Big Tech to make conservatives ‘second-class citizens’ without pushback, Heritage Foundation warns –  Today, The Heritage Foundation released an authoritative assessment documenting how Big Tech has weaponized unprecedented power and influence to silence Americans, undermine freedom, and fundamentally reshape American society. The report, “Combating Big Tech’s Totalitarianism: A Road Map,” lays out a roadmap of the reforms necessary to counter the grave threat Big Tech poses to Americans’ basic rights and the health of our republic. Heritage Expert: Kara Frederick 

It’s Not Just Rising Crime: Rogue Prosecutors Are a Huge Problem – The very nature of criminal justice—to protect the innocent and increase public safety—is today undermined by a group of district attorneys (Das) in America’s big, mostly Democratic-run cities.They believe the entire criminal justice system is racist. It’s absurd, but they believe it. This cancerous movement will continue unless and until the people most affected by these policies—black and brown inner-city men and women—say enough is enough, and influence liberal elites in those cities to stop supporting pro-criminal rogue prosecutors. Heritage Experts: Cully Stimson and Zack Smith

Stacey Abrams is Just One of Many Policymakers Breaking Their Own COVID Rules – Stacey Abrams is the latest policymaker to fall under scrutiny for her COVID hypocrisy after she posed maskless for a picture with masked schoolchildren. However, she is not the only policymaker to break their own COVID rules. Check out Heritage’s interactive map that shows the continuing hypocrisy of local, state, and federal officials who violate their own coronavirus mandates, policies, or other restrictions, with 100 reported instances to date, and counting. Some officials have violated their own rules more than once. Heritage Experts: John Cooper and Joel Griffith

How the Ukraine Crisis Could Become A Disaster For Russia – Regardless of how Ukraine plays out, we have seen again Putin’s two most potent weapons for messing with the West: force and energy. Those have to be checkmated. NATO needs to ramp up conventional and strategic deterrence. Every member of the alliance must step up and make good on their promised contributions to the common defense. Further, the U.S. has to be an active partner in forward defense, from the Baltic to the Black Sea and the Mediterranean. The transatlantic community also needs energy security: a vibrant energy private sector that delivers reliable, affordable energy. Heritage Expert: James Carafano

Biden’s Latest Proposal Would Force Insurers to Pay for Gender ‘Transition’ – President Joe Biden has sought to inject gender ideology into our laws since his first day in office. He might prefer a massive bill like the Equality Act that elevates the categories of “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” to status of race and sex. But that effort has stalled in the Senate. So, for now, his administration is looking for ways to insert sexual orientation and gender identity concepts into existing law. The U. S. Department of Health and Human Services proposed a rule that would add sexual orientation and gender identity language to the 2010 Affordable Care Act. Views based on reasonable medical, moral, and religious beliefs and the best interests of the patient are nothing like invidious discrimination. This new rule is clearly the result of gender ideology, not solid science and sound reason. Heritage Expert: Jay Richards

Black Lives Matter Continues to Harm America, Money Problems Aside – We now know the main Black Lives Matter organization remains leaderless and refuses to account for more than $60 million. Yet, in many ways, the group has never had more impact. Unfortunately, thousands of people continue to suffer from the mayhem BLM has created. Indeed, the United States has changed in deep ways since the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation, BLM’s mother ship, helped traumatize cities and suburbs with riots in 2020. The leftist indoctrination that followed at schools nationwide by groups such as BLM GNF’s educational associate, BLM at Schools, troubled parents so much that it galvanized them to start pushing back. The push to reprogram children with Marxist dogma is unlikely to end the recent reports, as they are unlikely to get much media attention. Heritage Expert: Mike Gonzalez

The AWOL Biden Budget Request and the Danger to National Security of Further Delays – Today is the first Monday in February, and by law , the day the president must deliver his proposed federal budget to Congress. It’s normally a busy day in Washington, D.C., as the pundits and analysts dissect and comment on every aspect of the proposed federal spending package. Except President Joe Biden has already signaled he doesn’t intend to comply with the law. Instead, the administration is indicating it might submit its budget in March, or then again, maybe even later.  It’s a choice accompanied by consequences for America—a late federal budget submission causes backups in an already dysfunctional congressional budget process, which, in turn, causes cascading delays. It also delays critically needed defense spending, putting our national security at risk at a time when our adversaries seem to be regularly testing our limits. Heritage Expert: Thomas Spoehr