The Roberts Court at 20 years

American  Thinker 

September 29th is U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts’ 20th anniversary on the Court. But surely ‘The Roberts Court’ means more than just a chief justice. When it comes to abiding shifts in law toward originalism and analysis of the U.S. Constitution based on its text and history, one looks to all those forming this like-minded affiliation on the Court.

If we are to call it the Roberts Court, then it is also the Thomas Court. Over Justice Clarence Thomas’ nearly 34 years on the Court, he has shaped the legal debate and framework by which conservative judges look at issues. From Thomas, we have cases such as Bruen in 2024 reaffirming Second Amendment principles underlying the nation’s traditions. His powerful 2023 concurrence to Roberts’ majority in Students For Fair Admissions v. Harvardreminds us of the Constitution’s colorblind foundations under the Fourteenth Amendment. In concurring opinions in other areas, he has opened discussion to consider assumptions in the law taken for granted (or taken advantage of). And as a voice for good sense, Justice Thomas stands out. As he wrote this year concurring in Skrmetti v. United States, “[E]xperts and elites have been wrong before -- and they may prove to be wrong again.”

We should also call it the Alito Court. Justice Samuel Alito has shown judicial courage in adhering to positions not because they are ‘controversial’ but because of the realization that controversy alone should not conceal the judicial gavel. His 2022 opinion in Dobbs overturning Roe and Casey is both a meticulous history through our nation’s abortion laws and an exposition respecting the people’s decision-making ability. His 2018 opinion in Janus v. AFSCME strengthened certain First Amendment protections for public employees, and his writing for the Court in Mahmoud v. Taylor reanimated parents’ right(s) to direct their children’s religious upbringing.

And one must certainly include the contributions of past justices like Antonin Scalia and Anthony Kennedy for advancing conservative legal principles. With the late Justice Scalia, a sharp mind and wit not only brought more precision to the Court’s deliberations, but he also delivered the Court’s 2008 opinion in District of Columbia v. Heller which showcased originalism’s lasting application. And whatever the disagreements with Justice Kennedy when it came to a supposed federal right to abortion or other substantive due process issues, his vote in the majority in originalist outcomes and his opinion in 2010 in Citizens United v. FEC are foundational. Indeed, a short concurring opinionby Kennedy in 2018 shortly before his retirement sums it up: “It is forward thinking to read the First Amendment as ratified in 1791… Freedom of speech secures freedom of thought and belief.” This clarion call has since been taken up by justices Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Barrett.

While Chief Justice Roberts’ tenure may include an uneasy preoccupation with public optics (as could have been the case with the Affordable Care Act in NFIB v. Sebelius), his jurisprudence in areas like the First Amendment and executive branch power will hopefully be long lasting. His opinions for the Court in Trump v. United States on presidential immunity and separation of powers, Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo on the limits of the administrative state, and Knick v. Township of Scott on lessening the burdens of filing constitutional takings cases all set straight a legal course that had long meandered.

For all the positive improvements in the law brought by the Roberts Court, it is imperative to know the ultimate (and practical) source of such success. Of course, individual justices use intellect, sound prose, and foresight in forming tangible doctrine. But all of it is academic without victories in the political branches. Republican presidents and Senate majorities both provide the votes necessary for such judicial nominations to be made and confirmed. Credit Reagan’s victories in 1980 and 1984, George H.W. Bush’s in 1988, George W. Bush’s in 2000 and 2004, and Donald Trump’s in 2016 for the conservative majority that has been sustained to date on the Court. If future political victories are taken for granted, then further principled legal decisions as those mentioned here will be imperiled.

Commend the voters for courageously standing up through this same period to vote and articulate their conservative opinions on the law and Supreme Court authority. For they often have gone against an antagonistic ‘mainstream’ in advancing their views. To those on the Right, their wise vantage point reflects a federal Constitution that often is compatible with a common sensereality. When it comes to the Constitution’s Framers, Chief Justice Roberts has attempted (quoting a 2015 dissent of his) “to give effect to the words they used.” May he continue to thoughtfully do so as this republic’s 17th Chief Justice.

Podcast thread for Sept 11

 

An important thing to remember in dark times:

God never abandons us.

President Trump’s Resolve to ‘Never Forget’

Townhall 

America’s promise to never forget Sept. 11 is primarily, but not exclusively, about remembering the 2,977 innocents murdered nearly a quarter century ago on an otherwise perfect September morning. In addition to keeping the victims’ memories alive and honoring the heroism of first responders in Manhattan, at the Pentagon, and aboard United 93, not forgetting also means recalling who attacked and how such an operation was pulled off to avoid the specter of repeating one of the darkest days in America’s history.

In hindsight, there were significant failures across the government that spanned political parties and presidents, stretching back to the waning days of the Cold War, when few, if any, Americans knew the names al Qaeda or Osama bin Laden, and most, instead, were fearing Soviet nukes and mutually assured destruction. 

The threat of a radical Islamist attack on the homeland was there, however, and the pieces — namely the fanatics who carried out the hijackings, the funders who enabled the plot, and even the strategy itself — were falling into place decades earlier. 

The book “Ghost Wars” by Steve Coll focuses on the U.S. government’s, primarily the CIA’s, actions from the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan to Sept. 10, 2001, providing an illuminating and jarring account of where many things went wrong. To better understand how the age of terrorism came to be, Jack Carr’s “Targeted: Beirut” is a meticulous and gripping retelling of the 1983 Marine Barracks bombing that, now looking back, marked one of the earliest attacks in what became the War on Terror that dominated the lives of the 9/11 generation. 

Reading those books outside the time their stories take place makes it seem obvious where problems arose and contributed to the shock of Sept. 11, 2001. Yet, if they’re so obvious now, why have some of those mistakes-turned-warnings not been consistently heeded?

The damage done during four years of President Autopen was evident in real time — warnings for border agents to stay alert for Islamic terrorists inspired by Hamas barbarians’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel, numerous Biden administration officials testifying to Congress about how all the alarms were flashing red — yet course was not changed. 

The wide-open border remained a welcome mat for millions of “known gotaways” whose identity, affiliations, and intentions remained unknown, rather than a controlled entry point. Large sums of Iranian assets were unfrozen in a boon to the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism, and American deterrence in the Middle East was decimated by one weak, feckless decision after another.

Informed by the earlier days of the War on Terror — including the Beirut Barracks bombing — sensible people warned that the Biden administration’s policies and actions would get Americans killed in the Middle East. Tragically, we were right. Repeatedly. From the Abbey Gate bombing in Kabul during the shamefully executed withdrawal from Afghanistan to scores of Iran-backed terrorist attacks on U.S. forces that claimed the lives of U.S. service members, a weak America breathed new life into our terrorist foes.

The avoidable chaos, death, and increased danger to Americans at home and abroad for those four years was a result of the Biden administration — and a continuation of the Obama administration — willfully ignoring the lessons and warnings of 9/11, an abdication of the responsibility to never forget. It’s frankly miraculous that things did not get worse than they did, that more Americans were not killed abroad, and that there was not another coordinated terrorist attack on U.S. soil. 

In what should be a relief to Americans and our nation’s allies, President Trump and his administration wasted no time doubling down on the national security policies enacted in his first term — all of which take the promise to never forget to heart while avoiding the pitfalls of America’s previous actions in the War on Terror. 

American deterrence is strong again. Our word is respected, even among our foes — or else. We’re working with our allies in the region to spread stability, rather than maligning them to appease woke, mentally unstable idiots at home. What’s more, Trump has managed to expand American influence in the Middle East by building upon the success of the supposedly impossible Abraham Accords — and he’s doing it all without committing America or her sons and daughters to a war of indeterminate length. 

Anyone who doubts the seriousness and efficacy of Trump’s efforts to contain and eliminate terrorism and its supporters in the Middle East should ask Iran’s nuclear scientists and Hamas’ leadership contingent in Qatar for comment. 

These efforts tamp down the spread of terror at its roots, but Trump hasn’t stopped there. He’s taken the critical steps necessary to lock down America’s borders to stop the flow of illegal aliens from God knows where planning to do God knows what — while simultaneously rounding up and removing those who took advantage of Biden’s open borders. Both lower the immediate threat of an attack at home, but don’t entirely mitigate the increased risk created by Biden that will last for years.

Much as Trump seemed perhaps the most unlikely candidate for president in 2016 to achieve the right’s mission of overturning the Supreme Court’s flawed Roe v. Wade decision, Trump may also end up being the man to create a new reality in the Middle East that all but closes the book on its decades of radicalizing, training, funding, and defending bloodthirsty terrorists. His vision, ambitious as it may be, remains the best hope for now to at least isolate and contain the mistakes made by his predecessors.

Trump’s Re-Masculinizing of American Couldn’t Come Soon Enough

Townhall 

We are witnessing the most alpha-male president since Teddy Roosevelt restoring masculinity and muscularity to the United States in a spectacular way, and it could not have come soon enough.

B-2 stealth bomber fly-bys during Trump’s meetings with foreign heads of state, a planned UFC fight on the White House grounds, renaming the Department of Defense the Department of War, ending federal payments for transgender surgeries to federal employees, deploying National Guard troops and federal agents to cities where crime is out of control, taking out a drug trafficking boat and its 11 occupants in a widely distributed video.

Those are just a few of a seemingly endless list of actions taken by President Trump to restore vitality, vigor and masculinity to a once-great nation, now so bereft of real men and women in positions of power that homicidal lunatics with rap sheets a mile long are allowed to roam the streets and transit systems, leaving a beautiful hapless, young emigre from a war-torn country to be savagely slaughtered in an unprovoked, random attack. All caught in living color, thanks to ubiquitous camera coverage in our surveillance-centric society.

The Democratic Party and its leadership have become a vile cesspool of weak, craven, enervated, attention-seeking communists, who hold the unfortunate constituents they ostensibly “lead” in total disregard. If there is an issue in which there is an obvious moral component, today’s Democratic politician is guaranteed to choose the side of criminality, depravity and anti-Americanness.

It is remarkable, really. Viewed through a purely political prism, it seems as though the Democratic Party and its “strategists,” such as they are, are hell-bent on demonstrating in every conceivable way that they are unfit to govern. Normal Americans – that is, those not carrying homemade signs demanding that wife-beating, illegal alien-trafficking MS-13 gang members be loosed on our streets – look at the policies and shake their heads.

Could my Democratic congressman/mayor/councilman really be saying that we must have empathy for the psycho-killer who viciously butchered a pizza store employee minding her own business sitting on a train, because he’s mentally ill? Really? How about asking why the dozen or more judges who adjudicated this lunatic after his 14 prior arrests continually released him on the population? Even after his own mother told authorities he was a grave threat and needed to be locked away.

Wherever Democrats govern, we see moral flaccidity, a refusal to protect the innocents, and an apparent desire to embolden and encourage the most violent and morally despicable in society. They wish to turn little boys into girls, fetishize same-sex relationships, and disparage normal, healthy family units. They ooze weakness. What is wrong with them?

Our country was blessed in 2015 when a tough-as-nails New York real estate developer decided he’d had enough. He saw with crystal clarity the death spiral America was in. He long despised, and expressed his disgust, with how America was being taken advantage of by other countries through their trade and tariff policies, hurting the American people and its industries. Donald Trump recognized for decades the economic leverage America could deploy against economic competitors who were, understandably, taking every opportunity to increase their trade balance surpluses with America, all while benefitting from America’s expensive protective defensive shield. President Trump had publicly advocated for the imposition of tariffs against these competitors since he was a young man.

It seems as though the brash, testosterone-fueled billionaire from Queens was on a decades-long collision course with the increasingly feminized, weak and Woke Democratic Party – destined to meet like two missiles on a cold dark night.

And when one considers the events of July 13, 2024, in Butler, Pennsylvania, the miraculous survival of President Trump from a would-be assassin only magnified his aura of strength. After a bullet penetrated Donald Trump’s ear and came within a half inch of ending his life, he acted in a completely counter-intuitive way, demonstrating a vigor, toughness and resilience that few normal human beings would exhibit. He popped up, raised his fist in the air and shouted, “Fight! Fight! Fight!”, while blood streamed down his face. Who does that?

Coming as close as he did to death and having been put through the most grueling and odious attacks by a Democratic Party, Deep State and mass media employing every criminal and civil litigation tactic they could, President Trump successfully ran a gauntlet that few individuals in human history could survive. Therefore, it stood to reason that, when he assumed office for a second time, he would carry out a program of restoring America to a position of strength tantamount to his own.

Leaders around the world, who sneered at him during his first administration, look at him with awe. Pusillanimous European bureaucrats masquerading as “leaders” are reduced to calling him “Daddy” on global television, for they know that they are opposite him in temperament and vitality. And they also know that once restored, a roaring, re-masculinized America will leave them in the dust.     

Charlie Kirk Fought for an Education That Restores American Faith and Values

 

By Peter Wood  |  September 10, 2025  |  Minding the Campus

Editor’s Note: The following is an article originally published by the National Association of Scholars on September 10, 2025. It is crossposted here with permission.

We are appalled at the murder of Charlie Kirk. He was a decent man, a father and husband, a patriot, a Christian, and a force to be reckoned with in opposing the radical left on campus. That reckoning came today when someone at a rally at Utah Valley University shot him in the neck.

I met him years ago when he was meditating on the creation of Turning Point USA, and was seeking counsel from organizations that were already established in the work of preserving liberal education against the efforts of left-wing activists to subvert higher education. Charlie’s idea was to turn some of the techniques of leftist organizing against the left. That was a lane that was wide open, at least since the days that the former Marxists Peter Collier and David Horowitz published their flamboyant  newspaper, Heterodoxy. Charlie’s ambitions, however, went beyond satirizing the left. He saw the possibility of building a nationwide movement of campus activists on the right.

We at the National Association of Scholars kept our distance, though sometimes with grudging admiration for Charlie’s success in reviving the spirit of students who were subject to cancellation campaigns and who seldom saw any support for their free speech from campus authorities. Turning Point USA volunteers often saw their literature trashed and their tables overturned. They were occasionally assaulted by leftist bullies. Charlie stood up for those volunteers, and they stood up for him.

We have no details yet of who shot him or why. Charlie had become friends with President Trump, which no doubt increased his value as a target of leftist violence. In April 2017, the comedian Kathy Griffin attempted to earn applause by posing with a prop made to look like Trump’s severed head. Two months later, a disgruntled Democrat, James T. Hodgkinson, opened fire on Republican members of Congress and their staff during a baseball practice in Alexandria, Virginia, gravely injuring U.S. House Majority Whip Steve Scalise. Since then, the left’s rhetoric of violence has only intensified and materialized into two attempted assassinations. President Trump is now protected by the Secret Service, or at least better protected than he was last year. Someone like Charlie Kirk had no such cover. He may have been the assassin’s stand-in for the President.

Charlie certainly is a martyr for all of us who believe that America has indulged far too much with people who have delusions of grandeur and a willingness to deploy violence to score political points. This is a cultural affinity that cannot be fixed by law, though proper law enforcement would help. What we really need is what Charlie fought for: education that restores American faith and values. He truly gave his life for that cause.

🎭 𝐖𝟑𝐏 𝓓𝓐𝓘𝓛𝓨 𝓗𝓾𝓶𝓸𝓻, 𝓜𝓾𝓼𝓲𝓬, 𝓐𝓻𝓽, 𝓞𝓟𝓔𝓝 𝓣𝓗𝓡𝓔𝓐𝓓

 

Welcome to 

The 𝐖𝟑𝐏 𝓓𝓐𝓘𝓛𝓨 𝓗𝓾𝓶𝓸𝓻, 𝓜𝓾𝓼𝓲𝓬, 𝓐𝓻𝓽, 𝓞𝓟𝓔𝓝 𝓣𝓗𝓡𝓔𝓐𝓓 

Here’s a place to share cartoons, jokes, music, art, nature, 

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No politics or divisive posts on this thread. 

This feature will appear every day at 1pm mountain time. 

August Wholesale Inflation Drops -0.1% as Manufacturers and Suppliers Absorb Tariff Costs

Conservative Treehouse 

The financial punditry are verklempt, puzzled and perplexed as the wholesale inflation rate calculated by the Bureau of Labor and Statistics Producer Price Index [DATA HERE] shows a drop in PPI of -0.1% for August.

Despite the pundits claiming the Trump tariffs were going to drive up prices, the data shows the manufacturers of products are absorbing the majority of the tariff costs, the importers are absorbing the remnants and the consumer prices are not reflecting the tariff.  Go figure!

[DATA HERE]

Exactly as expected, the wholesale price of tariffs are being offset by production cost reductions by the export dependent manufacturing companies overseas.  This is exactly what took place in the first term, and the situation is duplicating even with higher tariff rates.

Export dependent nations are squeezing their own productivity, their governments are subsidizing the critical industries and the tariffs are being absorbed before they even leave the docks.   This is the USA “rust belt” in reverse.  The same scenario played out in the USA for decades as domestic manufacturers tried to retain U.S. industry.  Now the foreign countries are experiencing their own economic squeeze.

(NEW YORK) – Wholesale prices unexpectedly fell in August as businesses ate the bulk of Trump’s tariff costs, teeing up the Federal Reserve to slash interest rates next week.

The Producer Price Index, which measures final demand goods and services prices, declined 0.1% in August from the month before – significantly below estimates of a 0.3% rise, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said Wednesday.

Excluding volatile food and energy prices, core PPI also fell 0.1% in August from the previous month. The core figure is up 2.8% on a yearly basis.

Easing from a heated 0.7% pace in July, the calmer wholesale reading signaled that companies have been absorbing the tariffs in an effort to hold onto wary customers. (more)

CNBC even stumbled upon what created the “rust belt” in the U.S. WATCH:

At a 55% tariff rate against Chinese finished-goods imports, there will be ZERO inflationary pressure to the U.S. consumer.

None. Zero. Zippo. Zilch.

First, the producing economies who are dependent on exports will fight to retain their manufacturing capacity by increasing productivity and subsidizing their industry.  The production costs will be lowered at the point of manufacturing.

Second, tariffs are paid by the importer based on the *wholesale price* of the product as delivered by the exporting country depending on the exporters’ tariff rate.

Tariffs are NOT LEVIED/PAID based on the retail price of the product as sold to the consumer.

Example: A pair of Denim Jeans made in China for Guess Brand. The Chinese manufacturer sells the jeans to Guess Brand for $10 a pair manufactured. Guess sells the jeans at retail in the USA for $100 (a $90 gross profit).

A 50% tariff on China means the jeans cost Guess Brand $15 instead of $10 (an $85 gross profit). A 50% tariff on Guess brand jeans, that retail for $100, changes the cost to the retail brand by $5.

Multinational corporations who have off shored their production and manufacturing to China are the ones screaming about tariffs. Ultimately in the final analysis, President Trump is exposing corporatism, multinational corporate vultures; he is not necessarily just exposing China.

In the example above the company makes $85 gross profit as opposed to $90 gross profit on the pair of jeans if they do not raise the retail price.

They don’t raise the price because their profit margins are already ridiculous, and that’s why consumer prices do not go up. A 50% direct tariff on Chinese goods only marginally hits the multinational corporation.

American consumers need to understand this dynamic better.

Trump Declares War on Left-Wing Violence After Charlie Kirk Assassination

 

By: Jason Walsh

September 11, 2025

The Daily Fetched

President Donald Trump paid tribute to prominent conservative activist Charlie Kirk, who was assassinated while speaking with students at Utah Valley University. Trump vowed to crack down on left-wing political violence, which has massively increased since he returned to the White House back in January.

“To my great fellow Americans, I am filled with grief and anger at the heinous assassination of Charlie Kirk on a college campus in Utah. Charlie inspired millions, and tonight, all who knew him and loved him are united in shock and horror,” President Trump began.

“Charlie was a patriot who devoted his life to the cause of open debate and the country that he loved so much, the United States of America. He fought for liberty, democracy, justice, and the American people.

He’s a martyr for truth and freedom, and there’s never been anyone who was so respected by youth.

Charlie was also a man of deep, deep faith, and we take comfort in the knowledge that he is now at peace with God in heaven.”

Trump then extended his condolences and prayers to Charlie’s wife, Erica, and his two young daughters.

The president ordered all flags to be flown at half-mast in honor of Kirk.

“This is a dark moment for America. Charlie Kirk traveled the nation, joyfully engaging with everyone interested in good faith debate.

His mission was to bring young people into the political process, which he did better than anybody ever, to share his love of country and to spread the simple words of common sense.

On campuses nationwide, he championed his ideas with courage, logic, humor, and grace,” Trump continued.

Trump also addressed the rise in political violence across the country, which has included an unprecedented rise in attacks on federal agents committed by left-wing extremists.

Watch:

https://x.com/WhiteHouse/status/1965946655188070750

“It is long past time for all Americans and the media to confront the fact that violence and murder are the tragic consequence of demonizing those with whom you disagree day after day, year after year, in the most hateful and despicable way possible.

For years, those on the radical left have compared wonderful Americans like Charlie to Nazis and the world’s worst mass murderers and criminals. This kind of rhetoric is directly responsible for the terrorism that we’re seeing in our country today, and it must stop right now,” the president went on to say.

Trump also vowed to “find each and every one of those who contributed to this atrocity and to other political violence, including the organizations that fund it and support it.”

This action will expand to those who “go after our judges, law enforcement officials, and everyone else who brings order to our country,” the president added.

“From the attack on my life in Butler, Pennsylvania last year, which killed a husband and father, to the attacks on ICE agents, to the vicious murder of a healthcare executive in the streets of New York, to the shooting of House Majority Leader Steve Scalise and three others. Radical left political violence has hurt too many innocent people, and taken too many lives,” President Trump went on.

“Tonight, I ask all Americans to commit themselves to the American values for which Charlie Kirk lived and died. The values of free speech, citizenship, the rule of law, and the patriotic devotion and love of God.

Charlie was the best of America, and the monster who attacked him was attacking our whole country.

An assassin tried to silence him with a bullet. But he failed because together we will ensure that his voice, his message, and his legacy will live on for countless generations to come.

Today, because of this heinous act, Charlie’s voice has become bigger and grander than ever before, and it’s not even close. May God bless his memory. May God watch over his family. And may God bless the United States of America.”

Larry Ellison Becomes World’s Richest Man

[READ THIS]

For almost two years, there has been a background conversation with a handful of people watching the Silicon Valley network closely and monitoring every move and position they take.  They hold an entirely divergent set of motives that are not aligned with Making America Great Again behind this crew.

I’m simply saying for everyone to keep their eyes wide open, review THAT ARTICLE I just linked above, and put it in the context of the issues and discussions we have had on these pages.  Remember, there are literally trillions at stake, and we have been duped too many times. The issues and the stakes in our nation are just too important.

The concern we have is about the “surveillance state”, and the creations of the Silicon Valley tech bros that are building out tools that can easily be weaponized as the contracts with the U.S. government are fulfilled.  President Trump will not weaponize them, but the existing tools and the DHS track and trace enhancements being built by the tech team are threats to liberty.

Real ID connected to facial recognition, connected to personage, a digital identity and/or a track and trace capability is ultimately an assembled tech tool for control.  Politically Exposed Persons are the most vulnerable.

Those who follow the deepest weeds of their constructs know that billionaire Elon Musk’s ability to have a public influence platform would not exist without the full support of billionaire Larry Ellison.  They are absolute partners – mentor and protegee. The part that people are having a hard time accepting is the end goal, the motive behind that Ellison support.

My opinion is today the same as it was when the situation first started to surface.  Think of how the Sea Island group positioned Ron DeSantis for his MAGA challenge in 2024.  That was a long term plan that started years before DeSantis entered the primary.  DeSantis took positions that were highly favored by President Trump supporters, and his network constructed an image that was intentional to ingratiate himself within the movement.

What we have researched with Elon Musk carries many of the same background datapoints and nuance.  Musk takes popular positions to cover for some very un-MAGA proposals; the H1B issue is just one facet.  Overall, a technological system of surveillance and control by a few tech oligarchs is well underway.

We must keep our eyes wide open.  We must trust our instincts and differentiate between key issues that can impact us and our families, and the issues we support – but are not direct impacts on our lives.  We want a big tent; we all want to see success for President Trump and the MAGA agenda, but we cannot achieve our goals if liberty is lost in the process.

The surveillance state diminishes liberty; it needs to be confronted as it surfaces.

Posted

Hint Of Russia Hoax Accountability: Anti-Weaponization Measure Passes House Intel Committee

The provision that passed HPSCI Wednesday requires the FBI to notify Congress of any investigations into federal candidates for office.

The  Federalist 

The House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence passed an anti-government-weaponization language Wednesday that would limit U.S. intelligence agency election-meddling.

The language, to be included in the Intelligence Authorization Act, would stop the Federal Bureau of Investigation from secretly launching investigations into federal candidates, as FBI did during the 2016 election, notes a statement from Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik’s office.

In 2016, FBI Director James Comey opened an illegal “counterintelligence investigation” into then-candidate Donald Trump, based on what Americans learned years later but the FBI knew at the time, were false smears from the Hillary Clinton campaign.

The provision that passed HPSCI Wednesday, in currently classified language, requires the FBI to notify congressional leadership of any investigations into federal candidates for office. In 2017, Stefanik pressed Comey on why he had not disclosed to congressional leadership that the FBI was investigating Trump.

“I think our decision was, it was a matter of such sensitivity that we wouldn’t include it in the quarterly briefings,” Comey responded.

Not only Congress was kept in the dark. As The Federalist’s Editor-in-Chief Mollie Hemingway reported at the time, Comey inaccurately told Trump three times that he was not being investigated. Since then, Stefanik has pushed for legislative reform to require such disclosure.

Stefanik’s questioning of Comey in 2017 led to the GOP investigation into the corrupt Crossfire Hurricane spy agency cooperation with Clinton, her statement notes. Those investigations resulted, years later, in fully clearing President Trump and exposing criminal acts from James Comey and the Obama administration.

We now know, from recently released intelligence reports, that former President Barack Obama’s administration was plotting to interfere with Trump’s presidency well before Trump ever took office in 2017. Obama and his spy chiefs deployed U.S. intelligence agencies to launder and give false credibility to complete lies manufactured by the Clinton campaign.

“We must prevent the illegal political weaponization of intelligence agencies in our elections as James Comey perpetrated in 2016 with the corrupt Crossfire Hurricane investigation launched against Presidential Candidate Donald Trump,” Stefanik said in a statement, adding that during her 2017 questioning, Comey admitted that he did not follow precedent when he failed to inform congressional leadership of the counterintelligence investigation into Trump. “I remain committed to fully investigating the corrupt Russiagate hoax and holding those responsible accountable, and I stand by President Trump’s efforts to further release information for the American people to see regarding this scam investigation and cover-up.”

Now that the new language in the Intelligence Authorization Act has passed out of committee, the act must be approved by a full House vote. That is expected later this year.

Gaza Aid Delivery Sites Guarded by American 'Infidels MC' Biker Club

RedState 

While the slash-and-snap between Israel and Hamas goes on, it's not hard to forget that food, medical supplies, and other aid materials are still being delivered to Gaza, and those supplies are supposed to be delivered, not to Hamas, but to what non-Hamas civilians remain in Gaza. Telling sheep from goat here must be a daunting task indeed, but the effort is going on.

Here's where things get complicated. The presence of Hamas in the area (along with whatever other goblins may want to grab some medical supplies or foodstuffs) requires security to guard the storage and distribution sites. On Wednesday, a BBC story revealed an interesting bit of news: Some of that security is being handled by members of the Infidels MC (motorcycle club), which consists mostly of American service veterans, and which, as you might guess from the name, takes a distinctly anti-Islamic tone.

The firm guarding sites where aid is distributed in Gaza has been using members of a US biker gang with a history of hostility to Islam to run its armed security, a BBC investigation has found.

BBC News has confirmed the identities of 10 members of the Infidels Motorcycle Club working in Gaza for UG Solutions - a private contractor providing security at Gaza Humanitarian Foundation sites, where hundreds of civilians seeking food have been killed in scenes of chaos and gunfire.

We can reveal that seven members of the gang are in senior positions overseeing sites at the controversial aid operation backed by Israel and US President Donald Trump.

UG Solutions (UGS) defended its employees' qualifications for the job, saying it does not screen people out for "personal hobbies or affiliations unrelated to job performance".

Note the third paragraph: We must note, very plainly, that despite the BBC's fuzzy wording, the aid operation - not the use of the Infidels MC - has been backed by Israel and President Trump. I will not speculate as to the reason for the Beeb's fuzziness here.

The Infidels MC makes no bones about their distaste for Islam. 

Infidels MC was set up by US military veterans of the Iraq war in 2006 and members see themselves as modern Crusaders, using the Crusader cross as their symbol - a reference to the medieval Christians who fought Muslims for control of Jerusalem.

The gang is currently hosting anti-Muslim hate speech on its Facebook page and has previously held a pig roast "in defiance of" the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

Again, I'd be very cautious as to what the notoriously leftist BBC might consider "hate speech." Furthermore, the Infidels haven't murdered anyone, nor raped anyone, nor have they attacked any music festivals or peaceful rural kibbutzim, so that puts them leaps and bounds above Hamas by any measure you care to name. But there are a couple of real-world considerations that UG Solutions should consider here.

On the one hand, the Infidels are, by all accounts, some tough, imposing dudes. They appear to be mostly, if not all, military veterans. Their appearance would deter a casual thief, and their armed presence may well give a band of Hamas marauders pause.

On the other hand, there are other tough, imposing dudes out there. The appearance of the Infidels - and there can be little doubt that the nature of the group will be known to Hamas, if not before, then certainly after the BBC broke the story - will stir up Hamas. It's almost inviting an attack, as opposed to deterring it. We all like to see jihadis annoyed and outraged, but this seems a step too far. On balance, it seems like UG Solutions is just asking for trouble. 

Granted, with recent history in mind, most especially the October 7th attacks - not to mention the World Trade Center attack, which happened 24 years ago this coming Thursday - it's rather viscerally satisfying to see someone stick a metaphorical thumb in Hamas's eye, and by association, the eye of every jihadi goblin out there. Lunatic imams are wandering around the streets of American cities, after all, threatening shopkeepers to refrain from selling pork and alcohol, threatening them if they refuse. 

Sharia patrols have begun in Houston, Texas.

I've been warning for 20 years what was coming to America.

Banned at every turn.
pic.twitter.com/rcfIPeMx8y

— Tommy Robinson 🇬🇧 (@TRobinsonNewEra) September 8, 2025

It's emotionally satisfying, perhaps, to see a little "turnabout is fair play" here. But this probably isn't the time or the place, or the way to go about it.

None of this should imply that UG Solutions or anyone else involved should meekly give in to Hamas's lunatic bigotry and hate. Hire big, tough, imposing dudes. Most especially hire big, tough, imposing American dudes. We've got plenty of them, and the fact that Americans are guarding these supplies will annoy the Hamas goblins as opposed to setting them into a screeching rage. We might note that most of Hamas is trying to avoid being turned into flying spare parts by the Israel Defense Forces right now, so they have to be doing a little risk assessment before taking on anything other than scurrying like cockroaches avoiding daylight.

Thanks to the BBC, this cat is now well and truly out of the bag. UG Solutions would be well advised to find another source of big, tough, imposing dudes.