Tag Archives: Just The News

It’s Time To Pass An Audit

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On Friday, Just the News posted an article about what is necessary for the Defense Department to pass an audit.

The article reports:

The Defense Department has been plagued by serious financial reporting issues that must be fixed for the agency to pass a full audit for the first time, the Government Accountability Office said in a new report.

“For the seventh consecutive year since the Department of Defense (DOD) was required to undergo full-scope audits, DOD received a disclaimer of opinion on its financial statement audit in fiscal year 2024, meaning DOD could not provide auditors with sufficient, appropriate evidence needed to support information in its financial statements due to ineffective systems and processes,” the GAO reported this month.

The National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal 2024 requires the agency to “receive an unmodified (clean) audit opinion by December 31, 2028.”

Despite the agency’s failure to pass a full audit, Congress again raised defense spending in fiscal 2025 to nearly $900 billion. 

The defense budget could reach $1 trillion after an additional increase for fiscal 2026, based on President Donald Trump’s budget request.

The article concludes:

“DOD’s assets represent a significant portion of the federal government’s reported total assets. The ability to properly account for and report these assets would improve DOD’s ability to successfully carry out its mission and is critical to achieve an unmodified (clean) audit opinion,” the GAO report reads.

The Defense Department is the only major federal agency that hasn’t received a clean audit opinion on its financial statements.

“This not only impedes DOD’s financial transparency but that of the U.S. government as a whole,” the GAO said.

All government agencies should be required to pass an audit every year. A successful republic requires transparency.

Wisdom From Alan Dershowitz

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I truly love Alan Dershowitz. He is a man who tells the truth regardless of what his supposed political allies think. He has done it again.

On Thursday, Just the News reported:

Harvard Law School’s Professor Emeritus Alan Dershowitz said Monday that he wants the United Nations removed from the United States. 

“I would like to see the United Nations thrown out of the United States, and the United States get out of the United Nations,” Dershowitz said on the “John Solomon Reports” podcast.

Although the U.N. has been under scrutiny for years, the body has come under heightened criticism from members of Congress and faced allegations of antisemitism for how they have treated Israel amid the ongoing war in Gaza against Hamas. 

One of the reasons for the antisemitism in the United Nations (UN) is that there is within the UN a powerful voting bloc called the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). The organization was created in 1969. It’s charter states its goal as “revitalizing Islam’s pioneering role in the world.” The OIC Charter claims jurisdiction not only over Muslims inside its Member States (57), but also over all Muslims living in non-Muslim countries–including the United States (Chapter 1, Article 1, Objective 16).

The article at Just the News notes:

As far back as the mid 1940s, the U.N. and U.S. membership in it has been challenged. Sen. William Langer, R-N.D., was one of two senators to vote against the U.N. Charter. More recently, Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Ala., introduced H.R. 1205, the American Sovereignty Restoration Act of 2015, that would have required withdrawal from the organization. 

This year, Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, introduced the DEFUND Act of 2025, which mandated termination of U.S. involvement with the U.N. Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., in January 2025 also criticized the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) for “not meeting the mission of the UN’s founding principles.”

“There were individuals in UNRWA who participated, who executed and committed terrorist acts against Israel on Oct. 7. [Yahyah] Sinwar, the leader of Hamas, carried an UNRWA passport. You had a Hamas data center under UNRWA headquarters, so the rot is deep,” she said.

After some major improvements, the UN building could be turned into luxury condominiums overlooking the river. The tax revenue would help New York City financially, and removing the diplomats with their diplomatic immunity would solve the traffic congestion problem in lower Manhattan. It’s a win-win!

Facing Trial

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On Sunday, Just the News reported that the trial of Ryan Routh, who is accused of trying to assassinate Donald Trump during the last campaign season will begin today in a Florida federal courtroom.

The article reports:

Routh is defending himself, with court-appointed lawyers nearby and on standby. Judge Aileen Cannon is on the bench of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida in Fort Pierce.

Prosecutors say the suspect was going to attempt take the life of Trump, eventual winner of the presidency over then-Vice President Kamala Harris, as he golfed on a Sunday afternoon. The Sept. 15 incident came 65 days after a shooter on a roof struck Trump’s ear with a bullet in Butler, Pa.

Security agents for Trump encountered Routh prior to the golf group reaching the area. Routh is accused of raising a rifle, leading to a shot from agents, a short vehicle chase and the suspect’s apprehension.

Cannon in July granted Routh the ability to defend himself at trial. She laid out logistics, including attire and movements, on Tuesday. Routh has filed court documents challenging the president to a round of golf and a fight while in shackles; for the former, he said if he loses Trump can execute him.

Jury selection is Monday and the trial with four weeks reserved on the calendar is expected to begin on Thursday.

The article concludes:

Routh pleaded not guilty to charges of attempting to assassinate a major presidential candidate, assaulting a federal officer and several firearm violations. His past includes barricading himself from officers in Greensboro in 2002 after eluding a traffic stop and owning a warehouse in 2010 where police found more than 100 stolen building supply items.

Sentences previously did not include jail time.

A tragedy was avoided because of a very good Secret Service Agent. However, the whole situation might have been avoided if he had been held accountable for his past crimes. But we don’t know if he was convicted of a crime in relation to the warehouse full of stolen goods–he could have claimed that he rented it out.

Under President Biden, It Was The “Just Us” Department

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On Thursday, Just the News posted an article about some new information regarding leaks of classified information to news sources. It’s a very long article, but it is worth the effort to read the entire article. John Solomon is one of the few current journalists doing actual research into the government.

The article reports:

Federal prosecutors gathered evidence from James Comey’s top lieutenants that he authorized the leak of classified information to reporters just before the 2016 election but declined to bring criminal charges, according to recently declassified memos that call into question the former FBI director’s testimony to Congress.

The bombshell revelations involving ex-FBI general counsel James Baker and ex-Comey chief of staff James Rybicki were memorialized in documents that FBI Director Kash Patel discovered earlier this year, but the passages were originally redacted by the Justice Department in versions sent to Congress earlier this month.

Attorney General Pam Bondi intervened and eliminated the redactions, dispatching new versions of the memos this week to the House and Senate Judiciary committees, officials told Just the News.

…”The USPIS (U.S. Postal Inspection Service) Investigation also revealed Baker disclosed USG [U.S. government] classified information to the NYT under the belief he was ultimately instructed and authorized to do so by then FBI Director James Comey,” one summary memo reads. “For example, during interviews, Baker indicated FBI Chief of Staff James Rybicki instructed him (Baker) to disclose the information to the NYT, and Baker understood Rybicki was conveying this instruction and authorization from Comey.”

…Patel told Just the News the evidence he uncovered raised concerns that one of his predecessors may have authorized illegal leaks and lied about it.

“These newly declassified memos show how former FBI leadership authorized classified leaks and withheld the truth from Congress and the American people,” he said. “Thanks to President Trump’s commitment to transparency, the cover-up is being exposed. The public deserves nothing less than full accountability.”

The article concludes:

The New York Post reported in October 2020 that emails from the laptop showed evidence of shady business dealings by the son of President Joe Biden tied to Ukraine and China. When the publication attempted to post the articles on its Twitter account, the social media company said doing so violated its rule against sharing “hacked” materials.

Baker, the now-former Twitter deputy general counsel, defended his and Twitter’s actions related to the Hunter Biden laptop censorship saga.

“I was not aware of and certainly did not engage in any conspiracy or other effort to do anything unethical, improper, or unlawful while I was at Twitter. Period,” Baker told the House in 2023. 

“I did not act unlawfully or otherwise inappropriately in any manner with respect to Hunter Biden’s laptop computer. … I am aware of no unlawful collusion with, or direction from, any government agency or political campaign on how Twitter should have handled the Hunter Biden laptop situation.”

Still waiting for some perp walks.

Blocking An Important Investigation

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On Sunday, Just the News reported that the Internal Revenue Service, under President Trump is opposing an investigation into the Clinton Foundation. The opposition is based on procedural and administrative law.

The article reports:

A U.S. Tax Court judge has tentatively scheduled a Dec. 1 trial allowing two whistleblowers to show they were wrongly denied an award for identifying alleged tax irregularities inside Bill and Hillary Clinton’s foundation, but the case is meeting resistance from an unexpected source: the Trump administration. 

The Internal Revenue Service under Trump filed a motion last week in the case brought by retired federal agent John Moynihan and private fraud expert Larry Doyle seeking to dismiss the case. Judge Alina I. Marshall set a deadline of September 15 for the petitioners to respond to that motion. The IRS also filed leave for an extension of time to file the Administrative Record with the court.

The agency argued that, as a matter of administrative and procedural law, the judge should not let the case proceed to trial because after an initial review, the IRS declined to look into the whistleblower complaint and, therefore, the plaintiffs don’t have standing to sue.

“In this case, the Whistleblower Office denied petitioners’ claims because the petitioners’ claims were never considered in an IRS action. Here, the Whistleblower Office forwarded petitioners’ claims to a classifier,” the IRS motion to dismiss argued last week “Following the classifiers’ preliminary review, the Classifier declined to forward petitioners’ claims to exam and recommended that it be forwarded to the CI [criminal investigation] division.

“The IRS did not proceed with any potential action when it investigated petitioners’ claims,” the IRS added.

The article notes:

The effort by the IRS to thwart the whistleblower case from going to trial was filed the same week Just the News reported that a bombshell memo recently uncovered by FBI Director Kash Patel shows the Obama Justice Department and former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe roadblocked three separate probes into possible pay-to-play corruption allegations against the Clinton Foundation.

“Shut it down,” Obama Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates was quoted as saying in March 2016 in the memos.

You can read that memo here:

…Doyle told Just the News the latest twist is just another example of the resistance the government has displayed to investigating the Clinton Foundation over many years.

“Not surprising that the IRS would seek to dismiss our case in this fashion simply because that is the same tactic the IRS deployed in our initial case ongoing now almost 6 years in US Tax Court and growing more serious everyday,” he said.

At some point Americans are going to get totally fed up with the two-tiered justice system and the torches and pitchforks are going to come out.

When You Have Friends In High Places

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Anyone other than Hillary Clinton would have gone to jail for a secret, unsecured server containing classified information, but Hillary Clinton was never prosecuted. We all sort of knew why. Now we know for sure.

On Wednesday, Just the News posted the following headline:

‘Shut it down’: Bombshell FBI timeline exposes political interference in Clinton corruption probe

The article reports:

FBI Director Kash Patel has uncovered a bombshell memo written in 2017 chronicling the extensive political obstruction that career agents in three cities faced from their own bosses and the Obama Justice Department during the 2016 election as they probed whether Hillary Clinton engaged in a pay-to-play corruption scheme involving her family foundation.

“Shut it down!” then-Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates is quoted as demanding in the detailed timeline of political impediments that agents in New York City, Little Rock, Ark., and Washington D.C. reported. 

The agents tried to get the help of federal prosecutors to determine whether or what crimes occurred while Hillary Clinton served as Secretary of State, most notably, because at that time, her family foundation solicited hundreds of millions of dollars from foreign and U.S. interests with business before her department.

The timeline — written by a DOJ lawyer assigned to the FBI under former bureau Director James Comey — was recently secured by top aides to Patel along with several corroborating internal emails and was obtained by Just the News. Together, they make clear that both the DOJ and former Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe placed significant impediments in front of agents who believed they had evidence to justify a public integrity criminal case.

The article concludes:

The differences in how the Justice Department and FBI handled cases related to Clinton and Trump were stark — publicly exonerating Clinton for her mishandling of classified information when using a private email server as secretary of state and not even allowing the Clinton Foundation investigation to get off the ground, while launching a sprawling and baseless Russia collusion inquiry into the Trump campaign and the candidate (and then the president) himself.

Special Counsel John Durham later pointed out that “the immediate opening of Crossfire Hurricane as a full investigation contrasts with the care taken in connection with the investigation of the Clinton Foundation and other matters.”

A lot of Americans are waiting for perp walks. I am considering joining that group.

This Should Be Done Every Year

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On Saturday, Just the News posted an article about the Department of Justice’s effort to clean up America’s voter rolls in time for the mid-term election.

The article reports:

The Trump Justice Department has launched a nationwide effort to clean up voter rolls ahead of the 2026 elections, pushing states to purge duplicate and outdated registrations and catch any non-citizens or illegal aliens who slipped into a position to vote, officials told Just the News on Saturday.

Notifications have gone out to several states and localities that DOJ’s Civil Rights Division has been concerned that states aren’t complying with federal laws, including California, Wisconsin, Utah and New Hampshire. 

“Unlike the previous administration, at President Trump’s DOJ, we will fight to have fair and secure elections – and that begins with making our voter rolls accurate,” Attorney General Pam Bondi told Just the News.

There have been situations in North Carolina (and I am sure elsewhere) where three hundred people have been registered to vote using the address of a shack in the middle of a parking lot. In this age of computers, where the government knows exactly where you are because you carry a cell phone, there is no excuse for that.

The article notes:

“I can’t comment on the specifics of any ongoing investigations, but I am committed to making it harder to cheat and easier to vote,” Dhillon (Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon) told Just the News on Saturday. “Clean voter rolls will help achieve that goal.”

Just the News reported in June that Dhillon was moving to punish Wisconsin for allegedly failing to comply with federal voting integrity laws, taking the first step to withhold future federal funds for administering elections.

She notified the Wisconsin Election Commission that it was not in compliance with the Helping Americans Vote Act (HAVA), specifically for failing to set up a system to field and resolve voter complaints about election integrity.

“Quite surprisingly, we have learned that the Wisconsin Elections Commission has refused to provide any administrative complaint process or hearing regarding HAVA complaints against the Commission,” Dhillon wrote. “Rather, Wisconsin has decided to rely on a 2022 state court case opining that the Commission cannot police itself..

Every illegal vote cancels out the vote of a legal voter.

Let’s Find Out What Happened

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On Monday, Just the News posted an article about the hacking into the Alaskan voter registration system by a group of Iranian nationals.

The article reports:

During the 2020 election, Iranian nationals demonstrated vulnerabilities in states’ voter registration systems by hacking Alaska’s. Those vulnerabilities, particularly regarding overseas voters and their ballots, must be investigated by the Department of Justice and fixed across the U.S., election integrity groups warn.

While Alaska admitted to its voter registration system being breached in 2020, the federal government said it was aware of “at least one state” that had been hacked by Iranians. The DOJ later said that “approximately eleven state voter websites” were attacked at the time.

In the Election Research Institute’s (ERI) new report titled, “Failure of the Weaponized Department of Justice to Protect the US Election System,” it shows how there was a significant increase in the number of overseas ballot applications and ballots submitted in 2020 as Iranian hackers revealed how they could use the data from Alaska’s breached voter registration system to complete such applications and ballots.

The article concludes:

It is yet another intrusion into that election by one of America’s foreign adversaries, this time the Iranian Republican Guard Corp. Not only did the FBI originally deny that a cyber-attack had occurred but they dismissed the incident as propaganda and they failed to investigate the very real vulnerabilities exposed,” Mitchell (Election Integrity Network Founder Cleta Mitchell) said. “The indictment of the international bad actors responsible for this very serious breach into a state’s voter registration has done nothing to deter the Iranians.”

Mitchell added that she hopes “Sen. Grassley (R-IA) and the new leadership of the FBI will immediately add this episode to the growing list of 2020 election matters that demand investigation and accountability.”

“The FBI repeatedly ignored serious threats to our election system in 2020, leaving it significantly vulnerable to manipulation by bad actors, both foreign and domestic. We need to know why that happened and how to keep it from happening ever again.”

Mitchell also said that the UOCAVA (Uniformed Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act) “system is utterly broken, it fails to serve our active duty military members, and it is clearly vulnerable to exploitation by our adversaries. Congress and the Administration must fix the problems within UOCAVA to make certain that those who wish to commit fraud in our elections are not able to use the UOCAVA system for that purpose. This report raises serious alarms that must be addressed before the 2026 election.”

The FBI didn’t respond to a request for comment by publishing time.

If we don’t protect our elections, we won’t have a free country.

Fixing Discrimination In The USDA

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On July 21st, Just the News posted an article about changes in the disaster relief program standards for farmers.

The article reports:

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has ended the Biden-era disaster relief program standards for farmers based on race and sex, which was praised by a legal watchdog that had been fighting the policies in court.

The USDA “has independently determined that it will no longer employ the race- and sex-based ‘socially disadvantaged’ designation to provide increased benefits based on race and sex in the programs at issue in this regulation,” the department said in its formal notice earlier this month.

The Southeastern Legal Foundation said  the USDA’s notice was in direct response to the watchdog’s victory in court in the case Strickland v. USDA. SLF’s lawsuit stopped eight disaster relief programs from the Biden administration that gave funds to farmers on the basis of race and sex, excluding white male farmers.

I am not a farmer, but it seems to me that disasters don’t discriminate according to race or sex. A flood or a drought is a flood or a drought.

The article concludes:

“Farming is one of the most important and difficult occupations in the world, where their hard work directly impacts everyone. They have to be able to do their jobs without having to worry about DEI nonsense, and we hope to see any forms of discrimination in federal programs come to a complete halt.”

A level playing field is always the best solution to any problem.

A Common-Sense Move

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On Thursday, Just the News posted an article about a change Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., is making in taxpayer-funded benefits.

The article reports:

The Department of Health and Human Services on Thursday banned illegal immigrants from accessing the agency’s taxpayer-funded benefits.

Since 1998, HHS has interpreted the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 to let illegal immigrants use certain federal public benefits, according to the department. On Thursday, HHS announced that it has formally rescinded the interpretation that began under the Clinton administration.

“For too long, the government has diverted hardworking Americans’ tax dollars to incentivize illegal immigration,” HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., said in a statement on Thursday. “Today’s action changes that—it restores integrity to federal social programs, enforces the rule of law, and protects vital resources for the American people.”

The article lists the benefits that are impacted by this decision. The list does not include SNAP payments and housing assistance, but it is a start. We need to remember that no one can be denied emergency medical care regardless of immigration status or ability to pay, so this change will not prevent anyone from seeking medical care in an emergency.

When you observe the number of illegal immigrants who crossed our borders during the Biden administration and the fact that they were able to collect welfare benefits at taxpayer expense, you wonder why. One possible answer is the implementation of the Cloward-Piven strategy. A strategy designed to overwhelm the safety net and pave the way for a socialist revolution. According to Cloward-Piven, a federal program of income redistribution is necessary to lift the poor en masse from poverty once chaos is established. This creates permanent dependency upon government and will prevent the election of any person who wants to cut government spending.

Who Does Congress Represent?

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Theoretically, Congress represents the will of the American people. The House of Representatives is set up according to the population of each state–states with larger populations get more Representatives. The Senate has two Senators from every state regardless of population. The census determines what the numbers are. The law requires an American census every ten years. Some years the census has had a question regarding citizenship on its long form, and some years there was no long form. President Trump is asking that the citizenship question be added to the short form. Congress is supposed to represent Americans–not citizens of other countries who live her for various reasons. Adding the citizenship question and apportioning representatives accordingly would provide a more representative government. If non citizens are not counted in the census, California and New York would have fewer representatives in Congress and those states would receive less federal funds.

On June 30th, Just the News reported:

The Supreme Court has never made a determination on the legal merits of the argument that noncitizens should not be counted in the United States census, but may soon be forced to do so.

The fight to clarify the census and subsequently adjust congressional seats, Electoral College votes and federal funding, is coming down the pike, according to White House deputy chief of staff, Stephen Miller. 

Miller indicated last month that he’s eager to dive straight in and that Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick will help lead the effort. 

Trump has at his disposal a number of avenues to accomplish his goal, one of which includes Lutnick’s agency. Utilizing this route, the Commerce Department could propose adding a census question to distinguish citizens, legal permanent residents, and unauthorized immigrants, as suggested by a lawsuit filed by Republican-led states and the Department of Commerce in January 2025. The data could then be used to exclude noncitizens from apportionment, though not necessarily from the overall count. 

The article notes:

In 2020, the Trump administration sought to exclude noncitizens from the U.S. Census count which is used to apportion congressional seats and Electoral College votes, a move that sparked significant controversy. In July of that year, President Donald Trump issued a memorandum directing the Census Bureau to use administrative records to identify and exclude undocumented immigrants from the apportionment count, arguing that including them dilutes the political power of citizens and constitutes voter suppression.

The administration argued that the Constitution’s mandate to count “persons” did not explicitly require counting noncitizens for apportionment. This effort faced immediate legal challenges from blue states and cities, many of which were sanctuary jurisdictions, and immigrant advocacy groups, who argued the policy violated the Constitution and would discourage immigrant participation in the census, potentially undercounting communities with large noncitizen populations.

This is a battle to watch. The question is, “Who is Congress supposed to represent?”

Beware Of The Manipulative Press

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I am not going to argue that Iran’s nuclear program needs to end abruptly. I am, however, going to point out some things the media is reporting that make me wonder exactly what is going on. This post will not be a conspiracy theory–it will simply be some information and some observations.

Yesterday, Just the News posted the following headline:

Bill Clinton’s once-secret cable to Iran a reminder Tehran’s terror killed hundreds of Americans

The article reminds us that “then-President Bill Clinton sent a cable that told Iran’s president a secret that the 42nd president wasn’t even willing to tell the American public: U.S. intelligence had ample evidence that Tehran was behind the deadly Khobar Towers terror attack.”

The article notes:

The communiqué, released decades later under the Freedom of Information Act, is a stark reminder of two realities that President Trump must review as he decides in the next few days whether to commit U.S. military action to Israel’s war on Iran’s nuclear facilities.

I am not arguing that this is fact–I am just questioning why it is being reported again now (I suspect it was reported at the time the communique was released.)

Yesterday, PJ Media reported:

In Tehran, Iranians are reportedly chanting enthusiastically about the anticipated fall of the “Islamic Republic” regime and the potential return of the Crown Prince, heir to the ancient throne of Persia.

While it is unclear exactly the extent of the damage Israel has inflicted on Iran and whether or not the current genocidal regime will fall because of it, Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi confirmed that Iranian soldiers and officials have reached out to him, and he urged the Iranian people to rise up, announcing he already has a plan for renewing Iran should he come to power again.

Neither of these news sources is part of the mainstream media, although Just the News is not a conservative news source, PJ Media is. But I fear we are being manipulated into getting involved in the war between Israel and Iran. I have no problem supplying whatever is needed to Israel, but we need to work toward a quick solution–not another endless war.

I would like to remind you that the reign of the Shah of Iran was not all roses and sunshine. Iran was becoming westernized, but the excesses of the Shah laid the groundwork for the unrest that followed when he became ill. It is very possible that much of the current population of Iran does not remember those excesses. The median age of the Iranian population is 34 years. Remember that part of the reason for the takeover of the American Embassy was that the new government wanted the Shah returned so that they could kill him.

What is happening in Iran now is neither cut and dried or simple.

Things Have Changed At Our Southern Border

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On Tuesday, Just the News posted some statistics on what was happening on our southern border in May.

The article reports:

The United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP) on Tuesday revealed it released no illegal migrants into the interior of the U.S. last month, down from 62,000 under the Biden administration in May of last year.

The CBP also announced that it only encountered 8,725 illegal migrants crossing the southwest border between ports of entry in May, down from nearly 118,000 in May 2024.

No new laws have been passed since President Trump took office–he is only enforcing the laws that were already on the books.

The article notes:

President Donald Trump’s border czar Tom Homan also said that CBP encountered just 95 illegal migrants in the past 24 hours, marking the “lowest number ever recorded.”

“Compare that to the Biden Administration who surpassed more than 10,000 per day. On top of that, they released the vast majority into the US.  How many were released under Trump for May?  Zero,” Homan posted to X.  “God bless the men and women of CBP and [Immigration and Customs Enforcement].” 

President Trump’s policies have saved lives.

The article concludes:

When it comes to curbing the flow of fentanyl and other illicit drugs, the CBP said it seized 718 pounds of fentanyl in May, down from 758 pounds in April, but cocaine seizures increased 19% and heroin seizures increased 191% from April to May.

This is what leadership looks like.

Sometimes Americans Are Not The Only Ones Making American Policy

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On Sunday, Just the News posted an article about one of the non-profit environmental groups that influences America’s energy policy.

The article reports:

A national-security watchdog group is asking members of Congress to take a closer look at an energy transition advocacy nonprofit that has ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). According to State Armor, the watchdog group, nonprofits are coordinating with U.S. climate groups to influence climate policy, advance the interests of the CCP and undermine U.S. national security.

A new report by State Armor argues that the CCP is co-opting the American progressive climate change lobby to advance a transition away from fossil fuels. The alternative technologies being pushed by this lobby, according to the report, create significant economic and geopolitical advantages by undermining U.S. energy dominance and leaving it dependent on Chinese supply chains for its energy production. 

“It creates a dependence on our side and deprives us of a natural strength, which is our energy independence that comes from other resources,” Michael Lucci, CEO of State Armor, told Just the News. State Armor is a non-profit organization dedicated to advocating for state solutions to global security threats.

The article concludes:

In a letter to the chairs of House and Senate committees — including Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., chair of the House Oversight Committee and Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee — Lucci explained that the group was formed to help the U.S. resist Chinese influence and maintain U.S. sovereignty. Lucci outlines the findings of the report and the risks it says Chinese influence poses to the U.S. The letter urges Congress to initiate investigations and provide oversight into what Lucci calls a “grave and ongoing threat to our national security.” 

Lucci said in an interview that the Department of Justice should be investigating The Energy Foundation as a foreign agent under the Foreign Agent Registrations Act. The law would require the foundation to make disclosures of their relationship with China, as well as receipts and disbursements in support of activities in support of China.   

The green energy movement has always been against fossil fuels, even natural gas. Because the American economy is based on fossil fuel, shutting down America’s oil industry would have a negative impact on America’s economy. That would provide an economic advantage to China. We need to be aware that China is continually working against American interests behind the scenes. 

Ignoring The Science To Get The Desired Result

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On June 6th (updated June 8th) Just the News posted an article about some of the dishonesty in the Biden administration dealing with the actual facts on the impact of natural gas on the environment.

The article reports:

Energy Secretary Chris Wright confirmed in March that the Biden-Harris administration had completed a study on liquefied natural gas exports prior to enacting a pause on export permits, the stated intention of which was to complete such a study. Wright stated that the Biden-Harris administration didn’t like what the study said, so they set out to produce one that would support the climate policies they wanted.

Emails exchanged at the Obama-era EPA in 2009 showed that the so-called endangerment finding, which has been the basis for much of the EPA’s regulation of carbon dioxide emissions ever since, was a foregone conclusion even before the agency announced the finding. 

It appears that the Biden-Harris administration hid comments that would have undermined its Clean Power Plan 2.0 rule (CPP2), which the Trump administration is currently reviewing. The EPA had sought comments from the Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Lab (NETL) on the efficacy of carbon capture technology prior to proposing the rule. These comments, which were somehow scrubbed from the administrative record, disputed a key claim the rule is based on. Those missing comments, a legal expert says, could provide a basis for the rule’s repeal.

The article concludes:

Horner (Chris Horner, an environment and energy policy attorney) said that, if the parties agree the record is incomplete, the Trump administration’s EPA can avoid arguing for months whether CCS has been adequately demonstrated. By simply documenting that the record shows the agency knowingly and falsely claimed CCS was adequately demonstrated, that’s the end of it. Horner said he doesn’t think the D.C. Circuit court would ignore that fact and deny the agency the opportunity to clean its own house. 

“There seems to me no chance the parties would be denied an agency confession of error. That’s what’s really grabbing me about this. These guys have a kill shot, and I don’t know if they know it,” Horner said. 

I suspect this is not the only incidence of skewed science to advance the ‘green agenda.’

When Common Sense Takes Over

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Despite Democrat efforts to make it so, the military is not the place for social experiments. It is a place for men and women to learn discipline and the skills necessary to make them effective warriors for America. President Trump has ended most of the social experiments that have been happening in our military in recent years, and we are seeing some of the results of that change.

On Wednesday, Just the News reported:

The U.S. Army hit its recruiting goal four months early, reaching the 61,000 target before the Sept. 30 deadline.

The Army’s goal this year is more than 10% higher than the 55,000 recruitment target for the prior fiscal year, the military branch said in its announcement Tuesday.

“This achievement represents a significant turning point for the Army and indicates a renewed sense of patriotism and purpose among America’s youth,” according to the Army.

Daily average contracts have exceeded “last year’s levels by as much as 56% during the same period,” the military branch said.

“I’m incredibly proud of our U.S. Army recruiters and drill sergeants,” Secretary of the Army Dan Driscoll said in a statement on Tuesday. “Their colossal efforts and dedication to duty helped the U.S. Army accomplish our FY25 annual recruiting goal a full four months ahead of schedule.”

The article concludes:

In 2022 and 2023, the Army failed to meet its recruiting goals, ABC News reported. The last time the Army met its annual recruiting goal this early was June 2014.

Thank you to those young men and women who have stepped forward to serve their country.

Forcing Congress To Do Its Job

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On Tuesday, updated Wednesday, Just the News posted an article about the REINS (Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny) Act. This Act would begin to move a large part of responsibility for making laws away from the Executive Branch (bureaucratic regulations) and into the Legislative Branch (Congress actually passing laws).

The article reports:

When the House of Representatives last week passed Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill,” there was a poison pill for the regulatory state buried within: the long-lingering REINS (Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny) Act that proponents have been trying to send to the Oval Office for signature for 16 years. The implications of such a bureaucratic dressing-down would reverberate throughout all of U.S. industry and consumerism.

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin told Just The News, No Noise TV show that his hope is that it gets over the finish line and once it does, a cascade of other burden-easing improvements can take place. “As you look forward with the legislative agenda, there will be other opportunities to get permanent reform done, NEPA (National Environamental Policy Act) reform to make it easier to invest in America at less cost, taking less time and having more certainty,” he said. 

It was originally introduced in 2009 by then-Rep. Geoff Davis, R-Ky., with the goal of increasing congressional oversight of federal agency rule-making. The current version of the bill stipulates that agency rules with an annual economic impact of $100 million or more, significant cost or price increases for consumers or industries, or substantial adverse effects on competition, employment, investment, productivity, innovation, or US competitiveness, would require explicit approval from both the House and Senate via a joint resolution and then be signed by the president before taking effect.

The article notes:

A wide range of industries would likely see a tectonic shift, including energy, healthcare, pharmaceuticals, financial services, manufacturing and construction, transportation, agriculture and food safety. 

Phil Kerpen, who serves as president of American Commitment, referred to it as “unfinished business from the Tea Party era” and told Just The News that this could be the most significant aspect of the bill because it “would be a massive, positive change, and stop this pendulum from swinging wildly back and forth with the party in the White House. We’d have a lot more policy stability.”

In addition to concrete steps towards regulatory overhaul and passing Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill,” if Republicans remain committed to the issues upon which they were elected, they could quite possibly remain in the majority, thus granting Trump two more years to govern without obstructionist Democratic Party constraints. 

The REINS Act would definitely bring us closer to the government our Founding Fathers envisioned.

Where Your Taxpayer Money Has Gone

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On Sunday, Just the News posted an article a federal task force tasked with tracking COVID-19 assistance fraud.

The article reports:

In a new investigation, a federal committee tasked with tracking COVID-19 assistance fraud found tens of thousands of dishonest or erroneous Paycheck Protection Program applications.

The Pandemic Response Accountability Committee (PRAC) report, released this month, revealed more than 40,000 instances when applicants for more than $860 million in taxpayer-funded PPP loans “significantly misrepresented their incomes.”

The Small Business Administration, which distributed the PPP loans, allocated more than $1 trillion in taxpayer-funded pandemic assistance to more than 10 million small businesses.

A recent report from the Government Accountability Office showed that nearly 2 million potentially fraudulent SBA applications – including the 40,000 PPP applications – still require investigation, as The Center Square reported.

PRAC said it achieved its findings by comparing the reported incomes of sole proprietor PPP applicants with the reported incomes of applicants for Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) assistance grants using the same personally identifiable information.

Data analysts found “significant [income] misrepresentations…where the derived income for PPP applicants was at least 10 times greater than the income reported to HUD by housing assistance recipients.”

The article concludes:

Since the pandemic, when the federal government cumulatively spent $5 trillion in COVID-19 related aid, lawmakers and organizations have held oversight hearings into at least $200 billion lost to fraud, only $5 billion of which has been recovered.

Most of that fraud was preventable, according to PRAC and other watchdog groups.

“We hope that by sharing this potential fraud scheme with the public and the oversight community we can alert (1) Offices of Inspectors General (OIGs) to be on the lookout for similar cross-program schemes, (2) program implementers to build better internal controls and checks upfront to mitigate this risk, and (3) policymakers to consider issues related to cross-agency risks including income verification,” PRAC concluded.

I realize that in terms of the overall budget, $5 billion is a drop in the bucket. However, there seem to have been a number of ‘drops in the bucket’ that were fraudulent. It is very obvious that the government needs much better oversight on how it spends its money.

To add to the story, The Daily Haymaker reported on Monday that the The Southern Coalition for Social Justice may have received funds from the Covid-19 assistance programs that they were not entitled to during the time that North Carolina Superior Court Judge Allison Riggs served as the organization’s “chief counsel for voting rights” and “co-executive director for programs.” The Daily Haymaker is looking for an explanation of why the funds were received when the math indicates the organization was not entitled to them.

Good News For America

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On Saturday, Just the News posted an article about a recent announcement from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

The article reports:

Butterfly pea flower extract, Galdieria extract blue, and calcium phosphate have now received approval or expanded approval for use in a variety of snacks and beverages, the latest step forward in Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy’s plan to substitute synthetic dyes.

“For too long, our food system has relied on synthetic, petroleum-based dyes that offer no nutritional value and pose unnecessary health risks,” Kennedy said in a statement. “We’re removing these dyes and approving safe, natural alternatives – to protect families and support healthier choices.”

In April, the FDA and HHS announced a phaseout timeline for petroleum-based food additives – which are correlated with several health problems in children – and promised to accelerate the approval process of natural alternatives to assist the transition.

The American food industry has until the end of 2025 to remove Green No. 3, Red No. 40, Yellow No. 5, Yellow No. 6, Blue No. 1 and Blue No. 2 from their products, as The Center Square reported.

A website called foodbabe.com has a few pictures showing labels of American foods and the labels of those same foods in other countries. There are a lot of ingredients in American foods that are banned in other countries.

Here are two examples:

I consider ketchup one of the basic food groups. It is available locally with sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup. However, generally speaking, the stuff you get in restaurants is the high fructose corn syrup variety.

The article at Just the News concludes:

Calcium phosphate, a natural compound found in bones and teeth, is now approved for use of white colorant in ready-to-eat chicken products, white candy melts, doughnut sugar, and sugar for coated candies.

“On April 22, I said the FDA would soon approve several new color additives and would accelerate our review of others,” FDA Commissioner Martin Makary said Friday. “FDA staff have been moving quickly to expedite the publication of these decisions, underscoring our serious intent to transition away from petroleum-based dyes in the food supply and provide new colors from natural sources.”

I am looking forward to having to read fewer labels when I shop!

Disturbing Actions By The Biden Administration

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On Tuesday, Just the News reported the following:

The Biden administration authorized federal law enforcement four years ago to target Americans engaged in “concerning non-criminal behavior” in the name of fighting domestic terrorism, with a specific eye on those serving in the military, owning firearms, or spreading what officials considered to be “xenophobic” disinformation, according to newly declassified documents.

The stunning breadth of the mandate was disclosed when Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard recently released a fully unredacted version of the prior administration’s “Strategic Implementation Plan for Countering Domestic Terrorism.”

The June 2021 memo exposed for the first time the law enforcement and intelligence framework that led the FBI to monitor and probe conservative Catholics and parents who protested against some school board policies and justified Homeland Security to engage in censorship or debanking of Americans the administration considered to be potential enemies of the state.

The directives provided to the Justice Department and FBI by the National Security Council, which developed the memo, said the agencies should “drive…executive and legislative action” to ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, rein in “ghost guns,” monitor active-duty service members for possible terrorism recruitment and “mitigate xenophobia and bias.”

They weren’t looking for enemies of the state–they were looking for people who simply disagreed with the policies of the Biden administration. Why wasn’t there someone in the FBI that exposed this at the time? Where were the people who take an oath to uphold the Constitution?

The article notes:

Legal experts and lawmakers told Just the News on Tuesday they were deeply concerned the Biden-era memo substantially lowered the standard to “concerning” behavior instead of criminality, potentially jeopardizing civil liberties and giving license to weaponize police powers against Americans who had different views than the governing administration on issues like the Second Amendment and COVID-19.

The article concludes:

One whistleblower, agent Garrett O’Boyle, testified that the bureau issued guidance in the wake of the overturning of Roe v. Wade to investigate pro-life groups for threats against the Supreme Court, even though, at the time, it was pro-choice groups that were protesting — sometimes disturbingly — outside conservative justices’ and their families’ homes. 

O’Boyle said he was tasked with talking to a pro-life informant “about the threats to the Supreme Court,” much to his bewilderment. 

“I was like, why would this person know about those threats? He’s pro-life. Like, he’s not the one going and threatening the Supreme Court Justices,” O’Boyle said. 

In the now-infamous “Catholic Memo,” the FBI detailed plans to develop a source network in conservative and traditional Catholicism, and splinter Catholic Churches over fears that they served as a nexus for the development of extremist ideology. A separate whistleblower provided evidence to Congress that FBI counterterrorism assets were involved in the investigation of parents protesting school policies.

Some of the policies of the Biden administration are concerning; however, the fact that we are just hearing about some of them now is even more concerning.

A Small Sliver Of Our Budget Problems

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This is basically the equivalent of someone stealing the change from your loose change jar, but it is still indicative of the lack of accountability in our government.

On May 4th, Just the News reported the following:

A former State Department senior budget analyst embezzled more than $650,000 from the agency over a two-year time period, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Washington, D.C. said.

Levita Almuete Ferrer, 64, of Montgomery Village, Maryland, pled guilty to embezzling the money between March 2022 and April 2024 while working in the department’s Office of the Chief of Protocol.

“She issued 60 checks payable to herself and three checks payable to another individual with whom she had a personal relationship. She printed and signed each check and then deposited all 63 checks, which totaled $657,347.50, into her personal checking and savings accounts,” the Justice Department said in a news release.

It is disturbing that she seemingly made no effort to hide her crime–that is pretty blatant embezzlement. Even though it was over a two-year period, that amount of money flowing out to a personal account should have been noticed. Do routine audits happen in government agencies? If they don’t, they should. This dishonesty should have easily been picked up by a good auditor.

The Economic Quest For Peace

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One of the things that President Trump does very well is the waging of economic wars. He understands the leverage America has because it represents large market opportunities for all of its trading partners. That is one of many reasons so many countries are willing to negotiate the President’s tariff policies. One way to encourage peace in countries that don’t necessarily want to make peace is to pull the rug out from under them economically. For example, oil prices today are generally between $58 and $78 a barrel, coming down from a high of $113.90 on March 25, 2022. Russia needs oil prices to be consistently about $80 a barrel in order to support its economy and the war in Ukraine. America’s reach for energy independence presents a challenge to the Russian economy and Russia’s ability to finance the war in Ukraine. Meanwhile, President Trump is beginning an economic war against Iran.

On Thursday, Just the News reported:

President Donald Trump on Thursday announced the United States will impose secondary sanctions on all countries or individuals that purchase oil or petrochemicals from Iran.

The announcement comes a day after the State Department sanctioned seven entities it accused of trading Iranian oil and petrochemical products. 

The president confirmed the new secondary sanctions in a post on Truth Social, warning countries they would not be allowed to do business with the U.S. if they purchase oil from Iran.

The article concludes:

The moves are part of the Trump administration’s maximum pressure campaign on Iran to help weaken its terrorist activities in the Middle East, including through its use of proxy forces.

The domestic economic problems these sanctions will cause will also create unrest in Iran. A regime change would be nice, but remember, history tells us that regime change does not always go in a democratic direction. Currently, we have the example of Syria. I would strongly recommend that America not meddle in any internal affairs in Iran. Our record of bringing regime change and bringing in new leadership in foreign countries is far from stellar.

Here Comes The Sunlight

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On Friday, Just the News posted an article about the attempts to kneecap President Trump during his first term of office. Obviously, there Washington bureaucracy is attempting to do that again, but I hopeful that they will not be successful this time.

The article reports:

Newly-declassified memos written by disgraced FBI official Andrew McCabe shine new light on how he kept the Trump-Russia collusion hoax investigation alive during a critical period in the first half of 2017 before he got it handed off to a special counsel.

The eight memos penned by McCabe, most of which had never been released until earlier this month, span his discussions and meetings (including with President Donald Trump) held from January 24, 2017 to May 21, 2017 — a critical time period ranging from just before the FBI sprung an interview on retired Lt. Gen. Mike Flynn to just after Robert Mueller was appointed special counsel. The memos were more fully declassified through efforts by Trump and FBI Director Kash Patel earlier this month.

McCabe was a stalwart ally of since-fired FBI Director James Comey, coordinated closely with since-fired FBI special agent Peter Strzok on the launch and the conduct of the flawed and politicized Crossfire Hurricane investigation, and relied heavily upon disgraced FBI lawyer Lisa Page as his close confidante.

That really isn’t news, but the fact that the misbehavior is not being documented is important. Hopefully there will be consequences for using the FBI for political purposes. If not, it will happen again.

The article concludes:

Grassley and Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., sent a letter to Durham (Special Counsel John Durham) in 2023 pressing him on his investigation of the Trump-Russia investigators, noting that “it seems odd that individuals [such as McCabe] would be allowed to avoid fully cooperating with your office, particularly given your authority to compel testimony and records.”

Durham said McCabe “declined to be interviewed” by him. According to Durham’s report, Strzok opened Crossfire Hurricane “immediately” and did so “at the direction of” McCabe. FBI agent Jennifer Boone said that McCabe was “heavily involved in all aspects of the investigation” into Trump and Russia, and a DOJ attorney said that McCabe was pushing the Justice Department “to get this going.”

The Durham report concluded that “the FBI was not able to corroborate a single substantive allegation contained in the Steele Reports” and that “the FISA on Carter Page would not have been authorized without the Steele reporting.”

“I don’t have any respect for that report or its author,” McCabe said of Durham and his report on a George Mason University podcast in July 2023. “It was flawed and politically motivated from the very beginning.”

Please follow the link to read the entire article. It is long, but worth the read. It is a sordid tale of unelected people in our government trying to subvert an elected President. The people involved should face serious consequences for their actions.

Restoring The Power to The Executive Branch

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We seem to be having a problem right now with a lot of the court cases opposing President Trump’s (and the American people’s) agenda. Oddly enough, a lot of these cases seem to end up in the court of one particular judge, U.S. District Judge James Boasberg. Well, there may be a way (other than impeachment) to get back to government by “we the people” who elected President Trump.

On Monday, Just the News reported the following:

An Arizona congressman introduced legislation Monday to remove the federal judge who has blocked President Donald Trump’s efforts to deport Venezuelan gang members, offering a novel path that avoids the impeachment process and the need for two-thirds support in the U.S. Senate.

Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., filed a resolution that would remove U.S. District Judge James Boasberg for “failing to maintain the standard of good behavior required of judges” under Article III, Section 1 of the Constitution.

You can read the resolution below:

“Most Americans believe that there is lifetime tenure for a federal judge. That unless impeached, a federal judge can serve until death,” Biggs told Just the News. “But lifetime tenure is not guaranteed, nor mentioned, in the Constitution. Article III, Section 1 permits a federal judge to serve only ‘during good behavior.’”

Biggs argued the clause gives Congress the authority to remove judges that it believes have failed to uphold that standard short of using impeachment.

The article also notes:

Biggs said he believes many of these judges have overstepped their authority and reached outside their narrow judicial districts, and that Congress should take the reigns, invoking the Constitutional provision, to fire ones that make politically biased decisions that fall short of grounds for impeachment.

“[W]hat about a judge who has a conflict of interest and refuses to recuse himself from the case with which he has a conflict? Or, what if he has repeatedly supported publicly a political figure and vigorously denounced, not just on policy grounds, but on more virulent grounds, his political opponent?” Biggs asked.

It has been reported that Boasberg’s daughter Katharine defends MS-13 and TDA gangsters, receiving pay from an NGO, Partners in Justice, which raked in $3.3 million in 2023 year from the federal government.  That should disqualify him from the deportation case, but the question is bigger than that.

Does the President run the country or do the judges run the country? The President is elected by the people. Shouldn’t he be in charge?

What Election Fraud?

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The election of a Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice this Tuesday has gained national attention. The reason for the attention is that the outcome of this election could change the balance of power in the U.S. House of Representatives. If Democrat-backed Dane County Circuit Court Judge Susan Crawford wins this election, it is expected that she will redistrict the state in a way that will result in two additional Democrat Representatives and the loss of two Republican Representatives. The Republicans currently have a 5-member majority in the House, but there are four vacancies. That is why this race is crucial. Unfortunately, there are already questions about fraud in this race.

On Friday, Just the News reported:

Nearly 5,000 allegedly illegal voter registrations on Milwaukee voter rolls have been found by an election integrity watchdog ahead of the Wisconsin elections on Tuesday.

With the high-profile elections for the Wisconsin Supreme Court and enshrining voter ID in the state constitution just days away, Fair Elections Wisconsin (FEW) challenged 4,878 allegedly illegal voter registrations that had cast ballots in the November election in Milwaukee. The grassroots group’s challenges were unsuccessful, however, as the city election commission declined to investigate them.

FEW President Justin Gavery on Wednesday submitted a list of 4,878 allegedly illegal voter registrations to the Milwaukee Election Commission. Ballots were cast in the November election for all 4,878 of these voter registrations.

According to Wisconsin Elections Commission (WEC) data and United States Postal Service’s National Change of Address data reviewed by FEW, there are 281 voters who moved out of the county before October 24th, 2024, and 377 who moved out of state before that date.

On the commission’s website, it states that people registering to vote must include their complete and current full name and residential address.

However, according to FEW’s review of the data, instead of registering with their correct residential address, 2,926 addresses have missing or incorrect apartment/suite/unit numbers; 540 voters moved from the registered address; 501 physical addresses have been changed to P.O. boxes; 217 voters left no forwarding addresses before October 24th; 24 registered voters used commercial addresses (usually UPS or FedEx stores), and 11 used a U.S. Post Office address.

The money being spent on this race is outrageous:

Election spending has reached nearly $81.5 million in the race, and might reach $100 million by Election Day.

More than $17 million has been spent by groups funded by Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who is supporting Schimel. Musk also gave the Wisconsin Republican Party $3 million this year.

Schimel has raised more than $12 million, including more than $6 million from the Wisconsin Republican Party. Meanwhile, Crawford has raised more than $25 million for the race thus far, including $5.5 million from the Wisconsin Democratic Party.

Crawford’s financial supporters include progressive billionaire George Soros and Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D). Soros donated $1 million to the Wisconsin Democratic Party, and Pritzker gave the state party $500,000.