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But fortunately, it didn’t quite work out for me -- and thank God for that, for had I become a State Department Foreign Service Officer (FSO), I almost literally could have gained the whole world, but in the process probably would have sacrificed my immortal soul. And as the gospels and then later Thomas More (in the marvelous A Man for All Seasons) told us -- that’s a bad bargain. Here is the story of my near-successful application to join the FSO. I tell it here because it reveals a lot about how the State Department functions and how powerful...

Prosecutors said Thomas Raynard James had the same name as a suspect, leading to his wrongful conviction for murder in 1991. His conviction was overturned. ...After two men entered an apartment in the Coconut Grove section of Miami on Jan. 17, 1990, and one of them fatally shot a man during a robbery, witnesses and tipsters said the gunman was named Thomas James or Tommy James. That led the police to put a photo of Thomas Raynard James in a lineup, setting in motion a case of mistaken identification that led Mr. James, then 23, to be convicted of first-degree...

I prepared this list to feature some highlights from the last several decades of Democrat party control and behavior that show exactly how much self-delusion will be required to pull any Democrat lever in November. One: Allowed a historic (on global historical standards) mass migration of undocumented immigrants from all over the world to enter the U.S. in a chaotic fashion to alter U.S. demographics and tip voting patterns to the left. The effects on social services to the neediest tier of U.S. citizens will be felt for decades. Two: Aided and abetted a man-made global warming, Green New Deal...

The U.S. dollar is getting perilously close to losing its status as the world’s reserve currency, and there is less room than ever for error on the international stage. Blunders in U.S. foreign policy are likely to have more harmful effects on both our allies and our enemies than in the past given the sorry record of the Biden administration. Should the U.S. dollar be knocked out of its position as the reserve currency, hell would break lose across global markets. With recent memories of Biden’s humiliating and bungled withdrawal from Afghanistan, there is less confidence in the reliability of...

@RepThomasMassie Bureaucrats in DC shouldn’t be deciding what your children learn at school. My bill, #HR899, is only one sentence long: “The Department of Education shall terminate on December 31, 2022.”

On Wednesday, the White House hosted an event for the “Teachers of the Year.” Biden loudly announced that the unknown people who control him didn’t want him to extemporize but he did anyway. And once he did, he launched the pro-teacher equivalent of that old computer game phrase, “All your base are belong to us.” According to Biden, teachers own the students when those kids are in school. Biden said a few other things, many wrong or incoherent, all a reminder of what happens when an already inadequate mind is stricken by senile dementia. The Republican National Committee published some...

BiBi Hilton was the wife of Eric Hilton, President of Hilton International. That also made her Paris Hilton's aunt. I've been a personal friend over a year and a half and can testify that her story is many-faceted and interesting.

The Australian government has responded to appeals by the Ukrainian Ambassador to Australia for providing heavy artillery weapons to the Ukrainian Armed Forces as the war intensifies in Donbas. “We need some heavy weaponry – we need jets, we need tanks, we need productive vehicles, we need heavy artillery, we need offensive weapons. We need some real stuff,” said the Ukrainian Ambassador to Australia, Vasyl Myroshnychenko, during an event hosted by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) on April 26. “We are there in the trenches for your people basically – because if we fall, the consequences we’re going...

To be generous, the use of masks during what was billed as a viral based respiratory pandemic is pseudoscience at best, given what was worn, how it was worn, where it was worn, the duration it was worn, and so on and so on. No need to beat the dead horse who did not die of COVID. Masking is now on the decline as evidenced by the rollback in cities, states, public transportation, etc. Though there is still the issue of masking children in school, that will likely go by the wayside in the short run. Primarily, it will be...

The prominent former editor-in-chief of the Global Times, a highly popular state-run Chinese media outlet, published a commentary on Saturday urging Chinese citizens to “prepare for a military struggle” in the near future. The commentary, written by journalist Hu Xijin, came after U.S. senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and six other U.S. officials visited Taiwan’s capital, Taipei, last Thursday. The visit was strongly denounced by Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian, who warned that China is “firmly opposed to any form of official exchange between the U.S. and Taiwan.” Hu, who resigned from his post at the end of last year...

What could better epitomize the dystopian nature of a governmental organ called the “Disinformation Governance Board” than putting it under the command of a bureaucrat who questioned the validity of Hunter Biden's laptop, calling it “a Trump campaign product,” and who served as an advisor to the corrupt Ukrainian regime? Bradford Betz reports for Fox News: Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas testified Wednesday that the Department of Homeland Security is creating a "Disinformation Governance Board" to combat misinformation ahead of the 2022 midterms. (snip) Hours later, Politico reported that Nina Jankowicz, who previously served as a disinformation fellow at the...

Social media posts by Chinese official sources echoing the Kremlin’s line that Nato’s expansion is the cause of tensions between Russia and Ukraine have surged in recent months, according to data released by US analysts on Wednesday. The new data comes to light amid a dispute between US and Chinese officials over who bears responsibility for Russia’s invasion of the Eastern European country in February, including frequent allegations by Washington that Beijing has taken Moscow’s side. German Marshall Fund (GMF) fellow Bret Schafer and Georgia State University professor Maria Repnikova outlined in a briefing organised by the US State Department...

The response of the Gulf Arab states to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has been somewhat revealing of the depth of fissures between the United States and its Gulf allies. The “stress test” United Arab Emirates (UAE) Ambassador to Washington, Yousef Al Otaiba, hinted at on March 3, was on full display in the pushback by the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries—particularly Saudi Arabia and the UAE—against pressure from Washington to condemn the invasion and side with Ukraine. China may be one country closely examining the dynamics of the interactions between the two sides over Ukraine and the strategic implications that...

China’s military has accused the United States of undermining regional peace and security after it sent a naval destroyer through the Strait of Taiwan on Tuesday as part of a routine freedom of navigation exercise. The People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theatre Command accused the US of “provocative” naval activities and said the move sent the “wrong signals to ‘Taiwan independence’ forces” in a brief statement. The US regularly sends destroyers through the strait, although sometimes other allies such as France might send a naval patrol in its place. The 180km (112 miles) wide South China Sea waterway separates China from...

Canada will be handing over the M777 howitzers and ammunition to Ukraine, including the newest Excalibur extended-range GPS-guided shells. Militarnyi informs about this with reference to CBS. The media obtained confirmations from three sources saying that four of the 155-mm howitzers were sent to Ukraine. For reference, Canada has 37 of these howitzers. Ukraine will be receiving these weapons from the 1st Regiment of the Royal Canadian Horse Artillery inventory. Anita Anand, Defence Minister noted that “a number of M-777 howitzers were shipped to Ukraine in cooperation with our American allies.” The shipment included an unspecified amount of 155-mm...

Your eyes are not deceiving you - the Bonner County Primary ballot looks like an all-Republican contest. From county to Congress, all candidates sport the “R” label, with the exception of one diehard Democrat. Give the man credit for honesty; at least he’s not hiding in the RINO ranks. Before 2011, when the Idaho GOP closed its Primary to all but Republican voters, rampant Democrat cross-over voting for the most liberal Republican on the ballot influenced election outcomes. Since then, a lot of shape-shifting has created a sudden dearth of Democrats. They began a new life as RINOs, both as...

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The administration of left-wing New Zealand President Jacinda Ardern acted “unlawfully” last year when it closed the nation’s borders to its own citizens to curb transmission of the Chinese coronavirus, the High Court of Wellington ruled on Wednesday. New Zealand’s federal government enforced a border control protocol known as “MIQ” from September 1 to December 17, 2021. MIQ required all people entering New Zealand to secure spots at state-run quarantine facilities before they would be allowed to enter the country. MIQ operated based on a lottery system that infringed on New Zealanders’ constitutional right to re-enter New Zealand, Wellington...

A reputed federal informant and whistleblower who went missing after reportedly turning over a trove of secret files about Deutsche Bank was found dead at a Los Angeles school earlier this week, a police official said Wednesday. The body of Valentin Broeksmit, 46, was found Monday at Woodrow Wilson High School shortly before 7 a.m., Sgt. Rudy Perez of the Los Angeles School Police Department said in email. Records with the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner do not list a cause of death. Los Angeles Police Department Capt. Kenneth Cabrera told the Los Angeles Times that authorities do not suspect...

A Hamas delegation arrived in Tehran on Wednesday for meetings with Iranian officials, i24NEWS reported, citing Iran’s IRNA news agency. The delegation is led by Khalil al-Hayya and will meet on Thursday with Iranian officials to discuss the "latest status of the Palestinian nation's resistance" with the "Permanent Secretariat of the International Conference in Support of the Palestinian Intifada affiliated to Iran’s Parliament", the report said. The Hamas representative in Lebanon, Osamah Hamdan, and its representative in Iran, Khalid Qaddoumi, will also participate in the meetings. Hamas and Iran have restored ties that had been strained in recent years, as...