This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
A new result from Gallup's polling shows that Americans' trust in the media, simply to report news fully, accurately and fairly, has plummeted.
It revealed a record-low 28% said they trust the media a great deal or fair amount to do that job.
And social media immediately went snarky.
"Alternative headline: '28% of Americans are stupid,'" said one. Another; "Coincidentally, 28% of Americans are retards."
A commentary at Twitchy said, "When it comes to credibility, the legacy media has been working on sawing off the same branch they're sitting on for decades now, and that limb finally has snapped off and is plunging toward the ground with the MSM still clinging to it."
It continued, "Along the way, the public trust in media has been dropping right along with them."
It cited the media's service to one political party "as propagandists."
That 28% figure is down three points from just a year ago, and down from 40% just five years ago.
The Hill confirmed, "A total of 7-in-10 adults expressed skepticism in the news media, indicating they have 'not very much' trust in news outlets or 'none at all.'"
The report added, "Trust in media has never been particularly high among those in the GOP, Gallup found, noting the number of Republicans who indicated they trusted media outlets has not risen above 20 percent since 2015, the year President Donald Trump first ran for the White House."
Gallup's analysis said, "With confidence fractured along partisan and generational lines, the challenge for news organizations is not only to deliver fair and accurate reporting but also to regain credibility across an increasingly polarized and skeptical public."
The results come at a time when vast majorities of Americans in various groups get most of their news from social media, online sources and the like.
Also, it comes after a time frame of years in which legacy media have been caught over and over pushing the Democrats' political agenda, as reflected by multiple huge settlements the organizations have paid out recently to President Donald Trump, who sued over their bias.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
President Donald Trump confirmed that he now can do things "that are irreversible" to cut government costs after Democrats in Congress refused to give up their spending spree demands.
The government entered a partial shutdown at midnight after the party failed in its insistence that the GOP agreed to hand out $1.5 trillion to Democrats' favorite people.
The trigger for the shutdown was the Democrats refusal to go along with a short-term spending program in the Senate, which was supported by Republicans, and even a Democrat or two.
"We can do things during the shutdown that are irreversible, that are bad for them, and irreversible by them," the president confirmed.
The Congressional Budget Office estimated 750,000 federal workers would be furloughed each day, amounting to about $400 million in compensation that is delayed.
That compensation is not paid routinely, but seldom is it lost entirely as Congress almost always grants makeup pay when a shutdown concludes.
Individual agencies and programs that were funded from the president's "Big, Beautiful Bill" just weeks ago maintain their funding.
Members of Congress will continue to be paid.
Republicans are keeping the Senate in session to hold repeated votes on the plan that already has been adopted in the House, where Democrats unsuccessfully opposed it.
Minority Democrats in the Senate successfully shut down the government as the GOP majority needs a few Democrat votes to reach the 60-vote filibuster threshold.
A new New York Times/Siena College survey revealed that only a minority of Democrat voters, 47%, support the closure.
"[Sen. Chuck Schumer's] being held hostage by the liberal wing of the party after he did the right thing in March. He was severely punished," Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso, R-Wyo., "They're not thinking ahead of the impact and the damage it's going to do to the American people."
The Washington Examiner reported the deadlock happened because of "Democratic demands to extend expiring enhanced Obamacare subsidies" as well as massive benefits for illegal aliens in the country.
"In a sign of growing division among Democrats, caucus members Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) and Angus King (I-ME) joined Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) in siding with Republicans," the report noted.
GOP leaders have suggested that eventually there will be enough pressure on Democrats that the needed handful of votes will break with Schumer's shutdown agenda.
Trump already had plans in place, promising to use the time to further shrink the federal workforce and government spending by worker layoffs and rollbacks for government programs.
The expiring enhancement of Obamacare credits was due to the Democrats' own writing of legislation during the COVID-19 panic, when they were created.
"There isn't any substantive reason why there ought to be a government shutdown. This is something that has been done routinely, as I said, 13 different times when the Democrats had the majority. But we are not going to be held hostage for over $1 trillion in new spending on a continuing resolution," Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said ahead of the vote.
Fox reported, "President Donald Trump and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) now have wide discretion over what federal services will remain active."
Democrats insisted on blaming the GOP for the shutdown, demanding additional spending of about $1.5 trillion, including a complete reversal of many components of the "Big, Beautiful Bill" and Congress adopted just weeks ago.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
The rage that fills the current Democrat political agenda in America is dangerous, according to a constitutional expert.
It is Jonathan Turley, whose career includes not just teaching the Constitution, but advising Congress on its requirements and even representing members in constitutional disputes, who said, "Rage gives people a license to say and do things that they would not otherwise say or do. It is addictive, it is contagious, and it is dangerous."
Yet, he pointed out in a recent column, Democrats returned to that agenda almost immediately after the tragic assassination by a reportedly rage-filled radical of Turning Point USA co-founder Charlie Kirk.
Turley, the Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law and George Washington University, explained in his column that now a prominent Democrat is calling for more rage.
"Let your rage fuel you," were the words coming from Abigail Spanberger, who is running for governor as a Democrat in Virginia.
Turley recalled the words, in a Star Wars movie, from the series-long bad guy, Darth Sidious , the evil emperor, who said, "Give in to your anger. With each passing moment, you grow stronger."
Turley noted, "There was barely a respite from the rage rhetoric after the assassination of Charlie Kirk and the sniper attack on the ICE facility. Gov. Gavin Newsom is back this week to calling his opponents 'fascists' while other Democratic politicians are back to calling ICE 'fascists.'"
He warned, "Across the country, politicians and pundits are fueling rage, encouraging voters to embrace it."
And he said, "Rage, however, comes at a cost in politics."
"We are seeing the result of rage rhetoric all around us. That includes the assassination of Charlie Kirk and the sniper attack on ICE agents in Texas this week, in addition to violent protests around the country. Rage allows you to deny the humanity of those you disagree with. Recently, two sisters were caught on video destroying a memorial to Kirk. Kerri and Kaylee Rollo were later arrested. However, they immediately opened a GoFundMe site to call for donations for 'fighting fascism' and Kaylee wrote 'my sibling was fired from their job.' Hundreds of donors gave the sisters thousands of dollars as a reward for the latest such attack on a Kirk memorial," he explained.
He said there have been warnings that violent rhetoric "was crossing over into political violence."
"Democratic politicians have spent months ratcheting up the rhetoric against ICE agents, who have suffered more than a 1,000 percent increase in attacks, including the recent sniper attack."
He cited Newsom's repeated calls for the use of rage rhetoric.
Others joined, he noted.
"Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas), who has used violent rhetoric in the past, declared that ICE agents were acting like 'slave patrols' in hunting down immigrants in the streets. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) used a commencement address to denounce 'Donald Trump's modern-day Gestapo is scooping folks up off the streets. They're in unmarked vans, wearing masks, being shipped off to foreign torture dungeons… just grabbed up by masked agents, shoved into those vans, and disappeared.'"
And Boston Mayor Michele Wu claimed ICE officers are Trump's "secret police."
Such rhetoric has been "adopted by a wide range of Democratic politicians," he said.
"Rage is a powerful narcotic. The problem is when it becomes an addiction. There is always a certain percentage of the population that will believe such hyperbolic claims," Turley warned.
"Those are the people who end up trying to kill jurists like Justice Brett Kavanaugh or politicians like Trump. It was also seen in the assassination of Democratic politicians earlier this year in Minnesota," he said.
And he noted like all addictions, the solution comes only after the addicted wants out, a move he said is not yet evident.
"This fever will only break when voters clearly reject the politics of rage," he said.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
Antifa, that organization of radical extremists that pushes for leftist causes, already has been blamed for riots, vandalism, arson and mayhem across America.
It calls itself Antifa, for anti-fascist, under the odd political positioning that claims conservatives such as President Donald Trump are, in fact, fascists. It's part of the extremist agenda fabricated by leftists that calls conservatives "Nazis" and Trump "Hitler."
Antifa appeared shortly after Trump was elected in 2016, and subsequent damage from riots related to Antifa has been costly for American cities and states.
It primarily fights Trump's agenda to restore America's security, economy and influence, and more
Already, Trump has designated the group members as domestic terrorists.
"Antifa is a militarist, anarchist enterprise that explicitly calls for the overthrow of the United States Government, law enforcement authorities, and our system of law," he said in his signed order. "It uses illegal means to organize and execute a campaign of violence and terrorism nationwide to accomplish these goals. This campaign involves coordinated efforts to obstruct enforcement of Federal laws through armed standoffs with law enforcement, organized riots, violent assaults on Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other law enforcement officers, and routine doxing of and other threats against political figures and activists."
And it could be getting much worse for the leftists and their agenda very soon.
A report in the Washington Examiner reveals that American Antifa cells actively have been receiving funds from an international antifascist network, and U.S. national security officials reportedly are moving toward a foreign terrorism classification for Antifa abroad.
"Antifa International, an antifascist cohort helping far-left militants connect to local Antifa cells or operate their own, is one of the international networks providing material support to Antifa operatives in the U.S. by way of its bail fund," the report said.
It confirmed, "The International Anti-Fascist Defense Fund, a project of Antifa International, effectively serving as its funding arm, pays for the legal defense of arrested antifascists 'anywhere in the world,' including the United States."
Members of an Antifa group in Texas are accused of attempted murder, terrorism and organized crime for an incident in which an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility was shot up in July. The report confirmed Antifa International allocated $5,000 for the suspects' legal defense.
A blog posting by the international organization said, "The stakes could not be higher for our friends." And it describes such funding as "money well-spent."
The international group boasts, in scorecard-type announcements, about results, such as "Anti-Fascists 2, Authorities 0."
The report documented the international organization assembles its cash through online campaigns and promotes them with merchandise like hoodies and flags.
"The organization's online store sells 'KILL FASCISTS' shirts and clothing specific to member chapters, such as Central Oregon Anti-Fascist Action; the Atlanta Antifascists; and the John Brown Gun Club's Texas-based Elm Fork branch, which reveres a radical pre-Civil War abolitionist who raided a federal armory in a violent slave revolt," the report said.
And Antifa International was endorsed by Torch Anti-Fascist Network, which has regional chapters all over the U.S.
The current "domestic terror" designation from Trump allows federal law enforcement to investigate, and "disrupt and dismantle" illegal operations by Antifa-related operations, including action against the funders. But the criminal cases would have to involve other allegations, such as arson, vandalism and such.
The additional designation would actually criminalize "involvement in terrorist activity. U.S. persons caught knowingly providing material support to foreign terrorists could face criminal liability, including up to 20 years in prison. Among other consequences for sponsors of foreign terrorism, the U.S. government can freeze assets, cutting off the funding flow and thereby financially crippling operations," the report said.
The report said now the Office of the Director of National Intelligence is looking at Antifa's transnational links, according to sources for investigating journalist Andy Ngo.
The Examiner said, "A framework already exists for the State Department to target a decentralized transnational network, even one connected mainly through social media."
That's courtesy of Joe Biden, who labeled Terrorgram, a collection of neo-Nazis operating primarily online, as "Specially Designated Global Terrorists."
Subsequently, Terrorgram leaders in California were charged, and pleaded guilty, to federal criminal charges.
In his earlier designation, Trump charged, "Antifa recruits, trains, and radicalizes young Americans to engage in this violence and suppression of political activity, then employs elaborate means and mechanisms to shield the identities of its operatives, conceal its funding sources and operations in an effort to frustrate law enforcement, and recruit additional members. Individuals associated with and acting on behalf of Antifa further coordinate with other organizations and entities for the purpose of spreading, fomenting, and advancing political violence and suppressing lawful political speech. This organized effort designed to achieve policy objectives by coercion and intimidation is domestic terrorism."
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
A leftist professor who promoted her pro-abortion ideology on campus, posting a sign on her Notre Dame office door to that effect, now apparently must pay $244,000 to a local student publication after she filed a failed lawsuit against it.
Word about the possible penalty for attacking the publication comes from James Bopp Jr., who founded the Bopp Law Firm that represented the Irish Rover, an independent, nonprofit, student publication at the school.
It advertises that it is "devoted to preserve the Catholic identity of Notre Dame."
It published articles about Tamara Kay, who teaches at the school, in the aftermath of the Supreme Court's ruling that overturned the faulty Roe v. Wade precedent that fabricated a federal "right" to abortion.
Kay posted a sign on her door that said, "This is a SAFE SPACE to get help and information on ALL Healthcare issues and access – confidentially with care and compassion."
Her social media account also often shared information supporting her abortion ideology, including details about "Plan C Pills," which is used to reference pills that induce abortion, the legal team explained.
The Irish Rover published two articles about her, each of which accurately reported on her pro-abortion access public statements and actions following the Roe ruling, and subsequent state law regarding abortion.
The court ruled "healthcare" referred to access to abortion services and found the reporting was accurate and lawful.
She lost her case in state court in South Bend, where it was dismissed. A state appeals court affirmed that and the state Supreme Court denied further appeal.
Now, because of a state law protecting those who exercising their right of free speech against frivolous lawsuits, the state statute calls for her to compensate the publication for its legal costs.
"Indiana's Anti-SLAPP law deters meritless cases attacking speech in connection with a public issue by allowing the accused to recoup their attorney fees from the people bringing these types of cases," explained Bopp. "It shocked me that a pro-abortion professor would bring a frivolous defamation law suit against a student-run newspaper, just to try to shut them up. My firm concentrates on defending First Amendment rights, and we were happy to defend The Irish Rover's right to free speech in this case."
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
Google has confirmed in a letter to Congress that Joe Biden demanded censorship of COVID and elections information on YouTube that conflicted with his ideological agenda at the time.
"It is unacceptable and wrong when any government, including the Biden administration, attempts to dictate how the company moderates content, and the company has consistently fought against those efforts on First Amendment grounds," Google's lawyer said in a letter to Congress.
The letter was the result of oversight work by Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio.
His announcement said the company admitted kicking creators off YouTube due to "political speech violations on topics such as COVID-19 and elections" and they are now being allowed to return if they choose.
Jordan's statement confirmed Google admitted that Biden "pressured Google to censor Americans and remove content that did not violate YouTube's policies" and that pressure was "unacceptable and wrong."
The fights over speech triggered by Biden's censorship agendas included his attempt to suppress many true statement statements about COVID, that it came out of Chinese lab experimenting on how to make bat viruses more dangerous, and that he demanded Americans take the experimental shots for the virus.
Those shots since have proven to be capable of causing serious injury to recipients, including death.
He also demanded suppression of comments about the failures of the American election system in the 2020 presidential vote that gave him the White House. Since then the public has learned that there were two major outside and undue influences on that election, one being the handout by Mark Zuckerberg of some $400 million to local election officials who often used it to recruit Democrat votes. Never before in American elections had such an amount of private money been used to influence the vote.
Further was the decision by the FBI to interfere in the vote, when it advised major news corporations to suppress information about Biden family scandals revealed in a laptop computer abandoned by Hunter Biden. The FBI falsely claimed it was Russia disinformation at a time the bureau knew the descriptions were factual.
Jordan confirmed that Google also promised never again to use third-party "fact-checkers," an industry that arose to spread leftist disinformation as true during COVID and the election.
Jordan's investigation of Google already has spanned years.
The letter to Jordan was from Daniel Donovan, a lawyer for Google.
In it, he claimed Google "is committed to doing its part to continue to keep the digital ecosystem safe, reliable and open to free expression."
It claims a bias "towards a particular viewpoint is not in line with the company's values…"
During COVID, he wrote, "Senior Biden administration officials, including White House officials, conducted repeated and sustained outreach to Alphabet and pressed the company regarding certain user-generated content related to the COVID-19 pandemic that did not violate its policies. While the company continued to develop and enforce its policies independently, Biden administration officials continue to press the company to remove non-violative user-generated content."
Biden, he said, "created a political atmosphere that sought to influence the actions of platforms based on their concerns regarding misinformation."
He claimed YouTube's current policy "allows a wide range of content regarding COVID-19 and elections."
Further, it has "sunsetted a [previous] policy to allow for discussion of possible widespread fraud, errors, or glitches occurring in the 2020 and other past U.S. presidential elections."
It is providing a way "for all creators to rejoin the platform if the company terminated their channels for repeated violations of COVID-19 and elections integrity policies that are no longer in effect."
Google also warned against Europe's Digital Services Act and Digital Markets Act as attempts to threaten "freedom of expression within and outside of the European Union … ."
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
America now has its own jihadis – those who advocate for and are willing to carry out the destruction of those who disagree with their agenda.
But it has nothing to do with the common understanding of jihadis, those who kill wantonly for the sake of Islam and their god, Allah.
That's according to a stunning commentary from Drew White, a former U.S. Senate staff member and policy adviser to multiple organizations, who wrote at the Federalist about the assassination of Charlie Kirk, co-founder of Turning Point USA, which advocated for civil dialogue, free speech and even a spiritual revival in America.
"Two days after Kirk's assassination, a former colleague shook his head in disbelief that the left would kill conservatives for simply having a different political perspective. While many conservatives indeed see it as an ideological dispute, leftists increasingly see it as their sacred duty — not unlike a jihadist — to snuff out those who refuse to worship at their pagan altar of Gaia (climate change), Moloch (abortion), or Ishtar (transgenderism)," the article explained.
"This is a spiritual conflict and the casualties are mounting. It's children being gunned down at mass in Minneapolis Catholic schools, teachers and children being martyred at Christian schools in Nashville, young Jewish couples being murdered outside museums in Washington, D.C., and prominent voices for Jesus being assassinated in Orem, Utah."
And it's partly the fault of the "American church," he said.
They and "a significant number of Christian leaders," have "allowed these demonic old gods to effectively displace the one true God from the public square, often in a misguided bid to be 'seeker-sensitive' at the expense of Gospel truth."
He explained, "Kirk was bold, clear-eyed, and courageously defended conservative principles. Much more, he was an unapologetic follower of Jesus who put his faith first and forward. He never missed an opportunity to talk to the lost about his Savior. And it was for that reason that Kirk was martyred before the eyes of the world.
"Contra conventional wisdom, this was no political assassination, but rather the physical manifestation of spiritual warfare — revealing the demonic undercurrents driving the political left. Many others have done yeoman's work — including Kirk — highlighting the increasing violence of the left in the United States. According to a YouGov survey released the day Kirk was murdered, a chilling 26 percent of self-identified liberals under the age of 45 believe political violence is sometimes justified."
He explained it amounts to "a secular religion that seeks to erase God and is at war with the Gospel."
He noted many would think America's first prominent martyr of our times should have been a pastor or theologian.
He said the answer is obvious.
"The reason is because Kirk was a threat to the enemy — the real enemy. And the broader American church currently "
He said society now elevates identity and self-worship "as the highest good."
"It aims to nullify the church into adopting modern pagan syncretism through distorted definitions of 'social justice' and a guilt-laden emphasis on helping 'marginalized people,' all while aiming to colonize church institutions in service to an evil ideology that explicitly seeks to eradicate God from our civilization," he said.
He noted his own experience with church operatives who told a congregant they would be praying over a situation in which a drag queen teacher was trying to groom children at school.
"When our friend came to my wife and me, we did what we knew how to do from years of political battles. We crafted the ironclad case. We set the strategic table. We kept our hearts focused on protecting the kids of our community. And when the moment arrived, we poured righteous accountability down on the local school board from every angle — using our national political connections — so that they had no choice but to push the pervert 'teacher' out of the classroom," he said.
He said that same church's response was to fret over the possible ramifications for church congregants.
He said far from being political issues, life, marriage and being made in the image of God are "the essential things of the church."
"Yes, Kirk is dead because a demon-possessed adherent of radical gender theory, an offshoot of Marxist critical theory, assassinated him for speaking the truth. Yet his martyrdom also makes the weakness of the American church obvious by comparison. This must change," he said.
"It is long past time for the pastors and Christian leaders of this country to rejoin us on the increasingly spiritual battlefield called 'politics.'"
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
A sitting member of Congress has come up with a startling definition of "criminal." It's apparently not someone who commits a crime.
That's according to Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, who boasted during an interview of having conversations with "people that were going out and committing crimes."
"I do want people to know that, just because someone has committed a crime doesn't make them a criminal. … Being a criminal is more so about your mindset."
Her comments prompted a commenter to post online the definition from the Oxford dictionary explaining "crim-i-nal" is "a person who has committed a crime."
"While mindset and intent can influence the severity or context of the act, the label 'criminal' is tied to the action itself, not just a state of mind," said another.
Under Crockett's mindset, driving a truck would not necessarily make one a truck driver, and sitting behind a bench in a courtroom and delivering judgments would not necessarily make one a judge.
Nor would being elected make someone a member of Congress?
Fox News described how she claimed to be working on how to make communities safer.
"And I do think that I'm in a unique situation because I was having the conversations with people that were going out and committing crimes. And so, I understood what was kind of pushing them there. And so, I do want people to know that, just because someone has committed a crime, it doesn't make them a criminal. That is completely different. Being a criminal is more so about your mindset. Committing a crime can come for a lot of different reasons," she claimed.
She then amplified her longstanding anti-Trump agenda, stating that it's "the MAGA gang" that is responsible for crime being "out of control" rather than illegal aliens.
She earlier claimed that police are not there to prevent crime, just solve it after the fact.
Another commenter quoted George Orwell's "1984" stating, "Love is Hate, War is Peace."
Other situations were suggested: "So if I snatch that bling right off your neck it's not criminal cause I was just jealous you had a necklace I didn't."
And alarmingly, one commenter said, "So if you kill, but you thought you were helping society, then that's ok?? Right??"
The Gateway Pundit called her "thicko" in a report about her interview with a Netflix personality.
It explained, "Over the past year, Crockett has become notorious for her vulgar language, shocking ignorance, and deliberately provocative remarks — especially when discussing President Trump or the wider conservative movement."
Further, it reported, "During a House Judiciary Committee hearing on Wednesday, Crockett downplayed the murder of Kayla Hamilton, a 20-year-old autistic woman who was raped and killed by an MS-13 gang member in 2022."
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
A lot of violence-promoting hate language has erupted across America since the politically motivated assassination of Turning Point USA co-founder Charlie Kirk in Utah a week ago.
One of the more egregious comments has come out of Oberlin's student body.
That school, which has a documented history of attacking innocent people, and paying the damages, now has disavowed the comments from student Julia Xu, who insisted, "We need to bring back political assassinations."
A report at the Gateway Pundit described Xu as "a radical leftist student" who is on the college's board for "Gender, Sexuality, and Attraction Initiatives" and supports "Students for a Free Palestine."
She was posting on social media under the slogan "bringbacktheguillotine."
The New York Post noted how she admitted her "learnings" were influenced by China's dictator.
Xu later told the Post she was "deeply remorseful" for her agenda of violence.
School officials said Xu's comments don't reflect the opinions of the class or the school, but there was no evidence she would be facing any punishment.
The school's record of attacking innocent bystanders includes the case of the Gibson family-owned bakery near the campus.
The school and its faculty made false accusations of racism against the bakery and its owners, and lost in court, ending up paying more than $36 million in defamation damages.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
In an interview Wednesday, former President Barack Obama discussed the assassination of Charlie Kirk, pointing to the rhetoric of President Donald Trump and some of his administration for contributing to and normalizing political vitriol in America.
Speaking at the Jefferson Educational Society in Erie, Pennsylvania, Obama said Trump and his allies calling their opponents "vermin" and "enemies … speaks to a broader problem."
Obama condemned some in "authority" for trying "to silence discussion" in the nation after Kirk's murder.
"I didn't know Charlie Kirk, Obama said. "I was generally aware of some of his ideas. I think those ideas were wrong – but that doesn't negate that what happened was a tragedy, and I mourn for his family."
In response, White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said in a statement: "Obama used every opportunity to sow division and pit Americans against each other, and following his presidency more Americans felt Obama divided the country than felt he united it."