Big Blue Cities Threaten Red-State Liberty.
Do GOP Voters Care?
Posted By: Mercedes44, 7/16/2026 7:51:10 AM
In ruby-red Louisiana, a disturbing power play exposed how far a rusting Democratic machine will reach to undermine lawful state government. From the isolated blue stronghold of Orleans Parish, which is New Orleans itself, local officials defied the state legislature. They basically claimed home rule trumped all, then indicted Attorney General Liz Murrill, a Republican, for the “crime” of enforcing Louisiana law. This was no routine dispute. It was illegal retaliation from a shrinking political island desperate to reclaim influence it lost at the ballot box.
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Mercedes44"
House Republican leaders are facing pressure from the clock and from their own members over a $95 billion reconciliation 3.0 framework that they will attempt to advance out of the Budget Committee on Thursday, raising questions about whether the package will make it out of the House, let alone to President Trump’s desk.
The budget framework released Wednesday outlines $73 billion for defense and intelligence funding, $12 billion for agriculture aid, and $10 billion for a fund to encourage Trump-backed voting restrictions.
In ruby-red Louisiana, a disturbing power play exposed how far a rusting Democratic machine will reach to undermine lawful state government.
From the isolated blue stronghold of Orleans Parish, which is New Orleans itself, local officials defied the state legislature. They basically claimed home rule trumped all, then indicted Attorney General Liz Murrill, a Republican, for the “crime” of enforcing Louisiana law.
This was no routine dispute. It was illegal retaliation from a shrinking political island desperate to reclaim influence it lost at the ballot box.
In 2025, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) delivered a ruling that may prove to be one of the most consequential legal interventions in modern environmental politics. It declared that states have a binding legal obligation under international law to prevent climate change, mitigate its impacts and avoid conduct that harms the environment. This was not merely symbolic. The court effectively transformed climate policy from a matter of political discretion into one of legal duty. Governments are now expected not only to regulate greenhouse gas emissions but to do so under the shadow of potential legal liability. Most significantly,
Every time I write one of these "Cuba Falling" articles, I feel like I need to end the "Cuba Falling" part with a question mark. I'm getting frustrated with the lack of movement, and I can't help but wonder if we're spread a little too thin with Iran. It's time to finish that job and quit playing around with those animals. Cuba is becoming an even bigger hellhole than it already was. The people are starving. They have no power. It's also clear at this point that the regime is a threat to our national security.
For many months now, I’ve been on a “National Security Emergency” crusade.
While Republicans in the House and Senate, and conservative activists like Scott Pressler (who means well) have been pushing the SAVE Act 24/7, I’ve been pushing something a thousand times better…
A “National Security Emergency for Elections.”
This “National Security Emergency” invention was created by me, with assistance from my election security expert, John Goodman.
This idea is like comparing a tiny 1% tax cut to Ronald Reagan’s massive, record-setting, income tax act of 1981, which cut income tax rates from 70% to 28%.
There is no comparison.
Don’t get me wrong.
Pennsylvania Democratic Sen. John Fetterman issued a warning to the Democratic Party on Wednesday, stating that he would leave it if the party officially turns its back on Israel.
The warning comes the same day that over 100 House Democrats voted against sending more aid to Israel, though the amendment containing the proposal failed to pass because of wide Republican support.
“If our party ever becomes — and just makes it official — the anti-Israel party, that’s when I would leave because that’s been a moral clarity for me,” Fetterman said during an interview at the Hill Nation Summit in Washington.
Wealthy Investor and Podcast Host Reveals
What Cured Him of His Trump Derangement Syndrome 11 replies
What Cured Him of His Trump Derangement Syndrome 11 replies
Chamath Palihapitiya is an investor who manages a portfolio worth billions of dollars. He also co-hosts the ‘All In’ podcast with David Sacks, Trump’s Bitcoin Czar.
Despite his relationship with Sacks, he was not a fan of President Trump, and now admits that he suffered from Trump Derangement Syndrome.
During an appearance on CNBC this week, he explained how he changed his mind about Trump and offers his story as advice for others.
CHAMATH PALIHAPITYA: There are enough people that I hear who are lazy and reductive, and they’re going to end up where they’re supposed to end up—in a little cul-de-sac of their own making.
Well, here's something that doesn't happen too often.
On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Darrin P. Gayles in Miami awarded $314 million in damages to three U.S. citizens who were imprisoned and tortured by Nicolás Maduro’s regime in Venezuela before being freed in a 2023 prisoner swap. The three men were Jerrel Kenemore, a Texas computer scientist who'd moved to neighboring Colombia to be with a woman he met. He was kidnapped by paramilitaries in 2022 while visiting a grocery store near the Venezuela-Colombia border and held for over 600 days before being charged with "espionage" and "counterintelligence activities."
House Votes to Lock the Clock - for Good
21 replies
As my colleague Ward Clark reported on Friday, the U.S. House of Representatives moved the Sunshine Protection Act, which would make Daylight Saving Time permanent throughout the United States, from committee to the House floor for a vote. On Tuesday, the full House voted and passed the Act, 308-117. This is performative theater and nothing more. There are more pressing issues for our country and on the House docket, like national security appropriations, bills to combat fraud, and government controls over AI and data centers. But fresh off the House's July 4th recess, this was first up for consideration. According to Independent Rep. Kevin Kiley (CA-03),
The world that we’re looking at today is radically different than that of just five years ago, radically different in the sense that it is much more in the interest of the United States. And I know that seems controversial because [President Donald] Trump is written off as someone who is too fluid and volatile.
His tweets, his verbiage, can put people off, but that’s the art-of-the-deal unpredictability of his nature. Some of it can be a drawback, some of it an advantage, but overall, it doesn’t help analysis to just look at what he says. It’s more important to see what he’s done.
Oil producers in the Persian Gulf are making plans to bypass the Strait of Hormuz with new pipelines and a new port after Iran has repeatedly attacked ships and blocked traffic.
The idea is to minimize Tehran’s leverage on the waterway that once saw 20% of the world’s oil pass through it as the war stretches into its fifth month.
Iran has already insisted that it will impose tolls on the strait, which could cost tens of billions of dollars. And in some cases, it is extracting millions of dollars of protection money per oil tanker. Two such projects are already underway in the United Arab Emirates and Iraq —
Actress and Filmmaker Justine Bateman
Writes EPIC Response to Shrieking, Angry
Rep. Rashida Tlaib 8 replies
Writes EPIC Response to Shrieking, Angry
Rep. Rashida Tlaib 8 replies
People all over the political spectrum are getting tired of the antics of people like Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan. Every time the woman speaks, it’s a fire and brimstone diatribe about the evils of America.
She doesn’t talk like a member of congress. She sounds more like the unhinged leader of an invading force, threatening to take down the very country she claims to represent. Everyone is sick of it.
Actress and filmmaker Justine Bateman is not a conservative. If anything, she is a centrist, yet even she has had it with this. You will want to read what she wrote in response to Tlaib.
Bateman was reacting to this video:
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A Florida congressional candidate and former U.S. Marine is facing backlash after posting a video calling President Donald Trump "the Antichrist" and saying the president "must be killed."
William Upham, a Republican write-in candidate for Florida's 5th Congressional District who describes himself on X as a prosecutor "running to fix a broken political system," opens the nearly seven-minute video by saying he entered the race to restore bipartisanship, return power to the working class and "fix our broken political system."
The tone quickly shifts, however, as Upham says he has come to believe the country is "broken" and that America is engaged in a spiritual battle.
Carroll collects $5.6 million awarded
to her by jury in sex abuse and defamation
case against Trump 22 replies
to her by jury in sex abuse and defamation
case against Trump 22 replies
Writer E. Jean Carroll collected over $5.6 million that a jury awarded her in 2023 in a civil verdict against President Donald Trump.
Carroll alleged Trump had sexually abused her in the dressing room of a luxury department store in Manhattan in 1996. Trump's attorneys have filed another appeal seeking to stop or reverse the payment, the Associated Press reported, and they vow to keep appealing.
“We are pleased to report that she has received the damages payment,” Carroll's lawyer, Roberta Kaplan, said in a statement.
House Votes to Lock the Clock - for Good
21 replies
As my colleague Ward Clark reported on Friday, the U.S. House of Representatives moved the Sunshine Protection Act, which would make Daylight Saving Time permanent throughout the United States, from committee to the House floor for a vote. On Tuesday, the full House voted and passed the Act, 308-117. This is performative theater and nothing more. There are more pressing issues for our country and on the House docket, like national security appropriations, bills to combat fraud, and government controls over AI and data centers. But fresh off the House's July 4th recess, this was first up for consideration. According to Independent Rep. Kevin Kiley (CA-03),
Nearly half of House Democrats voted to cut off aid to Israel Wednesday, underscoring a seismic shift in political support for the longtime U.S. ally.
The amendment to a State Department spending bill would have eliminated $3.3 billion in funding, and thanks to strong Republican support for the Jewish state, it failed 314-104 . But the vote served as a moment of reckoning for House Democrats who have had to confront years of voter outrage about Israel’s handling of the war in Gaza.
“There’s also a real sense that the status quo cannot continue,”
Finding out that, by a 3-to-2 margin, Americans think the country is “evolving into a big government socialist state” is bad enough. Far more worrisome is finding out how many Republicans and self-styled conservatives are on board with one of socialism’s central tenets.
The latest IBD/TIPP Poll, which we are reporting on today, finds that nearly half of Americans agree that we’re sliding into socialism, and less than a third disagree. (See: “By 3-To-2 Margin, Americans Believe U.S. Is Turning Into A ‘Socialist State’: I&I/TIPP Poll.”)
It also finds that Republicans are more pessimistic about the future than Democrats,
Fans are calling out legendary R&B singer Patti LaBelle for whiffing on her rendition of the national anthem to kick off the 2026 MLB All-Star Game in her hometown of Philadelphia. The 82-year-old two-time Grammy winner had the honor of singing the Star-Spangled Banner at the 96th Midsummer Classic before a packed crowd at Citizens Bank Park Tuesday evening — just five miles from Independence Hall and little more than a week after the nation’s 250th birthday. LaBelle appeared to drop a few words along the way and dragged out the anthem longer than most during the performance, but gutted her way across home plate with her singing
A Mexican national was struck and killed by a tractor-trailer while attempting to flee from ICE officers across a busy Florida highway, officials said.
The gruesome accident occurred after the 28-year-old man and three others had a run-in with immigration agents around 7 a.m. in St. Johns, according to Florida Highway Patrol Sgt. Dylan Bryan.
The four were approached by agents while stopped inside the parking lot of a gas station in St. Augustine, Florida, Bryan said. [snip]The fatal crash is the most recent in a series of deaths involving the immigration agency.
Houston Man Killed by ICE, Hailed as Father
Chasing ‘American Dream,’ Had Meth
in His Car, FBI Says 13 replies
Chasing ‘American Dream,’ Had Meth
in His Car, FBI Says 13 replies
Authorities recently discovered a “white crystal-like substance” in a work van belonging to Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, an illegal immigrant who was fatally shot by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Houston last week and who has been hailed by the media as a father chasing the “American dream.”
There has been intense outrage surrounding the incident, especially amid the broader unrest regarding U.S. immigration enforcement under the Trump administration.
Media outlets have touted Salgado Araujo as a father of four who, having entered the country 35 years ago in search of a better life, was actively pursuing legal status in the U.S.
However,
Former President Joe Biden’s announcement of a forthcoming memoir drew swift mockery from conservatives Wednesday, with critics reviving questions about his health, age and use of an autopen during his presidency.
"This guy couldn't even sign his own name. He's not writing books. LMAO," wrote former Los Angeles mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt on X.
"Politicians write books to launder money. Nobody wants to read this, but the corrupt NGOs he provided for as President will buy up 100K copies and burn 'em to hold up their end of the bribes,’" the former reality TV star added.
With each new revelation about former Special Counsel Jack Smith, who apparently would do anything to bring down Trump with his classified documents and election interference cases, the sordid tale just gets dirtier and dirtier. He was accused in the fall of 2025 of violating the rights of lawmakers by secretly subpoenaing their phone records, and earlier in July, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) alleged that Smith and his team violated classified document handling procedures — even as they were investigating Trump for exactly that crime.
Grassley had more damning info to drop Tuesday: Smith was allegedly reading lawmakers’ emails.
Anthony Fauci thinks Biden’s last-minute “autopen” pardon is his golden parachute.
But he could be very, very wrong.
In reality, that so-called pardon might turn out to be a pair of golden handcuffs instead. Americans have sat back and watched Fauci play a lot of games. He’s dodged, danced, redefined words, split a lot of hairs, and acted like the rest of the country (and the world) was way too stupid to understand what really went down during the COVID circus. He became the face of the “pandemic” response, and according to the media and liberals, he was the patron saint of “trust the science.”
Who can forget these absurd candles?
Wealthy Investor and Podcast Host Reveals
What Cured Him of His Trump Derangement Syndrome 11 replies
What Cured Him of His Trump Derangement Syndrome 11 replies
Chamath Palihapitiya is an investor who manages a portfolio worth billions of dollars. He also co-hosts the ‘All In’ podcast with David Sacks, Trump’s Bitcoin Czar.
Despite his relationship with Sacks, he was not a fan of President Trump, and now admits that he suffered from Trump Derangement Syndrome.
During an appearance on CNBC this week, he explained how he changed his mind about Trump and offers his story as advice for others.
CHAMATH PALIHAPITYA: There are enough people that I hear who are lazy and reductive, and they’re going to end up where they’re supposed to end up—in a little cul-de-sac of their own making.