Pennsylvania’s hard rockers were one of the dozens of iconic heavy bands who played at Ozzy’s swansong in July

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This Week in Historyby Dianne Hermann “The secret to happiness is freedom.The secret to freedom is courage.” Carrie Jones Nov 17-23, 2025 November 17 1800 – Congress holds its first session in the incomplete Capitol building Washington, DC. The building was completed in 1826. 1871 – The National Rifle Association (NRA) is chartered in New […] The post This Week in History: Nov 17-23, 2025 appeared first on www.independentsentinel.com.

President Donald Trump on Sunday night called for House Republicans to back a vote compelling the Justice Department to release all files connected to convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Trump’s call comes just days after he directed the Justice Department to investigate Epstein’s connections to powerful Democrats like former President Bill Clinton. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) expects a vote this week on a bill that, if approved, would release the Epstein files. If passed in the House, the proposal would need 60 votes in the Senate to advance to Trump’s desk.  “As I said on Friday night aboard Air Force One to the Fake News Media, House Republicans should vote to release the Epstein files, because we have nothing to hide, and it’s time to move on from this Democrat Hoax perpetrated by Radical Left Lunatics in order to deflect from the Great Success of the Republican Party, including our recent Victory on the Democrat ‘Shutdown,’” Trump wrote on Truth Social.  Trump said that the Justice Department had already turned over tens of pages of documents related to Epstein to the public and said that the House Oversight Committee could have access to whatever documents it was legally entitled to.  “Nobody cared about Jeffrey Epstein when he was alive and, if the Democrats had anything, they would have released it before our Landslide Election Victory,” Trump added. “Some ‘members’ of the Republican Party are being ‘used,’ and we can’t let that happen. Let’s start talking about the Republican Party’s Record Setting Achievements, and not fall into the Epstein ‘TRAP,’ which is actually a curse on the Democrats, not us.” In the same post, the president referenced his directive to the Justice Department last week, saying that it was “looking at various Democrat operatives (Bill Clinton, Reid Hoffman, Larry Summers, etc.) and their relationship to Epstein.” In a later post, Trump said that Democrats who had “sleazy relationships” with Epstein should be prosecuted.  Rather than dwelling on Epstein, Trump said Republicans should focus on the economy, tax cuts, the trillions in pledged investment, and his efforts to crack down on illegal immigration. In recent months, Trump has expressed frustration with questions about Epstein.  Last week, Democrats released multiple Epstein emails, including correspondence in which the pedophile claimed that Trump “knew about the girls” and “spent hours” at Epstein’s home with one of the sexual abuser’s victims. The House GOP Oversight Committee released an additional 20,000 pages of documents on Wednesday, and the White House said that the contents confirmed that Trump did not take part in Epstein’s sex crimes. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt noted that the unnamed victim in the emails was the late Virginia Giuffre, who never accused Trump of any wrongdoing. 

A looming House vote on the Epstein files launches a political knife fight on the Right, a bipartisan cohort of Congressmen call out Chinese tech on American military bases, and the Trump administration brings its immigration blitz to North Carolina. It’s Monday, November 17, 2025, and this is the news you need to know to start your day. Today’s edition of the Morning Wire podcast can be heard below, and the video version can be seen on The Daily Wire: Trump Rips Greene Topline: President Donald Trump dramatically withdrew his backing of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) over the weekend amid a national debate over the Epstein files. A few years ago, Greene was considered one of the president’s closest allies in Congress, including during the Biden era. Over the past few weeks, Greene has broken prominently with the president on some policies, including how best to handle healthcare and foreign policy.  Last week appeared to be the final straw for the president, when he referred to the Georgia congresswoman as Marjorie “Traitor” Greene. Trump essentially said Greene was acting out of line because of her desire to run for the U.S. Senate or Georgia governor. “I understand that wonderful, Conservative people are thinking about primarying Marjorie in her District of Georgia, that they too are fed up with her and her antics and, if the right person runs, they will have my Complete and Unyielding Support,” Trump said in a social media post. “She has gone Far Left, even doing The View, with their Low IQ Republican hating Anchors. Thank you for your attention to this matter. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” Greene media blitz: Greene has appeared on the Left-leaning talk show The View and has given interviews to CNN and other outlets, where she has criticized the administration and other Republicans. In a Sunday morning appearance on CNN, Greene apologized for “taking part in toxic politics” when asked why she never spoke out against Trump’s rhetorical style for attacking people until those attacks were directed at her. Epstein files: Greene has pointed to the administration’s handling of the Epstein files as one of the main reasons that she and the president seem to have had a falling out. Notably, the president has disagreed with this assessment, citing policy differences. The Epstein files are under debate in Congress right now, as a petition signed by Greene, a few other Republicans, and House Democrats seeks to force a vote on Tuesday to release more evidence. The bill is expected to pass, potentially with more GOP votes than signed on to the petition to get the vote. For some time, Trump has called the Epstein files a “hoax” and said the supposed files have been weaponized by the Democrats to distract from his agenda. But on Sunday night, Trump reversed course and called on House Republicans to back the bill that would compel the DOJ to release the files. Chinese Espionage Topline: U.S. lawmakers in both parties are ramping up warnings of Chinese spying efforts on U.S. military bases and personnel.  In recent years, Chinese companies were found to have gobbled up farmland near roughly 20 military installations nationwide, prompting warnings from the Pentagon that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) could use that land to film weapons and troop movements, intercept communications, and hack into software. Congress recently passed new laws requiring federal approval for foreign land purchases within 100 miles of most military sites. But it appears Beijing is circumventing those laws and continuing to purchase land. Whiteman under watch? In the last few days, the Daily Caller reported on a trailer park in Missouri that’s owned by a married couple living in Canada with ties to a Chinese business tycoon. That trailer park directly borders Whiteman Air Force Base, home to the U.S. military’s only nuclear-capable stealth bomber fleet. The land shares a fence with the base and sits just a mile from the runway, offering unobscured views of stealth bombers taking off and landing. The Canadian couple are Chinese immigrants with direct business ties to Miles Guo, a “disgraced Chinese tycoon and self-described former CCP intelligence affiliate.” As one former CIA operations officer said, “This trailer park would hypothetically give Xi Jinping a range of options to wreak havoc.” According to Rep. Mark Alford (R-MO), the commander of this base had no idea his next-door neighbors were potential Chinese spies.  Chinese spy tech: Last week, 23 lawmakers from both parties, led by Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA), sent a letter to the White House urging an investigation into TP-Link, a major online retailer that sells Wi-Fi routers, home security cameras, baby monitors, etc. Ernst says those devices are easily accessed by the CCP and, most concerning, “are sold through the Army, Air Force, and Navy Exchanges, placing these devices in proximity to U.S. military installations and providing a vehicle for Beijing to spy on America.” TP-Link strongly denies any wrongdoing, saying its data for American users is housed on the Amazon cloud in Virginia, and that “TP-Link does not enable foreign surveillance of U.S. networks or users.” Lawmakers say even if Chinese businesses aren’t intentionally taking part in espionage against the United States, they can often be used for those purposes by the CCP. Beijing passed new laws in recent years that require “any organization or citizen [to] support, assist and cooperate with state intelligence work.” Operation Charlotte’s Web Topline: Federal immigration agents flooded Charlotte, North Carolina, over the weekend in the next major operation under President Trump’s immigration enforcement surge. Charlotte’s Web: Immigration officials from ICE and the Border Patrol launched Operation Charlotte’s Web over the weekend, continuing Trump’s immigration crackdown across major American cities. According to administration officials, immigration operations continue to focus on dangerous illegal aliens. Quite a few non-violent aliens tend to be swept up in immigration raids, as well.  Democrat backlash: This operation has caused predictable backlash among local Democratic politicians and activists. “We have a little man sitting in 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, who really believes that Hitler was the greatest man ever on earth,” said Corine Mack, the president of the Charlotte chapter of the NAACP. “He’s trying to create a 1940 Germany right here in the United States. And like then, many people said, ‘Well, it’s them, not me.’ Until it eventually was them. We can no longer be silent.” Catholic bishops join resistance: The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops waded into the immigration debate, slamming President Trump’s enforcement policies.  “We are disturbed when we see among our people a climate of fear and anxiety around questions of profiling and immigration enforcement,” the bishops said in a video statement. “We are saddened by the state of contemporary debate and the vilification of immigrants. We are concerned about the conditions in detention centers and the lack of access to pastoral care.” The bishops’ message drew pushback from border czar Tom Homan. “Secure border saves lives and, you know, one of the reasons no one talks about why we have the most secure border in the history of this nation. [It’s] because of exactly what ICE is doing,” said Homan on Friday. “I’ll say it as a Catholic, I think they need to spend time fixing the Catholic Church, in my opinion.”

We awarded our October Dishonorable Conduct award to California Judge Edward Chen in the first of our new series on judges who ignore or twist the law and the Constitution to get the policy outcome they desire. Our November award, unfortunately, goes to Rhode Island Judge John McConnell for his decision on the SNAP program that was a blatant and obvious violation of the Constitution.  More than 150 years ago, the French philosopher Alexis de Tocqueville wrote that “there is hardly a political question in the United States which does not, sooner or later, turn into a judicial one.” He had no idea just how right he was. Rogue judges like Chen and McConnell continue trying to run the executive branch by interfering in President Donald Trump’s policy decisions and constitutional and statutory authority.   The U.S. Department of Agriculture funds the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, and shares its administration with state agencies. Last year, the program spent $100 billion to help nearly 42 million Americans. Congress provides funding in the annual appropriations bill that covers the Department of Agriculture.   This year, two weeks before the fiscal year ended on Sept. 30, House Republicans introduced H.R. 5371, which would continue the same level of department funding through Jan. 30, 2026, while the annual appropriations bills were being finalized.   The House passed H.R. 5371 on Sept. 19. In the Senate, however, a simple majority can pass a bill but only if a 60-vote supermajority allows a final vote. A group of 44 Democrats and one Republican blocked a final vote on the continuing resolution, allowing funding for the Agriculture Department, and the food assistance program, to run out. The same 45 Senators would keep the government closed by blocking a vote on the funding bill 13 more times.  The statute authorizing SNAP addresses possible appropriation shortfalls in two ways. First, it provides for a contingency fund “for use only in such amounts and at such times as may become necessary to carry out program operations.” This fund is typically used in cases of natural disasters and, when the fiscal year ended, contained enough to cover about two weeks of SNAP benefits.   Second, the statute limits benefits to the amount appropriated each year and requires that state agencies reduce SNAP benefits “to the extent necessary to comply with” that limitation.   On Oct. 30, a coalition of municipalities and nonprofit organizations filed a federal lawsuit in Rhode Island, asking U.S. District Judge John McConnell to order the Trump administration to pay full SNAP benefits during November despite the lack of an appropriation from Congress.  While the department authorized use of SNAP contingency funds to pay at least partial benefits for November, McConnell went even further. He not only ordered the administration to pay full SNAP benefits but required covering the shortfall by transferring billions of dollars from a permanent appropriation already designated by Congress for other funding, such as the National School Lunch Program.   The Supreme Court has recognized many times that executive branch agencies have the authority and discretion to allot funds appropriated by Congress among competing priorities. McConnell’s decision in this case, however, went beyond hijacking the Department of Agriculture’s discretion.  Federal law provides that SNAP benefits may not exceed the amount appropriated for a particular fiscal year and that shortfalls must be handled by reducing benefits. McConnell apparently did not like those statutory directives and so he came up with his own. He thought Congress should have created the option of raiding other federal programs and redirecting funds. Congress did not do that, so McConnell attempted to do it for them.   In other words, he used a single order to invade the authority of not one, but two other branches of government. He turned himself into both the president and a one-man Congress. It is only Congress—not federal judges like McConnell—that has the authority under the Spending Clause, Section 8 of Article I, to appropriate revenue and to decide how that revenue will be spent in government programs that Congress, not judges, creates, like the SNAP program.  The Department of Justice asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit to stay this lawless order and, because McConnell had given the administration mere hours to comply, also asked the Supreme Court to step in. As everyone knows by now, the Senate passed H.R.5371 on Nov. 10 and House members were returning to Washington to do the same. This would obviously restore SNAP funding and make any debate about stopgap or contingency spending moot. That’s at least how it should have been handled.  The First Circuit, however, not only waited until after the Senate vote to rule on McConnell’s order but, inexplicably, refused to set it aside, even though the court conceded that there was a “serious argument” that McConnell did not have the authority to second-guess the department’s decision on allocating funds.  Thankfully, the Supreme Court stepped in so that this political conflict could be resolved politically. On Nov. 11, the Court stayed McConnell’s order until midnight on Nov. 13. That gave the House time to pass H.R.5371 and for Trump to sign it into law.  Far too many political questions become judicial ones. The public understands too little about how the judicial branch is supposed to operate, and judges who step outside their constitutional lane and interfere with decisions the Constitution has assigned to the political branches only make it worse.   McConnell should have dismissed this case the moment it was filed, especially when refusing to do so meant he was displacing both the executive and legislative branches in this conflict.   For his obvious violation of the U.S. Constitution and federal law, Judge John McConnell has earned our November Dishonorable Conduct award.   Judge John McConnell (U.S. District Court of Rhode Island) The post November’s Dishonorable Conduct Award Winner–Judge John McConnell appeared first on The Daily Signal.

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The answer to how long a USB cable can be without a degradation in performance is that it depends on which USB standard you're working with.