Ms. Barrett told the senators that she was a faithful Catholic, and that her religious beliefs would not affect her decisions as an appellate judge. But her membership in a small, tightly knit Christian group called People of Praise never came up at the hearing, and might have led to even more intense questioning.
Some of the group’s practices would surprise many faithful Catholics. Members of the group swear a lifelong oath of loyalty, called a covenant, to one another, and are assigned and are accountable to a personal adviser, called a “head” for men and a “handmaid” for women. The group teaches that husbands are the heads of their wives and should take authority over the family.
Current and former members say that the heads and handmaids give direction on important decisions, including whom to date or marry, where to live, whether to take a job or buy a home, and how to raise children.
Legal scholars said that such loyalty oaths could raise legitimate questions about a judicial nominee’s independence and impartiality. The scholars said in interviews that while there certainly was no religious test for office, it would have been relevant for the senators to examine what it means for a judicial nominee to make an oath to a group that could wield significant authority over its members’ lives.
Visiting the FDA on Friday, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. had several “off -the-cuff” remarks which stunned many staffers present, according to a POLITICO report.
The outlet obtained a transcript and audio of the speech where Kennedy claimed, “The Deep State is real. And it’s not, you know, just George Soros and Bill Gates and a bunch of nefarious individuals sitting together in a room and plotting the, you know, the destruction of humanity.”
The speech only became worse as he claimed, “‘every institution that’s created by human beings’ is inevitably captured by powerful interests.” Kennedy later added that “We want to break away from this so we can make our kids healthy.”
“Kennedy last week called the culling of roughly 10,000 employees a necessary action, promising that HHS would find ways to ‘do more with less,'” the report noted.
Nothing terribly shocking reported, click-bait title. RFK sounds like a more or less normal, well-informed American. I hope he bans the covid vax, brings on medical freedom from all vaxxes and treatments, cleans up the food supply, and massively helps small organic farmers. I can see a USA where 10% of workers are engaged in small-medium size organic farming, producing great food, widely available. As other industries close due to new tech, quality agriculture will be able to provide a lot of jobs to replace ones lost. ABN
(JTA) — President Donald Trump has selected a new special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism, elevating a Miami businessman and fundraiser named Yehuda Kaploun to the role.
Kaploun is affiliated with Chabad, the Orthodox movement, and was a fundraiser and surrogate for Trump during last year’s campaign. He appeared with Trump at a ceremony in Florida to mark the one year anniversary of Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel.
The role, which requires Senate confirmation and was elevated in recent years to the ambassador level, is the United States’ top position related to fighting antisemitism and has responsibility primarily for what happens overseas. Kaploun, who initially got connected to Trump through Miriam and Sheldon Adelson, the Jewish Republican megadonors, offered a clear sense in the Mishpacha interview of where he believes the greatest threat to Jews lies.
He presented a grim view of antisemitism in the United States. “Our situation is similar to that of Jews in 1930s Germany, on the eve of Kristallnacht,” he said. “They, too, lived in peace and quiet until the ground shook under their feet. And in the United States, the ground is already shaking.”
Kaploun must be asked if he is a Jewish Supremacist during his confirmation hearing. He should also be required to completely and unambiguously disavow Jewish Supremacism wherever it occurs. Basic common sense demands at least this much from our representatives in the Senate. News and media figures should also follow this line of questioning when they speak with Kaploun. ABN
Beijing’s best and brightest are pushing for a radical plan involving Australia – and it should make us all very nervous.
Is Australia the next Taiwan? The next Spratly Islands? The next Himalayan Ladakh?
Some of China’s up-and-coming Communist Youth are asserting the land Down Under is rightfully theirs.
Jamestown Foundation open source intelligence analyst Shijie Wang has stumbled across an online discussion among Beijing’s best and brightest young minds.
The posts, isolated from the rest of the world behind the Chinese Communist Party’s “Great Internet Firewall”, advocate the “annexation” of Australia based on similar arguments to those being applied against the Himalayas, the East and South China Seas, the Senkaku and Spratly Islands and Taiwan.
Along the way, the task group provoked controversy by conducting live-fire gunnery exercises beneath a busy Australia-New Zealand air traffic corridor.
KOBK, the game of apex power. The world has ever been thus. Be realistic. Understand the left is worse than the right. The left wants your mind—EU, communism, many Dems in USA. The right is milder, freer and better—Singapore, Japan, Russia, not enough GOPs or Independents in USA. ABN
When Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent took the podium at the American Bankers Association on Wednesday morning he was anything but ‘yippy’ – the president’s term to describe the handwringing of Republicans and financiers who were sounding the alarm on his tariffs.
Early on, Trump branded them as ‘Panicans,’ a ‘new party based on weak and stupid people,’ but Bessent struck a unique messaging balance that both reassured stock traders and his boss.
Bessent reassured the room of bankers that, thanks to the president’s tariff threats, 75 countries were willing to negotiate with him, and that 15 of those nations had already proposed a deal.
‘The president already had good calls with the Japanese prime minster, and the leaders of South Korea, and Vietnam,’ Bessent revealed, and he was working quickly to settle monumental trade deals.
‘I’m not planning on going anywhere for Easter,’ he grinned, revealing that he would have a ‘lead negotiating role’ in the effort.
Bessent’s tone was relaxed, but made it very clear that he was backing the president’s agenda.
To the world, he urged countries to come to the table with a deal, noting that America was listening.
‘If you don’t retaliate, that is a ceiling,’ he said, urging them not to start ‘cutting their own throat’ by aligning economically with China.
The tariffs are a KOBK game theory move par excellance—Kill-Or-Be-Killed. ‘Don’t cut your own throat by retaliating’, Bessent said, voicing an actual threat.
If you retaliate as China has done you will be ‘killed’, meaning neutered, your power taken from you, subordinated to USA. If you cooperate and are reasonable we will all prosper and all will be well.
USA has the military, and more importantly, economic power to make this very strong KOBK move against the entire world. China has been an ungrateful parasite against USA and most of the rest of the world. It’s a communist-Chinese cultural flaw; selfish zero-sum thinking from dawn to dusk.
If China continues its KOBK line of retaliation, they may start a war with Taiwan or raise threat levels high enough to greatly disturb Taiwan while distracting their own people. They could also make moves against South Korea or Japan, not to mention USA.
Bessent is the perfect person to lead this largest and strongest KOBK move in world history. It’s a beautiful move, extremely well executed. Rather than bitch and moan, understand that Trump is doing what is best for USA and for the world. Using Bessent to deliver the message is perfect, as his tone is gentle but certain and it is hard not to like or trust him. He speaks softly but is carrying an enormous club. ABN
The Department of Education Is Referring the Case to the Department of Justice; Initiating Federal Funding Termination Proceeding
April 11, 2025
Today, the U.S. Department of Education (ED) referred its Title IX investigation into the Maine Department of Education (MDOE) to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) for further enforcement action. Simultaneously, ED will initiate an administrative proceeding to adjudicate termination of MDOE’s federal K-12 education funding, including formula and discretionary grants.
These actions are a direct result of MDOE’s continued refusal to comply with Title IX. ED issued a noncompliance finding on March 19, and sent a final warning letter to the state on March 31.
“The Department has given Maine every opportunity to come into compliance with Title IX, but the state’s leaders have stubbornly refused to do so, choosing instead to prioritize an extremist ideological agenda over their students’ safety, privacy, and dignity,” said Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Craig Trainor. “The Maine Department of Education will now have to defend its discriminatory practices before a Department administrative law judge and in a federal court against the Justice Department. Governor Mills would have done well to adhere to the wisdom embedded in the old idiom—be careful what you wish for. Now she will see the Trump Administration in court.”
The Trump administration has ordered immigration agents to verify whether migrants have submitted their names and personal information to an online registry as part of an expansion of the president’s mass deportation effort.
If migrants fail to register or don’t carry proof of their registration with them, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents are being told to “treat the alien’s case as an immigration enforcement priority” and to “refer the case to the US Department of Justice for criminal prosecution,” according to the memo.
An ICE source said they believe many illegal migrants won’t register, becoming prime targets for arrest and deportation.
American Buddhist Net 