NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Roger Kimball: Trump is working overtime to restore the rule of law

Posted By on March 21st, 2025

https://thespectator.com/topic/trump-working-overtime-rule-law-judges/

EXCERPT

Restore it from what? Essentially from two things: first, Trump is acting to restore the law from the depredations of lawless, indeed un-constitutional, arrangements whereby the core powers of the presidency and of Congress are undermined by unaccountable bureaucrats. 

Second, he is acting to rescue the executive powers of the presidency from the un-Constitutional interference of district court judges. It is the latter that has focused everyone’s attention these last weeks as various judges have issued orders to say that the President of the United States may not fire people who work for him, that he must spend money controlled by agencies of the executive branch, and that he may not deport certain illegal aliens. Here I remind my readers of the first sentence of Article II of the Constitution: “The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America.” 

At least, that’s how it reads in my copy of the Constitution. Some of the nearly 700 District Court judges throughout the fruited plain seem to have a different text. Theirs reads, “The executive Power shall be vested, sort of, in a President of the United States of America along with an indeterminate number of district court judges whenever they disagree with said President’s actions.”  

It’s been a breathtaking performance by these local judges. I think that Nayib Bukele, the President of El Salvador, was right when he remarked that: “The US is facing a judicial coup.” What will be done about it?  “Oh,” you say,  “the Supreme Court will weight in to put a stop to this untoward arrogation of executive power by the judiciary.”  

Will they? Many think so. I hope they will. I think they will.  

FOREIGN POLICY Comments turned off

How American Aid Has Subsidized Terror And how it can be stopped by Gregg Roman

Posted By on March 21st, 2025

https://www.commentary.org/articles/gregg-roman/american-aid-subsidized-terror/?utm_medium=email&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-8ThjN4AlJ1

The world should shudder to discover that America’s foreign aid—long intended to uplift those in need overseas—has instead nourished extremists who despise the United States. On February 26, I appeared before the House Oversight Subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency (DOGE) to expose evidence of these betrayals. Far from a mere policy dispute, the misuse of U.S. assistance I documented underscores the magnitude of the negligence and, in certain instances, possible criminal collusion within our humanitarian apparatus. During the hearing, which featured pointed exchanges between subcommittee Chairwoman Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and Ranking Member Melanie Stansbury (D-N.M.), it became clear that certain federal programs, especially those under the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), have strayed far from their original mission.

More than once, the session erupted in arguments over whether the Biden administration’s policies had inadvertently or deliberately financed radical agendas across the globe. Witnesses included policy analysts, a journalist, and former federal officials. Stansbury lamented what she called “carnage,” “gutting,” and “global realignment” allegedly forced by the new administration’s approach to foreign assistance. Nevertheless, as the hearing progressed, a common thread emerged from multiple testimonies: Federal foreign aid has funded an array of extremist-aligned groups overseas—often at odds with American interests. Greene underscored that the subcommittee would consider criminal referrals if it emerged that U.S. aid had directly abetted terrorist attacks on Americans, declaring that “if USAID funded terrorism that resulted in the death of Americans, then this committee will be making criminal referrals.” Such a stance highlights how severe these findings are.

HOMELAND SECURITY Comments turned off

‘Minnesota Men’ Hate U.S., Yearn to Wage Jihad And die as Islamic martyrs. by Lloyd Billingsley

Posted By on March 21st, 2025

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm-plus/minnesota-men-hate-u-s-yearn-to-wage-jihad/

Abdisatar Ahmed Hassan was arrested on February 27 and charged with attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization. As the Department of Justice explains:

Hassan attempted to travel from Minnesota to Somalia to join ISIS on two occasions, neither of which were successful. Hassan attempted to disguise the purpose of his travel as visiting family despite having none in Somalia and was traveling with his birth certificate, naturalization certificate, and high school diploma. The FBI’s investigation established that Hassan publicly supported ISIS on social media through multiple posts and communicated with a Facebook account for the Manjaniq Media Center, which encouraged individuals to travel to join ISIS and touts itself as a media organization of the Islamic Caliphate.

As the investigation revealed:

Hassan praised Shamsud-Din Jabbar, the perpetrator of the ISIS-inspired terrorist attack in New Orleans, Louisiana, on Jan. 1. On Feb. 21, Hassan also posted a video of himself driving while holding a small ISIS flag inside the vehicle, as well as another video of himself driving with an open knife on his lap. On Feb. 26, FBI observed Hassan driving while again holding the ISIS flag.

Compare the account of ABC news, which calls Hassan a “Minnesota man” who “allegedly expressed admiration for the truck attack in New Orleans.” The Minnesota truck attack admirer was not alone in his enthusiasm for the Islamic State. As the Associated Press noted, Abelhamid Al-Madioum, 27, was “among several Minnesotans suspected of leaving the U.S. to join the Islamic State group,” their names available at this link.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Tesla Terror Welcome to leftist “resistance” – and Democrat treason. by Mark Tapson

Posted By on March 21st, 2025

https://www.frontpagemag.com/tesla-terror/

The Democrats may have been rocked on their heels temporarily by their election loss to Donald Trump, and sent into a tailspin of internal bickering about why they lost American voters, but now they are revving up The Resistance – and it includes waging domestic terrorism against the MAGA movement they falsely equate with Nazi fascism.

The primary target around which the Democrats are uniting in violent protest is Trump appointee and mega-billionaire Elon Musk, whose Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has rooted out a reported $115 billion and counting in federal waste and fraud. Musk is therefore an existential threat to the Big Government Left, which depends on bureaucratic bloat and hidden slush funds to maintain their grip on power and to fuel their agenda of permanent one-party hegemony.

Violent Marxists at heart, the Left has launched a coordinated campaign of terror this month against Musk’s American auto company Tesla and even the owners of Tesla vehicles. Tesla dealerships are being firebombed, both here and abroad (a dozen Teslas were torched at a dealership in France; some in Berlin as well). Democrat terrorists are vandalizing Teslas in parking lots and confronting Tesla drivers with angry profanities and threats.

Several Tesla vehicles were set afire in Las Vegas early Tuesday morning, for example. Police said the attacker used Molotov cocktails, shot rounds into vehicles, and scrawled the word “resist” on the front doors of the Tesla Collision Center. Kansas City, Missouri, police are investigating a similar attack at a local dealership. Other such incidents have taken place in Oregon and Washington state.

Last week, a Tesla dealership in Colorado was targeted by terrorists using Molotov cocktails and spray-painting “Nazi cars” on the building’s facade. In Colorado, a man was arrested for hurling five Molotov cocktails at a Tesla charging station, damaging three EV chargers. He also scrawled anti-Trump and pro-Ukraine messages next to the damaged chargers before confronting a female Tesla driver, who managed to drive away.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

The Terrorists Among Us

Posted By on March 21st, 2025

https://issuesinsights.com/2025/03/21/the-terrorists-among-us/

Whenever the far left in the U.S. loses an argument — called an election — it suddenly decides it’s time to take to the streets and get violent. Now is just such a time, as America experiences a new spasm of home-grown anti-Trump, anti-Musk terrorism. It shouldn’t be tolerated.

Whether it’s taking pot shots at the president, violently demonstrating in support of murderous terrorists, “swatting” people they don’t like, or destroying cars made by a person they now despise, our country once again finds extremists threatening us and our liberty.

And, no surprise, it’s nearly all from the far left side of the political spectrum, organized by supposedly “nonviolent” groups, quietly supported by the Democratic Party, and excused by the ultra-biased Big Media.

President Donald Trump’s reelection seems to have brought out even more extremist violence, which had already surged. A report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies recently found “domestic terrorist attacks and plots against government targets motivated by partisan political beliefs in the past five years is nearly triple the number of such incidents in the previous 25 years combined.”

So, yes, it’s very real.

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Protests erupt in Turkey after Erdogan rival arrested

Posted By on March 21st, 2025

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5yren8mxp8o?utm_source=firefox-newtab-en-us

Protests have erupted in Turkey after authorities detained the mayor of Istanbul, just days before he was due to be selected as a presidential candidate.

Ekrem Imamoglu, from the secular Republican People’s Party (CHP), is seen as one of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s strongest political rivals.

Prosecutors accused him of corruption and aiding a terrorist group, calling him a “criminal organisation leader suspect”.

Police detained 100 people – including other politicians, journalists and businessmen – as part of the investigation, and the Istanbul governor’s office has imposed four days of restrictions in the city.

Imamoglu said online “the will of the people cannot be silenced”.

Protesters have taken to the streets and university campuses, and in underground stations, with crowds chanting anti-government slogans. It is a display of public anger not seen in years.

There were reports of clashes between protesters and police in Turkey’s largest city. Footage from Reuters news agency shows police using pepper spray to disperse crowds outside Istanbul University.

Thousands of people rallied in the cold in front of the city hall, shouting: “Erdogan, dictator!” and “Imamoglu, you are not alone!”

ISRAEL Comments turned off

A savage rupturing of our civilisation A new report leaves no doubt: 7 October was a hyper-violent onslaught against Jews and humanity. Brendan O’Neill

Posted By on March 20th, 2025

https://www.spiked-online.com/2025/03/20/a-savage-rupturing-of-our-civilisation/

They reduced Jews to ashes. In 2023, a fascist army burnt Jews to death. The Jews’ names were Ram Itamari, 56, a transportation manager, and his wife, Lili Itamari, 63, a schoolteacher. They were in their home in Kibbutz Kfar Aza in southern Israel on 7 October 2023 when the unit of anti-Semites showed up. The gunmen saw the Jews through a window so they set fire to the house. It burned at such a scorching temperature that when the Israeli authorities finally went in, they found not one trace of the couple’s bodies. It took archaeologists three weeks of sifting through the soot to discover a sliver of bone. It was DNA-tested. It was them.

It is the 21st century and we are searching among ash for the remains of Jews. Following decades of the cry, ‘Never Again’, humanity once more found itself foraging in the blackened remains of a building for the incinerated remnants of the Jews who lived there. This detail from the new UK parliamentary report on the barbarism of 7 October should chill the blood of everyone who reads it. For it is 7 October’s clearest echo, among thousands of clear echoes, of the Nazi atrocities of the last century. This report leaves no doubt: 7 October was more than terrorism, more than a war crime – it was a savage rupturing of human civilisation itself.

The 7 October Parliamentary Commission Report, overseen by historian Lord Roberts, is a horrifying and essential document. It bears witness, in grim, meticulous detail, to the carnival of anti-Semitic violence carried out by Hamas and its allies on 7 October. It is a forensic account, over 300 pages, of every crime committed by those armies of anti-Semities on that darkest day. And it names and pays tributes to the Jews and others who were slaughtered. ‘We have done this so that future generations will not be misled about the true extent and the horror of the massacre’, says Roberts. This report is a ship of truth in the West’s frothing waters of denialism and apologism.

It lays out all the brutal facts. It tells us that 1,182 people were murdered and more than 4,000 were wounded. Of the dead, 863, or 73 per cent, were civilians. Two-hundred-and-fifty-one people were taken hostage, 210 of them alive, 41 of them dead.

ENVIRONMENT AND JUNK SCIENCE Comments turned off

Every Dollar Spent on Solar Energy is Wasted By Norman Rogers

Posted By on March 20th, 2025

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2025/03/every_dollar_spent_on_solar_energy_is_wasted.html

Solar electricity has big problems. Solar is intermittent. It stops working if clouds obscure the sun. It does not work at night. Solar works much better in the summer than in the winter. Solar is peaky. Electricity delivery peaks in the middle of the day and is weaker in the early morning or late afternoon.

Solar electricity is very expensive compared to electricity generated by natural gas or coal. Unsubsidized solar electricity costs about $150 per megawatt hour. Using natural gas, one can generate electricity for as little as $20 per megawatt hour — over seven times less. The high cost of solar is hidden by an extensive system of subsidies.

The intermittent delivery of electricity could be smoothed if it were possible to store the electricity for use when solar is not working. But it’s not possible. Bridging the times and seasons when solar is not working by means of storage is not remotely possible because the amount of storage needed would cost ten or even a hundred times more than the solar farms generating the electricity.

There is a demand for electricity storage. Storage can solve the peakiness problem that plagues solar. Because solar output surges in the middle of the day It will often overtax the ability of the local electrical grid to accept the electricity. The solution is time-shiftng batteries that store excessive midday power and release it later in the day or in the early evening. New solar plants in solar-heavy states are equipped with time-shifting batteries. Time-shifting batteries increase the cost of solar electricity by about a third.

The U.S. is spending about $50 billion per year on new solar electricity plants. The money comes from government subsidies and increased electricity rates. New solar plants with a capacity, or peak output, of 27 terrawatts were built in 2023. The solar plants are backed up by fossil-fuel plants capable of stepping in when solar is not working. If existing solar plants were razed, the electric grid would continue to work smoothly using the fossil-fuel plants that would otherwise be on backup duty for solar.

EDUCATION Comments turned off

Micromanaging Microschools Government intrusion in education must be reined in. By Larry Sand

Posted By on March 20th, 2025

https://amgreatness.com/2025/03/20/micromanaging-microschools/

In 2020, the concept of home-based “pandemic pods” went viral. At the time, Cato Institute scholar Jason Bedrick and EdChoice fellow Matthew Ladner released “Let’s Get Small: Microschools, Pandemic Pods, and the Future of Education in America,” a report on the phenomenon. They wrote that COVID-19 has “spurred the dramatic rise of microschools and ‘pandemic pods’ as school districts’ reopening plans (or lack thereof) drove desperate parents to explore alternative education options. For many microschooling or podding families, these options are merely temporary, intended to get them through the pandemic. However, given the considerable growth in microschooling in recent years, there are reasons to believe that the pandemic accelerated a growing trend that could significantly reshape K–12 education in the United States.”

A microschool is the reimagining of the one-room schoolhouse, where class sizes are usually fewer than 15 students of varying ages, and the schedule and curriculum are tailored to fit the needs of each class. Most microschools are independently parent-led, but some are affiliated with a formal network that offers paid, in-person instructors. Lessons are taught in various environments, such as homes, libraries, and other community centers.

The government, however, is very intrusive in this area. While parents can coach Little League teams, throw parties for their children, and take them and friends to a house of worship, when it comes to educating them, the government is in charge, even in homeschools and microschools.

In Iowa, for example, parents can go to jail if they talk about reading, writing, or arithmetic in a homeschool environment with more than four unrelated children. As the Institute for Justice’s Erica Smith and Darly James note, penalties for unauthorized teaching include “imprisonment not exceeding 10 days or a $100 fine. This is for a first offense. If parents continue dispensing knowledge without government permission, prosecutors can charge them with a serious misdemeanor.” Enacted in 2013, the law had a chilling effect on education innovation during the COVID-19 lockdown hysteria when parents sought alternatives.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

The Left Knew They Were Lying to Us All Along The left knowingly pushed falsehoods on COVID, Biden’s fitness, Hunter’s laptop, and the border—dividing the nation while facing no accountability. By Victor Davis Hanson

Posted By on March 20th, 2025

https://amgreatness.com/2025/03/20/the-left-knew-they-were-lying-to-us-all-along/

For years, the left has advanced utter untruths for cheap partisan purposes that it knew at the time were all false. And now when caught, they just shrug and say they were lying all along.

Once it was known that the first COVID-19 case originated in or near a Chinese communist virology lab engineering gain-in-function deadly viruses—with help from Western agencies—the left went into full persecution mode.

They damned as incompetent, racist, and conspiratorial any who dared follow logic and evidence to point out that the Chinese government and its military were both culpable for the virus and lying.

A million Americans died of COVID. Millions more suffered long-term injuries. Still, the left-wing media and Biden administration demonized any who dared speak the truth about a lab origin of the deadly virus.

The lies were designed to protect the guilty who had helped fund the virus’s origins, such as Doctors Anthony Fauci and Francis Collins.

The Biden government also tried to use the lab theory to ridicule a supposedly pro-Trump “conspiracy.”

Western corporate interests deeply invested in China did not want their partner held responsible for veritably killing and maiming hundreds of millions worldwide.

Almost as soon as Joe Biden was inaugurated, the left knew that he was physically and mentally unable to serve as president.

Indeed, that was the point.