'I can be a yes'

The Smithsonian Institution’s Board of Regents may have to get used to meetings where accountability is expected. At this week’s much-anticipated one, members yielded to President Donald Trump’s demand for an audit of politicized content. Alas, they also circled the wagons around Smithsonian Institution Secretary Lonnie Bunch. The Wall Street Journal reports that, according to a document that summarized the secretive meeting held Monday, the board acceded to demands by Vice President JD Vance and Rep. Carlos Gimenez, R-Fla., to hold a thorough review of content at the complex’s 21 museums. The board reluctantly accepted this review even on an expedited matter, though it wanted to give Bunch three months to conduct it. “The board directed the secretary to assess content in museums and make needed changes to ensure unbiased content, including personnel changes,” a Smithsonian spokesman told the WSJ’s Natalie Andrews. “The board requested that the secretary report back on progress and suggested next steps.” This was a victory for Trump, who, in March, issued an executive order that correctly noted that “over the past decade, Americans have witnessed a concerted and widespread effort to rewrite our Nation’s history, replacing objective facts with a distorted narrative driven by ideology rather than truth.” The president ordered the Smithsonian to “remove improper ideology from such properties.” But the Smithsonian also issued a statement asserting its independence on personnel matters, indirectly rejecting Trump’s decision to fire Kim Sajet, the director of the National Portrait Gallery. “Throughout its history, the Smithsonian has been governed and administered by a Board of Regents and a Secretary,” reads a statement quoted by AOL.com. “The board is entrusted with the governance and independence of the Institution, and the board appoints a Secretary to manage the Institution.” The ordered review can’t come fast enough. The Smithsonian has wholeheartedly enlisted in the leftist imperative to “decolonize the American mind” and to change America’s narrative from one that made citizens proud of this nation’s astonishing achievements to a counternarrative that focuses on where America has fallen short and drums shame into citizens. Unfortunately, this shift has accelerated since Bunch became the leader of the Smithsonian in 2019. With its 21 museums, 21 libraries, several research centers, and the National Zoo, the Smithsonian is the world’s largest research and museum complex. Several years ago, the Smithsonian fulfilled the core mission of a top national museum, which, as with top universities, is to transmit to future generations what a people should know collectively, what we should all know about who we are, our past, our present, so we can then have a sense of what we can do together in our common efforts. There is very little, if anything, in the National Museum of American History that will inspire you about America, that will teach you that, as the British historian Paul Johnson said, America’s story is “one of human achievement without parallel,” the story “of difficulties overcome by skill, faith and strength of purpose and courage and persistence.” There is, on the contrary, much that will make you ashamed of your past, your history, and the country in general. Take the museum collection called “Within These Walls,” about a house in Ipswich, Massachusetts, where five families lived from the mid-1700s to the 1960s. That’s a period that comprises very heroic eras: the Revolution, the expansion to the West and the pioneer experience, the Civil War and the fight for emancipation, and the expansion of capitalism and industrialization in the northern cities. Yet most of the display focuses on how black people, women, and immigrants were exploited during that time. The word “liberty” was mentioned only to ask, “Whose Liberty?” Other exhibits on cities such as Los Angeles and Chicago presented them as places where immigrants were treated badly. During this time, 100 million immigrants came to the United States, more than to any other country in the world. We couldn’t have all been misinformed about the fate that awaited us here. Just a few steps away, at the same museum, there is a presentation called “De Ultima Hora.” It’s about Americans of Latin origin doing journalism. There was an exhibit on the ANSWER Coalition. A quite sympathetic one. That’s interesting because the ANSWER Coalition is a communist group dedicated to dismantling the U.S. and the West. The monster who murdered the couple at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington in late May belonged at one time to the ANSWER Coalition. Not one single reporter I have talked to in the past two weeks has heard of the ANSWER Coalition. You know who has? The curator who put that entry there. Meanwhile, at the National Gallery of Art, there is another sympathetic exhibit, this time on Elizabeth Catlett, a Marxist who settled in Mexico, renounced her U.S. citizenship, and used to carry water for the old Soviet Union. But wait, there’s more. At the National Museum of African American History, I counted at least four likenesses of Angela Davis—more, I think, than there are of Martin Luther King. One of them called Davis a scholar activist, another had a poem that read, “the only thing you’re guilty of is being a black woman, to the core.” That’s not quite right. Davis purchased the guns that were used in the Marin County Courthouse terrorist attack to kill a judge in 1970. She was on the FBI’s most wanted list. She ran for vice president twice on the Communist Party ticket. She is still an unrepentant communist, an ideology that has killed more than 100 million people. One can go on and on and on. Yes, let’s have this audit. Right away. But Bunch, with his embrace of Black Lives Matter, the 1619 Project, and everything diversity, equity, and inclusion, is hardly the man who will lead the Smithsonian out of the impasse. The administration will not be able to avoid this problem much longer. Sajet is a political proxy war. What to do with Bunch will be direct political combat. Originally published by the Washington Examiner. We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal. The post The Smithsonian Institution Audit Is Only the Start appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Gracie, her mobility tech, and I moved slowly through the hospital hallway — our usual recovery route. She had just had her 92nd operation — yes, 92 — and she’s had six more since.She walked on prosthetic legs with semi-quiet grit and more than a little sweat. An IV tree clanked beside her — wound vacs, oxygen, pain meds — a parade of endurance wrapped in machinery.When the soul flatlines, don’t step back. Step in. Call the code. Be the grace.Then came the yelling. Two doors down — profanity, chaos, pain.We couldn’t move fast — not with all the gear and lines. The screaming was piercing. And no, nurses don’t get paid nearly enough.“Code Gray,” someone said, the hospital code for a combative patient. Within seconds, nurses and security swarmed the room. As best we could, we steered Gracie and her gear down another hallway away from the noise. But the echoes followed — the anger, the struggle, the desperation.Outside the chaos stood a woman — mid-50s, hollow-eyed, worn to the threads.I knew the look. I’ve worn it. So will every caregiver sooner or later.While her loved one raged, she stood helpless, desperate, hoping someone — anyone — might bring peace.She was also in crisis. But hospitals have no code for her.Hospitals have codes for medical emergencies:Code Blue: A patient stops breathing. I’ve lived through that. Years ago, Gracie flatlined. I watched the team rush in and bring her back.Code Red: Fire.Code Pink: Infant abduction.Code Gray: Aggression.All are designed to alert, mobilize, and respond.But what code do you call for when the soul collapses?‘Code Grace’We need a “Code Grace” — recognized by caregivers, hospital staff, churches, funeral homes, rehab centers, law enforcement, maybe even a nation — a code that triggers presence instead of procedures, compassion over containment, tenderness before triage.Because sometimes the real damage isn’t limited to the patient’s bed. It’s standing just outside the door, trying not to fall apart.The morning after that Code Gray, I walked into the lobby of the extended-stay hotel across from the hospital. Most guests there were tethered to the same world we were: the renowned children’s and teaching hospital nearby.Then, I saw them again.A mother, two children, and a woman I assumed was the grandmother. Weeks earlier, I’d seen the boy — screaming, flailing in a stroller — his mother and grandmother scrambling to contain the storm. Sensory overload. Fear. Pain in public. They rushed out before I could speak.But now they were back and calm.The mother looked tired — because she was. But steady. Present. Her mother stood beside her. Her son was quiet. Her daughter bounced nearby, unaware of the weight her mom carried.I walked over and said, “I remember you from a couple weeks ago.”That’s all it took. A door opened. Not pity. Not awkwardness. Just respect.She shared her story: single mom, two kids — one with autism. Studying for a special education certification. The father? Gone. Domestic violence. But she didn’t quit. She just kept going.She asked about me. I gave her the short version — my wife’s journey, my four decades as a caregiver. Then I looked her in the eye and said: “From one caregiver to another — you’re amazing.”Tears welled up. Not from weakness. From being seen. Heard. Understood. For one moment, grace was louder than exhaustion.Before I left, I shook her hand. “I’m proud to know you.” I also shared a quote I’d once heard — origin debated, but worth repeating:You’ll never be criticized by someone doing more than you. Only by someone doing less. Remember that.She nodded. She already knew.What our nation needs nowBut Code Grace isn’t just for hospitals and their periphery. We see soul flatlines everywhere — newsfeeds, comment sections, family dinners.I’ve watched people unravel over political figures, convinced one man will either save or doom the nation. For some, it’s full allegiance to Trump (or Elon). For others, it’s Trump derangement syndrome — the belief that he’s the Antichrist with a social media account. But press in closer, and you’ll see: It’s not really about policy. It’s about meaning.When faith erodes and identity frays, people grasp for something — anything — to hold on to. They hitch it to a personality, a movement, or a fight. That’s not politics; that’s a spiritual crisis. And yes, they need a Code Grace, too. Not to validate hysteria but to look behind it.As many therapists say, “If it’s hysterical, it’s historical.” Beneath the rage is often someone terrified of being forgotten or irrelevant.Jesus didn’t flinch at that kind of mess. He didn’t come to preserve an empire. He came to raise the dead. He didn’t wait for calm. He walked straight into the noise — and told it to be still.He saw the bleeding woman, the man in the tree, the leper, the blind, the demon-possessed, the grieving sisters. He saw what others missed — or avoided. And he moved toward them with healing, with power, with grace.Move toward the painThe theologian Henri Nouwen once wrote, “Compassion asks us to go where it hurts … to share in brokenness, fear, confusion, and anguish. ... Compassion means full immersion in the condition of being human.”That’s the Code Grace response — and it’s not optional. It’s the calling of anyone who wears His name.If we listen closely, we can hear the silent code.Not in the ER but in the eyes of a caregiver who hasn’t slept; the tremble of a mother navigating autism in public; the woman in the hallway, trying not to scream; the colleagues gripped by headlines — because they’ve pinned their peace to politics instead of promises that don’t change.When the soul flatlines, don’t step back.Step in. Call the code. Be the grace.

Tom O’Neill is the author of “Chaos: Charles Manson, the CIA, and the Secret History of the Sixties,” which pulls the curtain back on the mysterious government-funded MKUltra experiments that left their human guinea pigs insane and ultimately ruined lives.And O’Neill, who investigated the mind-numbing experiments for 20 years, found that many of them were on children.“Here’s what I know the CIA did do with children in the 50s and at least through the early to mid-60s, although I don’t think you would be a candidate for this — they looked for kids who were completely orphaned or had parents that were disinterested,” O’Neill tells BlazeTV host Nicole Shanahan on “Back to the People.”“If the kids got in trouble, they were taken into juvenile detention centers. This is exactly what happened to Manson," he continues, "and they were doing research using drugs and hypnosis.”According to O’Neill, the CIA’s goal was to learn “which kids were more suggestible to persuasion, which kids could be convinced of something, which kids were more resistant to that,” and if it was genetic.But it wasn’t just the low-income families whose children ended up as government experiments.“Allen Dulles put his daughter into MKUltra research laboratories because she was a difficult child, and he wanted to see if they could change her behavior using drugs — you know, completely rewire her brain,” O’Neill explains. “It was shocking how inhumane he was.”“In the way that you and I, I think, are obsessed about trying to figure out the truth,” Shanahan responds, “they’re obsessed with the power to use these techniques and substances, in some cases, to influence behavior, to influence society.”“It’s scary that they even had these objectives,” O’Neill agrees. “They had mass conversion projects where they wanted to learn how to convert audiences, crowds, and, you know, other people have done studies of that suggestibility with music and lyrics and concerts.”“And of course, that’s what Manson learned how to do, was to control groups of people and get them to act uniformly, obediently, and do whatever he said — including, by the end of it all, killing strangers without questioning who they are or why,” he continues.Some of those brainwashed by the technique to act out in ways they wouldn’t otherwise have also been reported to have no memory of what they’ve done.“There’s accounts in your book of individuals who do these horrific things and then have no memory of it,” Shanahan states.According to O’Neill, there was a technique to “remove true memories in human beings without their knowledge and replace them with false memories, which would be permanent.”This involved LSD and hypnosis, which O’Neill explains worked well on those who were more susceptible to hypnosis — just like how some people have life-changing experiences on LSD, while others don’t.“Some people had a psychedelic experience during their first LSD trip that changed them permanently, where other people would just do LSD and have a wild, intense experience but then be the person they were before,” he tells Shanahan.“That was the whole reason MKUltra was created. I mean, a person’s memory is among the most precious things we have, and if someone can put a false memory in our head without us knowing, that takes away your whole life prior,” he adds.Want more from Nicole Shanahan?To enjoy more of Nicole's compelling blend of empathy, curiosity, and enlightenment, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

@NewsBusters: 'We've Recorded Over 8,000 Cases of Online Censorship'

I'm lucky enough to have a partner and friends who enjoy gaming. The problem is that we can't always find a game that catches our interest.

Xbox owners looking for something new to play this coming week, we've got you covered. Listed below are all the new Xbox games hitting the Xbox Store starting June 16 all the way to June 20.

Update: Israel and Iran Trade Bombardments—but Iran May Be Failing

Netanyahu: Iran Is Hell-Bent on Killing Donald Trump

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., sought to de-escalate his simmering feud with President Donald Trump saying he is "not an absolute no" on the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, but he is precisely that on raising the debt ceiling $5 trillion as the budget bill does.