in January, a jury ruled in Young's favor, finding the network guilty of defamation. As a result, CNN was ordered to pay Young $4 million in lost earnings and $1 million in personal damages, including pain and suffering.
Now, Young is going after the AP. //
In January, while covering the CNN trial, AP reporter David Bauder wrote that "Young’s business helped smuggle people out of Afghanistan” and “worked exclusively with deep-pocketed outside sponsors like Bloomberg and Audible.” The veteran’s lawyer said that the outlet has “blatantly accused Mr. Young of engaging in criminal human smuggling.”
“Rather than restore Mr. Young's good name, the media coverage of his court victory created new libel," Daniel Lustig and Michael J. Pike, the attorneys representing Young, wrote in the complaint, adding that the AP "knew or recklessly disregarded the truth.”
In an ongoing effort to curb illegal immigration, the Trump administration has quietly begun invalidating Social Security numbers of illegal immigrants who are in the U.S. unlawfully, effectively pushing them to "self-deport." This action is part of a broader effort to crack down on illegal immigration and ensure that only those who follow legal procedures can access the benefits and rights associated with a Social Security number.
This week, the Trump administration instructed the Social Security Administration (SSA) to add over 6,300 illegal immigrants to its list of deceased individuals, effectively blocking their ability to work. The move, instructed by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, is aimed at encouraging illegal aliens to "self-deport" and return to their home countries. DOGE arranged for cooperation between the SSA and the DHS. The individuals were granted to them over the years by prior administrations despite illegally living in the United States, having criminal records, terrorist affiliations, and/or cancelled visas.
The SSA renamed its “Death Master File” to the “Ineligible Master File,” a database traditionally used to track deceased individuals and prevent them from receiving benefits. Under the new system, sources say the SSA is now classifying certain illegal immigrants as “dead” by assigning false dates of death, effectively canceling their Social Security numbers and cutting off access to government benefits.
In Winston Churchill: The Roaming Lion, a six-hour course, Dr. Larry Arnn examines Winston Churchill's life, philosophy, and political legacy through a comprehensive analysis of his military experiences, leadership principles, and views on governance. The lectures explore Churchill's evolution from a soldier-writer to a statesman, highlighting his perspectives on warfare, democracy, and individual liberty, while examining how Britain's geography and history shaped his strategic thinking. The course delves into Churchill's complex political philosophy, including his approach to just war, constitutional government, and the balance between social welfare and individual freedom.
Seven Americans may have contracted COVID-19 in Wuhan in October 2019, several months before the reported start of the pandemic, according to a bombshell military report obtained by the Washington Free Beacon that the Biden administration concealed from the public.
The December 2022 report, which the Biden administration was required by law to release to the public over two years ago but didn’t, reveals for the first time that seven U.S. military service members contracted COVID-19-like symptoms during or after their participation in the World Military Games in Wuhan in October 2019—contradicting the Biden administration’s public claims in 2021 that there was no evidence that any American participants contracted the virus at those games. The revelation adds to a mounting body of evidence that the virus was circulating in Wuhan for months before China disclosed it to the world in December 2019 and further bolsters the growing consensus that it could have leaked into the human population from a Chinese lab.
what is particularly revealing is how some parts of the Department of Justice see themselves as an independent branch of government.
Traditionally, all of the lawyers in the office except two — the solicitor general and the principal deputy — are nonpartisan career employees who span administrations, rather than political appointees. When the office takes legal positions, it has historically taken a long view about what is best for the U.S. government.
The hubris in this statement is simply breathtaking. No one in the federal bureaucracy has the remit of taking "a long view about what is best for the U.S. government." That is a political, not a professional judgment. It implies that unelected bureaucrats are supposed to act as a brake, or even an anchor or land mine, to keep an administration from going in a direction it doesn't like. That is wrong, and it is the essence of the Third World style Deep State that President Trump railed against during his first term. //
Those people said the exodus raises questions about whether the department will be able to recruit attorneys from top law schools with clerkship experience and diverse backgrounds at a time when the administration is rapidly filing emergency requests at the high court.
Again, this is an example of the Deep State inadvertently revealing itself. If the Department of Justice values those things and thinks it will not be able to find them if it loyally serves the president, it is making a strong case that its offices are both partisan and elitist. //
Fortunately, the Trump administration is rising to the challenge of finding lawyers who are willing to work to further the Trump agenda.
The Justice Department is building a roster of lawyers willing to defend in court the most controversial parts of President Donald Trump’s agenda, firing career attorneys whom leaders view as standing in their way and hiring dozens of political appointees to carry out the president’s agenda.
The new hires are already appearing on behalf of the government to defend Trump’s efforts to remake immigration policy and the federal workforce and to expand the powers of the presidency. They sometimes sit in front of judges alone, without the cadre of veteran attorneys who typically show up for big cases.
Some have prestigious conservative credentials, clerking for Supreme Court justices and top federal judges, according to a review of the new hires’ professional bios posted on LinkedIn. Others are fresh out of law school, taking on influential positions. Many honed their legal skills working for conservative state attorneys general during the Biden administration. //
Battles like these are happening across the federal government: in the Department of Health and Human Services, at the Environmental Protection Agency, and even in the Armed Forces; see Top US Commander in Greenland Disavows Trump's Position to US and Danish Troops (Updated). The idea that only long-serving, ideologically driven elite law school graduates can adequately represent the United States in court is ridiculous, and you need only look at past performance for the proof. //
GBenton 2 hours ago
Unhappy with the limits our republic as founded placed on the left's demonic lust for power, they spent the last 100 years growing the administrative state outside the bounds and through lawfare and dumbing down the voters with public education, they tried to subjugate and enslave us from within without firing a shot.
Appeals to the norms are simply an attempt to get us to accept our serfdom and not ask of district judges can usurp Article II powers or of the IA can run color revolutions and even delete presidents like JFK or railroad them out like Nixon amd Trump.
its all smoke and mirrors. This extra constitutional adventure needs to come to an end or we lose the country.
McCarthy was right. The commies are burrowed in everywhere, playing the long game.
Time to tear out what they corrupted over the last century and reform education so they can't easily rebuild it.
Delve into the world of Dickens and his contemporaries by browsing our hand-picked selection of free to download Victorian treasures…
Elon Musk to pay record-breaking $12 billion tax bill
CNBC’s Robert Frank reports on Elon Musk’s tax bill which is the largest in history. Musk will pay a total of $12 billion for 2021. Frank joins ‘Squawk on the Street’ to discuss the details.
Wed, Dec 15 202110:51 AM EST
The sound of Windows 95 about to disappoint you added to Library of Congress significant sound archive
Along with Celine Dion and Elton John - plus some good music too
...
And here’s what The Library of Congress had to say about the significance of the Windows boot chime:
The 1990s witnessed the beginning of ubiquitous use of personal computing that is a familiar aspect of the world today. This revolution gained significant momentum in August 1995 with the release by Microsoft of the Windows 95 operating system. This iteration brought more of the computer’s operation under a graphical user interface (GUI), making a home computer more accessible to a non-specialist audience of consumers.
To mark this and other improvements, Microsoft chose to incorporate a brief start-up sound that would play when Windows 95 booted up. The company chose the ambient music creator and prolific music producer Brian Eno to compose this sound. Eno, now a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, has also been a pioneer in the creation of ambient and electronica music. Eno delivered 84 sound elements to the Microsoft designers, who ultimately selected a sound almost twice as long as requested but which they felt conveyed the sense of welcome, hopefulness and progress that they envisioned. //
The OS was, however, often unstable. Users hearing the sound now deemed historically significant will likely have memories of hearing it more often than they wanted to – and often at inconvenient moments.
After President Donald Trump imposed broad tariffs, some of his left-wing critics began quoting economists like Milton Friedman, who adamantly believed in unilateral free trade.
Friedman preferred that our trading partners refrain from imposing barriers on goods imported from the United States. He said: "We would be benefited by dispensing with our tariffs even if other countries did not. We would of course be benefited even more if they reduce theirs but our benefiting does not require that they reduce tariffs." //
But it's good news that the left has discovered and begun quoting Friedman on unilateral free trade. Perhaps they will start examining Friedman's positions on other policies such as school choice, health care, regulations, the size of the federal government, tax policy and the minimum wage. //
To the leftists now quoting Friedman on tariffs, the Nobel Prize-winning economist had an opinion or two on a few other things.
Photosynthesis is the process which involves a chemical reaction between water and carbon dioxide in the presence of light, to make food (sugars) for plants and as a byproduct releases oxygen in the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide currently comprises .04% (400 ppm) of the atmospheric volume. //
The ambient CO2 (naturally occurring level of CO2) concentration of 400 parts per million can occur in a properly vented greenhouse. However, the concentration is much lower than ambient during the day and much higher at night in sealed greenhouses. The carbon dioxide level is higher at night because of plant respiration and microbial activities. The carbon dioxide level may drop to 150 to 200 parts per million during the day in a sealed greenhouse, because CO2 is utilized by plants for photosynthesis during daytime. Exposure of plants to lower levels of CO2 even for a short period can reduce rate of photosynthesis and plant growth. Generally, doubling ambient CO2 level (i.e. 700 to 800 parts per million) can make a significant and visible difference in plant yield. Plants with a C3 photosynthetic pathway (geranium, petunia, pansy, aster lily and most dicot species) have a 3-carbon compound as the first product in their photosynthetic pathway, thus are called C3 plants and are more responsive to higher CO2 concentration than plants having a C4 pathway (most of the grass species have a 4-carbon compound as the first product in their photosynthetic pathway, thus are called C4 plants). An increase in ambient CO2 to 800-1,000 ppm can increase yield of C3 plants up to 40%-100% percent and C4 plants by 10%-25% while keeping other inputs at an optimum level. Plants show a positive response up to 700 to need of 1,800 parts per million, but higher levels of CO2 may cause plant damage (Figure 1). //
Adding CO2 one to two hours after sunrise and stopping two to three hours before sunset is the ideal duration of supplementation. Plants are photosynthetically active one to two hours after sunrise reaching peak at 2:00 to 3:00 p.m., followed by a decrease in the rate of photosynthesis. However, leafy greens and vegetables in a hydroponic system can be supplemented with CO2 and a grow-lighting system 24 hours a day. Seedlings supplemented with CO2 in flats will be ready to transplant one or two weeks earlier. Supplementing CO2 at an early age reduces the number of days to maturity and plants can be harvested earlier. Young plants are more responsive to supplemental CO2 than more mature plants.
The MCM states any service member may be prosecuted under Article 88 (Contempt Toward Officials) if they use “contemptuous words against the President, the Vice President, Congress, the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of a military department, the Secretary of Security, or the Governor or legislature of any State, Commonwealth, or possession in which he is on duty or present.”. //
Service members convicted of an Article 88 violation face a maximum punishment of dismissal, forfeiture of all pay and allowances, and one year of forced confinement.
On Thursday, Gov. Jared Polis signed a law that bans the production and most sales of semi-automatic firearms with detachable magazines. That means the gun control measure not only covers semi-automatic rifles like the AR-15 (which would be bad enough on its own) but also makes essentially all modern-day handguns illegal as well. //
To say this is blatantly unconstitutional is an understatement. The Supreme Court ruled in District of Columbia vs. Heller that firearms in common use are protected under the Second Amendment for "traditionally lawful purposes." That includes self-defense. Semi-automatic handguns and rifles with detachable magazines are the most commonly used guns in the United States. It's not even a question that this gun control law runs afoul of Supreme Court precedent. That means that Polis signed something that he has to know is illegal, making this move all the more insidious.
The stakes here could not be higher. If Colorado gets away with this, you can kiss the Second Amendment goodbye. If a state gets away with largely banning semi-automatic handguns, it can get away with banning any type of firearm. This is the most radical gun control legislation to ever be signed, and it must be fiercely opposed. //
FortCourage
2 hours ago edited
This would be a perfect case for AG Bondi’s DOJ to show us they’re serious about the 2nd Amendment. File a federal lawsuit against the State of Colorado for violating of the 2nd Amendment. And push it up the chain until it gets to SCOTUS.
From inauguration day onward, the military services have engaged in a campaign of "malicious compliance," that is, aggressively applying administration directives in a way that makes the directives and the people issuing them look ridiculous. I've listed a few of those instances below: //
I can't imagine Colonel Meyers being in command much longer. She was under no moral, legal, or ethical obligation to defend Vance's remarks, but she was under an obligation not to comment negatively on them. Not only did she do so to all base personnel, an action that more likely than not violated Article 88 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice. When he included Danish military personnel on the email distribution list, she definitely crossed a line that should cost her her commission.
Joni Ernst
@SenJoniErnst
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You can’t make this up…
Federal employees showed up to the office — not to work — but to protest returning to work.
@DOGE and I are fighting to get Washington working for YOU!
12:01 PM · Apr 9, 2025.
A Veterans Affairs manager responsible for scheduling veterans appointments posted on social media that he was “phoning it in from a bubble bath” while calls to the VA have gone unanswered. An Army veteran gave up on getting mental healthcare from the VA because after years of trying to get an appointment, he met with a therapist who “spent the appointment singing the praises of remote work with a cat draped around her neck.” He said that it was such a disaster that “now I’m just on my meds doing my best.” A HUD employee was arrested for drunk driving at 3:30 in the afternoon on a Friday and may have been paid for time spent sitting in jail, HUD had no idea until I told them. For more than three years, a Social Security employee was running a home inspection business. Meanwhile, his mother was responding to his emails.
The previously legislation passed in July, 221 to 198, after Democrats stated noncitizen voting is already illegal.
But just because noncitizen voting is already illegal doesn’t mean it’s not happening — or that current law does anything to prevent it. Current law prohibiting noncitizens from voting is largely toothless, with prospective voters simply checking a small square box on a federal registration form attesting under penalty of perjury that they are a citizen.
The SAVE Act would amend the 1993 National Voter Registration Act to make documentary proof of citizenship a requirement to register to vote.
Donald Trump’s first term began with an unsuccessful attempt to repeal Obamacare. His second term could begin with a successful attempt to expand it.
That’s one possible outcome from a strategy Senate Republicans are attempting to use to pass their budget and spending blueprint. The wonky accounting maneuvers could make it easier to pass a permanent extension of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) provisions, but they could also make it easier to pass a permanent extension of enhanced Obamacare subsidies in the process.
The imbalance within this industry illustrates the broader trade issues that leave the U.S. at a disadvantage. //
The U.S. has had a free trade agreement with Australia for 20 years. In that time, Australia has sold $28.7 billion of beef to U.S. consumers, but fresh U.S. beef has been banned for sale there. //
“Australia has used a myriad of sanitary concerns and endless bureaucratic red tape to delay the approval of U.S. beef even though the United States is internationally recognized as having some of the highest food safety and animal health standards in the world,” the NCBA wrote in a statement to U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer. “For the past few years, we have been told by the Australian government that we are in the final stages of approval, yet we continue to see delays … If the Australians will not accept our beef products, then it is only fair that we reciprocate.” //
In the past five years, Brazil has sold $4.45 billion of beef in the U.S., but Brazil has placed many non-tariff restrictions on U.S. beef. In the same time frame, the U.S. has sold $21 million of beef to Brazil. Like Australia, we are comparing billions in imports to millions in exports.
The staggering $4.3 billion beef trade deficit with Brazil is concerning, but NCBA says it is more worried about something else: importing meat contaminated with foot-and-mouth disease as well as mad cow disease, known scientifically as atypical bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE).
In November 2021, then-Agriculture Secretary Thomas Vilsack received a letter from the NCBA warning that Brazil took “several weeks” to report two cases to the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE), while most countries report BSE within hours or days. //
In 2003, China and other countries banned the import of U.S. beef after the U.S. found a case of BSE. The USDA worked to restore the market and in 2016 the Chinese market started to reopen under President Barack Obama, but with heavy non-tariff trade restrictions.
The first shipment of beef was in 2017, under Trump, after the U.S.-China 100-Day Action Plan removed many restrictions, and China recognized the authority of the USDA Food Safety Inspection Service (FISA). China became a $2 billion a year market for U.S. beef.
In the 2020 Phase One Agreement, China promised to “conduct a risk assessment” for ractopamine, a growth additive in cattle and swine feed allowed in the U.S. but banned or restricted in some countries. It has accepted swine with ractopamine but the agreement is not specific about beef.
China started to reject beef shipments if it detected any ractopamine, and banned further shipments from beef processing plants and cold storage facilities that sent such beef.
That $2 billion market is now effectively closed, //
“The United States is a prized market for beef sales,” according to the NCBA comments. “Developing countries like Paraguay and Colombia see market access to the U.S. as an endorsement of their product and that is why beef access has been a top policy goal for these governments. Brazil and Paraguay were granted access under highly questionable conditions, and we do not want the U.S. government to continue using beef access as trade bait with South American countries, including Colombia.”
Biden granted Paraguay permission in 2023 to sell fresh beef in the U.S., and Colombia is waiting for access to the U.S. beef market. Both countries have had foot-and-mouth disease, which has been eradicated from the U.S since 1929.
Trump’s tariffs are not designed to encourage Americans to borrow money and maximize their consumption. Nor are they designed to encourage participation in speculative stock market or real estate bubbles. America’s free trade policies encouraged such excesses after the end of the Cold War, and we can’t stand a repeat of the folly. While his critics wrongly invoke the Smoot-Hawley tariff failures of 1930, Trump’s emerging tariff policies, particularly if combined with the appropriate monetary policy, will have much better results and Make America Great Again.
Each of these cases seeks to return our nation to the original intent of religious liberty in our U.S. Constitution — an intent that was misconstrued and misinterpreted by Justice Hugo Black in his majority opinion in Eversen v. Board of Education in 1947.
It was in this case that Black inserted the phrase, “wall of separation of church and state,” words found nowhere in the U.S. Constitution but instead from a letter from Thomas Jefferson to the Danbury Baptists in 1802.
The irony is that those who oppose any religious expression or rights of conscience for religious believers have also distorted Jefferson’s words to advance their anti-faith agenda. Up until Black’s opinion, the court had interpreted the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to support and encourage religious belief.
Unfortunately, with Black’s words, the damage was done. For the next generation, the Supreme Court, encouraged by groups such as the ACLU and Americans United for Separation of Church and State, wielded Black’s words like a legal wrecking ball to any public expression of religious faith.
So many of our current cultural issues and rapidly deteriorating public discourse is the result of the fundamental misunderstanding and misconstruing by previous Supreme Courts after Black’s opinion.
By restoring religious liberty to its rightful place, where people can openly practice their faith, regardless of what it may be, and the government encourages, but not endorses a certain faith, can we return to the original intent of our Founding Fathers.
What if I told you that when federal district judges issue injunctions blocking President Donald Trump’s policies in a judicial insurrection, they were the ones breaking the law?
No, it’s not just because these judges are effectively usurping the authority of the president over the executive branch. It’s more clear-cut than that.
When Chief Judge James Boasberg of the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., issued an order demanding the Trump administration return reputed members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua to the U.S., he wasn’t just making immigration policy—he was violating a black-and-white rule laid down by the U.S. Supreme Court.
It’s called the Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 65(c). Here’s what it says:
The court may issue a preliminary injunction or a temporary restraining order only if the movant [that is, petitioner] gives security in an amount that the court considers proper to pay the costs and damages sustained by any party found to have been wrongfully enjoined or restrained. The United States, its officers, and its agencies are not required to give security.
What does that mean? It means that when the ACLU files a lawsuit against the Trump administration and asks the judge to issue an order forcing Trump to turn around, in midflight, the planes deporting violent gangbangers, the ACLU has to put up or shut up.
The ACLU has to put down a “security” payment when asking for the court order, just in case a later judge strikes down the order after it already cost the government money to follow it.
This commonsense requirement isn’t a Trump wish list item. It’s a rule with the force of law. //
So, why isn’t the Department of Justice formally asking judges to enforce this rule?
The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression may give a hint at the answer.
“Courts have long recognized exceptions for public-interest litigation, especially when it comes to those seeking to protect constitutional rights,” FIRE’s Ronnie London explained.
Perhaps the Justice Department is unwilling to press its rights on this issue because groups such as FIRE would like a public-interest exception.
Still, Hans von Spakovsky, a senior legal fellow at The Heritage Foundation’s Center for Legal and Judicial Studies, told The Daily Signal, “There is no exception.”
Daniel Huff, who worked as an attorney in the first Trump White House, wrote about the issue for The Wall Street Journal.
He called the “public interest” exception “made-up” and “subjective.”
“This elitist conceit presumes that it is in the public interest to exempt activists from standard legal rules so they can block actions ordered by the president, for whom 77 million Americans voted,” Huff wrote.
He cited no less a judge than since-deceased Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, when she served on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.
In National Kidney Patients Association v. Sullivan (1992), a district judge tried to invoke public interest to waive the security payment. A panel of the D.C. Circuit, which included future Justice Ginsburg, rejected the claim outright: “This completely overlooks a key purpose of the bond … to make plaintiffs consider the damage they may inflict by pressing ahead with a possibly losing claim.”
