What Will Be the Fate of Captain Mark Kelly?

The “chickens are coming home to roost” in the case of Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Arizona) who is also a retired U.S. Navy captain. Kelly was one of six members of Congress who were in a video “urging members of the military and the intelligence community to disobey unlawful orders,” according to Virginia Allen at The Daily Signal. 

Kelly is the only one of the six members of Congress who is a retired military officer. As such, he is the only one that the Pentagon has power over. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth reported that the Trump administration is taking “administrative action” against Kelly, Allen reported.

“Six weeks ago, Senator Mark Kelly – and five other members of Congress – released a reckless and seditious video that was clearly intended to undermine good order and military discipline,” Hegseth wrote on X Monday morning.

“As a retired Navy Captain who is still receiving a military pension, Captain Kelly knows he is still accountable to military justice. And the Department of War – and the American people – expect justice,” Hegseth continued.

“Therefore, in response to Senator Mark Kelly’s seditious statements – and his pattern of reckless misconduct – the Department of War is taking administrative action against Captain Mark E. Kelly, USN (Ret).”

The Department of War has “initiated retirement grade determination proceedings,” Hegseth said, which will result in “a corresponding reduction in retired pay.”

Kelly has received a “Letter of Censure, which outlines the totality of Captain (for now) Kelly’s reckless misconduct,” Hegseth said. “This Censure is a necessary process step, and will be placed in Captain Kelly’s official and permanent military personnel file.” …

Kelly retired from the Navy in 2011, having served since the 1980s. He served as a naval aviator during the Gulf War.

Commentators with military experience expect Kelly to be court marshalled and sent to Leavenworth for a few years. Of course, Kelly has promised to fight the charges. He would be the first sitting U.S. Senator to be court marshalled.

What Are Implications of Capture of Maduro?

Early on Saturday morning, U.S. law enforcement officers accompanied by military personnel captured Nicolas Maduro, the fake leader of Venezuela, and his wife. The operation involved 150 airplanes and who knows how many personnel, and it lasted less than three hours. The two captives are now in U.S. custody and appeared in federal court in New York on Monday.

The operation took place because Maduro thought he was safe. Trump and his team proved Maduro wrong. In an article published at The Daily Signal, Virginia Allen described the implications of the capture. 

The leader of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro, is now in U.S. custody and appeared in federal court in New York on Monday, two days after the U.S. military captured him. The operation that ousted him will have deep and lasting implications not only for Venezuela, but also nations that aligned themselves with Maduro’s regime, according to policy experts.

Maduro’s arrest is a “disaster” for the “Axis of Evil, these kinds of hostile, anti-American countries,” according to Victoria Coates, a former deputy national security advisor to President Donald Trump, and the vice president of the Davis Institute for National Security and Foreign Policy at The Heritage Foundation.

Cuba, China, Iran, and Russia stand to lose the most form Maduro’s capture, Coates and other foreign policy experts said.

China

The capture of Maduro has shattered “China’s dream” of dominating the “purchase of Venezuelan oil over the next 10 to 20 years,” explains Michael Pillsbury, author of “The Hundred-Year Marathon: China’s Secret Strategy to Replace America as the Global Superpower.”

China had offered to further develop and update Venezuela’s oil infrastructure to “then pump most of it … for themselves,” Pillsbury said.

Now, U.S. companies are expected to enter Venezuela to further develop the nation’s oil infrastructure, leaving China dependent on the U.S. to continue the flow of oil out of Venezuela to the Chinese Communist Party….

“Venezuela was essentially China’s proxy in Latin America, and now that relationship is gone,” [Gordon G.] Chang told The Daily Signal….

Cuba

Cuba and Venezuelan leaders built a relationship between the two nations over decades, starting with Hugo Chavez, who came to power in Venezuela in 1999. Fidel Castro, the former dictatorial leader of Cuba, once referred to Chavez as Cuba’s “best friend.”

Venezuela and Cuba have remained close both politically and economically under the Maduro regime, according to Andres Martinez-Fernandez, senior policy analyst for Latin America at The Heritage Foundation.

“Venezuela has been the main artery for the inflow of financing to Cuba in the form of oil, primarily, and that has enabled Cuba to weather a dramatic economic crisis, long-standing economic crisis, and social unrest,” Martinez-Fernandez told The Daily Signal.

With Venezuelan oil expected to stop flowing to Cuba now that Maduro is no longer running the South American country, Cuba’s future is in “limbo,” the Heritage analyst says….

 

 

Russia

While Cuba is expected to experience an economic blow form Maduro’s arrest, Russia stands to lose a strategic partner that is geographically close to the U.S.

Russia’s interest in Venezuela is linked to its relationship with Cuba, according to Heritage’s Coates.

“From a Russian standpoint, if you lose the communist regime in Cuba … you’re losing your major strategic foothold … so close to the United States, and that’s a huge problem for them,” Coates says of Russia.

Iran

Maduro’s arrest serves as a severe warning to the Iranian regime, according to Coates.

Major protests are currently taking place in Iran, driven largely by a water crisis. The protests are also occurring six months after the U.S. bombed three of Iran’s key nuclear sites, weakening the regime’s power position on the world stage.

Trump has spoken out in support of the Iranian protesters, who “may well be emboldened both by what they’re hearing out of President Trump … and what he just did to Maduro in Venezuela,” Coates said….

Democrats and other left-leaning politicians and citizens are claiming that Trump acted without authorization. However, it is the same Article II power that former President Barack Obama used to kill Osama Bin Laden. Nevertheless, the White House scheduled a briefing for Monday evening with congressional leaders.

According to George Caldwell at The Daily Signal, those expected to report at the briefing are Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine, Central Intelligence Agency Director John Ratcliffe, and Attorney General Pam Bondi. 

The briefing would “include top lawmakers on the House and Senate Armed Services, Senate Foreign Relations and House Foreign Affairs panels, as well as the “Gang of Eight,’ the bipartisan party leaders from both chambers and top members of the House and Senate Intelligence committees.” 

Who Is Nick Shirley?

My VIP for this week is Nick Shirley, a 23-year-old man who posted a 42-minute video of himself and David exposing fraud in the Somali community in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Four days after his video posted, it had more than 127 million times on X and 2 million times on YouTube, according to Eva Terry at the Deseret News. 

Shirley lives in Farmington, Utah, and served a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Chili. In November, President Donald Trump presented the Citizen Journalist of the Year award to him at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.

I saw an article on Shirley and his video on Friday. Within days, articles about him were everywhere. Terry’s article explained:

At the beginning of the video, Shirley interviewed the Minnesota-native, David (whose last name was not included), on why he started suspecting fraud in his state. David said he began noticing childcare facilities popping up around his office in Minneapolis, but no children would go in or out.

“All I’d see were a couple of guys outside smoking, and I’d go by another one and see the same thing, and I said, ‘Where do these kids play?’” David said. When he started looking into one of the daycares, he found that it was licensed to serve 80 children. His investigation unfolded from there.

Clad in a grey sweatshirt, Shirley went from daycare to daycare in Minneapolis, knocking on doors. With David next to him, Shirley asked adults at the daycares if there were any children present and what they thought about the allegations of fraud.

One daycare Shirley visited, the “Quality Learing [sic] Center,” has garnered exceptional scrutiny online.

When The New York Post went to the site on Monday, they found the parking lot full of cars and saw about 20 children coming in and out of the building – a scene drastically different from the one Shirley observed.

A local told the Post, the scene Monday was “highly unusual,” adding, “We’ve never seen kids go in there until today. That parking lot is empty all the time, and I was under the impression that place is permanently closed.” …

After Shirley and David made their rounds at Minneapolis childcare facilities, they headed over to an office building with 14 Somali-owned health care companies.

Shirley’s investigation builds on the work done by journalists Christopher Rufo and Ryan Thorpe, who shed light on Minnesota’s Medicare and Medicaid fraud in City Journal at the end of November. Their investigation quoted then-acting U.S. Attorney for Minnesota Joe Thompson, as he announced several indictments for alleged fraudsters.

“Most of these cases, unlike a lot of Medicare fraud and Medicaid fraud cases nationally, aren’t just over-billing,” Thompson said. “These are often just purely fictitious companies solely created to defraud the system, and that’s unique in the extent to which we have that here in Minnesota.”

What Is on the Supreme Court’s Docket for 2026?

The topic of discussion for this Constitution Monday concerns the U.S. Supreme Court and its decisions. The beginning of a new year marks the countdown to the end of June when the nation’s highest court starts handing down decisions for the cases they heard over the previous months. According to Fred Lucas, “several of the cases in 2026 … revolve around President Donald Trump in the near term but will have far-reaching consequences for future presidents. In his article published at The Daily Signal, Lucas shares “the biggest high court decisions to watch for in 2026.” 

1. Deciding on Men in Women’s Sports

The first major case to be argued in 2026 comes Jan. 13, when justices will hear arguments in combined Idaho and West Virginia cases. The cases of Little v. Hecox and West Virginia v. B.P.J. will affect 25 states with laws preventing biological males from competing in women’s sports.

“These are the cases in which states have banned biological males from competing in women’s sports and that’s a very, very important decision,” Han von Spakovsky, a former senior legal fellow at The Heritage Foundation, told The Daily Signal. “It’s going to affect women and girls in K-12 sports in many different states.”

The arguments could also have federal implications since Trump signed an executive order in February to withhold federal funds from states that allow biological males to play in women’s sports….

2. Tariffs Mark First Test for Emergency Law

The Supreme Court could decide early in 2026 on Trump’s executive action to impose sweeping tariffs, part of his core economic and trade policy….

At issue is whether the president exceeded his executive branch authority by imposing tariffs under the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act, which is intended to address emergencies only. Normally, trade policy, including tariffs, is enacted through legislation in Congress and signed by the president.

This is uncharted waters for the Supreme Court, which has never ruled on how far the International Emergency Economic Powers Act could go, von Spakovsky said….

3. Reversing Birthright Citizenship?

In early December, the high court agreed to hear arguments on Trump’s executive order to end birthright citizenship. Under Trump’s order, agencies would not recognize citizenship for U.S.-born children who do not have at least one parent who is an American citizen.

Birthright citizenship is the view that anyone born in the United States, even a child of illegal immigrants, is automatically a U.S. citizen.

This has the potential to overturn a Supreme Court precedent going back to 1898, when the majority upheld birthright citizenship under the 14 Amendment, which was enacted to grant citizenship to freed slaves after the Civil War….

The point of contention in the case is the phrase, “subject to the jurisdiction thereof,” which Solicitor General D. John Sauer has argued was misinterpreted by the court’s late 19^th-century ruling.

4. Scrapping Humphrey’s Executor

In what could be a powerful blow against the deep state, a majority of justices seems poised to reverse the 90-year-old precedent of Humphrey’s Executor.

This specific case regards Trump’s ouster of Federal Trade Commissioner Rebecca Slaughter, but it will affect other federal boards and commissions with members appointed by Republican and Democrat presidents. The members, in theory, operate without political concerns. They serve for a set term until it expires, regardless if a new president of a different party assumes office during that term.

The high court, in the 1935 precedent in Humphrey’s Executor v. United States, ruled Congress could enact laws limiting the power of a president to fire executive officials of an independent agency.

“We are not big fans of executive power, but overturning Humphrey’s Executor will make the president more accountable,” said Berry of the Cato Institute. “The problem with so-called independent executive agencies is that the president can avoid accountability. He can say, the agency did it. The president should be checked by Congress and the courts, not by appointees of the prior president. The framers never had that intent.”

5. Politics and the Federal Reserve

On Jan. 26, justices will hear a case of Trump v. Cook. In an October emergency docket ruling, the court ruled that Federal Reserve Board Governor Lisa Cook could keep her job – for now – after Trump attempted to oust her.

The question in the case is whether a president can fire a member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors or whether the organization created in 1913 is independent.

It’s not the same question as the [one] posed in the Humphrey’s Executor matter. Although Kamanar, of the National Legal and Policy Center, anticipates Trump will win the FTC case, he said the Federal Reserve could be viewed as an entirely different institution.

“The Federal Reserve board is different from the SEC, the FTC, or the FEC,” Kamanar said, also referencing the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Federal Election Commission. “The Federal Reserve is funded through the private banks, not by Congress.”

Members of the board are appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate, but Trump’s ouster of Cook marked the first time a president removed a board member.

  

What Is the Covenant Path and How Do I Get on It?

My Come Follow Me studies for this week took me to the Old Testament in a lesson titled “Introduction to the Old Testament.” The lesson was introduced by the following information. 

When you consider studying the Old Testament [or First Testament of Jesus Christ] this year, how do you feel? Eager? Uncertain? Afraid? All of these emotions are understandable. The Old Testament is one of the oldest collections of writings in the world, and this can make it both exciting and intimidating. These writings come from an ancient culture that can seem foreign and sometimes strange or even uncomfortable. And yet in these writings we see people having experiences that seem familiar. We recognize gospel themes that witness of the divinity of Jesus Christ and His gospel. Yes, people like Abraham, Sarah, Hannah, and Daniel lived lives that, in some ways, were very different from ours. But they also experienced family joy and family discord, moments of faith and moments of uncertainty, and successes and failures – like all of us do. More important, they exercised faith, repented, made covenants, had spiritual experiences, and never gave up on the promise of a Savior. As we learn how God moved in their lives, we also see Him in ours, and we say with the psalmist: “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path…. Therefore thy servant loveth it” (Psalm 119:105, 140).

As with all Come Follow Me lessons, this one includes several principles, including (1) The Old Testament testifies of Jesus Christ, (2) Jesus Christ is Jehovah in the Old Testament, (3) The Lord restored many “plain and precious things” through Joseph Smith, and (4) The Old Testament helps me understand my covenant relationship with God. This essay will discuss principle #4 about understanding my covenant relationship with God.

The Old Testament is the story of God seeking to make us His “peculiar treasure” by covenant (Exodus 19:5). For that reason, a good way to prepare to read the Old Testament is to learn about covenants – specifically the everlasting covenant God offered to ancient prophets like Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and their posterity.

In the October 2022 General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, President Russell M. Nelson spoke on the topic “The Everlasting Covenant.” He introduced his remarks as follows. 

I have spoken frequently about the importance of the Abrahamic covenant and the gathering of Israel. When we embrace the gospel and are baptized, we take upon ourselves the sacred name of Jesus Christ. Baptism is the gate that leads to becoming joint heirs to all the promises given anciently by the Lord to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and their posterity.

“The new and everlasting covenant” (Doctrine and Covenants 132:6) and the Abrahamic covenant are essentially the same – two ways of phrasing the covenant God made with mortal men and women at different times. The adjective everlasting denotes that this covenant existed before the foundation of the world! The plan laid out in the Grand Council in Heaven included the sobering realization that we would all be cut off from God’s presence. However, God promised that He would provide a Savior who would overcome the consequences of the Fall. God told Adam after his baptism:

“Thou art after the order of him who was without beginning of days or end of years, from all eternity to all eternity.

“Behold, thou art one in me, a son of God; and thus may all become my sons” (Moses 6:67-68).

Adam and Eve accepted the ordinance of baptism and began the process of being one with God. They had entered the covenant path.

When you and I also enter that path, we have a new way of life. We thereby create a relationship with God that allows Him to bless and change us. The covenant path leads us back to Him. If we let God prevail in our lives, that covenant will lead us closer and closer to Him. All covenants are intended to be binding. They create a relationship with everlasting ties.

Once we make a covenant with God, we leave neutral ground forever. God will not abandon His relationship with those who have forged such a bond with Him….

Once you and I have made a covenant with God, our relationship with Him becomes much closer than before our covenant. Now we are bound together. Because of our covenant with God, He will never tire in His efforts to help us, and we will never exhaust His merciful patience with us. Each of us has a special place in God’s heart. He has high hopes for us….

Those who make sacred covenants and keep them are promised eternal life and exaltation, “the greatest of all the gifts of God” (Doctrine and Covenants 14:7). Jesus Christ is the guarantor of those covenants (see Hebrews 7:22; 8:6). Covenant keepers who love God and allow Him to prevail over all other things in their lives make Him the most powerful influence in their lives.

Is Reading Difficult Books Possible for High School Students?

Families are stronger when individual members know how to read, enjoy reading, and can comprehend what they are reading, and strong families strengthen communities, states, and nations. Parents can help their children to develop reading and comprehension skills by introducing books to them at an early age and reading lots of books to them before and after they learn how to read for themselves.

One crucial point about encouraging children to read books: example is the greatest teacher. Parents should set a good example by reading books themselves as well as reading to their children.

I remember my concern with my youngest daughter when she enjoyed picture books more than books with words. When I spoke with her about my concern, I mentioned that words can paint wonderful pictures in our minds. To illustrate what I meant, my daughter and I began to read the first book of a nine-book historical fiction series titled The Work and the Glory. The series tells the story of the early years of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Our reading time became sacred to both of us, and something that we both enjoyed.

By the time we finished the series months later, my daughter was bringing home library books more appropriate for her age. As our children grow older, we can share diverse types of books with them to prepare them for reading and understanding books in high school and college.

Dr. John J. Goyette, vice president and dean emeritus at Thomas Aquinas College, shared his experience in reading a work of William Shakespeare as a 14-year-old freshman in high school. He described his difficulty in understanding the archaic vocabulary, confusing syntax, and the “relentless political maneuvering.” 

But, with the teacher’s help, I fought my way through, page by page, scene by scene, until I not only finished the tragedy, but appreciated it – the powerful rhetoric, the interplay of poetry and prose, the ominous imagery and macabre foreshadowing.

When I was done, I felt as if I’d just scaled Mount Everest, and a lifelong love of literature and learning was born.

Had my teacher assigned only an excerpt from “Julius Caesar” – or a shorter work, such as a sonnet – I wouldn’t have experienced that sense of accomplishment or intellectual growth. I would have suffered the same, initial frustration without attaining that ultimate joy.

Unfortunately, frustration without joy is the norm at most high schools these days, where dispirited teachers coddle students rather than educate them.

A New York Times survey of 2,000 educators, students, and parents finds that most high schoolers read very few, if any, full-length books anymore. Citing a lack of time, short attention spans, and a compulsion to teach to standardized tests, respondents reported that most students were lucky to read one or two books, per year, from beginning to end.

The result is a debased and diminished education.

When it comes to learning, there’s no substitute for reading a difficult book. It’s an unparalleled exercise in what the business world likes to call “deep thinking” – a sustained grappling with complex ideas or problems.

Research shows that long-form reading develops brain connectivity, intellectual stamina, critical thinking, and cognition.

Long books, especially the great ones, are the antidote to the micro-attention spans wrought by social media. For a generation that’s been reared on 30-second videos and 140-character messages, they are more needed than ever.

Generous excerpts, of course, have their place. I teach at a college that studies the Great Books, nearly all in their entirety, yet even we sometimes assign shorter texts and select passages from longer ones. Still, no one would ever claim that the short story, which is necessarily limited in its depth and themes, is literature’s finest form, and excerpts can never take the place of full works.

Pluck a canto from “The Divine Comedy” and you lose the scope of Dante’s epic journey, his character’s development and the recurring themes that shape his masterpiece.

Great poets and novelists present their readers with a complete story – one with a beginning, middle, and end, punctuated by surprises and plot twists. When teachers isolate key portions, they push their own interpretation at the expense of the author’s intended meaning.

At best, excerpting the great works highlights excellent writing, but it nonetheless strips these books of their magnitude and greatness, highlighting style while foregoing substance. Studying just a few pages of “Anna Karenina” or “The Brothers Karamazov” is the literary equivalent of looking at the “Mona Lisa” through a microscope.

We do our high schoolers a disservice by assuming they can no longer handle the quantity or quality of literature routinely read in past generations. When held to high standards, today’s students can – and do – flourish.

What Resolutions Will You Make This Year?

It is that time of year when most of us consider how we will improve in the next year. Yet, we should be aware that less than 50 percent of people make New Year’s resolutions, and 94% fail to keep their resolutions. This is according to an article written by Tom Griffin and published at The Daily Signal. 

Griffin quoted Dr. Michelle Rozen’s research about New Year’s resolutions: 30-50 percent of people make resolutions, 94 percent fail to keep them, and 88 percent “fail before the end of January.”

Griffin’s counsel is to “prioritize resolutions that matter.” His counsel reminded me of SMART goals. I have written about them in previous years, so I will summarize information about them, which I will take from an article by Brett Day and titled “The Ultimate Guide to S.M.A.R.T. Goals.” This article is focused on team and business goals, but the following steps apply to all people. 

S.M.A.R.T. goals provide leaders with a framework to create specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound goals that can help teams finish tasks and projects on time and with desirable outcomes. Setting S.M.A.R.T. goals can help remove uncertainties and guesswork and help ensure projects and tasks are completed within specified time frames – which, in turn, can help eliminate the risk of scope creep.

             S = Specific: Create a clear, concise goal.

M = Measurable: Ensure you can measure progress.

A = Achievable: Ensure you can achieve the goal.

R = Relevant: Is the goal relevant to your life, to your business, etc.

T = Timebound: Make sure your goal has a deadline.

When creating S.M.A.R.T. goals, I recommend writing them down…. You can also quickly organize your goals and determine the resources needed to complete them….

To help build confidence and morale, every S.M.A.R.T. goal win should be celebrated….

I have made only one resolution at this point. However, I have learned through experience that I accomplish more tasks if I set one or two goals, complete them, and then set one or two more goals. This way, I do not feel overwhelmed by my goals AND I can remember them.