Reporter Gets Education Secretary to Make Telling Admission About Student Loan Debt Forgiveness

Education Secretary Miguel Cardona openly admitted Wednesday that President Joe Biden’s student loan debt forgiveness plan will not benefit Americans who already paid off their debt or never used debt to pay for college.

The admission underscores what millions of Americans — those who paid off their loans already — believe is an unfair plan.

Speaking with Fox News correspondent Peter Doocy outside the White House, Cardona addressed criticism that says the plan is not fair.

According to Cardona, the aim of the plan is to “address the effects of the pandemic.” He claimed his responsibility as education secretary is to ensure that people are not worse off now than they were before the pandemic hit. The claim is confusing, because Americans who hold student loan debt have had a pause on repaying loans for 2.5 years.

“But to the fairness question, the people that are sitting at home having just paid off their student loans or having paid them off years ago, what’s in it for them?” Doocy pushed back. (Read more from “Reporter Gets Education Secretary to Make Telling Admission About Student Loan Debt Forgiveness” HERE)

Delete Facebook, Delete Twitter, Follow Restoring Liberty and Joe Miller at gab HERE.

Unvaxxed Navy Sailors Face ‘Deplorable’ Living Conditions While Religious Exemptions Pend

U.S. Navy service members who are seeking religious exemptions to the Department of Defense’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate have been transferred into deplorable living conditions and, in some cases, are unable to leave while awaiting termination from the military, according to court documents.

First Liberty Institute in November filed a lawsuit on behalf of 35 active-duty SEALs and three reservists seeking a religious exemption to the mandate, as first reported by Fox News Digital. The case has since been amended to extend to a class action lawsuit encompassing all Navy service members seeking religious accommodation.

In March, the Supreme Court blocked a lower court’s order in Texas that would have forced the Navy to stop implementing the vaccine mandate. Now, the case is continuing to be litigated in lower courts around the country, and unvaccinated SEALs and other sailors who have not yet been terminated by the U.S. government are stuck in limbo, with many of them forced into less-than-desirable alternative housing by the military or barred from traveling outside their base.

In a court filing in June by First Liberty in the Northern District of Texas Fort Worth Division District Court, sailors recounted deplorable conditions on large U.S. vessels, where they remain waiting as their cases are adjudicated. (Read more from “Unvaxxed Navy Sailors Face ‘Deplorable’ Living Conditions While Religious Exemptions Pend” HERE)

Delete Facebook, Delete Twitter, Follow Restoring Liberty and Joe Miller at gab HERE.

Air Force Sees ‘Incredibly’ Large Missile Buildup by China

China‘s military is engaged in a large-scale expansion of both nuclear and conventional missiles described in a U.S. Air Force Air University report as “incredibly” large and rapidly increasing.

The report by the China Aerospace Studies Institute at the university said the People’s Liberation Army’s Rocket Force, formerly the 2nd Artillery, is expanding both in the sophistication of its missiles and size of its arsenal. The growth in both missiles and launchers was based on increasing numbers of Rocket Force brigades and highlights the rapid buildup.

From 1980 to 2000, the PLA added four new missile brigades, including three armed with the latest weapons. (Read more from “Air Force Sees ‘Incredibly’ Large Missile Buildup by China” HERE)

Delete Facebook, Delete Twitter, Follow Restoring Liberty and Joe Miller at gab HERE.

FBI Agents Behind Controversial Hunter Biden Briefing Ordered to Talk

The senators said they had repeatedly raised the issue with FBI Director Christopher Wray. The request comes after whistleblower disclosures claimed the bureau improperly labeled evidence on Hunter Biden “disinformation” around the same time as the briefing.

The two Republicans said the briefing itself “consisted primarily of information that we already knew and information unconnected to our Biden investigation” and that “we made clear to you at the briefing that it was not relevant to the substance of our work.” The senators quoted the FBI as saying at the time that it was not attempting to “quash, curtail, or interfere” in their Biden family investigation.

“We also made clear our concern that the briefing would be subject to a leak that would shed a false light on the focus of our investigation,” Grassley and Johnson said, pointing to a Washington Post story that they said “did exactly that.”

Grassley and Johnson said Thursday that they have repeatedly requested “relevant records relating to what happened at the briefing, including the 302 or similar summary, the intelligence basis for the briefing and the personnel involved in making the decision to brief us,” but that the FBI has “consistently failed to respond in full to each request and failed to provide those critical records which casts further doubt on the true purpose for the briefing.” (Read more from “FBI Agents Behind Controversial Hunter Biden Briefing Ordered to Talk” HERE)

Delete Facebook, Delete Twitter, Follow Restoring Liberty and Joe Miller at gab HERE.

China Admits Endless Coronavirus Lockdowns Are Crushing Already Critical Birth Rate

China’s National Health Commission (NHC) told Reuters this week that ongoing Chinese coronavirus lockdowns nationwide have had a “clear impact on the marriage and childbirth arrangements of some people” within the country and have contributed to the nation’s plummeting fertility rate and shrinking population, the news agency reported Tuesday.

“COVID-19 [Chinese coronavirus] has contributed to the decline in the country’s marriage and birth rates that has accelerated in recent years due to the high costs of education and child-rearing,” the NHC told Reuters in faxed statements on August 22.

“The coronavirus has also had a clear impact on the marriage and childbirth arrangements of some people,” the commission added.

Reuters on August 8 cited a U.N. China report which found that Beijing’s relentless zero-tolerance policy toward the Chinese coronavirus throughout the pandemic, including stringent lockdowns and forced quarantines, had effected “a long-term impact on first births [in China].”

“Couples that may have been thinking about having a child in the next year, definitely postponed those. Couples that really weren’t sure, have postponed indefinitely,” U.N. Population Fund Representative to China Justine Coulson said as quoted by Reuters on August 8. (Read more from “China Admits Endless Coronavirus Lockdowns Are Crushing Already Critical Birth Rate” HERE)

Delete Facebook, Delete Twitter, Follow Restoring Liberty and Joe Miller at gab HERE.

Kamala Harris Loses Another Top Aide as Exodus Continues

Vice President Kamala Harris has lost another top spokesperson as part of a broader White House communications shop reshuffle after the departure of former press secretary Jen Psaki.

Herbie Ziskend, a senior communications adviser to Harris, is leaving the vice president’s office for the West Wing, where he will be the new White House deputy communications director. Kate Berner, who is currently in the role, will be promoted to principal deputy communications director. Ziskend is among the few remaining Harris communications staffers who joined her team at the start of President Joe Biden’s administration.

Ziskend’s appointment coincides with the tapping of Olivia Dalton, the U.S. Mission to the United Nations’s former communications director, as principal White House deputy press secretary. The post, once held by White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, has been vacant since Jean-Pierre replaced Psaki behind the podium. (Read more from “Kamala Harris Loses Another Top Aide as Exodus Continues” HERE)

Photo credit: Flickr

Delete Facebook, Delete Twitter, Follow Restoring Liberty and Joe Miller at gab HERE.

HITTING THE BRAKES: Country’s Largest State Bans Buying New Gas-Powered Vehicles

California regulators moved Thursday to require all new vehicles in the state to run on electricity by 2035, an ambitious goal by the country’s most populous state to phase out gasoline-powered automobiles and curb carbon missions.

The decision by the California Air Resources Board came two years after Gov. Gavin Newsom first directed regulators to consider such a policy. If the goal is reached, California would cut emissions from cars in half by 2040.

Californians can keep driving and buying gas-powered vehicles after 2035, but no new models will be sold in the state thereafter.

The move could prompt other states to act in a similar fashion. The policy still needs federal approval, something considered very likely under the Biden administration.

One-fifth of automakers’ sales in California after 2035 could be plug-in hybrids, which run on batteries and gas, but the rest must be powered solely by electricity or hydrogen. (Read more from “Hitting the Brakes: Country’s Largest State Bans Buying New Gas-Powered Vehicles” HERE)

Photo credit: Flickr

Delete Facebook, Delete Twitter, Follow Restoring Liberty and Joe Miller at gab HERE.

Army Officer and Congressman Calls Biden’s Student Debt Bailout ‘Slap in the Face to Veterans’

Rep. Mike Waltz (R., Fla.), a colonel in the Army National Guard, slammed the Biden administration for citing a post-September 11 law supporting members of the military as authorization to waive tens of thousands of dollars in student debt, calling it “a slap in the face to veterans.”

The Justice Department argued this week that the 2003 HEROES Act, which allows the government to waive student loan obligations for active-duty service members and those suffering as a result of war or a national emergency, gives President Joe Biden authority to enact his massive student debt bailout in order to alleviate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. But that legislation, which Congress passed in the early months of the Iraq war, was explicitly intended to support members of the military fighting for the United States.

“The HEROES Act was intended to relieve student debt for soldiers risking their lives to fight for our country after 9/11,” Waltz said Thursday. “This is a slap in the face to veterans and Biden is using this law as an excuse for his disgraceful abuse of power.”

While the HEROES Act contains broad language on the executive branch’s authority to forgive student debt, the legislation was written with the goal of assisting active-duty service members. The text of the bill describes its intended purpose, which is to “support the members of the United States military and provide assistance with their transition into and out of active duty and active service.” (Read more from “Army Officer and Congressman Calls Biden’s Student Debt Bailout ‘Slap in the Face to Veterans’” HERE)

Delete Facebook, Delete Twitter, Follow Restoring Liberty and Joe Miller at gab HERE.

Kids Pole Dance With Nearly-Nude Strippers at Pride Event

The Charlotte Pride Festival in North Carolina over the weekend featured numerous nearly-nude strippers pole-dancing in front of children, according to photos and videos shared online by Libs of TikTok.

There were several children visible in the crowd observing the dancing during the parade, and in at least one instance a young boy joined in the dancing with a nearly nude woman, according to the videos. The event advertised a children and family zone, although it remains unclear what that encompassed.

A woman wearing strappy underwear and a string bikini top straddled a metal pole while balancing a boy who appeared to be about 5-years-old on her torso in one video; the boy was holding the pole and appeared to be receiving a pole-dancing lesson. The incident happened in front of several adults, one of whom smiled at the scene.

Another compilation of videos from the event showed about a dozen performers in thongs and bras pole dancing and twerking on the street and on parade floats in front of cheering audiences, which included young children. At least one performer was topless with her breasts painted pink, blue and purple. (Read more from “Kids Pole Dance With Nearly-Nude Strippers at Pride Event” HERE)

Delete Facebook, Delete Twitter, Follow Restoring Liberty and Joe Miller at gab HERE.

D.C. Mayor Says Unvaccinated Students Are Banned From In-Person Learning Ahead of School Year

Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser said Thursday that students 12 and older must show proof of vaccination against COVID within the first 20 days of the new school year to continue learning in-person at public and private schools.

The Daily Signal reports that Bowser admitted during a press conference that an alternative plan for students who cannot attend class had not been provided yet.

When the publication asked Bowser what the plan was for unvaccinated students before school begins on Monday, Bowser responded, “They can go to school on Monday, but they need to get their vaccinations … and their families will be alerted as to the dates.”

“We’re not offering remote learning for children, and families will need to comply with what is necessary to come to school,” Bowser said.

Students and faculty must also show proof of a negative COVID test before the first day of class. (Read more from “D.C. Mayor Says Unvaccinated Students Are Banned From In-Person Learning Ahead of School Year” HERE)

Delete Facebook, Delete Twitter, Follow Restoring Liberty and Joe Miller at gab HERE.