Category: Politics

Commentary: Combating the Censorship Industrial Complex

RealClearWire

It’s been nearly six months since the first installment of the Twitter Files — the journalistic effort by Matt Taibbi, Michael Shellenberger, Bari Weiss, Lee Fang, and many others to expose the myriad channels by which the U.S government cooperated with Twitter on content moderation and censorship — was first published. Twitter Files One, perhaps the mildest of more than 20 unique reports, details the social media company’s internal deliberations in the days before the New York Post’s story about Hunter Biden’s laptop was removed from the site. Later reports have exposed the tendrils of a governmental apparatus that influenced some of the most significant media distortions in recent American history, from the fraudulent Hamilton 68 misinformation tracking dashboard to the FBI’s intimate involvement with Twitter’s content-moderation practices.

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Jack Miller Center Unveils ‘ContextUS,’ a New, Online Civics Library

RealClearWire

ContextUS is the Jack Miller Center’s newly published, free online library that provides citizens with the content to gain that necessary civic knowledge. This state-of-the-art resource gives teachers, students, and scholars access to more than 700 core texts of the American political tradition, paired with the most up-to-date technology in library science, to transmit a civic education in self-government to the next generation of Americans.

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In Iowa Presidential Campaign Launch, DeSantis Says Republicans Need to Look Forward, Not Backwards

M.D. Kittle

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis came to Iowa Tuesday evening, officially kicking off his run for the White House in the kick-off caucus state.

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Trump Vows to End Birthright Citizenship for Children of Illegal Immigrants

Florida Capital Star Staff

Former president and 2024 presidential contender Donald Trump pledged to end birthright citizenship for the children of illegal immigrants in a video posted to Twitter Tuesday.

Trump vowed that on his first day in office, if he’s elected president, he will sign an executive order that the children of illegal immigrants won’t be eligible for citizenship, according to his social media video. A wave of illegal immigration began at the U.S.-Mexico border soon after Biden assumed the presidency, where federal authorities have recorded more than 5.3 million migrant encounters since January 2021.

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Kevin McCarthy Threatens to Hold FBI Director Christopher Wray in Contempt over Biden Probe

Just the News

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Tuesday threatened to hold FBI Director Christopher Wray in contempt of Congress if he does not comply with a request for a document about an alleged bribery scheme involving then-Vice President Joe Biden.

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Tea Party Patriots Action Condemn House Speaker McCarthy for Debt Ceiling Deal, Urge Republicans to Vote in Opposition

Kaitlin Housler

Tea Party Patriots Action (TPPA), the national conservative nonprofit group founded at the height of the Tea Party Movement, is condemning House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA-20) for negotiating an increase of $4 trillion to the national debt over the next 18 months and calling on House Republicans to vote against the bill.

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Commentary: As It Always Has Been, the Only True Cause of the Left Is Power

Admin

Why do so many liberal climate-activist grandees fly on private jets? Or why do those who profited from Black Lives Matter have a propensity for estate living? Or why do the community-activist Obamas prefer to live in not one, but three mansions?

The answer is that calls for radical equity, “power for the people,” and mandated equality are usually mostly sloganeering for those who enjoy power and the lucre it brings, and their wish is to augment both for themselves. The result is that the issue du jour of mandated equality often becomes secondary if not irrelevant. There is neither fear of inconstancy nor hypocrisy, given the central theme that governs a leftist party line is political utility — or the ends of power always more than justify the hypocritical means used to obtain it.

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Commentary: Ron DeSantis Has All the Right Enemies

Admin

A lot of people are upset with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, especially as he launches his presidential bid.

Start with America’s wokest corporate titans. While perched in a Los Angeles County rapidly losing population and companies to Florida, Disney CEO Bob Iger’s company alleged DeSantis is “weaponizing the power of government to punish private business.”

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Russia Issues Arrest Warrant for Senator Lindsey Graham

Admin

by Ailan Evans   Russia issued an arrest warrant for Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina Monday, following comments he made about the war in Ukraine. The warrant was issued by Russia’s Interior Ministry on Monday, with an additional announcement that a criminal investigation had been opened into Graham, according…

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DeSantis Blasts McCarthy Over Budget Deal for ‘Careening Towards Bankruptcy’

Admin

by Harold Hutchison   Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida ripped House Speaker Kevin McCarthy early Monday over the debt ceiling deal, calling it “totally inadequate” when it came to addressing spending. “Prior to this deal, Kayleigh, our country was careening toward bankruptcy and after this deal, our country will…

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Scott, Haley’s South Carolina Roots Aren’t Enough to Secure Victory in the State’s Early Primary, GOP Operatives Say

Admin

South Carolina has two natives in the 2024 presidential race, with former Gov. Nikki Haley and Sen. Tim Scott, but Republican operatives from the state don’t believe it’s enough to secure them a victory in the early state primary, they told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Although the two Republicans have served their state for years, former President Donald Trump still has a stronghold in South Carolina and would likely win the state’s primary if it were held today, several GOP political experts told the DCNF. For either Scott or Haley to be competitive in South Carolina’s primary, which is critical in determining the eventual Republican nominee, the experts said they would need to show a strong performance in key early primary states like Iowa and New Hampshire.

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Outside Law Firm Finds Texas A.G. Paxton Didn’t Break Laws or Violate Office Procedure

The Center Square

A 174-page report released by the Office of the Attorney General (OAG) in August 2021, made public before voters reelected Attorney General Ken Paxton to a third term in November 2022, disproved claims presented by Democratically-aligned counsel hired by the House General Investigating Committee (GIC).

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Newt Gingrich Commentary: Where Are Woodward and Bernstein When America Needs Them?

Admin

The conspiracy between a corrupt set of bureaucracies (including the Justice Department, the IRS, and the intelligence community) and an equally corrupt and enabling elite media is astonishing. The Durham Report is just one more confirmation of the devastating level of dishonesty and manipulation which have characterized the last few years.

Some analysts believe the open corruption can be traced back to Lois Lerner and the IRS scandal, in which she clearly stonewalled conservative organizations from getting tax status. When she was found to be in contempt of Congress, the Obama Justice Department spent two years ignoring the congressional contempt charge and then decided not to prosecute her.

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Commentary: The Mind Virus of the Affluent Woke Left

Admin

Those who belong to the woke Left are held together by overlapping interests and shared passions. Not all wokesters support the same causes and certainly not with equal intensity. Thus, warriors against climate change like Karl Schwab and Bill Gates don’t often speak up for the sexual transitioning of children or call for allowing biological males claiming to be women to compete in female sports events. One can likewise read the racialist diatribes of Corey Bush, Ibram X. Kendi, or Al Sharpton without likely running into attacks on fossil fuels or gas stoves. The point is not that these allies never agree on anything. It is that their alliance is looser than some might imagine.

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Twitter’s Top Engineer Resigns after DeSantis’ Glitch-Plagued Presidential Announcement on Platform

Just the News

The head of Twitter’s engineering operations has resigned after the platform’s hosting of Florida GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis’ glitch-plagued 2024 presidential campaign launch.

“After almost four incredible years at Twitter, I decided to leave the nest yesterday,” Twitter’s Foad Dabiri tweeted. “The combination of the fantastic community, the impact it has, and its limitless potential sets Twitter apart.”

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Leftist Media Celebrate Teens Traveling to Washington, D.C. for ‘Trans Youth Prom’ on Capitol Lawn

Susan Berry, PhD

The leftist media celebrated a “Trans Youth Prom” on the Capitol lawn this week in Washington, D.C., an event that reportedly drew not only young teens experiencing gender dysphoria, but transgender children as young as age five, from 16 states, with the backing of American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) attorney and transgender activist Chase Strangio.

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DeSantis Enters Presidential Race with ‘Skewed’ Narrative He’s Better Positioned to Beat Biden than Trump

M.D. Kittle

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis officially launched his presidential campaign Wednesday, ending months of speculation and ratcheting up what promises to be an intense battle for the Republican Party nomination. 

DeSantis enters the race as a top tier candidate, but still lagging far behind frontrunner Donald Trump, according to just about every poll out there. 

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Radical Anti-Life Gender Justice Group Backing Ohio Ballot Initiative Revealed to Be Pushing End to ‘Unethical’ Parental Involvement Laws

Susan Berry, PhD

Tweets by a key leftist organization pushing the Ohio abortion ballot initiative that could end parental involvement in minors’ medical decisions reveal that the goal of Unite for Reproductive and Gender Equity’s (URGE) is to cut parents out of their children’s lives.

Protect Women Ohio (PWO), a self-described “coalition of concerned family and life leaders, parents, health and medical experts, and faith leaders in Ohio,” posted a thread to Twitter Tuesday showing URGE has been “working to abolish parental consent and notification laws for years.”

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Trump, DeSantis, Ramaswamy, and More: News and Notes from the Presidential Campaign Trail

M.D. Kittle

A glitchy start to the Ron DeSantis campaign, Tim Scott fires back at “The View,” Vivek Ramaswamy takes on Target, and Nikki Haley gets a CNN Town Hall.

There’s no rest for the weary on the expanded presidential campaign trail.

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U.S. Senator Tim Scott Launches Presidential Campaign as Living Example of the Land of Opportunity

M.D. Kittle

U.S. Senator Tim Scott made it official Monday, launching his campaign for president in the North Charleston, SC, hometown that informed his core belief: That the United States of America is “the land of opportunity, not a land of oppression.”

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Commentary: Abandon the Swamp and Let it Rot

Admin

Suppose a document drops in the wilderness and no one is around to hear it. Does it make a sound? I submit that John Durham just tested this Bishop Berkeleyesque query. The special counsel spent four years beavering away in the forests of the deep state and what did he produce? Three hundred pages telling us what, for the most part, we already knew and with the result that exactly nothing, apart from a little hand wringing, will happen. 

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All Presidents Since Reagan Mishandled Classified Memos, Trump First Referred to DOJ, Archives Says

Just the News

Prior to former President Donald Trump, the Justice Department had not been involved in enforcing the Presidential Records Act, according to testimony from a National Archives and Records Administration official.

On Wednesday, the House Intelligence Committee released a transcript from an interview in March with NARA officials in which the agency’s chief operating officer, William Bosanko, testified that the agency had “found classified information in unclassified boxes” for all the presidential administrations “from Reagan forward.”

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Justice Gorsuch Says Pandemic Created ‘Greatest Intrusions on Civil Liberties’ in America’s Peacetime History

Florida Capital Star Staff

Justice Neil Gorsuch called government responses to the COVID-19 pandemic the “greatest intrusions on civil liberties in the peacetime history of this country” on Thursday.

Gorsuch made his comments in reaction to the Supreme Court’s Thursday dismissal of a case dealing with red states’ attempt to keep in place a Trump administration policy, Title 42, which allowed the U.S. to expel over 2.5 million migrants from the border due to a public health emergency. In an eight-page long statement attached to the decision, Gorsuch slammed an array of emergency power abuses employed by local leaders during the pandemic, from lockdowns to church closures.

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Ex-DOJ Official and Wife Had Bigger Roles in Dossier than Known: Durham Report

RealClearWire

While it’s bad enough the debunked dossier the FBI used to spy on the Trump campaign was paid for by the Clinton campaign and authored by a foreign FBI informant and his carousing researcher, the newly released report of Special Counsel John Durham strongly suggests a top Justice Department official and his wife had an early hand in shaping the political rumor sheet.

According to the 306-page report, former Justice Department prosecutor Bruce Ohr’s wife Nellie Ohr first plowed the ground for the dossier with a series of a research reports she wrote for Fusion GPS, the D.C.-based opposition research firm the Clinton campaign commissioned to dig up dirt on Trump and Russia.

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Commentary: Take GOP Debates Away from the Mainstream Media

Admin

Tucker Carlson reportedly wants to host his own GOP presidential debate. The idea struck a chord with many people. It would be must-see TV for the most popular commentator on the Right to grill presidential hopefuls before a national audience. Republican voters would also prefer if those asking the candidates questions were not liberal reporters.

With Carlson now visible primarily on Twitter, it looks like he will have the opportunity to host the debate on the social media giant. According to the Washington Post, “Carlson wants to moderate his own GOP candidate forum, outside of the usual strictures of the Republican National Committee debate system.”

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Commentary: Elites Have Come Up with Their Greatest Excuse Yet to Suppress the Rest of Us

Admin

The recent torrent of regulations unleashed by the Biden administration — targeting everything from power plant and automobile tailpipe emissions to gas stoves and other household appliances — confirms that the White House was deadly serious when — in office for less than a week — it pledged a “whole of government” approach to combatting what it told the public was a “climate crisis.”

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Republicans to Hold Hearing on DOJ Targeting Pro-Lifers

Florida Capital Star Staff

Republican lawmakers will hold a hearing next week focusing on the Department of Justice’s targeting of pro-life activists like Mark Houck through the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, The Daily Signal has learned.

On Tuesday morning, the House Judiciary subcommittee on the Constitution and limited government will revisit the “Implications of the FACE Act,” examining the shockingly high numbers of attacks on pro-life pregnancy centers around the nation as well as President Joe Biden’s administration’s use of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act.

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CCP-Controlled, State-Owned Firm Behind Chinese Cash Allegedly Funneled to Hunter Biden, Documents Show

Florida Capital Star Staff

The Hong Kong corporation that allegedly wired funds to Hunter Biden’s business in 2017 was controlled by a Shanghai firm run by members of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), some of whom had previously served in the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), according to business documents and congressional reports reviewed by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

On June 30, 2017, Shanghai Huaxin Group (Hong Kong) Ltd. wired $10 million to the Delaware-based company CEFC Infrastructure, which then wired $100,000 to Hunter Biden’s “professional corporation,” Owasco P.C., on August 4, 2017, a House Oversight Committee memo revealed Wednesday, alleging the transfers were part of a scheme to conceal the Chinese origin of the funds.

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DeSantis Softly Jabs at Trump During Iowa Stop, Severe Weather Forces Cancelation of Trump’s Hawkeye State Rally

M.D. Kittle

The clash of the GOP titans didn’t happen after all in the Hawkeye State. Former President Donald Trump and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis were scheduled to make separate campaign stops in Iowa Saturday.

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White House Aiming for Two-Year Deal on Debt Ceiling as Talks Stall: Report

Florida Capital Star Staff

White House staff are reportedly pushing a deal on the debt ceiling as talks between House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and President Joe Biden on a potential raise of the debt limit have been delayed.

The White House is seeking a debt-ceiling increase that would push back the borrowing limit by two years, according to Politico. In exchange, they are reportedly agreeing to caps on “discretionary” spending, which refers to all congressional appropriations excluding Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security and some minor programs, according to Politico.

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Border Patrol Migrant Processing Centers Filled After Trump-Era Policy’s End

Florida Capital Star Staff

Border Patrol migrant processing centers are filled with more than 25,000 migrants hours after the expiration of Title 42, the Trump-era expulsion policy, according to internal agency data obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Title 42, which was responsible for the expulsion of more than 2 million migrants, ended at 11:59 p.m. Thursday. The early Friday morning data show that several sectors of the southern border, including Arizona’s Yuma and Tucson sectors, are 219% and 269% over capacity, respectively.

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Key Takeaways from Trump’s CNN Town Hall in New Hampshire

Just the News

Former President and 2024 White House candidate Donald Trump came out swinging during a CNN townhall Wednesday night, immediately saying the 2020 election was rigged and stolen through fraud and that he had an obligation to shine a spotlight on it. 

“We did fantastically we got 12 million more votes than we had in, as you know, in 2016 actually we did far better in that election,” he began. “Got the most that anybody’s ever gotten as the President of the United States. I think that when you look at that result, and when you look at what happened during that election, unless you’re a very stupid person, you see what happens a lot of the people, out of thee people in this audience and maybe a couple that don’t — but most people understand what happened. That was a rigged election. And it’s a shame that we had to go through it.” 

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Researchers Refine Estimate of COVID Vax-Related Deaths of Young Athletes, Blast Media Hypocrisy

Just the News

The mainstream media have provided varying explanations for the unexpected rise in blood clots, cardiac events and early death in the past two years: skipping breakfast, falling asleep in front of the TV, “exposure to a sudden gush of water,” napping and high noise levels.

One possibility they continue to rule out or simply ignore: COVID-19 vaccination in populations at negligible risk from SARS-CoV-2 itself.

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Maine Governor’s Expert Witness for Bill to Legalize Abortion Until Birth Authorized Abortion on New Mexico Woman Who Died from Complications of Procedure

Susan Berry, PhD

The OB/GYN tapped by Maine Gov. Janet Mills (D) to champion her bill that would allow abortions up until birth has been found to have authorized the 24-week abortion of a woman who later died in Albuquerque from complications due to the procedure.

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House Probe Unveils Fresh Evidence Contradicting Joe Biden Claims About Family’s Foreign Deals

Just the News

The House Oversight and Accountability Committee on Wednesday directly challenged President Joe Biden’s claims about his family’s overseas business deals, providing fresh evidence his son Hunter got money directly from China, was involved in a business deal with a Romanian figure accused of corruption and helped arrange for one of his foreign business associates to meet with his father’s vice presidential office.

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Ramaswamy Says Carroll Case Verdict Against Trump Another Attempt to Attack Establishment’s ‘Chief Political Virus’

M.D. Kittle

Former President Donald Trump’s political rivals weighed in Tuesday on a Manhattan jury’s finding that Trump is liable for sexually abusing and defaming writer E. Jean Carroll in a civil lawsuit brought decades after the alleged abuse took place. 

Ohio businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, who declared his campaign for president in February, agreed with critics of the lawsuit who believe it’s another politically charged attempt to diminish the GOP presidential frontrunner ahead of the 2024 presidential election.

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Trump Gaining Support of Minorities, both Trump and DeSantis Likely to Beat Biden in 2024: Poll

Just the News

Former President Donald Trump is gaining support from minorities and both Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis – the top two potential Republican candidates for 2024 –  are poised to beat President Joe Biden, spelling trouble for the president as he runs for reelection, according to a poll released Sunday.

Biden is losing support from black and Hispanic Americans as Trump is gaining, according to a Langer Research Associates poll produced for ABC News.

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Nikki Haley Video: A Vote for Joe Biden Is a Vote for President Kamala Harris

M.D. Kittle

GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley is out with a new campaign video that should send chills down the spines of anyone worried about Vice President Kamala Harris ascending to the presidency. 

Taking on the possibility that octogenarian President Joe Biden may not be able to serve out a second term, Haley says, “President Kamala Harris? No thank you.” 

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Senators Tell Secretary of State Antony Blinken to Turn over All Correspondence with Hunter Biden

M.D. Kittle

Secretary of State Antony Blinken wasn’t straight with congress about his communications with President Joe Biden’s ne’er-do-well son Hunter, according to emails and a transcript of a 2022 interview first reported by The Star News Network. 

Now, U.S. Senators Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Ron Johnson (R-WI), whose committees have long investigated allegations of Biden family corruption, are demanding the Secretary of State “produce and preserve” all records related to his correspondence with Hunter Biden.

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Trump, DeSantis Heading to the Hawkeye State – on the Same Day

M.D. Kittle

GOP heavyweights, former President Donald Trump and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, are slated to appear at events in Iowa on May 13.

Trump, who declared his run for the White House late last year, is scheduled to be in Des Moines, an unnamed campaign official told the Associated Press.

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Commentary: ‘Conservatism, Inc.’ Fiddles While the Republic Burns

Admin

While members of the conservative think tank elite, outfitted in black tie and ball gowns, sat celebrating themselves in a Washington, D.C., ballroom listening to Dierks Bentley and popping off fireworks over the Potomac, their opponents in Minnesota were pre-registering 16- and 17-year-olds to vote, enacting “motor voter” laws, and establishing pop-up polling locations wherever they expected a balloting hotspot might be (think drop boxes on steroids).

While the Left is actually working to achieve generational political power, elites on the Right seem satisfied to simply celebrate . . . what? The latest white paper? The sold-out conference on how the Left is beating them in the political arena? Another record fundraising year where 60 percent of the funds go to promote the institution rather than on-the-ground efforts to implement the ideas? It’s usually all of the above.

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Far-Left Senator Criticizes Conservative Justices’ Wives’ Activism But Pushes Legislation Relating to His Own Wife’s Work

Admin

Democratic Rhode Island Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse has raised concern about the employment of Justice Clarence Thomas’ wife, though has introduced around two dozen bills touching on issues his wife works on as a consultant for Ocean Conservancy.

Whitehouse has criticized Justice Clarence Thomas for his wife’s consulting work for conservatives and communication with White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, sending a letter last year requesting Chief Justice Roberts ensure Thomas recuse himself from cases relating to Jan. 6. Yet his wife Sandra Whitehouse has worked since 2008 as a consultant and senior policy advisor for Ocean Conservancy, while Whitehouse has introduced at least 24 ocean-related bills and co-founded the Senate Oceans Caucus in 2011.

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Vivek Ramaswamy Schools Chuck Todd Over His Claim Gender Is ‘a Spectrum’

Susan Berry, PhD

Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy instructed NBC’s Meet the Press host Chuck Todd in basic biological principles and the moderator’s claim that gender is “a spectrum.” “Under the age of 18, I think it’s perfectly legitimate to say that we won’t allow genital mutilation or chemical castration through puberty blockers,” Ramaswamy asserted to Todd on Sunday.

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Nearly 9 in 10 in New Poll Hold Feds Responsible for Border Crisis, Most Expect States to Fix

Just the News

Almost 87 percent of Americans blame the federal government for the border crisis, according to a new poll conducted by the Trafalgar Group for Convention of States Action.

“With local and state government law enforcement resources overwhelmed by the large increase in illegal immigrants and asylum seekers needing assistance and increased drug cartel activity,” respondents were prompted, “do you believe it is the responsibility of states or the Federal government to handle these increased costs at the southern border?”

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Commentary: The Mexicanization of American Politics

Admin

We see it everywhere in American politics. One army general gave voice to the fear in a memorable simile, worrying that the country might collapse like “Mexico and the Central American countries” unless something was done to tamp down partisan passions and encourage unity. His comment went viral, and soon people across the country were talking about, and deploring, the possible “Mexicanization of American politics.” 

The governing question, as one distinguished historian put it, is whether “American politics [has] become permanently ‘Mexicanized’?” Another commentator, considering “the Mexicanization of institutions,” defined it as a toxic situation in which “all party contests have the character of civil war.” 

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