Justice Department Paves Way To Rein In Federal Land Grabs thumbnail

Justice Department Paves Way To Rein In Federal Land Grabs

By The Daily Caller

The Justice Department (DOJ) said on Tuesday that President Donald Trump has the authority to revoke national monument designations made by previous presidents, including two massive tracts of land in California that former President Joe Biden locked off from development.

The new legal opinion issued by the DOJ disputes a 1938 ruling that stated monuments designated by previous presidents cannot be undone. The opinion provides a pathway for potentially reducing the amount of federally-controlled land, a policy priority that the Trump administration has hinted at for months.

Under the Antiquities Act, presidents have the authority to “declare by public proclamation historic landmarks, historic and prehistoric structures, and other objects of historic or scientific interest that are situated upon the lands owned or controlled by the Government of the United States to be national monuments.” However, previous rulings limited the president’s ability to reverse those declarations.

“If the President can declare that his predecessor was wrong regarding the value of preserving one such object on a given parcel, there is nothing preventing him from declaring that his predecessor was wrong about all such objects on a given parcel,” the opinion read.

The opinion singled out the 624,000-acre Chuckwalla National Monument and the 225,000-acre Sáttítla Highlands National Monument in California, which Biden designated in 2025 just before leaving office. Biden’s declaration prevented the extraction of oil, gas, and other natural resources, but the latest DOJ ruling states that Trump can revoke his predecessor’s proclamation.

During his first term, Trump reduced the size of two national monuments in Utah. At the time, he argued that state and local management would be more effective than federal oversight.

“Your timeless bond with the outdoors should not be replaced with the whims of regulators thousands and thousands of miles away,” Trump said at the time. “I’ve come to Utah to take a very historic action to reverse federal overreach and restore the rights of this land to your citizens.”

However, critics argue that such a change would destroy lands with cultural and scientific significance.

“This opinion flies in the face of a century of interpretation of the Antiquities Act. Americans overwhelmingly support our public lands and oppose seeing them dismantled or destroyed,” the Wilderness Society said in a press release in response to the DOJ opinion.

Federal lands are especially concentrated in western states, where roughly 46% of the land was federally owned as of 2020.

AUTHOR

Melissa O’Rourke

Reporter.

RELATED ARTICLE: Biden Closes Off Another 500,000 Acres Of Public Land To Development

EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.


All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

The post Justice Department Paves Way To Rein In Federal Land Grabs appeared first on Dr. Rich Swier.

Critically Thinking about Water Filters thumbnail

Critically Thinking about Water Filters

By John Droz, Jr.

A major health matter that we often don’t satisfactorily consider… 

Sufficient clean water is arguably the single most important necessity for good health. That said, we often do not give this adequate attention.

For example, most people buy water filters (e.g., for their refrigerator). We are drinking everything that comes through that filterBut where is it made and what quality control does it have?

If you look for water filters at Amazon, Walmart, etc., the lowest-priced options are almost all made in China. I have nothing against Chinese products in general, but it is legitimate to ask: 1) exactly what materials are in this filter, and 2) what quality controls are there assuring us that it works properly?

In my experience — as a scientist and as an individual who has been involved with water quality issues for many years — the typical answer to both of those questions for Chinesew filters is: we do not know.

Considering the potential impact on you and your family of drinking gallons of questionably filtered water, IMO, a good filter is not something where it makes sense to get the cheapest product.

I tried this Internet search, “What is the quality of water filters made in China?” but nothing relevant came up. Noteworthy is that most of the articles that did appear seemed to be of Chinese origin, promoting Chinese filters.

Two sites that list American-made water filters are here and here. Although these will be somewhat more expensive, you have a much higher assurance that you are getting a quality product.

My comments so far have been about filtering generally good water. If you have local water with specialized contaminants (e.g., PFAS), then you need specialized filters (e.g., here).

Buying Water —

Buying filtered water is a related topic, and has become an everyday affair for almost all of us. But here’s a question that you rarely see discussed — is it better to buy: 1) pre-packaged water, or 2) water from a vending machine?

Pre-packaged water would be in gallon to pint-sized plastic containers — readily available almost everywhere. The attraction is convenience. The main downsides are: a) cost, b) unknown filtration, and c) plastic pollution in landfills and elsewhere.

Buying vending machine water is a popular alternative. The attractions are: a) much lower cost ($2± vs 50¢± per gal), b) high quality filtrationand c) zero plastic pollution. The downside is convenience. For the significant positive benefits, 95% of the time when we buy water, we use a vending machine.

We solve the convenience issue by filling up several gallon containers ahead of time, so that we have a supply on hand. If we are going for a walk and want an 8 oz container, we fill a reusable one up from our supply and are good to go. Yes, this requires a bit of planning (horrors!), but the benefits are large.

The Bottom Line —

After the COVID fiasco, many of us are more attuned to the monumental importance of having good health. Any serious health plan for you and your family MUST include close attention to drinking water and its filtration.

Sample reference: NIH: Safe Water and Your Health

©2025 All rights reserved.


Here is other information from this scientist that you might find interesting:

I am now offering incentives for you to sign up new subscribers!

I also consider reader submissions on Critical Thinking on my topics of interest.

Check out the Archives of this Critical Thinking substack.

WiseEnergy.orgdiscusses the Science (or lack thereof) behind our energy options.

C19Science.infocovers the lack of genuine Science behind our COVID-19 policies.

Election-Integrity.infomultiple major reports on the election integrity issue.

Media Balance Newsletter: a free, twice-a-month newsletter that covers what the mainstream media does not do, on issues from COVID to climate, elections to education, renewables to religion, etc. Here are the Newsletter’s 2025 Archives. Please send me an email to get your free copy. When emailing me, please make sure to include your full name and the state where you live. (Of course, you can cancel the Media Balance Newsletter at any time – but why would you?

The post Critically Thinking about Water Filters appeared first on Dr. Rich Swier.

PODCAST: Trump wants to re-open Alcatraze, will Democrats (a.k.a. DeMS13) be its first occupants? thumbnail

PODCAST: Trump wants to re-open Alcatraze, will Democrats (a.k.a. DeMS13) be its first occupants?

By Conservative Commandos Radio Show and AUN-TV

President Donald Trump on Sunday said he would order the government to rebuild and reopen Alcatraz, a former prison on a small island of the same name off the coast of San Francisco that once housed some of the most dangerous criminals in the country, including Al Capone, George Machine Gun Kelly and James Whitey Bulger.

The prison, which closed 60 years ago due to its crumbling infrastructure and high maintenance costs, will serve as a symbol of Law, Order, and JUSTICE, Trump said in a post on Truth Social Sunday, later telling reporters it was just an idea he had as federal judges pushed to ensure deported migrants had due process.

On Monday, the US Bureau of Prisons Director William K. Marshall III said his agency will pursue all avenues to implement Trump’s plans for reopening Alcatraz.

I have ordered an immediate assessment to determine our needs and the next steps. USP Alcatraz has a rich history. We look forward to restoring this powerful symbol of law, order, and justice. We will be actively working with our law enforcement and other federal partners to reinstate this very important mission, Marshall said in a statement.

The Department of the Interior referred CNN to Trump’s statement, saying the department and the National Park Service had nothing to add at this time.

Now a major historical landmark and tourist destination, Alcatraz was once one of the most heavily fortified military sites on the West Coast before it transformed into a notorious federal penitentiary in 1934.

As a maximum-security prison surrounded by the Pacific’s strong, cold currents, Alcatraz had a reputation for being a last resort facility where the most dangerous and most unruly in other prisons were sent. It was virtually impossible to escape, despite numerous storied attempts.

©2025 . All rights reserved.

The post PODCAST: Trump wants to re-open Alcatraze, will Democrats (a.k.a. DeMS13) be its first occupants? appeared first on Dr. Rich Swier.

Snatching Defeat from the Jaws of Victory thumbnail

Snatching Defeat from the Jaws of Victory

By The Daily Caller

SNATCHING DEFEAT FROM THE JAWS OF VICTORY

Democrats finally had their moment. After months of trying to figure out how best to combat the rapid-pace Trump administration, Elon Musk handed them a victory on a silver platter.

Shortly after departing his role as a special government employee, Musk ripped Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill,” accused the president of flipping on his campaign promises, and even tacitly alleged Trump is a pedophile.

The public blow-up was red meat for Democrats who had been warning that the Trump-Musk relationship was destined for failure and who focused most of their attacks and protests on the Tesla CEO.

Within a week of Musk’s public blow-up, the Democrats found a way to screw it up again.

Over the weekend, activists took to the streets of LA to block ICE raids of illegal immigrants (the raids picked up child molesters, rapists, drug traffickers, and domestic abusers, among others). The situation quickly turned violent, with rioters physically blocking ICE agents, setting cars on fire, throwing rocks at law enforcement vehicles, blocking highways, and committing acts of vandalism.

Trump sent in 2,000 National Guardsmen, decrying the tepid local response that allowed riots to swell.

Instead of keeping their mouths shut and letting the “adults in the room” handle the chaos, Democrats quickly reminded everyone why they lost the 2024 election. They chose to side with the rioters and illegal immigrants waving Mexican flags on American soil.

Democrats blamed ICE and Trump — apparently the only two entities concerned with upholding the law — with fanning the flames started by the pro-illegal protesters.

“If you dial back time and go to Friday, if immigration raids had not happened here, we would not have had the disorder that went on last night,” Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said.

Okay, so we can’t detain illegal immigrants because they might riot? Isn’t that an even better reason to get them the hell out of our country?

Former Vice President Kamala Harris, perhaps mulling whether she should send out a link to another bail fund, stated, “Los Angeles is my home. And like so many Americans, I am appalled at what we are witnessing on the streets of our city … Deploying the National Guard is a dangerous escalation meant to provoke chaos.”

“This is exactly what Donald Trump wanted. He flamed the fires and illegally acted to federalize the National Guard,” California Gov. Gavin Newsom said, adding that he was suing Trump over the deployment of the National Guard.

Newsom’s other statements suggested that the real problem with violent acts being committed is that it “gives Donald Trump the reaction he’s looking for” and fuels “Trump’s flames.” Democrats can’t even say outright that violence is bad without invoking Trump.

Immigration and crime were top issues in the 2024 election. How stupid do you have to be politically to leap to the defense of the exact people American voters said they’ve had enough of?

As a bonus, the Democratic response appears to be driving Musk back into the arms of Trump. The former DOGE chief took a screenshot of one of Trump’s Truth Social posts and shared it on X:

“Governor Gavin Newscum and ‘Mayor’ Bass should apologize to the people of Los Angeles for the absolutely horrible job that they have done, and this now includes the ongoing L.A. riots. These are not protesters, they are troublemakers and insurrectionists. Remember, NO MASKS!”

AUTHOR

Amber Duke

Senior Editor


WHAT ELSE IS ON MY RADAR

Take a look at the group of illegals being picked up by ICE in L.A. and marvel at the decision by some to riot on their behalf …

Meet The Criminal Illegal Migrants LA’s Rioting Over

The National Park Service attempted to shut down Dupont Circle over security concerns ahead of last weekend’s pride march. Gay activists revolted and the decision was reversed. They were rewarded for their efforts with a stabbing and a shooting …

Multiple People Shot During DC Pride Parade After Gay Activists Rejected Security Measures

ABC’s national correspondent went on an unhinged rant against Trump adviser Stephen Miller, resulting in his suspension from the network. Mask off moment …

ABC’s Terry Moran Suspended After Attacking Stephen Miller In Midnight Rant

EDITORS NOTE: This Unfit to Print column is republished with permission. All rights reserved.

The post Snatching Defeat from the Jaws of Victory appeared first on Dr. Rich Swier.

PODCAST: U.S. Flag and LA Burning, Mexican Flags Flying High and Newsom Dug His J6 Grave thumbnail

PODCAST: U.S. Flag and LA Burning, Mexican Flags Flying High and Newsom Dug His J6 Grave

By Conservative Commandos Radio Show and AUN-TV

Newsom’s political future ‘practically nonexistent’ as LA devolves into riots, social media critics predict California governor faces mounting criticism over handling of riots just months after outrage over fire response

Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom’s floated potential run for the White House in 2028 was likely thwarted by his handling of the anti-ICE riots gripping Los Angeles, conservative social media critics predict.

Newsom has been floated as a likely 2028 Democratic contender for the White House as he wraps up his second term as governor in 2026. Riots plaguing the city in response to the Trump administration’s efforts to remove illegal immigrants residing in Los Angeles, which come on the heels of massive wildfires that rocked southern California this winter, have left Newsom on precarious political ground, according to conservatives who are balking at his response to the LA chaos.

“Gavin Newsom’s odds of clinching the 2028 presidential race are practically nonexistent,” X user Angela Belcamino posted Monday. “Across the country, Americans are eyeing California’s struggles under his watch, convinced he’d unleash the same chaos nationwide if he ever won the White House.”

“Gavin Newsom’s handling of the LA riots should be considered an in-kind contribution to the JD Vance 2028 presidential campaign. Newsom is providing a lot of ad material for free,” one social media account posted on Sunday.

©2025 . All rights reserved.

The post PODCAST: U.S. Flag and LA Burning, Mexican Flags Flying High and Newsom Dug His J6 Grave appeared first on Dr. Rich Swier.

Supreme Court Approves DOGE Access To Social Security Data thumbnail

Supreme Court Approves DOGE Access To Social Security Data

By The Daily Caller

The Supreme Court gave the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) the greenlight to access Social Security Administration (SSA) data on Friday.

The Trump administration asked the justices in May to pause a district court judge’s preliminary injunction preventing the SSA DOGE team from accessing certain records.

“We conclude that, under the present circumstances, SSA may proceed to afford members of the SSA DOGE Team access to the agency records in question in order for those members to do their work,” the court’s order states.

Justices Elena Kagan, Ketanji Brown Jackson and Sonia Sotomayor would have denied the request.

Jackson, in a dissent joined by Sotomayor, wrote that the majority is “jettisoning careful judicial decisionmaking and creating grave privacy risks for millions of Americans in the process.”

“I would proceed without fear or favor to require DOGE and the Government to do what all other litigants must do to secure a stay from this Court: comply with lower court orders constraining their behavior unless and until they establish that irreparable harm will result such that equity requires a different course,” Jackson wrote.

In a separate order, the Supreme Court also halted a lower court’s discovery order that would have required DOGE to turn over some material to Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), which sued to force DOGE to comply with its Freedom of Information Act request.

This is a breaking news story and will be updated.

AUTHOR

Katelynn Richardson

Investigative Reporter.

RELATED ARTICLES:

Vance Finally Weighs in on Trump-Musk Feud

JD Vance Cracks Perfect Joke in Midst of Trump-Musk Feud

‘Not Just For The Jetsons’: Trump Lifts Regs On Drones, Supersonic Flight, Opens Door For Flying Cars

EXCLUSIVE: White House Insiders Vent On Big Beautiful Breakup, Reveal Elon’s Final Straw

Some Dems Now Want To Play Nice With Musk After Endlessly Smearing Him As Nazi

Kayleigh McEnany Confronts Dem To Her Face For Claiming Biden ‘Was Mentally Capable’ Of Being President

EXCLUSIVE: White House Sources Say Elon’s NASA Pick Was Doomed From The Start

EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.


All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing @dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

The post Supreme Court Approves DOGE Access To Social Security Data appeared first on Dr. Rich Swier.

Unanimous Decision From Supreme Court: Discrimination Is Discrimination thumbnail

Unanimous Decision From Supreme Court: Discrimination Is Discrimination

By The Geller Report

“We have now sunk to a depth at which restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men. If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear. In times of universal deceit, telling the truth will be a revolutionary act.” —George Orwell, Facing Unpleasant Facts: Narrative Essay


This had to go to the Supreme Court because lower courts ruled that discrimination against groups targeted by the left (white, straight, male or Christian) was lawful.

Activist judges have allowed racial discrimination against whites since the 1980s. In a unanimous decision, SCOTUS has determined that ‘reverse discrimination’ is, indeed, discrimination. It only took 44 years for the court to figure it out...(X)

No matter who is doing it. It was a remarkable day at the Supreme Court, but the release of decisions was drowned out by the lively events of the day. The Supreme Court case here was Ames v. Ohio Department of Youth Services. The issue at hand is plaintiff’s claim that her LGBTQ boss was looking past her to promote her LGBTQ colleague. The court held—unanimously—that Title VII (prohibiting  “discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex and national origin”) does not vary based on whether or not the plaintiff is a member of a majority group. Stated differently: The fact that the plaintiff is straight can’t be used against her. In sum—in the closing words of the Court’s opinion: We conclude that Title VII does not impose such a heightened standard on majority-group plaintiffs. Therefore, the judgment below is vacated, and the case is remanded for application of the proper prima facie standard (Supreme Court).

Let’s dispense with the term “reverse discrimination.” It’s an oxymoron. These are cases of discrimination, full stop. If someone’s sexual preferences are the basis for employment decisions, that violates Title VII, and the same is true for ethnicity, sex, religion, and so on. Discrimination is discrimination, and the very notion that certain classes of people within those categories have a higher evidentiary standard than others is itself discriminatory. The text makes that clear even to Justice Jackson: “As a textual matter, Title VII’s disparate-treatment provision draws no distinctions between majority-group plaintiffs and minority-group plaintiffs. Rather, the provision makes it unlawful ‘to fail or refuse to hire or to discharge any individual, or otherwise to discriminate against any individual with respect to his compensation, terms, conditions, or privileges of employment, because of such individual’s race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.’ …  By establishing the same protections for every “individual”—without regard to that individual’s membership in a minority or majority group—Congress left no room for courts to impose special requirements on majority-group plaintiffs alone (Hot Air).

AUTHOR

RELATED ARTICLES:

Supreme Court Takes Up Case on Counting Votes After Election Day

Texas: Jihadists Target Christian Pro-Israel Summit in Texas, Forcing Shutdown

Education Department: Columbia University No Longer Meets Standards for Accreditation

Journalists for genocide

EDITORS NOTE: This Geller Report is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

The post Unanimous Decision From Supreme Court: Discrimination Is Discrimination appeared first on Dr. Rich Swier.

EXCLUSIVE: Chinese Communist Party Intel Officials Have Keys To Trump’s Alma Mater thumbnail

EXCLUSIVE: Chinese Communist Party Intel Officials Have Keys To Trump’s Alma Mater

By The Daily Caller

President Donald Trump’s alma mater was recently sold from one individual with extensive ties to China’s intelligence arms to another, a Daily Caller News Foundation investigation discovered.

“Allen” Lu Yuzong, CEO of Guanghua Education Group, recently purchased the New York Military Academy (NYMA), which Trump attended between 1959 and 1964, from the CEO of SouFun Holdings, “Vincent” Mo Tianquan, for an undisclosed amount, The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday. Mo initially acquired the bankrupt academy in 2015 for approximately $16 million dollars using a nonprofit he controls called the Research Center on Natural Conservation, Chinese state media reported at the time.

Mo and Lu have both worked for the Chinese government as well as agencies within an intelligence and influence service called the United Front Work Department (UFWD), according to Chinese government and state media reports translated by the DCNF, raising concerns among analysts that NYMA might be used as a staging ground for covert operations, especially given its close proximity and relationship with West Point Military Academy.

West Point denied that it had any relationship with NYMA.

NYMA, Lu and Mo did not respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.

‘Jackpot’

China’s military and Chinese Communist Party (CCP) intelligence networks may view NYMA’s acquisition as a way to forge ties with individuals who will “have interaction, perhaps by proximity or otherwise, with West Point,” Steve Yates, senior research fellow for China and national security policy at the Heritage Foundation, told the DCNF. The acquisition could also be seen as a means to connect with influential alumni, which include filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola, composer Stephen Sondheim and now the president of the United States, according to NYMA.

“I have no question that Chinese intelligence and military entities would see that as high value,” said Yates, who previously served as a Chinese language analyst for the National Security Agency and deputy national security adviser to former Vice President Dick Cheney. “Here is a way to try to cultivate connections that may lead to either influence or a potential encounter with the president at some point.”

“They have a lot of people, and they can play the odds, so they can be wrong 999 times, but, if one of these people ends up being the president of the United States one day, that’s jackpot,” Yates said.

Lu and Mo have both held numerous positions with Chinese government and UFWD agencies, according to Chinese government and state media reports.

The UFWD’s operations are a “unique blend of engagement, influence activities, and intelligence operations that the [CCP] uses to shape its political environment, including to influence other countries’ policy toward the [People’s Republic of China] and to gain access to advanced foreign technology,” according to the House Select Committee on the CCP.

Among other roles, both Lu and Mo have served as officials for a UFWD subordinate called the Western Returned Scholars Association (WRSA), which is one of the two “most important” organizations involved in China’s technology transfer efforts, according to the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC).

NYMA’s former owner-turned-board member, Mo, is listed as a “director” by WRSA, according to a DCNF translation of the association’s website. NYMA’s new board chairman, Lu, serves as the deputy chairman of WRSA’s “global liaison work committee,” according to a DCNF translation of a UFWD announcement.

Lu met with high-ranking CCP and UFWD officials at a WRSA branch in Zhejiang province in November 2022 to discuss talent recruitment operations for the region, according to a UFWD announcement. Several years prior, Zhejiang’s city of Rui’an held a conference for the Thousand Talents Plan, during which Lu was appointed to serve as a “talent ambassador,” Chinese state media reported. The Thousand Talents Plan is one of the Chinese government’s many “talent recruitment plans,” all of which incentivize participants to “steal foreign technologies needed to advance China’s national, military, and economic goals,” according to the FBI.

Both Lu and Mo have also served as delegates to the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), according to the Chinese government. CPPCC “delegates attend a high-profile annual meeting to receive direction from the CCP regarding the ways its policies should be characterized” and “serve as proxies for CCP interests,” according to USCC.

Chinese government announcements include photos showing both Lu and Mo wearing the CPPCC’s distinctive red, clip-on delegate’s badge during related press events.

‘Bad Deal’

NYMA has taken students to visit the West Point Museum and Chapel, it has held events at West Point’s Eisenhower Hall and Hudson Room, and has used West Point’s campus to “enhance” leadership training programs in recent years, according to NYMA announcements. The academy has also brought visitors from China to tour West Point, NYMA announcements state.

“West Point has no affiliation with the New York Military Academy,” a West Point spokesman told the DCNF. “Entrance to the United States Military Academy grounds is governed by rigorous security protocols. For security reasons, we will not provide further details about security measures.”

Trump appears to have a soft spot for his alma mater, whose cadets marched during his inauguration ceremonies in 2017 and 2025, footage shows.

Trump entered NYMA as a private in 1959, served as a company commander, and ultimately achieved the rank of “Captain, S-4, Senior Staff” by his graduation in 1964, according to NYMA photos and records. While attending NYMA, Trump played a variety of team sports including footballwrestling and baseball, and was named “ladies’ man” by a “popularity poll,” photos show.

“President Trump is proud of his time at the New York Military Academy. He learned important virtues that helped him become one of the greatest businessmen in the world and ultimately President of the United States twice,” Steven Cheung, White House communications director, told the DCNF.

NYMA’s sale to individuals connected to the Chinese government and UFWD is a “bad deal” for the U.S. and presents a national security threat, Michael Lucci, CEO of State Armor, a nonprofit focused on countering the CCP, told the DCNF.

“The CCP and its members should not own property within the U.S., nor should they be involved in our education system. And most importantly, the CCP should be kept as far as possible from any of our key military assets such as West Point,” Lucci said. “The NYMA should be removed from Chinese ownership as soon as possible.”

Editor’s note: This article has been updated to include comment from the White House.

AUTHOR

Philip Lenczycki

Senior Investigative Reporter.

RELATED ARTICLE: EXCLUSIVE: Harvard Commencement Speaker Worked For Org Tied To China’s Military

EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.


All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

The post EXCLUSIVE: Chinese Communist Party Intel Officials Have Keys To Trump’s Alma Mater appeared first on Dr. Rich Swier.

Education Department: Columbia University No Longer Meets Standards for Accreditation thumbnail

Education Department: Columbia University No Longer Meets Standards for Accreditation

By The Geller Report

Education Department claims Columbia University no longer meets standards for accreditation

“After Hamas’ October 7, 2023, terror attack on Israel, Columbia University’s leadership acted with deliberate indifference towards the harassment of Jewish students on its campus,” Education Secretary Linda McMahon said. “This is not only immoral, but also unlawful.”

By Misty Severi, Just The News, June 4, 2025:

The Department of Education on Wednesday notified the accreditor responsible for New York City’s Columbia University to let them know the school failed to meet accreditation standards by violating federal anti-discrimination laws.

The notification comes after the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) and the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights (HHS OCR) found it violated Title IV by acting with “deliberate indifference towards the harassment of Jewish students.”

The department said the finding means that the school has failed to meet accreditation standards that were set by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education.

“After Hamas’ October 7, 2023, terror attack on Israel, Columbia University’s leadership acted with deliberate indifference towards the harassment of Jewish students on its campus,” Education Secretary Linda McMahon said in a statement. “This is not only immoral, but also unlawful.”

Accreditors are responsible for making sure that schools comply with federal civil rights law in order to qualify for federal funding, including federal student aid assistance through student loans and Pell grants.

The Ivy League school, located in Manhattan, served as the epicenter of anti-Israel protests last year. Some protests also broke out earlier this year, including one protest that disrupted students who were trying to study for final exams.

Continue reading.

AUTHOR

RELATED ARTICLE: President Trump Bans Travel to US from Several Jihad Countries to Block ‘Dangerous Foreign Actors’

EDITORS NOTE: This Geller Report is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

The post Education Department: Columbia University No Longer Meets Standards for Accreditation appeared first on Dr. Rich Swier.

Trump Orders Probe Into Biden’s Presidential Actions thumbnail

Trump Orders Probe Into Biden’s Presidential Actions

By The Daily Caller

President Donald Trump signed a presidential memorandum on Wednesday evening directing a probe into “who ran” the U.S. during former President Joe Biden’s time in office.

Questions regarding Biden’s mental state have rapidly developed among Democrats since the release of Jake Tapper’s and Alex Thompson’s “Original Sin,” detailing the former president’s mental decline while in office. In the White House’s press release, Trump said the memorandum will direct the investigation into “whether certain individuals conspired to deceive the public about Biden’s mental state and unconstitutionally exercise the authorities and responsibilities of the President.”

“The Memorandum also mandates an investigation into the circumstances surrounding Biden’s purported execution of the numerous executive actions during his final years in office, examining policy documents signed with an autopen, who authorized its use, and the validity of the resulting Presidential policy decisions,” the statement added.

Prior to the 2020 presidential election, Republicans began to sound off over concerns about Biden and his mental state. While some Democrats have still supported Biden following the book’s allegations, others have begun to question his time in the White House and the issues he oversaw.

According to the White House’s statement, Biden’s use of the “autopen raises serious concerns about the legitimacy of his actions,” citing reports that indicate the former president suffered from “serious cognitive decline.”

“Despite Biden’s cognitive deficiencies, the White House issued over 1,200 Presidential documents, appointed 235 judges to the Federal bench, and issued more pardons and commutations than any Administration in U.S. history,” the statement reads. “The authority to take these executive actions is constitutionally reserved for the President, yet the Biden White House used an autopen to execute the vast majority of Biden’s executive actions, particularly during the second half of his Presidency.”

In his final month in office, Biden issued a wave of pardons, notably commuting the sentences of 37 out of the 40 “most vile and monstrous criminals on Federal death row,” the White House said.

Tapper’s and Thompson’s new book, based on interviews with multiple sources, reveals Biden’s decline had become so alarming among aides that some considered placing him in a wheelchair following the 2020 election.

Though Democrats initially rallied behind Biden as their 2024 nominee, lawmakers and pundits quickly reversed course after his disastrous June debate against Trump, where the now-former president froze mid-sentence and struggled to complete his arguments. Questions about whether Biden could last another term spread immediately.

As calls from lawmakers mounted, Democrat donors also paused millions in contributions until Biden exited the race. By July 21, Biden announced his withdrawal and endorsed former Vice President Kamala Harris as the party’s next nominee.

AUTHOR

Hailey Gomez

General Assignment Reporter.

RELATED ARTICLES:

Meet The Biden Inner Circle House Republicans Want To Drag In For Testimony

House Oversight Committee Expanding Investigation Into Biden ‘Cover-Up’

EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.


All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

The post Trump Orders Probe Into Biden’s Presidential Actions appeared first on Dr. Rich Swier.

PODCAST: Govt. Regs. Costing Every American $16K a year! Was Pope Francis a Marxist? thumbnail

PODCAST: Govt. Regs. Costing Every American $16K a year! Was Pope Francis a Marxist?

By Conservative Commandos Radio Show and AUN-TV

GUESTS AND TOPICS

WAYNE CREWS

Wayne Crews is the Fred L. Smith Fellow in Regulatory Studies at the Competitive Enterprise Institute. His work explores the impact of government regulation of free enterprise. Wayne has been published and cited in The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, Communications Lawyer, the International Herald Tribune, and others. He has appeared on numerous television and radio programs, including Fox News, Fox Business, CNN, ABC, CNBC, and PBS NewsHour. Prior to joining CEI, he worked at the Cato Institute, the U.S. Senate, and the Food and Drug Administration.

TOPIC: Govt. Regs. Costing Every American $16K a year!

DR. RICH SWIER

Dr. Rich Swier is a conservative with a conscience. Rich, a Catholic, is a 23 year Army veteran who retired as a Lieutenant Colonel. He was awarded the Legion of Merit for his years of service. Additionally, he was awarded two Bronze Stars with “V” for Valor and Heroism in ground combat, the Presidential Unit Citation, and the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry while serving with the 101st Airborne Division in Vietnam. Dr Rich now publishes the the “DrRichSwier.com Report“. A daily review of news, issues and commentary. Dr Rich has a new book out, “DISSENT: The Highest Form of Patriotism.

TOPIC: Was Pope Francis a Marxist?

©2025 . All rights reserved.

The post PODCAST: Govt. Regs. Costing Every American $16K a year! Was Pope Francis a Marxist? appeared first on Dr. Rich Swier.

Relative vs Absolute Risk Reduction 2 thumbnail

Relative vs Absolute Risk Reduction 2

By John Droz, Jr.

Don’t be fooled. 

I wrote about this EXTREMELY important matter here. Please review that post, as it explains in a simple fashion the enormous difference between these two very significant numbers.

I recently came across a two-minute video that tackles the same issue…

This is a VERY big deal for citizens to understand, as a variety of self-serving parties try to take advantage of the fact that many citizens are technically challenged — and fool them by using relative (not absolute) risk reduction.

Hopefully, this will be one of the many things that RFKjr will see is fixed at the FDA and CDC…

©2025 All rights reserved.


Here is other information from this scientist that you might find interesting:

I am now offering incentives for you to sign up new subscribers!

I also consider reader submissions on Critical Thinking on my topics of interest.

Check out the Archives of this Critical Thinking substack.

WiseEnergy.orgdiscusses the Science (or lack thereof) behind our energy options.

C19Science.infocovers the lack of genuine Science behind our COVID-19 policies.

Election-Integrity.infomultiple major reports on the election integrity issue.

Media Balance Newsletter: a free, twice-a-month newsletter that covers what the mainstream media does not do, on issues from COVID to climate, elections to education, renewables to religion, etc. Here are the Newsletter’s 2025 Archives. Please send me an email to get your free copy. When emailing me, please make sure to include your full name and the state where you live. (Of course, you can cancel the Media Balance Newsletter at any time – but why would you?

The post Relative vs Absolute Risk Reduction 2 appeared first on Dr. Rich Swier.

VIDEO: AEI Housing Market Indicators, May 2025 thumbnail

VIDEO: AEI Housing Market Indicators, May 2025

By Edward Pinto

AEI Housing Market Indicators May 2025 Briefing

You don’t want to miss this update! This month, we highlighted the following hot housing topics:

  • Recent movements in rates, demand, and supply: Mortgage rates remained elevated at 6.75%, while purchase rate lock volume dropped to a multi-year low—down 24% from the same week in 2019 and 5% year-over-year.
  • Home price appreciation (HPA) and months’ supply trends through March 2025: HPA slowed to 3.0%—its second lowest April rate in the series—while months’ supply declined to 3.2 months, just below pre-pandemic levels as inventory grows faster than seasonal trends
  • FHA appears not to be properly tracking its partial claims, costing taxpayers: FHA is not and collecting partial claims in about a quarter of cases, and taxpayers will be providing free money to certain FHA borrowers. Assuming an average partial claim amount of $23,000-$27,000 and 1.3 million unique claims since 2020, the taxpayer could lose $6.75 billion—not including partial claims completed before 2020.
  • An update on Bureau of Land Management sales to build starter homes: Making just 250 sq. miles of developable BLM land available for sale in 12 Western states would enable the private sector to add 1.75 million homes, a much of which would be family-sized starter homes for the working class. The 2025 Budget Reconciliation process provides an opportunity to address the Western region’s housing and development needs by expediting the disposal of target Federal lands for competitive sale at market prices.
  • Preview: The AEI Housing Success Playbook: The AEI Housing Center’s Housing Success Playbook provides five straightforward, proven policies to build an additional 1.6 million homes annually, and without subsidies. These include allowing smaller lots in new subdivisions, legalizing conversions of single-family homes, permitting backyard cottages and ADUs, enabling residential overlays in commercial zones, and developing starter homes on BLM land.
  • The surprising role of large developers in solving the housing crunch: The nation’s largest home builders have engineered a dramatic shift toward serving first-time homebuyers, with 51.2% of their new construction sales going to FTBs in 2024, up from 38.6% in 2014. This transformation has been driven by building smaller homes and offering financial tools like rate buydowns, while median lot sizes declined by 1,050 sq. ft., enabling greater affordability and access to starter homes.

The AEI Housing Market Indicators (HMI) provide accurate and timely metrics for the housing market. These include mortgage risk/leverage (with a particular focus on agency first-time buyer volume and risk), house prices and appreciation trends, housing sales (new and existing sales whether institutionally financed, cash, or other-financed), and inventory levels. Since the housing market is influenced by many different factors, all need to be considered together to better understand market trends.

WATCH: AEI Housing Market Indicators May 2025 Briefing

Monthly Update of the AEI Housing Market Indicators: Download this month’s slides

©2025 . All rights reserved.

The post VIDEO: AEI Housing Market Indicators, May 2025 appeared first on Dr. Rich Swier.

‘Absolutely Horrific’: AI-Generated Child Porn Leads Teen to Commit Suicide thumbnail

‘Absolutely Horrific’: AI-Generated Child Porn Leads Teen to Commit Suicide

By Family Research Council

As their teenage son lay in the hospital with his life oozing out of him, Eli Heacock’s parents felt their grief compounded by confusion: They had no idea why he had committed suicide.

Then they found his phone.

Messages showed their son — 16-year-old Elijah “Eli” Manning Heacock of Glasgow, Kentucky — had fallen prey to an extortioner, who convinced Eli to send photos of himself, which the predator used to generate sexually explicit images using artificial intelligence (AI).

The victim’s father, John Burnett, said Eli scrambled to collect as much of the $3,000 bribe as he could, only to hear his predator tell him, “This is not enough.”

In despair, Eli shot himself on February 27, dying of a self-inflicted gunshot wound at the University of Louisville Hospital the next day.

The tragic death highlights the changing profile of sexual abuse and predation. Parents “no longer [have] to be scared of the white van that drives around. You have to be scared of the internet,” said Eli’s mother, Shannon Heacock.

Her son is far from the first person to lose his life to online sexual extortionists. “From October 2021 to March 2023 … sextortion involved at least 12,600 victims — primarily boys — and led to at least 20 suicides,” according to the FBI.

But even in death, Eli, who lost his unique potential so young, stood out from others: Usually, exploiters lure their victims into sending sexually explicit photos, then blackmail them into sending money or more compromising photos. Eli apparently shared less explicit images, which the predator allegedly altered using artificial intelligence — which analysts say highlights another threat of nascent AI technology.

“It’s absolutely horrific and tragic that criminals used AI-generated images to extort money out of a teenage boy, ultimately resulting in him taking his own life,” Arielle Del Turco, director of the Center for Religious Liberty at Family Research Council, told The Washington Stand. FRC previously highlighted concerns raised by AI chatbots, which appear to be human, engaging in sexually explicit dialogue with minors online — or stoking pedophiles’ fantasies by posing as sexually precocious children.

With the rise of AI-generated pornography, a victim need not send his tormentor nude or suggestive photos. Powered by AI, child exploiters do not need their victim to send them any photos at all: They can download an image from the internet or take a candid photo without the victim’s knowledge.

People from all walks of life can fall victim to AI-generated “deepfakes.” Last month, New Zealand politician Lana McClure stood on the floor of Parliament and displayed nude photographs of herself, which she said she personally created in a matter of minutes using artificial intelligence software.

Lawmakers in Heacock’s native Kentucky reacted by adopting a law, S.B. 73, which makes sextortion a felony. President Donald Trump also made tackling “revenge porn,” including images created by artificial intelligence, an early priority in his second administration.

“Congress has recently worked to mitigate these types of situations by passing the Take It Down Act,” supported by First Lady Melania Trump, which passed Congress with near-unanimous consent and signed into law by President Trump, noted Del Turco. The law makes it illegal to knowingly publish, or threaten to publish, intimate images without a person’s consent; it also requires websites to remove such images within 48 hours of a victim’s valid request and help track down any sites that have republished the material. Del Turco noted that the new law “applies to AI-generated images. Policymakers should continue to enact prudent legislation to protect people from abusive uses of AI, including sexual extortion.”

Not every level of government shares Heacock’s concerns. Global governance bodies have allowed lawmakers to exclude AI-generated porn even of the youngest children. The United Nations Convention against Cybercrime, adopted last December 31, forbids “real or simulated sexual activity” but gives nations the right to limit the prosecution of Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) to material that “[d]epicts, describes or represents an existing person.” That excludes child pornography images or videos that are entirely AI-generated and not based on one specific child.

“In several sections, the new UN treaty allows countries to de-criminalize virtual child pornography in all circumstances as well as private sexting by minors, even to adults,” noted Stefano Gennarini of the Center for Family and Human Rights (C-FAM).

Americans also feel concerned some lawmakers have prioritized the explosive growth of the artificial intelligence sector at the cost of their children’s innocence, even their lives. The “One Big Beautiful Bill” which recently passed the House of Representatives contains a provision preempting states from regulating AI technology for 10 years. “I am adamantly OPPOSED to this and it is a violation of state rights and I would have voted NO if I had known this was in there,” wrote Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) on social media Tuesday. “We have no idea what AI will be capable of in the next 10 years and giving it free rein and tying states hands is potentially dangerous.”

The bill is now before the Senate. The AI provision has raised alarms beyond the chamber. Many grieving parents wish leaders would give them stronger tools to keep their children safe from the ever-expanding reach of predators. “We can’t afford to be behind the ball on creating policies that govern AI,” Del Turco told TWS. “The effects are too far-reaching” — a fact Eli’s mother, Shannon, knows too well.

“I don’t want another mother to ever face this, another sibling, another father to face this,” she said.

AUTHOR

Ben Johnson

Ben Johnson is senior reporter and editor at The Washington Stand.

RELATED ARTICLE: Trump’s Department of Education Declares June ‘Title IX Month’

EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2025 Family Research Council.


The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

The post ‘Absolutely Horrific’: AI-Generated Child Porn Leads Teen to Commit Suicide appeared first on Dr. Rich Swier.

Karoline Leavitt Says Trump Admin’s Naming And Shaming Of Sanctuary Cities Coming Back thumbnail

Karoline Leavitt Says Trump Admin’s Naming And Shaming Of Sanctuary Cities Coming Back

By The Daily Caller

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told the Daily Caller on Tuesday that the Trump administration will soon be releasing a new list of sanctuary cities that are not in compliance with federal statutes.

The Department of Homeland and Security removed its previous list of “sanctuary jurisdictions” Sunday, which was previously ordered under a Trump executive order. After the list was first posted, several city leaders voiced concerns that their areas were included in the list.

Leavitt told the Caller at Tuesday’s White House briefing that the list would be reinstated soon.

“The Department of Homeland Security will be releasing a new list of sanctuary cities – an accurate list of sanctuary cities,” she said.

The Caller also asked Leavitt how the administration would be cracking down on sanctuary jurisdictions following the terrorist attack in Boulder, Colorado, on Sunday. A month before the attack, the state passed sanctuary protections for illegal immigrants.

“As for what we’re doing to crack down, the president has signed executive orders and has directed the attorney general to prosecute federal – state and local officials were not complying with federal immigration force – authorities, and most importantly, federal immigration law,” Leavitt told the Caller.

Trump’s April executive order on sanctuary cities warned that jurisdictions that do not comply with federal law would be at risk of losing federal funding. The order also directs the U.S. attorney general and secretary of Homeland Security to “pursue all necessary legal remedies and enforcement measures to bring non-compliant jurisdictions into compliance.”

“The Order ensures illegal aliens are not being favored over American citizens by directing the Attorney General to address state or local laws that unlawfully prioritize aliens,” a fact sheet on the order writes.

It was under the same order that Trump directed DHS to publish a list of states and local jurisdictions that are “obstructing federal immigration law enforcement.” Each sanctuary jurisdiction will be notified of its non-compliance so they can be given an “opportunity to correct it.”

“DHS demands that these jurisdictions immediately review and revise their policies to align with Federal immigration laws and renew their obligation to protect American citizens, not dangerous illegal aliens,” the previous list reads.

AUTHOR

Reagan Reese

White House Correspondent. Follow Reagan on Twitter.

RELATED ARTICLES:

‘Sanctuary State’: Colorado Dems Move To Shut Out ICE

Former DA Reveals Allegation Against Illegal Alien Charged With Jocelyn Nungaray Murder

RELATED VIDEO: Karoline Leavitt: New Trump Executive Order Will Target Sanctuary Cities



EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

The post Karoline Leavitt Says Trump Admin’s Naming And Shaming Of Sanctuary Cities Coming Back appeared first on Dr. Rich Swier.

Tennessee Passes Landmark Human Smuggling Legislation into Law thumbnail

Tennessee Passes Landmark Human Smuggling Legislation into Law

By Center For Security Policy

On May 27, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee signed groundbreaking state-level human smuggling legislation into law.

Mass illegal immigration into our country during the Biden administration has turned every state into a border state. Increased supply of dangerous drugs such as fentanyl, combined with expanded human trafficking, have caused a severe strain on states and community resources.  

Hundreds of thousands of unaccompanied children have been released to sponsors across the country. In all too many cases, these sponsors were actually fronts for traffickers. An unknown number of unaccompanied children fell into the full control of the cartels and blackmarket human traffickers. 

States must pass laws to deter illegal immigration and give state and local law enforcement the tools they need to perform duties to stop and apprehend human smugglers. States should continue working to find solutions to mitigate the dangers associated with allowing millions of unvetted illegal aliens to cross into America and ensure public safety. Tennessee has taken the lead with its new human smuggling law. 

Even before the Trump administration designated drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, a relationship had been forming between transnational criminal organizations and terrorist groups in terms of human smuggling. Cartels have leveraged existing drug smuggling “ratlines” across the US southern border to establish human smuggling corridors. Now, they reportedly make more money off of human smuggling than they do off of drug smuggling. This is because the overwhelming majority of human smuggling victims are young females who are sold into sex slavery where they become ongoing sources of revenue. 

The key difference today is that the revenue stream is providing material support for foreign terrorist organizations.

Just as worrisome is the fact that over the past 4 years of Biden-Mayorkas malfeasance, cartels used the same routes to smuggle known terrorists and criminals into the U.S. thereby threatening U.S. national security and the safety of US citizens.

Enhanced investigation, enforcement, prosecution and intelligence sharing between local, state and federal law enforcement may be the best way to detect, prevent and put an end to human smuggling into and throughout the U.S. 

The landmark human smuggling law passed in Tennessee is a major step toward making the state and local criminal justice system and law enforcement meaningful partners and force multipliers to stop this activity and improve public safety. 

 The legislation, authored by Representative Chris Todd and Senator Brent Taylor, was needed because there is a distinction between human trafficking and human smuggling that had gone unaddressed. 

Human smuggling victims are distinct from other victims of human trafficking, who are often trafficked by family members, relatives and friends in small numbers (typically ones and twos). The different nature of human smuggling and especially the criminal and terrorist organizations behind it, require a finer point to the law.  

  • Human smuggling involves: 
  • Crossing international borders 
  • Trafficking larger numbers of victims at a time 
  • Control by organized crime in the form of terrorist cartels and others 

A whole new illicit, underground industry was built up in the US over the past 4 years due to malfeasant border policies and rampant illegal immigration. The Mexican cartels had been in charge of the border, not US law enforcement. Those cartels have only recently, since the beginning of the Trump administration, been designated as foreign terrorist organizations. Moreover, it wasn’t until President Trump and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth ordered the US military to the border that the border came under control.

The terrorist cartels have expanded their reach across America. They have brought thousands of “unaccompanied minors” into the United States. Most of those minors are young girls who are subjected to unbelievably cruel and abusive situations, including sex slavery. Tragically, some non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have been implicated in human trafficking and human smuggling.

Unfortunately, the human smuggling legislation in Tennessee came under unfounded attack from the extremist Left.

Leftists made the specious accusation that the new law would criminalize family members or religious groups who are “performing acts of charity.”

In reality, the law targets human traffickers who force largely minor females into “involuntary labor servitude, forced labor, trafficking for commercial sex acts, prostitution and human smuggling.”

None of these activities is something that a loving family or legitimate charitable organization would be involved in.

In the new law human smuggling is defined as transporting one or more victims for the purpose of commercial advantage or private financial gain.  No loving family or legitimate charitable organization would be involved in human trafficking/smuggling for commercial advantage or private financial gain. 

Border czar and former Obama administration US Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Tom Homan reports that as many of 300,000 unaccompanied minors who came across the southern border are unaccounted for. Many of them became trafficking victims. Tragically and outrageously, the US government became complicit in this trade as those minors were passed on to unvetted “sponsors” by our government. Homan reports that many of those sponsors were actually traffickers.

Tennessee’s new human smuggling law gives law enforcement and the criminal justice system effective tools for prosecuting human smugglers and is focused on the methods and techniques that they use, namely forced labor and forced sex slavery, all for commercial advantage and financial gain.

In the months and years ahead, look for other states to adopt the Tennessee model to combat human smugglers.

AUTHOR

Christopher Holton

Senior Analyst and Director of State Outreach.

EDITORS NOTE: This Center for Security Policy column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

The post Tennessee Passes Landmark Human Smuggling Legislation into Law appeared first on Dr. Rich Swier.

Hidden Religion in Washington. D.C. thumbnail

Hidden Religion in Washington. D.C.

By The Catholic Thing

In 1938, Congress passed the Fair Labor Standards Act, which restricted child labor. Congress believed that children possessed an intrinsic value above monetary quantification. In 1964, Congress passed the Civil Rights Act, which forbade discrimination on the grounds of race, color, or national origin. Congress believed that all human beings were created equal and therefore due equal treatment under the law.

In 1990, Congress passed the Americans with Disabilities Act, which forbade discrimination against those with disabilities. Congress believed that physical abilities, or lack of them, do not constitute the essence of a person. His essence, by extension, comes from some other source, and the government is not it.

Religion, we often hear, should have no bearing on politics: the wall between church and state shall not be breached. Yet these three laws, to which we could add others, flow directly from a central Christian belief: that the human person is created by God. By fashioning all men and women in His image and likeness, God has endowed human beings with an innate dignity that no other person or entity may violate.

We take it for granted today that the government’s functions include protecting citizens’ rights, many of which, including those protected in these three laws, are pre-political, that is, they are part of persons’ nature, not grants of government privilege. We fail to realize that many of these rights are political expressions of the prior Christian belief that all persons are equal because they are all children of the one Father in Heaven. As a result, one person or group cannot be greater than any other, nor exploit any other.

“Political problems,” wrote Russell Kirk, “at bottom, are religious and moral problems.” In other words, our beliefs and morals shape our politics, not the other way around. Beneath every hotly contested political topic of today or yesteryear – immigration, tariffs, welfare, health care, DEI, the Cold War, supply-side economic theory, segregation, slavery, westward expansion, independence from Britain – lie beliefs that shape the approach and policy. There is no such thing as a “neutral” politics devoid of prior beliefs and principles.

Sometimes these beliefs are tenets of Christianity, such as the inherent dignity of the person, which has given rise to the push for legal equality. I doubt that vociferous secularists who decry any odor of religion in public life would reject equality because it is “tainted” by religion.

Other beliefs are philosophical, such as certain economic and geopolitical theories. And sometimes beliefs come from a distinctly modern kind of religion that eschews traditional forms such as churches or hierarchies. These beliefs stem from ideologies, systems of ideas abstracted from various theories and harmonized into programs to direct a nation (or the world itself) toward preconceived ends. Like revealed religion, ideologies have dogmas and exist to save human beings from the sins of the world.

Just as Christian beliefs lie hidden in Washington, modern ideologies lie hidden there, too. Expressive individualism, the belief that the individual and his sexual freedom are the most important considerations of society, drives abortion and family law. Gender ideology, the belief that gender is a construct of the mind divorced from nature, drives school curricula, medical laws, and cultural practices from library collections to the bizarre “drag queen story hour.” Diversity, equity, and inclusion, the belief that every sector of life must have proportional representation of society’s ethnic makeup, drives Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, which governs employment practices across the country.

Washington, in fact, is filled with religious beliefs – we need only look more closely to find them. Given how much fighting we do over politics and policies, Americans have a two-tiered view of religion. When religion pertains to supernatural beliefs, they are relativists holding that all religions are created equal, varying paths to the same goal. But when religion impacts daily life or politics, they defend them absolutely. The Culture Wars, in essence, are wars over how religion – whether revealed or ideological – impacts society at large.

This perspective recasts ongoing battles over religious liberty. The Constitution prohibits the establishment of a state-sponsored religion. It does not, and cannot, prohibit public expressions of religious beliefs, for they are ubiquitous, of varied sources, and fundamental to human reasoning. Doing so not only discriminates against certain religious beliefs which are somehow deemed inferior to other beliefs. It prevents politics and policy from freely taking place as well.

Yet preventing Christian beliefs from public manifestation was, beginning in the 1960s, the goal of the Supreme Court, which deliberately conflated expression of beliefs with state-sponsored religion. In its view, acknowledging God’s existence and sovereignty could no longer be considered an act of reason. Rather, it confined this acknowledgment within the province of revealed religion alone.

The Roberts court has gingerly moved to correct this misinterpretation, but it has been hesitant to address the broader issue: in the public arena, religious beliefs are as valid as any other belief, whether they come from revealed or ideological sources. In May, it missed an opportunity to do so in St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School v. Drummond, which upheld a lower court ruling that Oklahoma cannot fund a sectarian charter school.

Revealed religion has to have the same rights as the hidden, ideological religions in Washington. Given the many goods Christian-based laws have generated in this country, our nation would be wise to again recognize Christianity as legitimate — and poignant — source of public action.

AUTHOR

David G Bonagura, Jr.

David G. Bonagura, Jr. is the author, most recently, of 100 Tough Questions for Catholics: Common Obstacles to Faith Today, and the translator of Jerome’s Tears: Letters to Friends in Mourning. An adjunct professor at St. Joseph’s Seminary and Catholic International University, he serves as the religion editor of The University Bookman, a review of books founded in 1960 by Russell Kirk. His personal website is here.

You may also enjoy:

Fr. Paul D. Scalia The Impious Public Square

Michael Pakaluk Private Tyranny, Public Liberty

EDITORS NOTE: This Catholic Thing column is republished with permission. © 2025 The Catholic Thing. All rights reserved. For reprint rights, write to: info@frinstitute.org. The Catholic Thing is a forum for intelligent Catholic commentary. Opinions expressed by writers are solely their own.

The post Hidden Religion in Washington. D.C. appeared first on Dr. Rich Swier.

SCOTUS Slows Judicial Overreach in Environmental Cases as Ire Grows over Universal Injunctions thumbnail

SCOTUS Slows Judicial Overreach in Environmental Cases as Ire Grows over Universal Injunctions

By Family Research Council

A recent decision handed down by the U.S. Supreme Court has curbed some judicial overreach and continued a thread previously taken up by the nation’s highest court regarding the relationship between judicial interpretations and the authority of government agencies. In Seven County Infrastructure Coalition v. Eagle County, decided Thursday, the Supreme Court vacated a decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit which had itself vacated a decision by the U.S. Surface Transportation Board (STB) that granted permission for construction of a railroad.

The case originated when Seven County Infrastructure Coalition applied to the board for permission to build a railroad in 2020. STB compiled a staggering 3,600-page report on the possible environmental impacts of building the railroad and ultimately concluded “that the project’s transportation and economic benefits outweighed its environmental impacts” and granting permission for the railroad to be constructed.

After lawsuits were filed, the circuit court vacated the STB’s decision, ruling that the board had not properly considered “the potential environmental effects of increased upstream oil drilling … and increased downstream refining of crude oil” in the area where the railroad was to be constructed, citing the provisions established in the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). The Supreme Court ruled Thursday, “The D.C. Circuit failed to afford the Board the substantial judicial deference required in NEPA cases and incorrectly interpreted NEPA to require the Board to consider the environmental effects of upstream and downstream projects that are separate in time or place from the” construction and operation of the railroad.

NEPA requires STB and similar agencies to consider the possible environmental impacts of proposed projects and suggest viable alternatives. The Supreme Court’s ruling clarified, “Some federal courts reviewing NEPA cases have assumed an aggressive role in policing agency compliance with NEPA, and have not applied NEPA with the judicial deference demanded by the statutory text and the Court’s cases.” The ruling continued, “When, as here, a party argues that an agency action was arbitrary and capricious due to a deficiency in an EIS, the ‘only role for a court’ is to confirm that the agency has addressed environmental consequences and feasible alternatives as to the relevant project.”

The ruling, authored by Justice Brett Kavanaugh and joined by seven of his fellow justices, with Justice Neil Gorsuch recusing himself from the case, stipulated that legal questions are for courts to decide, while “factual determinations” are for the relevant agencies to decide. “Courts should defer to agencies’ discretionary decisions about where to draw the line when considering indirect environmental effects and whether to analyze effects from other projects separate in time or place,” the ruling affirmed.

Specifically, Kavanaugh cited Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, one of a pair of cases which the Supreme Court decided last summer, undoing what was known as the “Chevron doctrine.” In the 1984 case of Chevron U.S.A., Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, the Supreme Court instructed all courts to defer to an agency’s interpretation of a statute within the scope of its operation if that statute was considered “ambiguous.” The policy significantly bolstered the power of federal agencies to interpret statutes without judicial oversight. Last year, the Supreme Court determined that the Chevron doctrine was unconstitutional, conflicting with both the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) and the federal judiciary’s constitutional authority to interpret statutory texts and effectively permit executive agencies to usurp the role of the judiciary in interpreting statutes.

Citing Loper, the Supreme Court clarified that although NEPA requires environmental impact reports to be “detailed,” and “the meaning of ‘detailed’ is a legal question … what details need to be included in any given [report] is a factual determination for the agency.” Kavanaugh wrote, “NEPA does not allow courts, ‘under the guise of judicial review’ of agency compliance with NEPA, to delay or block agency projects based on the environmental effects of other projects separate from the project at hand.” He added, “Courts should afford substantial deference and should not micromanage those agency choices so long as they fall within a broad zone of reasonableness.”

The Supreme Court ruling comes as numerous federal courts have issued sweeping universal injunctions against President Donald Trump and his administration, highlighting calls for the highest court to curb judicial overreach. In comments to The Washington Stand, Article III Project Senior Counsel Will Chamberlain stated, “The court’s decision Thursday was very obviously right — even the Democrats did not dissent. NEPA reviews do not have to be as onerous as the D.C. Circuit suggested.” He added, “The Supreme Court, however, needs to do more to curb the judicial sabotage by resentful lower court judges.”

Within his first 100 days back in the Oval Office, Trump and his administration were slapped with at least 25 universal injunctions by federal district courts, according to a Congressional Research Service report. Injunctions and temporary restraining orders (TROs) have targeted many of the president’s actions, including carrying out mass deportations, withholding federal funds from “sanctuary cities,” ending birthright citizenship, protecting children from harmful gender transition procedures, slashing wasteful agency spending, downsizing the federal workforce, bolstering election integrity, and reorganizing agencies like the Department of Education.

The Trump administration has repeatedly petitioned the Supreme Court to intervene and curtail the lower courts’ use of nationwide injunctions. While the Supreme Court has handed the president mixed results — significant wins in some cases and temporary setbacks in others — it has not yet taken action against the increasing use of universal injunctions.

However, the Supreme Court did hear oral arguments in mid-May in a case in which the Trump administration has centered its attention on the rash of injunctions enjoining the president’s agenda. Some justices indicated during oral arguments an openness to curbing universal injunctions but appeared unsatisfied with the Trump administration’s suggestions on what measures to use in place of universal injunctions. A decision in the case is expected by late June or early July.

AUTHOR

S.A. McCarthy

S.A. McCarthy serves as a news writer at The Washington Stand.

EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2025 Family Research Council.


The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

THE PARTY OF EXTREMISM thumbnail

THE PARTY OF EXTREMISM

By The Daily Caller

THE PARTY OF EXTREMISM

Along the way I realized what they were really doing was telling on themselves.

Starting somewhere around 2017 I noticed a trend.

As we all know, after Trump won, there was mass hysteria. The increasingly woke left had lost. It defied their imaginations, and so their imaginations got to work. It couldn’t have been that they weren’t popular, it had to be something else.

Oh I know, they thought, everyone who isn’t me is an extremist.

Over the course of about ten years, the media’s usage of “right wing extremism” and “far right” and “radical right” exploded. Just to give you an indication, The Guardian has used the term “far right” in 6,389 articles versus “far left” appearing in just 376.

The trend was so pronounced that Manhattan Institute bubbas did a study they published in The American Conservative.

Here’s a series of graphs from the article.

But what is it exactly they’re calling extreme?

You, Dear Reader. And me. JD Vance. People who think borders are real. People who think gender is real. Is God real to you? You’re an extremist.

Let’s go further, should people be punished for committing crimes? Yes? You’re an extremist!

Is it okay for a man to get in a boxing ring and beat the pulp out of womenFirst of all, they say, he’s not a man. Oh he is actually? Oops. If the answer is still ‘no,’ guess what: Extremist.

If you won’t refer to an El Salvadorian national who more than likely trafficked human beings for MS-13 as a “Maryland Man” and instead call him an illegal or a “member of MS13” — which are both accurate and literal — then guess what? Yup, extremist again.

You get the point. As the most powerful left wing institutions competed with themselves to get ever further to the left, alienating normal people and losing elections in the process, everyone who was not in their real estate became an extremist to them.

The reality is the reverse though. They’re simply telling on themselves.

Recent months have brought things into sharp focus. Radical student bodies stormed university buildings in support of Hamas, a literal terrorist group. Wine moms and white collar elites burned and defaced Teslas. An illegal alien set a group of elderly people on fire while shrieking “free Palestine.”

This is the contemporary left.

And it isn’t just acts of violence, terrorism, looting, and rioting that they’ve attempted to normalize.

Virtually the entirety of the political left’s intellectual platform is extremist. Castrating mentally unwell children. Legalizing crime. Defending terrorist groups. Policing speech instead of streets. Attacking Western values. Dismantling the family structure. Teaching small children about marginal sexual experiences. Assigning value to people based primarily on their race or, even more perverse, sexual preferences.

They baked a hierarchy of racial and immutable traits into everything they do, from college admissions to government benefits to ads for hardware stores. There are awards in this hyper-liberal bizarro world that you cannot win without publicly reporting the racial makeup of your staff.

Almost nothing that normal people find good in this world is immune.

High School sports, in some ways the last bastion of local community in America, has become an intellectual battleground for a question whose answer is obvious to anyone: Should men physically beat women?

It’s not even a question … unless you work at The New York Times. In that case, it’s worthy of debate.

As the old adage goes in politics, “whatever they accuse you of doing, they’re actually doing.”

AUTHOR

Geoffrey Ingersoll

Editor at Large.

RELATED ARTICLE: Terror Flag To Be Raised at WHO for the First Time


 

WHAT I’M READING

Normal American Muslims have been fed up with the extremism too.

Muslim Activists Helped Give Trump The White House — So Far, They Don’t Regret It

Say it in Trump’s voice: “Chiiinna”

EXCLUSIVE: Harvard Commencement Speaker Worked For Org Tied To China’s Military

Truly outstanding work.

Legacy Media Drops The Ball Again, This Time On Colorado Terror Attack

EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

The post THE PARTY OF EXTREMISM appeared first on Dr. Rich Swier.

SCOTUS Hands Trump Full Control of Federal Agencies — Lawfare Era is Over thumbnail

SCOTUS Hands Trump Full Control of Federal Agencies — Lawfare Era is Over

By Editorial Board – DrRichSwier.com

Mike Netter (@nettermike) posted on X the following:

The Supreme Court just detonated the Deep State’s last defense line. In a historic ruling, President Donald J. Trump has been granted full constitutional authority to remove the heads of all so-called “independent” federal agencies — without cause, delay, or interference.

The age of bureaucratic sabotage is over. The President is now back in full command.

This isn’t just a legal victory. It’s the collapse of an empire built in the shadows — the unelected regime of agency heads, Obama-era loyalists, and lawfare architects who thought they could rule from the back rooms while pretending Trump was just a figurehead.

Now he holds the sword. And the purge begins.

The Court’s decision confirms Trump can immediately terminate entrenched operatives like Gwynne Wilcox (NLRB) and Cathy Harris (Merit Systems Protection Board), along with anyone else weaponizing federal authority against the people. No hearings. No negotiations. Just direct executive power — as defined in Article II of the Constitution.

The implications are seismic.

For years, Trump’s presidency was bogged down not by political opposition — but by a lawless administrative state. Obscure boards, rogue departments, and legal “watchdogs” became the enforcement arm of the globalist agenda. Their mission: delay, derail, and destroy Trump’s America First policies from within.

Now, the illusion of “independence” is gone.

Every federal action now flows through the President.

No more slow-walking directives. No more unsigned memos sabotaging the border. No more internal resistance using legal tricks to override elected leadership. With this ruling, Trump can fire, replace, and restructure every agency blocking the will of the people.

And he will.

The lawfare machine is collapsing.

This decision strikes directly at the administrative state — the fourth, unelected branch of government that has operated unchecked for decades. Trump can now do what he was elected to do: clean house. Permanently.

Expect mass terminations. Expect loyalty reviews. Expect restructuring on a scale this country has never seen.

This is not about two agency heads.
This is about destroying the system that protected them.

“This was never about Wilcox or Harris,” said one insider.

“It was about removing the Deep State’s last defense. And it’s gone.”

Under Trump’s restored authority, the bureaucratic strongholds that enabled censorship, open borders, economic sabotage, and globalist control are now wide open. And the people who’ve been hiding behind policy walls and HR protections are finally exposed.

The Deep State lost its shield. Now it faces the sword.

This ruling isn’t policy reform — it’s a reset of executive power. It’s the return of the Republic. And it’s the beginning of the greatest political purge in modern American history.

The President now commands the government.

The war on lawfare is over. And Trump just won!!!!’

©2025 . All rights reserved.

Please leave any comments below if you wish on Mike’s post.

The post SCOTUS Hands Trump Full Control of Federal Agencies — Lawfare Era is Over appeared first on Dr. Rich Swier.