The U.S. Supreme Court has upheld a lower court ruling that says Congress acted within the law when it passed a “sell-or-ban” law targeting TikTok, the Chinese social media app that has grave national security concerns.
TikTok has problems that other social media companies don’t: For one, it’s owned by the Chinese, and that means the Chinese communist government has control of it. In China, the content is aimed at educating China’s young people, but in America, the content is aimed at destroying them and making them stupider.
The justices, in an unusual unanimous decision, said that Congress did not violate the First Amendment when it passed the law due to national security concerns.
“As of January 19, the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act will make it unlawful for companies in the United States to provide services to distribute, maintain, or update the social media platform TikTok, unless U. S. operation of the platform is severed from Chinese control. Petitioners are two TikTok operating entities and a group of U. S. TikTok users. We consider whether the Act, as applied to petitioners, violates the First Amendment. In doing so, we are conscious that the cases before us involve new technologies with transformative capabilities,” the court wrote in its summary.
This challenging new context counsels caution on our part. As Justice Frankfurter advised 80 years ago in considering the application of established legal rules to the “totally new problems” raised by the airplane and radio, we should take care not to “embarrass the future.”
One of the functions of TikTok is that the app has access to your phone and can get access to your photos, videos and contacts. It also tracks where you are. The terms in the conditions also apply to the ability of TikTok to monitor any device on the same network. So if you use wifi to monitor your home or office, TikTok may have a backdoor to those other devices. It’s a form of spyware, critics say.
The court ruling gives TikTok until Sunday, a challenging deadline for any company to meet.
President Donald Trump will announce Sean Curran as the head of Secret Service, according to several media sources that all cite CNN as the source.
Curran is pictured above helping Trump leave the stage in Butler, Penn. after the president was shot during a rally last summer. As presumed incoming director of the Secret Service, he is someone who Trump trusts.
Curran has led Trump’s security detail for the past four years and has supervised about 85 people in that detail.
Acting Director Ronald Rowe replaced Director Kim Cheatle, who resigned after the first major assassination attempt on Trump’s life in July of 2024. He has lobbied for the job, according to reports.
A second known attempt on Trump’s life was made in September, when an assassin snuck into position outside of Trump International Golf Club.
For two years prior to the two assassination attempts, the Secret Service denied the requests of Trump for added security. When confronted with that allegation, the Secret Service then lied about it, but later sources inside the service admitted it was factual to the New York Times.
The Secret Service is one of the nation’s oldest federal investigative law enforcement agencies.
Founded in 1865 as a branch of the U.S. Treasury Department, it was created to combat the counterfeiting of U.S. currency. It’s estimated that following the Civil War, between a third and half of all currency in the U.S. was counterfeit.
In 1901, following the assassination of President William McKinley in Buffalo, N.Y., the Secret Service was tasked an additional mission, and the one it is now known for: Protecting the president.
Critics will pounce on Curran’s lack of experience managing an agency the size of the Secret Service, which employs some 3,200 special agents, 1,300 uniformed division officers, and more than 2,000 other technical, professional and administrative support personnel.
But Trump is probably more interested in having someone at the agency who he trusts, especially after the assassination attempts he has lived through under the Biden era, when the Secret Service started emphasizing D.E.I. — Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion — and took criticism for not putting enough appropriate resources in place to protect presidents and presidential candidates. Under the Biden Administration, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. was denied service protection while he was a presidential candidate even though his father, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, and uncle, President John F. Kennedy, had both been assassinated.
The Biden Administration is now locking up another three million acres of land in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska.
With just three days left in his administration, his Department of Interior is calling the area set aside for oil and gas a “special area” that must be saved for subsistence, and the ruling takes effect immediately through an interim ruling, for an area near where ConocoPhillips is developing the Willow project and Nuna oil and gas project.
The NPR-A was set aside by the federal government for oil and gas development in 1923. Management of the area was later transferred from the Navy to the Department of Interior-Bureau of Land Management. Now, 13% of it is being taken away from that original mission by Biden.
The Interior Department claimed that the ruling is based on 80,000 comments received from people who live on the North Slope.
The problem with that is that fewer than 11,500 people live in the entire North Slope Borough.
Congressman Nick Begich didn’t mince words:
“The Biden administration’s Alaskan assault team, led by Deb Haaland, continues to celebrate their all-out dismantling of Alaska’s economic future,” Begich said. “They are obstructionist, anti-Alaskan, anti-progress, anti-development, Rule us from Washington radicals. Today Joe Biden put forward New and Expanded “Special Areas” that make new development in the National Petroleum Reserve impossible should they be allowed to stand. Biden did end up building a wall after all. Unfortunately it was one that separates American families from the abundant prosperity they deserve. Thankfully, Biden’s war on American families is about to come to a close, and commonsense conservatives in the Congress and the incoming White House are already working to dismantle Biden’s legacy of failure.”
Congressman Nick Begich announced he has joined the Congressional Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) Caucus. The DOGE Caucus seeks to create a more responsive, effective, and transparent federal government, rooted in accountability and fiscal responsibility.
Congressman Begich, a longtime advocate for reducing government waste and supporting Alaska communities, expressed enthusiasm for the opportunity to contribute to these goals.
“It is time for the American people to have an efficient government that serves them and not the bureaucracy. We can no longer afford to sit by as taxpayers fund an ever-expanding bureaucracy that fails to deliver results,” he said. “By joining the Congressional DOGE Caucus, I am reaffirming my commitment to cutting waste, eliminating unnecessary regulations, and ensuring that funds spent by the federal government work for the people it serves. I look forward to collaborating with my colleagues to bring about demonstrable reform.”
The group has newly formed and is inspired by the efforts of Trump’s DOGE team, Vivek Ramaswamy and Elon Musk. They held their first meeting on Dec. 17. Begich was accepted into the caucus just two weeks after being sworn in as Alaska’s member of Congress.
In joining the caucus, Begich will work alongside a bipartisan group of colleagues to enact policies that prioritize taxpayer interests, eliminate wasteful spending, and rein in bureaucratic overreach.
The Congressional DOGE Caucus Platform:
• The federal government must serve the interests of taxpayers, and taxpayers are best served by a lean, efficient, transparent, and accountable bureaucracy.
• No amount of waste, fraud, abuse, duplication, or administrative bloat is too small or too large to fix.
• The national debt is a threat to our nation’s economic strength. Members of the Congressional DOGE Caucus are dedicated to finding ways to cut spending, not increase it.
• There are too many federal agencies, programs, rules, and regulations that hinder economic growth for the future.
• Government agencies, programs, rules, regulations, and employees must demonstrate effectiveness for and responsiveness to taxpayers while also not creating unnecessary costs or burdens.
• Existing federal agencies, programs, rules, regulations, or functions that do not provide value to taxpayers must be reformed or eliminated.
• All rules and regulations should be grounded in statute. Congress enacts public policy, not unelected bureaucrats.
• Engaging with the American people is necessary to ensure our success.
Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, stopped by a Daily Caller reporter in the halls and asked about the confirmation of President Donald Trump’s nominees, said she is not going to commit to any of them at this point and that the confirmation hearings were just getting started. It’s “premature,” she said, although in a hearing for Energy secretary nominee this week, she seemed to be enthusiastic about Chris Wright.
“I love the fact that you’re a self-described energy geek,” she said to Wright during his Energy Committee hearing.
Murkowski said she being deliberative and is now doing what she does best: “Which is learning a lot.”
WATCH: Sen. Lisa Murkowski Claims It's "Premature" to Ask Whether She Will Confirm Trump Nominees? pic.twitter.com/2aZj0LiWUk
In 2021, Murkowski voted in favor of 19 of President Joe Biden’s nominees out of the first 21 confirmations that came before the Senate by March of that year.
For example, she was the only Republican senator to vote for Vanita Gupta as associate attorney general.
Opposing Gupta were senators like Texas Sen. John Cornyn, who said at the time that Gupta was a liar: “Ms. Gupta has been misleading and deceptive in many of her answers to our questions on many important issues like qualified immunity, the death penalty, things like defund the police, but in the case of legalization of drugs, including drugs like heroin, she’s frankly lied to each of you and the whole Committee.”
Gupta, a hard leftist ideologue, lasted from 2021 until February of 2024 in the Biden Administration.
Murkowski also confirmed the Assistant Secretary of Health Rachel Levine, who has spent the past four years pushing gender mutilation of children as a government policy.
Gov. Mike Dunleavy announced on X today that he has ordered the flags on public buildings to go to full staff on Monday in honor of Inauguration Day. They are at half staff during a month of national mourning after the death of former President Jimmy Carter, who died at the age of 100.
“America’s Constitution forever changed history by establishing enshrining the process for the peaceful transition of power in our nation’s founding document. Inauguration Day is the Constitution in action and is one of the most important events in our Republic. It is the antidote to tyranny and should be celebrated accordingly,” he said.
Flags will return to half-staff at sunrise on Jan. 21, “in continuance of honoring the life and legacy of former President Jimmy Carter through the remaining national period of mourning,” he said in a statement.
At least eight other governors have also ordered flags to fly at full staff in honor of Donald Trump’s inauguration. More are expected to do the same on Monday. No Democrat governors have yet ordered flags at full staff for Donald Trump’s special day.
While there are no litter boxes for “furries,” (people who dress up as dogs or cats), the Captain Cook Hotel in Anchorage has accommodated the National Education Association’s Delegate Assembly and changed the sign on a men’s bathroom to make it an “all-gender” bathroom.
There’s still a women’s restroom on the floor just below the lobby level where Fletcher’s pub is located, but the other bathroom, formerly for men and boys, has a new sign on it, because management did not want to deal with NEA complaints, according to Must Read Alaska sources.
The annual conference runs Thursday through Saturday night at the Captain Cook Hotel.
The Thursday agenda includes:
10:00 – 4:00 pm NEA-ALASKA/RETIRED Policy Assembly – For all Retired delegates – Adventure Room, Lower Lobby Level 12:00 – 7:00 pm DELEGATE CHECK-IN – All Delegates and Guests Please Check-In with Steering & Rules – Receive Credentials & DA Notebook – Main Lobby Level 4:00 – 5:00 pm NEW DELEGATES – Welcome & Orientation – Endeavor Room 4:00- 5:00 pm Ethnic Minority Affairs Committee- Voyager Room 5:00 – 6:00 PM Special Interest Meetings: Education Support Professionals – Quarter Deck, Tower I, 10th Floor LGBTQ – Endeavor Room Conservative Caucus – Voyager Room Black Caucus – Quadrant Room Hispanic Caucus – Club Room I, Tower I, 10th Floor Thursday, January 16, cont. Asian/Pacific Islander Caucus – Resolution Room Native American/Alaska Native Caucus – Easter Island Room Educators with Disabilities Caucus – Club Room II, Tower I, 10th Floor 6:00 – 7:00 pm Dinner on your own The 69th NEA-Alaska Delegate Assembly will begin at 7:00 pm. Discovery Ballroom, Main Lobby Level – Seating by Regions 7:00 – 8:15 pm GENERAL SESSION I- Discovery Ballroom, Lobby Level Welcome – Tom Klaameyer, II, President Pledge of Allegiance National Anthem Approval of Agenda Approval of Minutes from 68th Delegate Assembly Introductions – Tom Klaameyer, II
NEA-Alaska Board of Directors and Past Presidents Adoption of the Standing Rules *End of Session Filing Deadline: NEA-Director 8:30 – 9:30 PM Regional Caucus Meetings: Region I – Resolution Room Region II – Quadrant Room Region III – Easter Island Room Region IV – Voyager Room Region V – Endeavor Room Region VI – Aft Deck Region VII – Quarter Deck, Tower I, 10th Floor Region R – Adventure Room
Asian/Pacific Islander Caucus – Resolution Room Native American/Alaska Native Caucus – Easter Island Room Educators with Disabilities Caucus – Club Room II, Tower I, 10th Floor
Men, women and children in America are increasingly facing assaults by illegal immigrants — crimes like rape and murder, which have already become a widespread across Europe and the United Kingdom, due to unchecked immigration from northern African muslim men.
Alaska Congressman Nick Begich III, in office for just two weeks, has cosponsored the “Preventing Violence Against Women by Illegal Aliens Act,” legislation aimed at strengthening U.S. border security and ensuring that foreign nationals, including illegal immigrants, who commit violent crimes are held accountable and deported.
“Securing our borders is both a matter of national security and a matter of protecting those closest to us—family, friends, colleagues, neighbors, and indeed all Americans,” Begich said. “Foreign nationals who commit domestic violence, stalking, child abuse, child neglect, or child abandonment have no place in our nation, and I am proud to support a bill that gives law enforcement the tools they need to make our nation safer. This bill sends a clear message that foreign nationals who choose to commit violence in our nation are not welcome in our nation.”
H.R. 30 gives law enforcement additional tools to safeguard communities and protect American citizens and their families.
“No family should endure the heartbreak the families of Laken Riley, Mollie Tibbetts, Karina Vetrano, and Maddie Hines have experienced. Every woman and every girl deserves to feel safe in their own community,” said Rep. Nancy Mace, prime sponsor of the legislation.
“The radical left doesn’t agree with this. 145 liberals in Congress love illegal immigrant rapists and murders,” she said. “House Republicans united to expand protections for women and put the safety of Americans first. This isn’t complicated—keeping criminal illegal aliens out of our country and off our streets is just common sense. Women should be able to walk down the street without fear, and families should feel safe in their own neighborhoods.”
The bill add clauses to the Immigration and Nationality Act, such as:
Sex offenses: A non-citizen convicted of, admitting to committing, or one who has committed acts constituting a sex offense would be considered inadmissible to the United States.
Domestic violence and similar crimes: Any non-citizen convicted of or admitting to committing the following crimes would be inadmissible:
A crime of domestic violence
A crime of stalking
A crime of child abuse, neglect, or abandonment
A violation of a protection order concerning threats of violence or harassment
The act amends the deportable offenses section of the Immigration and Nationality Act to include:
Sex offenses: Non-citizens who have been convicted of a sex offense will be classified as deportable.
Domestic violence and similar crimes: Non-citizens convicted of domestic violence, as defined in applicable laws, would be deportable, whether or not the jurisdiction has federal grant funding related to violent crime control.
Under Mark Zuckerberg’s leadership, Meta Platforms – what most people think of as Facebook – has demonstrated a pattern of actions that starkly contradict its professed commitment to free speech. This duplicity not only undermines public trust but also raises serious concerns about the company’s role in shaping public discourse.
A glaring example of Meta’s hypocrisy is its handling of political figures.
Don’t forget that they proudly throttled posts about Hunter Biden’s laptop in the final weeks of the 2020 presidential election to protect Joe Biden, even having a Facebook spokesman post on Twitter that they were doing so. This was hugely significant, because the laptop contained emails and texts that linked Joe Biden to his family’s lucrative scheme of selling access to him to foreign moneymen from around the globe.
Meta’s actions in censoring posts about the laptop were never based on “misinformation,” but were instead part of a larger effort to influence the outcome of the 2020 election and help Biden against incumbent President Donald Trump. Meta’s decision to limit the spread of factual information on a major political issue speaks volumes about the company’s willingness to suppress speech when it aligns with its political interests.
And their work paid off. Polling information published in the weeks after the election showed that a significant percentage of people who voted for Biden would have changed their minds if they had known about the laptop – in numbers enough to tilt battleground states and the whole election back to Trump.
Afterwards, in January 2021, Meta took the unprecedented step of banning Trump, which was hailed by some and defended by the company as necessary for public safety following the riot at the U.S. Capitol. Meta issued a statement that claimed, incredibly, that “the risks of allowing President Trump to continue to use our service during this period are simply too great.”
Nonsense.
It was really just politics – the unwarranted banishment of a former president of the United States – that not-so-accidentally aligned with the authoritarian bent of the incoming Biden administration. It also happened to go right along with the mood in the new Biden White House, where people loathed Trump so much it made them vibrate with hatred.
Yes, there was no doubt that with the Biden team, Zuckerberg was all in.
However, as political tides shifted, so did Meta’s stance. When it became clear that Trump could return to the White House, Meta reinstated the banned accounts and began courting favor with the former president’s political circle. And now that Trump has won and is preparing to take office once again, Zuckerberg is trying to round the corner, even co-hosting a reception with other billionaires during Trump inaugural festivities.
The rampant inconsistency shows that Meta policies of all kinds are less about principle and more about aligning with the political winds. So, anyone tempted to believe that Zuckerberg’s new tune is permanent ought to keep this recent history in mind.
Meta’s hypocrisy extends beyond its relationships with politicians to its approach toward its competitors. The company has actively lobbied for the banning of its most significant rival, TikTok, a short-form video platform that, unlike Meta, never suspended Trump. Instead of fostering healthy competition, Meta has pushed for government intervention to remove a platform that many people think has reshaped the social media landscape.
Seeking to ban a competitor is not the action of a company truly committed to free speech. In fact, it’s exactly what Biden encouraged Meta to do to Trump.
None of this should have been a surprise.
Meta’s role in the censorship of content during the Covid-19 pandemic further revealed its willingness to abandon free speech and bow to governmental demands when it served its political or business interests. In a recent interview, Zuckerberg admitted that the Biden administration exerted pressure on Meta to suppress certain content. He said government officials “screamed” and “cursed” at Meta employees to ensure the removal of posts, even those that were factually accurate. This capitulation to governmental pressure illustrated Meta’s willingness to compromise its stated values for political expediency.
And, naturally, what Zuckerberg failed to mention in that interview is that Meta willfully participated in these censorship meetings. Unlike the aforementioned TikTok, which did not attend the Biden Administration’s COVID censorship sessions, Meta was a willing partner in the suppression of content.
The bottom line is this: while Meta publicly champions free expression, its actions reveal a different story—one of opportunism and hypocrisy. And beware Zuckerberg’s revamped political stances, since they will most certainly shift as soon as his self-preservation requires it.
Because you know it’s true that if Mark Zuckerberg thought it would help him and Meta, he’d ban Trump all over again.
Tim Murtaugh, the founder and principal of Line Drive Public Affairs, served as a senior advisor on the 2024 Trump campaign and as communications director on the 2020 Trump campaign. This column first appeared at Townhall.com.
