Posts on Sunday, August 17, 2025

Sunday on MSNBC’s “The Weekend,” Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee said President Donald Trump is attempting to “dismantle our democracy” with his federal takeover of Washington, D.C. Lee said, “Let me just tell you that this president is fear mongering. He wants to militarize our cities to occupy them with outside federal force and that is very dangerous. This is part of his effort to dismantle our democracy. With regard to Oakland, you know we have our strategy also similar to Mayor Scott’s on focused deterrence, our crime rates going down.” She added, “We have a significant reduction in crime. We’re going to keep at it.

On the evening of June 30, a young congressional intern was shot while walking in the 1200 block of 7th Street on Washington, D.C.’s northwest side. “After all lifesaving measures failed, the adult male victim succumbed to his injuries at a hospital,” the Metropolitan Police report states. Eric Tarpinian-Jachym was in the wrong place at the wrong time. The University of Massachusetts Amherst senior who was majoring in finance with a minor in politic science had bright future in front of him. Tarpinian-Jachym was interning in the office of Rep. Ron Estes, R-Kansas, when he was caught in a hail of gunfire that wasn’t intended for him.

Barack Obama is the new Nixon. There, I wrote it down and my name is on it. It’s not publicly approved speech yet, but it is no longer the Thought Crime it once was. Many Americans are thinking it. And some, like me, are saying out loud. Barack Obama is our modern Nixon figure. Worse than Nixon, actually. Nixon was considered devious. He was presented as demon by The Washington Post and most of the rest of American journalism as the devil who had to be crushed, his followers subjected to never ending ridicule, his political party was sent on a Walk of Shame.

Amid last week's bomb-cyclone news cycle, which included a major summit with Russia and the takeover of the Washington, D.C., police force by the Trump administration, one could be forgiven for missing yet another Russiagate bombshell. In December of 2016, just before the unthinkable was about to happen in the form of Donald Trump becoming president, Director of the National Security Agency Mike Rogers emailed then Director of National Intelligence James Clapper with concerns he had over a report outlining Trump’s ties to Russia.

New York’s state Public Service Commission just OK’d big National Grid rate increases that’ll hike many upstate utility bills by $600 a year — fueling outrage Democrats will soon feel. Downstate, Con Edison is seeking an 11.4% hike to electric bills and 13.3% gas hike — largely thanks to green-energy mandates that Gov. Kathy Hochul embraced along with the rest of the party. The “climate agenda” is delivering pain we’ve long warned of, in New York and New Jersey. Across the Hudson, electric bills as much as tripled this summer —

A Manhattan federal judge on Monday denied the Trump administration’s bid to unseal grand jury documents in the case against dead sex predator Jeffrey Epstein’s accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell. US District Judge Paul Engelmayer said the transcripts revealed “next to nothing new” — in a scathing decision that ripped the Justice Department for overhyping the files, going so far as to suggest it was all a “diversion.” “There is no ‘there’ there,” Engelmayer wrote in his searing 31-page ruling finding that the DOJ failed to make a compelling case to disclose the grand jury testimony, which typically remains sealed.

A former top aide to ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo unleashed a series of vicious social media slapdowns on his former boss — even linking the mayoral candidate to convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. Howard Glaser, who served as the state operations director during Cuomo’s first term as governor, went nuclear during a series of withering statements on X, promising there is more to come. “The attacks on [Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani’s] family are ironic given Andrew’s own family values,” Glaser in a post. “Remember, Andrew, when your ex-wife [Kerry Kennedy] locked herself IN the bathroom to avoid your abuse, according to your biographer?”

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) is leaning into the redistricting fight as he looks to build his national profile ahead of a potential 2028 bid, but the move comes with political risks. Newsom formally declared his plans at a rally Thursday to call a special election for November that would allow state lawmakers to redraw California’s congressional map in response to President Trump urging red states to do the same.The plan comes as Newsom positions himself as the most vocal Trump critic on the national stage — and amid speculation he’s planning to mount a White House bid in the coming years.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday said the “best way” to end the war between Russia and Ukraine is through “a full peace deal,” but clarified that a ceasefire is “not off the table.” During an appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” host Kristen Welker asked Rubio about President Trump’s past threats of “severe consequences” for Russia if it did not agree to stop its war in Ukraine after the president met with President Vladimir Putin last week, which did not end with an agreement on Ukraine. She noted that Trump is now asking for a broader peace deal after the meeting.

Zelensky's maximalist position, supported by the UK, France and Germany, is at odds with public opinion in Ukraine. A new, dramatic Gallup Poll makes clear that Zelensky and his hardline clique don't represent what Ukrainians want.Here is what Gallup reports:"More than three years into the war, Ukrainians’ support for continuing to fight until victory has hit a new low. In Gallup’s most recent poll of Ukraine — conducted in early July — 69% say they favor a negotiated end to the war as soon as possible, compared with 24% who support continuing to fight until victory. This marks a nearly complete reversal from public opinion in 2022, when 73% favored

President Trump has proven once again why he’s the most effective advocate for American workers in modern American politics. He fully understands the threat China poses, and his administration is doing exactly what needs to be done to ensure American competitiveness. While strengthening our manufacturing, he’s also tackling trade diplomacy with China. Because President Trump knows we need both: to grow our ability to compete with China by manufacturing right here in the U.S. and also to pursue trade diplomacy that actually helps American businesses and consumers. The early signals of this effort are positive. For example, Ford’s $5-billion investment in car manufacturing, announced this week,

No, he didn’t die. But the era in which Colin Kaepernick, who had two or at most three good years in the NFL and hasn’t played a down in nearly a decade, and who had a losing record as a starter, could be regarded as some kind of cultural icon, has officially come to an end: Director Spike Lee’s multi-part documentary series for ESPN Films about former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who sparked a national debate when he protested racial injustice nearly a decade ago, will not be released, the filmmaker and ESPN said. “ESPN, Colin Kaepernick and Spike Lee have collectively decided to no longer proceed with this

There’s no better example of how little faith Americans have that government officials will tell the truth than the public’s blasé reaction to UFO announcements. In the last ten years, The New York Times has run stories about secret Pentagon programs tasked with retrieving alien craft. Members of Congress have held hearings on “mysterious orbs” and invited government witnesses to testify about black budget projects supposedly reverse-engineering alien technology. Secretary of State Rubio and director of National Intelligence Gabbard have both suggested that the UFO issue is serious. Yet eight billion people around the world collectively shrug.

One would think Kansas, of all places, would be a bastion of Normal American sanity. After all, it was to Kansas Dorothy and Toto returned when they left Oz. There’s no place like home. But that’s apparently not true of Lawrence, a town of just over 80,000 that voted overwhelmingly—67.5%--for Kamala Harris. Donald Trump won Kansas overall with 57.2% of the vote. Since taking office, Trump has been restoring the rule of law in a whirlwind of executive orders while requiring the DOJ, Department of Education—DOE—FBI and every other federal agency to—the horror—obey and enforce federal law.

Joe Biden and company told us it couldn’t be done—the border couldn’t be fixed without complex new legislation and gobs of money. Turns out that wasn’t true; all we needed was a new president. One who was willing to take command of the situation and enforce the laws already on the books. That president is Donald Trump, and in his second (non-consecutive) term, he has virtually shut down the southern border after Biden ushered in millions of illegal aliens with his “let them all come in” policy. But it’s not just ICE repatriations and a tight border that are at play here: as Trump promised on the campaign trail,

As my colleague Mike Miller reported, Hillary Clinton had a bit of a "flying pigs moment" recently, when she said that if President Donald Trump managed to pull off a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine, she would nominate him for the Nobel Peace Prize. Chances are that she did that because she thought Trump can't do it. But still, she put herself on the hook for that, and may end up having to pay off. President Trump was amused that she said it at all, joking that he might have to start liking her again.

A federal district court in Philadelphia ruled against the Little Sisters of the Poor and the Trump administration on Wednesday, blocking exemptions that prevent religious groups from being required to cover birth control costs in their health plans. Despite previous failed attempts to force the sisters to conform, the states of Pennsylvania and New Jersey sued the Trump administration — joined by intervenors Little Sisters of the Poor — over a religious exception to the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) contraception mandate established during the first Trump admin.

Susan Miller, the retired CIA spook who lied about her leadership role in the intelligence report that lit the fuse on the Russia collusion hoax bomb, has been stripped of her security clearance, according to two Trump administration officials familiar with the matter. Miller, who served as a senior Central Intelligence Agency Officer, has long boasted about her “full clearance,” particularly while attacking President Donald Trump and his top intelligence officers for shining a light on one of the biggest political scandals in U.S. history. That clearance has now been terminated, the administration officials told The Federalist.

An eight-page printout containing non-public information such as President Trump’s gift for Vladimir Putin and their anticipated lunch menu was allegedly left at an Anchorage hotel printer hours before the high-profile Ukraine peace summit. The embarrassing snafu revealed little if any sensitive security information — as most scheduled items on the agenda for the summit at the military’s Joint Base Elmendorf–Richardson were already public information — but went viral after being reported by NPR. The formerly publicly funded news outlet reported that three guests at the four-star Hotel Captain Cook found the papers in a public printer.

Three people were killed and eight others wounded when multiple gunman opened fire inside a Brooklyn restaurant around closing time Sunday morning. Officers responded to calls of a shooting inside Taste of the City Lounge at 903 Franklin Avenue in the Crown Heights neighborhood just before 3:30 a.m., NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said at a press briefing. The fatal victims were identified as three men, who were 27, 35, and an unknown age. The eight wounded victims were transported to local hospitals. However, their conditions were not disclosed.

Notorious anti-Israel activist Mahmoud Khalil showed up in NYC Saturday, quoting an alleged Hamas terrorist during a large protest in front of the New York Public Library. Khalil, 30, stood on the library steps and gave a seven minute speech in which he talked about Anas al-Sharif, an Al Jazeera correspondent who was killed during an Israeli missile strike last week. Israel has said al-Sharif was running a Hamas terrorist cell, which he and Al Jazeera repeatedly denied. Protestors march carrying Palestinian flags and signs that read "Stand with Gaza" and "Stop Starving Gaza". Khalil recalled al-Sharif’s final words and proclaimed to the crowd of roughly 2,000 —

The Trump White House shared a video this week giving a glimpse of the nighttime operation in Washington, DC, showcasing the mission to Make D.C. Safe Again. Nighttime Routine: Operation Make D.C. Safe Again Edition,” the White House wrote, sharing a video of authorities in D.C. arresting alleged criminals in the city. These actions follow Trump’s Monday announcement officially invoking section 740 of the district of Columbia Home Rule Ac, placing the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department under direct federal control, and activating the National Guard to get a grip on crime.

Gov. Kathy Hochul threw cold water Saturday on socialist NYC mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani’s proposal to bring government-owned-and-operated grocery stores to the Big Apple. “I favor free enterprise,” Hochul told business leaders at a Hamptons breakfast hosted by supermarket mogul John Catsimatidis, when asked about Mamdani’s pie-in-the-sky plan. The response drew huge applause from attendees, including Catsimatidis. The Gristedes supermarket owner later told The Post Mamdani’s plan would fail miserably, pointing to failures at a Kansas City, Mo.-owned grocery store that closed Monday after years of being a huge money pit for taxpayers and being plagued by rampant shoplifting and empty shelves.

President Trump made an abrupt announcement about two hours into his private, roughly three-hour meeting with Vladimir Putin Friday — declaring he wanted a full peace deal in Ukraine rather than a cease-fire, The Post has learned. Convinced there were relatively few matters left to resolve, and believing a truce would only prolong the war, Trump set aside his publicly stated goal of a temporary halt in fighting. “Figuratively, the president sort of threw up his hands and said, ‘I’m not interested in a cease-fire anymore,'” a source familiar with the discussion said. President Trump said Saturday he’s seeking a full peace deal rather than a truce after meeting with Vladimir Putin.

United States District Court for the District of Columbia Chief Judge James Boasberg is well known to this audience for ordering illegal aliens to remain in the United States despite the Trump administrations clearly lawful effort to deport them under the Aliens Enemies Act. Yet, he also has an important connection to the Russiagate hoax that reveals the scope of the lawfare superstructure that is trying to dismantle MAGA, which I document in my book Breaking the Law. Just like the rest of the Russiagate conspirators, Boasberg ought to be investigated for it.

On Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin flew to Alaska to meet with President Trump in an effort to resolve the long-running war with Ukraine. (Too many geographically handicapped people believed SNL’s skit deriding Sarah Palin, asserting that she had said she could see Russia from her home, and they were surprised to learn how short an eastward trip from Russia is to the United States.) For a long time, corporate media largely has framed the war as one of an innocent party viciously attacked by a big neighbor, one that is worthy of unending military and financial support. As Trump has signaled, he’s had enough and wants Ukraine’s neighbors.

Last week US Attorney General Pam Bondi appointed DOJ official Ed Martin as special prosecutor to investigate Democrat Senator Adam Schiff and New York Attorney General Letitia James over allegations of mortgage fraud. On Friday, Ed Martin was spotted outside of Letitia James’ Brooklyn home as a grand jury weighs a criminal indictment in his mortgage fraud investigation. One of Letitia James’ neighbors confronted Ed Martin as he inspected James’ 5-unit property. “No, you tell me why you’re here,” a woman said to Ed Martin. “I’m interested in houses,” Ed Martin said.

Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) has put Meta and its CEO/co-founder Mark Zuckerberg on notice that they should gather and keep hold of any records that might be relevant to a new "full investigation" by the Senate Judiciary subcommittee he chairs, about the tech giant's AI chatbots reportedly initiating "romantic" and "sensual" conversations with kids.[snip] Sen. Hawley noted why he believes congressional intervention is needed - that Meta allegedly tried to quietly clean up its act "only after [they] got caught" by a Reuters report