Well, This Is Different: Kristi Noem Sworn in As DHS Secretary—at a Supreme Court Justice's House

President Donald Trump’s Department of Homeland Security is filling President Joe Biden’s gaps in the nation’s border wall. Trump’s new border patrol chief, Michael Banks, touted the wall construction…

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Beating himself decades later. The post “This is it”: the album Lou Reed thought surpassed Berlin first appeared on Far Out Magazine.

In the summer of 2020, Walid Phares wrote in al Arabiyya about the newly signed Abraham Accords. Phares had spoken with Trump about Middle East peace possibilities well before the first Trump presidency began and he knew that Trump was ready to press for a breakthrough deal that seemed within reach. However, those who did not prefer democracy or even peaceability to the world’s premier terror state and its clients, had power and were determined to impose their will. Phares wrote: Few predicted that the Obama bureaucracy, still operating under a Trump Administration, with the help of the opposition, not only would keep the White House off balance with fiery investigations on national security, but would also try to discredit Trump’s Arab allies in the region via media blasts. It took the White House and its allies in Congress almost three years to free themselves from the mud of the so-called investigations, and later the impeachment attempts, followed by six months of COVID-19 pandemic, to be ready for such an event. Despite all delays, the announcement has been made and the peace deal has now a life of its own. The immense significance of the Abraham Accords was effectively buried by the legacy media, along with every other news story believed favorable to Trump. The insurrectionary Obama bureaucracy moved to emulate tyrannies past and present by effectively exercising crushing media censorship and so tipping the electoral scales. Biden was elected, and the Obama crew that effectively ran his cognitively impaired administration moved to resurrect Iran, which in turn resuscitated its clients in Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen, who then together worked to surround and crush Israel. Anything Qatar runs is suspect. They are Wahhabists in Prada, dedicated to a smart, maybe even a brat, jihad. The Obamaites cool indifference to Israel’s mortal peril together with Biden’s emperor’s-new-clothes spin on the catastrophic humiliation of his Afghanistan skedaddle was like a shot of crystal meth to Iran and its clients. Obamaites’ MO was evident as well in the organization and funding of leftist Israeli resistance to Netanyahu’s election victory. This resulted in a prolonged constitutional crisis, confirming to Hamas that Israel was so internally fractured, it would topple given a terrifying blow. Rearmed in its tunnels, secure in the knowledge of its influence in DC, contemptuous of the evident weakness, Hamas let loose an assault that combined the methodology of the Einsatzgruppen with the UK rape gangs and let loose its orgy of rape and massacre. Iran client Hezbollah hedged its bets slightly, bombarding Israel’s north and forcing tens of thousands to evacuate their homes. The horror of October 7 was overwhelming. So was Israel’s response. But the Biden/Obama crew quickly throttled Israel’s victory drive by denying it crucial arms, preferring a stalemate and an appearance of disinterestedness to the defeat of the mullahs’ Nazi dream. That dream may now be thoroughly doomed, done in by the thoroughgoing defeat of its American allies in the 2024 election. “May now be” because much was conceded in the negotiations in Qatar that concluded just prior to the inauguration. Suddenly, a ceasefire was in place, one that soon had the brave Hamas warriors prancing about in their uniforms as if they had won the war instead of hiding under schools, mosques, and hospitals and behind women and children. As presented in the news, a deal was struck like so many in the past: a few Israeli hostages or dead bodies are released in return for many times their number of terrorists (here over a thousand) convicted and imprisoned by due process of law and serving prison terms appropriate to the gravity of the violent crimes they committed. Historically, the recidivism rate of these freed terrorists is above 80 percent. The mastermind of October 7, Sinwar, was himself released in one of these trades years ago. A good ad for the process. The deal is discouraging because it incentivizes hostage taking. Not a new thing either — Maimonides’ 12th-century code of Jewish law warns against paying excessive ransom for victims of kidnapping, because it makes kidnapping a profitable and attractive enterprise and therefore endangers more people than it saves. One expected more with something associated with Trump, although, true enough, it was executed officially by the dead hand of Biden. Anything Qatar runs is suspect. They are Wahhabists in Prada, dedicated to a smart, maybe even a brat, jihad. They have ingratiated themselves with the self-identifying elites here and fund programs normalizing their version of Islamic supremacism. Their success was much in evidence in the crowds of students and professors marching in support of Hamas’ mass murder and rape and in the professors and journos giving sympathetic spin — who doesn’t like to microwave a baby and rape a few twenty-year-olds before executing them? For far too long, American governments have treated Qatar as if it were the honest broker it pretends to be. Then again, our recent head of government assured us that he’d never issue a pardon for his son. Like finds like — honestly. Somehow, I don’t think this is going to work with Trump. He isn’t taken in by liars. He just outplays them. I don’t think he will let Qatar rescue Hamas from the hands of the IDF any more than he sold out Israel in his first term in pursuit of a deal. I don’t see yet how he will pull it off, but then I didn’t see the Abraham Accords coming either. Israel and America are allies in the deepest way. They share the faith in the ability of the people to govern themselves. That faith is based on the biblical teaching that we humans are created in the image of God and therefore can recognize good and choose it. America and Israel both know and reject the imposition of faith by force, not because of faith in some dead white men from the 18th century, but because of a faith that antedates both those men and the dark and bloody history of Wahhabism. That faith rejects and defies all attempts to deny the freedom God gave us. Not so the Obamaists, who learned from the Wahhabists and dictated to Israel, finding the Qatari’s pretense of being honest brokers useful for their concealed aims. Every initiative they made in the Middle East inspired dread. But even in the face of January’s Qatar-brokered deal, the dread seems absent. Why? The most likely reason is that the alliance with Israel is healthy once again. Obama wanted to put space between America and Israel and he treated Netanyahu like a cold-calling insurance salesman. Trump wants no such space. Trump treats Israel like an ally and coordinates with it. America at its best knows how to coordinate with its allies to amplify their joint power. America did that to perfection in World War II, coordinating a world-wide strategy with Britain and the Soviet Union to crush Nazism. America under Trump is coordinating with Israel again to defeat the violent jihadists who are pledged to destroy both America and Israel. Hamas is not capable of “live and let live”; they are constitutionally opposed to it. America and Israel are together on the live and let live page and will not allow the tyrants to retake power. Waltz said as much on Inauguration Day, and there is no doubt that is how Rubio and Trump feel as well. Let the days that come show the success of the Abraham Accords over Qatar’s soft-sell jihadism. As Trump has succeeded in winning many more Americans to his vision, so may he succeed in bringing a changing Arab world to join him as well. Just as the U.S. set up deposed banana republic dictators in comfy retirement in Florida, let the Qataris provide a home for the Ayatollahs and for their 3-H Club — the remnants of Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis. In these giddy first days of Trump 47, we can hope big. It seems the reasonable thing to do. READ MORE from Shmuel Klatzkin: Rights, Responsibility, and the LA Wildfires Biblical Values Strike Back Against Mass Rape The post With Trump’s Return, the Mullah’s Nazi Dreams Are Dead appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.

“A religion that doesn’t interfere with the secular order will soon discover that the secular order will not refrain from interfering with it,” the venerable Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen predicted over a half a century ago. That dark prophecy has, unfortunately, been proven true by the modern world. In Spain, considered a devoutly Catholic state not 50 years ago, a Catholic priest is facing prosecution for denying Holy Communion to a dissident politician. The servants of the secular order, dominated by leftism, have already knocked on the Church’s doors. Earlier this month, a parish priest in Torrecaballeros, a small town less than a hundred miles north of Madrid, refused to give Holy Communion to Mayor Rubén García de Andrés, who maintains a public same-sex relationship. According to García, he had previously been removed from his role as a parish lector due to both his homosexual relationship and his affiliation with the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party. He accused his parish priest and the diocese of Segovia of “HOMOPHOBIA.” Spanish Equality Minister Ana Redondo, a fellow member of the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party, subsequently threatened legal action against the parish priest for his decision. “You can not discriminate against an LGTBI citizen and require him to choose either his faith or his sexual condition. This is clearly discriminatory and I hope there will be a [legal] challenge,” she said. Redondo further claimed that denying Holy Communion to an individual “is contrary to the Spanish constitution.” Referring to the Catholic Church’s teachings on both worthy reception of Holy Communion and sexual morality, the Equality Minister added, “There is no law that forbids ecclesiastical rules, but these ecclesiastical rules must be interpreted under the Constitution and under the principle of equality.” For far too long, whether in Europe or in the United States, the leaders of the Catholic Church — of all ranks and levels, from celebrated cardinals and bishops to parish priests and pastors — have shied away from “the secular order.” Consider, for example, November’s monumental presidential election. In a contest that would, surely, have significant implications for the U.S. bishops, their excellencies remained resoundingly silent. Precious little, if anything, was said of then-candidate Kamala Harris’s blatant anti-Catholicism and her extreme opposition to every value and virtue championed by the Church. Yet there is no doubt (at least not in this author’s mind) that a President Harris would have broken the back of the American Catholic Church. The weaponization of the Justice Department would have worsened, targeting American Catholics and pro-life advocates. The mandatory worship of sexual sins — whether it be pornography use and masturbation or the most depraved and unnatural of acts categorized as LGBT — would have not only continued but would have been armed with its own office of the inquisition. The wanton slaughter of innocent unborn children would have been enshrined as the most sacred and fundamental of “rights,” and woe betide any who dare challenge that hallowed error. Nature abhors a vacuum, the old proverb observes. The Catholic Church must be prepared to defend itself when the secular order knocks upon her doors. No vacuum will hold secularism at bay. Rather, secularism will fill that vacuum, encroaching more and more nearly on the domain of the Catholic Church. In fact, history and current events demonstrate that we have passed this point. The servants of the secular order, dominated by leftism, have already knocked on the Church’s doors. But no bold Saint has forbidden the enemy entry. Instead, they have kicked the doors down and are now ransacking the Church. Catholic bishops must understand that a nuanced challenge to the ascendant Trump administration’s immigration policy is not what the Church needs. Instead, the Church needs men wise enough to heed Archbishop Sheen’s warning and men bold enough to “interfere with the secular order.” READ MORE from S.A. McCarthy: America’s Bishops Should Heed Church on Sovereignty US Bishops Denounce Trump’s Immigration Plans The post Vanquish or Die: The Choice Before the Catholic Church in America appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.

What did President Donald Trump learn during his four-year hiatus from the White House? For one thing, he seems to have learned how to listen. But also, to judge by the first week of his second term, Trump 2.0 seems more focused, mission-driven and prepared to get things done at warp speed. Here’s a short list of other lessons learned: Staff the Administration With People Who Have Your Back All hail Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, a Florida-based political consultant who engineered Trump’s comeback. As they say in Washington, personnel is policy. Trump proposed renaming the Gulf of Mexico — to make it the Gulf of America. It was a classic Trump troll. Then there are strong veterans from Trump’s first term. Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt worked for the White House during the first term and on the Trump 2024 campaign. Former Office of Management and Budget director Russ Vought will be in charge of the nation’s books again. Border Czar Tom Homan, who worked immigration for the first Trump administration, will be Trump’s wing-man on the border, if with a new title. But Also Pick Mavericks Who Excel at Mixing It Up In March 2020, when COVID-19 first alarmed America, Trump’s pick to be N.I.H. director, Stanford Medical School epidemiologist Jay Bhattacharya, had the common sense to question whether excessive shutdowns were in the public’s best interests. He also is one of the three authors of the Great Barrington Declaration that advocated “focused protection” for the medically vulnerable but normal life for others. I’ve known San Francisco lawyer Harmeet Dhillon was a stalwart champion for conservatives facing roadblocks directed at conservatives only. She does not back down. I’ve never been comfortable with Trump’s Health and Human Services pick Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his take on vaccines, but I cannot help but smile at the prospect of an HHS secretary who is not burrowed in the health-care establishment’s confining pockets. Make Sure the Permanent Class Inside the Beltway Knows Trump’s in Charge Team Trump called an end to the Covid-era work-from-home bonanza that put too much space between beltway staffers and the public they are supposed to serve. Trump told federal workers it’s time to get back to their work stations, which is good news for taxpayers, but also D.C. eateries and retailers. Put a Cork on Dinosaur Initiatives Like Affirmative Action In 1965, President Lyndon Johnson issued Executive Order 11246 that brought America decades of “de facto racial quotas under the euphemism ‘affirmative action,'” Pepperdine University visiting professor Steven Hayward wrote in the New York Post. Just when America thought it would never go away, Hayward noted, Trump revoked it in his first week. Go After Other Giants of the Establishment During a call into the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Thursday, Bank of America chief executive Brian Moynihan asked Trump about the impact on the U.S. economy of his executive orders concerning trade and immigration. Trump used the opportunity to bring up a sensitive conservative grievance — the de-banking of conservative organizations by financial giants. Bank of America responded on X, “Bank of America serves more than 70 million clients and we welcome conservatives. We would never close accounts for political reasons and don’t have a political litmus test.” And yet a number of conservative groups have documented the closure of their accounts by big banks. Don’t Abandon the Smaller Campaign Promises You Made I salute Trump’s new “One Flag Policy” that limits flags furled outside U.S. embassies and outposts to the Stars and Stripes, as the Washington Free Beacon first reported. There is an exception for the Prisoner of War/Missing in Action (POW/MIA) emblem and Wrongful Detainees Flag, but the policy means you won’t see Black Lives Matter flags and gay pride flags that were displayed abroad under President Joe Biden. Keep it Simple Finally, again, there are two genders. Have Fun Trump proposed renaming the Gulf of Mexico — to make it the Gulf of America. It was a classic Trump troll. READ MORE from Debra J. Saunders: Laken Riley Act an Early Trump Win, Democrat Surrender President Donald Trump. He’s Back. Contact Review-Journal Washington columnist Debra J. Saunders at dsaunders@reviewjournal.com. Follow @debrajsaunders on X. COPYRIGHT 2025 CREATORS.COM The post The End of the First Week of Trump’s Second Term appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.