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It is no secret that Pete Hegseth’s nomination to be President Donald Trump’s Secretary of Defense is in trouble. Washington insiders and the establishment media have been working hand-in-glove to defeat Hegseth and other “disrupter” nominees put forward by the incoming President. The personal trashing of Hegseth over what might be politely called his flamboyant lifestyle has overshadowed his potential as exactly the kind of outside the Beltway, outside the military-industrial complex Secretary of Defense required to cleanse our military of Marxist DEI nonsense return it to its former status as the world’s most lethal fighting force. However, according to reporting by ABC News, a growing number of Republican senators have privately signaled that they are not inclined to vote to confirm Pete Hegseth as President-elect Donald Trump's next defense secretary, leading Trump's advisers to begin discussing who may be a viable replacement, said sources familiar with the matter. Sources tell ABC News that at least six senators have privately indicated that they don't intend to vote for Hegseth, meaning he is well short of the 50+1 needed for confirmation. So, what happens if Pete’s nomination goes down thanks to the same establishment Republicans who torpedoed Matt Gaetz? Just how deeply in trouble the Hegseth nomination might be is measured by what names are being bandied about to replace him. Senator Joni Ernst is seen as a non-starter by conservatives who note she voted for many of the policies and the Flag Officers that Trump opposes. And many figures from the first Trump administration’s Department of Defense lost Mr. Trump’s confidence due to their relationship with the treasonous General Mark Milley. However, one alternative to Pete Hegseth who checks all the boxes for national security conservatives and will not be vulnerable to the criticism of his personal life leveled at Pete is Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. The Wall Street Journal reported President-elect Donald Trump is considering DeSantis as a possible replacement for Pete Hegseth, his pick to run the Pentagon, according to people familiar with the discussions, amid Republican senators’ concerns over mounting allegations about the former Fox News host’s personal life. The South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported DeSantis is interested in the Secretary of Defense appointment, and the Governor is said to have met with Trump Tuesday in Palm Beach. Citing unnamed sources, the Wall Street Journal reported that DeSantis is the leading contender for the post. None of the news organizations breaking the DeSantis story indicated whether DeSantis would take the job. A source in the DeSantis camp close to the discussions told the Sentinel that DeSantis is leaning toward accepting an offer if it is made, but he had to discuss it first with his wife, First Lady Casey DeSantis. DeSantis had previously professed a lack of interest in a Trump administration position, saying the best place for him is in Florida, where he still has two years left in his final term as governor. Term limits prevent him from seeking a third term. Floating DeSantis’s name was enough to send Democrats into a tizzy, with Florida Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried issuing an over-the-top warning that “Americans will be in grave danger if Ron DeSantis is nominated as our next Secretary of Defense.”   There have been warning signs that DeSantis would be willing to abuse his military authority, Fried said. He sent Florida National Guard troops to the Texas-Mexico border, chartered jets to fly refugees from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard, and reinstated the Florida State Guard — a military force that answers directly to the governor.   Fried's bombastic warnings about DeSantis using the military to round up illegal aliens and defending America from “the enemy within” mostly sound like music to the ears of the MAGA faithful. What’s more, the Sun-Sentinel reported that, beyond DeSantis, there have been discussions among Trump’s circle about shifting another Floridian, Rep. Michael Waltz, who was named by Trump as his national security adviser, to the Defense Department, according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity about private conversations. The Florida congressman is a retired Army National Guard officer and war veteran. If Hegseth’s nomination goes down – as it looks like it might thanks to the usual squishy Senate Republicans – Trump has two strong replacements standing in the wings. Much as we Floridians hate the idea of an early termination of the DeSantis administration, we think former Navy JAG officer Ron DeSantis would make a great Secretary of Defense. 2024 Election Trump cabinet Kash Patel deep state FBI Director Christopher Wray Pete Hegseth Ron DeSantis Matt Gaetz Defense Secretary Republican senators Senator Joni Ernst Casey DeSantis National guard to border Illegal immigration

Most Americans tend to think of private property simply as a home – the place where the family resides, stores their belongings, and finds shelter and safety from the elements. It’s where you live. It’s yours because you pay the mortgage and the taxes. Most people don’t give property ownership much more thought than that. There was a time when property ownership was considered to be much more. Property, and the ability to own and control it, was life itself. John Adams said, “The moment the idea is admitted into society that property is not as sacred as the law of God, and that there is not a force of law and public justice to protect it, anarchy and tyranny commence.” The great economist John Locke, whose writings and ideas had a major influence on the nation’s founders, believed that “life and liberty are secure only so long as the right of property is secure.” Locke warned that human civilization would be reduced to the level of a pack of wolves and cease to exist because lack of control over your own actions caused fear and insecurity. Private property ownership, Locke argued, brought stability and wealth to individuals, leading to a prosperous society of man. That’s because legal ownership of property is the key to productive development. Private property ownership is the reason the United States became the wealthiest nation on earth almost overnight. Free individuals, using their own land to create commerce and build personal wealth through the equity of their property, are the root of American success. Sixty percent of early American businesses were financed through the equity of property ownership. And sixty percent of American jobs were created through those successful businesses. That’s how a free-market economy is built. Private property ownership is the source of personal individual wealth for the average American. John Locke advocated that if property rights did not exist, then the incentive for an industrious person to develop and improve property would be destroyed; that the industrious person would be deprived of the fruits of his labor; that marauding bands would confiscate, by force, the goods produced by others; and that mankind would be compelled to remain on a bare-subsistence level of hand-to-mouth survival because the accumulation of anything of value would invite attack. One must only look to the example of the former Soviet Union to see clearly what happens to society when an outlaw government exercises brute force to take control of private property. Under that tyrannical government, each of Locke’s predictions came true. Throughout its history, the Soviet government excused its every action under the banner of equality for all. There were no property rights, no freedom of enterprise, and no protections for individual actions. Instead, the Soviet government enforced redistribution of wealth schemes, confiscating homes from the rich and middle class. Shelves were bare, freedom of choice was non-existent, and personal misery ruled the day. The same basic redistribution schemes of the Soviets were later used by Zimbabwe’s former dictator, Robert Mugabe, to destroy that agriculturally rich African nation. Mugabe confiscated farmland owned by white farmers and gave it to friends of his corrupt government – most of whom had never even seen a farm. The result was economic disaster, widespread poverty, and hunger in a land that had once fed the continent. The nation of South Africa is now following in the murderous footsteps of Robert Mugabe as it attacks white farmers, taking their property and again putting it in the hands of those who know nothing about running a farm. Clearly, John Locke’s warnings have been vindicated. Private property ownership is much more than a house. It is the root of a prosperous, healthy, human society based on the individual’s freedom to live a life of his own, gaining from the fruits of his own labor. Take that option away, and people will always react the same way. They stop producing. THE LOST DEFINITION OF PRIVATE PROPERTY RIGHTS   In the 1990s, an all-out assault on property rights was well underway, led by a radical environmental movement, resulting in massive federal land grabs in the name of conservation. As one can imagine, courts across the nation were flooded with cases of people attempting to defend their property rights from government takings. In the state of Washington, one of the major targets for such programs, the state Supreme Court realized it didn’t have an adequate definition of property rights to use in considering such cases. That’s when State Supreme Court Justice Richard B. Sanders wrote a “Fifth Amendment Treatise”, which included the following definition of property rights: “Property in a thing consists not merely in its ownership and possession, but in the unrestricted right of use, enjoyment, and disposal. Anything which destroys any of the elements of property, to that extent, destroys the property itself. The substantial value of property lies in its use. If the right of use be denied, the value of the property is annihilated, and ownership is rendered a barren right.”   “Use” of the land is the key. Using the land in a productive way that is beneficial to the owner is what gives the land value. According to Justice Sanders, paying the taxes and mortgage while some undefined government entity can rule and regulate how the property is used, is a “barren right” that annihilates its value. When you purchase property, how much of the land do you own? What is the depth of the soil? Do you own the water on the land? Do you own the air above it? As property rights expert Dr. Timothy Ball wrote, “All these questions speak to political issues that transcend private, regional, and national boundaries. Nationally and internationally, lack of this knowledge is being exploited by those who seek control…” HOW TO FIGHT BACK?   For several decades, the radical Left has been dedicated in its efforts to organize at every level of government while advocates of limited government failed to do the required “dirty work” of local organization and activism to protect our freedoms. We gave the Left a pretty clear playing field to organize and seize control, and now we are suffering under the result. For the dedicated Left, no position is too small. No appointed board is ignored. When was the last time local Conservative activists cared about positions like City Attorney? Yet these are the very officials who enforced the COVID-19 lockdown policies. Local government is now infested with Planners, NGOs, and federal agencies dictating policies. And the only reason they have power and influence now is because the Left fought to elect representatives who then gave it to them. Today, too many elected officials, even the honest ones, fail to understand the roots and goals of the “Sustainable” policies they are enforcing. In their ignorance they respond to critics, saying, “well, that’s just the way it’s done.” As they surrender their elective powers to appointed boards, do they even think of asking themselves, “Who do they actually represent – the voters or the NGOs and appointed boards?” The threat of man-made climate change is the center of the Deep State’s hold on power. That’s the unrelenting fear tactic that claims the earth will become uninhabitable in ten years unless massive government power controls every human action. Power for the state! Yet there is ample scientific proof that such claims about man’s effect on the environment are basically non-existent. However, many leaders of the freedom movement wrongly assume that all we need to do to counter the misinformation from the climate alarmists is to simply write a scholarly paper disproving it and set the record straight. It doesn’t work because few will understand it, fewer still will ever attempt to read it. In short, we badly overestimate the knowledge, intelligence and attention span of the average citizen and government official whom we are trying to convince. Emotions tend to decide debates rather than facts. The first step in fighting back is to stop depending on one person, one icon, one president to lead us forward. We must take responsibility ourselves to ensure that the government does not move forward unattended. We need to be directly involved at every level, especially on the local level. Change the debate to attack anti-freedom policies and expose non-governmental (NGO) carpetbaggers hiding in the shadows dictating policy. You can change the debate by making private property protection the key to your local fight. Sustainable policy cannot be enforced if private property is protected. Challenge local elected officials to stand with you in protection of private property. If they refuse – expose them. Force elected officials to be personally responsible for their actions. Picture how different our nation would be if we dug in to elect a majority of governors across the nation who understood and operated under the Tenth Amendment, which acknowledges the States’ power to stand against Federal overreach. What if you had a county commission that refused to participate in non-elected regional government? How would your life change if your city council was made up of individuals who guided your community under the three pillars of freedom, including protection of private property, encouragement and support for local businesses, and the lifting of rules and regulations that stifled personal choices in your individual life? How do we make all of that a reality? Set a goal to turn your local community into a Freedom Pod. Simply focus on making these goals a reality in your community and if successful, as prosperity spreads, the idea will certainly spread to a neighboring community and then to the next. The challenge is to create a successful blueprint and a cadre of dedicated elected representatives that will begin to move from the local to the state level of government. That will set the stage for effecting a federal government as conceived by our forefathers. The result will be the growth of Freedom Pods across the nation. Here is the end game for the forces of freedom. No matter who is president, we must take control of our cities, counties, state legislatures, and governors. Only then can we stand up to the potential tyranny from Washington, DC. To live your life as YOU choose, start right there in your community – build that Freedom Pod. Act Local and Stop Global! How do you do that? The American Policy Center (APC) is now working with organizations nationwide to train and motivate local residents to take action in their own communities to push back and restore American freedom. APC has created a Local Activists Handbook and a Tool Kit with all the details you need to start organizing, training, and improving communications between activists and organizations, to share tactics, ideas, and successes. Learn more at www.americanpolicy.org . Author Tom DeWeese is President of the American Policy Center and National Grassroots Coordinator for CFACT (Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow) working to help local activists organize into Freedom Pods ( www.CFACT.org ). He is also the author of three books, including Now Tell Me I Was Wrong, ERASE, and Sustainable: the WAR on Free Enterprise, Private Property, and Individuals. 2024 Election Freedom Pods Agenda 2030 Agenda 21 Stakeholder Capitalism Klaus Schwab Peter Vanham Global economy sustainability Global elite universal basic income corporate monopoly power climate change world government open borders abortion

One month since the 2024 election and Democrats still at a loss to explain it   “Get over it already”. In the 30 days since the 2024 campaign came to an abrupt end, the hours have seemed to pass quickly and impossibly slowly at the same time, the personnel announcements from the Trump transition team coming as both surprising and exhilarating to conservatives as the president elect fills his inner circle with boat-rockers, system disrupters and establishment busters all at once.   Yes, it was only a month ago today that Americans went to the polls to change their own world and send a loud and clear message to their arrogant Democrat keepers that they weren’t about to accept the status quo and elect a candidate whose basic message was “you gotta trust me”, offering little in terms of plans or specifics for what she intended to do if granted another term of the Obama/Biden interminable presidency.   Donald J. Trump and J.D. Vance ran a winning campaign and deserved the victory they earned, taking advantage of new media opportunities and doing the little things necessary to appeal to the available undecided voters. No wonder the election post-mortems have (mostly) been positive. Looking back, it’s hard to be unsatisfied with any of the moves they’ve made thus far.   Kamala Harris and Tim Walz lost convincingly, yet they’re still perplexed about how it happened. And they haven’t accepted defeat easily in their own minds. In an opinion piece titled, “The Harris media ‘double standard’ that wasn’t”, W. James Antle III wrote at the Washington Examiner :   “Top officials in Vice President Kamala Harris’s failed presidential campaign are protesting a media ‘double standard” as they try to explain to liberal audiences what went wrong. On the liberal podcast Pod Save America, multiple Harris lieutenants complain that Harris was pilloried for her light media schedule while President-elect Donald Trump largely eschewed traditional media...   “Harris’s deputies now complain that 107 days wasn’t enough time to make their case or roll out their candidate. But it was clear for much of that time period that they hoped to take advantage of an abbreviated schedule. They also argued at the time they were waiting until voters started paying attention, after Labor Day or even later.   “Both candidates sought favorable media attention. Trump’s success despite a smaller advertising budget and more contentious relationship with much of the press and Harris’s failure is noteworthy, but not the product of a double standard.”   Yes, you read that correctly. In their desperation to ascertain what went so spectacularly wrong despite the liberals’ plethora of advantages – significant money margin, friendly media coverage and a virtual incumbency regardless of which Biden/Harris team member headed the duo – Democrats won’t get over it, move beyond and blame themselves.   The gist of their gripes revolves around suggesting Trump didn’t do enough “traditional” media like Kamala did. Whereas conservatives observed that Kamala wouldn’t answer unscripted questions from any source, Democrats objected to Trump sidestepping the outdated establishment networks completely.   Really, Democrats, that’s all you have?   Antle highlighted six reasons why Trump’s strategy alone didn’t actually tip the balance in the campaign. Trump was already well known to the national electorate, so the fact he eschewed regular interviews from the so-called “traditional” media was hardly a double-standard. Trump was extremely visible to anyone who sought to see him.   Meanwhile, where was Kamala? Did she and her handlers believe a single appearance on Fox News (her disastrous interview with Brett Baier) would justify carping there was a media double standard? If Democrats keep complaining about such trifling worries, they’ll never learn the hard lessons they need to absorb. And Republicans will maintain their newfound advantages, to Trump’s – and the nation’s -- benefit.   Was Kamala actually drunk?   You’re forgiven if you haven’t seen it, but, for some as-yet unexplained reason Democrats put on an exhibition last week featuring the losing 2024 candidates, Kamala Harris and Tim Walz, basically thanking each other and giving themselves permission to move on from the election results in order to… do something… but stay involved. What, run again? If you’re like me, you found it both enlightening and frightening to relive the part of campaign 2024 that was so scary. It seems like ancient history now, but this woman (and her idiot running mate) came within smelling distance of winning the election. Without the concerted effort to put Trump over the top, none of the great things that have happened since would have been possible.   Kamala Harris as president? The apprehension was real. We should remind ourselves often.   In the meantime, what would motivate Kamala to put out this simple production? Was she trying to raise the last bit of money to cover her debts? Was she keeping her avenues open for another run in four (or more) years? Is she establishing a foundation to further the “woke” cause? Did Dougie Emhoff put her up to it? Or was she merely intoxicated and emboldened by alcohol?   The world will probably never know.   Democrats figured a Trump 2.0 administration would be bad (for them), but this  bad?   Compounding the angst Democrats are dealing with is the fact victor Donald Trump hasn’t hesitated to choose the individuals he aspired to as far as tapping loyalists and unabashed implementers to work alongside him to bring the Make America Great Again agenda to fruition.   There aren’t any cowards or shirkers in Trump’s world. Tom Homan takes over for Kamala as border czar. Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy will set to work on dismantling the federal bureaucracy and the soft-spoken and unassuming Pam Bondi will almost surely earn the requisite votes to take over as Attorney General. Don’t allow appearances to fool you – Bondi is a tiger, and just as ferocious (in a good way) and relentless.   Whenever a Democrat (supposedly) wins a presidential election and begins the process of choosing Washington swamp dwellers who will fill the shoes of some other party honk, they at least attempt to maintain the ruse that the new leaders are “bipartisan” and will fulfill their duties in the most uncontroversial manner possible.   Remember how the wholly unqualified former mayor of a medium-sized midwestern city, Pete Buttigieg, was tapped by Biden for Transportation secretary because the fellow 2020 presidential candidate-turned Biden surrogate was a big fan of model trains as a boy? Democrats must’ve had fun at Christmastime playing with their presents that year because Pete’s childhood fondness was the only think Buttigieg brought to the table in terms of his credentials to oversee a department as vastly important as Transportation. Anyone recall the supply chain issues as a result of the miscasting of the gay DEI hire?   Or how about the heinous Merrick Garland brought in to oversee the Justice Department? Garland swore he would keep politics out of his justice decisions, but once in place, play politics is about all he did. It was clear from the outset Merrick intended to exact revenge on all Republicans due to being denied a Supreme Court seat for which he was nominated by Barack Obama.   These were Washington hires regardless of their places of origin. Coming off their suspicious 2020 win, Democrats were bent on reestablishing the power of Washington over the people. The opposite is happening now. Trump carefully selected each person for their respective positions – places where they can disentangle the bureaucracy as much as go to work on Trump’s agenda.   It may take a few months for Americans to realize what they’ve got now. The Democrats will demagogue and fight each step of the way. So will the “traditional” media. Here’s thinking Trump won’t be any more willing to simply toss them a bone just for the sake of it. And the country will be better off for it. Joe Biden economy inflation Biden cognitive decline gas prices, Nancy Pelosi Biden senile Kamala Harris candidacy Donald Trump campaign Harris Trump debates J.D. Vance Kamala vice president Speaker Mike Johnson Donald Trump assassination Donald Trump 2024 presidential election Tim Walz

In a recent edition of his must-read Committee to Unleash Prosperity Hotline  our friend Steve Moore alerted us to another Democrat scheme to use weaponized government to extract payback from Elon Musk for supporting Donald Trump. California is facing a multi-billion dollar deficit, but Governor Gavin Newsom says he will use state money to substitute for a $7,500 federal electric vehicle tax credit that Donald Trump vows to kill.   “We will intervene,” he vows. “Doubling down on our commitment to clean air and green jobs in California.” So, let’s do the math here, wrote Mr. Moore. There are roughly 1.8 million cars sold each year in California. Let’s say half of them are EVs – as new car buyers take advantage of the subsidies. This means California’s budget would swell by another $5 billion – which could double the state’s existing annual deficit.   And to top it off – Newsom is planning to exclude Tesla from his new subsidies, for no apparent reason, except that Elon Musk supports President Trump. The folly of Newsom’s political payback to Elon Musk can be quantified in dollars and cents for hardworking Tesla employees. Despite opening a new factory in Austin, Texas and moving its corporate headquarters there, Tesla remains heavily involved in California. Tesla’s California factory in Fremont has become the #1 automobile production facility in the United States.   The EV maker has grown from a long-shot startup founded 20 years ago in San Carlos to the state's largest manufacturing employer with 47,000 employees in 2022 – almost half its global workforce – and the world's leading electric vehicle maker.   According to Inside EVs Tesla has a large impact on the Golden State's employment, wages, gross state product and tax base. As many manufacturing jobs have been exported outside of the US over the past decade and international supply chains have been disrupted, Tesla says it has defied national trends by increasing domestic employment and production.   Tesla-supported jobs in California increased by 40% from 2018 to 2021, and 2021 wages exceeded the state average by 50%, offering the highest compensation in Tesla’s sectors.   The automaker also cited a recent economic impact assessment conducted by IHS Markit that details its importance for California, including Tesla-supported California jobs – more than 80,000 direct and indirect jobs in 2021 – and taxes paid – $400 million in state and local taxes in 2021.   The automaker also points out that it has made over $5 billion in capital investments in its California facilities since 2016, chiefly in Fremont where the 2 millionth vehicle rolled off the lines in July 2022.   Newsom says he's protecting California's "green jobs" with a $5 billion taxpayer subsidy. But hey, Elon Musk supported Donald Trump in the recent presidential election, so Democrats will punish him, and the hardworking Tesla employees at Fremont, and the company's Silicon Valley engineering headquarters, by making the cars they manufacture less competitive against EVs manufactured elsewhere. Economics be damned, everything Democrats do is political. 2024 Election Elon Musk Biden administration Biden administration regulations Space X Vandenburg Air Force base FEMA Starlink internet access Tesla electric vehicles Rivian government subsidies Inflation Reduction Act Rivian sales EV sales Trump administration

The conservative leaders who participate in the Conservative Action Project yesterday issued the following statement saying: Conservatives strongly support the nomination of Kash Patel to be Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and urge his swift confirmation by the U.S. Senate. The last decade has shown the FBI to be in serious need of reform. Its failed leadership has implicated the FBI in a host of political scandals, from knowingly perpetuating the Russia collusion hoax to creating fraudulent evidence in support of a FISA warrant to spy on the Trump campaign. Its top leadership has politicized the FBI in a manner that has poisoned its mandate and lost the public trust. Kash Patel has the experience, tenacity, and temperament to bring much needed change to the agency. He is a former attorney with the Department of Justice, has experience in the intelligence community and counterterrorism work at both the congressional and executive levels, and has demonstrated administrative skill in leadership roles at the Department of Defense. Crucially, he has shown he understands the critical deficits that exist at the FBI and is committed to right-sizing the agency through transparency and rigorous reform. The men and women of the FBI deserve to be led by a director who respects the agency’s mission, its impartial execution of justice, and who is committed to excellence in both. Kash Patel has the trust of the President to transform a badly deficient agency into an institution that once again commands the respect of the people it serves. The Senate should confirm him to the position without delay. The Honorable J. Kenneth Blackwell Chairman, Conservative Action Project Chairman, CNP Action, Inc.   Kelly J. Shackelford, Esq. President and CEO First Liberty Institute Ed Corrigan Vice Chairman, Conservative Action Project President & CEO, Conservative Partnership Institute   William L. Walton The Bill Walton Show Resolute Protector Foundation   Kevin Roberts, Ph.D. President The Heritage Foundation   Cleta Mitchell, Esq. Senior Legal Fellow Conservative Partnership Institute   Alfred S. Regnery President Republic Book Publishers   Ginni Thomas President Liberty Consulting   David Bozell President ForAmerica   Terry Schilling President American Principles Project   Jenny Beth Martin Chairman Tea Party Patriots Citizen Fund   Lori Roman President ACRU Action Fund   Thomas H. Jones Founder American Accountability Foundation   The Honorable Kenneth T. Cuccinelli, II Sr. Fellow, Homeland Security and Immigration, Center for Renewing America   Rod D. Martin Founder & CEO Martin Capital, Inc.   Guillermo J. Aragon Chief Strategy Officer Martin Capital, Inc.   Craig Shirley Reagan and Trump biographer Presidential Historian   Shea Bradley-Farrell, Ph.D. President, Counterpoint Institute for Policy, Research & Education   Kelly Kullberg General Secretary American Association of Evangelicals (AAE)   Mark Fitzgibbons President of Corporate Affairs American Target Advertising   Sheryl Kaufman Chief Economist, Retired Phillips Petroleum Company   Khadine Ritter State Central Committee Member Ohio Republican Party   Tim Throckmorton President Lifepointe Ministries   Jack Park Conservative Activist and Donor   James Taylor President The Heartland Institute   Elaine Donnelly President Center for Military Readiness   C. Preston Noell III President Tradition, Family, Property, Inc.   Judson Phillips Founder Tea Party Nation   Walker Wildmon CEO AFA Action   Seton Motley President Less Government   Kathleen Patten President and CEO American Target Advertising   Nancy Schulze Chief, Political Strategy Physicians for Reform   John Yep President and CEO Catholics for Catholics   Tim Macy Chairman Gun Owners of America   Kay R. Daly President Coalition for a Fair Judiciary   The Honorable Mac Warner Secretary of State West Virginia   The Honorable Jake Hoffman State Senator Arizona Senate   James L. Martin Founder/Chairman 60 Plus Association   Rick Green Founder Patriot Academy   Jerry Maston Pastor River of Life Church    Gary Marx President Madison Strategies LLC   Mike Davis President & Founder Article III Project   David N. Bossie President Citizens United   Penny Y. Nance President & CEO Concerned Women for America   Chad Connelly Founder and President Faith Wins   L. Brent Bozell III Founder and President Media Research Center   Rebecca Weber CEO, Association of Mature American Citizens (AMAC)   Scott T. Parkinson   The Honorable Becky Norton Dunlop White House Advisor President Ronald Reagan (1981-1985)   Thomas E. McClusky Principal Greenlight Strategies, LLC   The Honorable T. Kenneth Cribb, Jr. Assistant to the President for Domestic Affairs, President Ronald Reagan   The Honorable Bob McEwen U.S. House of Representatives Former Member, Ohio Myron Ebell Chairman American Lands Council Bob Carlstrom   Lt. Gen. William G. Boykin (Ret.) Executive Vice President Family Research Council   Eric Teetsel Executive Vice President Citizens for Renewing America   Christina Murphy, Esq. President The Martin Foundation   Lourdes Cosio Campaign for the American Future   Allen Hebert Chairman American-Chinese Fellowship of Houston   Tom DeWeese President American Policy Center   E. Paul Bigham Founder/CEO Bigham Nonprofit Fundraising Advisors   Joseph A. Morris Partner, Morris & De La Rosa Assistant U.S. Attorney General (Reagan)   The Honorable Stephen Stockman U.S. House of Representatives Former Member, Texas   The Honorable Elias Coop-Gonzalez Delegate West Virginia House of Delegates   Jon L. Pritchett Major Gifts Officer, The Becket Fund Managing Director, Tobacco Road Capitalists   Amy Kremer Chairwoman Women for America First   Willes K. Lee Board of Directors National Rifle Association of America   Joan Holt Lindsey President Lindsey Communications   Lee Beaman CEO Beaman Ventures   Sean Noble President American Encore   Gerard Kassar State Chairman NYS Conservative Party   Richard Manning President Americans for Limited Government   The Honorable George K. Rasley Jr. Managing Editor ConservativeHQ.com   Ron Pearson President Pearson & Pipkin   Kristen A. Ullman President Eagle Forum   The Honorable Richard D. Hayes State Representative State of Texas    Melvin Adams President Noah Webster Educational Foundation   Saulius “Saul” Anuzis President American Association of Senior Citizens   Kevin Freeman Founder NSIC Institute   Dr. Paige Patterson President Sandy Creek Foundation   Dr. E. LeBaron Physician owner Vitality Integrative Medicine   Pastor Ralph A Rebandt II President Michigan Lighthouse Ministries   The Honorable Mike Hill Former Member Florida State House   The Honorable Gary L. Bauer President American Values 2024 Election Trump cabinet Kash Patel deep state FBI Director Christopher Wray

Get real – senile Joe Biden had to be restrained to hold off this long to pardon son Hunter   To anyone upset, enraged, put off, angered, exasperated, disgusted, incensed or aggravated by current (for a little over a month more) president senile Joe Biden’s decision to pardon prodigal son Hunter Biden the other day, I ask, “What did you expect?”   Most conservatives’ reaction included a “See, I told you so!” odd sense of satisfaction at prognostications coming true.   To employ a vastly overused cliché, you could see this family amnesty coming from a mile – or approximately 45 days – away. Using similar language to that often employed by conservatives Republicans and MAGA adherents to describe the nefarious lawfare witch hunts unleashed by Biden’s own lawyers and suit-wearing law enforcement personnel against the president-elect himself over the past eight or so years, the mentally enfeebled commander in chief used every persuasive bromide in the books to justify installing an impregnable constitutional legal barrier around his lone surviving boy for any and all transgressions committed within ten or so-years.   The sleazy deals with foreign enemies, the tens of millions of dollars collected for Hunter himself, his daddy and an impressive ring of co-conspirators, the tax evasion, drug crimes, prostitution, child sex trafficking (?) and lord knows what else – are now beyond reach for any law entity who may have craved to see the man-boy frog-marched to the hoosegow. You know, the same result Democrats tried to impart on Trump himself.   Little Hunter must feel like he’s been given the ultimate Get Out of Jail Free card now and be floating on air as though he possesses angel’s wings, free to light up a crack pipe without fear of ever having to fret about being found out or facing repercussions. Who would censure him after all this?   For most Americans who would never approve of such a move, did you really figure that the lamer than lame duck Joe Biden intended to keep his vow to let his progeny languish in prison jumpsuits for a big chunk of the privileged man’s remaining years? If so, shame on you! Joe Biden has never kept a promise in his life – unless it was something he really, really, wanted, like furthering the liberal woke agenda or devising a monstrously expensive big government/corporate welfare boondoggle program.   The rest of senile Joe’s career vows and assurances involves doing as much as possible to further his and the party’s agenda. It’s whatever his conscience would allow, and in Joe’s case, his conscience doesn’t interfere much. In an article titled, “President Biden Issues Sweeping Pardon to Son Hunter, Breaking Promise as He Leaves Office”, John Solomon reported at The Star News Network :   “President Joe Biden on Sunday night pardoned his son Hunter on gun and tax charges, breaking a promise he had made to voters…   “’Without aggravating factors like use in a crime, multiple purchases, or buying a weapon as a straw purchaser, people are almost never brought to trial on felony charges solely for how they filled out a gun form,’ Biden added. ‘Those who were late paying their taxes because of serious addictions, but paid them back subsequently with interest and penalties, are typically given non-criminal resolutions. It is clear that Hunter was treated differently.’...   “’For my entire career I have followed a simple principle: just tell the American people the truth. They’ll be fair-minded,’ he said. ‘Here’s the truth: I believe in the justice system, but as I have wrestled with this, I also believe raw politics has infected this process and it led to a miscarriage of justice – and once I made this decision this weekend, there was no sense in delaying it further. I hope Americans will understand why a father and a President would come to this decision.’”   Really, Joe? What’s the old saying? Isn’t this just like the pot calling the kettle black?   Hunter probably cringes whenever he hears the words “pot” and “kettle”, but drug references aren’t exactly his cup of tea. As members of the Biden family, however, hypocrisy qualifies as something Joe n’ Hunter engage in, as well as serving as standard examples of the privileged elite, ruling class and a different system of justice for the Bidens (a.k.a. Democrats) and the rest of the universe.   Republicans occasionally pardon deserving people. Democrats pardon their own.   Besides, what reason would senile Joe have had to permit Hunter to face the legal music by going pardon-less? I’m not a lawyer – actually, I am, but a non-practicing one – but isn’t the president’s constitutional pardoning power nearly absolute? Answering my own query, no, the power does not extend to violations against state law and a few other restrictions, but generally, a pardon of any crime with some connection to a federal statute is governed by the Constitution and a couple hundred years’ worth of federal jurisprudence – which covers a lot.   The fact senile Joe Biden may impact his own criminal status by releasing Hunter is also an open question, particularly because the boy’s business dealings, and presumably his laptop full of information, implicates the president in a plethora of the father’s extra-legal operations before his term in office.   Not to mention his extended family’s history. Some conservatives now surmise that senile Joe couldn’t possibly stop with just pardoning Hunter alone . Joe’s youngest male offspring may be the most famous of all the presidential children, but surely Hunter didn’t act alone. The investigations begun under the Republican House have turned up a wealth of characters (including presidential brother Jim Biden) who participated and benefited by using the family “brand”, just as Hunter did.   “You ain’t seen nothin’ yet” could be the refrain from the outgoing White House occupant. There are an awful lot of repulsive Democrat operatives, a half century’s tally of campaign contributors and friends likely waiting in line at the Biden pardon application office. Some of them probably worked on the January 6 commission in addition.   And Democrats will try to deflect attention towards Trump’s own personal moves and official clemency actions himself as mid-January creeps ever closer.   Timing of the Hunter pardon demonstrates senile Joe’s confidence in American forgetfulness   The fact Biden issued the pardon on the last day of the Thanksgiving holiday weekend revealed a number of things about the way Obama’s veep’s thinks.   First, Biden assumed, probably correctly, that Americans would be preoccupied with other things on the calendar date. I myself was stuck in traffic for a portion of the afternoon, and listening to news tidbits took a proverbial backseat to listening to seasonal music and dreaming of a white Christmas.   Second, Biden likely figures, again correctly, that there’s enough time between now and Trump’s second inauguration day for the not-Trump half of the country to move past the pardon. By January 20, the establishment media won’t even mention what happened over a month ago and the full force of the ruling class slime machine will then turn towards Trump’s own pardons in the early part of his second administration. Those, and the 47th president’s executive orders.   Hunter getting a pass will be so yesterday by then. “Leave Joe alone”, the apologists will say.   The Hunter Biden story has been told and retold so many times that Americans have become conditioned to the idea their president’s family is corrupt and law-less – and they’ll beat the rap. Senile Joe likely felt that getting Hunter off the hook rather than waiting for the younger man’s upcoming sentencing for his convictions was the prudent thing to keep himself out of hot water presently and in the future. Time will tell what the pardon will mean for Biden’s political legacy.   But after the events of the past month, will anyone even remember Joe Biden was once president? Joe Biden economy inflation Biden cognitive decline gas prices, Nancy Pelosi Biden senile Kamala Harris candidacy Donald Trump campaign Harris Trump debates J.D. Vance Kamala vice president Speaker Mike Johnson Donald Trump assassination Donald Trump 2024 presidential election Tim Walz

Everyone in DC knew Joe Biden (or whoever is running the White House) was going to pardon his miscreant son, Hunter. The only real surprise is that he did it this early in the transition, thereby ensuring two solid months of attacks, as opposed to the few days of negative press he would have suffered had he waited until the absolute end of his term. But Hunter was due to be sentenced on Dec. 12 on the gun-related charges in Delaware and Dec. 16 on the tax charges in California, so the pardon spares Hunter the risk a judge might go off the Democrat reservation and order him to report to prison immediately. So, why would Joe Biden take onboard two months of negative publicity to weigh down his already tattered legacy? One reason, suggested by our friend former CIA operator Sam Faddis and others in the uncorrupted parts of the intelligence community, is that we’ve been looking at Hunter’s crimes through the narrow lens of pay-to-play corruption when the real danger to the Bidens and their clique lies in their national security-related crimes. As Mr. Faddis posted in his must-read AND Magazine substack: This has nothing to do with keeping Hunter out of jail. It has to do with keeping Joe Biden and a bunch of other people out of jail and covering up what may well be the greatest counterintelligence disaster in our history. It’s about China.   Let’s grab ahold of one small piece of the puzzle. Let’s talk about CEFC China Energy and its chairman, Ye Jianming. Ye sits like a spider at the heart of all the Chinese contacts with the Bidens. Those contacts resulted in literally millions of dollars being funneled to the Bidens from Communist China.   CEFC was a Chinese intelligence front organization. Using CEFC as cover, Ye targeted officials in foreign nations as part of China’s United Front activities . The Chinese refer to these activities as “elite capture.” The goal of these operations is to gain control over powerful people in target countries and get them to act in furtherance of the objectives of the CCP. As Sam Faddis documented, CEFC began its efforts to establish a relationship with the Bidens  in 2015 when Joe was Vice-President. Once that relationship was established CEFC, Ye, and CEFC’s man in the United States, Gongwen “Kevin” Dong then funneled money  to the Bidens through a vast array of shell companies designed to hide the payments . Editor’s Note:  The creation of this elaborate array of shell companies is likely what prompted Joe Biden to refer to Hunter as the smartest guy I know. The Biden family and its business associates created a complicated web of more than 20 companies, according to bank records obtained by the House Oversight Committee — a system, Chairman James Comer said, that was meant to conceal money received from foreign nationals.   Sixteen of the companies were limited liability companies formed during Joe Biden’s tenure as vice president, the committee said in a press conference. The Biden family, their business associates, and their companies received more than $10 million from foreign nationals’ and their related companies, the records show. These payments occurred both while Biden was in office as vice president and after his time in office ended, reported Brittany Bernstein in a 2023 article for National Review. By 2017, Hunter Biden had forged such a tight partnership with Ye and CEFC that he planned to share office space with him in Washington, D.C., noted Mr. Faddis. Then Vice-President Joe Biden was specifically included on the lease for the office space to be shared with this Chinese intelligence front company. Joe Biden was clearly not only aware of Hunter’s contacts with this Chinese intelligence front but also planning on working side by side with Chinese spies operating on U.S. soil. Let that sink in: Joe Biden was not only aware of Hunter’s contacts with this Chinese intelligence front but also planning on working side by side with Chinese spies operating on U.S. soil. Now, here’s where it gets interesting and could spell more trouble for the rest of the Biden crime syndicate. In what Representative Nancy Mace called an act of “financial gymnastics,” many payments were routed from foreign companies to the Biden family’s business associates’ companies which then doled out payments to the Bidens in incremental payments to different bank accounts in an alleged attempt to hide the source of the funds, reported Ms. Bernstein.   At least nine Biden family members received payments, according to committee chairman James Comer. That includes Hunter Biden; James Biden; James Biden’s wife, Sara Jones Biden; the late Beau Biden’s wife, Hallie Biden; Hunter Biden’s ex-wife, Kathleen Buhle; Hunter Biden’s wife, Melissa Cohen; and “three children of the president’s son and the president’s brother.”   Much of the money came from Chinese nationals and companies with ties to the Chinese Communist Party. Multiple Biden family members received money after it passed through an associate’s account. Comer said of the countries the Biden family was influence peddling in, China is “the most reputable,” Ms. Bernstein reported. It remains to be seen whether the new Trump administration or the House GOP will pursue the obvious lines of investigation against the rest of the Biden crime syndicate now that Hunter has been pardoned. Many smart lawyers have noted that now that Hunter has been pardoned he can’t plead the Fifth Amendment and that any future perjury on his part would not be covered by the pardon, so he could be a devastating witness against the other members of the Biden family. 2024 Election Hunter Biden pardon Joe Biden Hunter Biden laptop crack pipe Hunter Biden children Mia Cathell drug addiction Hunter Biden drug use Federal gun application Hunter Biden's sister-in-law Hallie Biden Joe Biden David Weiss

It has been almost 10 years since 5-times deported illegal immigrant Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez murdered Kate Steinle  in San Francisco. The country was outraged. Today, we are inviting this behavior – on a scale that is unfathomable. Yes, I’m well aware that a major goal of Agenda 21/2030/the Great Reset is to reduce the human population by over 90%, and this is just one of the tools being used to achieve that goal. But I do keep forgetting that we are just natural resources to be tended to and controlled by the New World Order Globalists – who are, thus, themselves, natural resources but, instead, consider themselves all-powerful beings of a higher order, not the scum they are. It is very difficult for a sane, rational person who operates on logic, reason, and sound science to take in these ideas as anything more than unhinged idiocy. But it is the operating principle for the Globalists and the uber-gullible masses they have programmed. In the past several years, illegal immigration has multiplied many-fold. And those being welcomed in are the dregs of the underworld. We now have cartel gangs taking over apartment buildings, raping young and old alike, and being given the keys to the kingdom – money, cars, and carte blanch to rape and pillage like the marauders of feudalism days. But, an American who, as he put it so eloquently to me, “I’m a US citizen, US taxpayer, US veteran, and I can’t get past the iron curtain  known as US immigration.” Watch the short video re a wife with a Green Card since 1990, and paying U.S. taxes ever since. Her Green Card expired a while ago, but assuming that they have been paying taxes (and extra taxes — see video), it would just be a formality to get a new one. But no such luck. They are now being told it could be a year or two before she is able to return to their home in Florida, where their daughters are living. My advice was to move to Mexico and come back that way – maybe they would even have the extra $20,000 in taxes returned to them. Hearing their story makes me madder than a wet hen. Daily, we read about the illegal gangs – murders, rape, pillage – you name it, if it is illegal and disgusting, they will do it – laughing. And go on collecting their thousands. I want to know if you, reader, see that this is part of the plan, the plan to reduce the legal human population. Once the illegals take out enough of them, they will become the cannon fodder. But, for now, they have a license to commit mayhem and get written up as heroes for it – as that is what they are to the Globalists – heroes of 1984, Brave New World, and Soylent Green. We need some outrage here, folks. We need to let those bought-out bums in D.C. know that we are not going to be cowed by them anymore, that we want a clean house and will do the cleaning if they are willing. Now, we are about as upside-down as we can get. When do we say NO!? Right is wrong. Good is bad. Evil has a free hand. Our children have been brainwashed, programmed, and had their brains turned to mush. Our teachers have been programmed to spew Marxist dogma, and instead of teaching the 3 Rs, they are inculcating the students with sexual aberrations and causing them to be averse to good, clean work. Our civilization is on the verge of collapse, and people cannot take their heads off their phones long enough to see the abhorrence of what is considered proper behavior. It is time for every still fairly sane person to be counted. You can start by writing to your Congressmen and women and Senators and tell them it is time to grow up, be adults, and send those bearing bribes or threats to get lost. At the same time, please tell them the Department of Homeland Security needs to be demolished, post haste. ICE needs to get rid of all illegal aliens now! And we need to become conscientious citizens who do not put up with the behavior of those breaking the law and threatening our neighborhoods. Either “See something – do something” or “See something – call someone (police)”. Man up – even you women. Stand up for what is right and stand against wrongs. Watch Dave’s video and realize that when illegal aliens are welcomed with open arms and well-behaved legals are denied entry, there is something grossly wrong with our system.; it needs a rebuild. Let your elected officials – federal and local – know that we are no longer scared of them; that we are in charge, and we want to once again live in Freedom. Slay the beast. Author Kathleen Marquardt  has been an advocate for property rights and freedom for decades. Today, she serves as Vice President of American Policy Center. To learn more about American Policy Center and its work, including its Freedom Pod program go to www.americanpolicy.org 2024 Election Freedom Pods Agenda 2030 Agenda 21 Stakeholder Capitalism Klaus Schwab Peter Vanham Global economy sustainability Global elite universal basic income corporate monopoly power climate change world government open borders abortion illegal immigration

The addition of Russell Vought to head the Trump budget team demonstrates a serious effort to cut government   “Donald Trump is a big government Republican”, remarked a Trump-doubting family member, someone who argued passionately in the middle of 2023 that all conservative politics observers needed to do whatever they possibly could to ensure that someone other than Trump  won the 2024 party nomination.   This particular person was not what I would call a Never Trumper, but someone who believed to his very core that the former president was not electable because of what happened in the waning days of Trump’s first administration. While hardly averse to voting for the lifetime real estate developer/tabloid celebrity/reality TV star if he succeeded in winning the GOP nomination, this skeptical soul said he would do so and then find something else to occupy his attention in his free hours.   In other words, said political participant would completely give up on politics.   I’m guessing there were a lot of Americans similarly inclined regarding the just concluded election and its candidate choices. Conservatives loved much of the MAGA platform and its chief promoters, yet there were many, myself included, who doubted Trump’s willingness to actually take a slash and burn attitude towards reducing the size of government itself.   Donald J. Trump wasn’t a Tea Party-type when he ran for office, winning the 2016 nomination much the way he did in 2024 – which was essentially by promising to restore America’s border sovereignty, cut taxes and be a ready participant in the nation’s culture war – which many of us concluded was a near-lost cause because of recent gains by opportunistic liberals on a number of fronts.   But with Trump’s transition moves regarding DOGE and the late addition of budget guru Russell Vought – who also served in the first Trump go ‘round – has the president-elect revealed his true self at last?In an article titled, “‘Slash and burn’: Trump’s budget chief shows ‘total’ commitment to shrinking government”, Christian Datoc reported at the Washington Examiner  recently :   “President-elect Donald Trump’s selection of Russell Vought as the incoming administration’s budget chief illustrates Trump’s ‘total’ commitment to curbing government spending and eliminating waste, according to allies.   “Trump nominated Vought to serve as director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, the same post he held for the latter part of Trump’s first year in office, dubbing him an ‘aggressive cost cutter and deregulator.’ ‘Russ knows exactly how to dismantle the Deep State and end Weaponized Government, and he will help us return Self Governance to the People,’ Trump wrote when announcing Vought’s selection. ‘We will restore fiscal sanity to our Nation, and unleash the American People to new levels of Prosperity and Ingenuity.’   “At OMB, Trump world figures say, Vought will serve as Trump’s ‘right-hand man’ inside the White House when it comes to trimming the federal government’s topline budget while still pursuing costly policies like a national deportation agenda.”   Deportation, deportation, deportation. Yes, it will cost taxpayers a boatload of money to right the wrongs of the Biden administration’s lax illegal immigration policies, but it’s a price the majority of Americans are willing to suffer. Government already spends so much on expenditures with questionable constitutional ties. Deporting illegal aliens is a core duty of the president. Why wouldn’t he be justified in outlays to bring the result about?   As everyone knows, Trump tried desperately to build a southern border wall in his first administration. Simple logic suggests if he were successful back then, the sheer number of alien newcomers would’ve been much, much reduced now. “Pay me now or pay me later” is the old FRAM oil filter commercial refrain. Why didn’t we just get improvements done then in Congress? Democrats in Congress – and amnesty-loving establishment Republican senators – wouldn’t agree to basic tradeoffs Trump offered so as to get immigration reform done. Anyone remember the “four pillars” of immigration in 2017? A lot of conservatives wouldn’t have been satisfied with Trump’s plan, but the idea was a true compromise in every sense of the word.   At any rate, having Russell Vought’s watchful eyes keeping track of the nation’s purse strings starting next year will definitely be a huge improvement over the current Democrat administration. Conservatives have long argued government spends too much, which only leads to massive amounts of waste and fraud. No sane person would deny there aren’t many, many areas that can’t be cut severely or eliminated outright.   Anyone who’s worked in government at any level understands, just by observation and experience, that there’s a big problem with accountability and enforcement in the bureaucracy. Resistance to attempts to make government great again will be fierce, and it won’t be pretty. How many times will Democrats demagogue the issue… about how the poor will suffer? Or that Republicans are taking food out of the mouths of children (or more like bureaucrats)?   Russell Vought is just the kind of man Trump needs in his new administration, a steel-spined conservative who ignores the whiners and gripers to get positive things accomplished. Even before he takes office, again, Trump is putting the people in place to implement the MAGA agenda.   Trump is living his “true self” by placing emphasis on cutting government   Correct me if I’m wrong, but don’t Democrats champion human beings who live out their “true selves” when they identify as transgenders or other adherents to the LGBTQIA+++ “community”?   If Trump now hangs out with the small government folks, doesn’t that make him one of them/us? At the same time, if Trump has experienced a sudden conversion to the liberty cause, wouldn’t it make him a passionate advocate for small government as well?   One of the chief complaints from Never Trumpers  and anyone-but-Trump separatists (same thing?) in the 2024 primaries was that Trump wasn’t a principled conservative and his populism-oriented message wouldn’t satisfy fiscal watchdogs. In saying so, the boobirds implied Trump was a big government proponent, a man who was “for” everything involved with spending and reluctant – at best – to get rid of bloat.   How? It’s a well-known fact Trump isn’t for entitlement reform. The mere suggestion of imposing caps on growth or reducing benefits to bring the huge programs into balance was met with a firm rebuke from the candidate/president. Democrats often accused Trump of desiring to cut Medicare and Social Security, a standard attack that didn’t have any connection to reality.   The same worries persist, though Trump clearly hopes to achieve improvements in reducing the budget by trimming the government, getting rid of multiple departments/agencies and slashing government payrolls by hundreds of thousands if not millions of bureaucrats. If you fire the regulation writers, wouldn’t you need fewer bodies to enforce the rules?   Vivek Ramaswamy’s and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and placing Russell Vought in charge of what government spends will act as a two-pronged fat reducing pincer. The more eyes we have on what the federal departments spend, the greater will be the benefit.   Congressional conservatives will finally get help from the Executive branch   Regardless of whether Trump and Vought and Ramaswamy and Musk succeed, the growing number of budget-conscious conservatives in the administration will finally receive help from the executive himself. Senators like Rand Paul, Ted Cruz and Mike Lee have been voices in the wilderness over the years attempting to limit what the government spends.   They aren’t appropriators or earmark takers. They care about the future of the country.   Now there will be a real emphasis on trimming government. It’s long overdue. Congress will need all the voices to support the efforts of Trump’s team. It must be a whole of government effort. Will we get it? Joe Biden economy inflation Biden cognitive decline gas prices, Nancy Pelosi Biden senile Kamala Harris candidacy Donald Trump campaign Harris Trump debates J.D. Vance Kamala vice president Speaker Mike Johnson Donald Trump assassination Donald Trump 2024 presidential election Tim Walz

Elon Musk has been in the Democrats’ crosshairs ever since he bought Twitter and transformed it into free speech platform X, and his “bromance” with President Donald Trump has only whetted the Democrats’ thirst for payback. On top of the Biden administration’s various politically motivated regulatory moves against Musk’s companies, including Tesla automobiles and Space X, their disqualification of Elon’s Starlink system to provide crucial post-hurricane emergency communications systems, the Democrat California Coastal Commission in a blatantly political decision, decided to deny Space X’s request for more launches from Vandenberg Air Force Base. “I really appreciate the work of the Space Force,” said California Commission Chair Caryl Hart. “But here we’re dealing with a company, the head of which has aggressively injected himself into the presidential race and he’s managed a company in a way that was just described by Commissioner Newsom that I find to be very disturbing.”   “Elon Musk is hopping about the country, spewing and tweeting political falsehoods and attacking FEMA while claiming his desire to help the hurricane victims with free Starlink access to the internet,” Commissioner Gretchen Newsom said at the meeting in San Diego.   Now, the Biden administration has handed Rivian, Musk’s principal electric vehicle competitor, a $6 billion loan to subsidize their uncompetitive electric vehicles. According to reporting by the Wall Street Journal, Rivian is rapidly burning through cash. It has suffered repeated assembly disruptions and had to recall vehicles to fix defects. But, rather than address their production issues, Rivian hired Biden’s former Senate Chief of Staff, Alan Hoffman, as its head lobbyist. When Rivian went public three years ago its stock surged to a fantastic $120 billion market valuation. Rivian at the time had sold a mere 156 vehicles despite being in business for 12 years. Its shares are now worth $11.8 billion – meaning the Biden administration is handing Rivian a loan for more than half its market cap. As the WSJ observed: Investors may have been betting on government subsidies supercharging Rivian’s growth, and they can’t blame the Biden Administration for not delivering. The Inflation Reduction Act includes a $7,500 tax credit per vehicle for EV buyers, plus a $40,000 credit for commercial EVs. The latter is a particular boon for Amazon, that corporate pauper, which owns shares representing 14.8% of Rivian’s voting power and has agreed to buy up to 100,000 of its delivery vans. The IRA also includes hefty subsidies for domestic battery production.   Despite these giant subsidies, Rivian lost about $4 billion on the 37,396 vehicles it has sold during the first nine months of this year. That’s $107,043 a vehicle. Ford loses only about $51,000 on each EV sold.   The “loan” will go to build a factory in Georgia with the capacity to make 400,000 SUVs and crossovers. This follows Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s pledge this spring of $827 million in state “incentives” for Rivian to expand production at an Illinois plant to 215,000 vehicles a year, reported The Journal. Even Rivian seems to harbor doubts about its future, observed the WSJ editors. It warns that current and potential competitors have “significantly greater financial, technical, manufacturing, marketing, or other resources.” And, even if Rivian scales up and builds all these EVs, there’s no guarantee someone will buy them. Rivian’s sales fell in the last quarter, which it attributed in part to a “more challenging consumer environment.” It’s right about that. Traditional auto makers are having to slash prices to sell EVs to meet government mandates. So, why would the American taxpayers “loan” Rivian $6 billion when the company itself questions its viability? We see two things at work here. One is that Democrats are notoriously bad at capitalism. They think that if massive taxpayer subsidies won’t entice consumers to buy a product that doesn’t meet their needs, then mandating its use surely will.   The other thing at work is that Democrats are really good at payback and weaponizing government against their enemies, see President Trump and now Elon Musk for examples. The gift to Rivian is obviously a shot at Elon Musk and Tesla, using $6 billion of taxpayer money as the ammunition. Fortunately, the Department of Energy says the loan is a “conditional commitment” that hinges on Rivian meeting “technical, legal, environmental, and financial conditions.” That means the Trump team may have the power to scrap it, which we urge them to do at their first opportunity. 2024 Election Elon Musk Biden administration Biden administration regulations Space X Vandenburg Air Force base FEMA Starlink internet access Tesla electric vehicles Rivian government subsidies Inflation Reduction Act Rivian sales EV sales Trump administration

MAGA-friendly Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is reportedly contemplating challenging incumbent establishment Republican Senator John Cornyn in the 2026 Republican primary. Social media posts show significant support for Paxton among conservative activists and influencers, suggesting a potential shift towards more MAGA-friendly politics within the Texas GOP. Cornyn, a four-term member of the Senate, represents the old “go along, get along” Republican establishment, while Paxton has been a steadfast supporter of the Donald Trump MAGA agenda. And the buzz around Paxton is not just internet hype. Gromer Jeffers, Jr. writing for the Dallas Morning News explained the two politicians, titans in Texas Republican politics, have been circling each other for more than a year, setting up a potential clash that would test the power of Paxton’s appeal to MAGA conservative populists and Cornyn’s strength as a well-funded incumbent and prolific vote-getter. The biggest wild card, observed Mr. Jeffers, could involve the influence of President-elect Donald Trump, who endorsed Paxton in prior elections, criticized last year’s impeachment proceedings and praised Paxton as a patriot fighting “Radical Left Democrats.” Paxton has had Trump’s back as well, filing legal briefs in support of Trump policies under attack by Democratic states during his first White House term and asking the U.S. Supreme Court to examine Trump’s claims of election irregularities in four states in the 2020 election. Mr. Jeffers reported when Cornyn announced he would run to replace Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell as Republican leader of the Senate, Paxton lashed out in a post on X, saying, “Republicans deserve better in their next leader and Texans deserve another conservative senator.” Paxton added that Cornyn would have a tough time being “an effective leader since he is anti-Trump, anti-gun, and will be focused on his highly competitive primary campaign in 2026.” If he runs for re-election Cornyn would not be a shoo-in, as Mr. Jeffers reported: At various points in his career, Cornyn has been booed at state GOP conventions, where the party’s most strident activists are the most vocal. In 2022, delegates at the Houston convention booed him because of his role in a bipartisan Senate compromise on gun safety. At this year’s convention, Cornyn didn’t address the general session but mingled with delegates at the convention center and dropped in on some caucus meetings. Paxton, an incumbent statewide office holder and hero to grassroots Republicans for filing 100 lawsuits challenging Biden administration policies, would be a formidable challenger. The dynamic of Cornyn as the establishment candidate versus the Trump MAGA agenda was thrown into sharp focus by the recent Senate leadership election. Cornyn, who was vying with Senators Rick Scott and John Thune for Senate Majority Leader failed to get the support of fellow Texan Ted Cruz. The Autin American-Statesman reported Cruz posted his support for Scott, who, though he didn't receive a formal endorsement from President-elect Donald Trump, had the backing from some of Trump's most prominent allies, including Tucker Carlson, Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy.   "I’ll be voting for Rick Scott for GOP Leader, as I did two years ago," Cruz posted on the social media platform X a few hours before the vote. "In 2022, I helped lead the charge for Rick against McConnell & I’m proud to stand with him again." Senator John Cornyn, who was then the Senate Majority Whip, started his career as a fairly conservative Texas Republican and has steadily moved to the “center” as he rose through the insider ranks of the Senate Republican Conference. “I’ve evolved,” Senator Cornyn told CQ Roll Call reporters Humberto Sanchez and Niels Lesniewski in a wide-ranging 2015 interview. “Evolved into what?” was our question then, and it remains so to this day. Cornyn may have begun his career as a “fairly conservative” Texas Republican, but he’s evolved into a standard run-of-the-mill DC insider who is far outside the conservative mainstream on many issues, such as support for the Second Amendment and deportation of illegal aliens. We don’t know if Ken Paxton will get in the 2026 Texas GOP Senate Primary, but if he does, he would be at the top of our list as potential replacements for the worn out establishment insider John Cornyn. 2024 Election John Cornyn Ken Paxton 2026 Senate races GOP primaries Republican establishment Trump impeachment Mitch McConnell GOP senate leadership John Thune Ted Cruz Donald Trump Rick Scott 2nd Amendment illegal immigration

How many times will conservatives need to reiterate that Trump won and deserves a deferential Congress? Are you listening, Mitch McConnell?   Now that we’ve reached December and the Thanksgiving holiday is in the rearview mirror, conservatives and Republicans are gearing up for the final weeks before president-elect Donald J. Trump makes his way to the capital to take his oath of office. Again.   As a side note, will Trump ride in the same limousine with senile Joe Biden and Dr. Jill that day? Won’t that be awkward? Or are senile Joe and Trump now buddies after their two-hour White House meeting a few weeks ago?   Apart from the entourage at the big marble building on January 20 will be sitting members of Congress, most of whom will already be in place up near the dais, listening to the martial music and basking in the pomp and ceremony of the official festivities. Hundreds of thousands of gleeful Trump backers will witness the program from the viewing areas. It will be grand.   After the traditional inaugural lunch, Trump will head for the Oval Office to begin the task of signing a prepared stack of executive orders, so many that his signing hand will probably get sore. Americans know that Trump seeks to keep his promises. He didn’t just do the campaign work so he could ride around in cool limos and chat with the pilots aboard Air Force One.   The most perplexing mystery, over a month out from the big day, is will Congress help Trump do the things he promised to do, or assume supremacy they don’t rightfully possess and gum up the machine like they did the last time Trump was president? Some/many of the same static barriers are in place. What will their mood be?   In an article titled “ Mitch McConnell Did Not Win a Mandate ”, the irreplaceable Melissa Mackenzie wrote at The American Spectator  recently :   “Heads should roll. Donald Trump and his team need to be selective about this. Choose a couple of utterly corrupt bureaucrats, prosecute them, and send them to prison. Anthony Fauci is a good start. Maybe Homeland Security Deputy Secretary Alejandro Mayorkis. (That Lois Lerner is pulling a plum retirement still galls.) Just a couple. A warning needs to be sent. Otherwise, all energy needs to go to dismantling the levers of power so that it doesn’t matter who is in charge, they cannot do the sort of damage that’s been done again.   “This is what Americans want. They don’t want Mitch McConnell and his clever behind-the-scenes manipulation. They don’t want fat, entitled Senators scheming to undercut the man they elected.”   As would be expected from her, Mackenzie presents a solid case for why Mitch McConnell, in his new unofficial position as regular senator – downgraded from Republican leader for the last hundred years or something like that – should take a dose of realism and keep his bespectacled nose out of the agenda planning for the MAGA nation and stay out of the way of Trump’s governance.   All of the usual arguments for maintaining an “independent” senate/Congress were thrown out the window by the magnitude of Trump’s 2024 election victory. Yeah, the Republicans took the majority in this friendliest of all electoral years (because of the favorable map), but they wouldn’t be there without Trump.   There’s been surprisingly little arrogant “Trump doesn’t have coattails” talk this time around. Republicans have 53 seats and if it weren’t for Trump dragging several victorious senators over the finish line (Pennsylvania, anyone?), there’s a solid chance they’d still be licking Chucky Schumer’s boots for charitable terms in some Democrat big government legislation. Needless to say, if it weren’t for Trump, the new president would have little chance of getting his nominees confirmed. And forget his judicial appointments, etc.   Mackenzie was right on – Trump won; he earned it. Trump blanketed the swing states (and some others, too) like the new fallen snow on the earth weeks before Christmas. The candidate was tireless, outperforming men half his age. Trump’s 2016 and 2020 campaigns were remarkable, but 2024 was legendary. Cackling Kamala and senile Joe and Barack Obama and the rest of the Democrat surrogates couldn’t keep up.   Trump’s MAGA agenda and “Make America Great Again” slogan illustrate what Americans want. As much as his legions of followers love Trump, there were still likely a lot of people who proverbially held their nose to vote for him. Trump’s personality isn’t for everyone, but his past success and take-no-prisoners attitude towards making government work was too attractive to pass up.   I’ve posed the question before: is there another Republican politician who could’ve done what Trump did? Nikki Haley? Ron DeSantis? Some unnamed Republican that the pundits were excited about? What was Karl Rove’s choice again? Is Mitt Romney enjoying the holidays knowing he’s going back to Utah (or wherever he lives) for the balance of his days?   There’s too much at stake here for conservatives to tolerate the duplicity and sneering disobedience of Mitch McConnell (or John Thune… same thing) or other lone senators from one state to believe they have the power and authority to deny the totality of America’s citizens what they voted for.   One senate vote could make all the difference between Trump implementing his promise list or complete failure, a la 2017 and beyond. In her piece, Mackenzie detailed how McConnell and John McCain combined to shoot down Trump’s push to repeal the “old” Obamacare and replace it with something that would not only work, it wouldn’t bankrupt the country.   Remember how the terminally ill McCain returned to Congress for one final time to cast his “no” vote on the Republicans’ healthcare reform effort? Well, that’s McCain’s lasting legacy. And his family are now Democrats. And they supported senile Joe Biden just because the two families used to have picnics in the backyard with the Bidens. Trump is coming back to Washington to take the power away from individual senators. He’ll give the authority to decide their own fates back to the People themselves. The Republican party needs loyalty and discipline like never before. Someone must stand up and put Lisa Murkowski in her place. Susan Collins is from Maine, so she’s kind of on her own.   But Donald Trump should be able to use the mandate he has without interference from self-appointed outcast naysayer senators whose only duty is to “advise” and then “consent”. That’s right, make a speech if you have to, pontificate for all we care about the way things should be, etc. Then cast your vote “yes”. Everyone goes away happy.   To prosecute or not to prosecute? That is the question.   There’s no doubt that one of the reasons why Donald Trump was able to pull off the political comeback of the century was the Democrats’ relentless and unfair witch hunt lawfare prosecutions and trials against him the past few years.   If for nothing else, the Democrats’ obsession with siccing the law on Trump kept his name in the news and made him out to be a sympathetic character for everyone but the most haggish of woke liberal haters who thought Trump was guilty of everything and needed to be held accountable for it – even by being thrown in prison.   There’s a temptation to want to retaliate, and I say go for it, but not at the expense of keeping the nation’s focus on the positive things being accomplished by Trump’s administration and agenda. That’s where the real focus needs to be. Any sensationalized hunting down of Democrats will detract from what Trump was sent to the White House to accomplish.   Where do we want the attention to be directed? All those who are out for blood – no matter how   warranted -- should answer the question. Joe Biden economy inflation Biden cognitive decline gas prices, Nancy Pelosi Biden senile Kamala Harris candidacy Donald Trump campaign Harris Trump debates J.D. Vance Kamala vice president Speaker Mike Johnson Donald Trump assassination Donald Trump 2024 presidential election Tim Walz