Daily Archives: December 9, 2021

Jeff Fortenberry is not the person youd expect to be charged with any crime, much less the crime of lying to the FBI. Painfully earnest, the Nebraska Republican congressman is a devout Roman Catholic who has a perfect pro-life voting record. He served on the powerful House Appropriations Committee, and has developed a reputation for activism on behalf of persecuted religious minorities in Iraq. It was that last focus that ended up getting him in the crosshairs of the Department of Justice.

Not even the FBI is accusing Fortenberry of knowingly accepting illegal contributions from a Nigerian billionaire who shared his concern about religious persecution in the Middle East, but those illegal contributions were where things started.

In 2016, a group of Lebanese Americans held a series of events in Los Angeles for Fortenberry, including a fundraiser. At one event, he was inducted into the Order of St. Gregory, which is a knighthood established by Pope Gregory XVI in 1831, for his service to persecuted Christians in the Middle East. Unbeknownst to the congressman, some attendees had been given money through a conduit to give him.

In 2018, the FBI ordered an informant to briefly call Fortenberry to tell him the contributions were probably illegal. A year later, two men claiming to be FBI agents knocked on his door in Nebraska and asked to speak to him. Fortenberry and his wife Celeste invited them into the house, although, according to an email they sent supporters, they were so suspicious about the mens changing story about the nature of their visit that they asked local police to come over as well.

Referencing the obscene signs, nasty political messages, and emailed threats of violence that Fortenberry had received, Celeste said, I had no way of knowing if these men were who they said they were.

Still, assured that he was helping the FBI with a legitimate investigation, Fortenberry spoke to them and didnt think to have an attorney present. The men were in fact FBI agents, and Fortenberry told them he was unaware of the illegal contributions and that they had been publicly disclosed.

Something didnt set right with Fortenberry, according to the email sent supporters, so the congressman called his friend Trey Gowdy, a former prosecutor and former U.S. congressman from South Carolina, for advice and legal representation. After getting assurance from the U.S. attorney on the case that Fortenberry was not a target of the investigation, Gowdy encouraged him to go back to the FBI and speak to them again.

According to new filings, Assistant U.S. Attorney Mack Jenkins told Gowdy that Congressman Fortenberry was not a target of the investigation, but merely a subject of it, and trending toward being just a witness in the investigation.

But when Fortenberry and Gowdy went to speak to the FBI, the questioning turned hostile. Gowdy asked Jenkins whether the interview was, as it had begun to sound, a set-up for a bullshit 1001,' referring to the section of U.S. code that criminalizes false statements. Jenkins assured Mr. Gowdy that it was not a setup for a bullshit 1001 charge. Again, relying on AUSA Jenkins assurance, Congressman Fortenberry continued with his interview, according to recently filed documents in the case.

Nearly two full years later, following a change in presidential administrations, Jenkins charged Fortenberry with, it turned out, Section 1001 violations for allegedly lying in both of his conversations with the FBI. Fortenberry has pleaded not guilty.

Prosecutors ordered an informant to give Rep. Fortenberry information he didnt know then waited nearly a year to send FBI agents to surprise him at home to ask about it. Despite Rep. Fortenberrys efforts to cooperate, when he didnt recall details the governments informant had been directed to describe to him nearly a year earlier prosecutors waited until the Biden Administration was in power and then brought multiple charges that had nothing to do with their campaign finance investigation, said Fortenberry spokesman Chad Kolton. This set up of a highly effective and well-respected member of Congress is another alarming example of a Justice Department and FBI that are out of control and destroying the lives and reputations of far too many Americans.

Fortenberrys legal team is fighting the indictment on multiple levels, from where the case is being tried, to whether it is overly and improperly charged.Theres also the issue that the federal prosecutor trying the case is a witness to the alleged crime, and would likely be asked to testify.

Fortenberrys legal team has filed a motion to compel the federal government to turn over relevant information to the case, as required by law.

The indictment was levied even as the FBI and Department of Justice are facing the loss of trust of many Americans because of a string of questionable and highly political decisions. The government agencies participated eagerly in a hoax that perpetuated a lie that Donald Trump stole the 2016 election by colluding with Russia, a conspiracy theory that arose out of a secret Hillary Clinton campaign operation. That investigation ended with no findings of Russia collusion by President Trump or any other American, but in the unrelated indictments of many Americans who had helped President Trumps campaign for president.

The FBI and DOJ were found to have lied to the secret spy court in order to gain warrants to spy on American citizens. Numerous FBI and DOJ officials leaked information to the media, lied about leaking to the media, and otherwise engaged in scandalous behavior as part of their effort to fight the Trump campaign and presidency.

The agencies exhibited the anti-Republican animus shortly after working to allow Hillary Clinton and her staff to escape accountability for mishandling classified information during her time as secretary of state.

All this was just years after the FBI and DOJ were found to have hidden vital evidence from Sen. Ted Stevens, a Republican from Alaska, that would have helped him fight false statement charges. A special prosecutor lambasted the DOJ and FBI for how it handled its case against Stevens. Stevens lost his Senate seat as the case was being handled. He died in a plane crash two years later.

The extent of the corruption is shocking, Stevens attorney Brendan Sullivan said at the time. Its the worst misconduct weve seen in a generation by prosecutors at the Department of Justice.

No major reforms have taken place at the Department of Justice or FBI even as its politicized bungling of prosecutions and investigations has made major news.

Excerpt from:

GOP's Fortenberry Targeted In Case From Troubled Department Of Justice - The Federalist

Barronelle Stutzman, a florist in southeast Washington, wrapped up a nearly decade-long legal saga in November by settling with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) for her refusal to service a gay wedding.

As part of the agreement, Stutzman, who in 2013 denied floral arrangements for Robert Ingersoll and Curt Freed, who were later represented by the left-wing nonprofit, paid the pair $5,000 and sold her business to staff.

I just think its amazing the way it turned out, Stutzman told The Federalist. After almost nine years of litigation, she said, I didnt have to violate my conscience.

The 76-year-old Stutzman said she hopes to be retired by mid-January after 15 years running her business.

When she decided to deny service on the basis of her religious convictions, the ACLU and Washington state attorney general, she said, tried to bully me to do same-sex weddings or they will destroy me.

On whether she felt destroyed following the settlement, however, Stutzman said, not at all.

I feel like I didnt have to compromise my principles, my ultimate faith, she said. Rob and Curt have every right to believe the way they do and live the way they do, and Im only asking for the same thing.

Kristen Waggoner, general counsel for the First Amendment nonprofit Alliance Defending Freedom, which represented Stutzman, stressed in an interview with The Federalist that a settlement with the ACLU was exceptionally rare. In July, the Supreme Court denied hearing Stutzmans case, a decision that left in place a lower court ruling that Stutzman violated a state civil rights law.

This is the end of Barronelles legal journey, but she has inspired others, Waggoner said, highlighting another case out of Colorado that was filed with the Supreme Court in September.

Lorie Smith, the founder of Denver-area web design company 303 Creative, losta 2-1ruling in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit which mandated that she create custom graphics and websites for LGBT customers despite messages that contradict her religious beliefs.

According to an Alliance Defending Freedom press release, 16 states and 45 members of Congress have joined the nonprofit, with a group of legal scholars, economists, publishers, and media groups filing friend-of-the-court briefs requesting that the high court take up Smiths appeal.

Were hopeful the Supreme Court will hear that case, Waggoner said, citing it as critical.

Heading into retirement, Stutzman issued a warning.

Our freedoms are being taken away one by one, and if we dont stand up and speak out then were going to get buried, Stutzman told The Federalist.

See more here:

After SCOTUS Refused Protection, WA Florist Settles With Gay Activists - The Federalist

While documenting my former high schools attempt to indoctrinate me with critical race theory six years ago, I remarked that now, several years later, the situation has undoubtedly worsened. Worsened it has. Now,Campbell Union High School District has promoted more than 100 equity resources to students and staff, including a document that taught students how to put a curse on those who say all lives matter.

The page serves as a vast library for CRT resources and features 60 different links, including a Google Drive folder with 45 different documents.The list made sure to include the full range of CRT buzzwords, with links like Raising Race Conscious Children, the infamous 1619 Project, Anti-Racism for Beginners, andSocial Identities and Systems of Oppression, among others.

One link takes you to anAnti-Racism Resource List, which teaches about white fragility and claims that racism can only be perpetrated by white people. One of the resources provided was a Trevor Noah speech labeled Why rioting makes sense, followed by an unhinged anti-white rant from Sonya Renee Taylor, demanding that white people throw your white body on police officers and put their bodies on the line for the purpose of justice.

The list also addresses white people when it says, We are socialized into white supremacy from the moment we are born before going on to sayIt is about completely dismantling how you see yourself and how you see the world, so that you can dismantle white supremacy.

Samuel Martin graduated from CUHSDs Branham High School in 2019 and was appalled by the districts actions. He told The Federalist, The idea that white students must dismantle themselves in the context of their personality is cultish. Not only is it cultish, but it is deliberate in that this school system wants its white students to hate themselves. Do these people honestly think that drilling racial identitarianism into childrens heads from a young age is going to make them less racist?

CUHSD also links to theBlack Lives Matter Resource Guide, specifically their section labeled high school, which itself includes 45 different texts. Amid a wide variety of CRT inspired assignments is a document that includes writing prompts on police brutality and racist violence.

One section titled Hex tells the reader, Hexing people is an important way to get out anger and frustration. It becomes increasingly deranged, suggesting that those who say all lives matter or commit microaggressions, should be targeted. Write your own hex poem, cursing that person, it instructs.

When asked her thoughts on the document that instructed K-12 students to use witchcraft on political opponents, Branham teacher Meredith Allen told The Federalist she hasnt read the documents her district recommends, so she cant comment, but that she is generally opposed to the all lives matter message.

Another section labeled A World With No Police cites police and military as systems or institutions that contribute to oppression. It asks What would the world be like without them? before telling the reader to write a poem discussing a world without these institutions.

The Black Radical Tradition, is a 565-page e-book that includes articles from the Communist League and Noel Ignatiev under the pen name Noel Ignatin. Ignatiev was a Marxist whoargued that abolishing the white race is so desirable that some may find it hard to believe that it could incur any opposition other than from committed white supremacists.

Then theres a slide show entitled What is the Black Lives Matter Movement? which is made for children and was produced in part by teachers at LAUSD.It includes a glossary of terms like white supremacy, the definition of which includes the line, systems, like schools and jails, have white supremacy built into them because white people have had so much power for so long.

The ADLs linked document George Floyd, Racism, and Law Enforcement defines racism as the oppression of people of color based on a socially constructed racial hierarchy that privileges white people, a definition that reinforces the malicious lie that white people cant be the victims of anti-white racism.

Another ADL resourcecondemns colorblindness and provides carefully crafted methods to indoctrinate white students with the idea that they have privilege without incurring backlash while a Racial Equity Resource Guide advertises the White Privilege Conference.

The districts equity resources page is just the most visible result of a series of steps in support of CRT that started long ago. In fact, the district was a testing ground for CRT before it spread throughout the nation. The book Research Studies on Educating for Diversity and Social Justice was published in 2018 and describes the process. An entire chapter, written in part by my former teacher, is dedicated to discussing how CRT was used at my high school so it could be replicated.

The book noted the use of the theory, saying, CRT is used here to centralize the discussion of race and racism at Branham High School. It went on to describe an equity advisory class that I was placed in as a sophomore, where Students learn about the different types of oppression along with the privilege it affords the oppressors.The authors hoped their tactics would spread, writing, the intent behind sharing the process Branham underwent is to provide a model that could be followed by other schools across the nation.

The districts Board of Trustees supports this agenda, recently offering unanimous support for a resolutionresolving to dismantle institutionalized racism in our society and our school district and is committed to implicit bias training, Ethnic Studies, and resources that foster dialogue around the guiding principles of #BlackLivesMatter.

Note the districts adoption of the term equity rather than equality. Heressuperintendent Robert Bravotwo hours and 39 minutes into a board meeting saying he believes equity is about equity of outcomes.

CUHSD even established an Anti-Racism Team, which is divided into eight Equity Teams that include teachers, principals, administrators, and even two students who must be BIPOC. That means white students are banned from the Equity Teams. Theyre tasked with challenging imbalances of power and privilege, among other roles.

Michael Espinoza is a member of one such Equity Team and a teacher at Branham High School who won the districts teacher of the year award. Here he is calling a Native American tribe the rightful stewards of the lands our schools and district offices stand on and telling teachers to recognize the power of critical race theory and use it in our lesson plans.

He also gave a speech to the class of 2021, where he levied leftwing complaints against America and quoted Huey Newton, imploring students to engage in revolution instead of conforming to the machine that is the United States. On his Instagram account, Espinoza celebrates mandates for ethnic studies classes and complains of living under white supremacist, heteropatriarchal rule in a plea to his co-conspirators.

If this is CUHSDs model teacher, what does their model student look like?Espinozas students created a variety of leftwing postersin his ethnic literature class.One poster demanded Dear White PPL: Start Listening, Stop Talking and others that said Wear UR F-cking Mask and Give us back our land.Principal Lawton took down the posters amid outcry before caving in and apologizing to the leftwing agitators.

The full ramifications of our education systems descent into leftwing radicalism is yet to be fully realized, although we can be certain that many of the students it doesnt lose to homeschooling will be successfully transformed into co-conspirators. But as the rhetoric of revolution becomes standard for stodgy school administrators, its appeal to youth might wane.

Conversely, they run the risk of creating a small but clever cadre of conservative youth who understand from firsthand childhood experiences the consequences of toxic racial grievance politics.Dont be surprised if the propagandizers who intend to give permanency to left-wing hegemony instead give rise to a nascent conservative political force that will uproot it.

Update: After publication, CUHSD removed the Black Lives Matter Resource Guide. CUHSDs original equity resources list can be viewed here.

See the original post:

District Tells Students To Cast Spells On People Who Say 'All Lives Matter' - The Federalist

If you had any hope Jack Dorsey leaving Twitter might help the platform navigate back toward enabling an open exchange of ideas, the big update his successor announced on his first day at the helm should nip that optimism in the bud.

Beginning today, Twitter warned, we will not allow the sharing of private media, such as images or videos of private individuals without their consent. Publishing peoples private info is also prohibited under the policy, as is threatening or incentivizing others to do so.

What will this mean in practice? While Twitter says context matters and that some newsworthy events will be exempted, the move is obviously aimed at the kind of undercover reporting Project Veritas is using effectively. (Otherwise they would have explicitly excepted anything of public concern.)

So Twitter is now saying: the purest form of journalism the investigative format where veracity is unimpeachable as the information exposed comes straight from the subjects themselves will be removed on an ad hoc basis by a self anointed digital ministry of truth, Veritas Matthew Tyrmand wrote in response.

Of course, like all of Twitters other content moderation policies, what constitutes newsworthy lies in the eyes of Twitters anonymous, unaccountable, uniformly far-left Thought Cops. As Ive documented before, these rules are purposefully ambiguous, so Twitters technocrats can freely delete ideas they dislike while promoting those they prefer.

My experience with the platform proves this kind of selective enforcement is the rule, not the exception.Mindful of Silicon Valleys habit of disappearing prominent conservative outlets, Ive always been careful to compose posts to ensure compliance with the ostensible meaning of these platforms content policies. Despite having never broken any Twitter rules, their anonymous moderators have now nonetheless suspended me three times.

On November 18, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki was asked about the Fifth Circuit of Appeals ruling that President Bidens vaccine mandate on private employers egregiously violates the Constitution. I posted a clip of Psaki saying that despite their mandate being stayed, the Biden administration was still telling employers to carry on with enforcing the rule anyway.

Then I added my own commentary, which used a few facts that come straight from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, followed by an argument that was once a ubiquitous battle cry amongst the progressive set now running Silicon Valley: My body, my choice!

I wrote: Realities: Covid vaccines dont inoculate you against the virus; they dont stop you from spreading it; they can help mitigate worse outcomes; they can also induce adverse events. Theres no reason the federal govt should determine what is ultimately a private medical decision.

The tweet accumulated hundreds of likes within a few minutes, clearly on pace for going viral. But when I logged back in a few hours later, Twitter informed me Id broken their rules against spreading Covid misinformation and was thus suspended. To regain access, I had to delete the tweet; doing so also includes the stipulation, by clicking Delete, you acknowledge that your Tweet violated the Twitter Rules.

Twitters Covid misinformation rules prohibit spreading misleading and potentially harmful information related to COVID-19. Then, more vaguely: Under this policy, we require the removal of content that may pose a risk to peoples health, including content that goes directly against guidance from authoritative sources of global and local public health information.

Even under these ambiguous standards, my post clearly adhered to the rules. Rather than agreeing to their demand I confess my sins and be admitted back online, I appealed.

This tweet also did not violate any Twitter rules, I wrote Twitter. I stated four facts backed by mountains of research, CDC statements, and quotes from Dr. Fauci [director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases]. The final sentence is my opinion, based on those four facts, which happens to be shared by the vast majority of Americans (as well as, now, federal courts).

These Covid vaccines are not actual vaccines with attenuated virus that induce inoculation, my appeal continued. I then quoted the CDC: Data were added from studies published since the last update that further characterize reduced COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness against asymptomatic and mild symptomatic infections with the Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2.

A year-long study recently published in The Lancet medical journal acknowledged these vaccines dont stop the spread of Covid: People inoculated against Covid-19 are just as likely to spread the delta variant of the virus to contacts in their household as those who havent had shots, according to new research.

Its also an objectively factual statement that these vaccines can induce adverse events, as the Centers for Disease Control, Food and Drug Administration, and the vaccine manufacturers themselves all acknowledge. Adverse events described on this page have been reported, a CDC advisory says, going on to list five serious adverse events of interest, including death.

Finally, I wrote, there is no reason the federal govt should determine what is ultimately a private medical decision. This, of course, is an opinion, and last I checked having opinions about the relationship between people and the government is protected speech. This particular opinion also happens to be shared by the majority of Americans.

Federal courts have also recently stated that federal vaccine mandates violate the U.S. Constitution. As the Fifth Circuit recently wrote: The public interest is also served by maintaining our constitutional structure and maintaining the liberty of individuals to make intensely personal decisions according to their own convictionseven, or perhaps particularly, when those decisions frustrate government officials.

Re-reading my tweet makes clear I take no stand on whether people should get vaccinated. I am only defending Americans constitutional right to retain this decision for themselves.Beyond the Constitution, bodily autonomy is a human right, and should we lose it, a far-reaching precedent will be set that empowers the federal government to make determinations regarding individuals dietary habits, their use of prescription medicines, the privacy of their medical records, their reproductive health, and so much more. The power would be virtually unlimited.

Last November, Twitters CEO, Jack Dorsey, testified before Congress that: Content moderation rules and their potential effects, as well as the process used to enforce those rules, should be simply explained and understandable by everyone. We believe that companies like Twitter should publish their moderation process. We should be transparent about how cases are reported and reviewed, how decisions are made, and what tools are used to enforce.

Dorseys claims are far from Twitters actual conduct. Upon appealing, I received a notification minutes later that Twitter Support verified I broke the rules, without any kind of reference to the text of my appeal.

As it wasnt clear they had actually read it, I submitted it again. Then after not hearing back, I submitted another appeal. Over the course of two weeks, I submitted at least three appeals; the only reply I received throughout was the apparent auto-reply indicating Twitter Support verified I violated the Twitter Rules.

Dorsey also testified, We have worked to build better in-app notices where we have removed Tweets for breaking our Rules. We also communicate with both the account that reports a Tweet and the account that posted it with additional detail on our actions.

Again, I can vouch that none of this happens. Ive explained in precise detail how my tweet fell well within the bounds of Twitters rules. Twitter refuses to explain why they believe otherwise. Worse, after forcing me offline, I had followers tell me Twitter had unfollowed them from my account.

In preventing people like me from accessing Twitter despite plainly qualifying under their own terms of service and in failing to provide the kind of communication Dorsey testified under oath occurs in situations like mine Twitter is arguably engaging in fraud, telling the public one thing while engaging in the opposite.

Much like the corporate news media, social media companies now operate as the communications wing of the Democratic Party, while continuing to be regulated like a public utility. This indemnifies them against content-related litigation even as they invest ever greater energy into carefully curating what appears on their platforms.

Ultimately this enables them to create a false sense of whats trending or viral and what the consensus thinks, and protect notable personalities from criticism. Its information warfare in service of progressive politics. Or, as Matt Taibbi recently put it, What was supposed to be a historically democratizing technological tool [has] transformed into a dystopian force for censorship and control.

Twitters demarcations around whats allowed and whats not are intentionally fuzzy, so that its faceless censors are empowered to decide for themselves. As conservatives like me know, thats simply a pretext for carrying out shadow banning, frequent censorship, and permanent bans.

Recall that these enforcement actions come at the request of the Biden administration, which has made clear it wants social media companies to erase information they deem unhelpful. This enables the state to curtail our rights without amending the Constitution. Its a disease rotting our republic, and its only getting worse.

Tom Elliott is the founder and editor of Grabien. Follow him on Twitter @tomselliott.

Here is the original post:

My Twitter Ban Proves Twitter Manipulates Itself to Silence The Right - The Federalist

On this episode of The Federalist Radio Hour, New York Times bestselling author Homer Hickam joins Culture Editor Emily Jashinsky to discuss his new book Dont Blow Yourself Up: The Further True Adventures and Travails of the Rocket Boy of October Sky and recount some of his lifes most exciting experiences.

I was functioning [when] I came back from Vietnam, I was functioning I had relationships and I was just living life but I was unmoored. I didnt have an anchor. I really, you know, looking back on it, I realized I was just searching for what is my passion in life? because Id had that before Vietnam, Hickam said. Id had it when I was a rocket boy in Coalwood, West Virginia. Id had it at Virginia Tech when I was building that cannon and studying really hard to be an engineer and so on. Id had it and then I kind of lost it. I was just kind of wandering around in the desert, if you will, in my mind trying to figure out what it was that that I should do. Its is one of the reasons that ultimately I think scuba diving kind of saved me.

Hickam said he likes to try new things and is always looking for his next adventure.

I just have this kind of passion, it builds up inside of me, that I cant really control. I mean, I can but I dont want to, especially if its a positive thing, he said.

See the article here:

Is Homer Hickam The Most Interesting Man In The World? - The Federalist

Fox News Tucker Carlson railed against the push to war with Russia over Ukraine Tuesday night as the two nations locked in a territorial stalemate prep for a Kremlin invasion as early as next year.

The only question that matters is, How does intervening in Ukraine help the core interests of the United States?' Carlson asked. Of course, that is the one question no one in Washington is asking.

At the core of the conflict is Ukraines desire to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), a post-World War II alliance formed to counter Soviet aggression. Ukraines recruitment threatens Russian interests in eastern Europe and jeopardizes access to a major naval base in the Black Sea, while strengthening an alliance adversarial to the Kremlin.

For Vladimir Putin, thats unacceptable. Its a disaster, he cannot let it happen, he will not let it happen, Carlson said. But for the United States, and this is the main point here, there is no benefit either. The United States would gain precisely nothing for taking over Ukraine. Why would we want to do that?

Carlson explained an overly aggressive response from the White House would drive Russia deeper into the arms of China.

In the presidents call with Putin on Tuesday, Biden reportedly committed to severe economic consequences complemented by enhanced military support for Ukraine if Russia followed through on its invasion.The United States has also threatened to send U.S. troops to the region.

If theres one thing the Biden White House cares about, its secure borders, at least in Eastern Europe, where borders are not racist, Carlson said. It would be immoral to open those borders to the world and allow say, tens of thousands of unemployed Haitians to pour across. We cant allow that, and in fact we will send American troops to Ukraine to prevent that. Open borders are only permitted in Texas, Arizona, and California and anywhere else Democratic voters might arrive.

Original post:

Tucker Carlson Rails Against Push For War With Russia Over Ukraine - The Federalist

MCALLEN, Texas At this citys main airport and others in South Texas, President Joe Bidens Department of Homeland Security is carrying out secretive and escalating air deportations of tens of thousands of migrant border-crossers, a high percentage of them evidently Central American women and children who were supposed to be protected from deportation and, more recently, Haitians.

The air deportation operations to distant home countries, a tactic that has proven highly effective at deterring follow-on illegal migration, appear to have ferried home significant numbers of migrants who recently crossed the southern border illegally probably well in excess of 65,000 from August through October and thousands more in November, a Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) analysis of aircraft flight data, direct observation at the McAllen airport, a pilot interview, and other public information indicate.

That may represent a relatively small percentage of the roughly 565,000 total border encounters during this time frame, but merely a decent probability of air deportation flights home has longproven to hold real powerto persuade migrants to stay home and especially not to risk fortunes in smuggling money on journeys that go nowhere. The flights, which began in August and have continued at a daily pace through November, happen tocoincide with a third consecutive monthly declinein migrant border encounters in October (by a significant 30,000 drop from the September number) after skyrocketing every month from Bidens election until the flights began.

The August through November flights seem likely to have contributed to those three monthly declines, although the question warrants more exploration. But U.S. Customs and Border Protection data shows that the nationalities with the biggest numerical declines were those who ended up on home country tarmacs messaging about their misfortune on social media: Haitians, Hondurans, and Guatemalans, a review of CBP data by nationality shows.

Beyond their effects on migrant decisions to avoid losing smuggling fee fortunes on trips that might end up back at square one, the fact that tens of thousands of non-Haitian migrant families are being deported aboard the flights holds implications for the ongoing national discussion about how to handle the mass migration crisis of 2021.

Many Americans and Central Americans, too might have believed the Biden administration was still legally paroling into the United States almost all migrant families who showed up at the border with at least one child. That was largely the case for the administrations first six months, a political indulgence that rapidly drove the encounter numbers into historically high territory (1.7 million during fiscal year 2021) as families back home saw hundreds of thousands of predecessors quickly gain U.S. entry and felt emboldened to bet their own smuggling fees. The catch-and-release practice continues even now at a significant level.

But thats no longer the whole story; the addition of deportation flights as a new factor to consider probably warrants a change in narratives on all sides, especially if the encounter numbers keep dropping.

Its unclear how many Central Americans the Biden administration has flown to home countries, how they were chosen, or the intended purpose. DHS has not released such information. ICE public affairs did not respond to requests for information by publication time.

In August 2021,ICE Air Operationsbegan carrying out the flights, often with chartered aircraft, after the Department of Homeland Securityannounced expedited removalflights would commence for certain families who recently arrived at the southern border and do not have a legal basis to stay in the United States. The DHS statement hinted obliquely that the aim of the flights was to persuade migrants from Central America, among the most populous of border crossers, to stay home on grounds that irregular migration is especially dangerous for families and children.

The flight orders also happened to come the month aftera record-setting 213,000border apprehensions (July) generated international headlines and, notably,low polling numbersfor Democrats on the immigration issue as the 2022 midterm elections loom. Initialmedia reportsindicated the first flights ran into Covid-19-related delays, but coverage of how the operation developed has mostly dried up in the months since.

In their fourth month now without any serious media attention, however, Bidens embrace of deportation flights once favored by former President Donald Trump for their proven deterrence value seems to have escalated to several a day, six days a week, flight tracking data for several of the aircraft shows.

Many of the jets but not all appear to carry mainly the families with children mentioned in the DHS statement directly to Guatemala and Honduras and also to cities deep in southern Mexico like Tapachula and Villahermosa. The Mexicangovernment, in a barely reported September agreement with the Biden administration, transportsthe arriving deportees by bus to Honduras and El Salvador.

But the numbers have grown by leaps and bounds judging by public flight tracking databases for several of the aircraft and by an anti-deportation group calledWitness at the Border, which claims to track most ICE removal flights (and terms them Death Flights).

For example, Witness at the Border reportedprogressively declining numbers of deportation flightsto foreign countries from the beginning of the Biden administration through August, when DHS announced it would ramp them up. For May, as an example, the group reported 35 removal flights to 11 different countries in Latin America and the Caribbean and 46 removal flights to foreign countries in July 2021.

In August, however, the removal flights to foreign countries more than doubled to 99, then leapt again to a stunning 193 in September,the organization reported, attributing the increase to the massive Haiti expulsion program (to empty the Del Rio camp) as well as to new direct expulsion flights to Guatemala and to Tapachula and Villahermosa in Mexico.

The group reported another 139 removal flights for October, which together with Septembers 193, by far ranked the highest in nearly two years, more even than during the latter half of the Trump administration. If each flight held 150 migrants, the math shows that ICE Air flew somewhere in the neighborhood of 65,000 to home countries from August through October.

Flight tracking data shows the flights continued through November at a similar pace. Accounting for November, the number of migrants shipped by air from southern Texas since August would push close to 100,000.

An IAero Airways 737 jet registered as N529AU, which CIS saw parked at McAllen airport, flew more than 65 flights to southern Mexico, Guatemala City, and Honduras between August and the last week of November 2021, including 22 from November 1 through November 27 to Villahermosa and Tapachula, accounting for one about one flight per business day.

The administration has not seemed eager to advertise the extent to which deportation flights are filled with Central American families, perhaps foreseeing the kind ofwithering criticismit faced in September from Democratic constituents, human rights organizations, and mass-migration advocacy groups over a Biden decision that month to fly thousands of Haitian migrants back to Haiti.

As the administration undoubtedly knew, those flightsquickly deterred expansionof a huge migrant camp that formed in Del Rio, Texas, and made it possible to empty it quickly. But when those flights to Haiti were generating heated criticism among Democratic Party allies,little was mentionedthat DHS was already well into its program of quietly flying thousands of other nationalities home, too.

As an example of the low-key way DHS carries out these flights, CIS observed one from McAllens airport the morning of November 20. Plain-clothed federal agents driving unmarked civilian trucks escorted more than 100 migrant women and their children from three chartered white buses no migrant men were observed through a restricted rear entry gate onto the tarmac and directed them up a mobile staircase into the belly of an idling World Atlantic Airlines jet whose public flight plan said it was heading to Guatemala City.

On two occasions, airport security was sent to warn CIS away from filming from a position on the opposite side of an airport fence and ICE agents once called McAllen police to intervene.

Its easy to see why the administration wants to keep things quiet. For one, the flights stand at sharp variance withan early Biden decisionto immediately suspend Trump carry-over flights under pressure from migrant advocacy groups that eventually got the same planes todeliver migrant families to American cities. Jump-starting operations that send tens of thousands of them home at even higher frequencies than before confusingly defies that program and other administrationleniency policies, such aslegally paroling inmost arriving migrant families, and virtually ending deportations from the interior of the U.S.

One explanation that might help confused observers understand this contradictory ground situation that the same planes flying migrants to interior U.S. cities are flying others to home countries is that the policies reflect a White Houseriven with strifebetween open-borders advocates on the far left and pragmatists worried about how terrible poll numbers about the crisis might affect midterm elections. That strife has been well reported.

But the fact that flights are happening in significant numbers and appear at first glance to be at least partly responsible for starting to lower traffic at the southern border indicates the White House pragmatists may be starting to win this civil war.

To be sure, far-left Democrats will be outraged to know Biden is deporting so many Central American families aboard death flights they regard as cruel and inhumane. And border hawks who frequently assert that the administration has opened the border wide to all comers will need to alter that narrative knowing that tens of thousands are being flown home.

But if the true motivation for scaring aspiring migrants into staying home is to improve Democratic midterm election performances, border hawks can point that out and maybe even appreciate the border security dividend a bit.

If nothing else is gained, all sides should understand that deportation flights are one of the most effective deterrence tools in any White House arsenal, so much so that even the Biden administration will turn to them when desperate enough.

This article is reprinted, with permission, from the Center for Immigration Studies website.

Todd Bensman is a Texas-based senior national security fellow for the Center for Immigration Studies and a writing fellow for the Middle East Forum. For nearly a decade, Bensman led counterterrorism-related intelligence efforts for the Texas Department of Public Safety's Intelligence and Counterterrorism Division. Follow him on Twitter @BensmanTodd. Bensman also worked for The Dallas Morning News, CBS, and Hearst Newspapers. He reported extensively on national security and border issues after 9/11 and worked from more than 25 countries in Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa.

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The Biden Administration Is Using A Trump Deportation Strategy - The Federalist

Countless young single Americans may, on the surface enjoy the perceived freedom that comes without a commitment to one person. If they have an active social life, they often say they enjoy having numerous relationships with varied individuals.

But deep down, when you ask questions that go beyond the superficial, they express their ache for that special relationship with a person they can commit to and connect with for life. As Dan Edmunds writes, Though we may put many around us, we are alone.

Many of these singles yearn to be married, but the institutions that provided the opportunity to meet a lifetime spouse have weakened, such as families, churches, and community organizations. For many, this breakdown of community has led to what Edmunds describes as the breakdown of persons.

So, why are singles choosing not to get married and becoming more isolated? A recent study by the Institute for Family Studies and the Wheatley Institute provides some interesting reasons.

While many assume that lack of money or having a stable job in todays economic uncertainty would be the main reasons people are choosing not to get married, they would be erroneous in doing so. Instead, the number one reason cited by singles for not getting married was what they perceived to be the difficulty in finding the right person to marry.

Regardless of income, a vast majority of singles who desire marriage want their future spouse to be responsible, emotionally stable, and share the same values about having and raising children.

I would agree these are the traits one should be looking for in a future spouse, and marrying someone who is not responsible, emotionally unstable, or on the same page regarding parenting is a recipe for marital disaster. Unfortunately, with the societal breakdown of the family and the lack of marital and parental role models available to young people today, many singles are finding potential spouses with these traits harder to find.

These role models are found in churches, strong families, and community organizations. Without these institutions, which provide the nurturing environment that produces healthy, responsible, and stable adults, young men and women are finding it more difficult to find a suitable lifelong mate.

Without strong families, it is difficult to find strong and secure adults. It is these institutions that promote the common good and personal responsibility the very traits that most singles say they are looking for in a spouse.

This is borne out by the second most cited reason for not getting married: not being ready for commitment, of which the percentage of men (34 percent) and women (32 percent) are nearly the same. Fear of commitment often is the result of experiencing broken relationships with a mother or father at some time in ones development, or the lack of a loving, supportive community.

In fact, 19 percent of both men and women surveyed said that fear of divorce was a primary reason they remained unmarried.Thus, these singles want to be married and make a lifelong commitment to a relationship but are scared off out of fear that it might not last, as they have seen played out too many times in our society, even in their own families.

So it might not be the fear of getting married, but the fear of making the wrong decision in choosing a lifelong mate that is keeping people from getting married. As a result, they become emotionally paralyzed about relationships. When I talk with singles, or with friends who were single for longer than they really wanted to be, that is the message that always seems to come through.

The delay in getting married, or not getting married at all, also has profound consequences for our society. The longer marriage is delayed, the less likely couples are to have multiple children, or any children at all. The result will be an increasingly aging society that does not have enough young taxpayers to support the entitlements of a rapidly growing older population. This is a scenario for economic disaster for all.

Finally, marriage is a stabilizing force for men, women, and children. As the survey points found, the number one trait people look for in a spouse is responsibility. When two people get married, their focus, hopefully, becomes on one another and the children they produce, rather than on themselves. Self-gratification fades away as one sees beyond their wants and instead concentrates on the needs of others.

For these reasons, it is essential that we encourage and strengthen the very institutions families, churches, and community associations that will produce healthy young adults who will become responsible spouses and parents.As Maggie Gallagher haswritten, Something about marriage as a social institution a shared aspiration and a public, legal vow gives wedlock the power to change individuals lives.

By creating healthy environments that encourage marriage, singles can form stable lifelong relationships and with that stability strengthen our society in the short and long term as well. We can once again be a society of connected, rather than broken, people.

Tim Goeglein is the Vice President of Government and External Relations at Focus on the Family in Washington DC.

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Study Finds Singles Want To Get Married But Don't Like Their Prospects - The Federalist

A Pennsylvania public school teacher who sued a teachers union for attempting to charge him dues despite no longer being a member entered into a settlement this fall that reaffirms the constitutional rights of government workers who do not want to subsidize political activism they do not support.

Until recently, those rights had been subjugated to the commonwealths labor laws, which allow unions to charge nonmembers fair share fees as a condition of their employment. The Pennsylvania statute also allows government unions to establish maintenance of membership provisos that prevent public employees from resigning from their union anytime outside of an approximately two-week window at the end of a collective bargaining agreement. What this meant in practice was that unions could compel workers to maintain their membership and continue to pay dues against their will, in some cases for years on end.

But times are a-changing thanks to a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling and to the heavy lifting of David Perrotti, a Scranton-area public school teacher. He resisted threatening letters demanding that he pay union dues despite the fact that he resigned from the Abington Heights Education Association (AHEA) on Nov. 20, 2020. While union officials did not dispute Perrottis resignation, they claimed he owed back dues because he missed their window for resignation.

A few weeks after resigning, the Pennsylvania teacher received the first of several collection letters demanding he pay dues in the amount of $722.40 by Aug. 31, 2021. But another date blew a hole in the unions argument and helps to explain why Perrotti secured a settlement that frees him and other government employees from union demands. The collective bargaining agreement between Abington Heights School District, where Perrotti teaches, and the AHEA was signed on April 3, 2019.

That matters because it means the union forged the agreement several months after the U.S. Supreme Court invalidated mandatory union dues and fees for public-sector workers in its June 2018 ruling in the case known as Janus v. AFSCME. Apparently, the AHEA, an affiliate of the Pennsylvania State Education Association, decided to ignore the courts decision and coerce employees into paying union dues and fees anyway. This is not an isolated incident.

Nathan McGrath, president and general counsel of the Fairness Center, sees a deliberate strategy from unions to undermine the Janus ruling. The fact that the Pennsylvania State Education Association, and affiliates like the AHEA, inserted fair share fees into contracts after the high court invalidated those same union fees speaks to the need for added legal pressure at the state level, he explained.

The Supreme Court settled the issue of nonmembers paying union fees three years ago, but theres still a lot of work to be done, McGrath said. Union officials continue to disregard employees rights and use underhanded tactics to keep nonmembers paying union fees.

In his majority opinion for the court, Justice Samuel Alito made it clear that unions could not collect fees from nonunion members who are public employees without the affirmative consent of those employees. In other words, the union position is no longer the default position. Under Janus, nonunion members must make a conscious decision to pay a union rather than jumping through hoops to either resign their membership or refrain from joining in the first place.

Perrotti, who had been a union member since 2004, never gave his affirmative consent and decided it was high time the Janus ruling was enforced in Pennsylvania. Thats why he hired the Fairness Center last summer to file a federal civil rights suit against both the AHEA and the Pennsylvania State Education Association, the largest public employee union in the state with roughly 180,000 members.

By threatening to collect union dues or fees from Perrotti without his consent, the teachers unions were depriving him of his First Amendment rights to free speech and association, the suit says. Although Perrotti clearly had the force of federal law on his side, Danielle Acker Susanj, an attorney who represented Perrotti, finds that unions are not always brought to heel without legal intervention.

This is part of the larger trend we are seeing threats to unrepresented teachers, who have plenty of other things to worry about, only for PSEA to back down as soon as lawyers get involved, Susanj said in an email. But teachers should be able to exercise their rights without the need to hire a lawyer in order to fend off threats from the union that represents them.

What the public employee unions in Pennsylvania really want to avoid is a decisive court ruling that sets a firm precedent while overturning those parts of Pennsylvania labor law that do not square with the Janus ruling, David Osborne, CEO of Americans for Fair Treatment, added. Unions continuously attack and retreat by imposing unconstitutional policies on public employees but then abruptly retreating whenever they are challenged in court, he observed.

The Fairness Center continues to advance cases where they call on the judiciary to overturn those parts of Pennsylvania labor law that are unconstitutional. But the problem here is with the sly union tactics Osborne highlights. The usual drill is for unions to cry uncle and enter settlements once it becomes clear they sit on the precipice of a ruling that would make Janus fully operational in Pennsylvania.

But theres an alternative to court action in the form of legislative and political pressure and here the timing might be ideal. On Nov. 15, the Pennsylvania House Labor and Industry Committee held a hearing on several labor reform measures. One of the bills up for consideration would end maintenance of membership while another would notify employees of their constitutional rights while striking down fair-share fee requirements.

Susanj, the Fairness Center attorney who represented Perrotti, told committee members during her testimony that her firm has identified at least 20 collective bargaining agreements that included fair share fee language signed after the Janus ruling. This means the union and the public employer included language they knew to be illegal, she explained.

Other examples of school districts with collective bargaining agreements that illegally insert fair share fees include Steel Valley, East Stroudsburg, City of Jeannette, and New Kensington-Arnold.

There are Pennsylvania public employees, including some of our clients, working today under contracts with facially unconstitutional provisions, Susanj said. She also sees value in a legislative proposal to implement notification requirements so public employees are fully informed of their First Amendment rights before joining a union.

Setting aside the problem of public sector union officials and public employers including illegal language in the CBAs, if employees do not know their rights, they cannot be expected to know which provisions happen to be unconstitutional, she observed during the hearing.

Cheri Gensel, a public school teacher from Monroe County, demonstrated how this can be done during her testimony. She described how the PSEA attempted to pressure her into changing her party affiliation from Republican to Democrat back in 2014. The union relented when she stood her ground, but Gensel still had to pay union dues that went to support the unions political agenda.She was finally able to resign from her union in 2018 thanks to the Janus ruling.

She encouraged lawmakers to move forward with the bills that now sit before the House committee that enable teachers who do not agree with the politics of the teachers unions to exercise their constitutional rights.

Many teachers do not know that they have a choice, Cheri continued. I meet teachers and citizens all the time that are surprised that I am not in the union. They always reply, You are a teacher, you are required to be in the union. With this legislation, on their first day teachers will learn of their First Amendment right to not join a union or pay dues if that is what they chooseinformation that is not currently disclosed to them. They will also not be stuck in the union because of a collective bargaining agreement that contains limits on when a teacher can resign.

Kevin Mooney is an investigative reporter for The Commonwealth Foundation in Harrisburg and The Heritage Foundation in Washington D.C.

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Pennsylvania Unions Ignore SCOTUS To Force Teachers To Pay Dues - The Federalist

A daredevil guy with a leather jacket tears around the world, in search of ancient Egyptian treasure captured by the Nazis. He also ends up hiking through the South American jungle and making a death-defying escape from the bad guys in their own aerial transport. Gosh, where have I heard that before?

But wait this protagonist is forced to team up with his biggest rival, creating a playful jostle of competitive one-uppery that continually hints at reluctant friendship. Theres also an underestimated brunette who seems to keep outwitting them both, and the trios antics play out against the glamorous backdrop of the city of Rome.

Nope, I think Ive heard that one too.

Netflixs Red Notice which, at nearly 330 million viewing hours, is now the most-watched original movie on Netflix ever borrows heavily from both Steven Spielbergs 1981 hit Raiders of the Lost Ark as well as Guy Ritchies 2015 spy flick The Man From U.N.C.L.E. But that doesnt make it a bad movie.

As of Wednesday, the film had scored a mere 35 percent from critics on Rotten Tomatoes tomatometer despite receiving a 92 percent positive score from audiences on the same platform. Maybe thats because the film focuses more on entertaining audiences than checking all the identity politics boxes demanded by the same Hollywood critics who thought Fauci was a good Disney movie.

Or maybe its because there are two kinds of movie-watchers in the world: those who want a profound, thought-provoking masterpiece, and those who want a good time. The best movies usually do both, of course, but either done right can make a worthwhile piece of cinema. And while critics, in claiming to seek the former, can end up elevating bad movies just because they are avant-garde, the popularity of Red Notice indicates that the average moviegoer still enjoys a good old action flick.

Spoilers ahead.

Dwayne The Rock Johnson is introduced to the audience as FBI agent John Hartley, on the hunt for the worlds best art thief Nolan Booth, played by Ryan Reynolds. As both men one-up each other, theyre forced to work together to beat the Bishop the worlds mysteriousother best art thief played by Gal Gadot.

While Red Notice may not be the cult classic that Harrison Ford made famous in Indiana Jones, it obviously pulls heavily from its 40-year-old predecessor. Reynolds character even whistles the iconic Raiders soundtrack as he and Hartley discover a stockpile of Nazi treasure, another clear nod to the whip-cracking archeologist.

But Red Notice might bear even more similarities to 2015s The Man From U.N.C.L.E., a movie rendition of the 1960s TV show of the same name. If you enjoyed Red Notice, youll almost undoubtedly like the 2015 flick, which features Henry Cavill and Armie Hammer as an American operative and a Russian spy forced to team up at the height of the Cold War to keep a wealthy villain from obtaining nuclear weapons. Johnson, Reynolds, and Gadots dynamic mirrors the chemistry between Cavill, Hammer, and the stylish colleague they find in Alicia Vikander, even if the Red Notice trio lacks some of the others depth and warmth.

It turns out, at least on the silver screen, spies and world-class criminals have a lot of similarities including lots of glamour and plenty of ego. Both movies are gorgeous and fun to watch, with elegant costumes, elaborate backdrops, and set romantically in Rome (although Red Notice could lay off the CGI). They both lean into the lavish, debonair attitude of a Bond movie without taking themselves as seriously.

That said, Red Notice is at its weakest in the one-liners it continually tries and fails to make funny. Most of them come from Reynolds, whose quips come off more groan-worthy than clever. But overall, just like The Man From U.N.C.L.E., the movies lack of self-seriousness leaves room for fun entertainment, especially with the final twists each movie delivers.

Just as, at the end of The Man From U.N.C.L.E., we find out all three spies are (mostly) good guys, Red Notice ends with the twist that all three leads are bad guys. Not only is Hartley not an FBI agent, hes been teaming up with Gadots character all along and the couple together comprise the notorious Bishop.

The last several minutes of the movie involve a fast-paced flurry of the Bishop duo and Booth trying to con each other, before all three agree to team up in an obvious set-up for a sequel. Its a mostly clever and satisfying ending (with the weird exception of a random appearance by Ed Sheeran that does nothing to further the plot).

If youre looking for a revolutionary piece of art that leaves you thinking for days, Red Notice will probably come up short. But as an entertaining action film to enjoy over popcorn that, for once, doesnt come from one of Hollywoods endless and overused franchises, Red Notice does its job well.

Elle Reynolds is an assistant editor at The Federalist, and received her B.A. in government from Patrick Henry College with a minor in journalism. You can follow her work on Twitter at @_etreynolds.

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'Indiana Jones' Meets 'The Man From UNCLE' In 'Red Notice' - The Federalist