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As a result of a concerted effort by the second Trump administration to reduce the size of the civilian federal workforce, the total staff of 23 of the largest executive-branch agencies shrunk by roughly 3% in the first half of 2025, with 144,000 additional jobs cut by year’s end. The numbers come from a newly released report from the Government Accountability Office, which was tasked with tracking staffing changes across 24 federal agencies in the first half of last year. One agency did not provide the requested data, so data from 23 agencies is included in the report. The president...

As someone who regularly examines culture and politics, I often write about problems and, on occasion, offer solutions. Sometimes the solutions are relatively straightforward and obvious SNIP The reality is, while Islam is most certainly a religion, it is also something else. It is a theology of conquest and subjugation. From its very beginning, Islam was about conquering and conquest, through any means necessary, including deception. On a daily basis, we hear Muslim “scholars” and others speak in the streets, on college campuses, and online, among other places, telling us that Islam will basically take over. Even in high schools,...

26 February 2026 Thursday of the 1st week of Lent Basilica of Saint-Denis, where the relics of St. Isabelle of France were moved after the destruction of churches in the French Revolution.Readings at MassLiturgical Colour: Violet. Year: A(II).First readingEsther 4:17I am alone, Lord, and have no-one but youQueen Esther took refuge with the Lord in the mortal peril which had overtaken her. She besought the Lord God of Israel in these words:‘My Lord, our King, the only one,come to my help, for I am aloneand have no helper but youand am about to take my life in my hands.‘I have...

The trans nonbinary suspect accused of shooting a US Border Patrol agent in New Hampshire on Sunday has been charged with attempted murder and assault of a federal officer. Blu Zeke Daly, 26, of Manchester, previously known as "Cullen Zeke Daly," reportedly pulled a vehicle up to a closed gate at the US-Canadian Pittsburgh Port of Entry and fired gunshots at a Border Patrol agent when approached.

“We have no right to distress any of God’s creatures without a very good reason; we call them dumb animals, and so they are, for they cannot tell us how they feel, but they do not suffer less because they have no words.”These are the words of Black Beauty, the eponymous horse from Anna Sewell’s novel, Black Beauty: His Grooms and Companions, the Autobiography of a Horse.The book, published by Norwich based Jarrold & Sons in 1877, was transformative. Sewell’s stated objective, “to induce kindness, sympathy, and an understanding treatment of horses”, is credited with the abolition of the checkrein...

Cuba’s economy is on the verge of collapsing. True, the standard of living has deteriorated under communism—most notably after the fall of the Soviet Union and the end of the subsidies it provided to the regime, which meant that Cuba’s GDP shrank by half during the 1990s. But this time, the crisis may be worse. It is hard to collect trustworthy data on the country, as Communist authorities routinely hide or manipulate statistics to conceal the true extent of the country’s crisis from the rest of the world. The regime says the economy declined by 5 percent last year, with...

🇺🇸Pray For The Peace of Jerusalem 🇮🇱(2/26/26)[Prayer]A New Study For A New Year: PersonalitiesGenesis 29:32-35 32 And Leah conceived, and bare a son, and she called his name Reuben: for she said, Surely the Lord hath looked upon my affliction; now therefore my husband will love me. 33 And she conceived again, and bare a son; and said, Because the Lord hath heard I was hated, he hath therefore given me this son also: and she called his name Simeon. 34 And she conceived again, and bare a son; and said, Now this time will my husband be joined unto...

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Mitch Trzeciak, an umpire who worked Triple-A in 2025, took up position behind home plate for a Grapefruit League matchup between the Pirates and Red Sox, and let’s say it could have gone better. The troubles for Trzeciak began early. With one out in the first inning, Pittsburgh’s Carmen Mlodzinski threw what looked like a first-pitch strike to Boston’s Trevor Story. Trzeciak saw it differently and called it a ball. Pirates catcher Endy Rodriguez challenged the call. The ABS review showed the pitch was clearly a strike. That was also strike one against Trzeciak.

Tucker Carlson’s recent visit to Ben Gurion Airport, which Carlson billed as his “fact-finding” trip to Israel, has provoked a storm of criticism. He met with American ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, insisting that Israel mistreated Christians, and refused to listen to Huckabee’s rebuttal. Now one of the leaders of Christians in Israel, Shadi Khalloul, has also taken Carlson to task. More on his response to Carlson can be found here: “Israeli Christian Leader: Tucker Carlson ‘Doesn’t Want the Truth,’ Endangers Christians Elsewhere by Lying About Israel,” by Debbie Weiss, Algemeiner, February 19, 2026:Firebrand podcaster Tucker Carlson drew a barrage...

Virginia’s Democratic Gov. Abigail Spanberger was widely panned by conservatives on social media over her rebuttal to President Donald Trump’s State of the Union, with many calling out the governor for labeling herself as a "moderate" during the campaign but changing her tune. Spanberger’s speech contained several examples of supporting far-left causes that drew criticism online, including school walkouts over ICE, touting "affordability" despite pushing to raise taxes and slamming Trump. Her overall speech quickly drew heat from conservatives online over her policies and her tone. "This Spanberger speech can basically be summed up as ‘I AM A DEMOCRAT WHO...

Core Thesis of this video: Wokeness is a Product of Institutional Feminization Wokeness isn't primarily an ideology (e.g., Marxism or post-modernism) that can be defeated with better arguments. Instead, it's the application of traditionally feminine patterns of behavior and group dynamics to institutions that recently became majority-female (or close to it). Women tend to prioritize consensus, relationships, empathy, making everyone happy, and avoiding conflict/hurt feelings over strict facts, rules, justice, or open confrontation. This leads to conformity-focused environments intolerant of dissent, prickly eccentrics, or debate—hallmarks of "woke" dynamics like cancellations, offense-taking, and reputation destruction rather than rational argument. Timing and...

The Department of Veterans Affairs announced that the backlog of VA disability compensation and pension benefit claims is "consistently" under 100,000 for the first time since 2020. The last time the backlog was this low was in May 2020, during President Donald Trump's first term in the White House. "Under President Trump, VA is providing Veterans, families, caregivers and survivors all of the benefits they have earned as quickly and conveniently as possible," Secretary of Veterans Affairs Doug Collins said in a news release. This milestone means the department has now slashed the backlog of veterans waiting for VA benefits...

Cuba’s coast guard shot dead four people and wounded six others aboard a U.S.-registered speedboat in an exchange of gunfire off the communist island’s coast, the Interior Ministry said Wednesday. In a statement, the ministry said a Cuban patrol vessel had approached the Florida-registered boat to identify those on board when shots were fired from the boat, wounding the captain of the Cuban craft. According to Havana’s statement, the boat was detected within Cuban territorial waters Wednesday morning on the northeast side of the El Pino channel near Cayo Falcones in Villa Clara province. Cuban border troops moved in to...

Trump’s strategy prizes preemptive deterrence over drift or isolation, exploiting leverage to sap rivals, steady allies, and avert the cascading conflicts that metastasized under Obama and Biden. Critics of Trump’s second-term foreign policy—the usual Left and some on the neo-isolationist Right—claim it is recklessly herky jerky and guided by no consistent grand strategy. Yet, in both the first Trump administration’s National Security Strategy paper and its second-term update, he clearly disdained ground wars abroad, nation-building, and isolationism. A better description of U.S. strategy across Trump’s two terms in office might be called Jacksonian or preemptive deterrence. That is, Trump’s foreign...

WASHINGTON — Allegations made in FBI interview documents by a woman against President Donald Trump, as revealed by NPR and the New York Times, are coming under scrutiny.

Last year the U.S. experienced something that hasn’t definitively occurred since the Great Depression: More people moved out than moved in. The Trump administration has hailed the exodus—negative net migration—as the fulfillment of its promise to ramp up deportations and restrict new visas. Beneath the stormy optics of that immigration crackdown, however, lies a less-noticed reversal: America’s own citizens are leaving in record numbers, replanting themselves and their families in lands they find more affordable and safe.

A 22-year-old assisted living employee accused of disguising himself in long female wigs and executing an 87-year-old millionaire philanthropist he treated nightly, is now also charged with shooting at a Maryland state trooper Tuesday while on the run. The Montgomery County Department of Police’s Major Crimes Division confirmed during a news conference on Wednesday that Marquis Emilio James, 22, of White Marsh, Maryland, was arrested in connection with the Valentine's Day homicide of 87-year-old Robert G. Fuller Jr. at the Cogir Potomac Senior Living Facility, and the shooting of a Maryland State Police trooper Tuesday during a traffic stop in...

Team USA's men’s hockey team didn't have to pull out their wallets while celebrating their Olympic gold medal in Miami on Monday night. Instead, Pat McAfee stepped in to pick up the six-figure tab. Following a 2-1 overtime victory against Canada to secure gold at the Milan Cortina Winter Games, the American squad touched down in South Florida and headed straight to E11EVEN nightclub. The celebration featured players spraying the crowd with Armand de Brignac and Bel Aire Gold champagne, alongside a heavy rotation of E11EVEN Vodka, Don Julio 1942, Dame Mas Tequila, Happy Dad, and Michelob Ultras. Throughout the...

As President Donald Trump vowed to wage a "war on fraud" during his State of the Union address Tuesday, a panel of voters across the political spectrum had mixed reactions. The panel, assembled by polling group Maslansky + Partners and comprising 29 Democrats, 30 independents and 41 Republicans, gave real-time reactions as Trump spoke. The reactions were displayed on a line graph where high values represented positive reactions and low values indicated negative reactions. Trump said corruption was "plundering America" and said the most "stunning example" was in Minnesota, where welfare fraud has been a focal point and a child...