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“Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”
- Luke 2:14
Barack and Michelle Obama Had Plans with the Reiners on the Night of Their Death
It’s not a secret that the Obamas love to rub elbows with the upper echelons of the Hollywood elites. (The former first family’s major ongoing deal with Netflix is proof […]
The post Barack and Michelle Obama Had Plans with the Reiners on the Night of Their Death appeared first on The Western Journal.
Dems Freeze Coast Guard Nominee Over Hate-Symbol Clash
House Passes Last Minute GOP Healthcare Bill After Moderates Revolt
Amid New Arctic Frost Revelations, House Investigators Scrutinize Jack Smith
Former special counsel Jack Smith—who pursued President Donald Trump on two fronts between the first and second term—faced his own scrutiny from the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday.
Smith claimed that he had “proof beyond reasonable doubt” of Trump’s guilt.
House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, told reporters afterward that his opinion of the Smith probe of Trump has not changed: “It’s political.”
“I think we’ve learned some interesting things,” Jordan said, according to The Associated Press.
In late 2024, the Justice Department moved to drop Smith’s case against then-President-elect Trump.
Smith had secured grand jury indictments against Trump regarding his challenge to the 2020 election outcome. A federal court has already dismissed the indictment accusing Trump of mishandling classified information.
Smith told the committee in his opening statement, first obtained by The Associated Press, that his team “developed proof beyond a reasonable doubt” that Trump illegally conspired to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
He further said there was “powerful evidence” Trump broke the law in keeping classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago home in Palm Beach, Florida.
“I made my decisions in the investigation without regard to President Trump’s political association, activities, beliefs, or candidacy in the 2024 election,” Smith told the committee. “We took actions based on what the facts and the law required—the very lesson I learned early in my career as a prosecutor.”
Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, said Republicans are lucky Smith didn’t testify in public “because had he done so, it would have been absolutely devastating to the president and all the president’s men involved in the insurrectionary activities.”
Smith did not take any questions from reporters as he walked into the committee room for a deposition.
Smith’s lawyer, Lanny Breuer, briefed reporters after his client was in the room, however.
“In today, testifying before this committee, Jack is showing tremendous courage, in light of the remarkable and unprecedented retribution campaign against him by this administration, and this White House,” Breuer said. “Let’s be clear. Jack Smith, a career prosecutor, conducted this investigation based on the facts, and based on the law, and nothing more.”
The deposition came one day after Fox News first reported on emails from FBI officials who expressed doubt about whether there was probable cause for raiding Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home for classified documents. The 2022 FBI raid occurred before Smith was appointed as special counsel.
An FBI official wrote, “Even as we continue down the path towards a search warrant, WFO [the Washington field office] believes that a reasonable conversation with the former president’s attorney, (stating that the FBI and DOJ are readying a search warrant, and have developed information that there are more documents at Mar a Lago), ought not to be discounted.” However, senior Justice Department officials pushed the raid forward.
Recent revelations have shown that the Justice Department’s Arctic Frost operation, which Smith took over, gathered phone records of 10 Republican members of Congress.
Last month, the House Judiciary Committee referred Thomas Windom, former senior assistant special counsel under Smith, to the Department of Justice for criminal prosecution after Windom declined to answer almost every question from the committee’s deposition.
In an October letter asking Smith to appear before the committee, Jordan claimed that Smith’s team “sought to silence President Trump by restricting his public statements in the case, conducted an unnecessary and abusive raid of his residence, attempted to improperly pressure defense counsel with the promise of political patronage, and manipulated key evidence in the investigation.”
The post Amid New Arctic Frost Revelations, House Investigators Scrutinize Jack Smith appeared first on The Daily Signal.
A War With Venezuela Would Be A War That Is All About Oil, And It Would Absolutely Destroy Our Relationship With China
Guess which nation has the most proven oil reserves? It isn’t Saudi Arabia, although the Saudis rank a close second. It isn’t Iran or Iraq either. In fact, the country with the largest proven oil reserves isn’t even in the Middle East. Canada has a lot of oil, and so does Russia, but neither one of them tops the list. At a whopping 303 billion barrels, the nation that currently possesses the most proven oil reserves is actually Venezuela…
Venezuela holds the largest proven crude oil reserves globally, estimated at approximately 303 billion barrels as of 2024. These reserves are predominantly located in the Orinoco Belt, containing extra-heavy crude oil that requires advanced extraction techniques.
Oil is what makes Venezuela important.
We are being told that we must go to war with Venezuela to stop the flow of illegal drugs, but the truth is that the amount of drugs coming into this country from Mexico absolutely dwarfs the amount of drugs coming into this country from Venezuela.
So if stopping the flow of drugs is the priority, why aren’t we going to war with Mexico?
We are also being told that Nicolas Maduro is a tyrant and that the elections in Venezuela are rigged.
Of course these days elections are rigged in lots of countries, and there are far worse tyrants than Maduro out there.
Kim Jong Un is one name that immediately comes to mind.
He is so tyrannical that he makes Nicolas Maduro look like Mother Theresa.
So why aren’t we going to war with North Korea?
If we are going to go to war, there needs to be a really good reason.
On Tuesday, President Trump told the world that the U.S. will be stopping all sanctioned oil tankers from traveling to or from Venezuela…
Venezuela is completely surrounded by the largest Armada ever assembled in the History of South America. It will only get bigger, and the shock to them will be like nothing they have ever seen before — Until such time as they return to the United States of America all of the Oil, Land, and other Assets that they previously stole from us. The illegitimate Maduro Regime is using Oil from these stolen Oil Fields to finance themselves, Drug Terrorism, Human Trafficking, Murder, and Kidnapping. For the theft of our Assets, and many other reasons, including Terrorism, Drug Smuggling, and Human Trafficking, the Venezuelan Regime has been designated a FOREIGN TERRORIST ORGANIZATION. Therefore, today, I am ordering A TOTAL AND COMPLETE BLOCKADE OF ALL SANCTIONED OIL TANKERS going into, and out of, Venezuela. The Illegal Aliens and Criminals that the Maduro Regime has sent into the United States during the weak and inept Biden Administration, are being returned to Venezuela at a rapid pace. America will not allow Criminals, Terrorists, or other Countries, to rob, threaten, or harm our Nation and, likewise, will not allow a Hostile Regime to take our Oil, Land, or any other Assets, all of which must be returned to the United States, IMMEDIATELY. Thank you for your attention to this matter!
Did you notice that President Trump repeatedly focused on the subject of oil throughout that Truth Social post?
Imposing a blockade is a very serious step, and a Justice Department memo from 1961 makes this very clear…
A Justice Department memo from 1961, when tensions were running high between the US and Cuba, said the president could institute a blockade of Cuba, but noted “a blockade is a belligerent act which, as a matter of international law, is ordinarily justified only if a state of war, legal or de facto, exists.”
Throughout human history, a naval blockade has always been considered to be an act of war.
Needless to say, the Venezuelans are absolutely furious…
The statement from Venezuela’s government decried the move, saying Trump “seeks to impose, in an absolutely irrational manner, a so-called naval military blockade on Venezuela with the aim of stealing the riches that belong to our Homeland.”
The government reaffirmed Venezuela’s sovereignty and said its ambassador to the United Nations “will immediately proceed to denounce this grave violation of International Law.”
It is not going to be a small job to enforce this blockade.
According to CNBC, there are currently 34 sanctioned oil tankers in the Caribbean…
At least 34 U.S.-sanctioned oil tankers with a history of carrying Venezuelan oil are currently at sea in the Caribbean, according to a new analysis obtained by CNBC on Wednesday.
And at least 12 of those tankers appear to be filled with crude oil from Venezuela, according to vessel location data from Kpler, a global trade intelligence company.
Are we just going to start grabbing all of them?
The oil that the tanker that the U.S. seized last week was carrying was reportedly worth somewhere between 60 million and 100 million dollars…
The “Skipper” was loaded with an estimated 1.8 million barrels of oil earlier in December before transferring an estimated 200,000 barrels just before its seizure, Reuters reported.
The oil on the tanker is likely worth $60 million to more than $100 million, based on current average oil prices. Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for any additional comment on the estimated price tag of the oil but did not immediately receive a reply.
When we seize oil that has been produced by Venezuela, we aren’t just hurting Venezuela.
This is such a critical point.
In 2025, China has been purchasing approximately 76 percent of all the oil that is being exported by the Venezuelans…
Venezuela has produced around 900,000 barrels of crude oil and condensate so far in 2025, accounting for roughly 1% of the total global supply.
Kpler data indicates China buys about 76% of Venezuela’s output.
The Chinese need this oil.
Do you think that they are just going to sit there and let us steal vast amounts of oil that the Chinese economy depends on?
Following the announcement of the blockade, the Chinese accused the U.S. of “bullying” Venezuela…
China has accused the US of “bullying” Venezuela, after Donald Trump ordered a “total and complete” blockade of all sanctioned oil tankers entering and leaving Venezuela.
In a phone call on Wednesday, China’s foreign minister Wang Yi told his Venezuelan counterpart, Yvan Gil, that Beijing supported Caracas in defending its sovereignty.
If we keep going down this road, we are going to destroy our relationship with China.
Just imagine how we would feel if some other country started grabbing oil tankers that were bringing desperately needed oil to the United States.
There is not a president in history that would have hesitated to order military action.
But we just expect China to sit there and take it.
If we push the Chinese too far, it could have very serious consequences.
It is easy to imagine a scenario in which the Chinese decide that it is an opportune moment to invade Taiwan while U.S. forces are tied up with a regime change war in Venezuela.
And why in the world would anyone think that another regime change war is in our national interest?
Didn’t we learn anything from our misadventures in Afghanistan and Iraq?
2025 has certainly been a year of war, but a war in Venezuela would have the potential to take things to an entirely new level in 2026.
Let’s hope that cooler heads prevail.
Let’s hope that President Trump pulls us back from the brink before it is too late.
But from where I am sitting, it appears that the decisions have already been made.
Michael’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.
About the Author: Michael Snyder’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com. He has also written nine other books that are available on Amazon.com including “Chaos”, “End Times”, “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”. When you purchase any of Michael’s books you help to support the work that he is doing. You can also get his articles by email as soon as he publishes them by subscribing to his Substack newsletter. Michael has published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and he always freely and happily allows others to republish those articles on their own websites. These are such troubled times, and people need hope. John 3:16 tells us about the hope that God has given us through Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” If you have not already done so, we strongly urge you to invite Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior today.
The post A War With Venezuela Would Be A War That Is All About Oil, And It Would Absolutely Destroy Our Relationship With China appeared first on The Economic Collapse.
CCRKBA AMICUS SUPPORTS CHALLENGE OF LIFETIME 2A RIGHTS LOSS
BELLEVUE, WA – The Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms has submitted an amicus brief to the Third U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in support of a Pennsylvania man’s challenge of a federal law which imposed a lifetime loss of Second Amendment rights over a misdemeanor conviction for driving under the influence. The case is known as Williams v. Attorney General of the United States.
Joining CCRKBA in this amicus are the Second Amendment Foundation, California Rifle & Pistol Association, and Second Amendment Law Center. They are represented by attorneys C.D. “Chuck” Michel and Anna M. Barvir at Michel & Associates in Long Beach, Calif., and Konstadinos T. Moros at the Second Amendment Foundation in Bellevue, Wash. They are supporting plaintiff Edward A. Williams, who argues a lifetime ban is excessive to the extreme.
In their brief, the gun rights organizations acknowledge historical actions involving guns and alcohol, but explain how earlier generations addressed the same problem differently than modern law does; that is, by restricting carry by those who are intoxicated, not by banning possession or ownership of guns by anyone who was publicly drunk in the past. The modern law goes too far, particularly as applied to an individual like Williams whose last conviction is long in the past.
“The Citizens Committee is keenly interested in this case and Mr. Williams’ plight,” said CCRKBA Managing Director Andrew Gottlieb. “There was no evidence he ever acted dangerously with a firearm, nobody was injured and there was no property damage. He made a foolish error in judgment more than 20 years ago, yet he is being penalized for that mistake decades later. Nothing in Mr. Williams’ case justifies his permanent disarmament. What has happened to him amounts to legislative overkill.”
Gottlieb said permanent loss of Second Amendment rights is an egregious miscarriage of justice and an affront to basic common sense.
“As we conclude in our Amicus,” Gottlieb stated, “our historical tradition does not tolerate disarming Mr. Williams for life.”
<p>The post CCRKBA AMICUS SUPPORTS CHALLENGE OF LIFETIME 2A RIGHTS LOSS first appeared on Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms.</p>
GOA Head Cites ‘Gun-Free’ Zones in Australia, Brown University Tragedies Over Weekend
Following the recent violent attacks in Australia and at Brown University in Rhode Island, the head of a major gun-rights group is making a point that has been obvious to most TTAG readers for a long time. Unfortunately, gun-ban advocates either can’t see it or refuse to acknowledge it. After a father/son team of radical ... Read more
The post GOA Head Cites ‘Gun-Free’ Zones in Australia, Brown University Tragedies Over Weekend appeared first on The Truth About Guns.
Breitbart Business Digest: Business Inflation Expectations Fall Below Average
Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta President Raphael Bostic dissented from the Federal Open Market Committee's December rate cut, warning that the Fed's credibility on inflation "could be at stake."
The post Breitbart Business Digest: Business Inflation Expectations Fall Below Average appeared first on Breitbart.
Ford Pays a $19.5 Billion Price After Realizing it Fell for Biden's EV Scam
Two things to get out of the way right off the bat: This writer is not a car expert. Even non-car experts could see how foolish the mass push for […]
The post Ford Pays a $19.5 Billion Price After Realizing it Fell for Biden's EV Scam appeared first on The Western Journal.
House Passes GOP Healthcare Bill Without Obamacare Subsidies
Four Republicans Vote Against Banning Child Sex Changes
Statue of Little-Known Civil Rights Activist Replaces Robert E. Lee in U.S. Capitol
When it comes to well-known civil rights activists, there are some obvious heavy hitters. Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, John Lewis, and Malcolm X are generally going to be […]
The post Statue of Little-Known Civil Rights Activist Replaces Robert E. Lee in U.S. Capitol appeared first on The Western Journal.
US Admits Negligence in D.C. Crash That Killed 67
How Many Democrats Voted Against MTG’s Bill to Outlaw Transgender Surgeries for Kids?
The House of Representatives successfully passed a bill designed to protect children nationally from transgender procedures Wednesday, a major step forward in codifying one of President Donald Trump’s campaign promises.
The bill, titled the Protect Children’s Innocence Act, passed by a 216 to 211 margin, with 207 Democrats voting against the bill. Four Republicans joined Democrats in opposition: Reps. Mike Lawler of New York, Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, Mike Kennedy of Utah, and Gabe Evans of Colorado.
Three Democrats, Reps. Don Davis of North Carolina, Vicente Gonzalez of Texas, and Henry Cuellar of Texas, joined 213 Republicans in support of the legislation introduced by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga.
Greene’s bill would make performing transgender surgeries or procedures on minors a felony.
Offenders would face a penalty of up to 10 years in federal prison, with fines on the table, as well.
The bill expands the definition of chemical castration and genital or bodily mutilation in the federal code to a variety of transgender chemical and surgical procedures.
It also providing exemptions for treatment of rare conditions and medical emergencies. There are no exemptions for mental health-related issues.
This means puberty blockers and cross-sex hormone treatments as well as a host of surgical procedures would be banned for use on children by federal law.
“Left-wing activists and medical institutions are targeting America’s children with dangerous drugs, disfiguring surgeries, and permanent sterilization,” Greene previously said in a statement on the bill.
“My bill stops the mutilation of kids and holds those responsible for performing or facilitating these barbaric procedures accountable,” Greene added.
The bill also prevents federal funds from being used for so-called gender-affirming care or to subsidize health insurance plans that cover such procedures. It prohibits federal employees and facilities from performing these procedures, and bars qualified health plans from providing coverage for what advocates refer to as gender-affirming care.
Debating the bill on the House floor, Democrats argued that transgender procedures on children are “life-saving.”
“I rise today in fierce opposition to Rep. Greene’s bill that would throw doctors and parents in jail for providing life-saving medical care. Even for Republicans, this is extreme.” said Rep. Becca Balint, D-Vt. “Your kids’ medical care is none of their damn business. We should call this obsession with your kids and what treatment they’re getting in a pediatrician’s office what it is—it’s creepy.”
Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., also argued it was outside Congress’ powers, saying, “Medical care has always been left to the states to deal with. So this is like a bulldozer going into everybody’s house if you happen to be dealing with this particular kind of medical crisis.”
Rep. Barry Moore, R-Ala., however, put things more simply.
“How about we just don’t mutilate our children?” he said. “I think that’s a good call and this is allowing people above the age of 18 to make those decisions… These are kids that are in the second or third grade.”
Greene’s bill came to the floor after some Congressional horse-trading. She was a holdout on a procedural vote to advance an annual defense spending bill and engaged in an active conversation with House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., on the House floor.
On X, Greene said she had struck a deal with House leadership for her support on the NDAA.
“I made a deal and changed my NO vote on the rule to a Yes in exchange for a floor vote next week on my bill that is one of President [Donald] Trump’s key campaign promises and executive orders,” Greene said. “Leader Steve Scalise has promised me that my bill Protect Children’s Innocence Act, H.R. 3492, will be brought to the floor for a vote.”
The legislation is likely Greene’s last major legislative push as a member of the House. She will resign her seat on Jan. 5, 2026 in the wake of a heated dispute between her and President Donald Trump.
Jacob Adams contributed to this report.
The post How Many Democrats Voted Against MTG’s Bill to Outlaw Transgender Surgeries for Kids? appeared first on The Daily Signal.
Cops Arrest Man Reportedly Targeting ICE Agents, Tie Him To Leftist Terror Group
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