Facts Matter

In several previous episodes we exposed cases of Chinese nationals being apprehended at U.S. airports trying to smuggle in a variety of suspicious biological material: roundworms, E. coli bacteria samples, as well as a type of fungus that can be used to decimate food crops.

Today, we have a new addition to that list—sort of. A Chinese national has just been jailed in Kenya for trying to smuggle live ants out of the country.

A new piece of legislation working its way through the New York State Assembly is called the "Dark Skies Protection Act."

For many years, the people of New York have struggled to see the stars at night. Even if you live in upstate New York—100, or 200 miles away from the city—the glow from the city is still enough to mask the sky at night.

However, a new law may be about to change that—but to do so, it would bring about serious statewide changes that might increase the crime rate.

In a rare case of denaturalization, a federal judge has stripped the U.S. citizenship of a Chinese couple living here in America. Let’s go through what this couple did (with the assistance of the Chinese communist government).

A few years ago, two brothers who went to middle school together came to class wearing hooded sweatshirts that said “Let’s Go Brandon” on them.

Now, most people know the origin of that phrase—and what it actually means—but here’s the question: In a school context, is it appropriate?

Schools naturally do have policies against profanity, and they can send children home for violating them.

However, the phrase “Let’s Go Brandon” doesn’t actually contain profane words. If someone reads it, and they don’t happen to know the backstory, then it doesn’t even mean anything to them.

The school officials did not see it that way, though, and they ordered the brothers to remove the sweatshirts.

This then led to a lawsuit by the brothers' parents over free speech. Can school administrators exercise this much discretion when deciding whether something is vulgar?

This case appears to be far-reaching, as evidenced by the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to take it up.

Let's go through the details together.

Last week, Virginia became the 18th state to pass a bill that will effectively eliminate the Electoral College.
Unbeknownst to most people, there is a serious effort in this country to make the presidential election a simple popular vote. Even though most people have never heard about this effort, it’s actually already 82 percent complete. Meaning the Electoral College is truly at risk of getting completely scrapped in the near future.
The ironic thing about this is that it may not necessarily be unconstitutional. Instead, this method is using a loophole in the way that the constitution set up our federalist system.
This effort is officially called the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact (otherwise known as the NPVIC)—it’s an agreement between the states that join to give their electoral votes to whichever candidate wins the popular vote at the national level.