Posts on Friday, October 31, 2025
New York voters will go to the polls on Tuesday (Nov. 4) to pick a new mayor, and in at least one late-breaking survey, leading contender Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani is on top again when it comes to his knowledge of iconic New York musicians. The democratic nominee who is facing off against former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, popped in to the Track Star podcast this week to test his music IQ with host Jack Coyne, and the results were an across-the-board sweep. Well, except for one legendary Long Island-based songwriter whose music Mamdani was surprisingly unfamiliar with.
The day before the start of the latest shutdown drama, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries declared that Republicans were “lying” about the Democrats’ hostage demands to turn the lights back on. No, the left’s spending plan would not pay for health care for illegal immigrants, the New York Democrat said. Doing so would require a change in federal law that bars such a thing, echoed Jeffries’ pals in corporate media.
“Nowhere have Democrats suggested that we’re interested in changing federal law,” he told NBC News for a story under the misleading headline, “GOP misleads with claim that Democrats shut down to give health care to ‘illegal immigrants.’”
A new report revealed that five foreign charities have donated just shy of $2 billion into various American nonprofits and policy advocacy groups focused on climate change and political activism. Americans for Public Trust released a detailed, 31-page report with receipts tracking money from foreign charities to U.S. groups. It notes that while contributing directly to political candidates is not permitted under federal law, election-related activities like "get-out-and-vote" campaigns, some lobbying efforts, issue advertising and other politically-charged activities, are in play for foreign dollars. The groups that contributed to the near $2 billion in foreign money include the Quadrature Climate Foundation (U.K.), the KR Foundation (Denmark), the Oak Foundation (Switzerland),
Judge James Boasberg, the lawfare fanatic serving as the chief judge of the U.S. District Court for D.C., issued an order intended to conceal the Biden administration’s attempted seizure of Sen. Ted Cruz’s phone records. In doing so, it appears he likely violated federal law.
According to Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, as part of the Biden administration’s “Arctic Frost” inquiry dead set on targeting Republicans in battleground states, Special Counsel Jack Smith, who led the get-Trump lawfare for years, “secretly obtained phone record data from at least eight senators and one congressman.”
Five states and Washington, D.C., funneled more than $1.35 billion in federal taxpayer Medicaid funding to illegals, according to a preliminary audit of the program completed by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).
CMS Administrator Dr. Mehemet Oz posted the results of the preliminary audit on social media showing California, D.C., Illinois, Washington, Colorado, and Oregon spent millions each on illegals, with California spending the bulk, topping over $1.3 billion alone.
One of the talking points Democrats have been hammering over the last couple of weeks of the Schumer Shutdown is that the USDA allegedly has contingency funding for SNAP that it could release before benefits run out, which will happen on November 1st.
Democrat House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (NY-08), for example, said Wednesday that "The administration has the funding to make sure that not a single American on November 1st or beyond goes hungry. Not a single American."
"They have the money," he proclaimed, "but they are choosing to withhold funding for SNAP
We got another dose of sanity from the courts on Friday afternoon as the 7th Circuit granted the Trump administration's petition for writ of mandamus in one of the cases regarding its immigration enforcement efforts in and around Chicago, Illinois.
This one — Chicago Headline Club v. Noem — is essentially a companion case to the one involving National Guard deployment in Illinois, but focuses primarily on the response of federal personnel to protesters who've been setting up shop outside the Broadview, Illinois, ICE facility for weeks now. Judge Sara Ellis of the Northern District of Illinois issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) on October 9,
Two years ago, Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani sponsored a bill that would strip away the tax-exempt status of local charities with ties to Israeli settler groups that forcibly occupy the Palestinian West Bank.
When the effort went nowhere, he pushed a revised version of the bill, known as the “Not On Our Dime” Act, the following year. It failed as well.
Now, with Mr. Mamdani considered the front-runner in the New York City mayoral race, he may soon be in a position to use his power to hold Israel accountable for its treatment of Palestinians. He has called its actions in Gaza a genocide.
We suppose the silver lining of New York electing an avowed Democratic Socialist as mayor is that we'll get to see how disastrous his socialist policies really are, and that'll discourage the rest of the nation from voting for socialism. But we won't pretend that learning that lesson will be hard, especially for the people of New York who didn't vote for Mamdani.
In his latest tax-grab scheme, Zohran Mamdani vows to tax businesses that leave New York and, it seems, any company that merely does business in New York, even if they're headquartered elsewhere.
The Trump administration announced sweeping changes Thursday that will exclude employees of organizations that provide support for undocumented immigrants or gender-affirming care for minors from student debt relief, defending the move as excluding “illegal” activities. The change — which the administration has been working on for months — impacts the U.S. Department of Education’s Public Service Loan Forgiveness program. Created in 2007, the program cancels student debt for full-time “public servants” after 10 years of monthly payments. Teachers, government employees, healthcare workers, law enforcement and some nonprofit employees qualify for the program.
Hamas challenges terrorist designation
in Australia citing international law,
Palestinian rights replies
in Australia citing international law,
Palestinian rights replies
Hamas is mounting a legal challenge against the group’s terrorist designation in Australia, arguing that the listing breaches international law and provides legal cover for Israeli attacks on Palestinians — its second such attempt after a similar case in the United Kingdom.
Earlier this month, Hamas filed a legal petition seeking to be removed from Australia’s list of proscribed terrorist organizations. Pro-Palestinian activist and radio host Uncle Robbie Thorpe filed the application in Australia’s Federal Court on behalf of the Palestinian Islamist group, claiming that its terrorist designation restricts freedom of political communication in the country. According to the application, Hamas was denied the chance to present evidence..
President Trump announced Friday that he is designating Nigeria as a "country of particular concern," citing the widespread killings of Christians in the West African country. "Christianity is facing an existential threat in Nigeria," Trump posted to Truth Social. "Thousands of Christians are being killed. Radical Islamists are responsible for this mass slaughter. I am hereby making Nigeria a "COUNTRY OF PARTICULAR CONCERN" — But that is the least of it."
The President emphasized that action must be taken when people are persecuted for their faith.
In the wake of Hurricane Melissa, everyone should be praying for rapid relief to many who suffered injuries or the loss of loved ones (at least 49 died), homes, businesses, and other property, likely to surpass $8 billion. At the same time, we can be thankful that losses were far lower than they might have been, since its path didn’t include areas with far more people and property.
Having wrought havoc in Jamaica as a Category 5 hurricane, followed by Haiti, eastern Cuba, and parts of the Bahamas (all Cat-3), Melissa was on its way northeast into the open Atlantic, with Bermuda likely to suffer from it as well,
Democrats have gone full Islam. On the surface, that’s a bit peculiar. When you dig deeper, it’s downright weird. But as always, there’s a cause for this particular effect.
Let’s start with the peculiar part. Islamists tend to be religious, much as Christians, Buddhists and Hindus (and, for that matter, atheists, who often disbelieve with a blind religious fervor).
In contrast, Democrats tend not to be religious. They’re simple vanilla agnostics. Go down to Starbucks. Ask one whether he believes in God. His response would be along the lines of, “Umm, I’m kinda in-between . . . it all depends . . .
Even Fellow Liberal Supreme Court Justices
Are Getting Fed Up with Ketanji Brown
Jackson: Report replies
Are Getting Fed Up with Ketanji Brown
Jackson: Report replies
When you use skin color and chromosomes as criteria for filling positions of trust, as opposed to filling those positions with the best people regardless of skin color or chromosomes, you will not, unless by accident, get the best people for the job. No public figure in recent memory exemplifies this maxim more than Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson. But that does not even tell half of the story. (Snip) “Badly outnumbered, seated for the long haul of life tenure, Justices Kagan and Jackson in particular are divided on the best approach to jobs in which they are more
US prepared to strike Venezuelan military
bases as Trump ramps up pressure on dictator Maduro replies
bases as Trump ramps up pressure on dictator Maduro replies
The US is prepared to launch strikes on Venezuelan military bases as President Trump ramps up the pressure on the country’s narcoterrorist dictator, Nicolas Maduro, as the administration works to cut off the regime’s drug and criminal operations, The Post has learned. The operation would aim to dismantle Maduro’s Cartel de los Soles command structure and target military installations that protect the Maduro regime’s drug trafficking activities, a source familiar with plans told The Post.
Two federal judges have just ruled that the Trump administration must use contingency funds for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). [Tweets]
Here's more:
Two federal judges ruled nearly simultaneously on Friday that President Donald Trump’s administration must to continue to fund SNAP, the nation’s biggest food aid program, using contingency funds during the government shutdown. (Snip) Talwani is the same judge who blocked Congress from defunding Planned Parenthood earlier this year and, as some pointed out, has no authority over Congressional spending.
It hasn't been a banner month for Kamala Harris. A little less than a year from the day she lost the election, Harris is on a book tour (one that her fellow Dems are pretty sour on), and she's getting lambasted by foreign media for her role in covering up Joe Biden's cognitive decline.
Despite these setbacks, Harris insists she's not done with politics, even though in August she told Stephen Colbert she was stepping away from "public service" because the "system is broken."
Despite some setbacks, President Trump’s 20-point Gaza peace plan has been an unprecedented success because it quickly achieved its most important objective: the release of all live Israeli hostages held by Hamas. The U.S. and its Arab allies are working hard to pressure Hamas to agree to implement the rest of the deal to achieve a lasting Middle East peace. Trump officials will also be pressing European states to fully support the plan and not undermine it.
The quick release of the Israeli hostages was considered impossible just a few weeks ago and reflected the high priority that President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu placed on quickly saving the lives -
A North Dakota judge has ordered Greenpeace to pay damages of $345 million, reducing an earlier jury award after it found the environmental group and related entities liable for defamation and other claims in connection with protests of an oil pipeline nearly a decade ago.
The new amount is roughly half the $667 million that a jury previously awarded to the pipeline company that brought the claims, Dallas-based Energy Transfer and subsidiary Dakota Access.
Greenpeace had asked State District Judge James Gion to rule in its favor on various claims before recalculating the damages. In granting some requests, the judge cited no evidence to review or duplicative damages
Early this morning, FBI Director Kash Patel and FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino announced that they have thwarted a potential terrorist attack in Michigan. In his post on “X,” Patel said that “several people” were arrested, calling it “an incredible success.”In his X post, Patel thanked the “men and women of the FBI and law enforcement everywhere standing guard 24/7 and crushing our mission to defend the homeland.”
According to Patel, these suspects “were allegedly plotting a violent attack over Halloween weekend.”
It was a moment that some have compared to Barack Obama’s landmark 2008 speech about race, inequality and unity in American politics.
In the closing weeks of the mayoral campaign, Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic front-runner, veered off from the economic message he has clung to doggedly for more than a year.
“I want to use this moment to speak to the Muslims of New York City,” he said.
... tearfully, describing his experiences with his faith, identity and Islamophobia, ...
“No longer will I live in the shadows,” he said.
Scores of people have been killed in attacks by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) during their recent capture of the city of el-Fasher in Sudan’s western Darfur region, according to a medical group and researchers.
The RSF, which has been fighting Sudan’s military for control of the country, killed at least 1,500 people over the past three days as civilians tried to flee the besieged city, the Sudan Doctors Network said on Wednesday. The group, which tracks the country’s civil war, described the situation as “a true genocide”.
Good morning. The horrors that unfolded across social media over the past week have laid bare another devastating chapter in Sudan’s civil war.
The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which have been locked in a brutal conflict with the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) for more than two years, seized a key military base in the city of El Fasher over the weekend. After the capture, the RSF was accused of killing more than 2,000 unarmed civilians, with Yale University’s Humanitarian Research Lab calling the level of violence comparable to the first 24 hours of the Rwandan genocide.
During a portion of an interview aired on Thursday’s “PBS NewsHour,” Democratic Virginia gubernatorial candidate former Rep. Abigail Spanberger responded to the prospect of working with President Donald Trump on job creation by saying that “you don’t work with the arsonist who burns down the house to rebuild it.”
“PBS NewsHour” Correspondent Liz Landers asked, “You positioned yourself as a consensus builder, someone who works across the aisle. Would you work with President Trump on areas like job creation?
Spanberger answered, “I think that you don’t work with the arsonist who burns down the house to rebuild it. And, in this particular case, the individual who’s responsible for an absolute attack
Back in February, when it was learned that conservative icon and Turning Point USA co-founder Charlie Kirk would appear on the inaugural episode of Democrat California Gov. Gavin Newsom's podcast, there was a lot of debate and pushback from liberals and conservatives.
Leftists were upset that Newsom was platforming someone who, in their view, was the very definition of an evil conservative. And there was disagreement on the right on Kirk choosing to break bread with Newsom. Some said Kirk shouldn't give Newsom the time of day because the governor was clearly trying to give off the appearance that he was more of a middle-of-the-road guy ahead of a possible 2028
President Trump called on Republicans Thursday to invoke the so-called “nuclear option” and change Senate rules to allow legislation to end the 30-day-long government shutdown to pass with a simple majority vote.
“It is now time for the Republicans to play their ‘TRUMP CARD,’ and go for what is called the Nuclear Option — Get rid of the Filibuster, and get rid of it, NOW!” the president wrote in a lengthy Truth Social post.
Trump explained that during his whirlwind Asia trip “the one question that kept coming up, however, was how did the Democrats SHUT DOWN-
The largest federal employee union wants to end the government shutdown with “no half measures, and no gamesmanship,” and is demanding that everyone get full back pay. Those who have worked without being paid should be compensated. But those who didn’t should get nothing.
“It’s time to pass a clean continuing resolution and end this shutdown today,” the American Federation of Government Employees, which represents 820,000 federal workers, tweeted Monday, and “put every single federal worker back on the job with full back pay — today.”
Why should government employees be paid for work they didn’t do?
Walmart says its stores will remain open as a possible lapse in food aid threatens to disrupt shopping patterns nationwide.
A Walmart spokesperson told The Dallas Express via telephone on Wednesday that “Walmart stores will be open,” and implied that the company would be monitoring the situation closely. The potential suspension of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits could significantly impact retailers nationwide, particularly those heavily reliant on lower-income shoppers.
The looming halt in benefits, set to begin November 1 if the government shutdown continues, would cut off food aid for roughly 42 million Americans.
Analysts and economists have warned that the shock could ripple across the retail sector, reducing grocery sales, depressing
The explosive Arctic Frost investigation documents that FBI Director Kash Patel dispatched to Congress include a revelation of another October surprise where the bureau tried to put its law enforcement thumb on an election scale against Donald Trump.
This one, unlike Russia collusion four years earlier, occurred in 2020.
A memo buried in the middle of the 235-page evidence production that Patel sent the House Judiciary Committee this week chronicles how the FBI’s Washington Field Office rifled through financial records and campaign expenditure reports producing a “tactical intelligence report” trying to link payments between Trump’s re-election campaign and a vendor named American Made Media Consultants (AMMC) to possible casino gambling.
Florida Republican Rep. Randy Fine announced this week that he plans to introduce federal legislation to bar noncitizens from accessing welfare programs, declaring that taxpayer-funded benefits should be reserved exclusively for American citizens, as reported by Fox News.
“I am going to introduce a bill to ban all non-citizens from any form of welfare. No Food Stamps. No Section 8 housing. No Medicaid. No Cash Assistance. Not one penny. Not one. If you want free stuff, go home,” Fine wrote in a post on X. Fine's proposal comes as national debates continue over taxpayer-funded benefits and the strain of illegal immigration on social services.
Images obtained by The Tennessee Star appear to show lessons about Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, and Asexual (LGBTQIA) History Month, unofficially observed in October, were distributed by Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) to social studies teachers using Schoology, the Learning Management System (LMS) used by the district.
The images appear to depict two lessons that are part of an LGBTQIA History Month curriculum, with the materials obtained by The Star covering the Lavender Scare of the 1950s and the Pulse nightclub shooting in 2016. Popularized as a term in the early 2000s, the Lavender Scare saw gays and lesbians dismissed from public service
Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg, whose Day One memo had ordered prosecutors to give armed robbers a pass, has announced that he’s looking into prosecuting ICE agents.
While Bragg had let a man accusing of raping a teenage girl go with 30 days and probation so that he went on a “sex-crime spree” attacking four different women until one of his victims hit him on the head with a hammer, he aggressively pursued President Trump and subway hero Daniel Penny who had prevented a crazed homeless man from attacking fellow passengers. As New York City reels from a rape crisis, Bragg is now thinking of prosecuting ICE personnel who are deporting
Americans largely oppose Trump tearing
down White House East Wing to make way
for his ballroom: Poll replies
down White House East Wing to make way
for his ballroom: Poll replies
Most Americans oppose the demolition of the White House's East Wing to make way for President Donald Trump's ballroom, according to an ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos poll conducted using Ipsos’ KnowledgePanel.
A 56% majority of Americans oppose the Trump administration tearing down the East Wing of the White House as part of the construction of a 90,000-square-foot ballroom paid for by $300 million in private donations, including 45% who "strongly" oppose it, the poll finds. (Snip) Just 28% of Americans support it, with 15% strongly supporting the East Wing being torn down for a ballroom, the poll found. Another 16% say they are not sure.
Support breaks down by party lines,
The FBI has thwarted "a potential terrorist attack" and arrested "multiple subjects" in Michigan, according to FBI director Kash Patel.
"This morning the FBI thwarted a potential terrorist attack and arrested multiple subjects in Michigan who were allegedly plotting a violent attack over Halloween weekend," Patel posted on X.
"Thanks to the men and women of FBI and law enforcement everywhere standing guard 24/7 and crushing our mission to defend the homeland," Patel continued.
If X really is the “global town square” that the social media platform claims it to be, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent just publicly humiliated two of his least favorite senators.
On Wednesday, Bessent took to X after President Donald Trump’s very successful trip to Asia, where the president met with various other world leaders from the region.
(Hilariously, just days after the “No Kings” protests, South Korea offered Trump a golden crown.) The purpose of Bessent’s X post appears to be two-pronged: 1. Tout the president’s hard work across the sea. 2. Absolutely eviscerate Democratic Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Amy Klobuchar (of Massachusetts and Minnesota, respectively). “.@SenWarren and @SenAmyKlobuchar: you are failures,”
OMAHA, Neb. - First Alert 6 has learned new details on the man charged in a downtown Omaha shooting earlier this month.
A release Wednesday from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Omaha revealed the Oct. 4 shooting in Omaha happened just months after former President Joe Biden gave the man, 31-year-old Khyre Holbert, clemency.
Officials shared in the release that on the federal level, Holbert is now facing a charge of felon in possession of a firearm. Officers booked Holbert after the shooting near 13th and Howard streets that injured a 28-year-old man.
In Douglas County, he is facing charges of first-degree assault, using a firearm to commit a felony,
Pretty much every calculation you have ever seen relating to “green” energy–cost estimates, productivity claims, and so on–has been wrong. “Green” energy really is a scam, as President Trump says. It is consistently sold on the basis of fake science.
The latest case in point comes from Great Britain, via the Telegraph: “Miliband admits wind power less reliable than expected.”
The Government has slashed forecasts for the amount of electricity it expects wind farms to generate in a blow to Ed Miliband’s net zero plans.
In documents published before an auction of green energy subsidies this week, officials said they were revising down the predicted efficiency of wind turbines by more than
Washington Post: This Democratic Shutdown
Has Gone on Long Enough (Post Readers
Are Furious!) replies
Has Gone on Long Enough (Post Readers
Are Furious!) replies
Just yesterday I said the ground beneath Democrats' feet was starting to shift on the shutdown. I also said that it was ultimately all about one thing: Would the media stop carrying water for Dems? Here was my concluding paragraph:
It's not over until its over, but if just a few major news outlets decide to stop playing dumb about whose shutdown this is, Democrats will fold. It really is that simple.
About five hours later, the Washington Post published an editorial titled "A turning point in the government shutdown." The Post is done pretending. This is a straight up call for Democrats to reopen the government that they shut down.
The Justice Department is investigating leaders of the Black Lives Matter movement for potential donor fraud after the leftist group experienced a surge of donations during the 2020 George Floyd riots, a source familiar with the matter confirmed to National Review.
In recent weeks, federal investigators have issued subpoenas and executed at least one search warrant for an investigation into the Black Lives Matter Global Foundation, the BLM movement’s umbrella organization, and other leftist groups involved with the racial reckoning of 2020, the Associated Press reported.
Wednesday night's TPUSA event with Vice President JD Vance and Erika Kirk at the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss) was a special one, and the entire Q&A portion is worth the viewing. We get an opportunity to witness Vance's innate ability to command the stage with his natural charm and depth of knowledge. Vance was engaging, masterful, and patient in responding, off-the-cuff, mind you, to the unvetted questions presented to him. Can you imagine former VP Kamala Harris even attempting this? We know she would not and could not.
Vance's responses to every question exhibited his insight, intellectual rigor, and sharp wit.
The left wing and media rage hysterically from one Trump psychodrama to the next, while Trump trolls both on social media. But all that is verbiage. What matters is the data and facts of Trump’s first nine months since January 20, 2025, in comparison to either Biden’s prior year or the averages of his four years in office. Take the border. No one knows how many illegal aliens entered—or stayed in—the U.S. during Biden’s four years of open borders. What is clear is that he set a presidential record of well over seven million illegal entrants. The border under Trump is now tightly closed.
The Los Angeles Fire Department brass was even more clueless than we thought. Bombshell texts show that L.A. firefighters were ordered to leave the scene of the still-smoldering Lachman Fire despite protests from the team left to watch it. Days later, and as feared, predicted killer winds caused that fire to flare up.
As one of the text exchanges between the firefighters put it later, "And the rest is history."
The conflagration that followed killed twelve people and destroyed thousands of homes and businesses in the Pacific Palisades and Malibu.
The Los Angeles Times reported that firefighters tending the aftermath of the eight-acre Lachman Fire on January 2