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Judge James Robart, of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington State, believes there is no basis for President Trump's executive order temporarily suspending non-American entry from seven terrorism-plagued countries. In court last week, Robart questioned Justice Department lawyer Michelle Bennett about the administration's decision to confine the moratorium to Somalia, Libya, Yemen, Syria, Sudan, Iraq, and Iran. Have there been terrorist attacks in the United States by refugees or other immigrants from the seven countries listed, since 9/11? Bennett said. Your honor, I don't know the specific details of attacks or planned attacks, Bennett responded. I think — I will point out, first of all, that the rationale for the order was not only 9/11, it was to protect the United States from the potential for terrorism. I will also note that the seven countries that are listed in the executive order are the same seven countries that were already subject to other restrictions in obtaining visas that Congress put in place, both by naming countries, Syria and Iraq, and that the prior administration put in place by designating them as places where terrorism is likely to occur, or — the specific factors are whether the presence in a particular country increases the likelihood that an alien is a credible threat to U.S. security or an area that is a safe haven for terrorists.

First impressions matter—what we experience in our first encounter with something colors how we process the rest of it. Articles are no exception.

Leftists won't leave the Super Bowl alone, President Trump keeps saying crazy things about Russia, and can we stop with the "fake news" insanity?

State Police in New Haven, Connecticut reportedly have their hands full with demonstrations against the new president within the small state. The latest "fad"

Ronald Reagan was born Feb 6, 1911. A graduate of Eureka College, Illinois, 1932, he worked as a life guard and then announced for radio stations in Iowa. He became a sports announcer for Chicago Cubs baseball games and traveled with the team. While with the Cubs in California, Ronald Reagan auditioned with Warner Brothers, […]

Lawyers for Washington state and Minnesota have told a federal appellate court that restoring President Trump's travel and refugees ban would 'unleash chaos again.'

Cited Genesis, thrown in a cell

Our church’s Super Bowl party is one of my favorite nights of the year. The younger kids run amok in the gym while the adults watch the game on a giant projection screen, eating barbecue, enjoying the inevitable southern church-gathering casserole, and offering spontaneous judgments on the commercials. This year, there were more groans than usual. Like when Airbnb decided to lecture us on diversity: Or when 84 Lumber decided to portray illegal immigrants in the most sympathetic way possible: I could go on. The Washington Post’s James Hohmann counted at least eight political ads, including one that took a direct shot at Donald Trump’s hair, and left-wing Twitter loved it. Corporate free speech is fashionable when it’s not conservative, and this year multiple corporations went peak progressive. Or did they? Some argued that the ads weren’t about politics at all but rather simple decency and kindness. For example, look at these viral tweets: The biggest political statement of the Super Bowl ads is that it’s now “political” for a brand to say “We support being minimally decent” — James Poniewozik (@poniewozik) February 6, 2017 It’s not that any ads are attacking Trump. It’s that Trump is so outside all norms of decency that basic, bland sentiments feel anti-Trump. — Bilge Ebiri (@BilgeEbiri) February 6, 2017 But conservatives watching those ads feel something different entirely. As they watch these odes to tolerance, compassion, and diversity, they know they’re watching a lie. Progressive bastions of intolerance, cruelty toward dissenters, and ideological uniformity are selling the nation a false bill of goods. After all, conservatives go to college, and we know what “tolerance” looks like. We know of the systematic efforts to exclude Christians from campus, of the constant assaults on free speech, and of the increasing violence expressed as #resistance (seen on Facebook: “Love trumping hate involves a lot more assault and arson than I thought it would”). We know how Hollywood’s creative class feels about social conservatives. And we know exactly how welcoming progressive corporations are to dissenting views. The ads above are like college brochures, full of smiling, happy faces from every nation, tribe, and culture. The ads above are like college brochures, full of smiling, happy faces from every nation, tribe, and culture. But behind the smiles is all too often an icy, heartless resolve. The diversity that matters is only skin deep. The “diversity” they celebrate is one where communities of different colors, genders, and sexual practices come together around a uniform ideology — and there is zero hesitation to be as intolerant as necessary in the name of tolerance. (I once sued a major public university that actually declared that “acts of intolerance will not be tolerated.”) My fellow believers look at those ads, understand the worldview they express, and rightly know there’s no room for them in the Left’s utopia. And the immigration ads? Sheer propaganda. Any sentient person knows that not every immigrant is a beer entrepreneur or a super-awesome single mom bringing with her a heartbreakingly cute kid. Sentient people know that illegal immigration brings with it strains on social services and problems in labor markets. Sentient people know that even legal immigration can sometimes be dangerous: Witness the spate of deadly violence from Muslim immigrants. We also know that a nation can be compassionate and brave without also rendering itself vulnerable and gullible. So, please, don’t insult us with the notion that there’s just one virtuous position on immigration — that either you’ve got your arms wide open or you’re an evil jerk. Strangely enough — and against all odds — there was an answer to this propaganda, and it came from, yes, Lady Gaga. Wittingly or unwittingly, she demonstrated what inclusion actually looks like. At the opening of her halftime performance, she stood atop the stadium and sang (unironically) a few words from “God Bless America,” one of conservative America’s favorite patriotic hymns. She immediately followed it with a few lines from a progressive answer to the song, “This Land Is Your Land.” She concluded with the core declaration from the Pledge of Allegiance, “One nation, under God, with liberty and justice for all.” The message, at least to me, went to the essence of the American miracle. We will wrestle with deep differences so long as this nation lives. There is no utopia, and there never will be complete unity. Yet, by God’s grace and through His mercy, at least we can remain free. — David French is a staff writer for National Review, a senior fellow at the National Review Institute, and an attorney.

During the Super Bowl, Lady Gaga shocked the world…by not taking an enormous political dump all over the stage. She warbled her usual agglomeration of overproduced garbage, she strutted around the stage like a maimed llama wearing Beyonce’s old outfits, she appeared to commit suicide. Twice. FOR THE LOVE OF MANKIND!!! GAGA HAS A FAMILY DAMNIT! pic.twitter.com/TDZlgQNeI6

The full, uncut 84 Lumber Super Bowl promotional film. See a mother and daughter’s symbolic migrant journey towards becoming legal American citizens. Contain...

"So frustrating." That's how Vice President Mike Pence described the Friday's ruling by a federal judge in Washington, who granted a temporary restraining order against President Trump's executive order on immigration.

The climate change debate went nuclear Sunday over a whistleblower’s explosive allegation that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association manipulated data to advance a political agenda by hiding the global warming “pause.”

Attempts to rein in agencies have mitigated their actions, but failed to truly introduce accountability. Here’s how to break bureaucracy’s stranglehold.

Elizabeth Poe, who owns a yarn store in Tennessee, isn't backing down despite getting harassed for her decision not to sell yarn to make 'pussyhats.'

97 different companies are suing President Trump to allow refugees into the US from failed states such as Somalia or ...

Thursday night in Greenwich Village, a woman let loose an obscenity-filled tirade against the police officers who were attempting to keep order outside New York University’s Kimmel Student Center, where College Republicans were hosting a speech by comedian Gavin McInnes. Screaming that President T?

There is no logic. There are no facts. You can say blue, and they will hear white. One plus one equals cat. Calling the left mentally ill is truly a disservice to those who are mentally ill. At least with mental illness there’s a reason for the madness and a hope for a cure. There is no hope for t?

With Donald Trump in the White House, speculation is mounting: Does he intend  to act on his pre-election promise, dating...

The Anglo-American hero Winston Churchill once said, “This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.” There is no better way to describe the impact that the March 2015 victory in Kobanî had on the war against the Islamic State. ISIS’s defeat in this north Syrian city will go down in history as the moment the group began to decline. There would be death throes over the subsequent years, as ISIS scored victories in places such as Palmyra and Ramadi, but the group’s rapid growth and aura of invincibility were be shattered in Kobanî by the heroic fighters of the YPG (Kurdish People’s Protection Units) and YPJ (Women’s Protection Units). The liberation of Kobanî wouldn’t have been possible without the intervention of the American military. High in the sky, U.S. Air Force pilots killed hundreds of jihadists and annihilated their heavy equipment. American intelligence officials watched the heroic defense and, with growing confidence in their Kurdish allies, began to build closer military ties. The Kurdish fighters were surrounded, outgunned, and short on supplies. Refusing to surrender to the jihadists, many used up their bullets and ran at the enemy with their last grenade, dying in one final act of defiance. What few in the West realize is that from the very beginning of this war, young Americans have been fighting against the Islamic State in support of the fledgling democratic movement in Rojava, the unofficially autonomous region that is home to Kobanî. One man, Keith Broomfield, was in Kobanî at the same time those U.S. jets circled overhead. This year, I met a man who knew Broomfield and described a terrible firefight on a hill outside Kobanî. With bullets cracking overhead and the fanatical screams of jihadists in his ears, Broomfield couldn’t have been further away from his hometown of Westminster, Mass. Those that knew him in the YPG describe an intelligent, easygoing man with a great sense of humor and a deep Christian faith that inspired him to help others. During the firefight, while running between positions, Broomfield was shot in the chest and grievously wounded. His friend, a Kurdish man named Merdem, ran to his aid and pulled him into cover. As they lay there, with bullets snapping and cracking overhead, the hopelessness of their position struck Merdem: Without the knowledge or equipment to treat his friend, all he could do was try and stem the blood loss and wait for help. Merdem gently shook Broomfield and pleaded with him to stay conscious. Their eyes met. “You can’t die, heval,” Merdem said, using the Kurdish word for friend. “You’re my commander.” It was a private joke, shared a hundred times around campfires, over stoves, and on cold, nighttime guard duties. A smile passed over Keith’s lips and soon afterward he died in his comrades arms. It’s not just Americans who have flocked to aid the Rojava Revolution; hundreds of volunteers from around the world have joined the fight, too. I first went to Rojava in December 2014. Like everyone else in the world, I had watched the sudden and brutal rise of ISIS in horror. I couldn’t sleep at night thinking of Yazidi girls as young as nine being sold into sexual slavery. My heart broke when I thought of the suffering endured by the families of men such as James Foley and Alan Henning, both murdered by a death cult that aims to return humanity to the dark ages. And the inaction of David Cameron’s British government and the Obama administration dismayed me. So I joined the YPG. I wanted to join the volunteers from America, Britain, and the rest of the free world in fighting the Islamic State. In doing so, I hoped to show the innocent people of Syria that they weren’t alone. More importantly, I hoped to highlight the appalling inaction of the West and the vacuum it has created for Russia, Turkey, and Iran to fill. How many more great Americans such as Keith Bloomfield have to die before our governments see the light? What the International Volunteers are supporting is truly remarkable. The Syrian Kurds believe in secular democracy, societal equality, and the rule of law. They want devolved power so each community has control over its own affairs. There is no law in the land that can tell you who to worship, when to worship, how your children should be educated, or how you should lead your life. It’s no wonder that the Assyrian National Council, which represents Syria’s Christian minority, supports the Syrian Kurds and the new Rojava administration. While the rest of Syria slips into anarchy, as the Assad regime barrel-bombs people from the sky and the Free Syrian Army rips itself apart, the entire northern part of the country has children in school, police on the street, and a functioning democracy. The Syrian Kurds worked with the Americans and created the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). The SDF is by far the most successful group battling against the Islamic State. They receive a lot of military assistance from the West, but no political or humanitarian support. If we want a quick resolution to the Syrian crisis, we need to identify who is capable of defeating ISIS and building a system of government that will provide lasting peace. The answer lies within the SDF and the Rojava administration. How many more great Americans such as Keith Bloomfield have to die before our governments see the light? — Macer Gifford is a human-rights activist and anti-ISIS campaigner. He has volunteered twice with the YPG.

Fidel Castro died on November 25, but Castroism — the one-party, neo-Stalinist system that has tyrannized Cuba for more than half a century — still needs to be defeated. Fidel’s brother, Raúl, “president” of the island nation for most of the last decade, has shown no signs of ending the political oppression and human-rights violations that define the regime. To be sure, Raúl has made a few minor reforms out of necessity, to open up the economy. But those changes have not been accompanied by political reforms. The Obama administration restored diplomatic relations with the Cuban government and made it easier for Americans to travel and do business there. On January 12 of this year, the administration announced that it was ending the longstanding “wet foot, dry foot” policy that grants permanent-resident status to any Cuban who makes it to the U.S. shore. And back in October, the Obama administration announced the implementation of Presidential Policy Directive 43, which directs the Department of Defense to expand its relationship with Havana. Other changes include permitting Americans to bring back as much Cuban rum and cigars as they like from Cuba. “Already we are seeing what the United States and Cuba can accomplish when we put aside the past and work to build a brighter future,” U.S. National Security Adviser Susan Rice said at the time. “You can now celebrate with Cuban rum and Cuban cigars!” But Cubans aren’t celebrating. Under Castroism, Cuba’s main accomplishments have been the highest per-capita rates of suicide, abortion, and refugees in the Western Hemisphere. Cuba has the oldest population in Latin America. Cuba ages and withers away, strangled by Castro’s tyranny. The problem with Obama’s overtures is that they have not been reciprocated by the Cuban regime. There is still no respect for human rights or political freedom. As Amnesty International put it recently: Despite increasingly open diplomatic relations, severe restrictions on freedoms of expression, association and movement continued. Thousands of cases of harassment of government critics and arbitrary arrests and detentions were reported. But the situation is not hopeless. Cubans of different generations and backgrounds are committed like never before to working for a free Cuba. There are many things Cubans, Cuban Americans, and other people of goodwill can do. They can support the resistance by encouraging those who are involved in direct civic action on the island. For instance, the Ladies in White, a group of wives, mothers, and sisters of jailed dissidents, continue to suffer beatings, harassment, and jailing at the hands of the government for their silent, non-violent marches. Such protests are an indispensable means through which Cubans’ rights will be regained. Under Castroism, Cuba’s main accomplishments have been the highest per-capita rates of suicide, abortion, and refugees in the Western Hemisphere. What must happen for Cuba to be free? The regime must give general amnesty for all political prisoners. That means full rights to free expression, access to information, assembly, association, peaceful protest, profession, and worship. Other essential rights include the right to collective bargaining, the rule of law, checks and balances, and the balance of power, including an independent judiciary. A free Cuba will be realized only when multi-party elections are held and the right to vote and the privacy of the ballot are respected. For that to happen, a constitutional process must take place that includes a constitutional convention and a referendum on a new constitution. Many Cuban Americans hope that President Trump will be a stronger advocate for human rights than Barack Obama was. During the campaign, Trump promised to “stand with the Cuban people in their fight against Communist oppression” and criticized the “concessions” that Barack Obama made to the Castros. He promised to secure a “better deal” between the two countries than the one Obama negotiated. Trump should make it clear that he will sever diplomatic relations with the Cuban government unless it makes progress to end political repression, opens its markets, protects freedom of religion, and releases all political prisoners. The public may believe that, now that Fidel and Obama are gone, Cuba is well on its way to being free. But Castroism didn’t die with Fidel. The repression and violence against the Cuban people continues. Economic changes alone will not bring about democracy. They are important, but only respect for human rights and political liberty will truly make Cuba free. — Mario T. de la Peña is an advocate for a free and democratic Cuba who has lived in the United States since 1962.

As a barber in Havana, Duniesky Herrera Matamoros made about $20 a month — barely enough to live on, he said, and not enough for a life. So like so many others in Cuba, he made plans to leave.

100,000 Bhutanese refugees living in Nepal for years relocated to Western countries

The sudden influx of so-called refugee status applicants has created a serious problem for the Canadian Government. In order to deal with such cases expeditiously, four new committees have been set up. But, despite all the fresh efforts, the officials say that it would be several months before they can clear the backlog.

A whistleblower says the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) rushed a landmark study claiming the planet was warming much faster than expected in order to influence international cl

Actions on H.R.870 - 115th Congress (2017-2018): To direct the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to plan to return to the Moon and develop a sustained human presence on the Moon.