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Those of you who have been with me here at HotAir for the past couple of years know I have not been a Governor Kristi Noem fan.

I can point to a couple of posts where I ripped her up royally, along with her neighboring governor, Doug Burgum.

I also try to give honest credit where it is due, and with both of these individuals in the administration now – Burgum as Secretary of the Interior and Nome heading up Homeland Security – I’ve been pleasantly surprised. 

Burgum, I’ve sent kudos out to both him and his department, time and again, for their actions on reining in the climate cult scams hurriedly put in place by a panicked Biden administration’s evil minions when they realized there just might not be a second act coming. Interior’s been trying to stanch the bleeding and reverse the streams of four years of unfettered Green madness financed and enabled by the federal government.

Noem has let Tom Homan roll, first and foremost.

That’s management 101 – get out of the way of a top performer who is doing what you hired him to do.

She also backs him up every chance she gets. In fact, she backs all of her people up, vociferously and relentlessly, advocating for them and defending their lawful right to do their job, even in the most trying of circumstances.

Noem is proud of her officers and staff. She knows where they stand in the food chain, and she will brook no interference from blue city mayor or progressive governors who have their own agendas, and I am really digging how she doesn’t hesitate to walk into the lion’s den.

Take Portland (PLEASE!) for example.

Night after night of violent attacks against the ICE facility there, and those are nothing new.

In fact, back in 2021, the Multnomah County Commissioners sent a letter to then DHS Secretary Ray Mayorkas asking if the federal officers barricaded and defending themselves from the daily Antifa onslaughts in the Immigration, Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility downtown could please stop using tear gas. Or at least use it more thoughtfully. The commissioners were concerned that the gas was going to adversely affect children in a nearby elementary school and adjacent low-income housing. 

NOW, MIND YOU,  these commissioners didn’t ask the Seattle Police Department to disperse the scumbag Antifa types once and for all. No, no, no. That would never occur to them.

It was the besieged ICE facility’s responsibility not to defend itself too enthusiastically. 

FOR THE CHILDREN.

A letter from Multnomah County commissioners to U.S. Secretary of Homeland Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas calls for significant limitations on the use of tear gas or other chemical munitions, arguing they should be “authorized only in very narrow circumstances.” And commissioners argue, tear gas should not be used around schools or in neighborhoods.

But if there’s one specific location that’s most on the minds of the Multnomah County board of commissioners in their letter to Mayorkas, it’s one building, where tear gas has been used repeatedly on protesters: the Immigration and Customs Enforcement building in Portland’s South Waterfront neighborhood.

The commissioners’ letter draws specific attention to that area because it is “directly adjacent to the K-8 Cottonwood School of Civics and Science, and in close proximity to an affordable housing complex that is home to many Veterans.”

Every sidewalk and building in this video should look familiar, including the spicy action. Only this was shot in 2021.

I’m pretty sure I was targeted along with another member of the press with an ANLM(air burst non-lethal munition). pic.twitter.com/TqnhWPAPZL

— ComradeCamera (@comradecamera) January 21, 2021

Try as I might, I can find no record of Ray Mayorkas ever making a trip to Portland to either chastise the mayor or support his embattled and surrounded officers. There certainly weren’t any big public statements to that effect out of DHS at the time.

Contrast that with the way Secretary Noem is handling Portland – in Los Angeles a couple of months ago, and Chicago, for that matter. Both cities have active, dangerous situations and intransigent, hostile mayors and state governors.

Noam has tremendous people working for her and a really savvy media machine to counteract the trash that gets thrown at them.

The Green Machine is bringing the energy to Chicago!

These fine Chicagoans got fist bumps instead of handcuffs. With Chicago’s support, Operation Midway Blitz will be here until we accomplish our mission.🤝#CBP #DHS #USBP #BorderPatrol #OpMidwayBlitz #Chicago pic.twitter.com/YzS84QEG56

— Commander Op At Large CA Gregory K. Bovino (@CMDROpAtLargeCA) October 8, 2025

Recognizing and tapping the potential of your employees is leadership.

Noem marched into Portland like a boss yesterday. First, she had herself an ‘off the record’ meeting with the state’s woke af governor.

Things were frosty, but no word about any discussion particulars, dang it. We are left to imagine the worst – and it’s great

The next visit was to Portland’s cuddly bear, Antifa-hugging, journalist-arresting police chief, Bob Day, who came out of the closed-door meeting afterward looking downright weepy after his heart-to-heart with the DHS secretary.

🚨 JUST IN: Secretary Kristi Noem just left a meeting with woke Portland Police Chief Bob Day

And Chief Day looks absolutely DEFEATED 🤣

Kristi just laid down the freaking law. The Trump admin is taking control in Portland 🔥 pic.twitter.com/OG0tXnEzGQ

— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) October 7, 2025

In between snivels, Chief Day asked Noem if she’d like to meet with the mayor, too. Oh, hell, to the yeah, she did.

She was very disappointed. Which is only sad for her but bad for the mayor.

🚨BREAKING: DHS Secretary Kristi Noem says she met with the MAYOR of Portland and GAVE HIM AN ULTIMATUM 🚨@KristiNoem: “I told him that if he doesn’t follow through on these security measures… we’ll send four times the number of federal officers here so the people of Portland… pic.twitter.com/sSGTXFNDdZ

— Jesse Watters (@JesseBWatters) October 8, 2025

 …we’ll send four times the number of federal officers here so the people of Portland can finally have some safety and security.”

And then she went off to the ICE building, through the small crowd of protesters and a guy in a chicken suit milling around outside, and the officers there gave her the tour. She also met some of the heroic independent journalists like Katie Daviscourt, Nick Sorter, and Honey Badger Mom, who have been doing the dangerous work of documenting the confrontations and abuses of both the anarchists in the streets and the Portland police, enabling them at the behest of city officials.

To put into perspective, federal agents on scene right now include FPS, ICE SRT, BORTAC, BORSTAR, CBP, Border Patrol, Bureau of Prisons — and now the National Guard. https://t.co/4hTlhVE3sX

— Katie Daviscourt 📸 (@KatieDaviscourt) October 8, 2025

She just kills me.

‘One of these things I’ve been dealing with all day here in Portland is a bunch of pansies…”@KristiNoem on @JesseBWatters right now

Awesome sauce calling them out.

— tree hugging s*ster 🎃 (@WelbornBeege) October 8, 2025

She worries about her people.

🚨 JUST IN: Secretary Kristi Noem has arrived at ICE Portland, and is meeting with top ICE, DHS, and Border Patrol officials

Noem prayed over them before the meeting started: “Lord, I just ask that you would continue to put a hedge of Protection around these officers, keep them… pic.twitter.com/xshcfTzQ8K

— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) October 7, 2025

…“Lord, I just ask that you would continue to put a hedge of Protection around these officers, keep them safe, Lord, but that also that you would continue to bless each and every one of them and their families…” Amen 

Noem went out with officers again, too, which drives people like the porculent prince of poltroonish pomposity, J.B. Pritzker, crazy.

All the lumbering food blister can do is squawk ‘COSPLAY!’ from the safety of a press conference with donuts in the next room.

JB Pritzker on Kristi Noem: “She needs to get out. Grow up. She’s the one cosplaying a social media influencer. She’s in fact ginning it up, causing problems. ICE officials are the ones causing the problems they are now asking for help to deal with” pic.twitter.com/j8kMyQ24iC

— Marco Foster (@MarcoFoster_) October 6, 2025

While drawing down even more fire on federal law enforcement, dubbing them ‘Noem’s thugs.’

.@GovPritzker is using Illinois state resources to resist President @realDonaldTrump and DHS @Sec_Noem‘s mission to restore border security.

He’s not protecting Illinois — he’s protecting illegal activity.

The reckless rhetoric and obstruction from politicians like Pritzker… pic.twitter.com/2O6iod17dY

— Jay Collins (@JayCollinsFL) October 8, 2025

Noem and Homan have been leading from the front. The Pritzkers of the world buy their way to the head of the line, and only if it’s worth it to them.

I have no idea if the administrative side of DHS looks like the markdown table at Kmart after a holiday – and I don’t care. She has reams of bureaucrats to handle that.

I cannot ever recall a Homeland Security Secretary so badass, so personally and physically invested in her officers and their safety on the job, and so willing to tear up anyone who’s not with the program.

And I have to say, if they think calling her DHS Barbie for not looking like Hillary Clinton doing it is some sort of hit on Noem?

They’re going to be in the wilderness forever, and good riddance to them.

If we thought our job in pushing back against the Academia/media/Democrat censorship complex was over with the election, think again. This is going to be a long fight. Ed, David, John, and I are here for it.

COME AT US, BROS!

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Democrats won’t listen to Harvard. Maybe they’ll listen to the New York Times?

This entire year, Democrats from Los Angeles to Chicago to Portland to Boston have gone all-in against increased immigration enforcement. They have ginned up violent activists to attack ICE agents serving judicial warrants to deport known criminal illegal aliens. The elite cognoscenti have cast Donald Trump as Hitler and federal agents as brownshirts for enforcing the law — and they have expected to get the American electorate behind them as a result of their hysteria. 

Nine months into the process, voters refuse to budge. A new poll from the NYT and Siena University show a clear majority in favor of deporting illegal aliens, and even a small but significant slice of Democrats agree:

Since Mr. Trump returned to power, his administration has enacted a new travel ban, sought to pull temporary humanitarian protections from hundreds of thousands of people, flown immigrants to countries where they are not from and deployed federal law enforcement officers to Chicago, Washington, D.C., and other major cities in a made-for-TV show of force to combat crime and illegal immigration.

In that time, the share of registered voters who favor deporting immigrants living in the country illegally — 54 percent — has remained unchanged.

More than 90 percent of Republicans, 52 percent of independents and nearly 20 percent of Democrats continue to broadly support the idea of deporting those here illegally.

The demos on this question are pretty devastating even outside of partisan affiliation. Overall, approval of deporting illegal aliens — without the “criminal” qualifier, no less — gets 54/42 approval. Among the age demos, only voters under 30 oppose it, 34/61. Voters between 30-44 slightly approve, 49/47, but voters between 45-64 and over 65 approve overwhelmingly, 62/36 and 61/36, respectively. Voters in every region but the West (47/50) approve, especially the South (61/36) and Midwest (49/47). Twenty percent of Kamala Harris voters approve of deportations, and even 24% of those who disapprove of Trump support deportations. Even college graduates are evenly split, 49/50, while non-college graduates strongly favor deportations, 57/38.

Not only do respondents largely support the process, they also aren’t buying the “mistaken identity” claims that Democrats and the Protection Racket Media keep trying to push:

More specifically, 51 percent said they thought the government was deporting mostly people who “should be deported,” while 42 percent said the government was deporting the wrong people.

Just in case one thinks that Siena mistakenly oversampled MAGA voters, here are a few other results of this poll:

• Giving economic and military aid to Israel: 39/51
• Deployment of Nat’l Guard to DC: 41/50
• Revoking TV station licenses for criticizing Trump: 12/77 (as it should be)
• Trump’s use of executive authority legitimate: 42/54
• Blame for the shutdown: 19% on Congressional Dems, 26% on Trump & GOP
• Right/Wrong direction: 36/58

In other words, this isn’t an outlier sample. Trump gets a 43/54 job approval rating too, roughly in line with other polling (45/42 at RCP), although Dems only get a +2 on the generic ballot, 49/47 (46/43.1 at RCP). There is no reason to think that the NYT/Siena poll has missed the mark on these questions, especially since immigration is practically the only positive result for Trump within it. 

And of course, this is what the Harvard-Harris CAPS poll has shown all along. Their latest iteration asks the deportation two different ways, and majorities have sided with Trump in both instances all year. The latest iteration is no exception:

• Deporting immigrants who are here illegally and have committed crimes: 48/22
• Deporting all immigrants who are here illegally: 56/44

Plus, these are the results from the Harvard-Harris CAPS poll on related questions:

• Closing the border with added security and policies that discourage illegal crossings: 68/32
• Use the military to prevent illegal immigration in the U.S.: 55/45
• Use the National Guard and active-duty military to police American cities and stop crime and disorder: 51/49

The American people keep telling Democrats what they want. Democrats keep lecturing the American electorate on what they should want. That’s how they painted themselves into a fringe corner, and their support for violent protests to stop what voters demand will only keep painting themselves into tighter and tighter corners. 

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People in a position to know are cautiously optimistic that the first step of a peace deal between Israel and Hamas could be reached this week.

U.S. President Donald Trump’s plan to end the war in Gaza could be reached soon, a senior U.S. official told Sky News Arabia on Wednesday.

The officials said that the American mediators were “optimistic about that possibility.” A White House official added that the negotiations are at “a critical stage.”

Meanwhile, an Israeli official familiar with the talks in Sharm el-Sheikh told Ynet that the sides are “moving closer to agreement on the first phase of Trump’s Gaza plan.” While disagreements remain, the official described the mood as “cautiously optimistic” and said “the direction is positive.”

CNN is hearing the same thing.

Two Israeli sources said a deal was “very close,” with one saying an announcement could come within the next 24 hours. A third source said a deal could be reached in the next 48 hours, with the release of hostages likely beginning early next week.

A US official confirmed progress had been made, saying that a deal could come within “days.”

There are other signs that a deal may be close. Envoys from Washington have just arrived in Egypt suggesting we’re now reaching the crunch time for these negotiations. The US is going all in to make this happen.

President Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner arrived in Sharm el-Sheikh on Wednesday morning to join the negotiations over the deal to release the remaining hostages held by Hamas and end the war in Gaza that has now crossed the two-year mark…

The indirect talks between Israeli and Hamas negotiators started on Monday and have made some progress, but U.S. and Israeli officials have said the negotiations will reach crunch time only when Witkoff and Kushner arrive…

Senior U.S. officials expressed cautious optimism about the chances of reaching a deal this week and emphasized that Kushner and Witkoff won’t leave Egypt without an agreement to release the hostages and end the war.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi is feeling optimistic enough that he is inviting President Trump to Egypt in the event that a deal is going to be signed.

I am inviting President Trump in the case, God willing, if an agreement is reached, that he attends the signing in Egypt,” al-Sisi said at a graduating ceremony for police students in Cairo.

So what are the sticking points? The first part of this deal is mostly about releasing the remaining Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners. But there are problems on both ends of this. First off, Israel doesn’t believe Hamas can actually release all the hostages.

Israel assesses that Hamas may not be able to find and return all the remaining dead hostages in Gaza, according to three Israeli sources, a fact that may complicate efforts to reach a deal to end the war.

Sources say the Israeli government is aware that Hamas may not know the location of, or is unable to retrieve, the remains of some of the 28 remaining deceased hostages. According to one source, the number is between seven and nine, another source put it between 10 and 15.

This is a problem because, as President Trump has said several times, the families of the deceases want the bodies of their loved ones back just as much as the families of the 20 living hostages. Those families are not going to be happy with a deal if their loved ones are not returned.

On the other end of the deal, Hamas has apparently requested the release of Marwan Barghouti who is serving five life sentences in Israel.

The former West Bank leader of the Fatah party is by far the most popular political figure in the occupied Palestinian territories, even though an entire generation of Palestinians was born after he was incarcerated more than two decades ago.

Some have described him as the Palestinian Nelson Mandela, a long-time jailed leader they believe can lead them to freedom.

To Israel, he is one of the most high-profile terrorists. The 66-year-old was jailed in 2002 for planning attacks that killed five civilians during the Second Palestinian Intifada, or uprising. He denied the charges at the time and rejected the jurisdiction and legitimacy of the court that sentenced him.

So that’s where we are right now. It’s crunch time and if all goes well we could actually see the end of this conflict by the end of the week. But there are still poison pill demands Hamas could make which could scuttle everything. But at this point, the international pressure led by the Trump administration is so strong that it would be an uphill climb to back out now. Hopefully we get more good news tomorrow.

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After Charlie Kirk’s death, The New York Times went to Twitch streamer Hasan Piker to get his take on the state of free speech and political violence. 

NPR just did a profile on Piker, because he is one of the most powerful and popular left-wing influencers in America. He is close friends with Zohran Mamdani, and is deeply influential with the younger, radical set who are the driving ideological force in the Democratic Party. 

In that interview, Piker was portrayed at the Democrat’s Charlie Kirk. 

I bring all that up to point out that Piker is not some rando one can find on the internet–he is being promoted as a major influence by the most establishment institutions in the country, and is deeply influential in the leftward side of the Democratic Party. 

Hasan Piker is also a deeply evil man, and his popularity reflects the deeply evil nature of a Democratic Party that is backing candidates like Jay Jones and Zohran Mamdani. And the top echelons of the Democratic Party are either embracing or at least making their peace with some of the worst people in America. 

Most of the supercuts you see of Democrats jumping for joy at Charlie Kirk’s assassination are of randos, although there were a disturbing number of teachers and other professionals giving their two cents about why Charlie deserved to be shot and who should be next. But the videos you see of Piker (NSFW, of course), are of one of the most influential up and coming liberals in the country. Again, don’t trust me, but trust the voices of the Democratic establishment in The New York Times and NPR. 

Piker popped up in the news today because he, live on his twitch stream, got angry at his dog and apparently used a shock collar to punish him for getting in Piker’s shot. It was hardly the most shocking thing he has done or said, but it grabs your attention because he punished HIS DOG–a helpless animal and under his care--for being ever so mildly annoying. 

Hasan Piker screamed at his dog and applied a shock collar to her because she got up to stretch while he screamed “I FUCKING HATE THIS COUNTRY SO MUCH”

You could not even make this up as satire. He lives in a $3 million mansion in Hollywood. Just the absolute epitome of a… pic.twitter.com/7RkYO58WgX

— Drew Pavlou 🇦🇺🇺🇸🇺🇦🇹🇼 (@DrewPavlou) October 7, 2025

The original incident occurred during a livestream, while he was speaking about America. In this livestream, the dog can be seen in the background of the video behind Piker laying down. While he is speaking, the dog stands up and starts walking around, and Piker says, “Kaya please just f****** go, just stop,” and while he is saying this, the dog yelps. He then says, “You’re being such a baby.”

Piker then says that the dog is incredibly spoiled by his mother.

A clip of the incident has been viewed 2.7 million times on X. Piker has received criticism from other creators, including Tectone, and social media users. Most of the criticism is centered on allegations that he is using the dog as a prop in his content, and that he is using a shock collar.

While not a political sin, it is reflective of his overall character which he brings into his politics. Piker, Mr. “Just like Charlie Kirk” and influencer to the Democratic Party stars, is evil. 

“America deserved 9/11.” Those are the vile words of Hasan Piker.

Zohran Mamdani calls him a friend. Walks him around New York, appears on his shows, and embraces him even after those disgusting comments.

And to this day, Mamdani refuses to condemn them. That silence says it… pic.twitter.com/V2xLa4WbPG

— Eric Adams (@ericadamsfornyc) September 11, 2025

He is friends with Mr. “I am so compassionate” Zohran Mamdani, of “seize private property” fame, who we are assured is actually a moderate social democrat by all the Best™ people. But his friend, who is a bit less circumspect about what that really means, makes no bones about what that really means. 

Anti-capitalist Zohran Mamdani is tight with his buddy Hasan Piker who thinks this about property owners who don’t rent:
“Yeah kill them! KiII those motherf*ckrs and muder those motherf*ckrs in the streets…let the streets soak in their red f*ing capitalist bloods” 😳 pic.twitter.com/N8VQ4jIRIl

— Jean (@queens_parents) September 13, 2025

That The New York Times went to Piker to share his thoughts on political violence after the assassination of Charlie Kirk is revealing. As I argued in my piece earlier today, when discussing the Jay Jones scandal, longing for the murder of one’s political opponent is seen as standard practice among many of today’s top Democrats. It is not an anomaly, and certainly not disqualifying. 

It is merely inconvenient that center-left voters hear it said out loud. The more bourgie among them don’t like that sort of talk. They want their politicians to be more polite. Best not to use texting when saying such things, unless your audience is all lefties as Piker’s is. 

Dear @FBI:

This is Hasan Piker.

Close friend of @ZohranKMamdani.

This is a severe, overt call to violence.

This is the type of shit that radicalized people like the Utah shooter.

You can’t find any right wing content like this whatsoever.

pic.twitter.com/3Sa3Nq0yHL

— Mike Crispi (@MikeCrispi) September 12, 2025

My bookmark folder of “Democrat hate” is FILLED with some of the most outrageous examples of teachers, doctors, lawyers, and academics spewing some of the most hateful ideas and violent fantasies, but it is instructive to look at the people who have normalized this behavior. 

Few politicians will repeat Piker’s words and style of address; many, and many members of the cultural elite, cozy up to Piker because that is either where they are ideologically and attitudinally, or at least they know that their voting base is there. 

I know and like many liberals, who are truly good and decent people who believe that the Democratic Party is all about compassion. They listen to the carefully curated words that the politicians use to mask their true inclinations. 

I hate that I get the reference, and even more that it happened. https://t.co/KHap8cQ06t

— Chloe in Texas (@ChloeChloeChl19) October 8, 2025

What surprises me, though, is how few of them respond to the clarifying moments that should wake them up. The collapse of the Steele Dossier moved few to question what the media and Democrats tell them; COVID failures had little impact on many; alphabet ideology bothers few of them, as children’s lives are ruined; “sharp as a tack” Biden lies annoyed them, but they got over it; and the murder of Charlie Kirk and the open celebration of it has moved few of them. 

Even seeing pictures of Mamdani palling it up with Mr. “America deserved 9/11” and “kill the motherf**kers” somehow doesn’t penetrate, even when their favorite outlets like NPR and The New York Times trots him out to tut-tut about political violence. 

I don’t get it. Seriously, I don’t. It’s as if there is this magic bubble surrounding Democrats, where uttering the words “kindness” and “empathy” wipes out the reality before people’s eyes. 

Propaganda works. The constant repetition of lies by Pravda and the soothing words of politicians somehow makes Antifa into the good guys, riots into “protests,” looting into “reparations,” and handing out heroin to addicts living and pooping on the streets “compassionate.”

Make it make sense. 

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Monday the Washington Post published a story about evidence of fraud at the VA. The extent of the fraud is unknown but with taxpayers spending nearly $200 billion a year in compensation payments to disabled vets, it seems like something that deserves a close look.

One thing the article revealed was that the number of claims made per person has gone up dramatically in the past two decades.

Last year, each disabled veteran received, on average, benefits for a combination of about seven injuries and illnesses, up from 2.5 per person in 2001. The Post found that it has become common for veterans to submit claims for 20 or more disabilities each.

And the VA culture under the Biden administration was all about finding a way to say yes to any claim. The more claims individuals make, the more money the VA sends them on a monthly basis. This money can potentially continue for the rest of their life.

Today the Post published a follow up looking at some of the most egregious cases, the ones which have resulted in criminal charges against the fraudsters. There have been dozens of cases in which people pretended to be either blind or paralyzed in order to maximize their disability payments.

The case of Barry Wayne Hoover, a Navy vet from Tampa, shows how easy it is to take advantage of VA — and, in turn, taxpayers.

In 1997, the federal agency began paying Hoover $179 a month for retinitis pigmentosa, a rare inherited eye disease that flared up when he was in the Navy and caused him to be medically discharged after five years of service…

For more than a decade, Hoover had a 20 percent disability rating from VA. Eventually, he wanted more money and concocted a story to get it, records show.

In 2009, he told a VA doctor that his sight had rapidly worsened and he had given up driving because he could no longer see people or other cars, even with corrective lenses. Just being in the sun, he said, made him feel nauseated and his head…

VA raised Hoover’s disability rating to 100 percent and declared him permanently unable to work, which boosted his compensation to more than $3,800 a month. The government also enrolled him in blindness rehabilitation courses, training him how to navigate obstacles with a long white cane.

But Hoover had faster ways to get around. In January 2012 — the same month that VA classified him as completely disabled for blindness — he walked into the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles to renew his driver’s license, records show.

He passed the eye test with 20/40 vision while wearing corrective lenses…

From that point forward, according to the documents, Hoover claimed he was blind when he visited VA for medical appointments. Meanwhile, he cashed his disability checks and bought expensive toys, including an 11-foot boat, a three-wheeled motorcycle and a motorized canoe. Then he bragged on Facebook about how much fun he was having.

In 2020 Hoover was finally charged with stealing government money. He went to trial in 2022 and his attorney unsuccessfully argued that he was really blind. HIs attorney explained, “Can a blind man drive? I submit to you he can. Should he drive? That’s a whole different story.”

It’s not clear how common this blindness fraud is but the story lists several similar examples from around the country. Some of these people were stealing money from the taxpayers for decades.

One of the schemes was perpetuated for decades by Paul Lesslie Thompson, a 71-year-old Army vet who served in Vietnam. He pleaded guilty in federal court in June to defrauding VA by feigning blindness since 1993. Prosecutors say he bilked taxpayers of nearly $1.2 million. His sentencing is scheduled for Oct. 23.

To get the money, Thompson told VA examiners he couldn’t make out the largest letter — the big black “E” — on an eye chart a foot from his face, even with corrective lenses. Yet state records showed he had renewed his Florida driver’s license three times over two decades and always passed the vision test. Authorities charged him after federal agents spied him driving to a restaurant to pick up a pizza.

Other vets claimed not to be able to walk or get around and then were found to be doing manual labor at home.

In 2011, a tipster in Kansas called a VA hotline to accuse Bruce L. Hay, a veteran and farmer from Osawatomie, of faking injuries from a car accident when he was in the Army.

To obtain a 100 percent disability rating, Hay had claimed he needed a walker because he was afflicted with tremors that made him stagger around “like a Frankenstein,” in the description of a VA official who observed him. Hay also said he couldn’t dress or bathe himself…

Federal agents installed a covert camera on a utility pole across from Hay’s house and recorded him driving and hunting, fixing roofs and throwing hay bales on trucks. Over time, the former sergeant hauled more than 1 million pounds of scrap metal.

Eight years passed between the tip and when Hay was finally indicted for fraud. It took another three years to convict him.

At his sentencing, Hay, then 53, complained about the unfairness of the proceedings and called himself “an innocent man” with “a strong moral compass.”

These are just some of the handful of cases where people have been caught and charged. The real question is how many more fraudsters are out there doing the same or maybe something slightly less egregious but still dishonest. And the truth seems to be that we have no idea how common this is, only the bottom line which is that nearly $200 billion a year is going to pay these claims with very little oversight. If ever there was a strong case for DOGE, the VA is it.

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Call it Plan B. Donald Trump believes he has the authority to order the National Guard into Portland and other cities where local law enforcement refuses to support and protect federal agents enforcing immigration law. At least one appellate court — the Ninth Circuit, surprisingly — unanimously agrees. A couple of district court judges notwithstanding, Trump has a solid case if this gets challenged all the way to the Supreme Court.

However, Trump has plans for Portland in particular if the city and Governor Tina Kotek want to play hardball, Politico reports:

They are confident the Trump administration will prevail in court after a federal judge twice blocked the White House’s efforts to send troops into Oregon because she ruled that the president’s move lacked legal basis. The administration has appealed to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and would almost certainly take the case to the Supreme Court if needed.

“To be frank, if somebody wants 20-1 odds that this temporary restraining order would survive Supreme Court review, I’d give it to them,” said Will Chamberlain, senior counsel at The Article III Project, a Trump-aligned legal organization founded in 2019. “That’s how strongly I think this is doomed to be reversed.”

But even as the White House insists the president is on firm legal ground, Trump has made clear he has a plan B: the Insurrection Act, an 1807 law that gives the president emergency powers to deploy troops on U.S. soil to quell what the president deems an insurrection.

“If I had to enact it, I’d do it,” Trump said in the Oval Office Monday. “If people were being killed and courts were holding us up, or governors or mayors were holding us up.”

Would that apply in Portland? The activities of Antifa, especially directed at federal buildings and officers, certainly leans in that direction. The failure of Portland to effectively address this violence, not just now but over the last several years and in particular 2020 in the George Floyd riots, lends itself to that interpretation as well. Sen. Tom Cotton urged Trump to take this action directly at that time in a New York Times editorial that prompted a staff rebellion and eventually convinced Bari Weiss to depart for saner pastures. 

Trump may have a better case in Chicago than Portland for an insurrection. At the same time that J.B. Pritzker claimed in court that no insurrection was taking place in the Windy City, Mayor Brandon Johnson declared parts of the city off-limits to federal law enforcement. That is in itself a form of rebellion, even if it’s a rather impotent form. It was still enough to draw notice from Trump this morning, who vented his spleen on Truth Social:

Naturally, this got tongue-clucking and fainting-couch treatment by the Protection Racket Media, while Johnson’s declaration that the federal government had no jurisdiction in areas of Chicago passed almost without comment. The progressive Left has embraced its inner Orval Faubus so completely that it hardly draws any attention at all these days. 

However, there’s a good reason to hold off on this. An Insurrection Act declaration makes the federal government responsible for the city in question, at least politically if not fully legally. That would allow Kotek to make every problem in Portland Trump’s fault, and the same is even more true in Chicago with Johnson and Pritzker. That’s why “several key allies and White House officials” are counseling against this Plan B, and instead leaking it as a threat to Kotek, Pritzker, Newsom, Johnson, et al as a consequence for further obstruction. The Insurrection Act is the nuclear, “break glass in case of dire emergency” option — and it has the potential to flip voters on what is now an 80/20 issue on immigration if it backfires. 

It’s better to play the strong hand. Trump has plenty of authority for his current deployments to protect federal property and operations. Play out that string first, while keeping Plan B visible. 

Editor’s Note: Democrat politicians and their radical supporters will do everything they can to interfere with and threaten ICE agents enforcing our immigration laws.

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As I have said many times, I believe that a large fraction of politicians are sociopaths. 

Some are high-functioning, others not so much, but sociopaths who at best mimic having a conscience and caring about more than themselves. 

Jay Jones, the candidate for Attorney General in Virginia, has not proven to be particularly high-functioning, without enough fake empathy to survive the bright lights of a statewide campaign. He may win his race, assuming he survives the immediate scandal, but he clearly doesn’t have the capacity to fake humanity well enough to rise into the top ranks of sociopathic politicians. 

I have no evidence that Abigail Spanberger and any other particular Virginia politician is a sociopath–I just haven’t watched them closely enough to make a judgment–although statistically speaking some number of them might be. But what I do know, having watched the fallout from the Jay Jones murder fantasy scandal, is that Democrats in Virginia and, frankly, in most of the country, are morally twisted and driven by hate. 

If Abigail Spanberger doesn’t think Jay Jones should drop out, then she’s fine with what he said.

It’s that simple. pic.twitter.com/IKnnJ7GP22

— Winsome Earle-Sears (@winwithwinsome) October 6, 2025

Jay Jones’ fantasizing about murdering his colleague and watching his wife witness the death of her children is, objectively speaking, evil. It is sick, twisted, even Satanic, but no Virginia Democrat seems to think that his being so is disqualifying. Instead, they are all coalescing around him–circling the wagons–and making little more than pro-forma statements about how saying such things is not particularly nice. 

Abigail Spanberger thinks an apology is enough for a man who fantasized about murdering a father and his two kids.

Jay Jones is not fit for office—and neither is Abigail. pic.twitter.com/XtZtrMMTd9

— Winsome Earle-Sears (@winwithwinsome) October 7, 2025

Tim Kaine, who came close to being the Vice President of the United States, is foursquare behind Jones and even sees him as a shining example of what America needs more of. The teachers’ union, which claims to care for children, backs a candidate who wants to see a mother hold her dying child in her arms. Up and down the line, Democrats are proving that Jones is not exceptional in his moral depravity, but quite normal in Democrat circles. 

Sen Tim Kaine not only stands by Jay Jones, he wishes more politicians could learn from Jones:

“He has apologized. I wish other people in public life would sincerely apologize for stuff. I still am a supporter.”

This is who they are. pic.twitter.com/sF1CWcipL5

— Western Lensman (@WesternLensman) October 8, 2025

Democrats in Virginia, and frankly around the country, think that talking like this is perfectly normal. “He who is without sin, cast the first stone.” And, I admit, we are all sinners, we are in fact not all psychopaths, but you apparently wouldn’t know that if you spend your time in Democrat circles. 

“Let he who is the without sin cast the first stone” is one heckuva way to try and justify voting for a guy who wishes death on his political opponents. https://t.co/8pMd8mYhhl

— Jay Hobbs (@Hobbnobbin) October 5, 2025

No doubt, many Democrats casually assume that Republicans think like this too, because everyone they know in their circles apparently does. Having been a Republican who spent a couple decades routinely interacting with not just Republican voters, but people higher up in the Party, I can assure that this assumption is completely false. I could, if I were so inclined, outline other more venial sins that are common, but nothing remotely like this. 

He exchanged these texts with a REPUBLICAN colleague, complaining about a different Republican colleague’s graceful eulogy of one of his DEMOCRAT colleagues, and he actually tried to convince her that he was right to want him dead. 

The Jay Jones texts are so wild because he gets like five desperate pleas to walk it back and each time he’s just like no, this is what I believe, I want people who disagree with me to die and also their children

— Spencer A. Klavan (@SpencerKlavan) October 7, 2025

She gave him every opportunity to take it back, and he went deeper and deeper into the moral swamp. 

Jones’ psychopathy really isn’t the point, except in the sense that he belongs in a mental institution and not in the AG’s office. What is much more important is that Democrats think that Jones is an excellent candidate for Attorney General. 

It’s part of the pattern we have seen in recent years. The serial hoaxes, promotion of riots, incitement and celebration of assassinations, making Luigi Mangione a hero, siding with rapists and murderers, and the embrace of medically and sexually abusing children. When Biden imported and “lost” 300,000 unaccompanied minors ferried into the US by drug cartels, the entire Democrat establishment raced to defend the practice as a shining example of compassion. 

Democrats use foreign aid money to fund their political machine; they defend Antifa and funnel money its direction; they have become the home of vile antisemitism; they sterilizing and mutilate children to make a buck and undermine bourgeois values, which they find appalling. 

But the Pinot Noir is good, so what’s the problem?

L’affaire Jay Jones is not about Jones, per se. At least not for me. All it tells us is that yet another sociopath has risen to a reasonably high level in politics, but we have Scott Weiner, Adam Schiff, Katie Porter, and Joe Biden to remind us of that danger. 

No, what it tells us–puts an exclamation point on–is that the current version of the Democratic Party is happy to embrace sociopathy as normal, and that is really scary.

Editor’s Note: The Schumer Shutdown is here. Rather than put the American people first, Chuck Schumer and the radical Democrats forced a government shutdown for healthcare for illegals. They own this.

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Chat Control 2.0

Sounds pretty benign, no?

Until I tell you that it’s a monitoring program that’s been under consideration by the European Union – then I bet your ears perk up in alarm, right?

How about if I give you the EU’s justification for what already sounds pretty sketchy to us freedom of speech types?

Ready for this? They’re trying to mandate it as an EU-wide requirement…

FOR THE CHILDREN

As soon as you read that, you can be assured it’s Orwellian, authoritarian, and utterly terrifying.

And so it is.

A little history from the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), which thought that this abomination had died on the vine when the European Council closed this past June session without taking action on it. The EU had been nonplussed when their secret deliberations on such a far-reaching, intrusive, and oppressive regulation had been leaked, and freedom of speech advocates got wind of it. Or such as are left in Europe to fight off the persistent EU encroachment.

The EU prefers the cover of darkness for dirty deeds.

…The Belgian proposal was debated behind closed doors, and civil society groups have only recently been able to even evaluate and discuss the proposal after it was leaked to the press. 

If the proposal is adopted, it would represent a significant step backwards. Since 2022, the EU has been debating a file-scanning regulation that would eviscerate end-to-end encryption. Realizing that this system of client-side scanning, which some have called “chat control,” would violate the human rights of EU residents, a key European Parliament committee agreed in November to amendments that would protect end-to-end encryption. 

…EFF’s advocacy has always defended the right to have a private conversation online, and the technology that can enable that: end-to-end encryption. That’s why, since 2022, we have opposed the efforts by some EU officials to put a backdoor into encrypted communications, in the name of protecting children online. 

…The Belgian proposal, which EFF has reviewed, specifies that online services would be forced to install software so that child abuse material “should remain detectable in all interpersonal communications services.” To do this, the online services must apply “vetted technology”—in other words, government-approved software—that would allow law enforcement to scan the photos, messages and files of any user. 

The proposal actually goes on to suggest that users should be asked to “give explicit consent” for this invasion of privacy. Users who don’t agree to the scanning will be forbidden from sharing images or links. The idea of whitewashing mass surveillance with a government-approved “click-through” agreement, and banning users from basic internet functionality if they don’t agree, sounds like a dystopian novel—but it’s being seriously debated. 

For some reason, Denmark, with the EU presidency firmly in their grasp, is back, and pushing this hideous legislation, which would affect users worldwide.

…This doesn’t just affect people in the EU, it affects everyone around the world, including in the United States. If platforms decide to stay in the EU, they would be forced to scan the conversation of everyone in the EU. If you’re not in the EU, but you chat with someone who is, then your privacy is compromised too. Passing this proposal would pave the way for authoritarian and tyrannical governments around the world to follow suit with their own demands for access to encrypted communication apps.

…Despite strong opposition, Denmark is pushing forward and taking its current proposal to the Justice and Home Affairs Council meeting on October 14th.

The legislation would require every encrypted app to scan every message, link, and picture.

Every last one, with no opt-out.

🚨This EU proposal nicknamed #ChatControl is progressing under the radar but is a major threat for privacy.

ChatControl would require all messaging platforms (even encrypted ones like Signal, WhatsApp, and Telegram) to scan every private message, photo, and conversation.

Its… pic.twitter.com/F2KCcPI4cu

— Emmanuel Pernot-Leplay (@PernotLeplay) September 29, 2025

Somehow, word got out that the Germans were reconsidering what was said to be their longstanding opposition to the measure. Frankly, as Orwellian as the Germans are, I find it surprising that the spying wasn’t their idea to begin with.

In any event, that rumored reversal was enough to spook messaging app Signal into a statement of alarm, a call to action, and a challenge.

You all do this, the Signal president said, and we are out of Europe.

We are alarmed by reports that Germany is on the verge of a catastrophic about-face, reversing its longstanding and principled opposition to the EU’s Chat Control proposal which, if passed, could spell the end of the right to privacy in Europe. https://t.co/015qmQnIS2

— Signal (@signalapp) October 3, 2025

Her statement, calling it ‘the end of the right to privacy in Europe,’ has set the freedom claxons to banging around the world.

…In a very real way it could spell the end of the right to privacy in Europe. Germany has long been a champion for privacy; drawing on its own history of the terrible harm that can be facilitated by mass surveillance and standing firm to safeguard this right for all of Europe. To capitulate now, at a time of great geopolitical uncertainty where the cybersecurity of our core infrastructures matters more than ever, would be an incomprehensible strategic blunder, and a fundamental betrayal of Europe’s commitment to learn from history. 

Under the guise of protecting children, the latest Chat Control proposals would require mass scanning of every message, photo, and video on a person’s device, assessing these via a government-mandated database or AI model to determine whether they are permissible content or not.   

This is a horrifying idea for many reasons. First, the technical consensus is clear. Scanning every message–whether you do it before, or after these messages are encrypted–negates the very premise of end-to-end encryption. Instead of having to break the gold-standard Signal encryption protocol to access someone’s Signal messages, hackers and hostile nation states only need to piggyback on the access granted to the scanning system. This threat is so severe that even intelligence agencies agree it would be catastrophic for national security. These proposals ignore the strategic importance of private communications, and the longstanding technical consensus that you cannot create a backdoor that only lets the “good guys” in. What they propose is in effect a mass surveillance free-for-all, opening up everyone’s intimate and confidential communications, whether government officials, military, investigative journalists, or activists. For all of Europe’s talk of sovereignty, this is a bizarre cybersecurity decision on multiple fronts. For Signal, Chat Control is also an existential threat. We do one thing and we do it very very well: we provide the world’s largest truly private communications platform. And we know that encryption either works for everyone, or it doesn’t work for anyone; a backdoor in one part of a network is a vector into every other part. And we will not compromise the integrity of our service, or endanger the safety of the people who rely on us around the world, often in contexts where private communications are the difference between life and death. If we were given a choice between building a surveillance machine into Signal or leaving the market, we would leave the market. This is not a choice we would make lightly, and our great hope is we never have to face it. But if Chat Control were enforced against us, that’s likely where we would end up. 

Europe would be behind a digital wall, and those living within the confines of that guarded compound would have no private expression of thought conveyed through the innerwebs that had not been approved by government censors.

Mindblowing that it’s even a consideration.

Democrats and progressives here have to be drooling in their fever dreams over the thought.

Particularly disturbing that a Dane is behind all of this, and even more shocking that the below is an acceptable view in a mature democracy. pic.twitter.com/9uNaZZe8C4

— Dupont Island (@DupontIsland) October 4, 2025

Now, before you get excited about everyone being subject to these surveillance and censorship rules, you have to realize that the old standards hold true.

It still will only be applicable to the peasants.

Brussels Brahmins will maintain their lofty positions in the cloud.

As EU lawmakers push ahead with Chat Control 2.0, a proposal that would compel messaging platforms to scan private conversations, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is once again being called out for sidestepping the very transparency rules meant to keep officials accountable.

The contrast is hard to ignore: while European citizens face the prospect of mass surveillance, von der Leyen continues to ignore the laws and conduct her own communications away from public view.

…When a journalist requested access under EU transparency laws, the Commission first ignored the request for over a year. It then claimed the message could not be retrieved, citing Signal’s disappearing messages setting, which automatically deletes texts after a set time.

LE POOF!

450 million Europeans, under near total control in every aspect of their lives.

FOR THE CHILDREN

…This isn’t just another privacy policy update you can ignore. If passed, this EU regulation (strongest and most binding legal instrument in EU law) would automatically apply to all member states without any wiggle room for national interpretation. It would even override constitutional protections for communication privacy and establish unprecedented mass surveillance of private communications.

The official justification? Fighting child sexual abuse material (CSAM). Protecting children is undeniably crucial, but the proposed methods would eliminate digital privacy for 450 million Europeans and set a global precedent for mass surveillance.

This surveillance trend extends beyond Europe: 🇨🇭 Switzerland is advancing metadata retention requirements, the 🇬🇧 UK is implementing comprehensive age verification systems and now the 🇪🇺 EU proposes to scan every private message. Each initiative is positioned as child protection policy, but the implications reach far beyond their stated goals.

Alice Weidel, head of the populist Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, has come out swinging against the possible cave by German leaders, as you might well imagine.

“Die geplante EU-weite Chatkontrolle ist ein absolut totalitäres Projekt. Sie bedeutet die faktische Abschaffung der digitalen Privatsphäre.” pic.twitter.com/CZDagsEL00

— Alice Weidel (@Alice_Weidel) October 7, 2025

The planned EU-wide chat control is an absolutely totalitarian project. It means the de facto abolition of digital privacy.

The AfD’s digital policy spokesperson warned against falling for the old ‘for the children’ trick and then risk losing everything.

 …Ruben Rupp, the digital policy spokesperson for the AfD parliamentary group, warned against “total surveillance under the guise of child protection.”

“What is being sold here is, in reality, a frontal attack on the fundamental rights of all citizens. Such a measure places the entire population under general suspicion,” Rupp said. He added that millions of innocent users would be spied on, and instead, the focus should be on harsher punishments for those who hurt or abuse children, not mass surveillance.

AfD politician Rupp wants Berlin to turn against the new spying powers that would be granted to the EU.

He said that “Germany can no longer duck away, but must vote against this surveillance madness together with freedom-oriented states like Poland and Austria. Freedom and privacy are not negotiable goods.”

FREEDOM AND PRIVACY ARE NOT NEGOTIABLE GOODS

Ah, but they are when those rights derive from a European government, vice being ‘endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights.’

The uproar must have someone in Friedrich Merz’s coalition and/or cabinet, if not the chancellor himself, rethinking their support for the Danish legislation. Yesterday, Merz’s Christian Democrats issued a strong statement against it and said it wouldn’t be happening on their watch.

Germany’s ruling Christian Democratic Union (CDU) has come out against the European Union’s attempt to break end-to-end encryption via its proposed “chat control” law.

Under the Danish presidency of the EU Council, the highly controversial chat control law is being pushed as a way to combat child sexual abuse material (CSAM) online but it is widely seen as a mass surveillance tool and a threat to the right on privacy.

Civil society organisations have been campaigning against chat control and have intensified their efforts ahead of an expected vote in the European Council on October 14.

…“We as the CDU/CSU parliamentary group in the Bundestag are against the control of chats without cause. That would be like opening all the letters as a precaution and seeing if there is anything forbidden in them.

“That is not possible, that will not happen with us”, chairman of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group Jens Spahn said in a press conference yesterday.

People are celebrating, taking them at face value. I hope they’re not being premature or overly optimistic with the whoop dee dos.

You did not translate or summarize correctly what he said. You forgot the word “anlasslose” (without reason, unmotivated). You also did not translate or summarize the last part, what the end goal should be. Clearly he wants some form of chat control, only a different one.

— Luc Van Braekel (@lvb) October 7, 2025

It IS the Germans, after all. They are about nothing if not control.

Although, to their credit, the German Child Protection Association has just released a statement against the measure, saying it would interfere with everyone’s privacy, including children’s. They want targeted enforcement, not blanket surveillance.

The German Child Protection Association has come out against the EU’s attempt to break end-to-end encryption via the ‘chat control’ law. https://t.co/AbZuoHUbmr

— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) October 8, 2025

It’s possible that the Danes and the control freaks haven’t thoroughly thought this through.

This was Phil Zimmermann’s observation too.

There is a hot war happening in the Ukraine.

Compromise your own best secure comms tech?

Madness.

— Bob Summerwill (@BobSummerwill) October 4, 2025

It wouldn’t be the first time.

Maybe we’ll get lucky and J.D. will weigh in beforehand.

That’s always worth the price of admission.

Then again, maybe that’s not the best idea. He always gets those goose feathers so ruffled that the Europeans would gleefully screw themselves to show the U.S. we’re not the boss of them.

In less than a week, we’ll find out.

I’ll always be forever grateful for November 5.

If we thought our job in pushing back against the Academia/media/Democrat censorship complex was over with the election, think again. This is going to be a long fight. Ed, David, John, and I are here for it.

COME AT US, BROS!

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Can’t say as I blame New York’s Finest for feeling this way. Clearly, the feeling is mutual. And almost as clearly, the moment of truth is all but inevitable.

The Free Press’ Olivia Reingold reports that morale in the NYPD’s rank and file has plunged since the ascent of Zohran Mamdani in the mayoral race. Those ranks already have begun to shrink, even before the vote to replace Eric Adams takes place. With the heir apparent bringing his “defund the police” mentality and a plan to eliminate OT, police officers tell Reingold that they can take a hint from Big Apple voters:

The lieutenant said that he always thought he would stay on the police force for at least 25 years. Many cops say that if you stay for 25 or 30 years, you might never have to work another day in your life. The pension is that good. Now, he isn’t sure if it’s still worth it.

“It’s shaken me to my core,” he said of Mamdani’s unexpected victory in June. “The absolute dread I feel is palpable.”

Some days, his mind races with worst-case scenarios: “Is he going to cut a billion dollars out of our budget?” he wonders. “Will my caseload keep piling up while we just get more and more short-staffed?”

Reingold offers more anecdotal evidence of a potential Mamdani exodus, but the truth is that the exodus has been ongoing since the pandemic and the George Floyd riots. More than one officer pointed out that Bill de Blasio’s “reforms” in that moment made their jobs a lot more difficult, with more intrusive reviews and a lack of support from city officials. Many officers opted out at that point, taking their NYPD experience with them to more supportive — and less expensive — environments.

The expense is a key part of dissatisfaction. Right now, the lack of manpower requires the NYPD to use overtime for proper coverage in the nation’s largest city. While the workload is difficult, officers tell Reingold, the income is crucial for their ability to live where they work. However, Mamdani’s pledge to cut overtime makes them worry not just about public safety but also their ability to keep roofs over heads:

Cops that I talked to repeatedly mentioned another big fear about Mamdani that gets relatively little attention outside the NYPD.

“We need to bring down the NYPD’s near-billion-dollar overtime,” Mamdani told the New York Editorial Board, a group of veteran journalists, in February. “We need to eliminate that overtime.”

To get by with fewer officers, the NYPD relies on overtime, which is often mandated for officers even if they have already worked a full shift. Last year, the NYPD spent $1.1 billion on overtime wages, and the city council warned this year that the department is on track to surpass its overtime budget by over $100 million. Officers told me that they depend on overtime to live in New York City, where a family of four needs $318,406 to live comfortably, according to a survey last year.

The alternative to overtime would be to right-size the NYPD. Unfortunately, Mamdani’s more inclined to downsize the NYPD. Even if Mamdani agreed to expand hiring, however, the NYPD can’t find candidates to fill current openings now. Reingold gives an overview of NYPD’s recruitment efforts, and let’s just say that word has gotten around about the difficulties that New York’s Finest already face even without Mamdani. 

Will a potential exodus convince New Yorkers to choose more wisely? The polls do not offer much hope. The New York Times has a poll tracker for this race, and it’s been two months since Mamdani didn’t have a two-digit lead in any of them. 

So what happens now? Reingold’s prophecy is clear enough:

Law-and-order believers will hate that reality, but in truth, progressives should as well. If there is anything to learn from other American cities that elected progressive mayors, it is that any increase in crime has the potential to set the entire progressive project backward by convincing voters that liberals and disorder go hand in hand.

It’s not as if New Yorkers didn’t have examples in Chicago, Portland, Seattle, and Los Angeles. They are about to earn the experience that will come with radical-Left governance they earned the old-fashioned way … through the ballot box. 

Editor’s Note: Zohran Mamdani is an avowed Democratic Socialist and has a real chance to become the next mayor of New York City.

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The dominance of a single political party in any region is, shall we say, suboptimal. Monopolies tend to breed laziness, corruption, and leaders who feel entitled to unearned deference. 

The safer a politician feels, the more likely they are to abuse their power, like Joe Biden, or to abuse others, like…Katie Porter. 

Someone who used to work with Katie Porter sent me this clip from a train-wreck interview with her and said, “Now imagine what she’s like when there aren’t cameras around.” pic.twitter.com/OCF73BrUg1

— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) October 8, 2025

Porter has never been a pleasant person, nor a high achiever, except in the sense of building a resume. Coming from a class that equates credentials with achievement, her Phillips Academy to Yale to Harvard to Law Clerk to Academia to Congress path looks very impressive to them. And, perhaps at a time when we had an elite with a sense of public obligation, it might earn her a second glance. 

But a second glance at Katie Porter reveals how far our “elite” have fallen–from noblesse oblige to elite sociopathy. 

Porter is of the “Do you KNOW WHO I AM?!” school of modern elites. 

As Gavin Newsom prepares to lose the next presidential election (please, God, make it so!), Porter is running to replace him and is currently in the lead. She is making this run after a failed attempt to beat Adam Schiff for the Dianne Feinstein memorial Senate Seat. 

Can you imagine two more disgusting, entitled people to replace Feinstein? 

After her graceless loss to Schiff, she, of course, complained of election rigging, because no Phillips Academy to Yale to Harvard to Law Clerk to Academia to Congress credential climber could possibly lose without being cheated. 

So now, she feels entitled to the governor’s seat, and no snotty little reporter should ask her what should be, to any seasoned politician, the easiest question in the world. It never occurred to Katie Porter that she would have to appeal to VOTERS, particularly those dirty Trump supporters! 

HOW DARE THAT PLEB ASK ME ABOUT THAT?!

Porter is apparently always like this. She famously physically abused her ex-husband, and among other things, dumped steaming hot mashed potatoes on his head. Her staff reportedly hate her, and with good reason. 

But what is striking to me about this and other Katie Porter stories is not that she is a biatch, but rather that everybody around her tolerates it. She is in the California Nomenklatura, and the rules of ordinary society do not apply. People of her class look at her resume and are impressed, and people of a “lower” class live in feudal California, so they have to take it. 

It’s a political culture that gives us slimeballs like Adam Schiff and Gavin Newsom, degenerates like Scott Weiner, and incompetents like Kamala Harris and Katie Porter. California, ruled by politicians who blather on about “equity” and caring for the less fortunate, is almost feudal in its levels of inequality and class distinctions. 

One of the wealthiest places on earth, it has poverty rates that are breathtaking, the highest homeless population in the country, and a ruling class that is as degenerate as those in the Hunger Games. 

That’s how you get Katie Porters in power. 

Editor’s Note: The Schumer Shutdown is here. Rather than put the American people first, Chuck Schumer and the radical Democrats forced a government shutdown for healthcare for illegals. They own this.

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