A conversation about what's going on in the world at any given point in time…and what I think about it. Occasionally, guest bloggers may appear. Viewer comments are welcome. Peace! Alpha Heel
The Trump administration has been accused of many things, ranging from incompetent to corrupt. It’s array of former Fox News alumni underscore the questionable competence. The most recent example of alleged corruption stems from an episode involving Tom Homan, Trump’s so-called Border Czar.
Today, the White House finds itself standing behind Homan following reports he accepted $50,000 US from undercover agents posing as businesspeople during an FBI sting operation last year.
Consistent with the Trump playbook, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt characterized Homan’s encounter with the undercover agents as an effort by the Biden’s administration to “entrap one of the president’s top allies and supporters; someone who they knew very well would be taking a government position.” It’s interesting how insightful the administration Team Trump consistently calls inept, can be sharp and insightful…when it serves their purpose. Biden, nor anyone else “knew very well” Homan would be in Trump’s administration. Apparently, what they did know, was that Homan was likely a bad actor.
Leavitt went on to say, “The White House and the president stand by Tom Homan 100 per cent because he did absolutely nothing wrong, and he is a brave public servant who has done a phenomenal job in helping the president shut down the border.” It’s worth noting what Homan appears not to have said. There are no reports of him saying he did not take the cash.
MSNBC first reported Saturday that Homan had accepted the cash in a Sept. 20, 2024, encounter with undercover agents who were posing as businesspeople seeking government contracts that Homan suggested he could help them get in a second Trump term.
What you the citizen need to know: The Trump administration Justice Department shut down the probe, and said the matter was “subjected to a full review,” but authorities found “no credible evidence of any criminal wrongdoing.”
The administration clearly has other priorities, as the statement by FBI Director Kash Patel and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said: “The Department’s resources must remain focused on real threats to the American people, not baseless investigations. “As a result, the investigation has been closed.”
Leavitt insisted to reporters during a briefing on Monday that Homan “never took the $50,000 you’re referring to,” though she did not elaborate on what she meant. An MSNBC spokesperson said the network stood by its reporting.
On Sunday, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters that Homan accepted the cash.
Homan’s response: “I did nothing criminal. I did nothing illegal.”
“You’re talking about a guy who spent 34 years enforcing the law. I mean, I left a very successful business that I ran to come back and work for government again.” He added that he and his family have been subjected to death threats.
While providing no evidence, the White House criticized the Biden administration investigation as politically motivated. However, the FBI director during Biden’s term was Christopher Wray, a registered Republican, and the Justice Department investigated Democrats for corruption, including veteran Sen. Bob Menendez, who is now in prison.
Democrats from the House’s judiciary committee in a letter on Tuesday called upon Patel to release “explosive recordings” and other documents from the aborted investigation. The letter stated:
“Confirmed by six sources and reportedly captured on recordings now in [Department of Justice] and FBI’s possession, this startling episode is powerful evidence that Mr. Homan may have committed multiple federal felonies, including conspiracy to commit bribery.”
Between his stints in both Trump administrations, Homan was a consultant for GEO Group, which invests in private prisons and has been awarded several new contracts this year from the federal government.
The Democrats asserted, “The corruption investigation the Trump Administration blocked would have examined whether Mr. Homan was selling these contracts for personal profit before he even had the power to award them.”
The MSNBC report has elevated a fresh array of concerns about political interference in Justice Department matters at a time when Trump’s calls for prosecutions of his adversaries is testing the law enforcement agency’s long tradition of independence when it comes to prosecutorial decision-making.
Trump supercharged his pressure campaign on the Justice Department over the weekend, publicly calling for Attorney General Pam Bondi to move forward with cases against New York Attorney General Letitia James, former FBI director James Comey and U.S. Sen. Adam Schiff. In a separate incident, Trump’s former national security adviser John Bolton had his residence and office searched this summer, though the specifics of that probe have not been officially announced.
Raising concern about the matter, Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy said on ABC News, “See what happened to Tom Homan, his border czar, who literally accepted a bag of cash — $50,000 — and the investigation was dropped once Trump became president. There are just two standards of justice now in this country. If you are a friend of the president, a loyalist of the president, you can get away with nearly anything … but if you are an opponent of the president, you may find yourself in jail.”
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Warning: This is a long post. Skip it, break it up into manageable pieces, or zero in on parts that interest you. The topic is deep, and this doesn’t begin to cover all that could be said. Thank you.
By next week this time, we will have changed seasons and entered fall. Make no mistake about it, the anticipated seasonal cooling is not matched by any such reduction in our country’s political climate. On that front, Nelly could be the meteorologist of record, as politically speaking, it’s “Hot In Herre!”
A week ago, Charles James Kirk, known familiarly as Charlie Kirk, was cut down in the prime of his life. He was 31. An American right-wing political activist, author, and media personality, He was the co-founder and executive director of Turning Point USA (TPUSA), a conservative organization started in 2012. Kirk was murdered. The suspect in his killing allegedly did so, because he disagreed with Kirk’s views. Before writing another sentence, let me say early, pointedly, and unequivocally, no one, including Charlie Kirk, should be killed for expressing their views.
Kirk was an ally of Donald Trump, and a close friend of J.D. Vance. He is credited with having been particularly influential in Trump and Vance winning the 2024 Election. In the week since Kirk’s murder, both have made clear both their affection and their appreciation.
Mr. Kirk avidly espoused a variety of conservative positions, including opposition to abortion, gun control, DEI programs, and LGBT rights. The list of his most controversial views included his criticism of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Martin Luther King, Jr., his promotion of COVID-19 misinformation, false claims of electoral fraud in 2020, and his opposition to immigration. Speaking of false claims, he made quite a few.
False and Misleading Claims
A Summary of Documented Examples
Charlie Kirk, founder of Turning Point USA, is a prominent conservative commentator in the United States. His statements frequently generate discussion and scrutiny, and several have been publicly identified by fact-checkers and media organizations as false or misleading. Below is a list of well-documented examples, with each claim referenced by reputable public sources.
1. COVID-19 and Vaccines
Claim: In July 2021, Charlie Kirk claimed that COVID-19 vaccines have killed “thousands” of people, citing the VAERS database as evidence.
Fact: This interpretation of VAERS data is incorrect. VAERS collects unverified reports, and the CDC, FDA, and independent fact-checkers have repeatedly stated that these reports do not establish causation. There is no credible evidence that COVID-19 vaccines have killed thousands of Americans.
Sources: CDC, Associated Press, PolitiFact
2. 2020 U.S. Presidential Election Claims
Claim: Kirk has repeatedly stated that there was widespread voter fraud sufficient to alter the outcome of the 2020 presidential election.
Fact: Multiple courts, state and federal election officials, and the Department of Justice found no evidence of widespread fraud that could have changed the result of the election.
Sources: Reuters, NPR, The New York Times
3. Texas Power Grid and Green Energy
Claim: During the February 2021 Texas power outages, Kirk claimed that frozen wind turbines were “the main factor” in the electrical grid failure.
Fact: Fact-checkers and energy experts confirmed that while some wind turbines did freeze, the majority of the outages were caused by failures in natural gas, coal, and nuclear facilities.
Sources: PolitiFact, The Texas Tribune
4. Misinformation on COVID-19 Death Statistics
Claim: Kirk has claimed that COVID-19 death counts are dramatically inflated, suggesting that the majority of deaths reported were “with” COVID rather than “from” COVID.
Fact: The CDC and health experts maintain that the official death counts reflect those who died as a result of COVID-19 infection, not incidental deaths.
Sources: CDC, AFP Fact Check
5. Claims About the Green New Deal
Claim: Kirk has stated that the Green New Deal would “ban hamburgers,” referencing the idea that it would outlaw eating beef.
Fact: The Green New Deal contains no language banning hamburgers or beef consumption. This is a misrepresentation of the policy proposal.
Sources: Congressional Research Service, The Washington Post Fact Checker
6. Misinformation on Critical Race Theory
Claim: Kirk has described critical race theory as being taught in K-12 schools nationwide and asserts that it is a dominant curriculum.
Fact: Education experts and school districts have clarified that while discussions of systemic racism occur, critical race theory as an academic framework is not part of standard K-12 curricula.
Sources: Education Week, NPR
These examples represent a selection of false or misleading claims attributed to Charlie Kirk that have been publicly addressed and corrected by major news outlets and fact-checking organizations. As with all public figures, scrutiny and independent verification of claims are essential for maintaining informed public discourse.
Donald Trump, J.D. Vance, and Erika Kirk have called Kirk a martyr. And, in a manner of speaking, he appears to be. His death can be tied directly to his beliefs. I’ve already stated, Kirk, nor anyone else should be murdered due to their beliefs.
MAGAWorld has gone all out, not only to memorialize a trusted source, and in some cases, hero, but to cast Democrats, the far left, and liberals as the collective bogeymen, solely responsible for Kirk’s assassination. They attribute ginning up the rhetoric to one side, and one side only. It is worth noting that a suspect has been arrested and is in custody. Initial reports are he acted alone. To that end, he is responsible for Kirk’s death. No one else. However, it’s impossible to resist inserting into the conversation, to offset some of that leftist talk, Kirk was shot, not in one of those Left-led Blue states, or in a Democratic led, so-called crime infested urban cities, but rather in bucolic Utah, where most of the people are conservative, Mormon, Republican…and of course white. And yes, the suspect was home grown. So even if he were radicalized, his roots were WAR, (Widely Accepted Republican). Deal with it.
Trump, who in a rare moment admitted there are right-wing radicals, claimed “The radicals on the right oftentimes are radical because they don’t want to see crime. Worried about the border. They’re saying, we don’t want these people coming in. We don’t want you burning our shopping centers. We don’t want you shooting our people in the middle of the street.” Meanwhile, “The radicals on the left are the problem, and they’re vicious, and they’re horrible and they’re politically savvy, although they want men in women sports, they want transgender for everyone, they want open borders.”
But most importantly, every MAGA man, woman, and child are singing from the “Blame It On The Left” hymnal. Republicans have been immersed in a vivid fever dream about the rhetoric of the left causing the political temperature to rise. They lament being called Nazis, fascists, and enemy of the state. They argue that heated language is the crux of the problem, and is the unique signature verbiage of Democrats, used against Republicans.
It makes a great talking point, but a lousy argument. With Donald Trump is the face of the Party, you may want to do an AI deep dive, before you suggest some insult has only been used by “the other side.” Trump has used all those derogatory remarks when referring to Democrats in general, or to Kamala Harris in particular.
“Marxist,” “communist,” and “socialist”: Trump used these labels interchangeably
to paint Harris as an extremist, often dubbing her “Comrade Kamala”.
“Dumb as a Rock”: Trump repeatedly used this phrase to question Harris’ intelligence, including on his social media platform, Truth Social.
“Mentally impaired”: At a September 2024 rally in Erie, Pennsylvania, Trump claimed Harris was “mentally impaired” and compared her to those with mental disabilities. He claimed, “I believe she was born that way… there is definitely something missing”.
“Very low IQ individual”: In late October 2024, at a rally at Madison Square Garden, Trump called Harris a “very low IQ individual”.
Trump also referred to Harris as “the worst,” “lazy as hell,” and “a radical left lunatic” throughout the campaign.
He made an unsubstantiated suggestion that Harris might abuse alcohol or substances before interviews.
Retaliation against Kamala Harris: The specific labeling of Democrats as fascist occurred after then-Vice President Kamala Harris agreed with former White House Chief of Staff John Kelly’s assessment that Trump met the definition of a fascist. In response, Trump specifically called Harris a fascist, among other insults.
Finally, back to Charlie Kirk. Let’s permit his own words to make the case.
On race
If I see a Black pilot, I’m going to be like, boy, I hope he’s qualified.
– The Charlie Kirk Show, 23 January 2024
If you’re a WNBA, pot-smoking, Black lesbian, do you get treated better than a United States marine?
If I’m dealing with somebody in customer service who’s a moronic Black woman, I wonder is she there because of her excellence, or is she there because of affirmative action?
If we would have said that Joy Reid and Michelle Obama and Sheila Jackson Lee and Ketanji Brown Jackson were affirmative action picks, we would have been called racists. Now they’re coming out and they’re saying it for us … You do not have the brain processing power to otherwise be taken really seriously. You had to go steal a white person’s slot to go be taken somewhat seriously.
We record all of it so that we put [it] on the internet so people can see these ideas collide. When people stop talking, that’s when you get violence. That’s when civil war happens, because you start to think the other side is so evil, and they lose their humanity.
– Kirk discussing his work in an undated clip that circulated on X after his killing.
Prove me wrong.
– Kirk’s challenge to students to publicly debate him during the tour of colleges he was on when he was assassinated.
On gender, feminism and reproductive rights
Reject feminism. Submit to your husband, Taylor. You’re not in charge.
– Discussing news of Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s engagement on The Charlie Kirk Show, 26 August 2025
The answer is yes, the baby would be delivered.
– Responding to a question about whether he would support his 10-year-old daughter aborting a pregnancy conceived because of rape on the debate show Surrounded, published on 8 September 2024
We need to have a Nuremberg-style trial for every gender-affirming clinic doctor. We need it immediately.
I think it’s worth it to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the second amendment to protect our other God-given rights. That is a prudent deal. It is rational.
– Event organized by TPUSA Faith, the religious arm of Kirk’s conservative group Turning Point USA, on 5 April 2023
On immigration
America was at its peak when we halted immigration for 40 years and we dropped our foreign-born percentage to its lowest level ever. We should be unafraid to do that.
The great replacement strategy, which is well under way every single day in our southern border, is a strategy to replace white rural America with something different.
We’ve been warning about the rise of Islam on the show, to great amount of backlash. We don’t care, that’s what we do here. And we said that Islam is not compatible with western civilization.
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This post appeared originally in this space on September 7, 2011, commemorating the 10th Anniversary of Nine-Eleven. It was re-purposed and presented September 11, 2013, September 13, 2017, September 12, 2018, September 11, 2019, September 8, 2021 (20th Anniversary), September 14, 2022, September 13, 2023, September 11, 2024, and again today, September 10, 2025.
As I re-post this vintage edition of “Break It Down,” today on the eve of the Twenty-fourth Anniversary of Nine-Eleven, I am ever mindful that it’s both, a day America will never forget, and a day that forever changed America’s worldview. In the span of 81 minutes in one late summer’s morning, in the second year of the new millennium, 19 Saudis grabbed America by its collective gonads, and squeezed. Unimaginably hard. We blinked. We gathered ourselves, but regrouping was a process. We fundamentally changed the way we meet and greet the world. We are more guarded, and security has a whole new meaning. We even invented an entirely new federal governmental agency (Homeland Security) to guard our public security, and monitor anti-terrorism, border security, immigration and customs, cyber security, and disaster prevention and management.
(From the Archives, September 7, 2011)
Do you remember where you were, Tuesday, September 11, 2001? This week we observed the 21st Anniversary of the day that has come to be known simply as, Nine-Eleven (9/11). That day 10 years ago, America lost, in one fell swoop, any notion of its blissful innocence, its long-standing appearance of invulnerability, and its deeply ingrained sense of security. By some accounts, what it retained is its self-righteous (some would say) belief in American Exceptionalismandentitlement; but that is a conversation for another post.
Suddenly we were at war, and the fight had uncharacteristically come to us, straightway. This battle was personal, and it was on our home turf; no longer some shadowy ideological military exercise, or guerrilla warfare episode, played out on foreign soil, half a world away.
U.S. House of RepresentativesJoint Resolution 71 was introduced with 22 co-sponsors (11 Republicans and 11 Democrats) and approved by a vote of 407-0 on October 25, 2001 (with 25 members not voting). The bill passed unanimously in the Senate on November 30, 2001. The Resolution requested that the President designate September 11th each year as Patriot Day. President George W. Bush signed the Resolution into law December 18, 2001 (as Public Law 107-89).
On this day, the President directs that the American flag be flown at half-staff at individual American homes, at the White House, and on all U.S. government buildings and establishments, home and abroad. This year President Biden, as President Trump and President Obama did before him, deemed the day one of National Remembrance and Service.
Even after 23 years; more than two decades worth of context building, and development of perspective, the numbers behind Nine-Eleven are chilling. Nearly 3,000 people lost their lives, and thousands of others were injured, and many more sustained post-event traumas. Examples of the carnage include:
2,977 Victims killed (not including the 19 hijackers)
2,606 Killed at the World Trade Center Towers
87 Killed on American Flight/NYC World Trade Center North Tower
60 Killed on United Flight 175/NYC World Trade Center South Tower
A Medical Examiner will continue to try to identify remains in the hope new technology will lead to the identification of other victims. The death and destruction of Nine-Eleven led to the so-called Global War on Terror. Mostly the front lines have been in Afghanistan and Iraq. However, a central intent of the action has been to prevent a recurrence of Nine-Eleven-like events on U.S. soil.
The initial thrust began October 7, 2001 when the U.S., British, and Coalition forces invaded Afghanistan, and in March 2002, when the U.S. and Coalition forces launched Operation Anaconda and the Taliban suffered significant losses, and left the region. In the interim, involvement in the region has ebbed and flowed, but the war, which the Obama Administration referred to as Overseas Contingency Operation, continues. The War in Afghanistan is officially the longest war in American History. We have for some time been in the “every day is a new record” era.
U.S. Intelligence sources pointed to Al-Qaeda as the probable instigator behind Nine-Eleven. It’s leader, Osama bin Laden initially denied involvement. Over time, bin Laden became more emboldened, first conceding involvement, and ultimately admitting that he was instrumental in masterminding the horrific attacks. During his Presidential Campaign, Mr. Obama declared he would not relent in the hunt for Osama. The elusive terrorist was thought to be hiding in Pakistan. Mr. Obama stated bluntly that if reliable intelligence pinpointed bin Laden, he would deploy U.S. forces to find and kill him, which he did on May 2, 2011.
The good news is, over the course of the past twenty-three years, there have been no repeat Nine-Eleven scale events on U.S. soil. That result is partly due to fastidiously focusing on prevention efforts, partly a result of fortuitous failures of would-be terrorists, and partly a function of the fateful intervention of alert by-standers. Last year, President Trump negotiated an agreement to end America’s longest (20 years) war by May of 2021. President Biden, who succeeded Mr. Trump, committed to honor the agreement. Ultimately, he pulled American troops out of Afghanistan by August 31st. a pledge he ultimately honored, despite numerous suggestions, for a variety of reasons, that he abandon it.
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This post appeared originally in this space on August 31, 2011. It was re-purposed and presented again September 3, 2014, September 7, 2016, September 6, 2017, September 5, 2018, September 4, 2019, September 9, 2020, September 7, 2022, September 6, 2023, September 4, 2024, and again today, September 3, 2025.
As you know, Monday was Labor Day. As with most holidays, I knock it down a few notches so readers can enjoy their time off, and ease into a vintage post, if they so choose. At its core, according to the U.S. Department of Labor, Labor Day in the United States was designed to commemorate the creation of the labor movement; dedicated to the social and economic achievements of American workers. The holiday focuses on contributions workers have made to strengthen, and enhance the prosperity, and well-being of our country.
First observed in September 1882, the event has always been observed on the first Monday of the month of September. Initiated by the Central Labor Union of New York, the celebration became a federal holiday in 1894.
In addition to its formal structure and purpose, Labor Day has several symbolic associations. It is considered:
The unofficial “End of Summer”
The last 3-Day warm weather weekend for vacationers
By High Society standards, the last day for which it is appropriate for women to wear white.
The last weekend before the start of the NFL Season
The conventional kick-off of the hard-core political campaign season
The culmination of back–to-School shopping
Labor Day also validates and recognizes an often-controversial mechanism that frequently divides American opinion: labor unions.
Scorned by many who fancy themselves as Free EnterpriseCapitalists, unions and their members have not only been actively involved historically, in debates that framed public policy for American workers, they have won or forced hard-earned concessions that in the shimmering glow of reflective perspective, must be considered to have fundamentally altered the playing field (known as the workplace), including:
Pensions
Health Care Benefits
Paid Vacations
Equal Pay to women
The Development of Child Labor Laws
The 5-Day Work Week
The 40-Hour Work Week
The 8-Hour Workday
Worker’s Compensation benefits
Obtaining the right for Female Flight Attendants to marry
These and many other important cherished and beneficial employee rights are attributable to the efforts of the American Labor Movement. However, this post is not an ode to Labor Unions. For all their well-deserved accolades, unions also have downside effects. They can create or contribute to:
The potential for strikes
Additional costs to all employees (membership dues; whether a member or not)
Loss of individuality (ability to represent oneself in a grievance)
Subject employees to fines & discipline by the Union
Burdensome salary demands (relative to the market)
Loss of profits (and/or pay) due to strikes.
Inefficient & ineffective contracts
Increased unemployment due to failure to reach agreement w/management.
The first Labor Day celebration was led by a Labor Union. The history of the Day has been linked, inextricably, with Labor organizations, ever since. But it is the American Worker the Day was intended to commemorate.
Meanwhile, contemplate, “Labor Day: It’s All About The Workers Redux ’25!”While we’ve got plenty of issues to temper our enthusiasm, we should still celebrate America’s Labor Movement, and the phenomenal workers it represents.
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