Commentary: Americans Embrace Religion, Reject Religious Bigotry

People Praying

More than half a century ago, Time magazine famously asked, “Is God Dead?” The black and red cover, the magazine’s first to include only text, sparked countless angry sermons and thousands of letters from readers accusing Time of engaging in tasteless nihilism, Marxist pandering, and outright blasphemy.

The question, which typified the counter-culture movement and the intellectual radicalism of the 1960s, was far off the mark both then and now. The United States has always been and remains a very religious nation despite steep declines in attendance at churches, synagogues, and mosques – trends that have captured far more headlines in recent years than the nation’s enduring faith. America is also a majority Christian nation, though other religious groups and affiliations and those identifying as non-believers are growing.

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Associated Press Paid by Left-Wing Groups to Spin Global Warming Coverage

The widely-read Associated Press (AP) has received numerous donations from far-left groups, leading to the outlet’s reporting on so-called “global warming” from a clearly left-wing slant akin to the language used by such groups.

As reported by the Washington Free Beacon, the AP received $300,000 in 2022 from the Denmark-based KR Foundation, a nonprofit group which claims to be focused on the “rapid phase-out of fossil fuels,” as well as transforming journalists into “community activists for climate change.” KR further intends to force “U.S. banks out of fossil fuels,” and shut down “some existing [oil and gas] infrastructure.”

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Fulton County DA Fani Willis Under Fire for Paying Alleged Married Lover to Prosecute Trump, Bar Complaint Filed

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who is prosecuting former President Donald Trump and others connected to him, is facing accusations she violated ethics rules by appointing her married lover as chief prosecutor on the case.

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Top Two Presidential Candidates, Relatives Facing Legal Woes as 2024 Voting Starts

The top two 2024 presidential candidates are running with lawsuits looming over them, as former President Donald Trump has multiple trials he faces this year while President Joe Biden’s son is having his own legal troubles.

On Thursday, both Trump and Hunter Biden were in court at opposite ends of the country, with the former president in New York and the first son in Los Angeles. Trump’s trial is a civil case brought by the state attorney general regarding alleged business fraud while Hunter Biden was in court for alleged tax fraud.

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Mike Johnson Says He Won’t Back Out of Spending Deal Despite Freedom Caucus Opposition

House Speaker Mike Johnson said Friday he will not withdraw from a controversial spending deal to avoid a government shutdown that is opposed by several members of his conference.

Johnson, on Sunday, announced a deal with other congressional party leaders on a spending package of $1.59 trillion for Fiscal Year 2024, which has been attacked by members of the House Freedom Caucus as insufficiently conservative. After negotiations with dissident members, Johnson announced Friday that he would stand by the deal, even as members have threatened to remove him from office over the matter.

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Biden Announces Fresh Wave of Student Debt Cancellations

President Joe Biden on Friday announced the latest round of student debt cancellations in a statement issued by The White House.

Since the Supreme Court’s ruling on June 30 in Biden v. Nebraska that the administration’s plan to cancel up to $10,000 in student debt for all borrowers was unlawful, the administration has sought to pursue other debt cancellation measures, most notably through the Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) plan, which was finalized by the Department of Education (DOE) on the day of the court’s ruling. Biden said that borrowers enrolled in the SAVE plan who borrowed less than $12,000 in debt, and who have been in repayment for at least ten years, will have their balances canceled by February.

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Commentary: The Hackery of Judge Florence Pan

If a court proceeding held in the nation’s capital on Tuesday is an indication of how 2024 will go—things will be a lot worse than even the biggest skeptic predicted.

A three-judge panel of the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia—Biden appointees Florence Pan and Michelle Childs and George H. W. Bush appointee Karen Henderson—heard oral arguments for Donald Trump’s appeal of a lower court decision that concluded presidents are not immune from criminal prosecution for their conduct in office. The appeal originated out of Special Counsel Jack Smith’s four-count indictment against the former president related to the events of January 6.

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Commentary: Trump’s Ballot Disqualification Case Reaches Supreme Court

In what may turn out to be the most pivotal election case since Bush v. Gore, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a short order on Jan. 5 granting the request by former President Donald Trump asking the court to overturn the Colorado state Supreme Court’s Dec. 19 decision disqualifying him from appearing on the state’s presidential primary ballot. The U.S. Supreme Court moved with unprecedented speed; Trump filed his petition for certiorari on Jan. 3, and the court granted the appeal only two days later.

The case has been put on what, for the Supreme Court, is a “rocket docket.” Trump’s brief and any amicus briefs supporting the former president in Trump v. Anderson have to be filed by Jan. 18; the challengers’ brief and amicus briefs supporting Trump’s removal have to be filed by Jan. 31. Trump’s reply brief is due on Feb. 5, and oral arguments will be held on Feb. 8. 

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Federal Court Greenlights Alabama’s Ban on Sex Change Hormones, Surgeries for Minors

The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals issued a temporary order to lift an injunction preventing an Alabama law banning sex-change surgeries for minors from going into effect, according to court documents.

The law was halted in 2022 for the duration of the lawsuit by a district court, which claimed that the legislation illegally intruded into a patient’s medical decisions, according to the Associated Press. The appeals court ruled against the lower court’s decision in August, and on Thursday it lifted the injunction to allow the law to take effect while the appellate court continues to weigh the law.

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American Idol’s Taylor Hicks to Perform ‘Night Moves’ at the Franklin Theatre

As I learned last year in my original interview, Season 5 American Idol winner, Taylor Hicks is a diverse entertainer. Besides being a soulful singer and songwriter, the artist is an actor and restaurateur. A few weeks after our last interview, Taylor Hicks was asked to make his Grand Ole Opry debut, a milestone desired by many Southern singers.

He made his debut on June 18, 2023. Hicks said, “As long as I’ve been doing this, being able to grace the Opry Stage was something that I will never forget. It’s a big deal. I’ve had a lot of great invitations, and this was definitely up there for sure.”

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Poll: Democrats Would Rather See Michelle Obama in the White House than Biden

If Democrats had a magic wand, they’d put Michelle Obama in the White House.

The former first lady has more political star power than incumbent President Joe Biden and other famous and not-so-famous Democrats ahead of the November election, according to The Center Square Voters’ Voice Poll, conducted Jan. 2-4.

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Oregon Supreme Court Declines to Hear Case to Remove Trump from 2024 Ballot

The Oregon Supreme Court declined Friday to hear a bid to remove former President Donald Trump from the 2024 ballot, saying it wanted to wait for the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling on the matter. 

The bid was filed by Free Speech For People, a liberal advocacy group late last year.

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Border Patrol Agents Quietly Support Texas’ Move to Seize Area of Border

Border Patrol agents are quietly applauding Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s effort to seize property along the border, several of them told the Daily Caller News Foundation on the condition of anonymity because they’re not authorized to speak publicly.

The Texas Department of Public Safety seized the property of Shelby Park in Eagle Pass, Texas, the city’s mayor, Rolando Salinas, said in a statement posted to Facebook Thursday. The Department of Justice (DOJ) said in a Supreme Court filing hours after the decision that Texas National Guardsmen are blocking the Border Patrol from accessing the area, where they have a staging area and boat ramp.

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Second-Largest Foreign Owner of U.S. Land Is a Chinese Communist Party Member

Chen Tianqiao

The second-largest foreign landowner in the U.S. is a Chinese billionaire who it has been determined is a member of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), according to a Daily Caller News Foundation review of Chinese-language news reports.

Chen Tianqiao, the founder, chairman and CEO of global investment firm Shanda Group, owns approximately 200,000 acres of land in Oregon, according to Land Report. Chen also has extensive ties to the Chinese government, ranging from CCP membership to executive roles in CCP-affiliated organizations, according to a DCNF review of Chinese-language media reports.

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Part-Time Jobs Are Booming Under Biden as Americans Look to Make Ends Meet

Uber Driver

More Americans are having to take part-time jobs as consumers struggle with economic factors like high inflation, while full-time employment has sunk in tandem, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

Around 133,196,000 workers were employed with full-time jobs in the U.S. in December, which was down from 134,727,000 in November — a drop of more than 1.5 million, according to the BLS. During that same time frame, the number of Americans employed in part-time positions rose by 762,000, while the number of people with multiple jobs increased by 222,000.

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Inflation Rose More than Expected in Latest Data

Grocery Shopping

Consumer costs increased at an elevated level again in December, according to newly released federal economic data, raising new concerns about spiking inflation.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics on Thursday released the Consumer Price Index, a key marker of inflation, showing the cost of a range of every day goods and services for Americans rose more than expected.

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Commentary: Biden ‘Saves’ Democracy by Destroying It

Biden Smiling

When faced with the possible return of President Donald Trump, the current agenda of the Democratic Party is summed up simply as “We had to destroy democracy to save it.”

The effort shares a common theme: any means necessary are justified to prevent the people from choosing their own president, given the fear that a majority might vote to elect Donald Trump.

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YoungkinWatch: Democrats Call Governor’s Plan to End Unpopular Car Tax ‘Dead on Arrival’

Surovell Youngkin

Virginia Democrats reportedly claimed in a Wednesday press conference that the proposal by Governor Glenn Youngkin to end the commonwealth’s unpopular car tax is “dead on arrival” at the Virginia General Assembly.

State Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell (D-Fairfax) said Democrats would block Youngkin’s budget proposal to end the state’s unpopular car tax, calling it “dead on arrival,” according to 13 News Now.

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Hispanics Most Likely to Say Immigration Is a Top Priority: Poll

Illegal Immigrants Walking

Hispanics were the most likely racial group to rank immigration as their most pressing matter, according to an Associated Press (AP)-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll published on Wednesday.

A total of 43% of Hispanic adults identified immigration as the number one priority for the government to address, surpassing 36% of white respondents, 29% of Asians and Pacific Islanders and 19% of black respondents sharing the same sentiment, according to the AP. Moreover, 35% of American adults surveyed named immigration as a main issue, consisting of 55% of Republicans and 22% of Democrats, according to the poll.

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Commentary: America’s ‘Social Justice’ Nightmares Have Only Intensified

Pills

Seattle is in King County, Washington, where Joe Biden got 75 percent of the vote in the 2020 election. King County had more than 1,000 drug overdoses involving fentanyl in 2023. These two facts are almost certainly related, but which is the cause and which the effect? Or could it be that both (a) the tendency to vote for Democrats and (b) the addiction to dangerous drugs are caused by some unknown factor? Without a careful analysis of the available data to identify that unknown background factor, is it wrong to hazard a guess that the overdosing dopeheads and Democratic voters in King County are just plain stupid?

Beyond sarcastic put-downs, it behooves those interested in public policy to take a look at what’s going on in places like Seattle, where Democrats dominate and “progressive” ideas therefore advance unhindered by any effective opposition. In the case of King County’s skyrocketing drug overdoses — which increased nearly 50 percent in just the past year — local officials have declared the problem “a public health crisis.” However, fentanyl is illegal, which means that the overdoses are also indicative of a crime problem, and progressives are against putting criminals in prison.

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Army Struggles for White Recruits amid Recruiting Crisis and Diversity Push

Army

A precipitous drop in the number of white recruits into the U.S. Army over the past five years sheds a new light on the service’s ongoing recruiting crisis, Military.com reported, citing internal Army data viewed by the outlet.

The Army missed its 2023 recruiting target by 10,000 soldiers, falling short of its 65,000 goal, after hitting only three-quarters of its 2023 goal as the Pentagon doubled down on prioritizing racial and ethnic diversity in the ranks. Much of that decline is attributed to a dramatic decline in the total number of white recruits as the Army brought in roughly 20,000 fewer white soldiers in 2023 compared to 2018 , according to the data seen by Military.com.

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U.S. Firms Worked Covertly with Chinese Experts to Brainstorm AI Policy: Report

Leading American artificial intelligence (AI) companies have been secretly discussing how to regulate the advanced technology with Chinese experts, The Financial Times reported on Thursday.

U.S. companies OpenAI and Anthropic have partaken in these covert diplomatic discussions centering around addressing concerns regarding the risks of the technology, including so-called misinformation and social cohesion threats, the FT reported. Two meetings transpired in Geneva during July and October of 2023, bringing together scientists and policy experts from U.S. and Canadian AI organizations with counterparts from CCP-backed Tsinghua University as well as other state-supported establishments.

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Harvard Students Sue over Alleged Campus Antisemitism

Harvard University

Harvard University students sued the university Wednesday over alleged antisemitism on campus.

Harvard University has come under fire for alleged antisemitic incidents on campus, including pro-Palestinian protests that use anti-Israel slogans and the reported mobbing of a Jewish student. The students filed the lawsuit in the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts and accused the university of selectively applying its policies on discrimination and allowing Jews to be discriminated against on campus, according to court filings.

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New Report Shows Virginia Hospitals Provide $3.3 Billion in Community Support, Generate over $64 Billion in Economic Activity

Virginia hospitals and health systems provided $3.3 billion in community support for the Commonwealth in 2022, according to a new report by the Virginia Hospital & Healthcare Association (VHHA) published on Wednesday. The report also revealed Virginia’s healthcare industry generated more than $64 billion in positive economic activity over the same period.

VHHA determined the dollar amount in community support by “reflecting the cost of uncompensated care, community wellness investment, taxes, and donations.”

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Banks Are Making Easy Money Off Crisis Government Program Designed to Bail Them Out

Federal Reserve

Banks are leveraging current interest rate projections to make a profit off of a program created last year designed to give access to funds for the sector amid a banking crisis, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The Federal Reserve created the bank term funding program in the midst of a banking crisis started by a bank run at Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) in March due to fears that SVB’s collapse would spread to the rest of the industry, according to the WSJ. Struggling banks can take depreciated bonds at face value and exchange those with the Fed for one-year loans in an effort to bolster liquidity, but since the loans are tied to future interest rate expectations and interest rates are increasingly expected to drop in the near future, banks can turn a profit on the difference.

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Biden Admin Adds LGBTQ Strings to Foreign Agriculture Grants

Farmer

The U.S. Department of Agriculture intends to cultivate the transgender ideology on a global scale using international farm-aid programs. 

That could mean attaching strings to international grants that the USDA doles out to support the Biden administration’s LGBTQ agenda, which President Joe Biden ordered in a presidential memorandum. 

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Federal Judge Rejects Challenge to Trump’s Eligibility for Nevada Ballot

Trump Nevada

A federal judge rejected on Monday a challenge to former President Donald Trump’s eligibility to appear on the Nevada ballot.

U.S. District Court Judge Gloria Navarro found John Anthony Castro, a self-proclaimed Republican primary candidate who has filed challenges to Trump’s eligibility to appear on ballots across the nation, did not have standing to sue. Federal judges in West Virginia, Arizona and Rhode Island have made similar rulings, and the Supreme Court declined in October to take up Castro’s appeal of a case he filed in Florida.

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YoungkinWatch: Sen. Tim Kaine Predicts Governor Will Find ‘Areas of Agreement’ with Democrats, Pass Bipartisan Legislation

Tim Kaine

Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA) predicted in a Tuesday interview that Governor Glenn Youngkin (R) will be able to identify “areas of agreement” with Democrats in the Virginia General Assembly and ultimately pass legislation.

Kaine, citing his own experience leading a divided Virginia government as governor from 2006 through 2010, reflected to WTOP News, “We disagreed on a lot, but we always found things we could agree on.”

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Commentary: The Inherently Destructive Uniparty Agenda

Congress

It’s easy enough to blame Democrats for everything, but as a rapidly increasing percentage of American voters have realized, Republicans share the blame. These politicians are controlled by their donors, and in America today, the big donors are in agreement regardless of which party or which candidate gets their money.

This, then, is what has become dubbed America’s uniparty. And while wealthy elites have always exercised disproportionate influence in American politics, and, for that matter, the politics of virtually every nation that has ever existed, what is happening in 21st century America is unique.

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Court Blocks Biden Effort to Tighten Regulations on Washing Machines, Dishwashers

Dishwasher

The U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals pushed back on a Biden administration effort to tighten regulations on dishwashers and washing machines.

In 2022, President Joe Biden issued an executive order on his first day in office that led to the Department of Energy replacing a less strict Trump-era rule on those appliances with a more stringent rule for energy and water use.

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Commentary: Biden Lashes Out at the Half of the Country That Refuses to Vote for Him

Joe Biden

Neither gender policy, nor multiculturalism, nor climate change. It’s all nonsense that entertains politicians but is useless for winning elections, because voters see it as just that: nonsense. The Democrats have already realized this and have a new reason for you to vote for them: saving democracy. It is funny that the Left, the ideology that has caused more poverty, crimes, and totalitarianism in history, comes to save democracy. But Joe Biden’s speech on Jan. 5 left no room for doubt. It’s your choice: Democrats or chaos. 

The only thing they show with this change of direction (they don’t so much as mention Bidenomics anymore) is that they are desperate. After all they’ve committed against Donald Trump, after all they’ve done to muddy the playing field, with all the traps laid out and all the lies, the guy is still leading in the polls, while the zombie in the White House is becoming more and more zombie-like and less and less in the White House.

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Music Spotlight: The Frontmen

The Frontmen

While listening to my pal, Storme Warren on The Big 615, I heard him interviewing a group of men called The Frontmen on his show. And while their voices sounded familiar, I was unsure of who they were.

It turns out that The Frontmen are a new country music trio, and I can honestly say that their harmony is next level. They consist of Richie McDonald, formerly of Lonestar (Amazed, “I’m Already There,” “Mr. Mom,” and “My Front Porch Looking In”); Tim Rushlow, formerly of Little Texas (“God Blessed Texas,” “What Might Have Been,” and “My Love”); and Larry Stewart of Restless Heart, (“Why Does It Have to Be Wrong or Right,” “When She Cries,” “The Bluest Eyes in Texas,” and “I’ll Still Be Loving You.”)

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