The State Leadership Initiative is a coalition-building organization aimed at ensuring ‘red states’ operate in GOP voters’ best interests.
The Obergefell ruling rode rough-shod over religions and dozens of state constitutions on the bases of a moral — not legal — opinion.
Et Tu, Stacey? Stacey Abrams Linked to a $2 Billion Environmental Grant Rolled Up by DOGE – RedState
The organization was set up expressly to apply for the GGRF grant. It had only received $100 in funding during the 2023 tax year. Yet somehow, it managed to retain the services of a major law firm to file its return. //
I have some experience in grant writing, and the idea of a non-profit with $100 in the bank getting a $2 billion grant is about √-1 without shenanigans involved. The common theme seems to be Abrams. She was general counsel for one coalition partner, founder of two partners, and on the national advisory board of yet another partner.
Tuesday, a top DC prosecutor resigned rather than open an investigation into some part of the $20 billion GGRF grift; Top DOJ Prosecutor Walks Out Rather Than Investigate Biden 'New Green Deal' Grant for Criminal Behavior – RedState. It would be interesting to know which grant was under examination.
In 1932, FDR decided he had better use for the seat and summarily fired Humphrey. Humphrey sued but died five months later. The executor of his estate pressed the suit to recoup five months' salary. This spat was destined to become a landmark Supreme Court precedent called Humphrey's Executor v. United States, 295 U.S. 602 (1935), or just Humphrey's Executor. Mr. Humphrey's estate hit the jackpot.
In a unanimous opinion, the Supreme Court ruled: //
This ruling let independent agencies do whatever they wished. As rulemaking became a big deal, an independent agency in the hands of political opponents of the president with the power to interpret statutes and make legally binding regulations could engage in sabotage of the president's agenda. //
Shipwreckedcrew @shipwreckedcrew
.
Earlier today I posted a Substack article arguing that the TROs being sought against the Trump Admin are, in many respects, great opportunities for the Admin to assert its Article II authority over the Admin. state and push back against encroachments by Congress and the lower…SCOTUS has danced around the continuing vitality of the Humphrey's decision for many many years. The issue is now squarely before them. This is a fight worth having at this moment in time.
And the most important part about fights worth having is that you need someone who will fight them. And we do. //
Musicman
6 hours ago
Let's pray we finally have a Supreme Court that cares about the Constitution. There are three branches and only three branches. Either each "independent" board reports to the Executive, the Legislative or the Judicial. Those are the only choices. The notion of any kind of board with any kind of power could exist apart from the three branches is simply unconstitutional. Period.
Charlie Kirk @charliekirk11
·
CNN: "Donald Trump and the Republicans have changed the electorate...there are more Republicans in the electorate than there are Democrats."
2017: 🔵D+5
2021:🔵D+6
2025:🔴R+2
Boom!!
2:43 PM · Feb 19, 2025
gcgreen
a day ago
I thought the Oval Office interview was great. Instead of someone sitting there, reading a statement, it was simply watching a nice relaxed conversation (even with a kid running around - well behaved for a 4 year old) that was very informative. If it didn't put anyone at 'ease' then they must have been guilty of something.
The pig that squeals the loudest is the one stuck under the gate.
Genuine question: what is the purpose of business?
Two of the most influential thinkers—Adam Smith and Milton Friedman—offered on-the-surface competing answers, which not only created capitalism, but have driven some of the biggest debates in capitalism. And, interestingly, one of the most searched topics in our Robinhood Learn library is on
this topic
. Understanding their views isn’t just an intellectual exercise—it’s key to understanding how modern businesses operate and why certain economic policies shape our world.
Let’s start with Adam:
In 1776, Adam Smith, the so-called father of macroeconomics, attempted to answer, publishing the first edition of what came to be known as The Wealth of Nations. In it, he established scientific aspects of economics we still use today. These included:
The division of labor and specialization for increased efficiency.
The wealth of a nation is not calculated by how much money (or gold in his time) is in the bank, but is instead derived by how value is created (through the transformation of raw materials to goods) that then 'flows' through society. This came to be known as gross domestic product (GDP).
Invisible Hand theory: in the pursuit of self-interest to be the best under certain conditions, competitive society benefits from the unintended and uninterrupted consequences of individuals pursuing their own self-interest. Free trade was an intricate part of this.
For anything you read, it’s crucial to understand the author’s frame of reference, so here’s the context behind his theory: Adam Smith’s book was purposefully political, opposing the vested interests who advocated protectionism and who were driving forward Britain’s colonial and slave trades of the time. Smith was also a moral philosopher which came through in his dissonance for over-simplification.
Fast forward nearly 100 years later, to September 1970, Milton Friedman wrote in the NY Times: “
A Friedman doctrine
–The Social Responsibility of Business Is to Increase Its Profits”. As the title shares, he asserted that the only “social responsibility” of a business is to increase its profits within legal and ethical bounds, while any money or time spent on the pursuit of social initiatives was effectively imposing “taxes” on shareholders, employees, and customers. The one cross-over with Adam Smith is that the focus on a free-market system and similar assumption that businesses (vs people) will naturally act responsibly to maintain their reputation, retain customers, and attract employees.
Judge Contreras relied on a very shaky 1935 precedent called Humphrey’s Executor v. United States. This precedent established the, in my view, unconstitutional and un-republican plethora of "independent" boards and commissions that carry out executive functions but aren't answerable to the guy in whom the "executive Power" of the United States is "vested." Recent cases have held that any commission holding anything other than an advisory capacity must be controlled by the President; how the MSPB's role in adjudicating employment disputes will be viewed is unknown.
This case is headed to the DC Circuit and the Supreme Court. Another similar case, that of Special Counsel Hampton Dellinger, is at the Supreme Court; Trump Sends Scorching Appeal of DC Court Order Reinstating Biden Appointee to the Supreme Court – RedState. In that case, Trump fired Dellinger, who had the same legal protections as MSPB judges. A judge ordered Dellinger reinstated, and the Supreme Court will get Dellinger's response to the government's objections at 2 p.m. Wednesday.
Other possible cases testing the limits of Humphrey’s Executor are the firings of 17 IGs, who, by statute, can only be fired after a 30-day notice to Congress and an explanation of the reasons, and a member of the National Labor Relations Board. //
Laocoön of Troy
10 hours ago
Remember corrupt FBI agents Peter Strzok and Lisa Page? Remember the friendly judge who they secretly met with at a party to plot their next moves against Trump? The crooked judge? Judge Rudolph Contreras (Obama appointee). Strzok referred to him affectionally as "Rudy" like they were old buds.
Looks like the crooks from Trump's first term are trying to get the band back together.
all executive departments and agencies, including so-called independent agencies, shall submit for review all proposed and final significant regulatory actions to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) within the Executive Office of the President before publication in the Federal Register. //
The President and the Attorney General, subject to the President’s supervision and control, shall provide authoritative interpretations of law for the executive branch. The President and the Attorney General’s opinions on questions of law are controlling on all employees in the conduct of their official duties. No employee of the executive branch acting in their official capacity may advance an interpretation of the law as the position of the United States that contravenes the President or the Attorney General’s opinion on a matter of law, including but not limited to the issuance of regulations, guidance, and positions advanced in litigation, unless authorized to do so by the President or in writing by the Attorney General. //
If this order sticks, Trump has permanently and fundamentally changed the Executive Branch, as it has existed since 1935, in less than a month. //
bk
9 hours ago edited
Liberals: "Musk is unelected and therefore can't tell us what to do!"
Also libs: "How dare Trump interfere with tens of thousands of unelected bureaucrats who have been telling us what to do for decades!"
Starting Feb. 26, 2025 (via ZDNet) you will no longer be able to download copies of your Kindle books and use those files as a backup. After that date, you will only be able to download books via Wi-Fi or through the Amazon platforms. //
All in all it is a reminder that you don't actually own many or most of your digital purchases, as what you are typically actually "buying" are licenses to use content that can be revoked at any time.
Bad actors can now digitally impersonate someone you love, and trick you into doing things like paying a ransom.
To mitigate that risk, I have developed this simple solution where you can setup a unique time-based one-time passcode (TOTP) between any pair of persons.
This is how it works:
- Two people, Person A and Person B, sit in front of the same computer and open this page;
- They input their respective names (e.g. Alice and Bob) onto the same page, and click "Generate";
- The page will generate two TOTP QR codes, one for Alice and one for Bob;
- Alice and Bob scan the respective QR code into a TOTP mobile app (such as Authy or Google Authenticator) on their respective mobile phones;
- In the future, when Alice speaks with Bob over the phone or over video call, and wants to verify the identity of Bob, Alice asks Bob to provide the 6-digit TOTP code from the mobile app. If the code matches what Alice has on her own phone, then Alice has more confidence that she is speaking with the real Bob.
Note that this depends on both Alice's and Bob's phones being secure. If somebody steals Bob's phone and manages to bypass the fingerprint or PIN or facial recognition of Bob's phone, then all bets are off.
My own definition of "Christian nationalism" would be this: An orientation for engaging in the public square that recognizes America as a Christian nation, where our rights and duties are understood to come from God and where our primary responsibilities as citizens are for building and preserving the strength, prosperity and health of our own country. It is a commitment to an institutional separation between church and state, but not the separation of Christianity from its influence on government and society. It is a belief that our participation in the political system can lead to beneficial outcomes for our own communities, as well as individuals of all faiths.
Vought has also been a behind-the-scenes leader in opposing critical race theory in churches and school boards and has openly supported forms of Christian nationalism. ///
This is bad?
Mayor Pete failed for four years to address the air traffic controller shortage and upgrade our outdated, World War II-era air traffic control system. In less than four weeks, we have already begun the process and are engaging the smartest minds in the entire world.
Here’s the truth: the FAA alone has a staggering 45,000 employees. Less than 400 were let go, and they were all probationary, meaning they had been hired less than a year ago. Zero air traffic controllers and critical safety personnel were let go.
Mayor Pete chose to use this amazing department—that is so critical to America’s success—as a slush fund for the green new scam and environmental justice nonsense. Not to mention that over 90% of the workforce under his leadership were working from home - including him. The building was empty!
When we finally get a full accounting of his mismanagement, I look forward to hearing from him.In the meantime, I will not rest until I return the Department of Transportation and its incredible employees to its mission of efficiency and safety. //
jri500
8 hours ago
For 2 years during the Idiot Biden administration, the FAA DID NOT HAVE one single training classes for new Air Traffic Controllers (ATC). In the meantime, Biden's FAA refused to hire 1,000 newly qualified ATC graduates because they were WHITE.
When training finally resumed, FAA couldn't fill training classes because they couldn't find enough woke, minority, physically or psychologically challenged (WTF???) candidates to fill them. ANYTHING BUT WHITE. FAA is currently short about four (4) thousand ATCs. Add to that, the mandatory retirement age is 54!
The tower in DC called for a full staff of 30 ATCs. They had about half that. And the night the crash happened, 1 controller was doing the job of 2. Every airport in the country is short staffed. And democRATS are trying to blame Trump? He's been in office less than a month.
Thomas Hern @ThomasMHern
·
CNN interviewed eleven Arizonans who voted for Biden in 2020 and Trump in 2024.
All eleven said they support the job President Trump has done in his first month in office.
"He got transgenders out of women's sports, that's number one!"
Dana Bash did not seem very pleased.
5:42 PM · Feb 17, 2025 //
Jason Cohen @JasonJournoDC
·
🚨NEW: @FrankLuntz says former Biden, Clinton voters who flipped to Trump in 2024 "love" how fast he's moving 🚨
"They love the pace of change. They were very fed up over the last four years. They wanted action, they wanted results. They looked at prices, they looked at affordability, they looked at immigration. And they didn't see anything happening."
"They wanted to see a reduction in wasteful Washington spending and they're seeing that...For the first time they have confidence in the future, which is why you now see some significant shifts in the polling for the direction in the coming years."
9:00 PM · Feb 17, 2025. //
InteractivePolls @IAPolls2022
·
📊 President Trump Job Approval
🟢 Approve: 55% (+12)
🔴 Disapprove: 43%
Was net: +6 (51-45) on Feb. 6
——
• @NapolitanNews | RMG Research
• #63 (2.3/3.0) | 3,000 RV | 2/10-14 | ±1.8
11:40 PM · Feb 15, 2025. //
Weminuche45
7 hours ago edited
They focus on change itself, and the pace of change, while mostly ignoring the direction of change, the goals, the policies, the results.
Their conclusion will almost certainly be that they should double down on their existing religion of toxic ideology and policies by driving their garbage faster and harder, with more screeching, wailing, fear, outrage and deconstructing of traditional American values.
The harder and faster they drive unwanted unpopular change, the more they will self-destruct. Changing what to change would require loosening their external TDS riddled tunnel vision and spending some difficult time looking in the mirror at what they see there. I dont see much sign of that, yet anyway.
KAROLINE LEAVITT: If you just watched that video, but shut your eyes and listen to the words from those Democrat politicians, you would think you are listening to President Trump, Elon Musk and our entire administration, who are saying the exact same things that Democrat politicians promised the American people they would do for decades. President Trump is just the first president in our lifetimes to actually do it. And now you see the Democrat Party and the mainstream media spiraling out of control about a very simple promise: rooting out waste, fraud and abuse from our federal bureaucracy. This is a promise President Trump campaigned on. He is now delivering on it.
I've been fighting fake news reporters all day long here in the Washington, D.C. swamp who are trying to fearmonger the American people into believing that this administration is going after their hard-earned tax dollars and their hard-earned Social Security checks. So I want to set the record straight on your show tonight, Sean, and I'm very grateful for the opportunity to do so. President Trump has directed Elon Musk and the Doge team to identify fraud at the Social Security Administration. They haven't dug into the books yet, but they suspect that there are tens of millions of deceased people who are receiving fraudulent Social Security payments and so their goal in going into the Social Security Administration is to identify three things: Number one, to identify duplicate payments and to end them, Number two, to identify payments that are going to deceased people who are no longer living and should no longer be receiving that money and number three, to protect the integrity of the system for hardworking Americans who have been paying into it their entire lives.
The head of the criminal division of the US Attorney's office in DC has resigned rather than investigate a Biden-sponsored New Green Deal grant network for possible criminal behavior. Denise Cheung announced her departure to staff with an email saying, “This office is a special place. I took an oath of office to support and defend the Constitution, and I have executed this duty faithfully.” //
The Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund was to funnel about $26 billion to the United Climate Fund and Climate Justice Alliance. This grant was funded in August 2024 to the tune of $20.3 billion, again in October for $4.3 billion, with the final tranche of $2 billion landing in December 2024/January 2025; see the details here. These were all part of the Biden "throwing gold bars off the Titanic" (see EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin Finds the $20 Billion 'Gold Bars' the Biden Administration Tried to Jettison – RedState) plan where immense amounts of grant funding would be "parked" in leftist 501(c)3 corporations that were supposed to continue to run beneath the radar even after Trump had taken office.
Elon Musk @elonmusk
·
I’ve had a top secret clearance for many years and have clearances that themselves are classified.
That said, FAR too much information is made “classified”. If something is easily found online or patently obvious, it should NOT be classified. This impedes effective communication within the government.
TONY™ @TONYxTWO
This moment from the USAID House Hearing is 🔥🔥🔥!!!
“@elonmusk does have a security clearance, he has a top secret security clearance, by God he makes the rockets for NASA! But the suggestion that he somehow can’t be trusted to dig in to how we’re spending our money is nothing…
Embedded video
6:10 AM · Feb 14, 2025. //
- FOIA Exemption 1 (5 U.S.C. § 552(b)(1)) – This exemption protects information that is classified under Executive Order 13526 (or its successors) for national security reasons. Security clearance information often falls under this exemption because it involves classified material.
reported earlier on Tuesday how they discovered that there was a missing code in regard to $4.7 trillion in payments, that would link a treasury payment to a line item, that the code was optional and was often left blank, making tracing the payments almost impossible. Yikes. I'm sure no one has taken advantage of that (/sarcasm). //
Even MSNBC is now recognizing there's a problem, in a bit of a stunning report. They acknowledge that there had been $71.8 billion in improper Social Security payments over eight years, which had been discovered by the inspector general in 2024. That's billion, not million. //
Even for anchor Jose Diaz Balart, that sounds crazy. He isn't buying it: "72 billion! And that's without a comprehensive search!"
What could they find with a comprehensive search? And if there is that much of a problem resulting in such massive overpayments, then yes, this is more evidence of a systemic problem that DOGE needs to help resolve. We already saw the concerning issue of the active Social Security numbers for millions of people over 120 years old that could be used for all kinds of nefarious things, yet hasn't been addressed. //
DOGE is supposed to end in 2026, but we need to have something in place to continuously review all this stuff, so these issues cannot come back after they are resolved. Otherwise, there can be backsliding unless the whole system is changed to one of responsibility and accountability. Obviously, what has been in play hasn't been enough to stop these crazy things.
The crux of the case brought before Chutkan is that Musk's participation in government is illegal as the US Senate has not confirmed him as a "principal officer" as required by Article II, Section 2, Clause 2 or the Constitution and Congress does not have oversight of DOGE because it exists within the Executive Office of the President. This sounds rather bizarre to me as the President has clear authority, in my view, to set up an ad hoc task force to carry out a time-limited mission and to appoint anyone he wishes to lead it. But I'm not a judge on the DC Circuit.
In these circumstances, it must be indisputable that this court acts within the bounds of its authority. Accordingly, it cannot issue a TRO, especially one as wide-ranging as Plaintiffs request, without clear evidence of imminent, irreparable harm to these Plaintiffs. The current record does not meet that standard. //
NavyVet
32 minutes ago
I am sick and tired of this "unelected official" BS. It is "unelected officials" that have been malfeasant allowing massive fraud waste and abuse. That's the way it works.
So the entire "unelected official" mantra is a smokescreen for the ignorant and stupid. That means it works on democrats and their media bootlickers, but has no credibility with the rest of us.
In fact, all it shows us is that the democrats are corrupt and stupid.