Books john varley Looking Back at the Work of John Varley, 1947-2025 Where to start reading — or rereading — Varley’s many series and stories. By James Davis Nicoll | Published on December 12, 2025 Comment 1 Share New Share John Varley has died, alas. For readers of my vintage, John Varley was a formative author. He drew on classic SF traditions but also embraced more contemporary concerns and trends. For example, he set his fiction in the Solar System as revealed by space probes, not in the Barsoomian planets of older SF. His settings featured newer tech and more forward-looking social mores1. Other authors had imagined space colonies; Varley imagined space colonies whose inhabitants were free to pursue self-actualization in quite unconventional ways. Varley’s fiction was well received, as a look at his ISFDB page should make clear. Many awards! It has been seven years since Varley’s most recent novel. Fame is fickle and younger readers may be unfamiliar with his works. For the Varley-curious, here follows a brief guide to his works, starting with the novels. Varley published three standalone novels and three series, as well as a cornucopia of stories (most of which are quite good and some of which are great). I will start with the standalone novels. Millennium (1983) Mistakes were made! Radiation-damaged, chemically mutated terrestrial humanity is doomed! Time travel offers an escape clause: viable colonists can be snatched just before the disasters in which history says they perished, and dispatched to the off-world colonies. It’s a perfect plan provided that none of the overworked teams responsible for doing the snatching make a fatal error, and as long as no investigators in the past prove all too canny. One slip and causality itself is imperiled. This book took a toll on Varley. Actually, it wasn’t so much the book as it was the terrible movie based on it, and the experience Varley had working on the movie. Someone, I don’t remember who, once compared working in Hollywood to placing one’s testicles in a vise and being handed a hundred dollars to endure until the pain became unbearable. Pre-Millennium Varley was a much more optimistic writer than he was after this dire experience. Mammoth (2005) A frozen mammoth is an amazing discovery, but not as amazing as the two human corpses next to it, one of whom is wearing what appears to be a modern wristwatch. Time travel seems implausible but what other explanations can there be2? It’s up to a billionaire scientist to work out what happened. You know, if I knew that some time traveller was going end up frozen in ice tens of thousands of years ago, the last thing I’d do is work on time travel. Let someone else look at an icesheet from the inside. Slow Apocalypse (2012) A well-meaning scientist successfully weans America off foreign oil through the simple expedient of an oil-destroying bioweapon. In less time than it takes to say “the sudden, brutal end of civilization,” the bioweapon spreads across the Earth, rendering all oil unusable and modern civilization as dead as a dodo. Screenwriter Dave Marshall lacks the necessary skills to keep himself and his family alive. Nevertheless, Dave is determined to try. Eight Worlds Aliens attack! Billions perish as terrestrial technology is suppressed! But that’s boring history to the protagonists of these books, who live long after the Invasion, on worlds overlooked by the Invaders. For these people, equipped with fantastically powerful technology, the post-Invasion era would be a golden age… if not for the need for plot. The Eight Worlds novels fall into two sets: (1) The Ophiuchi Hotline, written contemporaneously with the Eight Worlds short stories (which I will get to later) and (2) the three later Metal novels. Varley didn’t want to look at his old notes when he restarted the series after a long hiatus; as a result, there are many continuity glitches. I consider this a series with an asterisk. Perhaps not a series in the purest sense. The Ophiuchi Hotline (1977) The Eight Worlds are cheerfully transhumanist (aided by alien information provided by the hotline mentioned in the title) but there are limits. Prior to the novel’s beginning, protagonist Lilo was arrested, tried, and condemned for a capital crime involving human DNA. The penalty is as final a death as the Eight Worlds can arrange. Survival is possible but at a price: Lilo is sentenced to work for a zealot whose determination to drive the Invaders out of the Solar System is in no way inhibited by the fact that the Invaders possess nigh-godlike power, while humans do not. Hotline marks Varley’s transition from writing mostly short fiction (where the money ain’t) to novels. IMHO, Hotline is a bit of a mess but at least it’s a very energetic mess, with several novels’ worth of ideas crammed into a slender 237 pages. Steel Beach (1992) After a long hiatus, Varley wrote three more Eight Worlds novels. They aren’t quite consistent with the first book and they are considerably more pessimistic. (Thanks, Millennium.) It makes sense to distinguish between Hotline and the last three books. It’s been two centuries since the Invasion, long enough for space-based humanity to have solved every existential problem… so why are so many people miserable? Plucky reporter Hildy Johnson discovers mounting evidence suggesting that something has gone very wrong with lunar civilization. Whether that’s something a civilization entirely dependent on artificial life-support can survive remains to be seen. The Golden Globe (1998) Kenneth “Sparky” Valentine is a talented actor of dubious morals whose endless peregrinations across the Solar System are driven in part by his disinclination to discuss with police precisely how his father died, and even more so by the relentless Charonese assassins who dog his heels. It’s not a sustainable life, but escape seems impossible. As revealed in flashbacks, Valentine comes by his profound flaws honestly, having had one of the most memorably awful fathers in science fiction. Irontown Blues (2018) After the Big Glitch, traumatized former cop Christopher Bach reinvented himself as a detective in the Philip Marlowe mold. Only problem: nobody on the Moon seems to need a PI, not even one with an adorable cybernetically enhanced dog like Sherlock. Bach is canny enough to realize that supposed client “Mary Smith” is lying about her name, and no doubt much more… but not the scale or purpose of her stratagems. The Gaean Trilogy This series comprises Titan (1979), Wizard (1980), and Demon (1984). They focus on former American astronaut Cirocco Jones and her troubled relationship with the moon-sized alien Gaea, who is both nigh-godlike and also barking mad. Titan (1979) The crew of the Ringmaster is delighted to discover a twelfth moon of Saturn. They are less delighted when on approach to the enigmatic object, Ringmaster is grabbed and dismantled and its crew kidnapped. Cirocco Jones wakes alone and naked inside what turns out to be an immense, living torus filled with a wonderous and diverse ecology. Finding her crewmates will not be easy3. Wizard (1980) Gaea offers humanity biotechnological miracles. Thus, where prudence might suggest avoiding or even destroying the 1,300-kilometer alien, humans prefer to trade with Gaea. Humans have nothing tangible to trade. Luckily, the bored god craves entertainment and humans are if nothing amusing. At least when prodded. It’s Jones’ unhappy lot to play intermediary between insufficiently prudent humans and a dubiously sane god. Demon (1984) Working for Gaea is sheer misery. Jones decides that the only way to free herself is to bring down Gaea. That may sound impossible but really, how hard could it to defeat a mad god? Note that Wizard was written before Millennium; Demon came out after Varley had been put through the Hollywood wringer. Hence Wizard is much more cheerful than its sequel, Demon. An interesting historical note: this series features many lesbians and bisexual women. That sort of inclusivity wasn’t often the case forty years ago. Unfortunately, these women seem to have been crafted to please a male gaze, but still may be of interest for those interested in LGBTQ+ representation in older SF. Just as an overall note, I should mention that not everything in Varley’s fiction has aged well, including the tendency of love interests to be alarmingly young, and readers may want to be aware of that along with the various merits of these works. Thunder and Lightning The Thunder and Lightning series is consciously retro, evoking the good old days when a single misunderstood genius could open up space, provide boundless cheap energy, and upend civilization… given only pluck, super-science, and a crew of teens. IMHO, it’s an attempt to emulate Heinlein4. Red Thunder (2003) An overlooked design flaw imperils Ares Seven, the first American expedition to Mars. The only way for help to reach the astronauts in time is for an inarticulate genius to invent an unprecedented space drive and for a collection of space-obsessed teens to kit-bash a spaceship together from spare parts. What are the odds of that succeeding? Red Lightning (2006) A generation after Red Thunder, Mars is a frontier no more, much to the distress of teen Ray Garcia-Strickland. What hope has he of interplanetary adventure? Be careful what you wish for: Ray gets all the excitement he could want when a relativistic object impacts Earth, endangering his terrestrial loved ones. Rolling Thunder (2008) This novel focuses on Ray’s daughter, a young Martian Navy lieutenant (who seems to be subtly modeled on Heinlein’s Podkayne). This younger Garcia-Strickland hates living on Earth. She hates dealing with the endless stream of Earthers who want to emigrate to Mars. The summons that calls her back to Mars is a welcome relief. The opportunity to venture on to Europa is even more promising… because neither Podkayne nor any other human suspects what’s waiting for humanity on Europa. Dark Lightning (2014) The starshipRolling Thunder sets out for the stars… only for Jubal, the man who gave humans cheap space and abundant power, to announce midtrip that the ship must halt mid-voyage or be destroyed. This proclamation sets in motion the inevitable fate of every generation ship: deep space mutiny! …Unless two plucky twins can somehow save the day. Superheroes (1995) In addition to the novels in the precis above and the short works I will discuss below, Varley edited a single anthology: Superheroes, co-edited with Ricia Mainhardt. I mention it for the sake of completeness, but it is an odd duck that I don’t think I ever reread—please chime in if you have! The Short Works As diverting as Varley’s novels could be, he made his mark as a short story writer. Unfortunately, such money as there is in writing is in novels. Thus, Varley pivoted to novels in the late 1970s. Despite the iron hand of the market, Varley still wrote an impressive body of short works. In fact, it’s to these short works I turn when I want to reread Varley. They are where I would recommend readers new to Varley should begin. The shorts are too numerous to go through story by story—ALTHOUGH I COULD!—but my favourites include “Options” (a study of the early days of on-demand gender change), “Overdrawn at the Memory Bank” (a tale of holidays gone wrong, a frequent theme in early Varley), and “The Manhattan Phone Book (Abridged)” (a short but memorable exploration of what atomic war could mean to you). A decade ago, I’d have advised readers new to Varley to snap up Good-Bye, Robinson Crusoe and Other Stories, and The John Varley Reader, which between them5 had almost every Varley short work. Alas, while Reader is still in print, Robinson Crusoe does not appear to be. Used copies can be had but they don’t seem to be cheap. As I see it, new readers should keep their eye out for the two collections above or the older trio of collections, The Persistence of Vision (1978), The Barbie Murders (1980) AKA Picnic on Nearside (1984), and Blue Champagne (1986). The older collections appeared as mass market paperbacks in an era of vast print runs, and should be easy to track down. Or perhaps some publisher could release a comprehensive Varley collection. Hint, hint. It would be a fitting tribute. In the meantime, what are your favorites? Which novels or stories would you recommend to a first-time reader?[end-mark] In retrospect, those shiny futurist mores were merely 1970s hijinks with bigger tail fins. However, it was hard to notice that in the 1970s. Thank goodness that modern SF has finally settled on some truly timeless notions. Nothing written today will ever seem dated. ︎Yes, yes: spacemen from an exploded fourth planet is another explanation but not the correct one. ︎And in one case, undesirable. ︎Seriously? “Podkayne” isn’t already in my Word dictionary? ︎I can say this for Varley: there doesn’t seem to be much overlap in his contemporaneous collections. Varley wasn’t the sort of author to make readers buy the same story twice. ︎The post Looking Back at the Work of John Varley, 1947-2025 appeared first on Reactor.

Annals of Democrat Fabulists: Less Wes Is Moore Truth

RIP Camera V3.

There are weird space rocks, there are very weird space rocks, and then there is Phaethon.

MRC Watchdogs churn out breaking news on a daily basis. Don't miss Today's Highlights, where you can keep up with the top MRC content, whether it's the latest study on media bias, a glaring omission from the elitist media, or how the Big Tech companies are serving up the same leftist spin as the media.  Top Stories: 1)Trade Deficit Lowest in 5 Years, Thanks to Trump’s Tariffs - Media and Analysts Shocked 2) MRC Has Receipts: Wikipedia Cites Leftist Outlets Nearly 20x More Often than Right 3) Labeling Imbalance Persists at PBS After Trump Rescinded Federal Funding 4) Apple News Shows ONLY 1 Right-Leaning Outlet Out of 560 Articles Throughout November 5) Biden’s Immigration Debacle Is the Media’s, Too   1) Trade Deficit Lowest in 5 Years, Thanks to Trump’s Tariffs - Media and Analysts Shocked Lowest Trade Deficit in Five Years: The Commerce Department reported that the U.S. goods and services trade deficit in September fell to $52.8 billion, the lowest monthly level since June 2020. This significant reduction shows that the trade strategy was effective in meeting the stated goal of narrowing the deficit. Surge in Exports: The decrease in the deficit was driven primarily by a 3.0% increase in exports, which "dwarfed" the 0.6% rise in imports. Furthermore, the $289.3 billion value of exports was the second-highest monthly total on record, demonstrating a robust positive impact on U.S. sales abroad. Media and Analyst Surprise (The "Unexpected" Outcome): The fact that analysts predicted the deficit would grow (to $62.5-$63.5 billion) and the media consistently used the word "unexpectedly" highlights that the positive result defied conventional economic wisdom and media pessimism regarding the tariff policy. Even typically critical outlets like The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal "begrudgingly" gave the administration credit for achieving its goal of balancing the deficit. 2) MRC Has Receipts: Wikipedia Cites Leftist Outlets Nearly 20x More Often than Right Extreme Citation Imbalance: Wikipedia overwhelmingly favors left-leaning sources, citing them nearly 20 times more often than right-leaning outlets (5,320,017 citations vs. 292,250 citations). This data, compiled by MRC Free Speech America researchers across all languages, demonstrates a massive, systemic bias in the online encyclopedia's references. Official Blacklist Mechanism: This citation disparity is not accidental, but a direct result of how Wikipedia operates. Its editors rely on a list of designated "reliable sources" that overwhelmingly approves left-wing media (like CNN and Mother Jones) while effectively restricting or banning right-of-center media, proving that the bias is built into the site's editorial policy. Promotion of Specific Allegations: The biased citations result in Wikipedia pages actively promoting a leftist agenda and including specific, politically charged content. Examples provided in the article include claims of "white supremacist" views against Vice President JD Vance, blood libel accusations against Israel, and a "misinformation" jab placed on Charlie Kirk's page immediately after his assassination. The figures remained uneven after President Trump signed the bill rescinding federal funding from PBS and NPR on July 24, with 11 variations of “far-right” labels and 2 of “far-left” ones. Overall, the post-July 24 labeling disparity was 17-9. (Note: Coverage of the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk began September 10, 2025, which may have skewed the post-July 24 raw figures somewhat toward balance.) 3) Labeling Imbalance Persists at PBS After Trump Rescinded Federal Funding MRC analysts counted up the “left-wing” and “right-wing” style ideological labels used by anchors, reporters, and contributors on the PBS News Hour regarding American politics from December 1, 2024 through November 30, 2025. PBS News Weekend programs were not included. PBS staff used 44 variations of "far-right" labels and only 4 of "far-left" labels, a ratio of 11:1. PBS staff also used mere "right-wing" and "left-wing" labels at a disparity of 17-12. So overall, the labeling disparity was 61-16. The figures remained uneven after President Trump signed the bill rescinding federal funding from PBS and NPR on July 24, with 11 variations of “far-right” labels and 2 of “far-left” ones. Overall, the post-July 24 labeling disparity was 17-9. (Note: Coverage of the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk began September 10, 2025, which may have skewed the post-July 24 raw figures somewhat toward balance.) 4) Apple News Shows ONLY 1 Right-Leaning Outlet Out of 560 Articles Throughout November Apple News Delivers Stark Ideological Imbalance: Throughout November 2025, Apple News showcased only one right-leaning outlet (The Telegraph, a British source) in its top 20 daily stories—out of 560 articles reviewed—exposing a near-total blackout on conservative perspectives in a platform reaching millions of users. Major U.S. Conservative Voices Silenced Despite Popularity: No prominent American right-leaning outlets like Fox News, Daily Mail, or New York Post cracked the top 20, even though they rank among the highest-traffic U.S. news sites—proving Apple News prioritizes curation over consumer demand. Left-Leaning Dominance Floods the Feed: Radical leftist sources like Vox, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, and Vice overwhelmed the top slots, alongside staples like The Washington Post, NBC News, and Al Jazeera—turning Apple News into an echo chamber for progressive narratives. Even Token Conservatism Is Locked Away: The solitary right-leaning article was buried behind an Apple News+ paywall, denying free users access and underscoring Big Tech's agenda to marginalize dissenting views—time to demand transparency and fairness for all. 5) Biden’s Immigration Debacle Is the Media’s, Too Biden's Ideological Folly Ignored Warnings, Unleashing Chaos: Despite pre-election memos from top aides in August 2020 warning of a massive border surge from lax enforcement and pent-up demand, the administration's partisan push flooded the U.S. with millions of illegal immigrants—proving ideology and incompetence trumped common sense, as admitted by former ICE official Deborah Fleischaker: "I don’t think we ever recovered." Mainstream Media's Delayed "Postgame" Coverage Betrayed the Public: Outlets like The New York Times buried the immigration crisis for years—treating it as yesterday's news only in late 2025—mirroring their silence on Biden's senility, leaving voters in the dark while conservative alarms rang unanswered and enabling Democratic denial until electoral disaster struck. Abbott's Busing Genius Exposed Blue-State Hypocrisy: Texas Gov. Greg Abbott's strategic transport of tens of thousands of migrants to sanctuary cities like New York and Denver shattered Democrats' plan to dump the crisis on red states, forcing elite voters to face the consequences and marking the turning point where Biden's team lost the immigration debate for good.  

PBS’s Amanpour & Co., which is simulcast on CNN International, hosted guest Demetre Daskalakis on Monday’s edition and repped his appearance in an email with the subject line: “‘People Will Die:’ Fmr. CDC Official Warns Against HIV/AIDS Cuts.” Daskalakis resigned as director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases in August.   A deeper dive into the history of Daskaslakis’s politically correct hypocrisy during his Biden-era term at the Centers for Disease Control would have been instructive. But all we got from guest host Bianna Golodryga was commiseration against the ignorant rule of Trump’s Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Junior. Golodryga explained that “In August, Dr. Demetre Daskalakis resigned from the CDC, accusing the agency under Robert F. Kennedy Jr. of ignoring science." The first item in his talk with reporter Hari Sreenivasan: The Trump Administration's awful failure to promote the purely symbolic World Aids Day. Daskalakis was asked about the discontinuation of the USAID program PEPFAR, which fights AIDS via antiretroviral therapy in the Third World. DASKALAKIS: PEPFAR's future is tenuous at best....if PEPFAR goes away, that means stopping the entire story. And, you know, that's going to not mean just some strange policy issue, it's going to mean that people will die. Sreenivasan mildly challenged his guest with what he termed “the State Department's rationale, we're thinking is, look, we have to stop being the people that are the only ones that are writing the check. We have to transition this to the host countries." Daskalakis conveniently donned a patriotic hat and warned that to cut off U.S. taxpayer funding would be immoral, given America's “moral responsibility.” DASKALAKIS: ….I think the other part that is important is, you know, the U.S. is the global leader in public health. It is our moral responsibility to support these countries. And if we decide to change our funding strategy, we need to do it in a way that, in fact, does not let people die…. Asked why HIV was still a large “public health problem in the United States,” Daskalakis blamed….not celebrating World AIDS Day. Yes, really. DASKALAKIS: Your answer is what happens when the country decides not to celebrate or commemorate World AIDS Day. This is a stigma and access game in the United States. People do not access care. They don't access testing because it's scary. It -- people are made invisible because of the stigma that is getting even worse in the United States with some of the activity against LGBT people are made invisible because of the stigma that is getting even worse in the United States with some of the activity against LGBTQ health…. Daskalakis’s hysterical anti-Trump rants went unmentioned, like when he appeared on MSNBC (MSNOW) to screech “This is where fascism lives” after resigning in a huff in a letter that referred to “pregnant people” – a detail that alone should disqualify him from any position of medical expertise (men can’t get pregnant, as most of us know). He has also posed for public photos wearing a leather pentagram harness and downplayed the sexually transmitted disease Monkeypox for libertine reasons. Schools were shuttered at the small risk of COVID spread, but promiscuous nightlife was protected. As Daskalakis himself said, “You know, one person’s idea of risk is another person’s idea of a great festival or Friday night.”

The left-wing media have shown no signs of ending their obsession with the U.S. military conducting a "second hit", ordered on a boat that was allegedly carrying drugs in the Caribbean back in September. That obsession, along with a new one focused on President Trump's remarks on Somalia, continued on Wednesday afternoon's CNN News Central, with co-host Boris Sanchez doing battle against Florida Republican Congressman Randy Fine, who was not having any of the usual lefirst talking points.  Fine politely tore apart so much of Sanchez's leftist propaganda, which started with the infamous video of that second strike: SANCHEZ: Shouldn't the American people be able to see this footage in order to draw their own conclusions about what happened? FINE: Well, I trust the President's judgment. If he doesn't think we need to see it, if he thinks it can be classified and should just be limited to intel briefings, then I support that. That's why they send us up here to look out for the interests of the American people. That's why we classify some information, and I support whatever decision gets made there. When Sanchez asked in a follow-up "why not just show it to the American people the way they have so many of these other strikes," Fine responded in part by stating the obvious that the incident has been "politicized," adding: "Democrats have chosen to stand with drug dealers. Make no mistake, they're not blowing up pleasure cruises or fishing boats. They're blowing up people whose goal is to addict and kill Americans by running drugs into this country. That's something that we used to all support, which is fighting the importation of fentanyl and cocaine into this country." But, wait, there was more! Sanchez took offense to this characterization: "There is a legal process for adjudicating drug traffickers, Congressman...One person was apparently left to die in the ocean. Two were actually picked up and sent back to their home countries. What do you think the protocol should be for handling the survivors of these strikes?" Sanchez probably wasn't expecting this forceful of an answer: "I've got to be honest with you. I don't really care what happens to drug dealers and drug runners. I'm worried about the American people whose families are being savaged by these drugs. Whatever happens to them happens to them. I don't care. They know what they're getting into, and I support the President in doing everything possible to stop it." Sanchez responded as you might expect: "But do they pose an imminent threat to the United States if their ship has been blown up? They're floating out in the ocean...How are they a threat to American people in that regard if they're just floating out there?" Still not willing to give an inch, Fine doubled down: "The fact of the matter is these are ships that are full of drugs who have one purpose, which is to addict and kill Americans. The President is doing the right thing. He's taking action that should have been taken long ago. And it's shocking to me that every member of Congress doesn't support it." The CNN co-host more or less conceded as he switched topics: SANCHEZ: On a separate issue, Congressman, last night, President Trump again described Somalia as filthy, also lamenting that the U.S. lets in migrants from shithole countries -- his words -- like Somalia, Afghanistan and Haiti, while not having people come from Norway, Sweden or Denmark...I wonder if you're comfortable with a hierarchy of which nationalities and races belong or do not belong in this country. FINE: Well, I'm not comfortable with a hierarchy of races and the President isn't either. But not all cultures are equal and not all countries are equal. There are some people who come to this country to add value and there are some that come to this country to take value...And the President speaks in language that Americans understand. He is blunt. (....) SANCHEZ: Wasn't the country founded on the premise that you could come here irrespective of what your beliefs are?...Do you not see how some of what you're saying offends those people? FINE: Absolutely. But immigration to this country was not supposed to be a free check to get all the welfare that you want, which is why I have filed a bill that would ban not only illegal immigrants, but legal immigrants from getting any form of government program... Same old, same old from Sanchez. Not so in the responses from Fine, who was totally unafraid in telling it like it is, to CNN.

Acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director Todd Lyons has shared “the perfect way” for so-called “sanctuaries” for illegal aliens like Illinois if want to keep ICE agents from running enforcement operations in their areas. In an interview with Co-anchor Dana Perino on America’s Newsroom this week, Lyons discussed how Illinois the state has released 1,768 criminal illegal aliens since President Donald Trump’s inauguration on January 20, despite ICE’s detainer requests. Perino noted that criminal offenses by those illegal aliens released back onto Illinois’ streets include, include: Homicide Assault Burglary Robbery Drug offenses Weapon offenses Sexual predator offenses What’s more, Illinois law enforcement has another four thousand criminal illegal aliens in custody that it could turn over to ICE, but is refusing to do so. In Chicago, for example, sanctuary politicians actively resisted ICE efforts to round up illegal alien criminals, ICE noted in a press release: “ICE continues to arrest violent criminal illegal aliens as part of Operation Midway Blitz in Chicago, despite resistance from activists and sanctuary politicians like Gov. JB Pritzker and Mayor Brandon Johnson.” On Wednesday, Democrat Illinois Governor JB Pritzker signed a bill designed to actively thwart ICE agents’ efforts to enforce federal immigration laws in his state – a move the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) says violates the U.S. Constitution’s Supremacy Clause. But, if people don’t want ICE agents in their neighborhoods, there’s a simpler way to keep them out, Lyons said: “This is a chance for them to turn over over four thousand criminally illegal aliens that are felons. “And if people don’t want ICE doing enforcement operations in their neighborhoods, this is a perfect way to work with:  turn over these criminal aliens – because that’s who we’re out there looking for.”  

Had a Republican Member of Congress referred to a terror attack as an “unfortunate accident”, been called out after the fact and then corrected to “unfortunate situation”, you would see that story garner significant A-block time across the legacy media nightly news. But when the calculus is, shall we say: (D)ifferent? Crickets.  Had a Republican Member of Congress referred to a terror attack as an “unfortunate accident”, been called out after the fact and then corrected to “unfortunate situation”, you would see that story garner significant A-block time across the legacy media nightly news. But when the calculus is, shall we say: (D)ifferent? Crickets. Watch as former House January 6th Commission Chair Bennie Thompson (D-MI) diminishes a terrorist attack as an “accident”, then “situation”: DISGUSTING. .@BennieGThompson, the shooting of two National Guardsmen in D.C. was not an "unfortunate accident.” It was a TERRORIST attack. The Afghan nationals who entered the United States under Operation Allies Welcome were unvetted. @Sec_Noem and DHS will find out who they… pic.twitter.com/pH6qZOurjJ — Homeland Security (@DHSgov) December 11, 2025 Thompson wasn’t the only one, either. Here’s Texas Congresswoman Julie Johnson saying that the National Guardsmen were shot in the head out of frustration over immigration policy. SICK: Rep. Julie Johnson says National Guard members were shot in the head in a terror attack "because people are frustrated and they are channeling that frustration." pic.twitter.com/ayw1K3R9tf — Breaking911 (@Breaking911) December 11, 2025 One can recall when the networks routinely plumbed such hearings for outrage. Now, there just isn’t time. NBC was the sole network to cover the hearing, and even then only as an addendum tacked on to another story:  28 seconds at NBC is what the legacy nightlies devoted to the depravity on display at yesterday's contentious Hill hearing. And even then, while NBC shows Bennie Thompson footage there is ZERO play of the "unfortunate accident" exchange with DHSSEC Noem. pic.twitter.com/3L2Zp0Nl96 — Jorge Bonilla (@BonillaJL) December 12, 2025 NBC NIGHTLY NEWS 12/11/25 6:41 PM TOM LLAMAS: There was also a heated hearing on The Hill today involving Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem? RYAN NOBLES: That's right, Tom. Secretary Noem was grilled by lawmakers on the Trump Administration's mass deportation program and the type of people that are being targeted by ICE agents. At one point Secretary Noem ended the hearing early saying that she had a meeting at The White House, but that meeting had been cancelled, confusion that The White House chalked up to miscommunication. Tom. LLAMAS: OK, Ryan Nobles with that new reporting tonight. That scant 28 seconds at NBC was countered by straight omission at CBS and ABC. There was simply no time to show the diminution of a horrendous terror attack on our nation’s capital at ABC- that would’ve cut into the network’s trademark nonlethal traffic accident reporting (bus hits a Manhattan building). Likewise, CBS had no time at all (but I did learn that Silent Cal Coolidge kept raccoons as housepets, so there’s that). Overall, yet another reminder that if it weren’t for media double standards, there would be none at all.

Instead of the usual Nativity scene this time of year, St. Susanna Catholic Church in Dedham, Massachusetts, featured something far less Christmasy: a sign reading “ICE was here.” Rather than celebrate the joy of the Incarnation, the pastor, Fr. Stephen Josoma, wanted to suggest that Jesus and His family had been abducted by federal agents and couldn’t make it to Bethlehem.To be fair, this year’s stunt was tame compared with the church’s 2018 display, when the infant Jesus appeared — in a cage. Back then, the leftist narrative insisted that Trump’s “goons” were snatching innocent immigrant families and throwing their kids in cages while deporting the parents.Fr. Josoma is at least forthright. The pro-immigration bishops, by contrast, wrap their open-borders stance in warm, fuzzy language about ‘compassion’ and ‘Christian charity.’When complaints poured in, a spokesman for the Archdiocese of Boston offered mild disapproval and asked that the display be removed. One wonders what he would do if a priest used the Nativity to condemn transgenderism — perhaps a bubble of Mary saying, “It’s a boy!” and baby Jesus responding, “Of course I am.” Would the archbishop quietly distance himself again, or would he move to defrock the priest by morning?The bishops’ real positionBy now, it’s no secret that many Catholic bishops share Fr. Josoma’s immigration politics. Their public statements this year made that obvious: endless denunciations of border enforcement and deportations and near-total silence on the humanitarian crises created by Biden’s failed border policies — including the disappearance of some 400,000 migrant children, many of whom ended up in forced labor and sex trafficking.Pope Leo XIV has only magnified this confusion. Though he recently muttered a few words denying he supports open borders, his actions and rhetoric signal the opposite. He consistently encourages mass migration into the West, especially from the poorer regions of the Global South.Passive-aggressive rhetoricAll this might be tolerable if it weren’t so passive-aggressive. Fr. Josoma is at least forthright. The pro-immigration bishops, by contrast, wrap their open-borders stance in warm, fuzzy language about “compassion” and “Christian charity.” They never explicitly endorse illegal mass migration, but every message they send clearly communicates support for it.Worse, they frame the debate as a false dilemma: either welcome millions from the Third World with open arms and open wallets, or turn everyone away and treat them like garbage. In their telling, unrestricted immigration is Christian charity; any attempt at regulation is moral failure. Like the Good Samaritan caring for the mugging victim, Americans are told to fund luxury-hotel stays and generous entitlements for ex-convicts from Haiti.Little is said about the profound cultural and social challenges posed by non-Christian mass migration. Western Europe’s experience with Muslim migration is well-documented: spikes in crime, poverty, and urban decay.In the United States, Muslim and Hindu migrants increasingly form self-segregated enclaves, complete with their own customs and sometimes their own informal legal norms — communities where Christian Americans are outsiders in their own towns.Some progressive Christians claim this is an opportunity for evangelization. Yet no one in the church seems interested in actually evangelizing. Instead the faithful are browbeaten to be more “accommodating,” while bishops host endless interfaith dialogues with leaders who preach backward belief systems fundamentally at odds with liberal democracy.Follow the money trailWhy then have bishops embraced such a self-destructive position? Two reasons stand out.First, many bishops are simply committed leftists. Under Pope Francis — for most of the woke era — this meant preaching climate dogma and celebrating the LGBTQ agenda. Under Pope Leo, it means promoting open borders and a global welfare regime. The ideology changes, but the political alignment remains.Second, mass migration pays. State and federal governments funnel enormous sums to Catholic NGOs for immigrant resettlement. “Caring for the stranger” has become a lucrative business. Vice President JD Vance, himself a Catholic, was blunt when he said much of the bishops’ outrage at border enforcement comes down to the billions of dollars at stake.By shutting the border and deporting illegal migrants, the Trump administration is threatening a revenue stream.Lingering hypocrisyFor conservative Catholics, the bishops’ partisan protests have become intolerable — especially after their submissiveness during COVID. Having failed as shepherds when it mattered most, they still presume they possess the moral authority to demand open borders forever.It feels reminiscent of the Catholic Church’s reaction to the Black Death. As Barbara Tuchman recounts in her excellent history of the 14th century, the Catholic Church ramped up the sale of indulgences to replenish its coffers after the plague. Revenue rose. Respect collapsed. The peasant uprisings that followed eventually swelled into a continent-wide revolt that split Christianity.RELATED: Viral video shows priest tossing ICE out of his church and mocking Trump — but it’s not what it seems Photo by Suzanne Kreiter/The Boston Globe via Getty Images Today’s immigration racket is unlikely to cause that level of destruction, but it is still a serious problem. Younger Catholics — anyone not a Baby Boomer — now tune out the clergy’s homilies about “harsh treatment” of migrants. They know it isn’t true. The Catholic Church in America is already as diverse and welcoming as a religious institution can be.I was reminded of this recently at a Mass celebrating the feast of the Immaculate Conception. The only service I could attend was the evening Spanish Mass. Among Filipinos, Vietnamese, Latinos, Tejanos, and a handful of fellow gringos, I listened to our Indian priest celebrate the liturgy in Spanish, accompanied by a choir singing mariachi-styled hymns.Nothing about this scene matched the bishops’ narrative of a hostile, unwelcoming Catholic Church. Perhaps if more of them bothered to attend or celebrate such a Mass, they would drop the sanctimonious posturing and address real problems.That alone would be a welcome Christmas gift.