Margot Cleveland
@ProfMJCleveland
·
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🚨🚨🚨BREAKING: Obama appointee Allison Dale Burroughs enters TRO against Trump Administration in Harvard case WITHOUT a Trump attorney even appearing in case. Yes, TROs can be ex parte BUT THIS IS NUTS because . . .
Margot Cleveland
@ProfMJCleveland
Harvard's lawsuit against Trump Administration was predictable, as was its request for a TRO. Will a court blindly issue a TRO, given there is no immediate harm per the letter? Probably. 1/
12:24 PM · May 23, 2025 //

Josh Blackman, constitutional law professor at the South Texas College of Law Houston and President of the Harlan Institute, wrote Friday:

[We do] …not have time stamps, but the case could not have been on her docket for more than a few hours.

I have a serious question: did Judge Burroughs even read the 72-page complaint and 59-page motion for a TRO? What about all of the pages of exhibits? Did she have any time to reflect upon it or consider countervailing arguments? //

RSB
4 hours ago edited
This is one the administration should openly defy. Not only is there zero legal basis for the TRO and the judge violated multiple TRO rules but SEVP is explicitly not covered under APA (it is just an internal program of INS) and the executive has sole, nonjudiciable authority on issuing and withdrawing visas. They CANNOT be compelled to do so.

1 Hour of the world's most iconic airport KAI TAK filmed 30 years ago!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-pa-AHMZUw

This is the status of our press corps today. They need to come out and refute the words of Donald Trump, at all costs – even if those refutations support inhuman activity, contradict their own reporting, and the cost is their own credibility.

Kennedy asked Wright about the money that went out the door in those 76 days between the time President Trump was elected and the time Joe Biden left office. //

"During that short period of time, 76 days, how much taxpayer money went out the door of the Department of Energy?" Kennedy asked.

"From the loan program office, in loans and commitments, $93 billion. Well over twice as much as in the previous 15 years," Wright replied. //

Wright responded, "I think it's probably pretty clear it wasn't done in many cases...There's lots of funds that have gone out the door and commitments that were made from businesses that provided no business plan, no numbers about their own financial solvency..."

"So you're telling me that the Department of Energy, in the 76-day period, before their boss was gonna leave office, gave or loaned money to entities that had no business plan?" Kennedy inquired.

"Correct," Wright said.

Kennedy continued, asking Wright if he was going back and checking over these applications. Wright said, "Yes," and "My blood pressure is rising right now" over what they had found. He said some of the people who applied "should be ashamed."

Kennedy, who always has a quip for everything, observed, "It's rare that I'm speechless." He asked again if this money was "shoveled out the door" by the Biden team in this period. "It is correct and distasteful," Wright confirmed. "Confidence undermining."

"My God!" Kennedy exclaimed. Kennedy said Wright should take whatever time he needed to go through all these projects, "penny by penny." "They were spending money at the Department of Energy like it was ditchwater! Their budget went from $60 billion to $160 billion since fiscal year 2021. It just sounds to me like there were a lot of people coming to the Department of Energy who had all four feet and their snout in the trough. I hope you'll turn down the boondoggles and refer the thieves to the Department of Justice."

"We will indeed," Wright promised.

Stealing from the taxpayers is one thing, but stealing the franchise is worse. Why? Well, here's why, and I'm going to tell you: The franchise, more than anything else, belongs to the citizens and only to the citizens. The ballot box is one of three boxes in which our right to hold the government to account depends, in addition to the soap box - and you all know the third. The vote is us exercising our self-determination as a people, as a nation, as a country, at every level of government.

And only citizens should have that determination, that privilege, and responsibility to have a say in our government. From the very beginning, this American experiment, this constitutional republic, has been established by the people and for the people - the people being Americans.

Lina Maria Orovio-Hernandez is not an American. She's in the country illegally. She came here illegally, she defrauded the American people for thousands and thousands of dollars in benefits, she stole someone's identity to do so, and worst of all, she stole a portion of the self-determination of the American people by voting illegally.

This is a person that shouldn't be repatriated - not until she has had a trial and, if convicted, a long and comprehensive acquaintance with the American penal system.

The tax code encourages airlines to charge separately for checked bags, and Southwest Airlines was easily leaving $75 million in tax savings on the table each year by refusing to do so. //

The airline’s CEO Bob Jordan has essentially capitulated to activist investor Elliott in order to save his job, but at the expense of the airline’s culture and product differentiation. These changes won’t make Southwest Airlines better. Southwest had problems – Elliott and everyone else in the world observing them were not wrong – but there are no solutions to bring Southwest back to its earlier growth days because the model has simply run its course.

They have maxed out the ability to grow with a single fleet type, distributing tickets through their own channels, going it alone with a simplified product. So any future will be a lower growth, lower stock multiple, less valuable one. But that doesn’t have to mean doubling down on the race to the bottom, which is why it’s sad to see today’s change. //

Ultimately what this underscores is that there is no returning to the differentiated airline business model that gave Southwest significantly higher earnings multiples, catapulting their stock beyond peers, and generating decades of consistent profits.

Nobody had solutions, so they gave up and did what everyone else does which is what company executives do to protect their jobs. They stopped sticking their necks out, because they might get chopped off. Southwest is now just like everyone else, but a bit less (they don’t even plan to sell blocked middle seats, let alone first class; they have less valuable miles; they don’t have lounges; their wifi lags the industry). A moment of silence for this once great company. //

In the meantime, as checked bag fees roll out to tickets purchased May 28 onward, over the next few months we’ll begin to see everyone trying to carry all their bags on board. That’ll mean more gate checking of bags, which has meant Southwest needed to retrofit gate equipment. This will slow down boarding and delay flights. Good luck out there to Southwest customers!

Rob Pyers @rpyers
·
The vote to repeal California's ban on gas-powered cars, however, was supported by 35 Democrats in the House (including 2 Democratic representatives from California), and 1 Democrat in the Senate.

Ashley Zavala @ZavalaA
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California voters did not vote on CA’s 2035 ban on gas powered cars, neither did state lawmakers.

Gov. Newsom signed an executive order in 2020, then had his @AirResources set the rule.

When I asked about it, he said the rule had buy in from people all across the U.S.
Embedded video
10:51 PM · May 22, 2025

It's bizarre that they're upset Trump was trying to use the meeting to help people. It completely blows the narrative they've been pushing about him. That's not generally something that "Hitler" is supposed to care about.

The media reaction was like the Borg, who all got the same talking points. In case you didn't know, the word of the week was "ambush," as our sister site Twitchy reported.

Western Lensman @WesternLensman
·
Fake News Word of the Day: “Ambush!"
[Embedded video]
9:42 PM · May 21, 2025.

Did they suddenly think of the same word, get the talking points memo, or are they copying each other? Now I'm not quibbling with the fact that Trump did put him on the spot in a bold move. CNN commentator Scott Jennings called it a "boss move." But that's exactly the point: the choice of words, bold or boss move versus "ambush," which has more of a negative connotation. But they all settled on "ambush."

It isn't about reporting. It's always about the narrative. And the narrative always seems to be what will be anti-Trump. They're not concerned about people being killed. Maybe that's more important than Trump being polite. And if Ramaphosa wants things from the U.S., this is the time to bring up issues. That's what makes it such a bold move.

Somehow, bringing in the small group of 59 people was a big problem that needed this intense attack from some in the media. But the millions of illegal aliens that came in largely unvetted under Joe Biden weren't, that was cool. And they wonder why they have no credibility when people see things like this.

Elon Musk nailed their reaction, calling it "the legacy media puppet parade."

KAT7
an hour ago
Western Lensman's video compilation shows you the Mockingbird Media at work.
⬇
Operation Mockingbird, The CIA's Plan To Control The Media - All That's Interesting
Dec 1, 2024 Facts about Operation Mockingbird remain murky — including whether it ever ended — but the idea of news organizations working with intelligence agencies struck many citizens as deeply alarming. Operation Mockingbird was even invoked as recently as mid-2024 when then-presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. claimed that the program is still being used.

If the bill survives in the Senate and the provision isn't removed through reconciliation between the versions passed by each chamber, firearm suppressors, commonly referred to as "silencers," would be deregulated, and the $200 federal excise tax would be scrapped.

Removing suppressors from the requirements under the National Firearms Act would be a significant win for gun rights and hearing protection advocates.

Second Amendment advocates argue that suppressors are designed to protect hearing, not silence gunshots.

In my work with legal historian Professor Mark David Hall, we’ve shown that despite a widespread misunderstanding of the role of Christianity in our founding and decades of bad Supreme Court rulings, such displays are constitutional — a lesson the ACLU and others who challenged the Louisiana law are likely to learn soon.

While the founders were uniformly opposed to government imposing religion, they did think religion, especially Christianity, was extremely important to the founding of the country. They understood that humans are created in the image of God and instilled with dignity. And if people have dignity, they must have rights to protect that dignity. This is the religious inspiration for the huge number of rights enumerated for all citizens at the founding of the republic.

The founders also believed that to ensure the success of the American experiment, people needed to use those rights responsibly. Put bluntly, they must be moral. George Washington said in his Farewell Address, “Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports.” For a republican form of government to work, you must have a moral people, meaning a religious people.

What about Thomas Jefferson, you may ask? He is held up as the poster child for the strict separation of church and state, famously informing the Danbury Baptist Association in 1802 that the First Amendment created a “wall of separation between Church & State.”

The purpose of Jefferson’s letter was to reassure the Baptist congregation that the government wouldn’t interfere with their church, not that religion would have no place in the actions of government. He did not think the Constitution kept the government out of the business of religion altogether. For instance, as governor of Virginia, he invited his fellow Americans to join him in prayer. Jefferson also made the War Department and Treasury Department buildings available for church services. So, in his own political life, Jefferson didn’t act as if there were a wall of separation between church and state. //

Shortly after Gov. Jeff Landry signed the Louisiana law mandating displays of the Ten Commandments in classrooms, the American Civil Liberties Union sued. It claimed the Ten Commandments are not a source of American law and that having the displays would unconstitutionally expose some people to a religion they don’t believe in. A few months later, a federal judge ruled in the ACLU’s favor, and the state appealed to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. Professor Hall and I submitted an amicus brief in support of Louisiana with the appellate court.

CNN — a far-left outlet a jury found is literally fake news — is upset that Christians were permitted to openly pray to their Lord and Savior Jesus Christ while on the job at the Pentagon.

The outlet’s hissy fit stems from a Christian prayer service Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth hosted at the Defense Department on Wednesday. The event — for which Hegseth himself said attendance was on a “voluntary basis” — featured remarks and prayers from Hegseth and the defense secretary’s Tennessee-based pastor, Brooks Potteiger. //

As aptly noted by Federalist CEO Sean Davis, “America was founded as a Christian nation by Christian men with Christian ideals and morals and laws for Christian purposes, and the only thing the First Amendment prohibits is the literal establishment of a specific government church funded by taxes.” In other words, the framers did not want the U.S. government “establishing” an official state church subsidized by the American people.

In no way did Hegseth’s voluntary prayer service violate this constitutional provision. Not even close. //

What’s become evidently clear, at CNN and other left-wing propaganda outlets, is that it’s perfectly OK to dishonestly question, ridicule, and/or outright smear Christianity if doing so can help advance leftists’ agenda. And given that their worldview is antithetical to Christian teachings, it’s safe to assume this despicable trend is here to stay.

‘You can’t reuse turbines, and there are now thousands upon thousands of blades just sitting there in warehouses already … It’s an environmental disaster.’ //

While green advocates commonly use the terms renewable, sustainable, and net zero to describe their efforts, the dirty little secret is that much of the waste from solar panels and wind turbines is ending up in landfills.

The current amounts of fiberglass, resins, aluminum and other chemicals — not to mention propeller blades from giant wind turbines — pose no threat currently to local town dumps, but this largely ignored problem will become more of a challenge in the years ahead as the 500 million solar panels and the 73,000 wind turbines now operating in the U.S. are decommissioned and replaced.

Greens insist that reductions in carbon emissions will more than compensate for increased levels of potentially toxic garbage; others fret that renewable energy advocates have not been forthright about their lack of eco-friendly plans and the technology to handle the waste. //

“Globally, we produced 20-25 million tons of solar panels in 2023. They will come offline in roughly 20 years. That is 20-25 million tons of solar waste a year in 2045.”

The International Renewable Energy Agency puts the potential mountain even higher, pointing to studies that put the 2050 figure at 78 million metric tons.

For now, 90 percent of this detritus goes to landfills. And the panel fields and towering turbines must be dismantled, trucked away, usually by diesel-powered vehicles, and then sent to landfills or ports, where they are shipped to poor, developing countries. Fossil fuels may foul the air, but renewables may pollute the ground. //

In many cases, when highly regulated power companies look to build a new plant, laws require them to set aside money in bonds or escrow accounts to cover or defray decommissioning costs, Mills said. That is not always the case. A recently decommissioned coal mine in northern Louisiana may cost $300 million to break down, according to the Alliance for Affordable Energy, which says those costs will probably be borne by ratepayers. But Isaac and Mills believe financial decommissions requirements have been either ignored or insufficiently funded in the renewable market. ///

Compare the millions of tons of renewable waste that is not renewable and the thousands of tons of nuclear waste that is mostly reusable: nuclear waste is easily manageable and won't be scattered all over the landscape.

"This administration is holding Harvard accountable for fostering violence, antisemitism, and coordinating with the Chinese Communist Party on its campus," said Secretary Kristi Noem. "It is a privilege, not a right, for universities to enroll foreign students and benefit from their higher tuition payments to help pad their multibillion-dollar endowments. Harvard had plenty of opportunity to do the right thing. It refused. They have lost their Student and Exchange Visitor Program certification as a result of their failure to adhere to the law. Let this serve as a warning to all universities and academic institutions across the country.". //

Noem has been requesting records regarding visa-holding students so they can see if any of them are troublemakers and inciting hate and violence. Harvard has mostly been stonewalling her efforts.

Unless this conflict gets resolved quickly, Harvard can no longer enroll foreign students for the 2025-2026 school year. Existing foreign students, meanwhile, must transfer or they’ll have their legal status to reside in the U.S. revoked. //

bk
9 hours ago
she gave them 72 hours to respond if they don’t want this punishment to go forward.
It'll only take them a couple hours to find a federal judge in Boston to put a hold on it.

thinkingoutloud bk
7 hours ago
DEC 10, 2024 in a 9-0 SCOTUS decision:
"The nation’s highest court unanimously ruled that the head of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) possesses expansive discretionary powers to rescind previously approved visa applications, without being subjected to judicial oversight. This decision in the Bourfa v. Mayorkas case reaffirmed the Secretary’s authority to revoke immigration petitions “for what he deems to be good and sufficient cause” as stipulated in 8 United States Code (USC) §1155."
https://congressionalpost.com/supreme-court-government-can-cancel-immigration-visas-anytime/

Thursday, the Senate voted to block a package of vehicle emissions regulations issued by California, including a highly controversial rule that would have banned the sale of gasoline-powered (aka real) cars by 2035. In the process, tears were shed, threats were issues, and knickers became tightly knotted by leftist Democrats out to cripple the US economy. //

Only a month before leaving office, the [Biden administration] approved a California regulation that banned the sale of new cars and trucks in California in 2035. This was a decision of earthshaking import. Given the size of its market, unilateral economic actions affect the entire country as businesses adjust their processes to accommodate California regulations. Making matters worse, 11 other states were in the process of enacting similar bans. All told, this would have reduced the market for new gasoline-powered automobiles in the US by 40%. This approval was an obviously malicious act by the outgoing EPA management. The EPA had been sitting on the approvals since 2022 but dumped this burning bag of ordure on the front porch of the Trump White House for political points.

The House teed up the action with a bipartisan vote of 246-164 to disapprove three EPA waivers granted to California: a "zero emissions" standard for trucks, a regulation that would have essentially banned heavy-duty off-road vehicles, and the 2035 ban on real cars and trucks.

When the resolution of disapproval arrived in the Senate, its fate was in question. The General Accounting Office had rendered a "legal opinion" (funny how that phrase has become synonymous with "anti-Trump mischief-making") that a mere waiver of an existing law did not rise to the level of being a regulation that the mere collective vote of Congress could override. In this assertion, the GAO was joined by the Senate parliamentarian. //

Neither the GAO nor the parliamentarian has binding authority over the will of the Senate, but what Republicans wanted to avoid was the appearance of steamrolling the parliamentarian. This is where the solid leadership of South Dakota's John Thune came into play in a clear contrast to the "failure theater" directed by Mitch McConnell whenever he was majority leader. //

Thune decided to go around the bureaucratic obstacle. “What I didn’t want to do was vote to overturn the parliamentarian," said Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), "and with help from a lot of experts the leader came up with an approach that avoids that outcome, and I’m glad.” //

What Thune did was get a ruling from the floor that the situation was not as cut and dried as the GAO and parliamentarian had claimed and that the waivers did, indeed, fall under the provisions of the Congressional Review Act. //

DaveM
8 hours ago
"[Schumer]: This Senate vote is illegal,"

Apparently we have more than a few Senators sworn to uphold the Constitution that have never bothered to read it.

Article II Section 5 Paragraph 2:
"Each House may determine the Rules of its Proceedings..." //

Romeg
7 hours ago
After carefully scouring my copy of The Constitution of The United States of America I have to report that I was unable to find that article, clause, paragraph or amendment that grants California the power to regulate interstate commerce. Perhaps someone reading this can help me out. //

anon-hlc8 streiff
7 hours ago
Sometimes the problem is that whomever is prosecuting the case does not bring that point of law up in their briefing. If they do not bring up that states may not regulate or impede interstate commerce, the judge is not going to help them out. //

Romeg streiff
5 hours ago
I cannot avoid the conclusion that such rulings utterly negate the commerce clause of the U.S. Constitution. Wickard v Filburn went in the completely opposite direction making ALL commerce, in effect, Interstate Commerce and thus subject to congressional regulation. The ruling you cite along with past failures to challenge CA's high-handedness seem to be judicial nullification of at least certain aspects of that clause in the Constitution.

According to the footage, Rodriguez shot Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim in the back as they prepared to cross the street.

Lischinsky, identified as Decedent-2 in the affidavit, was declared dead at the scene. Milgrim, identified as Decedent-1 in the affidavit, was not killed immediately; Rodriguez shot her again as she attempted to crawl away, and then again after he stopped to reload his firearm. A total of 21 expended 9mm cartridge casings were recovered. //

When Rodriguez was interviewed by agents, after waiving his Miranda rights he "expressed admiration for the actions of an individual who self-immolated in front of the Israeli Embassy in Washington D.C. on February 25, 2024, as a form of protest intended to draw attention to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict" and labeled that man a "martyr." Prior to that interview, according to MPD officers, Rodriguez stated, "I did it for Palestine. I did it for Gaza. I am unarmed."

The father of one of the slain Israeli Embassy staffers broke his silence about his daughter's death, noting the irony of the relentless work she'd done to find peace between Israelis and Palestinians before being killed by the alleged suspect, who shouted "free, free Palestine" during his arrest. //

"Last night, she was attending an affair to figure out how to get more aid into Gaza," Milgrim told The Post. "The night she was killed, she was trying to help the situation – that's the irony."

Josh Gerstein @joshgerstein
·
BREAKING: #SCOTUS allows Trump to fire labor board members. Apparent 6-3 decision with all liberal justices in dissent. Court says more harm from denying POTUS right to remove officials than from those officials staying in office. Doc: https://documentcloud.org/documents/25951855-24a966-order/
4:44 PM · May 22, 2025. //

Tom Fitton @TomFitton
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In a massive blow to the permanent administrative state, the Supreme Court, in 6-3 order, lifts stay on @RealDonaldTrump firings of Democratic appointees to "independent agencies." Key majority finding does not augur well for the future of constitutionally suspect agencies that protect appointees from being fired by the Chief Executive:
6:21 PM · May 22, 2025

The stay reflects our judgment that the Government is likely to show that both the NLRB and MSPB exercise considerable executive power. But we do not ultimately decide in this posture whether the NLRB or MSPB falls within such a recognized exception; that question is better left for resolution after full briefing and argument. The stay also reflects our judgment that the Government faces greater risk of harm from an order allowing a removed officer to continue exercising the executive power than a wrongfully removed officer faces from being unable to perform her statutory duty.

Froge
4 hours ago edited
"The Magicians Nephew" was written after the fact to tie everything together before the grand finally.
Order as written:
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (1950)
Prince Caspian: The Return to Narnia (1951)
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (1952)
The Silver Chair (1953)
The Horse and His Boy (1954)
The Magician’s Nephew (1955)
The Last Battle (1956)

Order in the Narnia time sequence:
The Magician’s Nephew (1/1900)
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (1000-1015/1940)
The Horse and His Boy (1014/1940)
Prince Caspian (2290-2304/1941)
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (2306-2310/1942)
The Silver Chair (2356/1942)
The Last Battle (2555/1949)

I also get the feeling the last three books written (Horse, Magician, Last) were written to cash in a bit more on the series popularity, though they are decent books they were out of place with the first four books. Personally I liked the "Voyage of the Dawn Treader", and "The Horse and his Boy."

A new analysis of abortion pill data, the largest known of its kind, released by the Ethics and Public Policy Center, reveals that the abortion drug mifepristone may be causing serious adverse events at a rate 22 times higher than the Food and Drug Administration’s official claim. Specifically, the study found that more than 10 percent of women who take mifepristone suffer hemorrhaging, infection, sepsis, and more — while the FDA’s mifepristone drug label claims that serious adverse events occur in “less than 0.5 percent” of instances.

The latest data on the dangers of the abortion pill doesn’t just expose a national health crisis that must be addressed by lawmakers and the policymakers at the FDA, which under the Biden administration eliminated the requirement that mifepristone be dispensed in person. It also underscores the necessity of vigorously defending the life-saving option of Abortion Pill Reversal, or APR, for women who regret their decision, mid-chemical abortion. //

APR is a protocol that floods the body with the natural pregnancy-sustaining hormone, progesterone — offering a lifeline to women in a literal life-or-death moment. When the protocol is begun within 72 hours of first taking mifepristone, APR has a 64-68 percent success rate, without any safety risks, according to peer-reviewed studies recognized by the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists.

The success of APR is consistent with natural progesterone’s long history of use as a safe and effective treatment for sustaining pregnancies. Indeed, APR has saved the lives of approximately 6,000 babies according to Heartbeat International, the global pregnancy center network that operates the Abortion Pill Rescue© Network. //

Pro-abortion attorneys general contend that peer-reviewed studies confirming APR’s validity are “discredited” because they rely on “case studies” rather than “clinical trials.” But randomly assigning a placebo to a mom who wants to save her baby is obviously unethical. And even the prestigious Journal of the American Medical Association recognizes that use of such case series is preferable when clinical randomization would be unethical.

Christian camp IdRaHaJe in Colorado refuses to comply with progressive gender ideology policies and faces potential shutdown. //

Nestled in the scenic mountains of Bailey, a town 30 miles southwest of Denver with less than 10,000 residents, IdRaHaJe has been serving children ages six to 17 since its founding in 1948 through various programs, such as summer camps, off-site backpacking, and camping trips. The camp’s name comes from the hymn “I’d Rather Have Jesus!” and reflects its commitment to Christianity.