Who Is Ken Paxton?

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit against the Biden administration in October 2023 with accusation that Border Patrol was illegally destroying Texas state property while helping illegal aliens to break American law. According to Joseph MacKinnon at Blaze Media, the lawsuit further asserted that federal agents “not only cut Texas’ concertina wire, but also attach[ed] ropes or cables from the back of pickup trucks to ease” the way for illegal aliens to break into the United States. 

MacKinnon reported that the Fifth Circuit Court issued a temporary order on the matter in December 2023 that prohibited the federal government from cutting the wire with the exception of medical emergencies. In January 2024, the U.S. Supreme Court vacated the order and sent the case back to lower courts. The most recent ruling came the day before Thanksgiving Day 2024.

The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a 2-1 opinion Wednesday granting Texas a preliminary injunction against the Biden administration. Circuit Judge Kyle Duncan … noted in the majority opinion:

The injunction is not barred by intergovernmental immunity because Texas is seeking, not to “regulate” Border Patrol, but only to safeguard its own property. Nor, for similar reasons, is the injunction barred by the Immigration and Nationality Act (“INA”). Finally, Texas has satisfied the injunction factors from Winter v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc., 555 U.S. 7 (2008). Most importantly, the United States does not even contest that Texas has shown it will likely succeed on its state law trespass claims.

The court noted that while the Biden administration contends that the concertina wire poses a risk to human safety, the administration’s own behavior does as well as it has “facilitated and encouraged aliens to ‘undertake the dangerous task of crossing the river.’”

The court also rejected the Biden administration that the Lone Star State’s fencing undermines international relations, adding that “concerns about international relations do not erase property owners’ rights over thousands of square miles along the border.” …

The ever-defiant Republican Gov. Greg Abbott noted in response to the ruling that Texas will “continue adding more razor wire border barrier.”

Paxton called the result a “huge win for Texas,” tweeting, “We sued immediately when the federal government was observed destroying fences to let illegal aliens enter, and we’ve fought every step of the way for Texas sovereignty and security.”

“It was shocking to me that the federal government would go out of their way to cut razor wire to allow illegals to cross when we’re just trying to protect our own land,” Paxton reportedly told Newsmax Wednesday evening. “This wasn’t their land. This was our land, our private property. It had nothing due to the federal government. So this is a good win for Texas, a good win for the country, that this court recognized our ability to protect our land.”

What Is Happening at the U.S. Census Bureau?

The topic of discussion for this Constitution Monday concerns the U.S. Census Bureau and how it counts residents of blue states and red states. Accounting to Fred Lucas at The Daily Signal, Robert Santos, the director of the U.S. Census Bureau will testify on December 5 before the House Oversight and Accountability Committee and face questions regarding errors in the counting of the last census. 

“The Census Bureau’s review of the 2020 Census revealed substantial miscounts and discrepancies tending to benefit Democrat-run states,” House Oversight Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., said in a statement to The Daily Signal. “Congress has a responsibility to conduct oversight of these massive errors to ensure they are not repeated in the 2030 census.” …

“Additionally, current integrity issues with the Census must be addressed,” Comer said.

He continued:

“The Biden-Harris administration facilitated the worst border crisis in American history, allowing millions of illegal aliens to enter and reside in our country unlawfully. To ensure only U.S. citizens are counted for the apportionment of congressional seats and Electoral College votes, Congress must pass the Equal Representation Act to add a straightforward citizenship question to the Census. We look forward to hearing Director Santos’ testimony and ensuring the Census Bureau takes the necessary steps to deliver a fair and accurate 2030 census.”

The 2020 Post-Enumeration Survey found statistically significant miscounts in the 2020 Census in 14 states. [Emphasis added.]

The Biden administration’s Census Bureau revealed in May 2022 that it undercounted the Republican-leaning states of Arkansas by 5%, Florida by 3.4%, Mississippi by 4.11%, Tennessee by 4.78%, and Texas by 1.92%. The Census Bureau undercounted one Democratic-leaning state, Illinois, by 1.97%.

The Census Bureau overcounted Biden’s home state of Delaware by 5.45% as well as other Democratic-leaning states: Hawaii by 6.79%, Massachusetts by 2.24%, Minnesota by 3.84%, New York by 3.44%, and Rhode Island by 5%. It also overcounted two Republican-leaning states, Ohio by 1.49% and Utah by 2.59%.

The members of the U.S. House of Representatives and the Electoral College are apportioned according to the count of residents completed every ten years by the U.S. Census Bureau. Therefore, it is essential that the count is accurate. It is interesting to me that more Democrat-leaning states were overcounted and fewer Democrat-leaning states were undercounted and vice versa for Republican-leaning states.

There were five Democrat-leaning states and only two Republican-leaning states were overcounted, while one Democrat-leaning state and five Republican-leaning states were undercounted. The numbers appear to indicate that something unfair and dishonest was happening.

How Do We Gain “A Perfect Brightness of Hope”?

 My Come Follow Me studies for this week took me to Ether 12-15 in a lesson titled “By Faith All Things Are Fulfilled.” The lesson was introduced by the following information. 

Ether’s prophecies to the Jaredites were “great and marvelous” (Ether 12:5). He “told them of all things, from the beginning of man” (Ether 13:2). He foresaw “the days of Christ” and the latter-day New Jerusalem (Ether 13:4). And he spoke of “hope for a better world, yea, even a place at the right hand of God” (Ether 12:4). But the Jaredites rejected his words, for the same reason people often reject the prophecies of God’s servants today – “because they [see] them not” (Ether 12:5). It takes faith to believe in promises or warnings about things we can’t see, just as it took faith for Ether to prophesy of “great and marvelous things” to an unbelieving people. It took faith for Moroni to trust that the Lord could take his “weakness in writing” and turn it into strength (see Ether 12:23-27). It’s this kind of faith that makes us “sure and steadfast, always abounding in good works, being led to glorify God” (Ether 12:4). And it’s this kind of faith by which “all things are fulfilled” (Ether 12:3).

There are at least four important principles in this scripture block. Three of those principles come from Ether 12, one of the most powerful chapters on faith in Jesus Christ in the scriptures. The three principles that I will not be discussing are (1) Faith in Jesus Christ can lead to miracles (Ether 12), (2) Jesus Christ can turn my weakness into strength (Ether 12:23-29), and (3) Rejecting the Lord’s prophets puts me in spiritual danger (Ether 13:13-22; 14-15). I will be discussing the fourth principle, even “Jesus Christ gives us ‘a more excellent hope’” (Ether 12:1-9, 28, 32).

Moroni, who wrote Ether 12, provided profound insights about faith in Ether 12, but he also wrote about “hope for a better world” (Ether 12:2-5). Ether had several reasons for having such hope: (1) he had the Spirit of the Lord with him (verse 2), (2) he knew that all things are fulfilled through faith in Jesus Christ (verse 3), (3) he believed in God (verse 4), and (4) he knew that hope is an anchor that makes the souls of men sure and steadfast, helps them to do good works, and will lead them to glorify God (verse 4).

Moroni also tells us that for which we should hope. In Ether 12:4, he tells us that we should hope “for a better world” at the “right hand of God. In Moroni 7:41, he tells us that we should have hope “to be raised unto life eternal” that will happen “through the atonement of Christ and the power of his resurrection.”

Moroni also mentions “a more excellent hope” in Ether 12:32. Hope comes from faith in Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ taught that His Father has many mansions. However, we must have faith, hope, and charity to receive “an inheritance in the place which thou hast prepared” (Ether 12:32).

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland spoke about “A Perfect Brightness of Hope” in the April 2020 General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He closed his remarks with the following words: 

I give thanks, my brothers and sisters, for all we have been given in this last and greatest of all dispensations, the dispensation of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. The gifts and blessings that flow from that gospel mean everything to me – everything to me – everything – so in an effort to thank my Father in Heaven for them, I have “promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep, and miles to go before I sleep.” May we press forward with love in our hearts, walking in the “brightness of hope” that lights the path of holy anticipation we have been on now for 200 years. I testify that the future is going to be as miracle-filled and bountifully blessed as the past has been. We have every reason to hope for blessings even greater than those we have already received because this is the work of Almighty God, this is the Church of continuing revelation, this is the gospel of Christ’s unlimited grace and benevolence. I bear witness to all of these truths and so much more in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

 

Can Gender Dysphoria Be Cured?

Families, communities, states, and nations are stronger when each person is medically healthy. One of the medical health problems that is being forced on individuals and families is the idea that people can be born in the wrong body. It is a mental health problem known as gender dysphoria.

Many young men and young women are being urged to have body changing surgeries and/or take hormones in an attempt to change from a male to a female or from a female to a male. It is possible to change the looks of a person, but it is impossible to change their DNA.

In “The Family: A Proclamation to the World,” modern-day prophets and apostles published information that all people need to know about gender issues: “Gender is an essential characteristic of individual premortal, mortal, and eternal identity and purpose.” Females were female and males were male in the premortal world, and females will be female and males will be male in the postmortal world. Gender remains the same from the premortal world to this world to the eternal world. 

Yet, people in this world seek to indoctrinate young men and young women who are experiencing mental trauma known as gender dysphoria and who believe that they are in the wrong body. Some of those same people sought to stop one young man from telling his story, according to Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell at The Daily Signal. 

Threats and bullying from peers and censorship from his college couldn’t stop detransitioner Simon B. Amaya Price from sounding the alarm on so-called gender transitions for children.

Amaya Price, 20, was tasked with creating an event about social change for a class at Berklee College of Music, a private music college in Boston. He decided to host a presentation Oct. 20 titled “Born in the Right Body: Desister and Detransitioner Awareness” to share his own struggles with gender dysphoria in high school and how he overcame them.

After Amaya Price received almost 1,000 negative comments on social media, including messages threatening his physical safety and recommending he drop out of school and commit suicide, the administration of the liberal arts college forced him to cancel the presentation, Boston-native Amaya Price told The Daily Signal.

But on Sunday, Amaya Price made a comeback. After Berklee failed to follow up on his requests to reschedule the event, he found his own platform….

The MIT Open Discourse Society allowed Amaya Price to host his lecture on the campus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. An organization called Democrats for an Informed Approach to Gender provided refreshments and logistical support. The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, or FIRE, also raised awareness of Amaya Price’s situation.

The event logged about 40 in-person attendees and 60 virtual listeners. Many in the audience were parents whose children suffer from gender dysphoria, looking for answers of how to save their children from the transgender cult, Amaya Price said….

“I feel like I’ve given a lot of these parents hope, because I’m here today, I’ve been through this, I came out the other side, and I’m OK,” he said. “That’s what a lot of these parents need. They need hope. And right now how it is in Massachusetts, especially, there aren’t a lot of places to look.”

Amaya Price’s presentation highlighted the hate he says he has received on social media since announcing his event and his journey from identifying as trans to accepting his biological sex. He ended with the reminder: “No child is born in the wrong body.”

Amaya Price, who has been diagnosed with autism, said he experienced social ostracism and a mental health crisis in ninth grade, leading him to decide his problem was that he actually was a girl.

He told his therapist, who affirmed his gender dysphoria and referred him to Boston Children’s Hospital for hormones and surgeries. His pediatrician told Amaya Price’s father he could choose between having a “dead son or a living daughter,” and that the then-14-year-old would kil himself if denied hormones and surgery.

Amaya Price’s father immediately shut down the possibility of a medical “transition,” which his son now says is “the best thing he could have done.”

Amaya Price calls himself a “desister,” someone who identified as transgender but decided to live in accord with his biological gender instead of undergoing medical interventions.

The truth must come out: No one is born in the wrong body. God, through his prophets and apostles, has proclaimed that we brought our gender with us from the premortal world, and we will take it with us into the postmortal world. The best thing that parents can do for their children is to refuse the hormonal treatment and the surgeries and give their children time and therapy to treat their gender dysphoria. By doing so, parents can strengthen their family, community, state, and nation.

What Signals Were Sent With the Election of Donald Trump?

The liberty principle for this Freedom Friday concerns the signals sent by Americans in the last presidential election. President-elect Donald Trump’s presidential victory sent some definite signals about the desires of American citizens. One signal was about the economy: the people believed that Trump could do a better job with the economy than could Kamala Harris. A second signal was about border security: again, American voters thought that Trump could do a better job of securing the border than could the Border Czar for the past three years. A third signal was about energy: the American people want affordable energy instead of the narratives pedaled by environmentalists. Jason Isaac of The Daily Signal wrote about the third signal. 

For decades, radical environmental groups like Greenpeace have bene employing apocalyptic rhetoric while offering so-called solutions that would make energy more expensive and make life worse for working-class Americans. This election was a rejection of that rhetoric and an embrace of common sense.

These environmental extremists tell us that Americans reject fossil fuels. But in the month before the election, polling found that 4 out of 5 swing-state voters believed that domestic oil and gas production could help lower energy costs for American consumers. Rising costs were a big concern for voters, and the cost of energy impacts everything from grocery bills to transportation.

Voters faced a clear choice between Trump, who enthusiastically embraced the “Drill, baby, drill” mantra, and Vice President Kamala Harris….

If Democrats learn anything from their electoral defeat, it should be that activist groups like Greenpeace actually speak for a small group of elites – not for the American people.

Unfortunately, Democrats have spent years being beholden to extremist environmentalists….  

These environmental activists claim to be speaking on behalf of the world, yet simultaneously ignore the global impacts of their actions. If they were paying attention, they would recognize that killing fossil fuel projects like refineries and pipelines in the United States does not stop them from being built. It merely ensures that they’ll be built in other countries with significantly weaker environmental policies than the United States.

One entity that does understand this dynamic is China, which has benefited greatly from the loud resistance efforts of Greenpeace and others. Without sufficient pipeline capacity in North America, Canadian oil that should be refined in the United States is often shipped to China instead. Crude oil processing hit record highs in China in 2023, and the country is expected to continue building out its refining capacity.

This Chinese refinery boom has led to China being a net exporter of diesel, jet fuel, and home heating oil for the first time in the nation’s history. Because China lacks meaningful pollution controls, this increase is dangerous for the global environment. It’s also dangerous for the American economy, as this economic activity is benefiting the Chinese government rather than American companies and workers.

Meanwhile, the United States has become a global leader in environmental stewardship. Over the past five decades, we have reduced pollution by nearly 80%, achieving safe and clean air that’s only imaginable in other places round the world, while also being No. 1 in access to clean and safe drinking water. And we’ve done this while growing our energy production and our population, proving that we have responsible energy production that doesn’t compromise on environmental quality.

America is the most responsible energy producer on the planet, and the world needs more energy to eradicate poverty, not less. Access to affordable American energy could serve those in need far better than any alternative.

In spite of this, Greenpeace is doubling down on its own failures….

How Will You Spend Thanksgiving Day?

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving Day in the United States, a day where millions of Americans express gratitude to God for their blessings. Here are some thoughts about gratitude and thanksgiving.

“And if ye seek the riches which it is the will of the Father to give unto you, ye shall be the richest of all people, for ye shall have the riches of eternity; and it must needs be that the riches of the earth are mine to give; but beware of pride, lest ye become as the Nephites of old” (Doctrine and Covenants 38:39).

“Most of us think of pride as self-centeredness, conceit, boastfulness, arrogance, or haughtiness. All of these are elements of the sin, but the heart, or core, is still missing. The central feature of pride is enmity – enmity toward God and enmity toward our fellowmen. Enmity means ‘hatred toward, hostility to, or a state of opposition.’ It is the power by which Satan wishes to reign over us” (Ezra Taft Benson). 

This site has a family home evening lesson about Thanksgiving Day. It includes a video telling the history of Thanksgiving appropriate for older children, teens, and adults as well as a cute video of children telling the story of Thanksgiving. 

If you want to make Thanksgiving more than a day to feast until you enter a food coma, try this site for twenty-five traditions to increase reflection and expression of gratitude. There are active Thanksgiving, arts and crafts Thanksgiving traditions, food and cooking Thanksgiving traditions, nature and outdoor Thanksgiving traditions, reflection and gratitude Thanksgiving traditions, and service Thanksgiving traditions. 

What Is the Best Way to End Federal Overspending?

Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy have been appointed by President-elect Donald Trump to head the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to help “end federal overspending” by cutting unauthorized expenditures or in unauthorized ways. Soon after Trump’s announcement, a coalition of Republican lawmakers began making plans. According to Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell at The Daily Signal, the coalition acted the day after the appointments of Musk and Ramaswamy. 

Sen. Marsha Blackburn, House Pro-Life Caucus Co-Chair Rep. Chris Smith, Rep. Robert Aderholt, and Rep. Claudia Tenney led a bicameral letter to the U.S. Government Accountability Office requesting a report on federal funding for abortion providers between fiscal year 2022 and 2024….

Smith said he hopes the requested report will help Musk and Ramaswamy defund Planned Parenthood….

The coalition of 112 Congress members requests reports on the federal funding that goes to Planned Parenthood Federation of America and its affiliates, International Planned Parenthood Federation, MSI Reproductive Choices, federally qualified health centers, and four domestic abortion providers, according to the letter shared with The Daily Signal.

“It is our hope that this report will provide greater insight as Congress considers funding levels and provides increased transparency and openness for our constituencies and the general public,” says the letter signed by 81 House members and 31 senators.

The Government Accountability Office has responded to several congressional requests with prepared reports on federal funding for abortion organizations. The most recent report revealed that the abortion industry had received almost $2 billion in federal taxpayer dollars between fiscal years 2019-2021.

The letter asks for the report to detail Planned Parenthood’s federal obligations, disbursements, and the expenditures of federal funds by each of the organizations; reported obligations, disbursements, and expenditures by program from federal agencies other than the Department of Health and Human Services; the funding sources for federal agencies and programs associated with these federal funds; how these funds were made available; and reported obligations, disbursements, and expenditures for the top 15 U.S. Department of Health and Human Services programs.

This week, an announcement was made that the national debt passed $36 trillion. One way to decrease the spending of the government is to reign in the authorized spending. Musk and Ramaswamy should have prime pickings as they look for ways that the government wastes money.