Republican News

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Honest to God, it makes you wonder if this is how the Left has been paying off their border-crossing shock troops.

If you’ll remember back to last week, when Elon and the DOGE team made their first official appearance together on Bret Baier’s show, I said the segment on Social Security should be required viewing for every little old recipient squawking about a billionaire 400 times over trying to steal their $1500 a month check.

The reason SS recipients now have to personally come to an office to change their banking info if they wanted a bank deposit address changed was because of the rampant phone fraud the DOGE team had uncovered almost immediately. Forty percent of ALL CALLS were fraudulent efforts to change direct deposit info. This was done to protect Granny, not rob her and make her life miserable.

🚨STOPPING FRAUD: DOGE Engineer and Elon reveal that 40% of all calls to Social Security are from fraudsters trying to change direct deposit info in order to steal funds.

ELON: “What we’re doing will help their benefits. Legitimate people as a result of the work of DOGE will… pic.twitter.com/hNARRRLgbw

— Western Lensman (@WesternLensman) March 27, 2025

HOLY SMOKES, RIGHT?

Honey, that ain’t the half of it.

There’s a guy by the name of Antonio Gracias, who, as founder and managing partner at Valor Equity Partners, has proven to be a pretty smart fellow in his own right. As a patriotic American, he was willing to work with Elon at DOGE.

And how lucky are we? 

Because what Gracias revealed he and the DOGE team found at Social Security ‘by accident’ after, as he said…

‘There are a lot of good people in the system who pointed us in this direction and I want to honor them right now. That work in the government today. Who took risks to show us these numbers and tell us this was going on.’

…is gobsmacking.

What is the ‘this’ he’s referring to that they found?

That the Biden administration in 2024 – one year – gave 2.1 MILLION NON-CITIZENS social security numbers.

There’s only one reason to do that.

The Biden administration was giving millions of Social Security Numbers to illegal aliens.

Some of these people did vote.

Their names have been given to the authorities for prosecution. pic.twitter.com/lxQLpXiL9x

— ThePersistence (@ScottPresler) March 31, 2025

…GRACIAS: “In 2021, 270,000 non-citizens got social security numbers. In 2024, 2.1M non-citizens got social security numbers.  We went in to find fraud and found this by accident.  

….this is non-political…

… I have been from DC, to the social security offices, to the border to track this down. Very good people helped us along the way and I want to thank them.”

So that’s irritating, right?

What does it actually mean in terms of dollars, cents, and ‘illegal’?

It turns out the system took quite a hit – the worst part being? It was intended to hit the system hard. To create a class of Democratic loyalists, dependent on the state from the very second they stepped over the border. 

HOLY CR*P 🚨

– Democrats did give MILLIONS of illegals Social Security Numbers
– They were REGISTERING TO VOTE
– Elon Musk has confirmation THEY DID VOTE
– Democrats qualified illegals for MAX SOCIAL SECURITY BENEFITS
– They enrolled in Medicaid with their new Social Security… pic.twitter.com/ixWAObSyoL

— Wall Street Apes (@WallStreetApes) March 31, 2025

…“If I hadn’t seen this myself, I’m not sure I believed it. I went through it myself and mapped it. And Elon is right. This is true. The defaults in the system from social security to all of the benefit programs have been set to max inclusion, MAX PAY for these people and minimum collection. 

We found 1.3 million of them already on Medicaid as an example. We’ve gone through on every benefit program we went through, we found groups from this particular group of people, this 5.5 million people in those benefit programs. 

 And then what was really, really disturbing us was why we’re asking ourselves why. So we actually just took a sample and looked at voter registration records and we found people here registered to vote in this population. Yes.  

Who did vote? We found some by sampling that ACTUALLY DID VOTE.  

We have referred them to prosecution at the Homeland Security Investigation Service. Yeah. Already, already. That is already happening right now. The truly disturbing thing though, I just want you to know this, a truly disturbing thing to me, and the darkest thing about this, to me, the voter fraud is terrible.”

Look at how many they’d already locked on at the beginning of 2025.

It’s not just the fact that 2.1 million Social Security Numbers were issued to non-citizens in FY2024. It’s the trend line. The number was doubling every year. pic.twitter.com/0w6OQhgZCi

— David Sacks (@DavidSacks) March 31, 2025

It doesn’t take long to erase honest-to-God Americans if you double the number of illegals every year who are allowed to masquerade as citizens by your own government.

And if you don’t think the Coconut Queen wasn’t going to keep this ball rolling, I have some burnt rubber in Minnesota to sell you.

This utterly explains the DOGE freakout and violent spazz attacks against Elon and the entire concept.

Democrats don’t want to ‘save’ Social Security or any of the benefits associated with it.

They want to save their slush fund.

🚨🇺🇸 EXPOSING THE SCHEME: WHISTLEBLOWER REVEALS PLAN TO HOOK MIGRANTS ON LIFETIME BENEFITS

A whistleblower’s shocking testimony reveals a coordinated effort to sign illegal immigrants up for permanent Social Security disability benefits—a disturbing strategy to create lifetime… https://t.co/wqd4bgiICU pic.twitter.com/CSY8uQnx8s

— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) March 31, 2025

…The whistleblower, who worked directly with migrants, revealed staffers were instructed to identify and document minor health issues like “recurring headaches” or “lower back problems” that would qualify migrants for long-term disability payments that would continue for life.  

This wasn’t just assistance—it was a deliberate plan to ensure they “never have to work a day in their lives in America.” 

This testimony aligns with the Trump administration’s recent executive order aimed at preventing taxpayer money from supporting illegal immigration, including measures to identify federally funded programs providing benefits to those unlawfully present in the country…

The entire twelve-minute presentation is here when you have time. It is well worth the watch and absolutely chilling.

🚨NEW: Antonio Gracias @AntonioGracias talks about how the fraud in Social Security and Voter Fraud works (12 MINUTES OF MUST WATCH)

GRACIAS: “In 2021, 270,000 non-citizens got social security numbers. In 2024, 2.1M non-citizens got social security numbers.

We went in to find… pic.twitter.com/7BcmfEfhFH

— Autism Capital 🧩 (@AutismCapital) March 31, 2025

…MUSK: “People think that Biden was asleep at the switch. They weren’t asleep at the switch. It was a massive large scale program to import as many illegals as possible, ultimately to change the entire voting map of the United States and disenfranchise the American people and making it a deep blue one party state from which there would be no escape.”  

GRACIAS: “Human Traffickers made $13-15B off of this. This is a human tragedy. We created a system that created an incentive for people to come here and get taken advantage of by these traffickers.” 

MUSK: “This is not made up by the right. This is absolutely true…The real reason for these attacks and the burning of the cars, is that we’re going to turn off the payments to illegals…I think this is the biggest voter fraud in the history of America by far. If the machine behind the Kamala puppet had won then they would have legalized all the illegals and there would be no swing states.”

Thank YOU, Antonio Gracias, son of Spanish immigrants, for volunteering to expose the despicable perfidy, unspeakable evil, and contemptible thievery. 

Especially for being willing to expose yourself to the virulent madness of the Left.

Because they are losing it over ‘turning off the payments’ big time.

Beege ADDS: As we’ve been chatting this up in the comments and on X, lemme just add it in here to clarify people questioning the legal v illegal immigrant and numbers:

I think the gist of the exponential rise in numbers is precisely that the rise in Social Security was the border or whatever scheme Biden was letting them in under, be it flying Haitians and Venezuelans in for ‘temporary status,’ whatever. 

The DOGErs still have to separate the wheat from the chaff, but no one in their right mind thinks that LEGAL immigration shot up to more than DOUBLE in a SINGLE YEAR to goose those Social Security numbers. 

At 2:25 in the last video in my post, @AntonioGracias goes into what he found out happened at the border and how these illegals got into the SS system.

What DOGE team members and those intrepid volunteers are uncovering is precisely the sort of stories we relish bringing you here at HotAir. Ed, David, John, and I only get to cover the world as we see it because of HotAir’s VIP membership and their tremendous support for what we do and how we do it. 

We would love to invite you to join our most awesome community, and there’s no time like the present. Use promo code FIGHT to get 60% off your membership. The comment sections are always lively, and believe me, there’s so much more. Ed’s videos and the unique VIP pieces we all do (and now Mitch) are just a sampling.

Thank you again for your support. We appreciate it bunches.

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Columbia has lost another president. Katrina Armstrong has been the interim president at Columbia since former president Minouche Shafik resigned last August. Armstrong has been attempting to negotiate with the Trump administration to get $400 million in funding restored and has taken a lot of criticism from the left for giving in to the administration’s demands. On Friday she announced she was stepping aside so a acting president could take over.

The interim president of Columbia University abruptly left her post Friday evening as the school confronted the loss of hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding and the Trump administration’s mounting skepticism about its leadership.

The move came one week after Columbia bowed to a series of demands from the federal government, which had canceled approximately $400 million in essential federal funding, and it made way for Columbia’s third leader since August. Claire Shipman, who had been the co-chair of the university’s board of trustees, was named the acting president and replaced Dr. Katrina Armstrong…

Less than a week ago, the Trump administration had signaled that it was satisfied with Dr. Armstrong and the steps she was taking to restore the funding. But in a statement on Friday, its Joint Task Force to Combat Antisemitism said that Dr. Armstrong’s departure from the presidency was “an important step toward advancing negotiations” between the government and the university.

If you haven’t been following this closely, the Trump administration made a list of demands and last weekend it seemed Armstrong and the school were prepared to meet most of them. Secretary of Education McMahon released a statement saying Columbia was on its way to having the funding restored. But last Monday, the Wall Street Journal reported that Armstrong had been sending mixed messages. In a chat with Columbia administrators and professors she indicated the school wouldn’t really be following through on some of the demands.

In the conversations with faculty, Armstrong also downplayed the changes agreed to with the Trump team. One issue Armstrong highlighted was the mask policy. While Columbia’s letter to the Trump team agreed to ban masks that conceal identity during unauthorized protests, Armstrong told faculty there was no mask ban.

Secretary McMahon responded to that report saying the school must comply if it wanted to restore funding.

“They have to abide and comply with the terms that we have set down and [we’ve] talked with them and they’ve agreed to,” McMahon told a small group of reporters over breakfast at the Education Department’s headquarters near Capitol Hill.

In short, Katrina Armstrong appeared to lie to the Trump administration and that was quickly noticed on Monday. By Friday she was gone and the Joint Task Force to Combat Antisemitism seemed to approve of her departure. It sounds like that became another Trump administration demand and this one was met pretty quickly.

Taking over as acting president is journalist Claire Shipman who was formerly a correspondent on ABC’s Good Morning America. Education and Workforce Committee Chairman Tim Walberg wished her luck but said his committee would be watching.

“Now is not the time for Columbia University to regress as it works to combat the rampant antisemitism plaguing the school. So far Columbia has largely failed to uphold its commitment to Jewish students and faculty – leaving them to face harassment, intimidation, and even assault. Thankfully, the Trump administration is ushering in an era of common sense, and this Committee is working diligently alongside it to continue the momentum we’ve created in addressing antisemitism. But the school and its administrators must put in the work to combat this evil. Ms. Shipman, while we wish you all good success, we will be watching closely.”

It’s too early to say if Shipman will take a different approach to the job or if she’ll just try to continue the process of having the $400 million in funding restored. My guess is the latter as it’s a bit late for a show of protest. But who knows. There is still lots of pressure from the left who would rather see the school fight the demands, no matter what it costs.

Meanwhile, I notice today that Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD) the coalition leading the protests at Columbia, no longer has an Instagram account. There are some articles from December saying they had been kicked off Instagram, but the account was still active as recently as a week ago. Now it’s gone. That’s going to make it harder for them to organize even as the pressure on them seems to be increasing.

Update: Apparently this just happened. Other people are noticing this morning.

🚨 BREAKING: CUAD removed from Instagram.

CUAD = the coalition behind pro-Hamas protests at Columbia.

🔴 Glorified Hamas & Hezbollah
🔴Intimidated Jewish students
🔴 Occupied buildings

Instagram acted. @Columbia hasn’t!

When will the university protect its students?… pic.twitter.com/RRInpqXidj

— Canary Mission (@canarymission) March 31, 2025

Why is this happening now? Possibly because of this lawsuit.

More confirmation that this just happened. CUAD is now moving to Telegram.

BREAKING: META HAS DISABLED THE CU Apartheid Divest INSTAGRAM FOR THE SECOND TIME WITH NO OPTION FOR APPEAL.

This comes after a long and concerted effort from corporations and imperial powers to erase the Palestinian people.

Follow us on telegram at https://t.co/1NXahLcCST pic.twitter.com/RFKK7Q7lmq

— CU Apartheid Divest (CUAD) (@ColumbiaBDS) March 31, 2025

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It’s really quite a coincidence, isn’t it, that prosecutors and courts deeply committed to the transnational elite are finding that all their opponents are criminals who must be arrested and banned from running for office. 

And it only happens when it looks pretty likely that they are about to win office! 

BREAKING:

Today marks the day democracy died in France.

A judge ruled Marine Le Pen is ineligible to run for president in 2027.

She is the frontrunner.

8 MEPs from her party are also barred from participating in elections.

Judges are now deciding elections across the EU. pic.twitter.com/HHuMv8hsja

— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) March 31, 2025

Marine Le Pen, the French far-right leader, was found guilty of embezzlement by a criminal court in Paris on Monday and immediately barred from running for public office for five years, jeopardizing her plans to compete in France’s 2027 presidential election.

The verdict was a major blow to the perennial presidential ambitions of Ms. Le Pen, an anti-immigrant, nationalist politician who has already mounted three failed bids. Looking grim and murmuring “incredible,” she walked briskly out of the courtroom before the judges had completed reading her sentence.

She did not address the dozens of camera crews that awaited her outside the courtroom, but she was expected to speak on French television later on Monday evening. She had spoken of her “serenity” before the hearing but there was little evidence of that.

Ms. Le Pen is the clear front-runner in opinion polls for the 2027 election. Her ineligibility is certain to provoke strong protests from her own party, but also more broadly, there are likely to be claims that French democracy is being denied. The presiding judge, however, said that nobody was entitled “to an immunity in violation of the rules of the law.”

Luckily, we in the West live in countries deeply devoted to democratic principles, and it is inconceivable that prosecutors and judges would invent BS charges, stretch the boundaries of legality past breaking, or threaten the stability of their political systems by exceeding their legitimate power.

Right? 

RIGHT?! 

The EU has progressively devolved into authoritarianism. V.P. Vance was right to criticize Europe’s descent. In 4 European countries, candidates and parties have been banned to stop them from winning or participating. Past time for the U.S. to leave NATO. pic.twitter.com/lzHIlUyk0q

— Savannah (@BasedSavannah) March 31, 2025

And we have checks and balances–you know, things like appeals. Right?

The court also sentenced Ms. Le Pen, 56, to four years in prison, with two of those years suspended, and a fine of 100,000 euros, or about $108,000. She has long denied any wrongdoing in the case, which involved accusations that her party, the National Rally, illegally used several million euros in European Parliament funds for expenses between 2004 and 2016.

She is widely expected to appeal the verdict, which would put most of her sentence on hold, but not the ban on running for public office. The court ruled that her electoral ineligibility is effective immediately. As a result, only a successful appeal before the 2027 deadline to enter the race would allow her to run.

That is not impossible, but it will be difficult. The appeals process is slow in France, and even if a new trial took take place before the 2027 election, it is unclear whether the prosecution’s case would be overturned.

Oops. I guess not. 

First Trump, then the Romanian elections, and now Marine Le Pen. The Establishment hates threats to their power, and will engage in every kind of lawfare to eliminate those who dare to challenge it. pic.twitter.com/DR7cl3sbta

— Kevin Roberts (@KevinRobertsTX) March 31, 2025

I AM glad to see that the courts are so diligent that they dug up and found accusations of questionable spending–something unheard of in politics because the rules are so well-defined–that go back a decade or two. As with the charges in New York against President Trump, only the diligence of creative prosecutors can protect citizens from the rare politician who can be shown, with great effort, to have bent a rule. 

Authoritarian countries like Russia and China have ruling regimes that jail political opponents, ban them from running for office, censor political opponents, silence opposition news sources, and use propaganda outlets as megaphones for their Narratives.

So, unlike what we have in the free-wheeling West, where everything goes, opposition parties thrive, and government officials restrain themselves from abusing their power. 

In western liberal democracies jailing or shooting the opposition candidate is quickly becoming the preferred election strategy

— Auron MacIntyre (@AuronMacintyre) March 31, 2025

Anybody familiar with history can see the obvious pattern being repeated. Tired, failing regimes that have lost their legitimacy are striking out at their political opponents, sacrificing the very few remaining shreds of credibility to hang onto power. When regimes are young, then tend to rely on authoritarianism to establish power and, at least in many cases, loosen their grip on power to maintain and expand their sense of legitimacy. 

Marie Le Pen, front runner in the next French election, has been barred from running. The Romanian courts throw out the primary and order new elections because their chosen candidate lost.

Because ‘We Must Save Democracy!’ So sayeth the Elites, and the Elites are honorable men! pic.twitter.com/BcOBp4POWk

— John Ringo SF Author (@Jringo1508) March 31, 2025

Think South Korea or Taiwan, or for that matter the UK as parliamentary democracy developed. The classic case is Rome, which went from kings to a Senate with roughly divided powers in the Consuls and Tribunes. The freer systems prosper, with a good working balance between order and freedom. Innovation, expansion, and cultural supremacy develop. 

Then, the ruling elite becomes greedy, demanding more and more power and resources. 

In Rome, the system became tired and trended toward political suppression, eventually resulting in authoritarian rule. 

That path is being followed in the West. The ruling elite has turned on the people, and this is the result. To retain their grip on power, they return to authoritarianism. 

They are killing what made the West great. Look at how the elite is rushing to destroy Elon Musk, the Edison and Tesla of our time. As he struggles to make humanity interplanetary, they struggle to rein him in and destroy him. 

Europe is lost. The Germanic hoards of the 21st century are already inside the gates. The US is getting there. And the comfortable elite grasp at the few years of power still left to them. 

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I’m just going to lay this out here before we get to the court case.

Le Pen beats all other presidential candidates with ease in final poll before expulsion court hearing

Marine Le Pen stands poised to win the 2027 presidential election in France unless the courts disqualify her from running, new polling published just hours before a court hearing to determine her future has shown.

On Sunday, a new Ifop survey for Le Journal du Dimanche showed Le Pen leading in every run-off scenario, making her the undeniable frontrunner and obvious candidate of the right-wing National Rally.

The thing about the court case was not that a French politician was accused of something hinky to do with money – that’s hardly breaking news. No, what raised eyebrows was prosecutors insisting that a guilty verdict in this court case must be accompanied by an immediate FIVE-YEAR BAN from holding public office, meaning it takes effect during the appeal process.

EXCUSEZ-MOI?

Poof. There goes the front-runner if she’s found guilty, unlike, apparently, any French politician before her.

…Should the French court follow a similar path, Le Pen’s supporters — and perhaps many undecided voters — will likely view this as yet another case of overreach by an increasingly politicized judiciary.

Le Pen’s dominance isn’t marginal. Against an array of political opponents, she leads former Macron-appointed prime ministers Édouard Philippe (20–25 percent) and Gabriel Attal (around 20 percent), as well as far-left grandee Jean-Luc Mélenchon (12–13 percent), with ease.

She appears to be far more palatable to the wider electorate than others on the nationalist right, including Reconquête leader Éric Zemmour, who is polling at around 5-6 percent.

So, she’d wipe the floor with all of the establishment EU-blessed figures, which is what French polling is saying at the moment.

This morning?

Le Pen and her peeps are guilty.

National Rally (RN) party leader Marine Le Pen has been found guilty of embezzlement of public funds and was banned from running in elections with immediate execution.

On the morning of March 31, the judge at the Paris court also handed down guilty verdicts to eight other current or former members of Le Pen’s party who, like her, previously served as MEPs in the European Parliament.

According to the court, the politicians set up a system between 2004 and 2016 to funnel €2.9 million from the EP to the headquarters of the RN in Paris.

The court must know how this looks because it issued a ‘This was about the crime, not the politics‘ statement and warned the sentencing part of the proceedings were going to take some time.

…The court stressed that “no one was judged for having done politics”, but that it was about a “system” of embezzlement of public funds.

The BBC had an update just a bit ago…

Breaking

We’ve just had it confirmed that Marine Le Pen has been banned from running for office for five years.

This means she will not be able to contest the French presidential election in 2027.

…with an addendum just a few minutes later.

More Details of LePen’s Sentence

As we’ve reported, a French court has given Marie Le Pen a five-year ban on running for office with immediate effect. This means she is barred from running in the 2027 French presidential election race.

She has also been given a four-year prison sentence, of which two will be suspended. The other two can be spent with an electronic tag rather than in custody.

Le Pen has also been given a €100,000 (£82,635) fine.

She will very likely appeal the jail sentence, so this sentence will not apply now.

The appeal process in France is apparently quite convoluted and time-consuming, which also explains why ‘prosecutors’ were so insistent on an immediate ban from running for any political office. That timeline works out great for legally keeping LePen out of everyone’s hair. Oddly enough, she’s allowed to keep her parliamentary seat.

…She is almost certain to appeal, and neither the prison sentence nor the fine would be applied until her appeals are exhausted. Appeals in France can take months or even years.

But her five-year ban from running for office kicks in immediately, via a so-called “provisional execution” measure requested by prosecutors, and will be lifted only if any appeal is upheld before the election. She retains her parliamentary seat until her term ends.

There was no immediate comment from Le Pen on the ruling. Her right-hand man, RN president Jordan Bardella, said: “Today it is not only Marine Le Pen who was unjustly condemned: It was French democracy that was killed”.

Bardella is the heir presumptive with LePen removed.

As you might imagine, with everything happening between Germany, Romania, etc., the headlines are pretty volatile, and opinions are wildly split.

BREAKING: Judge rules Marine Le Pen ineligible to run for president in 2027 in latest blow to democracy in Europe

Shock verdict shows “power is shifting to the judges” in the latest attack on democracy in the EU

A judge has ruled Marine Le Pen is ineligible to run for office, along with eight MEPs from her National Rally party, after they were found guilty of misappropriation of EU funds. The move is the latest attack on democracy in the EU, with judges increasingly deciding elections in Europe. Le Pen has also been sentenced to four years in prison, with two years suspended.

Notably, the news comes right as Le Pen leads the polling for French presidential elections in 2027, as Remix News reported earlier today.

The court estimated that the total losses amounted to €2.9 million, as a result of “paying by the European Parliament people who actually worked for the far-right party.” Le Pen was found to be responsible for €1.8 million in damages herself. The judgment also concerns 12 assistants. The prosecutor’s office initially alleged that €7 million had been used in this way.

Investigators accused Le Pen of managing the illegal use of European subsidies between 2004 and 2016, when she served as an MEP. They stated that instead of working in Strasbourg, assistants were to work for Le Pen’s National Rally party in a domestic capacity.

…Other commentators have expressed surprise at not only the verdict but also the decision to exclude her from elections.

Pierre Lellouche, a lawyer and former Deputy of the French National Assembly, appeared on CNEWS to point out that the current prime minister, François Bayrou, faced the same charge and suffered no consequences.

“Then, last but not least, there is the case of (François) Bayrou, the current prime minister, who has been prosecuted for exactly the same thing, i.e., for abuses of party funding declared as parliamentary assistants in Europe, at the EU parliament. Bayrou emerged from this affair without being in the least concerned. In fact, the public prosecutor’s office has once again referred the matter to the courts, but even so, we’re dealing with a double standard here. It’s a bit surprising.”

So, considering France’s sitting prime minister was ‘prosecuted’ for this exact thing with zero consequences, it sounds on the surface like a matter of ‘the system,’ as the court calls it, only being acceptable for approved crooks who belong to the right club. Not all crooks in the system qualify.

WE’RE DEALING WITH A DOUBLE STANDARD HERE

The presiding judge has just released a statement regarding their decision to impose the immediate ban on any candidacy by Le Pen:

Here’s how the presiding judge Bénédicte de Perthuis explained her decision, via AFP:

“The court took into consideration, in addition to the risk of reoffending, the major disturbance of public order if a person already convicted… was a candidate in the presidential election.”

Fairly reeks of their favorite phrase, ‘saving democracy.’

Am I reading that right?

Sam Armstrong questions whether French far-right leader Marine Le Pen being found guilty of embezzlement was to “rule her out as a presidential candidate”.

Julia Hartley-Brewer: “An astounding situation if she’s stopped from running… I can see things kicking off!”@JuliaHB1 pic.twitter.com/v5w8bLyLqy

— Talk (@TalkTV) March 31, 2025

‘Is France still a democracy?’ 

…The dramatic judicial intervention into the French presidential campaign is threatening to deny to voters the choice of the candidate who is ahead in all opinion polls. On the news channels this lunchtime, the question was being posed: is France still a democracy?

According to what I have learned of the European Union’s definition by watching the political lurching and machinations on the continent these past couple of years, it most assuredly is.

Granted, I am looking at this through American eyes, but, man, do I have a cynical squint on right now.

Next up, wondering what the average French citizen in the street thinks of it.

They’re normally not too shy about letting anyone know how they feel.

But, boy – I hope they’ve got those fire trucks filled.

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Scott Jennings is sticking with CNN. 

Thank God. 

Like you, most of my exposure to cable news from any station comes through clips on X, and my favorite ones are almost invariable clips of Scott Jennings in the midst of a political debate on CNN. 

I have long feared that Fox or another network would try to poach him from CNN because he is a standout talent. He and Harry Enten are the best things going on the failing network, and it’s hard to see how CNN can retain a single viewer outside the friends, families, and employees (maybe) of the company and its “talent.” 

CNN’s Scott Jennings announces he’ll be re-signing a deal with the network.

I can imagine why CNN wants him on, he’s the only watchable individual there lmao. pic.twitter.com/Y4OOcbvv1t

— Defiant L’s (@DefiantLs) March 30, 2025

A while back I wrote one of my occasional “things I like” columns about Scott, and he and I correspond a bit. He’s a smart and funny guy and has infinitely more patience than I. Where I would have to restrain myself from throwing a coffee cup at some lefty for lying through his teeth, Scott calmly slices and dices their hypocritical arguments with that disarming southern twang and logic bombs. 

You’re not ready for this one… Scott Jennings #SATURDAY
*
It’s fun, it’s insightful, and it includes at least two PURRs from us. Don’t miss this interview. Dropping Saturday @ 5pm ET. Subscribe on YouTube, iTunes, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts! Link in bio. 👉… pic.twitter.com/ro5K1B0LWN

— Chicks On The Right (@chicksonright) March 28, 2025

Fox would have been the natural (and wrong) place for him to wind up if he were poached, and the last thing Fox needs is yet another conservative talking head. 

Charlamagne Tha God says he wishes CNN had more people like Scott Jennings:

“I think Scott actually gives a f*ck a little bit.”

pic.twitter.com/D7teEbPZZ0

— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) March 30, 2025

Scott’s no troll, and his goal isn’t to “own” the libs but to reach the audience, many of whom watch CNN by habit and rarely hear anything but the same pablum that gets pushed out by all the Pravda Media. It speaks well of CNN that he is a regular on their panels, and I would love to see a Crossfire show with him and Van Jones, who is Scott’s liberal alter-ego. They get alone, are both smart, and have dramatically different points of view. 

CNN, what do you say? I would watch it. 

NOW – Scott Jennings’ Fiery Defense of Hegseth as Former Pentagon Spox Pushes for His Firing Over Signal Gate

“The bar for firing people like this is really high from the last administration.”

Things heated up on CNN this Sunday morning.

It began when Chris Meagher, a former… pic.twitter.com/UBA762smdi

— Overton (@overton_news) March 30, 2025

Scott bridges the gap between the MAGA folks and the older establishment Republicans–he has put his time in Washington and retains credibility with them–but he has drifted Trumpward as Trump has proven himself to be a far better and more canny leader than those of us who were skeptics expected. 

Jasmine Crockett will learn no lessons from the “Hot Wheels” episode because the Left’s angry mobs eat this stuff up. Trust me: the unquestioned head of the Democratic Party thinks is a winning vector. pic.twitter.com/egtZIbPyDV

— Scott Jennings (@ScottJenningsKY) March 26, 2025

Scott does have an advantage that his interlocutors on the channel do not: he uses his brain and doesn’t stick to the talking points that are always distributed to talking heads before they go on the air. I used to do a “crossfire”-type debate segment on a Minnesota TV show and I was always struck that my debate partner came in with pages of talking points emailed to her. 

Scott Jennings took on an entire table of leftists tonight and came out victorious.

CNN does not deserve him. pic.twitter.com/1OA4YJscPd

— Brigitte Gabriel (@ACTBrigitte) March 18, 2025

Scott isn’t hobbled by the need to regurgitate. He sticks to reality, not spin.

CNN viewers need a bit of reality to penetrate their bubble. 

This post was originally published on this site

Somebody is going to get killed. And, let’s face it, that is exactly what the people funding and promoting these Tesla terrorist campaigns want. 

I am getting very, very tired of the Democrats and liberals who keep saying, “I don’t approve of violence, but…” If you don’t approve of violence, start pressuring your legislators, leaders, and allies in the Pravda Media to denounce it and go after the violent and destructive protesters. Otherwise, you are part of the problem. 

“I didn’t buy my car”

Uhh, yeah.

While beating a 61/yo isn’t okay.

Neither is theft & identity fraud. This lady is a criminal and wasn’t arrested because of her age.

— The Creator | Quantum Specialist (@iTzBabyJesus) March 30, 2025

No, no, no. It really IS the liberal establishment who are promoting and enabling this violence. For all the talk about “stochastic terrorism” when a conservative says “men are men, and women are women”–we are accused of GENOCIDE for repeating what every biology textbook in work history has said until 5 minutes ago–nobody says a peep when Democrats call for Elon Musk to be murdered, Tesla owners to be harassed, property to be destroyed, or Tesla owners beaten up. 

That was idealism. Just as the murderous and destructive riots of 2020 were “social justice.”

I’m currently in Austin, TX where a protestor is holding an “Unalive the billionaires” poster outside of the Tesla showroom here.

This is one of the many “Tesla Takedown” protests happening across the nation today.

So far protestors have called Elon a Nazi, fascist and called… pic.twitter.com/IPQnmBX4MW

— Savanah Hernandez (@sav_says_) March 22, 2025

The Brownshirts thought they were making Germany safe for Germans. They didn’t pat themselves on the back for being evil–they were idealists. So was Stalin, and Mao’s cultural revolution brigades. And the Baader-Meinhof gang. And so on. If idealism can justify this sort of political violence, then every totalitarian government is justified. 

Another deranged liberal from North Dakota wants to be famous for vandalizing a Tesla.

You know what to do, let’s find out who this fck is!pic.twitter.com/Hsn22GoS01

— Gunther Eagleman™ (@GuntherEagleman) March 30, 2025

The people keying Teslas and stopping people on the streets to attack them are not the paid shills of the Democrat establishment–these are the mentally deranged people they are appealing to–but ActBlue is funding the Tesla Protests, and an organization called Indivisible is backed by leftist billionaires and funding most of these protests. 

The victim, who drove himself to the hospital and reported Talbot to police, providing a picture of his license plate. Police picked Talbot up later at his home. The sheriff’s website suggests he hasn’t yet made bail. https://t.co/kABbhDrBBU

— David Freddoso (@freddoso) March 30, 2025

The whole point is to kill Tesla and to hope that Tesla’s founder is killed as well. They are trolling for their Luigi Mangione, whom you will recall was cheered for his assassination and is a cult hero of the left now. 

The goal of the left is to destroy my influence.

So they relentlessly push negative propaganda about me like the fake Nazi stuff and ignore anything positive.

They are evil. https://t.co/RfS7e9UtAC

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 29, 2025

Liberals’ reaction to the Trump assassination attempts was to tut-tutt, say “What did you expect?” and go back immediately to calling him Hitler and calling him an existential threat. 

Leftist protesters shut down access to the Tesla store in Manhattan by laying on the ground outside on March 29. They held up signs urging for Elon Musk to be shot and for more Tesla property to be firebombed. pic.twitter.com/z2ToxWZr8X

— Andy Ngo (@MrAndyNgo) March 30, 2025

On X and especially BlueSky, the liberals all complained about how bad a shot Crooks was. The center-left conveniently forgot all about the events, and you may have noticed that Biden put the man who was in charge of protective details–the man who failed twice to do his job adequately–in charge of the entire Secret Service. 

He didn’t fail upward. He was rewarded. And we still know almost nothing about Thomas Crooks. 

BREAKING: Elon Musk now calls not just for the Tesla vandals to be arrested, but to arrest the people funding the vandals.

“Arresting their puppets and paid foot-soldiers won’t stop the violence.” pic.twitter.com/vbvjK69zF4

— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) March 30, 2025

Every Democrat using ActBlue to contribute to Democrats is also helping fund the masterminds of this campaign, because ActBlue raises money for them as well and takes a cut of your donations. 

Imagine hating Trump and Elon so much that you vandalize a random person’s Tesla. This is the power of media brainwashing. pic.twitter.com/y700BGBhMC

— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) March 30, 2025

As for claiming ignorance or believing all this is organic, sorry, but you either know or are trying very hard not to know that this is the workings of Democrat strategists. All the evidence is out there. We keep telling you. But you don’t want to believe, so you don’t. 

Between approximately 3-12 to 3-17 the names depicted in the Fox News story board below were illegally and dangerously swatted (along with members of their immediate families, including their children).

I thought by now we’d have arrests at local levels or at least statements… pic.twitter.com/TPsKyHSFZD

— General Mike Flynn (@GenFlynn) March 30, 2025

Between approximately 3-12 to 3-17 the names depicted in the Fox News story board below were illegally and dangerously swatted (along with members of their immediate families, including their children). 

I thought by now we’d have arrests at local levels or at least statements from the DOJ and 

@AGPamBondi

 regarding on-going investigations into these very dangerous terrorist acts that place lives needlessly at risk. 

I guarantee, it is very easy to track down these type phone numbers and get after whoever initiated these calls (and maybe who’s behind them). I simply ask for these acts of terror to be taken as extremely serious and that our law enforcement professionals led by 

@FBIDirectorKash

 & 

@FBIDDBongino

 let those who are perpetrating them know, their days are numbered. Thanks

I am so, so tired of the BS, the hypocrisy, all the fake outrage. The very people who defended Lloyd Austin when he got servicemembers killed in Afghanistan, left tens of thousands of allies behind, and $80 billion in military equipment for the Taliban and then went AWOL are now outraged at Pete Hegseth. 

🚨Scott Jennings lays out the plain facts to Dems calling for firings over Signalgate —

JENNINGS: “The bar for firing people like this is really high from the last administration when after the Afghanistan withdrawal, which was a disaster, people died.”

“No accountability was… pic.twitter.com/eE5n3liLIk

— Western Lensman (@WesternLensman) March 30, 2025

Scott Jennings lays out the plain facts to Dems calling for firings over Signalgate —

JENNINGS: “The bar for firing people like this is really high from the last administration when after the Afghanistan withdrawal, which was a disaster, people died.”

“No accountability was made  after the drone strike that vaporized those poor kids and that family.”

“No accountability after the secretary of defense went AWOL. No accountability.”

MEAGHER: “But Austin did a press conference and called for a review.”

JENNINGS: “Did a single Democrat ask for his resignation?”

**Change the subject**

Liberals, do you really need to wait for a New York Times editorial or an article in The Atlantic to give you permission to actually deplore deranged leftists who attack women and families in their cars? Destroy private property? 

The Weather Underground terror group has been reborn. We must not make the mistakes we made last time by giving light sentences or no sentences at all. Those terrorists became thought leaders on the left because of it. We must be relentlessly punishing. No mercy can be shown. https://t.co/quwgdwHA2n

— Robby Starbuck (@robbystarbuck) March 30, 2025

Where is your outrage? Where was your outrage when Biden welcomed in foreign gang members to murder, rape, and terrorize ordinary citizens? You know, the kind of outrage you show when Trump tries to deport Tren de Aragua, who commit much of this mayhem?

🚨NEW: Joe Rogan calls out Democrats for paying people to show up to rallies and protest Tesla

“For a lot of losers, a lot of people who don’t have things going well in their life, and I’ve been a loser at many points in my life, if someone offered me $400 bucks to show up… pic.twitter.com/bBv7OMEyTY

— Autism Capital 🧩 (@AutismCapital) March 29, 2025

NEW: Joe Rogan calls out Democrats for paying people to show up to rallies and protest Tesla

“For a lot of losers, a lot of people who don’t have things going well in their life, and I’ve been a loser at many points in my life, if someone offered me $400 bucks to show up somewhere of course I’d go. I’d call people Hitler, I’d hold up that stupid sign, if you found me when I was 21, 100% I’d take that money.

They were giving up $1000 bucks for people to protest Tesla. They had rules of engagement, are you organizing gangs? Are you paying money to people and telling them how to engage in violence? I thought this was peaceful protesting. I don’t see many violent pro-Tesla people. So who is this violence for? The police?”

I don’t get it. Seriously, I don’t. Is it just that these issues aren’t presented in the news sources? True enough, but these are the people who told you Biden was sharp as a tack, that Biden could amend the Constitution by tweet, that the border was secure while 10-12 million illegals streamed across the border, that inflation was transitory, that Trump colluded with Russia, that COVID had nothing to do with the Wuhan Institute of Virology, that the vaccine would prevent infection and transmission. 

At some point, one has a responsibility to quit trusting the liars. 

The attacks on Tesla owners are an intended result of this campaign, just as the George Floyd riots were an intended result of all those politicians who egged them on. 

Only liberals can stand in the way of these attacks. Conservatives can oppose them, can demand arrests, can jail the people who are caught. But liberals are funding the protests, pushing the violent rhetoric, egging them on, and sending donations to the groups and politicians who are their authors. 

If you want moral authority to criticize conservative policies, at the very least, quit supporting the worst people on your side. 

No conservative will take you seriously if you simultaneously proclaim the importance of “norms” while supporting Brownshirts. It sounds like BS to us. 

This post was originally published on this site

        BILL’S PLACE, Pennsylvania — Technically this place is no longer on a map — the realignment of the Pennsylvania Turnpike in the 1960s ended its tiny dot. However, for over 30 years, if you were traveling up and down the Lincoln Highway along the Bedford-Fulton county line, you were greeted with billboards bearing this charming rhyme:

        “You may be from Massachusetts

        You may be from Tennessee

        Even from the state of Washington, it matters not to me

        Tourist friends, we’re glad to greet you

        And to help you on your way

        Our hope is when you leave us

        That you’ve had a worthwhile stay

        Bill’s Place, Pennsylvania”

        The Bill in Bill’s Place was William C. Wakefield, an Everett, Pennsylvania, man whose gimmicky way to attract tourists in the early days of the great American road trip on the country’s first coast-to-coast highway opened his door to the American dream.

        The dream became a successful business that lasted almost 40 years — because shortly after he put up the billboards, the cars started pouring in and never stopped until the day the business closed.

        Wakefield started the business with $150, $110 of which was used to construct a 10-by-100-foot stand as a means to be able to afford to resume his studies at Pennsylvania State University. He had tried three times to afford classes, according to the local newspaper.

        The first day he made 37 cents. But he was not deterred.

        Wakefield put up a tent behind the stand and lived there for quite a while until business started to take off. First, he added a 6-foot porch, and then a diner, a gas station and, before too long, a gift shop with knickknacks, toys and chinaware pendants that read “Bill’s Place Pennsylvania.”

        He married and had two sons, George and Bill, in quick order. By the time the boys were 6 years old, they were pumping gas.

        His best business moment happened thanks in part to his success selling postcards. It was because he did such a brisk business with them that tourists always followed up with a request for him to mail them. At first, it was annoying, but ever the entrepreneur, Wakefield came up with his greatest gimmick of all: a post office. And not just any post office, the country’s smallest post office, with the postmark Bill’s Place.

        It was not only tiny in size — it was a 10-square-foot shack — but it was also tiny in population: Wakefield, his wife, a hired hand and his two boys.

        Word spread quickly and everyone wanted to stop at the country’s smallest post office. And, of course, they wanted to buy a trinket, gas up and eat at the diner.

        Bill’s Place became so iconic that he convinced a salesman from Rand McNally who had just happened to stop for gas to pinpoint it on all Rand McNally maps. I can remember it on my father’s old folded-up travel maps in the car that I loved to pore over as a child.

        Wakefield also built a lookout perch that sat high on Ray’s Hill for tourists to climb to take in the breathtaking scenery of three Appalachian states below and seven counties.

        When the turnpike first opened with an interchange at Breezewood, Wakefield’s business boomed even more. When the commonwealth decided to reroute it to add larger tunnels, the end was inevitable. Where Bill’s Place was is now essentially gone. It is basically just the side of the mountaintop. Wakefield had sold just a few years before its demise to the Paul Miller family of Jeanette.

        Where Bill’s Place once sat was a tavern during the stagecoach period. There was a large stable that offered accommodations for the horses. It was also a toll house for those heading east-west long before the invention of the automobile.

        Bill’s Place wasn’t just a place to set a spell, browse, laugh or create silly memories with your family in the same way Bill Wakefield wasn’t just a guy looking to make a buck. He was a good citizen in his community, volunteered, led the business district, and raised two sons, including William Wakefield II, who died a few years ago. He clearly learned from his father’s knee what serving your community meant.

        When the younger Wakefield passed, his obituary was a tribute to all his parents taught him about work ethic, giving back, the importance of education and embracing life to its fullest. He joined the military while studying civil engineering and participating in ROTC at Penn State.

        Wakefield II had a career in the Army Corps of Engineers, became an airborne ranger and served two tours in Vietnam, earning numerous awards for exemplary service. He coached soccer and basketball for his children for dozens of years. He was married for 49 years and in his lifetime visited over 107 countries on all seven continents.

        His final resting place is at Arlington National Cemetery — his father would be proud.

        You have to wonder how many other lives Wakefield Sr. touched or inspired when he showed them the fruits of embracing the American dream or the consequences of hard work. Or how many his sons’ lives touched as well.

        That’s the thing about leading a life of example. Wakefield has been gone for decades, and Bill’s Place has as well. Yet the examples through the lives they lived still live on today through the children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren whose parents shared an imprint of their visit that day at Bill’s Place and passed it on to their family and friends.

        All you have to do is take a ride due west on U.S. 30 until you hit Iowa, and you’ll see a little bit of Bill Wakefield when you see the signs for Wall Drug hundreds of miles before you hit their iconic store in South Dakota. Thirteen years after Bill Wakefield placed his little signs along the Lincoln Highway in 1923, Dorothy Hustead started enticing road trippers to visit their out-of-the-way store — and make their mark on American culture by employing the same tactic Wakefield employed when she came up with a catchy and simple jingle:

        “Get a soda

        Get a beer

        Turn next corner

        Just as near

        To Highway 16 and 14

        Free ice water”

        Nearly 100 years later, Wall Drug is now an icon — you’d like to believe that maybe Bill Wakefield had something to do with it.

        Salena Zito is a CNN political analyst, and a staff reporter and columnist for the Washington Examiner. She reaches the Everyman and Everywoman through shoe-leather journalism, traveling from Main Street to the beltway and all places in between. To find out more about Salena and read her past columns, please visit the Creators Syndicate webpage at www.creators.com.

This post was originally published on this site

Note: I am on vacation this weekend. I hope you will enjoy this reflection from 2019, written outside the Lenten season. I also have Lenten reflections on this passage below, including one from 2019.

This morning’s Gospel reading is Luke 15:1–32:

Tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to listen to Jesus, but the Pharisees and scribes began to complain, saying, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.” So to them he addressed this parable. “What man among you having a hundred sheep and losing one of them would not leave the ninety-nine in the desert and go after the lost one until he finds it? And when he does find it, he sets it on his shoulders with great joy and, upon his arrival home, he calls together his friends and neighbors and says to them, ‘Rejoice with me because I have found my lost sheep.’ I tell you, in just the same way there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who have no need of repentance.

“Or what woman having ten coins and losing one would not light a lamp and sweep the house, searching carefully until she finds it? And when she does find it, she calls together her friends and neighbors and says to them, ‘Rejoice with me because I have found the coin that I lost.’ In just the same way, I tell you, there will be rejoicing among the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

Then he said,
“A man had two sons, and the younger son said to his father, ‘Father give me the share of your estate that should come to me.’ So the father divided the property between them. After a few days, the younger son collected all his belongings and set off to a distant country where he squandered his inheritance on a life of dissipation. When he had freely spent everything, a severe famine struck that country, and he found himself in dire need. So he hired himself out to one of the local citizens who sent him to his farm to tend the swine. And he longed to eat his fill of the pods on which the swine fed, but nobody gave him any. Coming to his senses he thought, ‘How many of my father’s hired workers have more than enough food to eat, but here am I, dying from hunger. I shall get up and go to my father and I shall say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I no longer deserve to be called your son; treat me as you would treat one of your hired workers.”’ So he got up and went back to his father. While he was still a long way off, his father caught sight of him, and was filled with compassion. He ran to his son, embraced him and kissed him. His son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you; I no longer deserve to be called your son.’ But his father ordered his servants, ‘Quickly bring the finest robe and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Take the fattened calf and slaughter it. Then let us celebrate with a feast, because this son of mine was dead, and has come to life again; he was lost, and has been found.’ Then the celebration began. Now the older son had been out in the field and, on his way back, as he neared the house, he heard the sound of music and dancing. He called one of the servants and asked what this might mean. The servant said to him, ‘Your brother has returned and your father has slaughtered the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’ He became angry, and when he refused to enter the house, his father came out and pleaded with him. He said to his father in reply, ‘Look, all these years I served you and not once did I disobey your orders; yet you never gave me even a young goat to feast on with my friends. But when your son returns, who swallowed up your property with prostitutes, for him you slaughter the fattened calf.’ He said to him, ‘My son, you are here with me always; everything I have is yours. But now we must celebrate and rejoice, because your brother was dead and has come to life again; he was lost and has been found.’”

The lesson of the prodigal son is one of the most compelling of Jesus’ parables because it fits our desires so perfectly. We commit the same sins as the younger son does; in fact, this is a very incisive retelling of Original Sin — the rejection of the Father and the wish to inherit His kingdom as though he were dead. We reject His authority and go out to make the world as we see fit rather than through His will.

And that turns out about as well as one would expect. The younger son makes ruin of his life, realizes and repents of it. As fallen sons and daughters of the Lord, we eventually feel our sins so keenly that we become desperate for forgiveness. We hope to receive at least some crumbs of the table when we return in repentance to the Father, not the fatted calf. That kind of reception is too gracious for us to imagine — and yet Jesus promises us exactly that, if we return as the younger son does.

It might surprise people to consider that the younger son is actually our idealized conception of ourselves. Too often, we are the elder brother — the son who complied out of fear alone, sitting in judgment on others, and jealous to the point of rage over the Father’s love for others. The father forgives the elder son too, but not without a soft rebuke for his stubbornness and scrupulosity. This son also sins in his own way, also seeks to supplant the Father as judge, but unlike the younger son neither recognizes his sin nor repents of it.

In the historical context in which Jesus preached, it’s not difficult to understand which audience Jesus intended for both parts of this parable. The younger son would have been the rank-and-file Israelites who had been lost in sin; the elder brother would have been the temple authorities that used the law as a weapon to protect their own privilege and deny the love of God to others.

But this goes farther than just the historical context, because we find the same tension within ourselves. At different times, we might be the dissolute son thumbing his nose at the Father, or the repentant younger son seeking His forgiveness. In fact, we might swing back and forth repeatedly between these two states, and in between — when we’ve momentarily humbled ourselves and repented — suddenly become the elder brother, willing to cast out those who acted in the same manner as we did. In those moments, we become so determined to follow the law that we forget that the Father who wrote it is the one true judge.

Today’s readings give us guidance on navigating these waters. If any one New Testament figure embodies the elder brother, it is Saul of Tarsus who later became the apostle Paul. Saul persecuted and pursued Christ’s church, being present at and likely directing the martyrdom of Stephen, among others unnamed. He was determined to impose the law by force and ensure that those who crossed it in his judgment could not be saved. Paul writes to Timothy that he was among the worst of sinners — “a blasphemer and a persecutor and arrogant.” Yet Christ forgave and anointed him, in part, to show the boundless nature of the Lord’s forgiveness. “I was mercifully treated, so that in me as the foremost [sinner], Christ Jesus might display all his patience as an example[.]”

In our first reading from Exodus, we see the grace that Jesus taught in action. The Israelites have decided to dethrone God just as the younger brother does in Jesus’ parable, relying on their own material wealth to create an idol for the worship that belongs to God. After building the golden calf for idol worship, the Lord tells Moses that His people have blasphemed and must be destroyed. Moses, an elder brother of sorts in the faith, does not run down the mountain to smite everyone in His name. He implores the Lord for mercy on Moses’ younger siblings in faith. The Lord blesses Moses for his love of his family and withholds His judgment, forgiving the blasphemy against Him.

Jesus calls us to be both the younger and elder son, or more accurately, recognize that in the end there is no difference. Sin is our rebellion against God, our attempt to dethrone Him and exploit His inheritance to satiate our own selfish desires. Both the younger and elder son do this in different ways and for different purposes, but both have to recognize this and ask forgiveness. The Father waits for one and all to return to Him in that way, and has a banquet of celebration waiting for each of us who do.

Previous reflections on these readings:

The front page image is “Return of the Prodigal Son” by Cornelis Massijs, 1538. On display at the Rijksmuseum in the Netherlands. Via Wikimedia Commons.

“Sunday Reflection” is a regular feature that looks at the specific readings used in today’s Mass in Catholic parishes around the world. The reflection represents only my own point of view, intended to help prepare myself for the Lord’s day and perhaps spark a meaningful discussion. Previous Sunday Reflections from the main page can be found here.  

This post was originally published on this site

        California Gov. Gavin Newsom hosts a podcast. Why not? He has plenty of free time.

        In the last few years, California experienced a net population loss of nearly 1 million people. The average price of a home in the state is twice that of the national average. Its K-12 test scores in reading and math place California 37th of 50 states. The state’s January 2025 unemployment rate, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, was the second highest in the nation.

        As for California’s poverty rate, CalMatters, a respected, California-based nonprofit news organization, wrote: “The Public Policy Institute of California, using a methodology similar to that of the Census Bureau, calculated that in 2023, 31.1% of Californians were either at or near poverty. Deep poverty, defined as ‘families with less than half of the resources to meet basic needs,’ was at 3.4%.” (California’s homeless population, at an estimated 187,000, is the nation’s largest.)

        In a separate report, CalMatters wrote, “Nearly a quarter of all unhoused Americans live in California — as well as 28% of all homeless veterans and 44% of all ‘chronically homeless’ Americans (people who have a disability and have been homeless for a significant period of time.)”

        As to violent crime, the Ventura Star in October 2024 wrote: “After achieving a 50-year low of 391 incidents (per 100,000 residents) in 2014, California’s violent crime rate started to increase in 2015 and has been trending upward, with increases in seven of the past ten years. The 2023 rate is 15.4% higher than 2019, pre-pandemic. … While homicide and aggravated assaults are down since the pandemic surge, they are still higher than pre-pandemic levels.”

        The state budget is a mess. In 2022, Newsom asserted, without documentation, the state had a budget surplus of $100 billion: “No other state in American history has ever experienced a surplus as large as this.”

        So, the supermajority Democrat-dominated legislature proceeded to spend accordingly. CalMatters wrote, “Two years later, buried in its fine print, the deficit-ridden 2024-25 budget acknowledged that sales taxes and personal and corporate income tax revenues would fall well short of the $200 billion a year projection, estimating a $165.1 billion shortfall over four years.”

        Newsom invited to his inaugural podcast conservative Charlie Kirk, founder of Turning Point USA. They discussed the term “Latinx,” the supposedly “inclusive” term to describe Hispanics. According to Pew Research, of Hispanics familiar with the word, 75% do not think it should be used.

        Newsom: “By the way, not one person ever in my office has ever used the word Latinx.”

        Kirk: “So can we finally put that to bed? Yeah, what the hell? Where did that even go? No more Latinx, everybody.”

        Newsom: “I just didn’t even know where it came from. I’m like, ‘What are people talking about?'”

        But CNN and other outlets showed clips of Newsom repeatedly using the word, including when he implied Republicans were racist for rejecting the word.

        Here’s more gaslighting. Newsom, dismissing complaints of massive job loss, signed a bill increasing the minimum wage for fast-food workers from $16 to $20 an hour, effective April 2024. Months later, his office issued the following statement: “California has added jobs in limited service restaurants (fast food) both since Gov. Gavin Newsom signed AB 1228 the FAST Recovery Act in September 2023 and since the law’s new $20 minimum wage for fast food workers took effect April 1, 2024.”

        Don’t tell the BLS. It found that California has lost nearly 16,000 fast-food jobs since the bill was signed.

        In December 2024, the California Globe wrote: “While many stores let only a few employees go, others had more drastic numbers. Pizza Hut alone laid off 1,200 delivery drivers due to the higher costs. Others, including Round Table Pizza, did the same, pushing delivery duties onto services like DoorDash and Uber Eats.” Fast-food prices increased by an average of nearly 15%.

        Voters in November 2024 had a chance to vote for a hike in the minimum wage for the rest of California workers. For the first time in history, California voters nixed a measure to increase the minimum wage. Newsom ignored the massive damage his wage hike did to fast-food worker employment, but California voters did not.

        Larry Elder is a bestselling author and nationally syndicated radio talk-show host. To find out more about Larry Elder, or become an “Elderado,” visit www.LarryElder.com. Follow Larry on X @larryelder. To read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate webpage at www.creators.com.