Category Archives: Federalist

In his ongoing libel lawsuit against his ex-wife Amber Heard, Johnny Depp testified that he was the victim of domestic abuse and challenged Heards published insinuation that he was abusive. According to Depp, she would berate and throw objects at him while he would remove himself from their arguments by leaving the room or locking himself in the bathroom.

Without taking a side on this issue since theres no way to know whos telling the truth its worth noting Depps account would have seemed ridiculous only a decade ago. Here is one of Hollywoods most famous actors complaining about being abused by a woman 23 years younger than him. How could he be so weak and she so strong?

Far from idle gossip, the answer to this question reveals some important trends that have been influencing the two sexes for some time now. Due to the propaganda of modern feminism and the corrosive decadence of modern culture, women as a whole have come to dominate and abuse men, while men as a group have become helpless victims mired in mediocrity.

A key to understanding this troubling development is the famous quote from Spider-Man, With great power comes great responsibility. This is said by Uncle Ben (or Aunt May, depending on the movie) to the callow teenager Peter Parker, who later internalizes this lesson as the superhero Spider-Man.

The advice isnt a statement on the ethics of being a superhero, but about becoming a man. As a young man on the brink of independent adulthood, Peter will soon have the great powers of masculine strength that will enable him to work, study, and build as well as defend those close to him. He needs to be responsible with this power, serving others and being creative instead of the opposite.

Unfortunately, this idea of matching masculine power to great responsibility is an alien notion to most men today, who lack both power and responsibility. Rather, based on their reluctance to compete, lead, or even ask a girl out, the majority of young men today can be fairly characterized as weak and irresponsible.

There are many reasons for this decline in men, but the main ones are usually a lack of role models, screen addiction (usually video games), and pornography. More and more boys grow up in fatherless households, and their schools and entertainment largely lack virtuous adult males who can serve as guides. Thus, they never learn about the great power of disciplined masculinity and end up wasting their energies on virtual adventures and virtual sex.

On the flip side, Uncle Bens quote would apply quite well to most women today, who are very much empowered although curiously sadder than ever before. They are graduating from college in greater numbers, working more, and taking on more positions of authority. Moreover, more women are becoming the leaders of their households, being both breadwinner and caretaker.

Whats missing, however, is the great responsibility that comes with this newfound power. While great at encouraging and inspiring girls to pursue excellence and achievement, modern feminist messaging often falls short in combining this message with supporting and having compassion for others. Its mean-spirited and resentful. All too often, female empowerment and liberation become synonymous with bullying and selfishness.

When this feminist narrative is multiplied a million times and reinforced with emasculated schools and households, what results is an unhealthy imbalance between men and women that violates the nature of both sexes. Empowered women actively dominate passive men who never make it past adolescence.

Today, because of these divergent trajectories of men and women, a wife abusing her husband is entirely possible and happens often. For all his wealth and sex appeal, Depp is decidedly not manly: hes vain, not especially intelligent, and suffers from periodic drug addictions. And on some level, his decision to marry a woman so much younger than him suggests poor judgment and insecurity.

One could easily imagine Heard being disillusioned and frustrated with her husband and lashing out against him. Here she was expecting him to take the lead, but instead it appears to have been the reverse. Perhaps women in the past would accept this and build up their husbands to take charge and be more manly. However, most women today would do what Heard did: divorce the loser and extract as much from him as the law allows.

Whether it was really Depp who abused Heard or Heard who abused Depp, neither changes the fact that the children Depp brought into their marriage likely suffered the most. Their parents were in no shape to take care of them, and at least one of them is an abuser.

What makes this story so tragic is that this kind of dysfunction is playing out everywhere. Weak men and aggressive women are failing one another and their children. Its no wonder that few of them want to marry and have children in the first place.

Solving this problem will require a culture-wide shift in understanding the sexes, ultimately recognizing them as separate, unique, and complementary. Men and women are not in competition with each other, and toxic masculinity isnt magically redeemed when women do it. Rather, men need to be virtuous men and women need to be virtuous women, both seeking to serve one another and build something beautiful together.

In other words, both men and women need live out the wisdom of Uncle Ben, coupling their great power with great responsibility and vice versa. If they do this, they can be like Peter Parker, and can become heroes of their own stories. If they dont, they are more likely to become like Johnny Depp and become victims of a destructive and humiliating relationship.

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Johnny Depp And Amber Heard Epitomize Our Sexual Dysfunction - The Federalist

House Democrats will continue to vilify oil producers next week in an effort to cast blame on the industry for high energy prices after congressional lawmakers held a series of hearings complaining corporations were engaged in producing any oil and gas at all. Tax revenues from the nations lucrative resources, however, fund the same conservation programs Democrats proudly claim to protect.

Earlier this month, Arizona Democrat Chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee Ral M. Grijalva asked executives from EOG Resources, Devon Energy Corporation, and Occidental Petroleum to appear before lawmakers to examine the fossil fuel industrys failure to help stabilize American gasoline prices. Gas prices eclipsed their 2008 peak in the first half of March, reaching a nationwide average of $4.33 per gallon, and remained within 10 cents of the new high Monday afternoon at $4.25 per gallon, according to a AAA tracker.

In response to rising gas prices, the fossil fuel industry and its proponents have ramped up pleas for more oil and gas development on U.S. public lands and waters, Grijalvas office wrote in a press release. These demands contradict the fact that fossil fuel companies are currently sitting on millions of acres of non-producing leases and hold more than 9,000 approved, but unused permits for drilling on public lands and waters.

Those 9,000 permits, however, dont mean producers are sitting on rights to extract untapped reserves at the flip of a switch. Considering the profitability of oil in the current moment, such conduct would be corporate malpractice.

Rights of Way (ROW) permitting, which can take years to approve, is still required, along with the capital needed to drill. And uncertainty about operations on federal lands, prompted by the White House, has held back the investment needed to ramp up operations. Meanwhile, another 4,600 permits to drill are awaiting approval from the Interior Departments Bureau of Land Management run by an ecoterrorist.

The hearing scheduled for April 5 follows the quiet cancellation of the House Oversight Committee Democrats March 8 hearing with oil executives as domestic energy production was unable to counter the overseas turmoil interrupting the global oil market after being suppressed by the Biden administration.

In February, Democrats held their second in a series of hearings to indict big oil as big tobacco, where industry executives are dragged before Congress and made villains over the consequences of their products.

Despite the parallel lacking nuance considering that oil and gas production has opened the door to unprecedented flourishing and with it, the ability to navigate global unrest and adapt to a changing planet Democrats pushed onward in their crusade to demonize the industry even as power prices continued to skyrocket.

Twenty-seven years ago, seven tobacco executives appeared in this room before Congress. Rather than admitting the truth about their product, the executives lied, Oversight Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney of New York said in her opening statement at the first hearing in October. This was a watershed moment in the publics understanding of big tobacco. I hope that todays hearing represents a turning point for big oil.

The committee featured a panel of experts on energy and the environment in its second meeting, and will reconvene a third hearing in March bringing back industry representatives.

The day after Democrat lawmakers railed against the industry in the February hearing, officials from the Biden administration celebrated game-changing and historic financial commitments to conservation programs from the Great American Outdoors Act (GAOA) signed by President Donald Trump in 2020. The funding came from oil and gas profits, but officials testifying before the National Parks Subcommittee of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee made no mention of the donors.

The GAOA enhanced two endowments for the preservation of public lands. The National Parks and Public Lands Legacy Restoration Fund (LRF), established by the GAOA, provides up to $1.9 billion a year to meet the needs of a $20 billion maintenance backlog. The Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF), which previously relied on variable appropriations, was given permanent funding of $900 million on an annual basis paid from oil and gas revenues. The same industry provides at least half the funding of the LRF established by the GAOA.

While the Interior Department has not released exact numbers on industry donations to the LRF, data from the Office of Natural Resources Revenue shows the federal government raked in more than $4 billion in oil and gas revenues, half of which is stipulated by the GAOA to be deposited in the LRF until the $1.9 billion dollar cap is reached.

Congress has historically appropriated approximately a billion in additional funding to maintenance projects on federal lands, making contributions from the energy industry double what lawmakers typically provide.

Generally speaking, theres not much awareness that energy revenues are contributing to these conservation programs, Scott Cameron, who served as the Interior Departments acting assistant secretary for policy, management, and budget under President Donald Trump, told The Federalist.

The industry, however, is at the center of environmental rage from Democrats, outdoor corporate retailers, and left-wing activists who place blame for land degradation entirely on oil and gas producers despite improper management by government officials and overcrowded parks bringing their own impacts.

Kathleen Sgamma, the president of the Denver-based Western Energy Alliance, chalked up the hostility as really just a theme of those who dont want oil and gas development on federal lands.

They know that if they keep raising costs, eventually theyll make it so expensive that it goes away, Sgamma told The Federalist, as the Biden administration continues to unleash a cascade of taxes and regulations on production in the pipeline contributing to record energy prices.

Last year, Colorado received more than $38 millionfor maintenance and repairs, including nearly $32 million for Rocky Mountain National Park. In 2022, the state is expected to get $29 million based on the Interior Departments project list, nearly $23 million of which is slated for Mesa Verde National Park.

Colorados two Democrat senators, however, have joined their party in vilifying the oil and gas industry as demon actors in the fight against climate change. Both championed Bidens industry-hostile Build Back Better legislation and John Hickenlooper, who sits on the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, has similarly compared oil executives to the big tobacco giants of 1994. Absent aggressive action on climate beyond the commitments already made, Hickenlooper told E&E News in November, oil giants will end up like tobacco companies and to a certain extent vilified.

I think for many Americans, theyre getting close to the point of no return, Hickenlooper told the paper.

Hickenloopers senior colleague Sen. Michael Bennet, who is up for re-election in November, has also called for more aggressive regulations that specifically target the oil and gas industry.

Tristan Justice is the western correspondent for The Federalist. He has also written for The Washington Examiner and The Daily Signal. His work has also been featured in Real Clear Politics and Fox News. Tristan graduated from George Washington University where he majored in political science and minored in journalism. Follow him on Twitter at @JusticeTristan or contact him at Tristan@thefederalist.com.

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Democrats Vilify Groups That Fund Billions In Land Conservation - The Federalist

Despite the corrupt medias best efforts to derail Floridas Parental Rights in Education bill by dishonestly framing it as Dont Say Gay, Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the bill into law on Monday to the benefit of families across the state.

The media didnt stand down, of course. Not only did they continue to give the impression that under the new law, the word gay is off-limits, but they declined to mention whom the new law is intended to protect. Thats because dont want you to know its for five-year-olds.

BREAKING: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signs controversial Dont Say Gay bill into law, ABC News tweeted Monday afternoon with a clip of the signing ceremony. The bill bans lessons on sexual orientation or gender identity in some grades.

Some grades, huh? Ignoring for a moment ABCs continued invocation of dont say gay (and the fact that the bill is really only controversial insofar as the media have been lying about it), you might be left wondering what those some grades are if you havent yet read the now-law.

Wonder no more. Heres the relevant portion of the simple and straightforward legislation:

Classroom instruction by school personnel or third parties on sexual orientation or gender identity may not occur in kindergarten through grade 3 or in a manner that is not age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students in accordance with state standards.

By some grades, ABC News meant kindergarteners through third-graders. In other words, the law is meant to protect 8-year-olds down to five- and perhaps even four-year-olds, as well as their parents by permitting the latter to decide if and when they broach sensitive sex topics with their young children. Older classes can still discuss historical events like Stonewall and health topics like sexually transmitted diseases when theyre age-appropriate.

ABC News verbiage is no accident. By framing a very narrow age group as some grades something that could just as easily be referring to kids at prom ABC intentionally diverts attention from the fact that the kids in danger of prematurely learning about tucking and binding and gay sex are children who still have all their baby teeth and wear pull-ups to sleep. Theyre kids who cant get up from the dinner table until they eat five more bites of peas and who are tucked into bed and sound asleep by 8 p.m. They havent the faintest notions of puberty and no idea how mommy gets a baby in her belly.

But saying, The bill bans lessons on sexual orientation or gender identity for 5-year-olds who still wet the bed and check for monsters under it, doesnt serve the medias anti-parent and pro-LGBT-all-the-time function the way some grades and dont say gay do. So the public is served with left-wing media spin.

Floridas Parental Rights in Education legislation doesnt prevent some grades from saying gay. It prevents kindergarteners from consuming pornographic picture books at school and five-year-olds from being encouraged in the classroom to consider pronouns that dont correspond with reality. More than that, it does exactly what the real name of the bill says: It preserves parents rights in the education of their own children.

See the rest here:

ABC News Doesn't Want You To Know DeSantis Is Protecting 5-Year-Olds - The Federalist

Properly evaluating any kind of drug safety let alone that of presidentially mandated vaccines involves carefully examining all of the available data. While Americans still havent been given full access to the full Pfizer Comirnaty license application, we do have access to the Food and Drug Administrations medical officer review.

This comparatively spartan 107-page FDA review document purportedly contained everything the FDA believed was important to release to the public from the original Pfizer application of 329,000 pages. The FDA review conspicuously notes clinically important serious adverse reactions [included] anaphylaxis and myocarditis/pericarditis that is, severe allergic reactions and inflammation of the heart and or the sac containing the heart, respectively.

Likewise, Modernas Spikevax vaccine was given its Emergency Use Authorization in late 2020, and was fully approved by the FDA on January 31, 2022. Following approximately a month of time to redact its review from trade secrets, the FDA released an even leaner 30-page review. Like the Pfizer vaccine, there were clear indications of myocarditis and pericarditis in the initial study, demonstrating the potential for risk going forward.

Specifically, the review states: post-authorization safety surveillance has identified serious risks of myocarditis and pericarditis, particularly within 7 days following the second dose of Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine. The observed risk is higher in males under 40 years of age than among females and older males. The observed risk is highest in males 18 through 24 years of age An increased risk for thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome (TTS) has been identified following administration of adenovirus-vectored COVID-19 vaccines.

Bottom line: The FDA, Centers for Disease Control, Pfizer, and Moderna knew about myocarditis and pericarditis risks from the mRNA vaccines since day one, yet made no formal warnings to Americans in the form of recommending labeling changes or any other warnings, such as letters to warn physicians, pharmacists, or the American public.

Elementary drug safety education tells us that when any risk appears in small, preliminary, highly controlled, manufacturer-sponsored initial studies with specially selected subjects by the sponsor, there is significant potential that it would translate to many people having that risk when that same drug is administered to, say, much of the planet. In other words, its important to pay special attention to what adverse events manifest during the early stages of experimental drug testing, such as with the new mRNA technology.

Under the normal run of things, the responsibility of notifying consumers and prescribers of updates in safety and efficacy would fall upon manufacturers. But since Covid-19 vaccinations were mandated by the White House for all workers until the Supreme Court took action (they are still mandated for health-care professionals), and the fact that Pfizer and Moderna still have a federally granted liability shield, the duty of safety monitoring must fall under the auspices of the FDA.

Today, unquestionably serious cardiovascular, thrombotic, and neurologic adverse events related to the vaccine have occurred around the world. As I have written about before, the FDAs own vaccine adverse event tracking system (the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, or VAERS) shows substantial and serious risks from the vaccine, even though the FDA only collects an estimated 10 percent of all adverse events.

Still, federal agencies and manufacturers arent officially warning the American public about these risks, despite having been privy to this information for almost a whole year. Why? One reasonable explanation is because it would counter the narrative that endless vaccines and boosters is your patriotic duty.

Its pretty clear today there are both safety and efficacy problems with vaccines and boosters. Because all of the FDAs 18,000-plus employees had access to the same drug safety data we have, one must ask questions like these: Where is the updated Covid-19 labeling reflecting the latest safety and efficacy findings in VAERS?

Where are the FDA Dear Doctor letters giving updated safety guidance?

Where are the Dear Pharmacist letters to pharmacists who are still administering thousands of boosters to kids and other young healthy people on a daily basis?

Why isnt the FDA recommending follow-up symptom tracking to avoid further inflammatory neurologic/thrombotic/cardiovascular tragedies instead of its proposal to extend the dosing interval and cross fingers that would mitigate risk (as there is no concrete clinical evidence that will happen)?

Why is the FDA ignoring internal drug safety epidemiologists who have stated during official FDA presentations that it only takes a single, well-documented adverse event to justify a safety signal investigation and warning to the American public of the risk?

Why isnt the FDA demanding studies addressing genotoxicity, teratogenicity, oncogenicity, the potential for reduced fertility in men and women, the clinical effects of spike proteins in donated blood, and the bioaccumulation of vaccine in womens ovaries? Why isnt the agency convening and dedicating a Data Safety Monitoring Board to surveil all these post-marketing effects and others?

Are Americans expected to believe there is inadequate funding in the $6.5 billion-per-year taxpayer-funded FDA to address all of these public health issues?

In order for a physician, pharmacist, and nurse, or anyone else with a clinical professional license to work at the FDA or CDC or any other public health agency, they must have a current, active, full, and unrestricted license or registration from any state in the U.S. Not fully warning patients about the potential dangers of any drug before administering useless and potentially dangerous vaccines and boosters would place these professionals license at risk, regardless of what the CDC, FDA, or White House says. Physicians, pharmacists, and nurses have always been expected to think for themselves rather than simply take orders.

As the truth is elucidated about vaccine efficacy and safety, these federal employees and mRNA vaccine manufacturers who colluded to withhold information from the public will be held accountable, and the whole I was just following orders excuse will not cut it. Just keeping your head down and cruising through your job is not an option when it comes to the lives of your fellow Americans. Licensures are held to a higher standard.

Once you see a rash of early retirements of federal public health employees (with full federal benefits, of course), expect starker evidence of clear malfeasance to come to light. When that happens, the licensed practitioners and scientists responsible for withholding vital health information from the public should be thoroughly investigated by their academic boards and licensing authorities.

In addition, not speaking out appears to be a direct violation of the Federal Public Health Vision, Mission and Values, regarding its very specific obligations, and specifically to sections labeled public health, accountability, and communication. Federal public health employees silence also contradicts the FDA motto, which is to assure that: All food is safe; all medical products are safe and effective; and the public health is advanced and protected.

FDA officials are still pushing a potentially risky vaccine by purposely hiding facts from the public. Just look at todays screenshot of the FDA website showing images of kids and young adults pushing boosters, despite the latest CDC data indicating there is no known benefit of Covid vaccination for those low-risk groups!

It will likely take a combination of courageous whistleblowers, a strong president who actually believes in follow the science, and an assertive new Congress to call the necessary hearings and issue the required subpoenas to uncover the many CDC and FDA civil and executive service malefactors who have taken the American people for fools.

These outrageously political, science-ignoring federal officials must be held accountable. Of course, nothing will happen to them while the Biden administration controls the White House and its pliant allies control Congress.

Even worse: If the Republicans gain control, will anyone other than Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisc., do anything to hold CDC and FDA officials accountable, or will they just again reach across the aisle and try to find a middle ground as they have done historically?

Excerpt from:

Why Aren't The FDA And CDC Warning Of Adverse Events After mRNA? - The Federalist

Theres an article in The New York Times that every Democrat leader should immediately read, if only for this one quote from Isabell Sawhill of the left-wing Brookings Institution: This large group includes some people who are just plain prejudiced but a larger group that simply resents all the attention paid to race, gender, sexual preference or identity and the disrespect they think this entails for those with more traditional views and lifestyles.

Sawhill was talking specifically about white working class Americans who have drifted from the Democrat Party, though she could just as easily have been talking about literally any group of voters. And she just as easily could have summarized it this way: As Democrats become more weird and gross, they predictably become less popular.

When Sawhill refers to all the attention, she means the absolute obsessions that have become the defining features of the party: racial equity, transgenderism, toxic masculinity, slaveryoh, and protecting the right of public school teachers to educate seven-year-olds about recreational sex.

Whats not to like?!

That Democrats are expected to lose their control of the House and possibly the Senate in this years election isnt a surprise. Along with President Biden, theyve been a complete disaster in their attempt to run the country. Theyve allowed violent crime to surge. Theyve caused prices on everything to go up. They refuse to do anything about the catastrophe at the southern border. And were literally on the cusp of spiraling into World War III.

All of this is happening precisely because Democrats have decided that nothing is more important than race, gender and sexual identity. Its not even close. Inflation? Doesnt exist (okay, it exists but it will work itself out!) The border? Not a problem. Crime? Well, too many black and brown people are getting locked up so lets talk about something else. Afghanistan? Ukraine? Wait a second, somebody stop Ron DeSantis! Hes preventing teachers from explaining to children why some men enjoy wearing high heels and panties!

Democrats have taken the seriousness out of everything with their preoccupation with pronouns, diversity, and gender identity.

Mr. President, we might have to shoot down some Russian aircraft, which would sharply escalate our role in the Ukraine conflict.

Okay, lets decide who gets to pull the trigger. Bring me names of some non-binary queers, throw in some womxn of color and a few Latinx. No Asians, please!

This is barely even hyperbole. One of the Biden administrations high ranking officials at the Energy Department is a non-binary drag queen with a public dog-role fetish. Bidens Supreme Court nominee this week declined to define the word woman. And his ambassador to the United Nations declared last year that the original sin of slavery weaved white supremacy into our founding documents and principles.

Its all ridiculous, all race and sex, all the time.

Its not extreme. Its weird. Its gross.

Its the Democratic Party.

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Democrats Aren't Just Extreme Anymore. They're Weird And Gross - The Federalist

The Biden administration has delayed for months an annual illegal immigration report that contains crucial statistics about this key national security issue, as the U.S. border crisis keeps breaking records since Joe Biden took the presidential office.

The Biden administration has published some immigration enforcement statistics in its ICE Fiscal Year 2021 Annual Report. This was recently required by Congress and is largely a narrative-driven report that provides a topical look at all parts of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), from customs operations to personnel hiring and oversight processes.

It is significantly different from the detailed immigration enforcement-focused report called the ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations Report that the agency has published by the end of every calendar year for at least the last decade with the exception of last year. As of this writing, the Biden administration has not published this very important report, leading some to conclude that the data contained therein is a damning indictment of the administrations enforcement policies. (Heres the fiscal year 2020 version).

The recently released report does not include the many charts and tables that make up the missing enforcement report, effectively preventing Congress, the media, and the public from analyzing the effects of the Biden administrations controversial guidelines that have severely limited the ability of ICE officers to enforce immigration law. Instead, the report includes only a handful of numbers and percentages, and messaging that is difficult to verify. Perhaps most troubling is that the Biden administration decided to develop a largely meaningless metric that is meant to trick people into thinking the Biden administration is taking public safety more seriously than the Trump administration.

In the new report they claim that ICE arrested 12,025 individuals with aggravated felony convictionsnearly double the 6,815 arrested the previous fiscal year and ICE removed an average of 937 aggravated felons per month the highest level ever recorded since ICE began collecting detailed criminality data. One ICE officer I spoke with calls this a complete manipulation of the data and many ICE officers share that sentiment, including an officer interviewed by the Washington Times, who said, I can tell you definitively there were more aggravated felony arrests in 2020.

The Biden administrations attempt to put a positive spin on its dangerous enforcement guidelines through this unreliable data is more troubling than most realize.

For purposes of immigration, Congress defines a number of crimes as aggravated felonies, such as murder, rape, and drug trafficking, but also considers a crime to fit in this category if it is a crime of violence or a theft offense or burglary offense for which the term of imprisonment is at least one year. The list is detailed and how states define and punish crimes creates some complexity in the law. Aliens convicted of aggravated felonies face a number of consequences including swift deportation, ineligibility for asylum, and a bar from lawfully re-entering the United States.

Over the past year, as confirmed by ICE officers who spoke with the Center for Immigration Studies, the Biden administration has repeatedly directed ICE field offices to mark arrests as aggravated felon arrests at every opportunity, where applicable. The program ICE officers use to create a system of record for managing cases allows for the entry of large amounts of information, ranging from basic information like name, birth date, and nationality to more complex information like criminal and immigration history. As with any system, too much information can be problematic (either for efficiency or legal reasons, for example) and officers generally put as much information as is sufficient for carrying out their responsibilities, which is, generally, either the removal or release of a foreign national.

One bit of information officers can add to the system when arresting an alien is whether the alien is an aggravated felon. Historically, ICE officers have generally not been keeping track of this metric because it has been largely irrelevant as to whether an alien is deportable, and because it can be difficult to determine whether criminal acts in an aliens record count as an aggravated felony.

As inferred by ICE officials on the media call announcing the new report, the same criminal act committed by two people in two different jurisdictions may or may not make the person an aggravated felon due to the laws of each state and different rulings in circuit courts, for example. Until the past year, ICE officers have not been pressured to figure out whether an alien fits the definition of aggravated felon and, as a result, this information has not been tracked in any meaningful sense.

What the public has not been told is that the numbers appear higher in FY2021 due to the Biden administration repeatedly demanding that officers make it a priority to determine whether an alien should be labeled an aggravated felon and then record that determination into the system. In the past, some officers have clicked the aggravated felon button, but since there was no pressure to make this determination which usually would require an officer to locate an ICE attorney and have them run a legal analysis many officers did not bother to make it. There was generally no need for this under the Trump administration because ICE officers were allowed to deport an illegal alien for violating immigration laws, felon or not, as intended by Congress.

Not only has the Biden administration been pressuring ICE officers to record whether aliens fit the definition of an aggravated felon, the ICE unit responsible for putting together the latest report has been proactively reaching out to ICE field offices and requesting that they take a second look at certain cases and retroactively flag them as aggravated felon cases in the system, where possible. This was not done in previous years, but the administration nevertheless decided to compare its new FY2021 data to data from FY2020 when officers were not being pressured to keep a record on apparent aggravated felon cases. This is a scandalous effort by the Biden administration to politicize law enforcement data in an attempt to mislead the American people about the true effects of its policies.

Notably, the recent report includes the number of offenses associated with the illegal aliens arrested last year. Among the population of criminal aliens arrested in FY2021, the following crimes were on their records: 1,506 homicide-related offenses; 3,415 sexual assaults; 19,549 assaults; 2,717 robberies; and 1,063 kidnappings.

About four months of that fiscal year were under the Trump administration, so its possible many of these arrests occurred before the Biden administrations guidelines were issued. Either way, those numbers are much lower than what occurred under FY2020, which saw the following crimes on records of aliens arrested: 1,837 homicide offenses; 4,385 sexual assaults; 37,247 assaults; 3,816 robberies; and 1,637 kidnappings.

Similarly, according to data on ICEs webpage regarding the cooperative program 287(g), whereby sheriffs identify criminal aliens in their jails and assist with the transfer to ICE custody, ICE took in fewer criminals through the program in FY2021 than it did in FY2020. Arrests of aliens through 287(g) convicted of assault were down 57 percent. For weapons offenses it was down 52 percent, arrests of aliens convicted for dangerous drugs were down 49 percent, arrests of aliens convicted for homicide were down 43 percent, and arrests of aliens for sex offense convictions were down 29 percent.

Some of these criminal acts would seem to fit the criteria of an aggravated felony, but with the Biden administration claiming an increase in arrests of aggravated felons, and the data showing arrests in these categories down, something doesnt add up. The discrepancy can be explained by the Biden administrations misleading use of inconsistently labeled and unreliable aggravated felony data. The Center for Immigration Studies recently obtained additional ICE data that further supports the conclusion that the Biden administration is manipulating the data.

Bottom line, the definition of aggravated felon is inconsistent across the country, it has not been consistently recorded in ICEs systems, and consequently the metric has never been considered accurate or meaningful enough to be included in prior ICE reports. On top of this, even the crime data that ICE has reported is an admission that our communities are more dangerous because of the administrations bad policies. The Biden administration has created a misleading narrative out of thin air and is hopeful that the public, and the courts, will not notice theyve cooked the books.

The Biden administration must be forced to release the data from the ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations Report so an honest evaluation of its policies can be conducted.

Jon Feere was the Chief of Staff at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) under the Trump administration and is now the Director of Investigations at the Center for Immigration Studies. For more, visit http://www.cis.org.

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Biden Administration Is Cooking The Books On Illegal Immigrant Arrests - The Federalist

Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson is blasting federal health agencies for their continued coverup of data relating to adverse side effects experienced by people who have received the Covid-19 jab.

In a Wednesday letter exclusively obtained by The Federalist, Johnson criticized the federal government for its lack of transparency over the Covid-19 pandemic, saying he has written 35 letters to the Executive Branch asking questions related to the COVID-19 pandemic and the federal governments response to it and that the grossly inadequate response to [his] legitimate oversight demonstrates a level of arrogance toward the American public that is unacceptable.

In particular, the lack of transparency from federal health agencies has eroded public confidence which will take years, and probably a complete restructuring of them, to repair, he wrote.

The letter was addressed to Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Robert Califf, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci, and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky.

In his criticism of the agencies and their respective leadership, Johnson cited data from the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS), which shows that as of March 18, 2022, the database has received 1,183,495 worldwide reports of adverse events and 25,641 death reports.

Of those deaths, 7,382 (28.8%) occurred on day 0, 1, or 2 following vaccination. It is difficult to understand how this growing number of adverse event reports has not resulted in health agencies conducting significant investigation, taking action, and providing detailed explanations to the American people, Johnson wrote. Instead, we have gotten the Mad Magazine Alfred E. Neuman response, What, me worry?'

The Republican senator went on to note multiple insurance agencies that have documented thousands of cases of adverse reactions to the Covid-19 shot. For instance, CEO of OneAmerica Scott Davison reported a 40% increase in the death rates of working-age people ages 18 to 64 in the third quarter of 2021.

Andreas Schofbeck, who serves as a board member of the German health insurance company BKK ProVita, also reported alarming numbers of severe side effects among their nearly 11 million customers, including more than 216,000 adverse reactions following vaccination in the data that was available for 2021.

As a result of these findings, Schofbeck estimates that the true number of vaccine adverse events is 12 times higher than the number reported by the German public health agency.

In his letter, Johnson also cited the significant increase in registered medical problems among U.S. service members, pointing to figures from the Defense Medical Epidemiology Database (DMED) that showed a considerable increase of medical diagnosis in 2021 compared to the previous five years.

I have raised concerns to [Department of Defense] Secretary [Lloyd] Austin in multiple letters and he has not responded, Johnson wrote.

In closing his remarks, the Wisconsin Republican asked the varying health agencies to provide answers to several inquiries, including the federal health establishments current estimate for the percentage of adverse events captured by VAERS, as well as if they are concerned or have any intention of taking steps to address the alarming figures from VAERS and other sources.

Shawn Fleetwood is an intern at The Federalist and a senior at the University of Mary Washington. He also serves as a state content writer for Convention of States Action and his work has been featured in numerous outlets, including RealClearPolitics, RealClearHealth, and Conservative Review. Follow him on Twitter @ShawnFleetwood

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Johnson: FDA, CDC Refuse To Comply With Senate Oversight On Covid Treatments - The Federalist

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi unilaterally extended rules Monday allowing lawmakers elected to represent their constituents in Washington vote from their homes instead of in Congress.

Under the guise of a public health emergency, Speaker Pelosi has once again extended her show-up-if-convenient policy, quipped House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy in an exclusive statement to The Federalist. This has nothing to do with science, but everything to do with Democrats insatiable obsession with control.

In May 2020, Democrats in the lower chamber passed rules allowing members to vote while absent for the first time in the institutions history, upending more than 200 years of precedent. The operation changes, objected to by Republicans who launched a lawsuit and appealed a court ruling to challenge their legitimacy, were quickly exploited by Democrats to spend chamber time campaigning or indulge in other works of self-promotion.

I am unable to physically attend proceedings in the House Chamber due to the ongoing public health emergency, explained Florida Democrat Rep. Charlie Crist in a letter to the House clerk days after rule changes went into effect delegating another Florida lawmaker to vote in his place.

Crist attended a SpaceX launch in his home state with fellow Florida Democrat Rep. Darren Soto on the same day. Soto also voted by proxy.

In February, California Democrat Rep. Ro Khanna used proxy voting rules to allow him do an online interview about his book from his car in the Capitol parking lot.

Other Democrats voted by proxy last year so they could attend Minneapolis protests after the trial of former police officer Derek Chauvin, who was convicted in the murder of George Floyd.

On one vote in May last year, New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez voted present by proxy.

Pelosis proxy rules will now remain in place until May 14, when the speaker may reinstate them for another 45-day period. The original rules established proxy voting may be authorized for 45-days at a time granted the House sergeant-at-arms and the Capitol physician maintain a public health emergency still exists from COVID-19.

In February, the Capitol physician dropped the congressional mask mandate days ahead of President Joe Bidens State of the Union address.

McCarthy, a frequent critic of proxy voting rules since they were proposed, has vowed to eliminate the ability of members to vote by proxy if Republicans reclaim the majority. In January, the Supreme Court refused to take up a challenge that the rules were unconstitutional.

It is insulting that while Americans are expected to show up to work including those who never stopped working through the pandemic House Democrats insist on granting themselves a permanent pass to stay home, but still want to get paid, McCarthy told The Federalist. Its well past time for the Peoples House to return to its mission of serving the people, and that must begin by showing up for work.

Tristan Justice is the western correspondent for The Federalist. He has also written for The Washington Examiner and The Daily Signal. His work has also been featured in Real Clear Politics and Fox News. Tristan graduated from George Washington University where he majored in political science and minored in journalism. Follow him on Twitter at @JusticeTristan or contact him at Tristan@thefederalist.com.

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Nancy Pelosi Renews 'Emergency' Absentee Voting For Congress That's Already Lasted Two Years - The Federalist

Surrogacy using donated sperm and/or eggs is becoming more commonplace and even trendy but its a detrimental practice that inevitably harms women and babies.

Paying someone else to make or carry a baby that may or may not have any of your DNA is a lucrative racket thats taken off in the U.S. and rakes in billions of dollars each year. Its also growing increasingly popular for gay couples or even some women who want to avoid the pregnancy symptoms and body changes required of carrying a baby, but just because its an option doesnt mean its ethical.

Some celebrities such as Nick Jonas and Priyanka Chopra, Elon Musk and his ex-girlfriend Grimes, and Anderson Cooper and his ex-partner have taken advantage of the expensive baby creation market and been praised for normalizing the Big Fertility industry.

Even conservative commentator Dave Rubin recently announced that he and his husband are expecting not one but two babies this year via surrogates.

Plenty of reportedly pro-life people and conservative outlets congratulated Rubin on Twitter but the truth is theres not much to praise about needlessly separating a baby from his biological mother to fulfill your own self-interest.

Whether we like it or not, surrogacy intentionally severs the biological and emotional bond a woman and the baby she is carrying develop. It violates the dignity of the child, the birth mother, and the adoptive parents by automatically handing the child lower chances of success later on in life.

There are plenty of studies showing that children born to a married mother and father are more likely to be healthier, safer, get a good education, and live above the poverty line. On average, children are best set up for success when they are raised by their biological mother and father. On the contrary, adults that use the commercial fertility industry to create children using donated eggs and/or sperm through a surrogate automatically manufacture a biological distance between themselves and the baby they order.

In an ideal world, children should stay with their biological parents who are responsible and seek their childrens best interest. A loving, nuclear family that can take in a child neglected by his biological parents is a strong second choice designed to cater to the needs of a child. Adults who solicit Big Fertility when they desire a baby, however, are choosing to doom children to likely biological and sociological trauma and even death without much consideration.

A mere 7 percent of the babies conceived via in vitro fertilization required for gestational surrogacy survive the embryo storing and implanting process. Most of them are disposed of or frozen, which also reduces the chances of an embryo surviving implantation, as adults become picky and choosy about how many children they want and how viable an embryo is believed to be. Unwanted or extra embryos that do implant in the uterus are subject to selective reduction which is just a fancy word for killing the unborn baby.

In addition to the IVF process being extremely risky for children, surrogacy traumatizes babies before and after they are born. Surrogacy raises the chances of babies being stillborn or struggling to meet birthweight goals and often leaves children intentionally motherless. Or, as in Ukraine right now, it leaves babies separated from both their biological and surrogate mothers during unprecedented circumstances.

After birth, even the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention admit that 80 percent of children who are only raised by one or no biological parents, something surrogacy promotes, experienced at least one adverse family event such as divorce or separation, death, incarceration of a parent or guardian, living with someone who is mentally ill or suicidal, living with someone who had an alcohol or drug problem, witnessing violence in the household, being the victim of violence or witnessing neighborhood violence, suffering racial discrimination, and having a caregiver who often found it hard to make ends meet which are proven to have damaging effects on kids as they transition into their adult lives.

Surrogacy not only exploits women, some of whom are forced to turn to the industry because of poor living conditions in their country, but it can leave them physically and emotionally damaged.

Lured by the promise of thousands of dollars, women designed with the incredible ability to carry and birth children are loaned out to people who have enough money to manufacture a child according to their preferences.

Even though a woman is compensated for renting out her womb, her body and mind have undergone significant changes and pressure that dont yield the joy of raising a child at the end. In some contracts, those surrogate mothers who do wrestle with the inevitable bond theyve built with the babies theyve nurtured for nine months suddenly decide to keep the child which ends in heartbreak and legal battles for everyone involved.

Those who are forced to separate from the babies after birth regardless of their feelings are left feeling anxiety caused by increased levels of cortisol. The baby, too, can suffer from increased stress and even brain structure alterations due to separation.

Women who carry children who arent their own are at a three-foldrisk of developing hypertension and pre-eclampsia. Those who lose their baby via miscarriage due to these increased risks or other trying factors report feeling incredible sadness for the babys life.

The commercial separation of children from their mothershas already led tobaby-selling rings,trafficking, andbaby hoarding, all of which exemplify what surrogacy is at its core: a marketplace of human beings, Katie Breckenridge of child advocacy organization Them Before Us noted in 2021.

In a civilized society, commercial surrogacy wouldbe outlawed. Thats why so many European countries such as France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Portugal, and Bulgaria have banned it despite activist cries that its a legitimate family-building practice. Unfortunately, the big fertility industry is thriving in multiple U.S. states and is often heralded by our culture despite the drastic and negative effects it has on babies and women.

Jordan Boyd is a staff writer at The Federalist and co-producer of The Federalist Radio Hour. Her work has also been featured in The Daily Wire and Fox News. Jordan graduated from Baylor University where she majored in political science and minored in journalism. Follow her on Twitter @jordangdavidson.

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Big Fertility Harms Babies And Women So Why Are We Celebrating It? - The Federalist

The Utah legislature overwhelmingly voted to overrule Utah Gov. Spencer Coxs veto that would have eliminated protections for girls sports.

The monumental vote came on Friday when the Republican-controlled House voted 56-18 to override Coxs deciding power and the Senate agreed 21-8. Eight GOP state legislators who previously did not support the bill voted to nullify Coxs dissent.

The final legislation, which passed both the House and the Senate earlier this month, barred student[s] of the male sex from encroaching on female sports and defined that sex determined by an individuals genetics and anatomy at birth.

Cox, whodefended racism as long as its against white kids justified vetoing the protections for girls sports after claiming that he wanted to err on the side of kindness, mercy, and compassion.

I am not an expert on transgenderism. I struggle to understand so much of it and the science is conflicting, Coxwrotein his veto justification.

Cox had also claimed earlier this month that last-minute revisions to the bill by the legislature designed to make it stronger contained fundamental flaws. Republican leadership in the House and Senate rejected these claims and quickly called for a veto override session to correct Coxs veto.

We must work to preserve the integrity of womens sports and ensure it remains fair and safe for all. Creating a safe and fair environment for athletes takes work. We care deeply for all students, but we can not ignore the scientific facts that biological boys are built differently than girls. Doing nothing is taking a step backward for women. Finding a solution to this complicated issue is necessary to maintain fair competition now and in the future, Senate President J. Stuart Adams said in a statement.

Governor Cox made his intention to veto the bill clear from the day it was passed so his action today was expected, Speaker Brad Wilson declared. Members of the Legislature, including the sponsor, have worked tirelessly for more than a year to find the best way to approach a complex issue and I anticipate that we will have sufficient votes to override the veto. Ultimately, the Legislature recognizes the value of girls athletics and our members want to ensure girls have the level playing field to compete that was created by Title IX.

Despite the veto override and severe pushback from the state legislature which debunked his claims about the science of transgenderism, Cox is still trying to doom women to playing sports with men who masquerade as women by calling a special legislative session to workshop the bill further.

Jordan Boyd is a staff writer at The Federalist and co-producer of The Federalist Radio Hour. Her work has also been featured in The Daily Wire and Fox News. Jordan graduated from Baylor University where she majored in political science and minored in journalism. Follow her on Twitter @jordangdavidson.

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Utah Legislature Rejects Veto That Would've Killed Girls' Sports - The Federalist