Three Russia Hoax Bombshells Hidden In IG Report On DOJ Surveillance Of Congress

What hath California wrought?  "It’s extremely disturbing that a man as corrupt and dishonest as Adam Schiff is Senator of a state like California. He should be in jail not in a position of enormous power." AuditTheMachines

 Mollie Hemingway; The Federalist 

"Both Schiff and Swalwell were notorious for going on left-wing media outlets such as CNN and MSNBC to push the Russia conspiracy theory. Schiff, now California’s junior senator, lied publicly for years about the matter, falsely claiming to have secret evidence substantiating the hoax." . . . 

"Last week the Department of Justice’s inspector general released a report on some of the DOJ’s tracking of communications from media and congressional figures as part of its purported investigation into who was leaking classified information against President Donald Trump in 2017. Three significant bombshells about the Russia collusion hoax were hidden inside the dense and dry 100-page report.

"For context, when Trump won the 2016 presidential election, anonymous Democrat operatives in the federal government and Congress began leaking like sieves as part of a coordinated effort to paint Trump as a mastermind spy who had worked with Russian President Vladimir Putin for decades in order to steal the election.

"Two Washington Post stories, a New York Times story, and a CNN story were all found to have included classified information. None of the four stories are specified in the report, but they all appeared in the first half of President Trump’s first year in office.

"The first Washington Post story is likely the April 2017 story by Ellen Nakashima, Devlin Barrett, and Adam Entous revealing that DOJ had gotten a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrant to spy on Carter Page, a Trump affiliate. The true story of that warrant would end up revealing the corruption of the DOJ, including how it falsified evidence in its application and relied on the laughable Steele dossier as the basis. But at the time of its publication, the FISA story suggested that an honorable DOJ had serious reason to suspect the Trump campaign of colluding with Russia to steal the election.

"As outlandish and unhinged as the conspiracy theory was, it was fueled with daily drops of classified and deceptively packaged information designed to make it appear legitimate. The corporate media dutifully regurgitated, published, and aired the leaks as part of their campaign against the Republican president." . . .

"The leakers have never been brought to justice.". . .

Bombshell #1: A Democrat Whistleblower Identified Schiff, Swalwell As Leakers

Bombshell #2: A Top Democrat Staffer Was Caught Communicating With Three Reporters Who Published the Classified Info He Had Access To, But FBI Didn’t Think It Meant Much

Bombshell #3: DOJ Spied On As Many Republicans As Democrats When Investigating Democrat Leaks

Mollie Ziegler Hemingway is the Editor-in-Chief of The Federalist. She is Senior Journalism Fellow at Hillsdale College and a Fox News contributor. . . .

Joe Biden Shows He's a Disgusting, Dishonest Ghoul With Statement on Abundant Life Shooting

RedState; Bonchie   "Joe Biden has released a statement on the tragic shooting that occurred at Abundant Life Christian School on Monday, and it's rightfully sparking controversy. As RedState reported, 15-year-old Natalie Lynn Rupnow opened fire, leaving two people dead. It appears she then committed suicide, as it has been confirmed no law enforcement officer discharged their weapon on the scene." . . . 

Says the man who pardoned his son of a gun crime.

. . ."What's so gross about this is that it expects the reader to make several false assumptions that push the narrative Biden and the rest of the Democratic Party prefer. Notice the mention of needing a ban on "assault weapons and high-capacity magazines." The problem? The shooter in this case used neither. Rather, she used a pistol, which is the one type of firearm Democrats constantly claim they don't want to ban. So why mention "assault weapons?" Because Biden is willing to stand on the bodies of dead children to promote policies that would have had no impact on this shooting. It's disgusting. 

"Then there's the claim that we need "a national red flag law" and "universal background checks." For one, the former is likely unconstitutional at the federal level. Regardless, how would either of those things have stopped Rupnow from committing this attack? She was not in legal possession of the gun she used. Thus, no court using red flag laws would have been able to take it away from her, and since she didn't purchase the weapon, background checks would likewise be irrelevant. 
"Don't kid yourself. The White House knows all of that. Yet, they chose to put out that statement anyway hoping that people would simply assume this was a school shooting in which a legally purchased semi-automatic rifle was used with a "high-capacity" magazine. In fact, the shooter was barred by state law from possessing the gun she used had already  broken multiple laws before she even pulled the trigger. 

"Self-serving politicians aren't going to legislate themselves out of the depravity that has infected so many children. This is a cultural problem, but Democrats will never admit that because it would mean admitting their listless, hedonistic worldview of morality and family is harmful, and they can't have that."

UPDATE:  Madison School Shooting: What We Know, And Biden’s Tone-Deaf Response  Andy Ngo posted the following:  . . .There is a photo taken in a washroom, posted just moments before the shooting. The photo shows her feet on the tile floor, with an ‘OK’ sign being flashed by her hand. "(More on that photo, later.)

"Shooter was 15yo girl (other reports had indicated 17) named Natalie Lynn Rupnow. She had transferred to the school last year. The shooting targeted the school library. The adult killed was a substitute teacher. One of the victims in critical condition has been shot in the throat.

"There is disagreement over whether she identified as ‘trans’. Andy’s own reporting does not indicate she does. Others have said there is an indication of ‘they/them’ in the social media bio.

"She posted about getting a pistol for her birthday. (If only Congress would pass laws making it illegal for a fifteen-year-old to have a pistol. Oh, wait.)

"If the correct alternate social media accounts were found, she also has a fixation on school shooters, going back to Columbine, and posted something which is alleged to be a ‘manifesto’. It’s 2 pages of bitter, angry ranting denouncing categories of people she disagrees with as ‘scum’, taking brief detour to rail against an ethnic group or two. The over-riding theme is the meaninglessness of others and hate, a word she must have used a good two dozen times. As you might expect of the psychopathic fantasies of a young teen, it was rambling and incoherent." . . .

Celebrity Murderer in New York City Shows Failed Promises of “Gun Control”

"Those gun control laws failed to disarm the murderer, yet they disarmed the victim. The news media overlooked that obvious fact."

Liberal Veteran Claims Trump Will Be Arrested December 20th Under Executive Order 13848 — Calls for Mob to Storm D.C. on Inauguration Day and Demand Trump Step Down if Arrest Doesn’t Happen

 Jim Hoft 

So if this guy has his way, Hamas hostages held in the tunnels of Gaza will stay till they are killed or merely raped and disfigured; Venezuelan gangs will still rule US cities, Iran will continue as a threat to the world, The education system will turn out more ignorant citizens, and the world will keep mocking america as a silly ineffective nation with a freakish government. TD

He also urged people to storm Washington, D.C., on Inauguration Day to demand Trump step down if the arrest doesn’t take place.

"For years, conservatives have been vilified as “conspiracy theorists” for claiming the 2020 election was rigged and stolen from President Trump.

"The mainstream media and liberal pundits mocked anyone who questioned the outcome, dismissing them as dangerous extremists or delusional crackpots.

"Now, the tide has turned, and the hypocrisy is glaringly obvious as liberals peddle their own wild predictions.

"Enter USAF veteran and vocal leftist Jerry Doran, who has taken to social media to allege that President Trump will be arrested on December 20th under Executive Order 13848.

"Doran, a nurse and substitute teacher, went further, urging a mass storming of Washington, D.C., on Inauguration Day if his so-called prophecy doesn’t come to pass.

"Suddenly, calls for public demonstrations, which liberals once decried as insurrections, are acceptable when they serve their narrative.

"According to Doran’s unhinged social media rant, Executive Order 13848*, signed in 2018 by Trump, will be weaponized to arrest the 45th President for conspiring with foreign actors to rig the election. He passionately encouraged leftists to prepare for mass mobilization if the arrest doesn’t happen by January 20th, the next Inauguration Day." . . .

*Executive Order 13848—Imposing Certain Sanctions in the Event of Foreign Interference in a United States Election | The American Presidency Project

Section 1. (a) Not later than 45 days after the conclusion of a United States election, the Director of National Intelligence, in consultation with the heads of any other appropriate executive departments and agencies (agencies), shall conduct an assessment of any information indicating that a foreign government, or any person acting as an agent of or on behalf of a foreign government, has acted with the intent or purpose of interfering in that election. The assessment shall identify, to the maximum extent ascertainable, the nature of any foreign interference and any methods employed to execute it, the persons involved, and the foreign government or governments that authorized, directed, sponsored, or supported it. The Director of National Intelligence shall deliver this assessment and appropriate supporting information to the President, the Secretary of State, the Secretary of the Treasury, the Secretary of Defense, the Attorney General, and the Secretary of Homeland Security. . . .

". . .(c) This order is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person."

Countdown to Chaos? Dangerous Weeks Before Inauguration

Frank J. Gaffney; Gatestone Institute

. . ."Collectively, we can bring to bear the kind of "situational awareness" that can help detect and expose the potential for harm before it is inflicted." . . .

"While much national attention is on the first 100 days of the Trump 2.0 presidency, there is growing reason to be concerned about the final days of Joe Biden's term.

"Among those with a powerful interest in disrupting the peaceful transfer of power to a new Trump administration are: the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), world government globalists, Sharia-supremacists, deep state bureaucrats and assorted homegrown and foreign-enabled terrorists, jihadists, and other revolutionaries.

"These hostile forces' ability to create chaos in the United States – especially collectively – cannot safely be ignored.

"The Chinese Communist Party, since May 2019, has been telling the people of China that their country is at war with the US. And the CCP has for years been preparing for a shooting conflict in the Western Pacific, as well as, over the past two years, inserting tens of thousands of its military personnel into the United States. Their mission could well be to carry out attacks on the US electric grids, transportation, communications, water resources and as much other critical infrastructure as possible. They have not been sent to vacation at the Grand Canyon.

"Whether Chinese Emperor Xi Jinping will pull the trigger in the immediate future will probably be a function of his pressing economic, political and demographic challenges at home and the prospect of the replacement of his controlled asset, Joe Biden, by his nemesis, Donald Trump.

. . . "As the federal government may for the next few weeks be part of the problem, it will fall to liberty-loving states to pursue six steps that can help mitigate this dangerous situation:

1. Raise awareness of the existence of threats.
2. Crowdsource information about the whereabouts and status of potentially hostile elements.
3. Enhance personal and community preparedness.
4. Heighten the readiness of the National Guard, constitutional sheriffs, other state and local law enforcement.
5. Protect critical infrastructure and likely targets.
6. Plan for contingencies, such as any effort to respond to chaos-inducing events with a declaration of martial law and efforts to postpone the inauguration. . . .

This will be settled at recess; The Constitution allows Trump to appoint the best Cabinet possible

Don Surber@ American Free News Network 

Charlie Johnston tweeted, “I have noticed an important theme to some Trump appointments: he is appointing people to head agencies that victimized them.

"The speed with which President Trump has appointed Cabinet members takes my breathe away. By my count, he is up to 6 after adding Matt Gaetz as AG and Tulsi Gabbard as Director of National Intelligence on Wednesday night.

'Oh wait a second. On Thursday, he named RFK Jr. as his head of Health and Human Services. As Wilt Chamberlain tweeted, “God forbid we let RFK Jr. be in charge of HHS, otherwise he might do something crazy like fund experimental gain-of-function research in Chinese laboratories and cause a global pandemic.”

'"I believe that is called sarcasm. Readers know that I am a stranger to such a concept.

'"And then Trump made it 8 by picking ex-Georgia congressman Doug Collins to run the VA.

"Make that 9.

'Just before my bedtime last night, The Calvin Coolidge Projecttweeted, “President Trump has announced that Doug Burgum will be his Interior Secretary.”

"At this point 8 years ago, Trump had appointed no one. He was waiting for recommendations from the Republican Establishment.

"Trump has created a No RINO Zone for this administration. The speed this time reflects the quality of the appointments. MAGA is a magnet for heroes and he has embraced them all.

"However, the Senate must confirm his appointments to his Cabinet. No problem. The final paragraph in Article II, Section 2 of the Constitution reads:

"The President shall have Power to fill up all Vacancies that may happen during the Recess of the Senate, by granting Commissions which shall expire at the End of their next Session.

"Senate Majority Leader John Thune agreed to call a recess to let Trump’s appointees start their jobs immediately. On Inauguration Day, Vice President JD Vance as President of the Senate, can call a recess. Trump then appoints Gaetz and company. Formal confirmation can come later.

"The deal likely was cut during the campaign because at one rally with Gaetz on stage, Trump announced they had a secret they would divulge after the election.

"This Cabinet is the opposite of Lincoln’s Cabinet of Rivals. This is Trump’s Cabinet of Allies. He finally is getting an A Team of his own. The A stands for American.

"Trump’s voters have issues with the federal government and Trump’s appointments reflect the grievances from the people who live outside the DC cocoon." . . .

“Completely Illegal, Psychotic Order” – Trump Responds To Merchan Rejecting Immunity Arguments

 American Lookout   

"New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan rejected on Dec. 16 a long list of immunity-related arguments President-elect Donald Trump made in an attempt to throw out the guilty verdict he received earlier this year." Epoch Times

. . ."Donald Trump blasted the decision.

"Trump said, “In a completely illegal, psychotic order, the deeply conflicted, corrupt, biased, and incompetent Acting Justice Juan Merchan has completely disrespected the United States Supreme Court, and its Historic Decision on Immunity.”

Truth Social:

BREAKING: In a completely illegal, psychotic order, the deeply conflicted, corrupt, biased, and incompetent Acting Justice Juan Merchan has completely disrespected the United States Supreme Court, and its Historic Decision on Immunity. But even without Immunity, this illegitimate case is nothing but a Rigged Hoax. Merchan, who is a radical partisan, wrote an opinion that is knowingly unlawful, goes against our Constitution, and, if allowed to stand, would be the end of the Presidency as we know it. Merchan has so little respect for the Constitution that he is keeping in place an illegal gag order on me, your President and President-Elect, just so I cannot expose his and his family’s disqualifying and illegal conflicts….

….I am the only Political Opponent in American History not allowed to defend myself – A despicable First Amendment Violation! Merchan took the Manhattan D.A.’s Witch Hunt, that, according to all Legal Scholars, including Jonathan Turley, Elie Honig, Andy McCarthy, Alan Dershowitz, Gregg Jarrett, David Rivkin, Elizabeth Price Foley, Katie and Andy Cherkasky, Paul Ingrassia, and many others, is a nonexistent case, barred by the Statute of Limitations, and should have never been brought and, through his fraud and misconduct, gave it a semblance of “life.” While Deranged Jack Smith was sent packing back to The Hague after losing all of his politically manufactured cases against me, Merchan, who is far worse and even more corrupt than Smith in his fight for my hopeless political opponents, just cannot let go of this charade. Is it because of his conflicts and relations that he keeps breaking the Law? This has to stop! It is time to end the Lawfare once and for all, so we can come together as one Nation and, Make America Great Again.

Is this the Joe Biden you were admiring, Howard Stern?

 

Joe Biden Sparks Outrage For Commuting Sentence Of “Kids-For-Cash” Judge, Democrat Governor Says Biden “Got It Absolutely Wrong”   "Joe Biden fueled outrage after he commuted the sentence of a judge caught taking kickbacks in exchange for sending children to for-profit jails.

"Known as the kids-for-cash scandal, former Judge Michael Conahan received a 17-year prison sentence after he shut down a county-run juvenile detention center and shared over $2 million in illegal payments from the builder and co-owner of two for-profit lockups.

"According to Fox News, the illicit scheme is one of Pennsylvania’s worst judicial scandals.Another judge, Mark Ciavarella, was also involved in the scandal." . . .

Sandy Fonzo, whose son died by suicide after he was put in juvenile detention, said in statement Thursday that the commutation was “deeply painful,” adding “this pardon feels like an injustice for all of us who still suffer.”

‘Disgusting!’: Biden Slammed By Both Sides For Last-Minute Decision

President Biden got a lot of heat — including from members of his own Democratic Party — after he pardoned his son, Hunter Biden, late last month despite claiming for a year he would not do so.

NO SHAME: Joe Biden Calls For Stricter Gun Control After Pardoning Son for Gun Crimes

Joe Biden may set a dangerous new precedent with ‘pre-emptive’ pardons

. . ."After many liberals predicted the imminent collapse of democracy and that opponents would be rounded up by the Trump administration, they are now contemplating the nightmare that democracy might survive and that there will be no mass arrests.

"The next best thing to a convenient collapse of democracy is a claim that Biden’s series of pre-emptive pardons averted it — to preserve the narrative.

"Biden’s pardon list has replaced the usual Inauguration Ball lists as the “must-have” item this year. Pardon envy is sweeping over the Beltway, as politicians and pundits push to be included on the list of presumptive Trump enemies."

Trump’s tough talk on Hamas hostages delivers America’s righteous fury — at last

Rich Lowry;  NY Post   How can we be more deadly than the Israelis have been?

"The president-elect doesn’t like foreign conflict, but he bombed ISIS to smithereens as promised in the 2016 election and killed the top Iranian intelligence official, Qasem Soleimani, without hesitation in 2020."

"If they have any instinct for self-preservation, Iran and Hamas should be monitoring President-elect Donald Trump’s communications very closely these days. 

"A couple of weeks ago, there was the Truth Social post promising “ALL HELL TO PAY” if Hamas didn’t release its hostages by Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20. 

“ 'Those responsible,” Trump noted, “will be hit harder than anybody has been hit in the long and storied History of the United States of America.”

"He followed up during a press conference Monday.

"When asked what he meant by his prior threat, Trump left it menacingly vague. “Well,” he said, referring to our adversaries, “they’re going to have to determine what that means, but it means it won’t be pleasant. It’s not going to be pleasant.” 

"What does that mean? Does Trump have something in particular in mind, or is he making it up as he goes along? . . .

"The famous line is that the Battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton; in the same sense, every successful Trump negotiation as president has been won on the playing fields of Manhattan real estate, where Trump first learned his distinctive means of gaining leverage and psychological advantage. 

"His willingness to escalate and follow through means no threat can be completely discounted, while his sheer unpredictability adds to the difficulty of any foreign actor trying to calculate his next move.

"To the famous Machiavellian axiom, “It’s better to be feared than to be loved,” Trump adds the proviso, “and it’s best to keep them guessing, either way.”

"This couldn’t be in starker contrast to Joe Biden, who always fears escalation and is predictably conventional to the point of being sodden and dull." . . . 

Hanson: The evaporation of the Obama mystique

Victor Davis Hanson  Victor Davis Hanson critiques the decline of Barack Obama's influence, linking him to the Biden administration's failures and the Democratic Party's 2024 electoral losses, marking a shift in political dynamics.

But by the time Harris lost the election, voters had tuned out a nagging and patronizing Obama — and his stale, now-dated hope-and-changey boilerplate speeches.

"Former President Barack Obama had long been rumored as the catalyst for the 2020 Joe Biden nomination – and thereafter played the whispering puppeteer behind the subsequent lost Biden administration years.

"As such he and his coterie proved the virtual architects of the Biden administration, one of the most unpopular and failed presidencies in American history.

"Recall earlier that after a flailing candidate Biden lost the first three 2020 primaries and caucuses, his inert campaign was headed nowhere.

"Obama and fellow Democratic insiders abruptly engineered the withdrawal of his rival 2020 presidential candidates: hard left but likely sure-loser candidates, including Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and Pete Buttigieg.

"The Obamas ignored or withheld from the public their own firsthand knowledge that Biden was suffering from signs of dementia.

"Instead, they found Biden's cognitive decline and his former concocted reputation as workingman's Joe useful as a veneer for a veritable Obama third-term, "phone it in" administration. Or as wistful Obama once conditioned his dream of a third term – "If I could make an arrangement where I had a stand-in, a front man or front woman, and they had an earpiece in."

"The Obamaites then got their wish for four years of enacted hard-left directives that they could only have dreamed of while in actual power." . . .

My Lord, the Lies; Dept of Education Update

The American Spectator  "Unsurprisingly, the legacy media has been striving to kneecap independent media outlets while peddling lies to the public."

That isn’t even an exhaustive list. Getting it to 100 items over the past, say, six years probably isn’t even very difficult. They have lied, and lied, and lied to us. And they expect us to simply lay down and accept it.

 "Monday afternoon, Melissa and I were casting about for ideas for segments on this week’s The Spectacle Podcast and she referenced a post on X cataloging the breathtaking number of complete falsehoods peddled by the legacy corporate media over the past several years. I’ll show it to you in just a moment, and I’ll even reproduce the list so you can see just how jaw-dropping the volume of fake narratives is that we’ve been subjected to. 

"But first, I want to point out that these same people were making nonstop accusations that the Right was full of “conspiracy theorists” and peddling “disinformation,” and to back those accusations they were engaging in activities designed to punish, if not eliminate, independent media sources who would attempt to check the false narratives they were peddling.

"And I’m not unjustly conflating the legacy corporate media with social media platforms. Many of the organizations in question were colluding with nonprofit organizations, some funded by our government, to demonetize independent media websites with accusations of “disinformation” and sic propaganda organizations like NewsGuard on journalists refusing to toe the ruling elite line.

"They did so as a means to freeze out the competition and stifle attempts to hold them accountable. It wasn’t even a secret at the time. (RELATED: Trump Humiliates His Media Enemies)

"So while attempting to kneecap any real competition for site traffic and/or subscription revenue, these same media organizations were engaged in trying to make Americans believe the following lies…"   Read the examples here.

"And as such there is very, very little community ownership and investment in trusted news organizations. News media organs like CNN and MSNBC are essentially loss leaders for entertainment media companies, and as such they’re not truly independent in their reporting."

UPDATE: CNN’s Acosta Urges Media Outlets to ‘Stand Firm’ Against Trump After ABC Defamation Settlement  "On Monday, during his hosting duties on CNN’s “Newsroom,” Jim Acosta called on media outlets to “stand firm” against President-elect Donald Trump’s efforts to use the legal system to hold the press accountable." . . .

Acosta, the CNN propagandist

Syrian ‘Prisoner’ CNN Helped Free Was Actually Infamous Assad Regime Torturer  Back in the day we were glued to CNN during the Gulf War. What happened?

"You CANNOT make this up. Not only was CNN’s Chief War Propagandist Clarissa Ward caught red-handed faking (AGAIN) the rescue of a fake prisoner in a fake prison in Syria, it turns out the man she “helped” was a top-level torturer for Assad. This is the same network that called Tulsi Gabbard an “Assad lackey” all because she opposed involving the U.S. in another forever regime change war in the Middle-East was in our best interest. So what do we call their employee Clarissa Ward who was chumming it up with an Assad torturer?"

'He's too ballless': Watch Megyn Kelly torch Stephanopoulos and ABC 'idiots' over $15 million blunder  

"Wow, this is what George Stephanopolous does. “Welcome to our show Nancy, now how do you justify your support of a rapist?” Good for Nancy Mace for refusing to allow him to get away with shaming her."

'He's a partisan hack. He started off as a partisan hack, and he remains one'

. . ." 'The irony of him going after a rape supporter in that way. 'How could you support a rape supporter? My God, the nerve to support a rape supporter, a rape committer.' After his years running the war room, tearing down Bill Clinton's assault accusers. I mean, it's just rich. So now the whole thing has cost him his reputation and his company $15 million," Kelly said."... 

George Stephanopoulos Deletes X Account After ABC News Settlement With President Trump  

"George Stephanopoulos can run but he can’t hide. ABC might end up deleting him after costing it $15 million dollars" Nelson De Caires

ABC UPDATE: BREAKING:ABC News Publishes False Information About Trump Education Nominee  . . ."In the first minute of an eight-minute overview, O’Brien stated that McMahon has no formal education training and little experience:

" 'If she receives Senate confirmation, McMahon, who has no formal teaching training and little experience in education, will be tasked with setting policies for the nation’s schools.”

"This is patently false. 

"While receiving a bachelor’s degree in French at East Carolina University in the late 1960s, McMahon earned a teaching certificate after completing a teacher preparation program at the school. This information has been available publicly for years, reported in outlets like The Washington Post and USA Today, was confirmed in a Hartford newspaper in 2011, and has been listed in official statements from East Carolina University." . . .

"In addition to her teaching certification from East Carolina University, McMahon served as a member of the Connecticut Board of Education and has served as a member of the Sacred Heart University board of trustees since 2004." Emphasis mine, TD 

"The trouble with our Liberal friends is not that they're ignorant; it's just that they know so much that isn't so." Ronald Reagan

 Who educated those pro-Hamas scarf people pulling down America's historical monuments and cheering for the murderous rapists from Gaza?

A Half Century of Miseducation  . . ."No, while the pandemic affected scores, Goldstein’s article notes that America’s mediocre scores have been stagnant since 1995. That’s thirty years ago. That’s over three, almost four complete cycles of elementary school students.

"Which means the problem is not just the pandemic. It’s the Department of Education.

"While “experts” debate “causes” and DoE bureaucrats wring hands about “alarming” results, the truth is that the almost half-century old DoE has almost nothing to show for its existence in terms of improving American students’ educational performance. Its advocates will identify tons of legislation that have poured millions of dollars into “standards,” but we all see the subminimal results of federally imposed ‘standards.” . . .

It’s not enough to dismantle the Department of Education   "President Trump proposes to dismantle the federal Department of Education and return education policy to the states. That will certainly be a good move, as the federal DOE has been a key promoter of the woke component of the education establishment, but this action will not of itself restore vitality to the institution of public education in our nation.

"Writes Michael Petrilli, president of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, “Dismantling the Department of Education won’t make any measurable difference in educational outcomes... If you want real transformation, fight the elected school boards, defang the unions, and create alternatives to the ed schools.”

"We must understand that, operating at the state level, there are other promoters of wokeness in education. Every state has several such woke promoters, including (1) its own state DOE, (2) its own state teachers’ union, (3) its own colleges and universities with their own Departments and professors of Education, and (4) its own woke culture shared by its teachers and administrators." . . .

How The News Lies to You Every Day Yet You Never Notice

I live in a Canadian town where hundreds of Hallmark movies are filmed. Here's what it's like, fake snow and all

Soxse Times

"The Fernwood Inn is a staple in Victoria.

Simone Paget

"At the heart of Fernwood Square is the Fernwood Inn. The charming neighborhood pub serves local brews in an inviting, festive atmosphere reminiscent of a small-town inn.

"Unfortunately, the kind-eyed innkeeper with a heart of gold from half the Hallmark movie plots is not included — the pub looks like an inn but doesn't have rooms for rent.

Oak Bay Village is the perfect place to live out your Hallmark fantasies." . . .

. . ."The iconic, fairy-tale-like hotel is a holiday favorite for tourists and locals alike.

"The Empress is mainly known for its afternoon tea, but in the evenings, you can head to the veranda bar to roast s'mores over an open fire and sip on hot buttered rum.

My town's light displays are delightfully over the top."  Full article...