Despite summit optimism, China still presents
‘fundamental challenge,’ experts say
Posted By: Mercedes44, 5/16/2026 11:29:17 AM
During President Donald Trump's trip to China this week, marked by fanfare and pleasantries, a stark contrast was on display in the United States where the Justice Department charged an American mayor for illegally acting as an agent of the Chinese Communist government. The incongruity between the flowery praise heaped on the American president in Beijing by Chairman Xi Jinping and the shocking tale of a U.S. official doing “the bidding” of a foreign government suggests underlying tensions in the U.S.-China relationship are not going away, despite promises to decrease trade barriers and achieve a peaceful coexistence.
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Mercedes44"
An Environmental Protection Agency lawyer and union leader has signed a dissent letter opposing President Donald Trump’s policy at the agency and has posted on social media attacking EPA Director Lee Zeldin, but appears to still be employed there.
This activity raises questions as to whether she might be a “deep state” actor, working to undermine Trump’s policies from within the administration.
Nicole Cantello serves as president of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 704, the EPA’s labor union. A verified LinkedIn profile lists her as an attorney at the EPA.
During President Donald Trump's trip to China this week, marked by fanfare and pleasantries, a stark contrast was on display in the United States where the Justice Department charged an American mayor for illegally acting as an agent of the Chinese Communist government.
The incongruity between the flowery praise heaped on the American president in Beijing by Chairman Xi Jinping and the shocking tale of a U.S. official doing “the bidding” of a foreign government suggests underlying tensions in the U.S.-China relationship are not going away, despite promises to decrease trade barriers and achieve a peaceful coexistence.
A 19-year-old former member of the Michigan Army National Guard has been charged with planning a horrific mass shooting attack on a major U.S. military facility right here in Michigan, all in the name of ISIS.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Ammar Abdulmajid-Mohamed Said of Melvindale, Michigan was arrested on May 13, 2025 — the very day he planned to carry out the attack — after launching a drone near the U.S. Army’s Tank-Automotive & Armaments Command (TACOM) facility at the Detroit Arsenal in Warren, Michigan.
Legend: Woketivist Lawmaker Stages 'Moral
Sit-In' at DeSantis' Office, Here's What
the Gov Did Next 5 replies
Sit-In' at DeSantis' Office, Here's What
the Gov Did Next 5 replies
Even though this will be his last year as governor due to term limits, Ron DeSantis (R) remains a target of Florida's Democrats due in large part to his effectiveness, the fact that he's unapologetically conservative, and his standing firm on the issues that are important to him and a majority of Floridians. So it was no surprise that amid the marathon session that produced a new congressional map approved by lawmakers on the day of the Louisiana v. Callais SCOTUS ruling, and which DeSantis promptly signed into law, some Democrat state lawmakers staged temper tantrums to protest the map's supposed lack of fairness in representation.
Eric Trump announced plans to sue MS Now and host Jen Psaki Friday for accusing him of being a board member of a company purportedly seeking to do business in China.
The former White House press secretary and host of “The Briefing with Jen Psaki” made the statement during a recent show monologue in which she suggested President Trump’s second-born son joined his father on his high-profile China trip to further his own business interests.
“Contrary to her monolog[ue] and blatant lies, I have NEVER been on the board of ALT5 — not now, not ever,” Eric Trump wrote on X. “Any person with basic access —
President Trump announced Friday night that US and Nigerian forces killed ISIS’s second in command in a “very complex mission.”
“Tonight, at my direction, brave American forces and the Armed Forces of Nigeria flawlessly executed a meticulously planned and very complex mission to eliminate the most active terrorist in the world from the battlefield,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
“Abu-Bilal al-Minuki, second in command of ISIS globally, thought he could hide in Africa, but little did he know we had sources who kept us informed on what he was doing,” the president continued. “He will no longer terrorize the people of Africa, or help plan operations to target Americans.
Stephen Colbert’s last show is next week, and while millions of Americans will celebrate not having to see his hateful, one-trick-pony show ever again, his fans in the liberal media are very upset.
Tonight on CNN, Jake Tapper wove a broad conspiracy as the real reason for Colbert’s cancellation, a conspiracy largely driven by Trump, and not the fact that Colbert’s show has been losing tens of millions of dollars a year for the network that carries it.
We think we’ve discovered the reason why Tapper’s ratings are so low. It has to do with being an idiot and a liar.
People have asked Secretary of State Marco Rubio if he plans to run for president in 2028, and his answer has been the same every time. Unequivocally, he endorses Vice President JD Vance, who is assumed to be the likely Republican standard-bearer. At the same time, given the way in which Rubio has been used, while rising to the occasion every time, you cannot ignore him. President Donald Trump has not shied away from praising both Vance and Rubio, but he has been substantially more effusive lately in his comments about Rubio.
This has more than a few people in Washington, D.C., chattering.
Unsurprisingly, Democrats are willing to eliminate black-majority congressional districts through redistricting in order to gain more political power, a new poll finds. Democrat politicians and pundits have long claimed that any proposed shift away from race-based gerrymandering is racist, repeatedly weaponizing the issue to smear Republicans.
The Politico poll, conducted in the wake of the Supreme Court’s recent decision on the Voting Rights Act, shows “a lot of Democrats are willing to sacrifice Black voting power to beat the GOP.” At face value, respondents — who were Kamala Harris voters — said discriminatory gerrymandering —
Trump's Business First Diplomacy
1 reply
While the media frames President Trump’s Beijing summit with Xi Jinping as just another high-stakes photo-op, the real story runs deeper and looks strikingly familiar. Think Abraham Accords playbook, scaled for great-power rivalry.
Recall the breakthrough of Trump’s first term: instead of chasing endless Palestinian grievances or ideological purity tests, the Abraham Accords used economic incentives, technology sharing, security cooperation, and private-sector momentum to normalize relations between Israel and key Arab states. The results isolated Iran, bypassed the old diplomatic logjams, and created tangible prosperity incentives that outlasted any single administration. Adversaries were sidelined not through endless diplomacy, but by deals that made alignment with America more attractive than the alternative.
New York City and Chicago voters made the most injudicious decisions possible electing Zohran Mamdani and Brandon Johnson to be their mayors. Both democratic socialists are inept yet destructive, unserious yet dangerous, demagogues who spew venom and traffic in incendiary divisive rhetoric. Their deranged policies will bankrupt their cities, financially, morally and culturally. Will Los Angeles voters do the same?
Actually, they already have. The question is, will they repeat their mistake and reelect Karen Bass? The current mayor is a Fidelista and a member of the Venceremos Brigade, a Cuban “enterprise that had a goal of encouraging the health and survival of a despotic, evil regime.”
Schools use copyright laws to deny parents'
access to 'intrusive' surveys; One mom
wants to stop it 12 replies
access to 'intrusive' surveys; One mom
wants to stop it 12 replies
The Supreme Court reaffirmed parental rights in public schools and access to federal courts this year, reinstating a permanent injunction against California's so-called gender secrecy policies that hide students' gender identity from their parents and authorizing pro-life pregnancy centers to sue New Jersey in federal court to stop speech-chilling subpoenas.
Now a Kentucky mother is asking the high court to resolve a related jurisdictional issue that could not only gut the right to know what their children are experiencing in public schools, but give all public entities a convenient path to deny public records requests.
Most Active Articles (last 48 hours)
A Canadian doctor has suggested that babies with severe deformities could be euthanized under the country's controversial assisted suicide laws.
Quebec College of Physicians member Louis Roy has been condemned by a lobbying group after a comment he made during a 2022 parliamentary committee resurfaced.
Roy previously said that under current Canadian law, assisted suicide could be considered for infants up to one year old with severe ailments.
Brandan Tran, Director of Public Affairs and Outreach for political lobby group Campaign Life Coalition, has condemned this comment.
'These are not concerns from the fringes, but statements from a member of a provincial medical college, recommendations before parliament,
Unsurprisingly, Democrats are willing to eliminate black-majority congressional districts through redistricting in order to gain more political power, a new poll finds. Democrat politicians and pundits have long claimed that any proposed shift away from race-based gerrymandering is racist, repeatedly weaponizing the issue to smear Republicans.
The Politico poll, conducted in the wake of the Supreme Court’s recent decision on the Voting Rights Act, shows “a lot of Democrats are willing to sacrifice Black voting power to beat the GOP.” At face value, respondents — who were Kamala Harris voters — said discriminatory gerrymandering —
One of Our Congresscritters Is Missing
18 replies
Florida Rep. Frederica Wilson (D-Fla.) missed the last 43 House votes and hasn't been seen for a month — that's maybe not the most disturbing part of the story.
The eight-term incumbent is probably best known for her collection of hats — usually sparkly ones — is 83 years old, and so it's natural to fear the worst. Wilson's last recorded House vote was on April 17, and House reporter Jaime Dupree noted on BlueSky Wednesday that she "missed all 10 votes on Wednesday in the House," bringing the total to 43 consecutive missed votes over the last four weeks.
A congresscritter disappearing is bad enough, but when her staff
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis commutes sentence
of ex-Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters, to
be freed in June 17 replies
of ex-Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters, to
be freed in June 17 replies
Democratic Colorado Gov. Jared Polis commuted the sentence of former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters on Friday, shortening her nearly nine-year prison sentence related to the 2020 election.
Peters was sentenced to nine years in prison in 2024 but an appeals court ruled last month that she needs to be resentenced after part of the sentence punished Peters for her protected speech regarding fraud claims in the 2020 election.
Polis denied that the commutation was an attempt to appease President Donald Trump, instead highlighting that Peters was a first-time nonviolent offender who was given an "unusually harsh sentence."
Federal employees accuse USDA secretary
of 'Christian proselytizing' in holiday
emails to staff 17 replies
of 'Christian proselytizing' in holiday
emails to staff 17 replies
Federal employees are suing the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Secretary Brooke Rollins, accusing the Trump official of "Christian proselytizing" after she sent department emails on Christmas and Easter with religious messages. The complaint, brought by the National Federation of Federal Employees and seven USDA employees, accuses Rollins of "sending increasingly proselytizing communications to the entire USDA workforce, promoting her own preferred brand of Christian beliefs and theology to the captive audience of employees that report to her," since becoming head of the government agency in February 2025.
In the complaint, the plaintiffs say Rollins sent emails to all USDA employees on national and religious holidays, most overtly on Easter
The redistricting battle being fought across the nation has caused a sea change, and now, it's having a notable effect in Tennessee.
We saw Democratic lawmakers melting down a week ago over the changes, with state Rep. Justin Pearson (D-Memphis) getting into a disturbing exchange with a state trooper. The redistricting redrew a black majority district, the 9th district, which is currently represented by Democrat Rep. Steve Cohen (TN-09). Cohen is not black. He's held the seat for 19 years, since 2007. He's had black Republicans run against him. (X) Now it looks like Cohen is giving up the ghost. He announced that he wouldn't be running again.
Cohen said
Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger may have inadvertently given opponents of the state's soon-to-be-enacted "assault firearm" ban some legal ammunition to use in their fight to get the new law declared unconstitutional.
Spanberger released a statement explaining her rationale for signing the gun and magazine ban bill into law, and while most of it is the same eye-rolling nonsense we've heard from anti-gunners for decades, there was one line that's pretty intriguing.
Trump Floats Venezuela as ‘51st State’
13 replies
President Donald Trump posted a graphic on Truth Social on Tuesday, May 12, showing Venezuela’s outline filled with the American flag and the words “51st State” above it.
The post came one day after Fox News’s John Roberts wrote on X: “Just got off the phone with @realDonaldTrump … he told me he is seriously considering a move to make Venezuela the 51st state…”
Trump’s post follows months of major developments in U.S.-Venezuela relations after the January 3 arrest of Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, by U.S. forces in Caracas in a law enforcement operation authorized by Trump.
Three candidates lead the Los Angeles mayoral race: former reality television star Spencer Pratt, incumbent Karen Bass, and Los Angeles city Councilwoman Nithya Raman.
Pratt says he’ll free Angelenos from the “open air drug zombies” who “commit multiple felonies every single day,” simply by enforcing the law. Bass wants to give those zombies new teeth.
“How many people who are unhoused that you meet have no teeth at all? They don’t have teeth, why? Because meth rots your teeth. You can’t succeed without teeth. So, there needs to be comprehensive healthcare provided to people,”
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced this week that April marked twelve consecutive months of zero releases of illegal aliens apprehended by Border Patrol at the southwest border with Mexico into the United States — a milestone officials say reflects the most secure border in American history under President Donald Trump. DHS reports a 94 percent drop in illegal border apprehensions compared to the Biden era, with daily crossings now lower than what agents encountered in a single hour at the height of the 2023 crisis.
Twelve straight months of ZERO releases at the border. Under President Donald Trump’s leadership, we are delivering the most secure border in American history,”
In presenting the May revision of his final budget as governor, Gavin Newsom proposed ways to fix California’s $35 billion multi-year budget deficit.
The likely presidential hopeful’s attempt to solve the state’s budget woes depends on estimated general fund revenue sources from personal income taxes, corporate taxes, and sales and use taxes. The Democratic governor projected the revenues would run $16.5 billion higher than what his initial budget projected in January. That budget initially proposed revenue numbers that left the general fund with $232.3 billion. The new budget puts the revenue total at $248.8 billion.
On Monday, the New York Times allowed a top columnist to stain its pages with obviously fake stories of Israelis using dog rape to abuse Palestinian prisoners.
That same day, masked Islamists marched through Jewish neighborhoods in Brooklyn, assaulting Jewish kids.
Jewish liberals, ask yourselves: Where are your friends?
For decades, most American Jews have been committed readers of the Times and reliable Democratic voters.
In the late 19th century, Jews were part of Tammany Hall’s immigrant coalition.
Jewish labor groups lined up behind Franklin D. Roosevelt for the New Deal, and marched in every civil rights movement since.