02 U.S. Politics

Blurb:

No, this is not satire. But, I think this man handled those officers rather perfectly, don’t you?

Enoch Burke is an Irish teacher who refused to “call a boy a girl.” According to his father, “he was commanded.” Too bad for Irish authorities, but this teacher does not take orders when he is asked to lie to a student’s face. The left calls that compassion, while the other side does not believe it’s compassionate to affirm falsehood. Nonetheless, the police came to his house to arrest him over this dire offense.

According to MSN:

Gardaí were last night looking for teacher Enoch Burke after failing to find him at the family home.

A female family member filmed three gardaí arriving at the house in Co. Mayo to arrest him yesterday. She immediately remonstrated with them and maintained that Mr Burke was not allowed his constitutional rights.

Blurb:

Yesterday, Townhall told you about two horrible crimes in Chicago that happened just this week. In one, a pregnant woman and her child were beaten by a mob of students outside a Chicago school. If that wasn’t bad enough, a 26-year-old woman was set on fire on Chicago’s Blue Line after reportedly getting into an argument with a career criminal named Lawrence Reed.

In the initial reporting, we believed Reed had 22 prior arrests. That’s inexcusable enough, but it turns out Reed had 49 prior arrests, including for arson, as well as ten felony convictions. And it seems Reed’s victim didn’t get into an argument with him at all. Reed just approached her, doused her with a flammable liquid, and set her on fire.

Blurb:

President Donald Trump’s administration announced that it will end Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Burmese nationals.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has now concluded that conditions in Burma have stabilized enough for citizens to return.

The move continues the administration’s broader effort to scale back TPS programs that have been repeatedly extended under previous administrations.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said the decision returns the program to its intended purpose.

Noem said Burma has made “notable progress in governance and stability,” pointing to the end of its state of emergency, plans for elections, ceasefire agreements, and improvements in local governance.

Burma, also known as Myanmar, was designated for TPS in May 2021 by then–Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

Republican Greg Abbot of Texas is calling for a criminal investigation into Islamists operating Sharia courts illegally on Texas soil. Abbot wrote to Texas AG Ken Paxton and relevant law officials, “It has come to my attention that certain entities in Texas—including in Collin and Dallas Counties—may be masquerading as legal “courts” staffed with “judges” issuing orders that purportedly carry the authority to bind individuals to Islamic codes, thereby preempting state and federal laws. Such practices appear to cross the line from permissible internal religious decision-making to violations of state criminal laws.”

Blurb:

Tex Governor Abbot Abbott Calls for Criminal Investigations Into Sharia Courts Operating in Texas – gellerreport.com

We applaud Governor Abbott for addressing this oppressive, parallel government operating in our midst. Under Islamic law, there is no equality for all before the law.

Muslims are the only immigrant group who come to the West with a ready made model of society they believe to be superior to Western law and they work furiously, by all means, to impose it. Under Islam, shariah (Islamic) law supersedes Western law. Anywhere Western law and Shariah law conflict, it is always Western law that must give way. What those of us working in defense of freedom did not expect, was the craven capitulation and cowardice by Western left elites to Islamic supremacy.

Blurb:

Following months of political theater, gamesmanship, and grandstanding in the halls of Congress, President Donald Trump has signed into law the bill to release the Epstein files.

Political leaders on both sides of the aisle have taken victory laps for transparency and are eagerly awaiting the release of documents to score more political points. But like much of what happens in the halls of Congress these days, the Epstein files law is yet another example of Congress appearing to fix a problem and failing to do so. This law is a red herring and is endemic of the much larger problem of weak congressional oversight.

The Epstein legislation is poorly written and contains loopholes large enough to drive a Mack truck through. For example, the legislation applies only to records in the possession of the Justice Department. What about the rest of the U.S. government? There are legitimate questions surrounding Jeffrey Epstein’s connections to the intelligence community. By cabining records in the possession of the Justice Department, the bill leaves a lot of meat on the bone.

Blurb:

California is violating federal law, according to a new lawsuit filed by the Department of Justice.

The state effectively in-state tuition to illegal immigrants, which violates a federal prohibition against the practice. University of California does so, for example, by allowing for in-state tuition rates to illegal immigrants who attended school for three years in the state and graduated from high school.

Federal law forbids states from offering better tuition deals to illegal immigrants who reside in the state than it does to Americans from other states.

This illegal “unequal treatment,” according to the lawsuit filed on Nov. 20.

Plaintiffs include Governor Gavin Newsom and the regents for the state university and community college systems.

Blurb:

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni expressed support for the peace plan proposed by the United States to end the war between Russia and Ukraine.

President Donald Trump presented the 28-point draft proposal for a peace plan to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Ukrainian officials last week, according to the Associated Press. The plan included security guarantees for Ukraine, an agreement not to join NATO in the future, Ukraine’s eligibility for membership into the European Union, and territory concessions by Ukraine and Russia, among other details.

While speaking at a press conference during the G20 summit in Johannesburg, South Africa, Meloni rejected the idea of needing a counterproposal to the U.S. deal, emphasizing the plan had “many points that were acceptable.” She suggested using the plan as a foundation for a peace agreement, rather than scrapping it and drafting a counterproposal.

Blurb:

Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito blocked a federal court ruling Friday that struck down Texas’ new congressional map, allowing Republicans to continue using the disputed boundaries while the high court weighs the case.

Alito ordered the League of United Latin American Citizens and other challengers to respond by Monday at 5 p.m. EST, according to the court document. The administrative stay blocks the Nov. 18 order from the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas while the Supreme Court considers the case.

The Supreme Court order states the district court’s ruling “is hereby administratively stayed pending further order of the undersigned or of the Court.” Alito signed the order personally on Nov. 21.

Blurb:

President Donald Trump’s administration has revealed sweeping fraud inside the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), top officials have announced.

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins revealed that at least 186,000 deceased individuals were receiving benefits.

However, the huge number is expected to grow further once data from Democrat-run states is finally disclosed.

Rollins detailed the findings while addressing concerns surrounding SNAP, describing the scale of fraud as staggering.

Blurb:

The Trump administration on Tuesday made a big move forward in its effort to effectively dismantle the U.S. Department of Education, announcing the agency will transfer a lot of its workload to other federal departments.

The new partnerships with the Labor, Interior, Health and Human Services, and State departments will help streamline and consolidate a lot of bureaucracy and red tape, the Education Department announced in a news release.

“By partnering with agencies that are best positioned to deliver results for students and taxpayers, these [interagency agreements] will streamline federal education activities on the legally required programs, reduce administrative burdens, and refocus programs and activities to better serve students and grantees,” the release stated.

Blurb:

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi has announced that federal charges have been filed against a man who threatened to kill a prominent conservative political commentator and friend of the late Charlie Kirk.

George Isbell Jr., 69, was arrested last month in San Diego, California for allegedly threatening to kill conservative political commentator Benny Johnson. He will be federally charged in Florida with mailing a threatening communication, according to Bondi.

“Benny is a well-known media personality, carrying a message very similar to Charlie’s. Grounded largely in faith and love of country. Just days after Charlie’s assassination, Benny received a letter at his home where he and Kate are raising their beautiful, beautiful young family,” Bondi said. “The author of this letter made it very clear that he hated Benny because of his views, and he wanted Benny dead.”

“This was a coward hiding behind a keyboard who thought he could get away with this. That’s why we’re standing up here today. You are not going to get away with threatening people in this way. And I’m proud to announce that we have arrested the author of this letter,” the attorney general added.

Blurb:

New York Times Houston bureau chief J. David Goodman sounded aggrieved in his Texas-based story in Wednesday’s paper, “Texas Declares Muslim Civil Rights Group a Terrorist.” This is how liberal papers routinely describe leftist agitators. They’re “civil rights groups.”

As for the phrase “Muslim Civil Rights Group,” the Times is actually talking about the Council for American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a Hamas-linked Islamic pressure group. “Civil rights group” should not describe a radical group whose national executive director Nihad Awad declared himself happy about the October 7 massacre by Hamas — a story covered by the Times in December 2023 but ignored in this new story. “I was happy to see people breaking the siege and throwing down the shackles of their own land,” Awad said.

Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas declared on Tuesday that one of the nation’s largest Muslim advocacy and civil rights groups is a foreign terrorist organization, saying the move will prohibit the organization from acquiring land in Texas and authorize the state attorney general “to sue to shut them down” in Texas.

In his declaration, Mr. Abbott said that the group, the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations, had direct ties to Hamas, which has been designated as a terrorist group by the U.S. government. The nonprofit, known by its initials, CAIR, has denied having any such ties.

Blurb:

Under the reality-denying concept of “transgender,” which was enshrined in federal regulation in 2012, more and more incarcerated men have been permitted to opt into women’s prisons based on self-identification. There have been some legal challenges to this, but, until now, these efforts have not yet been successful.

In the wake of President Trump’s Executive Order (EO) on Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government, two women incarcerated at the sole women’s medical center in the federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) system filed suit. This EO included a provision requiring federal agencies to “ensure that males are not detained in women’s prisons or housed in women’s detention centers.” Due to the DC district court issuing Preliminary Injunctions on behalf of male inmates demanding to continue to be housed in women’s prison, the EO has not been implemented.

Blurb:

 

Texas Christian U. to end gender, race studies departments

Texas Christian University will dissolve its Departments of Women and Gender Studies and Comparative Race and Ethnic Studies at the end of this academic year, merging both programs into the English Department.

The decision, announced earlier this month, has sparked debate over whether the action could mark a return to traditional Christian values or is a cosmetic response to donors and political pressure.

Provost Floyd Wormley told faculty the merger is driven by low enrollment and broader budget restructuring that will also combine other small departments. “Decisions are not based on academic content but on data,” a university spokesperson told Inside Higher Ed.

Blurb:

The Ohio House of Representatives advanced two pro-life measures on Wednesday aimed at curbing chemical abortions and educating students on fetal development.

The pro-life bills are drawing praise from advocates who hailed the votes as a victory for mothers and unborn children.

House Bill 324, dubbed the Patient Protection Act, cleared the chamber 59-28. The legislation would classify the abortion drug mifepristone as a “dangerous drug” due to its severe side effects in more than 5% of patients. It prohibits mail-order sales and remote prescribing, requiring women to visit a doctor in person for informed consent about the risks.

Blurb:

The FBI and Department of Justice have reportedly scheduled appointments to interview the six members of Congress who appeared in a controversial video advising service members to disobey any orders they deem illegal.

The feds, according to Fox News, contacted Capitol Police to schedule the interviews with Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.), Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), Rep. Chris Deluzio (D-Pa.), Rep. Maggie Goodlander (D-N.H.), Rep. Chrissy Houlahan (D-Pa.), and Rep. Jason Crow (D-Colo.).

The “Seditious Six,” as Republicans have dubbed them, released a video titled “Don’t Give Up the Ship” last Tuesday, calling on members of the military and intelligence community to “refuse illegal orders.”

The video sparked a major backlash among top Republicans, including President Trump, who accused the Democrat lawmakers of engaging in “seditious behavior” that is “punishable by death.”

Blurb:

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent praised New York Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani and his campaign despite criticizing Mamdani’s vision for the Big Apple.

Mamdani has appointed hundreds of people to transition committees as he prepares to take the mayor’s office next year, with some of them advising him on how to enact the affordability agenda he campaigned on. The mayor-elect met with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office on Friday, to which Bessent said there is “some admiration” for someone running a campaign like Mamdani’s.

“It was a great, great campaign. He is clearly the leader of the Democratic Party now, and I think it speaks to how open-minded the president is that he invited him into the Oval Office. Senator Schumer never endorsed him, I don’t even know if he’s met with him, and President Trump wants the best for New Yorkers,” Bessent said on CNBC’s SquawkBox.

Blurb:

Our society has systematically poisoned the relationship between men and women. Nothing makes this clearer than listening to state Rep. Aftyn Behn speak about her obsession with gaining power.

Behn is the Democratic nominee in Tennessee’s 7th Congressional District special election set for Dec. 2 following Republican Rep. Mark Green’s resignation. In an audio recording released Monday, a woman believed to be Behn says that rather than having dreams about marriage and children, she frequently imagines standing in a cafeteria professing her desire for power in front of other women.

“My therapist always asks me to transcribe my dreams when they happen. And the recurring dream I’ve had is standing up in a cafeteria full of women — I don’t know why it was there or whatever — and saying, ‘I don’t want children, I want power,’ and just screaming it at the top of my lungs,” Behn is allegedly heard saying.

Blurb:

“By design or by default, Judge [Dianna] Gibson has authorized the most partisan and thus the most gerrymandered map,” Senate leader Stuart Adams said.

The Utah state legislature is set to appeal the state’s new congressional map that carves out a congressional seat that will all but certainly give a seat to the Democrats in the 2026 midterm elections. The map was brought about after Judge Dianna Gibson ruled in favor of the map that was in place.

The announcement was made on Tuesday. “By design or by default, Judge [Dianna] Gibson has authorized the most partisan and thus the most gerrymandered map in the history of the state of Utah,” Senate President Stuart Adams announced at a press conference.

Blurb:

“She ran because of me,” Chad “Charly” Mecca said, adding that he had been cited for criminal trespassing and obstructing identification.

Authorities say the trans friend found with Morgan Geyser after her escape from a Wisconsin group home is a biological man who insists the 23-year-old fled because of their friendship, and because she believed staff were trying to keep them apart.

Police located Geyser and Chad “Charly” Mecca, 43, late Sunday night at a truck stop in Posen, Illinois, roughly 150 miles from the Madison area facility she walked out of the day before. Officers had responded to reports of two people lingering behind the building before confirming Geyser’s identity, reports the New York Post.

Blurb:

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has noticed every aspect of Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona’s recent flirtation with sedition.

Monday on the social media platform X, Kelly posted an arrogant series of comments about his career of service in the U.S. Navy and at NASA, accompanied by a partial photo of his medal-adored Navy uniform.

In a remarkable reply posted Tuesday morning on X, Hegseth chastised Kelly for incorrect uniform display.

“So ‘Captain’ Kelly, not only did your sedition video intentionally undercut good order & discipline … but you can’t even display your uniform correctly,” Hegseth wrote. “Your medals are out of order & rows reversed. When/if you are recalled to active duty, it’ll start with a uniform inspection.”

Blurb:

It’s a cornucopia of identity politics where a black lesbian confronts a white man about a trans woman whipping out her junk in the locker room. And you’ll never guess whose side Rep. Eric Swallows, who is now running for California Governor, is on. Ackshually, we can pretty much guess, but he ran away instead of answering, so we don’t know for sure.

Tish Hyman went viral for expressing her disapproval of Alexis Black exposing herself in the women’s locker room at a Los Angeles Gold’s Gym. Alexis used to be Grant Freeman and still had Grant’s genitalia, so of course Hyman got thrown out of the gym since it’s Los Angeles and trans outranks black lesbian on the left’s pound-for-pound most marinalized rankings.

Side note: When Alexis Black was Grant Freeman, s/he pleaded guilty in 2022 to savagely beating his wife. Unclear is whether they/them identified as a woman at the time.

Blurb:

What’s the old expression? Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.

Six Democrats who made the video encouraging members of the military to refuse “illegal orders” stepped right into that old maxim. The video caused righteous furor and understandable concern about the effect it could have. The six Democrats were Reps. Chris Deluzio (PA-17), Chrissy Houlahan (PA-6), Maggie Goodlander (NH-2), and Jason Crow (CO-6), along with Sens. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) and Mark Kelly (D-AZ). Kelly alleged without evidence in the video that “this administration” was “pitting our uniformed military and intelligence community professionals against American citizens.”

The Department of War announced it would be reviewing allegations of misconduct against Kelly over the clip. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth slammed the video as a “politically-motivated influence operation” and noted they hadn’t outlined any specific illegal orders. Kelly was asked about this on MS NOW on Monday, and again, he couldn’t list anything.

“In the military, vague rhetoric and ambiguity undermines trust, creates hesitation in the chain of command, and erodes cohesion,” Hegseth wrote. “The military already has clear procedures for handling unlawful orders. It does not need political actors injecting doubt into an already clear chain of command.”

Blurb:

A federal judge gave New York Attorney General Letitia James and former FBI Director James Comey a bit of a reprieve when he threw out the Justice Department’s indictments against them.

But this does not mean they will get off scot-free.

U.S. District Judge Cameron McGowan Currie on Monday dismissed the indictments against the two individuals after determining that the appointment of Interim U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan was not valid. He argued that after an interim U.S. attorney’s term expires, it is up to the district court to appoint a replacement. In Halligan’s case, Attorney General Pam Bondi appointed  her instead of the court.

Blurb:

President Donald Trump spoke with Chinese dictator Xi Jinping by telephone on Monday and said he has accepted an invitation from Xi to visit Beijing in April for a face-to-face meeting.

The Chinese government officially announced the phone call between Trump and Xi first, describing it as an upbeat and friendly conversation about issues including Ukraine, Taiwan, and international trade.

“As far as I know, the call was initiated by the U.S. side, and the atmosphere was positive, friendly, and constructive. Communication between the two heads of state on issues of common concern is very important for the stable development of China-U.S. relations,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said on Tuesday morning.

According to the Foreign Ministry, Xi stressed during the call that China’s authority over Taiwan is an “integral part of the postwar international order,” and suggested the U.S. and China should “jointly safeguard the victory of World War 2.”

Blurb:

President Donald Trump has in recent months brokered peaceful resolutions between numerous warring parties, including Israel and Hamas; Azerbaijan and Armenia; Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo; Cambodia and Thailand; and India and Pakistan.

The major peace he campaigned on securing between Ukraine and Russia has, however, proven elusive.

Last week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his government’s representative to the U.N. appeared to reject the fundamentals of the Trump administration’s 28-point plan for peace.

The plan would have: barred Ukraine from NATO, having an army exceeding 600,000 men, and acquiring nukes but provided Kyiv with a NATO-style security guarantee from the U.S.; recognized much of the occupied territory in eastern Ukraine as Russian; set the stage for an American-backed rebuilding of Ukraine; and granted full amnesty to all parties involved in the conflict.

‘Don’t believe it until you see it.’

Blurb:

One wonders: Have the Democrats thought this through? Do they have an endgame?

Either way, their reckless rhetoric can only lead to a dark place — as it has already.

Monday on CNN’s “The Arena with Kasie Hunt,” Democratic Sen. Ruben Gallego of Arizona appeared to threaten “consequences” for military service members who take part in a potential court-martial of his colleague, Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona.

In a clip posted to the social media platform X, host Kasie Hunt asked Gallego about his “level of trust in the U.S. military justice system,” to which the senator, with shocking brazenness, replied that service members need to remember that President Donald Trump will not be around to protect them forever.

“I trust them, actually, a lot,” Gallego began.

Blurb:

Disgraced former FBI Director James Comey praised the Democrat-aligned federal judge who dismissed the criminal case against him this week.

Comey is arguing that the indictment was driven by political animus and mishandled by prosecutors.

The ruling, however, is already being challenged by President Donald Trump’s administration.

The Trump admin maintains that the case was properly brought and plans to continue pursuing legal action.

Activist Judge Cameron Currie, a Bill Clinton appointee, threw out the false-statements charges on Monday.

Blurb:

Former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) warned that political breakups might become more commonplace in the Republican Party.

McCarthy’s prediction comes after Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia announced that she will retire from the House in January before finishing her congressional term. This announcement followed a public falling-out with longtime ally President Donald Trump.

‘I’ve found Marjorie to be very effective.’

Despite being one of Trump’s most loyal supporters on Capitol Hill, Greene said their falling-out was over her commitment to releasing the Epstein files, which the White House later supported. Other reports suggested that the split came after the White House squashed Greene’s political aspirations beyond the House of Representatives.