Can the President Fire a Member of the FTC? Supreme Court Heard the Arguments Monday

And they may well say, “yes.” The answer has enormous implications on the power of the president. Amy Howe of SCOTUS Blog: The Supreme Court on Monday morning signaled that it was likely to strike down a federal law that restricts the president’s ability to fire members of the Federal Trade Commission. During two and a half hours of argument in the case of Trump v. Slaughter, a solid majority of the justices appeared to agree with the Trump administration that a law prohibiting the president from firing FTC commissioners except in cases of “inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office” violates the constitutional separation of powers between the three branches of government. And although several justices expressed skepticism about a 90-year-old case, Humphrey’s Executor v. United States, upholding that law, it was less clear that there was a majority ready to overrule it. A decision in favor of the Trump administration would significantly increase the president’s power over not only the FTC but roughly two dozen other multi-member agencies that Congress intended to be independent (SCOTUS Blog).

Gas Prices Below $3 in 37 States

Thanks to the President’s policy of, “drill, baby, drill.” Ward Clark: Fuel costs are at the heart of our nation’s economy. When prices for gasoline and diesel fuel are high, it’s a hidden tax on everything in our economy. Increased shipping costs mean increased prices, and increased prices that outpace wages mean decreased buying power. It makes it harder to go see family and friends, as millions of Americans did in the holiday week just past; whether we fly or drive, it costs more. There’s good news, though: Gas prices just seem to keep dropping in the Age of Trump. Average petrol prices at the pump are under $3/gallon in 37 states, and in Colorado, that price is reportedly as low as $1.69 a gallon…. this is why next year’s midterms will be so critically important: Because all of this could be reversed by a Democrat majority in Congress. We may not yet be tired of winning, but a bad result in the midterms could have us really tired of losing, very quickly (RedState).

Mamdani Transition Team Includes Man Who Has Taught Illegal Aliens How to Avoid ICE

And the transition team member Wayne Ho was allegedly using NGO dollars to do so. He’s been under Congressional investigation. Free Beacon: Mamdani named Wayne Ho, who has served as president and CEO of the Chinese-American Planning Council (CPC) nonprofit since 2017, to his Committee on Social Services last month. The House Committee on Homeland Security opened an investigation into CPC in April based on a video showing a member of CPC’s leadership “explaining strategies for avoiding and potentially impeding immigration officials during a seminar in New York,” according to a letter from then-committee chairman and former congressman Mark Green (R., Tenn.). Green wrote that the committee was “deeply concerned that CPC and other NGOs that receive taxpayer dollars may be advising or training illegal aliens on strategies to avoid cooperation with immigration officials” (Free Beacon).

Mamdani Transition Team Includes Ex-Con Rapper as Criminal Justice Advisor

It’s often said, but relevant here: When somebody tells you who they are, believe them. Mamdani’s team is a fitting outworking of who he’d shown himself to be: Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani has picked a controversial rapper who did seven years in state prison for armed robbery to advise him on the criminal justice system, The Post has learned. Mysonne Linen, 49, a Bronx convict-turned-activist who was found guilty of two felony heists in the late 1990s, was appointed by the democratic socialist to sit on his mayoral transition’s “criminal legal system” committee — just one of many questionable picks…. Critics slammed his appointment to the 20-member “Committee on the Criminal Legal System,” which will advise Mamdani on criminal justice policies. “It is both disheartening and deeply disturbing that individuals who are convicted felons and have a history of breaking the law are being given the opportunity to help shape the future of New York’s criminal justice system,” said Benny Boscio, president of the Correction Officers’ Benevolent Association…. “Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani just appointed a convicted armed robber to help shape NYC’s crime and policing policy,” Jews Fight Back posted on X. “Insane. New York City is being handed over to radicals, extremists and outright terrorists,” the group said. “Watch this space. This is going to get even uglier.” The post included a photo of Linen with Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan (New York Post).

A Late Admission From the New York Times: Biden Facilitated Immigration Chaos

The New York Times knew better. They saw what all who were paying attention to saw: An unprecedented effort to change the electoral map via massive illegal immigration. And, it’s obvious: Not only did the New York Times know better, they knew better from the start. New York Times—from an essay of over 4,000 words: In the weeks after Joseph R. Biden Jr. was elected president, advisers delivered a warning: His approach to immigration could prove disastrous… “Chaos” was the word the advisers had used in a memo during the campaign…. The warnings came true, and then some…. The perception of chaos began to erode the pro-immigrant sentiment that had shaped Mr. Biden’s campaign promises…. The result was paralysis…. On Mr. Trump’s first day back in the White House, he effectively blocked asylum claims entirely. He also shut down Mr. Biden’s border entry app, ordered the military to the border and directed ICE to drastically expand its scope of arrests and deportations. “The American people deserve a federal government that puts their interests first,” read Mr. Trump’s executive order. The Biden experiment was over. A very different kind of experiment was just beginning (New York Times).

The Death Throes of Europe? Siege of Christmas Markets in Germany Raises Questions About the Future

It was in Magdeburg last year when an Islamist rammed a car into the festive crowd, killing six and injuring scores more. This year, they were forced to cancel the market. This year in Berlin, Syrians stormed the market: “Syrians Storm Berlin Christmas Market. Shocking Images from German Christmas Markets! Over the weekend, more than 3,000 people celebrated the first anniversary of Assad’s fall at Berlin’s Alexanderplatz, right next to the Christmas market. Similar demos took place in other cities like Leipzig or Essen, where even more than 10,000 Syrians participated instead of the planned 2,500.” More from Beege Welborn’s coverage: I’d say I guess they don’t have anything better to do, but they really don’t. As of last January, an estimated 42% of Syrian refugees were employed. As the fourteen-year-long Syrian civil war has ended, there has been significant pressure building on Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s government to send this group home. What’s the excuse not to go now? The war’s over – go back and help rebuild your own country… There was an absolutely astonishing letter signed by 1100 or so school teachers in the German state of Hesse, causing a stir about what is happening in schools there as far as pupils go. Thanks to the immigrant flood, now half of the children in the school system under the age of 6 are foreigners (Hot Air).

‘Europe Is Lost:’ A Closer Look at the Muslim Brotherhood Strategy

The strategy of the Muslim brotherhood is markedly similar in the U.S.—and we have only taken first steps toward pushing back. Ariel Bulshtein: European taxpayers are unknowingly funding their own subversion. A bombshell new report reveals how the Muslim Brotherhood has mastered the art of infiltration, securing tens of millions of euros from EU institutions while pursuing an agenda to replace secular democracy with Islamic theocracy….  Vladimir Lenin, the architect of Russia’s Communist Revolution and founder of the Soviet Union, is credited with the mocking phrase, “The capitalists will sell us the rope with which we will hang them.” … Westerners no longer sell their enemies the rope. They finance it with their own money and cheerfully offer their necks to an enemy plotting their downfall, except now the enemy is cloaked in green. The comprehensive report, submitted to EU institutions, was compiled by Dr. Florence Bergeaud-Blackler and Dr. Tommaso Virgili, two respected researchers of Islamism in Europe. They present a particularly disturbing situation: Europe is funding, sometimes unknowingly from taxpayer coffers, organizations linked to the Muslim Brotherhood, and these organizations are advancing a subversive ideology aimed at changing the continent’s face from within (Israel Hayom).

After Mamdani Threat, Netanyahu Vows: ‘Yes, I’ll come to New York’

The mayor-elect has vowed to arrest the Israeli Prime Minister. Netanyahu has faced down plenty of more menacing Islamist sympathizers. New York Sun: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s vow to come to New York City notwithstanding Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s promise that he would arrest Mr. Netanyahu should the premier of the Jewish state appear at the five boroughs strikes us as the right response. Mr. Netanyahu made the vow while appearing via video at the Times’s Dealbook forum. “Yes, I’ll come to New York” is how Mr. Netanyahu put it (New York Sun).

100 Nigerian Schoolchildren Released

Last month, Islamist terrorists took over 300 Catholic schoolchildren hostage. Yesterday, we received good news for 100 of them: A total of 100 of the schoolchildren abducted from a Nigerian Catholic school last month and released over the weekend were hosted at a government-organized ceremony on Monday, many of them looking lost but relieved. Details surrounding their release were not made public and the government has not said if any ransom — common in such abductions — was paid. At least 303 schoolchildren were seized in Niger state together with 12 of their teachers when gunmen attacked St. Mary’s Catholic School in Papiri community on Nov. 21. Fifty escaped in the hours that followed and at least 150 are still held, together with the teachers (AP).

Clarity on Violence in Nigeria Against Christians: ‘radical Islamists from the north’

Bola Tinubu—the Muslim president of Nigeria—has been slow to state clearly and convictionally what the threat is. Allie Beth Stuckey turned to Christian missionary in Nigeria. Blaze reports, starting with a quote from the missionary Judd Saul: “What’s happening right now is a real-life systematic jihad against Christians perpetrated by radical Islamists from the north,” he says…. “For every Muslim killed, it’s five Christians that are killed. And what you don’t see in Nigeria are mosques being burned and destroyed and Muslim villages completely ransacked and taken over versus the Christian villages, where you have over 10,000 churches that have been destroyed and nearly 800 Christian communities completely wiped off the map,” he tells Allie. Even worse, “the Nigerian government is complicit in these attacks, and they’re spending lots of money and resources to try to keep the status quo because the Fulani have infiltrated the Nigerian government; they’ve infiltrated the military, the entire security apparatus in Nigeria,” Saul adds (The Blaze).