A dizzying volley of courtroom maneuvers over a Texas law that would allow the state to arrest and deport people who enter the U.S. illegally sowed confusion at the nation’s border with Mexico on Wednesday as sheriffs‚ police chiefs and migrants waited for direction. Texas faced skeptical questioning during a hearing before a three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that ended without a ruling‚ leaving Texas’ new law on hold for now. It was part of a flurry of activity that...

When we accuse a politician of dehumanizing some ethnic group‚ we’re usually being metaphorical. The other day‚ however‚ Donald Trump said it straight out: Some migrants are “not people‚ in my opinion.” Well‚ in my opinion‚ they are people. I’d still say that even if the migrant crime wave Trump and his allies harp on were real‚ and not a figment of their imagination (violent crime has in fact been plummeting in many cities). And I’d say it even if there weren’t growing evidence that...

Millions of older Americans are at risk of losing some of their Social Security benefits after defaulting on student loans‚ Democratic lawmakers said in a letter urging the Biden administration to act. Why it matters: Seniors are one of the highest risk categories with reports showing nearly 40% of borrowers aged 65 or older in default. Federal programs that claw those funds back mean seniors lose as much as $2‚500 in Social Security benefits annually. Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.)‚...

Attacks on Ukrainian refugees who fled to NATO nations due to Russia's war in Ukraine may be on the rise. A Russian woman‚ 43‚ and a German man‚ 44‚ have been accused of killing 27-year-old Ukrainian refugee Marharyta Razaz‚ whose body was found on the banks of the Rhine River in Hockenheim‚ Germany‚ on March 7‚ four months after arriving from Slovakia after fleeing the war in Ukraine. The suspects are also accused of kidnapping Razaz's five-week-old baby‚ German newspaper Bild reported...

A Georgia judge enabled former President Trump to immediately appeal the recent ruling declining to disqualify Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis (D) for her romantic relationship with a top prosecutor overseeing the election interference case there. In a brief order issued Wednesday‚ Judge Scott McAfee granted the certificate of immediate review requested by Trump and eight of his co-defendants in the sprawling racketeering case. They are now expected to ask the Georgia Court of...

Afghanistan has received more than $2.9 billion in cash from the United Nations since the Taliban took over‚ a ProPublica investigation found‚ leading to the transfer of U.S. funds to the militant group. ProPublica‚ citing a Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction report‚ found the U.N. deposits funds into a private Afghan bank and distributes funds to aid organizations and nonprofit humanitarian groups affiliated with the agency. However‚ some funds ended up at the...

The United Steelworkers endorsed President Joe Biden just days after he announced his opposition to the sale of U.S. Steel to a foreign competitor. “President Biden proved time and again during his first term that he stands with working families‚” USW President David McCall said. “His vision and leadership allowed our nation to strengthen workers’ access to collective bargaining‚ grow the middle class‚ and embark on a path to widespread prosperity.” Biden and McCall spoke last week‚...

He worked with many country artists.

Happiness is an odd thing to measure. To begin with‚ it’s incredibly subjective. For instance‚ let’s suppose you’re a Gallup pollster and you ask me‚ “Were you happy last year?” while I’m listening to Pachelbel’s organ fugues on the Magnificat or William Byrd’s Ne irascaris. I’m likely to answer yes. On a scale of 1–10‚ I would rate my happiness at an 8 (if I’m singing Byrd‚ that’d be a 10). READ MORE: Advocacy for Marriage as the Ideal Is Racist‚ Says Professor On the other hand‚ let’s suppose it’s 5 p.m. on a Thursday. I’ve just gotten out of a string of long meetings‚ and I still have a weekend column I want to tackle. I’ve been pestered all day by messages from co-workers‚ friends‚ and family members who all need something from me. Given that my Friday to-do list is growing‚ my answer will likely be less enthusiastic. Of course‚ these are incredibly personal examples that apply to one individual‚ and my hypothetical answers have very little to do with what happened last year. Now take my answers and their circumstances and expand that to several thousand Americans‚ and you get the non-results of Gallup’s recently released 12th annual World Happiness Report. In that report‚ Gallup found that happiness among Americans dropped drastically last year. The U.S. fell to 23rd in the rankings‚ a decline primarily driven by “Americans under 30 feeling worse about their lives‚” explained Gallup. We have all sorts of fodder for commentary here. We could talk about an economy that feels as though it’s fizzling and food and service prices that are rocketing. Politics took a rather depressing turn after Republicans discovered that their only choices in the upcoming election were bickering mini-Trumps who didn’t add up to the real thing‚ while the man himself was targeted by the Justice Department they once trusted. Meanwhile‚ Democrats quickly found themselves forced into backing a candidate who suffers from a severe case of dementia. As a member of that class of Americans under the age of 30‚ I believe I can speak about the role social media has played in ensuring that we (mostly Gen Z) don’t have traditional (i.e.‚ face-to-face) relationships with real people. I could talk about the lack of community‚ the growing costs of education and housing‚ and the sense we have that the political world we’re about to inherit is deeply corrupted. Then there’s the lies we’ve been told about fundamental realities like sex and identity — lies that some of my generation have bought into. Those are all great things to talk about. But it feels wrong to do so in the context of this new report — because I don’t trust it. This is the problem with statistics: They frequently measure something but rarely what they’re purported to measure. It’s possible that Americans were less happy last year than ever before‚ but‚ given the nature of happiness‚ that can’t be objectively demonstrated. I’m not even sure I could tell you whether I was happier last week than the week before. Why does all this matter? Stats like these are used all the time‚ both by conservatives and liberals‚ to illustrate useless points about the direction of American culture. The problem is that sociology is fickle‚ and we can talk about stats until we’re blue in the face‚ but that doesn’t make either representative of reality. This article is an excerpt from The American Spectator’s Spectator P.M. newsletter. Subscribe today to read future letters from our staff! The post Gallup’s Stats on American Happiness Are Baloney appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.

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