Daily News Roundup

Estimated Reading Time: 15 minutes

NOTABLE QUOTES

Adam Tomkins contributor to Law & Liberty: If we want free speech, we will just have to put up with its vices, its drawbacks and its inconveniences, fake news and disinformation included.

Sanford D. Horn contributor to The Federalist: As we head into 2024, let’s fight like hell, in unison — Democrats, Republicans, independents, even the apathetic who don’t vote — to maintain the freedoms we cherish. Remember the words of President Ronald Reagan: “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it along to our children in our bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.”

John & Nisha Whitehead contributors to The Rutherford Institute: We must never forget that the government no longer exists to serve its people, protect their liberties and ensure their happiness. Rather, “we the people” are the unfortunate victims of the diabolical machinations of a make-works program carried out on an epic scale whose only purpose is to keep the powers-that-be permanently (and profitably) employed. This is how tyranny rises and freedom falls.

Daniel Greenfield contributor to Frontpage Magazine: The root cause of the border crisis isn’t south of the border: it’s up north in Washington D.C.

J. Robert Smith contributor to American Thinker: With the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary looming, more than the traditional silly season in politics has begun. A dangerous year is about to unfold, with dangers to follow. Not since 1860 has the nation faced a presidential election so consequential and so fraught with perils.

Inez Feltscher Stepman contributor to The American Mind: A final note of caution to temper the policy optimism: there is no “one weird trick” to fix the generational wars to come. Even if the Right breaks its addiction to losing and aggressively transforms our education system and institutions, the country will still have to digest a generation and a half of radicals like a snake eating an ox. Millennials are the largest generation in history at 72 million and change, and when no longer counterbalanced by aging Boomers, they will come into an enormous amount of wealth and power, likely dashing hopes of a “woke retreat.”

Greg Moo contributor to American Thinker: Watching thousands of illegals daily pour across America’s southern border forces recognition that this mass invasion didn’t just pop out of the woodwork or happen organically. The magnitude and duration of this invasion demands answers to four core questions: 1) Who organizes these people? 2) Who provides water, food, and critical support for these hundreds of thousands of people? 3) Who arranges and distributes the go-to-this-enabler contact lists these invaders are given and then carry with them so they know with whom to connect when they step off free-pass buses and gratuitously ticketed airplanes? And 4) Who recruits, coordinates, and supports the many enablers named on these contact lists — located in cities across America — who connect the invaders with free-to-them services and unending support?

Brian Karem Playboy Magazine WH correspondent & CNN analyst told CNN host: “I’m also convinced that at some point next year, since the federal government already controls Alcatraz, they’ll just reclaim it as a prison and there will be only one prisoner held there and he’ll have a two-hole golf course if he wants his Secret service entourage,” Karem said during the interview, adding: “And the only condition is that twice a day for two hours, he has to stand in a cage in an orange suit while tourists pay 20 bucks to have their picture taken with him. I’m holding onto that.”

Mike McDaniel contributor to American Thinker: The New York Post notes that the British restaurant chain Prezzo recently conducted a survey. The survey asked 2000 people how relaxed they felt when dining out. A whopping 86% of Gen Z adults (if the term ‘adults’ is indeed applicable) said that they suffered from ‘menu anxiety.’ Thirty-four percent of that group said that they got so worked up that they asked a fellow diner to speak to the server for them. Forty percent become so anxious at the prospect of talking to the wait staff that they avoid going out to dinner altogether if they cannot read the menu before arriving at the restaurant. One concern is the cost of the meal, which has some legitimacy to it. Another is the possibility that one might regret one’s order, which is lame. The Post said that a similar U.S. study showed that three out of ten Americans now live with the burden of menu anxiety. As in the UK, the bulk of those suffering from this nightmare are members of Gen Z.

TYRANNY IN THE NAME OF CLIMATE DOOM MYTH: GLOBALIST POLITICIANS & BIG BUSINESS ACCUMULATE MORE POWER & CONTROL

Killough: Inflation Reduction Act re-routes Medicare savings into tax credits for electric vehicles

The bulk of $280 billion in savings from the IRA’s prescription drug provisions has been redirected to fund $7,500 tax credits on new electric vehicles and $4,000 tax credits on used electric vehicles, as well as other energy efficiency programs.

Eye on the News: The Carbon Tax Cliff

The year 2023 ended with four pieces of legislation in Congress aimed at creating a carbon tax. Since three of those bills have bipartisan sponsorship, we’re more likely to see some form of the carbon tax pass this year. The perceptive Wall Street Journal columnist Holman Jenkins recently observed that Republicans and Democrats are “discovering how a carbon tax might help them reach a variety of policy and constituency pleasing goals.” But pursuing those goals via a carbon tax is antithetical to the interests of American citizens. The purpose of a carbon tax is to force society-wide reductions in the use of hydrocarbons—oil, natural gas, coal—that, when combusted, emit carbon dioxide (CO₂). Carbon-tax advocates argue, correctly, that today’s climate-driven energy policies—mainly subsidies and mandates for alternative fuels—have been ineffective and inefficient, since those subsidy programs and federal mandates are subject to bureaucratic friction, bloat, misdirection, and kleptocratic influences. Carbon-taxers are also correct in observing that the subsidy/mandate approach requires accepting the ludicrous assumption that government experts know what fuels and energy-technology markets need and should use.

Allen: Should We Be Concerned Over Climate Change?

The climate is changing, but is the change cause for concern? “There are natural climate cycles, which are normal,” research scientist Roy Spencer says, adding that “If you move beyond the temperature to things like storminess, you know, hurricane activity, there have been no demonstrable, long-term changes in anything other than a modest, relatively benign increase in temperature.” When it comes to climate change, Spencer, a meteorologist and research scientist at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, says he’s “been hearing the rhetoric and the fear-mongering since the 1970s.” Asked if he personally worries about climate change, Spencer says . . .

THE CORRUPT & DANGEROUS U.S. INTELLIGENCE AGENCIES & THE ADMINISTRATIVE STATE APPARATUS

Chaitin: Feds Still Looking For D.C. Pipe Bomb Suspect 3 Years Later

“Over the past three years, a dedicated team of FBI agents, analysts, data scientists, and law enforcement partners has worked thousands of hours conducting interviews, reviewing physical and digital evidence, and assessing tips from the public about who may have placed pipe bombs on Capitol Hill,” said David Sundberg, assistant director in charge of the FBI Washington Field Office.

JUDICIARY

Kittle: Leftist Judge Strikes Blow To Election Integrity In Wisconsin With Ballot ‘Curing’ Decision

Dane County Circuit Court Judge Ryan Nilsestuen, who previously served as Democrat Gov. Tony Evers’ top attorney, sided with the leftist League of Women Voters of Wisconsin in a ruling that would allow local elections officials to correct — or “cure” — absentee ballots with missing or incorrect information. The ruling, issued Tuesday, collides with the conservative Waukesha County Circuit Court opinion in 2022 that found Wisconsin Elections Commission (WEC) guidance allowing “curing” of absentee ballot envelopes defied state election law. Judge Michael J. Aprahamian at the time prohibited WEC “from providing any advice or guidance that municipal clerks or other local election officials have the duty or ability to modify or add information to absentee ballot certifications.”

REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARY CANDIDATES

Heine: Nikki Haley Ruffles the Feathers of Iowa Voters With ‘Insulting’ Remarks in New Hampshire

OP presidential candidate Nikki Haley ruffled the feathers of Iowa voters during a campaign event in New Hampshire Wednesday when she told N.H. Republicans, she’s counting on them to “correct” the results of the upcoming Iowa caucuses.“We have an opportunity to get this right. And I know we’ll get it right, and I trust you. I trust every single one of you. You know how to do this. You know Iowa starts it. You know that you correct it,” she said as the New Hampshire voters laughed and applauded in approval. “And then my sweet state of South Carolina brings it home. That’s what we do,” she added to more laughter and applause. […] Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds (R), who has endorsed Republican contender Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, slammed Haley’s comments in a post on X. “I trust Iowans to make their own decisions. No ‘corrections’ needed!” Reynolds wrote.

Sundance: Obama Campaign Strategist David Plouffe Recommends New Hampshire Democrats “Tactically” Vote for Nikki Haley

When you understand how the UniParty operates, and then you hear something like this from David Plouffe, immediately you begin to wonder if the DNC decision to forego a New Hampshire Dem primary might have been part of a larger strategy. New Hampshire is not holding a Democrat primary this year, and Obama’s campaign strategist sees an opportunity with the open primary for Democrats to meddle in the Granite State election outcome by supporting Nikki Haley.

Watch the prompted video interview: https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2024/01/05/obama-campaign-strategist-david-plouffe-recommends-new-hampshire-democrats-tactically-vote-for-nikki-haley/

BIDEN/HARRIS/OBAMA’S AMERICA LAST REGIME: RADICAL TRANSFORMATION OF FOREIGN POLICY

Sundance: After Promising the Opposite, NSC Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby Says He Has “No Details” on What Iran Is Doing With $6 Billion We Gave Them

White House National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications, John Kirby, previously pledged that Iran would be limited on how they could use the $6 billion in funds we gave them through the Qatari bank. Iran has made withdrawals of the funds, and today John Kirby was asked about what Iran is doing with that money. Here is his response: . . .

Watch the two short Kirby videos: https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2024/01/04/after-promising-the-opposite-nsc-coordinator-for-strategic-communications-john-kirby-says-he-has-no-details-on-what-iran-is-doing-with-6-billion-we-gave-them/

BIDEN/HARRIS/OBAMA’S AMERICA LAST REGIME: RADICAL TRANSFORMATION OF AMERICA

Whitehead: Apocalypse Now: The Government’s Use of Controlled Chaos To Maintain Power

Will 2024 be the year the Deep State’s exercise in controlled chaos finally gives way to an apocalyptic dismantling of our constitutional republic, or what’s left of it? All the signs seem to point in this direction. For years now, the government has been pushing us to the brink of a national nervous breakdown. This breakdown—triggered by polarizing circus politics, media-fed mass hysteria, militarization and militainment (the selling of war and violence as entertainment), a sense of hopelessness and powerlessness in the face of growing corruption, the government’s alienation from its populace, and an economy that has much of the population struggling to get by—has manifested itself in the polarized, manipulated mayhem, madness and tyranny that is life in the American police state today. Why is the Deep State engineering this societal madness? What’s in it for the government?

Greenfield: Every American Owes $100,000 in the National Debt

“Government is simply the name we give to the things we choose to do together,” Rep. Barney Frank, whose prostitute aide ran a male brothel from his Capitol Hill home, once observed. The former congressman claimed that he had no idea his boyfriend was running a male brothel and most people don’t know the government had racked up $34 trillion in debt. Sometimes the things we do together are really the things being done to us. Back in 2020, the national debt was at $26 trillion and that amounted to $80,885 for each of us. Now, after three years of the “adults” being “back in charge”, our share of the debt is $100,000 each. Or $100,696, if you want to be exact, and $257,275 per household. In the four years since 2019, a whopping $12 trillion was added to the national debt.

Kessler: Americans’ Finances Took A Beating In 2023 Amidst Persistent Inflation And High Interest Rates

Americans are struggling economically going into 2024, as harsh economic conditions in 2023 drained savings accounts, with factors like ever-rising prices and high-interest rates weighing down consumers, experts told the Daily Caller News Foundation.U.S. recession predictions are mixed going into 2024, with some credible sources like Deutsche Bank and Société Générale predicting a recession in the new year, while others are optimistic about the possibility for the Federal Reserve to achieve a soft landing, which could lead to future rate cuts. No matter the future of the U.S. economy, average Americans’ wallets took a hit in 2023 from factors like inflation, home prices, and declining savings, leading experts that spoke to the DCNF concerned about consumers’ futures.

DEMOCRAT PARTY MARXIST PLAYBOOK: CHILDREN ARE THE TARGET OF THE DARKNESS AFFECTING OUR NATION

Drago: Epstein Case Prompts the Question: Is Pedophilia Rampant in All Power Circles?

On Wednesday, a judge unsealed the names of dozens of people who appeared in testimony or depositions connected to a lawsuit filed by Jeffrey Epstein accuser Virginia Giuffre. Perhaps the biggest names on the list, although old news, are former presidents Donald Trump and Bill Clinton. Epstein’s name has become synonymous with the evil act of pedophilia, but it’s likely he’s the tiny tip of an iceberg that beneath the surface is far more pervasive, convoluted, and dark than most people realize. In today’s show, we look at a number of news events indicating that pedophilia is rampant in all power circles.

Start the video at the 2:59 minute mark: https://thenewamerican.com/video/epstein-case-prompts-the-question-is-pedophilia-rampant-in-all-power-circles/

Kuzma: The TikTok Spiral

Trauma dumping on the for you page sucks young girls into a pit of self-loathing. […] Spiraling is an actual psychological term for becoming mentally dizzy. TikTok’s “for you page” (FYP) is overwhelming, piping a steady stream of the most viral videos to kids—a big departure from the social media norms of yesteryear, which mostly shared amateurish updates from kids’ subscribed channels. Girls who would normally say hi to friends and show off their pets now get adult content and other non-age appropriate material direct to their inbox. Feeding “smash-innocence” content to kids is part of the TikTok spiral. […] It’s a world saturated with an over-abundance of consciousness: self-consciousness, body-consciousness, identity-consciousness. Ideal for getting girls to spiral. Videos designed to provoke envy are common, showing off piercings, tattoos, clothes, a new hair style, making grimaces and grins in the digital mirror. Humor, novelty, and intimate sharing attract a mostly female viewership, and body image content related to gender can be especially compelling.

WAR IN ISRAEL

Levy: How Hamas Built an Army

Although the group’s conventional military capabilities seemingly peaked on October 7, an underperforming army is still an army, so the IDF has little choice but to continue ground operations until it can shift to a counterterrorism-centered strategy. […] To enable its genocidal atrocities, Hamas created a conventional army able to overrun Israel Defense Forces (IDF) posts on its way to the border communities. Having seized multiple positions as far as 25 kilometers into Israel from the 60-km Gaza border, some of the Hamas cadres held their ground and attempted to defend against the coming IDF counter, which defeated them within several days and initiated a ground incursion into Gaza. The IDF says that at least 278 Israeli soldiers were among the dead of October 7. Indeed, this war has featured a clash of military forces to seize or defend territory and followed defined frontlines and orders of battle. It is now clear that Hamas possesses and is willing to use conventional military power alongside its traditional terrorist tactics.

Horowitz: A Hamas chief’s killing, in a Hezbollah suburb, shows calculations remade post-Oct. 7

Wanted for years by Israel, terror orchestrator Saleh al-Arouri would have figured he was untouchable in Hezbollah’s Beirut stronghold. But no such assessments hold true anymore. While the IDF has made gradual progress for almost three months in its mission to dismantle Hamas’s capacity to again slaughter Israelis, taking on Gaza’s terrorist army in a relentless ground invasion moving from north to south in the Strip, Tuesday night’s killing of Saleh al-Arouri in Beirut, widely attributed to Israel, was a military operation of an entirely different order, character and potential consequence.

Ala Mohammed Mushtaha: My Father Is an Imam in Gaza. Hamas Kidnapped Him for Refusing to Be Their Puppet.

On Saturday, December 30, our front door was busted down, and twenty masked men barged in and took my father, a widely respected and deeply learned imam here in Gaza. One dragged him by his head, and another grabbed him by his beard. My younger brother tried to intervene and reason with the kidnappers, but they beat him. I have a medical condition that makes it hard for me to breathe, so all I could do was watch as the horror unfolded. I know that if Hamas kills my father, they’ll say that the Israeli army did it. But my father was very keen that even if he died, we should make known the despicable demands they made of him. It was his last request to us, literally as he was being carried out of the door, that should he die, we should publicize the real reason for his death, and it is this: He wouldn’t preach what Hamas told him to. He refused to tell Gazans that violent resistance, and obedience to Hamas, is the best way out of our current hell. This story starts before October 7, and even before 2007, when Hamas took control of Gaza. […] But now we have reached a time when nearly everyone in Gaza is saying Hamas caused the death of 20,000 people in Gaza and the injury of 50,000 more.

MEDICAL RESEARCH

Main: Artificial ‘womb’ for premature babies could be available this year after 300 tests with lamb prove successful – bringing hope to 15 million preterm infants born each year

Scientists have announced human trials for an artificial uterus could be approved this year, bringing hope to the 15 million infants born prematurely each year in the US. A team at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia successfully tested the womb with preterm lambs, finding the animals ‘opened their eyes, became more active, had apparently normal breathing and swallowing movements’ while in the sac. The main reason half of preterm babies don’t survive is their lungs aren’t fully developed due to premature birth, and they have a hard time transitioning from breathing in the amniotic fluid to breathing air. The team conducted 300 successful tests, finding the animals had normal brain development and stable nutrition as if they were feeding off their mother. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has met with experts to discuss the following steps to bring the artificial uterus, called EXTEND, into human trials – and is set to announce a decision later this year.

TUCKER ON X

Watch: Tucker Carlson: Who killed Jeffrey Epstein?

Ep. 59 Most people understand that Jeffrey Epstein didn’t kill himself. But the attorney general of the United States helped cover up his murder? That’s a different thing entirely. Epstein’s brother Mark explains.

Watch the 25:52 minute interview: https://www.wnd.com/2024/01/watch-tucker-carlson-killed-jeffrey-epstein/

OTHER NEWS, COMMENTARY, OPINION

Revolver.news: Biden just released his first ad of 2024. The main threat to this country? You…

Failed and disgraced former President Joe Biden has released his first political ad for 2024. As his poll numbers plummet, Joe, who failed to deliver on the promises he made during his 2020 campaign—such as rebuilding the middle class, reducing crime, uniting the country, restoring America’s soul, promoting world peace, and strengthening the middle class—has resorted to recycling tired old tropes. He portrays MAGA as the supposed “real” threat to the nation, painting Trump supporters as violent and racist. In Joe Biden’s faltering America, it’s not his failed policies or misguided decisions that have damaged the economy, undermined the nation, and fueled conflicts worldwide; it’s you.

Hilu: Texas A&M Secretly Does Research for Qatar, Report Reveals

Texas A&M University at Qatar, or TAMUQ, produces research on several subjects, including computer science and bioengineering, all the rights of which belong to the Qatar Foundation, a nonprofit that the Qatari royal family owns.”The Qatar Foundation shall own the entire right, title, and interest in all Technology and Intellectual Property developed at TAMUQ or under the auspices of its Research Program, other than those developed by non-TAMUQ employees and without financial support from the Qatar Foundation or any of its affiliates,” reads a May 2021 contract between the university and the foundation, which the Free Press obtained.

Kramer: Mayor Eric Adams sues 17 charter bus companies for $700 million for transporting asylum seekers to NYC

In a stunning and unexpected move to stop Texas Gov. Greg Abbott from shipping busloads of asylum seekers to New York City, Mayor Eric Adams has filed a lawsuit against 17 charter bus companies used by the Lone Star State. He wants the bus companies to reimburse the city for the hundreds of millions of dollars it’s cost to shelter them. Just call it the Empire State strikes back, with a bold counter punch to Abbott. “New York City has and will always do our part to manage this humanitarian crisis, but we cannot bear the cost of reckless political ploys from the state of Texas, alone,” Adams said. [Yet, NYC remains a sanctuary city.]

Prestigiacomo: ‘Potentially Have Fatal Consequences’: Athletes Sound Off On USA Boxing’s New Transgender Policy

Athletes including former NCAA swimmer Riley Gaines, UFC star Colby Covington, and tennis great Martina Navratilova have all blasted USA Boxing for a policy change that now permits certain males to compete in the women’s division. The new policy was first proposed in August 2022, as highlighted by National Review, and outlines that male athletes can fight women if they claim to be female, complete “gender reassignment surgery,” and test their testosterone levels for four years following such procedures. Gaines, now an advocate for girls’ and women’s sports, said the move by the boxing organization is not only unfair, but compromises women’s safety.

Rosenberger: You’d Be Surprised Which States Persecute Religious Schools And Charities

States throughout the country, including some red states, are breaking the law by persecuting religious schools and charities. Here are nine of the most unexpected offenders. 1. Virginia Disabled students suffer because of Virginia’s violation of the First Amendment. Virginia’s school districts and local governments can contract with any “public or private nonsectarian school, agency, institution,” or “nonsectarian child-day programs” to provide special education services. If the nearest option or best fit for your student happens to have a religious affiliation, your child will have to attend a further or worse option to receive funding. Historically black colleges and universities and other nonprofit institutions of higher education are unconstitutionally prevented from using state funds for facilities or programs related to “sectarian instruction.” Virginia singles out religious institutions for worse treatment under industrial development powers and ineligibility for historic preservation consideration and grants, and excludes them from receiving funds to provide social services. Egregiously, this latter provision specifically singles out some religious organizations — the YMCA, YWCA, Habitat for Humanity, and the Salvation Army — for special treatment. Virginia provides a tax rebate for fuel used in school buses but excludes buses used to take students to religious schools. 2. Montana . . . 3. Georgia . . . 4. . . .

INTERNATIONAL

Itzkovich: Israeli research uses Earth’s magnetic field to verify event in Bible’s Book of Kings

“Our findings are important for determining the intensity of the fire and the scope of destruction in Gath – the largest and most powerful city in the land at the time – and also for understanding construction practices in the region,” they wrote in the journal PLOS ONE under the title “Applying thermal demagnetization to archaeological materials: A tool for detecting burnt clay and estimating its firing temperature.” Applying their method to findings from ancient Gath (Tell es-Safi, located between the cities of Ashkelon and Beit Shemesh in central Israel), the researchers validated the biblical account: “About this time. Hazael King of Aram went up and attacked Gath and captured it. Then he turned to attack Jerusalem” (2 Kings 12, 18). They explain that, . . .

Mallory: Methodist Church Of Great Britain Labels ‘Wife’ And ‘Husband’ Terms As Offensive

The Methodist Church revised its “Inclusive Language Guide” in order to stop individuals from using “hurtful language” against groups that it considers have been “marginalized and/or demonized by common culture.” Every six months, the church intends to update the Inclusive Language Guide in order to remove any language that could offend groups that it considers to be marginalized. The church wants its leaders to acknowledge that “relationships come in many varied expressions,” and they now require church members and leaders to refer to couples as “partners” and “parents.”

The Prickly Pear’s TAKE ACTION focus this year is to help achieve a winning 2024 national and state November 5th election with the removal of the Biden/Obama leftist executive branch disaster, win one U.S. Senate seat, maintain and win strong majorities in all Arizona state offices on the ballot and to insure that unrestricted abortion is not constitutionally embedded in our laws and culture.

Please click the TAKE ACTION link to learn to do’s and don’ts for voting in 2024. Our state and national elections are at great risk from the very aggressive and radical leftist Democrat operatives with documented rigging, mail-in voter fraud and illegals voting across the country (yes, with illegals voting across the country) in the last several election cycles.

Read Part 1 and Part 2 of The Prickly Pear essays entitled How NOT to Vote in the November 5, 2024 Election in Arizona to be well informed of the above issues and to vote in a way to ensure the most likely chance your vote will be counted and counted as you intend.

Please click the following link to learn more.

TAKE ACTION