren Williams, R-Patrick, told The Center Square the package represents “the most sweeping restructuring of Virginia firearms law in the commonwealth’s history.”

Williams said the package includes measures on assault firearms and magazine bans, firearm industry civil liability, ghost gun serialization, a carry ban on public property, safe storage where minors or prohibited persons are present, and the domestic violence firearm removal process.

On Senate Bill 749, Williams said, “After July 1, you cannot buy, sell, or transfer a semiautomatic rifle or pistol with a detachable magazine and a single cosmetic feature, a pistol grip, a thumbhole stock, a threaded barrel. You cannot sell it to your neighbor. You cannot give it to your brother-in-law. Your son can inherit the rifle, but the magazines that feed it have no inheritance exception. They become contraband the moment they change hands. One generation from now, those magazines are gone.”

Williams also criticized Senate Bill 727, saying, “This bill strips the carry rights of concealed handgun permit holders in parks, on public sidewalks, and in public spaces, including streets and roads, across Virginia, for firearms that are already legally owned and legally carried. Your permit now means nothing.”

Let the lawsuits begin.

When Charity Funds Go Missing

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Dolly Parton is known for starting a literacy program for children. She began her Imagination Library, a book gifting program that mails high-quality, free books to more than 3 million children around the world each month, in 1995. 

On Saturday, Breitbart reported: 

California’s top librarian is accused of failing to produce $650,000 in missing funds linked to a literacy program started by country music star Dolly Parton in east Tennessee in 1995.

State legislators recently pelted Greg Lucas, the leader of the California State Library, with questions about the funds during a budget hearing on education, the New York Post reported on Friday.

…During the hearing, state Sen. Shannon Grove (R) told Lucas he did not have documentation to show where the money went.

She then asked point blank, “Where’s the money?”

Lucas was appointed to lead the state library in 2014 by former Gov. Jerry Brown, ABC 10 reported.

The article concludes:

Legislation for a statewide version of the program through the state library was signed into law in 2022 with the approval of over $68 million in state funding for the books. The Post noted that “Lawmakers allowed up to 10% — about $6.8 million — for administrative costs and set a goal of enrolling roughly 65% of eligible California children within five years.”

However, when the program stalled for a couple of years the state library entered a $19.2 million contract in late 2024 with Strong Reader Partnership, a nonprofit group that was closed down in September. It received over $4.8 million from the state with $4 million shifted to a money market account.

The nonprofit said it spent about $1.2 million but bank statements reportedly showed over $500,000 in expenses. Now, lawmakers claim nearly $650,000 is missing and Lucas has said he will get answers for officials.

In regard to the lack of documentation, Grove told Lucas in a budget meeting, “You don’t have receipts requested six times. You don’t have bank statements requested six times from this committee. … That makes no sense, and that reeks of horrific no transparency and potential fraud.”

This could simply be a case of missing receipts, but unfortunately, California does not have a great record in preventing fraud in government programs.

Voting With Your Feet

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On Saturday, The New York Post posted an article about Uber co-founder Travis Kalanick. He has announced that he is leaving California for Texas.

Our Founding Fathers envisioned a nation where each state would be an individual laboratory to find the best ways to do things–provide services, create budgets, levy taxes, etc. The idea was that the unsuccessful states would learn from the successful states. Unfortunately, some of our less successful states seem to have a very slow learning curve and rather than learn from what is successful are doubling down on what doesn’t work. California, a beautiful state with beautiful beaches, and beautiful weather is one example of that slow learning curve. The state’s tax plans are driving successful people out of the state.

The article reports:

Uber co-founder Travis Kalanick says he has traded California for Texas, joining a growing list of billionaires abandoning the state as lefty lawmakers push for a one-off tax on their wealth.

Appearing on TPBN to discuss his robotics startup Atoms, Kalanick told hosts John Coogan and Jordi Hays he relocated to Austin at the end of 2025.

“Just to be clear, on December 18, I moved to Texas. I don’t know what’s so specific about December 18, but let’s just say it’s prior to January,” said Kalanick, pointedly.

That means the 49-year-old’s estimated $3.6 billion fortune will not be subjected to the tax should it be introduced.

Kalanick joked he felt a twinge of FOMO when he hears about other wealthy Americans relocating to Florida.

“Why so much Florida action?! Like, come on homies,” he said.

Those ”homies” would be billionaire tech figures to leave California for Florida., including Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, PayPal and Palantir investor Peter Thiel, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg.

The article notes:

While California still boasts the largest billionaire population in the United States, an increasing number have relocated to places such as Reno, Austin and Miami.

As long as people are free to move around the country, they will gravitate to the states with lower taxes and a lower cost of living. Businesses and corporations will also move to states with a better business climate. Note that Cape Cod Potato Chips are being moved out of Massachusetts.

Saving America: Citizenship

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Author:  R. Alan Harrop, Ph.D. 

This year, the 250th anniversary of the founding of this great country, is not only an opportunity to celebrate what we have achieved, but a reminder of our obligation to future generations of Americans to examine where we are headed in this complex and changing world and what we must do to ensure America’s survival as conceived by the Founding Fathers. We owe this to all those who have sacrificed and worked to build, protect, and defend our country since its founding and especially to all those who fought and died on the battlefield. If history shows us anything, it demonstrates that successful countries cease to exist when they fail to maintain the principles and values that allowed them to succeed in the first place. We cannot allow Complacency and failure to recognize and resist the threats the world presents to destroy America as we have known it.

As I have noted in previous articles and which should be patently clear by now, uncontrolled immigration both legal and illegal presents the greatest threat. As President Lincoln correctly stated; “If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide”; and “ America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.” I believe that the issue of who is granted citizenship and the privileges given exclusively to citizens are of the utmost importance to the survival of our country as we have known it for 250 years.

When this country was being founded, we were in need of immigrants to expand and develop the massive land that we had acquired. That is no longer the case. The most important thing now is to maintain the culture and traditions that allowed our country to excel and to provide the greatest standard of living ever known. This was not accomplished by accident, but rather by following principles and values reflective of the Judeo/Christian culture of western civilization. The vast majority of immigrants believed in these values–such as compliance with the law, hard work and independence, reliance on family not government handouts, and most of all freedom of action as long as the rights of others was not trampled upon.

As we have seen in the United Kingdom, the massive immigration from countries all over the world has led to the demise of their culture. The most common name of newborn male children in the UK is Muhammad. We are experiencing a similar and accelerating tribalization in our country by Muslims. This can be seen in various places like Minneapolis and now New York City, where over 38% of residents are foreign born and the announcement of the Muslim call to prayer is broadcast over loud speakers several times a day. This not the American I grew up in. This is not assimilation into our culture; quite the opposite, it is colonization.

Alright, so what do we do about it? First, end birthright citizenship, which should be restricted only to the children of citizens. Second, make the rules for becoming a naturalized citizen stricter. There are now over 26 million naturalized citizens in the U.S., and that number is increasing by over 800,000 per year. We must ensure that naturalized citizens are truly aligned with traditional American values. For example, they should be required to foreswear allegiance to things such as Sharia Law whose principles conflict with ours. Third, only citizens should be counted when forming congressional districts–not the overall census that now includes noncitizens. Fourth, only citizens should be allowed to vote in any election, federal or local. Fifth, only citizens should be eligible for any welfare program. Sixth, only native born citizens shall be eligible to hold public office. Seventh, service in the U.S. military should not automatically qualify a person for naturalized  citizenship.

Now, to some people these measures may seem extreme; however, the crisis facing America requires strong measures if we are to preserve our country.

Walking His Own Path

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On Sunday, The Daily Signal posted an article about a recent statement by Senator John Fetterman. If someone had told me when Senator Fetterman was elected that he would be the only reasonable Democrat in the Senate, I would have thought they were crazy, but here we are.

The article reports:

Democrat Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman criticized his party Saturday over the ongoing partial government shutdown and its impacts on federal employees and operations.

Multiple agencies, including the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), are being subjected to “emergency measures” due to the shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), according to a release by DHS.

Fetterman said he spoke with TSA agents during his frequent travels about the effects of the shutdown.

“I am the only Democrat that has refused to vote in shutting down DHS, literally the only one,” Fetterman said during Saturday’s episode of “The Big Weekend Show.” “And now all agree that this would not have any impact on ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement]. They already have their funding, and it doesn’t push or force ICE to do any of those kinds of reforms that people think are necessary now, too.”

“Why would you want to punish all of these workers that are under DHS? The only thing that it can do is just make us less safe, and that also makes people have to go without getting paid,” Fetterman continued. “I’m at the airport virtually every week of the year, and I ask all those TSA agents, and I said, ‘Hey, do you like not to get paid for your work?’ I haven’t met one saying, ‘No, it’s no problem.’”

This shutdown makes no sense unless the Democrats believe that illegal votes combined with their extreme left wing are the only way they can win the midterms. Aside from the inconvenience to Americans who travel, there is a serious risk to shutting down the Department of Homeland Security during a war. I don’t believe the majority of Americans support this shutdown.

Unless the number of illegal voters in the midterm elections is enough to swing the election, the shutdown makes no sense.

Why Canada?

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On Sunday, The Conservative Treehouse posted a very short, but interesting article. The article includes a video of Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney stating that he has blocked ten thousand IRGC members from entering Canada. Why would IRGC members think it was okay to relocate to Canada as their power is being destroyed?

The statement comes at 1:00 minute of the video.

This is a very interesting statement since 700+ members of the IRGC have already fled to Canada (article here). I might take that as a clue that the current Iranian government is not doing well.