Authored by Jonathan Turley,

President Joe Biden wants people to know that he sees dead amendments. Just before leaving office, Biden declared that we have a 28th amendment despite dying in the ratification process years ago.

Not since the movie Sixth Sense has there been a more creepy moment. To paraphrase Cole Sear in the film, Biden does not see them in constitutional coffins but “Walking around like regular [amendments]. They don’t know they’re dead.” Neither does Biden.

Biden waited to shortly before leaving office to pander to the most delusional elements of the Democratic party in unilaterally announcing that the Equal Rights Amendment is now part of the Constitution. The farcical moment was then amplified by figures like Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D., N.Y.) rejoicing and falsely telling women that they can now go to court and enforce the amendment to restore such things as abortion rights.

Joe Biden just screamed into the microphone about how he had determined that the ERA (Equal Rights Act) is a constitutional amendment.

The Archivist of the United States, tasked with officially publishing ratified amendments, has confirmed that the ERA has not been ratified. pic.twitter.com/NOuDbU3drX

— Media Lies (@MediasLies) January 17, 2025

This bizarre group fantasy was triggered by the following declaration:

“In keeping with my oath and duty to Constitution and country, I affirm what I believe and what three-fourths of the states have ratified: the 28th Amendment is the law of the land, guaranteeing all Americans equal rights and protections under the law regardless of their sex.”

Without naming them, Biden cites dozens of “constitutional experts” to support this absurd claim.

Biden’s last-minute declaration is more creepy than the movie because it requires not just the departure from the constitutional process but reality. Despite running as the champion of democracy, Biden is simply brushing aside the fact that the ERA was not ratified, as made clear by the Justice Department, various judges, and his own archivist just weeks ago.

Even the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg declared the amendment dead.

Archivist, Colleen Shogan recently explained that neither her office nor the White House have the authority to publish the amendment unilaterally or waive the deadline for ratification:

“In 2020 and again in 2022, the Office of Legal Counsel of the U.S. Department of Justice affirmed that the ratification deadline established by Congress for the ERA is valid and enforceable,” she wrote. “The OLC concluded that extending or removing the deadline requires new action by Congress or the courts.”

“Therefore, the Archivist of the United States cannot legally publish the Equal Rights Amendment. As the leaders of the National Archives, we will abide by these legal precedents and support the constitutional framework in which we operate.”

The reason is simple. The underlying argument is utterly ridiculous.

As I have previously written, the ERA is a dead as Dillinger.

The deadline for ratification of the ERA was set for March 22, 1979 — allowing seven years to secure the required approval by three-quarters of the states, or 38 states. It failed to do so. Even worse,  four states — Nebraska, Tennessee, Idaho, Kentucky — rescinded their prior ratifications and a fifth, South Dakota, set its ratification to expire if the ERA was not adopted by the 1979 deadline.

Kentucky also had an additional problem because its Democratic lieutenant governor vetoed the resolution rescinding the ratification when the governor was out of town. However, Article V speaks of ratifications by state legislatures.

Notably, during the extended period, not a single state was added. Even assuming that the five states could be counted despite the votes to rescind their ratifications, the ERA was still three states short when it missed the second deadline.

Democrats then insisted that states could not rescind their votes, even before ratification was finalized.  So, Democrats and then-President Carter simply extended the deadline to June 30, 1982. However, in 1981, a federal district court ruled in Idaho v. Freeman that Congress could not extend the ERA’s ratification deadline. (The Supreme Court later stayed that order but then declared the matter moot.)

In 2021 federal Judge Rudolph Contreras ruled that it would have been “absurd” for the Archivist to disregard the deadline and unilaterally add the unratified amendment to the Constitution. On appeal, a unanimous D.C. Circuit panel rejected the appeal of Illinois and Nevada that the Archivist should be ordered to publish the ERA, holding “The States’ argument that the proposing clause is akin to the inoperative prefatory clause in a bill is unpersuasive…because if that were the case, then the specification of the mode of ratification in every amendment in our nation’s history would also be inoperative.”

None of this matters to the defenders of democracy who ignored the votes in these states and dismissed constitutional deadlines and procedures.  Harvard Law Professors Laurence Tribe and Kathleen Sullivan ran a column declaring “The ERA is Now Law!” as if amplification and exclamation points would somehow make it true.  (This is the same Laurence Tribe that declared that Trump to be charged with the attempted murder of former Vice President Mike Pence and that the law was clear “without any doubt, beyond a reasonable doubt, beyond any doubt”).

Notably, Biden did not issue an executive order to the archivist as many activists wanted. The reason is simple: the White House knew that it could be challenged in court and would quickly collapse under judicial review. They would prefer Biden to declare Caesar-like that we have a new amendment and treat it as a fact.

With the declaration, Biden gave “the last full measure of devotion” to the radical left of his party. It was a pandering and frankly pathetic moment for a president who is currently one of the least popular presidents in leaving office.

His action on the ERA is precisely why he is viewed as a “failed” president. Biden has always sacrificed principle for the politics of the moment. This was a participation trophy given to activists that lacked any substance or basis. It is also why voters saw Biden as the greater threat to democracy than Trump.

It is chilling to think that Biden actually believes this nonsense and sees dead amendments walking around the White House. After all, insides have described the White House in the final days as a virtual “morgue.” Yet, the truth may be even scarier: He simply does not care. He sees dead amendments in the hope of restoring life to his legacy. Both, however, now belong to the ranks of the corpus mortuus.

*  *  *

Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University. He is the author of “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage.”

Authored by Brandon Smith via Alt-Market.us,

Accidents and crime happen, all the time in fact, and generally the American public barely takes notice of the number of such events that occur on a monthly basis. The reason for this is because the vast majority of incidents don’t lead to economic and infrastructure damage on a large scale.  A disaster has to be pretty extensive to get the attention of the public and usually that attention doesn’t last long because most people are still able to go on with their day without much inconvenience.

But let’s say you are a villain; a terrorist or a social engineer (same thing).  Let’s say you are a person or group with malicious intent and you have deliberately set out to destroy a country, or a society or a civilization.  Do you try to do this with a single elaborately planned event?  Probably not.  Instead, you would coordinate and encourage thousands of smaller acts of sabotage that go largely unnoticed by the population until infrastructure breaks down and the country is in ruins.

The concept is actually rather common – We see it in the covert instigation of civil unrest and color revolutions throughout history.  We have seen it in the US with groups like the leftist/communist “Weather Underground” in the 1970s.  Such plans were executed broadly by western governments in Europe under Operation Gladio, which was exposed in the 1990s.

An interesting fictional example of this idea is the movie ‘Invasion USA’ starring Chuck Norris, about a communist network using America’s open borders to sneak thousands of foreign agents into the country.  They then coordinate a series of infrastructure and terror attacks nationwide in order to expedite a civil breakdown and economic crash.

The point is, the public doesn’t know they are under attack because all the incidents seem to be far apart and unrelated.  I believe that such a strategy is well underway within the US and parts of Europe right now, but instead of covert agents or terrorists working at the behest of some foreign adversary I argue that our OWN GOVERNMENTS are engaged in this sabotage.

I call this strategy “Monkey Wrenching”, based on the book ‘The Monkey Wrench Gang’ by Edward Abbey and published in 1975.  I touched on the concept in my article ‘Open Borders Have Created A Terror Attack Time Bomb In The US In 2025’ published last December, and then again in my article ‘Terror Attacks Kick Off In 2025 – It’s Only Going To Get Worse So Be Prepared’.

I want to go a little more in-depth on the “monkey wrench” concept because, as I predicted last year, 2025 just started and already we’ve seen multiple terror attacks including the car attack in New Orleans and the car bombing in front of Donald Trump’s hotel in Las Vegas.

These events follow some strange and disturbing incidents in 2024, including the armed invasion of Venezuelan cartels into multiple US neighborhoods and cities, two assassination attempts on Donald Trump by leftists as well as the assassination of an insurance CEO in New York by Luigi Mangione (identified as politically ambiguous by the media but widely applauded by leftists).

Then there’s the natural disaster issue.  The government displayed what appears to be total incompetence during the horrific fires in Maui, the lack of adequate federal response after Hurricane Helene in states like North Carolina, and of course there’s the absolute neglect of practical fire precautions in LA leading to one of the worst disasters in US history (more and more evidence is being released showing that these fires were, at least in part, started by a flurry of arsonists).  But what if government apathy and inaction in the face of fires and floods are just another deliberate form of monkey wrenching?

And let’s not forget about human-composed disasters like the mass illegal immigration created by the Biden Administration.  Dropping tens-of-millions of third-world aliens into the US economy in the span of a few years is a calamity bigger than anything Mother Nature could possibly produce.

But how are any of these things connected?  Aren’t they just the natural random noise of civilization?  It couldn’t possibly be maliciously planned, right?  Well, it depends – Chaos is not always directly created, but it can be encouraged into being through policy.

Is this conspiracy theory?  We’ve seen many conspiracy theories proven true over the past couple years, from the covid pandemic lockdowns, mandates and death numbers being exposed as a sham, Twitter and Facebook now outed for colluding with government officials to censor conservatives, the US government and Ukraine blowing up the Nordstream gas pipeline to Europe.  Conspiracy theorists are racking up an impressive list of wins lately.

If it seems to you as it does to me that the frequency of destabilizing events is increasing, that’s probably because it is.  It’s not a symptom of internet “information overload” as the media claims; the internet has been around a long time now and we’re used to the ease of info access.  No, this is something new.

The Monkey Wrench Gang

Edward Abbey’s politically charged book titled ‘The Monkey Wrench Gang’ portrays a group of environmentalist extremists out to stop the “pollution” of the southwestern US using sabotage of machines and infrastructure as a means to grind development to a halt.

The Monkey Wrench Gang has long been considered an inspirational work of fiction for the political left, but it is also treated as a sort of instruction manual for leftists and anarchists – A guide for bringing down the system. It depicts the destruction of minor targets like billboards and bulldozers, up to and including the destruction of bridges, the derailment of trains and the attempted bombing of a dam. It’s sort of like the leftist version of The Turner Diaries.

The idea is that one small attack alone doesn’t do much, but thousands of attacks have an accumulative effect that can result in the downfall of a country or system.

What the book does not address is the idea that a shadow government would HELP or fund these kinds of attacks.  With the government on their side as it remains passive, saboteurs can operate with impunity. They can then commit acts of sabotage in a way that avoids drawing too many questions – In other words, they would have the ability to make the events look like accidents, or commit crimes in a way that looks random.

Leftist Reactions To Losing Political Power – The Rise Of Marxist Terror

Leftists throughout modern history have a habit of engaging in destabilization efforts when they don’t get what they want.  They view their motivations as sacrosanct and beyond criticism, be it “saving democracy” or “saving the planet” or “taking down capitalists and colonists”. 

In every case where the political left had influence over social conditions and then lost that power, they revert to directed exponential disruption and violence from riots to assassination.  They claim to care about the right of the majority to have their voices heard, but in reality they don’t care at all.  When the majority goes against the leftist narrative, leftists go rogue.

If I could come up with one word to describe progressives and their behavior it’s this:  Petty.

That might sound too reserved, but there’s nothing more dangerous than people who are petty; they’re capable of justifying anything.  We saw this on a large scale after Donald Trump’s first election win in 2016 and I guarantee we’re going to see a lot more as he enters office again in 2025.  Establishment gatekeepers in the media and among globalist institutions have conjured an atmosphere in which at least 30% of the country believes that “democracy” is facing an existential threat from Donald Trump and conservatives.

They think they’re headed for concentration camps once Trump settles into the White House and that all their rights are about to be taken away.  Ironically, it’s their pettiness and propensity for sabotage that might actually end up creating the desire among conservatives for putting these people behind bars for a long time.

Establishment elites have fostered an environment in which random attacks are more easily triggered, but they also participate in the direct funding and training of Marxist extremist groups.  For anyone who thinks this kind of thing never happens, I suggest you look into the true history behind the leftist terrorists of the Weather Underground and how many of those people (who were wanted by the FBI) ended working within the government and teaching at major universities.

There WILL be a number of these groups active in the coming years.  These people will not accept failure and they will lash out any way they can.  Some of them will be given help from establishment elites with extensive resources.

The Tempting Authoritarian Response To Monkey Wrenching

The temptation in the face of mass induced sabotage of a nation is to respond with cold and calculated power.  Frankly, it’s hard to see another solution at times.  As most Libertarians will point out, government power is like the Ring of Sauron from Lord Of The Rings – You might think you can wield it for good, but ultimately it will corrupt you just as it corrupts everyone.  I tend to agree.

In the decade after WWI Germany faced a series of Marxist provocations from economic sabotage to armed violence and assassinations.  The German government and traditionalist citizens eventually responded in kind, creating militias to quell leftists and imprisoning or killing some in their leadership.  Germans were well aware of what happened under Marxism in other nations and the havoc it inspired.  Those years of instability in the 1920s and the fear they induced led to the ultimate formation of the Nazi Party and the rise of National Socialism.

Disturbingly, fascism was presented as the counter to Marxism, but even Adolph Hitler admitted on multiple occasions that fascism was inspired by Marxism. The German people, in a desperate effort to return to normalcy and prosperity, embraced a Marxist inspired political system in order to undo the chaos created by Marxist revolutionaries.

We stand at a dangerous crossroads in 2025, but this does not mean we sit back and do nothing (which, unfortunately, seems to be a common Libertarian response).  Do we form citizen militias like the Germans did and take down leftist agitators?  Or, do we let the government under Trump flirt with unconstitutional measures?  Do we arrest Democrat city or state officials that refuse to fix infrastructure problems?  Do we remove them by force if they continue protecting illegals from deportation?

Recent surveys show that nearly HALF of all federal employees plan to resist or obstruct the plans of the Trump Administration, which means they will be actively trying to sabotage the implementation of policies that most Americans voted for.  They’re telling you that the will of the voter doesn’t matter.  What should be done about these people?

These are the kinds of questions that are going to come up frequently in the next four years and we need to consider them seriously.

Some would argue that any violence of action whatsoever is authoritarian in nature, but I see little chance of reversing the damage done by globalists and leftists without some form of violence.  For example, mass deportations of millions of illegal immigrants will be presented by critics as authoritarian in nature.  Yet, this strategy is entirely necessary if our country is to be saved.

Do the ends justify the means?  In this case, yes.  When your civilization is under attack it is morally acceptable to defend it.  The problems arise when the act of retaliation against an enemy results in the loss of the very freedom and prosperity your society hopes to protect.  This is the conundrum created by the monkey wrench:  It’s an internal war, with internal enemies, and to strike at internal enemies you sometimes take the risk of striking yourself.

*  *  *

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The United States, the world’s largest plastic polluter, recycles a mere 5% of its household plastic waste.

Around the world, the situation is slightly better, but a staggering 91% of plastic waste is still incinerated, landfilled, or mismanaged (e.g. dumped into the ocean).

As Visual Capitalist’s Nick Routley details below, the graphic below, by Rosey Eason, using OECD data (via Our World in Data), paints a clear picture of the situation. Here’s a global overview of how plastic waste is disposed of:

There is growing awareness of the world’s plastic waste challenges, so why isn’t that translating into higher rates of recycling?

The Illusion of Recycling

The recycling system itself is deeply flawed. Most plastics are incompatible, making sorting costly and inefficient. Only PET (#1) and HDPE (#2) are widely recycled. In short, once most plastic products are created and reach the end of their usefulness, they’re tough to repurpose.

The economics of recycling are also stacked against success. Virgin plastic, often subsidized by fossil fuel subsidies, is cheaper than recycled plastic. This price disparity discourages the use of recycled materials.

Furthermore, the rise of flexible packaging—those lightweight packets for snacks and food—exacerbates the problem. These multi-layered packets, while convenient, are incredibly difficult to recycle due to contamination and complex composition.

What Can Be Done About Plastic Waste?

Addressing the global plastic crisis requires systemic change. Here are some steps that could help stem the tide of plastic waste:

• Bans on single-use and/or unrecyclable plastics

• A global plastics treaty

• Phasing out fossil fuel subsidies

• Implementing and strengthening responsibility programs for plastic producers

Our day-to-day experience of using cheap and convenient plastics often supersedes any negative externalities that happen further down the chain. Solving the problem will require a fundamental shift in our relationship with plastic, driven by policy and innovation.

Authored by Pierre Kory via The Brownstone Institute,

In a seismic political shift, Republicans have laid claim to an issue that Democrats left in the gutter – the declining health of Americans. True, it took a Democrat with a famous name to ask why so many people are chronically ill, disabled, and dying younger than in 47 other countries. But the message resonated with the GOP.

We have a proposal in this unfolding milieu. Let’s have a serious, nuanced discussion. Let’s retire labels that have been weaponized against Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., nominated for Health and Human Services Secretary, and many people like him. 

Start with discarding threadbare words like “conspiracy theory,” “anti-vax,” and the ever-changing “misinformation.”     

These linguistic sleights of hand have been deployed—by government, media, and vested interests—to dismiss policy critics and thwart debate. If post-election developments tell us anything, it is that such scorn may no longer work for a population skeptical of government overreach.

Although RFK has been lambasted for months in the press, he just scored a 47 percent approval rating in a CBS poll. 

Americans are asking: Is RFK on to something?

Perhaps, as he contends, a 1986 law that all but absolved vaccine manufacturers from liability has spawned an industry driven more by profit than protection. 

Maybe Americans agree with RFK that the FDA, which gets 69 percent of its budget from pharmaceutical companies, is potentially compromised. Maybe Big Pharma, similarly, gets a free pass from the television news media that it generously supports. The US and New Zealand, incidentally, are the only nations on earth that allow “direct-to-consumer” TV ads. 

Finally, just maybe there’s a straight line from this unhealthy alliance to the growing list of 80 childhood shots, inevitably approved after cursory industry studies with no placebo controls. The Hepatitis B vaccine trial, for one, monitored the effects on newborns for just five days. Babies are given three doses of this questionably necessary product—intended to prevent a disease spread through sex and drug use.

Pointing out such conflicts and flaws earns critics a label: “anti-vaxxer.”  

Misinformation?

If RFK is accused of being extreme or misdirected, consider the Covid-19 axioms that Americans were told by their government.    

The first: The pandemic started in animals in Wuhan, China. To think otherwise, Wikipedia states, is a “conspiracy theory,” fueled by “misplaced suspicion” and “anti-Chinese racism.” 

Not so fast. In a new 520-page report, a Congressional subcommittee linked the outbreak to risky US-supported virus research at a Wuhan lab at the pandemic epicenter. After 25 hearings, the subcommittee found no evidence of “natural origin.” 

Is the report a slam dunk? Maybe not. But neither is an outright dismissal of a lab leak.

The same goes for other pandemic dogma, including the utility of (ineffective) masks, (harmful) lockdowns, (arbitrary) six-foot spacing, and, most prominently, vaccines that millions were coerced to take and that harmed some. 

Americans were told, wrongly, that two shots would prevent Covid and stop the spread. Natural immunity from previous infection was ignored to maximize vaccine uptake.

Yet there was scant scientific support for vaccinating babies with little risk, which few other countries did; pregnant women (whose deaths soared 40 percent after the rollout), and healthy adolescents, including some who suffered a heart injury called myocarditis. The CDC calls the condition “rare;” but a new study found 223 times more cases in 2021 than the average for all vaccines in the previous 30 years.

Truth Muzzled? 

Beyond this, pandemic decrees were not open to question. Millions of social media posts were removed at the behest of the White House. The ranks grew both of well-funded fact-checkers and retractions of countervailing science.

The FDA, meantime, created a popular and false storyline that the Nobel Prize-winning early-treatment drug ivermectin was for horses, not people, and might cause coma and death. Under pressure from a federal court, the FDA removed its infamous webpage, but not before it cleared the way for unapproved vaccines, possible under the law only if no alternative was available.

An emergency situation can spawn official missteps. But they become insidious when dissent is suppressed and truth is molded to fit a narrative. 

The government’s failures of transparency and oversight are why we are at this juncture today. RFK—should he overcome powerful opposition—may have the last word. 

The conversation he proposes won’t mean the end of vaccines or of respect for science. It will mean accountability for what happened in Covid and reform of a dysfunctional system that made it possible.     

Republished from RealClearHealth

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has issued some surprisingly bold assertions in a national televised address given just 12-hours before the much anticipated Gaza ceasefire is set to go into effect Sunday morning.

Both Biden and Trump have hailed and celebrated the deal, but it’s the Republican president-elect who is by and large receiving the most credit for seeing it to the finish line. Some Israeli media outlets have represented the whole thing as a ‘defeat’ for Netanyahu, who appeared to want to keep the war going until Hamas is completely eradicated.

Among Netanyahu’s most provocative words on Saturday was his claim that he has the support of President-elect Trump in the scenario Israel feels it must abandon the ceasefire and keep fighting. He says he has Trump’s full backing to resume the war, and has claimed further that Trump too agreed that the truce is just “temporary”. Watch below:

Netanyahu says Trump “emphasized” to him that the ceasefire is “temporary,” and Israel will have “full backing” to resume the war in Gaza. He says Trump has decided to “lift all the remaining restrictions” on US munitions, allowing Israel to resume the war with “tremendous force” pic.twitter.com/oodqpwkU7I

— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) January 18, 2025

“Netanyahu also asserted that he negotiated the best deal possible, even as Israel’s far-right Public Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said he and most of his party would resign from the government in opposition to it,” Times of Israel notes of the remarks.

And there’s some some last-minute details which threaten implementation of the ceasefire…

The prime minister had warned earlier that a ceasefire wouldn’t go forward unless Israel received the names of hostages to be released, as had been agreed. His statement came almost three hours after Israel had expected to receive the names from mediator Qatar. There was no immediate response from Qatar or Hamas.

But without doubt Netanyahu is feeling the pressure, both within but even more from external allies, especially Washington – which writes the checks for the Israeli war machine.

As for Netanyahu’s talk of the deal being ‘temporary’ it’s unclear whether the Trump team agrees with this assessment. There hasn’t been any initial reaction from Trump as he prepares for the inauguration Monday.

But Trump without doubt wants a ceasefire to stick, and is likely to be celebrating its implementation during some of Monday’s inaugural remarks. He has vowed to wind down various conflict hot spots, especially Ukraine, and bring peace.

He has also warned that there will be “hell to pay” if Hamas doesn’t uphold its end of the truce deal. This suggests Netanyahu could be telling the truth, or at least an interpretation of it. An initial small group of hostages are expected to be returned to Israel by Sunday evening, with hopeful families awaiting and on edge.

Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news,

TIME magazine has published an article offering advice to leftists who might not be able to cope on Inauguration Day Monday, suggesting that they hold group crying sessions and go ‘forest bathing.’

The publication, which begrudgingly named President Trump as its man of the year, produced a guide on what to do to avoid “spiralling” as Trump is sworn in, and its unintentionally hilarious.

11 Ways to Avoid Spiraling on Inauguration Dayhttps://t.co/xil2keFbKZ

— TIME Health (@TIMEHealth) January 17, 2025

The piece asks “Why so much distress after months of processing the outcome of this divisive election?”

Maybe it’s because the legacy media told fragile leftists that it would literally be the end of the country and the world if Trump won?

The article then lists 11 ways to avoid seeing Trump take the oath, consulting “experts to share their favorite science-backed suggestions.”

OK, this should be funny.

“11 ways to avoid spiraling on Inauguration Day” includes “forest bathing” and communal crying.

1. Democrats are so weird. 😂😂😂
2. Time Magazine is an absolute joke. pic.twitter.com/ujM03gop6c

— Robby Starbuck (@robbystarbuck) January 17, 2025

Along with smiling, dancing and journaling, it suggests blue haired people gather in groups to have a communal cry, or go ‘forest bathing.’

The heII is forest bathing?!

— Gabrielle Clark (@GabsClark5) January 17, 2025

It’s basically, “walking aimlessly and slowly” through the woods.

All I know is I already feel bad for the trees.

— Robby Starbuck (@robbystarbuck) January 17, 2025

Who else would pay to watch sad leftists doing this?

Forest bathing, e.g. spending some time “touching grass” is a fine thing. It’s nice to go for a walk in the woods, take some time to look and notice things. It’s good for you.

Being triggered to “spiraling” because of a presidential inauguration? That’s a separate issue.

— Zen Den’s Haiku and Non Sequitur Emporium (@ruffingd) January 17, 2025

There is something better they could do…

I was hoping the libs would take a clue and actually take a bath.

— Denis Michaels (@Denis_Michaels1) January 18, 2025

TIME was getting so mercilessly mocked that they changed the headline:

They were getting railed so badly, they changed the title of the article. 🤣 pic.twitter.com/RxGrvJT5Cx

— Emergent Perspective (@_emergent_) January 17, 2025

It’s all a cult.

It’s very intentional. Time Magazine is legitimizing the “trauma” felt by the left. There have been other trauma legitimizing campaigns especially since Nov. 5th. The left uses any setback as an opportunity to consolidate loyalty of their cult members to strengthen their power…

— Jeff Flinn (@JeffFlinn_) January 17, 2025

It’s over for them.

So sad. The era of crying rooms, safe spaces, and cuddling to emotional cripples is coming to an end. What will they do? How will they survive? Is there no justice for those who are emotionally needier than everyone else?

— Save Our Democracy (@SaveOurDemocr13) January 17, 2025

*  *  *

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DOGE co-heads Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy are inspiring governors across a handful of states to launch their own ambitious cost-cutting initiatives ahead of President-elect Donald Trump assuming the White House for a second term.

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds (R), during her Tuesday evening address before lawmakers, announced the creation of a Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) for the Hawkeye State aimed at cutting wasteful spending.

“I like to say that we were doing DOGE before DOGE was a thing,” Reynolds stated. “And to build on our success, I’m launching our own state DOGE to find even greater savings and efficiencies in both state and local government.”

Emily Schmitt, general counsel of Sukup Manufacturing, will head the program, the governor said.

Last week, New Hampshire Gov. Kelly Ayotte (R) unveiled in her inauguration address plans to create a DOGE commission to dramatically reduce spending.

“In just a few short years, we’ve turned our state into a national model for bold, get-it-done government. And we’re not stopping,” Ayotte said. “We need to make sure that the government is operating more like the lean process in manufacturing, where waste is eliminated each step in the process for a better result.”

“And to help us do this, because I know there is nothing harder than politicians and asking them not to spend money. So today, I’m announcing the creation of the Commission on Government Efficiency, or I like to call it the COGE,” the governor added.

In December, Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry (R) revealed plans to launch a program aimed at cutting waste and eliminating outdated regulations. He issued an executive order to create a new government efficiency body and appointed oil and gas executive Steve Orlando as the state’s first Financial Responsibility Czar.

In the same month, Wisconsin State Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R) moved to establish a DOGE-like panel called the Governmental, Oversight, Accountability and Transparency Committee (GOAT).

“I think that we can look at a lot of ideas and try to find ways to make the government do a better job than we currently are,” Vos said in an interview with Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

“I’m super excited that we’re going to now kind of focus on, not just how do we layer more things on, but how do we make the things that we already have work better,” the lawmaker added.

Last November, Trump appointed Musk and Ramaswamy to co-lead DOGE to slash up to $2 trillion off of the federal budget.

“Together, these two wonderful Americans will pave the way for my Administration to dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies—essential to the ‘Save America’ Movement,” Trump wrote in a statement at the time. “I look forward to Elon and Vivek making changes to the Federal Bureaucracy with an eye on efficiency and, at the same time, making life better for all Americans.”

While it’s unclear what measures DOGE will take come next week, Musk has expressed his intention to chop 30% of spending from the $6 trillion budget, while Ramaswamy has proposed reducing the federal workforce by half by forcing staff to report for in-office work.

Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news,

Illegals in the US have started self-deporting ahead of Trump taking office according to an immigration attorney.

Rolando Vasquez told NewsNation that there has been a surge in immigrant voluntarily leaving with Trump’s promised mass deportations on the horizon and with Mexico agreeing to take non-Mexican deportees.

Another driving factor is that Cuba and Venezuela generally do not accept deportation flights from the United States but may accept them from Mexico.

“This is causing many migrants to leave on their own, knowing that they’re either going to be deported to their home country or be deported to Mexico,” Vasquez said, adding “The overwhelming majority of them do not want to be in Mexico.”

NewsNation reporter Jorge Ventura also warned sources have told him that newly deported migrants are targets for extortion or even abduction by Mexican cartels and human smugglers.

Watch:

Illegals are now self-deporting out of fear of Trump’s mass deportations.

The Trump effect.

Trump has done more good for our country than Biden has in 4 years, and he isn’t even in office yet! pic.twitter.com/NgtuRAleca

— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) January 17, 2025

When they stop getting all the free stuff they will either leave or there will be a crime wave the likes of which no one has seen before

— Dismayed American (@Airborne82ndVet) January 17, 2025

The news comes amid rumours that the Trump administration will carry out its first large-scale deportation operation in the ‘sanctuary city’ of Chicago next Tuesday, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Trump plans a large-scale immigration raid in Chicago on Tuesday, the first move in his promised mass deportation campaign https://t.co/IiML7QXFGe

— The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) January 18, 2025

The smart ones are leaving now… they get to chose their destination. Tom wont be giving them choices

— #CTID 🇺🇸 (@D_Clark19) January 17, 2025

This is definitely the Trump effect! Illegals don’t want to be thrown out by ICE and rather self deport so they have a little dignity left and can do so on their own terms !

— Angry Trumper (@AngryTrumper) January 17, 2025

Art of the deal 🫲 pic.twitter.com/66NTQAPEy8

— Anti Left Memes (@AntiLeftMemes) January 17, 2025

Trump’s border czar Tom Homan noted Friday “We’re going to concentrate on public safety threats and national security threats right out of the gate. That’s our priority. We’re going to go for the worst first. And I find it hard to believe any elected official doesn’t want public safety threat out of their communities.”

Homan warned governors and mayors in so called ‘sanctuary’ areas not to impede the process, asserting “Just stay out of the way and we will do it. You can sit back and let us do the job. It’s going to be less efficient, it will be more dangerous without their assistance, but we’re going to do the job regardless.”

*  *  *

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After Israel’s cabinet on Friday approved the Gaza ceasefire and hostage deal, it is expected to finally take effect beginning at 8:30am Sunday (local), and initially three Israeli women are expected to be named and freed.

“As coordinated by the parties to the agreement and the mediators, the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip will begin at 8:30 a.m. on Sunday, January 19, local time in Gaza,” Qatar’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Majed al-Ansari announced on X. “We advise the inhabitants to take precaution, exercise the utmost caution, and wait for directions from official sources.”

CNN writes of the Israeli government that “The 33-member group of ministers approved the agreement following a recommendation earlier Friday by the smaller security cabinet. Deliberations stretched over seven hours, late into the night on Friday into early Saturday morning local time.”

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) also confirmed the ceasefire’s start time, and three civilian women who are on a list of 33 hostages to be freed in the 42-day first phase of the deal are set to be handed over, after which up to 1,904 Palestinian prisoners will be released from Israeli prisons. 735 of these prisoners will be released in the first phase. 

“The State of Israel is committed to achieving all the goals of the war, including the return of all our hostages – both living and dead,” the Prime Minister’s Office said.

Times of Israel notes that the Palestinian freed will include “several serving multiple life sentences for deadly terror attacks and murders.”

At least 50 humanitarian aid and fuel trucks are awaiting to enter the Strip as soon as the truce takes effect Sunday morning. 

A surge of homeless Gazan refugees are expected to seek to return to their communities in Northern Gaza, but the Israeli army is warning that the situation will still be dangerous.

The Israeli army’s Arabic-language spokesperson Avichay Adraee issued instructions for Palestinians for when the ceasefire takes effect. Al Jazeera listed out a translation of the instructions as follows:

• Moving from the south to the north of the Gaza Strip or towards the Netzarim Corridor remains dangerous in light of the military activities in the area. Once movement is permitted, instructions will be given.
• The Israeli army will remain deployed in specific areas of the Gaza Strip. You must not approach its officers until further notice and doing so could expose you to danger.
• It is dangerous to approach the Rafah crossing, the Philadelphi Corridor and all areas in southern Gaza where Israeli forces are deployed.
• In the coastal area along the Strip, fishing, swimming and diving is dangerous and we warn against entering the sea in the coming days.
• It is forbidden to approach Israeli territory and the buffer zone. Approaching the buffer zone is very dangerous.

Still, there’s some last minute details still reportedly being worked out, including a demand by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who says Israel will not proceed with the ceasefire until a list of the 33 captives who will be released by Hamas in the first phase is received.

Over the past day, the IDF—led by the Manpower Directorate and the Medical Corps—completed preparations for receiving the hostages from Gaza upon their return to Israel. The IDF, in coordination with the Health Ministry, additional government ministries, and security authorities,… pic.twitter.com/prr8nibD8i

— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) January 18, 2025

“We will not move forward with the agreement until we receive the list of hostages who will be released, as agreed. Israel will not tolerate violations of the agreement. The sole responsibility lies with Hamas,” Netanyahu said on X.

Authored by Tom Ozimek via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Readers of The Epoch Times have identified border security, fiscal responsibility, and national defense as the top priorities for President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming administration.

A poll of 26,740 readers, conducted between Jan. 10–13, points to these issues as key areas of focus, reflecting widespread concern over unchecked immigration, economic instability, and global security threats.

Meanwhile, write-in responses by readers of The Epoch Times highlighted strong support for government reform, coupled with opposition to progressive policies such as diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).

Border security and deportations topped the list, with 90 percent of respondents considering it “extremely important.” This aligns with Trump’s campaign pledge to launch what he has described as the largest deportation operation in American history, set to begin immediately after his inauguration on Jan. 20.

“On my first day back in the Oval Office, I will sign a historic slate of executive orders to close our border to illegal aliens and stop the invasion of our country,” Trump said during a Turning Point USA conference in Phoenix in December 2024.

Besides vowing to deport millions of illegal immigrants, Trump also plans to end birthright citizenship, in which anyone born in the United States is currently given automatic citizenship, including to parents of illegal immigrants.

Fiscal Discipline and Economic Stability

Government spending and debt reduction ranked as the second-highest priority, with 82 percent of respondents highlighting the need for fiscal discipline.

Concerns over the ballooning national debt—now at $36.22 trillion—is a key concern. The president-elect has said he intends to address these issues through measures such as cutting wasteful spending and reforming federal agencies.

To spearhead these efforts, Trump has proposed the creation of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)—with Tesla CEO Elon Musk and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy tapped to lead the initiative. DOGE aims to slash $2 trillion from the federal budget.

“Your money is being wasted,” Musk said at a Trump rally in New York in October 2024, underscoring Trump’s commitment to tackle government inefficiency and cut wasteful spending.

The federal government spent $6.75 trillion in fiscal year 2024—which was $1.83 trillion more than it collected in revenue—pushing the national debt up to $36.22 trillion, according to the Treasury Department.

So far in fiscal year 2025, which runs until the end of September, the government has already spent $1.79 trillion.

The issue of debt sustainability, long a concern of fiscal conservatives, has clearly been on Trump’s radar. In a statement announcing the nomination of Scott Bessent to serve as his Treasury secretary, Trump said his administration would “reinvigorate the private sector, and help curb the unsustainable path of federal debt.”

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has warned about the unsustainable trajectory of federal debt, projecting it to climb to a hefty 181 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) by 2053.

If left unchecked, this rising debt is expected to slow economic growth, increase interest payments to foreign creditors, and limit lawmakers’ flexibility to address future fiscal and economic challenges, according to the CBO.

Strengthening National Defense and Securing Elections

Military strength and national security emerged as the third most important priority, with 77 percent of respondents citing it as “extremely important.”

Concerns over global threats from adversaries such as China and Russia have amplified calls for bolstering America’s defense capabilities.

Trump’s proposed “peace through strength” agenda emphasizes modernizing the military, increasing operational readiness, and reinforcing U.S. deterrence on the world stage. On the campaign trail, Trump vowed to reform the U.S. military, criticizing “woke” policies that he says undermine the nation’s warfighting capacity.

Read the rest here…