StrategyPage.

Back in the early 1980s American warships began using VLS (Vertical Launch System) cells to carry the many different missiles ships used for attacking other ships, defeating air attacks, and bombarding land targets. Since 1982, over 11,000 VLS cells have been installed in nearly 200 American and foreign warships. The most common VLS user is the American Burke class destroyer, with 90 VLS cells.

The first ships to get VLS also received a strikedown crane so the cells could be reloaded at sea. By 1990 new models of missiles became too heavy for the strikedown crane and it wasn’t practical to install a larger and more powerful crane. Moreover, there were few opportunities for reloading the missile cells at sea anyway and the strikedown crane was omitted in new ships. This provides space for 3-6 more missile cells. Having to go to a port to reload VLS cells takes a ship away for several weeks or more from where it was needed.

After 2010, it became obvious that navy missiles capable of intercepting ballistic missiles were now more essential because Iranian and North Korean anti-ship ballistic missiles became a growing threat. This meant ships had to fire more missiles for missile defense as well as other tasks like anti-aircraft, anti-ship, anti-submarine, and land bombardment. It became increasingly likely that a ship would run out of some types of missiles.

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It is unfortunately typical that when government actions harm the environment, agencies spend more time deflecting blame than addressing the problem or being held accountable.”

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A New York appeals court agreed Monday to hold off collection of former President Donald Trump’s $454 million civil fraud judgment – if he puts up $175 million within 10 days.

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A video shows Vice President Kamala Harris clapping along with a song during her visit to Puerto Rico, before being told that the song is actually a protest against her.

“Let’s go, Jambalaya!”

Stratechery.

This, we know, is the beginning of a long journey: there will be months or years of filings and discovery and preliminary rulings; eventually we will have a trial, and months after that a decision. Then there are the appeals, first with three judges, then perhaps en banc, and maybe even the Supreme Court. At some point, should the government win, there will be a hearing about remedies, themselves subject to the same grinding schedule. Only then can a proper determination be made about the validity of the legal questions in this case.

Still, I think the initial moment matters: antitrust is inherently political, and tech companies are generally popular; this makes it hard to build and maintain the momentum necessary to endure the grind. One would certainly have expected that to be an advantage for Apple: the company gains power in market after market precisely by making consumers happy.

Ben Thompson at Stratechery is one of the most respected technology analysts alive.

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After spending more than 20 years fighting in the wars in the Middle East, U.S. special operators are pivoting to other environments. With the potential for a conflict with China in the Indo-Pacific looming ever larger in the background, the US special operations community is focusing more and more on jungle operations.

A relatively recent exercise involving Marine Raiders highlighted the challenges and unique requirements of jungle warfare.

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But here is the point: a federal judge ruled that there is nothing wrong with illegals voting in local elections (District of Columbia,in this case).

So I need to show ID at the airport, to vote, and prove my citizenship to get a driver’s license, but illegal aliens can fly without ID, obtain driver’s licenses in some states and even vote. All without citizenship. It’s like bizarro planet.

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New York Post’s Jennie Taer is on the ground at the southern border wall and was the first to report the shocking invasion footage in El Paso, Texas, one day ago, when migrants attacked US National Guard troops. In response, the federal government has blocked media access to at least one stretch of the wall because the footage is extremely shocking and embarrassing for the White House.

“Media now being blocked from the scene where we captured a breach by hundreds of migrants in El Paso yesterday, how do we do our jobs now?” Taer posted on X on Friday evening.

Washington Free Beacon.

Speaking on the Senate floor last week, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced, “It has become clear to me: The Netanyahu coalition no longer fits the needs of Israel after October 7.” As New York’s Democratic senator sees it, “a new election is the only way to allow for a healthy and open decision-making process about the future of Israel.” What he means is that he hopes a new Israeli government would permanently halt the counteroffensive in Gaza. “He made a good speech,” President Biden commented, “and I think he expressed a serious concern shared not only by him but by many Americans,” only to backtrack and tell Netanyahu that he is not trying to force a change in Jerusalem.

This administration is no stranger to disastrous retreats, but even so the seeming ineptness is puzzling. Competent diplomats usually praise their allies in public and air their grievances behind closed doors. The Biden team and its congressional allies are doing the opposite because they are pandering to one of the Democratic Party’s worst foreign policy instincts. Rather than come to grips with the larger political and social dynamics that plague the Middle East, the party typically believes that removing an individual would solve their problems. In other words, they keep thinking the political is the personal.

Attempting to keep Benjamin Netanyahu from power has become a tradition for the Democratic Party. Bill Clinton admitted that in the 1996 election that first brought Netanyahu to power, “I tried to do it in a way that didn’t overtly involve me.” At the time, many Democrats thought that Netanyahu and his Likud party were the main obstacle to peace between Israel and the Palestinians. They eventually got a Labor government in Israel, but not peace. Despite Clinton’s full-court press at Camp David, the gulf between Israeli and Palestinian demands was too wide for them to reach an agreement, even without Bibi in the room.

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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has agreed to remove social media posts and webpages that urged people to stop taking ivermectin to treat COVID-19, according to a settlement dated March 21.

Forbes.

In two court orders, the federal government told Google to turn over information on anyone who viewed multiple YouTube videos and livestreams. Privacy experts say the orders are unconstitutional.

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House Republicans, led by Rep. Randy Weber, R-Texas, are pressing the Biden administration over its program that flew 386,000 migrants directly into U.S. cities from high-risk countries, including two that are on the “Do Not Travel” list of the State Department.

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Two months into the Biden administration, a top official at the Department of Agriculture fielded a question, from a New York Times reporter about a program, that she couldn’t answer.

The reporter emailed Deputy Undersecretary of Food, Nutrition, and Consumer Services Stacy Dean on March 30, 2021, asking for her thoughts on data that suggest food stamps are a poor vehicle to address food insufficiency, given that only a quarter of Americans struggling with insufficiency are enrolled for the benefit.

Dean appears to have been stumped. But instead of consulting her colleagues at the Agriculture Department, she immediately forwarded the reporter’s question to her former coworkers at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a George Soros-funded think tank.

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When President Roosevelt first enacted social security in 1935, the intention was to serve as a safety net for older adults. However, at that time, life expectancy was roughly 60 years. Therefore, the expectation was that participants would not be drawing on social security for very long on an actuarial basis. Furthermore, according to the Social Security Administration, roughly 42 workers contributed to the funding pool for each welfare recipient in 1940.

Of course, given that politicians like to use government coffers to buy votes, additional amendments were added to Social Security to expand participation in the program. This included adding domestic labor in 1950 and widows and orphans in 1956. They lowered the retirement age to 62 in 1961 and increased benefits in 1972. Then politicians added more beneficiaries, from disabled people to immigrants, farmers, railroad workers, firefighters, ministers, federal, state, and local government employees, etc.

While politicians and voters continued adding more beneficiaries to the welfare program, workers steadily declined. Today, there are barely 2-workers for each beneficiary.

The chief defect of the Social Security system is that its money is required to be ‘invested’ in bonds of the Federal government–bonds that are notorious for their low rates of return and on which the rate of return has been especially anemic in the past decades of minuscule interest rates. The government takes the money coming in, writes an IOU to itself, and then spends it with gay abandon. The cupboard is bare, and always has been.

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Announced on Wednesday, the interactive Hospital Patient Immigration Status Dashboard highlights “the cost of illegal immigration, which puts a strain on our health care system and taxpayers here in Florida,” the secretary of the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration, Jason Weida, explained in a news release, emphasizing, “Our hospitals and health care systems are designed to provide quality services to the citizens of the United States.”

The dashboard offers county-level information about total expenses incurred by illegal aliens’ hospital visits in Florida. Southeastern Florida’s Miami-Dade County appears to have the highest amount of such expenses, estimated at a whopping $231.8 million.

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Shocking scenes were caught on tape in El Paso – which technically is in Texas but may as well be in Mexico – on Thursday afternoon when a massive swarm of angry illegal aliens stormed the key chokepoint to the US southern border, breaking through the border wall and steamrolling National Guard troops.

For those still unconvinced, this nation is being invaded, this video of illegals storming the border today should convince you otherwise.

The illegal immigrants are seen pulling the barrier open as four National Guardsmen try to keep them from crossing the border in the video posted on X by New York Post reporter Jennie Taer Thursday. The illegal immigrants rush through the gap opened, almost tramping the National Guard personnel, until coming up against a second, sturdier barrier.

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Four years ago, government officials told us, “Stay home!” We have “15 days to slow the spread.”

Days turned into months and then years, while officials chipped away at our freedoms.

I have long been wary of politicians but even I was surprised at how authoritarian many were eager to be.

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X user Robert Sterling posted an image of the Environmental Protection Agency’s event on Wednesday that featured four vehicles on stage: “1 from GM, 1 from Chrysler, and 2 from Ford.”

“Here’s how much the Democrats hate Elon Musk,” Sterling wrote on X, pointing out that there were zero Teslas on stage.

He said, “Last year, Ford sold 72,608 EVs. GM sold 75,883. Chrysler sold 0. Tesla sold 1,808,581.”

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Deportation cases were dropped against approximately 200,000 migrants because the Department of Homeland Security under President Joe Biden failed to file thousands of notices to appear before their court dates, leaving immigration courts with no jurisdiction.

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Illinois officials are moving to stop providing taxpayer-subsidized health care to thousands of non-citizens, including many illegal immigrants, in a bid to rein in soaring costs.

As Margaret Thatcher famously remarked, the trouble with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people’s money.

I’m surprised that Governor J.B. “Fat Ass” Pritzker is allowing this.

The Antiplanner.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is asking a state court to cancel Austin’s light-rail plans. Capital Metro, Austin’s transit agency, persuaded voters to raise taxes to build light rail in 2020. Soon after the vote, however, the agency admitted that rail would cost a lot more than it had claimed and so less would be built than promised. Paxton says that in doing so it has breached its contract with the voters and its plans should be rejected.

A government agency lied! Wow–didn’t see that coming….

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Two former Biden family business associates testified Wednesday before a House committee conducting an impeachment inquiry into influence peddling by the president and close relatives.

Tony Bobulinski, who was a business partner to Hunter Biden, accused his one-time ally of lying under oath to congressional investigators about his father’s involvement.

“Joe Biden was more than a participant and a beneficiary of his family’s business,” Bobulinski testified to the House Oversight and Accountability Committee. “He was an active, aware enabler who met with business associates such as myself to further the business despite being buffered by a complex scheme to maintain plausible deniability.”

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I am often asked if President Joe Biden is intentionally trying to dismantle the American economy with his imbecilic energy, climate change, crime, border, inflation and debt policies. But I’ve always believed these policies are driven by a badly mistaken ideology — not malice.

Then I watched Biden’s State of the Union speech. When Biden thundered that he was going to make corporations “pay their fair share,” the Democrats in Congress leapt to their feet in applause.

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Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., called on House Republicans to name the specific crimes President Joe Biden is accused of as their impeachment inquiry continues.

Well, let’s see:

• Treason. “… adhering to the enemies of the United States, giving them aid and comfort….” — U.S. Constitution
• Bribery. (Ten percent for the Big Guy!)

That’ll do for a start.

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That would certainly be amusing.

Might I suggest that the Hamptons on Long Island ought to be added to the destination list?

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Among the air-defense weapons sent to Ukraine, the NASAMS system was the most anticipated because of its reputation. NASAMS is far superior to the similar Russian Buk M1 system Ukraine and Russia use, or anything else in its class. NASAM systems began arriving in Ukraine during November 2022 and, by late 2023, there were eight NASAMS batteries in Ukraine. In 2024 there will be more NASAMS for Ukraine as well as longer range AMRAAM ER missiles for it. NASAMS has been very effective against Russian missile attacks, often intercepting all the Russian missiles headed for an area defended by a NASAMS battery. The impact of NASAMS on Russian missile attacks led the Russians to try and detect and destroy NASAMS batteries or components of batteries. As of early 2024, only one NASAMS battery has come under heavy Russian attack and lost some components. So far NASAMS has intercepted several hundred Russian missiles and UAVs. The latest version of NASAMS has a missile range of 50 kilometers and a target detection radar with a range of 120 kilometers. The older and larger Patriot system has a missile with a range of 120 kilometers. NASAMS systems are more compact and mobile than Patriot and the Ukrainians have found that NASAMS and Patriot systems complement each other. In Ukraine Russia is having a difficult time finding worthy targets that are not defended by NASAMS or Patriot.

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Since Oct. 7, the federal office that handles investigations into campus civil rights has kept many details of its work confidential — including which cases focus on antisemitism.

But now the U.S. Department of Education has begun revealing more about the investigations it has launched since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war. The new revelations follow a series of reports from the Jewish Telegraphic Agency uncovering the opaque mechanics of how the department enforces Title VI anti-discrimination law.

Meanwhile, the department’s Office of Civil Rights continues to open new investigations into allegations of campus antisemitism, including one this week at the University of Hawai’i.

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A nonprofit organization dedicated to “assisting migrants with their paperwork and legal needs” in New York City has been caught on video illegally filling out residency documents for a man without procuring any form of identification from him.

Video shot by Muckraker.com and obtained by The Heritage Foundation’s Oversight Project appears to show the nonprofit organization, La Jornada, saying that distributing such documents is against the law but then proceeding to do so with another person the next day. (The Daily Signal is Heritage’s news and commentary outlet.)

The video also shows the organization distributing paperwork to get a government-issued New York City identification card through the city’s IDNYC program.

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West Point is dropping “Duty, Honor, Country” from its mission statement, to be replaced with the nebulous phrase, “Army Values.” Superintendent Lt. Gen. Steve Gilland said “Duty, Honor, Country” would remain West Point’s “motto.”

But “motto” is not mission, which declares what a unit is and does. Troops live and die for the mission. No “motto” could ever mean so much.

West Point leadership wants us not to be alarmed. Just trust the process, they say. The “process” – apparently of erasure and reinvention – began two years ago with removal of plaques and images of Robert E. Lee in favor of “appropriate language and images,” as Gilland described them.

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Some of the largest social media platforms in the world will soon try to convince a US court their platforms did not contribute to the radicalization of a mass shooter who killed ten people and injured three more in a New York grocery store in 2022.

Depending on the outcome, the case could reshape liability rules for social media sites.

In a court order published on Tuesday, New York 8th district Supreme Court justice Paula Feroleto denied a dismissal request from Meta, Reddit, Twitch’s company Amazon, YouTube owner Alphabet, plus Discord and 4Chan. They all need to go to court to argue their case.

“Many of the social media/internet defendants have attempted to establish that their platforms are mere message boards,” Feroleto wrote.

“This may ultimately prove true,” the judge noted. However, “the Court has determined the complaint sufficiently pleads viable causes of action to go forward at this stage of the litigation,” she added.

And they have to prove that they love Big Brother.

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This week, the military junta that rules the African country of Niger announced the revocation of its military agreement with the United States, and the coming expulsion of U.S. troops based in the country. The country’s leadership also announced its turn to Russia. The move followed a disastrous visit by American officials, who arrived to lecture the hard men who led last summer’s coup about the need to restore democracy, and to stop talking to Iran about providing it uranium.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the top American officials, Molly Phee and Celeste Wallender, incensed Niger officials by speaking to them in a “condescending” way. If the U.S. can’t somehow convince the Niger junta to reverse its decision, America will not only lose an important drone base in the heart of a region that produces Islamist terrorists, but will also give Russia significant footing in a strategically significant African region. Plus, it will be easier for Iran to gain access to uranium.

Never send a Karen to do a diplomat’s job.

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The top two U.S. generals who oversaw the evacuation of Afghanistan as it fell to the Taliban in August 2021 blamed the Biden administration for the chaotic departure, telling lawmakers Tuesday that it inadequately planned for the evacuation and did not order it in time.

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People who have been reading my analysis for a long time are well aware of my expectations on the eventual outcome of the US economic debacle: A stagflationary crisis followed by a massive crash similar to the Great Depression (or worse). I based this prediction on a number of circumstances, but primarily I went back to the history of currency devaluations and central bank policy. These kinds of things have happened before and they tend to follow a pattern that is visible today.

Specifically, I studied the 1971-1981 stagflation crisis for reference and I found some startling similarities. It was one of the worst economic declines in American history next to the depression, and it’s an event that almost no one talks about. A lot of people (specifically Gen Z) believe that our current era is the worst financial era of all time and that their generation has been shafted by previous generations.

This is inaccurate; the stagflation disaster of the 1970s was far worse. That said, it shows us where our country is eventually headed and it’s not looking good. What is a manageable economic crunch today has the potential to become a calamity tomorrow.

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In a ruling that had both proponents and opponents of the Second Amendment do a curious double take, a federal judge has ruled that an illegal immigrant was wrongly banned from possessing firearms.

Matt Taibbi.

On January 17, 1961, outgoing President and former Supreme Allied Commander Dwight D. Eisenhower gave one of the most consequential speeches in American history. Eisenhower for eight years had been a popular president, whose appeal drew upon a reputation as a person of great personal fortitude, who’d guided the United States to victory in an existential fight for survival in World War II. Nonetheless, as he prepared to vacate the Oval Office for handsome young John F. Kennedy, he warned the country it was now at the mercy of a power even he could not overcome.

Until World War II, America had no permanent arms manufacturing industry. Now it did, and this new sector, Eisenhower said, was building up around itself a cultural, financial, and political support system accruing enormous power. This “conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience,” he said….

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In Houston, a scandal recently broke when it became public that the police department had closed the investigation of over a quarter of a million crimes with a code indicating the case was being dropped for lack of manpower. The cases closed included thousands of murders and sexual assaults. The department did not inform victims or their families that the investigations had been closed. While the disclosure has roiled Houstonians, it should be of no surprise to anyone that law enforcement agencies generally do an abysmal job at solving crimes.

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At dawn or dusk, Kristy Brow used to enjoy alone time walking in the woods on her 21-acre property in Highgate, Vermont, a small rural town near the U.S.–Canada border.

Lately, however, she’s cautious—she’s worried about potential encounters with illegal immigrants along the remote logging trail.

“I don’t go out by myself anymore—especially at night,” said Mrs. Brow, who runs a dog obedience business from her home.

Democrat administration = life is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.

The Antiplanner.

Someone recently asked me what I thought were the nation’s worst-managed transit projects. I suggested the Honolulu rail was number 1, the Maryland Purple Line was number 2, and BART to San Jose was number 3. But maybe I underestimated the insanity of the BART-to-San Jose line.

DEA.

A government agency celebrates its own inconpetence in pursuit of a greater budget.

Think of it as evolution in action.

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With a title containing “Cowboys”, “Yankees” and “Patriots” it soundsAn illustration of Joe Biden looking at a map of the world. like a post about great sports dynasties, but it is actually about a recent podcast with Jack Posobiec and Mike Benz. In this podcast, Mike Benz, who is an “internet security expert” describes how US foreign policy is driven by two factions: the Yankees and the Cowboys.

The Yankees are the financial titans in New York and London. The Cowboys are the agrarian and military industries. Benz says that the factions use their political power and tools (sanctions for Yankees and military/regime change for Cowboys) to control foreign policy to their benefit. If a country is not cooperating with the American sugar industry, then they get an upgraded leader. If a country is not trading in dollars, then the financial hammer is dropped on them. He said it basically started with the Monroe Doctrine and continues to this day

The Foundry.

One of the big takeaways from the newly released transcript of President Joe Biden’s two-day interview with Robert Hur is that the special counsel was being exceedingly generous when describing the president as a “sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”

Much of the conversation with Hur is littered with barely incoherent answers and spiraling word salads. Though, the reader is occasionally entertained by Biden’s blowhard-y non sequiturs.

We learn about Biden’s Corvette—twice. We learn that the president is a frustrated architect but an excellent archer. Biden even jokes that there might be risque pictures of first lady Jill Biden.

Then again, the fact that the entire two-day interview isn’t a giant nonsensical rant is not as impressive as his defenders might believe. The president is, indeed, completely coherent at times. And those are the times he’s probably lying.

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The open??fields doctrine gives government vast powers to invade nearly 96 percent of all US private land.

Terry Rainwaters owns 136 acres of rural land in northwest Tennessee. He lives on the property with his son, rents a second house on the property to long??term tenants, and farms the property commercially. Because he values his privacy, he has a locked gate posted with “no trespassing” signs at the entrance to the property.

Nevertheless, for years Tennessee wildlife officers have entered his land, roamed around in camouflage, spied on his son while he was hunting, and even installed a surveillance camera in a tree—all without consent, a warrant, or even probable cause.

The officers think they can treat Rainwaters’s private land like public property because of a state statute that allows them to “go upon any property, outside of buildings, posted or otherwise” to enforce hunting regulations. This statute embodies a legal rule called the open??fields doctrine, which gives government officials a blank check to enter private land whenever and however they please.

During Prohibition, the U.S. Supreme Court held that the Fourth Amendment—which typically requires officials to get a warrant before searching private property—does not protect “open fields.” Despite its name, the open??fields doctrine covers far more than fields. It applies to nearly all private land that does not immediately surround a home.

The American Mind.

ederalism is being tested in ways not seen in more than a century. The Biden Administration has openly refused any real effort to slow illegal entries, while as many as 13 million foreigners have crossed illegally since his inauguration. It took Texas longer than it should have to grasp that they were actually working to facilitate illegal entries. Eventually, though, Governor Greg Abbott recognized that the Lone Star State would have to act alone against Biden’s open border policy. After he implemented aggressive actions to stop the flow, the feds went to extraordinary measures to ensure that the border would remain open, cutting razor wire placed along the Rio Grande and doggedly fighting Abbott’s policies in federal court.

A major escalation occurred when the governor formally declared the situation an “invasion.” Predictably, Democrats howled at the use of a term with such rhetorical force. But if “invasion” is a faithful characterization of what is happening, then we have an obligation to call it that. And if there is an invasion at the southern border, then it must be stopped by all means—whether by federal intervention or in defiance of it.

What exactly constitutes an “invasion”? What are the characteristics that have defined invasions throughout human history? I propose that there are five. The first is that an invasion is something that the inhabitants of the nation being invaded never requested or invited. Second, invading forces are comprised predominantly of military-aged men. Third, invaders are primarily motivated by self-interest. Fourth, invaders carry the insignia of their home nations with them. And, finally, an invasion must pose a genuine threat to the existing social order of the place being invaded. With these criteria in mind, let’s examine the situation at our southern border.

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Five Americans are still being held hostage by Hamas, and Biden has sent no troops to help them, but at the State of the Union address, he promised to send troops to build a pier for Gaza.

The estimated over 1,000 troops will spend as long as 2 months laboring to build a floating pier in a war zone under potential attack to help transfer aid to the Hamas supporters living in Gaza.

Nothing about this plan makes sense.

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catastrophic wave of violent crime committed by illegal immigrants. This comes amid the ten million migrants that have invaded the nation, alongside recent calls from radical progressive lawmakers across crime-ridden metro areas to defund the police and limit criminal prosecution. As a result, many law-abiding Americans express growing concern about insecurity amid a new era of explosive crime and chaos.

Let’s begin with a series of news headlines that show Chilean crime gangs have been on a nationwide burglary spree, targeting wealthy neighborhoods from coast to coast.

Scott Adams regularly complains on his Coffee With Scott Adams podcast that South American gangs are targeting upscale homes in his neighborhood in California.

Power Line.

Sen. Alex Padilla, the California Democrat appointed to fill Kamala Harris’s Senate seat after she became vice president, wants Americans to be more certain to register to vote by linking it with free tax preparation. Padilla is leading a push for the U.S. Treasury Department to provide voter registration services at federally funded centers that prepare taxes for low- to moderate-income people, disabled people and people with limited English at no cost to them.

“Limited English,” like “undocumented” or “migrant,” is code for those illegally present in the United States. Federal law bars illegals from voting but Sen. Padilla helps them violate the law. As California’s secretary of state he deployed the “motor voter” plan that registers illegals to vote when they get their driver’s license.

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The Biden administration renewed a sanctions waiver against the Iranian regime Wednesday that unlocks billions of dollars in previously frozen funds, The Washington Free Beacon reported.

The administration’s sanctions waiver, extended for another four months, allows Tehran access to $10 billion in previously frozen Iranian revenues collected from electricity exports, according to The Washington Free Beacon, which viewed the renewal notice.

“Whoever, owing allegiance to the United States, levies war against them or adheres to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort within the United States or elsewhere, is guilty of treason and shall suffer death, or shall be imprisoned not less than five years and fined under this title but not less than $10,000; and shall be incapable of holding any office under the United States.”  — 18 U.S.C. s. 2381.

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A Republican secretary of state sent a letter this week to the Department of Justice (DOJ) alerting it to an executive order signed in 2021 that he says will allow felons and illegal aliens to register to vote in elections.

In the letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland, Republican Mississippi Secretary of State Michael Watson wrote that a Biden-signed executive order has led to agencies under Mr. Garland’s charge “attempting to register people to vote, including potentially ineligible felons and to co-opt state and local officials into accomplishing this goal.”

The Foundry.

something in his budget for everyone—everyone who loves tax hikes, that is.

Biden would raise taxes by $5 trillion over 10 years, and—based on his budget—would allow an additional $2 trillion of middle-class tax cuts to expire after 2025. Between 2023 and 2034, tax receipts would rise by 95%, according to the White House.

Biden would aim most of the new taxes at small and big businesses, entrepreneurs, investors, and job and wealth creators.

Middle-class workers and consumers would be devastated by the economic collateral damage.

The Biden administration acts as if business capital is an endless fountain that will never run dry, no matter how much the government siphons out of it, and as if no matter how severely they’re taxed, investors will invest just as much, and businesses will keep building, hiring, and raising salaries.

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The U.S. Military Academy no longer will use the motto “Duty, Honor, Country” as its mission statement, according to West Point’s superintendent.

I guess reality finally caught up with them.

UPDATE: Duty, Honor, Country … Gone