Viewing the U.S. public policy and political scene as a chessboard, the prelates of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops have downgraded themselves from their historic leadership role as bishops to the subservient position of mere pawns. Specifically, on birthright citizenship, the bishops willingly allow themselves to be manipulated by leftists pushing secular humanist, globalist ideologies. The Conference of Catholic Bishops issued an “amicus” brief to the Supreme Court, which will soon rule on President Donald Trump’s executive order to rescind the long-debated precedent of American citizenship by birthright. Does every birth occurring on U.S. soil mean automatic citizenship, even if the parents trespassed into America as illegal aliens? Here is the crux of the bishops’ misbegotten argument: “Birthright citizenship aligns with the Church’s teaching that humans were created as social beings and that political authority is morally bound to affirm and protect the inherent dignity of every human person in the community.” Of course, the inherent logical flaw here contends that the human dignity of every person can only be ratified by virtue of conferring U.S. citizenship. Given this absurd line of thinking, the United States is then bound to grant American citizenship to every single human on the planet, since they all possess clear human dignity as sons and daughters of the eternal Creator. Kelsey Reinhardt, president of CatholicVote, correctly deconstructs the actual philosophical danger with this clearly politicized tactic, masked within the language of pastoral teaching: “That argument does not strengthen the Church’s moral witness—it weakens it. By tying dignity to civil status, the bishops inadvertently echo the logic of the abortion industry: rights exist because the state recognizes them.” After all, legitimate civil authority is validated by God himself precisely because it intrinsically leads to human flourishing. Societies can only succeed—and only seek the will of God freely—when governed by the rule of law. As such, prudential judgment about identifying the qualifications for citizenship lies with civil authorities who must prioritize the common good of existing citizens before admitting newcomers, especially at a massive scale. These principles have been taught by the Church for time immemorial and were perhaps best elucidated by St. Thomas Aquinas in the Summa Theologica. Aquinas weighed the prerogatives of citizens against any arguments for indiscriminate openness. His Thomistic vision flowed from the timeless maxim that “charity begins at home.” As such, Aquinas even argued that full citizenship for immigrants should not be granted until the second or third generation. St. Thomas, Doctor of the Church, would surely be branded as some sort of heartless immigration hawk by the bishops today. But Aquinas understood the crucial role of enlightened patriotism within God’s earthly kingdom. He observed: “Man is debtor chiefly to his parents and his country, after God. Wherefore just as it belongs to religion to give worship to God, so does it belong to piety, in the second place, to give worship to one’s parents and one’s country.” Moreover, looking at the realities of birthright citizenship today, in an era of global travel and trade, the bishops seem to willfully ignore some very unpleasant abuses of America’s generosity. First, “birth tourism” has exploded. It is simply routine now for expectant mothers who live near the U.S. southern border to legally cross into America as visitors for the express purpose of having a U.S.-born child with full citizenship. For the wealthy of the world, an entire industry now exists to purchase U.S. holidays that include giving birth. The Wall Street Journal recently reported on Chinese moguls effectively “renting” American women and their wombs to have dozens of U.S.-citizen babies per father. Not only is this kind of chaos awful policy and plainly disordered, but it is also a grave violation of Catholic teaching regarding family life and procreation. So, clearly the bishops overstepped by inserting the authority of the Church into a partisan legal matter. Honest people and sincere Catholics can disagree on this important issue. But by framing it in such lofty moral terms, these men acted far more like activists than like shepherds of Christ’s flock. Over time, such actions diminish the authority earned by the Catholic Church over the years as a pillar of American society. The post Bishops as Pawns Over Birthright Citizenship appeared first on The Daily Signal.

By afternoon Sunday, the U.S. and Israeli strikes against Iran sunk nine Iranian ships and took out dozens of Iranian leaders, President Donald Trump announced.  “I have just been informed that we have destroyed and sunk 9 Iranian Naval Ships, some of them relatively large and important,” Trump posted on Truth Social Sunday.  pic.twitter.com/AeAfBbVaAq— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) March 1, 2026 “We are going after the rest–They will soon be floating at the bottom of the sea, also!” Trump’s post continued. “In a different attack, we largely destroyed their Naval Headquarters. Other than that, their Navy is doing very well!” Separately, Fox News reported that Trump said 48 Iranian leaders were wiped out in the strikes.  Most notably, the air strikes killed the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and targeted Iranian military sites to stop the country’s ability to develop and deploy nuclear weapons.  U.S. Central Command reported Suday afternoon that B-2 stealth bombers, armed with 2,000 pound bombs hit Iran’s ballistic missile facilities.  Last night, U.S. B-2 stealth bombers, armed with 2,000 lb. bombs, struck Iran’s hardened ballistic missile facilities. No nation should ever doubt America's resolve. pic.twitter.com/6JpG73lHYW— U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) March 1, 2026 Minutes after Trump’s post, the Associated Press reported that a senior White House official said the “new potential leadership” in Iran suggested they were open to talks.  CBS News reported that Trump told CBS News Sunday morning a diplomatic solution is “Much easier now than it was a day ago, obviously.” He said that’s since “they are getting beat up badly.” U.S. Central Command also reported three U.S. service members had been killed, five were seriously wounded in Operation Epic Fury.  Trump called for Iran, the world’s leading sponsor of terrorism, to fully dismantle its nuclear program, which Iran’s government had been unwilling to do. Trump indicated on Friday the negotiations were not going well. The Iranian regime has reportedly killed tens of thousands of protesters. Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian said Sunday that a new leadership council “has begun its work” after death of Khamenei. Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said a new supreme leader will be chosen in “one or two days,” the Associated Press reported.  The post ‘We Are Going After the Rest’: Trump Gives Big Update on Iran Strike by the Numbers appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Sunday Smiles

The combined bombing campaign that began in Iran Saturday morning, decapitating senior leadership and hammering military targets across the map, may look like a massive undertaking.And it is — for Israel.Iran looks like an existential threat.It is — for Israel.An invasion does not run on slogans. It runs on fuel.For the United States, the existential threat sits elsewhere. Iran has financed and fueled anti-American violence for 47 years — from the 1979 hostage crisis to the Beirut barracks bombing in 1983, from Hezbollah and the Houthis to the IED pipeline that chewed up Americans in Iraq and Afghanistan. President Trump on Saturday morning laid out a clean rationale for turning the mullahs’ war machine into mulch and ending, once and for all, Tehran’s nuclear obsession.Still, the bigger strategic picture points east — to China.Beijing’s global ambitions rise and fall on one commodity that keeps modern economies alive and modern militaries moving: oil. If you want to understand why pressure on Iran matters beyond the Middle East, start with the tankers.Xi Jinping has ordered the People’s Liberation Army to be ready for Taiwan by 2027. Call it an invasion timeline or call it a readiness deadline — the intent reads the same.China has spent years preparing the battlefield: artificial islands to extend maritime control, relentless air and naval exercises that rehearse the encirclement of Taiwan, and a missile force built to hunt U.S. ships and push America back behind the horizon.That missile layer — DF-21s and DF-26s — supports the bigger concept: anti-access/area denial. China wants to make U.S. intervention costly, slow, and uncertain. It wants American commanders staring at a clock they cannot beat.Washington answered with its own doctrine and its own race against time. The U.S. built concepts like AirSea Battle doctrine and pushed Agile Combat Employment — a dispersed, resilient approach designed to survive missile salvos and keep aircraft flying. The Air Force started rehabilitating old Pacific airfields and expanding access across Guam, Saipan, and especially Tinian, because the next war in the Pacific will punish concentration.Then Orange Man Bad made two moves in two months that hit Xi exactly where he lives. Not more nasty rhetoric on Truth Social or posturing. Logistics.First, the United States seized Nicolás Maduro and dumped him in a Brooklyn jail. That operation did more than embarrass a dictator. It jolted the real-world flow of Venezuelan crude — and with it, a slice of China’s import stream that Beijing prefers to keep quiet, rebranded, and discounted. Analysts peg Venezuela’s contribution to China’s seaborne crude imports in the low single digits, roughly 3% to 5% depending on the year and the counting method. In Beijing’s world, even “small” percentages matter when the margin for error narrows.Second, the joint strike campaign against Iran instantly put a hand on another lever: Iranian exports.RELATED: Israeli officials say Khamenei is dead. Update: Trump confirms. Photo by Mario Tama/Getty ImagesChina buys the bulk of Iran’s shipped oil. Various trackers place Iranian barrels at roughly 10% to 15% of China’s seaborne crude imports in recent years. Tehran sells because it needs the cash. Beijing buys because it wants the discount. Trump’s move did not need to “block” every barrel to land the message. It only needed to introduce uncertainty, disruption, rerouting, insurance spikes, interdiction risk, and political friction. Oil markets react to fear faster than to facts.Put the two together, and the math starts to hurt: a meaningful share of China’s oil — not symbolic, not academic — now sits under pressure from U.S. action in Venezuela and Iran.That creates a Taiwan problem.An invasion does not run on slogans. It runs on fuel. It runs on shipping. It runs on industrial output. It runs on a domestic economy that stays stable while the military gambles. Xi can build missiles all day long, but he cannot launch an island war on an economy gasping for discounted crude.So yes, the current Iran campaign matters for the obvious reasons: international terrorism, Hezbollah, the Houthis, the nuclear program. Those are legitimate reasons for “Epic Fury.”Trump’s larger play hits the supply lines that make China’s invasion timetable plausible.In only two months, Trump has put Xi in the position of a man getting a testicular palpation from a recalcitrant physician in a hurry.Do not distract him. He might clench.I think Trump wrote a book about it, or he should. Call it “The Art of the Squeal.”

On Sunday, February 22, 21-year-old Austin Tucker Martin, who authorities say breached the secure perimeter of President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort armed with a shotgun and a gas can, was reportedly shot and killed by the United States Secret Service. President Trump was not at his Florida residence at the time of the incident.Christopher Rufo, BlazeTV co-host of “Rufo & Lomez,” has been surprised by the lack of public outrage about this third assassination attempt on President Trump. “What I found so fascinating is that this story, which in any other time period in American history would be a huge national story [and] dominate headlines, seemed to pass through the news without much of a blip,” says Rufo.But this story should be of interest to everyone, he argues, not only because “anyone who is attempting an assassination against the president of the United States represents a fundamental threat to the political order,” but also because there seems to be a strange and dangerous pattern at play.Both Thomas Matthew Crooks, who shot President Trump in the ear at his Butler, Pennsylvania, rally back in July 2024, and Austin Martin have some striking similarities, Rufo suggests.Both were “bookish, young, white men, glasses, had some trouble, you know, fitting into the kind of high school social order. ... The reporting indicated that at least at some point in their recent past they were pro-Trump or pro-MAGA. Then they have, for whatever reason, some psychological break, and they end up trying to assassinate the president,” he explains.“The evidence to me suggests that online radicalization is at least a significant part of this.”But co-host Jonathan Keeperman thinks there’s another factor fueling the recent political violence: the “copycat effect.”Once people “see someone doing something that is getting attention, the attention-seeking person then will just go copy that same behavior because what they actually want, what they're actually after, is that kind of attention,” he says.“And so by ignoring these people, by pushing them out of the headlines, we're actually preventing more of this from happening in the future,” he suggests.Keeperman also ponders the possibility that by trying to sleuth around and identify what’s fueling these acts of political violence we’re actually doing more harm than good.“We're in a fallen world with fallen people, and they're lunatics, and they commit violence, and it's terrible, and it's tragic. But maybe, actually, our insistence that there's something more to mine from this ... or there's some meaning beyond just the fact that they're lunatics, is itself a kind of conspiratorial delusion that we're enacting in order to make sense of what is otherwise insensible,” he posits.But Rufo isn’t convinced that attention-seeking or unpredictable lunacy is the root of the political violence we’re seeing. To hear his counterargument, watch the full episode above.Want more from Rufo & Lomez?To enjoy more of the news through the anthropological lens of Christopher Rufo and Lomez, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

News Outlets Rushed to Claim That U.S.-Israel Strikes Hit a School in Iran; Confirmation Is Fleeting

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Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Tom Cotton, R-Ark., said Sunday that U.S. military strikes in the coming days would methodically target Iran's missile stockpiles, launchers, and manufacturing sites.