IRAN IS WALKING DEAD: Richard Pollock reports that signs abound that, while the surviving elements of the Iranian regime continue to compete with Baghdad Bob for the Most Ridiculous Official Statement Ever Award, reality is rapidly catching up with them.

NEWSOM’S LATEST FARCE: Alert to all Texans and Floridians reading this post: California’s Governor claims his state’s taxes are way below those in Texas and Florida. In fact, the Golden State hits its dwindling resident population twice as hard as the two Southern giants.

NO SWEET 16 BIRTHDAY FOR OBAMACARE: Yesterday was the 16th birthday of the Obamacare program, but the only celebrations likely were held in the corporate suites of the healthcare insurance industry.

ISRAEL ALLIANCE IS A BARGAIN FOR U.S.: Rod Martin lays out the decisive strategic case for the U.S. maintaining a close, mutually supportive alliance with Israel. Contrary to the anti-semites Right and Left who claim America gets nothing from its relationship with Israel, the alliance is an absolute bargain. Martin frames the alternatives:

“When America retreats, Iran advances. When America hesitates, Russia probes. When America grows confused, China arrives with money, ports, telecom networks, surveillance systems, and diplomatic cover. That is the actual choice-set. The world does not freeze while Washington holds seminars and struggle sessions.

“Israel helps prevent that outcome in the Middle East by being the one country in the region both willing and able to confront the West’s enemies on a daily basis. And because Israel does so with its own soldiers rather than ours, the United States spends far less blood and treasure.

“This is the point the anti-Israel Right keeps missing. They speak as if support for Israel ‘drags’ America into war. In fact, a strong Israel is essential to keep America out of unnecessary wars. Indeed, in all of history, only in the last year have U.S. and Israeli forces felt the need to fight side by side in any offensive war.”

Much, much more here that needs to be said and heeded.

HOW THE SBC GOT PLAYED: The Left’s Woke Gospel has been moving decisively within the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) in recent years, and none of it was accidental or unplanned, including especially the allegations of protecting sexual abusers within the leadership of the nation’s largest Protestant denomination. Rod Martin puts forward “How The SBC Got Played,” a devastating 41-minute expose of how the Left did it.

FEDS PAY FOR DRILLING HOLES IN DOGS’ HEADS: It’s all for medical research, so it’s ok, even if the researchers involved admitted the new drug they were developing did not need to abuse puppies. If that’s not enough to boil your blood, how about this: The NIH handed out $86 million in grants for research that involved cruelty to dogs and other animals. Go here for more details.

BIPARTISAN HOUSE BILL WOULD BOOST SPENDING TRANSPARENCY: A potentially landmark bill requiring faster public disclosure of federal spending is being introduced today by Republican Representatives Josh Brecheen of Oklahoma, Chip Roy and Michael Cloud of Texas, Clay Higgins of Louisiana and Nick Begich of Alaska, plus Democrat Jimmie Panetta of California. Check out my exclusive story in The Washington Stand.

WELFARE STATE DEFENDERS REFUTED: Social Security Administration (SSA) Commissioner Frank Bisignano has the clearest possible answer to welfare state defenders who claim his digital efficiencies are clogging the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program — Look at the F-A-C-T-S!

COVID SHOT LINKED TO AUTO-IMMUNE DISEASE: If you developed Polymyalgia Rheumatica (PMR) sometime after getting the COVID19 vaccination, there is strong evidence that the latter is related to the former. Symptoms of PMR are aching joints, especially in the shoulders and pelvis, which can be debilitating, according to Focal Point’s Nicholas Hulscher.

CHINA’S BIRTH TOURISM IN US: Did you know Chinese officials often arrange to have children born in the U.S., which under birthright citizenship, automatically makes them U.S. citizens? Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.) says this is just one of many problems with automatically granting citizenship. The Washington Stand’s S.A. McCarthy has more from a recent Senate hearing on the issue.

14 WAYS TO FIX MEDICARE ADVANTAGE: Leave it to my long-time unindicted co-conspirator, Dr. Robert Moffit at the Heritage Foundation, to find 14 ways Congress could vastly improve the Medicare Advantage option.

Bob is a former Deputy Secretary for Congressional Relations at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) from the Reagan era and still knows where a lot of bodies are buried there.

BLUE STATE EXODUS ACCELERATES: The prospect of a new and steep individual income tax is accelerating the exodus of Washington state residents and it appears to be part of a continuing and grow national move to the Mountain West and the South.

ANOTHER POLL FINDS SAVE ACT HAS MASSIVE SUPPORT: The latest online survey for the Issues & Insight/TIPP poll finds that SAVE Act, which requires that proof of American citizenship be presented to vote, is supported by 64 percent of the respondents.

Those respondents answered yes when asked if they agree that “it is a good idea and would help ensure that only eligible citizens are able to vote.” Among GOPers, the results show 85 percent saying yes, and 59 percent of Independents saying the same. Among Democrats, the percentage agreeing was 47 percent.

The ink-stained wretches behind Issues & Insights also pointed out a factor pointing towards more massive shifts in public opinion, observing that “Red states, mainly in the South, are gaining in population, while big blue states are losing some of their disgruntled voting population to those same red states. The result, if current demographic trends continue, augur a major shift in state voting power from blue to red.”

REAL PROGRESS IN FIXING SSA: Biden era Social Security Administration Commissioner Peter O’Malley said that agency was “on the brink of collapse,” and a recent Inspector-General report pointed to dozens of unimplemented reforms that if implemented would save an estimated $4.9 billion.

The truth about SSA provides a much more encouraging portrait of the state of management of the federal agency that runs the biggest entitlement program in America, as I report today on The Washington Stand.

In fact, SSA under Commissioner Frank Bisignano is moving quickly to act on the dozens of outstanding recommendations, even as great progress is being made in shortening wait times for customers calling the agency and eliminating backlogged disability applications.

MSM IGNORED GABBARD’S ISLAMIZATION WARNING: But others, led by a group of House Republicans, acted and continue doing so today. How deep is the problem today? Rep. Brandon Gill, one of that group, cites demands for Muslim calls to prayer in rural North Texas.

NOTHING TOO LUDICROUS FOR MSM ON IRAN: Brian Stelter, CNN’s Media Analyst, doesn’t have a clue about U.S. presidential decision-making or military planning, as is clear from his declaration that “Trump clearly has no plan or intention to explain to the American people why we went to war with Iran and what happens next and what victory looks like.”

Richard Pollock points to that Stelter demand and multiple others like it in the Mainstream Media as evidence that that these folks know nothing about what they are talking about and he reminds them that there was a reason FDR did not disclose to the media anything about the D-Day plan prior to that memorable day.

HOW THE ALAMO SAVED AMERICA: It was 190 years ago today that the 182 men of the Alamo finally succumbed after 13 days battling and delaying dictator Santa Ana’s Mexican Army of 5,000. Those 13 days gave Texas Gen. Sam Houston time to rally the troops who would inflict a humiliating defeat of Santa Ana at the Battle of San Jacinto.

But, as Rod Martin explains in a column that every American ought to read, it was not just the Texas Republic that the Alamo made possible. Had Santa Ana crushed the Texas rebellion, he could well have conquered New Orleans and thus strangled the American economy.

Even without taking New Orleans, it’s reasonable to envision him being in a position to make trade on the Mississippi exorbitantly expensive, which would also have inflicted tremendous damage to the emerging American economy.

There are even more serious consequences that would have accrued to the U.S. had the Texas rebellion been defeated. Martin memorably lays it all out.

WHY ADAMS AND JEFFERSON WOULD APPROVE TRUMP’S IRAN ACTION: John Adams was America’s second President and the head of the Federalist Party. Thomas Jefferson was our third Chief Executive and the chief author of the Declaration of Independence (with a lot of help from Adams). But Jefferson was also leader of the Democratic-Republican Party that was founded in opposition to Adams’ Federalists.

But despite their vast differences on so many other issues, Adams and Jefferson pursued virtually identical courses of action when the time came for American military power to be exercised overseas. Both did so without asking Congress for a declaration of war.

Rod Martin explains why this fact is so hugely important today as President Donald Trump directs the U.S. military’s joint destruction of Iran’s radical Islamic Republic terrorism machine. A good many folks on the Right should especially read and think about Martin’s analysis because they could very well otherwise end up playing the useful idiot role for the Left in coming days.

SHARIA-FREE AMERICA CAUCUS GROWS: Three more House GOPers have joined the newly organized Sharia-Free America Caucus whose purpose is to stop, reverse and forever defeat the forces seeking the Islamization of this country.

SPIRITUAL SIDE OF AI/ADDICTION ISSUE: Consider the implications if algorithmic-induced addiction is as deeply serious a problem as is depicted in current litigation, and it can be combined with Artificial Intelligence:

“Artificial intelligence dramatically lowers the cost of deception while algorithmic platforms dramatically amplify its reach. Together they form a compounding loop: manipulation becomes cheaper, distribution becomes frictionless, and correction becomes nearly impossible. A lie crosses a continent before the truth has tied its shoes — and now the lie is written, targeted, and delivered by software that never sleeps,” writes Col. (Ret) Bob Maginnis in The Washington Stand.

But there are even more aspects of this dilemma:

“In my book ‘The New AI Cold War,’ I argue that the defining contest of this century is not merely geopolitical — it is civilizational. The conflict pits liberty-centered systems grounded in human dignity against authoritarian systems that weaponize information and treat citizens as programmable inputs.

“China’s social credit infrastructure and Russia’s disinformation apparatus are the most visible expressions of this model. But the temptation to centralize control through technology is not exclusive to tyrants. Free societies face a parallel seduction: the idol of efficiency, dressed in the language of innovation.”

This is an important piece that merits serious and thoughtful reading.

TIME TO SHUTTER NASA? Well, spend a few minutes comparing the records of NASA on its Artemis II project with that of the private sector-based Space X. And for those who recall the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster, the recurring problems with liquid hydrogen and leaking seals raise multiple red flags.

The Issues & Insights crew observes:

“And what has been happening elsewhere while NASA has been fumbling around with leak-prone, decades-old rocket technology and failure-prone heat shields? Private companies are leaving it in the dust.

“Just since April 2023, SpaceX has launched 11 test flights of its cutting-edge Starship – the most powerful rocket ever built. The first stage is powered by 33 Raptor engines that have been redesigned twice in the past decade. And, unlike the old Artemis rocket, it will all be reusable. SpaceX even managed to catch the 20-story booster in a pair of ‘chopsticks.’

“When NASA last went to the moon in 1972, it was using cutting-edge technology developed at breakneck speed in the midst of the Cold War. Today, it looks like a dinosaur ready for the boneyard.”

NO, ISRAEL IS NOT PERSECUTING CHRISTIANS: There seems to be no end to the lies that pop-up concerning the Jewish state and every aspect of its existence, including how it treats the many Christians who live in the Holy Land. Richard Pollock addresses the transparently ridiculous claim that Israel mistreats Christians within its borders.

SHARIA-FREE AMERICA: That’s the goal of the newest caucus on Capitol Hill. Launched by two Texas Republicans, Rep. Keith Self and Rep. Chip Roy, in December, the Sharia-Free America Caucus already has 40 members.

SOMETHIN’ AIN’T RIGHT IN TEXAS: Irving, Texas, former home of the Dallas Cowboys and to this day still the home of the University of Dallas, a superb, orthodox and conservative Catholic liberal arts university, today has two Sharia courts operating??? I spent three and a half great years at UD in Irving and I suspect there weren’t three people in the whole city who had ever heard of a Sharia court. Check out this post on X.

LA COUNTY MENTAL HEALTH DEPT: Filed claims totaling in excess of $8 billion with Medicaid between 2018 and 2024, according to an unprecedented deep-dive data analysis by Open the Books.