To put it bluntly, Jill Biden’s time as first lady has been a complete train wreck. Even Jill Biden is on the verge of admitting it. In a full-ranging interview with the Washington Post this week, the first lady confessed, “Let’s just say I was disappointed with how it unfolded” — with “it” being her and Joe’s time in the White House. When prompted to answer why she felt that way, Jill vaguely said: “I don’t know. I learned a lot about human nature.” This was intended to be a dig at Nancy Pelosi and other Democrats who rightly forced Joe Biden out of the presidential race due to his cognitive incapacity. In Jill’s view, this was a betrayal of friendship. To her, Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer should have done everything possible to keep Biden in the race because of their decades-long close relationship with the Biden family. “We were friends for 50 years,” Jill said of Pelosi’s effort to force Biden out. “It was disappointing.” What about the security and well-being of her nation — the one that is home to 335 million of her fellow Americans? Well, that’s a much lower priority than Nancy Pelosi being a good “friend.” It’s easy to see why so many have compared Jill Biden to Lady Macbeth. She certainly seems to be a woman who, motivated by her own power, orchestrated her husband’s treacherous attempt to be reelected president. (Treacherous because Joe’s cognitive dysfunction made him unfit for office.) Jill Biden’s interview with the Washington Post served only to reinforce the narrative that it was she who was the animating force behind that widely denounced reelection bid. Whereas Joe Biden confessed the other week, “I don’t know. Who the hell knows?” when asked whether he would have been able to serve as president another four years, Jill Biden was adamant that of course, he would have been capable. “Sure,” she said. “I mean, today, I think he has a full schedule. He started early with interviews and briefings, and it just keeps going.” Jill seemed to be Biden’s foremost defender upon his disastrous debate performance in June — content to not bat an eye at the Democratic meltdown over his awful performance. (“Joe, you did such a great job! You answered every question!”) It has been reported that, well before that disastrous debate, it was Jill who convinced Biden to wage another bid for the White House. In 2023, Politico published a report on how she managed to get him on board. It was through “gentle encouragement,” wrote Eugene Daniels. “Privately,” Daniels said, “the first lady encouraged her husband to run again while giving him the space he needed to process the decision in the way he traditionally does.” Jill, said the report, had “no reservations” about a reelection bid and was “involved in all the high-level discussions around the decision.” Jill’s response at the time to those who asserted that Biden had “lost a step” was to “bristle” at such criticism, Daniels reported. Of course, we know now that Jill Biden was well aware of what was going on behind the scenes. According to Carl Bernstein, Biden had acted as he did in the debate on at least “15, 20 occasions” in the year and a half prior to that fateful night. Bernstein explained on CNN: “[T]hese people who have supported him, loved him, campaigned for him, see him often, say that in the last six months particularly, there has been a marked incidence of cognitive decline and physical infirmity.” If Joe was this bad when he was on the clock, imagine how bad he was late at night or early in the morning with Jill. We also know that there was a purposeful coverup that attempted to shield Joe Biden’s condition. This was carried out even to the extent that members of the White House residence staff — the employees who work in the first family’s private quarters — were kept away from Joe. “Joe Biden’s close aides have carefully shielded him from people inside and outside the White House since the beginning of his presidency,” reported Alex Thompson in Axios. And, according to Thompson, this was at the behest of Jill Biden’s top aide as well as her deputy chief of staff. Thompson quoted one former White House residence official who said Jill was “so protective of the president, and then [Jill’s top aide] just protects her, and they often wouldn’t let us do anything for them.” Here we have evidence that Jill Biden was orchestrating the coverup of her husband’s cognitive decline — a decline she undoubtedly was familiar with. Even when Democrats were begging for Joe to exit the race, it was Jill who urged her husband to stay on. At a Biden family gathering at Camp David — for the sake of a photoshoot by Annie Leibovitz — it was reported that Jill and Hunter Biden adamantly encouraged Joe to stay in the race, even as many Democrats were saying that it was up to Jill to convince him to do the right thing and step aside. That weekend was the same one Jill’s Vogue cover hit shelves. Many saw in that cover the reason why Jill was insisting that Joe stay in the race: She didn’t want to give up her White House lifestyle. In response to the backlash at the time, Jill’s communications director, Elizabeth Alexander, told the media that Jill Biden had been put in “an impossible situation” because of “the right wing machine fueling narratives and inventing false caricatures at every turn.” Alexander explained that women across the country struggle with being supportive of the men in their lives without “being too ambitious or aggressive,” according to the Associated Press. Essentially, the claim was that all of the critiques of Jill were just a trumped-up right-wing narrative rooted in sexism. This is quite rich. If anything, it is Democrats who are the most morally outraged at Jill’s power-hungry antics. But they shouldn’t be alone in their anger. This is a woman who was so selfish that she sought to thrust the entire world into the perilous situation of another four years of an incapable president. Not even Edith Wilson attempted to deceive Americans into electing her husband for another term in power. If there’s one good thing we can say about Jill Biden, it’s that she has at least stopped insisting we refer to her as “Dr.” Jill Biden. Likely, it got too embarrassing for her to keep that one up. We could laud her as well for finally recognizing her granddaughter who was born out of wedlock — though that acknowledgment was made under duress and after the child was 4 years old. All in all, Jill Biden has been a disastrous first lady and a danger to her own nation. No wonder she’s so disappointed. READ MORE from Ellie Gardey Holmes: The Total Collapse of the Washington Post Blame Newsom, Not Climate Change, for Los Angeles Wildfires Who Are the Potential Replacements for 88-Year-Old Pope Francis? The post Jill Biden: The Worst First Lady Ever appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.

PACIFIC PALISADES, California — On Sunday afternoon, I ventured behind the LAPD, LAFD, and National Guard lines to visit this embattled town, including my alma mater Palisades Charter High School. Deroy Murdock stands in the Quad at Palisades High School (Source: Deroy Murdock) Pali High, as we called it before charter schools became necessary, is largely in great shape, despite widespread, mistaken news reports. The bungalows burned in the back of the campus, as did a building that once featured shop classes. Everything else — the remaining 85 to 90 percent — is pristine. Pali mainly appears as if the students went home as usual and would return in the morning. The only sign of distress was a shrill alarm that shrieked relentlessly during my 20-minute walk-through. Deroy Murdock surveys limited, but severe, damage at Pali High. (Source: Deroy Murdock) Please join me in underwriting the 10 to 15 percent reconstruction that Pali High needs. You can do so here. Beyond my old school, however, the local damage is extensive, severe, and heartbreaking. Before and after photos of Palisades Presbyterian Church. (Source: Before – Google Street View; After – Deroy Murdock) Just one example: Palisades Presbyterian Church sits just above Pali High, at the northeast corner of Sunset Boulevard and El Medio Avenue. The previously attractive house of worship is now just a smattering of metal beams. The steel steeple also survived, complete with a cross near its peak. The faithful might call this a sign of Divine omnipotence. Religious skeptics might respond that the demolition of the rest of this church and much of the surrounding community fortifies their worldview. Before and after photos of Palisades Presbyterian Church. (Source: Before – Google Street View; After – Deroy Murdock) That said, more of Pacific Palisades is unscathed than I expected. Between Corona del Mar and Pampas Ricas Boulevard, Toyopa Drive in the Huntington Palisades is the same as it ever was. On that stretch, I discovered exactly one burned house. When that homeowner returns from evacuation and notices that every other residence within sight was spared, he likely will wonder: “What have I done to deserve this?” Very broadly, at least from what I observed, properties south of Sunset and east of Chautauqua Boulevards tended to fare better than those north and west of those streets. Also, at least along Sunset, everything I saw east of Amalfi Drive in the Riviera Palisades looked perfectly normal. Among the noteworthy phenomena on display are the randomness and capriciousness that governed which structures stood and which succumbed to the flames. Much less like the nearly holistic damage that beset New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina, this fire selected its victims somewhat more randomly, like a tornado that bludgeons some buildings and breezes past others. Undamaged house at 538 North Almar Ave in Palisades, Calif. (Source: Deroy Murdock) Along Almar Avenue, near the actual palisades that plunge toward the Pacific and give this beautiful community its mellifluous name, No. 538 is not made of stone, stucco, or any other obviously flame-resistant material. Instead, this home was built from dark, exposed, raw wood. It looks as rustic and untreated as a frontier Army fort. It also is packed with leafy trees that swaddle this property in shade. For embers, this would be The Breakers in Palm Beach. And yet, somehow, this three-bedroom lumber yard was fit for an open house on Sunday. So were all the homes on this thoroughfare’s south side. A damaged home at 507 North Almar Ave in Palisades, Calif. (Source: Before – Google Street View; After – Deroy Murdock) Just across the street: Total annihilation. Every home burned to its foundation. Go figure. A couple pulled over beside this road. While the man watched from inside his car, the woman sifted through what was left of her best friend’s home. As she stepped gingerly from the torched site to the car, she said bittersweetly: “I got the baby books.” They were singed around the edges but for more than cinders. A before and after view of 15301 Antioch St in Palisades, Calif. (Source: Before – Google Street View; After – Deroy Murdock) On Antioch Street, near Swarthmore Avenue, I hopped out of my rented Volkswagen Taos and photographed a once-lovely two-story, Spanish-style building. It’s now as hollowed out as a Dresden grocery store in 1945. The Bank of America branch that faced Sunset Boulevard is gone, as is the adjacent Casa Nostra Trattoria. Just around the corner, a Department of Water and Power worker urgently insisted that I move my vehicle. “Those light poles are burned and could fall onto your car,” he said. Indeed they were torched, bent, and barely hanging on, thanks mainly to the power lines in which they were entangled. This was one precarious picture. “Look up, think, and live,” the West L.A. lineman advised, sounding more than a little exasperated. I swiftly scooted. Wildfires devoured the Songhorian family’s Malibu residence. (Source: Parham Songhorian) Parham Songhorian accompanied me through this entire experience. This Iranian-born Jew escaped the ayatollahs as a young man and moved to Los Angeles, where he and his family have prospered as home builders. While his Palisades house made it, his parents’ and brother Damoon’s places in Malibu did not. Evacuation orders prohibited Songhorian from driving home. So, he waved me down on California Incline, as I approached Pacific Coast Highway en route to the Palisades. He asked me for a lift. I agreed, provided that we first survey this devastation. “Sure,” he told me. “I have nothing else to do today.” As dusk approached, I delivered Songhorian to his one-story house above Sunset Boulevard. With electricity off throughout the fire zone, his neighborhood grew darker by the minute. Traffic and people were nowhere. An eerie silence pervaded. A dark green, vintage VW Bug guarded his street, right in front of three homes that were erased. Songhorian noticed that his front gate was open. “I closed it before I left,” he said, his voice rich with worry. He approached his front porch, discovered a window screen out of place, and began swearing up a storm. “They tried to break into my house!” he screamed, amid a cascade of expletives. Songhorian discovered that someone used a ladder to climb atop his garage, drop into his backyard, and then attempt to enter his home. His sliding glass door seemed tampered with, but nothing was stolen. Songhorian pondered his next step atop the horns of a dilemma: Should he stay, or should he go? Before and after of Gelson’s market on Sunset Blvd (Source: Before – Google Street View; After – Deroy Murdock) If he stuck around, he would have been alone and could have faced these vile criminals if they returned. But if he departed with me, he could not come back that night due to the 6:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. curfew, which officials imposed specifically to combat the filthy, sadistic vermin whom police caught looting this battered area. Songhorian came with me and I dropped him off at his car, parked on Santa Monica’s gorgeous Ocean Avenue. I suggested that he secure a shotgun, invite some friends and a big dog or two to his place, barbecue with them, and maintain a highly conspicuous presence overnight. That might repel these revolting villains. (“Unfortunately, we are still unable to get back to our homes, and it doesn’t really matter what time of day,” Songhorian updated me Friday morning. “Now, we have even more restrictions than on Sunday, when we went together. Residents cannot even get passes to check on their homes. It is a big mess, and the police cannot tell us when we can return to our homes. I am very concerned about another break-in.”) North Mount Holyoke Ave as seen from across Temescal Canyon (Source: Deroy Murdock) With sunset now more than a boulevard, Pacific Palisades was pitch black. No street lights. No stop lights. Only car lights pierced the darkness. This was a very sad evening in a once sunny place. Many days and nights will pass before this delightful community restores anything resembling normalcy. Meanwhile, my über-organized sister Lorna sent me a link to the official LAFD Watch Duty website. It includes a highly detailed and oft-updated map of the Palisades and Eaton fires, and other blazes. This resource is incredibly reliable for checking the status of specific addresses. For what it’s worth, I lately have delivered several broadcasts on these fires. They are available here, here, and here. Let’s cross our fingers and hope that the Santa Ana winds stay light, and things only get better. Finally, those who have lost cars, homes, other property, and loved ones in the Palisades Fire and other conflagrations deserve America’s profound sympathies and sincerest hopes for the future. Pacific Palisades, Calif. (Source: Google Maps) Deroy Murdock is a Manhattan-based Fox News contributor. READ MORE from Deroy Murdock: Judge’s Ruling Will Help Trump Make the Border Wall Great Again Hegseth’s On-Record Defenders Crush Baseless Drinking Claims by Nameless Sources Dear Never Trump: Thanks For Nothing The post Apocalypse Now: Behold the Palisades Fire’s Devastating Aftermath appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.

It’s hard to believe, but we’re finally here. Four years after all the Sturm und Drang that followed Donald Trump’s 2020 electoral loss to Joe Biden, the maestro of Mar-a-Lago is set to be inaugurated once more on Monday as president of the United States. And what an absolutely wild ride it has been. In the interim four years, Trump has completed nothing less than the single most remarkable comeback — political or otherwise — in American history. Trump has been prosecuted — four separate times, by three different prosecutors. He was “convicted” of a “crime” — the precise legal theory of which we actually still do not know — in a quintessential show trial in bright-blue New York City. One would-be assassin nicked his ear, coming within millimeters of murdering him on national television. A second would-be assassin was nearly able to fire a clear shot at him on his own Florida golf course. Two opposition party presidential candidates, working in tandem with an ever-supine propaganda media, tarred and feathered him as a historical threat to the Constitution — as a crypto-Nazi who, if once again given the reins of power, might really burn it all down. Yet the American people saw right through it all. Trump prevailed — and not exactly in a squeaker either. Trump swept every single swing state, crushing Kamala Harris in the Electoral College tally and becoming the first Republican to win the national popular vote in two decades. Trump, as many have observed, earned a “mandate” from the American electorate. And now, with his sundry foes all vanquished, Trump is once again set to place his hand on the Bible and take that solemn oath of office. America has been spared four more years of a prolonged Biden–Harris-induced national nightmare. Hallelujah! But despite all the revelry in the nation’s capital this Monday, it is important to be clear-eyed about the task ahead. In making history as the first man in over 130 years to earn a second nonconsecutive presidential term, Trump has been given an opportunity not merely to lead the nation he so clearly loves. He has also been given an opportunity — a four-year-long opportunity, as the case may be — to study and learn from what went wrong, or at least didn’t exactly go as planned, the first time around. So: Has Trump 2.0 learned from Trump 1.0? And will this 47th presidential administration be an improvement over the (already quite good!) 45th presidential administration? Has Trump learned that he cannot squander the massive political capital that comes with winning a presidential election? Has he learned that, in the aftermath of such a tremendous victory and with a like-minded congressional majority in tow, now is the time to strike with an aggressive, full-throttle legislative agenda? More to the point: Has Trump learned to lead out of the gate on his most important and signature issue, immigration, rather than be sidetracked by such relative distractions as health care or tax cuts (as he was last time)? Has Trump finally learned to trust his own instincts over the questionable instincts of those who try to flatter him? In the aftermath of the destructive “1619 Riots” of 2020 and historically high crime in major urban corridors such as New York City and Los Angeles, has Trump finally abandoned once and for all the misguided pursuit of “criminal justice reform” — which, last time, took the form of the Kim Kardashian-peddled First Step Act jailbreak law? Will he finally prove to be the “back the blue” pro-“law and order” stalwart he campaigned as back in 2016? Has Trump learned the indispensable imperative of having true loyalists in power up and down the entirety of the administrative state? Will he, unlike last time, be willing and able to fire each and every single subversive executive branch bureaucrat — no matter what any flawed regulation or erroneous court precedent says about a purported inability to do so? Will he be able to end the calamitous weaponization of the Department of Justice by any means necessary — and clean out the Augean stables at the fetid Federal Bureau of Investigation? Has Trump, especially in the aftermath of Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s latest defection that permitted Trump’s criminal “conviction” to proceed, learned the right lessons about how to pick Supreme Court justices who will be more like Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito — and less like Chief Justice John Roberts? Will Trump exclusively select jurists who have flawless judicial records, are genuine full-spectrum conservatives, demonstrate an eagerness to overrule bad precedent, and have a conservative spouse and attend a theologically conservative house of worship? These are just some of the questions I have about the new Trump presidency. I certainly hope the answer to each and every question is “yes.” Godspeed to you, President Trump. READ MORE from Josh Hammer: Andrew Breitbart, Mark Zuckerberg, and the Two-Way Politics-Culture Street Bourbon Street Massacre Is What ‘Globalize the Intifada’ Looks Like Immigration Moratorium Now To find out more about Josh Hammer and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com. COPYRIGHT 2025 CREATORS.COM The post Has Trump 2.0 Learned From Trump 1.0? appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.

More than one million American K-12 students utilized private school choice last year, nearly double the number from just five years ago. This growth has been fueled by the rapid spread of school choice programs, such as education savings accounts (ESAs), vouchers, and tax credit scholarships, which allow state tax dollars to fund education beyond an assigned public school. One million is a big number, but this just scratches the surface when it comes to the number of families who would like other educational options. Polling consistently finds that only around 40 percent of parents would choose a regular public school if they had other options, but around 83 percent of the country’s 54 million students attend a regular public school. This huge mismatch shows the potential impact as school choice continues to spread. A Brief History of Public Education and School Choice Let’s back up for a minute to better understand what I mean by school choice. Starting in the mid-to-late 1800s, states began getting more involved in education. This largely involved creating school districts, assigning children to schools based on where they lived, and sending tax dollars to those schools. Over time, there has been increasing recognition that different students have different needs and one size cannot fit all. Since states mandate school funding and attendance, people began to push for scholarship programs that would allow a portion of education tax dollars to be used at private schools. In 1990, the first modern school voucher was created in Milwaukee to provide private school tuition help for lower-income families. Other states followed suit, creating school vouchers or tax credit scholarships, which are funded by private donations that receive a tax credit rather than direct tax funding. In 2011, Arizona created the first education savings account program, which allowed funds to be used for a variety of educational expenses, such as computers, curricula, and services for students with special needs, as well as private school tuition. (RELATED: K-12 School Choice Will Improve Higher Education) In the wake of COVID, there has been tremendous growth in school choice, a trend that continued last year. But, as the statistics I cited earlier indicate, there is a long way to go. With new legislative sessions kicking off, what are the prospects for school choice in 2025? The Future of School Choice The Milwaukee voucher program was bipartisan when it was created in 1990, and support among voters tends to be bipartisan. But school choice victories are usually Republican-led endeavors; Democratic lawmakers, who are often supported by teachers’ unions that oppose school choice, generally vote against the programs. Despite the recent successes, around half of red states still lack widespread school choice. But efforts are already underway to make inroads in the biggest holdouts. (RELATED: California Democrat Defects Over School Choice) In 2023, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) called four special legislative sessions aimed at passing ESAs. The Texas Senate passed an ESA bill that year, but Democrats and rural Republicans in the House, faced with intense political pressure from teachers’ unions and public school bureaucrats, blocked it. Rather than continue to fight them, Abbot successfully backed several 2024 primary challengers against the House Republicans who thwarted his school choice proposal. The governor says the House now has enough supporters and he expects to pass school choice this year. Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee (R) is also enthusiastically pushing school choice in 2025 with support from legislative leaders. The day after the November election, identical versions of the Education Freedom Act of 2025 were filed in both chambers of the legislature — as House Bill 1 and Senate Bill 1 to indicate their high priority. The legislation would create education savings accounts that could be used first for private school tuition and then for other eligible educational expenses. Unfortunately, the current version is much less flexible than a typical ESA since students have to enroll in private schools to participate, but it is a start. The Idaho Parental Choice Tax Credit, which would provide a credit on state income taxes for allowed education-related expenses, would be the first private school choice program in the Gem State if enacted. Many advocates are optimistic that this could be the year given the current political landscape. Republicans have super majorities in both chambers, and last year’s elections increased the number of school choice supporters. Plus, Gov. Brad Little (R) called for school choice in his recent State of the State address. In addition to enacting new programs, some states will look to expand existing programs this year. For example, New Hampshire already has one of the most expansive ESAs in the country. Known as Education Freedom Accounts — which makes sense in a state whose motto is “Live Free or Die” — the accounts can be used for private school tuition, tutoring, curriculum, services for students with special needs, and other education-related expenses. Currently, only around half of students in New Hampshire are eligible due to the program’s income limits. However, incoming Gov. Kelly Ayotte (R) supports eliminating the income restrictions. And there are strong Republican majorities in both chambers of the legislature, which could bode well for efforts to make the program universal. Throughout the 2024 presidential campaign, there was also a lot of buzz about school choice at the federal level. With President-elect Trump and many Republican Congressional members supporting the idea, it will likely be front and center this year. However, the federal government doesn’t have a constitutional role in K-12 education outside of very limited areas. Every state constitution, on the other hand, includes mandates related to education, making states the better providers of school choice. Between continued action on the state level and expected efforts in Washington, D.C., school choice will continue to be a hot topic in 2025. This is good news for students who are currently in educational environments that aren’t working for them. And that’s what’s important to remember when thinking about school choice. While their assigned public schools may work well for many — even millions — of students, there are likely millions more who are just getting by but could flourish in a different location. By enacting school choice programs, states can transform their educational offerings to prioritize individual students and their needs. READ MORE from Colleen Hroncich: The Status of School Choice: Looking Back at Gains in 2024 How to Ease COVID-Era Education Battles: Fund Students Colleen Hroncich is a policy analyst at the Cato Institute’s Center for Educational Freedom. The post Will School Choice Continue to Spread in 2025? appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.

by Mish Shedlock, Mish Talk: For starters, success is still not guaranteed. Either Netanyahu or Hamas could kill the deal. But assuming success … Why the Deal Sill Might Fail Before explaining why Trump got much further than Biden, let’s discuss what might still kill the deal. The Wall Street Journal reports Netanyahu Strikes Cautious Tone […]

by Martin Armstrong, Armstrong Economics: Educators throughout the nation have been pushing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs. Rarely has the system stopped to consider how the students feel about such measures. College Rover conducted a study that found DEI measures are influencing students’ political leanings and sometimes increasing racial bias in the classroom. We can expect […]