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NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION

50 STATES AND DC, CONGRESS AND THE PRESIDENT

Unleash Musk To Fix Our Dangerously Decrepit Air Traffic Control System

https://issuesinsights.com/2025/02/04/trump-should-unleash-musk-to-fix-our-dangerously-decrepit-air-traffic-control-system/

Do What Canada Did 20 Years Ago

After the mid-air collision at Reagan National Airport, President Donald Trump cast blame on “diversity, equity, and inclusion” hiring practices at the Federal Aviation Administration. But the problem goes much, much deeper than that.

Decades of gross mismanagement and chronic waste have left the FAA’s air traffic control (ATC) system dangerously ill-prepared to safely do its job. And the only fix is a complete overhaul – something Canada and most other industrial nations did years ago.

“I put safety first. Obama, Biden, and the Democrats put policy first,” Trump said, suggesting they hired people based on membership in “protected classes” rather than merit.

Naturally, the press sprang into action to attack that claim. But it’s possible that DEI contributed to the calamity, if indirectly.

In 2012, for example, the FAA temporarily halted new hires “so it could replace race-blind hiring rules with a ‘Biographical Assessment’ stratagem designed to hire more minorities,” according to the Washington Times. Congress forced the FAA to drop this “assessment” in 2018, but the FAA now faces a class action lawsuit from more than 2,000 qualified air traffic control applicants who say they were sidelined to make room for “diversity” candidates.

In June 2023, the Transportation Department’s inspector general reported that the “FAA continues to face staffing challenges and lacks a plan to address them,” prompting lawmakers to attack then-Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg for being “focused on advancing racist and divisive DEI agenda” instead of filling this alarming gap.

Trump’s win was a call for law and order after the Dems’ constant demonization of the police By Heather Mac Donald

https://nypost.com/2025/02/02/opinion/trumps-win-was-a-call-for-law-and-order-after-the-dems-constant-demonization-of-the-police/

“Maybe this will end in another week,” sighed the cashier at a CVS store on the Upper East Side, seven days after President Trump’s inauguration. A young male, clutching a black plastic garbage bag, had just darted out the door.”Maybe this will end in another week,” sighed the cashier at a CVS store on the Upper East Side, seven days after President Trump’s inauguration. A young male, clutching a black plastic garbage bag, had just darted out the door.

The thief had wandered the premises unchallenged, despite being a member of the predominant shoplifting demographic and openly carrying a receptacle for his heist. After his rushed escape, no one called the police. The employees knew the precinct’s officers weren’t likely to come — and nothing would happen if they did.

I, meanwhile, had had to summon a clerk to gain access to the store’s calcium pills, locked behind plexiglass shields.

So much for the invidious racial profiling that former Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden routinely accused the country of engaging in.

The cashier nodded wearily toward a rack of batteries in the front of the store — a target of this latest heist — oddly not behind lock and key.

The clerk’s long gray corkscrew curls, beard and heavy Puerto Rican accent did not mark him as a stereotypical Donald Trump voter. Yet here he was, assuming that his reference to “another week” was clear and that I would share his hope for a political sea change.

Miranda Devine Trump is sending the Deep State to the outhouse as he cleans house at the FBI and DOJ

https://nypost.com/2025/02/02/opinion/trump-is-sending-the-deep-state-to-the-outhouse-as-he-cleans-house-at-the-fbi-and-doj/

It’s galling to hear sleazy Democrats like Rep. Jamie Raskin and self-serving government bureaucrats whine about “due process” as Donald Trump sets about cleaning house in the out-of-control administrative state.

Last time Trump was president, he and his appointees were sabotaged and obstructed by Machiavellian Deep-Staters who perverted concepts such as “due process” into protective shields around wrongdoers and turned them into weapons against their adversaries — that is, anyone trying to carry out the wishes of the democratically elected president.

That won’t be happening again. It’s called democracy.

The FBI raided Trump’s home and rummaged through his wife’s underwear drawer. They tried to lock him up and bankrupt him. They rounded up his supporters and advisers and threw them in jail.

He was forced to spend 60% of his time and tens of millions of dollars fighting the lawfare waged against him.

So don’t talk about “due process” to Trump.

Ten Problems with DEI That Frighten the Public DEI policies are facing scrutiny amid recent disasters, raising concerns about their impact on competence, meritocracy, and public safety. By Victor Davis Hanson

https://amgreatness.com/2025/02/03/the-problems-with-dei-that-frighten-the-public/

The diversity, equity, and inclusion project, often seen as a major element of the so-called “woke” creed along with green fanaticism, keeps popping up as a possible subtext in a variety of recent tragedies.

In the case of the Los Angeles fires, Mayor Karen Bass, who cut the fire department budget, was warned of the mounting fire dangers of the Santa Anna winds and parched brush on surrounding hillsides. No matter—she junketed in Uganda. When furor followed, on cue, her defenders decried a racialist attack on “a black woman.”

Her possible stand-in deputy mayor for “security” was under suspension for allegations that he called in a bomb threat to the Los Angeles city council—a factor mysteriously forgotten.

The fire chief previously was on record mostly for highlighting her DEI agendas rather than emphasizing traditional fire department criteria like response time or keeping fire vehicles running and out of the shop.

One of her deputies had boasted that in emergencies, citizens appreciated most of all that arriving first responders looked like them. (But most people in need worry only whether the first responders seem to know what they are doing.) She further snarked that if women allegedly were not physically able to carry out a man in times of danger, then it was the man’s fault for being in the wrong place.

The Los Angeles water and power czar—culpable for a needlessly dry reservoir that could have provided 117 million gallons to help save Pacific Palisades—was once touted primarily as the first Latina to run such a vital agency. But did that fact matter much to the 18 million people whose very survival depended on deliverable water in the otherwise desert tinderbox of greater Los Angeles?

Trump’s Executive Orders Have Solid Voter Backing: I&I/TIPP Poll Terry Jones

https://issuesinsights.com/2025/02/03/trumps-executive-orders-have-solid-voter-backing-ii-tipp-poll/

President Trump entered the White House for the second time with a bold agenda, which included a spate of executive orders on a wide range of issues. Even the media had trouble keeping up with the changes. But how was Trump’s flurry of orders received by average Americans? They liked it, with the exception of Democrats, the latest I&I/TIPP Poll shows.

The online I&I/TIPP Poll queried 1,478 adults across the nation on their view of 12 key Trump executive orders, intended to kick-start his second term in office and set a new direction for U.S. policy. The poll has a margin of error of +/-2.6 percentage points.

The question posed was “Do you support or oppose the following executive orders signed by President Donald Trump in his first week in office?” Each question was followed by a description of Trump’s action, with those answering having a choice among the following responses: “Support strongly,” “Support somewhat,” “Oppose somewhat,” “Oppose strongly,” and

Even amid Democrats’ strong doubts, four of the 12 issues managed to receive solid majorities in support.

They included: “Deploy the U.S. military to secure the southern border,” receiving 57% “support,” 33% “oppose; “Ban federal funding for gender identity programs and recognize only biological sex,” 53% support, 36% oppose; “Require federal workers to return to the office full-time,” 56% support, 30% oppose; and “Speed up deportation of illegal immigrants,” 54% support, 35% oppose.

A handful of other Trump moves garnered pluralities, but not absolute majorities.

This group included “End birthright citizenship for children of illegal aliens,” 49% support, 41% oppose; “Declare a national energy emergency to boost oil and gas production, while excluding wind and solar energy,” 46% support, 39% oppose; “Eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs in the federal government,” 45% support, 42% oppose; “Make it easier to fire federal workers by removing job protections,” 44% support, 42% oppose; and “Pause for 75 days on a law banning TikTok,” 44% support, 31% oppose.

Pete Hegseth makes an example of Mark Milley for his arrogant defiance of the president By Susan Quinn

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2025/02/pete_hegseth_makes_an_example_of_mark_milley_for_his_arrogant_defiance_of_the_president.html

If President Trump had known in 2016 how arrogant a man Mark Milley was, he might never have appointed him to the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Milley’s treasonous behavior, spectacular incompetence, and rebelliousness against the president justify the punishment he is being ordered.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered the Pentagon’s inspector general to investigate the ‘conduct’ of retired Joint Chiefs Chairman General Mark Milley — who at times clashed with President Trump during his first term — and determine whether it’s appropriate he should be reduced in rank from his current four stars.

Hegseth also revoked Milley’s security detail and suspended his security clearance.

Even though Milley is retired, he had an ongoing security detail through the Army as a result of Iranian threats in the wake of the 2020 U.S. drone strike that killed Iranian [Revolutionary Guard Corps Gen. Qasem] Soleimani. Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and then-National Security Adviser John Bolton recently lost their security details on orders from Trump, who clashed with them as well.

When Trump first appointed Milley, he seemed like a reasonable choice; however, Milley seemed to have an exaggerated understanding of the power he wielded, and when Trump “defied,” him, he was apparently insulted.

He frequently disagreed with Trump’s decisions, and proceeded to undermine him.

Milley opposed Trump’s interest in using military force to suppress protests following George Floyd’s death and later found himself at the center of controversy in 2021 for independently contacting his Chinese counterpart. Trump denounced the calls as treason, while Milley defended them as routine and within his duties as Joint Chiefs Chairman.

Schumer Under Investigation While Trump Reshapes Washington Schumer faces scrutiny over past threats to justices, while Trump dismantles DEI, deports migrants, and strikes ISIS, signaling a shift in Washington’s priorities. By Roger Kimball

https://amgreatness.com/2025/02/02/schumer-under-investigation-while-trump-reshapes-washington/

Senator Chuck Schumer is a lawyer, so presumably he is familiar with the provisions of 18 U.S. Code § 115. In case he has forgotten—after all, there are a lot of statutes to keep track of—Edward R. Martin, Jr., the Interim D.C. U.S. Attorney, is in the process of reminding him.

Among other things, that statute holds that anyone who threatens a federal government official or their family with the “intent to impede, intimidate, or interfere with such official, judge, or law enforcement officer while engaged in the performance of official duties, or with intent to retaliate against such official, judge, or law enforcement officer on account of the performance of official duties,” shall be punished with a term in the slammer, the length of the sentence being dependent on the actual harm caused.

When the Supreme Court was hearing an abortion case in March 2020, Schumer showed up at a protest rally in front of the Court and shouted, “I want to tell you, Gorsuch, I want to tell you, Kavanaugh: You have released the whirlwind, and you will pay the price.”

Perhaps Nicholas John Roske had that speech in mind in June 2022. It was then that he traveled from California to Maryland to pay the Kavanaughs a visit. It was not intended to be a friendly visit. In the dead of night, he took a taxi to their home. According to the court filing, he carried a suitcase in which was a “black tactical chest rig and tactical knife, a Glock 17 pistol with two magazines and ammunition, pepper spray, zip ties, a hammer, screwdriver, nail punch, crowbar, pistol light, duct tape, hiking boots with padding on the outside of the soles, and other items.”

When apprehended, Roske admitted that he had come to kill Brett Kavanaugh. I wonder what Chuck Schumer thought of that. It looks like Edward Martin is going to find out. On Friday, Martin announced not only that he was firing more than two dozen federal prosecutors; he also announced that he was opening an investigation into Schumer for his threats against two U.S. Supreme Court justices. For most mortals, issuing such threats would earn one a visit from the authorities. As a paid-up member of the Washington elite, Senator Schumer doubtless thought he was exempt from all such rules. Until January 20, he probably was.

Trump’s assault on DEI will bring us closer to a post-racial America The biggest winners from an end to racial identity politics will be ethnic minorities themselves Joel Kotkin

https://www.spiked-online.com/2025/01/30/trumps-assault-on-dei-will-bring-us-closer-to-a-post-racial-america/

It’s hard to picture Donald Trump as a civil-rights hero in the mould of Abraham Lincoln or even Lyndon Johnson. Yet through his orders to dismantle the ubiquitous regime of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), he may have accelerated America’s evolution into a post-racial society.

DEI ideology has been around for years, but it was given a significant boost after the police killing of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020. In response, many government and business leaders chose to embrace DEI as means to placate those calling for a new American regime in which people would be divided and advantaged according to race.

But DEI initiatives have been flailing recently – even before Trump’s election. Indeed, think-tank research from last year showed that over half of company executives were already anticipating pushback against DEI initiatives. Among the firms to have recently stepped back from DEI are Boeing, John Deere, Harley-Davidson, Black + Decker, Target and, the biggest of all, Walmart. Over the past two years, corporate DEI departments have been slashed, with one third of DEI professionals losing their jobs in 2022 alone.

Trump’s dismantling of DEI in the federal government no doubt thrills the various factions who support him, from the libertarians to the traditionalist conservatives to the white-nationalist fringe. Yet over time, perhaps the biggest winner from the dethroning DEI may be ethnic minorities themselves.

Drawing in part on critical race theory, DEI advocates maintain that racial characteristics largely determine people’s lives in America. These new racialists claim that any shortfalls in income, status or professional credentials stem from racial discrimination. In response, they call for ‘people of colour’ to work together to relentlessly undermine so-called white privilege.

Rather than seek greater integration, as was the cause of the old civil-rights movement, these racialist radicals embrace a kind of re-segregation. This can be seen from their involvement in schools. There they advocate indoctrinating young children in DEI ideology. On occasions, they have been known to get third-graders (eight- to nine-year-olds) to separate themselves by race and ask them to rank their ‘privilege’.

In attacking DEI, Trump is taking a widely popular position. The idea that, say, President Obama’s children should be given an edge against someone from a poor Appalachian hollow seems unjust to the vast majority of Americans of all races.

In thrall to the racial identitarianism of the DEI crowd, Democrats hoped that working-class voters would turn their way as more became increasingly non-white. After all, minorities currently make up over 40 per cent of America’s working class and will likely constitute the majority by the next decade.

But many minorities, including the young, seem more concerned with their immediate economic prospects than gaining unearned advantages through DEI programmes. Indeed, minority and poor white Americans are mainly concerned about inflation, rising crime, poor schools and the threats to their livelihoods posed by draconian green policies. Little wonder nearly half of all Latinos voted for Trump, as did growing numbers of Muslims and black males. Asian voters’ support for Trump rose from 27 per cent in 2016 to roughly 40 per cent this year.

John Brennan’s Protests to President Trump Lifting his Security Clearances are Absurd John Brennan’s outrage over losing his security clearance is as hollow as the falsehoods he peddled to shield Biden in 2020. By Fred Fleitz

https://amgreatness.com/2025/01/31/john-brennans-protests-to-president-trump-lifting-his-security-clearances-are-absurd/

Former CIA Director John Brennan is angry that President Trump signed an executive order last week lifting his security clearances. The president took this action because Brennan was one of 51 former intelligence officers who meddled in the 2020 presidential election by signing a letter they knew falsely claimed a damaging press story about a laptop owned by President Biden’s son Hunter was Russian disinformation.

Brennan indignantly asserted in an MSNBC interview that President Trump’s action was “bizarre” and said he misrepresented the laptop letter, claiming that based on their intelligence experience, the signatories were “deeply suspicious that the Russian government played a significant role in this case.”

Brennan also said he needs to hold security clearances as a former intelligence officer so administration officials can consult with him on national security matters.

Brennan’s objections are absurd and justify the President’s executive order.

Brennan’s claims defending the laptop letter are patently false. The 51 former intelligence officers did not sign the letter as a well-intentioned initiative to warn the American people about a possible Russian attempt to influence the outcome of the 2020 presidential election. They knew this wasn’t true.

We know this because one of the principal organizers of the letter, former acting CIA Director Michael Morell, testified during an investigation by the House Judiciary and Intelligence Committees about the letter’s purpose:

“There were two intents. One intent was to share our concern with the American people that the Russians were playing on this issue, and two, it was to help Vice President Biden.”

The House investigation also found that the letter signers were informed “of the intent of the statement prior to its publication, writing that the statement was meant to insulate Vice President Biden from serious electoral vulnerabilities created by his family’s influence peddling activities.”

FLASHBACK: Biden’s FAA Focused on Diversity, Hiring Workers With Severe Disabilities Matt Margolis

https://pjmedia.com/matt-margolis/2025/01/30/flashback-bidens-faa-focused-on-diversity-hired-workers-with-severe-disabilities-n4936514

While we don’t know yet what caused the midair collision between the U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter and a civilian airliner in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday night, renewed attention is turning to Biden-era DEI initiatives at the FAA and whether they may have played a role.

“The Federal Aviation Administration is actively recruiting workers who suffer ‘severe intellectual’ disabilities, psychiatric problems and other mental and physical conditions under a diversity and inclusion hiring initiative spelled out on the agency’s website,” the New York Post reported a year ago.

“Targeted disabilities are those disabilities that the Federal government, as a matter of policy, has identified for special emphasis in recruitment and hiring,” the FAA’s website stated. “They include hearing, vision, missing extremities, partial paralysis, complete paralysis, epilepsy, severe intellectual disability, psychiatric disability, and dwarfism.”

The FAA’s website also noted that individuals with “severe” mental and physical disabilities are the most underrepresented group within the federal workforce.

“Because diversity is so critical, FAA actively supports and engages in a variety of associations, programs, coalitions, and initiatives to support and accommodate employees from diverse communities and backgrounds. Our people are our strength, and we take great care in investing in and valuing them as such,” the website stated.