Amid the pomp and circumstance surrounding the inauguration — and the immediate executive orders making good on President Donald Trump’s campaign promises — the new president and vice president visited the Washington National Cathedral for the National Prayer Service, a tradition dating back to 1933. Unable to resist the lure of the bully pulpit, Episcopal bishop Mariann Budde used her sermon to make a final plea for the ideals of Kamala Harris’s failed campaign. After reflecting on the importance of unity, Budde appealed directly to President Trump, asking him to “have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now” — specifically, “gay, lesbian, and transgender children … who fear for their lives” and illegal immigrants.  Her remarks were met with slow blinks and a long-suffering sigh from Trump and poorly concealed skepticism from Vance. Second Lady Usha Vance was unfazed, remaining politely attentive throughout — though, as the mother of three young children, she has plenty of practice keeping a straight face amid infantile behavior.  Frustrating as the schoolmarm lecture was for onlookers, however, the optics worked in the president’s favor. After all, Trump remains undefeated in presidential races against liberal women, and Americans have shown that they are tired of being lectured by progressives certain of their own moral superiority. After four years of insanity, Trump was elected to bring about, in his own words, a “revolution of common sense.”  In her appeal for “mercy” towards illegal immigration, Budde recited a litany of jobs done by immigrants: The people who pick our crops and clean our office buildings, who labor in poultry farms and meatpacking plants, who wash the dishes after we eat at restaurants and work the night shifts in hospitals — they may not be citizens or have the proper documentation. But the vast majority of immigrants are not criminals.  Actually, every illegal immigrant is a criminal, for the simple and obvious reason that they are present in the United States in violation of the nation’s laws governing entry and residence. The more revealing part of Budde’s plea, however, is what she says before claiming that illegal immigrants are law-abiding citizens. In listing the various jobs performed by immigrants, Budde paints a picture of harmonious interdependence — see, she argues, immigrants play a necessary role in our communities. But her list belies a much darker reality: the influx of illegal, undocumented immigrants to American communities has created an economic underclass to prop up the luxuries of modern life. After all, the appeal for sympathy for illegal immigrants is often, at heart, an economic argument. Yet, faced with the tragic and preventable murder of college student Laken Riley and a cultural reliance on illegal immigrants for construction projects and UberEats moped deliveries, no sane person would justify the former with the latter.  After the prayer service, Trump responded to the “so-called” bishop’s sermon:  She failed to mention the large number of illegal migrants that came into our Country and killed people. Many were deposited from jails and mental institutions. It is a giant crime wave that is taking place in the USA. In 2016 with Hillary Clinton’s presidential run and again in 2024 with Kamala Harris’s candidacy, Democrats have sided time and again with progressive women who weaponize empathy and emotion. There’s a tendency among progressive Christians to emphasize God’s mercy at the expense of his justice, though they are actually one and the same — his mercy is just, and his justice is merciful. And, as Trump brings his immigration agenda to fruition in this new administration, Christians need to remain mindful that elected leaders are bound to act justly first and foremost to American citizens.  Mary Frances (Myler) Devlin is a contributing editor at The American Spectator. She graduated from the University of Notre Dame in 2022. Follow her on X/Twitter @maryfrandevlin.  READ MORE by Mary Frances Devlin:  Free Speech Coalition, Inc. v. Paxton: Porn Doesn’t Have to Be ‘Inevitable’ Pope Francis Gets His Man in Washington  ‘Shield Laws’ Protect Abortionists Who Send Chemical Abortion Pills Across State Lines The post Leftist Bishop Budde Uses Bully Pulpit to Beg Trump to ‘Have Mercy’ on Illegal Immigrants appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.

Who can help but be impressed with the volume and velocity of the Trump administration so far? Our new president learned much in his four years in the position from 2017 to 2021, and it appears he learned even more in the four years America had to watch the collective hive known as Joe Biden drive our nation into a ditch. The mass and import of Trump’s directives and executive orders is considerable. Most are items we’ve needed for decades, but no president has had the sand and vision to make them a reality. Trump vacated Lyndon Johnson’s executive order implementing affirmative action. He’s scrubbing all vestiges of DEI from the federal government. He suspended all foreign aid save for that going to Israel and Ukraine pending a review, which could well signal the end of the money laundry making left-wing non-profits and connected swamp rats rich. And on, and on. It’s a glorious time. These are policies that will inure greatly to the benefit of the American people. Our president should be greatly praised for his determination to hit the ground running and his willingness to take on big fights. Who shouldn’t be praised? 1. Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski, Who Absolutely Have No Place in the GOP Anymore Let’s face it, Lisa Murkowski is essentially no more a legitimate member of the U.S. Senate than Nicolás Maduro the president of Venezuela. Murkowski has won her last three elections in Alaska through shenanigans and skullduggery while the voters of that state — particularly the Republican voters — have demanded that she go. This last election in 2022 saw her win thanks to the abomination known as ranked-choice voting, and even then she needed millions of dollars from Washington, D.C. courtesy of Mitch McConnell which could have been used elsewhere to help real Republicans win Senate races. By any notion of free and fair elections not polluted by radical voting schemes or outside money, Kelly Tshibaka would be Alaska’s junior senator today. And Tshibaka wouldn’t have to drop long screeds full of gibberish to explain a vote against Pete Hegseth’s confirmation as defense secretary like Murkowski subjected her constituents, along with the rest of the country, to on Thursday. Since Mr. Hegseth’s nomination last November, I have met with him and carefully reviewed his writings, various reports, and other pertinent materials. I closely followed his hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee and gathered substantial feedback from organizations,… — Sen. Lisa Murkowski (@lisamurkowski) January 23, 2025 She wasn’t alone, as her fellow colleague in utter uselessness, Susan Collins, dropped a similar lengthy diatribe onto X after making a vote against Hegseth… After careful consideration, I have decided to vote against Pete Hegseth’s nomination for Secretary of Defense. While I appreciate his courageous military service and his ongoing commitment to our servicemembers and their families, I am concerned that he does not have the… — Sen. Susan Collins (@SenatorCollins) January 23, 2025 Careful consideration, my foot. Neither one of these RINO harpies carefully consider much of anything. They were rubber stamps for practically, if not literally, every one of Joe Biden’s atrocious nominees four years ago — including the hideously corrupt and utterly incompetent Lloyd Austin, who’s responsible for leaving billions of dollars of top-of-the-line U.S. military equipment in Afghanistan when that administration decided on a willy-nilly pullout that cost the lives of 13 servicemen utterly needlessly. Neither one had to offer much in the way of “careful consideration” to Austin’s nomination. And neither one was bothered by the record and character of one Richard “Rachel” Levine, an open transvestite male proponent of child mutilation disguised as “gender-affirming care” who, as head of the Pennsylvania health department, had killed several thousand senior citizens by putting COVID patients in nursing homes. Both voted to confirm Levine, but Pete Hegseth is beyond the pale? This can’t simply be shrugged off. There must be consequences. No party money should ever go toward the re-election efforts of Collins and Murkowski going forward. In fact, primary opponents must be found and funded in Maine next year against Collins and in Alaska in 2028 against Murkowski. Ranked choice voting should be made illegal in federal elections so Murkowski can’t hide behind it again. Actually, both should be thrown out of the Senate GOP caucus and have all their committee assignments stripped, though that isn’t going to happen. It isn’t enough that Hegseth be confirmed despite these two terrible votes. It’s politics. Enemies must be punished. And Collins and Murkowski are enemies. You can’t have a new era in American politics by allowing the mistakes of a previous era to continue. It would be different if Collins and Murkowski had built a record as tough confirmation votes across the board. But neither have such a record. They’re tough votes for a Republican president and pushovers for a Democrat. So the best description of both is that they’re traitors. And successful political parties don’t brook traitors in their midst. Memo to Michael Whatley at the RNC and to GOP Senate Majority Leader John Thune — take out the trash. 2. The Process of Ending Birthright Citizenship Has Begun This was not one of Ronald Reagan’s better judicial appointments… BREAKING, via The Seattle Times: Trump’s executive order to restrict birthright citizenship is blocked for at least the next two weeks by a Reagan appointee in Seattle who eviscerated the Trump lawyers present defending the order. https://t.co/klqPPp2RbV pic.twitter.com/o3GQf3k1Dz — Chris “Law Dork” Geidner (@chrisgeidner) January 23, 2025 I’d never heard of John Coughenour, but he comes off as an old coot that the lefties would say has “grown on the bench” — meaning he’s been successfully lobbied by the leftist cocktail crowd and now thinks and acts like them. In fact, there is absolutely no clarity on birthright citizenship as Coughenour claims. The case usually offered up as controlling the issue is the U.S. v. Wong Kim Ark case from 1898, but that involved the citizenship of the children of legal immigrants. Getting this out there now, in advance of a potentially imminent executive order banning birthright citizenship for children of illegal aliens: In Wong Kim Ark (1898), SCOTUS held—erroneously and over a robust dissent that included Justice Harlan, the greatest justice on the… — Josh Hammer (@josh_hammer) January 20, 2025 In fact, the clear record of the congressional deliberations at the time the 14th Amendment was being ratified indicates strongly that it was never intended to cover the children of illegal immigrants. We’ll see how this goes. Wrongheaded though he may have been, Coughenour did the Trump administration a favor by issuing his ruling, because now the case can make its way to the Supreme Court where, if the justices do their job, the intent of the framers of the 14th Amendment can be restored. Alternatively, perhaps it’s time to repeal the 14th Amendment and replace it with something that much more clearly defines the meaning and benefits of citizenship that our government owes to the people. As written and interpreted by the Left and their sycophants, it’s currently an abject mess. No other country rewards the perpetrators of crime with such a bounty of goods, services, and privileges as we do, and it’s insane. 3. Finally. On Thursday, this happened… DECLASSIFICATION OF RECORDS CONCERNING THE ASSASSINATIONS OF PRESIDENT JOHN F. KENNEDY, SENATOR ROBERT F. KENNEDY, AND THE REVEREND DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered as follows: Section 1. Policy and Purpose. More than 50 years after the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, Senator Robert F. Kennedy, and the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the Federal Government has not released to the public all of its records related to those events. Their families and the American people deserve transparency and truth. It is in the national interest to finally release all records related to these assassinations without delay. The President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992 required all records related to the assassination of President Kennedy to be publicly disclosed in full by October 26, 2017, unless the President certifies that: (i) continued postponement is made necessary by an identifiable harm to the military defense, intelligence operations, law enforcement, or conduct of foreign relations; and (ii) the identifiable harm is of such gravity that it outweighs the public interest in disclosure. President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992, section 5(g)(2)(D), Public Law 102-526, 106 Stat. 3443, 3448–49, codified at 44 U.S.C. 2107 note. I previously accepted proposed redactions from executive departments and agencies (agencies) in 2017 and 2018, but ordered the continued re-evaluation of those remaining redactions. See Temporary Certification for Certain Records Related to the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy, 82 Fed. Reg. 50,307–08 (Oct. 31, 2017); Certification for Certain Records Related to the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy, 83 Fed. Reg. 19, 157–58 (Apr. 26, 2018). In the Presidential Memorandum of April 26, 2018, I also ordered agencies to re-review each of those redactions over the next 3 years and disclose information that no longer warrants continued withholding under the standard set forth in section 5(g)(2)(D) of the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992. President Biden issued subsequent certifications with respect to these records in 2021, 2022, and 2023, which gave agencies additional time to review the records and withhold information from public disclosure. See Temporary Certification Regarding Disclosure of Information in Certain Records Related to the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy, 86 Fed. Reg. 59,599 (Oct. 22, 2021); Certifications Regarding Disclosure of Information in Certain Records Related to the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy, 87 Fed. Reg. 77,967 (Dec. 15, 2022); Certification Regarding Disclosure of Information in Certain Records Related to the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy, 88 Fed. Reg. 43,247 (June 30, 2023). I have now determined that the continued redaction and withholding of information from records pertaining to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy is not consistent with the public interest and the release of these records is long overdue. And although no Act of Congress directs the release of information pertaining to the assassinations of Senator Robert F. Kennedy and the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., I have determined that the release of all records in the Federal Government’s possession pertaining to each of those assassinations is also in the public interest. Sec. 2. Declassification and Disclosure. (a) Within 15 days of the date of this order, the Director of National Intelligence and the Attorney General shall, in coordination with the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs and the Counsel to the President, present a plan to the President for the full and complete release of records relating to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. (b) Within 45 days of the date of this order, the Director of National Intelligence and the Attorney General shall, in coordination with the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs and the Counsel to the President, review records related to the assassinations of Senator Robert F. Kennedy and the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and present a plan to the President for the full and complete release of these records. Sec. 3. General Provisions. (a) Nothing in this order shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect: (i) the authority granted by law to an executive department or agency, or the head thereof; or (ii) the functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals. (b) This order shall be implemented consistent with applicable law and subject to the availability of appropriations. (c) This order is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person. THE WHITE HOUSE, January 23, 2025. I’m not going to predict there are massive bombshells waiting in those soon-to-be-declassified documents. But I’m not predicting against that, either. No American should trust our government as things are now. The only way to restore that trust is to come clean about events like the Kennedy and King assassinations, and, if it’s still possible, to punish the people responsible for setting them in motion. And I’m not predicting that will happen, either. All I’m saying is that until the lies are exposed to sunlight and proper accountability is applied, trust is misplaced. And I’d say that no matter who is president — though Trump deserves gratitude for making good on his promise to declassify those files. 4. Damn Right, He Did. After the pardons of all the J6ers, lots of people then asked, “What about the pro-life protesters jailed by Joe Biden for doing such dastardly deeds as singing outside of abortion clinics?” Well, on Thursday, there was an answer to that… BREAKING: President Donald Trump signs pardons for 23 pro-life prisoners. “This is a great honor to sign this.”https://t.co/EhEBJTNNEi pic.twitter.com/e5bfBv37XM — LifeNews.com (@LifeNewsHQ) January 23, 2025 So much is being done to put things right it’s hard to keep up with all of it. Trump has made much mention of the “millimeter miracle,” in Pastor Lorenzo Sewell’s words. God saved him from an assassin’s bullet to fulfill a calling to restore America. And he’s paying that off in front of our eyes. It’s glorious. It truly is. 5. Know What You Should Do? You Should Buy a Copy of This Book! The marketing guy I’m working with for The Hayride, RVIVR, and the books I’m writing/selling says I don’t do enough promotion. He’s certainly right. So to get him off my back, here’s the Goodreads link here’s the Amazon link to From Hellmarsh With Love, which is the latest novel that our regular readers have seen me discuss a bit here and there. Having written that book, which deals with the utter destruction of free speech in the United Kingdom under the idiotic Labour government there, it’s been fascinating to watch much of what I wrote in From Hellmarsh With Love come true in one respect or another. Of course, in the book, the Keir Starmer character sees his political career vaporize. That hasn’t happened quite yet and when it does it won’t likely occur in as enjoyable a manner as it did within the pages of From Hellmarsh With Love. On the other hand, that’s … a reason to read it, n’est-ce pas? OK, OK. Enough of that shameless plug. But please go and buy the thing so that Zach stops hounding me about promotions for now, will you? READ MORE from Scott McKay: Elon Musk and Chris Murphy: The Old Game Keeps On Failing Thoughts On a Repudiation and Liberation Day: Donald Trump’s Inauguration Five Quick Things: Joe Biden’s Legacy Of Suck The post Five Quick Things: Will Someone Please Take Out the Trash? appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.

So. Connecticut Democrat Senator Chris Murphy has made a whopper of an allegation that has wound up seriously backfiring. Attacking the leaders of his own Democrat Party — not to mention himself. The leaders attacked are former President Barack Obama, Ex-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, former Vice President Kamala Harris, Senator Elizabeth Warren, and yes, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Using Murphy’s criteria, the Connecticut Democrat has effectively accused all of the above of giving the Nazi salute — as Murphy himself has accused Elon Musk of doing. In a decidedly backfiring dirty trick — the Left has gone after Trump-supporting Elon Musk by playing the Nazi card. Why? Because Musk, they say, was pictured giving a Nazi salute. And ya can’t make up the response. As our colleague Scott McKay has noted, ole Elon has interesting company in the alleged Nazi salute gang. Scott points to an X tweet from Connecticut’s Democrat Senator Chris Murphy that — seriously — read as follows: We need to talk about what happened last night. I asked Trump’s UN nominee, who wants to lead an effort to combat antisemitism at the UN, what she thought about Elon’s Musk’s Nazi salute and the celebration of it by domestic neo-Nazi and white supremacist groups. That screech you have heard is the sound of Murphy trying to get his foot out of his mouth. So Murphy believes Musk and his extended arm are signs of being a Nazi? Got it. So let’s do a little review of those Murphy has snared in his supposed “they’re Nazi saluters” net. First, and perhaps best, is Murphy’s catch of — Murphy. As seen here, the Senator is captured by a camera standing in front of the Capitol — with an arm extending in Musk fashion. Using his own analysis, clearly, Murphy has a passion for giving the Nazi extended arm salute. Here you are in front of the Capitol pic.twitter.com/eQTDdqDXPK — Federico Basta (@FedericoBa71889) January 21, 2025 And using his standard, Murphy is not the only Democrat with Nazi leanings. Here are — you can’t make it up — what Murphy sees as would-be Nazis, caught in mid-salute. They would be: Hey Chris, this problem is way more widespread than you thought! pic.twitter.com/I99bNjJyrW — Andrew Follett (@AndrewCFollett) January 21, 2025 Former President Barack Obama Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Former Vice President Kamala Harris And then, perhaps most richly of all, is Congresswoman AOC. As seen here. everyone who follows me needs to share this video immediately—AOC is a literal Nazi, this is so concerning—she did a Nazi salute not once but TWICE in a matter of seconds… this is UNACCEPTABLE on every level, we have NO tolerance for Nazis!!! like, share, tag her,… pic.twitter.com/4TqKb4VaEe — stepfanie tyler (@wildbarestepf) January 21, 2025 Oh, and let’s not leave out that apparent Nazi — Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren. As seen here. In other words, using his own standard, Senator Murphy has accused the most prominent leaders of his own Democrat Party of being Nazis because they are revealed to have done exactly what Elon Musk did. The whole thing is ridiculous, of course. Without question, one of the most common gestures in the human race is to extend an arm for the simple, quite obvious purpose of waving or thanking someone or, as in Murphy’s video, thanking a whole crowd of supporters. The real point here is the decidedly cynical use by Murphy of one of the most evil groups in world history and trying to label Musk as being a follower. Not that this should surprise. The entire 2024 presidential campaign was filled with prominent Democrats labeling GOP nominee Donald Trump — Trump no less than a former president of the United States — as another Hitler. But the American people were not fooled. If anything, the “Trump as Hitler” flood of accusations backfired and backfired big time. Trump was elected in a landslide. Yet the mere fact that Democrats thought it was perfectly OK to play the Nazi card in the election says everything about the character of the Democrats in the Trump era. And none of it is good. READ MORE from Jeffrey Lord: Trump’s Triumph: America’s Golden Age Begins Military Vet Hegseth Attacked by Democrats Clueless About Past Secretaries of Defense With No Military Experience Jennifer Rubin: Washington Post Liberal Columnist Quits in Protest The post Senator Murphy Steps In It appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.

I despair — I really do despair. Over the past several years, I’ve tried again and again to point out the sheer unadulterated idiocy of the left’s obsession with Hitler. And yet, here we go again. A demonstrably innocent gesture by Elon Musk has become the latest in a very long line of “this must be Hitler” leftist fantasies — fantasies driven by the inability of the average so-called “progressive” to actually engage substantively with conservative positions across the entire range of public policy. Instead, they default to ad hominem mud-slinging, and, for far too long, the comparison to Hitler has been the stickiest mud in their arsenal of slander. I’m no longer patient enough to itemize all the ways in which calling someone “Hitler” fails even the most elementary tests of historical relevance. Nor am I particularly interested in parsing the various forms of what the Nazis were pleased to call “the German greeting.” (RELATED: Democrats Conjure the Resurrection of Hitler (Again)) During the years when I was professionally engaged in the study of Nazism, I must have seen hundreds of photos of these salutes, including many performed by Nazi luminaries such as Himmler, Goering, Goebbels, and, of course, Hitler himself, and I find the comparison absurd, as do other thoughtful observers. One might as well find the Nazi salute in the celebratory “first down” gesture routinely performed by NFL players. But more absurd is the apparently unquenchable need to label anyone opposed to the left’s agenda as in any way, shape, or form a “Nazi,” or even the more generic “fascist.” If we must indulge in such tired labels, then they’re more appropriately applied to the current crop of “progressives,” including the media figures so quick to condemn the new Trump administration. (RELATED: Weimar America: The Threat Is on the Left) Gleichschaltung One of the most telling elements of the Nazi seizure of power in Germany was a process the Nazis labeled as “Gleichschaltung.” This is actually an engineering term, loosely translated as “coordination” or “synchronization.” In Nazi parlance, the period immediately following the Nazi takeover and lasting over the next several years was the time in which German society was “gleichgeschaltet.” The verb is important because this was an active process, one in which all of the various institutions of German society — economic, cultural, political — were coordinated in the service of Nazi objectives. (Sound familiar.) Note well that during this phase the institutions were not so much destroyed as simply aligned with Nazi purposes — the more thoroughgoing institutional transformation happened only later, and largely for the purpose of waging “total war.” Do not — I repeat, do not — misunderstand me. This process of alignment represented a systematic perversion of all that was good in German society. It was in no way benign — quite the contrary. But it also, and despite much Nazi revolutionary rhetoric, left the shell of German institutions intact, while hollowing them out from the inside. Thus, for example, Germany’s great universities continued to exist, but Jewish professors and students were first marginalized and then removed. Nazi students dominated the campuses, a process that had begun even before Hitler gained power — students were among the earliest and most fanatical supporters of Nazism. (RELATED: Columbia University Turmoil Recalls the Hitler Youth) In the 1920s, Germany had led the world in the new entertainment arts, and even after forcing so many of the greats into exile, the German version of Hollywood maintained — under Goebbels — an impressive technical capability, although one bent to the service of promoting Nazi “culture.” And this was fed by enthusiastic producers, directors, actors, and actresses, all of them eager to show their support for the “new Germany.” Leni Riefenstahl might have been the most talented, but the idea that Nazism found no purchase in the German entertainment industry is far from the truth. (RELATED: So, You Want to Talk Hitler?) The same could well be said of the other media, radio, print journalism, and publishing. After World War II, much of the output from these sources was expunged, made not just unavailable, but flushed down the memory hole. That we can say “good riddance” shouldn’t allow us to forget just how huge this was, and how enthusiastically it was pursued by its practitioners. The same, sadly, could certainly be said of the German churches, with the notable exception of some Christians such as Bonhoeffer and Niemoller. And on and on. German corporations aligned themselves willingly with the new regime’s objectives, not just in terms of production, but also in terms of values. So, too, across government, not just the central government, but also that of the several states and the many localities. Those who wanted to get on board prospered, those who didn’t, by and large, simply kept their mouths shut, grimaced at the daily bombardment Nazi propaganda, and tried, quietly, to get on with their lives. I never encountered a Nazi-era phrase quite directly translatable as “allyship,” but the concept was everywhere, the day-to-day expression of what it meant to live in a world “aligned” with Nazism. Therein lies the real comparison with what we’ve endured in this country over the last several decades. The Left’s “Synchronization” of America One can dress it up with high-sounding sociological discussion, one can speak, for example, of such things as “shifts in the Overton window.” The left persistently tries to dismiss its ascension to cultural domination as an overblown, even paranoid concern on the part of cultural conservatives. Each time they’re challenged, they attempt to shift the terms of the discussion — witness how the Democrats now dance around the cultural impact of illegal immigration or of the whole transgender phenomenon. After all, possession of victimhood status is vital to their self-justification. Interestingly, the Nazis indulged in much the same poor-me ideology — the other side of the “master race” coin was a claim that poor Germany was a martyr among nations after World War I. The reality is that what we witnessed during the Biden years was nothing less than a form of radical leftist “Gleichschaltung” of American society. We saw it in government, where DEI exploded across the workforce. We saw it in our universities where radicalism — not least a Nazi-like anti-Semitism — turned campuses into hotbeds of hatred. We saw it across industry, not just in such transcendent silliness as the Bud Light fiasco, but also at such once proudly conservative institutions as Harley-Davidson. We have seen it in our churches, and are still seeing it, as witnessed by the recent appointment of the thoroughly egregious Cardinal McElroy as the Archbishop of Washington, D.C. — a gesture that can only be interpreted as Pope Francis wagging a pontifical middle finger in the face of Donald Trump. (RELATED: The Devil in D.C.) It has been, quite literally, everywhere, from puff-piece treatments of Michelle Obama at our supermarket check-out lines to Jill Biden’s appearance on the cover of Vogue, even as a genuine beauty, Melania Trump, is subjected to cattiness of the most vicious sort. It has invaded our schools, right down to the kindergarten level, with picture books promoting the transgender phenomenon. It has been omnipresent in a way that Hitler and Goebbels only dreamed of achieving during their first years in power. Moreover, this leftist “Gleichschaltung” has been enforced both rigorously and gleefully by those who’ve wielded power in the last four years. We saw this when service members, including some of our most dedicated warriors, were forcibly excluded in the name of COVID vaccination conformity. We saw it when mask-wearing conformity was imposed through both government edicts and the drumbeat of social media, even when its proponents acknowledged among themselves that it was all a sham. (RELATED: Dr. Anthony Fauci: What Exactly Did Biden Pardon?) We saw this in the almost gleeful imposition of DEI across government, businesses, and colleges in the wake of the George Floyd “event,” which the left-wing radicals turned into a contemporary equivalent of 1933’s Reichstag fire. Blaming the Reichstag fire, falsely, on a feebleminded Dutch communist gave the Nazis license to impose their agenda; Floyd’s death was similarly turned into a foundation for the imposition of a radical left program in blue cities and states across America. I could go on, but the meaning of the Biden years should be clear. Instead of restoring the promised “normalcy,” it unleashed a leftist Gleichschaltung across every aspect of American life. What under Clinton and then Obama had been an insistent but gradual subversion of the traditional American way of life became, with Biden’s supposed “mandate,” an unapologetic assault on every social norm, along with destruction, dictated by “Green New Deal” ideologues, of the national economy. The left, the so-called “progressives” and their shills at CNN and MSNBC, can pretend that Elon’s wave of the hand portends the arrival of Nazism with the Trump inauguration. In fact, as the foregoing should demonstrate, it’s quite the opposite. They have been the proponents and the practitioners of a totalitarian regime, one that the American people arose to reject last Nov. 5. What made Trump’s inaugural address — and the plethora of actions that followed starting that same day — was the categorical and systematic rejection of this encroaching tyranny. I wish that we could relegate “Nazi” to its place in history, and recognize, once and for all, its heuristic uselessness outside of its original historical context. When introduced in the discussion of contemporary politics, it’s nothing more than a cudgel wielded mindlessly by intellectual dunces. But in a world where Elon Musk gets slandered and the mainstream media stalwarts get a free pass for promoting hatred, we need to challenge the left’s appropriation of the term at every turn. Challenge it with reasoned argument, challenge it with ridicule and scorn, but challenge it at every turn until the day comes when we can ignore it — and them — forevermore. Then, one can only hope, that Hitler can finally be laid to rest. It can’t come soon enough. READ MORE from James H. McGee: Jimmy Fallon Saves Bastogne Culture Eats Everything for Breakfast To Terror No Sanction Weimar America: The Threat Is on the Left James H. McGee retired in 2018 after nearly four decades as a national security and counter-terrorism professional, working primarily in the nuclear security field. Since retiring, he’s begun a second career as a thriller writer. His recent novel, Letter of Reprisal, tells the tale of a desperate mission to destroy a Chinese bioweapon facility hidden in the heart of the central African conflict region. A forthcoming sequel finds the Reprisal team fighting against terrorists who’ve infiltrated our southern border in a conspiracy that ranges across the globe. You can find Letter of Reprisal on Amazon in both Kindle and paperback editions, and on Kindle Unlimited. The post Enough with Leftist Fantasy — Hitler Is Really Dead, and He Should Finally Be Buried appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.

Mark Zuckerberg is overhauling his Metaverse. The 40-year-old CEO rocked the business world recently, announcing that Meta (parent company of Facebook) would be phasing out its third-party fact-checking feature in favor of an option closer to X’s Community Notes, ending one of the platform’s most criticized features and kiboshing one of the Babylon Bee’s most consistent sources of content. And that wasn’t even the end of Meta’s about-face: the company announced shortly afterward that it would be ending many of its DEI initiatives, including supplier diversity programs, and sunsetting its actual DEI team. Is the biggest social media platform on Earth embracing free speech? (RELATED: Facebook Ends Dubious Fact-Checking. Biden Objects.) Unsurprisingly, the reaction to this turn of events has been highly skeptical from both the right and the left. Zuckerberg “has opened the door to prejudice and bigotry, given a green flag for attacks on the vulnerable, with no checks and balances,” rants former Twitter curator Marc Burrows. On the right, Federalist contributor Jordan Boyd argued that “Mark Zuckerberg is on a mission to give Facebook’s key role in the censorship industrial complex a makeover.” Whatever the median reaction to Facebook’s new era may be, “open arms and believing minds” doesn’t exactly epitomize it.  So, what are we to make of the new and arguably improved Meta? As someone who talks to corporations about their biased policies for a living (including Meta less than a month ago), let’s have a serious tactical discussion about how to approach a company that has, for better or for worse, complied with government demands for censorship in the past and would now like you to believe that it’s a safe harbor for free expression. Can we trust Zuckerberg to keep his word? (RELATED: Meta’s Oversight Board Threatens Women’s Right to Sex-Based Protections) The best answer for this is one of Ronald Reagan’s most popularized maxims: trust, but verify. And trust is a currency that Facebook has, unfortunately, been willing to trade away time after time. The company’s track record of censorship includes major names: academic institutions like Hillsdale College, online creators like Libs of TikTok, and public figures like Franklin Graham — all names that broadly fall within the coalition of Americans who disagree with progressive ideology. It’s hard to overstate the amount of work Mark Zuckerberg has to do to prove his sincerity to skeptical users. Such proof either has to involve actual apologies, or enough years functioning as a truly politically neutral social media platform for people to trust Facebook again. Both are long roads. (RELATED: Zuckerberg Says Facebook Will Be ‘Neutral.’ Too Little, Too Late.) It’s beyond obvious that Facebook’s 180-degree turn is, at least in part, politically motivated. As someone deep in the weeds of ESG/DEI skeptical corporate engagement, the soon-to-be-reality of a second Trump presidency is a major factor in companies from Meta to McDonald’s ending biased corporate policies. But does that make these rollbacks political? (RELATED: The High-Water Mark of Woke Corporate Activism) It depends on what we mean by that. It’s true that Facebook’s ditching of DEI and fact-checking will make the company more palatable to the incoming Republican administration. But it’s also true that that pivot is a massive opportunity for people who actually care about businesses being neutral on politics. We fight for political neutrality not just because it’s the best model to safeguard against brand damage (à la Target & Bud Light), but because it’s the best model to actually do business. If Meta follows through on its promises to protect free expression via its policies, that’s an outcome to be celebrated by anyone who understands the practical pathways to getting politics out of business. That doesn’t mean easing up on corporate scrutiny. It doesn’t mean taking Mark Zuckerberg at his word — actions and verifiably changed policies, not mere words, are the name of the game for businesses intent on actually ditching corporate politics. But Meta’s turn away from DEI and activist-driven speech policing is an opportunity to demonstrate how a robust commitment to free speech is the pathway to success in the America of 2025 and beyond. Let’s hope, for the sake of its shareholders, its employees, and the more than 3 billion people it brings together online, that the company takes that opportunity. READ MORE from Isaac Willour: The Rise and Fall of Candace Owens, Right-Wing Provocateur Harvard’s Stupidly Obvious Affirmative-Action Fix Isaac Willour is an analyst at Bowyer Research, America’s leading pro-fiduciary proxy consulting & corporate engagement firm. A graduate of Grove City College, Isaac is an award-winning journalist, Young Voices contributor, and frequent commentator on ESG, DEI, & the culture war. He can be found on X @IsaacWillour. The post Should We Believe Facebook on Free Speech? appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.

by J.G. Martinez D, The Organic Prepper: Inflation is one of the worst scourges of the modern world. With our interconnected and highly complex economy and its huge amount of ever-increasing variables, it gets more and more complex. Under the current setup, the signals for a devaluation to take place in the largest economies seem […]

by Mac Slavo, SHTF Plan: Israel has launched a new “large-scale and significant” military operation in the West Bank, targeting the Palestinian city of Jenin. The “counterterrorist” operation in Gaza comes just days after West Jerusalem reached a ceasefire agreement with the terrorist organization Hamas. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced the military operation on Tuesday. […]