The Daily Signal

President Joe Biden's proposed plan to conserve 30% of America’s land by 2030 lacks needed details, Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts says.The Biden administration has not provided details on how it intends to accomplish the goal, but enough is known about Biden’s "30 by 30” conservation initiative to know that it won't serve the best interests of the American people, the Republican governor says. "Right now, 97% of Nebraska is privately owned, and if you wanted to set aside 30% of this in conservation you would drive up land prices [and] make it more difficult for young people to get into production agriculture," Ricketts says "You would certainly drive up food prices [and] you'd drive up property taxes."Ricketts joins “The Daily Signal Podcast” to discuss the implications of Biden’s "30 by 30" initiative.The governor also discusses disturbing sex-education standards proposed by the Nebraska Department of Education and what parents can do to push back on leftist policies being implemented in their children’s schools. We also cover these stories: Speaker Nancy Pelosi says the House of Representatives won’t vote on a $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill until the Senate votes on a $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill.  Chinese officials reject a plan from the World Health Organization for a second phase of a probe into the origin of COVID-19 that would include the possibility that the coronavirus escaped from a research lab in Wuhan, China. An Illinois teacher files a lawsuit against her former employer for firing her after she criticized rioting and looting in Chicago last summer following the death of George Floyd.  Enjoy the show! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rep. Lauren Boebert just returned from another fact-finding trip to the southern border.The Colorado Republican joins us today on "The Daily Signal Podcast” to discuss her trip, migrant children crossing the border that she ran into there, and U.S. Customs and Border Protection's tally of the number of would-be illegal immigrants taken into custody at the border in June."I've gone three times now to the border, and each time, it's just more and more devastating, and the reality of this crisis is brought more into perspective of what's really taking place. I was down in McAllen, Texas, most recently with [former] President [Donald] Trump, and I saw groups of unaccompanied minors, dozens of groups of unaccompanied minors," Boebert says."And these children didn't have adults with them because of the Biden policies, because [President Joe] Biden is encouraging families to self-separate. If your child is 6 years of age or under, then you could cross with them, but if they're older than that, then they can't cross with you. So, they have a better chance of crossing the border without their children, putting their children in the hands of the [human smuggling] cartel and risking their lives."We also cover these stories: In a Tuesday interview with Fox News' Sean Hannity, Sen. Rand Paul announces he will be asking the Department of Justice for a criminal referral against Dr. Anthony Fauci. The Kentucky Republican claims Fauci lied to Congress about the National Institutes of Health funding illegal gain-of-function research at China's Wuhan Institute of Virology. The Biden administration is distancing itself from a group that is pushing critical race theory in public schools.  On Tuesday, the Louisiana state Senate voted to override Gov. John Bel Edwards’ veto of a bill that would ban biological men from competing in women’s scholastic sports. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In an exclusive interview with "The Daily Signal Podcast," former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo criticizes the Biden administration for asking the United Nations to send its racism experts to the U.S."Our administration understood that the U.N. Human Rights Commission was simply ... a bunch of anti-semitic thugs who spend most of their time nagging on Israel for the things they do simply to defend themselves.," says Pompeo. "To invite them in to look at American systemic racism, which frankly doesn't exist ... we know what these reports will end up saying. We know, they'll say, 'Oh, this is racism and the Americans need do X, Y, and Z to go fix it.'""This is a commission occupied by people like Venezuela, by the Iranians," Pompeo adds. "These are bad actors trying to stick the thumb in the eye of the American people.""To have permitted them to come in and evaluate racism in America is an enormous mistake .... They'll come after America hard, and we shouldn't let them do that," the former secretary of state says.Read the lightly edited transcript, pasted below, or listen to the podcast to learn more about what Pompeo has to say about this, what he describes as the Biden administration's failure to lead on China and Hong Kong policies, and how the administration has put climate change ahead of American security.We also cover these stories: Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., has another heated exchange with Dr. Anthony Fauci at a Senate committee hearing. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., names five Republicans to serve on a special committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.  White House press secretary Jen Psaki avoids answering questions about which Facebook posts the Biden administration will flag as misinformation.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rep. Byron Donalds has signed onto a resolution from fellow Florida Republican Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart condemning the current situation in Cuba.Donalds says it’s critical that the United States stand in strong opposition to the violent suppression of mass public protests happening there."They said to me, 'Man, it's so bad.' Not only did they shut down the internet, but they were like, 'There was a 12-year-old kid who was in the crowd at the protests. The police, the military police threw him on the ground, hit him with the butt of their gun in the back of his neck, broke his neck. He's now paralyzed from the neck down,'" Donalds said."They talked about how people are being told, when the [Cuban] military comes to their door, 'You either come with us, or we'll kill you right now.' These are the things that are occurring on Cuba right now today," the freshman Florida lawmaker said. "And so we as a country, as being the beacon for liberty and freedom on the globe, we have, in my view, a moral obligation to stand firm against that regime."We also cover these stories: President Biden is accusing China of hacking Microsoft as the Justice Department indicts four Chinese nationals in connection with a global computer intrusion campaign targeting intellectual property and confidential business information. Biden walks back comments he made Friday that social media giant Facebook was “killing people” in reference to alleged COVID-19 misinformation.  Paul Hodgkins, of Tampa, Florida, is handed an eight-month sentence in connection with his role in the Jan. 6 invasion of the Capitol.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

There are special-interest groups dotting the landscape in Washington, D.C., for just about any cause you could imagine. They’ve been quite successful, too. But as Terry Schilling, a husband and father of five kids, surveyed that landscape, he saw a void. That’s why his organization, the American Principles Project, has embarked on a new initiative called the Big Family. It promises to put the needs of families first. "You've got Big Pharma, Big Tech, Big Oil, Big Business," Schilling says. "There are so many bigs, but there's no big family. And that's why we chose the name, Big Family. We want the family to be the big guy in the room when it comes to public policy." Schilling joins “The Daily Signal Podcast” for a wide-ranging discussion about family values, the threats facing parents and kids, and how the American Principles Project is taking action. You can listen to the full show below—including our letters to the editor and weekly good news story—or read a lightly edited transcript at dailysignal.com. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Free to Learn Coalition is a nonpartisan organization that wants to take politics out of the classroom. Alleigh Marre, the president of the coalition, joins “The Daily Signal Podcast” today to discuss how she hopes to do that. "We started to hear a lot more about how there's been more of an emphasis on activism, rather than academics," Marre says."And that includes, certainly, critical race theory," which she says is "extremely prevalent and something that we're starting to hear more and more about, but it's not just isolated to that."Marre added: "And the big thing that we are hearing from parents is that, as we start to fall behind in the world, countries like China, Russia, Estonia, Slovenia, Canada, they all outperform us. And that's something that's very concerning to parents. We're all taxpayers, we're all paying into a public education system, and our students just aren't prepared for the future."We also cover these stories: Black Lives Matter is blaming the United States for the turmoil in Cuba.  In an interview with CNN on Thursday, Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, 82, announces that he hasn’t decided when he will retire and says he's pleased with his new role as the court’s most senior liberal. Seventeen state attorneys general, led by Republicans, support Arkansas' outlawing of "experimental" transgender operations on minors.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Chinese Communist Party, which has ruled China for 100 years, remains highly secretive in its policies and actions. Fortunately, sources outside China's government have provided the world with a great deal of information about what is really happening within the communist regime.Compiling what we do know about the Chinese Communist Party, The Heritage Foundation—parent organization of The Daily Signal—just released its 2021 China Transparency Report. The document assesses China’s level of transparency across eight key areas: the economy, energy and the environment, human rights, influence operations, the military, outbound investments, politics and law, and, technology. The goal of the report "is partly to bust a myth that China is completely closed off and opaque," says Dean Cheng, a Heritage Foundation senior research fellow for Asian studies who contributed to the report."You cannot have a country of 1.3 billion people, you can't have any economy that's the second largest in the world, and the world's largest trading state, and not have some amount of interaction and data flow, etc.," Cheng says. "But part of the problem is that the available information isn't easily available, partly because, well, it's in Chinese."Cheng and Justin Rhee, co-editor of the China Transparency Report, join “The Daily Signal Podcast” to explain its significance in understanding the actions and goals of the Chinese Communist Party. (You may read the full report here.)We also cover these stories:  Secretary of State Antony Blinken invites U.N. envoys on racism and minority issues to visit the United States.  Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., introduces a bill to repeal federal mask mandates for those using public transportation. In remarks at The Heritage Foundation, former Vice President Mike Pence calls communist China a greater threat to America than the Soviet Union was during the Cold War.  Enjoy the show! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Lala Mooney, born in communist Cuba, was imprisoned there at age 19. As protests erupt in the Caribbean nation, Mooney, mother of Rep. Alex Mooney, R-W.Va., joins "The Daily Signal Podcast" to talk about what life there is like. "At the economic level, we lost everything," Mooney says. "My mother's family owned a sugar mill and they put a gun on my uncle's desk and say, 'Sign it over.' We lost everything."Mooney says her father was dean of engineering at St. Thomas of Villanova Catholic University in Havana, which the communist regime of Fidel Castro confiscated in 1961, expelling American and European Anglicans who administered it."Once we were in prison, my father said, 'There's no sense for me to stay here if they put me in prison.'""Engineering was a very important topic in Cuba," Mooney adds, "because Cuba was [one of the biggest] producers of sugar in the whole world, and engineering is how you run the sugar mills."We also cover these stories: In a speech, President Joe Biden criticizes election reforms passed by Republican-controlled state legislatures. Democratic state lawmakers from Texas, fleeing a vote on an election bill there, hold a press conference at the U.S. Capitol in support of congressional Democrats' legislation to impose election requirements on states. So far, no Democrat has signed on to a resolution from Rep. Mario Díaz-Balart, R-Fla., to support the protests in Cuba. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Tens of thousands of Cubans are protesting in the streets because of dire conditions brought about by the Caribbean nation's communist regime. What is going on there, what will be the repercussions for protesters who have had the courage to gather in the streets, and how should the U.S. respond?"It's a very dark moment right now," says Mike Gonzalez, a Cuban native who is a senior fellow in the Douglas and Sarah Allison Center for Foreign Policy at The Heritage Foundation, the parent organization of The Daily Signal.Gonzalez joins "The Daily Signal Podcast" to discuss the situation."The state police is out there. They were called out by the puppet president, Miguel Díaz-Canel," Gonzalez says. "They're rounding up people, beating people up. I know of at least one pro-democracy priest—Castor Álvarez in the city of Camaguey in the east ... of the island of Cuba—who was severely beaten up and I think stripped naked. And his whereabouts are unknown. This is from dissident sources. For all we know, Father Castor could be dead."We also cover these stories: President Joe Biden issues a statement of support for Cubans who protested Sunday across the country. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., asks the National Security Agency's director to investigate allegations by Fox News Channel host Tucker Carlson that the NSA is spying on him.  Ben Carson, former secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, calls out critical race theory in an interview with Fox.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Faith, family, and freedom. The late Sen. William L. Armstrong cherished these values throughout his life as a successful businessman, political leader, and university president.Today, Armstrong's son Wil is honoring his father's legacy with the William L. Armstrong Award, which recognizes an individual who has made a difference in America’s culture through business, politics, or education. This year's recipient, Heritage Foundation President Kay C. James, received the honor from the Centennial Institute, Colorado Christian University’s (CCU) public policy think tank, in partnership with The Armstrong Project.Wil Armstrong joined me for an interview to discuss his father's love for America and how he and his wife Kristy are making sure they recognize people who embody the values he held dear. Also on today show, we read your letters to the editor and share a good news story about two little girls who raised nearly $2,000 at their lemonade stand to help the family of a fallen police officer.Enjoy the show! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices