Author: jh staff

Birthright Citizenship and Five Little Words

An activist federal judge has blocked a key executive order that was recently implemented by President Donald Trump.

The executive order that was signed by President Trump does away with birthright citizenship, i.e., the granting of full citizenship to the offspring of illegal aliens who are physically present in the United States.

The order is part and parcel of the president’s overall border reform package.

Several lawsuits have been initiated by states that are opposed to the order. In addition, the ACLU has taken it upon itself to be a representative for a number of left-wing groups in bringing legal action.

In my legal assessment, by issuing the executive order on birthright citizenship, President Trump is prompting the courts to clarify and rule on the language, meaning, and substance of what the law actually states.

For quite a long time government institutions have allowed policies to be implemented apart from the law, policies that deem all persons born in the U.S. to illegal alien parents are citizens.

However, the United States Constitution does not necessitate this policy. In fact, there is nothing in either the Constitution or in any federal statute that grants birthright citizenship to a child born in the U.S. to illegal alien parents.

What appears to be a complex issue actually isn’t. A look back at constitutional history provides quite a bit of insight and may help to clarify things.

The most repugnant decision in Supreme Court history took place in 1857, when the High Court issued its ruling on the Dred Scott v. Sandford case. The Court held that U.S.-born descendants of African slaves were not citizens.

In response to the Dred Scott decision, when the Civil War ended Congress did two things.

First, it passed the Civil Rights Act of 1866.

Second, the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution was drafted and passed, which took the protections of the Civil Rights Act and incorporated them into the text of the Constitution.

The goal was a singular one: To grant citizenship to formerly enslaved people.

The amendment does not say that all children born in the United States are citizens. The drafters of the amendment would have used different language if this were the intention. But they didn’t.

The Fourteenth Amendment, as approved and written, states the following: “[a]ll persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof” are citizens.

It is important to note the conditional phrase “subject to the jurisdiction thereof.”

The original meaning of the phrase has to do with the concept of political allegiance.

Senator Lyman Trumbull, who was one of the principal figures involved in the drafting of the Fourteenth Amendment, spelled it out. Individuals who owed allegiance to or were subject to a foreign power were not granted citizenship by the amendment.

Clearly, the language of the Fourteenth Amendment didn’t apply to everyone born here. Children of tribally-affiliated Native Americans as well as diplomats were not included in the extension of citizenship, even if they were born in the U.S.

The historical reasoning that excluded tribally affiliated Native Americans and diplomats from birthright citizenship applies equally to those who are illegally present in our country today.

Why? Because illegal aliens are not “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” of the United States in that their first contact with the U.S. was an illegal act, and additionally they maintain citizenship with another country while illegally residing in the U.S.

In an apparent attempt to bolster their arguments, opponents of President Trump’s executive order bring up the 1898 Supreme Court ruling in United States v. Wong. This case involved a child born in the U.S. during a period when federal law barred Chinese immigrants from becoming naturalized citizens.

However, the High Court’s decision was predicated on the fact that the child’s Chinese parents were in the country lawfully and permanently. In other words, the case dealt with a child born to parents who were both legal immigrants.

Truth be known, the Supreme Court has never had to deal with a birthright citizenship case involving children born to parents living in the country illegally.

Looks like the High Court will have to now.

Hopefully, the Justices will be paying close attention to the 5 little words and will rule accordingly.

The Ashes of the California Wildfires

On the morning of January 7, 2025, a brush fire in the hills above Los Angeles quickly transformed into an inferno.

Tens of thousands of people were evacuated, while hundreds of thousands were on pins and needles as they awaited the impending evacuation orders.

The first fire would come to be known as the Palisades Fire.

A few hours later the Eaton Fire would ignite in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains.

Later in the night the Hurst Fire would erupt in the northern San Fernando Valley.

The following morning the Woodley Fire would emerge in the central San Fernando Valley.

And Los Angeles hadn’t seen the last of the fires yet.

Needless to say, numerous homes burned to the ground. Many people suffered injuries. And some individuals tragically lost their lives.

Two prominent leaders have dared to speak bluntly about the contributing causes of the calamity that occurred in Los Angeles: former LA mayoral candidate Rick Caruso and President elect Donald Trump.

— Caruso is a former commissioner for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. He is also the owner of the Palisades Village Mall, located in the heart of the community that has been decimated by the wildfires.

Caruso’s daughter’s home was destroyed in the blaze, and he himself was evacuated from his home. As the flames were breaking out in his beloved neighborhood, he noticed something that defied comprehension. The fire hydrants were devoid of even a drop of water.

“There’s no water in the fire hydrants,” Caruso exclaimed, his voice revealing his exasperation.

“This is a window into a systemic problem of the city,” he said.

“The real issue to me here is two-fold. We’ve had decades to remove the brush in these hills…and the second is, we’ve got to have water. My understanding is the reservoir was not refilled in time…to keep the hydrants going…”

— President elect Trump had previously warned California Gov. Gavin Newsom that he needed to better manage the state’s forests in order to prevent wildfires.

In 2018, then-President Trump chastised Newsom over the burned-out remains of the town of Paradise.

“You’ve got to take care of…the floors of the forests,” Trump said.

Two years later Trump spoke out again after a new round of fires had inflicted severe harm on California. He talked about cleaning the forest floors, removing leaves and fallen trees, and preventing the igniting of the brush and forest debris.

The president elect recently used a post on X to comment on the current fires in Los Angeles.

“There is no reason for these massive, deadly and costly forest fires in California except that forest management is so poor,” he posted.

He also used his Truth Social account to wake up Gov. Newsom, writing, “…I will demand that this incompetent governor allow beautiful, clean, fresh water to FLOW INTO CALIFORNIA! He is the blame for this. On top of it all, no water for fire hydrants, not firefighting planes. A true disaster!”

Angelinos are far from happy with their government leaders.

— Despite fire warnings, Mayor Karen Bass flew to Africa to attend Ghana’s presidential inauguration on the day that the fire broke out; this after meteorologists warned that a “recipe for fire” was on track to strike LA.

— LA city officials reportedly failed to cut off electricity to power lines. Video footage from the Palisades Fire showed sparks flying as power lines came down.

— Officials in Los Angeles County had reportedly refused to refill reservoirs with the water that would ultimately be needed to flow to fire hydrants.

More information about the catastrophic failures of leadership will no doubt emerge in the coming days.

Out here in California, prayer is all we have. And yet it’s everything.

If your heart is able, please join in prayer for safety, solace, and strength for the people of the City of Angels.

May God’s blessings flow from the ashes.

“I will give them a crown to replace their ashes, and the oil of gladness to replace their sorrow, and clothes of praise to replace their spirit of sadness.” (Isaiah 61:3)

ABC News and Stephanopoulos Give Trump an Early Christmas

ABC News and anchor George Stephanopoulos recently settled a lawsuit with President elect Donald Trump.

The terms of the agreement have the defendants in the suit forking over $15 million to the incoming prez, the money being designated for a future presidential library or similar foundation.

Also included in the settlement is a forced payment of $1 million of Trump’s legal fees and a big crow-eating apology.

Trump had filed a lawsuit over an interview that Stephanopoulos had conducted with South Carolina congressional representative Nancy Mace.

During the Mace interview, the former Clinton administration operative repeatedly made the false allegation that Trump had been found liable for rape in a civil case that was initiated by E. Jean Carroll and took place in a New York courtroom earlier in the year.

Rep. Mace, a rape survivor herself, was being interrogated on her endorsement of Trump, and Stephanopoulos was evidently trying to paint her as a hypocrite. She felt personally attacked by Stephanopoulos and was brave enough to directly take him on at the time.

“I live with shame,” she said. “And you’re asking me a question about my political choices, trying to shame me as a rape victim — I find it disgusting.”

Most viewers did as well. ABC News had a serious problem from that moment on.

Shortly after the interview aired, Trump filed a defamation lawsuit against both the network and the anchor.

Stephanopoulos subsequently appeared on a politically friendly late-night show with host Stephen Colbert, posturing about the then-pending defamation legal action and boasting that he would not be “cowed out of doing my job because of a threat.”

All things considered, the most compelling part of the Trump win came in the portion of the settlement in which both ABC News and Stephanopoulos agreed to issue apology statements, expressing regret surrounding the case.

Both the settlement agreement and apology statements have already had far-reaching effects. Stephanopoulos has deactivated his X account and left the platform.

While the settlement has been heralded by center-right folks, it has also been viewed as the end of Western Civilization by the compromised media crowd and woke mob gang.

Regarding the settlement, reporter Oliver Willis wrote on Threads, “This is actually how democracy dies.”

Sharon Waxman, editor in chief of the Hollywood trade outlet TheWrap, wrote. “This is both confusing and disheartening. #Disney and #ABC caving to Trump.”

Democrat attorney Marc Elias posted, “Knee bent. Ring kissed. Another legacy news outlet chooses obedience.”

CNN media analyst Brian Stelter asked on X, “Why did ABC agree to pay and apologize? The network won’t say. It could have kept fighting in court, but decided to pay $$ to end the dispute and make the case go away.”

NPR TV critic Eric Deggans wrote on his X account, “Wow. Feels like one more mainstream news organization bending the knee.”

Keith Olbermann sarcastically posted, “What a great look @abc News.”

Left leaning legal analyst Allison Gill, known online as Mueller, She Wrote posted, “This is so gross.

Why not depose him [Trump]?” she asked. “The case wouldn’t cost more than $15M and ABC would have won if they bothered fighting.”

Human rights lawyer Qasim Rashid characterized the settlement as “the cowardice of legacy media out to make profit, rather than uphold principle.”

Here in the United States, a 1964 landmark Supreme Court case made it far more difficult for public figures, as opposed to ordinary folks, to sue for defamation. This is not the case in many other parts of the world.

In my opinion, reform in this area of the law is long overdue.

The timing of the ABC-Stephanopoulos settlement is interesting to say the least. It occurred a few short days after U.S. Magistrate Judge Lisette Reid ordered the president elect, and more importantly Stephanopoulos, to submit to depositions of four hours in length.

The ABC News-Stephanopoulos settlement sends a powerful message. It is one that says news personalities, especially those who work for far-left media outlets, can no longer broadcast false claims in the cavalier manner that they have become accustomed to.

An early Christmas present for those who value truth in news reporting.

Clooney Is Big Mad at Obama

It’s a risky move for a Hollywood star to step into the world of politics.

This is true for those who are new to the spotlight. But it’s especially true for those with a long track record of success.

Enter George Clooney.

Months ago when President Joe Biden gave a shockingly poor debate performance against then-GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump, donors began to withhold campaign cash, while party leaders and media pundits simultaneously started to talk about getting Biden to pull out of the race.

A huge amount of video footage had been emerging online, which suggested that Biden was experiencing cognitive difficulties.

One particular video piece featured Clooney at a Left Coast fundraiser. Also in attendance were Biden and former President Barack Obama, who was seen playing the role of caregiver to his former veep, even appearing to have to assist Biden in exiting the stage.

Clooney would soon become the de facto celebrity leader of a group that was seeking to shove Biden out of the spotlight.

A few short weeks after the Hollywood fundraiser, Clooney took the highly dramatic step of penning an op-ed column for the New York Times, which urged Biden to step aside.

“It’s devastating to say it, but the Joe Biden I was with three weeks ago at the fund-raiser was not the…Biden of 2010. He wasn’t even the Joe Biden of 2020. He was the same man we all witnessed at the debate,” Clooney wrote.

The actor slammed Democrats who were seeking to retain Biden as the nominee, admonishing them to “stop telling us that 51 million people didn’t see what we just saw.”

Clooney warned the Democratic Party, “We are not going to win in November with this president. On top of that, we won’t win the House, and we’re going to lose the Senate.”

The star’s prediction turned out to be accurate, even after Biden reluctantly stepped down and Vice President Kamala Harris was “selected” by party leaders as the Democrat presidential nominee.

After the decisive November 5, 2024 victory of President elect Trump, Clooney began to experience the unexpected, i.e., backlash and blame for his high profile role in what a lot of folks viewed as a coup.

Amid the finger pointing after the election loss, Clooney became one of the top scapegoats.

This may have prompted the recent announcement that from now on, he would avoid the political arena entirely.

“George feels that the backlash he is getting for Kamala losing is not at all warranted,” a source told the Daily Mail. “He [Clooney] thinks it is completely unfair to try and make him a scapegoat for her loss.”

In addition, it appears as though Clooney is directing some of his personal wrath at a former friend. Recent reports indicate that the star, who was previously best buds with Obama, is deliberately drifting away.

RadarOnline, via an anonymous source, has reported that Clooney is fuming over the former president having pushed him into becoming a front and center advocate for ending Biden’s campaign.

“George is furious with Obama for disappearing after the election disaster and leaving him holding the bag for pushing the plan with his Hollywood pal,” the source indicated.

“George became Barack’s surrogate in leading the charge for Joe to step away. Barack knew he would look like a traitor if he publicly called for Joe to be cut loose. And now, he’s trying to walk away from it all,” the source stated.

According to the source, Clooney “feels duped and vows he’s not going to be anyone’s political water boy anymore… and feels he stepped up and took a bullet for the team.”

The actor evidently wants Obama to publicly intervene with some crisis management.

The source said, “He [Clooney] thinks Obama should come forward and say that George did the right thing and it isn’t his fault that it didn’t work out.”

Apparently, Clooney is not optimistic that Obama will do any such thing, and the whole matter has left him “feeling like a patsy.”

It’s all totally understandable.

For years Clooney has worked hard to build his brand. Now his Hollywood star has been seriously sullied.

Will the public give the celebrity a pass?

The answer may be found in yet another tired “Ocean’s” sequel.

Goodbye to MSNBC

Media and technology conglomerate Comcast is spinning off cable news network MSNBC from its roster, along with a number of other cable networks.

The company announced it will create a new publicly traded entity, which will house MSNBC and NBCUniversal’s additional cable television networks.

Comcast is giving the new company an apt moniker, “SpinCo.”

Unveiling of the plans are shaking up the media landscape and sending shock waves through the network’s offices.

It all came to a head when MSNBC lost over half its viewers following the electoral triumph of President elect Donald Trump.

An additional ratings drop occurred after Joe Scarborough, host of the network’s program “Morning Joe,” revealed that he and wife/co-host Mika Brzezinski had recently met with President elect Trump at Mar-a-Lago, ostensibly to “restart communications.”

The ratings tank and spin-off talk had Scarborough questioning his own future employment with the channel.

“I could be completely wrong. We could all be fired a year from now. You never know what’s going to happen tomorrow,” he said on his show.

There are a number of reasons that the spin-off is happening. First up is the fact that streaming is clobbering cable. Execs are understandably concerned about the steady increase in cord cutting that has taken place, especially among the younger demographic. This segment of viewers is accustomed to having non-bundled options and is partial to streaming media.

Comcast has also let it be known that current chairman of NBCUniversal Media Group Mark Lazarus will be named SpinCo’s CEO. Sources have indicated to Variety that Lazarus spoke to an audience of concerned staffers and talent, which included MSNBC personalities Rachel Maddow, Chris Jansing, and Katy Tur.

MSNBC will evidently be joined by the business news network CNBC in being detached from NBC News.

Since the two networks will no longer be a part of NBC, attendees at the meeting with Lazarus reportedly expressed concerns about whether the use of familiar symbols, which have been used by MSNBC for decades, will be allowed to continue.

In a shocking admission, Lazarus said that because of the spin-off he wasn’t sure whether MSNBC would have to give up its current image, identity, or home.

“Everyone is in a panic because everything is up in the air,” one MSNBC source told The New York Post.

Journalists at the network CNBC are coming apart at the seams at the prospect of being separated from NBC’s news division. This is because MSNBC routinely shares reporting, and a significant part of the network’s daytime schedule uses correspondents from NBC News.

Andrea Mitchell, chief foreign affairs correspondent and chief Washington correspondent for NBC News, has anchored a daily MSNBC show since 2008. And MSNBC’s Katy Tur and José Díaz-Balart have dual roles as journalists for NBC News as well.

Lazarus was unable to answer questions about MSNBC’s newsgathering and whether the cable news outlet would have to develop its own capability for collecting and verifying news, which is a daunting task to say the least.

The idea of giving MSNBC a makeover has been tossed around for a long time. The network wasn’t always the far-left echo chamber that it is today.

Back in 1996 it originally launched as a joint venture of Microsoft and NBC (although Microsoft would later divest its stake in the TV network).

Like fellow cable networks had previously done, MSNBC would go on to broaden its horizons by doing political coverage as well as opinion-oriented programming. A variety of viewpoints were represented on its programs, ones that ranged across a spectrum from Phil Donahue on the left to Tucker Carlson on the right.

Oh the good ol’ days, when there was a fairly clear line of demarcation between hard news and editorial opinion. That line served a number of important purposes, including a commitment to truth and accuracy in the conveyance of national and international information as well as an adherence to a journalistic code of ethics.

It could be that the good ol’ news days are going back to the future. And the sport of intellectual sparring will make its own separate comeback.

Let’s all stay tuned in whatever new media way is preferred. And may the Truth win out.

Trump’s Free Speech Blueprint

So much has taken place over the last four years that Americans across the board have found objectionable.

One of the starkest examples may be what happened to our constitutional right to free speech.

Way too many individuals on social media found themselves in situations in which they were censored, persecuted, and punished over statements made on forums that were formerly thought to be free-wielding platforms.

Editorial pieces with “unapproved” content were shelved by newspapers and kept from public view.

Cable TV anchors heard whispers from producers, instructing them to change subjects should conversations happen to veer into “taboo” territory.

Public figures, which included political candidates, were vilified for bringing up “inconvenient” truths.

Labels, including “conspiracy theorist,” “extremist,” “wingnut,” and worse, were slapped on many who refused to wear the muzzle, thereby harming their reputations while simultaneously silencing them.

I could go on, but sadly the list seems endless.

Yes, free expression took a major hit, but hope is truly on the horizon, thanks to President elect Donald J. Trump, his close-knit circle, loyal supporters, and slew of newfound like-minded influential allies, including Elon Musk, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Tucker Carlson, Tulsi Gabbard, and Joe Rogan, to name a few.

Uber entrepreneur and “Dark MAGA” creator Musk recently shared a video that had been posted a while back. It features President elect Trump setting forth his plan to safeguard and restore free speech if (and now when) he assumes office.

In the video, he elaborates on the indispensable nature of free speech to our nation’s constitutional values, stating, “If we don’t have free speech, then we just don’t have a free country.”

He offers the additional warning that if freedom of expression were to continue to erode, other indispensable rights would fall like “dominoes.”

President elect Trump’s plans to restore First Amendment freedoms involve a number of common sense steps, including the following:

-The issuing of an executive order banning any federal department or agency from colluding with outside organizations to censor the speech of Americans.

-A prohibition on government money being used to label any domestic speech as “misinformation” or “disinformation.”

-A review of the federal workforce to identify and replace those involved in censoring speech.

-An effort to seek the reform of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which currently provides immunity for tech platforms. Modification would include placing limits on the power of tech companies to arbitrarily restrict lawful speech.

-The stopping of funding organizations that contribute to censorship, including colleges and universities that promote or engage in inappropriate or unlawful censorship.

-The creation of a “Digital Bill of Rights” that would ensure citizens have due process, that users are informed when their content is removed, that individuals are given clear reasons for decisions made, and that the right to appeal is in place, making judicial review and approval a prerequisite for the removal of certain online content.

Such policies will go a long way toward restoring our constitutional right to free speech.

Interestingly, on the day before the 2024 presidential election, two powerful media figures sat down for a conversation about the issues at stake in the then-looming election.

Musk spoke with Rogan.

After praising Musk for his purchase of Twitter, Rogan said, “I’m not exaggerating when I say you changed the course of history.”

The preeminent podcaster was talking about free expression.

Rogan explained that censorship and de-platforming by social media had severely impeded free speech across the U.S. landscape.

“We were headed down a path of unprecedented censorship and narrative control,” Rogan said to Musk.

What he was referring to is the notion that for speech to be free and remain an existing fundamental right, it must be free from government interference and corporate censorship.

The American notion of freedom cannot exist without these guardrails.

In great part, the understanding of the value of free speech to liberty and the commitment to end censorship have led to the formation of a powerful coalition of superheroes from all sides of the political aisle.

This coalition greatly contributed to the electoral earthquake that just occurred in our country.

Get ready to once again be able to agree and/or disagree to our hearts’ content.

And in between discussions and debates, breathe in the sweet air of free speech.

Trump, McDonald’s, and the American Work Ethic

It was an amazing sight to see.

Former president and current GOP presidential candidate Donald J. Trump dressed up in a white shirt, red tie, and black and yellow apron. He was hard at work at a McDonald’s franchise cooking up some French fries.

A super-sized crowd was gathered nearby the fast food establishment, and they were lovin’ it. Footage of the former prez serving up fries at Mickey D’s almost broke the internet.

It was another unprecedented event for the surging Trump campaign. His handlers dubbed it the “October surp-fries.”

“I’m looking for a job. And I’ve always wanted to work at McDonald’s but I never did,” the former president said as he introduced himself to McDonald’s franchise owner Derek Giacomantonio.

“How much are you paying me?” he jokingly asked.

With reporters and aides gazing on and cameras rolling, an ace McDonald’s staffer coached him in the fine art of prepping the perfect fries and serving with distinction.

Those who witnessed the training session learned that there’s a whole lot more to frying up spuds than people think.

He learned with great precision and timing how to immerse baskets of fries into oil, how to properly salt the fries after cooking, how to meticulously scoop the fries into serving boxes, and how to deliver the fries to the waiting customer.

In addition to being a celebrity chef for a day, he also manned the front counter and even chatted it up with customers and reporters.

It is widely known that 45 is a longtime fan of the Golden Arches. During the 2019 government shutdown, he famously ordered hundreds of burgers, fries, and other menu items from McDonald’s as part of a celebration honoring the Clemson Tigers national college football championship win.

Sharing some of his thoughts on his on-the-job training, Trump noted, “It requires great expertise, actually, to do it right and to do it fast.”

He was truly impressed with the entire operation.

Personally, I have to believe that most of the country as well as onlookers from around the globe were equally impressed with the blue-collar billionaire, and the respect, admiration, and humbleness he displayed toward his “employer,” co-workers, and customers.

I don’t know if he meant to, but in those beautiful Sunday moments at a Feasterville-Trevose, Pennsylvania McDonald’s franchise, Trump single-handedly re-ignited one of our most important values – the American work ethic.

We haven’t given it a whole lot of deference of late, but the work ethic is in our cultural bones.

It’s that unspoken agreement within our society that we are free to choose our own work role, and that we consent to do our part and perform our job duties with excellence, acknowledging that we’re all working to serve one another.

The unmistakable sound of societal harmony: I help you and you help me.

What goes hand-in-hand with the work ethic is an undying respect for every individual’s chosen position and a heartfelt appreciation for one another’s efforts.

“These people work hard. They’re great,” Trump said to the press.

A man who has seen it all shared that he “just saw something… a process that’s beautiful.”

When the value of work is celebrated by our leaders, our people are inspired to become more productive, which paves the way to a more prosperous nation. And that’s good for everyone.

Here’s to those who pitch in every way they can, those who step in when others can’t, and those who never fail to keep the French fries coming.