With the successful attack on a Russian guided missile cruiser -- with Neptune missiles -- at a range of 60 miles, and with the weapon's effective range of 160 miles, this attack has forced Russian naval forces to stand further off the Ukrainian coast and puts in doubt the Russian's ability to pull together an amphibious assault on key coastal cities like Odesa. [Click on Images]

April 15: The Epoch Times: PA senate votes to stop ballot drop boxes

April 9: The Washington examiner:
Putin taps the "Butcher of Syria" to head up the invasion of Ukraine

April 9: The Washington Examiner: Boris Johnson meets with Ukrainian President in surprise visit to Ukraine

U.S. Navy officials have said they won't deploy a particular warship because its commander has refused to get a COVID-19 shot based upon his religious convictions. The service said an East Coast guided-missile destroyer is "out of commission" after a federal judge in Florida ruled the Navy cannot remove the officer for being unvaccinated against COVID-19. "With respect to Navy Commander, the Navy has lost confidence in his ability to lead and will not deploy the warship with him in command," lawyers representing the military said. U.S. District Judge Steven Merryday, a George H. W. Bush nominee, barred Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and all other military officials from taking punitive action against the unnamed naval officer. The officer had been told he would be removed from command of his ship on Feb. 3 if he didn't start a COVID-19 vaccination series. The officer's exemption request was rejected, and an appeal of the rejection turned town, despite the finding that his "religious beliefs are sincere and would be substantially burdened," according to court documents. The military alleged granting the exemption would have a "detrimental effect" on military readiness. Judge Merryday said the commander was likely to succeed on his claim that the Navy wrongfully denied his request because "the record creates a strong inference that the services are discriminatorily and systematically denying religious exemptions without a meaningful and fair hearing and without the showing required under" federal law.

April 8: American Defense News:
Putin puts intelligence chief in prison

April 7: The Washington Examiner: GOP lawmakers opposes extension of Disney's Steamboat Willie copyright

April 6: Fox Business: CA gas prices will make your jaw drop

April 5: The Washington Times: Biden's DOD considering retirement of sole tactical nuclear weapon capable of destroying deeply buried military targets

April 3: The Washington Times: Mass graves found outside Kyiv as Russia accused of genocide

April 3: The Epoch Times: PRC military buildup of islands causes problems for U.S. and allies commercial shipping and national security

March 31: The Daily Caller: Never-Trumper candidate allegedly caught forging petition signatures

March 30: The Daily Caller: A year-a-half late, major media outlets like the Washington Post confirm the Hunter Biden laptop story

March 29: The Post Newspaper: The Challenge of Energy Inflation

March 24: The Wall Street Journal: As Russian invasion enters its 2nd month, Ukraine hits Russian-occupied port, hitting Russian naval vessel

March 22: The Washington Times: Investigation into 2020 ballot mischief gain momentum in Georgia and Wisconsin

March 20: Oilprice.com: $100 oil is a wakeup call for Canadian Producers

March 17: Fox News: Japan spots Russian warships that may be moving toward the Ukrainian theater

March 17: NewsMax: Pentagon estimates 75% of Russian forces committed to the invasion of Ukraine while taking heavy losses

Special Report: Real Clear Science: Javelin missiles take out over 100 Russian tanks in Ukraine.

March 11: The Washington Examiner: Ukrainians knock off a third Russia general in two weeks of fighting

March 9: NewsMax: UK plans to supply Ukraine with SAMS to defend against Russians in the skies

March 8: Fox News: Zelenskyy tells UK Parliament "We will fight to the end"

March 7: The Epoch Times: Ukraine claims second Russian general killed

March 7: The Epoch Times: Gas prices continue to rise as the Biden Administration refuses to admit their energy policies are part of the reason

March 6: The Epoch Times: US & Poland in discussions about providing Ukraine with aging Mig 29s and backfilling Poland with F-16s

February 26: The Daily Caller: Ukrainian man tells Russian tank crew that ran out of gas, I'll give them a tow back to Russia

February 19: Breitbart News: Vulnerable Senate Democrats trying to run as tax-cutters by proposing cutting the gas tax

February 19: The Washington Free Beacon: A BLM bail fund is freeing heinous criminals in Kentucky; GOP has a plan to stop it

February 17: KTRH News: San Francisco recalls three left wing school board members
The parent revolt is alive, even in liberal cities. This week, voters in San Francisco booted from the school board three radical-leftist members of the school board. Among those recalled was the board former vice-president, Alison Collins, who infuriated parents after previously attacking Asian-Americans for having "white supremacist thinking." The recall effort was driven by parents frustrated with the slow reopening of schools. Collins was also one of the board members who led efforts to rename the schools during the pandemic. Reportedly they were more focused on changing the names of schools they deemed "problematic," than reopening the schools. Additionally, Collins sent a series of anti-Asian tweets in 2016 that went viral prompting outrage among Asians. Voter overwhelmingly supported the ouster of Collins along with board President Gabriela López and Faauuga Moliga. February 17: The Washington Examiner: Russia expels senior US diplomat amid escalating tensions Russia ordered a senior diplomat at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow to leave the country, an "unprovoked" move to intensify a diplomatic dispute that American officials fear is sliding toward a major attack against Ukraine. "We can confirm that Russia expelled U.S. Deputy Chief of Mission (DCM) to Russia Bart Gorman," a State Department spokesperson told reporters. "Russia's action against our DCM was unprovoked, and we consider this an escalatory step and are considering our response. DCM Gorman's tour had not ended; he had a valid visa, and he had been in Russia less than three years," the State Department said.

February 17: The Epoch Times: Jobless claims jump to higher than expected levels
New weekly filings for unemployment insurance — a proxy for layoffs — have reversed three consecutive weeks of declines and notched higher than analysts predicted, though jobless claims are still generally running at near pre-pandemic levels, suggesting the labor market recovery remains intact. First-time filings for unemployment insurance rose by 23,000 to 248,000 for the week ending Feb. 12, the Labor Department said in a report. The prior week's level was revised up by 3,000 to 225,000. "The higher-than-expected number defied expectations for improvement," Bankrate senior economic analyst Mark Hamrick said. Prior to the COVID-19 outbreak, initial weekly claims were running at around the 210,000-per-week mark.

February 17: The Epoch Times: PA no-excuse absentee voting law shot down by state court
A Pennsylvania state court on Wednesday delivered another blow to the state's universal mail-in ballot law by issuing an order that blocks the law from taking effect. Commonwealth Court Judge Mary Hannah Leavitt previously wrote in late January that the law violated the state Constitution. On Wednesday, Leavitt said Republicans who challenged the law are likely to prevail when the state Supreme Court hears the case next month with oral arguments scheduled March 8th. The state Supreme Court scheduled the case for oral arguments on March 8. The Commonwealth Court's Jan. 28 decision to strike down the mail-in voting law can take effect March 15, under Leavitt's new ruling. "If presented to the people, a constitutional amendment [allowing no excuse absentee voting]… is likely to be adopted. But a constitutional amendment must be presented to the people" before measures like Act 77—the mail-in voting law—can take effect, Leavitt argued. Act 77 was passed in the Pennsylvania Legislature and signed into law by Wolf in 2019.

February 17: Fox News: Canadian truckers get support from south of the border
Canadian truckers who have stood their ground at the U.S.-Canada border — both physically and philosophically — have enthusiastic support from some big-rig drivers here in the U.S.A. Long and short-haul truckers rolling through cities and towns in both countries perform a "sometimes dangerous, often hard" job. They deserve everyone's respect, two trucking company employees said. John Brubaker of Hampton, Iowa -- a former driver and now a transportation supervisor for a Tennessee-based trucking company – said "It's dead wrong for Canadian leaders to use emergency powers to impact these truckers. It shows no respect for the enormous role truckers play in the economy — and it's dictatorial." The Ottawa border protests began several weeks ago when truckers decided to take a stand and oppose Canada's new rule requiring them to be fully vaccinated against Wuhan coronavirus. If truckers aren't vaccinated against COVID-19, they face a two-week quarantine — an action that impacts their livelihoods and the economic supply chain, too. On Monday, Canadian Prime Minster Justin Trudeau invoked that country's Emergencies Act, a rare move that gives that government temporary powers to deal with the border blockades, including using tough legal and financial measures against participating truckers.

February 16: The Daily Caller: Hawley takes on Biden judicial nominee for being soft on crime and the release of 36 rioters who attacked police
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) rejected President Joe Biden's nominee for the U.S. District Judge for the Eastern District of New York Nina Morrison during Wednesday's Senate Judiciary Committee hearing. Hawley grilled Morrison on the skyrocketing crime rates across the country. He pointed out a December 2019 article co-written by Morrison about wrongful convictions and "tough-on-crime practices." Hawley pointed out aspects of the St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner's record, including her response to the riots in St. Louis in 2020, where police were shot at, businesses were damaged and retired police captain David Dorn was killed. Hawley said that 36 rioters that were arrested were sent to Gardner's office, and all of them were released. Hawley stated Gardner "blamed the police" and "said the police were the ones at fault" for not bringing her the necessary evidence despite the rioters being arrested in the process of "assaulting police officers, throwing rocks and gasoline and frozen water bottles, assaulting firefighters, burning businesses. And she releases them," Hawley said. "Now, is that the kind of approach that you stand by and think is appropriate for prosecutors to take?" he asked.

February 16: The Epoch Times: Ten states considering legislation to tighten voter ID requirements
In ten state legislatures across the nation, more than 40 bills proposing new or more stringent voter identification requirements for registration or in-person voting had been introduced as of Feb. 11, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL). Missouri and Virginia account for 24 them; bills that call for requiring a state or federal photo ID to vote in person. Missouri lawmakers are pondering bills that call for requiring a state or federal photo ID in order to vote in person. Virginia -- in response to the 2021 adoption of the Voting Rights Act of Virginia before Republicans won the governorship and retook control of the House of Delegates last November -- is considering bills to ensure enforcement of the current voter ID laws. The measures in Virginia and Missouri are part of a broader national trend of reforming election practices. Mississippi and South Carolina are looking at bills to shorten the time periods for submitting absentee ballot applications. Illinois, Maryland, and New Jersey would establish in-person voter ID requirements for the first time. The Indiana House has passed a measure requiring voters to submit their driver's license number or the last four digits of their social security number when requesting an absentee ballot digitally. New Hampshire is considering bills that would eliminate options for voters to cast regular ballots by signing an affidavit (essentially doing away with same day registration in the state). Arizona is looking at legislation hat would require proof of citizenship in order to vote in addition to voter ID requirements. Michigan voters may be presented with a Constitutional Amendment to force voter IDs in order to cast a ballot after Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer vetoed a 2021 bill imposing this new requirement. Proponents need 340,047 voter signatures by March to get it on November's ballot.

February 16: KTRH News: Hillary ignores reporter's questions about paying to have Trump surveilled
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ignored a reporter's question Tuesday about her presidential campaign allegedly spying on Donald Trump. "Did you pay to spy on the Trump campaign," asked a reporter as Clinton entered a New York City building. A filing by Trump-era special counsel John Durham alleges that lawyers from Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign paid to have servers at Trump Tower and the White House surreptitiously scoured for data linking Trump to Russia.

February 15: The Washington Free Beacon: Controversial Biden FDA nominee approved with help of six RINOs: Manchin & Sanders voted against the nomination
Senators Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Joe Manchin (D-WVA) joined Republicans on Tuesday to oppose President Joe Biden's pick to head the Food and Drug Administration. But the Senate approved the nominee after six RINO Republicans crossed the aisle to confirm him. The upper chamber voted 50 to 46 to approve Dr. Robert Califf, who will serve as FDA commissioner for a second time after holding the position during the Obama administration. Three Democrats joined Sanders and Manchin to vote against his confirmation. The group of Democrats criticized the Biden pick for his ties to the pharmaceutical industry and failure to effectively regulate opioids during his first stint at the FDA. Republicans, meanwhile, focused on Califf's efforts to deregulate chemical abortion pills, which have four times the complication rate of surgical abortions. Republican senators Roy Blunt (MO), Richard Burr (NC), Susan Collins (ME), Lisa Murkowski (AK), Mitt Romney (UT), and Pat Toomey (PA) broke with their party and voted to confirm Califf. The FDA under Califf's leadership saw an all-time high in prescription opioid deaths. Manchin said the FDA's failure to effectively restrict opioid access will likely continue as Califf returns to the agency.

February 14: The Washington Examiner: The MI Secretary of State asks for inquiry into possible voting equipment breach
Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson asked the state's attorney general and state police to investigate reports an "unnamed third party" gained unauthorized access to voting technology in one county. At least one third party allegedly gained access to tabulation machines and data drives in Richfield Township and Roscommon County, Benson's office said. Thursday. If it did, the equipment would be required to be replaced with taxpayer's money, her statement warned. Contracts with voting system vendors and state law restrict access to voting equipment to qualified personnel, Benson's office said. Machines accessed by unauthorized personnel "may have exposed the machines to vulnerabilities that render them unusable in future elections."

February 14: The Epoch Times: Survey: 60% of companies were victim of software supply chain attacks in 2021
A new survey has revealed that three out of every five companies were victim to software supply chain attacks in 2021, marking a drastic rise in the prevalence of these attacks and sending cybersecurity into a scramble for solutions. The survey, which was carried out by the software company Anchore, reported that 62 percent of organizations were impacted by supply chain attacks in the past year. "In the simplest terms, a software supply chain attack occurs when a cybercriminal manipulates an organization's software code to deliver malicious 'payload' to downstream applications and users," explains Julie Preiss, chief marketing officer of the software company Appgate, said. "They typically target small, less-secure companies that do business with larger companies (hence the term supply chain)." Preiss continues, "The reasons these attacks are on the rise boil down to a few basic facts: more business is conducted online than ever before, creating a large and enticing attack surface; many organizations have inadequate cyber hygiene, resulting in vulnerabilities and misconfigurations in their software that can be easily exploited; and, a single successful hack can yield enormous potential beyond the original purpose making the pay-off very appealing."

February 14: Fox Business: Fears bubble up about energy prices escalating
With inflation in the United States up significantly and a potential war between Russia and Ukraine, fear is bubbling up that energy prices may increase further after a steady march upward over the past year. "It can't be good for prices," R Street Institute resident senior fellow for energy Philip Rossetti said of a potential war in Ukraine. "We don't know how bad it would be for prices. But it can't be good for prices." Gasoline prices are up 39% since this time last year according to AAA, and natural gas prices increased nearly 60% between the beginning and end of 2021, according to the Energy Information Administration. Meanwhile, a lack of energy independence for Europe is giving Russia significant leverage as it takes increasingly belligerent actions threatening invasion of Ukraine, Rossetti says. w

February 13: Fox News: Mayors and truckers reach an agreement
Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson says he has reached an agreement with the leadership of the "Freedom Convoy" to remove trucks from residential neighborhoods in his city. Watson's office said he has reached an agreement through "backchannel negotiations" for the convoy to remove trucks blocking residential streets. "The Freedom Convoy Board agree with your request to reduce pressure on the residents and businesses in the City of Ottawa," Lich, the President of the convoy movement wrote. "We have made a plan to consolidate our protest efforts around Parliament Hill. We will be working hard over the next 24 hours to get buy in from the truckers. We hope to start repositioning our trucks on Monday." Watson had written to Lich saying that residents are "exhausted and on edge" and that the blockades are "teetering on the brink of permanent closure" for some businesses. "I don't believe these harmful effects on our community and its residents were the intended consequences of your protest."

February 13: The Washington Times: Republicans determined to get to the truth after Durham reveals Clinton high tech operative infiltrated the Trump White House
Stunned Republicans were demanded answers after an explosive court filing linked the 2016 Hillary Clinton campaign to a purported surveillance operation aimed at digging up dirt on Donald Trump both before and after he won the presidential election. Special counsel John Durham alleged in a court filing Friday that a tech company working with an attorney for the Clinton campaign exploited its access to servers for Trump's residence, Trump Tower and the White House to mine data that would establish an "inference" and a "narrative" connecting Trump to Russia. Trump has long accused the Clinton campaign of spying on him. Democrats and mainstream media figures have dismissed that claim as a conspiracy theory, but Republicans said this weekend's bombshell filing shows the spying was even more extensive than they had imagined. "Yep, there was spying going on, and it was worse than we thought because they were spying on the sitting president of the United States, and it goes right to the Clinton campaign," Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH).

February 13: The Epoch Times: Canadian Mounties redouble efforts to thwart truck convoys at the U.S. border
Despite the Royal Canadian Mounted Police's (RCMP) redoubled efforts to prevent a convoy of trucks and other vehicles from establishing a stronger presence at the Pacific Highway Border Crossing in British Columbia, one truck managed to get through the police blockade. On Feb. 12, an initial surge of about 20 commercial and personal vehicles had broken through the blockade before police reinforcements were quickly dispatched to halt access to the intersection eight blocks north of the border, later expanding it to 16 blocks. The white Ford F-350 was immediately swarmed by police on foot to prevent the driver from advancing, but protesters locked arms and circled the police singing of "O Canada," while others cleared hundreds of people to allow the driver a narrow passage on the road leading down to the other trucks, which had crossed before the RCMP strengthened the blockade. The driver said his entry into the "forbidden zone" was necessary to demonstrate the importance of the ongoing convoys and protests at other border crossings and in Ottawa. Colby Seiz was the first to make it through the blockade on Feb. 12 with his massive Oshkosh rig. "I just started driving and regular Canadians started to open it up," Seiz said. "It was like Moses and the Red Sea just parted ways, and we were able to go." Regarding breaking through of the blockade, the RCMP said in a statement that such "behavior is not being tolerated," and is being investigated.

February 12: The Washington Examiner: Durham; Democrat- allied tech exec spied on Trump's White House
Special counsel John Durham says he is building a case to show the technology executive with whom an indicted Democratic lawyer on the payroll of Hillary Clinton's campaign was working to build a Trump-Russia collusion narrative gained access to internet traffic at the White House to try and obtain dirt on President Donald Trump. Left-wing lawyer Michael Sussmann was indicted last year for allegedly concealing his relationship with the Clinton campaign from the FBI when he volunteered since-debunked claims of a secret back channel between the Trump Organization and Russia. Durham revealed in a Friday court filing that he has evidence that Sussmann's other client, former Neustar Senior Vice President Rodney Joffe "exploited" domain name system internet traffic to gain access to "the Executive Office of the President of the United States." Congressman Mark Medows, a former congressman who later became Trump's White House chief of staff, said "They didn't just spy on Donald Trump's campaign. They spied on Donald Trump as sitting President of the United States. It was all even worse than we thought." Kash Patel, a former intelligence and defense official in the Trump administration said the filing "shows that the Hillary Clinton campaign directly funded and ordered its lawyers… to orchestrate a criminal enterprise to fabricate a connection between President Trump and Russia."

February 12: Fox News: Biden warns Putin about invading Ukraine, but is Putin listening? It's doubtful
The State Department is urging Americans who remain in Ukraine to escape through Poland amid increased threats of Russian military action. The U.S. Embassy in Ukraine released a message to U.S. citizens in Ukraine on Saturday, telling them they should depart immediately using commercial or other privately available transportation options. American citizens departing through Poland, must present a valid U.S. passport and proof of COVID-19 vaccination prior to entering the country.

February 12: The Epoch Times: Drop boxes for ballots banned in Wisconsin
The Wisconsin Supreme Court has ruled to allow a ban on absentee ballot drop boxes to go into effect for an upcoming election on April 5. The 4-3 decision upholds a lower court's ruling in mid-January, in which Waukesha County Circuit Court Judge Michael Bohren ruled that absentee ballot drop boxes are illegal in Wisconsin. Because the case came so close to the February 15 election, an appeals court issued a temporary stay of the lower court's ruling. However, the Wisconsin Supreme Court refused to extend the stay going forward; finding that there is enough time to allow the lower court's ruling to take affect for the upcoming April elections. The latest ruling is not a final. As such, whether drop boxes will remain for the state's August primary and November general election is uncertain. The majority wrote in their Feb. 11 order, "[W]e have yet to hear oral arguments, which will be addressing the merits of the issues." Many Republicans and conservatives spoke out against the drop boxes, citing concerns they could increase chances of fraud. because vote harvesters can drop off ballots without any supervision. Meanwhile Democrats and liberals asserted that drop boxes helped maintain or increase voter turnout amid the pandemic. In 2021, the Republican-led state legislature passed bills to restrict ballot drop boxes, but Democratic Gov. Tony Evers vetoed them.

February 11: The Washington Examiner: Opposition to release of Georgia voting machine report
A federal agency is reviewing a so-called secret report on alleged vulnerabilities in Georgia's voting equipment. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, an arm of DHS, is assessing the fresh doubts being cast on the security of Dominion Voting Systems and is asking a judge to hold off on ordering the release of the report authored by Alex Halderman, a computer science professor at the University of Michigan, which could have implications for election technology used in states across the country. Halderman was granted access to Dominion voting equipment in Fulton County for 12 weeks and produced a 25,000-word "secret report" that has been filed under seal. Halderman also wrote a report released by the Michigan Department of State arguing that human error led to early tabulation errors in Antrim County, Michigan, in the 2020 election cycle. He acknowledged vulnerabilities in the election technology, but similar to what he said about the 2020 election in Georgia, he stressed that "there is no evidence that any of these problems was ever exploited in Antrim County." The CISA said in its court filing that any disclosure, even in redacted form, should wait until after the agency and the vendor complete a review and noted it will provide an update to the court within 30 days. "CISA's goal is to disclose any confirmed vulnerabilities and associated mitigations to the public in a coordinated way, so the entire cyber ecosystem can benefit while minimizing the risk of harm to election security," the agency said.

February 11: The Epoch Times: Despite court injunction, protestors gather at the Canadian border
More protesters have gathered by the Ambassador Bridge border crossing in Windsor on the evening of Feb. 11 compared to nights before, despite a court injunction to clear the blockade at the Canada-U.S. border. Earlier in the day, the Ontario Superior Court granted an injunction to prevent the protesters from blocking the border crossing. The protestors at the blockade have successfully sealed off the flow of commercial traffic into Canada from Detroit. On February 11, Ontario Premier Doug Ford announced that the province will be in a state of emergency due to the ongoing protests. The declaration includes giving authorities more power to deal with any blockages on highways, airports, ports, bridges and railways. Fines for non-compliance will be up to $100,000 and up to a year imprisonment and could also result in the suspension of personal and commercial driver's licenses. The protests were inspired by the trucker protest movement that began as a demonstration against a requirement for truck drivers to have COVID-19 vaccination for cross-border travel. The protests grew in size as people from across Canada joined in, converging in Ottawa on Jan. 29, with many saying they will stay until all COVID-19 mandates are lifted. Since then, more vehicle convoy protests have appeared in different parts of the country, including at major Canada-U.S. borders in Ontario, Manitoba, and Alberta.

February 10: The Texas Score Card: Fraud in South Texas school board election; clear and convincing evidence of illegal votes cast
Amid a statewide campaign to halt voter fraud, a 2020 South Texas school board election has been overturned due to "repeated mistakes" by local elections officials that allowed illegal votes to be counted. A court found "clear and convincing evidence" that more illegal votes were cast in the November 2020 Brownsville ISD school board election than the margin of victory with the possible margin of victory being less than ten votes. A District Judge found at least 24 illegal votes were cast in the election—more than enough to invalidate the election results. Among the illegal votes were 16 mail-in ballots cast in the names of people who were all registered at the address of an uninhabited commercial warehouse. The Cameron County Elections Administrator's office failed to verify the address was a valid residence either when registering the voters or accepting their mail-ballot applications. It was impossible to determine who actually marked the illegal ballots, since the address on them was false and no voter ID was required on the applications or ballot carrier envelope. Additionally, three voters testified (and polling place documents confirmed) they were assisted when voting at the polls in the school board election, even though they weren't eligible to receive assistance. Two other voters had family members mark their ballots or tell them how to vote, and three mail ballots were returned without a signature on the carrier envelope, making them all not countable. The do-over election for Brownsville ISD's Place 6 seat is set for May 7

February 10: The Daily Signal: The problem with cost over runs in DOD projects is not contractor greed but a flawed procurement process
The trouble is, lawmakers don't seem to realize that the problem is not TransDigm's -- a DOD contractor -- greed. The problem also isn't a lack of pricing data. The problem is the Defense Department's own contracting processes. TransDigm was able to charge high prices for the parts it supplied because it was the only company able to manufacture those parts to military specifications. Sole-source suppliers (cases where only one company is able to manufacture a given component) are now a common situation in the defense industrial base. The number of vendors in key defense industrial base areas like missile and space systems, ammunition, and weapons has declined sharply over the last 10 years, according to a 2018 federal interagency task force report. The report points out that the Pentagon's current business practices—with complex procurement processes, long contract timelines, and costly certification requirements—"strain the industrial base and reduce incentives to supply to DoD."

January 10: The Epoch Times: Ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine okay to treat Wuhan coronavirus
Oklahoma's attorney general has told doctors across the state that they can prescribe ivermectin or hydroxychloroquine for the purpose of treating the Wuhan coronavirus and will not face disciplinary procedures for doing so. In a statement published on Tuesday, Attorney General John O'Connor said he has found "no legal basis" for a state medical licensure board to discipline a licensed physician for "exercising sound judgment" and "safely prescribing" the drugs. Neither ivermectin nor hydroxychloroquine has been approved for use in treating COVID-19 by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) but O'Connor made clear that doctors would not face penalties if they prescribed either drug for the off-label purpose of treating a patient with COVID-19. "I stand behind doctors who believe it is in their patients' best interests to receive ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine," said O'Connor. "Our healthcare professionals should have every tool available to combat COVID-19. Public safety demands this. Physicians who prescribe medications and follow the law should not fear disciplinary action for prescribing such drugs."

February 10: The Washington Free Beacon: More than half a million COVID deaths on Biden's watch
More than half a million Americans have died from COVID on Joe Biden's watch. Despite promising to "shut down the virus" as commander in chief, Biden has presided over the deaths of 503,804 Americans from COVID since he took office on Jan. 20, 2021. That is almost 100,000 more than the number of Americans who died from COVID under former president Donald Trump. On average, more than 1,300 Americans have died from COVID every day under the Biden administration. That's a lot of dead Americans. In October 2020, when roughly 200,000 Americans had died from COVID, then-candidate Biden said any leader who presided over that many deaths "should not remain as president of the United States of America."

February 9: The Texas Score Card: Paxton investigating GoFunMe for shutting down $10 million for "Freedom Convoy"
As government officials and corporations across the nation target citizens who do not want to get forcibly injected with coronavirus vaccines, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is responding to one major company. On Wednesday, Paxton "issued Civil Investigative Demands (CIDs) to GoFundMe Inc. to investigate potential violations of the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act (DTPA)." "The crowd-funding platform's integrity has come into question after it removed a multimillion-dollar fundraising campaign for the Canadian truckers 'Freedom Convoy' which is protesting vaccine mandates," Paxton said. Citizens raised more than $10 million to aid the truckers at the U.S.-Canada border who are protesting forced injections, but GoFundMe eliminated the campaign after originally planning to divert the donated money elsewhere. After public outcry and threats of fraud investigation by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Paxton, GoFundMe changed their mind; instead of diverting the funds to a recipient of their own choosing. Additionally, citizens have also called out GoFundMe for their hypocrisy; allowing and even publicly promoted fundraising campaigns for the infamous Capitol Hill Occupied Protest in 2020, where Antifa rioters took over and occupied a section of the city's downtown for over a month. AG Paxton is now requiring GoFundMe to hand over a variety of relevant documents, including "evidence of any 'occupation' or other non-peaceful protest, which became the basis of your removal of the Freedom Convoy Fundraiser"; records and communications on the 2020 CHOP protest; and correspondences with Canadian and U.S. government officials on both of the matters.

February 9: Townhall: Democrats and mask mandates
The Democrats who have forced children to wear masks in classrooms for the past year, and forcing them to loose a year of school by plowing through "remote learning" are starting to come around and rescind the anti-science harmful policies. In such states as California, Connecticut, Oregon, and New Jersey a relaxation of Covid restrictions on a children is occurring.

February 8: The Daily Caller: Biden's White House and State Department failed to comprehend how quickly the Taliban was taking over Afghanistan
An Army investigative report details how senior officials from the White House and State Department failed to comprehend how quickly the Taliban was taking over Afghanistan. The report also detailed how American troops on the ground in Afghanistan faced increased danger as a result of decision-making from top brass. The 2,000-page report provides the latest insight into just how unprepared Joe Biden's administration appeared to be with regards to the Afghanistan withdrawal. The Army investigation came about after the Aug. 26 suicide bombing outside of the Kabul airport. It includes previously unreported acts of violence against American personnel in Afghanistan, complaints from commanders on the ground and more. Navy Rear Adm. Peter Vasely, the top U.S. commander present in Afghanistan during the evacuation process, complained to Army investigators that policymakers were not paying attention to the reality on the ground. He said the military could have been "much better prepared to conduct a more orderly" mission "if policymakers had paid attention to the indicators of what was happening on the ground."

February 8: The Epoch Times: US capitol Police accused of illegally entering GOP offices
The U.S. Capitol Police (USCP) are under fire after the USCP inspector general opened an investigation into allegations that the department illegally entered the offices of GOP members of Congress, interviewed GOP staffers, and took photos of documents that were protected under congressional rules. Rep. Troy Nehls (R-TX) alleged that his office was one of several GOP offices that had been illegally entered and searched by the USCP. "The Capitol Police Intelligence Division investigated my office illegally and one of my staffers caught them in the act," Nehls contended. "On November 20th, 2021, Capitol Police entered my office without my knowledge and photographed confidential legislative products protected by the Speech and Debate clause enshrined in the Constitution, Article 1 Section 6," Nehls continued. "Two days later on Monday November 22, 2021 (Thanksgiving week), three intelligence officers attempted to enter my office while the House was in recess." "So, why is the Capitol Police Leadership maliciously investigating me in an attempt to destroy me and my character?" "Maybe it is because I have been a vocal critic of [Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)], the January 6th Committee, and [USCP] leadership about their handling of January 6th, the death of Ashli Babbitt and the subsequent SHAM investigation."

February 7: The Daily Caller: Progressive city series major spike in the gun violence after efforts to defend the police
The Seattle Police Department (SPD) responded to calls at 2:30 a.m. Sunday that claimed multiple people were involved in a gunfight with over 40 gunshots reported in the city's Capitol Hill neighborhood. No individuals were injured in the incident, KIRO 7 Seattle reports. Sunday's incident occurred two days after Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell pledged to combat the city's violent crime problem. "The fact of the matter, we have seen an increase in violent crime," Harrell said, according to KIRO 7. "When I see what I continue to see out here, I can't sleep at

February 7: The Washington Examiner: VA Supreme Court rejects effort to block Youngkin mask order opt out plan
The Virginia Supreme Court rejected a challenge to Gov. Glenn Youngkin's executive order allowing parents to opt out of school mask mandates, handing the governor a major legal victory. The court's ruling dismissed a lawsuit filed by a group of parents in Chesapeake, Virginia, who had sued the governor over his Day One executive order allowing parents to opt their children out of school mask mandates, saying the governor was obligated by state law to mandate them. The court ruled Youngkin had no obligation to mandate masks in schools and therefore could not be sued.

February 7: The Epoch Times: Biden to Russia; if you invade Ukraine there will be no Nord Stream 2
Joe Biden said Monday "there will no longer be a Nord Stream 2" gas pipeline to Europe if Russia invades Ukraine. In a joint press conference with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Feb. 7, the two leaders showed a united front in posing the threat of "far-reaching, severe" sanctions against Russia if it moves to invade Ukraine. Both Biden and Scholz described a dual tract approach—calling for a diplomatic path forward with Russia while simultaneously preparing sanctions to impose quickly against Russia in the event of an invasion. "If Russia invades that means tanks or troops crossing the border of Ukraine. Then there will be no longer a Nord Stream 2," said Biden. "We will bring an end to it." When pressed on how this will be done when the pipeline is in German control Biden said: "I promise you we'll be able to do it." U.S. officials have repeatedly made this threat but without firm commitment from Germany. Both Biden and Scholz elected to leave some ambiguity as to the extent of the agreed-upon sanctions.

February 7: Fox Business: IRS scrapping ill informed plan requiring taxpayers to submit facial recognition photos
The IRS has agreed to abandon its plan requiring taxpayers to verify their identity through facial recognition technology provided by a private company, after privacy advocates, taxpayers, and lawmakers from both sides of the political aisle condemned the agency, citing for various concerns over the practice. The IRS introduced the facial recognition plan last month, and planned for full implementation this summer. The plan would have required taxpayers to provide a video selfie to ID.me in order to access their accounts on the agency's website. Privacy advocates immediately cried foul, raising concerns about potential data breaches given that users would provide ID.me with personal information such as their Social Security number and an image of their photo ID – which would be compared to the selfie.

February 6: Fox News: Parents outrage mounts after schools across nation celebrate BLM's "Week of Action"
Many schools across the country celebrated the Black Lives Matter "Week of Action," which has sparked fierce condemnation from concerned parents. "BLM is a divisive and radical fringe group that includes anti-American, anti-Israel (OUR Jewish homeland and that of proud Jewish people), antisemitic and racist propaganda," one parent wrote. The father said parents in the school district were sent a message that the local school board approved celebrating "BLM Week of Action" for the second consecutive year and urged "teachers and schools" to implement the group's controversial "13 guiding principles." Among these guiding principles are a call for the "disruption of Western nuclear family dynamics" and concepts such as "Black Villages," "Globalism" and "Queer Affirming."

February 6: The Daily Caller: US troops arrive a location near the Poland/Ukraine border
The first U.S. troops sent to assist NATO allies in East Europe landed at a military base near the Poland-Ukraine border Saturday, a Polish military spokesman confirmed. "As announced, the first elements of the brigade battle group from the 82nd Airborne Division of the United States Army have arrived in Poland," he said. Joe Biden approved sending around 3,000 additional troops to be moved to Poland, Germany and Romania Wednesday. "These are not permanent moves," Kirby Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said Wednesday. The deployment comes amid growing fears of Russian military aggression towards Ukraine, after nearly 130,000 Russian troops had been located along the Ukrainian border.

February 6: The Washington Times: National Security Advisor: Russian invasion of Ukraine could happen at anytime
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Sunday Russia could invade Ukraine at any moment, though he said there is still a chance for a diplomatic breakthrough. In an appearance on NBC's "Meet the Press," Sullivan said Joe Biden has rallied the nation's allies and provided support to the Ukrainians in the hopes of preventing an attack. "We're in the window where something could happen. That is, a military escalation and invasion of Ukraine could happen at any time," he said. "We believe that the Russians have put in place the capabilities to mount a significant military operation, and we have been working hard to prepare a response.

February 5: The Washington Examiner: China and Russia unveil plan for
a new world order
China and Russia have outlined a vision of international relations anchored in their potential to reinforce each other in disputes with the United States and its allies while cooperating on an array of economic and diplomatic fronts. Xi Jinping and Vladimer Putin issued a joint statement that forecast the "transformation of the global governance architecture and world order." And that transformation would be marked by the progress of concepts and initiatives that Moscow and Beijing conceived separately, often in opposition to the U.S. and its Western allies, and now could develop into an integrated challenge to American power.

February 5: Fox News: Republicans in NY, NC, and PA file lawsuits against redistricting maps that heavily support Democrats and could deny GOP seats is in Congress
In New York, a group of Republican voters sued the state late Thursday over its new congressional map, which heavily favors Democrats, could cost conservatives several seats, and which they claim is "unconstitutional." Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) approved the map earlier Thursday. Meanwhile, the North Carolina Supreme Court struck down a new redistricting map backed by Republicans which Democrats who brought the lawsuit called "extreme partisan gerrymanders." "From the outset," Republicans contend, "Democrats made clear their intentions of leveraging an activist judiciary to seize political gain despite the Republican-led legislature's open, transparent, constitutional process. The NCGOP looks forward to another open, constitutional process for the legislature to redraw these maps and sincerely hope the constitutional order is not upended yet again by Democrats writing policy from the bench." In Pennsylvania drafters claim their map reflects the state's rising urban population and lessening rural one. The vote to approve the maps was 4-1 with state House Majority Leader Kerry Benninghoff, a Republican, dissenting. Before the vote, she said, "the fix was in" and claimed the map was racially based.

February 5: The Epoch Times: Heating oil and diesel fuel in short supply
as demand rises
Supplies of diesel and heating oil in the United States have dwindled as refiners are having trouble replenishing the domestic fuel supply this winter, which may keep oil prices elevated for months. At market closure Feb. 4, heating oil futures reached their highest price in seven years. U.S. and global benchmarks for crude-oil futures hit above $90 a barrel, as a harsh winter storm affected large portions of the country, adding to existing supply concerns. Meanwhile the national average for diesel fuel was the highest since September 2014. Fuel production in the United States has not kept pace with demand for months with East Coast stockpiles at their lowest levels since April 2020. When inventories are low, refiners generally respond by ramping up output, but several key U.S. refineries have been out of action since the start of the pandemic, while others are under maintenance. Additionally, Biden administration efforts to limit petro-chemical production has further exasperated the situation.

February 4: Fox News: Chinese Communists push Dutch reporter off camera a
t the Olympic Games
Communist Chinese officials could be seen in a viral video Friday attempting to end the live broadcast of a Dutch television reporter at the Winter Olympics in Beijing. "Our correspondent was pulled away from the camera by security guards at 12:00 pm live in the NOS Journaal," the Dutch station tweeted. "Unfortunately, this is increasingly becoming a daily reality for journalists in China. He is fine and was able to finish his story a few minutes later." In the video the reporter can be seen being yanked off camera by Communist Chinese officials as he tries to continue his report from Beijing. According to the Daily Mail, observers suspected that the "Public Security Volunteers" who were seen pushing the reporter away were upset that he was filming in an unphotogenic location.

February 4: The Daily Caller: Meanwhile the TV ratings for the winter Olympics tank
The ratings are in for NBC's first day of coverage for the 2022 Winter Olympics being held in Communist China and they are down from the previous year. The network's coverage in prime-time Thursday for the opening ceremony averaged 7.7 million total viewers, The Olympic viewership also landed with a 1.3 rating in the coveted demographic of ages 18-49. Commentator Clay Travis tweeted that the viewership is "…down 55% from 2018 and down 64% from 2014. Americans are overwhelmingly refusing to watch an Olympics that features athletes and countries bowing down to Chinese dictators." The tweet included a graphic showing average primetime Olympic viewership dating back to the games in Seoul in 1988 when the Olympic Summer Games scored 25.3 million viewers and 15.6 million for the Tokyo games in 2021. Viewership means money for the network.

February 4: The Washington Times: Senators probe Biden's botched
withdrawal from Afghanistan, ID planning failures
A new report outlines Joe Biden's missteps and what it describes as a "failure of leadership" during the drawdown from Afghanistan that left thousands of American citizens and Afghan partners stranded. The report by Senator James Risch (R-ID), the top Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee, details how Biden failed to plan for worst-case scenarios, ignored intelligence reports and put U.S. credibility on the line for years to come. "While there is substantial disagreement about the policy to leave Afghanistan, Americans share outrage over how the United States withdrew last August, and what that failure has done to America's standing in the world," Risch said. "My report describes how the Biden Administration's failure of duty allowed for a quick Taliban takeover of Afghanistan and a botched withdrawal that left hundreds of Americans and tens of thousands of Afghan partners behind."

February 4: One American News Network: Canvas of PA 2020 voting
shows 37% anomalies in Lancaster County
Canvassers knocked on sampling of voter's doors in Lancaster County, PA and 37% of those uncovered anomalies, or a disconnect, from the official state records. Thirty percent of these had a registration discrepancy, where the person said there were "X" number of voters registered at their address and the state registration records show a different number. Of that number there were 21% "phantom registrations," meaning there are more people registered at that address than the resident is aware of. The canvas also showed that in 17% of the cases there were more votes cast at that address than there are people living there.

February 3: The Washington Times: Islamic terrorist leader kills
himself in Syria as U.S. special forces close in
The shadowy leader of the Islamic State terrorist group killed himself and his family members "in a final act of desperate cowardice" by detonating explosives as U.S. Special Forces approached his hideout in Syria, Biden and U.S. officials said Thursday. Hours after watching a live feed of the mission with Kamala Harris and top aides from the White House Situation Room, Biden gave a brief televised address. He said the strike against ISIS leader Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi in the small town of Atmeh, near the Turkish border, would send a message to other terrorist groups that seek to challenge the U.S. and its allies. "He chose to blow himself up, not just with a vest, but to blow up that third floor rather than face justice for the crimes he has committed, taking several members of his family with him…" Biden said.

February 3: The Free Beacon: Biden Administration accused of keeping d
atabase of over a billion gun sales; legislators want it investigated
A coalition of Republican lawmakers is investigating the Biden administration over its stockpiling of nearly one billion records detailing Americans' firearm purchases, according to a copy of the investigation that accuses the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) of planning to "sweep up records of every gun sale in America." The probe, spearheaded by Rep. Michael Cloud (R-TX) and backed by 35 of his colleagues, comes on the heels of a report detailing how the ATF maintains a database of 920,664,765 firearm purchase records—far more than has previously been publicly disclosed. The massive number of records, most of which are digitized in a searchable database, sparked concerns the Biden administration is violating federal laws that bar the government from maintaining a national gun registry. Now the lawmakers are demanding the ATF come clean about how it is using the database, which the agency claims is primarily used to track guns used in crimes.

February 3: Fox News: Pentagon has intelligence that Russia is likely to
use a "false flag" incident as a reason for invading the Ukraine
The United States has intelligence that Russia is likely to "fabricate" a pretext for an invasion of Ukraine, the Pentagon confirmed Thursday. The Washington Post on Thursday morning reported that Russia has developed a plan to create a pretext for a Ukraine invasion by falsely pinning an attack on Ukrainian forces. "We do have information that the Russians are likely to want to fabricate a pretext for an invasion, which, again, is right out of their playbook," Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said when asked whether the report was accurate. U.S. officials believe that Russia is planning to "stage a fake attack by Ukrainian military or intelligence forces against Russian sovereign territory or against Russian-speaking people to therefore justify their action as part of this fake attack," Kirby explained.

February 3: The Daily Caller: SD Governor to sign bill barring transgender
athletes from competing in girls' sports
Gov. Kristi Noem (R-SD) will sign a bill Thursday aimed at protecting women's sports by mandating that educational institutions assign students to sports teams based on their biological sex, the Daily Caller has learned. The bill codifies Noem's 2021 executive order asserting that transgender athletes must compete on teams that align with their biological sex. Noem said that the bill is about "fairness," particularly for female athletes who face competition from biological men. "This is about fairness. Every young woman deserves an equal playing field where she can achieve success, but common sense tells us that males have an unfair physical advantage over females in athletic competition," Noem said. "Women have fought long and hard for equal athletic opportunities, and South Dakota will defend them."

February 3: The Washington Times: Islamic terrorist leader kills himself
in Syria as U.S. special forces close in
The shadowy leader of the Islamic State terror group killed himself and his family members "in a final act of desperate cowardice" by detonating explosives as U.S. special forces approached his hideout in Syria, Administration officials said Thursday. Hours after watching a live feed of the mission Biden said in a brief televised address that the strike against ISIS leader Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi at a small border town of Atmeh near the Turkish border would send a message to other terror groups who seek to challenge the U.S. and its allies. "He chose to blow himself up, not just with a vest, but to blow up that third floor, rather than face justice for the crimes he has committed, taking several members of his family with him, just as his predecessor did," Joe Biden said.

February 3: The Free Beacon: Biden Administration accused of keeping
database of over a billion gun sales; legislators want it investigated
A coalition of lawmakers is investigating the Biden administration over its stockpiling of nearly one billion records detailing Americans' firearm purchases. According to a copy of the investigation the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) is planning to "sweep up records of every gun sale in America." The probe, spearheaded by Rep. Michael Cloud (R-TX) and backed by 35 of his colleagues, comes on the heels of a report detailing how the ATF maintains a database of 920,664,765 firearm purchase records—far more than has previously been publicly disclosed. The massive number of records, most of which are digitized in a searchable database, sparked concerns the Biden administration is violating federal laws that bar the government from maintaining a national gun registry. The lawmakers are demanding that ATF come clean about how it is using the database as concerns are being raised about the Administration's bid to overhaul the current gun laws.

February 3: Fox News: Pentagon has intelligence that Russia is likely to use a
"false flag" incident as a reason for invading the Ukraine
The United States has intelligence that Russia is likely to "fabricate" a pretext for an invasion of Ukraine, the Pentagon confirmed today. The Washington Post reported that Russia has developed a plan to create a pretext for a Ukraine invasion by falsely pinning an attack on Ukrainian forces. "We do have information that the Russians are likely to want to fabricate a pretext for an invasion, which, again, is right out of their playbook," Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said when asked whether the report was accurate. U.S. officials believe that Russia is planning to "stage a fake attack by Ukrainian military or intelligence forces against Russian sovereign territory or against Russian-speaking people to therefore justify their action as part of this fake attack," Kirby explained. "We're watching this across the board. We've seen these kinds of activity by the Russians in the past."

February 3: The Daily Caller: SD Governor to sign bill barring transgender
athletes from competing in girls' sports
South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem (R) will sign a bill today aimed at protecting women's sports by mandating that educational institutions assign students to sports teams based on their biological sex. The bill codifies Noem's 2021 executive order asserting that transgender athletes must compete on teams that align with their biological sex. Noem said that the bill is about "fairness," particularly for female athletes who face competition from biological men. "This is about fairness. Every young woman deserves an equal playing field where she can achieve success, but common sense tells us that males have an unfair physical advantage over females in athletic competition," Noem said. "Women have fought long and hard for equal athletic opportunities, and South Dakota will defend them."

February 2: The Washington Times: Hopkins study confirms that lockdowns
did little to reduce deaths due to the Wuhan coronavirus
Lockdowns in the U.S. and Europe had little or no impact in reducing deaths from COVID-19, according to a new analysis by researchers at Johns Hopkins University. The lockdowns during the early phase of the pandemic in 2020 reduced COVID-19 mortality by about 0.2%, said the broad review of multiple scientific studies. "We find no evidence that lockdowns, school closures, border closures, and limiting gatherings have had a noticeable effect on COVID-19 mortality," the researchers wrote. But the research paper said lockdowns did have "devastating effects" on the economy and contributed to numerous social ills. "They have contributed to reducing economic activity, raising unemployment, reducing schooling, causing political unrest, contributing to domestic violence, and undermining liberal democracy," the report said.

February 2: The Washington Examiner: Black Lives Matter shuts down its online fundraising after California threatened to hold charity's leaders personally liable
BLM shut down all of its online fundraising streams late Wednesday afternoon, just days after California threatened to hold the charity's leaders personally liable over its lack of financial transparency. The move comes less than a week after an investigation found that BLM has had no known leader in charge of its $60 million bankroll since its co-founder resigned in May. California and Washington recently ordered BLM to cease all fundraising activities in their blue states due to the failure of the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation, the legal entity that represents the national BLM movement, to report information about its finances in 2020, the year it raised tens of millions amid the racial protests and riots that followed George Floyd's killing.

February 2: Fox News: LA police Lt. placed responsibility for murder of one of his men on "anti-police climate" and reluctance of prosecutor to hold criminals accountable
A Los Angeles police lieutenant ripped into the "woke narrative" fueling an "anti-police climate" in California and prosecutors' reluctance to hold criminals accountable Wednesday while eulogizing an officer under his command who died last month when attacked off-duty by suspected gang members. Hundreds of police turned out Wednesday morning to mourn Fernando Arroyos, who died on Jan. 10 when attacked by a group of suspected gang members in an alleged gunpoint robbery while he was out house hunting with his girlfriend. "The system and the community that you worked so hard for failed you," said LAPD Lt. Rex Ingram, Arroyos' watch commander. "You expressed your concerns to your family many times about how criminals were not being held accountable for their actions, and how it was frustrating for the police and much more heartbreaking for the innocent victims."

February 1: The Washington Times:Trump's fundraising efforts dwarfs
the DNC and RNC combined
Former President Trump is sitting on an absurd amount of campaign cash — more than the Democratic National Committee and Republican National Committee combined. His political committees raised $51 million over the last six months of 2021, and he ended the year with $122 million in the bank, most of that in his Save America Political Action Committee. His operation said the money came from more than 1.6 million donations, and more than 98% of those were considered "small-dollar" contributions of less than $200, in what political operatives described as an unprecedented show of force for someone not currently in office.

February 1: Fox News: VA Attorney General convivences three universities
to drop vaccine mandates for students
The three largest universities in Virginia have dropped their sweeping vaccine requirements after the state's newly elected attorney general issued his legal opinion calling such mandates illegal. George Mason University, Virginia Tech and the University of Mary Washington all announced reforms to their previously strict vaccination requirements. The colleges now emphasis recommendations to vaccinate without negative consequences for remaining holdouts. "Proof of vaccination against COVID-19 is no longer a condition of students' enrollment or in-person attendance, nor will unvaccinated or eligible unboosted students be subject to separate testing requirements," University of Mary Washington wrote in a memo.

February 1: The Daily Caller: Senator from NM has stroke impacting the
confirmation of Biden Administration nominees
Sen. Ben Ray Lujan (D-NM) was hospitalized on Thursday, Jan. 27 due to a stroke, a top aide announced. "Early Thursday morning, Sen. Lujan began experiencing dizziness and fatigue. He checked himself into Christus St. Vincent Regional Hospital in Santa Fe. He was then transferred to UNM Hospital in Albuquerque for further evaluation. Sen. Lujan was found to have suffered a stroke in the cerebellum, affecting his balance. As part of his treatment plan, he subsequently underwent decompressive surgery to ease swelling," Chief of Staff Carlos Sanchez said in a statement. Lujan is expected to make a full recovery, Sanchez added. With Lujan absent, Democrats will have to wait to confirm several executive and judicial branch nominees, unless Republicans pledge to support them. Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer filed cloture motions to confirm 20 appointees on Jan. 20, and only one has been confirmed.

February 1: The Free Beacon: The confirmation of a new justice to the
SCOTUS may have a negative impact on Biden's overall judicial legacy
Joe Biden's Supreme Court appointment could be a net-negative for his judicial legacy, as the confirmation process will gum up the works for lower court nominees awaiting hearings and final votes. Senate Democrats confirmed more than 40 Biden nominees in 2021, but that lively pace will grind to a screeching halt once the Senate Judiciary Committee turns its attention to the Biden Supreme Court pick. And with Republicans favored to take control of the Senate in November, time is running out for Biden to stack the courts with a new generation of young, ideological progressives. "Supreme Court confirmations generally take about two months, sometimes faster, from nomination to confirmation," said Mike Davis, a former nominations chief for Sen. Chuck Grassley (R., Iowa). "And the lower court nominations generally get put on the back-burner and all eyes—and resources—focus on the Supreme Court nominee."

January 31: The Daily Caller: Russia and Ukraine issue: Reporter confronts
Biden's State Dept. Spokesman
State Department spokesman Ned Price was pressed Monday by AP reporter (Lee) on the Biden administration's response to the ongoing tension between Ukraine and Russia and the United Nations Security Council, at which ambassadors from the United States and Russia traded verbal barbs but did not reach a resolution or even a joint statement on the issue. Price defended the administration's diplomatic approach to the issue and argued defensively that the Security Council meeting was productive. Lee pressed the issue asking "Haven't there been expositions after expositions after expositions of this going back months now? You yourself get up here every single day … you talk about the G7, you talk about the EU, you talk about NATO, you talk about any number of international fora where this stuff has actually been agreed on." "I'm curious," Lee continued, "as to when you say the world is united in opposing Russian aggression, and you say that because of what happened in the Security Council today, then that's just flat wrong, because the world is not united," he said. "There were two members of the council that vetoed, wielding members of the council that didn't even want to have this meeting in the first place." Of the 15 member states voting at the Security Council on Monday, ten voted proceed with a Russia-Ukraine discussion, with three members abstaining, and Russia and China voting against. With the Chamberlin and Hitler 's discussions in the rear view mirror, one commentator remembered the saying "those who don't understand history, are doomed to repeat it."

January 31: The Washington Examiner: Issue over key FBI cell phone,
who knew what and when?
The Justice Department's Inspector General says his team "likely" told John Durham it had phones belonging to an ex-FBI general counsel in 2018 after the special counsel suggested the watchdog had not been completely forthcoming. The dust-up between Durham and DOJ IG Michael Horowitz comes as the special counsel hinted Horowitz has slow-walked turning over key information related to a criminal case against Democratic lawyer Michael Sussmann. The special counsel said Tuesday that Horowitz had recently revealed a March 2017 meeting he'd had with Sussmann, with Durham also saying he'd only been told earlier this month about two phones belonging to Baker that were in Horowitz's possession.

January 31: The Epoch Times: Arizona Senate Committee passes additional
election integrity measures
An Arizona Senate subcommittee passed six more pieces of legislation on Jan. 31 aimed at shoring up the state's electoral process following a disputed 2020 election and ballot audit and recount in Maricopa County. The bills passed by a margin of 4-3 in the Committee on Government along party lines. SB 1260 introduces and clarifies language regarding electors who register to vote in more than one county. The bill reads: "If the county recorder received credible information that a person has registered to vote in a different county, the county recorder shall confirm the person's voter registration with that other county and, on confirmation, shall cancel the person's registration" in accordance with state law. The bill also requires voters to report ballots received at the address of a former tenant, and that county recorders remove voters from the voting list once it has been confirmed that they have moved away. Those who knowingly vote in more than one place will be guilty of a Class 5 felony fraud

January 31: Fox News: Potential Biden nominee stunned justices with her
position on religious liberty
One of the women on Joe Biden's short list to replace outgoing Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer once startled the court's justices with her aggressive position against the plaintiff in a religious liberty case. Leondra Kruger, now a justice on California's highest court, argued on behalf of the Obama administration in Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. EEOC, which involved whether religious organizations had to abide by anti-discrimination laws when choosing religious leaders. "The position that Kruger staked out as a litigant in the case — one that even Justice Kagan described as 'amazing' during oral argument — suggests that she could be hostile to religious liberty if she were appointed," Judicial Crisis Network president Carrie Severino said on Monday, "… such a position would shift the Court's liberal wing even further to the left, which of course is the desire of the liberal dark money groups who spent $1.5 billion in 2020 to help elect [Joe] Biden and Senate Democrats," she continued.

January 30: Fox News: Most Americans want Biden to consider ALL
qualified candidates for SCOTUS
More than three-quarters (76%) of Americans want Joe Biden to consider all potential nominees to replace outgoing Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, according to a recent ABC News-Ipsos poll. The poll comes after Biden said Thursday that he will announce his nominee before the end of February, and that the candidate will be a Black woman. Among Democrats, 54% supported considering all nominees regardless of race and gender. Just 23% of those polled wanted Biden to restrict his list of nominees to Black women.

January 30: The Washington Times: Trump talks about Biden foreign
policy at Texas rally
Former President Donald Trump raised fears of a world war spurred by Joe Biden's foreign policy in biting remarks Saturday at a campaign-style rally in Texas. The former president piled on the criticism as the Biden administration prepares to deploy troops to Eastern Europe and NATO countries as tensions escalate over a potential Russian invasion of Ukraine. "China is threatening Taiwan," Trump said. "Iran is on the cusp of a nuclear bomb. Russia may take over from Ukraine." "Joe Biden's weakness and incompetence is creating a very real risk of World War III," the former president said. "Look at what's going on." For weeks, Biden has mobilized his administration and rallied allies in a bid to cool tensions spurred by Russia's buildup of more than 100,000 troops on its border with Ukraine.

January 30: The Washington Examiner: Biden visits PA to talk about infrastructure as bridge nearby collapses
If you needed a metaphor for Joe Biden's economic recovery you just got it on Friday. The very day Biden went to Pittsburgh to talk about infrastructure, a bridge collapsed. If you have a bridge on your commute, you would do well to keep an eye on whether Biden has plans to visit your town. Yes, we are joking, of course. But the bridge metaphor works because Biden has a track record of making everything, he touches worse. Between his staggeringly incompetent exit from Afghanistan and his deplorable conduct in handling the border crisis he created, Biden is really stinking up the joint. But it is the economy where he is arguably doing the most damage.

January 29: The Washington Times: UK's Johnson considering deploying
troops in response to Putin's troop buildup on the Ukrainian border
U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Saturday that he is considering a "major" deployment of British troops, weapons and equipment in support of NATO amid Russia's troop buildup along its border with Ukraine. Johnson said he ordered British Armed Forces to prepare to deploy "across Europe next week, ensuring we are able to support our NATO allies on land, at sea and in the air." Johnson asked U.K. defense and security officials to consider measures to bolster defensive efforts in Europe during an intelligence briefing earlier this week. As part of the offer proposed Saturday, the U.K. would bolster its support for its Nordic and Baltic partners, and "strengthen Europe's borders in the face of rising Russian aggression." "This package would send a clear message to the Kremlin – we will not tolerate their destabilizing activity, and we will always stand with our NATO allies in the face of Russian hostility," Johnson said in a statement.

January 29: The Daily Caller: White House confirms possible pick to replace
Justice Breyer on SCOTUS
The White House confirmed that South Carolina District Court Judge Michelle Childs was under consideration Friday as a possible candidate to fill the seat of retiring Justice Stephen Breyer on the U.S. Supreme Court. "Judge Childs is among multiple individuals under consideration for the Supreme Court, and we are not going to move her nomination on the [DC] Court of Appeals while [Joe Biden] is considering her for this vacancy," White House Deputy Press Secretary Andrew Bates said in a statement. At the same time reports that Biden is only considering three potential nominees is "incorrect." In the interim, Childs nomination to the DC Court of Appeals has be put on hold while she is being considered for the SCOTUS position. Following Breyer's Thursday retirement announcement Biden vowed to nominate a black woman to replace Breyer. One commentator remarked that if the nominee is being selected primarily based upon skin color and gender identification that it might raise questions about any potential nominee's qualifications for the job.

January 29: Breitbart News: Franklin Graham calls out radical AGs
and prosecutors
The reverend Franklin Graham called out radical attorney generals and prosecutors in the wake of attacks and killings of law enforcement officers around the nation in recent weeks. "This has been a horrific week for police departments across the country—New York, Houston, and other places where our men and women in blue are under attack, and prosecutors and attorneys general are allowing hardened criminals to commit crimes and walk back out onto the streets, sometimes within hours," Graham said. "It isn't hard to figure out that this puts the police and the public at great risk. These prosecutors and attorneys general need to be held accountable for what they are doing to our communities and how it is affecting people's lives," he continued.

January 28: The Free Beacon: The Navy rejects thousands of religious exemption requests to the vaccine mandate, potentially causing a reduction in forces
Just three Marines who requested a religious exemption to the mandated coronavirus vaccine have had their requests granted by military brass, leaving scores of active-duty service members facing expulsion from the force, according to information provided to Congress by the U.S. Navy. The Marines who had their religious exemption requests granted were slated to leave the service in the coming weeks. Out of 3,428 reported requests for a religious pass, none were granted to active-duty service members who are planning to remain in the service longer than six months. The disclosure, made to Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) is prompting accusations that Marine brass are rejecting religious exemption requests and forcing active-duty Marines out of the service. "The Biden military vaccine mandate is destroying the morale of our troops, careers of honor, and lives of service," Issa, a senior member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told the Free Beacon. "And now we know it has corrupted a part of the military itself through the wholesale denial of legitimate religious accommodations."

January 27: The Daily Caller: "Squad" member's vehicle hit by gunfire in her
St. Louis district, same Congresswoman who called for defunding the police
A vehicle belonging Rep. Cori Bush (D) was shot at in St. Louis on Saturday, Jan. 22, the congresswoman confirmed on Twitter. Bush said, "No one should have to fear for their safety here in St. Louis and that is exactly why our movement is working every day to invest in our communities, eradicate the root causes of gun violence, and keep every neighborhood safe." Bush, a member of the left-wing "Squad" has been a staunch proponent of defunding both the police and Defense Department. Despite her position on government-funded police departments, Bush has spent thousands of dollars on private security since she entered Congress in 2021. Of those funds, $880 were official disbursements, meaning that they came from taxpayers.

January 27: The Washington Examiner: Report alleges Dominion voting machine
vulnerabilities as Georgia faces an important US Senate and a gubernatorial election
A "secret report" on alleged vulnerabilities in Georgia's voting equipment is sowing distrust ahead of the 2022 midterm elections, a top state official warned Thursday. Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R) has vehemently defended the integrity of the 2020 election in the face of fraud claims by the Trump campaign. There have been fresh doubts raised about the security of Dominion Voting Systems machines by Alex Halderman, a computer science professor at the University of Michigan. A "secret report" apparently talks about Halderman -- described as an expert for plaintiffs in a long-running lawsuit seeking to get Georgia to ditch electronic voting machines in favor of hand-marked paper ballots -- being granted access to Dominion voting equipment in Fulton County for 12 weeks and producing a 25,000-word "secret report" that has been filed under seal. Halderman found that malicious software could be installed in voting touchscreens to alter QR codes printed on ballots that are then scanned to record votes, or a hacker could wreak havoc by gaining access to election management system computers, according to court records.

January 27: The Epoch Times: SCOTUS to hear case over NY revoking
religious exemption for vaccine mandates for children
Parents of schoolchildren in New York state have filed a challenge with the Supreme Court contesting the state's 2019 repeal of a law that exempted those with sincere religious objections from having to accept the vaccinations that children are normally required to receive in order to attend school. The petition comes as courts across the country, including the Supreme Court, are considering the separate, more specific issue of mandatory COVID-19 vaccinations and becoming increasingly receptive to arguments that governments are overstepping their lawful, constitutional authority in combating the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Although the state of New York requires children to be vaccinated against communicable diseases, such as hepatitis B, measles, and polio, as a condition of attending public or private school, the state had recognized both medical and religious exemptions to this requirement since 1966. But in June 2019, state lawmakers repealed the religious exemption, leaving the medical exemption in place. Existing state rules don't require students older than 18 or any other adult in the school environment to be vaccinated. The petitioners in the case are "parents from throughout New York, who have not vaccinated their children because of their sincerely-held religious beliefs," according to the petition.

January 27: Fox News: SCOTUS vacancy; progressives push for the
promised black female appointee
News of Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer's retirement has prompted a flurry of names being circulated as possible replacements, with some progressives pushing for civil rights lawyer Sherrilyn Ifill, who has advocated for the "defund the police" movement in the past. Since the news broke Wednesday morning that Breyer is retiring, progressive Democrats have been calling on Biden to make good on his campaign promise to nominate a Black woman to the Supreme Court.

January 26: The Epoch Times: Liberal supreme court justice to retire
Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer will retire, paving the way for Joe Biden to appoint his first Supreme Court justice, according to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY). Schumer on Wednesday said Breyer will step down from the Supreme Court at the end of the court's term in the summer of this year. It came after numerous unnamed sources spoke to media outlets saying that Breyer, 83, would retire. The White House said last year Biden would nominate a black woman if a vacancy arose on the court. Breyer, who is considered to be part of the high court's liberal wing, was appointed by former President Bill Clinton, a Democrat. His replacement will have to be confirmed by the Senate, which is currently split 50–50 among Republicans and Democrats with Vice President Kamala Harris having the ability to break ties as president of the body.

January 25: One America News Network: Senate foreign affairs works on
the "mother of all sanctions" should Russia invade Ukraine
Senators from both sides of the aisle discussed the developing situation between Russia and Ukraine. During a bipartisan Zoom meeting Monday, eight senators formulated a bill to level financial disincentives against Russia in the case it invades Ukraine. Committee chair Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) called the legislation the "mother of all sanctions." "I want to be crystal clear to those listening to this hearing in Moscow, Kyiv and other capitals around the world: A Russian invasion will trigger devastating economic sanctions the likes of which we have never seen before," Menendez stated. "(Vladimir) Putin doesn't get to redraw the map of Europe. Europeans should be thinking about that. He doesn't get to bully the people of an independent nation into submission." Committee Republicans favored preemptive sanctions to be enacted while Democrats wished to only issue penalties in the case of an invasion. The senators hope to reach an agreement by the end of the week.

January 25: The Washington Examiner: Biden FED nominations may violate the law
The top Republican on the banking committee has written to Joe Biden questioning the geographic and industrial diversity of his Federal Reserve picks, raising the specter of legal problems that could threaten the nominations. Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA) raised the problems about the people Biden recently nominated for crucial positions at the central bank. He hinted that Biden's picks could be in violation of the Federal Reserve Act and said he is seeking clarification on the matter. The act says that presidents can select "not more than one" pick from each Federal Reserve district and that the choices should "have due regard to a fair representation of the financial, agricultural, industrial, and commercial interests, and geographical divisions of the country." Toomey contends if Biden's choices are confirmed, a majority of the Fed's Board of Governors would hail from the central bank's Fifth District, which encompasses Washington, D.C., and its surrounding suburbs in Virginia and Maryland as well as North Carolina, South Carolina, and West Virginia.

January 25: Fox News:
Special report on Fauci raises questions about what he knew
Fresh questions are being raised about what American scientists and federal health officials knew about the origins of the Wuhan coronavirus and whether conflicting evidence was suppressed and hidden from the public. On Tuesday night's episode of Special Report with Bret Baier, Fox News dove into the early days of the pandemic and explored documents obtained showing that Dr. Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), was warned early on that the virus may have originated in a Wuhan, China lab. According to the timeline of events Fauci was told on January 27, 2020 that his NIAID had been indirectly funding the Wuhan lab through EcoHealth-- a US-based scientific non-profit that had been working with novel coronaviruses. On January 31, Dr. Kristian Andersen, a noted virologist at the Scripps Lab, privately told Fauci that after discussion with his colleagues some of COVID-19's features look possibly engineered and the "genome is inconsistent with expectations from evolutionary theory." Hours later, Fauci hastily organized a call with dozens of worldwide virologists, and notes from the meeting obtained by Special Report reveal that suspicions of the lab leak theory were suppressed over concerns of how the public would react to news of possible Chinese government involvement.

January 25: The Epoch Times: OSHA withdraws COVID 19 mandate
The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) announced Tuesday it will formally withdraw its Wuhan coronavirus vaccine mandate for private businesses with 100 or more employees on Wednesday. The agency issued an announcement in the Federal Register that it will withdraw its rule, known as an emergency temporary standard (ETS), which required companies to make employees either get a vaccine or submit to weekly COVID-19 testing while wearing masks in the workplace. It comes after the Supreme Court on Jan. 13 issued a 6–3 opinion blocking the rule, saying that challengers to the order, including large trucking companies, were likely to prevail in court.


January 24: NewsMax: Two US carrier groups enter South China Sea as Chinese incursions on Taiwan airspace increase
DoD reports that two U.S. aircraft carrier groups have entered the disputed South China Sea for training as Taiwan reported a new Chinese air force incursions including a fearsome new electronic warfare jet. U.S. Navy ships routinely sail close to Chinese-claimed islands in the South China Sea to challenge Chinese sovereignty claims, as well as through the Taiwan Strait. Carrier Strike Groups, led by their flagships USS Carl Vinson and USS Abraham Lincoln began operations in the South China Sea on Sunday. The exercises will be conducted in international waters and will include air and maritime interdiction and anti-submarine warfare operations. The news of the U.S. operations coincides with Taiwan reporting the latest mass incursion by China's air force into its air defense identification zone - 39 aircraft - in an area close to the Taiwan-controlled Pratas Islands in the northern reaches of the South China Sea.

January 24: Fox News: Biden calls Reporter "stupid son of a b_tch" over
question about inflation
Biden lashed out at Fox News White House correspondent Peter Doocy for attempting to press him on inflation. Biden met with the Competition Council and members of his cabinet Monday to discuss ways to lower prices for American families. Following his prepared remarks, near the 8-minute mark of the live stream, members of the press began shouting questions, hoping for the president to take a few before they were shown the door by White House staff. Biden knocked the first reporter, who asked about the administration's call with European leaders as tensions between Russia and Ukraine rise. "The only reason I don't like doing is this because you never report on … why I've called a meeting, and this is important" Biden said. "Will you take questions on inflation then?" Doocy asked. "Do you think inflation will be a political liability ahead of the midterms?" As Doocy and the other reporters were being shooed away, Biden took a swipe at the Fox News correspondent. "That's a great asset, more inflation. What a stupid son of a b----," Biden said to his cabinet.

January 23: Fox News: Voters: Biden is listening to too many liberals
Joe Biden has been facing a rough week after marking his first year in office. Based on the latest Sunday shows, voters from across all political backgrounds have begun to take notice. On CBS' "Face the Nation," host Margaret Brennan appeared with a "Listening to America" focus group of voters to discuss issues concerning Americans. Among the six voters on the panel, not a single person claimed that Americans were in a better place than they were a year ago. "All of you are saying no, even though the jobs picture is brighter, even though the direction of the economy recovery is happening," Brennan said.

January 23: The Epoch Times: Thousands protest against vaccine requirements
Thousands of people turned out in Washington to march in protest against Wuhan coronavirus vaccine mandates -- one of the largest U.S. events and protests held against the mandates since the start of the pandemic. Starting at 12:30 p.m. local time, thousands of people marched around the Washington Monument to the Lincoln Memorial, with many holding signs decrying COVID-19 regulations, vaccine passports, and mandates. Some criticized the Biden administration's vaccine mandates.

January 21: The Washington Times: New brand of young left wing Democrat
candidates challenge the old guard in primaries across the country
A new generation of liberal Democrats is entering the political arena with a rush of AOC-inspired young left-wing candidates looking to oust the party's old guard this year. Justice Democrats, the political action committee that helped elect "The Squad" — the ultra-liberal group of six congressional House members led by New York's Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez — is mobilizing around a new slate of candidates running primary challenges this year against several incumbent Democrats. The new faces are younger and more diverse, and back far-left policies, like the Green New Deal and universal health care, that have given pause to moderate members. It's a battle for the soul of the Democratic Party and a test of whether voters are ready for a dramatically left-wing vision for America.

January 21: The Daily Caller: Judge rules two California counties violated the
2nd Amendment during COVID pandemic
According to the Associated Press, two California counties were ruled to have violated their citizens' Second Amendment rights by shutting down gun shops during the COVID-19 pandemic. A Thursday ruling by a three-judge panel on the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals determined orders by officials in Ventura and Los Angeles counties that deemed gun retailers "nonessential businesses" to be illegal. Officials in both counties won separate lawsuits in lower courts, with judges ruling that the shutdowns of such businesses reasonably fit within county officials' emergency powers and served the public interest. "The closure of non-essential businesses, including firearms and ammunition retailers, reasonably fits the City's and County's stated objectives of reducing the spread of this disease," U.S. District Judge Andre Birotte Jr. wrote concerning the closure of gun retailers at the time. The Second Amendment "means nothing if the government can prohibit all persons from acquiring any firearm or ammunition," Judge Lawrence VanDyke stated of the Ventura County case. "But that's what happened in this case."

January 21: Fox News: Administration stuck in reverse... withdraws ten
nominees from confirmation process
Joe Biden marked his first year in office with just over half of his nominees confirmed by the Senate and with some high-profile withdrawals. As of this week, Biden has nominated 678 people to executive branch positions, judgeships, attorneys and marshal positions. So far, 356 of them have been confirmed – or about 53% – according to the White House. That leaves 322 nominees still awaiting Senate confirmation. Biden had to pull 10 nominations to date, and also chose not re-nominate seven others – for a total of 17 -- after their nomination was returned at the end of the year, according to the White House.

January 20: One America News Network: Biden: Russia will face coordinated
economic sanctions if it invades Ukraine, but not U.S. troops
Joe Biden issued a new round of threats against Russia as he repeats claims of an alleged Russian invasion of Ukraine. In a statement Thursday, he tried to walk back his Wednesday remarks about a "minor incursion" and threatened "consequences" if Russian troops crossed into Ukraine. Biden said Russia would face a "severe and coordinated" economic response if that were to happen. However, White House officials have struggled to explain what they would actually do in that scenario. Biden also threatened a U.S. response to Russian paramilitary actions and cyber-attacks. The Russian foreign ministry said rhetoric is designed to frame the narrative to justify provocations in Ukraine and blame Russia for it.

January 20: The Washington Times: SCOTUS rejects moves to speed up action
on the Texas abortion law
The Supreme Court on Thursday rejected a request from abortion clinics to speed up action on a case in lower courts challenging Texas's new law restricting abortions after a child's heart beat can be heard during a pregnancy, and allowing private citizens to enforce the law by bringing lawsuits. While the justices have allowed the law to remain in effect, they also said a challenge to the law could proceed in lower courts. But abortion-rights advocates say a key appeals court is now slow-walking the case, preventing a district judge from reaching a final ruling. The advocates had asked the Supreme Court to step in and order action, but a majority of justices declined.

January 20: The Daily Caller: Twenty six Senators who urged keeping the
filibuster in 2017 changed their mind in 2022
Several Democratic senators are defending their votes to eliminate the filibuster less than five years after demanding that Republicans keep the procedure. Wednesday 46 Dems and two independents moved, unsuccessfully, to ax the nearly 200-year-old procedure. For 26 of those senators, the vote marked a complete reversal of their 2017 position. In the 2017 letter addressed to the then Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), the senators argued that they wished "to preserve existing rules, practices, and traditions as they pertain to the right of Members to engage in extended debate on legislation" in an effort to ensure that the Senate "continues to serve as the world's greatest deliberative body."

January 19: The Washington Times: Biden legislation to federalize
elections fails to garner enough votes
Joe Biden's push to rewrite the nation's voting laws went down to defeat 51-49 on Wednesday at the hands of a GOP filibuster, leaving Democrats pledging to hold a doomed vote to change the 60-vote threshold. The Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights bills failed to garner the 10 GOP votes necessary to pass. Vice President Kamala Harris was on hand to preside over the vote. Shortly before the debate closed, Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-NY) changed his vote to oppose the legislation. He did so to enable him to bring forward a proposal to remake the filibuster. The change being pushed by Schumer would require lawmakers to mount an old-fashioned "talking filibuster" to hold up the legislative process. Under the proposal, the legislation would be eligible to pass with a simple majority vote once the speechmaking was exhausted. Currently, lawmakers are allowed to merely object to ending debate, forcing leaders to round up the 60 votes to keep the legislation alive.

January 19: The Daily Caller: Biden claims the upcoming midterm
elections could be Illegitimate
Joe Biden wouldn't outright say Wednesday whether he believes the upcoming election results will be legitimate if his election bills don't pass, but he continued to push for the passage of two House bills that would federalize the election process. Republicans have blocked efforts to pass these bills, often arguing it subverts the Constitution which clearly gives state legislatures the authority over how elections will be held in their states. At a press conference Wednesday Biden was asked about the passage of his election bills and whether he believes the upcoming election would be fair without them. Biden appeared to dodge directly answering, telling the nation it "depends." "It all depends on whether… we're able to make the case to the American people that some of this is being set up to try and alter the outcome of the election," Biden said.

January 19: The Washington Examiner: Democrats fall short on efforts
to change the filibuster rule
Senate Democrats who hoped to curb the filibuster in order to pass two partisan election overhaul bills were thwarted by two centrists in their own party in an expected outcome that highlighted persistent intraparty divisions. Senators Manchin (D-WVA) and Sinema (D-AZ) upheld their pledges to preserve the filibuster, voting against a change in the rules supported by all other Senate Democrats that would have required those who wanted to block the election legislation to engage in a nonstop floor speech. This failure to change Senate rules put the nails in the coffin of legislation designed to federalize elections in America.

January 19: Fox News: Take aways from Biden's long promised press conference
Joe Biden spent much of his first year in office avoiding press conferences and those that he did have were "scripted." On Wednesday, he held his first press conference of 2022. Here are three take aways from the event:
- Russia invasion of Ukraine:
Perhaps the most startling comment of the evening was Biden's response to a question about the possible Russian invasion of Ukraine. He said he believes Russia will invade and promises significant economic consequences should they do so. In the process he clarified, a "minor incursion" by the Russians would elicit a softer response from the U.S. than that of a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
- Losing cool over reporter's question:
The press conference got heated when Biden yelled at Real Clear Politics correspondent Phillip Wegmann to "Go back and read what I said" after Wegmann asked about his voting rights speech in Atlanta earlier this month. Biden was criticized at the time for saying that those who disagree with him on the legislation are comparable to reviled segregationists. "Biden is now yelling at Philp Wegmann over his own usage of Bull Connor and George Wallace," commentator Stephen L. Miller observed.
- Botched withdrawal from Afghanistan:
Biden's botched withdrawal from Afghanistan remains among the lowest points of his first year in office, leading to the deaths of more than a dozen U.S. service members and abandoning more than 100 U.S. citizens under Taliban control alongside tens of thousands of Afghan allies. Prior to the withdrawal, Biden told Americans the operation would be safe and orderly, but he told reporters during his Wednesday press briefing at the White House that his true belief was that it was never going to be easy.

January 18: Fox News: Tucker Carlson; Why we have homelessness in
America is "not complicated"
"At every intersection, there are beggars," Carlson notes. "It's what we used to imagine India was like, but this is not Calcutta. This is New York and San Francisco and Austin, Texas. So, the question is what happened? And the short answer is: Our leaders did this. No matter what they tell you, homelessness is not an act of God. It's not the result of economic collapse in this country. America does not run out of housing. Instead, a determined group of well-funded ideologues decided to make it easier to live on the streets in this country while doing drugs. Therefore, many more people now live on the streets while doing drugs. See? Not complicated.

January 17: The Epoch Times: Babbitt, who was shot at the Capitol on January 6th
was trying to prevent people from vandalizing the Capitol building
Ashli Babbitt, who was fatally shot by a police officer at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, desperately tried to prevent protestors from vandalizing the doors leading to the Speaker's Lobby at the Capitol that day, even stepping between one troublemaker and officers guarding the doors, a video footage analysis shows. A frame-by-frame video analysis of the evidence paints a vastly different picture of Babbitt's actions than that portrayed in media accounts over the past year. News media regularly painted Babbitt as "violent," a "rioter," or an "insurrectionist" who was angrily trying to breach the Speaker's Lobby. Video clips appear to show she tried to prevent the attack, not join it.

January 17: Fox News: MI Dems post parents don't have a voice in what
is taught to their children; post deleted after intense criticism
The Michigan Democratic Party blasted the idea that parents should have a voice in what public schools teach, saying in a Facebook post over the weekend that public education teaches kids what society "needs them to know." The post made on their "official" Facebook page, criticized the parents who want to play a role in what public education teaches their children. The post was deleted Monday morning after it got intense criticism. "Not sure where this 'parents-should-control-what-is-taught-in-schools-because-they-are-our-kids' is originating, but parents do have the option to send their kids to a hand-selected private school at their own expense if this is what they desire," the post read.

January 17: The Epoch Times: FBI taken on by accused Whitmer kidnapping
suspects defense attorney
A defendant in the Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer kidnapping case has moved to introduce evidence related to the use of federal informants in the Jan. 6 Capitol Hill riots, arguing that the FBI's refusal to answer basic questions about such activities demonstrates a "consciousness of guilt" on the part of the government. The Jan. 14 motion comes as the defendants seek to have their charges dismissed on entrapment grounds. With their March 8 trial approaching, an attorney for Kaleb Franks has made numerous motions related to the FBI's use of at least 12 informants in the Whitmer investigation—including to introduce evidence related to Jan. 6, as well as to provide FBI informants and agents with immunity to testify about their actions. The Jan. 6-related evidence attorney Scott Graham seeks to admit is the refusal by top DOJ and FBI officials to discuss the use of informants in the U.S. Capitol breach. According to Graham, the FBI's lack of transparency demonstrates its "consciousness of guilt"—a term, to describe when someone conceals evidence, intimidates witnesses, or does something else that makes him or her look guilty. This case, however, is different from most, Graham said. It is now apparent that a number of both the agents and sources have reason to refuse to testify by invoking their Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination." "The testimony of the people in both groups is crucial to the presentation of a defense in this case. Mr. Franks therefore asks for an order compelling the government to obtain orders for use immunity for its agents and sources." A motion hearing is scheduled for Jan. 18, followed by a final pretrial conference on Feb. 18 before the March 8 trial.

January 17: Fox News: Elections have consequences Psaki;
VA governor fulfills campaign promise
White House press secretary Jen Psaki (D) lit into Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) as he fulfilled a campaign promise to allow parents to opt out of school mask mandates. The newly sworn-in governor quickly met defiance of his executive order from some of Virginia's bluer areas (including Arlington, Fairfax, Alexandria, and Richmond counties). Arlington said, in a statement, its public schools will "continue to require all staff and students to wear masks inside on school grounds and on buses, as part of our layered approach to safety." The order from Youngkin, whose election victory was powered in part by parents fed up with coronavirus mandates and lockdowns, does not prevent students from wearing masks in schools, as some progressives have argued at times. Rather, it allows them to opt out if they choose: "The parents of any child enrolled in a elementary or secondary school or a school based early childcare and educational program may elect for their children not to be subject to any mask mandate in effect at the child's school or educational program." Psaki was sharply criticized by conservatives for speaking out, with some telling Psaki she was free to continue to mask her children and also should heed the will of Virginia voters.

January 16: Fox News: Alveda King: Lessons from Martin Luther King, Jr.
At a time when there is so much stress, strain, and strife in the world around us, how can Americans be more like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in early 2022 and well beyond? Ahead of the federal holiday honoring Dr. King, evangelist Alveda King, a niece of Martin Luther King, said her uncle sought to be like Jesus and to do several things:
- Ask for forgiveness — and forgive others:
All of her family members were human and imperfect but they would repent and ask forgiveness. "And they wanted to learn to forgive others as well." Alveda said. "With that type of attitude, they were able to give us examples, to be examples. And my uncle, Martin Luther King Jr., was a very good example of how God loves us and how God forgives. He really walked in those paths during his lifetime," she added.
- Keep Hope Alive
Martin Luther King Jr. also talked about hope, she said. "He demonstrated that throughout his life," she contended. "Today, there is fear, anxiety, and anger," Alveda said "'Did you take the shot?' 'Did you not take the shot?' 'If so, why, if not, why not?" She said "I believe that if my uncle were here, he would ask us to speak out, to talk, and to work things out without the hatred."
- Say, 'God, help me — God, forgive me'
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. often quoted the Bible — yet Americans tend not to hear about that today. When asked for a comment Alveda said Martin Luther King was genuinely contrite when he did things that he felt were not in keeping with his efforts to be more Christ like. "He was quick to say, 'God, help me. God, forgive me," she said.
- Stay Optimistic
Alveda King also shared this point of her uncle's: "He said that hatred paralyzes life, and that love releases it." "He was never pessimistic. He was optimistic." He said that "everything happens by hope, … by faith working through love. But faith, hope and love are companions, and you actually need all three."
- Strive to live in harmony with others
Dr. Martin Luther King is known for saying "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character." Alveda said "I believe that today it's important for us to grasp and not be colorblind. When we argue about a critical race. There is one critical human race. It is the one-blood human race. We all are the same race." Martin Luther King Jr. put it this way: 'We must learn to live together as brothers' — and I'll add as sisters — 'or perish together as fools.' So we have to be human enough to embrace human dignity — and I'll add, from the womb to the tomb." "If we can do that," she said, "then we can begin to resolve some of these differences."

January 16: The Washington Examiner: Youngkin's first day in office
is a breath of fresh air
Virginia is looking more and more like an island of sanity in the midst of overreaching leftism. On his first day in office, newly elected Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin issued a series of executive orders aimed at rolling back the Left's bureaucratic micromanagement. One gives parents the choice to opt out of school mask mandates for their children, and another bans public school districts from teaching critical race theory (or closely associated tenets) in their curricula. He also repealed former Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam's vaccine mandate for all state employees. "We said all along that we were going to stand up for parents," he said on Sunday. "In Virginia, it is clear under law that parents have a fundamental right to make decisions for their children's upbringing, their education, and their care. And so, we are providing parents an opt-out. We're providing them the ability to make the right decision for their child with regard to their child's well-being. We are going to use all the authority that I have to consider all options to protect that right." Youngkin is already facing plenty of pushback from some of the state's Democratic counties which announced they still intend to enforce their mask mandates regardless of the governor's executive order. The issue will more than likely have to be resolved by the courts, but Youngkin's first day in office suggests this is a battle he is more than willing to take on.

January 16: The Epoch Times: TX hostage taker killed; all hostages safe
The FBI has identified the hostage-taker who was killed by police after a lengthy ten hour standoff at a Texas synagogue on Jan. 15 as the British national named Malik Faisal Akram. Akram, 44, was shot and killed when an FBI SWAT team stormed the Congregation Beth Israel synagogue in Colleyville, Texas, near Fort Worth, at around 9 p.m. local time. All the hostages were rescued unharmed.

January 15: Fox News: With hours of being sworn in VA's new
Attorney General announces investigations in Loudoun County
Virginia's newly sworn-in Attorney General Jason Miyares (R) announced investigations into the Virginia Parole Board and Loudoun County Public Schools within hours of taking office. In a statement released on Saturday just hours after Miyares and Gov. Glenn Youngkin were sworn in, Miyares explained why he has launched an investigation into the commonwealth's parole board as well as Loudoun County Public Schools. "One of the reasons Virginians get so fed up with government is the lack of transparency - and that's a big issue here," Miyares wrote. "The Virginia Parole Board broke the law when they let out murders, rapists, and cop killers early on their sentences without notifying the victims. Loudoun County Public Schools covered up a sexual assault on school grounds for political gain, leading to an additional assault of a young girl," Miyares contended. A 14-year-old male high school student, who identifies as nonbinary, and has been found guilty of raping a female student in a school bathroom was transferred to another school where he allegedly raped another student and the district has been accused of covering up the crime which resulted in one of the alleged victim's parents being arrested at a school board meeting. The offending student has been placed on the sex offenders registry for life as part of his sentence.

January 15: The Daily Caller: SCOTUS to hear case of coach who was
canned for praying on the field before football games
The Supreme Court said Friday it would hear the case of a Washington state high school football coach who was sacked for praying on the field after games. Joseph Kennedy, who was barred from coaching football at Bremerton High School in 2015, will have his case heard by the high court in April, his attorneys said. The coach was a graduate of the school who coached there from 2008 to 2015. Mr. Kennedy said he was suspended from the final game of the season in 2015 by the Bremerton School District. School officials said Mr. Kennedy's private prayer at the 50-yard line — which had been allowed for seven years beforehand — violated the First Amendment's Establishment Clause, which bars governments from establishing a state religion. Students occasionally gathered around him, although he said he never invited their participation. The court declined to take up the case in January 2019 and asked the lower courts to continue to develop the factual record. In a statement issued with that denial, Justice Samuel Alito said, "The 9th Circuit's understanding of the free speech rights of public-school teachers is troubling and may justify review in the future."

January 15: Fox News: SWAT and hostage situation at a synagogue near Fort Worth
A Texas SWAT team responded Saturday afternoon to a hostage situation at Congregation Beth Israel's synagogue near Fort Worth. The Colleyville Police Department said on Twitter that they are conducting SWAT operations "around the 6100 block of Pleasant Run Rd." All residents in the immediate area of the incident are being evacuated, according to the tweet. Reportedly the rabbi and three others are being held hostage.

January 15: Lovebylife.com: Pennsylvania state legislature may consider measure
to transport illegal aliens across the border to Biden's state of Delaware
Republicans in the Pennsylvania State Senate are planning to pass a bill that would move illegal immigrants entering the state on Biden administration-sponsored flights to the Biden's home state of Delaware. State Sen. Mario Scavello wrote colleagues asking for support for his forthcoming bill. According to Scavello's memo, the legislation enacts a transportation program to relocate immigrants from the Commonwealth to the neighboring state of Delaware. "How many illegal immigrants [has Joe Biden] moved to [his] home state of Delaware?" He asked. "If it's good enough for Pennsylvania, why not redirect the relocation to Delaware?" The Scavello bill prohibits the granting of state contracts to any federal contractor who works to assist in the Biden relocation efforts. State lawmakers have warned that the coronavirus epidemic is "exacerbating" the flood of illegal immigrants who have not been tested for the Wuhan coronavirus.

January 14: The Washington Times: Dems boxed in, can't retreat from doomed
agenda for fear of further damaging Biden
Democrats are flummoxed about the next move on Joe Biden's plan to blow up the filibuster and rewrite the nation's voting laws after support among Senate Democrats fractured. Lawmakers say retreating from the fight is impossible after Mr. Biden wedded himself in gutting the chamber's longstanding filibuster rule that requires 60 votes for most bills to survive. "A lot of us in the Senate have loyalty to [Joe Biden] and his agenda," said one Democratic lawmaker. "He went out on a limb, we can't just leave him there alone. It will look like a Democratic Congress is abandoning a Democratic president and a Democratic agenda." Since the 2020 election, Democrats have argued that federal action is required to combat a slew of new voting [integrity] laws in Republican-run states. Last year, Democrats attempted no less than three times to pass legislation overturning the new state election laws, which the GOP call election security measures such as voter ID requirements and restrictions on mail-in ballots. While the Democrats' efforts garnered unanimous support within their party, the bills failed to get the 60 votes necessary to overcome a GOP filibuster in the 50-50 split Senate. Instead of giving up the fight, Democrats began angling to use the so-called "nuclear option" to blow up the filibuster.

January 14: Breitbart News: Nearly 4 in 10 illegal aliens refusing COVID
vaccine as Americans hit with mandates
While millions of American citizens are being hit with mandates to obtain one of three approved vaccines for the Wuhan coronavirus, new data reveals thousands of illegal aliens are refusing the vaccine. This week, while striking down Joe Biden's vaccine mandate for every large business in the nation, the United States Supreme Court upheld a mandate that will require 17 million American healthcare workers to obtain the vaccine or risk firing. Likewise, in a number of blue states like California, New York, and Illinois as well as giant corporations like McDonald's and Goldman Sachs are requiring millions of Americans to obtain the vaccine to work, eat in restaurants, enter event venues, and other indoor spaces. New data, published by CBS News, reveals that nearly 4-in-10 illegal aliens in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention are refusing the vaccine. At the same time, coronavirus infections have exploded in recent months inside ICE detention facilities. Since the start of the new year, detained illegal aliens with the Wuhan coronavirus have jumped 520 percent.

January 14: Fox News: Biden to plans to direct police reform by executive order
Joe Biden is reportedly planning to push his police reform agenda via an executive order as early as this month. Reportedly, the executive actions are still being finalized but are expected to be rolled out at the start of Black History Month in February as the administration tries to achieve policy goals leading up to the president's State of the Union address in March. The House passed a sweeping police reform measure earlier this year in response to the death of George Floyd, but months of negotiations among a bipartisan group of senators failed to produce a bill. News of the executive actions comes at the conclusion of a difficult week for Mr. Biden during which he suffered numerous setbacks including giving a "racially-charged speech urging Senate Democrats to suspend the filibuster to push through his party's legislation that would federalize election laws. That speech failed to sway Senators Manchin (D-WVA) and Sinema (D-AZ) which essentially left the election legislation dead in the water. Meanwhile Biden is tanking in recent polling numbers showing him underwater with a 33% approval rating as his administration attempts to navigate record inflation, a record surge in coronavirus cases, and a Supreme Court ruling this week blocking his coronavirus mandate on employers with over 100 workers.

January 14: The Washington Examiner: Senator releases Fauci's financial
records, claims he lied
Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS) released financial records Friday he said were obtained from Dr. Anthony Fauci after the two clashed earlier this week at a hearing over access to such disclosures. Marshall claims the documents from the National Institutes of Health show Fauci, who is Joe Biden's chief medical adviser and a leading government voice advising the public on dealing with the coronavirus pandemic, "lied to the American people" when he claimed during a Senate hearing Tuesday that the information was "public knowledge." "He is more concerned with being a media star and posing for the cover of magazines than he is being honest with the American people," Marshall said in his statement, noting that he specifically requested unredacted copies. The senator, who was called a "moron" by Fauci on a "hot mic" has announced he will be introducing the Financial Accountability for Uniquely Compensated Individuals Act, to be known as the FAUCI Act, which will mandate that the Office of Government Ethics present the financial records for officials such as Fauci on its website.

January 13: The Daily Signal: Unpacking SCOTUS decision on vaccine mandates
For nearly 100 million American workers waiting breathlessly for an answer, a Thursday Supreme Court decision delivered good news for many, although not all. In a rare late-day release of opinions, the Supreme Court issued its rulings in a pair of federal vaccine mandate cases that went to the court on an emergency basis. In the first unsigned opinion the 6-3 majority concluded that the government was not likely to prevail on its argument that OSHA possesses the authority to issue the vaccination mandate or require weekly negative COVID test results. "As its name suggests," the court explained, "OSHA is tasked with ensuring occupational safety—that is, 'safe and healthful working conditions.'" That means OSHA is only empowered "to set workplace safety standards, not broad public health measures," and according to the justices, "no provision of the Act addresses public health more generally, which falls outside of OSHA's sphere of expertise." While the OSHA mandate is stayed for now, litigation on the merits of the government's employer vaccine rule will continue in the lower courts. In its second unsigned opinion the 5-4 majority allowed HHS to mandate vaccines for workers whose jobs or facilities are funded by the federal government (e.g., Medicare or Medicaid). The bottom-line is, if you accept federal funds then you must follow their rules. Justice Thomas, dissenting, wrote that the government had a shaky foundation for its virtually unlimited vaccination through the Department of Health and Human Services, and if Congress had wanted to grant the agency the power to impose a vaccine mandate across all facility types and upset the state-federal balance (because only the state possesses the police power to mandate vaccination), it would have specifically authorized one. In both cases, the question before the court was not how to respond to the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic, but who holds the power to do so. For now – until the litigation in the appellate courts comes to an end – the answer is clear.

January 13: The Daily Signal: SCOTUS kills Biden's
vaccine mandate for companies with more 100+ employees
The Supreme Court on Thursday struck down the Biden administration's COVID-19 vaccine mandate for private companies and other organizations with at least 100 employees. In a separate case, however, the court did allow vaccine mandates for employees of federally funded health care facilities. In the main case, the majority of justices expressed doubt that the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which is part of the Labor Department, has the legal authority to impose an emergency regulation to implement a vaccine mandate. "Administrative agencies are creatures of statute," the majority opinion said as the justices struck down the mandate in a 6 to 3 ruling. With Chief Justice Roberts and justice Kavanagh joining the majority they let stand the mandate for health care workers 5 to 4. Health care facilities that receive Medicaid and Medicare funds are still subject to a separate Department of Health and Human Services vaccine requirement based on their receipt of federal funds.

January 13: The Daily Caller: Biden ends first year in office with his worst week yet
Joe Biden's first year in office is coming to a close with his worst week yet — the Supreme Court has struck down his vaccine-or-test mandate, his Build Back Better (BBB) agenda is dead in the water in Congress and his approval rating has plummeted lower and lower. As the one-year mark for Biden being in office approaches, a Quinnipiac poll put Biden's approval rating at a mere 33% on Wednesday, the lowest of his tenure so far. Biden entered office with a solid 54% approval rating, but he has consistently slipped in the polls since spring of 2021. While the White House was counting on passing Biden's BBB and elections agenda to turn the situation around, senators Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) and Joe Manchin (D-WVA) — along with 50 Republicans — have made that impossible. Both senators announced their opposition to abolishing the filibuster Thursday afternoon, even as Biden was on Capitol Hill advocating for its removal.

January 13: The Washington Times: Florida considering establishing
November 7th as Communist Victims Day
Legislation moving through the Florida House would designate Nov. 7 as an annual Communism Victims Day and also teach high school students about the ills of communist governments. Florida is home to tens of thousands of people who have fled communist governments, especially Cubans who left after Fidel Castro took power on the island in 1959. Nov. 7 is the day in 1917 when Russia's Bolshevik Revolution installed a communist government there. A House committee approved the bill Thursday by a unanimous vote. It has two more steps to go through before moving to the state senate for consideration. Republican Rep. David Borrero, one of the lead sponsors, said the Communist Victims Day is an important remembrance for those who suffered under those governments and teaching students about its realities is necessary for them to understand that. "What we want to do is teach communism as it really is," Borrero said. "Communism fails every single time, and that's what students need to learn."

January 12: The Washington Examiner: McConnell takes on Biden over
speech on the filibuster and the federal takeover of elections
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) delivered a blistering critique Wednesday on the Senate floor of Joe Biden's speech calling for changes to the upper chamber's filibuster rule, calling the president's remarks "profoundly unpresidential." "Look, I have known, liked, and personally respected Joe Biden for many years," McConnell said. "I did not recognize the man at the podium yesterday." Biden, speaking in Atlanta, called on the Senate to pass legislation to federalize elections, and endorsing ending or at least curtailing the filibuster to do so. The filibuster requires 60 Senate votes, rather than a simple majority of 51, to pass most legislation. In the speech, Biden asked Republicans if they want to be "on the side of Dr. King or George Wallace?" "…Abraham Lincoln or Jefferson Davis?" McConnell on Wednesday argued that opposing the elimination of the filibuster should not be characterized by the president as akin to being on the side of Confederate or segregationist figures. "He compared a bipartisan majority of senators to literal traitors," McConnell said. "How profoundly unpresidential."

January 12: Fox News 26 Houston: Inflation jumps to 7% over last year as
many see pay increases eaten away by cost of living increases
Prices paid by U.S. consumers jumped 7% in December from a year earlier, the highest inflation rate since 1982 and the latest evidence that rising costs for food, rent and other necessities are heightening the financial pressures on America's households. Inflation has spiked during the recovery from the pandemic recession as Americans have ramped up spending on goods such as cars, furniture and appliances. Those increased purchases have clogged ports and warehouses and exacerbated supply shortages of semiconductors and other parts. Gas prices have also surged, in part because Americans have driven more in recent months after having cut back on travel and commuting earlier in the pandemic. Rising prices have wiped out the healthy pay increases that many Americans have been receiving, making it harder for households, especially lower-income families, to afford basic expenses. Polls show that inflation has started displacing even the coronavirus as a public concern, making clear the political threat it poses to President Joe Biden and congressional Democrats.

January 12: The Washington Times: Fears of a Russian invasion of Ukraine
heighten as talks breakdown
Fears rose Wednesday that Russian President Putin is intent on invading Ukraine, as talks between American, NATO and Russian officials failed to produce a commitment from Moscow to draw down its major troop buildup along the border with the developing, U.S.-aligned democracy. The Biden administration and NATO officials sought to put a positive spin on the high-stakes talks, while analysts warned the Kremlin has exploited meetings this week in Brussels and Vienna to buy time to prepare for a move against Ukraine. Reportedly western officials stood firm in rejecting key Russian security demands for easing tensions, but also left open the possibility of future talks with Moscow. However, with the Russians refusing to back down from demands that NATO remove troops and equipment from former Soviet republics that border Russia, the meeting ended without a diplomatic solution.

January 11: Fox News: Senator Paul rips $420,000 a year bureaucrat
Fauci during heated hearing
U.S. Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) sparred once again with well-paid government doctor Anthony Fauci in a Senate hearing on Tuesday, with the lawmaker pressing the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases on reports he sought to quash "fringe" epidemiologists' coronavirus mitigation strategies. Paul also asked Fauci to address accusations that he is at least tangentially culpable in the creation of viruses through gain-of-function research. Following the hearing, Paul said there is evidence on a probability of "9 to 10" that the COVID-19 virus came from a Wuhan, China, laboratory and was engineered via gain-of-function research, despite Fauci's denials. "[Fauci] funded the lab," Paul contended. "He tried to obscure the idea that he was giving money to the lab and then he steadfastly, for two years, said it wasn't gain of function, that they weren't taking viruses that don't exist in nature, creating them and creating viruses that are so dangerous that they could actually wipe out a portion of humanity."

January 11: The Washington Examiner: DOJ evades questions on the
January 6th events at the Capitol
The House committee investigating the January 6th breach of the Capitol said Ray Epps -- who some Republicans suggest may have been an FBI informant -- denies ever working with the bureau, even as the Justice Department evades questions about any informants or agents present in the crowd on Jan. 6, 2021. Epps, on video in the hours leading up to the riot encouraging the crowd to enter the Capitol, had been on the FBI's Capitol Violence most wanted list before he was removed without explanation after nearly six months. With speculation swirling, Republicans have been clamoring for more clarity on Epps, but Justice Department and FBI officials have repeatedly declined to provide answers about the provocateur as well as any FBI informants or agents who may have been embedded within the pro-Trump crowd as people stormed the Capitol and disrupted the certification of now-President Joe Biden's win in the 2020 election. The Jan. 6 committee made the first move Tuesday, saying House investigators interviewed Epps, but did not offer any insight into whether he was under oath when he denied being an FBI informant.

January 11: Fox News: Who is the leader of the free world Joe?
Joe Biden on Tuesday once again referred to his vice-president, Kamala Harris, as "President Harris" in yet another verbal flub by the gaffe-prone leader. "Last week, President Harris and I stood in the United States Capitol to observe one of those before and after moments in American history," Biden said, referencing last year's Capitol Hill the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol Hill breach. Biden, who was speaking about voting rights to students at Atlanta University Center Consortium, on the campus of Clark Atlanta University and Morehouse College, apparently didn't notice his mistake, not bothering to correct himself. He did, however, notice apparently unintentional use of the words "hell," which he changed to "heck," and "damn," which he revised as "darn."

January 10: The Epoch Times: SCOTUS corrects transcript of hearing last week
The Supreme Court has updated its official transcript of court proceedings that took place last week, clarifying that Justice Gorsuch did not make a false claim about the flu. The nation's top court heard oral arguments on Friday for and against two Biden administration COVID-19 vaccine mandates, including one promulgated against every business with 100 or more workers by the Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). Justice Gorsuch during questioning of Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar, said that polio "was a terrible scourge on this country for many years" but that the federal government has never mandated vaccinations for it through OSHA. "We have flu vaccines. The flu kills, I believe, hundreds of thousands of people every year. OSHA has never purported to regulate on that basis. What do we make of that when we're thinking about what qualifies as a major question and what doesn't?" Gorsuch was quoted as saying. But some people noted that Gorsuch had not appeared to say "hundreds of thousands.

January 10: Fox News: DeSantis cashes in on liberal Dems fleeing to Florida,
by selling "Escape to Florida" Tee shirts
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis' reelection campaign is now selling new "Escape to Florida/The Lockdown Libs tour" T-shirts after some top Democratic politicians from states with stricter coronavirus restrictions were seen vacationing in the Sunshine State over the Christmas/New Year's holiday. News of the T-shirts, which are being sold online on the Republican governor's "Official Ron DeSantis Store" on his reelection campaign's website, was shared first with Fox News on Monday. "We don't blame you … we like freedom, too," the back of the shirt says, underneath a list of Democrats – including the governors of states such as Connecticut, Michigan and New Jersey – and where in Florida they stayed. "If I had a dollar for every lockdown politician who decided to escape to Florida over the last two years, I'd be a pretty doggone wealthy man, let me tell you," DeSantis joked at a press conference one week ago. "I mean, Congress people, mayors, governors, I mean you name it.

January 10: The Washington Examiner:
Republicans would use the change in the senate filibuster rules to their advantage
if the Dems are shortsighted enough to move forward with the rules change
Senate Republicans say if Democrats vote to end the filibuster, the GOP will use the new rule to force votes on a string of Republican legislation that would stand a good chance of passing in the evenly divided Senate. In a move that would turn the Democratic plan to end the filibuster on its head, Republicans say they'll bring up legislation that can easily garner 50 GOP votes and a few Democratic ones. This could advance Republican measures under the rule change Democrats are considering that would lower the 60-vote threshold to 51 votes. The GOP's list of legislation is not what Democratic leaders have in mind as they plot an end to the filibuster, including legislation to restart the Keystone XL pipeline, bolster security at the beleaguered southern border, and block taxpayer funding for abortions.

January 10: The Epoch Times: Most hospitalized patients in NJ
admitted for NON-COVID reasons
The majority of people hospitalized with COVID-19 in New Jersey were actually admitted for reasons other than COVID-19, officials said on Jan. 10. Of the 6,075 people with COVID-19 and hospitalized in the state, just 2,963 were admitted for COVID-19, New Jersey Health Commissioner Judith Persichilli said during a briefing. "We have a fair number of what I've started to call COVID incidental, or incidental COVID, meaning you went in because you broke your leg, but everyone's getting tested and it turns out you've got COVID. You didn't even know it," Gov. Phil Murphy, a Democrat, said. "My wife didn't know it and still she's not back in the in the game, but never had any symptoms, so there is a significant amount of that." Previously during the pandemic, states largely neglected to distinguish COVID-19 hospitalizations from incidental COVID-19. A growing number of officials have started making clear that not all COVID-19 hospitalizations are the same.

January 9: Fox News: CDC Director says Justice Sotomayor's
100,000 children in hospital with COVID is about 96,000 off
CDC Director Rochelle Walensky clarified that the number of children hospitalized with COVID-19 is nowhere close to the statistic put forth by Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor Friday, while noting that Americans can still work to reduce hospitalization by getting vaccinated. Walensky provided an update on the current numbers, confirming to Fox News' Bret Baier that there are fewer than 3,500 children in hospitals with COVID-19. During oral arguments in a case involving the Biden administration's vaccine mandate for businesses with at least 100 employees, Sotomayor brought up children suffering during the pandemic, pulling out a number that earned her four "Pinocchios" from the Washington Post's fact-checker. "We have over 100,000 children, which we've never had before, in serious condition and many on ventilators," Sotomayor said. That figure is dramatically higher than the figure Walensky provided.

January 9: The Epoch Times: Ex-head of UK vaccine Taskforce
calls for an end to mass vaccinations
Mass vaccinations against COVID-19 should come to an end and the UK should focus on managing it as an endemic disease like flu, the former chairman of Britain's vaccine taskforce has said. Dr. Clive Dix, who played a key role in helping pharmaceutical firms create the COVID-19 vaccines, said that mass vaccination should end after the ongoing booster campaign, and the UK should start returning to a "new normality" in which the focus is placed on limiting serious illness rather than stopping the spread of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) virus. Dix said it is time to consider managing COVID-19 as something akin to flu. "We should consider when we stop testing and let individuals isolate when they are not well and return to work when they feel ready, in the same way we do in a bad influenza season," he said.

January 9: The Washington Times: NYC Democrat Mayor wants to
allow 800,000 non-citizens to be able to vote in local elections
New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D) cleared the way Sunday for noncitizens to vote in the Big Apple's municipal elections. Adams also called on fellow Democrats to become what he called "radically practical" and focus on issues like Social Security over social-media wars. The mayor allowed the bill to become law Sunday, by not vetoing it within 30 days of city council passage. The legislation will give more than 800,000 noncitizens the ability to vote in elections for municipal offices such as mayor and city council.

January 8: Fox News: Biden Admin. prioritizes race in
administering COVID therapeutics
Guidance issued by the Biden administration states certain individuals may be considered "high risk" and more quickly qualify for monoclonal antibodies and oral antivirals used to treat COVID-19 based on their "race or ethnicity." In a fact sheet issued for healthcare providers by the Food and Drug Administration, the federal agency approved emergency use authorizations of sotrovimab – a monoclonal antibody proven to be effective against the Omicron variant – only to patients considered "high risk." The guidance, updated in December 2021, says "medical conditions or factors" such as "race or ethnicity" have the potential to "place individual patients at high risk for progression to severe COVID-19," adding that the "authorization of sotrovimab under the EUA is not limited to" other factors outlined by the agency.

January 8: The Washington Examiner: PA state senator who pushed for
forensic election audit running for governor
A Pennsylvania state lawmaker announced a Republican campaign for governor in 2022 alongside well-known allies of former President Donald Trump. State Sen. Doug Mastriano, who made headlines for his efforts to review the integrity of the 2020 election, entered the race at an event in Gettysburg that also featured former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn and Jenna Ellis, who was a senior legal adviser to the Trump 2020 campaign. "This is your one opportunity to take your government back in Harrisburg," Mastriano said in his speech, slamming Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf over his handling of the coronavirus pandemic. "I stand before you as somebody who has fought the good fight for freedom, in uniform and out."

January 8: The Epoch Times: 1,066% increase in fentanyl seized by
Customs on Texas border
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CB P) has reported a 1,066% increase in fentanyl seized in south Texas ports during fiscal year 2021. Border agents at eight ports of entry extending from Brownsville to Del Rio said that between Oct. 1, 2020, and Sept. 30, 2021, they seized 87,652 pounds of narcotics that would have commanded a combined estimated street value of $786 million, CBP reported on Jan. 5. They also report that they have seen a 98% increase in cocaine seizures, from the year prior. The CBP officers at these ports of entry also noted that in FY 2021, more than 20,701 non-U.S. citizens were inadmissible to the United States due to violations of immigration laws.

January 7: Fox News: Dems unleash heavy weights in an effort to
get Manchin to support their radical agenda
Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WVA) is getting pressure from powerful corners of the Democratic Party to change his stance on the Senate filibuster to pass voting reforms. In addition to regular talks with Senate Majority Leader Schumer (D-NY), and other fellow Democratic senators, Manchin has heard from past presidents and celebrities alike. He's told colleagues that his phone has been lighting up in recent days with calls from Bill Clinton and Barack Obama and Oprah Winfrey, lobbying him to vote in favor of removing the 60-vote Senate rule to pass major voting rights reforms with a simple majority. The pressure is ramping up as Schumer set a Jan. 17 deadline to vote on changing the Senate filibuster rules to advance voting reforms – a top priority for the Democratic agenda. Schumer wants an exception made for election legislation, arguing there's an urgent need for national standards to combat what he and other Democrat activists call "voter suppression" laws passed in GOP-led states after the 2020 presidential election. So far, Manchin has shown no signs of budging and continues to stress the importance of protecting the Senate as an institution.

January 7: The Washington Times: Biden gets a failing report card in the most recent jobs report
Biden on Friday shrugged off the worst jobs report of his presidency as the U.S. economy added less than half the number of jobs expected in December. Biden showed up about an hour late for his speech and emphasized the report's lone bright spot, that unemployment dropped slightly to 3.9% in December from 4.2% in November, even though economists say that is a reflection of fewer people seeing work and a shrinking worker pool.


January 7: The Epoch Times: SCOTUS seems skeptical of Biden's
assumed authority to mandate vaccinations
The Supreme Court seemed skeptical of the Biden administration's bold claim that it has the authority to impose vaccination mandates applying to more than 84 million private sector employees and to workers in federally funded health care facilities. In a rare Friday sitting the high court seemed broadly receptive to the idea that states have authority to impose vaccination mandates but questioned the ability of federal agencies to do the same. The court decided Dec. 22, 2021, to fast-track emergency applications pertaining to challenges to the two mandates' lawfulness as those challenges work their way through the lower courts. Various business groups, along with Ohio, Missouri, Louisiana and two dozen other states, want the federal mandates blocked.

January 7: Fort Worth Star-Telegram: Texas knows Biden vaccine mandate is
overreach. Now, will SCOTUS confirm it
The Supreme Court heard two emergency challenges Friday to Joe Biden's vaccine-or-test mandates for large businesses and healthcare workers, testing the limits of executive power amid a relentless pandemic. The challengers are various religious organizations, private businesses and Republican-led states, which argued Biden has no authority to mandate a vaccine for them. After hearing the first challenge, which was a private business arguing against Biden's OSHA vaccine-or-test mandate, the Supreme Court ultimately seemed a bit wary of the mandates. The justices appeared particularly skeptical of whether Biden, along with OSHA, had the authority to impose such a mandate. Chief Justice Roberts regularly questioning OSHA's jurisdiction, timing and authority. Meanwhile, Justice Sotomayor, defending the mandate, made several false claims or at least exaggerated. She said that COVID-19 deaths were at an all-time high and that 100,000 children are hospitalized with the disease. Data supporting these statements is slim to not nonexistent.

January 7: The Daily Caller: Pelosi picks the latest date ever
for the state of the union address
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi formally invited President Joe Biden Friday to give his State of the Union address March 1, the latest date ever announced for the annual speech. During the address, Biden will likely promote the two most important unfinished parts of his first-term agenda, the Build Back Better social spending package and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. Presidents are expected to deliver an address to a joint session of Congress every year, although the speech is not considered the State of the Union until the president's second year in office. Biden addressed a joint session of Congress on April 28, 2021, during which he advocated gun control and his American Jobs and Families plans.

January 6: The Washington Free Beacon: Soros-backed DA won't seek
life sentences for cop killers and terrorist
Manhattan's newly installed, George Soros-backed district attorney this week ordered prosecutors not to seek life without parole sentences for murderers, terrorists, and cop killers. Alvin Bragg issued a memo that forbade staff from seeking life without parole sentences and broadly discouraged them from seeking sentences beyond 20 years. A $1 million contribution from Soros helped Bragg secure a narrow 4-point victory last June in the Democratic primary. "My commitment to making incarceration a matter of last resort is immutable," Bragg's memo reads. Soros, and his Justice and Public Safety PAC, has helped elect soft-on-crime candidates in Chicago, Philadelphia, and suburban Washington, D.C. Manhattan is uniquely visible as the economic and media capital of the nation, meaning Bragg's new approach—and Soros's criminal justice philosophy—will attract attention nationally and around the world.

January 6: KTRH Radio News: Dems using January 6th breach of
the Capitol to target those who disagree with them
Democrats have been overhyping last year's January 6th U.S. Capitol Breach for a year, comparing it to the 9-11 terror attacks and even the Civil War. Now, they are looking to use the incident to increase surveillance on Americans. Congressman Bennie Thompson (D-MS), chair of the Democrats' January 6th committee, says they plan to recommend new intelligence-gathering legislation this year. He claims "we were not apprised that something would happen" last Jan. 6, calling it "the worst kept secret in America." However, a Senate report last year found both Congressional leaders and Capitol Police did receive warnings about potential violence and problems leading up to Jan. 6, but failed to act on them. Since last January, hundreds of Americans have been arrested and charged in connection with the Capitol breach. Additionally, private banking records of many Americans were turned over to the FBI in the aftermath of the incident. Critics warn Democrats are using Jan. 6 to target certain Americans based on their political beliefs and activities. Brad Johnson, president of Americans for Intelligence Reform says "What they're actually pushing for here is another way to step into our lives and control everything we do and say. It's actually a push for greater control over society, than it is in any way about problems that exist on the Hill with security. It's a power grab. Nothing more, nothing less."

January 5: NewsMax: Rand Paul; their lying to you about voter suppression,
it's about staying in power
Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) said on Tuesday that the narrative of supposed voter suppression by Republican Party elected officials spread by the left and the media is ''a pack of lies,'' citing that the Black population votes at about the same rate as the white population. ''But it's not really about that,'' Paul said ''They're lying. They're lying to the public and saying this is about racial disparity when in reality, it's about trying to set the system up where they can game it through mail-in voting by embedding people into the electoral system that will basically try to get out certain people to vote and exclude other people from voting.'' ''So really, this is about gamesmanship and has nothing to do with anything noble or lofty, like voting rights. But it's amazing that they can try to play a game like this and expect people to buy into it."

January 5: The Washington Times: Another former Soviet Union nation
deals with unrest
A popular revolt exploded in Kazakhstan Wednesday, with protesters storming and setting fire to the presidential residence in the often unnoticed but strategically vital Central Asian nation that shares lengthy borders with Russia and China and operates as a key hub for U.S. oil companies in the region. Although the demonstrations were ignited by soaring fuel prices brought on by the Kazakh government, accusations of foreign meddling quickly swirled. The unrest coincided with heightened U.S.-Russian tensions over other former Soviet republics, including Ukraine. Kazakhstan also considered itself an oasis of relative stability and political moderation in Central Europe. The unrest could prove a diplomatic and security windfall for Russian President Vladimir Putin. According to AP, the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), a Moscow-dominated regional alliance, said it was deploying peacekeeping forces at the request of the embattled Kazakh President.

January 5: The Daily Caller: Biden Administration blocks natural gas project
designed to power 500,000 homes in Connecticut
The Biden administration approved a plan to block a new natural gas power plant that would've powered 500,000 homes from being built in Connecticut. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) approved a plan by electricity provider ISO New England to block the Killingly Energy Center (KEC) project over delays, claiming they didn't believe KEC could meet its deadlines for commercial operations. But the proposal to build the energy center had been criticized by environmentalists and state officials in Connecticut where it would've been constructed. While the power plant would've boosted electricity supply in the New England region, opponents of the plan said it would be counterproductive to local climate change goals.

January 5: Fox News: Tucker Carlson: January 6th is not a joke; pretending
the protest was failed coup is the joke and not a good one
As a political matter, the anniversary of Jan. 6th is not a joke. It's a very serious thing, Carlson contended. "Pretending that a protest was actually a failed coup is the Democratic Party's entire strategy to win this year's midterm elections. At this point, it's all they've got. Governing didn't work. That's why today, the attorney general of the United States (Merrick Garland), one of the most political men in Washington, announced the DOJ will continue to harass and arrest people voted for Donald Trump," Carlson continued. Garland said, "The Justice Department remains committed to holding all January 6th perpetrators, at any level, accountable under law — whether they were present that day or were otherwise criminally responsible for the assault on our democracy. We will follow the facts wherever they lead." "Everyone who was responsible," Carlson exclaimed! "DOJ has already instigated the largest manhunt in history and John Dillinger is laughing from the pit of hell," he continued. "January 6th trumped him, and it trumped the manhunt after 9/11. It trumps all manhunts. So, people who were just standing there taking pictures on their phone got picked up by the FBI, some of them got sent to jail, but it's not ending, there's still more to come."

January 4: The Washington Examiner: Airline flight cancellations; don't blame
the virus, blame the policy
Flight cancellations rack up as the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) warns of a meltdown if the Omicron variant continues to spread, and It will. Flight cancellations have stranded hundreds of thousands of people. Economic consequences will be severe, not only to the airline industry but across multiple other sectors as stranded workers fail to show up when expected. But we should not blame COVID-19. Omicron may be more contagious than other variants, but it is seldom more severe than a cold. Put another way, most of those in hospitals with Omicron may have COVID-19, but are not there because of it. Much of the problem has been caused by companies being mandated by the federal government to get their employees vaccinated or to terminate them. Many have decided not to get the inoculation thus reducing the number of pilots and flight attendants available to staff aircraft. In addition, in the midst of the pandemic, airlines saw a reduction in demand and so offered early retirements to their employees, further reducing the availability of flight crews. The airline travel system may be on the brink of collapse, but the problem is less Omicron than out-of-control government, continues the Washington Examiner. Let the free market prevail. If some companies wish to mask all travelers, let them play the market. If others want to sing the praises of their filtration systems, let the buyers decide. If some wish to weed out asymptomatic employees and cancel flights, let them pay the price and if others want to return to normal, that is fine too. Omicron need not be the straw that breaks the camel's back; it could instead be the wave that teaches a government convinced of its own omniscience a degree of humility.

January 4: The Washington Examiner: Federal government controlling COVID
therapeutics to Florida
"After pressure from Florida, the federal government has begun planning to send 30,000 additional doses to our state, so we can stand up new sites and expand capacity at existing sites," DeSantis (R-FL) said. "We expect the Biden administration to follow through so Floridians will have access to these lifesaving treatments." Tuesday's word regarding the additional doses comes after the Department of Health and Human Services told the state that its allocation of doses would be 2,000 less than last week and nearly 10,000 less than the state of New York, which has a smaller population.

January 4: Fox News: Biden: COVID 19 is a pandemic of the unvaccinated
Biden on Tuesday maintained that COVID-19 is an illness of those who refuse the vaccine, stating that people who have not gotten shots should be "alarmed" by the highly-transmissible Omicron variant even as it rampages through the vaccinated population. Meanwhile many of those who are getting sick have already been vaccinated. The U.S. recorded its record number of COVID-19 cases for a single day on Monday, almost doubling the previous record of about 590,000 set just four days earlier. This, despite 73% of the U.S. population being at least partially vaccinated and 62% fully vaccinated, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Biden has suggested that vaccinations would "protect" people from getting the illness.

January 3: The Epoch Times: Federal court issued injunction in
Navy SEALS vaccine mandate case
A federal court has granted a preliminary injunction to a group of 35 Navy Special Warfare service members—among them 26 Navy SEALs—who sued the Biden Administration for denying them religious exemptions to the COVID-19 vaccine mandate. The preliminary injunction, issued by the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas, stops DoD from taking any actions against the group for refusing the jab while litigation plays out. "The Navy service members in this case seek to vindicate the very freedoms they have sacrificed so much to protect," Judge Reed O'Connor said in his order on Monday. "The COVID-19 pandemic provides the government no license to abrogate those freedoms. There is no COVID-19 exception to the First Amendment. There is no military exclusion from our Constitution." The "Defendants must provide more than a broadly formulated interest in 'national security.' They must articulate a compelling interest in vaccinating the thirty-five religious servicemembers currently before the Court," O'Connor ruled.

January 3: The Daily Signal: In order to "rule" over the minority, Sen. Schumer
wants to disseminate the Senate Filibuster; it's about power and control
Then-Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE) condemned weakening the Senate's tradition of extended debate as "an example of the arrogance of power," a "power grab by the majority party" that would "eviscerate the Senate" That was back in 2005 when the Republicans held the White House and Congress. Today, with Biden himself in the White House and Democrats the majority in Congress, he is calling for the same power grab in order to pass an unconstitutional federal takeover of elections. The evisceration of the Senate, however, will not stop there. Senate rules empower the minority party by requiring a supermajority to end debate before a simple majority can pass bills or confirm nominations. The Congressional Research Service describe extended debate as one of the Senate's "most distinctive procedural features" that pushes the majority to work with the minority.

January 3: NewsMax:
Ben Carson: The idea that Critical Race Theory should have anything to do with public health is "absurd"
Dr. Ben Carson decried what he sees as the infiltration of public health by critical race theory. Speaking on Monday, the retired neurosurgeon addressed a measure issued by the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene that it would "consider race and ethnicity when assessing individual risk." "I certainly don't think that the virus discriminates," Carson said. "I think it takes everybody. And this is absolute absurdity. We've gone crazy. This is, you know, critical race theory infiltrating everything." "The fact of the matter is Black people, Hispanics, people of lower socioeconomic status, do tend to have more hypertension, more diabetes, more underlying comorbid conditions that would make them more vulnerable,'' Carson said. ''But if you take all comers, if you take people who are sick, you will have more of those individuals anyway. So, you don't have to put in some kind of extra restraint in terms of determining who should get what. That doesn't make any sense."

January 3: One American News Network: Crowded GOP field of
candidates for Arizona governorship
With Governor Doug Ducey (R-AZ) ending his term-limited service, the stage is set for a crowded GOP primary. Six Republicans are on track to battle it out ahead of the gubernatorial election. There are also three Democrats and one independent vying for the position, according to Ballotpedia. Arizona State Treasurer Kimberly Yee was among the first Republicans to announce a bid. Yee could face an uphill battle as she weathered a 2014 recall effort when serving in the state Senate. Matt Salmon, a former representative who has historically called for strong borders and health care reform and who is supported by Rep. Andy Biggs(R-AZ), has also tossed his hat in the ring. Meanwhile, the GOP front runner, former TV anchor Kari Lake, is an outspoken supporter for election integrity and securing the nation's borders. Lake has the endorsement of 45th President Donald Trump.

January 2: The Epoch Times: New NYC mayor calls 911 on three
men fighting in the subway on day one
The new mayor of New York City Eric Adams (D) called the police when he saw three men fighting during his commute to his first day on the job, according to footage of the incident. While waiting for a subway train on Saturday, Adams saw three men fighting. He called 911 to report an "assault in progress." "Once a transit cop always a transit cop," Adams said at around 8 a.m. when he called 911. When punches were being thrown, he said, "Here we go. I knew it was only a matter of time, that's why I kept looking at it." During his campaign for mayor, Adams ran on a message that he would increase policing amid a surge in crime over the past several years. "I ran on a very clear message: My city will not be unsafe," he said in November. "And that is what we're going to do. Clear plan. Putting in place a plainclothes, anti-gun unit. That will happen, and this city is going to be safe." Adams, himself a former NYPD officer, was sworn-in as mayor in the early morning hours of January 1st.

January 2: The Epoch Times: Dutch police use attack dogs to quell protestors
in Amsterdam; "It's not about the virus, it's about control"
Thousands of people in the Netherlands capital of Amsterdam gathered Sunday to demonstrate against the Dutch government's Wuhan coronavirus lockdown measures. Police started to crack down after Amsterdam mayor Femke Halsema issued an emergency ordinance giving more police to clear the central Museum Square after the protesters violated the city's ban on public gatherings amid an increase in COVID-19 cases. They walked along a main thoroughfare in the capital city, playing music and holding yellow umbrellas in a sign of opposition to the government restrictions. Some participants had a banner that said: "Less repression, more care," while a group in white masks and white overalls held up signs, reading: "It's not about a virus, it's about control." Video footage showed what appeared to be police releasing dogs on anti-mandate and deploying water cannons. Some footage showed alleged Dutch Army veterans clashing with police.

January 2: The Washington Examiner: Five major issues the U.S. military
will face in 2022
After an eventful 2021, things are unlikely to calm down in the new year. Here are a few issues that will be high priorities for the Department of Defense (DoD) going forward.
- China and Taiwan: In addition to Communist China's aggressive behavior toward Taiwan, the Chinese military conducted a hypersonic missile test that got the attention of the international community, and a DoD report released in November reveals that they have accelerated the pace of their nuclear expansion program to the point where they could "have up to 700 deliverable nuclear warheads" within roughly five years.
- Over-the-horizon-capabilities in Afghanistan: The U.S. military is now relying on its over-the-horizon drone strike capabilities after it's chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan. Relying on strikes without boots on the ground is a risky proposition. Without having resources in a target area, it's harder for accurate and real-time intelligence to be gathered and utilized for a strike.
- Russia's Military buildup on the Ukrainian border: Russia has amassed a significant military presence on its border with Ukraine in recent months, stirring up both rhetoric and fears of a possible invasion reminiscent of Russia's incursion into Crimea less than a decade ago. Questions remain whether Biden will actually take action against Russia if they choose to invade; his former boss, President Obama, failed so to do when Crimea was taken.
- COVID-19 vaccine-related Discharges: Even though each service has at least 95% of its active-duty members vaccinated, the group that hasn't been vaccinated numbers in the thousands, so the discharge numbers of highly trained personnel will continue to rise. The cost of replacing these men and women and providing them adequate training will also rise.
- Continuing claims of politicization of the military: DoD officials have been accused of promoting liberal viewpoints. Arguably the new focal points could be detrimental to the readiness and effectiveness of the military. The controversies range from critical race theory, a concept that claims U.S. institutions were created with the implicit design to keep whites ahead of minorities, to the coronavirus vaccination mandate. All this raises the issue of how this will impact the readiness of the U.S. armed forces.

January 2: The Epoch Times: Focusing on social and CRT agendas and
not academic excellence is causing USA education to fail
According to government statistics, America's education system is failing. One expert says, lower expectations and the shift in focus from academic excellence in mathematics, science, reading, and history toward the implementation of social constructs like critical race theory equals fewer literate graduates. "Public records and other evidence show that state-level and some local education officials are no longer focused on maintaining high academic standards and providing the best public education possible to students," Liv Finne wrote in her September 2021 report regarding the lowering of academic standards by school officials in Washington state as they implement CRT. "Instead, a concern for learning has been replaced by an aggressive political agenda designed to instill doubt, mental pain and low expectations in students. This race-centered agenda also seeks to divide children from teachers, their own communities and from each other. This harmful trend can only be resolved through policies that return high-quality academic standards to public education and well-funded and supportive education-choice programs that allow families to access alternatives services to meet the learning needs of all children."

January 1: The Daily Caller: Over 2,500 flights cancelled on New Years Day
airlines offering double and triple pay
Thousands of New Year's Day flights were canceled amid concerns about inclement weather and the spread of the omicron variant of COVID-19. Approximately 2,600 cancellations for New Year's flights into and out of the U.S. occurred as of 6 p.m. Saturday, according to Flight Aware. New Year's Day saw the greatest number of COVID-19 and weather-related cancellations this week, reportedly pushing the holiday week's canceled flight total over 12,000.

January 1: The Epoch Times: Chief Justice Roberts says judges must be
ethical after 100 code violating rules
The Chief Justice of SCOTUS in his year-end report called on federal judges to work hard to adhere to ethics rules after over 100 were caught violating a rule that requires judges recuse in any matter in which they have a personal financial interest. Roberts cited a Wall Street Journal investigation that uncovered violations by 131 federal judges across 685 cases between 2010 and 2018. But Roberts portrayed the number of violations as small given the total number of cases handled annually, less than .0037

January 1: The Washington Examiner: Kentucky governor declares state
of emergency amid sever weather
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear declared a state of emergency Saturday as severe weather caused more damage after tornadoes devastated the state last month. The governor warned the Bluegrass State could see severe damage at the start of 2022, with 2-5 inches of rain expected just weeks after the state was hit by tornadoes that claimed dozens of lives across six states in mid-December.