Category Archives: Federalist

I was in college when the planes hit the towers, studying that Tuesday morning before class in the student union. The woman who ran the student snack bar and I were the only people there, and together we watched the second plane hit on live TV.

At that moment, my stomach dropped. After the first plane hit, no one really knew what was going on, whether a small aircraft had accidentally crashed into the tower or if it had been an explosion or something else. But when that second plane hit, we knew. This wasnt an accident. Someone had planned this. It was an attack. Suddenly, we were at war.

In the months and years that followed, my classmates and I tried to wrap our minds around what we thought was coming: a generational struggle against jihadist networks that seemed to span the globe, that had even infiltrated the United States. We all read Samuel P. Huntingtons The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of the World Order. We all scoffed at Francis Fukuyamas notion of the end of history. We thought the United States was the only power capable of stamping out Islamic terrorism. We assumed there would be many more attacks on the homeland.

Twenty years after the attacks of September 11, 2001, its safe to say they did not herald the defining, all-consuming civilizational struggle we had anticipated. The thing we most feared, Islamic terrorism, did not prove to be our worst enemy or the greatest threat to our republic. The real enemy, it turns out, came from within.

In the 20 years since the attacks, Americas own totalitarian left has proven to be a far more dangerous and committed enemy of the United States than any distant jihadists, harboring as much hatred for our heritage of freedom and chaotic way of life as Osama bin Laden ever did.

Christopher Hitchens famously described bin Ladens animating ideology as, fascism with an Islamic face, later adopting the apt term, Islamofascism. Hitchens thought the fascist comparison appropriate because both movements, in his view, are murderous cults, hostile to modernity and the life of the mind, nostalgic for empires of past glory, and obsessed with past humiliations and a desire for revenge, among other things.

But the fascism of bin Laden and his ilk, while obviously dangerous (and likely to become more so after our utter defeat in Afghanistan), hasnt proved as durable or tangible as the fascism of the Democratic Party under the Biden administration.

As I write, the president is announcing a plan to force all federal workers to get a COVID-19 shot, and major employers to mandate COVID-19 vaccinations for their workers or test them weekly, with crippling fines for those who dont comply.

This is not about freedom or personal choice, said Biden. Indeed its not. Its about total federal control over what the administrative state has come to view as its subjects, not citizens to whom it must answer. In the tyrannical worldview of the president and his advisors, nothing can stand in the way of government coercion, not even federalism. If these governors wont help, said Biden, I will use my powers as president and get them out of the way.

Bin Laden, who correctly foresaw disaster and eventual defeat for the invading Americans in Afghanistan, could not have guessed that by the 20th anniversary of 9/11, Americas ruling elite would have become this fascist. Indeed, when a regime uses the power of the state to compel major corporations to enforce its mandates and enact its agenda, thats actual textbook fascism. Hitchens, if he were alive to see it, might have called it fascism with a bureaucrats face, or bureaufascism.

Bidens vaccine mandate is of course just one example, plucked from yesterdays news cycle, of the lefts hatred of America and the freedom of its people. Over the past year-and-a-half of the pandemic, we have witnessed an unprecedented expansion of rule by executive fiat, with governors and mayors and public health officials wielding powers too often directed against churches and independent businesses. The 9/11 hijackers hated our freedoms, to be sure, but the pandemic has revealed that the left hates those freedoms at least as much as the terrorists, and would like very much to stamp them out.

Like the hijackers, the left holds almost everything about America in contempt. We are told in our workplaces and our children are taught in their schools that the United States is irredeemably racist, founded on violence, and that our constitutional experiment amounts to nothing more than a massive crime. We are called upon to repudiate our past and pull down monuments to our forebears not just Confederate generals but also our Founding Fathers.

We are instructed that men can be women if they so choose, and those who disagree should probably lose their jobs and be ostracized. If you object to your daughter being forced to compete in school sports with boys who claim to be girls, youre a bigot who must be silenced.

The reductive, totalizing ideology of the left has seeped into nearly every institution of American life, and dominates our culture and our politics. It is profoundly anti-American, and in the final analysis, it is a far greater threat to the future of our republic than even the wildest plots and most murderous fantasies of all the worlds jihadists combined.

When it comes to tearing down America, brick by brick, the Islamofascists of 9/11 had nothing on those who now command the heights of our culture, and purport to rule us from Washington.

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The 9/11 Attacks Have Proved Less A Threat To America Than The Left - The Federalist

It must be nice to work for the Biden administration. No matter how badly you mess up, or lie, or mislead the American people, you will never be forced to resign or be held accountable. You can lie and dissimulate about the most serious matters facing the country, and nothing will happen to you.

Take two recent examples: the origins of COVID-19 and the botched Afghanistan withdrawal.

When news broke this week that the U.S. National Institute Of Allergy and Infectious Diseases funded dangerous bat coronavirus research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology through grants to EcoHealth Alliance, a U.S.-based health organization, it didnt take long for some to call on Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of NIAID, to resign.

Anthony Fauci has repeatedly and deliberately mislead Congress and the American people. Resign. And face a congressional inquiry, tweeted Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley.

Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, who has pointedly questioned Fauci on his agencys involvement in so-called gain-of-function research in China, said Tuesday that he asked the Department of Justice to review Faucis testimony for lying to Congress, as he has done previously.

In May, Fauci told Paul and a Senate committee investigating the origins of COVID-19 that the National Institutes of Health, has not ever and does not now fund gain of function research in the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

But a report published Monday by The Intercept appears to flatly contradict Faucis statements to Congress. According to documents obtained by The Intercept as part of ongoing Freedom of Information Act litigation against the NIH, the agency issued grants to EcoHealth Alliance for bat coronavirus research in the amount of $3.1 million, including $599,000 that the Wuhan Institute of Virology used in part to identify and alter bat coronaviruses likely to infect humans.

Dr. Richard Ebright, a molecular biologist at Rutgers University, reviewed the grant documents and concluded that, Faucis previous assertions notwithstanding, the NIH did in fact fund gain-of-function research at the Chinese lab.

The materials show that the 2014 and 2019 NIH grants to EcoHealth with subcontracts to WIV funded gain-of-function research as defined in federal policies in effect in 2014-2017 and potential pandemic pathogen enhancement as defined in federal policies in effect in 2017-present, Ebright wrote on Twitter. The materials confirm the grants supported the construction in Wuhan of novel chimeric SARS-related coronaviruses that combined a spike gene from one coronavirus with genetic information from another coronavirus, and confirmed the resulting viruses could infect human cells.

So it seems Fauci has been lying about his knowledge of the possible origins of COVID-19, and intentionally misleading lawmakers about his agencys knowledge of research that might have directly lead to a global pandemic. By any standard, Fauci should be fired, or forced to resign, and maybe even face prosecution for lying to Congress.

But of course none of that will happen. Fauci will continue to lead NIAID, appear on cable news, and be held up by political and media leaders as their high priest of science, whose authority cannot be questioned. There will be no accountability of any kind for Fauci, no matter what new information comes to light.

The same is true of the U.S. military commanders and administration officials who so badly botched the Afghanistan withdrawal. Almost everything they and President Biden told us about what was likely to happen ahead of the August 31 deadline turned out to be wrong, and disastrously so.

U.S. Gen. Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said we would not need the U.S. air base at Bagram, and defended their decision to abandon it, which left only the airport in Kabul to evacuate U.S. citizens, troops, and Afghan allies. In the ensuing chaos, more than a dozen U.S. soldiers were killed, along with nearly 200 Afghan citizens, when a pair of suicide bombings targeted the airport complex in the final days of the withdrawal.

Even the retaliatory drone strike against the purported planners of those bombings looks increasingly like a bungled job that might have killed an Afghan family, including seven children. Milley told reporters it was a righteous strike that foiled another ISIS bombing plot, but now the militarys own preliminary analysis is casting doubt on those claims, suggesting not only that the drone strike killed an innocent family, but that it might not have even hit a terrorist target at all.

Milley and Austin have both faced calls to resign over their manifest incompetence in Afghanistan. So have National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and Secretary of State Tony Blinken. Some Republicans in Congress have demanded not only resignations but also an investigation into the botched withdrawal. A group of retired military officers has called on Austin and Milley to resign.

But they wont. None of them will. Those who run our military and public health industrial complexes will blunder along, immune from the consequences of their actions and defended by a media establishment whose fate is largely tied to the Biden administrations.

If we cant demand accountability for mistakes as massive and catastrophic as COVID-19 and the Afghanistan withdrawal, then its time to reconcile ourselves to the idea that we dont really have a republic anymore, that were not citizens but subjects, and that in the face of incompetence and corruption from our ruling elite, we can ask nothing and expect nothing.

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Under The Rule Of Our Managerial Elites, There Will Be No Resignations - The Federalist

On this episode of The Federalist Radio Hour, Neil Patel, Co-Founder and Publisher at The Daily Caller, joins Senior Editor Chris Bedford to recount how he responded to 9/11 as the then-chief policy adviser to Vice President Dick Cheney.

I have it on my calendar every year the time that the first plane hit the World Trade Center and every year I stop and I just think about it, because it was such a, just a momentous event in our countrys history and because all those innocent Americans who went to war, they had no idea, Patel said.

It was like this furthest thing from anyones mind that this country in the heart of New York City, the heart of Washington D.C., and even more in a place like Shanksville, Pennsylvania, you dont wake up as an American expecting 9/11 was just so out of the blue, he continued. So I do have that calendar reminder every year. I think about it every year. I just stop and I think about it. It makes me sad every year.

The events on 9/11 were tragic, but Patel said the patriotism that followed was inspiring.

Were so divided today, and Im not saying things were perfect then at all but it brought the country together for a moment at least and just this surge of patriotism, Patel said. so when I look back on it, thats kind of what I remember the most.

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What It Was Like To Work For The Vice President On 9/11 - The Federalist

CHEYENNE, Wyo Wyoming Republican congresswoman and NeverTrump Resistance leader Liz Cheney drew a new primary challenger Thursday who came with a big endorsement.Harriet Hageman, a prominent GOP attorney and former Cheney ally, formally threw her hat into the ring with the coveted support from former President Donald Trump.

Wyoming is entitled to a representative in Congress who remembers who sent her there and remembers what their wishes are, Hageman told a small gathering of supporters crammed in a hotel conference room. Liz Cheney is doing neither, I will do both.

At the heart of Hagemans 15-minute remarks was painting a clear contrast between herself as a native of Wyoming with a ranchers upbringing and Cheney as a beltway creature of the swamp apparently more focused on a potential gig at CNN through a vendetta with Trump than service to constituents. Contempt for the very Republican voters Cheney serves is a product of this misdirected attention.

Liz Cheney has burned all of her bridges with Republicans, Hageman said, noting the practicality of GOP allies in order to pass effective legislation. But instead, a lonely congresswoman kicked from House leadership has spent the past year on nothing less than a vengeance tour.

Cheney appeared unfazed by the new, and likely most competitive contender in the race.

Bring it, she wrote as a sound bite after the former president called her the Democrats best producer.

Behind the scenes, however, the three-term congresswoman ought to be more concerned.

Cheney captured the Republican nomination for her first House race in a crowded 2016 field with less than 40 percent of the vote. Since then, shes enjoyed the power of incumbency facing futile efforts to dethrone the daughter of a former vice president. But this year is different.

Out of three surveys conducted since Cheneys feudal escalation with Trump in the elections aftermath, Cheney never landed more than 25 percent support among likely primary voters. One poll found Cheney the most unpopular Republican in the country, with net-negative approval ratings of 43 percent. Her block of support, however, has raised the importance for opponents to narrow the primary to a two-way race denying her a win through plurality. Trumps endorsement will likely be the game-changer to do just that.

Brett Neyer, a Wyoming rancher who drove 100 miles to cheer Hagemans announcement, said Cheneys call for Trumps impeachment was a major inflection point in Cheneys popularity and for him, the final straw.

It was a very defining moment. One day shes not bad, the next day shes bad, Neyer told The Federalist. [Cheney] really went off the rails with all this insurrection stuff and the way she went after Trump.

As Republican conference chair in the lower chamber, Cheney triggered backlash among House colleagues and voters at home in January when she launched a crusade to corral Republican support for Trumps indictment over the Capitol riot. Only nine House Republicans ultimately joined her to convict, several of whom had already announced their intent to do so before her charge, calling into question Cheneys real influence.

Following the vote, Cheney was censured by her own party at home and provoked her first primary challenger. Florida Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz flew to the capital at Cheyenne to rally support for a competitive primary ahead of a House vote to strip her of conference chairmanship in a preview of the GOP civil war Cheney has sought.

While she comfortably survived a referendum on her leadership post in February, another referendum in May ultimately stripped her of the title. First battle lost.

Moments before Hageman took the stage, Neyer said to ask nearly anybody in attendance about their final breaking point with Cheney, and theyd surely cite the same vote. So I did. Neyer was right. It was the same story over and over again: that Cheneys feud with Trump, pursued for nine months straight, antagonized her constituents. And it all started with her vote to impeach an outgoing president for a riot that had already begun before Trump finished speaking on the day in question.

[Its] because of January 6th, said Diane Morrison, on why she couldnt bring herself to cast another ballot for the congresswoman she supported four years straight in three election cycles, albeit hesitantly.To add insult to injury, said Morrison, who lives in southeast Wyoming, a Cheney visit is a rare occasion. We never see her in the state.

Neyer said when Cheney is in Wyoming, its almost always in the northwest corner, which he described as the California part of the state.

Yet a Cheney more comfortable in D.C. than Wyoming has not backed down from aggressive antagonism against the president who captured his highest winning margins of any state among her own constituents in November. In fact, Cheney was hand-selected by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to give the opening remarks in the Democrats weaponized probe to investigate the January riot, after Republicans were kicked from the committee.

Right now the only job Republicans have in Washington D.C. is to stop the Democrats from destroying our country, Hageman told her supporters. But not only is Cheney not helping us to fight what is truly the battle of our lifetimes, she jumped ship, dog-paddled to the other side, and is now shooting back at us.

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The GOP Civil War Liz Cheney Waged Might Throw Her Out Of Congress - The Federalist

Names in this story were changed to protect identities.

The United States longest war is over, but the battle for Afghan-Americans to recover their families is just beginning.

Henry, an Afghan-American translator, is just one of the many people still dealing with the fallout of the Biden administrations botched withdrawal operations. After the last group of U.S. military took flight from Afghanistan to meet the presidents August 31 deadline, hundreds of Americans and Afghan allies who assisted the U.S.s decades-long occupation in Afghanistan were left behind, including Henrys wife, brother, and children as young as three years old.

Henry, who received his U.S. citizenship in 2020 after spending time in the Afghan Special Immigrant Visa program, lives and works in the United States, so when the Taliban advanced into Kabul and the Afghan government fled in mid-August, his first priority was getting his family, who was still tied up trying to enter the U.S. immigration process, out of the Middle East country and to safety with him.

I received an email from the U.S. Embassy. They had a pass in the email. It said please go to the airport, you know, take your family, go to the airport,' Henry told The Federalist.

Henrys family rushed to pack up and travel to the Hamid Karzai International Airport airport in Kabul but when they got there, they met crowds of thousands of other Americans and Afghans hoping to reach the U.S.-controlled area where they could catch a lifeline flight out of the country. It took them two days to navigate their way through the desperate mob, which previously trampled a 2-year-old girl to death, before they reached the right gate.

Once they got inside the terminal, Henrys family faced another crowd of people hoping to get bussed to a departure spot. There, his wife and kids sat for two more days in the heat without any supplies. At one point, Henry lost contact with his family because his wife lost her phone, her purse, and even some jewelry after being jostled by other panicked people fleeing the Taliban.

They were not prepared, Henry said. They didnt have water and no food, nothing.

My family and everybody else was asking about water because the kids were getting unconscious. They were asking the Marine guys to see if they can provide some water. My wife was calling me. And I was like, helpless and I was trying to see if I can talk to one of those marine soldiers out there so that he or she could provide some water to them. And they were saying they dont even have water. Like no water, no food, so just be patient, you know, and that was a really sad moment, Henry said.

Henry also tried calling some of his friends in the military who he used to work in Afghanistan to see if they could help his family.

After talking to them, me and my American Marine friends were like begging to those guys out there to at least provide some water for those people and those children. And finally they would, from somewhere, find like two or three bottles of water, Henry said.

The water, however, didnt last. It wasnt long before Henry said people were instructed to go home or risk dehydration and starvation. Henry said a lot of people left but his wife was determined to stay.

My wife, she said if it takes me whatever, Im gonna stay here. If theyre gonna take me, Im gonna stay here so I can go and get with the dad of my kids together,' Henry said. So she stayed there. Those two days, they were just begging for water and luckily they were getting some water and that was after getting in contact with my Marine guys and the army guys.

After six days of waiting, Henry said buses finally came to get his wife and kids, but their joy didnt last for long. When his family failed to show a U.S. passport or green card, they were told to go home.

All they had was the Afghan passports and they had the path that I sent which was from the U.S. Embassy, Henry said. It was a very sad moment.

The U.S. military may have turned Henrys family away, but all hope was not lost.

After six days, somehow these people, like angels, they fall from the sky and say we will do our best to get to your family here because theyre the family of the U.S. citizen. And I shared that with my wife. And she got so happy. That was a happy one, Henry said.

Much like the Pineapple Express, the group assisting Henry is using covert, private operations to assist Americans who felt abandoned by the Biden administrations abrupt departure. This hodgepodge of individuals, some of which have served in the U.S. military in special operations or still do, are actively shepherding people who are at risk of Taliban retaliation out of the country.

Others are using their knowledge and relationships with translators and connections on the ground to relay information to the network of rescuers who have the skills and resources to complete private missions and step in after the Biden administration failed. One group member told The Federalist that they have successfully rescued approximately 200 people.

Then we were going through whatever these guys were guiding us like to go, Henry said. My wife never gave up, and she was going to wherever we were saying.

These same individuals are also assisting Henry with getting his family into U.S. immigration proceedings. Henry previously spent months bouncing between bureaucratic agencies and even hired an expensive lawyer to help him get his family to the United States through the same program he used.

I also applied for my wife and my kids when I came here. They were also in the process that they will be here sometime. And that actually took like four years and I was just running around with immigration, providing them all the documentation, and the passport, everything that they needed. And still, I guess, its because maybe there are too many people who applied for thatevery time they were thinking that its under reviewThey took forever, Henry said.

But when these angels swept in, they also paid Henrys lawyer and helped expedite the process for Henry to be reunited with his wife and kids in the states.

We got approval confirmation for my family and the lawyer is working on it because these guys, like I said, the angels, they paid the remaining balance for my family. They can get the visas after the interview, Henry said.

The rescue mission for Henrys family is still underway, but Henry said he already feels much more optimistic than he did in August.

Im so happy, Henry said. I hope my family would come here soon so we can go and see these people up close and hug these people. Their kids are prayingfor my daughters, every day.

Jordan Davidson is a staff writer at The Federalist. She graduated from Baylor University where she majored in political science and minored in journalism.

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How Americans Are Rescuing The People Biden Left Behind In Afghanistan - The Federalist

Pastors who speak softly about the brutal murder of more than 60 million children should instead mimic Catholic leaders who boldly challenged racial segregation in the 1950s, said the Archbishop of San Francisco Salvatore J. Cordileone.

In a Washington Post op-ed, Cordileone condemned Catholic politicians who use their platforms and power to bolster abortion and anti-life sentiments. Some of the highest-ranking American politicians including President Joe Biden and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi proclaim their Catholic faith while pushing for abortion laws that go against the church they claim to be a part of.

After the Supreme Court ruled to at least temporarily allowa Texas law that protects babies with a detectable heartbeat from abortion, self-described Catholic politicians openly opposed the ruling.

I find it especially disturbing that so many of the politicians on the wrong side of the preeminent human rights issue of our time are self-professed Catholics. This is a perennial challenge for bishops in the United States: This summer, we provoked an uproar by discussing whether public officials who support abortion should receive the sacrament of the Eucharist, Cordileone said. We were accused of inappropriately injecting religion into politics, of butting in where we didnt belong.

This summer, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops met to advance a document about Eucharistic coherence, revitalizing the sacrality and importance of the Eucharist to the Catholic Church. Many ignorant politicians accused the church of politicizing the Eucharist and using the document as a ploy to deny communion to public officials like Biden and Pelosi who constantly oppose church teachings. The church did neither.

Rather, Cordileone wrote, Catholic bishops have a responsibility to respond strongly to prominent officials who openly oppose church teachings on abortion. Bishops must only look to the example of New Orleans Archbishop Joseph Rummel, who courageously confronted the evils of racism, and employed a long, patient campaign of moral suasion to change the opinions of pro-segregation White Catholics.

Rummel did not stay in his lane. Unlike several other bishops throughout this countrys history, he did not prioritize keeping parishioners and the public happy above advancing racial justice, Cordileone said.

Rummel admitted two black students to New Orleanss Notre Dame Seminary in 1948 and in 1951 ordered the removal of white and colored signs from Catholic churches in his archdiocese. He ardently opposed segregation and in 1953, told white Catholics that there could be no further discrimination or segregation in the pews. He also closed a church for refusing to accept a black priest and championed the end of segregation in New Orleans Catholic schools.

Rummel knew what the church taught and was willing to back up his faith with action.

Was that wrong? Cordileone asked. Was that weaponizing the Eucharist? No. Rummel recognized that prominent, high-profile public advocacy for racism was scandalous: It violated core Catholic teachings and basic principles of justice, and also led others to sin.

The modern parallel is abortion.

Abortion kills a unique, irreplaceable human being growing in his or her mothers womb. Everyone who advocates for abortion, in public or private life, who funds it or who presents it as a legitimate choice participates in a great moral evil, he said.

When the blood of 60 million innocent American children cries out for justice, pastors cannot speak quietly, reducing the murder of babies to a culture of choice, Cordileone said. To do so would be going against the church and human dignity.

You cannot be a good Catholic and support expanding a government-approved right to kill innocent human beings. The answer to crisis pregnancies is not violence but love, for both mother and child, he said. This is hardly inappropriate for a pastor to say. If anything, Catholic political leaders response to the situation in Texas highlights the need for us to say it all the louder.

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Archbishop: Catholics Must Fight Abortion Like They Fought Segregation - The Federalist

I remember many things from when I was five years old losing teeth, watching Leave It To Beaver with my babysitter, giggling as one of my classmates went to the principals office for dumping a little carton of chocolate milk on his head. September 11, 2001, is one of the things I cant. Despite its shock and significance, its a memory I just cant pull.

Vivid, however, is my memory of the first time I hauled my moms 9/11 coffee table book out of its dusty nook and saw the picture of the falling man. Thats an image you cant unsee, and as a youngster whose only concept of the terror attack was that some plane hit some building, that photograph immediately instilled the gravity of what those events meant for the 3,000 people on whose tombstones is engraved September 11, 2001, and the millions more whose lives will never be the same.

I also remember in great detail the time I visited the memorial near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, looking out over the field where Flight 93 went down. I listened through the phones mounted onto the visitors center wall to the final words of men and women who should still be speaking today, and I pored over the timeline of events trying to imagine what it would have been like to be aboard the aircraft and to experience the wave of realization that there would be no exit and that my final moments would be spent in horror with strangers.

Those tactile experiences from my youth and adolescence left me with heavy questions. Why would a man jump out the window? I wondered. Why would someone storm the cockpit?

Its that second scenario, of the plane that didnt strike the Twin Towers but went down in the middle of an empty field, that I think about most. Now that Im older and can grasp the circumstances, I better understand why someone would storm the cockpit. The weightier question now is:Would I have?

Its a question we all should ask. None of the ordinary passengers aboard United Flight 93 on that September morning had any idea they would soon be voting whether to try wrestling their flight away from terrorists, meaning their quick, mid-air decision to do so was one they had made long before they boarded the plane, in their principles and everyday habits.

Men like 32-year-old Todd Beamer a husband, father of two boys with a baby girl on the way, brother, son, account manager, Sunday school teacher, baseball lover, and Christian. Beamer, who was flying for work, was on the morning flight because he had opted to spend the prior night with his family instead of taking the evening flight.

Beamer and his fellow travelers were only four minutes into their journey from Newark to San Francisco when American Airlines Flight 11 struck the North Tower of the World Trade Center. By the time hijackers had commandeered their aircraft, Flight 175 had already crashed into the South Tower, and Flight 77 was headed for the Pentagon. Any sense that Flight 93s situation might have a happy ending surely evaporated as soon as its passengers got the news of the other planes.

That didnt stop Beamer and his fellow brave passengers from deciding to take action, ultimately voting on a plan to storm the cockpit because, like the other three planes, this one would also be headed for a high-profile building in a densely populated area if the terrorists could proceed uninterrupted.

Like others aboard the flight, Beamer tried to call his wife from a credit card payphone on the back of one of the seats, but his call went instead to customer service and ultimately to airphone supervisor Lisa Jefferson, who would later describe him as a soft-spoken, calm gentleman. Jefferson talked with Beamer, prayed with him, and later relayed his parting words of love to his wife and children and his final candid words of bravery to the rest of the world: Lets roll.

I feel that Todd played a great role, Jefferson later said of the passengers plan to storm the cockpit. Because when he told the guys, Are you ready? I assume that they were waiting on his cue then they responded to him. And he said, Okay, lets roll.

What is it that enables a man to look death square in the face and say, Lets roll? How courageous must you be to face your brutal end and, rather than think of yourself, to think of the people still firmly planted on Earth who might be in harms way? How does a young, hard-working wife and mother like policewoman-turned-flight attendant CeeCee Lyles dial her husband to say I love you and goodbye with a calm voice?

As then-Vice President Dick Cheney reportedly said after hearing that Flight 93 had gone down in Pennsylvania: I think an act of heroism just took place on that plane.

But heroes arent born. They are formed. Theres an obvious contrast in the brave men and women of Flight 93 two decades ago and most Americans today.

The former stared down death and, despite fear, spent their final breaths in service to each other and to Americans they had never met. They clung to their humanity and their freedom in one hand and their faith in the other and bravely forged ahead for the good of others. Their untimely deaths represent thousands of other lives spared, for if the passengers hadnt taken action, the plane likely would have shredded the U.S. Capitol and everyone inside.

The latter group, the Americans of 2021, compose a culture mired in an unhealthy relationship with death. Here we kill off the weak and innocent and chalk it up to empowerment and choice. We consume death as entertainment and shrug at mid-day murderous carjackings and cities leveled by lethal riots. We tremble and rage at the risk of contracting an endemic virus and demand that others sacrifice for our own comfort.

I might never wrestle Islamic terrorists as I plummet through the sky. But there are questions I must answer questions you must answer about death, sacrifice, family and strangers, and the God that Beamer and Lyles served. If we are unwilling to display small acts of valor in our everyday choices or make small sacrifices in our personal relationships, then the answer to Would we storm the cockpit?is a resounding and damning No.

As we near another anniversary of that dark September day, dont just remember the heroes. Strive to be like them.

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Would You Have Stormed The Cockpit? - The Federalist

There is a myriad of reasons why California voters would vote to recall Newsom. Whether its his overbearing COVID-19 restrictions and hypocrisy; the seemingly neverending homelessness and camping crisis; or his continual failure to address the states strained energy supply, prevent raging wildfires, address the billions of taxpayer dollars lost to unemployment fraud, or reverse climbing gas prices, Newsom is in hot water and he knows it.

Thats why top California Democrats from the Biden administration and Congress are begging California voters to spare the governor in the upcoming recall election.

In addition to official support from U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, another hypocritical California politician who refused responsibility for breaking COVID rules, Newsom will be awarded time from President Joe Biden, who spent days hiding out at Camp David and in Delaware last month while the Taliban took over Afghanistan.

Early next week, Biden plans to jet across the nation to the West Coast to campaign for the Democrat governor in what White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said is a strategic political move for both the president and the governor. While hes there, Biden plans to throw his name behind Newsom with the hopes of scoring points in the blue state for both politicians.

Vice President Kamala Harris also signed up to campaign for Newsom in August but was forced to cancel last minute as the Afghanistan crisis continued to unfurl and 13 U.S. service members lost their lives to an explosion in Kabul. That didnt stop her from rescheduling her trip to the week before the Sept. 14 vote.

California, let us send a message to the world that these are the things we stand for, these are the things we fight for, and we will not give up, Harris told a crowd in San Leandro this week.

Even former President Barack Obama jumped on the bandwagon to gaslight voters to defend Newsom and frame the recall election as a Republican effort to hurt Democrats.

Governor Newsom has spent the past year and a half, protecting California communities. Now Republicans are trying to recall him from office, and overturn common sense COVID safety measures for health care workers and school staff. Your vote could be the difference between protecting our kids and putting them at risk, helping California to recover or taking us backward. Protect California by voting no on the Republican recall, Obama said in a video.

This support for Newsom not only shows the Democrats devotion to keeping hierarchical bureaucrats in power but also indicates the Biden administration and progressive Democrats commitment to Californicate the U.S. with an avalanche of radical and doomed-to-fail policies.

On the other side of the election, the California GOP opted not to endorse a specific Republican candidate for the election, expressing hopes that the unendorsed, crowded recall ballot would maintain higher voter turnout.

The polls are showing that the recall is in a statistical tie, and we cannot afford to discourage voters who are passionate about a particular candidate, yet may not vote because their favored candidate didnt receive the endorsement, Republican National Committee members Harmeet Dhillon and Shawn Steel told the Associated Press.

Despite the lack of endorsement, broadcaster and Republican gubernatorial candidate Larry Elder quickly rose to the top of polls and garnered support among those who are dissatisfied with Newsoms track record.

Jordan Davidson is a staff writer at The Federalist. She graduated from Baylor University where she majored in political science and minored in journalism.

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Democrats Beg California Voters To Spare Newsom But Will It Be Enough? - The Federalist

Celebrity singer Britney Spears may be finally free by her 40th birthday in December after her father, Jaime Spears, petitioned to end his daughters conservatorship Tuesday.

In the surprise move by her father, who has fought to keep Britney under guardianship for more than a decade, the petition to the Los Angeles Superior Court argues the pop stars circumstances have changed to the point that the arrangement may be doing more harm than good.

Recent events related to this conservatorship have called into question whether circumstances have changed to such an extent that grounds for establishment of a conservatorship may no longer exist, the filing reads, according to CNN, which obtained a copy.

Ms. Spears has told this Court that she wants control of her life back without the safety rails of a conservatorship. She wants to be able to make decisions regarding her own medical care, deciding when, where and how often to get therapy. She wants to control the money she has made from her career and spend it without supervision or oversight. She wants to be able to get married and have a baby, if she so chooses. In short, she wants to live her life as she chooses without the constraints of a conservator or court proceeding.

Spears has remained under the conservatorship of her father in a temporary arrangement that turned permanent in 2008, affording her family control over a Forbes-estimated $60 million estate. Since then, Spearss handlers have maintained not only control of the singers finances, but also Spearss housing, health care, and social life under a legal arrangement typically reserved for those who suffer severely debilitating conditions, which include severe mental issues or old age.

From her conservatorships inception, however, Britney rejuvenated her career with four new albums, three world tours, and completion of a grueling four-year residency in Las Vegas.

In June, the princess of pop railed the conservatorship in a public rebuke of her handlers as abusive. She also charged them with barring her from another pregnancy in the form of a forced IUD.

After Ive lied and told the whole world Im okay, and Im happy, its a lie, Britney said. Ive been in denial. Ive been in shock. I am traumatized Im not happy, I cant sleep. Im so angry its insane, and Im depressed. I cry every day.

Weeks later, Britneys court-appointed attorney, Samuel Ingham III, stepped down. The financial firm Bessemer Trust, which was appointed co-conservator to manage the singers estate last November, also petitioned to remove itself from the arrangement.

Britney sought to remove her father as a co-conservator but the judge denied her request in July.

According to the Department of Justice, 1.3 million adults are under conservatorships that dictate an estimated $50 billion in assets. Two top Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee demanded hearings on conservatorship reform in March, citing abuse of the system as an infringement on civil liberties.

The court hearing in Britneys case is currently scheduled for Sept. 29.

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Britney Spears' Father Files To End 13-Year Conservatorship - The Federalist

The city of Portland moved to ban official business with and travel to Texas Friday, after a Lone Star State law went into effect protecting babies with a heart beat from being aborted.

Its not surprising; Portlands been flirting with dangerously illiberal secessionist thinking for a while now. Just last year, they allowed the federal governments courthouse and officers to come under violence siege for weeks, even referring to lawful federal officers as occupiers. Threatening neighboring governments fits in perfectly (and even trails the California government).

Does banning business with another American government sound illegal? No one cares: More and more, even asking if something is legal has been relegated to a relic from a time and place that no longer exists in our country. There is no more legal or illegal all that matters is whether something is desired by the leftists in charge.

Be it sanctuary cities, bathroom laws, or just calling Tony Fauci on his lies, much of the modern left feels more and more justified in any action they take to shut you down or oppose you, regardless of the law. Antifa may be among the foot soldiers, but recall how the partys elites cheered them on while covering for their violence. Their tactics might be different, but their mindsets are the same.

And nothing nothing is more sacred to the left than abortion. Having long shed the safe, legal and rare lie of the 1990s, the abortion of children has achieved an Arc of the Covenant-like status, with all who touch or even approach it becoming worthy of pitiless destruction. Simply speaking of it without active celebration is heresy.

Free speech in support of a state law protecting babies, for example, is absolutely haram. In line with this, internet-server provider GoDaddy.com followed Amazon Web Services lead on censorship last week, banning the pro-life group Texas Right to Life.

Why? They had the gall to set up resources for reporting illegal abortions. Indeed, banning Christian and pro-life organizations from the internet became so popular, DigitalOcean, a company that had signed a deal with Texas Right to Life but had not even launched a site, jumped onto the good publicity train. Thanks to their ridiculous public crowing, they earned news article after news article of free publicity (a quick Bing search for GoDaddy DigitalOcean reveals the commercial benefits to attacking the unborn).

While a conservative Washington, D.C. non-profit was finally able to connect Texas Right to Life with a server that wouldnt restrict their constitutionally protected right to speak, a loose network of hackers has actively worked to uncover them, goaded on by leftwing journalists.

You dont even need to be actively engaged in the battle to be targeted for destruction. After John Gibson, the president of video game developer Tripwire, outed himself as being pro-life, at least one business client threatened to end their contract and Gibson was pushed to resign. The company hed co-founded even released a statement condemning him.

Our leadership team at Tripwire, they wrote, are deeply sorry and are unified in our commitment to take swift action and to foster a more positive environment.

Our countrys self-proclaimed artist class in Hollywood, of course, is here for it all.

The new rules, if they can be called that, are as clear as they can be: Do not touch, do not even approach, and if you speak, speak only in worship and praise.

This is the new reality, this is the America they want and it is the America we will have if we dont loudly and publicly fight with every ounce of breath and strength we have, speaking with force, demanding action, and supporting the small but growing economy of Christian-friendly companies working to build the infrastructure we need to even engage in speech and commerce.

This fight is real, its here, and its coming for every Christian and pro-lifer who opens his mouth. John Gibson, the people who fight for Texas Right to Life, and those working to keep their ministry alive in the face of threats and danger are not the other they are the best versions of ourselves, and we cant let them fight alone: We must support Texas, we must support every person who takes a hit for it, and we must be prepared to be hit ourselves.

Every little girl and little boy spared death by this new law needs us and were in it together.

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The Left Has Made It Clear: There Are No Civilians In The Fight For Life - The Federalist