Ben Bergquam is one of the heroes who has put his life on the line to report on many of the most critical issues of the day from the border to ICE assaults. The man who is Mr. Bergquam interviews wants the Guard in Chicago because these corrupt politicians keep getting re-elected and black politicians […] The post From the Center of Leftist Chicago, a Black Man Pleads for Help appeared first on www.independentsentinel.com.

'Can’t delay any longer'

President Donald Trump loves a Sharpie pen, and now he has all the more reason to love the company that makes them. The president signed the flurry of executive orders he issued the day he returned to office with a Sharpie. He’s used them for years, finding them more reliable than fancier pens. Now we know they have another merit, too: They’re almost entirely made in America. Only the felt tip of a Sharpie comes from abroad—it’s made in Japan, according to The Wall Street Journal’s Natasha Khan, who published an eye-opening article on the penmaker last week. What makes Newell Brands, the corporation behind the Sharpie, so newsworthy is its success saving money—and holding down consumer prices—by making the pens in America. Newell was once as dazzled as other manufacturers by the prospect of making its products more cheaply in Asia. But in 2018, CFO Chris Peterson looked into producing the latest Sharpie, a gel version, at the company’s factory in Maryville, Tennessee. The new pen required updating the plant and training workers to operate and maintain the new machines. Yet that’s what made the project a triumph: investment in an American factory and the Americans working there. This country can make top-quality consumer goods at affordable prices, but only if companies invest in cutting-edge machinery and in enhancing workers’ skills. Peterson, who became the company’s CEO, had Newell pay to send factory floor workers to college. They came back ready to take on more technically demanding tasks, and naturally their wages shot up—on average by 50% over the last five years, in Peterson’s estimation. The mandarins of globalization say higher wages surely have to mean lower profits, and doesn’t better machinery mean fewer workers? But Newell’s production costs dropped even as employment levels held steady. Not every story in American manufacturing has such a happy outcome, but Newell proved the process that once lifted manufacturers and their workers together into prosperity still works in the 21st century. Ford Motor Co. famously discovered it could sell more cars by paying its workers well enough to afford the automobiles they were making. Long before globalization, America’s national economy boomed thanks to a virtuous cycle of rising wages, more technological investment, an increasingly educated workforce, and higher consumer spending on American-made goods. Success at home led to success abroad: America was an exporting superpower that “ran persistent trade surpluses” from 1870 to 1970, the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis relates. Trump wants to make American manufacturing great again. But tariffs, which can help, are not enough by themselves. The Sharpie case shows domestic investment is critical. One reason for American manufacturing’s relative decline in recent decades has been the high cost of building new plants or renovating old ones. Even if it’s profitable to manufacture in America, the upfront expenses are a hurdle, especially when foreign countries, which subsidize their industries in myriad ways, offer quicker returns on investment. Trump incurred the wrath of free-market purists by getting government more involved in businesses like Intel and U.S. Steel. Yet industries like chipmaking and steel—or for that matter shipbuilding and aerospace—are sectors with heavy government involvement throughout the world. The few countries that have significant manufacturing in those fields all use government aid to sustain their industries. Even smart free-market economists are dangerously naive about this: At a recent Dallas-area debate I participated in, National Review economics editor Dominic Pino (who’s since moved to The Washington Post) contrasted “the government-driven protectionist model that we have used for U.S. Steel for decades,” which has “now resulted in the quasi-nationalization of that company” with “FedEx, which is profitable, employs way more Americans … and actually delivers services that Americans use every single day.” Trouble is, nowhere on earth is steel manufacturing as fully private an enterprise as FedEx is. The choice Pino was presenting wasn’t between government-backed steel or free-market steel—it was between partly government-backed steel or no domestic steel-making at all. For most American manufacturers, private investment is enough—though even then, government must consider what unfair practices other countries may adopt to lure investment away from our shores. There’s also a role for government in ensuring a reasonably level playing field at home, so investment isn’t incentivized out of manufacturing and into other sectors without the heavy upfront costs of plants and machinery. Yet the Newell Brands example shows business leaders themselves can work miracles and defy globalization’s laws of gravity when they put capital behind America’s factories and workers. COPYRIGHT 2025 CREATORS.COM We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal. The post Why Sharpies Are Made in America Again appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Get Tough on Criminals to Avoid Needing the Guard

For decades, Bill Maher has mocked religion with missionary zeal. He built his career sneering at scripture, scorning believers, and branding Christianity a fairy tale for fools.Few men have done more to cement their place as America’s most committed unbeliever. And to his credit, Maher has never hidden his contempt. Week after week on "Real Time," he lampooned pastors, derided prayer, and preached his own brand of secular gospel — cheap, cynical, and completely godless.If even he can recognize evil when he sees it, what excuse remains for those who claim to serve God?That’s what makes his latest remarks so shocking.On a recent episode of his show, Maher did something few in the modern West dare to do: He defended Christianity. He spoke not with irony, but with indignation, condemning the genocide of Christians in Nigeria. If this were any other group, he argued, it would be on every front page — and he’s right."The fact that this issue has not gotten on people's radar — it's pretty amazing," Maher said. "If you don't know what’s going on in Nigeria, your media sources suck. You are in a bubble.""I'm not a Christian, but they are systematically killing the Christians in Nigeria. They've killed over 100,000 since 2009. They've burned 18,000 churches. ... These are the Islamists, Boko Haram," he continued. "This is so much more of a genocide attempt than what is going on in Gaza. They are literally attempting to wipe out the Christian population of an entire country."The fact that it takes an atheist to say what many Christian leaders have not and Western journalists will not is a sobering sign of our decay.While Maher’s words are rare, the blood he described is not. Just a few weeks ago, armed insurgents stormed the Christian community of Wagga Mongoro in Adamawa State in the dead of night. Four were killed, many more wounded. Homes, shops, and a church were set ablaze.Earlier in August, coordinated assaults swept through farming villages in Benue State. Nine Christians murdered in five days. In June, over 200 butchered in a single weekend — parents, priests, and children alike.Across Nigeria, Christians are being hunted for their belief. The perpetrators — Boko Haram, the Islamic State in West Africa Province, and radicalized Fulani militias — share one mission: to wipe out Christianity and impose Islamist rule.It's nothing less than a slow, systematic genocide.Under former Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, this campaign flourished. Militants gained ground while soldiers stood aside. Entire villages vanished. Churches became tombs. What the world calls “unrest” is, in truth, organized extermination. It's "genocide" by every definition.Since 2009, more than 50,000 Christians have been slaughtered in Nigeria. Churches reduced to rubble. Priests hacked to death at the altar. Worshippers gunned down mid-prayer. These are not isolated horrors but rather part of a single, unbroken chain of persecution.Yet in the West, this bloodshed barely registers. If thousands of Muslims, Jews, or atheists were annihilated, it would dominate headlines for months, and rightly so. But when Christians die, the press looks away.And silence, in this case, is complicity.RELATED: Atheist offers ironic cure for America's woes OLYMPIA DE MAISMONT/AFP via Getty ImagesOver the past decade, the United States has poured over $7.8 billion in aid into Nigeria — funds meant for peace and progress. Yet the country’s most vulnerable, the rural faithful, are left defenseless. The Nigerian government shrugs, Western governments continue to provide funding, and the media remains silent. It's easier to ignore a massacre than to admit moral failure.Aid without accountability is blood money. Every dollar sent to Abuja should demand justice — protection for Christian villages, prosecution of terrorists, and dismantling of jihadist networks. Anything less is an endorsement of evil.Nigeria is not alone. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, ISIS-linked rebels have killed thousands. In Burkina Faso, pastors are executed and churches incinerated. In Mozambique, Christian towns have been erased from the map. Across Africa, a perverse pattern repeats — the union of radicalism and Western indifference, and the victims are nearly always Christian.But Nigeria stands apart. It is Africa’s most populous nation, its economic and political heart. If it falls, the shock will reverberate across the continent.So I ask, where is the outrage? Where are the protests, the headlines, the hashtags?The same media class that rushes to champion every self-proclaimed victim of oppression falls curiously silent when the oppressed are believers. The same outlets that preach “diversity” intentionally turn blind eyes to the destruction of a faith followed by 2.6 billion souls. The hypocrisy would be laughable if it weren’t so lethal.The modern left has grown so morally inverted that an atheist must now defend the faithful. Bill Maher’s rebuke should pierce the conscience of every journalist, pastor, and policymaker who claims to care about justice.If even he can recognize evil when he sees it, what excuse remains for those who claim to serve God?For years, Western leaders, particularly those on the left, have droned on about defending the weak and giving voice to the voiceless. But when the victims are Christian — often barefoot widows in burned-out villages clutching starving children — matters of justice don’t seem to matter. What could be weaker than that? What could be more deserving of compassion?Nigeria now stands at a crossroads — and so does the West.The issue isn't whether Christianity can survive persecution — it always has. The question is whether nations built upon its moral foundation still believe in the values they inherited.Because when an atheist must defend the faith, it isn’t just Christianity under siege. It’s the very conscience of the civilized world.

The beloved singer's career spans seven decades with such highlights as "Shout," "To Sir With Love" and her recording of the theme song of the 1974 James Bond film, The Man With the Golden Gun. The post Lulu Reveals Alcoholism Battle in Memoir, ‘If Only You Knew’ appeared first on Best Classic Bands.

Abigail Spanberger's Terrible, Very Bad Week Gets WORSE As VA Media Ask Her AGAIN About Trans (Watch)