Heads down, pencils up. It’s the back to school edition of The Drain Pipe, your guide to the week ahead in Washington.
The ScienceTM Embraces Fanaticism
The Jason Arday scandal is unsettling, and not just because of its morbid end.
From its earliest days, the scientific journal Nature defined science as the rigorous practice of professionals. Gatekeeping excluded the genuine discoveries of quixotic amateurs, leaving Gleanings in Bee Culture to report the miraculous flight of two genius bicycle mechanics. But it helped define scientific authority as observable, objective, atheistic.
Until now. The new religion of Wokeism has taken over. Heretics need not apply. Why else would editors at Science demand that researchers say whether they’re gay?
Editorials downplaying the University of Cambridge sociologist’s blatant plagiarism in some of the most prestigious and storied scientific journals in the world, like Nature (est. 1869), the British Medical Journal (est. 1840), and the New England Journal of Medicine (est. 1812) are a watershed moment in the deterioration of academic standards.
It’s not just that political pandering wastes space in otherwise competitive scientific publications. And it’s not just that junk science has siphoned conservatives’ tax dollars towards liberal political ends. (Nature’s parent company Springer Nature has received $13 million in tax dollars this fiscal year.) All that’s bad enough.
But the Arday scandal contains this daunting realization: The scientific editors we’ve trusted to parse truth from popular fanaticism for 150 years are no longer up to the task.
When faced with a scandal in which they had to decide whether to prioritize their historic function, uncovering the truth, or the comfortable fantasy, they chose the fantasy that Arday was unfairly victimized.
THE EXECUTIVE
President Donald Trump is at the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey, as of this Labor Day morning and is scheduled to return to the White House this evening.
Back To School … For Some
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS)’s new rule aimed at phasing out a system that often allowed international students to stay indefinitely (“duration of status”) in favor of a fixed 4-year limit will be put into effect on Sept. 15.
“For nearly half a century, the outdated ‘duration of status’ system has compromised national security and created an environment ripe for immigration fraud,” DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin stated in the July press release that accompanied the rule’s publication.
The status quo allowed foreign students to “perpetually enroll in courses to avoid having to leave the U.S.,” Mullin said.
The U.S. hosted nearly 1.2 million international students in academic year 2024-2025, with more than 265,919 being from China despite the national security risks, Open Doors reported in November.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on X in last spring that the U.S. would begin revoking visas of Chinese students altogether, including those “with connections to the Chinese Communist Party or studying in critical fields.”
But the following month, Trump endorsed accepting Chinese international students, and pledged 600,000 new visas for Chinese students that August.
“OUR DEAL WITH CHINA IS DONE, SUBJECT TO FINAL APPROVAL WITH PRESIDENT XI AND ME … LIKEWISE, WE WILL PROVIDE TO CHINA WHAT WAS AGREED TO, INCLUDING CHINESE STUDENTS USING OUR COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES (WHICH HAS ALWAYS BEEN GOOD WITH ME!),” Trump posted on Truth Social.
DEI Crackdown Reaches New Heights
The Trump admin’s back-to-school reforms aren’t just focused on foreigners, but also on private institutions within America’s borders.
The U.S. Department of the Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service submitted proposed regulations aimed at ending the federal tax-exempt status for private schools that engage in racial discrimination, the Daily Caller scooped last Thursday.
“Schools rebranding race-based preferences as equitable, inclusive, or diversity-enhancing does not change their discriminatory nature,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement. “The institutions that continue to use discriminatory practices will no longer receive the benefits of federal tax-exempt status.”
The proposed regulations could affect up to 18,000 private schools as early as May 31, 2027.
Lessons Learned?
Friday will mark the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks.
The House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) issued a 66-page report last week assessing how U.S. intel collection has changed since the historic intelligence failures that contributed to 9/11 attacks.
One thing remains the same: Since the inner workings of the intelligence community are by nature secret, Americans rely on Congress to ensure the CIA is protecting the homeland while respecting their liberty. But aside from small tweaks, congressional oversight of the intel community remains as dysfunctional and toothless as it was before the 9/11 attacks.
Lessons Learned? Part 2
Friday will mark the one year anniversary of the assassination of conservative activist and genius political strategist Charlie Kirk. And political violence remains an issue, as a development in the Ohio governor’s race made clear Sunday.
Democratic Ohio gubernatorial candidate Amy Acton said in a tweet Sunday night that a man had lunged at her with a knife at a fair in northeast Ohio and that multiple people had been injured.
Republican opponent Vivek Ramaswamy immediately denounced the attack, saying “candidates should be able to meet with voters without having to worry about threats or violence.”
Many Republicans online want more details.
Acton’s slurred, boisterous speech in a campaign rally Saturday remains a subject of controversy. News 5 Cleveland confirmed in a report last week that Acton’s daughter reported to police that her mother had been drinking and throwing glass after making a 911 call in 2019.
Recall that Department of Justice probes into the leftist political networks that funnel money to extremists who endorse killing as a political tactic appear to have petered out somewhat after conservative donors became jittery that Democrats could retaliate after they regained power.
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THE LEGISLATIVE
The House of Representatives has adjourned yet again, wiping two weeks’ worth of workdays off the calendar. These people are paid at least $174,000 per year, by the way. The insider trading helps too. Meanwhile, August recess will stretch into mid-September for the upper chamber.
Guess Which Word Is Nowhere To Be Found In The GOP’s Midterm Convention Agenda
Midterm election season kicks off in earnest as Republicans gather at an arena in Dallas on Wednesday and Thursday for the party’s first ever midterm convention.
The party hopes to inspire voters to turn out for competitive races in Texas, Ohio, Michigan, North Carolina and Georgia and cure the overall bad vibes many conservatives feel about the looming possibility of losing one or both chambers of Congress.
It will be hard to match the electric energy of the 2024 Republican National Convention, hosted less than 48 hours after Trump survived an assassination attempt in Butler, Pa.
Nevertheless, the convention seeks to galvanize conservatives around domestic priorities like securing the border, reshoring manufacturing, eliminating fraud and creating a more sane education system, per the agenda. (The word “Iran” appears zero times.)
Pressed on whether Trump’s sagging approval numbers could lead the convention to backfire on Face the Nation, House Republican Conference Rep. Lisa McClain said this:
“I’ll remind everybody what Republicans did was secure the border. We passed the largest tax cuts in history. We want to keep more money in your pockets. And what our goal is with the midterm convention is really to compare and contrast the two roads: one communist, crazy, versus traditional American common-sense values.”
We can also expect the hard left pivot of the Democratic Party to be a central theme.
Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed — who has been dogged by his friendship with Los Angeles’s multimillionaire revolutionary Hasan Piker — will be a particular focus, Axios reports.
Since this is the education issue of The Drain Pipe, take a look at El-Sayed’s scholarship as a PhD in public health: 8 of the 10 papers that show up on the first page of a PubMed search for his name involve race (always Arab identity), immigration status, or socioeconomic factors.
Three Bills, Two Angry Letters, and Another Vacation
In its 4-day break from taking breaks, the House successfully passed the Protect Economic and Academic Freedom Act of 2025, the Protecting Domestic Mining Act of 2025, and the Northeast Lobsterman Protection Act of 2026.
The House also passed two bipartisan — albeit ceremonial — resolutions. One censured Republican Rep. Chuck Edwards of North Carolina over sexual harassment allegations, the other condemned socialism “in all its forms.”
It’s not immediately clear why Speaker Mike Johnson adjourned the House so early. However, outgoing Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky suggested one potential reason on X last Sunday…
Regardless, both the House and the Senate are scheduled to get back to work on Sept. 14.
COMMITTEES TO WATCH: Elites To Watch:
This is usually where we list what congressional hearings you should look out for this week. However, due to the “mini recess,” that is on recess too. Fortunately, Massie provided Americans another list to watch for the time being.
“On the House floor tonight, I read the names of several Epstein coconspirators who should be investigated and prosecuted,” Massie posted on X last Monday.
This is part of Massie’s crusade to pass the Epstein Files Transparency Act II, which aims to make the government release the rest of the files pertaining to Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking.
Massie reportedly filed a discharge petition for the bill last Monday — which would’ve forced it to be put to a vote if 218 members signed it — and told The Washington Times he’d only need three Republicans to sign on if all Democrats join him in doing so.
Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna of California co-sponsored the bill.
Massie said that he’ll soon be kicked out of his Capitol Hill office and relegated to the basement after his May electoral defeat in an interview with Dave Smith.
THE JUDICIARY
The U.S. Supreme Court’s 2026-2027 term begins on Oct. 5.
While It May’ve Packed Its Bags ‘Til Fall, SCOTUS Is Still Packable
A proposed constitutional amendment aimed at capping the number of seats in the U.S. Supreme Court to nine was shot down 212-206 last Wednesday.
“There is nothing magical or sacred about having nine Supreme Court justices. Congress has repeatedly expanded—and reduced—the size of the Supreme Court,” Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland posted on Facebook last Wednesday.
Raskin suggested on the House floor that Congress could raise the number of justices to thirteen; one for each federal circuit. He argued that freezing it at nine within the constitution was “another partisan power grab” by his “MAGA” colleagues who “fear for the results of the November election.”
Republican Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona, who sponsored the proposal, singled out Raskin in a Thursday press release.
“The Court has been set at nine justices for more than 150 years … But Ranking Member Raskin made clear in his remarks: he believes President Trump’s ability to appoint two Justices who more closely adhere to the Constitution than the Justices replaced is simply unfair,” Biggs stated. “In fact, he said the quiet part out loud, accusing President Trump of ‘stealing’ the two seats and calling it ‘the rightwing capture of the Court.’ This is a dangerous narrative that undermines the system established by the Founders and creates a slippery slope ending in the total decimation of the integrity of the Court.”
Election Integrity Faces Another Standstill
Trump’s March executive order aimed at ensuring mail-in voting in federal elections is accountable to the federal government reached yet another bump in the road.
After SCOTUS allowed the Trump administration to continue implementing the executive order in an Aug. 24 opinion, U.S. District Court Judge Indira Talwani placed a 14-day freeze against certain provisions of the order pertaining to the U.S. Postal Service on Aug. 27.
U.S. Solicitor General D. John Sauer asked SCOTUS last Thursday to pause Talwani’s order, warning in a letter that waiting for the freeze to thaw would “irreparably harm” the federal government’s election integrity efforts.
“Even before September 10, two States—North Carolina and Alabama—will begin sending ballots to voters, the first as soon as September 4. Once those ballot envelopes enter the mailstream, there is no retrieving them,” Sauer wrote.
MISCELLANEOUS
Did Trump Ditch ‘Flyover County’ For Big Tech?
Last Monday, we discussed the ever-growing — and mutual — disdain between Silicon Valley and “flyover country” over the former’s unrelenting promotion of mass surveillance and data centers. Hours later, President Donald Trump gave data centers his full endorsement.
“The only reason that communities throughout the U.S.A. should not want Data Centers is if they want to end up being backwards and poor. If they want to be successful and rich, with far lower taxes and jobs all over the place, let Data Reign,” Trump posted on Truth Social.
Given Trump’s apparent love for data centers, perhaps the theory that he’s building one underneath his roughly $400 million White House ballroom project is worth serious investigation?
Neither the White House nor Clark Construction responded to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment as of publication.
However, since theories surrounding the project took off, Trump himself has admitted that he isn’t just building a ballroom.
“The Military/Ballroom Complex being built on the hallowed grounds of the White House, which is so vital for National Security,” Trump posted on Truth Social hours after SCOTUS greenlit its construction on Aug. 21.
If the project is something more than a ballroom-doomsday shelter hybrid, then this sidequest might be Trump’s hottest take this summer. After all, according to a Gallup poll published in May, over 70% of Americans oppose data centers being built near where they live.
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