Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville doesn’t appear bothered by criticism from those who say his blocking of military promotions over a Defense Department policy relating to abortion funding is “unprecedented.”
“I don’t care what they say. I was an elected senator from the state of Alabama,” says Tuberville, who won his Senate seat in November 2020.
“Again, if I was affecting readiness … I do truly believe in our military and the things that we knew to be prepared. We’re as prepared now as we were last March, when I started this. It’s not affecting readiness at all,” Tuberville says, adding:
I’ve had military personnel call me. I’ve had veterans. I had a letter from 5,000 veterans that said, “We’re all behind you, Coach. Keep on doing this. We do not need a woke military.”
Tuberville joins today’s episode of “The Daily Signal Podcast” to discuss why he’s against the Defense Department policy on abortion and his subsequent efforts to block military promotions; whether he has spoken with anyone at the Pentagon about the policy; and Title IX as it relates to biological males taking part in girls’ and women’s athletics.
Fox News has reported that federal Judge Lewis Kaplan on Wednesday found that Former President Donald Trump “is liable for damages” in yet another lawsuit from journalist E. Jean Carroll.
Republican Senators weigh in on Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s health.
Florida Sens. Rick Scott and Marco Rubio introduce the Federal Disaster Responsibility Act.
J.R.R. Tolkien, author of "The Lord of the Rings," calls us to be heroic and to sacrifice for one another, according to the author of a new book on Tolkien's "Sanctifying Myth."
"I'm very glad when I look at the numbers of how many books of Tolkien's still sell and that almost anything that is publishable has been published by Tolkien," Bradley Birzer, a history professor and the Russell Amos Kirk chair in American studies at Hillsdale College, tells The Daily Signal.
Birzer, who recently published a second edition of his book "J.R.R. Tolkien's Sanctifying Myth: Understanding Middle-Earth," calls Tolkien's enduring popularity "a healthy sign in society."
"I don't think society is healthy right now, but I think that's one of the healthier signs of society," he explains. "I think Tolkien teaches us to be ourselves in the best way, to be our authentic selves, to be made in the image of God, to do what we're meant to do. I think he calls upon our uniqueness, each of us made individually in the image of God, and I think he calls us to be heroic."
"I think he calls us to sacrifice for one another, and that was as true in Tolkien's life as it was in his writing," the Hillsdale professor says. "I think one of the great things about Tolkien is, when we praise him, we can praise him as a person. There aren't real serious personal failings. He didn't own slaves. He didn't have all these other things that we can dismiss Thomas Jefferson for."
Birzer addresses the "literary archaeology" of Tolkien and explains why he thinks "The Lord of the Rings" is "our great story of the modern world."
The history professor also addresses his personal dislike for the Peter Jackson films, why Tolkien initially distrusted the very modern technology that led his books to become one of the most popular movie trilogies in existence, and how Tolkien addressed the world of Middle-earth.
Former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows pleaded not guilty today in the Georgia election interference case brought forward by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis.
“I just want that to sink in. That is an incredible number to try to fathom or … imagine,” Bremberg, a former ambassador, says, adding:
And that includes not just [Josef] Stalin and the tens of millions killed under Stalin’s brutal regime at the [Union of Soviet Socialist Republics], but also Mao Zedong, the… deadliest mass murderer ever, in terms of his leadership of the Chinese Communist Party that saw the murder of upward, conservatively upward of 60 million people.
Bremberg joins today’s episode of “The Daily Signal Podcast” to discuss the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, which received The Heritage Foundation’s Innovation Prize earlier this year; its China Studies Program; and whether it’s possible for the U.S. to move away from or lessen its economic reliance on China. (The Daily Signal is the news outlet of The Heritage Foundation.)
Committees and hearings play a critical role in the operations of Congress. But how are members assigned to committees? And do congressional hearings actually advance legislation and investigations?
Kyle Brosnan, chief counsel for The Heritage Foundation's Oversight Project, goes beneath the surface in today's edition of "The Daily Signal Podcast" to explain how Congress really works and the critical role Capitol Hill staff play in those operations. (The Daily Signal is the news outlet of The Heritage Foundation.)
Many Americans have seen a "Schoolhouse Rock" video explaining how Congress operates, or they may have taken political science classes in school. But neither paints the full picture of how Congress "actually works," Clint Brown says.
Take the introduction of bills in Congress as an example, says Brown, vice president of government relations at The Heritage Foundation. (The Daily Signal is Heritage's multimedia news organization.)
"Members of Congress introduce thousands of bills every year," Brown says, but many of them "are laying a marker for what they believe."
"We call them messaging bills," he adds, "because [lawmakers] want to talk about the issue, but they don't intend it to pass."
As in any office building, "there are conversations happening all the time," Brown says, and lawmakers have their own "congressional version of the water cooler" and "talk over what they're working on just like anybody else."
"Sometimes there are the smoke-filled back rooms where they hatch plans, and it seems very scandalous and salacious," he says. "But most of the time, it's just normal conversation. And that's how things get done, is you go talk to people about it."
