Posts on Saturday, October 18, 2025
’He’s a whale in Vegas’: JB Pritzker’s
million-dollar win reveals governor’s
taste for gambling replies
million-dollar win reveals governor’s
taste for gambling replies
CHICAGO — Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker turned heads this week when his campaign disclosed he won $1.4 million gambling last year. Though the billionaire Democrat doesn’t frequent Las Vegas casinos as much as he once did, the windfall is a reminder of his high-stakes past. Pritzker has been a blackjack player for more than two decades, long before he entered public office. “He’s a whale in Vegas,” said a businessperson who’s known Pritzker for years and was granted anonymity to speak freely. “I was incredibly lucky,” Pritzker told reporters Thursday when asked about the big win. “You have to be
The United States has transferred two survivors of a Thursday military strike in the Caribbean to their home countries—Colombia and Ecuador—for detention and prosecution, President Donald Trump announced on Saturday. The move spares the U.S. military from navigating complex legal challenges related to detaining suspected drug traffickers under wartime laws. Both men have since arrived in their respective nations, according to local authorities. Colombian President Gustavo Petro confirmed on X that the detained Colombian “will be processed according to the law,” while an Ecuadorian government source reported that the other survivor arrived Saturday morning and will face legal proceedings.
The terror-linked Brooklyn imam who palled around in a photo opp this week with socialist NYC mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani once urged “jihad” on the Big Apple.
Imam Siraj Wahhaj, one of the nation’s foremost Muslim leaders, delivered his radical message during a sermon in the early 2000s, telling followers to participate in gun-free jihad and “march through the city of New York,” according to a foreign intelligence assessment obtained Saturday by The Post.
“I pray one day Allah will bless us to raise an army, and I’m serious about this,” he said during the sermon, which was first reported by Islamist Watch and cited in the intelligence report
Once again, Europe seems to have slipped into a dangerous fantasy: that engaging in polite diplomatic parleys with promises of sugar plums will tame Iran's rapacious ambitions.
France, Germany, and the United Kingdom (E3), acting as the European Troika, declared their intention to revive the long-stalled nuclear negotiations with Iran.
At the core of the E3's plan lies the deeply flawed assumption that Iran can be wooed into restraint through incremental "incentives." These generally consist of easing financial pressure, lifting trade restrictions, or delaying multilateral sanctions in exchange for ephemeral commitments.
Sadly, Europe appears to be pursuing the worst lessons of appeasement:
The Department of Justice (DOJ) moved to address anti-Muslim and anti-Arab biases in tandem with activist groups shortly after Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre in Israel ignited a wave of antisemitism, newly released documents show.
The Biden-Harris administration’s top law enforcement engaged with “Muslim, Arab, Sikh, and South Asian communities,” dubbed “MASSA” groups, in the weeks following the Islamic terrorist attack, according to internal communications obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation. The DOJ’s Civil Rights Division (CRD) under former Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke consulted MASSA groups to help counter “backlash” against their communities, comparing it to the aftermath of 9/11.
California Governor Gavin Newsom’s coms-clowns are hyperventilating over a “live fire” exercise at Camp Pendleton, California. They made a big deal over it, falsely claiming that it was some sort of act of intimidation – apparently because it was taking place on the same day (Saturday, October 18th) as disaffected hippies, out-of-work actors, and paid agitators are marching for “No Kings.” You be the judge. Then on Saturday morning, the governor ordered the road closed after experts advised it. Today's narrative is one of many false narratives that Newsom’s team posts daily which. unfortunately, are taken to heart by his followers.
Jack Smith may have thought he was untouchable when he led the Biden administration's legal crusade against Donald Trump, but Republican lawmakers are now making it clear that his alleged abuses won't go unanswered. On Friday, Senator Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, joined by a coalition of Republican senators and one congressman, sent a blistering letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi referring the former special counsel to the Department of Justice's Office of Professional Responsibility and two state bar associations for investigation. The charge? Professional misconduct that is serious enough to warrant potential disbarment.
Senate Democrats on Thursday blocked consideration of a defense appropriations bill that would have funded the Department of War for the remainder of the fiscal year and ensured that U.S. service members continued to receive pay during the ongoing government shutdown.The vote failed 50–44, with only three Democrats—Sens. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada, and Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire—joining Republicans in support of the measure. The legislation required 60 votes to advance.
The bill would have guaranteed uninterrupted pay for active-duty military personnel and provided a scheduled pay raise for troops.
One of the perplexing aspects of the American character is how, despite our many domestic challenges, we like to import the world’s thorny issues into our political debates. This is not a critique of discussing such problematic issues, such as the Israel-Hamas conflict. It is a celebration of, and a clarion call for, the First Amendment’s recognition and protection of the God-given right of free speech (which, as I have asserted previously, is implicitly a recognition and protection of the God-given right to the freedom of conscience).
What makes this possible is a citizen’s understanding and performance of their duty—an ethical and a legal one, as a matter of fact—
The International Maritime Organization (IMO), the UN-backed body that governs global shipping, decided in 2023 to adopt a "net-zero" policy that would mandate shippers remove as much CO2 gas from the atmosphere as they emit by 2050. To encourage shippers in this vital endeavor, the UN wants the IMO to slap a "carbon tax" on the industry. This tax would not reduce greenhouse gas emissions by one single molecule. But hey! It's a "global emergency" after all, and everyone has to do their part, right?
Where is all that money from the carbon tax going? To new technology to scrub the atmosphere? If only.
In recent years, millions of foreign dollars have quietly poured into the United States to fund radical left-wing climate and social justice groups.
At the center of this network is British hedge fund billionaire Chris Hohn, whose $60 billion fortune powers the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF).
With a $6 billion endowment, CIFF has funneled more than $553 million since 2014 into U.S. nonprofits and advocacy organizations dedicated to dismantling fossil fuels, pushing diversity and equity initiatives, and advancing extreme climate policies that undermine American energy independence.
Texas attorney general Ken Paxton has asked the Texas State Securities Board (TSSB) to review what he says is evidence that entities tied to the East Plano Islamic Center (EPIC)’s EPIC City project violated state and federal securities laws — and to refer the matter back so he can file suit. Paxton called the alleged misconduct “flagrant,” arguing that state law requires a TSSB referral before his office can bring a securities action.
After a thorough investigation, it has become clear that the developers behind EPIC City flagrantly and undeniably violated the law,” said Attorney General Paxton.
There have been countless examples of liberalism being a mental disorder. Here is another one: Two researchers from Western Michigan University have written a paper [snip] The paper argues that intentionally spreading alpha-gal syndrome (AGS), a potentially life-threatening allergy to red meat, could be not only morally defensible, but perhaps even necessary, in order to reduce animal suffering and combat climate change. Here are the authors, Parker Crutchfield and Blake Hereth, in their own words: Because promoting tickborne AGS prevents something bad from happening, doesn’t violate anyone’s rights, and promotes virtuous action or character, it follows that promoting tickborne AGS is strongly pro tanto (‘to that extent’) morally obligatory.
Protesters supporting the global intifada to destroy the state of Israel are embedded in today’s “No Kings” protests — a nationwide demonstration which organizers say evokes “power to the people,” though an investigation into its funding and planning tells a different story
That’s the conclusion of an extensive investigation by Fox News Digital published Saturday.
It reveals that the movement is funded and organized by a coordinated network of Democratic nonprofits, labor unions, and political action committees as well as “self-declared socialist groups” and the “most virulent activists against Israel,” the report stated.
For example, in New York, “UAW Labor for Palestine” and “NYC Labor for Palestine” quietly called for the
Yesterday we learned from a story published by CNN's Andrew Kaczynski that Maine's progressive Senate candidate Graham Platner had identified himself as a communist in Reddit messages under his handle P-Hustle. In addition, Platner also said that all cops are bastards and that white people are racist and stupid.
In another since-removed post from 2020, Platner responded to a thread titled “White people aren’t as racist or stupid as Trump thinks” by writing, “Living in white rural America, I’m afraid to tell you they actually are.”
And these comments weren't very old. Most were from 2020 and 2021, just a few years ago. Platner was asked to respond and assured CNN that
During Thursday’s New York City mayoral debate, socialist Zohran Mamdani implied former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is unqualified to be mayor because he hadn’t visited a mosque.
(snip) “Muslims … want equality and they want respect! … Can you name a single mosque you went to in 10 years?”Whether Cuomo has been to a dozen mosques or no mosques matters naught. What matters is that an American politician — in a city that was attacked by radical Islamists less than 25 years ago — apparently has to prove his worth by logging mosque visits.
But this type of pandering requirement is a slap in the face to the founding principles of
The New Georgia Project was a voter registration and turnout organization founded by Stacey Abrams back in 2013. In theory it was a non-partisan group but in practice it was there to help Democrats win elections by bringing more Black and Latino voters to the polls. But now the group has announced that it will dissolve and will cease to operate this week.
Once one of the most influential political groups in the South, the New Georgia Project is shutting down this week, marking a stunning fall for an organization that pushed to advance Democratic causes for more than a decade.
The New Georgia Project’s board of directors
Ohtani puts on 2-way show for the ages
with 3 homers and 10 Ks to lead Dodgers
back to World Series replies
with 3 homers and 10 Ks to lead Dodgers
back to World Series replies
When Shohei Ohtani’s third home run rocketed off his bat and streaked toward the left-field bleachers, the few fans still sitting at Dodger Stadium rose frantically, as if every single seat in the sold-out building had received a shock.
At the plate and on the mound, Ohtani was simply electrifying in Game 4 of the National League Championship Series while he conjured one of the greatest single-game performances in baseball history — perhaps even all of sports.
(snip) Dodgers’ two-way superstar delivered the 13th three-homer game in postseason annals Friday night, connecting in the first, fourth and seventh innings for three epic solo shots traveling a combined 1,342 feet.
One of the biggest problems, factually the biggest problem with revealing the 2020 election fraud, are the ramifications.
That said, the competence of the United States government, and indeed our constitutional republic itself, is weakened without a full public airing of the fraud.The White House has hired Stop The Steal lawyer Kurt Olsen as a ‘Special Govt Employee,’ The Wall Street Journal (Rupert Murdoch) is going bananas:
(WSJ) – “Kurt Olsen, a lawyer who unsuccessfully pushed claims of voter fraud, has joined the administration as a “special government employee,” some of the people said. The appointment gives Olsen 130 days to work from within the White House without giving up any private
Jack Smith may have thought he was untouchable when he led the Biden administration's legal crusade against Donald Trump, but Republican lawmakers are now making it clear that his alleged abuses won't go unanswered. On Friday, Senator Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, joined by a coalition of Republican senators and one congressman, sent a blistering letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi referring the former special counsel to the Department of Justice's Office of Professional Responsibility and two state bar associations for investigation. The charge? Professional misconduct that is serious enough to warrant potential disbarment. “As part of Jack Smith’s weaponized witch hunt, the Biden DOJ issued subpoenas
Mamdani appears smiling, arm-in-arm with
‘93 WTC bombing co-conspirator and terrorist apologist replies
‘93 WTC bombing co-conspirator and terrorist apologist replies
Mayoral frontrunner Zohran Mamdani happily campaigned with a popular Brooklyn Imam long known as an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, whose son once ran a terrorist camp for kids. The Democratic nominee appears in a photo posted to X laughing and grinning, standing arm-in-arm with Imam Siraj Wahhaj and City Councilmember Yusef Abdus Salaam at Wahhaj’s Bed-Stuy mosque to celebrate the weekly Muslim prayer. “Today at Masjid At-Taqwa, I had the pleasure of meeting with Imam Siraj Wahhaj, one of the nation’s foremost Muslim leaders and a pillar of the Bed-Stuy community for nearly half a century,” Mamdani wrote Friday on X.
A notoriously violent two-block stretch of Brooklyn is fighting crime — by keeping uniformed cops away, The Post has learned. NYPD officials agreed to turn a sliver of Brownsville in the NYPD’s 73rd Precinct into a “police free zone” last week as part of an city-funded experiment called the Brownsville Safety Alliance that initially was only twice a year but now runs four times annually. And it’s an initiative that’s received praise from anti-cop, mayoral frontrunner Zohran Mamdani, an official with the group that runs it told The Post.
Yesterday, after seeing reports of Zelensky meeting with Raytheon executives before his scheduled meeting with President Trump at the White House, I wrote an essay expressing my dismay at how the President has—since he entered office eight months ago—walked back his campaign promise to end the war in Ukraine. (Snip) They should consider that the U.S. government has sent billions of money and weapons to Ukraine—long ruled by a money-laundering oligarchy —without any accounting.
Now comes the news that President Trump walked back his Tomahawk tease in his meeting with Zelensky. As he put it:
It could mean escalation – a lot of bad things could happen.
Yes, the Nazis Were Socialists
replies
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is quite talented at causing his enemies’ minds to explode. His latest missive on social media this week pointing out that “Nazi socialism” was indeed a form of socialism set off a thousand furiously self-righteous posts. Leaving aside for the moment whether it was wise for Poilievre to make this point, it is neither inaccurate nor misleading to say that Germany’s National Socialist party was “socialist” in much more than name, as much as Poilievre’s left-wing critics want to pretend otherwise.
Is Race-Baiting Over?
replies
Heather Mac Donald optimistically declares “The end of the race hustle.” Heather’s article is long, and data-rich. I recommend reading it all. She credits President Trump with being uncowed by the Left’s accusations of racism, and offers hope that race-baiting no longer works:
For decades, pointing out that any action, public or private, had a black target or fell disproportionately on black people was sufficient to discredit that action, regardless of whether it was couched in terms of race or had a racist intent.
Want to fire an employee? Good luck if that employee is black; such a dismissal would be presumptively racist. Tempted to criticize a government official for
Following reports of former New York Times editor and the Free Press founder Bari Weiss being appointed editor-in-chief of CBS News, editors on Wikipedia began negatively slanting her page and those of CBS and the Free Press. This includes attempting to label Weiss as right-wing and slanted edits about a CBS settlement with President Donald Trump. Some suggested blacklisting CBS as a source in the future. News about Weiss being appointed to leadership at CBS News first emerged on October 2 with the official announcement on October 6. The newly-merged parent company Paramount Skydance further announced its purchase of her Free Press outlet.
California officials confirm first 3 unrelated
US cases of severe mpox strain with no
travel history replies
US cases of severe mpox strain with no
travel history replies
LONG BEACH, Calif. -- The California Department of Public Health and local health officials in Long Beach and Los Angeles County have identified three unrelated cases of clade I mpox in Californians who did not report recent travel outside the United States. Prior cases of clade I mpox in the United States have been associated with international travel to areas where clade I mpox is circulating. (Snip) "Clade I mpox cases can be severe. Risk of severe disease and hospitalization are highest for people with weakened immune systems, so it's critical to protect yourself by getting both doses of the mpox
President Trump's negotiating team pulled an eleventh-hour rabbit out of the hat and scuttled a potentially disastrous UN scheme to impose a "carbon tax" on international shipping. The proceeds from that tax would be used to fund other activities by the International Maritime Organization. It was ugly but effective. When the meeting convened, it looked like a done deal. That isn't how it played out. My colleague Ward Clark covered the preliminaries to the battle royal in Marco Rubio: The US Is a 'Hard NO' on Risky UN Carbon Tax Scheme – RedState.
This is more than a grift, so UN bureaucrats can afford hookers and blow and limousine rides.
The New York Times apparently thought better of the original headline gracing its ostensibly straight-news coverage of the blowback that followed when New York City mayoral candidate Zoran Mamdani encountered, for perhaps the first time, an issue relating to Israeli security on which he had no opinion: the necessity of Hamas’s disarmament.
“Mamdani Faces Islamophobic attacks After Comments About Hamas,” read the original headline of Emma Fitzsimmons’s article. Subsequently, Mamdani faced only unspecified “attacks” that were presumably as vague as his “comments” about the barbarous terrorist sect.
The Times would have been better off scrubbing the item entirely. It is about as deliberately ...
How did California manage to spend $24 billion in taxpayer money to address homelessness over the past years, only for the problem to get substantially worse?
The state has not offered any explanation since that figure was revealed in a state audit released earlier this year. But the arrest of two California men on Thursday suggests that at least some of the money may have been stolen through fraud.
Cody Holmes, the former chief financial officer at a downtown Los Angeles-based developer of affordable housing, was arrested on a federal criminal complaint charging him with mail fraud. In a separate case, Steven ...
The Trump Administration’s foreign policy successes deserve the applause and support of the American people and their elected representatives. It is unfortunate that the Nobel Peace Prize Committee did not award the President this year’s honor. The achievements include Israel/Gaza, Congo/Rwanda, Thailand/Cambodia, India/Pakistan—and the peace between Azerbaijan and Armenia stands out. It includes the emerging Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity (TRIPP), and builds on decades of American and international efforts to resolve the differences between bitter rivals.
‘No Kings’ protests against Trump
planned nationwide, in what the GOP calls
‘hate America’ rallies replies
planned nationwide, in what the GOP calls
‘hate America’ rallies replies
Protesting the direction of the country under President Donald Trump, people will gather Saturday in the nation’s capital and communities across the U.S. for “ No Kings ” demonstrations — what the president’s Republican Party is calling “Hate America” rallies.
This is the third mass mobilization since Trump’s return to the White House and it is expected to be the largest. It comes against the backdrop of a government shutdown that not only has closed federal programs and services, but is testing the core balance of power as an aggressive executive confronts Congress and the courts in ways that organizers warn are a slide toward American authoritarianism.
In 1776, American colonists, despairing that their rights as British citizens were being trampled upon by their overbearing king, George III, decided to secede from the British Empire. Thomas Jefferson wrote down their grievances in the Declaration of Independence. Just a few of them include the cutting off of trade, imposing taxes without consent, depriving the people of trial by jury, suspending colonial legislatures, and waging war on the colonists. [snip] In 2025, there are rumors that we may yet see another civil war.
A lawsuit recently filed by the U.S. Department of Justice alleges that the Rhode Island Department of Education (RIDE) and Providence Public School District (PPSD) violated federal law by establishing a loan forgiveness program that is open to every ethnicity—except whites.
Perhaps the name of the program—“Educators of Color Loan Forgiveness Program”— ought to have been a clue that it was incentivizing illegal discrimination.
“Through PPSD’s ‘Educators of Color Loan Forgiveness Program’ (Program), new teachers can receive student-loan repayments up to $25,000,” describes the lawsuit. “The catch: white teachers are not eligible.” The program was established in 2021, coinciding with the era of peak wokeness
Congressional Republicans appear to have been the victims of an elaborate setup involving American flags covertly altered with hidden swastikas. We learned that what seemed at first like a shocking display in Rep. Dave Taylor’s (R-Ohio) office — a flag visibly bearing the hateful symbol — was part of an elaborate attempt to sabotage Republicans. Flags went out to multiple GOP offices featuring swastikas hidden in the stripes in a way that was essentially invisible to the naked eye but glaringly apparent on camera. This "optical illusion" technique has allowed the flags to fly under the radar until video calls or photographs capture them, prompting an ongoing Capitol Police investigation.
Abigail Spanberger is running to be the next Governor of Virginia. As such, she will take an oath to uphold the Constitution and duly enacted laws. That means all laws, even the ones she doesn't like. And it's clear Spanberger doesn't like our immigration laws. She sat down for an interview and said it's "horrifying" that President Trump has made illegally crossing our border a "criminal act." We're not sure how to break this news to Spanberger, but it's always been a criminal act to cross our border illegally. That's what "illegal" means. Spanberger's remarks are revealing for a few reasons.
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) will face a primary challenge in 2026 from Scott Wiener, a leather-wearing state lawmaker who is a “drag queen advocate” and has already raised $1 million for his campaign.
Wiener, who has represented San Francisco and other parts of the Bay Area in the California Senate since 2016, had previously said he would wait until Pelosi, 85, retired to run for her long-held congressional seat, but multiple outlets reported on Friday that the state lawmaker will announce his candidacy for Congress next week. “Scott Wiener for Congress,” the state senator’s congressional campaign committee, was set up in 2023 and reported over
The big news of the week, of course, was President Trump’s diplomatic/military triumph in obtaining an end to fighting in Gaza and the return of Hamas’s hostages to Israel. It was a moment that anyone would celebrate–anyone but a liberal, that is. The same people who organized demonstrations around the world demanding a cease fire were oddly silent when they got their wish.
In other news, peace may be breaking out in Ukraine, too. Once again, the prospect of peace has something to do with Trump’s persuasive powers, and more to do with Tomahawk missiles.
Meanwhile, the Democrats have not been idle. They have kept their Schumer Shutdown
Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli brought his world-renowned voice to the White House on Friday, performing in the Oval Office.
Trump’s special assistant, Margo Martin, shared footage of the extraordinary moment on social media, showing everyone in the Oval Office standing on their feet while the legendary singer belted out his classic hit, “Con Te Partirò / Time to Say Goodbye.” Bocelli delivered his signature grace and power in the historic setting just hours before Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s high-stakes summit with President Donald Trump. Subsequent clips shared by Martin showed the president engaged in conversation with the legendary singer while seated at the Resolute Desk,
Israel received coffin of missing hostage
handed over to Red Cross, prime minister’s
office says replies
handed over to Red Cross, prime minister’s
office says replies
Israel received the remains of another hostage from Gaza on Friday, the prime minister’s office said, a handover from Hamas as the militant group worked to shore up a ceasefire by using bulldozers in a search for bodies under the rubble in the war-scarred enclave.
The Israeli military and security forces received the coffin from the International Committee of the Red Cross inside the Gaza Strip, and it was to be sent to the Ministry of Health’s National Center for Forensic Medicine in Israel.
Israeli authorities said the family of the deceased would be notified first after a formal identification process.
The handover came after Hamas’ military wing, known as the Qassam Brigades,
The short answer to why both the Biden and Obama administrations failed to achieve peace in the Middle East is that they took actions opposite to President Donald Trump’s current efforts, which have led to a cease-fire.
First, consider Iran.
Iran was flush with cash, on a trajectory toward a nuclear weapon and arming Israel’s “ring of fire” enemies: Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis.
The radical Islamic world of the Middle East was convinced that Israel would be doomed eventually.
Yet both Democratic administrations let Iran profit from oil sales. They talked of delaying, but not ending, Iran’s nuclear program. And they feared that Hezbollah, Hamas and the Houthis were indomitable terrorist threats.
Thus,
After Zelenskyy meeting, Trump calls on
Ukraine and Russia to ‘stop where they
are’ and end the war replies
Ukraine and Russia to ‘stop where they
are’ and end the war replies
President Donald Trump on Friday called on Kyiv and Moscow to “stop where they are” and end their brutal war following a lengthy White House meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Trump’s frustration with the conflict has surfaced repeatedly in the nine months since he returned to office, but with his latest comments he edged back in the direction of pressing Ukraine to give up on retaking land it has lost to Russia.
“Enough blood has been shed, with property lines being defined by War and Guts,” Trump said in a Truth Social post not long after hosting Zelenskyy and his team for more than two hours of talks.