Donald Trump’s desire for Greenland is not just about access to oil, minerals and control of the new strategic and commercial corridors opening in the region. It’s also about data. Specifically, the most important data in the world.

For decades, Pituffik Space Base – formerly Thule – in Greenland has been central to US space defense and Arctic strategy. It’s the US military’s only base above the Arctic Circle and their most northerly deep-water port and airstrip. It’s home to the 12th Space Warning Squadron. Its massive AN/FPS-132 radar has 240 degrees of coverage surveying the Arctic Ocean and Russia’s northern coast, especially the Kola peninsula where it has concentrated its strategic nuclear weapons.

The high north is on the approach route for Russia’s ballistic missiles as they head for the US mainland. When a Russian rocket blasts off, especially if unannounced, Pituffik reacts to data from the Air Force’s Space Based Infrared System, which detects the rocket’s heat signature from its engines during take-off.

It then reconfigures the radar to track it, sending real-time reports to the US Combined Space Operations Center at Vandenburg Air Force Base in California, as well as the Missile Warning Center in Colorado Springs. Every day, Pituffik also tracks hundreds of satellites: Russian, and the increasingly sophisticated orbital manoeuvres of the Chinese.

Donald Trump recently posted on social media that Greenland is “vital for the Golden Dome we are building” – referring to his enormous defense project against space weapons and ballistic weapons. Pituffik will be at the front line of the Dome and duly upgraded in the next few years. It will provide an outer shield and important extra time and data for ground and space-based interceptors.

In March last year, Vice President J.D. Vance, who two months before hosted the Danish and Greenlandic foreign ministers in Washington, visited Pituffik. Soon after his trip, the commander of the station, Colonel Susannah Meyers, was fired, reportedly for distancing herself from Vance’s criticisms of Denmark’s handling of Greenland’s security.

The base is run by the US, but the Danish flag flies over it. Visitors can see it is functional but run down. At the same time, China and Russia are currently refurbishing old oilfields and infrastructure, radars and sensors in the region. Pituffik used to be assigned to US European Command but was last year reassigned to US Northern Command, an indication that the island is seen as a growing part of homeland defense.

And Pituffik is not the only high-latitude space base that is vital to the US, and indeed the West. Svalbard is a Norwegian island chain 600 miles north of Norway’s most northernmost city Tromsø. It is the world’s most important space base, providing ground services to more satellites than any other facility on Earth. If you control space, you control the Earth, and this time Russia is already there. The US believes that nobody will fight them if they move on Greenland. Europe has said it will be the end of NATO. This is just what Russia wants, and it’s got its eyes on Svalbard.

Polar ground stations are the only places where satellites in certain vital orbits can downlink their data and receive commands on every lap of the Earth. They are important to gather data for science and weather forecasting, and internet traffic generally relies on the satellite infrastructure in Svalbard.

The Svalbard Treaty of 1920 between Norway and Russia gives sovereignty to Norway, but gives Russia rights to settlements there. The treaty bans military fortifications and activities on Svalbard, but satellite data of almost any kind can have dual use: for example, the weather over Ukraine and its internet traffic have military significance. While Svalbard doesn’t work directly with military satellites, other ground stations in northern Norway do, connecting with satellites that do military communications and missile warning.

In its early years such data had to be shipped out on magnetic tape, but since the early 2000s the island has been linked to mainland Norway with an undersea data cable that, along with a second cable, sends valuable data to the continent and provides the internet to the island.

In January 2022, one of the cables was cut. For 11 days the island ran on just one communications line. Some investigators suggest it was accidental, possibly due to a dragging anchor from a fishing boat, but inevitably suspicion turned on Russia. A Russian trawler passed over the cable’s path more than 20 times in the days before the cut. Svalbard has workarounds for such a situation, but it still resulted in delays of several hours which can affect weather predictions. Just last month, Finnish authorities accused Russian ships of severing a cable in the Baltic Sea.

Norway’s sovereignty over the archipelago allows people from other national signatories to live and work as full residents without visas. There are hundreds of Russian citizens among its population of 3,000.

In 2023, some Russian residents staged a military-style parade in two Svalbard settlements. Men in Army green flew in a Mi-8 helicopter after a “navy parade” in the waters off Svalbard the previous year. In 2023, a group led by a prominent Russian bishop erected a 20ft Orthodox cross, with a ribbon supporting the war in Ukraine. The subtle undermining of the treaty is underway. Russian officials have questioned Norway’s sovereignty over the island prompting the Norwegian government to increase its presence on the archipelago.

As it is in Greenland, so it is in the European Arctic. The US Space Force’s Space Development Agency is constructing a satellite ground station on the island of Andøya, alongside an existing Norwegian military installation, to communicate with and control a constellation of satellites carrying out missile tracking and weapons targeting. The US and Norway recently launched Arctic Satellite Broadband Mission to maintain contact with military facilities in the High North.

The scenario concerning analysts is what would happen if Russia made a move on Svalbard, citing a possible Trump military move on Greenland as justification to protect its own national assets. Moscow can clearly portray America’s activities as looking for provocation, while positioning itself as the defender of the Svalbard Treaty. It’s unlikely that Russia would occupy the main settlement, but it could start expanding its loss-making mining colony at Barentsburg and smuggling in equipment.

Russia would also be able to jam and spoof the satellites Svalbard maintains links with, and in so doing disrupt global communications. Given Russia’s stalemate in Ukraine, a move against Svalbard makes much more sense than moving against the Baltic States.

An invasion is not seen as militarily possible, and even without a NATO response the combined Scandinavian forces are impressive. But in many ways Svalbard is a modern-day Thermopylae – a vulnerable pinch point for information. It’s also been called NATO’s Achilles’ Heel.

The culture wars are taking their toll, and the nation could suffer irreparable damage.

The late Andrew Breitbart emphasized that “politics is downstream from culture,” meaning that culture shapes society’s values, which in turn determine its politics. Today, we are in the midst of a colossal culture war, with zealous radicals seeking to overturn our long-standing traditions and institutions.

One ongoing struggle that has received national attention is the absurd claim that a male who decides he’s a female has a constitutional right to compete in women’s sports. At this time, 27 states have laws or policies prohibiting the gender benders’ insane scheme, but appellate courts in Idaho and West Virginia say that’s wrong. Now the Supreme Court is dealing with the insanity.

On Jan. 13, SCOTUS heard appeals from the two states. Little v. Hecox concerns an adult biological male, Lindsay Hecox, who sought to compete on women’s track and cross-country teams at Boise State University. West Virginia v. B.P.J. involves a teenage track and cross-country athlete. Both states have barred biological males from women’s teams.

During oral arguments, Justice Samuel Alito pressed the attorney representing the transgender athletes, prompting a concession that a male simply declaring himself a woman is not sufficient to guarantee the right to compete on a girls’ sports team.

However, Justice Ketanji Jackson delivered a garbled message: “Is treating someone transgender but does not have, because of the medical interventions and the things that have been done, who does not have, uh, the same, uh, threat to physical competition and safety and all the reasons the state puts forward—that’s actually a different class, says this individual. So you’re not treating the class the same. And how do you respond to that?” (This is the same justice who, when asked in 2022 whether she could define the word “woman,” replied that, because she wasn’t a biologist, she couldn’t.)

While the transitioning issue has harmed women, men are also in the crosshairs of culture warriors. For example, a Scientific American article describes how to fight “Toxic Masculinity.” Additionally, the American Psychological Association declares that “traditional masculinity is psychologically harmful.” In fact, the APA is front and center in the war on men. The organization’s guidelines maintain, “Conforming to traditional masculinity ideology has been shown to limit males’ psychological development, constrain their behavior, result in gender role strain and gender role conflict, and negatively influence mental health and physical health.” Their guidelines also claim that “traditional masculinity leads to violence.”

Needless to say, the perverse culture warriors have a “Get ‘em while they’re young” mindset and thus target children.

A case in point is California, where in late 2024, AB 1955, the state’s so-called “Support Academic Futures and Educators for Today’s Youth (SAFETY) Act,” took effect. This despicable law specifically prohibits schools from adopting any policies that require them to disclose “any information related to a pupil’s sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression to any other person—including parents—without the pupil’s consent.”

The question is whether parents have a right not to be kept in the dark by a school if their child begins a gender transition.

A federal judge recently ruled in favor of the parents. Judge Roger Benitez writes that the California policies “are designed to create a zone of secrecy around a student who expresses gender incongruity.” Children as young as two years old are required to consent before teachers can talk to their parents about gender issues. Judge Benitez says this violates the Constitution on both sides: “Parents have a right to receive gender information and teachers have a right to provide to parents accurate information about a child’s gender identity.”

The state sought to defend its approach as necessary to prevent bullying. While the judge lauded that goal, he responded, “The problem is that the parent exclusion policies seem to presume that it is the parents who will be the harassers from whom students need to be protected. California state policymakers apparently do not trust parents to do the right thing for their child.”

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has stayed his ruling for now, but this issue, too, could reach the Supreme Court.

Another area where culture warriors have had a significant impact is classroom indoctrination, and examples abound. One glaring example is in Pennsylvania, where public school teachers affiliated with “Philadelphia Educators for Palestine” were found to have violated school district policy by allowing students to join a Signal chat that celebrated anti-Israel terrorism, promoted Marxism, and advertised a “Rally for Rage and Resistance” on the second anniversary of Hamas’s October 7 massacre.

Keziah Ridgeway, a Black Muslim educator at Northeast High School, was temporarily placed on administrative leave after she was accused of threatening Jewish parents who objected to her persistent intrusion of antisemitic and anti-Israel propaganda into the classroom. Ridgeway publicized the names of local Jewish leaders and implied that gun owners should target them. She is now, unfortunately, back in the classroom and suing the Philadelphia school district, alleging discrimination.

At the same time that students are learning to deny biological reality and hate Jews, basic parts of their education are neglected. According to the latest National Assessment of Educational Progress scores, only 22% of high school seniors are proficient or above in math, and just 35% are proficient in reading—the lowest scores since NAEP began in 1969. Also, a record-high percentage scored at “below basic” levels in both math and reading compared with all previous assessments.

To reverse this alarming trend, we must return to a traditional education curriculum.

A good example is the Founders Classical Academy, a charter school in Lewisville, TX, that is part of a network of 23 “classical” schools, primarily in Texas and Arkansas. The Founders network is one of about 275 classical charter schools nationwide. Including private religious schools that call themselves classical, about 250,000 students now attend such schools.

Not surprisingly, classical education elicits howls from the radicals, who argue that these schools are “the thin edge of the wedge of cultural warfare.” A 2023 report by the left-wing Network for Public Education, an advocacy group, describes the terms “classical” and “traditional” as “dog whistles to attract conservative families with Christian nationalist identities anxious to place their children in schools that reflect early- and mid-20th-century values, pedagogy, and curriculum.”

There is no doubt that we are in the throes of a culture war that, if left unopposed, will obliterate traditional American values, leaving our nation 

The culture wars are taking their toll, and the nation could suffer irreparable damage.

The late Andrew Breitbart emphasized that “politics is downstream from culture,” meaning that culture shapes society’s values, which in turn determine its politics. Today, we are in the midst of a colossal culture war, with zealous radicals seeking to overturn our long-standing traditions and institutions.

One ongoing struggle that has received national attention is the absurd claim that a male who decides he’s a female has a constitutional right to compete in women’s sports. At this time, 27 states have laws or policies prohibiting the gender benders’ insane scheme, but appellate courts in Idaho and West Virginia say that’s wrong. Now the Supreme Court is dealing with the insanity.

On Jan. 13, SCOTUS heard appeals from the two states. Little v. Hecox concerns an adult biological male, Lindsay Hecox, who sought to compete on women’s track and cross-country teams at Boise State University. West Virginia v. B.P.J. involves a teenage track and cross-country athlete. Both states have barred biological males from women’s teams.

During oral arguments, Justice Samuel Alito pressed the attorney representing the transgender athletes, prompting a concession that a male simply declaring himself a woman is not sufficient to guarantee the right to compete on a girls’ sports team.

However, Justice Ketanji Jackson delivered a garbled message: “Is treating someone transgender but does not have, because of the medical interventions and the things that have been done, who does not have, uh, the same, uh, threat to physical competition and safety and all the reasons the state puts forward—that’s actually a different class, says this individual. So you’re not treating the class the same. And how do you respond to that?” (This is the same justice who, when asked in 2022 whether she could define the word “woman,” replied that, because she wasn’t a biologist, she couldn’t.)

While the transitioning issue has harmed women, men are also in the crosshairs of culture warriors. For example, a Scientific American article describes how to fight “Toxic Masculinity.” Additionally, the American Psychological Association declares that “traditional masculinity is psychologically harmful.” In fact, the APA is front and center in the war on men. The organization’s guidelines maintain, “Conforming to traditional masculinity ideology has been shown to limit males’ psychological development, constrain their behavior, result in gender role strain and gender role conflict, and negatively influence mental health and physical health.” Their guidelines also claim that “traditional masculinity leads to violence.”

Needless to say, the perverse culture warriors have a “Get ‘em while they’re young” mindset and thus target children.

A case in point is California, where in late 2024, AB 1955, the state’s so-called “Support Academic Futures and Educators for Today’s Youth (SAFETY) Act,” took effect. This despicable law specifically prohibits schools from adopting any policies that require them to disclose “any information related to a pupil’s sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression to any other person—including parents—without the pupil’s consent.”

The question is whether parents have a right not to be kept in the dark by a school if their child begins a gender transition.

A federal judge recently ruled in favor of the parents. Judge Roger Benitez writes that the California policies “are designed to create a zone of secrecy around a student who expresses gender incongruity.” Children as young as two years old are required to consent before teachers can talk to their parents about gender issues. Judge Benitez says this violates the Constitution on both sides: “Parents have a right to receive gender information and teachers have a right to provide to parents accurate information about a child’s gender identity.”

The state sought to defend its approach as necessary to prevent bullying. While the judge lauded that goal, he responded, “The problem is that the parent exclusion policies seem to presume that it is the parents who will be the harassers from whom students need to be protected. California state policymakers apparently do not trust parents to do the right thing for their child.”

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has stayed his ruling for now, but this issue, too, could reach the Supreme Court.

Another area where culture warriors have had a significant impact is classroom indoctrination, and examples abound. One glaring example is in Pennsylvania, where public school teachers affiliated with “Philadelphia Educators for Palestine” were found to have violated school district policy by allowing students to join a Signal chat that celebrated anti-Israel terrorism, promoted Marxism, and advertised a “Rally for Rage and Resistance” on the second anniversary of Hamas’s October 7 massacre.

Keziah Ridgeway, a Black Muslim educator at Northeast High School, was temporarily placed on administrative leave after she was accused of threatening Jewish parents who objected to her persistent intrusion of antisemitic and anti-Israel propaganda into the classroom. Ridgeway publicized the names of local Jewish leaders and implied that gun owners should target them. She is now, unfortunately, back in the classroom and suing the Philadelphia school district, alleging discrimination.

At the same time that students are learning to deny biological reality and hate Jews, basic parts of their education are neglected. According to the latest National Assessment of Educational Progress scores, only 22% of high school seniors are proficient or above in math, and just 35% are proficient in reading—the lowest scores since NAEP began in 1969. Also, a record-high percentage scored at “below basic” levels in both math and reading compared with all previous assessments.

To reverse this alarming trend, we must return to a traditional education curriculum.

There is no doubt that we are in the throes of a culture war that, if left unopposed, will obliterate traditional American values, leaving our nation 

A good example is the Founders Classical Academy, a charter school in Lewisville, TX, that is part of a network of 23 “classical” schools, primarily in Texas and Arkansas. The Founders network is one of about 275 classical charter schools nationwide. Including private religious schools that call themselves classical, about 250,000 students now attend such schools.

Not surprisingly, classical education elicits howls from the radicals, who argue that these schools are “the thin edge of the wedge of cultural warfare.” A 2023 report by the left-wing Network for Public Education, an advocacy group, describes the terms “classical” and “traditional” as “dog whistles to attract conservative families with Christian nationalist identities anxious to place their children in schools that reflect early- and mid-20th-century values, pedagogy, and curriculum.”

There is no doubt that we are in the throes of a culture war that, if left unopposed, will obliterate traditional American values, leaving our nation unrecognizable.

Larry Sand, American Greatness

Clearly, the totalitarians of today are using immigration as a means to secure votes and sustain majorities that will ensure their rule forever. They will fight to the death to ensure illegal immigration. They will get Democrat voters into the country by any means necessary. There’s nothing they won’t do to stoke up civil war, unrest and media-manipulated sympathy to their side. Latest example: Minneapolis. Wouldn’t it be a whole lot easier — from the totalitarian point-of-view — simply to take over? Seize the military, consolidate control over the government, control free speech? They already have the corporate world, entertainment/sports, the media, and schools/universities almost universally on their side. Why invest the energy into manipulating elections to make it look like they’re “democrats” when, clearly, they are totalitarians? Why not just skip the middle man and finish the job they started under their puppet Biden regime?

*******

Democrats used to pass laws to make illegal anything they dislike. They were usually wrong; but they struggled. Now they just scream what they want, as an emotionally-based entitlement demanding immediate gratification. Trump is in power, and it makes them wild with rage. Not because he’s Trump; but because they feel entitled to have every wish fulfilled immediately and without equivocation. Yes, Democrats are totalitarians and tyrants. But they have the emotional maturity of three-year-olds. They will not sustain a nation or a civilization. They WILL fall, for the same reasons all insanity collapses. The only question: Will the sane permit these psychotic leftists to take us down with them?

Michael J. Hurd, Daily Dose of Reason

BILLY BOB THORNTON: “Politically, I call myself a radical moderate… I just look at what makes sense and I think we need a common sense party in this country.”

Thornton on The Joe Rogan Experience Podcast on Friday suggested that both political parties in America do not make sense, and that it should be “pretty easy to figure out.”

Rogan Responded by suggesting the country needs a “non ideologically captured party”.

Joe Rogan gets it wrong again. I don’t think the solution to our problems is to eradicate ideology. Why not? Because ideas are inescapable. Ideas are implicit in every thought, every emotion and every action. A government either bases its policies and legitimacy on the ideas of freedom, individual rights — or on the idea of controlling everyone. Think about it. Would you support a political party or candidate who states: “I have no ideas”? Of course not. The only question is: which ideas? Or whose ideas?

I will always support the candidate closer to the spirit and specifics of America’s founders: the Bill of Rights, due process, private property and individual rights. Today, President Trump and the better Republicans are the only people on earth, of those running for office, who stand for anything like those ideas. Democrats running for office are rabid, psychopathic totalitarians hellbent on implementing the worst ideas ever conceived by human beings. If you think you can escape ideas in politics (or any other realm of human significance), you’re fantasizing.

Michael J. Hurd, Daily Dose of Reason

I remain a tremendous fan of Ayn Rand (Atlas Shrugged, Anthem, The Fountainhead, Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal), who contributed enormously to my comprehension of psychology, philosophy, human nature, ethics and government. The people writing in her name today, without any authorization by her since she died over 40 years ago, are peddling as original the precise propaganda you can find on MSNBC or in The New York Times. This post will be of interest to those who follow such topics.

The following is a post by Char Cushman to which I say, Bravo!

For those of you who have read Harry Binswanger’s latest post about ICE. I 100% disagree with him. He completely ignores the entire context.
Culture matters.

Binswanger [of the Ayn Rand Institute] claims we are all tribalists who dislike immigrants because of their color. I wonder what he thinks about Ayn Rand when she called people in the Middle East savages.

He defends the rule of law–the aliens broke immigration law. What about that law? Without vetting, immigrants entered here who have harmed American citizens. They have brutally murdered people, raped and murdered women, and have committed massive theft (the Day care fraud and other fraud) from us. And don’t forget that many of them hate our country and wish for our demise i.e. “death to America.” I have heard some say, well, we have criminals too. So? Our criminals should go to jail and criminal immigrants should be deported. Let’s say the rape and murder of Laken Riley was the only crime committed. It was one death too many. It would have never happened if we had protected borders. Tell Laken Riley’s parents, family and close friends that her death by an illegal alien doesn’t matter because we already have criminals here.

The Left is focusing on the rights of the immigrants. Those who commit crimes have given up their rights. Besides, what about our rights? We don’t have any? We work and pay the taxes, but we don’t get a say on who can come here?

There is NO RIGHT to go where ever you want to in the world. To say it is a right means that others have to provide you entrance no matter where you go, no matter who you are. Criminals do not have a right to go where ever they want. That is one reason why borders need to be protected so that the good immigrants can be distinguished from the bad.

Another crucial point is that we are now a welfare state which was not the case in the early years of our country. How many people can we support on welfare before the United States collapses?

Don’t listen to ARI (Ayn Rand Institute). They are traitors to our country.

… I would add to this that the protestors are not peaceful. Blocking traffic, spitting on officers, throwing bricks at them, surrounding their cars, breaking their windows, breaking into their cars, and stealing items such as guns from police cars is not peaceful. Plus, there is evidence that they are paid to protest. My only complaint about them is that they are being too soft. From the get go, they should have been arresting them and putting them in jail or spraying them with pepper spray or cold water.

By all means, read and discover the ideas and contributions of Ayn Rand. As for the people peddling leftism and subjectivism at ARI, run for your life.

As a reader commented on Facebook, “I’m totally flabbergasted at the turn ARI has taken in the last ten years — maybe longer, but I didn’t notice it until the 2016 election cycle, when they went off the rails.”

My reply: When you think about it, the people at ARI are making a career living off the work of another person, i.e., Ayn Rand. They’re the very kind of people she wrote about as the mediocrities in her novels. From what I can see, the leadership there hasn’t changed for two decades or more. It seems like this would have to be a symptom of something. The great thing about Ayn Rand’s ideas is that they will matter, and they will always matter somewhere, to somebody; ARI will be forgotten when it eventually runs out of other people’s money.

Michael J. Hurd, Daily Dose of Reason

Existence is rational. Questions are reasonable. All questions can ultimately be answered — it’s only a matter of knowledge and time. In short: It’s a rational universe. Things are “figure outable”. Children start out with this unarticulated, but deeply held, conviction. It’s the irrational and dysfunctional people who cause them to later question it. Giving up on this originally valid conviction leads to the unhappiness and internal conflict so prevalent in the world. Holding on to it — or learning how to embrace it once again — is the road back to serenity and happiness in life.

Michael J. Hurd, Daily Dose of Reason

Tensions over Greenland disrupted ⁠negotiations on the prosperity ​plan text this ⁠week, the FT report said, adding that the U.S. did not send ‍a representative to a key meeting on Monday evening.

The “prosperity plan” was not ‌being shelved indefinitely and could still be signed at a later date, the newspaper added.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy ⁠said on ​Tuesday that he would ‍travel to Davos only if documents on security guarantees with the United States and a ‍prosperity plan were ready to be signed there.

© 2026 Thomson/Reuters. All rights

European opposition ⁠to President Donald Trump’s bid to acquire Greenland and his proposed “Board of Peace” initiative has disrupted plans for an economic support package for postwar Ukraine, the Financial Times reported ‍on Wednesday.

A planned announcement of an $800 billion prosperity ‍plan to be agreed between Ukraine, Europe, and the U.S. at the World Economic Forum ⁠in Davos this week has been delayed, the report said, citing six officials.

Reuters could not immediately verify ​the report. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Nobody is in any mood to stage ‍a grand spectacle around an agreement with Trump right now,” ⁠one official told the FT, adding that disputes over Greenland and the Board of Peace had overtaken an earlier focus on Ukraine at the Davos meeting.

Tensions over Greenland disrupted ⁠negotiations on the prosperity ​plan text this ⁠week, the FT report said, adding that the U.S. did not send ‍a representative to a key meeting on Monday evening.

The “prosperity plan” was not ‌being shelved indefinitely and could still be signed at a later date, the newspaper added.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy ⁠said on ​Tuesday that he would ‍travel to Davos only if documents on security guarantees with the United States and a ‍prosperity plan were ready to be signed there.

© 2026 Thomson/Reuters. All rights reserved.

How many times have you heard it said that Barack Obama was “deporter in chief”? How many times did Joe Biden brag that he’d deported more illegal immigrants than Donald Trump had in his first term?

Turns out, those were wild distortions of the truth bordering – if you will pardon the pun – on outright lies.

In late 2024, for example, we saw stories about how deportations that year were the largest in a decade, beating Trump’s record in what would be his first term.

As NPR put it, this meant that “the Republican narrative that the Biden administration has not done anything to combat illegal immigration is just not true.”

The New York Times, of all places, called the lie on this (albeit unintentionally).

Over the weekend, it published a story about how many people Trump has deported. Except in doing so, it broke down the number of deportations “of people arrested inside the country” and those “arrested at the border.”

There’s a big difference. During the Obama and Biden administrations illegals were flooding across the border. They came in record numbers during the Biden years.

Turning them around and sending them home isn’t the same as removing those who managed to sneak past border agents, or worse, were caught and released. But the press never made that distinction.

What did the Times report?

That in his first year, Trump arrested and deported 230,000 illegals inside the country – a number, it says that “is already higher than the total during the entire four years of the Biden administration.”

In contrast, the number being turned around at the border has dropped from roughly 600,000 in 2024, Biden’s final year in office, to just over 250,000 in 2025, the first year of Trump’s second term.

But that’s good news. Because it means fewer are now trying to come into the country illegally under Trump.

So, not only has Trump made remarkable progress in securing the border, he is actually doing his job and removing those inside the country who are here illegally.

This should be cause for celebration.

The ones who deserve to be condemned are Obama and Biden for gaslighting the country about their immigration policies.

Issues & Insights Editorial Board

J. B. Shurk, American Thinker

It has been disconcerting to watch Minnesota governor Tim Walz and Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey go out of their way to defend not only the violent actions of illegal aliens residing in their state but also the criminal behavior of citizens who endanger the lives of law enforcement officers and everyone around them by obstructing necessary arrests.

The Department of Homeland Security has been spectacularly transparent about the targets of its operations in the North Star State. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents are going after vile human beings who should not be walking freely on American streets. Men accused or convicted of murder, child rape, and other horrific violence have fled their home countries and now call Minnesota (and other “sanctuary” jurisdictions) home. If they were white, Anglo-Saxon Protestants — or could otherwise be quickly dismissed by prominent news personalities as just “privileged white boys” — nobody would be defending these scumbags. Because Walz, Frey, and the propaganda press describe them as part of the “immigrant community,” middle-aged Minnesota women are willing to risk their lives to keep men who rape and murder women and children from being detained. The whole scene is sad, disturbing, and discouraging. 

To be sure, what’s unfolding in Minnesota and other Democrat-controlled cities and states in response to President Trump and DHS Secretary Kristi Noem’s immigration enforcement operations has many moving parts. Information warfare is a permanent component of the modern battlespace. When almost every person on the planet has a pocket computer that also makes phone calls and social media sites are constantly pinging those pockets with targeted news stories, bits of information behave like bullets directed to shape or destroy the minds of those in the crosshairs.

Foreign and domestic billionaires, multinational investment firms, and local Chamber of Commerce chapters have real financial interests in influencing American mindsets regarding the flow of illegal immigrants into the United States. Among other economic and cultural motivations of the Big Business community, endless supplies of cheap labor help to drive profits while simultaneously preventing the American middle class from ever prospering robustly enough to compete on its own terms. While business firms economically benefit from downward pressure on employee wages, they also economically benefit from the growing supply of illegal alien customers. When millions of people enter the United States illegally, the increased demand they create for food, fuel, housing, and other commercial goods drives up prices. Because illegal aliens disproportionately depend upon local, state, and federal welfare programs to survive, all levels of the American government directly subsidize these price increases. American taxpayers, in other words, pay for welfare that contributes to inflation which, in turn, decreases Americans’ disposable income (income that is kept artificially lower due to competition from illegal immigrant employees). Public schools, hospitals, and other social welfare institutions are also forced to spend substantial percentages of their allotted taxpayer funds on services for people illegally residing in the United States. The end result is this: Big Business profits from illegal aliens while offloading the financial and social costs onto Americans already struggling.

Foreign militaries and espionage agencies have real strategic interests in causing deadly mayhem in American cities and enough social upheaval to weaken the influence of federal authorities. Just as the U.S. military and America’s Intelligence Community have been justifiably accused of fomenting “color revolutions” abroad, foreign powers habitually work to undermine the social stability, legitimacy, and peace of the United States. It is no surprise that so many anti-ICE groups operating in Minnesota today receive operational funds from non-governmental organizations and “charities” whose funding appears to originate with foreign financiers with direct links to adversarial governments such as China.

The Democrat Party — as the political party technically out of power in Congress and the White House (although realistically still exercising vast power through its agents operating within the permanent bureaucracy) — has real political interests in undermining both President Trump and a MAGA agenda that threatens Democrats’ priorities. Among those priorities, Democrat politicians benefit from intentional disregard for federal immigration laws and the importation of new “voters” who often come from third-world countries whose leftist and even communist policies align much more closely with the Democrat Party in the United States. As we have begun to see with the multi-billion-dollar Somali fraud scandal in Minnesota (just the tip of a much larger fraud-iceberg that has steadily grown in Democrat jurisdictions across the country), when criminal illegal aliens and criminal politicians conspire together to launder taxpayer money into their own pockets, politicians, illegal aliens, and other fraudsters have much to gain both politically (in terms of ill-gotten votes) and financially (in terms of ill-gotten dollars).

So there are many external players quietly operating behind the scenes of chaos in Minnesota. While the propaganda press pushes hysterical narratives meant to portray ICE agents as “Trump’s Gestapo,” leftist activist-obstructionists as just “caring moms,” and despicable, murderous pedophiles from faraway foreign nations as just ordinary “Minnesota men,” the true story involves a range of economic, geopolitical, subversive, and criminal interests that all benefit from open borders and endless illegal immigration.

One part of this story that has gotten little attention is how Minnesota’s intentional disregard for federal immigration law is the mirror opposite of former Arizona governor Jan Brewer’s attempt to enforce immigration laws in her state during Barack Obama’s presidency. Sixteen years ago, Arizona’s Republican governor was earnestly working to stem the flow of illegal immigrants into her state. She signed into law a statute that authorized state and local police officers to enforce federal immigration laws. The Obama administration joined sides with “open borders” special interests to challenge Arizona’s sovereign authority to enforce the federal government’s immigration laws. Eventually, the case made it to the Supreme Court, and Justices Kennedy and Roberts joined their politically left-leaning colleagues in holding that federal immigration authority preempted Arizona from establishing any immigration rules of its own. President Obama’s solicitor general, Don Verrilli, argued that “states are trying to supplant the federal government’s role in setting immigration policy, and we can’t have fifty different immigration policies.”

Governor Brewer tried to defend her state and the country from drug cartels, sex slavers, and other criminal organizations that use America’s open borders to import harm and misery. President Obama and the Democrat Party (and many Establishment Republicans, as well) had vested interests in keeping America’s borders open and went to great lengths to make sure that Arizona authorities could not enforce federal immigration law when the federal government was actively subverting those laws.

Now we have Governor Walz and Mayor Frey actively subverting federal immigration law, and a loud contingent of activist judges, obstructionist politicians, and intentionally misleading members of the propaganda press pretend that Minnesota can do what Arizona could not: establish its own immigration rules. Fifteen years ago, the Obama team argued that “we can’t have fifty different immigration policies.” Today, Obama’s friends act as if Minnesota can do whatever it wants — the consequences to federal authority and national sovereignty be damned.

Either the federal government exercises authority over immigration enforcement or the state of Minnesota does. We either have a country, or we don’t.

J. B. Shurk, American Thinker

By: Joshua Slocum

Like toddlers throwing tantrums, the leftist women attacking federal officers need to be told ‘no.’

White leftist women reacted to the shooting of Renee Good by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement Officer (ICE) last week with screaming, tantrums, and public meltdowns. What’s more, they’re stepping up their harassment of ICE officers who are only carrying out their lawful duties.

Anyone who has paid attention to the news and to social media this week is getting their eyes opened to the level of emotional derangement in modern leftist women. They’re pitching profane fits on the street and abusing ICE officers, perhaps thinking they’ll have better luck in that pursuit than Good did.

This post from the X/Twitter account “Chief Trumpster” has a great example:

This is largely, though not exclusively, a woman problem. The way to deal with adults who act like toddlers is to deal with them as toddlers; we have to enact swift, consistent, and appropriately stern consequences. There’s more to say on this, but first we have to look at where we are and how we got here.

Out with the Patriarchy, In with the Gynocracy

At least 60 years of mainstreamed feminism has put American culture under the stiletto heel of entitled and exploitative women. They’ve come a long way from the days of “just asking for equal pay for equal work.” Of course, the “gender pay gap,” is a myth, and any legitimate grievances feminism may have had were resolved decades ago.

We’re not living in a patriarchy, but in a gynocracy ruled by real-life versions of the wicked queens and stepmothers from fairy tales.

Social media is teeming with examples this week. Women from their 20s to their 70s are on the streets shrieking through bullhorns at cops who are trying to protect them and other Americans from illegal aliens who have no business here. Take a look at this lady waving her sign around and hooting with that familiar glazed look in her eyes.

We’ve all seen the gruesome consequences of the Biden open borders policies. College student Laken Riley was murdered by an illegal from Venezuela in 2024. Twelve-year-old Jocelyn Nungaray met the same fate in June 2024 at the hands of two men, also illegals from Venezuela.

How did so many leftist American women decide that young foreign men who jump the border are innocent victims in need of their maternal protection, instead of the American girls and young women entitled to be shielded from these men?

The answer appears to be Cluster B personality disorders. These are deep, ingrained characteristics. Those with such disorders are fundamentally narcissistic, emotionally unstable, and often disconnected from reality. But do not let the name fool you. The term “disorder” should not be taken to mean “disability.”

While these severe mental conditions are grouped under the headings of psychiatry and psychology, they are not medical conditions, but moral conditions. Psychologist George K. Simon is one of the few professionals who recognize that these are character and moral distortions, not blameless medical ailments. To the person with a Cluster B disorder, up is down, black is white, evil is good, and perpetrators are victims.

This is what we’re seeing in these female leftist “protestors.” Cluster B personalities are all about dysregulated emotions (usually rage or suicidal despair) and twisting reality into its opposite. As difficult as this is for stable people to grasp at first, the model explains otherwise incoherent behavior.

There is nothing new about this type of derangement. What’s different today is the prevalence. When I became aware of the “dramatic and erratic” personality disorders 10 years ago, it was clear that the kind of psychology behind domestic and child abuse had metastasized into the wider society.

When you see these deranged, screaming street “demonstrations,” they probably look to you like toddler tantrums. That’s because they are. Cluster B personalities are characterized by arrested emotional development around the toddler stage. We must deal with childish behavior in adults the way we deal with it in children.

What Would That Look Like?

First, we must enact swift and proportionate consequences. For too long, leftist agitators, especially women, have been given the hands-off treatment. Too many of these videos show cops wasting time issuing repeated orders to stop the car and get out while the harpies behind the wheel only escalate. Give the order clearly once. If she disobeys, cuff her and put her in the paddy wagon.

This video from Minneapolis shows one way to do it. Though the ICE cops didn’t move quickly enough, they ended this woman’s attempts to frustrate their operation. They got her out of the car (having to cut her seatbelt since she refused to cooperate), cuffed her, and sent her to the station

This is a phenomenon that describes how both men and women have an in-built pro-female bias. We can look at a man and a woman both performing the same bad action, but we’ll excuse the woman while condemning the man.

Ill-tempered women in America have gotten away with disorderly and criminal behavior at high rates because of this bias. They know it, and they use it deliberately. This woman was tailing ICE and interfering with their operation, pulled the “I’m just a mom!” card when she was caught and forced to stop. Don’t fall for it.

Finally, men have to go back to telling women “no.” This is the piece of advice most people have the hardest time with. Women hate hearing it. Many men do, too. We’ve been so hypnotized for so long by feminism that simply telling women “no,” and suggesting that a man ever exercise authority over a woman, is read by otherwise reasonable people as “misogyny.”

Nonsense. If women are full adults with as much agency as men, then they must be treated that way. Men have become knock-kneed with fear, even contemplating telling women “no.” It’s not an unreasonable worry. In my counseling practice, male clients have told me that simply holding female underlings to the same standards as males has resulted in complaints to HR that the men are “aggressive” with women.

Men, I’m afraid we’re going to have to do it anyway. They’re going to call us misogynists. They’re going to tell us we have “an aggressive tone” with women. This is merely the same toddler distraction behavior that ends up exploding in these absurd and dangerous street performances.

Men are not going to get through this without the accusations, and we have to accept that as the price we pay for helping put civil society back in order. The women will be fine. Sooner or later, the stroppy toddler cries it out and starts behaving sanely again.

Joshua Slocum is a writer and commentator focused on the rise in abusive and narcissistic behavior in American society. His weekly podcast “Disaffected”, and the show’s Substack, analyze cultural trends through the lens of negative personality traits that mirror the psychology of domestic and child abuse.