GOOGLE CENSORS BAN GALILEO AS ‘DANGEROUS:’ Oh, did I say Galileo? I meant Issues & Insights (I&I), the excellent libertarian/conservative news and analysis site established by former Investor’s Business Daily editorial page writers.

Even so, the point of the purposeful Galileo reference should be obvious: Just as the  censors of his view the Earth and other planets revolve around the Sun, the I&I folks refuse to toe the Establishment’s increasingly hateful and censorious Leftist orthodoxy, especially when it comes to former President Donald Trump.

For their independence, I&I is branded by Google as “dangerous” because it allegedly publishes “derogatory content.” The Left exterminated more than 100 million human lives in the 20th Century and the opportunity for vastly more men and women to hear alternative views and cultivate their own conclusions in the 21st Century. No wonder so many folks these days look around and fear that a new Dark Ages are around the corner. It doesn’t have to be that way.

UPDATE: Oh geez, this is what happens when you are rushing. This post has been updated to reflect the fact Galileo was advocating for the Sun as the center of the solar system, not that the Earth was round. My apologies to readers for this screwup and thanks to reader GWB for pointing out my error.

UPENN REWARDS PROF’S ANTI-SEMITISM: Professor Dorothy Roberts, who teaches sociology and law at the University of Pennsylvania, is being honored by the school with her selection to deliver the 23rd Annual Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Lecture in Social Justice.

The lecture assembly is being hosted by the UPenn Center for Africana Studies, the Penn Carey Law School, and the Department of Sociology. Another host is particularly noteworthy because it is the Annenberg School of Communication. The Annenberg is Walter Annenberg, whose Triangle Publications owned the Philadelphia Inquirer, TV Guide, the Daily Racing Form and Seventeen magazine.

The Washington Free Beacon’s Alana Goodman reports that Roberts “signed a letter accusing Israel of ‘genocide’ and ‘apartheid’ and denounced U.S. military support for the Jewish state as a ‘moral catastrophe.'”

Her selection comes in the wake of the resignation of UPenn President Liz McGill following her inability/refusal to condemn anti-semitism on her campus in the wake of the October 7 Hamas terrorist attack in Israel that left more than 1,200 Israeli men, women, children and infants dead, including many who were murdered in horrendous ways.

Let’s see now, is that a raised middle finger we see from the UPenn academic establishment?

UPDATE FROM GLENN: Reminder that Penn is trying to revoke Amy Wax’s tenure for insensitivity about affirmative action.

MAYORKAS IMPEACHMENT MOVES FORWARD: Republicans on the House Committee for Homeland Security will convene a markup session next to write Articles of Impeachment for Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. Democrats, who have condemned the effort as a “political stunt,” may or may not show up for the cameras.

RELIGIOUS TYPES SHOULD JUST SHUT UP: It is a not uncommon view in some quarters of the American public policy debate that “religious people” should just keep quiet in the public square and not seek to “impose their morality” on the rest of us.

Tim Barnett of Red Pen Logic offers a rejoinder, via world-famous atheist Richard Dawkins, on HillFaith this morning, arguing that all laws are based in some degree on somebody’s moral values, so the issue is how should laws be made and by whom. Hey, something to think about on this Hump Day in this fourth week of 2024.

DO WE EVEN WANT FEDERAL BUREAUCRATS TO RETURN TO THEIR OFFICES? Hordes of federal workers have continued to work mostly at home since the end of the Covid Pandemic, but pressure is growing for them to come back to their offices, at least half the time. Part of that pressure comes from Sen. Joni Ernst, the Iowa Republican who has been talking about it for a year.

EVERYTHING LEFTISM EXPLAINED: Michael Watson of the Capital Research Center (CRC) lays out the ideological and institutional structural necessities that drive the Left to be so obsessive about everything.

MORE BILLIONS FOR BORDER VIOLATORS: The Epoch Times this morning reports a spending explosion by the Biden administration on providing a full spectrum of assistance to millions of illegal immigrants since 2021. And can you guess who is paying for all this free stuff for illegals?

Adam Andrzejewski, founder and president of Open The Books, which did the research, told The Epoch Times that, while “the numbers are troubling, [they] shouldn’t surprise us. The stacking of Biden’s policy failures resulted in this immigration crisis. As more refugees flood our border, the administration keeps spending on aid and proffering even more perks. America’s southern border is now just an ever-growing magnet for people from every corner of the planet. The numbers won’t slow down unless the dollars do.”

MEDIA DOUBLE STANDARD ON PRESIDENTIAL DEMENTIA: Why on Earth would anybody think there is a double standard on how the Mainstream Media covers mental goofs by Joe Biden and Donald Trump? Issues & Insights explains why that’s exactly what millions of Americans have good reason to conclude it does exist.

SCOTT WANTS TREASURY’S ‘RELIGIOUS TEXTS’ SEARCHES DECISION TREE: Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) got a lot of headlines this weekend for endorsing former President Donald Trump but something else did at the same time may well prove to be significant in the long term.

The South Carolina Republican told Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen he wants to know who made the decision for the department to join the FBI in “encouraging” banks, credit card companies and other financial institutions to search customers’ private accounts for transactions involving among many others the terms “religious texts,” and “MAGA,” “Trump.” He wants the information no later than Feb. 5.

“On what basis did Treasury/FinCEN conclude that purchasing or possessing of religious texts, may be indicative of extremism?” Scott said, adding “Who made the decision for Treasury/FinCEN to warn financial institutions that religious texts may indicate extremism?”

The senator also said “federal government efforts to target individuals and entities based on their political views is a blatant and egregious violation of our Constitution. Additionally, reported actions like these disrupt confidence in federal law enforcement and raise significant questions regarding the independence of federal financial regulators.”

The searches were part of the Deep State’s Jan. 6 investigation. Keep an eye on this aspect of the investigation of the investigation, as I have a hunch there is much behind these searches than is now known.

TWO KINDS OF AMERICANS: There is former Planned Parenthood Director/now pro-life activist Abby Johnson and Anthony Fauci, the Richard Rich of the ruling American elite. My latest PJ Media column poses the question: Which type of American would you prefer to win the current civil war?

WHAT WOULD YOU SAY? About whether there are other life-forms in the uncharted immensity of the universe, that is. The latest “What Would You Say” video from the Colson Center on HillFaith makes a challenging case that the Bible does NOT teach we are the only living beings in the universe. Bet you didn’t expect that!

BIDEN FEDS SURVEILED BIBLE BUYERS: Not only did Treasury and the FBI “ask” banks, credit cards and other financial firms to search customers’ private accounts using the terms “MAGA” and “Trump,” they also encouraged searches for “Religious Texts.” A bunch of civil liberties experts I interviewed today on this are outraged.

NO, JOE DIDN’T PUT THE MLK BUST IN THE OVAL OFFICE: The Lid exposes yet another Biden White House falsehood, claiming in an official tweet that Joe was responsible for the Martin Luther King bust being in the Oval Office. In fact, the bust was placed there in 2009 by then-President Barack Obama. Next: Joe Biden invented sliced bread?

EPOCH TIMES APP DOWNLOADED MORE THAN NYTIMES: Interesting compilation by the Epoch Times staff of recent hit pieces in the Mainstream Media. Even in their ludicrous attacks on ET, they have to admit its immense and still-growing readership. Millions of Americans still hunger for real journalism.

HUNTER BIDEN’S ART DEALER TELLS ALL: Well, not quite all, but boy there was more than enough in the transcript of New York gallerist George Berges that has not been reported to leave little doubt about the actual purpose of those “artworks.” Leave it to The Epoch Times to publish what the MSM won’t.

HUNTER BIDEN, HOUSE GOP NEAR DEAL: A deal on when the President’s son will show up for a closed-door deposition, that is.

OF DISHWASHERS, COMMERCIAL FISHERMEN AND THE ADMINISTRATIVE STATE: Several Supreme Court cases could herald the end of the $2 trillion “Administrative State,” which is another way of saying reining in the “oppressive, suffocating, incompetent, self-serving federal bureaucracy.” Issues & Insights sees some bright light.

EPA FAILED TO DISCLOSE $7 BILLION IN SPENDING: The Inspector General (IG) at EPA reports that agency failed to disclose via USASpending.gov more than $7 billion in its expenditures for 2022. USASpending.gov is the landmark government website that makes public most federal expenditures, and all agencies, including EPA, are required to disclose their spending accurately and in a timely fashion.

Having had a part when I was at the Heritage Foundation in the campaign beginning in 2001 to create a website where, in the words of Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), “anybody with a computer and an internet connection” could examine where their tax dollars were going, I have to say the only thing that surprises me here is that similar reports haven’t previously been filed about other federal agencies.

It was Coburn and then-Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) who sponsored the legislation — the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006 (FFATA) — that required creation of USASpending.gov. Perhaps the next President will retain somebody like Sheila Weinberg and Truth in Accounting to conduct a massive forensic audit of USASpending.gov to determine how many other federal departments have failed to report their spending fully and accurately.

YES, CONGRESS CAN ARREST HUNTER BIDEN: Or anybody else who defies a lawfully issued congressional subpoena, under the Inherent Contempt Power, according to the Congressional Research Service (CRS). As I report for The Epoch Times, Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) was right, Biden can be arrested, but wrong in claiming it could be done “right here right now” during a tumultuous congressional hearing.

CONGRESSIONAL PRODUCTIVITY ‘CRISIS:’ The first session of the 118th Congress passed only 34 measures that became laws, the lowest total for any first session since the 82nd Congress in 1951. Interestingly enough, however, experts linked to Democrats and Republicans agree how many laws are passed is not a good measure for the productivity of a Congress.

SURPRISE! LEFTIST FUNDING HOLOCAUST MUSEUM PROTESTS: Capital Research Center’s (CRC) Ryan Mauro did some research on the funding behind those Pro-Palestinian protests at the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. and discovered the originator of Dark Money, the Tides Foundation. And there’s more!

NEW ENERGY SURVEY, SAME RESULTS: Most Americans want cheap energy and a mere 3 percent think climate change is the nation’s most pressing issue. That’s according to a new survey of likely voters in eight battleground states conducted for the American Energy Alliance (AEA) and the Committee to Unleash Prosperity (CTUP).

INSIDE CHINA’S ‘HIGH-TECH PANOPTICON:’ Not sure how I missed this the first week of last month, but Mind Matters News look at bioethicist Heather Zieglar’s analysis of the surveillance systems to control the Uyghurs, the Muslim minority in Xinjiang Province, is detailed, scary and quite possibly a look into what could be ahead for the U.S. in the absence of major changes.

BIDEN INSTITUTIONALIZES RACISM: Bet you didn’t know that the Biden regime has quietly saddled federal benefit grant programs with “Justice40,” a bureaucratic edict that stipulates 40 percent of funds must go to “underserved communities.”

The Washington Free Beacon’s Joseph Simonson reports that communities that aren’t underserved – i.e. that have majority white populations – are just out of luck, thus effectively putting a racist requirement in federal law.

DOES BILL NYE’S MATH DISPROVE THE GENESIS FLOOD? The Science Guy claims there wasn’t enough time after the Genesis Flood for the estimated 16 million species to evolve by now if the disaster occurred 4,500 years ago.

But what if, the Apologetics Press asks, Nye’s 16 million new species is way off, as a good case can be made that it is? I’m undecided on the Old Earth vs. Young Earth debate, but AP is pretty convincing that Nye’s math was off by a good bit.