What Will Trump-Vance Administration Do for Pro-Life Clinics?

Employees at pro-life pregnancy resource centers are hoping for protection from the Trump-Vance administration that they did not receive from the Biden-Harris administration. In an article published at The Daily Signal, Elizabeth (Troutman) Mitchell wrote of the double standard of protection given to the pro-life pregnancy resource centers as compared to abortion clinics. 

At least 95 pregnancy resource centers and pro-life groups have been attacked and vandalized since the Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe v. Wade was leaked in early May 2022, according to CatholicVote’s tracker. The DOJ has not investigated the majority of the attacks….

Pro-life lawyers and directors of pregnancy resource centers weighed in on how the Trump administration can protect them after four years of what they regard as mistreatment under the Biden-Harris administration.

President-elect Donald Trump’s Department of Justice can bring the hammer of justice down on vandals and domestic terrorists who have threatened and vandalized pregnancy centers, yet faced no repercussions….

The pro-life pregnancy resource centers are hoping that soon-to-be President Trump will cancel the changes that President Joe Biden made to Title X – “a federal program that focuses on providing family planning and related preventative services to low-income Americans at little or no cost to them.”

The centers want the Trump administration to “repeal or reevaluate the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act of 1994” [FACE Act] because it “has been weaponized against pro-lifers over the past four years.”

The centers want Trump to “pardon, or commute the sentences of, the pro-lifers who have been convicted for praying outside abortion clinics.” “More than 10 pro-lifers have been convicted under the FACE Act for peacefully protesting outside abortion clinics during the Biden-Harris administration. One of these pro-life activists is 89-year-old Eva Edl, who survived a World War II-era death camp before escaping to the United States.”

The FACE Act prohibits use of force, obstruction, or property damage intended to interfere with “reproductive health care services.” Though it theoretically protects houses of worship and pro-life pregnancy resource centers as well as abortion clinics, the Biden administration’s Justice Department has largely used the FACE Act to prosecute pro-life activists like Edl.

Who Is Tulsi Gabbard?

My VIP for this week is Tulsi Gabbard, former Democrat and Independent and now Republican. She is also President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to be the director of national intelligence. According to Tyler O’Neil at The Daily Signal, Gabbard’s selection has sent “shockwaves through the political establishment.” O’Neil described Gabbard’s qualifications. 

Tulsi Gabbard, a fearless truth-teller who found herself outside the Democratic Party because she wasn’t afraid to buck the Left’s narratives, will be taking the reins at the very intelligence community she herself has loudly condemned.

A veteran and active-duty Army reservist, Gabbard has loudly criticized the censorship-industrial complex and has taken aim at the Left’s sacred cows. A former Democrat who served in the House of Representatives from 2013 to 2021 and who ran for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020, Gabbard has since joined the Republican Party and backed Trump, in part due to her disgust over the way government agencies and Big Tech censored her, Trump, and conservatives.

Trump announced Wednesday that he will tap her as director of national intelligence.

“I know Tulsi will bring the fearless spirit that has defined her illustrious career to our intelligence community, championing our constitutional rights, and securing peace through strength,” the president-elect said in a statement. “Tulsi will make us all proud!”

Trump noted Gabbard’s three deployments to war zones in the Middle East and Africa, her rejection of the Democratic Party, and her role as co-chair on his transition team.

“She puts country before party and approaches every issue, domestic and foreign, based on ensuring the safety, security, and freedom of the American people,” he said of Gabbard.

Gabbard’s emphasis on freedom, and free speech in particular, stands out. She has repeatedly condemned Big Tech censorship, even encouraging then-President Donald Trump to take action against the protection from liability that social media companies enjoy under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996. She had previously spoken out after Google censored her ds ahead of a Democratic primary debate in 2020.

In her September speech endorsing Trump, she hailed the Republican as “our best hope” to “stop the censorship of free speech in America.”

She said she never imagined that she would live in an America where “we couldn’t criticize our own government for fear of them labeling us as a domestic terrorist, but this is the country that we live in.”

“The very next day after I did an interview with Laura Ingraham on Fox News and I talked about how dangerous [Vice President] Kamala Harris would be as our president and commander in chief, I was added to a secret domestic terror watchlist called ‘Quiet Skies,’” Gabbard noted at the time.

O’Neil shared more information about Tulsi Gabbard that you can find at this site. I like Tulsi Gabbard and have followed her at least since she was a Democrat Party candidate for President of the United States. She made a lot of sense then, and she still makes a lot of sense.

Why Is Trump Planning to Use a Warrior Board?

The topic of discussion for this Constitution Monday is that the President of the United States is also the Commander-in-Chief of the military forces. This gives the President the power to appoint military leaders. President-elect Donald Trump’s nomination of Pete Hegseth to be his secretary of defense has set the Left to worrying.

According to Jarrett Stepman, Hegseth is an Army veteran who received two Bronze Stars and served tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan. He also made a statement about removing “woke” senior military officials that is concerning certain generals. 

Firing incompetent generals is a good thing. In fact, it might be what the military needs right now to regain the confidence of the American people.

According to a number of reports, President-elect Donald Trump will be creating a commission to review leaders in the military with the assumption that many of the top brass will be fired.

Trump will be using a “warrior board” of retired officers, The Hill reported, to review our current crop of three- and four-star officers and will weed out the ones the commission disapproves of.

That’s not all.

Trump’s pick for secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth – an Army veteran who has been awarded two Bronze Stars, and who served in Iraq and Afghanistan – said in past interviews that it’s necessary to remove “woke” senior military officials who have left the U.S. armed forces in a sorry state.

“First of all, you’ve got to fire [the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff] and obviously you’ve got to bring in a new secretary of defense, but any general that was involved – general, admiral, whatever – that was involved in any of the DEI woke s-, has got to go,” Hegseth said in an early November interview on “The Shawn Ryan Show” podcast. DEI is shorthand for diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Trump and Hegseth – the author of “The War on Warriors: Behind the Betrayal of the Men Who Keep Us Free” and “Modern Warriors: Real Stories from Real Heroes” – clearly intend to shake up the military at the top.

The Left, however, isn’t taking it well.

Legacy media is reporting on that development as if it’s some kind of ominous sign that Trump will “politicize” the military. They are even calling it a “purge.”

One left-wing podcaster, Fred Wellman, who includes “democracy advocate” in his X bio, even posted that removing generals is “truly fascist.”

Ah, yes, civilian control of the military, so fascist.

Stepman then embarked on a quick history lesson about how POTUS has the power and authority to remove “generals and other high-ranking military leaders” and how such removal can be a boon, not a hindrance, to a strong military.

Peacetime militaries – and I only use that phrase loosely to refer to our own era of near-constant, low-level asymmetrical conflicts – frequently calcify. Leaders who successfully navigate the bureaucratic treadmill to make it to the top ranks in those times are frequently not the best wartime leaders.

Militaries need to be shaken up from time to time.

Stepman reminded his readers that military leaders were purged in both the War of 1812 and the Civil War because the old ones were incompetent and/or becoming calcified. The world of today is close to being drawn into World War III. Trump needs to purge the old military leaders who want a woke military and bring in younger ones with which we can win the battles and the wars.

Has Jesus Christ Shown Himself to Any Mere Mortal?

My Come Follow Me studies for this week took me to Ether 1-5 in a lesson titled “Rend That Veil of Unbelief. The lesson was introduced by the following information. 

While it is true that God’s ways are higher than ours and we should always submit to His will, He also encourages us to think and act for ourselves. That’s one lesson Jared and his brother learned. For example, the idea of traveling to a new land that was “choice above all the earth” seemed to start with Jared, and the Lord granted the request, saying to the brother of Jared, “Thus I will do unto thee because this long time ye have cried unto me” (see Ether 1:38-43). And when the brother of Jared needed light inside the barges that would carry them to their promised land, the Lord asked a question that we usually ask Him: “What will ye that I should do?” (Ether 2:23). He wants to hear our thoughts and ideas, and He will listen and give His confirmation or counsel us otherwise. Sometimes the only thing separating us from the blessings we seek is our own “veil of unbelief,” and if we can “rend that veil” (Ether 4:15), we may be surprised by what the Lord is willing to do for us.

The principle that I feel prompted to discuss comes from Ether 2; 3:1-6; 4:7-15: I can receive revelation for my life. In the opening session of the April 2018 General Conference, President Russell M. Nelson was sustained as the Prophet, Seer, and Revelator and the President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The next day he gave an address titled “Revelation for the Church, Revelation for Our Lives” and discussed the process of his new calling (Ensign or Liahona, May 2018). He discussed the process of revelation in the Church of Jesus Christ and then discussed the process of revelation in the life of each member. Following is part of his counsel to all of us.

I urge you to stretch beyond your current spiritual ability to receive personal revelation, for the Lord has promised that “if thou shalt [seek], thou shalt receive revelation upon revelation, knowledge upon knowledge, that thou mayest know the mysteries and peaceable things – that which bringeth joy, that which bringeth life eternal.”

Oh, there is so much more that your Father in Heaven wants you to know. As Elder Neal A. Maxwell taught, “To those who have eyes to see and ears to hear, it is clear that the Father and the Son are giving away the secrets of the universe!”

Nothing opens the heavens quite like the combination of increased purity, exact obedience, earnest seeking, daily feasting on the words of Christ in the Book of Mormon, and regular time committed to temple and family history work.

To be sure, there may be times when you feel as though the heavens are closed. But I promise that as you continue to be obedient, expressing gratitude for every blessing the Lord gives you, and as you patiently honor the Lord’s timetable, you will be given the knowledge and understanding you seek.

Every blessing the Lord has for you – even miracles – will follow. That is what personal revelation will do for you….

Our Savior and Redeemer, Jesus Christ, will perform some of His mightiest works between now and when He comes again. We will see miraculous indications that God the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, preside over this Church in majesty and glory. But in coming days, it will not be possible to survive spiritually without the guiding, directing, comforting, and constant influence of the Holy Ghost.

My beloved brothers and sisters, I plead with you to increase your spiritual capacity to receive revelation. Let this Easter Sunday be a defining moment in your life. Choose to do the spiritual work required to enjoy the gift of the Holy Ghost and hear the voice of the Spirit more frequently and more clearly. (“Revelation for the Church, Revelation or Our Lives,” Ensign or Liahona, May 2018, 96).

Today’s scripture block tells the story of a man known as “the brother of Jared” and how he learned to receive revelation from God. Ether included the experience of the brother of Jared seeing the finger of God touching sixteen stones that he had prepared. Then the Lord showed his spirit body to the brother of Jared as well as many other wonderful things. Here is a video about the experience – “The Lord Appears to the Brother of Jared.” 

 

Why Did Gen Z Vote for Donald Trump?

Families, communities, states, and nations are stronger when individuals value life from conception until natural death. Sometimes, such individual stances win political races, and sometimes, life is protected for other reasons.

Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign emphasized abortion and thought that the young women of America would support her for protecting their right to choose. However, enough Gen Z women – 40 percent -- voted for Donald Trump. These young women under the age of 30 chose to vote for Trump and could have been the key to his winning the election. Sarah Holliday at The Daily Signal shared the following information. 

It seemed Harris believed the best way to reach young women was to make abortion the epicenter of her campaign. In the 100-plus days of her candidacy, she touted the claim that a Trump victory would mean all so-called “reproductive freedoms” and “rights” would be stripped away.

And while at least 13% of registered female voters listed abortion as their top issue, there were a large number of women who didn’t share this concern. According to The Daily Mail, 40% of this demographic said their No. 1 issue was the economy. Eleven percent named immigration as their biggest worry.

Outside of abortion, Harris also attempted to cater to young women by raking in celebrity endorsements. Taylor Swift, Beyoncé,, and other notable figures popular among this group announced their support for the Democratic presidential nominee….

Several experts have taken a stab at explaining the reasons why more young women voted for Trump over Harris than expected.

“There’s an assumption made about Gen Z,” psychotherapist and author Jonathan Alpert told The Daily Mail. “[M]any so-called political experts think that just because someone is in their teens to late 20s and female that means they automatically would vote for Harris.” However, he added, “At the end of the day, Gen Z cared about many things, but safety and prosperity seemed to trump other things that the Harris campaign gave way too much power to.”

Cornell University professor Sabrina Karim believes “there were high expectations going into the election about how women would vote.”

“[W]omen re not a monolithic group,” she said. “[T]heir concerns are multifaceted.”

But according to the Family Research Council’s Mary Szoch, Harris significantly missed the mark when she decided to make abortion her main connection to women.

“Kamla Harris centered her entire campaign around abortion,” she told The Washington Stand. “She told Americans that without the ‘right’ to kill their child through nine months, no one could achieve the American dream.” It was her primary topic, Szoch observed, which is why it stands out that “President Trump had a very different message.” Contrary to what Harris had to say, “He challenged Americans to recognize that we live in the greatest country on earth – and that we need to protect and defend the American dream.”

Szoch continued, “He asked people if they are living better today than they were four years ago, when he was president, and the overwhelming response was ‘No.’ Americans want more than a president who believes that the most important policies include ways to exploit children who are born and kill children who are unborn.” Rather, “Americans – including women – want a president who believes the future for all Americans, including unborn ones, is bright provided they have others willing to protect and defend them.

According to Szoch, this is at the heart of why the exit poll revealed more women than expected turned for Trump this election cycle….

The United States suffered through a four-year Civil War to end the evils of slavery. Killing innocent babies is even worse than enslaving people. I wonder what consequences this nation will suffer if we continue to allow the killing of unborn children and abuse of those who survive birth. We can strengthen our families, communities, states, and nations by fighting for life.

What Will the Border Look Like Next Year?

The liberty principle for this Freedom Friday concerns border security and illegal immigration. Good news today is President-elect Donald Trump naming Tom Holman as the “border czar.” Holman is a veteran immigration official with a law enforcement career spanning several decades. Trump’s announcement brought cheers from border patrol officers who recognize that Holman will allow them to do their jobs.

While Holman directs events at the borders and helps Trump to close the borders, they will also be deporting many of the illegal immigrants who are committing crimes across the United States. Simon Hankinson of The Heritage Foundation published an article at The Daily Signal that included the following information. 

There were 959 carjackings in Washington, D.C., last year – up from 148 in 2018. Shoplifting is so bad that stores in some neighborhoods have closed. The CVS on Pennsylvania Avenue, a few blocks from the White House, keeps Charmin toilet paper and trash bags in locked cabinets.

Not surprisingly, though, to the dismay of progressive activists, it’s not just conservatives who want crime prevented, prosecuted, and punished. After a disastrous experiment under far-left District Attorney Chesa Boudin, even ultraliberal San Francisco had had enough of rampant lawlessness and fired him back in 2022.

On Tuesday, almost-as-woke Los Angels replaced its deliberately feckless, far-left District Attorney George Glascon with a “former federal prosecutor who ran on a platform of ‘restoring safety and justice,’” according to local station KTLA.

In elections across America, the Democrats tried to reduce everything to identity politics. Anyone voting against their candidates, they claimed, did so because of racism or misogyny, not because they preferred conservative policies.

But the truth is, people of all races and both sexes don’t like being victims of crime. It’s a universal value.

Just as they prefer ineffective alternatives to punishing crime, the American Left does not want immigration enforcement either. If she had been elected, Kamala Harris had promised to support a Senate border bill that she claimed would have fixed the border she and Joe Biden broke.

Not only would the bill have failed to do that … but it would have made taxpayers foot the bill for lawyers so millions of economic migrants Biden let in could make unmerited or fraudulent asylum claims and drag them out in immigration court as long as possible.

Holmon is no pushover, and he knows the law. When recently asked if there was any way to deport illegal aliens without separating families, Holmon did not miss a beat in stating that families can be deported together. I look forward to seeing what Holmon will do with the border problems. 

Why Do Some States Allow Voting Without Any Identification?

Robert McGreevy published an article at MSN.com with interesting information. He began his article by stating that 18 of the 19 states won by Vice President Kamala Harris do not “require voters to show photo identification to vote, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL). 

McGreevy continued with other interesting numbers. Only 36 of the 50 U.S. states “require voters to provide some form of identification to cast a ballot, according to the NCSL. Of these, 12 do not require a photo ID.”

Numerous states have different provisions. New Hampshire allows voters to cast a normal ballot without identification but require but requires them to sign a “challenged voter affidavit” before casting a ballot. After the election, a form is sent to them is requires signature and return; if the form is not returned, “the voter will be investigated for voter fraud.”

Harris won Rhode Island, the only such state that allows a voter to vote without an ID, but they cast a provisional ballot. The signature is then matched with a signature on record.

Trump won Nevada and Pennsylvania, the “only states in which no ID is required to vote that Harris lost.” Trump also won Iowa, Oklahoma, Kentucky, and Utah, “states that merely request an ID to vote, though it is not required.”

Harris won 12 states – California, Oregon, New Mexico, Minnesota, Illinois, Maine, Vermont, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Hawaii, and Maryland – that “require no document to vote, according to the NCSL.”

Harris won five other states – Colorado, Washington, Delaware, Connecticut, and Virginia – that require ID but not a photo ID.” Colorado and Washington “hold all elections by mail.” Therefore, “there limited ID laws only affect in-person voters.”

These are just some of the numbers given in the McGreevy article. I do not understand states that require no identification to vote, one of the most sacred duties given to Americans. In a world where identification is required for so many other activities – medical appointments, flying, entering a federal building, obtaining credit, and many other regular and normal activities in America, why do states allow voting to take place without identification?